Questions and Answers (1956)

2 May 1956

Sri Aurobindo says that the union has a threefold character: first, the liberation from the Ignorance and identification with the Real and Eternal....

This is the yoga of knowledge.

Then the dwelling of the soul with or in the Divine....

That is the aim of the yoga of love.

Then, identity of nature, likeness to the Divine: "to be perfect as That is perfect."

Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga, SABCL, Vol. 20, p. 122

That is to say, not only is there union in the depths, but there is also union outwardly, in the activities. There is union in knowledge, union in love and union in works. To put it otherwise: the yoga of knowledge, the yoga of love and devotion, and the yoga of works. These are the three modes of approach he speaks about.

Sweet Mother, here Sri Aurobindo speaks of "the soul's native world". What is the soul's native world?

It is the divine Principle.

(Silence)

Is that all?

Page 125

Sweet Mother, you have said: The Supramental has descended upon earth. What does that mean exactly? You have also said: "The things that were promised are fulfilled." What are these things?¹

Ah, that's ignorance indeed! This was promised a very long time ago, this was said very long ago―not only here―since the beginning of the earth. There have been all kinds of predictions, by all kinds of prophets; it has been said, "There will be a new heaven and a new earth, a new race will be born, the world will be transformed...." Prophets have spoken about this in all the traditions.

You have said, "They are fulfilled."

Yes. And so?

Where is the new race?

The new race? Wait for something like... a few thousand years, and you will see it!

When the mind descended upon earth, between the time the mind manifested in the earth-atmosphere and the time the first man appeared, nearly a million years elapsed. Now it will go faster because man expects it, he has a vague idea; he is expecting in some sense the advent of the superman, while, certainly, the apes did not expect the birth of man, they had never thought of

Page 126

it for―the good reason that they probably don't think much. But man has thought of it and awaits it, so it will go faster. But faster means still thousands of years probably. We shall speak about it again after a few thousand years!

(Silence)

People who are inwardly ready, who are open and in contact with higher forces, people who have had a more or less direct personal contact with the supramental Light and Consciousness are able to feel the difference in the earth-atmosphere.

But for that... Only the like can know the like, only the supramental Consciousness in an individual can perceive this Supermind acting in the earth-atmosphere. Those who, for some reason or other, have developed this perception, can see it. But those who are not even conscious of an inner being―just slightly within―and who would be quite at a loss to say what their soul is like, these certainly are not ready to perceive the difference in the earth-atmosphere. They still have a long way to go for that. Because, for those whose consciousness is more or less exclusively centred in the outer being―mental, vital and physical―things need to take on an absurd and unexpected appearance for them to be able to recognise them. Then they call them miracles.

But the constant miracle of the intervention of forces which changes circumstances and characters and has a very widespread result, this they do not call a miracle, for only the mere appearance is seen and this seems quite natural. But, truly speaking, if you were to reflect upon the least little thing that happens, you would be obliged to acknowledge that it is miraculous.

It is simply because you don't reflect upon it that you take things as they are, for what they are, without questioning; otherwise every day you would have any number of occasions to tell yourself, "Really, but this is quite astonishing! How did it happen?"

Page 127

Quite simply, it is a habit of seeing things in a purely superficial way.

Sweet Mother, what should our attitude be towards this new Consciousness?

That depends on what you want to do with it.

If you want to look at it as a curiosity, you have only to watch, to try to understand.

If you want it to change you, you must open yourself and make an effort to progress.

Will people profit collectively or individually from this new manifestation?

Why do you ask this question?

Because many people who have come here are asking, "How are we going to profit from it?"

Oh!

And why should they profit from it? What are their claims to profit? Just because they have taken a train to come here?

I knew some people who came here quite a long, long time ago, something like―oh! I don't remember now, but very long ago―certainly more than twenty years ago, and the first time someone died in the Ashram, they showed considerable dissatisfaction, saying, "But I came here because I thought this yoga would make me immortal; but if people can die, why would I have come?"

Well, it is the same thing. People take the train to come here―there were nearly a hundred and fifty more than usual this time,² just because they wanted to "profit". But perhaps this is

Page 128

just why they did not profit! For That has not come to make people profit in any way whatever.

They ask if it will be easier to over their inner difficulties.

I shall repeat the same thing. What grounds and what right have they to ask that it should be easier? What have they done, these people, on their side? Why would it be easier? To satisfy people's laziness and indolence―or what?

Because when something new happens, people always have the idea of profiting from it.

No! not only when there is something new: everywhere and always people have the idea of profiting. But that is indeed the best way of not getting anything.

Whom do they want to deceive here? The Divine?... That is hardly possible.

It is the same with those who ask for an interview. I tell them, "Listen, you have come in large numbers, and if everybody asks me for an interview, I won't even have enough minutes in all these days to see everyone. During your stay, I won't have even a minute." Then they say, "Oh! I have taken so much trouble. I have come from so far away, I have come down from this place, I have come down from that far, I travelled so many hours―and have I no right to an interview?" I say, "I am sorry, but you are not the only one in that position."

That is it, you see: it is give and take, bargaining. We are not a commercial establishment, we have said we didn't do business.

The number of disciples is increasing now day by day. What does that indicate?

But naturally it will go on increasing more and more! And that is

Page 129

why I can't do now what I used to do when there were a hundred and fifty people in the Ashram. If only they had a little common sense, they would understand that I can't have the same relations with people now―there were 1800 of them here recently, my children! So I can't have the same relations with 1845 people―I believe that was the exact number―as with about thirty or even a hundred. This seems to me a logic easy enough to understand.

But they want everything to remain as it used to be, and, as you say, they want to be the first to "benefit".

Mother, when mind descended into the earth-atmosphere, the apes had not made any effort to change into man, had they? It was Nature which provided the effort. But here...

But it is not man who is going to change himself into superman!

No?

Just try! (Laughter)

That's it, you see, it is something else which is going to work.

So, we are...

Only―yes, there is an only, I don't want to be so cruel: Now MAN CAN COLLABORATE. That is to say, he can lend himself to the process, with goodwill, with aspiration, and help as best he can. And that is why I said it would go faster. I hope it will go much faster.

But even so, much faster is still going to take a little time!

(Silence)

Listen. If all of you who have heard about this, not once but perhaps hundreds of times, who have spoken about it yourselves,

Page 130

thought of it, hoped for it, wanted it―there are people who came here for that, with the intention of receiving the supramental Force and being transformed into supermen―that was their aim, wasn't it?... But how is it that all of you were so unfamiliar with this Force that when it came you didn't even feel it?

Can you solve this problem for me? If you have the solution to this problem, you will have the solution to the difficulty.

I am not speaking of people from outside who have never thought of this, never been concerned with it, and who don't even know that there is something like a Supermind to be received, you understand. I am speaking of those who have based their life on this aspiration―and I do not doubt their sincerity, not for a moment―who have worked, some for thirty years, some for thirty-five, some a little less, who have done everything saying, "When the Supermind comes... When the Supermind comes...", that was the refrain, "When the Supermind comes..." Therefore, they were truly in the best possible state, one couldn't dream of a better. How is it that the inner preparation was so―let us say simply―so incomplete, that when the Vibration came they did not immediately feel it with the impact of identity?

Individually, the aim of each one was to prepare himself, to enter into a more or less close individual relation with this Force, to help; or, if they could not help, at least to be ready when the Force would manifest, to recognise it and open to it. And instead of being an alien element in a world where what you carry within yourself is not manifested, you suddenly become that, you enter straight in, fully, into this very atmosphere: it is this Force that is there, surrounding you, penetrating you.

If you had had even a little inner contact, immediately you would have recognised it, wouldn't you?

Well, anyway, that is what happened to those who had a little inner contact; they recognised it, felt it; they said, "Ah! here it is, it has come." But how is it, then, that so many hundreds of people, not to speak of the small handful of those who truly wanted nothing but that, thought of nothing but that, had staked

Page 131

their whole life on that, how is it that they did not feel anything? What can this mean?

Of course, it is only like that knows like. That is an obvious fact.

There was a possibility of coming into contact with the Thing individually―Sri Aurobindo had even described it as the necessary process: a certain number of people who, through their inner effort and aspiration, enter into contact with this Force. That was what we used to call the ascent to the Supermind. And so, even if it were by an inner ascent―that is to say, by freeing themselves from the material consciousness―if by an inner ascent they had touched the Supermind, they should naturally have recognised it the moment it came. But it was indispensable to have had a previous contact: if they had not touched it, how could they have recognised it?

That is to say, the universal movement is like that―I read that to you some days ago―certain individuals, who are the pioneers, the vanguard, through inner effort and inner progress enter into communication with the new Force which is to manifest and receive it into themselves. And then, as there are calls of this kind, the thing is made possible, and the age, the time, the moment of the manifestation comes. This is how it happened―and the Manifestation took place.

But, then all those who were ready must have recognised it.

I hasten to tell you that there are some who did recognise it, but still... But those who ask questions, who even came here, took the train in order to drink this up as one drinks a glass of syrup, if they had not made any preparation, how could they feel anything at all? And already they talk about benefiting: "We want to profit from it...."

After all, it is quite possible―I am joking a little―it is quite possible that if they have even the least bit of sincerity―not too much, for that is tiring! just a little sincerity―that will give them a few good knocks to make them go faster. This is possible. In fact, I think, this is what will happen.

Page 132

But indeed, this attitude... this attitude, which is a little too mercenary, is not usually very profitable. If one aspires sincerely and if one has difficulties, perhaps these difficulties will diminish. Let us hope so.

(Turning to the disciple) So this is what you can tell them: be sincere and you will be helped.

Mother, a statement has gone round here, very recently―it says, "What has just happened, with this Victory, is not a descent but a manifestation. And it is more than an individual event: the Supermind has emerged into the universal play."

Yes, yes, yes. In fact I said all this, I acknowledge it. So?

They say, "The supramental principle is at work..."

But I have just explained all this to you at length (Mother laughs), this is terrible!

What I call a "descent" is this: first the consciousness rises in an ascent, you catch the Thing up there, and come down with it. That is an individual event.

When this individual event has happened in a way that proves sufficient to create a possibility of a general kind, it is no longer a "descent", it is a "manifestation".

What I call a descent is the individual movement, in an individual consciousness. And when it is a new world manifesting in an old world―just as, for a comparison, when mind spread upon the earth―I call that a manifestation.

You may call it whatever you like, it's all the same to me, but we should understand each other.

What I call a descent is in the individual consciousness. Just as one speaks of ascent―there is no ascent, you see: there is neither above nor below nor any direction, it is a way of speaking ―you speak of ascent when you have the feeling of rising up

Page 133

towards something; and you call it a descent when, after having caught that thing, you bring it down into yourself.

But when the gates are open and the flood comes in, you can't call it a descent. It is a Force which is spreading out. Understood?... Ah!

It's all one to me, the words you use. I am not particularly attached to words, but I explain them to you, and it is better to understand each other, for otherwise there is no end to explanations.

Now, to people who ask you these insidious questions, you may reply that the best way of receiving anything whatever is not to pull, but to give. If they want to give themselves to the new life, well, the new life will enter into them.

But if they want to pull the new life down into themselves, they will close their door with their own egoism. That's all.

Page 134