object:0.13 - Letters to a Student
book class:Some Answers From The Mother
author class:The Mother
subject class:Integral Yoga
class:chapter
Series Thirteen
Series Thirteen
Letters to a Student
To a student in the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education who began writing to the Mother at the age of sixteen.
Sweet Mother,
Should one give money to beggars or not?
In a well-organized society, there should not be any beggars.
But as long as there are, do as you feel.
There are good reasons both for doing it and for not doing
it.
Blessings
8 July 1969
*
There is no one for whom it is impossible to realise the Divine.
Only, for some it will take many, many lives, whereas there are
others who will do it in this very lifetime. It is a question of will.
It is for you to choose.
But I must say that at the present moment conditions are
particularly favourable.
Blessings.
22 July 1969
*
Sweet Mother,
What does it mean, really, “to realise the Divine”?
It means to become conscious of the Divine Presence in oneself or on the spiritual heights, and, once one is conscious of
His Presence, to surrender to Him completely so that one no
longer has any other will than His, and finally to unite one’s
consciousness with His. That is “to realise the Divine”.
Blessings.
23 July 1969
*
Sweet Mother,
When we sleep, our consciousness goes out, doesn’t
it? But other people have dreams in which I appear. So
what happens? Does the consciousness divide itself or
are other people’s dreams only their own imagination?
Most often, it is the vital consciousness that goes out of the body
and has the form, the appearance of the person’s body. If one
person dreams of another, it means that both have met at night,
most often in the vital region, but it can also happen elsewhere,
in the subtle physical or the mental. There are any number of
different possibilities in dreams.
Blessings.
1 August 1969
*
Sweet Mother,
Why is the night darker just before dawn — from
the scientific as well as the spiritual point of view?
Because the darkness tries to prevent the light from coming.
Blessings.
11 August 1969
*
Sweet Mother,
Why are the hours before midnight better for sleep
than the hours after it?
Series Thirteen – To a Student
Because, symbolically, during the hours before midnight the sun
is setting, while from the first hour after midnight it begins to
rise.
Blessings.
22 August 1969
*
There is only one love, the Divine Love, eternal, universal, equal
for everyone and everything.
It is man (the human being) who calls all kinds of feelings
“love”: all the desires, attractions, vital exchanges, sexual relations, attachments, even friendships, and many other things
besides.
But all that is not even the shadow of love nor even its
deformation.
These are all mental and vital, sentimental or sexual activities, and nothing more.
Blessings.
6 September 1969
*
Sweet Mother,
What is the difference between desire and aspiration,
and between selfishness and self-realisation?
Desire is a vital movement, aspiration is a psychic movement.
When one has had a true aspiration, unselfish and sincere,
one cannot even ask the question anymore; for the vibration
of aspiration, luminous and calm, has nothing to do with the
vibration of desire, which is passionate, dark and often violent.
Selfishness means wanting everything for oneself, understanding nothing but oneself, caring for others only insofar
as they are necessary or important to oneself. In French, selfrealisation (réalisation du Soi) means discovering the divine
centre in one’s being. In English, self-fulfilment is generally taken
in the sense “to be successful”. Sri Aurobindo in his writings
uses the word “self-realisation” to mean realisation of the Self,
that is to say, becoming conscious of the Divine in oneself and
identifying with Him.
Blessings.
14 September 1969
*
Sweet Mother,
How can one unify one’s being?
The first step is to find, deep within oneself, behind the desires
and impulses, a luminous consciousness which is always present
and manifests the physical being.
Ordinarily, one becomes aware of the presence of this consciousness only when one has to face some danger or an unexpected event or a great sorrow.
One has, then, to come into conscious contact with that and
learn to do so at will. The rest will follow.
Generally it is in the heart, behind the solar plexus, that one
finds this luminous presence.
Blessings.
20 September 1969
*
Sweet Mother,
What will be the result of changing the vital into
something good; in other words, what will be the
change?
The vital is the receptacle of all the bad impulses, all wickedness,
cowardice, weakness and avarice.
When the vital is converted, the impulses are good instead
of being bad; wickedness is replaced by kindness, avarice by
generosity; weakness disappears and strength and endurance
take its place; cowardice is replaced by courage and energy.
Series Thirteen – To a Student
The seat of power in action is in the purified vital.
Blessings.
20 October 1969
*
Sweet Mother,
I have never discussed with my friends the question
of knowing why we are here on earth, but I have thought
about it and the only answer I could get is that at least
we are here in the Ashram to manifest the Divine upon
earth. But there remains one question: if everything is
divine, even the adverse forces, and if everything has been
created by Him and He can do everything, then how is
it that He takes so much time and uses such roundabout
ways? What joy does He get in creating unconscious
things and making them conscious? And why all these
misfortunes and sufferings?
It is a question that all thinking people have asked.
Some have considered the problem more deeply and asked
themselves whether human beings, who are so small and limited,
could see things as they really are; and in the hope of understanding better, they have sought for a diviner vision, a global and true
vision — with the result of Yoga. And those who have succeeded
in their endeavour have found that when one is united with the
Divine, one’s vision of things changes totally, and they have all
come to the same conclusion: unite with the Divine and you will
understand.
Blessings.
28 October 1969
*
Sweet Mother,
Why and how does one lose one’s spiritual gain by
going elsewhere? One can make a conscious effort and
Your protection is always there, isn’t it?
To visit one’s parents is to return to an influence which is generally stronger than any other; and there are not many cases where
the parents help you in your spiritual progress, because they are
usually more interested in a worldly realisation.
Parents who are primarily interested in spiritual realisation
usually do not ask their children to come back to them.
Blessings.
8 November 1969
*
Sweet Mother,
Why should one take part in the sports’ competitions
and demonstrations?
Because it is a chance to put in greater effort and thus make
faster progress.
Blessings.
16 November 1969
*
Sweet Mother,
I would like to know the second step towards unifying one’s being. You told me about the first step.
The work of unifying the being consists of:
(1) becoming aware of one’s psychic being.
(2) putting before the psychic being, as one becomes aware
of them, all one’s movements, impulses, thoughts and acts of
will, so that the psychic being may accept or reject each of these
movements, impulses, thoughts or acts of will. Those that are
accepted will be kept and carried out; those that are rejected will
be driven out of the consciousness so that they may never come
back again.
It is a long and meticulous work that may take years to be
done properly.
Blessings.
8 December 1969
*
Series Thirteen – To a Student
Sweet Mother,
How should one spend the Darshan days, December
fifth and ninth, and one’s birthday?
In search of a knowledge truer than ordinary knowledge.
The fifth and ninth in understanding what death is.
The birthday in finding out the purpose of life.
Blessings.
13 December 1969
*
(Regarding accidents in sports at the Ashram)
I do not think that there are more accidents here than elsewhere.
Certainly there ought to be less. But for that, the children who
study here must make an effort to grow in consciousness (a thing
they could do more easily here than elsewhere). Unfortunately,
however, few of them take the trouble to do it, so they lose the
fine opportunity that has been given to them.
22 December 1969
*
Sweet Mother,
What is the difference between persons who have
developed their consciousness and those who have not?
Those who have done it and done it well become conscious; the
others remain half conscious like the vast majority of human
beings.
Consciousness, the true consciousness, gives control over
one’s own character and, to a large extent, over events.
23 December 1969
*
Sweet Mother,
Do you think it isn’t good to visit the churches here
to see the midnight ceremony?
Why go to church? Are you Christians or do you want to become
Christians?
Sri Aurobindo spent his whole life working to free men from
the bondage of religions. Do you want to contradict his work
for the sake of a childish idle curiosity?
Up to now, all those who have gone have done so without
asking for permission, because they sensed that it would not be
given.
25 December 1969
*
Sweet Mother,
In The Hour of God Sri Aurobindo has written:
“There are moments when the Spirit moves among men
and the breath of the Lord is abroad upon the waters
of our being; there are others when it retires and men
are left to act in the strength or the weakness of their
own egoism”1 and in one of your letters, you have said
that one must not rely on one’s ego but on the psychic.
Mother, will you explain this to me?
It so happens that we are not in an age when men have been left
to their own means. The Divine has sent down His Consciousness to give them light. All who are able to do so should profit
by it.
Blessings.
29 December 1969
*
SABCL, Vol. 17, p. 1.
Series Thirteen – To a Student
Sweet Mother,
About what you told me yesterday: had the Divine
not sent His Consciousness down upon earth? But the
whole creation has had the Divine in it from the very
beginning, hasn’t it?
Yes.
And why were primitive men left to their own means?
Primitive men were still too close to the animal to be able to
enter into relation with the Inner Divine; it is only gradually,
through thousands of years of ascending evolution, that men
have learned to be conscious. Now they are ready to manifest
a far higher consciousness, the consciousness that will act fully
in the superman; and that is why this consciousness has come
down on earth to work in all who are ready to receive it.
Blessings.
30 December 1969
*
Sweet Mother,
“The world is preparing for a big change. Will you
help?”2
What is this great change that you speak of? And
how can we be of help to it?
This great change is the appearance on earth of a new race that
will be to man what man is to the animal. The consciousness of
this new race is already at work on earth to give light to all who
are capable of receiving it and heeding it.
Blessings.
2 January 1970
*
The Mother’s New Year Message of 1970.
Sweet Mother,
How should the news of death be received, especially
when it is someone close to us?
Say to the Supreme Lord: “Let Thy Will be done”, and remain
as peaceful as possible.
If the departed one is a person one loves, one should concentrate one’s love on him in peace and calm, for that is what
can most help the one who has departed.
Blessings.
16 January 1970
*
Sweet Mother,
How should we watch a film? If we identify with
the characters and if the film is tragic or full of suspense,
we get so involved that we cry or feel frightened. And if
we keep aloof we cannot appreciate it properly. So what
should we do?
It is the vital that gets touched and moved.
If you watch mentally, the interest is no longer the same;
instead of being moved or troubled, you can calmly judge the
value of a film, whether it is well made or well acted, or whether
the scenes have any artistic value.
In the first case you are a “good audience”, in the second
case you are more peaceful.
Blessings.
30 January 1970
*
Sweet Mother,
How would we know what is happening in other
countries and even in our own if we did not read newspapers? At least we get some idea from them, don’t we?
Or would it be better not to read them at all?
Series Thirteen – To a Student
I did not say that you must not read newspapers. I said that you
must not blindly believe everything you read; you should know
that the truth is altogether different.
Blessings.
4 February 1970
*
Sweet Mother,
How can we know the truth of the facts when reading newspapers? What is the best way of knowing the
truth of the world?
The best way is to find the truth in ourselves — then we shall be
able to see the Truth wherever it is.
Blessings.
5 February 1970
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