This talk is based upon Sri Aurobindo's
Elements of Yoga,
“Experiences and Visio” and Chapter 10,
“Work”.
No questions?... I was going to propose a
meditation.
What are the causes for not being able to meditate?
Because one has not learnt to do it.
Why, suddenly you take a fancy: today I am
going to meditate. You have never done so before. You sit down and imagine you
are going to begin meditating. But it is something to learn as one learn
mathematics or the piano. It is not learnt just like that! It is not enough to
sit with crossed arms and crossed legs in order to meditate. You must learn how
to meditate. Everywhere all kinds of rules have been given about what should be
done in order to be able to meditate.
If, when one was quite young and was
taught, for instance, how to squat, if one was taught at the same time not to
think or to remain very quiet or to concentrate or gather one's thoughts, or...
all sorts of things one must learn to do, like meditating; if, when quite young
and at the same time that you were taught to stand straight, for instance, and
walk or sit or even eat – you are taught many things but you are not aware of
this, for they are taught when you are very small – if you were taught to meditate
also, then spontaneously, later, you could, the day you decide to do so, sit
down and meditate. But you are not taught this. You are taught absolutely
nothing of the kind. Besides, usually you are taught very few things – you are
not taught even to sleep. People think that they have only to lie down in their
bed and then they sleep. But this is not true! One must learn how to sleep as
one must learn to eat, learn to do
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anything at all. And if one does not
learn, well, one does it badly! Or one takes years and years to learn how to do
it, and during all those years when it is badly done, all sorts of unpleasant
things occur. And it is only after suffering much, making many mistakes,
committing many stupidities, that, gradually, when one is old and has white
hair, one begins to know how to do something. But if, when you were quite
small, your parents or those who look after you, took the trouble to teach you
how to do what you do, do it properly as it should be done, in the right way,
then that would help you to avoid all – all these mistakes you make through the
years. And not only do you make mistakes, but nobody tells you they are
mistakes! And so you are surprised that you fall ill, are tired, don't know how
to do what you want to, and that you have never been taught. Some children are
not taught anything, and so they need years and years and years to learn the
simplest things, even the most elementary thing: to be clean.
It is true that most of the time parents
do not teach this because they do not know it themselves! For they themselves
did not have anyone to teach them. So they do not know... they have groped in
the dark all their life to learn how to live. And so naturally they are not in
a position to teach you how to live, for they do not know it themselves. If you
are left to yourself, you understand, it needs years, years of experience to
learn the simplest thing, and even then you must think about it. If you don't
think about it, you will never learn.
To live in the right way is a very
difficult art, and unless one begins to learn it when quite young and to make
an effort, one never knows it very well. Simply the art of keeping one's body
in good health, one's mind quiet and goodwill in one's heart – things which are
indispensable in order to live decently – I don't say in comfort, I don't say
remarkably, I only say decently. Well, I don't think there are many who take
care to teach this to their children.
Is that all?
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Sweet Mother, ought we to do some other work besides studies?
Some other work? That depends upon you. It
depends upon each one and on what one wants. If you want to do sadhana, it is
obvious that you must have at least partially an occupation, which is not selfish,
that is, which is not done for oneself alone. Studies are all very well – very
necessary, even quite indispensable, only it is a part of what I was speaking
about just a while ago, that you must learn when you are young, for when you
are grown-up it becomes much more difficult – but there is an age when you can
have the foundation of indispensable studies and when, if you want to begin to
do sadhana, you must do something which does not have an exclusively personal
motive. One must do something a little unselfish, for if one is exclusively
occupied with oneself, one gets shut up in a sort of carapace and is not open
to the universal forces. A small unselfish movement, a small action done with
no egoistic aim opens a door upon something other than one's own small, very
tiny person.
One is usually shut up in a shell and
becomes aware of other shells only when there is a shock or friction. But the
consciousness of the circulating Force, of the interdependence of beings – this
is a very rare thing. It is one of the indispensable stages of sadhana
Mother, can't one study for the Divine?
That means?
Can one study for the Divine and not for oneself, prepare oneself for
the divine work?
Yes, if you study with the feeling that you
must develop yourselves to become instruments. But truly, it is done in a very
different spirit, isn't it? – very different. To begin with, there are
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no longer subjects you like and those you
don't, no longer any classes which bore you and those which don't, no longer
any difficult things and things not difficult, no longer any teachers who are
pleasant or any who are not – all that disappears immediately. One enters a
state in which one takes whatever happen as an opportunity to learn to prepare
oneself for the divine work, and everything becomes interesting. Naturally, if
one is doing that, it is quite all right.
What you have said in the Bulletin about “educating the mind” – this
means that one educates oneself for that, lives and studies for the Divine.
Then isn't this a work done for the Divine?
Yes, yes, yes. It is very good if it is
done with that aim. But it must be with that aim. For instance, when one wants
to understand the deep laws of life, wants to be ready to receive whatever
message is sent by the Divine, if one wants to be able to penetrate the secrets
of the Manifestation, all this asks for a developed mind, so one studies with
that will. But then one no longer needs to make a choice to study, for
everything, no matter what, the least little circumstance in life, becomes a
teacher who can teach you something, teach you how to think and act. Even – I
think I said this precisely – even the reflections of an ignorant child can
help you to understand something you didn't understand before. Your attitude is
so different. It is always an attitude which is awaiting a discovery, an
opportunity for progress, a rectification of a wrong movement, a step ahead,
and so it is like a magnet that attracts from all around you opportunities to
make this progress. The least things can teach you how to progress. As you have
the consciousness and will to progress, everything becomes an opportunity, and
you project this consciousness and will to progress upon all things.
And not only is this useful for you, but
it is useful for all those around you with whom you have a contact.
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Let us take simply a question about your
class, shall we? – the school class. Even as an undisciplined, disobedient and ill-willed
child can disorganise the class – and this is why at times one is obliged to
put him out, because simply by his presence he can completely disorganise the
class – so too, if there is a student who has the absolutely right attitude,
the will to learn in everything, so that not a word is pronounced, not a
gesture made, but it becomes for him an opportunity to learn something – his
presence can have the opposite effect and help the class to rise in education.
If, consciously, he is in this state of intensity of aspiration to learn and
correct himself, he communicates this to the others... It is true that in the
present state of things the bad example is much more contagious than the good
one! It is much easier to follow the bad example than the good, but the good
too is useful, and a class with a true student who is there only because he
wants to learn and apply himself, who is deeply interested in every opportunity
to learn, – this creates a solid atmosphere.
You can help.
Mother, why is it that here, in work, some people venture to satisfy
their fancies and thus much money is wasted?
It is not money alone that is wasted!
Energy, Consciousness is infinitely, a
thousand times more wasted than money. Should there be no wastage... my word, I
believe the Ashram couldn't be here! There is not a second when there isn't any
wastage – sometimes it is worse than that. There is this habit – hardly
conscious, I hope – of absorbing as much Energy, as much Consciousness as one
can and using it for one's personal satisfactions. That indeed is something
which is happening every minute. If all the Energy, all the Consciousness which
is constantly poured out upon you all, were used for the true purpose, that is,
for the divine work and the prepara-
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tion for the divine work, we should be already
very far on the road, much farther than we are. But everybody, more or less
consciously, and in any case instinctively, absorbs as much Consciousness and
Energy as he can and as soon as he feels this Energy in himself, he uses it for
his personal ends, his own satisfaction.
Who thinks that all this Force that is
here, that is infinitely greater, infinitely more precious than all
money-forces, this Force which is here and is given consciously, constantly, with
an endless perseverance and patience, only for one sole purpose, that of
realising the divine work – who thinks of not wasting it? Who realises that it
is a sacred duty to make progress, to prepare oneself to understand better and
live better? For people live by the divine Energy, they live by the divine
Consciousness, and use them for their personal, selfish ends.
You are shocked when a few thousand rupees
are wasted but not shocked when there are... when streams of Consciousness and
Energy are diverted from their true purpose!
If one wants to do a divine work upon
earth, one must come with to of patience and endurance. One must know how to
live in eternity and wait for the consciousness to awaken in everyone – the
consciousness of what true integrity is.
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