CWTVKS Volume 2

6) Difficulties

When sadhana is being worked out in the sadhaka by the higher Power, there is, at intervals, what can be called a shaking off of dust. The sadhaka should be careful at such times not to be upset and not to get identified with the dust. He should quietly keep to his own depths in the confidence that the Power at work will do what is to be done.

13 October 1949

In your activities maintain a certain aloofness from the work you are engaged in. If that is done, you will cease to be affected by the contacts of men and things inevitable in every-day life. They just pass by on the surface, leaving you secure in your own poise.

24 April 1949

The radical Realisation or even the conversion of consciousness always takes place in a trice. Of course it is preceded by a long period of preparation, known or unknown to the surface being. A readiness is indispensable even in the more external parts of the being e.g. in the mind, in the vital. Particularly the vital; for in most it is the vital being or part of it that is at the root of all disequilibrium and is responsible for the unsteadiness of the mind. The mind itself can be brought round easily; but it is the vital volcano under it that unhinges it and sends it swirling.

17 October 1950

Depressions

When you are depressed due to any happenings, withdraw from company, sit quietly, breathe deep and invoke the Peace to settle into you. Sooner or later a rhythm will get established in you and by constant practice you can feel it at will. The Peace must be felt in the very cells of the body; then will the circumstances cease to overpower your spirits.

9 April 1949

One is apt to feel at times in sadhana that it is the same movement that goes on and get depressed as there are no signs of progress beyond the monotonous repetition. In fact it is not a useless repetition. It is purposive; the results are seen much later. It is like breaking a hard substance with hammer-blows. Each hammer blow looks like every other. Yet, each carries forward the consequence of the earlier and the cumulative effect is that the hardness yields at the end.

16 March 1950

As long as one does not stand above the activities of Nature depression is inevitable. Depression is a state of being less than normal. If the aspiration is active flaming, there can be no despondency or depression. A falling off—in any part of the being—from a certain poise which is natural or normal to oneself is what is known as depression.

It is indispensable to learn to separate yourself from the workings of the Prakriti—the universal Nature through the instruments of mind, life and body,—and station yourself on a higher level in a settled poise. That way lies secure freedom from the reactions and reflexes of the operations of Nature.

When the Mother speaks of the slaying of the Devil of dejection and despondency etc. what is meant is this: so long only those who had attained a certain definite stature in the inner life could stand unaffected by these ills. Hereafter, any one with the necessary aspiration will find it easier and more possible to overcome despondency etc. without having to wait till the growth of the soul has reached a sufficiently high water-level.

25 October 1950

Gloom and depression are robbers who steal what you have been given or have earned in the course of the sadhana.

2 February 1950

Doubt

As a rule Doubt and Kama (lust) steal into man without his active knowledge. He becomes aware of them when they have settled themselves deep enough to render any effort at dislodging them anything but easy.

9 December 1949

Even a small serpent must be destroyed with a big stick. No quarter must be allowed, no chances taken; once a weakness is seen steps must be taken to root it out immediately.

31 August 1949

Doubts about the Divine pursue as long as you are in the mental groove. Once you are earnest about your purpose they wither away.

17 May 1951

There is no end to the doubts of the mind. Nobody can help to stop them. In such cases the problem is really not of the mind but of the soul. When thoughts of this kind are crowding, one forgets the presence of the soul. You should recognise it as the problem of the soul and then if you look for help, it is sure to come and be effective.

26 February 1951

The mind cannot understand. It will doubt even after understanding what it could. Let the mind simply drop and let the calm take its place. In the absence of support from you, thoughts lose their force and ebb away. In the settling calm, right ideas, right movements get their chance to come into you.

7 January 1951

Illness

If you have a strong nervous envelope around, it would automatically resist and throw back the forces of illness. You can build it up consciously, by living habitually in a happy and cheerful atmosphere, cheerful thoughts and movements, and what is more important, by keeping away from depression, unhappiness and anxiety. These are agents of illness and death. Despondency is particularly so. Of course meditation, opening of oneself to the Higher Power in sadhana, helps to strengthen the protecting envelope enormously.

A trained eye which looks from a little behind the physical eye can effortlessly see this envelope, called aura by some, etheric double by others. It is of various colours—white, dark, murky etc. It is this which we carry with us and which attracts the first attention of the Guru—say the Mother. Even before one is physically in Her front, this aura is felt by Her. But even if it is dark, if there is a spark within, She allows the man a chance to develop the spark and helps him.

28 December 1949

The one sure remedy to avoid disturbed nights and restlessness on getting up in the mornings is to pray for peace before going to bed. One must not take the bed before a minimum composure and calm is felt in the being. So also when one is fatigued physically, one should rest and wait till the fatigue is gone, before sleeping.

13 April 1949

Itching

It happens at times, when there is resistance in oneself, that one gets itching after going to the Mother or to any Centre of outpouring spiritual Power. Something in the person resists the touch of the Force and itching follows.

23 October 1951

Fall

At times some very promising seekers come to a dead stop in their inner progress and it is pathetic to see them degenerate. The truth, is, the soul has reached its possibilities in its present embodiment; the outer frame responds no more to the increasing demands of the soul. The soul can resume its onward journey only in another life.

25 December 1948

The most potent cause for spiritual falls is man's Ego. But after all, what is man? What is it that belongs to him? Things have been there before him and will continue to be there after him. Only he claims, he arrogates to himself things which do not belong to him at all and says, ‘this is mine’, ‘that is mine’. The very body which he calls his own belongs to the various elements in the Universe (and even the ego-self with which he identifies his personality is a reflection—a powerful reflection—of the deeper seated entity, the true soul). If the seeker feels and maintains the attitude, ‘Lord, thou art everything, I am just a bubble whose very existence depends on thy pleasure’, that would be more in consonance with facts as they are.

25 December 1948

To speak to others in wonder of the realisations that come to one is a sure means of stepping into a spiritual catastrophe, vismayah siddhi-nasanah. The attention of the hostile forces is drawn to oneself; these forces may be universal or those individualised in men around.

30 October 1948

Way to Avoid Struggle

Once you take to spiritual life, you must treat the past life with all its griefs and joys, as a thing of the past. Develop a new outlook, turn the mind away from things connected with or leading to suffering and misery. The system must be trained to refuse automatically to give room to unhappy movements.

6 January 1949

However much one may get clouded with wrong movements and forces in the world, if he has, at least once, received a touch or come into contact with a spiritual Centre, one may say he is sure to rise up awakened to the call of the Soul.

25 December 1948

If you learn to put yourself in the consciousness of the Divine, you have no need to struggle. Your thoughts, ideas reach out effortlessly and fructify ultimately because it is the Shakti that effects the things and you are identified with it.

10 April 1950

When you begin to smile on your difficulties then surely you have begun to progress in yoga.

18 April 1950