Letters to a Young Disciple

If a sadhak commits a mistake in his sadhana why do others bother about it? They are not here to enlighten him.

It is certainly superfluous to intervene in another person’s sadhana — but you should receive all remarks and criticisms about yourself with a quiet mind and without any reaction against the critic.

It is again our ego which makes us think that on the higher spiritual planes there would be no need of aspiration. Even our sweet Mother prays day and night — we can feel it distinctly when she plays on the organ!

Yes — All that is very true. It is a prayer or invocation that Mother makes in the music.

Will you not teach me how to aspire properly so that there may be no mental push in it?

A quiet prayer or remembrance of the object of aspiration without a pull for results is the way for doing that. If along with that, there is a faith that it is sure to come, it is the best for this condition.

But what can one do when the difficulty seems overwhelmingly great?

If you cannot do anything else, you must at least remain detached — there is always a part of the being that can remain detached and go on persisting in calling down the Force from above.

I pray to the Mother to see the plight of her child .... and know how the vital has filled it with agony and pain.

.... There must be no tamasic (inert, passive) surrender to the Mother.... Surrender must be luminous, active, a willed offering to the Mother and reception of her Force and support to its workings, at the same time a strong vigilant will to reject all that is not hers. Too many sadhaks cry before the attacks of their lower nature “I am helpless, I cannot react..."

The struggle between the higher and the lower forces goes on within in the same way. What to do then?

Nothing can be done except to keep yourself detached, unless you can recover the use of the knowledge and the will or else bring down the Mother’s Force.

Does such a [golden] path truly exist somewhere or is it only a visionary idea?

There is such a sunlit or golden path, but it is difficult for man with the pull of his lower nature to follow it.

Difficult no doubt it is, but is it really impossible for the human being to tread the sunlit path?

It is not impossible. But only one or two have been able to do it — which proves that it is not easy.

"... the Divine does the sadhana first for the world and then gives what is brought down to others. There can be no sadhana without realisations and experiences. Both myself and the Mother have done sadhana. The Prayers and Meditations are a record of Mother’s experiences."

Could I have an interview with the Mother? I want to discuss [my difficulties] and get at least a verbal solution.

This method of asking questions and getting solutions in an interview is one of which the Mother does not approve. She finds it useless....