Chapter 5June 12, 1971

(Mother lowers her fist sharply), like a sword-blade. It’s That. And it’s That DESPITE EVERYTHING: the Divine. The Divine alone. All that hodgepodge of bad will and revolt and... all that (Mother raises an unalterable finger) has to be swept away.

And that which says that we will perish or be destroyed by That is the ego – it is Mr. Ego trying to pass himself off as the true being.

But the body has learned that even without ego it is what it is, because it is that by the Divine Will and not at all by the ego – we exist by the Divine Will and not by the ego. The ego was a means – a centuries-old means. Centuries old. Now, it’s worthless, it’s time is over. It had its time, it had its usefulness – it’s over, it’s past, it’s way past. Now... (Mother lowers her fist sharply): consciousness is the Divine; power is the Divine; action is the Divine; individuality is the Divine.

And the body has understood, sensed very well; it has realized and understood, as they say in English, that the sense of being a separate personality is PERFECTLY useless, perfectly useless, it is not in the least indispensable to its existence, it’s perfectly useless. It exists by another power and another will, which is not individual, not personal: the Divine Will. And it will become what it is supposed to be the day it feels there is no difference between itself and the Divine. That’s all.

All the rest is falsehood – false, false, false, and a falsehood that must disappear. There is only ONE reality, there is only ONE life, there is only ONE consciousness (Mother lowers her fist sharply): the Divine.

(Mother looks at Satprem with great intensity, Satprem puts his forehead on Mother’s knees)

(First, Mother gives Satprem a few copies of the Swedish translation of the introduction to “Supermanhood,” then Satprem reads several extracts from Sri Aurobindo for the next Bulletin.)

“Every sadhak has by nature certain characteristics which are a great obstacle on the way of the sadhana; these remain with obstinacy and can only be overcome after a very long time by an action of the Divine from within. Your mistake is not to have these defects, others have defects of anger, jealousy, envy, etc. very strongly and not only have them within but show them very openly – but to accept it as a reason for despair and the wish to go away from here. There is absolutely no meaning in going away, for nothing would be gained by it. One does not escape from what is within oneself by changing place; it follows and reproduces itself under other circumstances and among other surroundings. To go away and die does not solve anything either; for one’s being and nature do not end with death, they continue. The cease by the inner cause being removed or else by your drawing back from them and realising your true self which even if they rise would not be troubled by them and would refuse to regard them as part of itself – this liberation too can only come here by sadhana.”

Sri Aurobindo That’s marvelous! There are so many people to whom that could be said.

* * *

“This kind of condition which is between two things one of which is being left but will not let go its hold and the other is almost or near to be grasped but cannot be brought into action, always comes at a certain stage in the transition between the ordinary consciousness and the Yogic consciousness. It is obviously very troublesome. One has to keep a firm mind as much as possible. There are two ways of dealing with it. One is to sit quiet with a silent will to get rapidly through to the true thing and allow the Force to work out the difficulty. The other is effort, but this effort too must be a quiet effort, – if it is a struggling or over eager effort, it quiet, observe, will for the change in reliance on the working of the Force, but also to use a quiet effort whenever that is possible. If one does that, after a time one finds a quiet action becoming habitual which whenever the outer force comes to pull the mind out, repels it automatically and maintains the poise of the consciousness.”

Sri Aurobindo That’s excellent!

* * *

“There is a certain truth in what you say about the empty cup – a certain emptying of the consciousness of old things is necessary before anything positive can settle itself. It is what is happening in your physical consciousness, the old movements are being emptied out and you fall quiet, but they press in again and the cup has to be repeatedly emptied. If there is a firm and persistent rejection, then this repeated return of the old movements will cease to be so persistent; the periods of quiet can be established and permanent.

It is not however a fact that the whole nature has to be emptied of the old things before there can be the Light and Grace. It is done usually in different parts of the nature at different times. You had your former experiences because the mind and higher vital were sufficiently emptied and quiet to receive some experiences of a new consciousness. Now it is the physical mind, physical vital and body that have to be emptied – these always take longer than the others because the physical is more full of old habits, more slow to receive anything new or to change. But by the detachment and steady rejection and reliance on the Mother’s force, this obstinacy can be overcome and the cup emptied for filling with the Divine Light.”