We have been contemplating about the New Humanity that is already forming itself in our midst, perhaps in a small portion of ourselves, in small section of humanity. How are we to recognize it? What is the path we need to undertake to arrive at a diviner humanity and not this struggling animal-man that we presently are. The present talk is based on this theme of Oneness which is one of the characteristic sign of the New Humanity.
Words of the Mother
TO be merged both in Thee and in Thy work . . . to be no longer a limited individuality . . . to become the infinitude of Thy forces manifesting through one point . . . to be freed from all shackles and all limitations . . . to rise above all restrictive thought . . . to act while remaining outside the action . . . to act with and for individuals while seeing only Oneness, the Oneness of Thy Love, Thy Knowledge, Thy Being . . . O my divine Master, eternal Teacher, Sole Reality, dispel all darkness in this aggregate Thou hast formed for Thy service, Thy manifestation in the world. Realise in it that supreme consciousness which will awaken the same consciousness everywhere.
Oh, no longer to see appearances which incessantly change; always to contemplate in everything and everywhere only Thy immutable Oneness!
O Lord, all my being cries to Thee in an irresistible call; wilt Thou not grant that I may become Thyself in my integral consciousness, since in truth I am Thou and Thou art I?
Prayer of May 4, 1914
* * *
JUST at the moment when I was feeling the imperious need of resuming these notes regularly so as to come out of this overwhelming mental inertia, my physical organism suffered a defeat such as it had not known for several years and during a few days all the forces of my body failed me; I saw in this a sign that I had made a mistake, that my spiritual energy had weakened, my vision of the omnipotent Oneness had been clouded, that some wrong suggestion had managed to disturb me in some way, and I bowed down before Thee, O Lord, my sweet Master, with humility, conscious that I was not yet ready for a perfect identification with Thee. Something in this aggregate which constitutes the instrument I can put at Thy service is still obscure and obtuse; something does not respond as it should to Thy forces, deforms and darkens their manifestation. . . .
A great problem came up before me and illness covered it with its veil and prevented me from solving it. Now that I am living once more in the feeling of Thy Oneness, the problem no longer seems to have any sense and I do not understand it very well any more.
It seems to me I have left something far behind me, it seems to me that I am slowly awakening to a new life. I would it were not an illusion and this deep and smiling peace had returned forever.
O my divine Master, my love aspires to Thee more intensely than ever; letme be Thy living Love in the world and nothing but that! May all egoism, all limitation, all darkness disappear; may my consciousness be identified with Thine so that Thou alone mayst be the will acting through this fragile and transient instrument.
O my sweet Master, how ardently my love aspires to Thee. . . .
Grant that I may be nothing but Thy Divine Love and that in every being this Love may awake, powerful and victorious.
Let me be a vast mantle of love enveloping all the earth, entering all hearts, murmuring in every ear Thy divine message of hope and peace. O my divine Master, how ardently I aspire for Thee!
Break these chains of darkness and error; dispel this ignorance, liberate, liberate me, make me see Thy light. . . .
Break, break these chains. . . . I want to understand and I want to be. That is to say, this “I” must be Thy “I” and there must be only one single “I” in the world.
O Lord, grant my prayer, my supplication rises ardently to Thee.
Prayer of May 9, 1914
* * *
Conversations with a Disciple as noted in the Agenda (Sept 30, 1964)
…To go and do battle with the adverse forces in their own domain, to provoke them, is indeed a peculiar method…. I told W (and in any case I’ll see to it that the other two periods don’t go the same way) that I would keep those gentlemen at a distance.
To go and seek them out in their own place, on their own ground, and fight them seems to me …
But they are the guardians of a certain power, so if you want that power, you have to go and fight them, don’t you?
It had rather seemed to me that they should be kept at a distance. With Théon, the adverse forces and hostile beings were often mentioned, they occupied a big place in self-development and in action. As for Sri Aurobindo, he used to say that that notion was useful mostly from the psychological and personal standpoint, because struggling with difficulties is easier when you see them as coming from “outside,” as an attack from outside, than if you think they are part of your own nature. Not that he denied their existence, far from it, but the path depends a lot on the attitude you take and on the mental construction you have, naturally.
Sri Aurobindo insisted rather on Oneness: he used to say that even what we consider to be the worst adversaries are still a form of the Supreme, which, deliberately or not, consciously or not, helps in the general transformation. This seems to me vaster, deeper, more comprehensive.
And I tried to base action on this rather than on constant battle with opposing forces. Because, granted this idea, it makes sense that if you make the necessary progress, if you have the divine knowledge and consciousness, the very purpose of those forces disappears, and consequently they can’t stay.
On the practical level, I have seen obvious examples of this; it was even my great argument with Durga (I told you, didn’t I, that she used to come at the time of the pujas and that, two years ago, she “surrendered”), that was my great argument, I said to her, “But the purpose of your existence in this form – in this form of combative action – would disappear if through identification you obtained the powers that render those forces unnecessary.” And it’s after I told her these things that she surrendered to the supreme Will; she said, “I shall do what the Supreme wants me to do.”
It was a very interesting result indeed.
….Sri Aurobindo said that all the Tantrics start from below; they start right down below, and so right down below, that’s how things must be, obviously. While with him, you went from above downward, so that you dominated the situation. But if you start right down below, it’s obvious that, right down below, that’s how things are: anything that’s a little stronger or a little vaster or a little truer or a little purer than ordinary Nature brings about a reaction, a revolt, a contradiction and a struggle.
I prefer the other method. Though probably it isn’t within everyone’s reach.
(silence)
Yesterday I was asked the question; I was asked whether abuse, the feeling of being abused, and what in English is called self-respect (which is somewhat akin to self-esteem), have a place in the sadhana. Naturally, they don’t, that goes without saying! But I saw the movement, it was extremely clear: I saw that without ego, when the ego isn’t there, there CANNOT be that sort of ruffling in the being. Because I went back far into the past, to the time when I still felt that (years ago), but now it’s not even something alien – it’s something impossible. The whole being, even, strangely, even the physical constitution, doesn’t understand what it means. It’s the same thing when materially there is a knock (Mother shows a scratch on her elbow), like this, for instance: it’s no longer felt the way an injury is felt. It’s no longer felt that way. More often than not, there’s nothing at all, it goes absolutely unnoticed in the midst of the whole; but when there is something, it’s only a sense – a very … sweet, very intimate sense – of a help trying to make itself felt, a lesson to be learned. But not the way it’s done mentally, always with a stiffening; that’s not it: it’s instantly a sort of offering in the being, which gives itself in order to learn. I am speaking of all the cells. It’s very interesting. Of course, if we mentalize it, we should say it’s the sense or awareness of the divine Presence in all things, and that the mode – the mode of contact – comes from the state in which we are.
This is the body’s experience.
And the only perception when there is some clash or other in individuals, some shock or other, is always a clear vision of the ego – the ego manifesting itself. They say, “It’s the other’s fault.” I wouldn’t say, “Oh, so-and-so was angry” or “Oh, so-and-so …” No, it’s his ego; not even his ego: THE EGO, the ego principle – the ego principle still interfering. That’s very interesting, because for me the ego has become a sort of impersonal entity, while for everyone, it’s the acute sense of his personality! Instead of that, it’s a sort of way of being (which we may call terrestrial, or human), a sort of way of being in greater or lesser quantity here or there or there, and which gives each one the illusion of his personality. It’s very interesting.
Yes, but the trouble is, others don’t learn their lesson, so … So they invade you.
Oh, if they learned their lesson, everything would change very soon!
So the result is that you are invaded, submerged.
Can’t be!
All your time is swallowed up, all your…
I can’t be submerged! (laughing) I’m too big!
But still, materially you’re overburdened.
I have noticed that if I resist, things go wrong. If I have a sense of fluidity, there aren’t any clashes any longer. It’s the same thing as with this scratch (Mother shows her elbow). You see, if you stiffen up and things resist, you give yourself a knock. It’s like people who know how to fall: they fall without hurting themselves. With people who don’t know how to fall, the slightest tumble and they break something. It’s the same thing. We must learn to be … perfect oneness. To correct, straighten things out, is still to resist.
So what’s going to happen [if the invasion goes on]?… It’ll be amusing, we’ll see! (Mother laughs) The others aren’t in the same state, so maybe they’ll feel hurt, but I can’t help it! (Mother laughs)
We should always laugh, always. The Lord laughs. He laughs, and His laughter is so good, so good, so full of love! A laughter that envelops you in an extraordinary sweetness.
This, too, men have distorted – (laughing) they’ve distorted everything!
* * *
What shocked me was…. You know I rarely leave my house, but each time I would come to the Ashram for darshan or to see you, always, as if by chance, I would find J. off in a corner with some European visitor. The repetition of this coincidence made me wonder, ‘What’s he doing so systematically with ALL the European visitors?!’ And it shocked me to imagine myself in their place: just suppose, I said to myself, you are coming to the Ashram for the first time, very open, in search of a great truth, and you stumble upon this man who tells you: Sri Aurobindo = ……. Well, my first reaction would be, ‘I’m leaving, I’m not interested!’
It serves as a test, my child, a very good test! There are many things like that….
For example, there’s someone here, M…..,, who gossips to everybody. She had quite a clientele for a long time because she used to make Indian sweets and the Europeans went to her place for snacks. She is a woman who, when there isn’t any gossip, invents it! She tells all the dirt imaginable to all her visitors – a fact which was brought to my attention. I recall that a long time ago Sir Akbar from Hyderabad warned me, ‘You know, she’s the second Mother of the Ashram, be careful!’ ‘It’s a good test,’ I replied, ‘people who don’t immediately sense what it is aren’t worthy of coming here!’
Well, with J. it’s the same – from an intellectual viewpoint, it’s the very same thing: if people are taken in by what he says, it means they’re not ready AT ALL.
But the danger isn’t to be ‘taken in,’ but to be disgusted by it!
Disgusted? But that amounts to the same thing!
They’ll say, ‘So that’s Sri Aurobindo!…’
Then it proves they have never read anything by Sri Aurobindo. It’s unimportant. No, it’s even better than unimportant: it’s a test. This place is full of tests, full, full, full! People don’t realize…. One can see it happening, as though it were done on purpose just to trip people up (not really ‘on purpose,’ but that’s how it acts). It protects me from hordes of good-for-nothings! I am not eager to have a lot of people here.
Another thing that shocked me was in their journal….
I’ve never seen it – full of stupidities?
It’s outrageous! First of all, they use Sri Aurobindo’s name, putting it on a level with Vinoba Bhave or Dr. Schweitzer or who knows what other sage; then at the end they launch an appeal for people to ‘enroll’! So the reader is left wondering, ‘But I thought Sri Aurobindo….’ You understand, this indiscriminate mixture, this diminishing….
I wrote them a letter where I stuck this nonsense of theirs right under their noses.
Listen to this appeal: ‘If the opportunity offered by this movement appeals to you, if you have the feeling that you are one of those who have been prepared to collaborate in the spiritual adventure, we invite you to write to us, enrolling yourself as a member….’
I’m going to send this to V, asking her innocently, ‘Has this appeared in your journal? Because it would be better if it didn’t: we don’t make propaganda.’ Oh, I am hard on them, you know!
But it doesn’t matter, we must always keep smiling, mon petit. In the end, good always comes out of such things – it’s a sorting-out! A splendid, splendid sifter!
The truth is, VERY FEW people are ready to be here, very few. We have taken in all types – we accept, we accept, we accept – afterwards, we sift. And the sifting goes on more and more. Actually, we accept everything, the entire earth, and then … (gesture)there’s a churning. And everything useless goes away.
The opposition is clearly becoming stronger and stronger, a very good sign – it means we are advancing. But circumstances are growing more and more difficult: the least thing becomes an opportunity to demonstrate bad will and spite – on the part of the government, on the part of people here and so on. Seen from a superficial viewpoint, we are more than ever in the soup. But this makes my heart rejoice! I take it as a sign that we are getting nearer.
Don’t let it trouble you, you must always smile. Smile, be absolutely above it all – absolutely.
(silence)
I told them…. Because at….. W. U, they asked me what their mistake had been (they didn’t state it so candidly, but in a roundabout way), and I replied (not so candidly, either – not exactly in a roundabout way, but in general terms). I told them their mistake was being unfaithful and I explained that to be unfaithful means to put everything on the same level (that’s when I sent them those lines). I told them, ‘Your error was in saying: “One teaching among many teachings – so let us be broad-minded and accept all teachings.”’ So along with all the teachings, you accept every stupidity possible.
But if someone is taken in, it proves he’s at an elementary stage and unready.
Oh, I’ve had all sorts of examples! … All these errors serve as tests. Take the case of P.: for a long time, whenever someone arrived from the outside world and asked to be instructed, he was sent to P.’s room. (I didn’t send them, but they would be told, ‘Go speak to P.!’) And P. is the sectarian par excellence! He would tell people, ‘Unless you acknowledge Sri Aurobindo as the ONLY one who knows the truth, you are good for nothing!’ Naturally (laughing), many rebelled!….. I was told about it afterwards and I replied, ‘Let people read and see for THEMSELVES whether or not it suits them! What difference does it make if they’re put off! If they are, it means they NEED to be put off! We’ll see later.’ Some of them have come full circle and returned. Others never came back – because theyweren’t meant to. That’s how it goes. Basically, all this has NO importance. Or we could put it in another way: everything is perfectly all right.
(silence)
Each one of us must learn his lesson – that’s a different matter. WE are not perfectly all right because we can be better – circumstances are simply the outgrowth of what we are, nothing else. And we needn’t worry – I never worry myself!
What’s more, I find it so funny! A time comes when all such things seem so childish, so stupid, so … meaningless! What difference can it make! As long as people are still at that level, that’s where they are. The day they get away from it, they too will smile!
* * *
But if we had the vision of the whole, if we were able to contain past, present and future simultaneously (as it is somewhere up above), then we would see how relative these things are and that it’s mainly the progressing evolutionary Force which gives us this will to reject; yet when these things still had their place, they were quite tolerable. However, to have this experience in a practical sense is impossible unless we have a total vision – the vision that is the Supreme’s alone! Therefore, one must first identify with the Supreme, and then, keeping this identification, one can return to a consciousness sufficiently externalized to see things as they really are. But that’s the principle, and in so far as we are able to realize it, we reach a state of consciousness where we can look at all things with the smile of a complete certainty that everything is exactly as it should be.
Of course, people who don’t think deeply enough will say, ‘Oh, but if we see that things are exactly “as they should be,” then nothing will budge.’ But no! There isn’t a fraction of a second when things aren’t moving: there’s a continuous and total transformation, a movement that never stops. Only because it’s difficult for us to feel that way can we imagine that by our entering certain states of consciousness things would not change. Even if we entered into an apparently total inertia, things would continue to change and we along with them!
Ultimately, disgust, rebellion and anger, all movements of violence, are necessarily movements of ignorance and of limitation with all the weakness that limitation implies. Rebellion is a weakness, for it’s the feeling of an impotent will. When you feel, when you see that things are not as they should be, then you rebel against whatever is out of keeping with your vision. But if you were all-powerful, if your will and your vision were all-powerful, there would be no opportunity to rebel! You would always see that all things are as they should be! That is omnipotence. Then all these movements of violence become not only useless but profoundly ridiculous.
Consequently, there is only one solution: by aspiration, concentration, interiorization and identification, to unite with the supreme Will. And that is both omnipotence and perfect freedom. It’s the only omnipotence, the only freedom – all the rest are approximations. You may be en route, but it’s not that, not the total thing.
If you make the experiment, you will come to see that this supreme freedom and this supreme power are accompanied by a total peace and an unfaltering serenity; if you notice any contradiction – revolt, disgust or something inadmissible – this indicates that some part in You is not touched by the transformation, is still en route: something still holding on to the old consciousness, that’s all.
Jan 19 15
