ART AND MATTER

Arts And Crafts

The arts and crafts would exist, not for any inferior mental or vital amusement, entertainment of leisure and relieving excitement or pleasure, but an expression and means of the truth of Spirit and the beauty and delight of existence.

Sri Aurobindo

19: 1066

Take Care

I don't feel anything when I break or lose a material object.

It is a fault. Not to take care of the material objects one uses is a sign of unconsciousness and ignorance. One has no right to use any material object unless one takes care of it.

Now I understand that there is something of the Divine even in material things.

Yes, and we must take care of them, not because we are attached to them, but because they too manifest something of the Divine Consciousness.

The Mother

17: 88

Using Things

How should we use things?

Ah, this is… First, to use things with an understanding of their true utility, the knowledge of their real use, with the utmost care so that they do not get spoilt and with the least confusion.

I am going to give you an example: you have a pair of scissors. There are scissors of all kinds, there are scissors for cutting paper, and there are scissors for cutting thread… Now if you have the pair of scissors which you need, use it for the thing it is made for. But I know people who, when they have a pair of scissors, use it without any discernment to cut anything at all, to cut small silk threads, and they try to cut a wire also with it or else they use it as a tool to open tins, you see; for anything whatever, where they need an instrument they get hold of their scissors and use them. So naturally, after quite a short while they come to me again and say, “Oh, my pair of scissors is spoilt, I would like to have another." And they are very much surprised when I tell them, “No, you won’t have another, because you have spoilt this one, because you have used it badly." This is just one example. I could give many others.

People use something which gets dirty and is spoilt in becoming dirty, or they forget it or they forget to clean it or neglect it, because all this takes time.

There is a kind of respect for the object one has, which must make one treat it with much consideration and try to preserve it as long as possible, not because one is attached to it and desires it, but because an object is something respectable which has sometimes cost a lot of effort and labour in the producing and so must as a result be considered with the respect due to the work and effort put into it.

There are people who have nothing, who don’t even have the things which are absolutely indispensable, and who are compelled to make them in some way for their personal use. I have seen people of this kind who, with much effort and ingenuity had managed to make for themselves certain things which are more or less indispensable from the practical point of view. But the way they treated them, because they were aware of the effort they had put in to make them, was remarkable --- the care, that kind of respect for the object they had produced, because they knew how much labour it had cost them. But people who have plenty of money in their pockets, and when they need something turn the knob of a shop-door, enter and put down the money and take the thing, they treat it like that. They harm themselves and give a very bad example.

The Mother

7: 50

Material Things

Not to take care of material things which one uses is a sign of inconscience and ignorance. You have no right to use any material object whatsoever if you do not take care of it. You must take care of it not because you are attached to it, but because it manifests something of Divine Consciousness.

The Mother

17:88

Care

It is very true that physical things have a consciousness within them which feels and responds to care and is sensitive to careless touch and rough handling. To know or feel that and learn to be careful of them is a great progress of consciousness. It is always so that the Mother has felt and dealt with physical things and they remain with her much longer and in a better condition than with others and give their full use.

Sri Aurobindo

25:232