You have written: "Do not try to pull at the forces of the Divine."
[Questions and Answers 1929 (14 April)]
Can one pull the divine forces by violence?
Yes, if you call very strongly, if you aspire very strongly, you may pull
down a large number of forces into you, but you will not be able to digest
them, assimilate them. It is the same thing as with food; when you swallow
all that you have at hand in one gulp, that causes indigestion, it chokes
you. You cannot bear it. So if you want to go fast, if you hurry, you
send a kind of call and pull towards you too great a number of forces,
forces which otherwise would have come less quickly.
Just a little hidden ambition is enough to... There are people who do
not do Yoga for the sake of Yoga but to obtain a result, to have powers,
to know one thing or another.
But then that means they are not sincere? How is it then that the Divine
responds?
You think that the Divine has a small human judgment! You must not project
human ideas upon the Divine.
If you are not sincere, what happens is that your own consciousness is
veiled. Take, for example, a man who tells lies; his consciousness gets
veiled and after a while, he can no longer distinguish falsehood from
truth. He sees images and calls them truth. One who is wicked loses his
aspiration, loses his capacity of realisation, loses all possibility of
understanding, feeling and realising. That is the punishment.
One puts veils, obstacles between oneself and the Divine. That is how
one punishes oneself. The Divine does not withdraw; one makes oneself
incapable of receiving him. The Divine does not distribute in this way
rewards and punishments, it is not at all like that.
When one is insincere, when one has bad will, when one is a traitor, one
punishes oneself instantaneously. Insincere people lose even the little
bit of consciousness that would make them know that they are wicked; they
become as though unconscious. They end up by not knowing anything at all
any longer.
What is it that you call "the basis of equanimity in the external
being" ? (Ibid.)
It is good health, a solid body, well poised; when one does not have the
nerves of a little girl that are shaken by the least thing; when one sleeps
well, eats well.... When one is quite calm, well balanced, very quiet,
one has a solid basis and can receive a large number of forces.
If anyone among you has received spiritual forces, forces of the Divine,
Ananda, for example, he knows from experience that unless he is
in good health he cannot contain them, keep them. He begins to weep and
cry, gets restless to expend what he has received. He must laugh and talk
and gesticulate, otherwise he cannot keep them, he feels stifled. And
so by laughing, weeping, moving about he throws out what he has received.
To be well balanced, to be able to absorb what one receives, one must
be very quiet, very calm. One must have a solid basis, good health. One
must have a very solid basis. That is very important.
What is the difference between outer equality and the equality of the
soul?
The equality of the soul is a psychological thing. It is the power to
bear all happenings, good or bad, without being sad, discouraged, desperate,
upset. Whatever happens, you remain serene, peaceful.
The other is the equality in the body. It is not psychological, it is
something material; to have a physical poise, to receive forces without
being troubled.
The two are equally necessary if one wants to progress on the path. And
other things still. For example, a mental poise; such that all possible
ideas, even the most contradictory, may come from all sides without one's
being troubled. One can see them and put each in its place. That is mental
poise.
The Mother
"Questions and Answers 1953"
CWM Volume 5, pages 22-24
published by Sri
Aurobindo Ashram - Pondicherry
diffusion by SABDA
Previous Talk: 8 April 1953
Next Talk: 22 April 1953
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