On Education

Study

My dear child,

The true wisdom is to be ready to learn from whatever source the knowledge can come.

We can learn things from a flower, an animal, a child, if we are eager to know always more, because there is only One Teacher in the world—the Supreme Lord, and He manifests through everything.

With all my love.

9 March 1967

To do good work one must have good taste.

Taste can be educated by study and the help of those who have good taste.

To learn, it is necessary to feel first that one does not know.

15 December 1965

When you feel that you know nothing then you are ready to learn.¹

December 1965

The whole question is to know whether the students go to school to increase their knowledge and to learn what is needed to know how to live well—or whether they go to school to pretend and to have good marks which they can boast about.

Before the Eternal Consciousness, one drop of sincerity has more value than an ocean of pretence and hypocrisy.

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You see, my child, the unfortunate thing is that you are too busy with yourself. At your age I was exclusively occupied with my studies—informing myself, learning, understanding, knowing. That was my interest, even my passion. My mother, who loved us—my brother and myself—very much, never allowed us to be bad-tempered or dissatisfied or lazy. If we went and complained to her about something or other and told her that we were not satisfied, she would laugh at us and scold us and say to us, "What is this foolishness? Don't be ridiculous, off you go and work, and don't take any notice of your good or bad moods! That is not interesting at all."

My mother was perfectly right and I have always been very grateful to her for having taught me discipline and the necessity of self-forgetfulness in concentration on what one is doing.

I have told you this because the anxiety you speak of comes from the fact that you are far too busy with yourself. It would be far better for you to attend more to what you are doing (painting or music), to develop your mind which is still very uncultivated and to learn the elements of knowledge which are indispensable to a man if he does not want to be ignorant and uncultured.

If you worked regularly eight to nine hours a day, you would be hungry and you would eat well and sleep peacefully, and you would have no time to wonder whether you are in a good or a bad mood.

I am telling you these things with all my affection, and I hope that you will understand them.

Your mother who loves you.

15 May 1934

O Mother, I want to act according to your will and nothing else.

Then quickly leave the path you have taken—don't waste your time wandering about and talking to girls. Start working in

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earnest again, study, educate yourself, occupy your mind with interesting and useful things and not with futile chatter, and do not give false excuses for your vital attractions. If your wish is truly sincere you can be sure that you will have my force to help you conquer.

27 September 1934

On the days when I do not study I feel worse. But when I begin to study, happiness comes. I do not understand this process.

What do you mean by process? It is not a process; the disappearance of the bad feeling 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

Mother, is it good to go to D's house to read the poems he has written in Gujarati?

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 can simply observe and see how it affects you and decide accordingly.

13 December 1934

In the dream I saw You had written, "My dear child, why have you stopped studying?" You had written much more, and I would like You to write it here, if possible.

Yes, in fact last night I asked you why you had not studied, and I told you that to yield like that to the impulses of the

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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 depressions. Without discipline one cannot do anything in life and all yoga is impossible.

For physical work it is not difficult, but for study it becomes difficult to follow the discipline when I feel bad. All the same, I have decided that on the days when I do not study, I will not eat my lunch.

What a funny idea you have! To punish your body for a fault the vital has committed! It is not fair.

22 December 1934

Just this morning there is a very big depression and so it is becoming impossible to study.

This will not do.

O Mother, what shall I do?

Force yourself to study and your depression will go away. Can you imagine a student in school coming and telling his teacher, "Sir, I did not do my homework today because I felt depressed"? The teacher would certainly punish him very severely.

16 January 1935

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I think there is one thing You do not like very much—that I do not apply myself to my studies.

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

My mind does not become peaceful, I think, because I do not study hard. Studying does not give me much pleasure.

One does not study for the sake of pleasure—one studies to learn and to develop one's brain.

1 February 1935

It is quite impossible for me to study, because inertia came.

If you do not study the inertia will go on increasing.

4 March 1935

I do not know how to spend my time, understanding nothing.

Study, that is the best way to understand.

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You tell me to study, but I do not like studying.

You do not give enough time to study, that is why it does not interest you. Everything one does with care necessarily becomes interesting.

10 April 1935

Which path must I take then? What is the right and true way of making the effort?

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 of both gratitude and true happiness.

22 May 1935

My studies are suffering because of constant depression.

I have told you that it is by study that you can overcome the depression.

27 July 1935

I would like to know whether as a general rule it is good for little children to play all the time.

For children there should be a time for work and study and a time for play.

16 November 1936

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Do you think my mind is developing?

Regular study certainly cannot fail to develop it.

7 December 1936

I am turning more and more towards study and giving less attention to my sadhana. I do not know whether this is desirable.

It is all right; study can become part of the sadhana.

8 December 1936

If someone is teaching me, is it necessary for him to identify himself with me, to concentrate on me?

Without concentration one cannot achieve anything.

18 May 1937

Do you think that the tiredness comes from too much mental work?

No, it comes from mental tamas.

21 January 1941

(A teacher wrote that his students did not work very hard.)

Continue to be patient—is some kind of mental tamas; one day they will wake up.

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The students cannot learn their lessons, even when they have their books.

One must have a lot of patience with young children, and repeat the same thing to them several times, explaining it to them in various ways. It is only gradually that it enters their mind.

Intelligence and capacity of understanding are surely more important than regularity in work. Steadiness may be acquired later on.

Mother, how can one get rid of laziness?

Laziness comes from weakness, or from lack of interest. For curing the first—one must become strong.

For curing the second—one must do something interesting.

Sweet Mother,

You have told me that one must become strong to cure weakness. Mother, would you tell me how one can become strong?

First you must want it integrally and then you must do what is needed.

How to get rid of mental inertia?

The cure is not in trying to wake up the mind but in turning it, immobile and silent, upward towards the region of intuitive light, in a steady and quiet aspiration, and to wait in silence, for the light to come down and flood your brain which will, little by

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little, wake up to this influence and become capable of receiving and expressing the intuition.

Love and blessings.

26 September 1967

Sweet Mother,

We do not know what is the matter this year. We are unable to make any progress, either in our studies or at the Playground. Our minds are always restless and troubled. We have lost our concentration. We are wasting our time gossiping and thinking about bad things. We are not able to overcome our failings. Sweet Mother, we beg you to deliver us from this painful situation. We want to progress. We want to be your true children. Please show us the way.

Crying does not help at all.

You must have the will and make the necessary effort.

What is to be done to make the will stronger?

To educate it, to exercise it as one exercises the muscles by using them.

23 March 1934

Concentration and will can be developed as well as muscles; they grow by regular training and exercise.

Mother, how can one strengthen one's will-power?

By exercise.

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It takes more than a few months to learn something. One must work assiduously to make progress.

12 November 1954

It is a passing impulse which pushes me so much to study.

So long as you need to form yourself, to build your brain, you will feel this strong urge to study; but when the brain is well formed, the taste for studies will gradually die away.

What is the utility of reason in our life?

Without reason, human life would be incoherent and unregulated; we would be like impulsive animals or unbalanced madmen.

6 April 1961

Mother, what are knowledge and intelligence? Have they important roles to play in our life?

Knowledge and intelligence are precisely the qualities of the higher mind in man which differentiate him from the animal.

Without knowledge and intelligence, one is not a man but an animal in human form.
Blessings.

30 December 1969

In Your Conversations You have said that the intellect is like a mediator between the true knowledge and its realisation down here. Does it not follow that intellectual

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culture is indispensable for rising above the mind to find there the true knowledge?

Intellectual culture is indispensable for preparing a good mental instrument, large, supple and rich, but its action stops there.

In rising above the mind, it is more often a hindrance than a help, for, in general, a refined and educated mind finds its satisfaction in itself and rarely seeks to silence itself so as to be surpassed.

All that you know, however fine it may be, is nothing in comparison with what you can know, if you are able to use other methods.

The best way to understand is always to rise high enough in the consciousness to be able to unite all contradictory ideas in a harmonious synthesis.

And for the correct attitude, to know how to pass flexibly from one position to another without ever losing sight even for a moment of the one goal of self-consecration to the Divine and identification with Him.

29 April 1964

The important point is to know that the mind is incapable of understanding the One Supreme—that is why all that is said and thought about it is a travesty and an approximation and is necessarily full of irreconcilable contradictions.

That is also why it has always been taught that mental silence is indispensable in order to have true knowledge.

31 August 1965

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A very, very quiet head is indispensable for a clear understanding and vision and a right action.

Please help me to distinguish between the bubbling of ideas and an inner vision of necessities.

The mind must be quiet and silent before you can receive an inspiration from above.

The mind must remain quiet to let the Force flow through it for an integral manifestation.

How does one teach a student to think correctly?

Mental capacity is developed in silent meditation.

23 March 1966

I shall try to work with the help of intuition. Help me in my efforts.

Calm the vital.

Silence the mind.

Keep the brain silent and still like an even surface turned upwards and attentive.

And wait....

29 September 1967

It is not by mental activity that you can quiet your mind, it is from a higher or deeper level that you can receive the help you need. And both can be reached in silence only.

18 December 1971

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How to stop discussions in the mind?

The first condition is to talk as little as possible.

The second is to think just of what you are doing at the moment and not of what you have to do or of what you have done before.

Never regret what is past or imagine what will be.

Check pessimism in your thoughts as much as you can and become a voluntary optimist.

Mother, a free, quiet, silent mind is such a nice thing; I would like to have more of that. I want to be free from the constant whirlwinds of thoughts and emotions within me, tossing me like a toy.

It comes progressively.

Do not strain.

Be calm and confident.

12 March 1973

Now, what the intellect has understood let the whole being realise. Mental knowledge must be replaced by the flaming power of progress.