The Yoga of Sri Aurobindo - Part 9

Section Two

To the Children of the Ashram

The True Teaching

You must have observed that my way of talking to you is not always the same. I don't know whether you are very sensitive to the difference, but for me it is considerable.

Sometimes, on rare occasions, because of something read or for another reason, there comes to me in the wake of a question what is called an experience but what is simply the fact of entering into a certain state of consciousness and, having entered into it, describing that very state. In such a case, the Force, the Consciousness that express themselves pass across the individual mind, use it like a store-house of words and draw from it by a sort of affinity the words necessary for the expression. This is the true teaching, the teaching that is difficult to find in books. It can be there, but one must be oneself in that state of consciousness to be able to discover it, whereas, with the spoken word, the sound-vibration transmits at least something of the experience and this can be contagious for all who are sensitive.

On other occasions, the questions posed and

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the subject chosen are conveyed by the mind to the higher Consciousness. The mind receives a response from that Consciousness and conveys it through the word. This is what generally happens in all teachings, provided that the one who teaches has the capacity to pass the question on to the higher Consciousness—a capacity not always present.

I should tell you that the second method does not interest me much. Very often, when the question or the subject fails to give me the possibility of entering into a state of consciousness that interests me, I far prefer to keep silent. And it is, as it were, a sense of duty that makes me talk.

I am informing you in advance, because in the past I have cut short the conversation and passed abruptly into meditation.

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