June 11, 2002
Whether Faith Can Be Created
or Increased?
v One has the faith he is born
with, as his intelligence is known to be native intelligence.
v Faith is one of those
things, in human belief, that cannot be raised.
v The determinism of Force
cannot, of course, be changed.
v The Being does not suffer
from any such external determinism. It enjoys Self-determinism. For one centred
in the Being, it is not true that Faith cannot be raised.
v A devotee is neither centred
in the Force of Becoming nor in the Peace of Being. He acts from the Force of
the Being of Becoming.
v Can this be explained in
terms of our limited faith in action when that faith reaches its limits?/
v Mother's answer is it can
rise by perseverance as perseverance is the unconscious energy – awareness – of
the physical. Perseverance acquires emotions as well as knowledge before it
reaches its goal of faith which is the knowledge of the soul.
v For one who acts, the point
of beginning is the perseverance of the physical. For one who thinks he can
begin from knowledge, the further knowledge the greater faith he will have.
v For those who are capable of
greater action through greater concentration, the higher faith yields directly
without having to commence at the physical, mental levels of perseverance or knowledge.
v The thought can be presented
for better appreciation through common comprehension. It has differing
expressions.
Coming closer to Mother or
letting Her take greater possession of our being.
Acquiring spiritual mastery
over matter in a greater measure, however small the increment is.
To enjoy inner calm better.
Like this the idea can be
expressed in every field where spirit expresses which means all fields.
v One who pushes the frontiers
of his faith must do so on the very frontier, not earlier.
v Man comes there either in JOY or in distress.
v In the days of Mahabharatha
or Shakespeare or even up to the world wars, the world could reach its
intensity of consciousness negatively.
Krishna's greatest victories
were won by the falsehood of ruse. And it was wrought by destruction of evil
more than creation of GOOD. The greatest JOY
Krishna created was in the gopis outside the social norm or in contravention of
it.
Shakespeare excelled himself
in tragedies.
Earth enjoyed her intensity
of Spirit in exploding as world wars.
The Cold War that followed
it for forty years was a greater horror than the actual war, as war on the
field expresses the emotion of patriotism or idealism.
So far such intensities were
not seen in JOY except when Tom Peters and
Harry Potter came on the scene.
v Great is the soul of the
individual who brings himself there in Joy or creation.
v Maybe the greatest soul can
convert despair into the joy of hope.
v Ordinary men come there in
sorrow and disappointment or are brought there by external events. Thus it is
outer, not even inner.
v He who has come there to the
frontiers of his being or personality or is brought there by external events,
will be face to face with the limitation of his faith.
v For him is the opportunity
to raise it, because he sees his faith getting exhausted and the lack of faith
or faith in other things such as law, life response, social relationship or
material security, etc. reviving. Not to let that faith revive or exert is
the first condition. He will find himself helpless.
v As long as his faith keeps
company, he will be Spirit centred. The moment he moves to law, he will be in
mind. He will centre himself in his vital emotions if he relies on blood
relations or friends.
v To move further away to
material property is to move to the physical.
v This definition of the
centre of personality is a knowledge that has power to move him back to the
Spiritual centre, however feeble it is.
v To believe in a law of
correspondences or life response or an idea of goodness or even a law of
contradiction is ONLY a
mental existence different from communion with The Mother.
v To trust Her is to trust Her
directly, not through any medium.
v This perception can move one
back, raising his faith for the moment.
v In the given SITUATION which is the problem, there
will be many elements present that offer support to a sinking soul.
v As and when they rear their
heads severally or together, one must face them and tell himself squarely,
NOT this, but Mother.
The will of faith thus
exercised, perseveres.
It may be understood as
rising faith, will in the knowledge, knowledge in the will, opening, alertness,
receptivity or the grace of Spirit, etc.
v When the devotees prefer to
rely on The Mother behind the problem and not succumb to the problem, they do
this. It will solve the problem and may indirectly give knowledge too.
v If one has a problem on hand
that has brought him to the brink, it will be easy for him to experiment in
this way.
v My illustrating it here will
be of secondary importance, thought it will make comprehension defined enough
to let perception emerge out of conception.
v For one who aspires to enter
the Supermind, logic requires him to be in Overmind which means to see one's
act as unique in itself. It is in uniqueness one finds the play of Overmind.
v One knows he is in the Time
of surface mind when he wants to know the result or evaluates oneself in terms
of the past. Presence of the past is cancellation of the future. Absence
of the past is to render the present ever-present.
v The ever-present moves to the
Higher mind through Silence.
v Silence understands without
thinking and it is a movement upwards.
v Instead of the selfish
emotion, one moves to appreciate the other man emotionally, thus moving from
the emergence of the psychic in the mind to the touch of the vital psychic.
v When the understanding
reveals as a vision one finds himself receiving a ray of the illumined mind
which, in moments of action by the grace, can be accompanied by the psychic of
the emotion in action which is sympathy.
v His own persistence that is
perseverance dispenses with the need of understanding, Silence, light and
vision to reveal the needed knowledge directly. Now it is the intuitive mind
that acts.
v Ideas or emotions of
gratitude arise announcing the emergence of the psychic in the physical
substance of the vital emotion.
v Moving to the Overmind, he
finds the uniqueness of the act well revealed. Uniqueness of his swabhaba –
nature – can be seen while on the path of yoga, not when an isolated problem is
solved.
v This will change the idea of
gratitude into an emotion of gratitude or the emotion into sensation in the
plane of physical consciousness of his body.
v One can choose to move into
Nirvana before entering the Supermind or directly enter. He had the option to
do so even when he was in the intuitive mind. He always has the choice of
escaping Overmind and the Nirvana in reaching Supermind.
v As these things are
attempted by the intensity of the occasion, not the general preparedness of the
whole personality, a vertical growth is always possible escaping several their
necessities. That is why HE
always speaks of the greatest moment Now.
v The UNIQUENESS of Sri Aravindam – the
wholeness of integral unity – is any single point permits the explanation of ALL the other points of the
entire whole.
v It may be my own peculiarity
to explain it through JOY.
v Happiness is the JOY of success, the success of
ego while JOY is the sensation of Sat. Delight
is the sensation of Ananda in Matter and Life.
v Faith gives security, which
serves as the foundation of joy.
v Raising faith is to raise
Joy.
v One can place himself in a
scale of Joy which starts from success and happiness that travels up to the
cosmic joy Ishwara and ends in the Ananda of Sat and Brahman. The scale also
can be constructed down until it reaches the ecstasy prior to surrender in the
physical substance.
v Again, the question is how
to raise JOY. The answers are,
Greater comprehension is
greater joy.
Reaction is irritation;
equality is joy.
When Silence at any level
loses itself in the Peace of that level, it matures as JOY of that level.
As Spirituality, at one
level, is exactly like the any other subject, what pays dividends are
·
information,
ideas, knowledge.
·
energy,
skill, force, power, results.
·
strategies,
devices, innovations, adaptation of means
to ends.
JOY in the spiritual field is
as much an end result or a product in any other field. One can try anything as
long as he is successful.
v
Silent
will can be effectively used to raise JOY or FAITH.
v The secret of creation for
any of us who are in the field of Force, i.e. Becoming is to move to Being or
further still.
v The strategy of creation for
Brahman is self-conception followed by self-absorption aided by
self-limitation.
v HE spoke of the first step of
Yoga in several ways.
Thinking from above the
head.
Concentrating on the centre
behind the heart.
Silence.
Entering into the subliminal
through the inner mind.
All-inclusive concentration.
Moving away from ego, Time,
Mind, Surface.
Dissolution of desire.
Surrender of all the four
parts of being.
Mind ruling over Matter.
Harmony between the inner
and outer, between the parts of being.
Equality.
Self-Perfection.
To realise not mind, but
Supermind is our ultimate reality.
Not the part, but the
integral whole.
Faith of the evolving soul
in Brahman.
Discovering the psychic
being.
v We see nothing here can be
attained without all the other items entering into play fully.
v To review the present faith
we have in this light and see the faith we want to reach in the same light will
explain the role of perseverance as Mother explained and the call Sri Aurobindo
speaks of as one of the two powers that can victoriously handle the
difficulties of physical Nature.
v Call from inside; call so
that JOY issues, faith will grow.
v Have faith, have JOY in faith; feel the JOY of Not knowing, not even
trying to know and it is the integral JOY of the unorganised or unconditioned personality of
ours and
therefore more powerful than any JOY we have consciously formed which can raise one's
faith. As it is of the unorganised part, it can be ever-growing in increasing
measure.
v The success of the
experiments will show itself momentarily as increasing faith as a result of
receding thoughts, shifting reliance to a higher element, growing inner
steadiness, etc. We also see that the
reverse is the path of our degenerating into faithlessness.
v To know this path, shall we
say, of ascent and descent, is itself a shade of higher knowledge that can
steady one from degeneration.
v Mother's method to raise
faith when subdivided to precisely suit the various steps of rising will more
effectively or more keenly serve our purpose.
v For that purpose, the
capacity to subdivide the path of ascent and define as precisely as possible
the strategy will be of use.
v The capacity to subdivide
the path is different from the capacity to define the strategy precisely, as
each commands an area of existence that is infinite.
v Acquiring any little of any
of them is an asset that can express itself as the satisfaction of victory.
v Note very seriously that one
who can persevere with a little event has the potential to persevere to the
end.
v In that sense, HUMAN CHOICE is decisive in Spiritual
evolution.
v We have the phenomenon of
faith enjoying what is has and refusing to move an inch ahead through a
determination that is obsessive. In this too aspiration is born. It shows
itself as a negative self-awareness of "I do NOT have faith". In the vital it expresses as
frustration. Such people grow subconsciously over a long period and burst into
the greatest of faith known as sudden conversion, as in the tallest Bengali
personality of the nineteenth century Keshav Chander Sen.
v No moment or movement is
ever wasted for anyone.
v To create in excess what we
want is a way of life.
v On many occasions, that
excess cannot be utilised for other purposes.
v One mark of progress is the
ability to convert excess in place for the production of other parts.
v Sri Aurobindo says Nature is
that way most efficient and most perfect without wasting a drop of energy. To
man, it is the highest known waste.
v This excess in our way of
life can be used as a means of increasing one's faith.
v In times of wars, nations
throw up their reserves, turn their essential energies to war effort often
resulting in an efficiency which is two-fold or twenty-fold.
v One who is not petulant or
organised in the reverse can raise his faith ten fold this way.
v The method is to exhaust
excess faith everywhere in our life.
v When we want a book from
upstairs, we go and get it. It is the most appropriate social behaviour though
it is a physical method.
v Just at that moment someone
bringing that book to your table for some other reason is a life response, an
exercise of silent will of the external atmosphere of your personality or an
expression of the grace around you. A method of faith can work through a
person, an event or for no reason.
v The policy of exhausting
one's faith before resorting to methods physical, organisational, mental
whether is silent will or orders given, when exhausted fully has the virtue
of raising one's existing faith anywhere from two fold to twenty fold.
v To raise faith through FAITH is a superior method.
v To surrender that method too
is what HE would appreciate in us.
What is Faith?
v Faith is the knowledge of
the soul. That is why mind does not know of its existence.
v When you know the snake
thrown at you is a rubber snake, the fear is removed, if not the shock of the
startle. That knowledge keeps you calm, while those who do not have that
knowledge panic.
v A boy who usually expects
100% in the exam is not really shattered when told of his failure. He KNOWS it is an error, a removable
one too.
v When a solid fact is there,
the surface ripple cannot break things.
v Knowledge of the SOUL is solid, true of the
Reality. Doings of men, legal actions, loyalty of others, even life response
all belong to the surface. A ball of metal will not dissolve in an ocean of
water.
v If faith is the knowledge of
the soul, can it not become the knowledge of mind. It is the most desirable
spiritual growth. Should it happen, it will be like a Parliament where all
members are Nehrus, Gandhijis, Sri Aurobindos, Tagores, Churchills, Einsteins,
etc. Presently the distant touch of the soul enables Mind to rely on it. In
case of the Spirit emerging in the mind, Mind itself will have the knowledge of
the Soul. As it is a higher knowledge in possession of a lower member, it will
be formidable.
v What is Spirit in
transcendence is soul in cosmos. Man relying on the Soul's knowledge is of the
lower hemisphere as he lives there. His knowing the Soul can upgrade itself
so that he may know the Soul in the cosmos. An advocate is free to practise
in a country town or in the supreme court. It is his choice.
v Man given to social values,
lost in physical work, relying on mental knowledge, can reach the human soul.
v
It
is up to the man to raise the values of his life. Along with that, his Soul too
will travel through the range of spiritual mind and can reach its origin in
cosmos where it will be cosmic SOUL.
v In the cosmos Spirit is
soul. When the soul moves into transcendence, it becomes Spirit. Here is a
choice given to man. Maybe it can start at the start. Instead of the soul
moving the Spirit in transcendence, the Spirit can be born in the SOUL. It is the ultimate power.
v The Spirit is the experience
of Sat.
v One can go to Sat from
Spirit and can go further to Brahman.
v Can a humble devotee go up
to the Absolute? Is it realisable?
v 500 years ago, no king in
India could go to America. It was not conceivable. Today 500 people go to USA every day because times are
different. One who reads The Life Divine, accepts Sri Aurobindo is given
ALL the support from all sides
all the time to rise to Brahman and bring that Brahman to Matter. If one does
not use that power at a moment of crisis, the infinite support he has can
certainly take him to the Absolute at least with respect to one problem.
v One who is informed about
every plane from Mind to Brahman can certainly know whether he reached there or
not however momentarily the experience is.
v One ray of that Supreme can
pervade millions of Universes, He says.
v Those who have known what
Mother did or those who have seen in their own lives what Mother's Force has
accomplished for the world, will certainly know the Force at work when it is at
work.
v Faith of one's Soul when it
is raised to that of Brahman can certainly move mountains and the devotee is
free to raise the human soul to its supreme height.
v
To
bring down that achievement to mind or vital, to possess it for some duration
is yoga, not to raise it ONCE.
v Raising it once raises the
Faith.
v To go to a Chief Minister
and have a legitimate problem redressed is possible by dozens of circumstances,
by the legitimacy of the problem, by representing an organisation, by knowing
him personally, by having a contact to his attention, etc. is always possible.
As it is a problem that can be solved by a Deputy Collector, at the level of
the Chief Minister it can certainly be solved. It is not to become the Chief
Minister yourself. Yoga can be likened to the latter.
v Should that Spirit descend
into one's mind, the problem will be transformed, the out flow of money will
change into inflow.
v Only when the person
concerned takes it up, it can be transformation.
Is it rational?
v How do we arrive at any
decision?
v We learn out of experience.
v We learn out of thinking.
v We also have the capacity to
imagine non-existent things.
v Sometimes it is pleasing or
convenient to believe those non-existent things. They survive until experience
finds the contrary. Mankind knows them to be superstition. It is irrational.
v One thing that happens to us
all the time is we are learning all the time. Our body grows, our emotions
steady at a higher level, our knowledge never ceases to grow. This is a
simple unarguable fact of life. We cannot shut our eyes to this phenomenon.
v Then faith is a knowledge of
the soul. It too must grow. How can we deny faith growth, while every other
thing in life grows.
v It needs no illustration to
say that society has grown in the last 100 years.
v It certainly does not
entertain the beliefs of a hundred years ago.
v Also it believes today in
newer things in which a hundred years ago there was no belief.
v If it is true that the society
grows and man grows then it is rational to expect that faith too can grow.
v Mankind has always opposed
anything new.
v Mankind has always accepted
things that are new.
v Growth and resistance to
growth are patterns of human behaviour.
v Growth, change, progress,
aspiration have always won at the end.
v Long ago man longed to reach
God by himself. It was called tapas.
v The Gita showed such a man the
shorter route of surrender.
v No longer does man think on
his own. All progress is for the collective. In the last hundred years, no MAN has worked for anything
individual. Sri Aurobindo calls it the last act of selfishness. Moksha is a
selfish goal as it is for oneself.
v Over the centuries, the
spiritual goal itself has moved from the individual salvation to collective
salvation.
v Today it is hardly possible
to work for any technology that can benefit only a single individual. All new
technologies are for the collective.
v Sri Aurobindo uses this
argument to explain HIS own
spiritual goal.
v From every new phenomenon,
it is self-evident.
v We see the family vanishing
and the individual standing on his own.
v We also see the organisation
he works for playing a greater role in his life.
v The society, the government,
the community, his organisation have been assuming greater and greater
responsibilities of his life. Beaverbrook's plan of welfare was called
"from cradle to grave".
v All over the world people
are growing taller.
v If we concede that Faith too
can grow, then the only thing we have to hunt for is for a method.
v There was a time when man
considered that the throne was not for him, the masses took for granted that
education was not for them. Now things have changed. The writing on the wall is
plain. Change is the order of the day and there is no exception.
v It is rational to conclude
that Faith can grow, can be created. It is equally rational to assume there are
methods to grow faith.
v Mother says when one is in contact
with his psychic,
his karma ceases to operate.
his native intelligence
begins to grow.
his faith too begins to
grow.
all that the world believed
impossible becomes possible.
Faith is to be in TOUCH with the Psychic.
v Mother says death itself is
a habit.
v Superstition is the habit of
habits and to believe that faith cannot increase is spiritual superstition.
v
Religious
instruction is to organise superstition.