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SERIES THIRTEEN
Series Thirteen
To a student in the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education who began writing to the Mother at the age of sixteen.
Sweet Mother, Should one give money to beggars or not?
In a well-organized society, there should not be any beggars. But as long as there are, do as you feel. There are good reasons both for doing it and for not doing it. Blessings 8 July 1969 There is no one for whom it is impossible to realise the Divine. Only, for some it will take many, many lives, whereas there are others who will do it in this very lifetime. It is a question of will. It is for you to choose. But I must say that at the present moment conditions are particularly favourable. Blessings. 22 July 1969 Sweet Mother, What does it mean, really, “to realise the Divine”?
It means to become conscious of the Divine Presence in oneself or on the spiritual heights, and, once one is conscious of His Presence, to surrender to Him completely so that one no longer has any other will than His, and finally to unite one’s Page – 407 consciousness with His. That is “to realise the Divine”. Blessings. 23 July 1969 Sweet Mother, When we sleep, our consciousness goes out, doesn’t it? But other people have dreams in which I appear. So what happens? Does the consciousness divide itself or are other people’s dreams only their own imagination?
Most often, it is the vital consciousness that goes out of the body and has the form, the appearance of the person’s body. If one person dreams of another, it means that both have met at night, most often in the vital region, but it can also happen elsewhere, in the subtle physical or the mental. There are any number of different possibilities in dreams. Blessings. 1 August 1969 Sweet Mother, Why is the night darker just before dawn – from the scientific as well as the spiritual point of view?
Because the darkness tries to prevent the light from coming. Blessings. 11 August 1969 Sweet Mother, Why are the hours before midnight better for sleep than the hours after it?
Because, symbolically, during the hours before midnight the Page – 408 sun is setting, while from the first hour after midnight it begins to rise. Blessings. 22 August 1969 There is only one love, the Divine Love, eternal, universal, equal for everyone and everything. It is man (the human being) who calls all kinds of feelings “love”: all the desires, attractions, vital exchanges, sexual relations, attachments, even friendships, and many other things besides. But all that is not even the shadow of love nor even its deformation. These are all mental and vital, sentimental or sexual activities, and nothing more. Blessings. 6 September 1969 Sweet Mother, What is the difference between desire and aspiration, and between selfishness and self-realisation?
Desire is a vital movement, aspiration is a psychic movement. When one has had a true aspiration, unselfish and sincere, one cannot even ask the question anymore; for the vibration of aspiration, luminous and calm, has nothing to do with the vibration of desire, which is passionate, dark and often violent. Selfishness means wanting everything for oneself, understanding nothing but oneself, caring for others only insofar as they are necessary or important to oneself. In French, self-realisation (réalisation du Soi) means discovering the divine centre in one’s being. In English, self-fulfilment is generally taken in the sense “to be successful”. Sri Aurobindo in his Page – 409 writings uses the word “self-realisation” to mean realisation of the Self, that is to say, becoming conscious of the Divine in oneself and identifying with Him. Blessings. 14 September 1969 Sweet Mother, How can one unify one’s being?
The first step is to find, deep within oneself, behind the desires and impulses, a luminous consciousness which is always present and manifests the physical being. Ordinarily, one becomes aware of the presence of this consciousness only when one has to face some danger or an unexpected event or a great sorrow. One has, then, to come into conscious contact with that and learn to do so at will. The rest will follow. Generally it is in the heart, behind the solar plexus, that one finds this luminous presence. Blessings. 20 September 1969 Sweet Mother, What will be the result of changing the vital into something good; in other words, what will be the change?
The vital is the receptacle of all the bad impulses, all wickedness, cowardice, weakness and avarice. When the vital is converted, the impulses are good instead of being bad; wickedness is replaced by kindness, avarice by generosity; weakness disappears and strength and endurance take its place; cowardice is replaced by courage and energy. Page – 410 The seat of power in action is in the purified vital. Blessings. 20 October 1969 Sweet Mother, I have never discussed with my friends the question of knowing why we are here on earth, but I have thought about it and the only answer I could get is that at least we are here in the Ashram to manifest the Divine upon earth. But there remains one question: if everything is divine, even the adverse forces, and if everything has been created by Him and He can do everything, then how is it that He takes so much time and uses such roundabout ways? What joy does He get in creating unconscious things and making them conscious? And why all these misfortunes and sufferings?
It is a question that all thinking people have asked. Some have considered the problem more deeply and asked themselves whether human beings, who are so small and limited, could see things as they really are; and in the hope of understanding better, they have sought for a diviner vision, a global and true vision – with the result of Yoga. And those who have succeeded in their endeavour have found that when one is united with the Divine, one’s vision of things changes totally, and they have all come to the same conclusion: unite with the Divine and you will understand. Blessings. 28 October 1969 Sweet Mother, Why and how does one lose one’s spiritual gain by going elsewhere? One can make a conscious effort and Page – 411 Your protection is always there, isn’t it?
To visit one’s parents is to return to an influence which is generally stronger than any other; and there are not many cases where the parents help you in your spiritual progress, because they are usually more interested in a worldly realisation. Parents who are primarily interested in spiritual realisation usually do not ask their children to come back to them. Blessings. 8 November 1969 Sweet Mother, Why should one take part in the sports’ competitions and demonstrations?
Because it is a chance to put in greater effort and thus make faster progress. Blessings. 16 November 1969 Sweet Mother, I would like to know the second step towards unifying one’s being. You told me about the first step.
The work of unifying the being consists of: (1) becoming aware of one’s psychic being. (2) putting before the psychic being, as one becomes aware of them, all one’s movements, impulses, thoughts and acts of will, so that the psychic being may accept or reject each of these movements, impulses, thoughts or acts of will. Those that are accepted will be kept and carried out; those that are rejected will be driven out of the consciousness so that they may never come back again. Page – 412 It is a long and meticulous work that may take years to be done properly. Blessings. 8 December 1969 Sweet Mother, How should one spend the Darshan days, December fifth and ninth, and one’s birthday?
In search of a knowledge truer than ordinary knowledge. The fifth and ninth in understanding what death is. The birthday in finding out the purpose of life. Blessings. 13 December 1969 (Regarding accidents in sports at the Ashram)
I do not think that there are more accidents here than elsewhere. Certainly there ought to be less. But for that, the children who study here must make an effort to grow in consciousness (a thing they could do more easily here than elsewhere). Unfortunately, however, few of them take the trouble to do it, so they lose the fine opportunity that has been given to them. 22 December 1969 Sweet Mother, What is the difference between persons who have developed their consciousness and those who have not?
Those who have done it and done it well become conscious; the others remain half conscious like the vast majority of human beings. Consciousness, the true consciousness, gives control over Page – 413 one’s own character and, to a large extent, over events. 23 December 1969 Sweet Mother, Do you think it isn’t good to visit the churches here to see the midnight ceremony?
Why go to church? Are you Christians or do you want to become Christians? Sri Aurobindo spent his whole life working to free men from the bondage of religions. Do you want to contradict his work for the sake of a childish idle curiosity? Up to now, all those who have gone have done so without asking for permission, because they sensed that it would not be given. 25 December 1969 Sweet Mother, In The Hour of God Sri Aurobindo has written: “There are moments when the Spirit moves among men and the breath of the Lord is abroad upon the waters of our being; there are others when it retires and men are left to act in the strength or the weakness of their own egoism”¹ and in one of your letters, you have said that one must not rely on one’s ego but on the psychic. Mother, will you explain this to me?
It so happens that we are not in an age when men have been left to their own means. The Divine has sent down His Consciousness to give them light. All who are able to do so should profit by it. Blessings. 29 December 1969 ¹Cent. Vol. 17, p. 1 Page – 414. Sweet Mother, About what you told me yesterday: had the Divine not sent His Consciousness down upon earth? But the whole creation has had the Divine in it from the very beginning, hasn’t it?
Yes. And why were primitive men left to their own means?
Primitive men were still too close to the animal to be able to enter into relation with the Inner Divine; it is only gradually, through thousands of years of ascending evolution, that men have learned to be conscious. Now they are ready to manifest a far higher consciousness, the consciousness that will act fully in the superman; and that is why this consciousness has come down on earth to work in all who are ready to receive it. Blessings. 30 December 1969 Sweet Mother, “The world is preparing for a big change. Will you help?” What is this great change that you speak of? And how can we be of help to it?
This great change is the appearance on earth of a new race that will be to man what man is to the animal. The consciousness of this new race is already at work on earth to give light to all who are capable of receiving it and heeding it. Blessings. 2 January 1970 ¹The Mother’s New Year Message of 1970. Page – 415 Sweet Mother, How should the news of death be received, especially when it is someone close to us?
Say to the Supreme Lord: “Let Thy Will be done”, and remain as peaceful as possible. If the departed one is a person one loves, one should concentrate one’s love on him in peace and calm, for that is what can most help the one who has departed. Blessings. 16 January 1970 Sweet Mother, How should we watch a film? If we identify with the characters and if the film is tragic or full of suspense, we get so involved that we cry or feel frightened. And if we keep aloof we cannot appreciate it properly. So what should we do?
It is the vital that gets touched and moved. If you watch mentally, the interest is no longer the same; instead of being moved or troubled, you can calmly judge the value of a film, whether it is well made or well acted, or whether the scenes have any artistic value. In the first case you are a “good audience”, in the second case you are more peaceful. Blessings. 30 January 1970 Sweet Mother, How would we know what is happening in other countries and even in our own if we did not read newspapers? At least we get some idea from them, don’t we? Page – 416 Or would it be better not to read them at all?
I did not say that you must not read newspapers. I said that you must not blindly believe everything you read; you should know that the truth is altogether different. Blessings. 4 February 1970 Sweet Mother, How can we know the truth of the facts when reading newspapers? What is the best way of knowing the truth of the world?
The best way is to find the truth in ourselves – then we shall be able to see the Truth wherever it is. Blessings. 5 February 1970 Page – 417 |