May 19, 2000
Mother's
Force Can Abridge Evolution
Human personality is complex, graded, multifaceted and unique. How does
it receive grace and grow?
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Personality exists in layers of physical,
vital, mental, spiritual planes.
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Each of these planes is subdivided into
physical, vital, mental, and spiritual planes.
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For example, the mental plane divides
itself into physical mental, vital mental, mental mental and spiritual mental.
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Brain is the physical mental; nerves are
the vital mental; mind, i.e. pure mind is the mental mental and the manomaya
Purusha is the spiritual mental.
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So, the four planes are subdivided into
16 sub planes.
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For an external view, they are disparate,
not connected with each other, not dependent on each other, i.e. each is
capable of growing on its own to its maximum height. That is why we find a good
man as a fool; a wicked man resourceful, etc. Personality grows by the
influence of the environment, not from inside.
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Progress, development, and evolution mean
the measure of the inner control over the external.
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This growth is known as skill on the
scale of Skill—Capacity—Talent—Ability.
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Man has learnt walking, talking, writing,
etc. For hundreds of years the physical man crawled and finally learned
walking. Now that he is civilized, he has inherited the skills of walking in
his cells and genes. He does not learn walking anymore as his ancestors learned
it, but his mind learns walking and transfers those skills to the body where
the dormant skills awake. Man’s effort is confined to activating his mind and
patiently transferring it to the cells. The vast reservoir of latent skills
awakens to perform the miracle of walking.
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Our argument here is the FORCE is there in the bodily cells. The spiritual GRACE is there too. We are mainly concentrating on force and grace whereas
all the powers of Satchidananda are there hidden. They will come in 30,000
years just as the early man has learnt walking. If we can receive Mother’s
GRACE in our minds and teach the mind the ways of grace and patiently transfer
them to the body, the giant that is sleeping there will awake to raise us to
Supermind. I ask only for FORCE or GRACE to be awakened like that. There are 96 such powers to be so awakened.
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What is needed on the part of the devotee
is mental consent, mental receptivity which can make her a sadhak. Presently we
meet with mental resistance.
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As the beating of the heart, breathing,
digestion, etc. were learnt consciously by the animate organism and were handed
over to the subconscious, so too receiving the Grace must be learnt consciously
and passed on to the subconscious.
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Receptivity to Mother abridges a long
process into a short one. My article refers only to receiving LUCK and FORCE.
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The process of the learning moving to the
subconscious from conscious is occult. Only the Supermind sees the process.
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In the article on Sat-Brahman in Tamil, I
mention the eight levels of knowledge and explain knowledge at each level. The
twelve aspects I mention there are the fundamental spiritual determinants. So,
each of these twelve aspects has eight levels, thus making 96 levels. These 96
levels include the entire world and its skills. All the rest are the result of
their interplay which may run into 9600 or 96,000.
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Man has to learn each of them one after
the other. That is why he takes several thousand births to reach liberation.
For example, memory is one which exists on all these levels.
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Now compare an agriculture labourer who has
shifted to Delhi or New York as a child. Man took 500 years to build these
cities. This child in New York does not take 500 years or 50 years to become a
New Yorker. He grows into a New York citizen.
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The truth is, anyone who accepts New York will directly grow
into a New York citizen.
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So, I suggest a parallel method for LUCK and of course FORCE.
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The agriculture labourer growing into a
citizen of a modern city is a process by which mind abridges the period of
physical drudgery and labour. We call this Social Evolution. People call this
urbanization.
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Above the mind are four levels and then
Supermind. Mother is above Supermind in consciousness.
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As New York abridges the social evolution
of 500 years, so Mother abridges the spiritual evolution of 30,000 years.
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I am asking for the use of Mother’s Force to abridge social
evolution.
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Obviously, this is a small goal for a
vast force. Hence, results arrive in a flash and the devotee finds herself at
the social summit in a trice.
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Sri Aurobindo says that as there are several
levels, when man ascends to each higher level, the forces of that level fully
descend on the lower levels till they are saturated.
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You may say the labourer in New York may
be a New York citizen but may lack the inner psychological poise or outer cultural
polish of smoothness.
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It is true. He reaches the top social
layer. But in that layer which he occupies it depends upon his further effort
for him to acquire culture. As he socially advances, his own efforts will raise
him culturally too, when he takes effort. For the present, I would be satisfied
if our devotees reach the social summit of knowledge, fame, power or wealth.
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One may accept Grace positively or
negatively. To accept positively means to accept it is grace, knowing its
spiritual value. Negatively means we accept it for the material benefits. In
addition, one can practise Silent Will as a spiritual discipline or out of fear
of speaking, one may keep quiet. Both will bring results but will carry their
character as a stamp.
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Man exists at a million points. She gives
each at the social point she can receive. It is for her to receive, overcoming
resistances. One may work on the lands, in an office or a shop. All receive at the
point he can most receive, such as patience or perfection or
skill, etc.
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One who has met a devil in his life, and
as a principle of Mother accepts that devil as the outer reflection of his own
inner makeup, has taken the attitude of transformation and therefore will
receive fully and richly for total transformation.
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Mother gives grace for evolution. Man may
receive it in his ego and thus allow his ego to develop. That is how the
vertical growth turns either into a horizontal growth or rises in a pyramid.
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In the West, they expressed punctuality,
orderliness, regularity, honesty and honour to perfection in their work. These
are values, i.e. spiritual skills. Expressing spiritual skills in physical
work, they realized Brahman in Matter. Cleanliness is the greatest of such
values. Brahman in Matter came to them as prosperity.
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We have realized the Brahman in Spirit.
It has pervaded the nation and infused the bodies of men with light. We did not
follow the above values and did not hesitate to use falsehood, lack of honour,
clumsiness, procrastination, etc. These are values of untruth and falsehood. So
we gave up our spirituality and further discovered false values in life, which means
poverty.
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The reasons for the prosperity of the
West are several. Two of them stand out. One is their cold climate and the
other is the high respect they accord to women. In cold countries one has to
earn in six months food for twelve months, which means the efficiency must be
double. In the 20th century one main reason for progress all over
the world is the spread of democracy that raises the lowliest of men equal to
the highest. When low people are treated with greater respect, they are not
easily controllable. Naturally, the efficiency must rise high to accomplish
anything. From this point of view, the scale on which the prosperity of nations
and the scale on which women’s rights are plotted may almost be parallel.
The rules of progress are TWO:
1) Let those in the lowest plane accept the highest opportunity possible.
2) Give consciously the lowest person the highest opportunity.
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Bengal famine and communal carnage
in Calcutta in 1943 and 1947. Sri Aurobindo
says that the world forces, sooner or later, have never failed to fulfill His
ideas. We know this to be true in scores of occasions. Obviously, had He wished
to prevent the famine and carnage, His force would have avoided them. He took
the view that His help was there if asked for. Bengal did not ask him to help,
nor did the Bengali devotees anywhere. There are two opposite spiritual rules:
1) Grace acts unasked;
2) Grace does not descend if not called down.
A father brings up a son, educates
him, and gives him a capital to start an industry. These are the helps he can
offer his son. After the industry has started, the boy grows lazy, squanders
money, neglects it. Of course, the father can go and sit in the factory, run
the shifts, and earn the money for the son to enjoy. The father unfailingly
does the first. The second the father should not do. If he does, he spoils the
child. It is wrong for him to do so. Sri Aurobindo did not prevent the famine
on this principle.
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Technology offers the very last man the
very highest convenience and commercial profit. What technology offers in
material comforts, convenience and vital enjoyment, spirituality offers in
psychological well-being and divine riches in human life. Suppose a devotee is
in such commerce and uses technology, how can he express Mother in his work?
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What others do for profit, the devotee can do mainly for the
profit of the customer.
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Better than that, the devotee can offer the customer his own
service, not so much even for his profit as for the customer’s well being.
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The above will be served by the consecration of his selling.
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Let the devotee go behind the commercial transaction and then he
will see 1) psychological harmony of well being and behind it, 2) the spiritual
value of the act. Suppose the devotee relates himself to these planes, his own
progress will be in that plane. E.g., the devotee is selling a computer as a
trader and makes his profit, offering the customer satisfaction. What is behind
it? The customer buys that computer to write his accounts, which is now a
bother for him. The devotee must endeavour to know that and try to do his best
to explain to the customer how best that psychological relief or joy can be
derived. The seller’s knowledge of the buyer’s psychological relief will
enhance it. The sale of a computer gives the seller a
few hundred dollars. This would push the exercise deep down. What will be the
result? The devotee will find that every area where he sought such a relief
unsuccessfully now will offer it copiously. Push a little more behind. Suppose
the devotee sees the customer is tense, indecisive, wasting his time, clumsy,
etc. These are spiritual deficiencies. Let him endeavour to act from the
spiritual plane and in a trice he will see the customer calm instead of tense,
decisive instead of indecisive, etc. Now the customer makes a spiritual growth.
Because of this, the devotee’s spiritual growth will receive a spurt which
means sales will rise by leaps and bounds.
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Mother’s consciousness is spiritual technology. How much more
effective can it be than engineering technology? It is worth trying.
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When you look at people who do not have
your endowments, at once you see the difference. Similarly, when you see those
who have endowments which you do not have, you comprehend. Take a look around
at your friends and relatives and evaluate everyone on this scale. Then
evaluate yourself.
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As against the maximum level you can rise
to, you will know where you are. That is the self-evaluation. It is the gain.
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One who is in college can help a high
school student. Similarly, those who know more of Mother are a source of
knowledge to you. You are a similar source of knowledge to others who know
less. Should you try to learn everything you can from those around
and teach everyone who is around, without egoism, the progress will be
great. Take the attitude to one who teaches you that “Here, in this
little affair, you are my guru. “
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To offer unegoistically to help is to
offer Grace. Do it when the impulsion rises from inside, not altruistically or
egoistically.
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To ask unegoistically is aspiration. Do
it as aspiration, not as asking.
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The Summit, the spiritual summit awaits
us all the time. It awaits our cheerful acceptance. It does not offer. It waits
to be aspired for.
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The devotee and the yogi need do nothing
other than overcome their resistances and imperfections.
To know where we are,
to see what She gives, to explain each person and each event in that light, and
to MOVE forward not by our effort, but by our surrender is to become a sadhak. (Be conscious, Be receptive, Be sincere, Be faithful, Surrender)
q Sincere conscious receptivity & surrender in good faith.
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The ten rules of psychic education are a
summary of the above.
Presently man’s personality is the
determinant of his future, his prosperity. The above arguments try to show the
composition of human personality in several respects. It takes thousands of
years to reach its goal. By knowing one’s own personality and Mother’s Personality
of Grace, one is in a position to link them so that the slow evolution of human
life is replaced by the quick evolution of Spirit.
To repeat the salient points of such a linking,
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Know your own personality;
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Know the corresponding points of Mother’s
Personality
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That which links is Truth, Goodness and
Love.
Mother’s psychic education that gives us ten rules elaborates it. For
one to realize the psychic, it needs thirty or forty years, if one is lucky.
Doing it non-stop in Mother’s atmosphere will achieve it in a few months. The
psychic is the soul in Prakriti. We are in Prakriti – mind, vital, body. She
wants us to shift from prakriti, not to the soul, but to the evolving soul in
Prakriti.
Rule
1:
Rely on the soul, not on the mind.
Rule 2:
Do not seek comfort. The body loves
comfort. Denying comfort to the body will enable one to come out of Prakriti.
Then one has to move to the psychic through consecration. The body sleeps. When
one falls into sleep, he is in the body. By consecrating the sleep – Rule 10 –
one enters into the psychic.
Rule 3
Do not seek the work you like. Take
interest in the work that comes to you. That way you deny the vital whose prime
motive is interest. The vital eats. Eating keeps us in the vital. By
consecrating eating – Rule No. 9 – one moves to the psychic.
Rule 4
Do not complain. Complaint is to go
outside. The work is inside. By complaining, one goes away from the field of
work. One complains by speaking. Thus, he is in the vital part of the speech.
By consecration of the speech – Rule No. 8 – one moves to the psychic.
Rule 5
Make a move towards the Divine every time
you act. Thus one covers all Time. This covers not a part of the being, but the
whole being.
Rule 6
The external reflects the inner
situation. This is a supramental rule. It helps one move from mind to the
Supermind. By consecrating the act – Rule No. 7 – the entire BEING is
consecrated.
When one knows the true nature of consecration as different from prayer,
moves away from the ego, studies the composition of one’s own personality,
evaluates it as against what Mother offers and reviews all this in the light of
the rules of psychic education, one becomes sincere enough to
receive GRACE and becomes Mother’s child.
Levels of Surrender
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Surrender for yoga means abolition of
mind and vital and the physical learning of all our present skills – eating,
seeing, spelling, etc. anew and afresh.
That is what Mother experienced when She did the yoga of the body.
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Before the body is the vital and prior to
that is mind. If Mother works in the body, we must be able to work where we
are, i.e. in the mind.
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The pity is, our mind in our present
state is not fully evolved out of the vital and is still in many issues
dominated by the vital. That is why Sri Aurobindo says the release from the
vital, the release of Pranamaya Purusha, is the first realization.
One can begin only at the point
where he is, not where he wants to start.
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Suppose we agree to begin in our mind,
after clearing the vital arrears, how do we go about it? Can it be illustrated
by an event? At what point does the Force act?
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Example: A boy in B.A. may live with one
who has attained world fame in his subject. The work of the famous man is not
only at the top level but extends to very low levels of collecting facts too.
The B.A. boy, by virtue of being with his professor and by the professor’s
interest in him, can work at his own B.A. level collecting the necessary
information for the professor. The information by itself is useless. When this
information is used to explain one aspect of the professor’s theory – there are
hundreds of such aspects – by virtue of the professor’s theory the student’s
work would gain in significance and merit publication in internationally
reputed journals. The professor would be willing to take the student’s articles
and have them published in these journals. The boy at the age of 20 will attain
world fame. For it to last, he should take his B.A., M.A., Ph.D. and write his
own books. For all this to be possible, he should learn what he missed in
P.U.C.
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Mother offers to do to us in Grace, Luck,
Prosperity, Fame, Status, Health, Happiness, etc. what the professor offers to
the student. The student should do his part.
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Experiences of the devotees resemble the
following:
1.
A student in Villupuram College gets his
articles published in a London magazine. Often the student does not even see a
copy. But what matters to him are his own friends' opinions, none of whom has
heard of the London magazine. The success falls flat.
2.
For the boy, what matters are his own
professors at Villupuram and his Principal. No one understands his value and
laughs. Those who understand grow jealous and put the boy down. The boy expects
them to value him and waits for their appreciation in vain.
3.
As his own Principal belongs to another
school of thought, the body’s article appears to challenge the Principal’s
authority. The boy in his ‘loyalty’ to the elderly Principal comes forward to
sacrifice his fame.
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What should the boy do?
He should
silently work, write article after article, and pass all the exams. Before he
passes M.A., he will write a book and become famous. That MAY gain him his Principal’s appreciation. NO devotee has come forward
for this patient, persistent work so far.
Prayer is human aspiration that fulfills
the human need. Consecration is the Divine creation fulfilled in all human
beings by the instrumentation of a single human soul. Prayer and consecration
are the lower and higher ends of universal existence trying to fulfil the
individual human need and the universal intention of the Divine.