Chapter 65163–164

the same importance and authority to these schools.

30 September 1969 165 – To observe the law we have imposed on ourselves rather

than the law of others is what is meant by liberty in our unregenerate condition. Only in God and by the supremacy of the spirit can we enjoy a perfect freedom.

True liberty is to be in constant union with the Divine and to do only what the Divine wants us to do.

But until then, it is better to impose on ourselves a higher law of action and conduct and to observe it scrupulously rather than to obey the law of other men or of moral and social conventions.

1 October 1969

When one lives in a community, does it not often become necessary to obey laws imposed by others instead of following the disciplines one would wish for oneself?

It is obvious that if you have chosen or accepted to live in a community, you must observe the laws of that community, otherwise you become an element of disorder and confusion.

But a discipline willingly accepted cannot be harmful to the inner development and the growth of the higher consciousness.

3 October 1969 166 – The double law of sin and virtue is imposed on us be-

cause we have not that ideal life and knowledge within which guides the soul spontaneously and infallibly to its self-fulfilment. The law of sin and virtue ceases for us when the sun of God shines upon the soul in truth and love with its unveiled splendour. Moses is replaced by Christ, the Shastra by the Veda.5

Do you think this idea of sin and virtue has done humanity any good?

As Sri Aurobindo says, the law of sin and virtue was certainly necessary for the progress of humanity when it was given several thousand years ago. But today it no longer has any meaning or usefulness and should no longer be heeded.

It belongs to a past which should no longer have any authority.

But for this to be possible, it must be replaced by a more luminous and truer law and not by disorder and corruption.

4 October 1969

And what is this more luminous law?6 Perfect and spontaneous obedience to the divine order that must replace all law.

26 September 1970

Is it good to break all moral and social conventions as the new generation is doing? Don’t these things have any value?

What has value at one period no longer has any at another as human consciousness goes on progressing. But one must take great care to replace a law one no longer obeys by a higher and truer law that fosters progress towards the future realisation.

5 Shastra: Scriptures; Veda: Knowledge. 6 This question was asked when these commentaries were first published in 1970.

One has no right to abandon a law until one is capable of knowing and following a higher and better law.

P.S. Read again what I wrote yesterday, I had already explained this to you.

5 October 1969

How can one follow this higher law?7 At every moment, do what God wants.

26 September 1970 167 – God within is leading us always aright even when we

are in the bonds of the ignorance; but then, though the goal is sure, it is attained by circlings and deviations.

The goal foreseen by the Divine is always attained, but only those whose consciousness is united with the Divine Consciousness attain it directly and knowingly; the others — the vast majority of those who are conscious only of their external being — attain this goal only after having made many detours, which often seemed to be going in the opposite direction.

6 October 1969 168 – The Cross is in Yoga the symbol of the soul and nature

in their strong and perfect union, but because of our fall into the impurities of ignorance it has become the symbol of suffering and purification.

7 This question was asked when these commentaries were first published in 1970.