PEACE AND FORCE       The year 1934         If I remain withdrawn an intense peace is felt. The mind gives too high a value to it and thinks that without it there can be no possibility of going even one step further.       One can go forward even if there is not peace — quietude and concentration are necessary. Peace is necessary for the higher states to develop.         The silence, at least the quietude, was there for the whole day. During such a state shouldn't one feel the Mother's Force working in the being?       If one feels it is all right — but it does not always happen. The quietness, silence or peace is a basis for the extension of consciousnes

      PURE EXISTENCE AND THE ATMAN REALISATION       The year 1934         Two hours after the Pranam I felt something from above descending. It was not only the Force. I am used to recognising its descent. Is it the higher consciousness as a whole then? I am not yet definite about it. It came down only after a sound preparation of two hours, blankness and emptiness.       It will have to be seen — it can hardly be the higher consciousness as a whole—in the sense of that with all its contents—it may be the essential power of the higher consciousness.         At present the pure existence has surcharged the whole being. Excepting an occa

THE SELF-REALISATION       The year 1934         During certain periods, there is neither inner nor outer mind but a quiet blank!       It is a very favourable condition for the higher workings.         You have written of the spirit becoming self-aware. Is there any distinction between spirit and Self or between Self and the psychic?       There is no distinction between the Self and the spirit. The psychic is the soul that develops in the evolution — the spirit is the Self that is not affected by the evolution, it is above it — only it is covered or concealed by the activity of the mind, vital and the body. The removal of this covering is the relea

      SRI AUROBINDO ON HIMSELF           As I approach your photo in the Ashram Reception Room, a feeling surges up that it is an emanation of yours. There seems to be a special light on it.       The Sadhaks may themselves bring this light by approaching me through the photo.         Is it not true that the letters we receive from you are full of power?       Yes, power is put into them.         What do you express through your poetry?       I am expressing spiritual truth or spiritual experience.       It ought to be possible to read with the inner consciousness looking on and, as it were, seeing the act of reading. In the condition of a

      SEX THOUGHTS AND IMPULSES       The year 1933         How are we to reject a sexual movement?       As you reject any other vital movement — by throwing it away or withdrawing yourself from it.      Naturally, if you read about these things (novels etc.) they enter the mind and pass into the subcon-scient where they leave their impression. If the consciousness is not free from the sexual impulse, this impression can rise up from the subconscient and work in the mind.         Which is the centre (chakra) from which sexual thoughts and impulses come?       The lowest centre at the bottom of the spine. It contains many other things but als

KNOWLEDGE       The year 1933         It is often better to wait for experience and then ask because to form mental notions beforehand does not help, it becomes an obstacle to getting the the real thing — you either remain with the idea only or you get something limited by the idea you have formed, not the force and full action of the power.       The object of the writing should be not to get replies, but to put what passes in you before the Mother and get help— not merely mental but spiritual and psychic.       You have said: "There can be no perfect understanding unless you are in union with the unexpressed mind." What is this mind and how is one to come into contact

PEACE AND SILENCE         The year 1933         What is meant by a quiet mind and a quiet vital?       A quiet mind means a mind not restless with all sorts of thoughts. A quiet vital is a vital not restless and troubled by all sorts of impulses and desires.         Peace is said to be of capital importance in Yoga. From where is one to get it and how?       It is there above you. You have to aspire for it to descend into you.         When we get peace and purity and light and other such things, from what plane do they come?       From any higher plane. Peace and purity may come from the psychic also.         How is one to remain quie

THE VITAL BEING         It is said that we must be quiet, vigilant and conscious even in our vital being. What does this mean?       It means to observe the vital movements, and not allow them to catch hold of you or force you into action, not to be careless and let them come in you — not to let the vital get excited or depressed — to keep it calm always.       Please tell me if it is possible to make my surrender to the Mother complete before my vital is cleaned?       It is not possible to make it complete before — but if you do not do it at all, how will the vital be cleaned? Who will do it for you?       What do you exactly mean by "cleaning the vital"

      THE MOTHER AND HER WORKING         All these who are doing Sri Aurobindo's Yoga know that it cannot be done except with the Mother's help. In fact, as the sadhana progresses, one becomes conscious that it is she who is doing the sadhana in him and bearing the burden of his transformation. Truly speaking, to become conscious of the Mother's working in us is itself a part of the Yoga.       The Mother stands before us as a being at once individual, cosmic and transcendental. It is just this triplicity that creates in our limited human mind a problem. We try in vain for long to solve this riddle — how one in a human frame could contain in herself these three diff

      FOOD AND FORCES       The year 1933         I always take salt with curds and vegetables. Is It good?        It is not good. On the seashore one ought not to take too much salt. Salt in curds is always bad for health.         X says that a little pepper should be taken with certain kinds of fruits. She got this bit of advice from you!       It is very strange — Pavitra himself gives me daily pamplemousse with sugar, never with salt and pepper. So how I could have written that, I do not know — there must have been a mistake somewhere either in my writing or her reading.       Pepper is not to be eaten with fruits — it is very bad for it would spoil