Chapter 14Occultism

The notion of religion is most often linked with the search for God. Should religion be understood in this context only? As a matter of fact, these days, are there not other forms of religion?

We call “religion” any concept of the world or the universe which is presented as the exclusive Truth in which one must have absolute faith, generally because this Truth is declared to be the result of a revelation.

Most of the religions affirm the existence of a God and the rules to follow to obey Him, but there are some Godless religions, such as the socio-political organisations which, in the name of an Ideal or the State, claim the same right to be obeyed.

Man’s right is to pursue the Truth freely and to approach it freely in his own way. But each one ought to know that his discovery is good for him alone and is not to be imposed upon others.

13 May 1970

* You must not confuse a religious teaching with a spiritual one.

Religious teaching belongs to the past and halts progress. Spiritual teaching is the teaching of the future — it illumines the consciousness and prepares it for future realisation.

Spiritual teaching is above religions and strives towards a global Truth.

It teaches us to enter into direct relation with the Divine.

15 July 1972

* to the Divine.

* And yet there is an analogy. Just as you may read all the books possible on the art of playing the piano, but if you do not play it yourself you will never be a pianist, so too you may read everything that has been written on occultism, but if you do not practise it yourself you will never be an occultist.

November 1957

* Pre-vision: the power of projecting one’s consciousness into the future.

*

* * I do not like these showy miracles — they most often fail pitifully under the pressure of the Force. The first effect is a dangerous swelling of the ego. In front of all that, there is only one attitude to take — do your best and leave the result to the Lord.

*

In the lives of many saints we read that with full trust the devotee refused to eat unless the Lord appeared and took part. And the Lord did appear and eat and work like human beings. Is there any truth in such stories?

A psychological truth because anybody can become for you the Lord if so you decide. The subjective point of view is much more widely prevailing than is generally admitted.

* I have gone through the papers you sent me.

The historic part of the papers seems to be true. The founder must surely have been acquainted with the Kaballah and with some mystics of Asia Minor. The original appears to have been written in Latin with adjuncts of Hebrew words (probably taken from the Kaballah). But the Osiris-Isis part looks to me like a more recent addition which came in something like 50 or 60 years ago.

The whole thing is from its origin a very well-made, a very strong and elaborate mental formation, powerfully designed to catch hold of certain vital elements and forces (both outside and inside the individuals) to rule and use them and through the vital to exercise a partial power over the physical.

Formations of this kind are numerous; they translate upon earth into secret societies. I have met many of the kind, more or less ancient, more or less powerfully organised, but all of a similar type. They are not, in their nature, spiritual. If there is any spirituality in them, it comes not from the formation itself but from the presence, in the society, of one or several personalities with a spiritual character and achievement.

*

* * In ancient times the teaching of the great spiritual truths was a secret teaching reserved for a small number of initiates.

Even now there are things that are spoken but cannot be written down, and still less can they be printed.

* In our daily practices we are endeavouring to express the great mystery of the Divine Incarnation.

* In the final analysis, formulated knowledge is only a language that gives the power to act upon the object of this knowledge.

*

(A sadhak wrote that devotees were performing cere-monies much like the worship of deities in front of the photographs of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Stating that for proper worship there should be a bija-mantra [seed-mantra] to invoke the deity, he asked whether there was such a mantra for Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Mother replied:)

I always advise to let the mantra rise from the depth of the heart as a sincere aspiration.

*

It occurs to me to beg Thee for a key word for japa.

OM.

* OM is the signature of the Lord.

*

(About pranam, the gesture of obeisance to the Divine)

This gesture, when one makes it in all sincerity, is the consecration to the Divine in the whole creation. It is that, that is the origin of the thing... Like a recognition, a recognition and a submission to the Divine in the creation.

That is the true meaning. Naturally, in outer appearance, not one person in a thousand does that... but that is the true meaning of this gesture.1

19 March 1973

* 1 Tape-recorded.