Sri Aurobindo : corresp.
THEME/S
PREFACE TO KNOWLEDGE
Sri Aurobindo always discouraged in me the ordinary way of developing the mind. Whenever I asked him intellectual or philosophical questions he would reply that I should not go after intellectual knowledge but allow direct intuitive knowledge to grow in me. He used to tell me this when I had just begun the sadhana and was very far from even the beginning of knowledge. When it first started descending into me, I was utterly unaware of what was taking place; it took such a personal aspect that I did not even guess that I was receiving the higher knowledge. It did not come as a voice, or as something objectively apprehended, but touched the stuff of my mind in a way that made it flow as a natural and spontaneous movement, making me think that it was a product of my own mind.
How things really were I only camp to know later. One day I realised that Sri Aurobindo was giving me very brief answers; so I wrote to him that I found such answers unsatisfying. It was then that he informed me that as it was the higher knowledge I was receiving from the Mother, he found no need to comment on my letters at length. A little later he told me in connection with some other question that this knowledge was from the Higher Mind level. Just for the sake of interest I counted the number of mistakes I had made in transcribing this knowledge, that is, in giving it mental expression; there were very few in three or four years. These occurred when I attempted something which was obviously beyond my capacity at the time — I tried to formulate
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certain spiritual truths metaphysically.
It is necessary to explain here the value of this higher knowledge for my inner sadhana as well as for my outer life, which is nothing but a continuation of this sadhana, an external expression of the internal development.
In the course of the practice of Sri Aurobindo's Yoga one comes in contact with the higher knowledge; it can be effectively utilised for one's sadhana either by entering into it or by drawing it down. This movement of contacting the knowledge remains with many, at least in the early stages, more or less impersonal. But this was not the case with me; I did not know mentally what was meant by spiritual knowledge when it first began to descend — the actual relation between the knowledge and myself was, and still is, even after so many years, beyond my grasp. What the Mother seems to have done, not as a result of my tapasya but as an act of her Grace, is this: she has opened me to her higher spiritual knowledge, and has linked it through this opening with the stuff of my mental consciousness, so that whenever the knowledge flows in I feel it as a natural product of my own consciousness, but when the opening is closed the same knowledge seems foreign to me. The action of this knowledge is at times felt, to use Sri Aurobindo's own words, "as a sort of concrete spiritual sense".
Through this knowledge I feel not only the Mother's and Sri Aurobindo's guidance in an impersonal way, but also their personal intervention and direct help in any problem I may have; the action of their light and power can always be dynamically felt. In the course of this correspondence we shall have many occasions to note this. In a few cases the possession of the Mother's knowledge of my mind was so entire that she spoke to me as directly as if she had been physically
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present before me and speaking. These have been recorded in the book.
Had it not been for this rare act of the Mother's Grace, I would never have been able to go ahead so boldly and confidently on the path; for I have always felt assured that if I were to make any serious mistake she would not only inform me inwardly about it but would also show me why it had occurred and how it could be prevented in the future. Whenever she has done this, she has not merely enlightened me about my defects as other Gurus do. but projected her Power to change and sometimes transform them.
One wanting to tread the path of Sri Aurobindo's Yoga to the very end must needs have, along with other requisites, the Mothers knowledge too.
* * *
What is the use of knowledge when we can't act according to its light and truth?
Knowledge is always better than ignorance. It makes things possible hereafter, if not at the moment, while ignorance actively obstructs and misleads.
Yesterday's experience was more intense, solid and powerful than ever before. Calm and silence were its background. Will you kindly tell me what it was? It seemed too profound for me to understand.
You must get the knowledge by developing the experience.
Generally the experiences come by themselves, I only try to live within and go on aspiring and receiving them. What
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is actually meant by "developing the experience"?
Let it develop of itself — then it must become sufficiently precise for you to know what it is.
It is said that the Silence is the best state for the knowledge to descend. At present when I become silent I receive no such thing as knowledge. "Non-existence" is the only state that I experience.
That is the first stage of the silence not the last.
But why does the knowledge not come since there is silence to receive it?
The knowledge will come in its time.
Daily I report to you the experiences and other movements of my sadhana. Sometimes you give your illuminating comments, sometimes you are silent. Does your latter reaction indicate any exaggeration on my part?
It means that I accept what you write — or when what you write is not explicit enough, I wait for the experience to develop. Silence does not mean that there is any exaggeration.
I think, it is better to go on writing whatever knowledge comes down from above without giving it any importance. But then what about corrections?
It is not that it is of no importance but you have to go on seeing things as they present themselves to your experience. If there is anything to be corrected, it will be corrected.
Your answer to what I had noted down from the higher knowledge was, "There was no objection to make, so I said
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nothing." In that case, when you make no comments to my statements, may I take the latter as correct and as accepted by you?
Substantially in all important matters. But sometimes I wait for confirmation.
The Mother is so great that none of us can gauge her truly. Not only our highest range of intellect but even our spiritual experiences are not enough to make us understand and feel fully what she really is. They can offer us only a partial revelation.
The experiences are not a complete knowledge, but they lead towards it.
The Mother's light flows in my forehead. I am surprised to see that it works with a tranquil intensity, while the whole head is completely filled with it.
Good.
As the Brahmic passage remains widely open all the time I have begun to feel now the Mother's working precisely. So when she grants me something I shall experience it as clearly as if she were pouring water into a glass.
That is good also.
Often during a good receptivity, my consciousness feels clearly a free flow of what the Mother gives me. And yet I am so ignorant of the exact nature of the thing received. I am only aware that something from above has descended.
The knowledge from above has to descend before there can be precise knowledge of that kind.
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To be conscious is the first step — the exact knowledge will come afterwards.
O Lord, in what immensity of stillness did the Mother place my soul and all! Then to what great heights did she carry me! While being lifted I felt a pure consciousness in place of my mind, life and body.
That is what is known as the realisation of the Self which is other than mind, life or body.
What I once understood as the "mind" the Mother has pulled back during the Pranam; thus emptying me of the mental stuff she wants to fill me with her own Self! Now my life will be carried on without the usual action of the mind. There will not be any difficulty, I think, for the inner sadhana, as it is entirely done by her alone, and in my letters to you I shall only put what she sends me from her knowledge, myself remaining only a pure and clean channel. I am sure that one day the very words and phrases too will come directly from her. As regards the physical work, it must be completely left to her Force; as a child leaves everything to its mother, so too will I leave her to judge everything and decide for me.
That is how all should be in the perfect realisation throughout the being.
Even when the deeper or higher pitch of the sadhana falls down the Mother's knowledge-gift does not leave me. It is really her wonderful Blessings which go on helping at any time and in any state — highest or lowest!
That is very good.
The higher knowledge is one of the aspects of the Divine 16
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Mother. It contains in itself fire, force and light for effectuation.
Yes.
I describe certain knowledge in my letters to you. When the letters come back to me, 1 just cannot believe that it was really I who wrote them. Why is this so?
The knowledge comes from above, — it is not yours in any personal sense.
During the sadhak's journey Godwards there are always difficulties and problems. But he should not half and wait to solve them. He should rather increase the speed and reach the destination earlier. For the things left behind unsolved will automatically be cleared up once he reaches the summit.
One more reason to travel fast is that once he reaches the goal he can offer himself as the Mother's aide in her great mission on earth.
Quite right.
How do you find what I said above? All that is written in this letter is the true knowledge. If only everybody could realise it!
To change tamas into peace, dynamic means are necessary. When will my passivity and emptiness adopt that dynamism?
There must come a greater descent of Force into the system. At present Peace and Knowledge are descending more than Force.
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I find that the lower nature is not as yet much influenced by the knowledge. I can only detach myself from it by the help of knowledge, but not master it.
If one has the knowledge, then it is much easier to draw back into that free part and feel separate from the clouded parts.
It is now time that my vital-physical should reject its old weakness of not accepting whatever the Mother does not do for me.
Yes. It must be got rid of. It has no true reason for remaining after the real knowledge has come.
About the veiling of the higher knowledge you wrote, "There is no other reason than the force of the inertia itself and its acceptance by the physical consciousness." Should I then take it that formerly there was no "force of the inertia" and therefore the knowledge was always open to me?
When the knowledge began coming down, there was not the force of inertia as strong as at present. It was at that time something quite behind, since then you have come down much deeper into the physical and the inertia rises accordingly.
During the days of inertia, instead of resorting to some dynamic means I am rather passive. Everything seems to get veiled.
If the knowledge also gets veiled, then the use of dynamic means may be necessary.
Should I report about the dark period of sadhana?
It all depends. If the inertia persisting really veils up
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everything, then you have to write. But if you are conscious of yourself and the knowledge unveiled, then you need not.
The subconscient inertia has now veiled everything in me.
Keep the knowledge secure — do not allow that to be clouded.
Could you kindly enlighten me as to how the knowledge gets obstructed at times?
These things do not work according to any fixed rule. Sometimes they have one effect which at other times they have not.
Do you not think that the stopping of knowledge is more due to the vital and its ego than to the inertia alone? The inertia by itself is only a passive obstruction which turns into a dynamic one when the vital-mind endorses it.
Yes, that is correct.
Is not the knowledge again trying to penetrate in spite of the dark impediments?
It is trying to do so.
How is it that the higher knowledge descends only when I begin to write it down?
That is because that movement (of the knowledge descending through writing) is now something fixed and normal to the consciousness.
KNOWLEDGE AND MIND
The knowledge seems to be obstructed by the mental
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activity. Whenever a little of it descends the mechanical mind catches it and goes on chewing it endlessly. That is why sometimes I have to stop the flow of even the higher thought to guard my silence.
That is always the difficulty with the mind. It must learn to be silent and let the knowledge come without trying to catch hold of it for its own play.
During the descent of the higher knowledge what happens to our human mind? I suppose it must be present, if not active at least passive; otherwise how could the knowledge take form and shape?
It uses the substance of mind (for, of course the mind is there) but the mind remains passive and does not try to form or imagine thoughts for itself.
Is it really necessary for us sadhaks to inquire what plane we have reached, how far we are from the goal, what our next step should be?
All that has its use but it should come as experience and knowledge from within and above, not as mental questioning and answer.
I get many perceptions. I don't know which are the right ones and which the wrong ones, since I am not directly and consciously open to the intuitive plane. You may perhaps ask me to use my discrimination, but at this stage my intellect has entirely fallen away!
There is a discrimination that is not intellectual — a direct perception.
Nowadays I feel that my consciousness has an effortless
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and clear understanding of what is the Mother's and what is not hers.
That is the right thing — a certain effortless intuitive discrimination.
KNOWLEDGE AND FAITH
I could not quite understand the following thought from the Arya: "The faith will be more and more justified as the higher knowledge opens, we shall begin to see the great and small significances that escaped our limited mentality and faith will pass into knowledge." How does faith turn into knowledge?
Until we know the Truth (not mentally but by experience, by change of consciousness) we need the soul's faith to sustain us and hold on to the Truth — but when we live in the knowledge, this faith is changed into knowledge.
Of course I am speaking of direct spiritual knowledge. Mental knowledge cannot replace faith, so long as there is only mental knowledge, faith is still needed.
If a sadhak waits a little and watches without giving room to anxiety and impatience most of his troubles will be over soon. Even if it takes a little long what does it matter since he has left his boat entirely in the hands of the Mother?
Those who ask the Mother why the boat is turning downstream, why it does not sail as freely and swiftly as before, what makes the clouds grow blacker, cannot claim a real faith. For there is hardly any spiritual element here. Even an ordinary man takes great risks in life if he is foretold and promised that after passing through the storms he will be highly rewarded.
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A true faith is that which never questions or grumbles no matter if the obscurity, ignorance or falsehood is suffocating him or hell is let loose on him. He does not even murmur before the omniscient Mother, since he knows that She is aware of all that is happening in him. So it is not necessary to cry before Her outwardly. Not that he does not suffer. But he bears his burden in silence. He has realised that it is for the sake of the Divine that he is undergoing all such hardships and difficulties. This realisation will rather offer him joy instead of sorrow in enduring whatever is to be endured on the path. He does not allow himself to be deluded by the attacks, failures and griefs. He sees them with a detached eye. He depends on his psychic being and consults it at every turn of the road to make sure that the Mother is not left aside by him. If She is still there, he is worried about nothing else.
A still higher attitude is a very simple one and may be very shortly expressed. The sadhak should not take any attack or difficulty as belonging to his individual self but consider it as moving in the general atmosphere. He should say to himself, "I am progressing as before, The Mother is carrying me on just as ever, whether I am aware or unaware of the fact."
That is the true faith and its natural attitude.
It is said that, if one loves the Divine, faith ceases to be important.
It is not true except that when the psychic love for the Divine is there, the faith is there also. But so long as knowledge and realisation are not complete, faith is indispensable.
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KNOWLEDGE AND THE RISING OF EGO
It is true that when one crosses the border of mind and lives above the head, the word "difficulty" exists no more for him. For the hostile or the lower forces cannot touch the higher planes which are the Mother's.
From the higher mind upwards all is free from the action of the hostile forces. For they all belong to the spiritual consciousness though with varying degrees of light and power and completeness.
I think the sadhaks should be satisfied with describing what happens in their sadhana, and have no demands regarding the answers they receive from you. To ask questions urged by the vital ego will only disturb the sadhana.
It is so indeed because it is their mind and vital that put the question and the ego is always wanting to make use of the answer or the mental ignorance to distort it.
A suggestion tells me that, at least for some time, I should write to you as little, as possible and devote more time to the deeper meditations.
To write is necessary but it is not necessary to write much. A little is sufficient at present.
I am glad to know that you don't think it necessary for me to write much, but then what about the higher knowledge? You know that it is only while writing that I open myself to its descent.
I suggest "a little" only in case you find it difficult, as you said, to write owing to the pressure of the silence. But if things come, there is no reason to stop them.
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Will you please let me know why you often write, " You are right", since it is the Mother's knowledge?
When I say, you are right, it is understood that the "you" gets its knowledge from the Mother.
I notice that sometimes in order not to send my letters back without something of yourself, you make some remark on them through love and kindness for me even when such a remark is not really required. But I feel that you need not do this. After reading the letters if you draw a small line at the end it will be sufficient to give me the indication that they have not come back without your reading them, as sometimes happens.1
Very well.
When I suggested about drawing a line, I thought that it would be possible for me to impose a complete surrender on my outer being. For three days I have been trying to do it.
The outer nature is losing all interest and joy in responding to the higher knowledge. It says: "What is the use of spending time in bringing down the higher knowledge, it has now no value as Sri Aurobindo doesn't put his comments on what I write? How am I to know that all I write is from the higher source without his written approval, for it could be a mixture of my own mind or of some non-spiritual planes?"
All these suggestions are absolutely absurd. It is the ego rising up again and wanting to be patted on the back and told how clever it is and how much knowledge it is getting.
You yourself wrote that the knowledge was not yours,
1 This process continued during the rest of the correspondence. Even when Sri Aurobindo did give his written answer he continued drawing a line at the end.
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but the Mother's and objected to my writing "You are right". If it is the Mother's knowledge coming down in you why should I have to say "Yes, no" or "Right, wrong" to it? It is the knowledge which you need that the Mother is giving you — if there is any mixture of your own, I shall point it out to you. If there is none, why should I put in unnecessary approving comments on it? It was your own psychic that made you suggest putting the line so as to get rid of the remnant of the old ego that was secretly feeding on my comments and it was to help in that that I kept silence.
You wrote, I suppose, to help your communion with the Mother and lay what comes in you physically before her, not to get her mental approval or praise. If there is anything to say, you can trust in me to say it — if there is no remark called for, you should leave me free to keep silence. That is the rule I keep always with those who have advanced sufficiently — not to need mental encouragement or explanations at every step. It seems to me that you have advanced far enough for that also.
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