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THE MOTHER AND THE WORKING OF
THE ASHRAM
THE
MOTHER'S SADHANA IN THE SADHAKS
Naturally, the Mother does the Sadhana in each Sadhak — only it is
conditioned by their zeal and their receptivity.
4-1-1935
The Mother has her own experience in bringing down the things that have to be
brought down — but what the Sadhaks
experience she had long ago. The Divine does the Sadhana first for the
world and then in others.
12-9-1934
I have said that 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. The Prayers (Prayers
and Meditations
of
the Mother. See Part Three)
are a record of Mother's experiences.
4-1-1935
PSYCHIC
CONTACT IN THE ASHRAM AND OUTSIDE
It is certainly quite true that the psychic contact can exist at a distance
and that the Divine is not limited by place but is everywhere. It is not
necessary for everybody to be in the Ashram or physically near the
Mother in order to lead the spiritual life or to practise the Yoga, especially
in its earlier stages. But that is only one side of the truth, there is
another. Otherwise the logical conclusion might be that there was no
necessity for the Mother to be here at all, or for the existence of the Ashram,
or for anyone to come here.
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The psychic being is there in all, but in very few is it well developed, well
built up in the consciousness or prominent in the front; in most it is veiled,
often ineffective or only an influence, not conscious enough or strong enough to
support the spiritual life.
It is for this reason that it is necessary for those drawn towards this Truth
to come here in order that they may receive the touch which will bring about or
prepare the awakening of the psychic being — that is for them the beginning of
the effective psychic contact.
It is also for this reason that a stay here is needed for many — if they
are ready — in order that under the direct influence and nearness they may
have the development or building up of the psychic being in the consciousness or
its coming to the front. When the touch has been given or the development
effected, so far as the Sadhak is at the moment capable of it, he returns to the
outside world and under the protection and guidance even at a distance is able
to keep the contact and go on with his spiritual life. But the influences
of the outside world are not favourable to the psychic contact and the psychic
development and, if the Sadhak is not sufficiently careful or concentrated, the
psychic contact may easily be lost after a time or get covered over and the
development may become retarded, stationary or even diminished by adverse
movements or influences. It is therefore that the necessity exists and is
often felt of a return to the place of the central influence in order to fortify
or recover the contact or to restore or give a fresh forward impulse to the
development. The aspiration for such nearness from time to time is not a
vital desire; it becomes a vital desire only when it is egoistically
insistent or mixed with a vital motive, but not if it is an aspiration of the
psychic being calm, deep and without clamour in it or perturbing insistence.
This for those who are not called upon or are not yet called upon to
live in this Ashram under the direct pressure of the central Force and Presence.
Those who must so live are those called from the very beginning or who have
become ready or who are for some reason or another given a chance to form a part
of the work or creation which is being prepared by Yoga. For them the
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stay here in the atmosphere, the nearness are indispensable; to depart
would be for them a renunciation of the opportunity given them, a turning of the
back upon the spiritual destiny. Their difficulties are often in
appearance greater than the struggle of those who remain outside because the
demand and the pressure are greater; but so also is their opportunity
greater and the power and the influence for development poured upon them and
that too which they can spiritually become and will become if they are faithful
to the choice and the call.
7-10-1931
Q:
Is there any special effect of physical nearness to the Mother ?
A: It is indispensable for the fullness of the Sadhana on the
physical plane. Transformation of the physical and external being is not
possible otherwise.
18-8-1933
Q:
Is it possible to receive the Mother's contact and help almost in the same way
at a great distance — say Bombay or Calcutta — as here in the Ashram ?
A: One can receive everywhere and if there is a strong spiritual
consciousness one can make great progress. But experience does not support
the idea that it makes no difference or is almost the same.
18-8-1933
DECISION
TO JOIN THE ASHRAM
There should be no desire or anxiety in your mind to get these people or
others to come here. These things ought to be decided
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on one side by their call and fitness and on the other by the will of the
Mother.
28-6-1936
CHOICE
FROM WITHIN
It is not possible for the Mother to tell you to remain, if you are yourself
in your mind and vital eager to go. It is from within yourself that there
must come the clear will on one side or the other.
24-2-1932
PERIOD
OF PROBATION
Well, it is better not to write anything too positive. Nowadays,
especially, the Mother takes people in such circumstances on probation, she does
not give them large immediate assurances, but waits to see how they open.
If he justifies his aspiration all will be well.
26-2-1943
FULL
ACCEPTANCE BY THE MOTHER
Q:
When a person begins to do Yoga under the Mothers care, is he not fully taken up
by her ?
A:
Not until he is ready. He has first to accept her and then then
give up more and more his ego. There are Sadhaks who at every step revolt,
oppose the Mother, contradict her will, criticise her decisions. How can
she take them up fully in such conditions ?
21-6-1933
Q:
Is there really any difference between the Guru, the
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Divine and the Truth in our Yoga ? I have
been considering that the Mother and yourself are not only the Gurus but also
the Divine, and that whatever either of you say is the law of the Truth.
Why then are you using (in reply to
my question on discipline) these three different words ?
A: I wrote the general law of spiritual life and obedience.
You have to know that as well as its special application here. Moreover
many here are satisfied with saying, "The Mother is divine",
but they do not follow her commands — others do not really regard her as
Divine — they treat her as if she were an ordinary Guru.
13-6-1933
Q: Yesterday
you spoke about the Mother's commands. What are they ? I want to try
to follow them.
A: They are supposed to be known. You have to do the right
thing and follow the Yoga sincerely.
14-6-1933
Q:
We are told the Mother can act best if a Sadhak is sincere. But what is
meant by this ?
A: What is meant by sincere Sadhana ? In the Mother's
definition of sincere, it means "opening only to the Divine Forces"
i.e. rejecting all the others even if they come.
21-4-1936
SPIRITUAL
POSSIBILITY DUE TO THE MOTHER'S PRESENCE
Certainly very few seem to realise what a possibility has been given them
here — all has been turned into an opportunity for
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the bubbling of the vital or the Tamas of the physical rather than used for
the intended psychic and spiritual purpose.
7-3-1936
I was not speaking of any particular thing — but the whole spiritual
possibility due to the Mother's presence here. Very few realise what that
means and even those who have some idea of it take little advantage and allow
their lower nature to block the progress.
9-3-1936
Because people are living here under the Mother's shelter and saved from the
great sufferings and tragedies of human life, they must needs spin despairs and
tragedies out of nothing. The vital wants to indulge its sorrow sense and
shout and groan and weep and if it can't have a good or big reason for doing it,
it will use a bad or small one.
1-3-1936
NECESSITY
OF TRANSFORMING THE VITAL FOR SUCCESS IN
YOGA
Q:
I had a belief that all those who have been called to do this Yoga will realise
the Divine in this very birth sooner or later. But I heard from someone:
"The Mother has of course chosen only those who have got capacity to do
this Yoga, but they will reach the goal only if the vital gets transformed.
If not, they will realise in the next birth". Is it so ?
A: Mother has never spoken anything to be done in the next
birth. Naturally the vital has to be transformed if one is to succeed.
15-1-1934
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REASONS
FOR SADHAKS GOING AWAY FROM THE MOTHER
Q:
How is it that some who come to the Mother with a clear aspiration and call go
away from her after some time ? What is it that takes them away ?
A: Through the suggestions of the hostile forces, because of
pride, egoism, ambition, sexual desire, vanity, greed or any other vital impulse
urged by the hostile Powers.
Q:
Are the vital forces so strong that in spite of a clear aspiration and Divine
call in a person they can draw him away from the Mother ?
A: Every man is free at every moment to consent to the Divine
call or not to consent, to follow the lower nature or to follow his soul.
Q:
Does their leaving the path not mean that they were unable to judge by their
knowledge whether their call for the Divine was true or not ?
A: All this about judging is nonsense. You feel the call
or you do not and if you feel the call, you follow it without calculating or
counting risks or asking whether you are fit or not.
Q:
When people strongly feel the urge to leave the Sadhana and go away from the
Mother, what is the best way for them to counteract this urge and stick on to
the Mother ?
A: By understanding that it is the Devil who tempts them and not
listening to the Devil.
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Q:
Can those Sadhaks, who have lived in the Ashram for many years, forget the
Mother's Grace after leaving it ?
A: Some of them seem to forget
Q:
Is there any possibility of their returning to do the Sadhana under the Mother ?
A: It depends on the person.
6-9-1933
When the psychic being has been once fully awake, then it is not possible for
the Sadhak to revolt and go away; for if he does, he leaves his soul
behind with the Mother and it is only the outer being that lives for a while
elsewhere. But that is too painful a condition; one has either to
come back or life becomes hardly worth living.
20-11-1935
What you have written is quite correct. To say that the Divine is
defeated when a Sadhak goes away is an absurdity. If the Sadhak allows his
lower nature to get the better of him, it is his defeat, not the Divine's.
The Sadhak comes here not because the Divine has need of him, but because he has
need of the Divine. If he carries out the conditions of the spiritual life
and gives himself to the Mother's leading, he will attain his goal, but if he
wants to lay down his own conditions and impose his own ideas and his own
desires on the Divine, then all the difficulty comes. That is what
happened to X and Y and several others. Because the Divine does not yield
to them they go away; but how is that a defeat for the Divine ?
27-5-1937
Page -226
WORKING
OF THE CONSCIOUS FORCE IN THE ASHRAM
What seems to me of more importance is to try to explain how things are
worked out here. Indeed very few are the people who understand it and
still fewer those who realise it.
There has never been, at any time, a mental plan, a fixed programme or an
organisation decided beforehand. The whole thing has taken birth, grown
and developed as a living being by a movement of consciousness
(Chit-Tapas) constantly maintained, increased and fortified. As the
Conscious Force descends in matter and radiates, it seeks for fit instruments to
express and manifest it. It goes without saying that the more the
instrument is open, receptive and plastic, the better are the results. The
two obstacles that stand in the way of a smooth and harmonious working in and
through the Sadhaks are:
(1) the preconceived ideas and mental constructions which block
the way to the influence and the working of the Conscious Force.
(2) the preferences and impulses of the vital which distort and
falsify the expression.
Both these things are the natural output of the ego. Without the
interference of these two elements my physical intervention would not be
necessary.
You are quite right when you do not believe in "Mother
likes", "Mother dislikes": it is quite a childish
interpretation.
There is a clear precise perception of the Force and the Consciousness at
work, and whenever this Force gets distorted or the Consciousness is obscured in
their action, I have to interfere and rectify the movement. In most cases
things are mixed up and there again I have to intervene to separate the
distorted transcription from the pure one.
Otherwise a great freedom of action is left to all, because the Conscious
Force can express itself in innumerable ways and for the perfection and
integrality of the manifestation no ways are to be a priori excluded, a
trial is very often given before the selection is made.
22-8-1939
Page - 227
THE
MOTHER AND THE ASHRAM'S DISCIPLINE
... He said, according to X, that the absence of
discipline was the great bane in India: neither individuals nor groups had any
discipline. Then why did he weep merely because he was not allowed to put
his hand - bag in a place not intended for it ? I do not agree myself with
him in the idea that there is perfect discipline in the Ashram; on the
contrary, there is a great lack of it, much indiscipline, quarrelling and self -
assertion. What there is is organisation and order which the Mother has
been able to establish and maintain in spite of all that. That
organisation and order is necessary for all collective work; it has been
an object of admiration and surprise for all from outside who have observed the
Ashram; it is the reason why the Ashram has been able to survive and
outlive the malignant attacks of many people who would otherwise have got it
dissolved long ago. The Mother knew very well what she was doing and what
was necessary for the work she has to do.
Discipline itself is not something especially Western; in Oriental
countries like Japan, China and India it was at one time all-regulating and
supported by severe sanctions in a way that Westerners would not tolerate.
Socially whatever objections we may make to it, it is a fact that it preserved
Hindu religion and Hindu society through the ages and through all vicissitudes.
In the political field there was, on the contrary, indiscipline, individualism
and strife; that is one reason why India collapsed and entered into
servitude. Organisation and order were attempted but failed to endure.
Even in the spiritual life India has had not only the free wandering ascetic, a
law to himself, but has felt impelled to create orders of Sannyasins with their
rules and governing bodies and there have also been monastic institutions with a
strict discipline. Since no work can be done successfully without these
things — even the individual worker, the artist for instance, has to go
through a severe discipline in order to become efficient — why should the
Mother be held to blame if she insists on discipline in the exceedingly
difficult work she has put in her charge ?
I don't see on what ground you expect order and organisation
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to be carried on without rules and without discipline. You seem to say
that people should be allowed complete freedom with only such discipline as they
choose to impose upon themselves; that might do if the only thing to be
done were for each individual to get some inner realisation and life did not
matter or if there were no collective life or work or none that had any
importance. But this is not the case here. We have undertaken a work
which includes life and action and the physical world. In what I am trying
to do, the spiritual realisation is the first necessity, but it cannot be
complete without an outer realisation also in life, in men, in this world.
Spiritual consciousness within but also spiritual life without. The Ashram
as it is now is not that ideal, for that all its members have to live in a
spiritual consciousness and not in the ordinary egoistic mind and mainly rajasic
vital nature. But, all the same, the Ashram is a first form which our
effort has taken, a field in which the preparatory work has to be done.
The Mother has to maintain it and for that all this order and organisation has
to be there and it cannot be done without rules and discipline. Discipline
is even necessary for the overcoming of the ego and the mental preferences and
the rajasic vital nature, as a help to it at any rate. If these were
overcome outward rules etc. would be less necessary; spontaneous
agreement, unity, harmony and spontaneous right action might take its place.
But while the present state of things exists, by the abandonment or leaving out
of discipline except such as people choose or not choose to impose upon
themselves, the result would be failure and disaster .... On that principle
the work also would have gone to pot, there would have been nothing but strife,
assertion by each worker of his own idea and self-will and constant clashes;
even as it is, that has abounded and it is only the Mother's authority, the
frame of work she has given and her skill in getting incompatibilities to act
together that has kept things going.
I do not find that Mother is a rigid disciplinarian. On the contrary, I
have seen with what a constant leniency, tolerant patience and kindness she has
met the huge mass of indiscipline, disobedience, self-assertion, revolt that has
surrounded her, even revolt to her very face and violent letters overwhelming
her with the worst kind of vituperation. A rigid disciplinarian would not
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have treated these things like that.
I do not know what ill-treatment visitors have received, apart from the
insistence on rules of which you complain; but it cannot be a general
complaint, otherwise the number of visitors would not be constantly increasing
nor would so many people want to come back again or even come every time or so
many want to stay on if the Mother allowed them. After all, they do not
come here on the basis of a social occasion but for Darshan of those whom they
regard to be spiritually great or, in the case of constant visitors, for a share
in the life of the Ashram and for spiritual advantage, and for both of these
motives one would expect them to submit willingly to the conditions imposed and
not to mind a little inconvenience.
As regards Golconde and its rules — they are not imposed elsewhere —
there is a reason for them and they are not imposed or nothing. In
Golconde Mother has worked out her own idea through Raymond, Sammer and others.
First, Mother believes in beauty as a part of spirituality and divine living;
secondly, she believes that physical things have the Divine Consciousness
underlying them as much as living things; and thirdly that they have an
individuality of their own and ought to be properly treated, used in the right
way, not misused or improperly handled or hurt or neglected so that they perish
soon and lose their full beauty or value; she feels the
consciousness in them and is so much in sympathy with them that what in other
hands may be spoilt or wasted in a short time last with her for years or
decades. It is on this basis that she planned the Golconde. First,
she wanted a high architectural beauty, and in this she succeeded — architects
and people with architectural knowledge have admired it with enthusiasm as a
remarkable achievement; one spoke of it as the finest building of its kind
he had seen, with no equal in all Europe or America; and a French
architect, pupil of a great master, said it executed superbly the idea which his
master had been seeking for but failed to realise; but also she wanted all
the objects in it the rooms, the fitting, the furniture to be individually
artistic and to form a harmonious whole. This, too, was done with great
care. Moreover, each thing was arranged to have its own use for each thing
there was a place, and there should be no mixing
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up, or confused or wrong use. But all this had to be kept up and
carried out in practice; for it was easy for people living there to create
a complete confusion and misuse and to bring everything to disorder and
ruination in a short time. That was why the rules were made and for no
other purpose. The Mother hoped that if right people were accommodated
there or others trained to a less rough and ready living than is common, her
idea could be preserved and the wasting of all the labour and expense avoided.
Unfortunately, the crisis of accommodation came and we were forced to house
people in Golconde who could not be accommodated elsewhere and a careful choice
could not be made. So, often there was damage and misuse and the Mother
had to spend 200/300 Rupees after Darshan to repair things and restore what had
been realised. Y has taken the responsibility of the house and of keeping
things right as much as possible. That was why she interfered in the
hand-bag affair — it was as much a tragedy for the table as for the doctor,
for it got scratched and spoiled by the hand-bag — and tried to keep both the
bag and shaving utensils in the places that had been assigned for them. If
I had been in the doctor's place, I would have been grateful to her for her care
and solicitude instead of being upset by what ought to have been for him
trifles, although, because of her responsibility, they had for her their
importance. Anyhow, this is the rationale for the rules and they do not
seem to me to be meaningless regulation and discipline.
Finally, about financial arrangements. It has been an arduous and
trying work for the Mother and myself to keep up this Ashram, with its
ever-increasing numbers, to make both ends meet and at times to prevent deficit
budgets and their results; specially in this war time, when the expenses
have climbed to a dizzy and fantastic height, only one accustomed to these
things or who had similar responsibilities can understand what we have gone
through. Carrying on anything of this magnitude without any settled income
could not have been done if there had not been the working of a divine Force.
Works of charity are not part of our work, there are other people who can see to
that. We have to spend all on the work we have taken in hand and what we
get is nothing compared to what is needed. We cannot undertake
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things that would bring in money in the ordinary ways. We have to use
whatever means are possible. There is no general rule that spiritual men
must do works of charity or they should receive and care for whatever visitors
come or house and feed them. If we do it, it is because it has become part
of our work. The Mother charges visitors for accommodation and food
because she has expenses to meet and cannot make money out of air; she
charges in fact less than her expense. It is quite natural that she should
not like people to take advantage of her and allow those who try to take meals
in the Dining Room under false pretences; even if they are a few at first,
yet if this were allowed, a few would soon become a legion. As for people
being allowed to come in freely for Darshan without permission, which would soon
convert me into a thing for show and an object of curiosity, often critical or
hostile curiosity, it is I who would be the first to cry "stop".
I have tried to explain our standpoint and have gone to some length to do it.
Whether it is agreed with or not, at any rate it is a standpoint and I think a
rational one. I am writing only on the surface and I do not speak of what
is behind or from the Yogic standpoint, the standpoint of the Yogic
consciousness from which we act; that would be more difficult to express.
This is merely for intellectual satisfaction and there there is always room for
dispute.
25-2-1945
It is very true that physical things have a consciousness within them which
feels and responds to care and is sensitive to careless touch and rough
handling. To know or feel that and learn to be careful of them is a great
progress of consciousness. It is always so that the Mother has felt and
dealt with physical things and they remain with her much longer and in a better
condition than with others and give their full use.
16-4-1936
Page - 232
The Mother has never objected to people who "cannot pay"
residing or visiting the Ashram without paying; she expects payment only
from visitors who can pay. She did object strongly to the action of some
rich visitors (on one occasion) who came here, spent money lavishly
on purchases etc. and went off without giving anything to the Ashram or
even the smallest offering to the Mother — that is all.
21-10-1943
TWO
FOUNDATIONS OF THE ASHRAM'S MATERIAL LIFE
What your vital being seems to have kept all along is the
"bargain" or the "mess" attitude in these
matters. One gives some kind of commodity which he calls devotion or
surrender and in return the Mother is under obligation to supply satisfaction
for all demands and desires spiritual, mental, vital and physical, and, if she
falls short in her task, she has broken her contract. The Ashram is a sort
of communal hotel or mess, the Mother is the hotel-keeper or mess-manager.
One gives what one can or chooses to give, or it may be nothing at all except
the aforesaid commodity; in return the palate, the stomach and all the
physical demands have to be satisfied to the full; if not, one has every
right to keep one's money and to abuse the defaulting hotel-keeper or
mess-manager. This attitude has nothing whatever to do with Sadhana or
Yoga and I absolutely repudiate the right of anyone to impose it as a basis for
my work or for the life of the Ashram.
There are only two possible foundations for the material life here. One
is that one is a member of an Ashram founded on the principle of self-giving and
surrender. One belongs to the Divine and all one has belongs to the
Divine; in giving one gives not what is one's own but what already belongs
to the Divine. There is no question of payment or return, no bargain, no
room for demand and desire. The Mother is in sole charge and arranges
things as best they can be arranged within the means at her disposal and the
capacities of her instruments. She is under no obligation to act according
to the mental standards or vital
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desires and claims of the Sadhaks; she is not obliged to use a
democratic equality in her dealings with them. She is free to deal with
each according to what she sees to be his true need or what is best for him in
his spiritual progress. No one can be her judge or impose on her his own
rule and standard; she alone can make rules, and she can depart from them
too if she thinks fit, but no one can demand that she shall do so.
Personal demands and desires cannot be imposed on her. If anyone has what
he finds to be a real need or a suggestion to make which is within the province
assigned to him, he can do so; but if she gives no sanction, he must
remain satisfied and drop the matter. This is the spiritual discipline of
which the one who represents or embodies the Divine Truth is the centre.
Either she is that and all this is the plain common sense of the matter;
or she is not and then no one need stay here. Each can go his own way and
there is no Ashram and no Yoga.
If on the other hand one is not ready to be a member of the Ashram or bear
the discipline and is still admitted to some place in the Yoga, he remains apart
and meets his own expenses. There is no discipline for him on the material
plane, except the rules necessary for the safety of the work; there is no
material responsibility for the Mother.
11-4-1930
THE
MOTHER'S PRINCIPLE OF ACTION AND WASTE
I did not consider it necessary to say anything about the question of waste
beyond assuring you that the undertaking of useless and unnecessary work only in
order to keep the men employed was no part of the Mother's principle of action.
The Mother did not know to what pipe you referred and had no time or inclination
to make enquiries about it. It is quite true that, so long at least as the
Sadhaks are not Siddha Yogis, self-control is the law; they have to learn
to refrain from indulgence of excess in any direction — the provision made for
them being ample for a Sadhak and much more than is allowed elsewhere — and
from negligence, greed or the pursuit of individual fancy. When they
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do these things, the Mother does not intervene at every moment to check them;
a standard has been set, they have been warned against waste, a framework has
been created, for the rest they are expected to learn and grow out of their
weaknesses by their own consciousness and will with the Mother's inner force to
aid them. In the organisation of work there was formerly a formidable
waste due to the workers and Sadhaks following their own fancy almost entirely
without respect for the Mother's will; that was largely checked by
reorganisation. But waste to a certain extent continues and is almost
inevitable so long as the Sadhaks and workers are imperfect in their will and
consciousness, do not follow in spirit or detail the Mother's recommendations or
think themselves wiser than herself and make undue room for their
"independent" ideas. Here too the Mother does not always
insist, she watches and observes, intervenes outwardly more than in the
individual lives of the Sadhaks, but still leaves room for them to grow by
consciousness and experience and the lesson of their own mistakes and often
employs an inner in preference to an outer pressure. In these matters she
must exercise her own judgment and vision and there is no use in anybody
offering his approval or censure — for she works from a different centre of
vision than theirs and they have not a superior light by which they can judge or
guide her.
As regards waste, I must point out that in our view free expenditure is not
always waste, to have a higher standard than is current in this very tamasic and
backward place is not necessarily waste. In matters of building and
maintenance of buildings as in others of the same order the Mother has from the
beginning set up a standard which is not that current here — the usual system
being to use the cheapest possible materials, the cheapest labour and to
disregard appearance, allowing things to go shabby or making only patchwork to
keep them up. I suppose "thrifty" minds would
consider the local principle to be sound and a higher standard to be waste.
If the higher standard has been kept, it is not for the glory of anyone, the
Ashram or the Mother — the principle of glory being foreign to Yoga, but from
another point of view which is not mental and can only be fully appreciated when
the consciousness is capable of understanding the
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vision of things with which the Mother started her work. I do not
consider it useful to write about that now, — the general misunderstanding in
these subjects can only disappear when the Sadhaks have got rid of the ordinary
mind and vital and are able to look at things from the same vision level as that
from which the conception of the Yoga and the work took its rise....
For the same reason I refuse to answer criticisms, attacks and questionings
directed against the Mother. Whether in work or in Yoga, the Mother acts
not from the mind or from the level of consciousness from which these criticisms
arise but from quite another vision and consciousness. It is perfectly
useless therefore and it is inconsistent with the position she ought to occupy
to accept the ordinary mind and consciousness as judge and tribunal and allow
her to appear before it and defend her. Such a procedure is itself
illogical and inconsequent and can lead nowhere; it can only create or
prolong a false atmosphere wholly inimical to success in the Sadhana. For
that reason if these doubts are raised, I no longer answer them or answer in
such a way as to discourage a repetition of any such challenge. If people
want to understand why the Mother does things, let them get into the same inner
consciousness from which she sees and acts. As to what she is, that also
can only be seen either with the eye of faith or of a deeper vision.
That too is the reason why we keep here people who have not yet acquired the
necessary faith or vision; we leave them to acquire it from within as they
will do if their will of Sadhana is sincere.
I have written at length on this question once for all; I do not
propose to repeat it. People no longer expect it from me; even those who
did expect it formerly have ceased to do so. On other questions, so far as
they are not connected or mixed up with these things, I may answer hereafter as
I find time.
26-12-1936
The Mother does not provide the Sadhaks with comforts because she thinks that
the desires, fancies, likings, preferences should be satisfied — in Yoga
people have to overcome these things. In
Page - 236
any other Ashram they would not get one tenth of what they get here, they
would have to put up with all possible discomforts, privations, hard and
rigorous austerities, and if they complained, they would be told they were not
fit for Yoga. If there is a different rule here, it is not because the
desires have to be indulged, but because they have to be overcome in the
presence of the objects of desire and not in their absence. The first rule
of Yoga is that the Sadhak must be content with what comes to him, much or
little; if things are there, he must be able to use them without
attachment or desire; if they are not he must be indifferent to their
absence.
7-1-1937
DEMAND
AND DESIRE
Q:
What sort of things can come under the category of "demand and
desire" ? What is the exact form of "demand and
desire" ?
A: There are no special sort of things — demand and desire can
cover all things whatsoever — they are subjective, not objective and have no
special form. Demand is when you claim something to get or possess, desire
is a general term. If one expects that the Mother shall smile at him at
the Pranam and feels wronged if one does not get it, that is a demand. If
one wants it and grieves at not getting it, but without revolt or sense of an
unjust deprivation that shows desire. If one feels joy at her smile, but
remains calm in its absence knowing that all the Mother does is good, then there
is no demand or desire.
Q:
You have said about the Divine: "He may give all that is truly needed
— but people usually interpret this idea in the sense that He gives all that
they think or feel they need. He may do that — but also He may
not". But it is said that He supplies all our psychic needs.
Page - 237
A: In the end, yes; but here too people expect Him to
supply them constantly, which does not always happen.
30-1-1936
Q:
If our desires are to be rejected, why does Mother
sometimes satisfy them ?
A: It is you who have to get rid of them. If the Mother
does not satisfy at all and the Sadhak keeps them, they will get stronger by
suggestion from outside. Each one has to deal with them from within.
4-9-1933
Q:
X told me that if anything comes to us without our asking for it we should not
reject it. For example, someone offers us sweetmeat: we may accept
it. But we should not be depressed when things desired by us are not given
to us. What do you say about that ?
A: How can such a rule stand ? Supposing someone comes and
offers you meat or wine, can you accept it ? Obviously not. A
hundred other instances could be given where the rule would not stand.
What the Mother gives or allows you, you can take.
24-3-1933
THE
MOTHER'S SOLE AUTHORITY OVER THE ASHRAM WORK
If anybody in the Ashram tries to establish a supremacy or dominating
influence over others, he is in the wrong. For it is bound to be a wrong
vital influence and come in the way of the Mother's work.
All the work should be done under the Mother's sole authority. All must
be arranged according to her free decision. She
Page - 238
must be free to use the capacities of each separately or together according
to what is best for the work and best for the worker.
None should regard or treat another member of the Ashram as his subordinate.
If he is in charge, he should regard the others as his associates and helpers in
the work, and he should not try to dominate or impose on them his own ideas and
personal fancies, but only see to the execution of the will of the Mother.
None should regard himself as a subordinate, even if he has to carry out
instructions given through another or to execute under supervision
the work he has to do.
All should try to work in harmony, thinking only of how best to make the work
a success; personal feelings should not be allowed to interfere, for this
is a most frequent cause of disturbance in the work, failure or disorder.
If you keep this truth of the work in mind and always abide by it,
difficulties are likely to disappear; for others will be influenced by the
rightness of your attitude and work smoothly with you or, if through any
weakness or perversity in them, they create difficulties, the effects will fall
back on them and you will feel no disturbance or trouble.
There is one thing everybody should remember that everything should be done
from the point of view of Yoga, of Sadhana, of growing into a divine life
in the Mother's consciousness. To insist upon one's own mind and its
ideas, to allow oneself to be governed by one's own vital feelings and reactions
should not be the rule of life here. One has to stand back from these, to
be detached, to get in their place the true knowledge from above, the true
feelings from the psychic within. This cannot be done if the mind and
vital do not surrender, if they do not renounce their attachment to their own
ignorance which they call truth, right, justice. All the trouble rises
from that; if that were overcome, the true basis of life, of work, of harmony of
all in the union with the Divine would more and more replace the trouble and
difficulty of the present.
Page - 239
In your letter to the Mother I note that you profess to be writing a
confession, but the tone of it is rather a justification of your faultless self
accompanied by an accusation against the Mother of favouritism, bad
temper, and injustice. I observe also that your statement of facts is
incorrect and as far as it concerns the Mother, grotesque. You lay stress
too on a point in which you can justify yourself, and you ignore all the rest in
which you were in fault. I will assume, however, that all this was
unintentional and that, in writing such a letter, you were unconscious of the
movements of your vital being which inspired its spirit and tone.
I would suggest that in your relations with others, — which seem always to
have been full of disharmony, — when incidents occur, it would be much better
for you not to take the standpoint that you are all in the right and they are
all in the wrong. It would be wiser to be fair and just in reflection,
seeing where you have gone astray, and even laying stress on your own fault and
not on theirs. This would probably lead to more harmony in your relations
with others; at any rate, it would be more conducive to your inner
progress, which is more important than to be the top-dog in a quarrel. Neither
is it well to cherish a spirit of self-justification and self-righteousness and
a wish to conceal either from yourself or from the Mother your faults or your
errors.
As for your doubts about the Mother, they are not likely to disappear so long
as you think you can read the Mother's mind by the light of your own and pass
your mental judgments on her and her action from those erroneous data. Nor
can they easily disappear if your faith breaks down every time that she does
something which your limited intelligence cannot understand or which is
displeasing to the feelings and demands of your vital nature. If you do
not believe that she has a consciousness greater and wider than yours and not
measurable by ordinary standards and judgments, at the very least a Yogic
consciousness, I do not see on what ground you are practising Yoga here under
her guidance. Those who constantly doubt and criticise and blame or
attribute her actions to the most common and vulgar human feelings and motives
and yet pretend to accept her or to accept myself and my Yoga, are guilty of a
stupid and irrational inconsequence.
Page -240
As for understanding, that is another matter. I would suggest that you
must grow out of the ordinary mind and become conscious with the true
consciousness before you can hope to do it. And for that faith and
surrender and fidelity and openness are conditions of some importance.
6-11-1929
How can you do like the Mother or do the work that she can do ? That is
the ambition and vanity coming up.
5-11-1932
There is no reason for your seeing the Mother nor is this the time for it.
Nor is there any room for discussion in this matter.
There are two things that must be clearly understood. The work here is
the Mother's and she has the right to give her orders in whatever way she
pleases and they must be obeyed. No one can be allowed to flout her
orders, however conveyed, or insist on his own ideas, will or fancies. If
you are prepared to respect and obey her orders without making conditions, you
can be allowed to continue the work, otherwise you must discontinue.
Secondly, all violence must stop. If you want to remain in the Ashram,
this kind of conduct must cease.
18-7-1937
THE
MOTHER'S WORK IN THE VITAL PLANE
Your dream was evidently a symbolic representation of some part of the vital
plane (corresponding to a part of human nature also) in which the
Mother had made her house (established something of her consciousness). The village represented some formation of human life in which there is outward
beauty and harmony as in certain parts of European life, but no touch of the
Divine. The jungle represented the surroundings in which this formation
Page - 241
has been made — it is made in the midst of a vital nature which is wild and
savage and full of dangerous things — the village, the formation is therefore
something quite insecure and artificial. That is indeed the nature of much
of human civilisation, an artificial construction in the midst of a dangerously
unregenerated vital nature, and it can collapse at any moment. The sea is
the vital consciousness itself, for water is often a symbol of the vital. The footpath seems to indicate something the Mother wants the Sadhaks to build,
to form in that part of the vital, but which is not easy to make and only can be
made by constant perseverance which will finally prevail against the instability
of the vital. Vital dreams of this kind are often very interesting and
instructive if one can get the clue to their symbols, but to get the clue is not
always easy.
13-2-1936
My description of the vital applied to that part of it which you saw in dream
— it does not describe the vital in the Ashram but of certain sides of
ordinary human existence. Nevertheless the human vital everywhere, in the
Ashram also, is full of unruly and violent forces — anger, pride, jealousy,
desire to dominate, selfishness, insistence on one's own will, ideas,
preferences, indiscipline — and it is these things that are the cause of the
disorder and difficulty in the Ashram work. The rule established in order
to control or combat these tendencies is that the Mother's will and the rule and
discipline established by her shall be followed and not each worker be led by
his own ego. But there are many who insist on their own ego and resent
discipline. They are ready to follow the Mother's will and rule and
discipline only in name and so far as it agrees with their own ideas and
preferences. There is no cure for this except by an inner change. In
outside life discipline is enforced because refusal of discipline is visited by
severe penalties or else results in so much discomfort of various kinds that the
indisciplined man has either to submit or to go. But here in the Ashram it
is not possible to enforce the rule in this way. An inner obedience has to
be given as the
Page -242
source of the outer obedience. The only remedy is the descent into the
consciousness of that golden lotus which you saw in your vision. Everyone
in whom it is established or even who feels its influence will become a centre
of the true consciousness and true action which will change life in the Ashram.
14-2-1936
NECESSITY
OF DEPARTMENTAL HEADS
It is not physically possible for the Mother to give the work direct to each
worker and exercise a direct control, so that physically as well as inwardly he
may offer it to her. For every department there must be a head who
consults her in all important matters and reports everything to her, but in
minor matters he need not always come for a previous decision — that is not
possible. X is there in the Building Department as the head because he is
a qualified engineer. That is a necessity of outward organisation which is
unavoidable here as elsewhere and has to be accepted if the work is to be done.
But it does not mean that X or any other head is to be considered as a superior
person or .that one has to surrender to his ego. One has to get rid of his
own ego as far as possible and regard the work done under whatever conditions as
an offering to the Mother.
20-8-1936
It is quite impossible for the Mother to see to every detail of the
organisation of the Ashram in person; even as it is, she has no time free
at all. It is understood that you can have ..., but it is with those who
have charge that you must insist on the execution of any arrangement.
20-7-1933
It was the Mother who selected the heads [of departments] for her
purpose in order to organise the whole; all the lines of the work, all the
details were arranged by her and the heads trained
Page - 243
to observe her methods and it was only afterwards that she stepped back and
let the whole thing go on on her lines but with a watchful eye always. The
heads are carrying out her policy and instructions and report everything to her
and she often modifies what they do when she thinks fit. Their action is
not perfect, because they themselves are not yet perfect and they are also
hampered by the ego of the workers and the Sadhaks. But nothing can be
perfect so long as the Sadhaks and workers do not come to the realisation that
they are not here for their ego and self-indulgence of their vital and physical
demands but for a high and exacting Yoga of which the first aim is the
destruction of desire and the substitution for it of the Divine Truth and the
Divine Will.
9-1-1936
What I meant in my letter was that the Mother does not usually think about
these things herself, take the initiative and direct each one in each instance
what they shall do or how, unless there is some special occasion for doing so.
This she does not do, in fact, in any department of work. She keeps her
eye generally on the work, sanctions or corrects or refuses sanction, intervenes
when she thinks necessary. It is only a few matters in which she takes the
initiative, plans and designs, gives special and detailed orders. In the
line of embroidery, X refers to her anything necessary or any of the workers
undertakes something and informs the Mother that she would like to do something
for her, handkerchief, apron, cover or sari. The Mother approves or
disapproves what is suggested or suggests something herself or changes what is
proposed. Work done in this way is as much work done according to the
Mother's will as anything initiated, thought of and planned in whole and detail
by her alone. I do not quite understand why you should consider that this
way of work implies an absence of unity with the Mother's will or of surrender
on your part. It is the offering within you that is important and brings
in time the full completeness of surrender.
17-9-1936
Page - 244
I do not quite understand on what you want the anumati. If it is
about embroidery, I have said that to follow the existing arrangement, viz.,
when you have the will or the inspiration to do some work of embroidery, then to
put it before the Mother and take her sanction or ask for her decision, is quite
a right way to work according to the Mother's will; it is not at all
inconsistent with surrender. But if you prefer to leave everything to the
Mother and not suggest or propose anything yourself, you can do that.
Mother only asked me to write to you about the way things are usually done,
because as she is not in the habit of thinking herself about these things, it is
not as easy for her to remember and think out something as to decide upon
suggestions put before her.
18-9-1936
NEED
OF LEARNING SUBORDINATION AND CO-OPERATION
The Mother has her own reasons for her decisions; she has to look at
the work as a whole without regard to one department or branch alone and with a
view to the necessities of the work and the management. Whatever work is
done here, one has always to learn to subordinate or put aside one's own ideas
and preferences about things concerning it and work for the best under the
conditions and decisions laid down by her. This is one of the main
difficulties throughout the Ashram, as each worker wants to do according to his
own ideas, on his own lines according to what he thinks to be the right or
convenient thing and expects that to be sanctioned. It is one of the
principal reasons of difficulty, clash or disorder in the work, creating
conflict between the workers themselves, conflict between the workers and the
heads of departments, conflict between the idea of the Sadhaks and the will of
the Mother. Harmony can only exist if all accept the will of the Mother
without grudge and personal reaction.
Independent work does not exist in the Ashram. All is organised and
interrelated, neither the heads of departments
Page - 245
nor the workers are independent. To learn subordination and
co-operation is necessary for all collective work; without it there will
be chaos.
10-3-1936
It is impossible for the Mother to arrange the work according to personal
considerations as then all work would become impossible.
25-7-1934
IMPORTANT
POINTS FOR WORKING IN THE RIGHT SPIRIT
There are certain things that A must fix in his mind and feel and act in
their spirit, if he is to get rid of his depression and unrest and feel happy
and at home. You will explain clearly to him what I write here.
1. He is not here as B's nephew, but as a child of the Mother.
2. He is not here under the care, guardianship and control of B,
but under the Mother's control and care and he owes allegiance to her alone.
3. The work given to him in the stores is the Mother's work and
not B's; he must do it with that idea, as the Mother's work, and no other.
4. B is at the head of the stores, garden, granary and receives
his directions from the Mother or reports his arrangements to her for approval
—just as C in the B.D. (Building
Department)
or D in the Dining Room or E or F in their departments. Others in
these departments are supposed to receive their directions from the head and act
in accordance. But this is because it is necessary for the discipline and
good order of the work; it does not mean that the work is B's or the
building work is C's or the Dining Room work is D's — all is the Mother's work
and must be done by each, by the head as by the others, for her. It would
not be possible to
Page - 246
get the work done if each and every worker insisted on being independent and
directly responsible to her or on doing things in his own way; there is
too much of this spirit and it is the cause of much confusion and disorder. The Mother cannot see to the whole work herself physically and give orders
direct to each worker; therefore the arrangement made is indispensable.
On the other hand, the head of a department is also supposed to act according to
the Mother's directions — or in their spirit when he is left free — and not
otherwise; if he does according to his mere fancy or obeys his own
personal likes and dislikes or misuses his trust for his personal satisfaction
or convenience, he is answerable for any failure in the work that may result or
wrong spirit or clash or confusion or false atmosphere.
5. Any work done personally for B or another (not for the
Ashram) is not part of the Mother's work and the Mother has nothing to do
with that; if such work is asked, A may do it if he likes or not do it if
he thinks it improper.
6. A has been given one work at least by the Mother direct —
that is the cleaning of the kitchen vessels. Let him do it according to
the Mother's directions and with scrupulousness and perfection; it will be
an opportunity for him to show what he can do and the rest can be seen to
hereafter.
7. He is not bound to accept food from G and B or presents etc.;
if he does not like it, why does he receive these things ? He is perfectly
free to refuse. His staying here and everything else does not depend on B,
but on the Mother alone — so he has no reason to fear.
8. Finally, he should clear his vital of restlessness and
desires — for that in him as in everybody is the root cause of depression and,
if he were elsewhere and under other circumstances, the depression would still
come because the root cause would still be there. Here if he turns
entirely to the Mother, opens to her and works and lives turning towards her, he
will get release and happiness and grow into light and peace and become in all
his being a child of the Divine.
19-3-1932
Page - 247
It is very good that you have spoken and cleared up things. Certainly,
it is quite true that the inner being should be turned to the Mother and to her
alone.
As for the work, the inner development, psychic and spiritual, is surely of
the first importance and work merely as work is something quite minor. But
work done as an offering to the Mother becomes itself a part of Sadhana and a
means and a part of the inner development. That you will see more as the
psychic grows within you. Apart from that the work is important because
necessary to the maintenance of the Ashram, which is the frame of the Mother's
action here.
A is not wrong in giving importance to persons. It is quite true that
the work would go on if the persons now in charge were not there and others were
in their place, but in most cases it would go on badly or at least worse than
now and there would be no certainty that those others would be adequate
instruments of the Mother's will. For the work of the charge of
departments for instance done by men like A, B, C, there is needed a combination
of qualities, a special capacity, a personality and the power of control called
organisation and above all fidelity and obedience to the Mother's will, the
faith in her perceptions and the desire to carry them out. It is not many
in the Ashram who have that combination. Before the Mother took up
directly through A the work, now concentrated in Aroumé and the granaries, all
was confusion, disorder, waste, self-indulgence, disregard of the Mother's will.
Now though things are far from perfect, because the workers are not at all
perfect, still all that is changed. In that change your presence in the
kitchen and D's in the granary has counted for much; without you there it
would have been far more difficult to realise the organisation of things the
Mother wanted and in these two parts of the work it might even have been
impossible. The Divine Will is there but it works through persons and
there is a great difference between one instrument and another — that is why
the person can be of so much importance.
Certainly, I cannot say that the ideas you put forward in this
Page - 248
letter are true. They are errors of the physical mind which seldom gets
hold of the real truth of things. It is not a fact that the Mother got
displeased and frowned on you every time you wrote about A. That is the
kind of thing the Sadhaks are always thinking and saying about the Mother, that
she is frowning on them in displeasure for this reason or smiling on them for
that, and the reasons they assign are those suggested by their own physical
minds, but have nothing to do with anything in the consciousness of the Mother
which is not in a constant bubbling of human pleasure and displeasure. I
have tried to explain that to the Sadhaks again and again but they prefer to
believe that their own minds are infallible and that what I say is untrue.
So I will only say that your idea is mistaken.
It is also not a fact that you cannot do Sadhana, for you were doing it for a
time and doing it very well. But your physical mind came across and took
you outside and is trying to keep you outside instead of allowing you to go and
remain within. That is why I have been trying to persuade you to go within
and not live in these outside ideas and reactions of the physical being which
prevent Sadhana and only give trouble.
It is not a fact that the Mother wants you to be a puppet of A. As
regards the work it is not at all clear that all you think is right and all A
does is wrong. You speak of your personality and what you seem to say is
that A is in the work trying to impose his personality and that you want to
affirm yours against it and the Mother ought to have supported you, but she does
not regard your personality at all but insists on your subordinating it to A's. But the Mother does not at all look at it from that standpoint or regard
anybody's personality. In her view people's personalities which
means their ego ought to have no place in the work. It is not your work or
A's work, but the Divine work, the Mother's work and it is not to be governed by
your ideas or feelings or A's ideas or feelings or B's or C's or D's or anybody
else's, but by the vision, perception and will of the Mother which does not
express any human personality (if it did there would be no justification
for the existence of this Ashram) but proceeds from a deeper
consciousness. It has been the great obstacle to the full success and
harmony of the work that everybody almost has had
Page - 249
this idea of his own personality, ideas, feelings etc. and more or less
tried to insist on them — this has been the cause of most of the difficulties
and of all the disharmony and quarrel. We want all this to stop; for when
it stops altogether then there will be some possibility of the differences and
turmoil ceasing and the work will better serve the purpose for which the Mother
created it. That is why I have been trying to explain to you about the
necessity of subordinating the personality and doing the work for the Divine,
not insisting on one's own personality, ego, ideas, feelings as the important
thing. There remains the question what is to be the relation between A and
yourself in the work — this, as there is no more time today, I will write in
another letter.
4-7-1937
P.S. When I say that you are mistaken or do not agree with you, you
seem to think my letters show displeasure and that my disagreeing with you means
that I am vexed with you for writing your views; but that is not so. If I
answer what you write, it must be to tell you what seems to myself and to the
Mother the true way of seeing things and acting. That does not imply any
displeasure.
I do not think I said anywhere you had done anything contrary to A's
instructions in your work. I was speaking of what you had written in
criticism of his way of doing things, and especially I wanted to remove your
idea that the necessity of acting under his instructions meant a disregard of
your personality or a desire on the Mother's part to make you a puppet of A.
Where there is a big work with several people working together for a purpose
which is common to all and not personal to any, it cannot be done unless there
is a fixed arrangement involving subordination and discipline in each worker.
That is so everywhere, not here alone. A has to act under the Mother,
carry out her instructions, work according to ideas she has given him. She
has laid down the lines on which he must work, and whatever he does must be on
those lines. He is not free to change them or do anything contrary to the
ideas given him. Where he makes decisions in details
Page - 250
of the work, they must be in consonance with these lines and ideas. He
has to report to the Mother, to take her sanction and accept her decisions on
all matters. If the Mother's decisions are contrary to his proposals or
contradict his own ideas of what should be done, he has still to accept them and
carry them out. The idea that the D.R. work is done according to his ideas
and not the Mother's is an error. But all that is simply the necessity of
the work, it is not a disregard of A's personality. In the same way you
have to carry out A's instructions because he is charged by the Mother with the
work and given authority by her. All the D.R. workers are in the same
position and are supposed to carry out his instructions and keep him informed,
because he is directly responsible to the Mother for everything and unless he
has this authority he cannot carry out his responsibility. In the same way
B has been asked to carry out your instructions in the kitchen because you are
at the head of the kitchen. All that is not a disregard of your
personality or of B's personality or an assertion of A's — it is the necessity
of the work which cannot be smoothly done if there is not this arrangement.
That is what I wanted you to understand so that you might see why the Mother
wanted you to do like that, not for any other reason, but for the necessity of
the work and so that it may be smoothly done.
On the other hand as you are at the head of the work and the practical
working is in your hands, you have every right to put any difficulties before A
and ask for a solution. He on his side will often need information from
you and may need also to know what you think should be done. But if even after
knowing, he thinks it right to follow his own idea of what should be done and
not yours, you should not mind that. He has the responsibility and must
act according to his lights subject to the sanction of the Mother. Your
responsibility finishes when you have informed him and told him your idea.
If his decision is wrong, it is for the Mother to change it.
I hope I have made the conditions clear. There is no necessity for you
to agree with A's ideas nor outside the work are you under any obligation to do
what he wants you to do. There you are quite free. It is only in the
work that there is this necessity in action — for the sake of the work.
Page - 251
I have written so much because you wanted to know what the Mother expected
you to do. It is not meant as a pressure upon you, but only to explain
things and show you the way and the reason for which they have to be done.
5-7-1937
For the Sadhana, it is not true that some are here only because they give
money and others because they are workers only. What is true is that there
are many who can prepare themselves only by work, their consciousness not being
yet ready for meditation of the more intense kind. But even for those who
can do intense meditation from the beginning, Sadhana by work is also necessary
in this Yoga. One cannot arrive at its goal by meditation alone. As
for your own capacity, it was evident when for a fairly long period an active
Sadhana was proceeding within you. Everybody's capacity however is limited —
little can be done by one's own strength alone. It is reliance on the
Divine Force, the Mother's Force and Light and openness to it that is the real
capacity. This you had for a time, but as with many others it got clouded
over by the coming up of the physical nature in its full force. This
clouding happens to almost everybody at that stage, but it need not be lasting.
If the physical consciousness resolves to open itself, then nothing more is
needed for progress in the Sadhana.
10-7-1937
If you leave it to the Mother entirely, then what the Mother would want you
to do is to go on with the work as best you can without allowing yourself to be
disturbed or troubled by these things which you enumerate in your letters,
without insisting on your own ideas or vital feelings. That is indeed the
rule that all ought to follow, to do their work here as the Mother's work, not
their own; the worker must not insist on the work being done according to
his own ideas; for that is to treat it as his own work,
Page - 252
not the Mother's. If there are inconveniences, troubles, things done
not as he would like them to be, still he should go on doing his work as best he
can under the circumstances. That is a rule of the Sadhana, to remain
unconcerned by outward circumstances and quietly do what one has to do, what one
can do, leaving the rest to the Mother. It is not possible to have
everything perfect at present, even supposing that what one thinks to be right
is the best. There is much in the Ashram and the work that is not as
perfect as the Mother would like it to be, but she knows that the perfection she
would like is not yet possible because of circumstances and the imperfection of
her instruments; she arranges all for the best according to what is now
possible. The worker should do his work in this spirit according to the
Mother's arrangements and he should use his work as a means for growing
spiritually in devotion, obedience, self-offering to the Mother, not insisting
on himself, his ideas, his feelings and preferences. To be able to do that
makes the consciousness ready for inner experience and progress in Sadhana.
I have tried to explain what the Mother wants and why she wants it. She
wants you to do her work quietly, taking all inconveniences, defects and
difficulties quietly, and doing your best; what X does or arranges should
not disturb you — if he makes mistakes he is responsible for it to the Mother
and it is for the Mother to see what is to be done. That is what she wants
from you — if you can do it, then things will go more smoothly and she will be
able more easily to lead things in the direction she wants. It is also, as
I have tried to explain to you, the best thing for your own Sadhana.
5-7-1937
Page - 253
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