Champaklal's Treasures - Edition-II

“The Wizard of OZ”

A short explanation will surely increase the interest of the picture shown to you tonight.

You will notice that it is in three sections, two black and one, the most extensive, in colour; the two black sections (first and last) show how things appear in the physical world, the coloured one expresses a similar sequence of events in the vital world, the world where one can go in deep sleep when one gets out of the body. So long as you have a body no true harm can happen to you in the vital world for the physical body acts like a protection and you can always return into it at will.

This is expressed in the picture in a classical way. You will see that the little girl wears on her feet some magic red slippers and that so long as she keeps the slippers on her feet, nothing wrong can truly happen to her. The ruby red slippers are the sign and the symbol of the connection with the physical body and so long as the slippers are on her feet she can at will return to her body and take shelter therein.

Two other details can be noted with interest. One is the snow shower that saves the party from the influence of the wicked witch who by her black magic has stopped their advance towards the blue castle of knowledge and intellectual power. In the vital, snow is the symbol of purity itself. It is the purity of their feelings and intentions that saves them from the great danger.

Note that to go to the castle of the good wizard they must follow the big path of golden bricks, the path of luminous confidence and joy.

The second is when Dorothy throws water on the straw man to save him from burning, some water falls on the face of the wicked witch who at once gets dissolved and dies. The water is the symbol of the power of purification and no hostile being or force can resist this power handled with good will and sincerity.

Finally when the good fairy teaches to the little girl, on knocking her two red slippers one against the other, how to go back home, by home she means the physical world which is the place of protection and realisation.

As you see the subject of this picture is interesting and not altogether deprived of knowledge; unhappily the whole set up is not as beautiful and harmonious as it could have been. There are some serious mistakes of taste and many regrettable vulgarities.
There is only one thing of which I am absolutely sure, and that is who I am. Sri Aurobindo also knew it and declared it. Even the doubts of the whole of humanity would change nothing to this fact.

But another fact is not so certain — it is the usefulness of my being here in a body doing the work I am doing. It is not out of any personal urge that I am doing it. Sri Aurobindo told me to do it and that is why I do it as a sacred duty, in obedience to the dictates of the Supreme.

Time will reveal how far earth has benefited through it.

A self-willed man can not be grateful, because when he gets what he wants he gives all the credit for it to his own will, and when he gets what he does not want he resents it badly and throws all the blame on whomever he considers responsible, God, man or nature.

Compassion and gratitude are purely psychic virtues. They appear in the consciousness only with the participation of the psychic being in active life. The vital and physical feel them as weakness because they put a check upon the free expression of their impulsions based on the power of force.

As usual, the mind, when it is not sufficiently educated, is the accomplice of the vital being and the slave of the physical nature whose crushing laws it does not know well through their half-conscious mechanism. When the mind awakens to the consciousness of the first psychic movements, it deforms them in its ignorance and changes compassion into pity and gratitude in to the will to recompense which is transformed gradually into the capacity to recognise and admire. It is only when the psychic consciousness is all-powerful in the being that compassion for all that is below it on the evolutionary ladder and gratitude for all that is higher than it, in whatever form, manifest in their initial and luminous purity, not containing any vestige of the sense of condescension in the compassion or of inferiority in the gratitude.

In the Bible, God calls Cain and asks him:. 'What have you done with your brother?'

Today I call man and ask him: "What have you done with the earth?"

You have brought down upon earth Peace and Freedom.

Now Freedom and Wisdom must manifest in the heart of every man.

Have you never been mistaken in any of your decisions? Yes, you have been mistaken, haven't you? and many a time.

Then, by what right do you think that when my decision is not the same as yours, it is I who am mistaken?

... stand at street-corners, he held out for alms. Had we diplomatically sided with a religious or political body, we would be flourishing, but the divine white radiance must have no stain.

Selfless work, the self-giving to the realisation of an ideal is for ordinary men something so unthinkable that they hasten to sully it so as not to have to admire it.

...are at one in vilifying the Ashram and bespattering it with their mud. It is the old story that repeats itself.... The worst enemies come together when it is a question of stoning a prophet, crucifying God or condemning a sage to death.

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

Never I sit in meditation — there is no time and no necessity for it because it is not through meditation that one gives oneself to the Divine, it is through consecration and surrender and it is through all activities of life that consecration and surrender are to be made.

26 November 1967

Until now, my spontaneous attitude was that of the supreme Mother who carries the universe in her loving arms, and I was dealing with each one as with child from whom she tolerates everything equally; and all what the people here were doing to please me I was taking as a token of their love and I was very grateful for it. Today I have learnt that many, if not most, are looking at me as their Guru and that they are eager to please me because to please the Guru is the best way to acquire merit on the path. And then I have understood that the duty of the Guru is to encourage from each one only that which can lead him quickly to the Lord and serve His Divine Purpose, — and I am very grateful for the lesson.

In our way of working we must not be the slaves of Nature; all these habits of trying and changing', doing and undoing and redoing again and again, wasting energy, labour, material and money, are Nature's way of action, not the Divine's. The Divine Consciousness sees first the truth of a work, the best way of doing it according to given circumstances, and when she acts, it is final. She never comes back on what is done, She goes forward, using failure as well as success for a new progress, one more step towards the goal.

In order to progress. Nature destroys while the Divine Consciousness stimulates growth and finally transforms.

We have faith in Sri Aurobindo.

He represents for us something we formulate to ourselves with words which seems to us the most exact for expressing our experience. These words are evidently the best according to us for formulating our experience.

But if, in our enthusiasm, we were convinced that they are the only appropriate words to express correctly what Sri Aurobindo is and the experience he has given us, we would become dogmatic and be on the point of founding a religion.

He who has a spiritual experience and a faith formulates it in the most appropriate words for himself.

But if he is convinced that this expression is the only correct and true one for this experience and faith, he becomes dogmatic and tends to create a religion.

1) failing

Forward! towards a better future, the realisation of tomorrow.

To cure oneself of a critical judgment expressing itself through an incontinence of speech:

1) When one is in this state to refuse absolutely to speak — if need be to make it physically impossible for oneself to speak

2) To study oneself pitilessly and become aware that one carries in oneself precisely all the things one finds so ridiculous in others.

3) To discover in one's nature the state contrary to this (benevolence, humility, goodwill) and insist on developing it to the detriment of the opposite element.

In all religious and specially occult initiations, the ritual of the different ceremonies is prescribed in all detail; all the words pronounced, all the gestures made have their importance and the least infraction of the rule, the least fault committed can have fatal consequences.

It is the same in the material life and if one had the initiation into the true way of living, one could transform the physical existence.

This body has neither the uncontested authority of a god nor the imperturbable calm of the sage. It is yet only an apprentice in supermanhood.

On the choice of a motor-car:

Do you want to go from one place to another without getting tired and without spending much time on the way, or do you want to be smart and look like an important man?

And the body says to the Supreme Lord: "What you want me to be, I shall be, what You want me to do, I shall do."

And you want to make me speak and mentalise the experience until a new "system" is established and you can sit down comfortably in your new mental construction.

By definition the Ashramite has resolved to consecrate his life to the realisation and service of the Divine.

For this four virtues are indispensable, without which progress is uncertain and subject to interruptions and troublesome falls at the first opportunity:

Sincerity, faithfulness, modesty and gratitude.

... substitute the spirit of rivalry and competition by the goodwill of collaboration and mutual understanding.

liberty and order

fraternity and independence

equality and hierarchy

unity and diversity

abundance and scarcity

effort and repose

power and compassion

discernment and benevolence

generosity and economy

wastage and avarice

Obey your soul, it alone has the right to govern your life.

In their blindness men leave the Light and go to the darkness to obtain knowledge!

... so that his life may be governed by a true splendour of soul, so as to face his responsibilities with a noble and generous heart.

And the radiant bliss of this splendour was felt in a perfect peace

Transformation and intimacy

with my blessings full of love and energy.

21 June 1970

I am no more living an active life; if you are open, help is bound to come.

14 December 1972

I have already warned those who go on spreading rumours, more or less false, on what I am believed to have said or not said, that this is an act of treachery.

As this pernicious habit does not seem to stop I must add that those who persist in so doing will be treated occultly as traitors.

Consciousness is a state and a power

Love is a force and an action

When Consciousness separated from its Origin and became inconscience the Origin emanated Love to re-awaken Consciousness from the depth of the inconscience and bright it back into touch with its Origin.

It may be said that at its origin love is the supreme power of attraction which awakens, in response, the irresistible need of an absolute self-giving, they are the two poles of the urge towards complete fusion.

No other movement could, better and more surely than this, throw a bridge across the abyss dug by the sense of separation that comes from the formation of the individual. It was necessary to bring back to itself what had been projected into space without destroying for this purpose the universe created thus.,

That is why love sprang up, the irresistible power of union.

This world is a chaos where darkness and light, falsehood and truth, life and death, hatred and love are so closely enlaced that it is almost impossible to distinguish them form one another and still more impossible to decide between them and undo a grip which has all the horror of a merciless struggle, so much the more intense the more veiled it is, above all in the consciousness of man where the conflict changes into the anguish of knowing, of ability, of conquering—a dark and dolorous battle, the more atrocious because it seems without any issue, but which can be resolved above all sensations and feelings and ideas, beyond the words of the mind ...in the Divine Consciousness.

The integral yoga is constituted of an uninterrupted series of examinations which one must pass without being warned about them beforehand

_ which puts you under the obligation of being always vigilant and attentive.

Three groups of examiners set these tests. Apparently they have nothing to do with one another and their procedures are so different, at times even they seem so contradictory that they do not appear to be able to move towards the same end, and yet they complete one another, they collaborate for the same purpose and are indispensable to the integrality of the result.

These three categories of examinations are those set by the forces of Nature, those set by the spiritual and divine forces, and those set by the hostile forces. These latter are the most deceptive in their appearance and in order not to be taken by surprise, unprepared, demands a constant state of vigilance, sincerity and humility.

The most banal circumstances, the events of everyday life, people, things, — apparently the most insignificant, all belong to one or other of these three categories of examiners. In this great and complex organisation of tests it is the events usually considered the most important in life which constitute the examinations easiest to pass for they find you on your guard and prepared. One stumbles more easily on the little pebbles on the road because they do not draw attention.

Endurance and plasticity, cheerfulness and intrepedity are the qualities more specially required for the examinations of physical Nature.

Aspiration, confidence, idealism, enthusiasm and generosity in self- giving for the spiritual examinations.

Vigilance, sincerity and humanity for the examinations set by the adverse forces.

And do not think that on one side there are those who pass exams and on the other those who set them. At the same time, according to the circumstances and moments, one is both examiner and examinee and it may even happen that one is simultaneously, all at once, examined and examiner. And the profit drawn from this depends upon the quality and degree of intensity in one's aspiration and the awakening of one's consciousness.

And, finally, a last recommendation, never pose as an examiner. For, whilst it is very well to remember constantly that one is perhaps fairly in the course of passing a very important exam, it is on the contrary extremely dangerous to think oneself appointed to set tests for others, for this is opening the door to the most ridiculous and disastrous vanities.

The overmind is the age of the gods and consequently of religions; the ideal of the unity of religions is one of the principal ideas of the age of the overmind.

In the supramental creation there will no longer be any religions, the whole of life will be the expression, the flowering into forms of the divine Unity manifesting in the world, and there will no longer be any gods. The great divine beings who will choose not to manifest physically will be friends and collaborators on a footing of equality.

When the physical substance is supramentalised, to be incarnated upon earth will not be a cause of inferiority; on the contrary, one will gain from it a plentitude which could not be had otherwise.

The whole of humanity should be organised upon these bases. But the organisation will not be true and viable unless at its centre and at its head there is the supramental Truth-Consciousness manifested in an individual or a small group of individuals who will be representatives of the new race, the incarnation of the supramental consciousness upon earth.

During the last lesson we learnt how to detach ourselves from our thoughts so as to be able to observe them like an attentive spectator.

Today we must learn how to watch these thoughts, look at them like an enlightened judge so as to discern between the good ones and the bad, between thoughts which are useful and those which are harmful, between constructive thoughts which lead to victory and defeatist thoughts which take us away from it. It is this power of discernment which we have to acquire now.

Second stage — discernment — discerning between good and bad thoughts, useful and harmful thoughts, thoughts which help progress and defeatist thoughts.

This is the counterpart of what we read last time. But note that here it is a question only of the thoughts which produce resentment. Its is because rancour as well as jealously are among the most widespread causes of human misery.

But how to get rid of rancour? A vast and generous heart is surely the best means, but it is not within everybody's reach. The control of one's thought may be more commonly used. Thought-control is the third stage of our mental discipline. After the enlightened judge of our conscious- ness has discerned between the useful thoughts and the harmful ones, there comes the inner policeman who will let only the accepted thoughts pass and refuse admission strictly to every undesirable element. With a magisterial gesture this policeman will close the entry to every bad thought and push it away as far as possible.

It is this movement of admission of refusal which we call the control of thought and this will be the object of our meditation this evening.

He pushed on the table before me a scrap of paper which seemed to have been torn form an exercise-book page, without any letter-head or anything official, on which he had written for me in a clumsy hand that I was promising to pay for the extra stamps if they were necessary.

I felt like a poor traveller accosted in the corner of a wood by a band of brigands, pistols in hand, asking you to empty your pockets before letting you pass. I hesitated for a moment, but I am a sport and I signed, thinking 'We shall see how far they dare to go...'

In this world one pays dearly for wanting to be unselfish!

In a severe tone:

"Madam, you are pledging your word."

Very quietly:

"I know it, sir, and when I make a promise, I keep it. But for me these things don't have much importance. I have no attachment for any religion, and when one has no attachment, one has no aversion either. For me religions are forms, much too human, of spiritual life. Each one expresses one aspect of the single and eternal Truth, but in expressing it exclusively of the other aspects it deforms and diminishes it. None has the right to call itself the only true one, any more than it has the right to deny the truth contained in the others. And all of them together would not suffice to express the Supreme Truth which is beyond all expression, even whilst being present in each one".

In a dry tone:

"I am sorry, madam, but in this field I cannot follow you".

Smiling and peaceful:

"I know that very well, sir, and I told you all this only to explain to you why I did not reply very seriously to the promise you were demanding from me".