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WORKING OF THE MOTHER’S FORCE THE MOTHER’S FORCE
Nothing can be done except through the force of the Mother.
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All has to be done by the working of the Mother’s force aided by your aspiration, devotion and surrender. 30-10-1934 WHAT IS THE MOTHER’S FORCE ?
Q: You often speak of the “Mother’s Force". What is it ? A: It is the Divine Force which works to remove the ignorance and change the nature into the divine nature. 18-6-1933 THE FORCE OF PRAKRITI AND THE MOTHER’S FORCE
When I speak of the Mother’s force I do not speak of the force of Prakriti which carries in it things of the Ignorance but of the higher Force of the Divine that descends from above to transform the nature. No, there was no intention on the Mother’s part. It is yourself who by coming to Mother became aware of your mistake.
DESCENT AND WORKING OF THE MOTHER’S FORCE
There is a force which accompanies the growth of the new Page – 139 consciousness and at once grows with it and helps it to come about and to perfect itself. This force is the Yoga-Shakti. It is here coiled up and asleep in all the centres of our inner being (Chakras) and is at the base what is called in the Tantras the Kundalini Shakti. But it is also above us, above our head as the Divine Force ― not there coiled up, involved, asleep, but awake, scient, potent, extended and wide; it is there waiting for manifestation and to this Force we have to open ourselves ― to the power of the Mother. In the mind it manifests itself as a divine mind-force or a universal mind-force and it can do everything that the personal mind cannot do; it is then the Yogic mind-force. When it manifests and acts in the vital or physical in the same way, it is there apparent as a Yogic life-force or a Yogic body-force. It can awake in all these forms, bursting outward and upwards, extending itself into wideness from below; or it can descend and become there a definite power for things; it can pour downwards into the body, working, establishing its reign, extending into wideness from above, link the lowest in us with the highest above us, release the individual into a cosmic universality or into absoluteness and transcendence.
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Certainly, in a sense the descent of the higher powers is the Divine Mother’s own descent ― for it is she who comes down in them.
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When the Peace is established, this higher or Divine Force from above can descend and work in us. It descends usually first into the head and liberates the inner mind centres, then into the heart centre and liberates fully the psychic and emotional being, then into the navel and other vital centres and liberates the inner vital, then into the Muladhara and below and liberates the inner physical being. It works at the same time for perfection as well as liberation; it takes up the whole nature part by part and deals with it, rejecting what has to be rejected, sublimating what has Page – 140 to be sublimated, creating what has to be created. It integrates, harmonises, establishes a new rhythm in the nature. It can bring down too a higher and yet higher force and range of the higher nature until, if that be the aim of the Sadhana, it becomes possible to bring down the supramental force and existence. All this is prepared, assisted, farthered by the work of the psychic being in the heart centre; the more it is open, in front, active, the quicker, safer, easier the working of the Force can be. The more love and Bhakti and surrender grow in the heart, the more rapid and perfect becomes the evolution of the Sadhana. For the descent and transformation imply at the same time an increasing contact and union with the Divine. That is the fundamental rationale of the Sadhana. It will be evident that the two most important things here are the opening of the heart centre and the opening of the mind centres to all that is behind and above them. For the heart opens to the psychic being and the mind centres open to the higher consciousness and the nexus between the psychic being and the higher consciousness is the principal means of the Siddhi. The first opening is effected by a concentration in the heart, a call to the Divine to manifest within us and through the psychic to take up and lead the whole nature. Aspiration, prayer, Bhakti, love, surrender are the main supports of this part of the Sadhana ― accompanied by a rejection of all that stands in the way of what we aspire for. The second opening is effected by a concentration of the consciousness in the head (afterwards, above it) and an aspiration and call and a sustained will for the descent of the divine Peace, Power, Light, Knowledge, Ananda into the being ― the Peace first or the Peace and Force together. Some indeed receive Light first or Ananda first or some sudden pouring down of Knowledge. With some there is first an opening which reveals to them a vast infinite Silence, Force, Light or Bliss above them and afterwards either they ascend to that or these things begin to descend into the lower nature. With others there is either the descent, first into the head, then down to the heart level, then to the navel and below and through the whole body, or else an inexplicable opening ― without any sense of descent ― of peace, light, wideness or power, or else a horizontal opening into the cosmic consciousness Page – 141 or in a suddenly widened mind an outburst of knowledge. Whatever comes has to be welcomed ― for there is no absolute rule for all ― but if the peace has not come first, care must be taken not to swell oneself in exultation or lose the balance. The capital movement however is when the Divine Force or Shakti, the Power of the Mother comes down and takes hold, for then the organisation of the consciousness begins and the larger foundation of the Yoga.
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What you feel streaming down must be the Mother’s overhead Force. It flows usually from above the head and works at first in the mind-centres (head and neck) and afterwards goes down into the chest and heart and then through the movement of the whole body. It is the effect of this working which you must be feeling in the head up to the shoulders. The Force that comes down from above is the one that works to transform the consciousness into that of a higher spiritual being. Before that the Mother’s Force works in the psychic, mental, vital and the physical plane itself to support, purify and psychically change the consciousness.
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The stream which you feel coming down on the head and pouring into you is indeed a current of the Mother’s Force; it is so that it is often felt; it flows into the body in currents and works there to liberate and change the consciousness. As the consciousness changes and develops, you will begin yourself to understand the meaning and working of these things. 21-8-1936 *
The feeling of the vibration of the Mother’s Force around the head is more than a mental idea or even a mental realisation, it is an experience. This vibration is indeed the action of the Mother’s
Page – 142 Force which is first felt above the head or around it, then afterwards within the head. The pressure means that it is working to open the mind and its centres so that it may enter. The mind- centres are in the head, one at the top and above it, another between the eyes, a third in the throat. That is why you feel the vibration around the head and sometimes up to the neck, but not below. ― It is so usually, for it is only after enveloping and entering the mind that it goes below to the emotional and vital parts (heart, navel, etc.) ― though sometimes it is more enveloping before it enters the body. 24-3-1937 *
This is the meaning of your experiences: 1. The power of the Divine Mother from above is descending upon you and the pressure you feel on your head and the workings of which you are aware are hers. Put yourself completely into her hands, have entire confidence, observe carefully and accurately all that happens and write that here. There is no need of special instructions since what is needed is being done for you. 2. The first pressure was on your mind. The centres of the mind are: (a) the head and above it, (b) the centre of the forehead between the eyes, (c) the throat and the vital-mental (emotional) and sensational mind-centres from the breast downward. It is this latter which is the first prāṇa of which you became aware. The action of the Power was to widen these two parts of you and raise them up towards the lowest centre of the higher consciousness above your head, so that hereafter they might both be consciously governed from there and that these might both move in a wide universal consciousness not limited by the body. 3. The other prāṇa, the restless one of which you became aware is the vital being, the being of desire and life-movement. The work of the Power has been directed towards quieting the restless movements and making it wide in consciousness as with the mind. The large body you felt was the vital body, not the physical, sthūla śarīra.
Page – 143 4. The basis of your Sadhana must be silence and quiet. You must remain and grow always more and more deeply quiet and still both in yourself and in your attitude to the world around you. If you can do this, the Sadhana is likely to go on progressing and enlarging itself with a minimum of trouble and disturbance. Go on quietly trusting to the Power that is at work in you.
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This weight or pressure on the head is always the sign that the Mother’s Force is in contact with you and pressing from above to envelop your being and enter the ādhāra and pervade it; ― usually passing by degrees through the centres on its way downward. Sometimes it comes first as Peace, sometimes as Force, sometimes as the Mother’s consciousness and her presence, sometimes as Ananda. When you lost it before, it must have been due either to some uprising of vital imperfections in yourself or an attack from outside. Of course, the pressure need not always be there: but if things take the ordinary course, it usually recurs or else continues until the ādhāra is open and there is no further obstacle to the descent of the higher consciousness. 18-9-1933 *
It is the descent of the Mother’s Force from above through the spinal cord, it is a well-known movement. There are two or three kinds of descent. One is this touching the base of the centres which rest on the spinal cord. Another is through the head into the body going from level to level till the whole body is filled and opening all the centres of consciousness. Another is a descent enveloping the ādhāra from outside. 1-2-1934
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Page – 144 What the Mother did was to light the fire within ― if you did not feel it, it must be because the outer covering has not yet allowed it to come through into the outer consciousness. But something in the inner being must have kept it and opened more widely ― that is shown by your experience in sleep, for that was evidently an action of the Mother in the inner being. The descent of the current in the spine is always a descent of the Mother’s Force working in the centres to open them, and the strong force of the current you felt is an evident proof that the wider opening is there. You have only to persist and the effect both of the fire and the force will come out in the surface consciousness ― for always there is a preparatory work behind the veil in the inner being before the veil thins or disappears and all the working can be done with the participation of the outer consciousness. 22-4-1937 *
Something is growing in you, but it is all inside ― still if there is the steady persistence it is bound to come out. For instance, this white dazzling light with currents, it is a sure sign of the Force (the Mother’s) entering and working in the ādhāra, but it came to you in sleep ― that is to say, in the inner being, still behind the veil. The moment it came out, the dryness would disappear. 5-2- 1937 *
Q: Since the evening the working of the Force has begun. During the evening Darshan of the Mother my consciousness opened itself before her more widely than ever before. A: Very good. The Force usually works in that way with interruptions and returns growing each time stronger and fuller. 4-8- 1934
Page – 145 ONENESS WITH THE MOTHER’S UNIVERSAL CONSCIOUSNESS
The consciousness of the mind, life, body in each person is ordinarily shut up in itself; it is narrow, not wide, sees itself as the centre of everything, judges all things according to its own impressions ― it does not know anything as it really is. But when by Yoga one begins to open to the true consciousness then this barrier begins to break down. One feels the mind grow wider, even in the end the physical consciousness grows wider and wider, until you feel all things in yourself, yourself one with all things. You then become one with the Mother’s universal Consciousness. That is why you feel the mind becoming wide. But also there is much above the human mind and it is this which you feel like a world above your head. All these are the ordinary experiences of our Yoga. It is only a beginning. But in order that it may go on developing, you must become more and more quiet, more and more able to hold whatever comes without getting too eager and excited. Peace and calmness are the first thing, and with it wideness ― in the peace you can bear whatever love or Ananda comes, whatever strength comes or whatever knowledge.
THE UNIVERSAL AND THE TRANSFORMING POWER
Q: The more we open individually to the Mother’s Light and Force, the more her power is established in the universal ― is it not ? A: It is the transforming power that is established ― the universal power is always there. 13-8-1933 THE MOTHER’S FORCE AND THE GUNAS
Q: When one feels the Mother’s Force acting through him and not his own, is it the Mother’s Force alone that works in his actions and the Gunas remain quiescent ?
Page – 146 A: No, the guṇas are there and not quiescent ― for they are the intermediation. If the force and the inner consciousness are very strong, then there is a tendency for the rajas to become like some inferior form of tapas and the tamas to become more like a kind of inert śama. That is how the transformation begins, but usually it is very slow in its process. 29-1- 1936 THE MOTHER’S FORCE IN THE MATERIAL
Q: When can it be said that the material is ready for the Divine ? A: If the material consciousness is open, feels the Mother’s Force working in it and responds, then it is ready. 11-6-1933 *
It [the Mother's consciousness] can be there in all the atoms of the body since all is secretly conscious. 5-10-1933 *
For the Mother’s Force to work fully in the body, the body itself and not only the mind must have faith and open. 9-10-1933 *
Q: Is it that Mother begins to work on the physical nature after the inner parts are made ready ? A: It is the usual course, but some work is always being done in the inner parts at all times, because they are interdependent.
Page – 147 THE MOTHER’S INFLUENCE ON THE SUBCONSCIENT AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL
Q: Since morning I was having intense aspiration to get lost in the Mother’s Consciousness. Then I felt my consciousness frequently rising and stationing itself above. Before Pranam I felt as if even the parts near the navel and below were being drawn upwards. After Pranam I experienced for some time a different kind of atmosphere almost concretely around me. So I imagined that the Mother may have put a strong spiritual influence on my subconscient and environmental consciousness. A: It is very good, you are right about the subconscient and environmental, ― for it is there that the influence must fall so that the consciousness may go upward and spread itself out widely in a free peace, light and joy connecting them down the subconscient with the higher consciousness. It is then that the loss of the ego in the Mother’s Consciousness becomes possible. 25-9-1935 ASSIMILATION OF THE MOTHER’S FORCE
As for Mother’s force when one receives it the best way is to be quiet till it is assimilated. Afterwards it is all right, not lost by outward movement or mixing.
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If the meditation brings poise, peace, a concentrated condition or even a pressure or influence, that can go on in the work, provided one does not throw it away by a relaxed or dispersed state of consciousness. That was why the Mother wanted people not only to be concentrated at Pranam or meditation but to remain silent and absorb or assimilate afterwards and also insisted on avoiding things that relax or disperse or dissipate too much ― precisely for this reason that so the effects of what she put in them
Page – 148 might continue and the change of attitude will take place. But I am afraid most of the Sadhaks have never understood or practised anything of the kind ― they could not appreciate or understand her directions.
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Allow a quiet and steady will to progress to be settled in you; learn the habit of a silent, persistent and thorough assimilation of what the Mother puts into you. This is the sound way to advance. March, 1928 PULLING AT THE MOTHER’S FORCES
When one is open and too eager and tries to pull down the force, experience, etc., instead of letting it descend quietly, that is called pulling. Many people pull at the Mother’s forces trying to take more than they can easily assimilate and disturbing the working. April, 1935 *
Q: What is meant by pulling ? When we want something from the Mother with a vital desire, is it pulling ? What is its effect on us ? A: Yes; that is one kind of pulling ― its effect is to blind and confuse the consciousness. But there is also a pulling for right things which is not bad in itself, and most people use ― e.g. for Light, Force, Ananda. But it brings more reactions than a quiet opening to the Divine. 1-6-1933 *
No, to make people ill in order to improve or perfect them is not Mother’s method. But sometimes things like headache come
Page – 149 because the brain either tried too much or does not want to receive or makes difficulties. But the Yogic headaches are of a special kind and after the brain has found out the way to receive or respond they don’t come at all. 20-6- 1935 *
Q: Is the heat, felt in the body, of the fever or of the Mother’s Force which has exerted a tremendous pressure on my Adhara ? A: That has still to be seen. It is most probably the Tapas heat; the question is whether it is turned partially in the body into fever. 7-6-1936
PSYCHIC OPENNESS TO THE MOTHER’S FORCE
What is needed is to profit by the discovery and get rid of the impediment. The Mother did not merely point out the impediment; she showed you very expressly how to get rid of it and at that time you understood her, though now (at the time of writing your letter to me) the light which you saw seems to have been clouded by your indulging your vital more and more in the bitter pastime of sadness. That was quite natural, for that is the result sadness always does bring. It is the reason why I object to the gospel of sorrow and to any Sadhana which makes sorrow one of its main planks (abhimāna, revolt, viraha). For sorrow is not, as Spinoza pointed out, a passage to a greater perfection, a way to Siddhi; it cannot be, for it confuses and weakens and distracts the mind, depresses the vital force, darkens the spirit. A relapse from joy and vital elasticity and Ananda to sorrow, self-distrust, despondency and weakness is a recoil from a greater to a lesser consciousness, ― the habit of these moods show a clinging of something in the vital to the smaller, obscurer, dark and distressed movement out of which it is the very aim of Yoga to rise.
Page – 150 It is, therefore, quite incorrect to say that the Mother took away the wrong key with which you were trying to open the faery palace and left you with none at all. For she not only showed you the true key but gave it to you. It was not a mere vague exhortation to cheerfulness she gave you, but she described exactly the condition felt in the right kind of meditation ― a state of inner rest, not of straining, of quiet opening, not of eager or desperate pulling, a harmonious giving of oneself to the Divine Force for its working, and in that quietude a sense of the Force working and a restful confidence allowing it to act without any unquiet interference. And she asked you if you had not experienced that condition and you said you had and knew it very well. Now that condition is the beginning of psychic opening and, if you have had it, you know what the psychic opening is; there is of course much more that afterwards comes to complete it but this is the fundamental condition into which all the rest can most easily come. What you should have done was to keep the key the Mother gave you present in your consciousness and apply it ― not to go back and allow sadness and the repining view of the past to grow upon you. In this condition, which we term the right or the psychic attitude, there may and will be call, prayer, aspiration. Intensity, concentration will come of themselves, not by a hard effort or tense strain on the nature. Rejection of wrong movements, frank confession of defects are not only not incompatible, but helpful to it; but this attitude makes the rejection, the confession easy, spontaneous, entirely complete and sincere and effective. That is the experience of all who have consented to take this attitude.
I may say in passing that consciousness and receptivity are not the same thing; one may be receptive, yet externally unaware of how things are being done and of what is being done. The Force works, as I have repeatedly written, behind the veil; the results remain packed behind and come out afterwards, often slowly, little by little, until there is so much pressure that it breaks through somehow and forces itself upon the external nature. There lies the difference between a mental and a vital straining and pulling and a spontaneous psychic openness, and it is not at all the first time that we have spoken of the difference.
Page – 151 The Mother and myself have written and spoken of it times without number and we have deprecated pulling (There is a steady drawing of the Force possible which is not what I mean by pulling ― drawing of the Force is quite common and helpful.) and straining and advocated the attitude of psychic openness. It is not really a question of the right or the wrong key, but of putting the key in the lock in the right or the wrong way; either, because of some difficulty, you try to force the lock turning the key this way and that with violence or confidently and quietly give it the right turn and the door opens. 5-5- 1932
HINDRANCE OF THE ACTIVE MIND
Q: My mind was trying to become conscious of the Mother’s thoughts and to receive them. Is this activity right ? A: It is not altogether the way ― if the mind is active it is more difficult to become aware of what the Mother is bringing. It is not thoughts she brings, but the higher light, force etc. 22-3-1933 *
Q: Today I felt the Mother filling my head with her light. Was I imagining things or did she really do so ? A: She does it every time, only today you not only received but were consciously receptive. 8-5- 1933 UNDERSTANDING OF THE ACTION OF THE MOTHER’S FORCE
Q: Is it always necessary for us to understand what the Mother’s Force is doing in us for the progress of our Yoga ?
Page – 152 A: Plenty of people progress rapidly without understanding what the Force is doing ― they simply observe and describe and say “I leave all to the Mother". Eventually knowledge and understanding come. 17-7-1933 *
Q: With reference to the Mother you once said, “Ask for the consciousness of her force”. Does it mean that I should aspire to know about her Force ? A: Yes, not know with the mind only, but to feel it and see it with the inner experience. 18-6-1933 *
Q: Suppose I am in a fix and call down the Mother’s Force which is above me. Now, how am I to know whether or not it has descended ? A: By the feeling of it or the result. 26-6-1933 *
Q: Grant that it has descended, and I have started doing my lessons; could I then order it to guard me from outer influences and simultaneously keep me in complete touch with the Mother even when my mind is occupied in some other work ? A: You can’t order anything to the Mother’s force, the Mother’s force is the manifestation of the Mother herself. 26-6- 1933
Page – 153 Q: I am unable to understand how this force can deal with action. A: You think the Mother’s force has nothing to do with the action or that it is too feeble to act ? Or what ? What is a force meant for but to act ? 26-6-1933 MIXTURE OF THE LOWER NATURE WITH THE MOTHER’S FORCE
Q: As to the Force, you said, “It creates its own activities in the mind or elsewhere”. In that case the mind or any other part on which it acts will express only what the Force has created. A: That is the ideal condition when the Force is the true Force only ― but there is too much mixture in the nature for that to be possible at this stage of Sadhana. 3-8- 1934 *
Q: In that case, does it not mean that what my consciousness feels as the Force is not the real Force of the Mother ?
A: I have said that it gets mixed with the action of the present mind, vital and body. That is inevitable since it has to work upon them. It is only after the transformation that it can be fully the Mother’s Force with no mixture of the separate personality. If the Divine Force in all its perfection without mixture were to act from the beginning, not taking any account of the present nature, then there would be no Sadhana, only a miraculous substitution of the Divine for the Human without any reason or process. 4-8-1934
Page – 154 NECESSITY OF DISCRIMINATION
It is dangerous to think of giving up “all barrier of discrimination and defence against what is trying to descend” upon you. Have you thought what this would mean if what is descending is something not in consonance with the divine Truth, perhaps even adverse ? An Adverse Power would ask no better condition for getting control over the seeker. It is only the Mother’s force and the divine Truth that one should admit without barriers. And even there one must keep the power of discernment in order to detect anything false that comes masquerading as the Mother’s force and the divine Truth, and keep too the power of rejection that will throw away all mixture.
Keep faith in your spiritual destiny, draw back from error and open more the psychic being to the direct guidance of the Mother’s light and power. If the central will is sincere, each recognition of a mistake can become a stepping-stone to a truer movement and a higher progress.
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Q: How to recognise that a particular thought, feeling or impulse to action has come from the Mother herself and not from some universal force ? If it is apparently of falsehood it can be recognised as such, but there are many others of a different character and sometimes one goes on thinking that they are prompted by the Mother from within even though they are not. A: It can only be done by discrimination, care, sincerity, a constant control with regard to the mind’s movements and the growth of a certain kind of psychic tact which detects any mental imitation or false suggestion of its being the Mother’s. 27-4-1933
SAFEGUARDS AGAINST DANGERS IN DESCENT
In this process of the descent from above and the working it is
Page – 155 most important not to rely entirely on oneself, but to rely on the guidance of the Guru and to refer all that happens to his judgment and arbitration and decision. For it often happens that the forces of the lower nature are stimulated and excited by the descent and want to mix with it and turn it to their profit. It often happens too that some Power or Powers undivine in their nature present themselves as the Supreme Lord or as the Divine Mother and claim the being’s service and surrender. If these things are accepted, there will be an extremely disastrous consequence. If indeed there is the assent of the Sadhak to the Divine working alone and the submission or surrender to that guidance, then all can go smoothly. This assent and a rejection of all egoistic forces or forces that appeal to the ego are the safeguard throughout the Sadhana. But the ways of nature are full of snares, the disguises of the ego are innumerable, the illusions of the Powers of Darkness, Rakshasi Maya, are extraordinarily skilful; the reason is an insufficient guide and often turns traitor; vital desire is always with us tempting to follow any alluring call. This is the reason why in this Yoga we insist so much on what we call samarpaṇa ― rather inadequately rendered by the English word surrender. If the heart centre is fully opened and the psychic is always in control, then there is no question; all is safe. But the psychic can at any moment be veiled by a lower upsurge. It is only a few who are exempt from these dangers and it is precisely those to whom surrender is easily possible. The guidance of one who is himself by identity or represents the Divine is in this difficult endeavour imperative and indispensable.
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Let nothing and nobody come between you and the Mother’s force. It is on your admitting and keeping that force and responding to the true inspiration and not on any ideas the mind may form that success will depend. Even ideas or plans which might otherwise be useful, will fail if there is not behind them the true spirit and the true force and influence.
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Page – 156 If you want to get back your faith and keep it, you must first quiet your mind and make it open and obedient to the Mother’s Force. If you have an excited mind at the mercy of every influence and impulse, you will remain a field of conflicting and contrary forces and cannot progress. You will begin to listen to your own ignorance instead of the Mother’s knowledge and your faith will naturally disappear and you will get into a wrong condition and a wrong attitude. March, 1928 HELP OF THE MOTHER’S FORCE FOR CHANGE
It is to be assumed that you are capable of the change since you are here in the presence and under the protection of the Mother. The pressure and help of the Mother’s Force is always there. Your rapidity of progress depends upon your keeping yourself open to it and rejecting calmly, quietly and steadily all suggestions and invasions of other forces. Especially, the nervous excitement of the vital has to be rejected; a calm and quiet strength in the nervous being and the body is the only sound basis. It is there for you to receive, if you open to it always. 27-8-1932 *
Do not allow yourself to be troubled or discouraged by any difficulties, but quietly and simply open yourself to the Mother’s force and allow it to change you.
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The Mother’s Force is not only above on the summit of the being. It is there with you and near you, ready to act whenever your nature will allow it. It is so with everybody here. 15-11-1936 *
Page – 157 The Mother’s Force may do everything, but one has to become more and more conscious of one’s own being and nature and what is below in it. It is not a question of mental judgment, ― that is of little use in these matters, but of the consciousness, feeling and seeing. Supermind is not organised in the lower planes as the others are. It is only a veiled influence. Otherwise the supramental realisation would be easy. 22-5-1934 *
You should not rely on anything else alone, however helpful it may seem, but chiefly, primarily, fundamentally on the Mother’s Force. The Sun and the Light may be a help, and will be if it is the true Light and the true Sun, but cannot take the place of the Mother’s Force.
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The steadiness you have gained is not a personal virtue but depends on your keeping the contact with the Mother ― for it is her Force that is behind it and behind all the progress you can make. Learn to rely on that Force, to open to it more completely and to seek spiritual progress even not for your own sake but for the sake of the Divine ― then you will go more smoothly.
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They are unable to progress for two reasons: (1) because they yield to despair and gloom and the illusion of impotence; (2) because they try only with their own strength and do not care or know how to call in the working of the Mother’s force.
10-6-1936
RESISTANCE TO THE MOTHER’S FORCE
The illnesses you have are the signs of the resistance of your
Page – 158 physical consciousness to the action of the Divine Power.
If you cannot advance in your Sadhana, it is because you are divided and do not give yourself without reserve. You speak of surrendering everything to the Mother but you have not done even the one thing which she asked of you and which you have promised more than once. If after having called the action of the Divine Force, you allow other influences to prevail, how can you expect to be free from obstruction and difficulties ? 20-11-1928 THE MOTHER’S USE OF PRESSURE
I was speaking of your case only ― it was not my intention to say that the Mother never uses pressure. But pressure also can be of various kinds. There is a pressure of the Force when it is entering the mind or vital or body ― a pressure to go faster, a pressure to build or form, a pressure to break and many more. In your case if there is any pressure it is that of help or support or removal of an attack, but it does not seem to me that that can properly be called pressure.
THE MOTHER’S WORKING IN THE PREPARATORY CONSCIOUSNESS
The experiences you have are a good starting-point for realisation. They have to develop into the light of a deeper state in which there will be the descent of a higher consciousness into you. Your present consciousness in which you feel these things is only a preparatory one ― in which the Mother works in you through the cosmic power according to your state of consciousness and your Karma, and in that working both success and failure can come ― one has to remain equal-minded to both while trying for success. A surer guidance can come even in this preparatory consciousness if you are entirely turned towards her alone in such a way that you can feel her direct guidance and follow it without any other influence or force intervening to act upon you,
Page – 159 but that condition is not easy to get or to keep ― it needs a great one-pointedness and constant single-minded dedication. When the higher consciousness will descend, then a closer union, a more intimate consciousness of the Presence and a more illumined intuition will become possible. 17- 11-1934 RECEIVING THE MOTHER’S FORCE AT A DISTANCE
As to what your other friend asks, it is quite possible for him to receive where he is without coming here if he has the adoration of the Mother in his heart and an intense call. 25-8-1935 *
Q: You said regarding my friend X that he was receiving the force of the Mother. I am a little puzzled because I cannot understand to which Mother you are referring. Is it our Mother or some other, called the Universal Mother by the people ? I am puzzled because he does not invoke the Mother and still he gets the Mother’s force ! A: “In contact with” the Divine Force which is the force of the Mother ― that was what I wrote, I believe. Have you not put him, by the photograph and his letter, in connection with us ? Has he not turned in this direction ? Has he not met Y and been impressed by him ― a third channel of contact ? That is quite sufficient to help him to a contact if he has the faith and the Yogic stress in him. 1936 *
I don’t know whether Mother is sending force in the accepted sense; I haven’t asked her. In any case, anyone can receive the
Page – 160 force who has faith and sincerity, whose psychic being has begun to wake and who opens himself, ― whether he knows or not that he is receiving. If X even imagines that he is receiving, that may open the way to a real reception, ― if he feels it, why question his feeling ? He is certainly trying hard to change and that is the first necessity; if one tries it can always be done, in more or less time. 28-6-1943 *
It is quite possible for you to do Sadhana at home and in the midst of your work ― many do so. What is necessary in the beginning is to remember the Mother as much as possible, to concentrate on her in the heart for a time every day, if possible thinking of her as the Divine Mother, to aspire to feel her there within you, offer her your works and pray that from within she may guide and sustain you. This is a preliminary stage which often takes long, but if one goes through it with sincerity and steadfastness, the mentality begins little by little to change and a new consciousness opens in the Sadhak which begins to be aware more and more of the Mother’s presence within, of her working in the nature and in the life or of some other spiritual experience which opens the gate towards realisation.
*
Remember the Mother and, though physically far from her, try to feel her with you and act according to what your inner being tells you would be her Will. Then you will be best able to feel her presence and mine and carry our atmosphere around you as a protection and a zone of quietude and light accompanying you everywhere. 12-12-1936
RECEIVING FORCE FROM THE MOTHER’S PHOTOGRAPHS
Q: When I sit in meditation before the Mother’s photographs
Page – 161 or the drawing of her feet, I receive Force. Is this only a subjective feeling ?
A: No, it is not subjective merely. By your meditating near them you have been able to enter through them into communion with the Mother and something of Her Power and Her Presence is there. 14-7-1934
THE MOTHER AND THE ACTION OF THE HEALING FORCE
Q: I had an animated but friendly discussion with X about the action of the healing force. He was of the opinion that now that it has been brought down here it is likely to operate in other parts of the world and that any Tom, Dick and Harry can wield it even if spiritually undeveloped. Is this true ? A: It may operate but not through every T, D and H, at first at least. 3-2-1936 *
Q: I contented that the healing force will act only through the Mother and others will be able to wield it if they are in some way open to or in conscious rapport with her and in physical contact with her. Nobody will be able to use it without fulfilling these conditions. What do you say ? A: At first it will be no doubt like that, if it is to be the true Force, but when once it is settled in the earth-consciousness, a more general use of the supraphysical Force for healing may become possible.
It is not always necessary either that the rapport you speak of should be conscious. Coué, for instance, was in rapport with
Page – 162 the Mother without knowing it. She told me of his getting something of the Force and of the beginning of his work long before he was known to anyone (of course, she did not know his name, but described him and his work in such a way that the identification was evident). 3-2-1936
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