Questions and Answers 1956
On this evening, during the meditation which followed this
conversation, there took place what Mother has called “the
first Manifestation of the Supramental Light-Force in the
earth-atmosphere”.
It is self-giving. It is the word the Gita uses for self-giving.
Only, the sacrifice is mutual, this is what Sri Aurobindo says
at the beginning: the Divine has sacrificed Himself in Matter to
awaken consciousness in Matter, which had become inconscient.
And it is this sacrifice, this giving of the Divine in Matter, that
is to say, His dispersion in Matter, which justifies the sacrifice
of Matter to the Divine and makes it obligatory; for it is one
and the same reciprocal movement. It is because the Divine has
given Himself in Matter and scattered Himself everywhere in
Matter to awaken it to the divine consciousness, that Matter is
automatically under the obligation to give itself to the Divine. It
is a mutual and reciprocal sacrifice.
And this is the great secret of the Gita: the affirmation of
the divine Presence in the very heart of Matter. And that is
why, Matter must sacrifice itself to the Divine, automatically,
even unconsciously—whether one wants it or not, this is what
happens.
Only, when it is done unconsciously, one doesn’t have the
joy of sacrifice; while if it is done consciously, one has the joy of
sacrifice which is the supreme joy.
The word “sacrifice” in French has slightly too narrow a
sense, which it doesn’t have in the original Sanskrit; for in French
sacrifice implies a sort of suffering, almost a regret.While in Sanskrit
this sense is not there at all; it corresponds to “self-giving”.
Sweet Mother, here it is written: “All are linked together
by a secret Oneness.”
Ibid., p. 98
What is this secret Oneness?
It is precisely the divine Presence.
Because the Divine is essentially one, and yet He has subdivided
Himself apparently in all beings, and in this way recreated
the primordial Oneness. And it is because of this divine Oneness—
which, however, appears fragmented in beings—that the
Unity is re-established in its essence. And when one becomes
conscious of this, one has the joy of the consciousness of this Oneness.
But those who are not conscious—what they miss is
the joy of consciousness. But the fact remains the same.
Sri Aurobindo says: the Oneness exists; whether you are
aware of it or not, it exists, in reality it makes no difference; but
it makes a difference to you: if you are conscious, you have the
joy; if you are not conscious, you miss this joy.
But how can a sacrifice be made when one is unconscious?
It is made automatically.
Whether you know it or not,whether youwant it or not, you
are all united by the divine Presence which, though it appears
fragmented, is yet One. The Divine is One, He only appears
fragmented in things and beings. And because this Unity is a
fact, whether you are aware of it or not doesn’t alter the fact
at all. And whether you want it or not, you are in spite of
everything subject to this Unity.
This is what I have explained to you I don’t know how many
times: you think you are separate from one another, but it is the
same single Substance which is in you all, despite differences in
appearance; and a vibration in one centre automatically awakens
a vibration in another.
So, no effort is to be made to improve the sacrifice, there
is no need to make an effort?
I don’t understand this conclusion at all.
If you are happy to be unhappy, that’s all right, it is your
own affair; if you are content to be unhappy and to suffer and
remain in the ignorance and inconscience you are in, stay there.
But if this does not satisfy you, if you want to be conscious
and you want suffering to cease, then you must make constant
efforts to become conscious of the sacrifice and to make your
sacrifice consciously instead of unconsciously. Everything turns around
the consciousness, the fact of being
or not being conscious. And it is only in the supreme Consciousness
that you can attain the perfect expression of yourself.
But that the Oneness exists, even if you feel just the opposite,
is a fact you can do nothing about, for it is a divine action and
a divine fact—it is a divine action and a divine fact. If you
are conscious of the Divine, you become conscious of this fact.
If you are not conscious of the Divine, the fact exists but you
simply are not conscious of it—that’s all.
So, everything turns around a phenomenon of consciousness.
And the world is in a state of obscurity, suffering, misery,
of... everything, all it is, simply because it is not conscious of the
Divine, because it has cut off the connection in its consciousness,
because its consciousness is separated from the Divine. That is
to say, it has become unconscious.
For the true consciousness is the divine Consciousness. If
you cut yourself off from the divine Consciousness, you become
absolutely unconscious; that is exactly what has happened. And
so, everything there is, the world as it is, your consciousness as it
is, things in the state they are in, are the result of this separation
of the consciousness and its immediate obscuration.
The minute the individual consciousness is separated from
the divine Consciousness, it enters what we call the inconscience,
and it is this inconscience that is the cause of all its miseries.
But all that is, is essentially divine, and the divine Oneness is
a fact, you can’t do anything about it; all your unconsciousness
and all your denials will change nothing—it is a fact, it’s like
that.
And the conclusion is this, that the true transformation is
the transformation of consciousness—all the rest will follow
automatically.
There we are, that’s all.
Sweet Mother, what part in us sets itself against a total
renunciation? It is as if you asked me, “What is unconscious in us?” But in
fact, everything is unconscious except the Divine. And it is only
when one can unite with the Divine that one re-establishes the
true consciousness in one’s being. The rest is a kind of mixture
of semi-consciousness and semi-unconsciousness.
Anything else? No?
(Turning to a disciple) Oh! he is longing to speak!
Mother, there is a magnificent sentence!
Ah! only one?
“Each existence is continually giving out perforce from
its stock....” and Sri Aurobindo adds, “And always again
it receives something from its environment in return for
its voluntary or involuntary tribute.”
The Synthesis of Yoga, p. 98
Yes, that is what I was just saying. And then?
Does one receive from one’s environment or only from
the Divine?
Oh! from both.
Because here it is written: “it receives from its environment.”
Yes! Because Sri Aurobindo says there is a oneness in Matter, a
oneness in the manifestation, a oneness in substance, and that
there is necessarily an interchange.
In fact, this is what we have said more than fifty thousand
times: that all is the Divine and that consequently all is One;
that it is only your consciousness which is separated and in a
state of unconsciousness because it is separated; but that if you
remove this unconsciousness and this sense of separation, you
become divine.
But in ordinary life, in one’s environment, what one
receives is not always what one gives.
Oh! but you must not understand things so superficially.
(Another disciple) Does the inconscient aspire to become
conscious?
No. It is the Divine in the inconscient who aspires for the Divine
in the consciousness. That is to say, without the Divine there
would be no aspiration; without the consciousness hidden in
the inconscient, there would be no possibility of changing the
inconscience to consciousness. But because at the very heart
of the inconscient there is the divine Consciousness, you aspire,
and necessarily—this is what he says—automatically, mechanically,
the sacrifice is made. And this is why when one says, “It
is not you who aspire, it is the Divine, it is not you who make
progress, it is the Divine, it is not you who are conscious, it is
the Divine”—these are not mere words, it is a fact. And it is
simply your ignorance and your unconsciousness which prevent
you from realising it.
(Meditation)
Open to Sri Aurobindo's consciousness and let it transform your life.
- The Mother (26 September 1971)
