Questions and Answers 1956
To tell the truth, I don’t know why; I don’t know if it is the
old ascetic idea that beauty has no place in yoga, or if it is the
word “priesthood” of interpretation of the Eternal, for which
an explanation is being asked.
In the first case, I believe I have already said often enough
and repeated that in the physical world, of all things it is beauty
which best expresses the Divine. The physical world is the world
of form, and the perfection of form is beauty. So I think it is not
necessary to go over all that again. And once we admit this, that
in the physical world beauty is the best and closest expression
of the Divine, it is natural to speak of it as a “priestess”, who
interprets, expresses, manifests the Eternal. Its true role is to put
the whole of manifested nature into contact with the Eternal
through the perfection of form, harmony, and through a sense of
the ideal which raises you towards something higher. So I think
this justifies the word “priesthood” and explains and answers
the question.
(Silence)
The other question is about a phrase I used—I believe it was
last week—when I spoke of the “threshold of occultism”. So
a question is put to me about this occult world, that is to say,
1 Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga, SABCL, Vol. 20, p. 146.
the world invisible to ordinary physical eyes, and I am asked
for explanations or comments on the beings who live in these
worlds which are invisible to ordinary eyes.
I am even told that I speak very often of negative entities,
that is to say, of hostile formations, of small beings formed
from the disintegration of human beings after their death—the
disintegration of the vital or mental being at death—but that I
have never spoken of the great beings, the magnificent beings or
positive entities which help the evolution. I believe I have spoken
to you about these quite often, but still I have been asked once
again for explanations.
Well, the occult world is not one single region where everything
is mixed, which only becomes occult because we can’t see
it. The occult world is a gradation of regions, one could perhaps
say, of more and more etherial or subtle regions, anyway, those
farther and farther removed in their nature from the physical
materiality we ordinarily see. And each one of these domains is
a world in itself, having its forms and inhabited by beings with
a density, one might say, analogous to that of the domain in
which they live. Just as in the physical world we are of the same
materiality as the physical world, so in the vital world, in the
mental world, in the overmind world and in the supramental
world—and in many others, infinite others—there are beings
which have a form whose substance is similar to the one of that
world. This means that if you are able to enter consciously into
that world with the part of your being which corresponds to
that domain, you can move there quite objectively, as in the
material world.
And there, there are as many, and even many more things
to see and observe than in our poor little material world, which
belongs to only one zone of this infinite gradation. You meet all
sorts of things in these domains, and you need to make a study
as profound, perhaps still more profound than in the physical
world, to be able to know what is happening there, to have
relations with the beings who live there.
It is obvious that as one goes farther, as it were, from the
material world, the forms and consciousness of those beings
are of a purity, beauty and perfection much higher than our
ordinary physical forms. It is only in the nearest vital world, the
one which is, so to say, mixed with our material life—though
it lies beyond it and there is a zone where the vital is no longer
mixed with the material world—of that material vital one can
say that in some of its aspects it is even uglier than things here,
for it is filled with a bad will which is not counterbalanced by
the presence of the psychic being which, in the physical world,
amends, corrects, puts right, directs this bad will. But it is rather
a limited zone and, as soon as one goes beyond it, one can find
and meet things that are not favourable to human life, beings
not on the same scale as human existence, but having their own
beauty and grandeur, with whom one may establish relations
which may become quite pleasant and even useful.
Only, as I have already told you, it is not very prudent
to venture into these domains without a previous initiation
and, above all, a purification of nature which prevents you
from entering there all weighed down and deformed by your
desires, your passions, egoisms, fears and weaknesses. Before
undertaking these activities one needs a complete preparation
of self-purification and widening of the consciousness which is
absolutely indispensable.
In these invisible worlds there are also regions which are
the result of human mental formations. One can find there all
one wants. In fact, one very often finds there exactly what one
expects to find. There are hells, there are paradises, there are
purgatories. There are all sorts of things in accordance with the
different religions and their conceptions. These things have only
a very relative existence, but with a relativity similar to that of
material things here; that is to say, for someone who finds himself
there, they are entirely real and their effects quite tangible. One
needs an inner liberation, a wideness of the consciousness and a
contact with a deeper and higher truth to be able to escape from
the illusion of their reality. But this is something almost similar
to what happens here: human beings here are mostly convinced
that the only reality is the physical reality—the reality of what
one can touch, can see—and for them, all that cannot be seen,
cannot be touched, cannot be felt, is after all, problematical;
well, what happens there is an identical phenomenon. People
who at the moment of death are convinced, for one reason or
another, that they are going to paradise or maybe to hell, do
find themselves there after their death; and for them it is truly
a paradise or a hell. And it is extremely difficult to make them
come out of it and go to a place which is more true, more real.
So it is difficult to speak of all these worlds, these innumerable
worlds, in a few minutes. It is a knowledge which
needs a lived experience of many years, thoroughly systematic,
and which requires, as I said, an inner preparation absolutely
indispensable, to make it harmless.
We all get the chance to have a little contact—very partial,
very superficial—with these worlds in our dreams. And the
study of dreams itself already demands much time and care, and
in itself may constitute a preparation for a deeper study of the
invisible worlds.
I think that is all we can profitably say about it this evening.
(Silence)
The last question is from somebody who finds that I have made
promises a little lightly and that, after all, I haven’t kept my
word!... Perhaps I expected more from humanity than it was
capable of giving me—about that I don’t know. Perhaps it is a
purely superficial impression.
I said more or less this, that those who are here in the
Ashram will know the descent of the Supermind—they can’t
blame me for not having informed them when it came, I made
no mystery of it!—and that they will participate in it—indeed,
I did not forbid anyone to participate in it! On the contrary,
I believe I encouraged everybody to be open and to receive it, and
try to profit by it.
And so I said: From that moment the transforming Grace
will radiate in the most effective way. Well, I challenge anyone
to tell me the opposite!
But here indeed it begins to be a little more... I added: And
fortunately for the aspirants this happy future—I don’t think I
wrote it in this way, but that doesn’t matter—this happy future
will materialise for them in spite of all the obstacles that the
unregenerate human nature may put up against it. I continue to
hope that it will be like this!
But now that person, who is perhaps a bit impatient, tells
me this: “Why have the difficulties increased for quite a large
number of sadhaks?” (Mother puts the paper down forcefully on
the table.) Who told you that it is not because you have become
more conscious! that all your difficulties were there before, only
you did not know it?... If you see more clearly and see things
which are not very pretty, it is not the fault of the Supermind, it
is your fault! It gives you a light, a mirror in which you can see
yourself better than you did before, and you are a little troubled
because it is not always very pretty? But what can I do?
And this person concludes: “Doesn’t the supramental Force
work here in spite of all the obstacles the unregenerate human
nature puts up against it?” Truly, I hope it does! for otherwise,
nothing could be done, the world would never be regenerated.
But I have explained to you why it seems more difficult to you.
It is because you are a little more conscious now and see things
you did not see before.
There is yet another reason. When the Force which is at
work is stronger, more insistent, naturally what resists, resists as
strongly. And if instead—it is here I have to say something that’s
not very pleasant—if instead of being hypnotised by your little
difficulties, your little inconveniences, your small discomforts,
your “big” defects, if instead of being hypnotised by all that,
you tried to see the other side, how much more powerful the
Force is, the Grace more active, the Help more tangible; in a
word, if you were a little less egoistic and less concentrated
on yourselves and had a little wider vision in which you could
include things that don’t concern you personally, perhaps your
view of the problem would change.
Well, this is what I advise you to do, and then we shall speak
about it later when you have tried my remedy: don’t think so
much about yourself.
After all, this perhaps is the problem which interests you
most, but it is certainly not the most interesting!
Open to Sri Aurobindo's consciousness and let it transform your life.
- The Mother (26 September 1971)
