Loretta reads Mother's Questions and Answers:1956-12-26

Transcript of:

Mother's Questions and Answers: December 26, 1956

by Loretta, 2018 (1:35:53)

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Mother's Questions and Answers

This week Mother speaks of the need for a total change of consciousness. She says that until now, we have only been able to partly change ourselves. To be able to have a total change of consciousness anywhere in our being, we need a total change of consciousness. It requires the intervention of a new force, a new consciousness, which is beyond all the things that we need to change. This consciousness gives us a higher state that dominates all the weaknesses and imperfections that we want to heal and change.

When we have this, we're in the place where we have the full vision of what has to be done, and also the way to do it. And the consciousness itself is the way to do it, and carries the way to do it. And makes it available, when we're able to reach it.

Mother's speaking about two things actually: she's speaking both about having our soul forward so that we're in the psychic consciousness. And she's also speaking about being able to receive a much larger influx of consciousness worldwide: the new supramental consciousness. In this class, it had just descended in the same year, on February 29th of 1956. And it's been coming more and more; and it's more available.

Mother says that when we do things to change ourselves, and we think we have changed, but then we find out that we haven't, and we have to begin again – it's because our consciousness, our whole point of view, has not changed. We're trying to progress while we're standing still.

There has to be what Mother calls a ‘reversal of consciousness’, a springing up out of the state we are in, to the higher state. We have to rise up to see things from above. She says that a total conversion is necessary.

Mother and Sri Aurobindo always called the full realization of our soul, our psychic being, a ‘reversal of our consciousness’. We're no longer a limited, small, surface being; we have the psychic consciousness, which is always connected to its eternal divine source. And with all that wisdom and all that love, this is what's guiding our being and governing our being.

Mother once said that all real change of consciousness, large or small, is a reversal of consciousness – a change to another direction, a completely new energy where all our values have changed completely. And the first question in this class is “how can we change our consciousness?”

In 1956, these young students who were asking the questions were asking about things like changing their consciousness, because Mother was teaching them. These days, it seems like this wish for a complete change of consciousness is emerging in people all over the world. Mother says there are many ways; each person necessarily has his or her own particular means – first, means to see the goal, and then to get to the goal. It depends on each one's development in all the different levels of the being.

She says that when each person first receives an indication of their path, usually it comes spontaneously. It comes through something like an unexpected experience. There are a thousand different reasons, and a thousand different ways of having this first experience. It is the blossoming of the soul's first awakening, which shows you the best way to follow.

When that happens, you have the guiding thread. And you should keep working with this experience. You should again and again remember it, concentrate on it, go deeply into it – it is a living experience every time, and it will grow.

This is having (at least starting to have) the true knowledge of our soul. It's the experience of the Supreme Consciousness which is always part of our soul. And it is also the experience of the way to get there – because this is what our soul is here for. It guides us to do this, and it helps us to do this. But we are too undeveloped to perceive the guidance, and further, we even have trouble following it – which of course is why we need it, and why we have to do it.

This awakening of our psychic being is an experience which many, many, many people had when they first met Mother or Sri Aurobindo. There are books about these experiences, which are collections of stories where people describe miraculous feelings, and visions, and soul-awakenings. We have stories from ashramites starting from the 1920s, and now stories from Aurovilians, starting from the late 1960s.

And in these days, people speak of having a dream-experience of Mother or Sri Aurobindo, which calls forth their soul's awakening. One experience we have: an Aurovilian saw Mother for the first time at a public darshan, where the streets were full of people, and Mother was way up on the second floor, three stories above the street. She saw only Mother's eyes, even though in physical distance, they would be too far to see very well. But that's all she saw: she saw them clearly.

She looked into Mother's eyes into the depth, and she lost her surface consciousness completely. Her friends had to take her to the Ashram hospital, which is where she regained her consciousness, and then she stayed there for three days.

There's another Aurovilian whose first darshan was also in the street, and who was also affected by seeing Mother's eyes. He looked up at Mother, and into Mother's eyes, and he was so afffected that he remained standing, unable to move, finally standing all alone on the street, long after all the crowds had gone. Finally somebody got him to move, and all he did was sit on the curb for a very long time.

Many people saw Mother as the embodiment of beauty, and this opened their soul. In India, many people worship the Divine in a particular traditional form. It's a form of one of the Indian gods or goddesses that they see around them or that they've read about. They see statues, they see paintings, they hear stories – and that becomes their personal god. In Sanskrit that's called the ishta devata. And many people speak of suddenly seeing Mother or Sri Aurobindo as their own chosen ishta devata. And then they were opened into their true inner being by the realization of the divinity of Mother and Sri Aurobindo, of getting something into their consciousness of what Mother and Sri Aurobindo have in their consciousness.

There are people who spoke about seeing them as a column of light. And many people just were transported by looking at them – completely opened and carried away.

Champaklal, who came to the Ashram in 1921, and who personally served Sri Aurobindo and Mother all of his life, entered Sri Aurobindo's room for the first time, and the only thing he saw was Sri Aurobindo sitting in his chair. He prostrated himself full-length on the floor at Sri Aurobindo's feet, and he lay there for one full hour.

It was common for people to lose all outer consciousness when they first stood or kneeled before Mother. Some people spoke of receiving their experience in dreams in those days, and they wrote to Mother and Sri Aurobindo who confirmed that yes, this was a true experience. And each person who told a story like this spoke about how the experience changed them, changed their lives.

For many of the people from here, this experience had the very concrete result of moving their whole life to live in the Ashram or Auroville. There are many, many wonderful stories – we can't go into them in detail, but we'll take one story. We have a really beautiful experience of the light around Sri Aurobindo; but this is Mother's description. (And of course it has nothing to do with Mother's soul coming forward! She said that she realized her own soul when she was still living in Paris. Somebody had told her that she had to ‘realize the divinity within her’. And she immediately concentrated on doing that. She said in 30 days, the work was done. Imagine finding your soul in 30 days.)

But what we have here is something else entirely. This experience of Mother perceiving Sri Aurobindo's light is a little-known passage that she wrote as part of a series of visions that she had where she describes her meeting with Sri Aurobindo. Her very first meeting with the soul which was to have her whole world, her whole life, completely. And with whom she was to work with for the same goal, for the rest of her life. Her eternal soul-mate. Someone whom she later said she had worked before with in many lifetimes.

Mother was in contact with Sri Aurobindo before this. She spoke about her young life between the ages of about 11 and 14, when she was receiving teaching at night. Various people would come to teach her, and there was one who came more often than the others. Mother knew nothing about India at all – but she called this person ‘Krishna’. And it was Sri Aurobindo. When they met, they both recognized each other completely.

So here is one of the things that Mother wrote about their first meeting:

“In silence they exchanged the depths of their souls and thoughts. In silence they spoke of the greatness of the work to be done, and looked at the splendour of the victory to come, of which the dazzling radiance about him seems a glorious pledge.”

One of the particular works of Mother is to bring forth our soul; and of course we know that she said again and again that it would make everything easier when our outer being was fully guided by our soul. And also of course that this is the first stage to achieve in the practice of Sri Aurobindo's yoga.

The last question in today's class brings forth Mother's very clear teaching on the difference between doing something because we have a preference, and doing something because we have made a choice from the truth of our being. It also shows us just how important this is.

She explains that a ‘choice’ means not working for a result: not wanting, not expecting anything, not looking towards any kind of result. You choose according to your inner truth, your highest consciousness. You have made your choice, your true choice, and whatever happens is in the hands of the highest. It is no longer your concern. You leave the result to the Supreme.

Furthermore, this true choice is something that you have to make at every second, at every instance of your life. It is your path to the Divine, to the Supreme Truth.

On the 29th of February, 1968, Mother gave out a message for the anniversary of the third ‘year’ of the descent of the Supermind. And this is what she said:

“Truth alone can give to the world the power of receiving and manifesting the Divine’s Love.”

In Savitri, Sri Aurobindo wrote that “Fate is Truth working out in Ignorance.” The more true we are, the closer we get to the Supreme Truth, the final goal.

Sri Aurobindo says Fate is a transaction done between Nature and our soul. “Man can accept his fate, he can refuse”. We live in the world of nature; we are having transactions with nature all the time. How true to the truth of our soul can we be? How sincere can we be, in our endless choices between what is the highest truth we know, or something less.

Last time, Mother showed us how many subtle insincerities we go on practicing. And they all come from what she speaks of here: preferences. Attractions, repulsions, our desires, both negative and positive. With each choice, we accept our fate or we refuse it – our own true fate, which is to become the divine being that we really are.

This week we're lucky, we've got the tape – we can hear Mother speak about this. And even if you don't speak French, if you go to the last third of the tape, and just listen to Mother's voice and the way she's speaking, you can hear how important she thinks it is that we make this choice: our own real, true choice, at every second of our life.

It's December 26th, 1956. Christmas was yesterday; New Year's is coming. But the class just goes on. And Mother reads the next aphorism...

26 December 1956

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“Not to go on for ever repeating what man has already done is our work, but to arrive at new realisations and undreamed-of masteries. Time and soul and world are given us for our field, vision and hope and creative imagination stand for our prompters, will and thought and labour are our all-effective instruments.

What is there new that we have yet to accomplish? Love, for as yet we have only accomplished hatred and self-pleasing; Knowledge, for as yet we have only accomplished error and perception and conceiving; Bliss, for as yet we have only accomplished pleasure and pain and indifference; Power, for as yet we have only accomplished weakness and effort and a defeated victory; Life, for as yet we have only accomplished birth and growth and dying; Unity, for as yet we have only accomplished war and association.

In a word, godhead; to remake ourselves in the divine image.”

Sri Aurobindo, “Thoughts and Glimpses”

We have only accomplished “weakness and effort and a defeated victory”?

Until now all the victories which have been won have reactions that are finally defeats. There is never anything definitive and complete. Every time one has the feeling of having gained a victory, one finds out that this victory was incomplete, partial, fugitive. This is a fact one can always observe if one looks carefully at oneself. Not that things are necessarily what they were before, no, something has changed, but everything has not changed and not changed completely.

This is very apparent, very noticeable in physical conquests over the body. Through a very assiduous labour one succeeds in overcoming a weakness, a limitation, a bad habit, and one believes this is a definitive victory; but after some time or at times immediately one realises that nothing is completely done, nothing is definitive, that what one thought to have accomplished has to be done again. For only a total change of consciousness and the intervention of a new force, a reversal of consciousness can make the victory complete.

In the old Chaldean tradition, very often the young novices were given an image when they were invested with the white robe; they were told: “Do not try to remove the stains one by one, the whole robe must be purified.” Do not try to correct your faults one by one, to overcome your weaknesses one by one, it does not take you very far. The entire consciousness must be changed, a reversal of consciousness must be achieved, a springing up out of the state in which one is towards a higher state from which one dominates all the weaknesses one wants to heal, and from which one has a full vision of the work to be accomplished.

I believe Sri Aurobindo has said this: things are such that it may be said that nothing is done until everything is done. One step ahead is not enough, a total conversion is necessary.

How many times have I heard people who were making an effort say, “I try, but what’s the use of my trying? Every time I think I have gained something, I find that I must begin all over again.” This happens because they are trying to go forward while standing still, they are trying to progress without changing their consciousness. It is the entire point of view which must be shifted, the whole consciousness must get out of the rut in which it lies so as to rise up and see things from above. It is only thus that victories will not be changed into defeats.

Anything else? No, nothing more?

Mother, how to change one’s consciousness?

Naturally, there are many ways, but each person must do it by the means accessible to him; and the indication of the way usually comes spontaneously, through something like an unexpected experience. And for each one, it appears a little differently.

For instance, one may have the perception of the ordinary consciousness which is extended on the surface, horizontally, and works on a plane which is simultaneously the surface of things and has a contact with the superficial outer side of things, people, circumstances; and then, suddenly, for some reason or other — as I say for each one it is different — there is a shifting upwards, and instead of seeing things horizontally, of being at the same level as they are, you suddenly dominate them and see them from above, in their totality, instead of seeing a small number of things immediately next to yourself; it is as though something were drawing you above and making you see as from a mountain-top or an aeroplane. And instead of seeing each detail and seeing it on its own level, you see the whole as one unity, and from far above.

There are many ways of having this experience, but it usually comes to you as if by chance, one fine day.

Or else, one may have an experience which is almost its very opposite but which comes to the same thing. Suddenly one plunges into a depth, one moves away from the thing one perceived, it seems distant, superficial, unimportant; one enters an inner silence or an inner calm or an inward vision of things, a profound feeling, a more intimate perception of circumstances and things, in which all values change. And one becomes aware of a sort of unity, a deep identity which is one in spite of the diverse appearances.

Or else, suddenly also, the sense of limitation disappears and one enters the perception of a kind of indefinite duration beginningless and endless, of something which has always been and always will be.

These experiences come to you suddenly in a flash, for a second, a moment in your life, you don’t know why or how.... There are other ways, other experiences — they are innumerable, they vary according to people; but with this, with one minute, one second of such an existence, one catches the tail of the thing. So one must remember that, try to relive it, go to the depths of the experience, recall it, aspire, concentrate. This is the starting-point, the end of the guiding thread, the clue. For all those who are destined to find their inner being, the truth of their being, there is always at least one moment in life when they were no longer the same, perhaps just like a lightning-flash — but that is enough. It indicates the road one should take, it is the door that opens on this path. And so you must pass through the door, and with perseverance and an unfailing steadfastness seek to renew the state which will lead you to something more real and more total.

Many ways have always been given, but a way you have been taught, a way you have read about in books or heard from a teacher, does not have the effective value of a spontaneous experience which has come without any apparent reason, and which is simply the blossoming of the soul’s awakening, one second of contact with your psychic being which shows you the best way for you, the one most within your reach, which you will then have to follow with perseverance to reach the goal — one second which shows you how to start, the beginning.... Some have this in dreams at night; some have it at any odd time: something one sees which awakens in one this new consciousness, something one hears, a beautiful landscape, beautiful music, or else simply a few words one reads, or else the intensity of concentration in some effort — anything at all, there are a thousand reasons and thousands of ways of having it. But, I repeat, all those who are destined to realise have had this at least once in their life. It may be very fleeting, it may have come when they were very young, but always at least once in one’s life one has the experience of what true consciousness is. Well, that is the best indication of the path to be followed.

One may seek within oneself, one may remember, may observe; one must notice what is going on, one must pay attention, that’s all. Sometimes, when one sees a generous act, hears of something exceptional, when one witnesses heroism or generosity or greatness of soul, meets someone who shows a special talent or acts in an exceptional and beautiful way, there is a kind of enthusiasm or admiration or gratitude which suddenly awakens in the being and opens the door to a state, a new state of consciousness, a light, a warmth, a joy one did not know before. That too is a way of catching the guiding thread. There are a thousand ways, one has only to be awake and to watch.

First of all, you must feel the necessity for this change of consciousness, accept the idea that it is this, the path which must lead to the goal; and once you admit the principle, you must be watchful. And you will find, you do find it. And once you have found it, you must start walking without any hesitation.

Indeed, the starting-point is to observe oneself, not to live in a perpetual nonchalance, a perpetual apathy; one must be attentive.

Is that all?

(Silence)

Here is a question I have been asked — it seems many people are asking themselves the same thing! I am going to read to you what is written, then I shall speak to you afterwards. It looks so convincing, this question!

“How should we understand ‘not to have preferences’? Shouldn’t we prefer order to disorder, cleanliness to dirt, etc? Not to have preferences — does it mean treating everybody in the same way?”

Now, here is my answer: this is playing on words! What you call preference, I call choice. You must be in a perpetual state of choice; at every minute of your life you must make a choice between what drags you down and what draws you up, between what makes you progress and what makes you go backwards; but I do not call this having preferences, I call this making a choice — making a choice, choosing. At every minute one has to choose, this is indispensable, and infinitely more so than choosing once for all between cleanliness and dirt, whether moral or physical. The choice: at every second the choice is before you, and you may take a step downward or a step upward, take a step backward or a step forward; and this state of choice must be constant, perpetual, you must never fall asleep. But this is not what I call having preferences. Preferences — this means precisely not choosing. There is something for which you feel sympathy or antipathy, repulsion or attraction, and blindly, without any reason, you become attached to this thing; or else, when you have a problem to solve, you prefer the solution of this problem or this difficulty to be of one particular kind or another. But that is not at all choosing — don’t you see, what the truest thing is doesn’t come into question, it is a matter of having a preference. For me the meaning of the word is very clear: a preference is something blind, an impulse, an attachment, an unconscious movement which is usually terribly obstinate.

You are placed in certain circumstances; one thing or another may happen, and you yourself have an aspiration, you ask to be guided, but within you there is something which prefers the answer to be of a certain kind, the indication to be a particular one, or the event to come about in one way rather than another; but all this is not a question of choice, it is a preference. And when the answer to your aspiration or prayer is not in accord with your desire, this preference makes you feel unhappy, you find it difficult to accept the answer, you must fight to accept it; whereas if you had no preferences, whatever the answer to your aspiration, when it comes, you cling to it joyfully, spontaneously with a sincere élan. Otherwise you are compelled to make an effort to accept what comes, the decision which comes in answer to your aspiration; you wish, desire, prefer things to be like this and not like that. But that, indeed, is not a choice. The choice is there at every minute; every minute you are faced with a choice: the choice to climb up or go down, the choice to progress or go backwards. But this choice does not imply that you prefer things to be like this or like that; it is a fact of every moment, an attitude you take.

Choice means a decision and an action. Preference is a desire. A choice is made and ought to be made, and if it is truly a choice, it is made without care for the consequences, without expecting any result. You choose; you choose according to your inner truth, your highest consciousness; whatever happens does not touch you, you have made your choice, the true choice, and what comes about is not your concern. While, on the contrary, if you have preferences, you will choose through preference in one way or another, your preference will distort your choice: it will be calculation, bargaining, you will act with the idea that a particular thing must happen because this is what you prefer and not because that is the truth, the right thing to do. Preference is attached to the result, acts with a view to the result,wishes things to be in a particular way and acts to bring about its wish; and so this opens the door to all kinds of things. Choice is independent of the result. And certainly, at every minute you can choose, you are faced with the necessity of choosing at every second. And you do not choose really well, in all sincerity, unless it is the truth of the choice which interests you, and not the result of your choice. If you choose with the result in view, that falsifies your choice.

So I say it is playing on words, it is mixing up two different things; and so you ask questions which seem insoluble, for it is a mixture. There is a confusion in the question.

As for treating everybody in the same way, it is a worse confusion still! It is the kind of confusion one makes when one says that the Divine must treat everybody in the same way. So it would not be worth the trouble to have diversity in the world, not worth the trouble of not having two identical individuals; for this contradicts the very principle of diversity.

You may — or you ought to if you can’t — aspire to have the same deep attitude of understanding, unity, love, perfect compassion for all that is in the universe; but this very attitude will be applied to each case in a different way, according to the truth of that case and its necessity. What could be called the motive or rather the origin of the action is the same, but the action may even be totally and diametrically opposite in accordance with the case and the deeper truth of each case. But for that, precisely, one must have the highest attitude, the most profound, the most essentially true, that which is free from all outer contingencies. Then one can see at every minute not only the essential truth but also the truth of the action; and in each case it is different. And yet, what we may call “feeling” — though this is an inadequate word — or the state of consciousness in which one acts, is essentially the same.

But this cannot be understood unless one enters the essential depth of things and sees them from the highest summits. And then it is like a centre of light and consciousness high enough or deep enough to be able to see all things at the same time, not only in their essence but in their manifestation; and although the centre of consciousness is one, the action will be as diverse as the manifestation is diverse: it is the realisation of the divine Truth in its manifestation. Otherwise it would be doing away with all the diversity of the world and bringing it back to the essential unmanifest Oneness, for it is only in the non-manifestation that the One is manifested as the One. But as soon as one enters the manifestation, the One manifests as the multiplicity, and multiplicity implies a multitude of actions and ways.

So, to sum up: the choice must be made without care for the consequences, and the action must be performed in accordance with the truth of the multiplicity in the manifestation.

There we are.

Le 26 décembre 1956

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« Notre tâche n’est pas de toujours répéter ce que l’homme a déjà fait, mais de parvenir à de nouvelles réalisations, à des maîtrises dont nous n’avons pas encore rêvé. Le temps, l’âme et le monde nous sont donnés comme champ d’action ; la vision, l’espoir et l’imagination créatrice nous servent d’inspirateurs ; la volonté, la pensée et le labeur sont nos très efficaces instruments.

Qu’y a-t-il de nouveau que nous ayons à accomplir ? L’Amour, car jusqu’à présent nous n’avons accompli que la haine et notre propre satisfaction ; la Connaissance, car jusqu’à présent nous ne savons que faire erreur, percevoir et concevoir ; la Félicité, car jusqu’à présent nous n’avons trouvé que le plaisir, la douleur et l’indifférence ; le Pouvoir, car jusqu’à présent nous n’avons accompli que la faiblesse, l’effort et une victoire toujours défaite ; la Vie, car jusqu’à présent nous ne savons que naître, grandir et mourir ; l’Unité, car jusqu’à présent nous n’avons accompli que la guerre et l’association.

« En un mot, la divinité : nous refaire à l’image du Divin. »

(Aperçus et Pensées, « Le But »)

Nous n’avons accompli que la faiblesse, l’effort et une « victoire toujours défaite » ?

Jusqu’à présent toutes les victoires que l’on a remportées ont des réactions, qui finalement sont des défaites. Il n’y a jamais rien qui soit définitif et complet. Chaque fois qu’on a l’impression d’avoir remporté une victoire, on s’aperçoit que cette victoire était incomplète, partielle, fugitive. C’est un fait que l’on peut observer toujours si l’on se regarde soigneusement. Non pas que les choses soient nécessairement telles qu’elles étaient auparavant, non, il y a quelque chose de changé ; mais tout n’est pas changé et n’est pas complètement changé.

C’est très visible, très remarquable dans les conquêtes physiques, sur le corps. Par un labeur très assidu on arrive à surmonter une faiblesse, une limitation, une mauvaise habitude, et on croit que cette victoire est une victoire définitive ; mais au bout d’un certain temps, ou quelquefois tout de suite, on s’aperçoit que rien n’est totalement fait, que rien n’est définitif, que ce que l’on croyait avoir accompli est à refaire. Parce que c’est seulement un changement total de conscience et l’intervention d’une force nouvelle, un renversement de la conscience, qui peut faire que la victoire soit complète.

Dans la vieille tradition chaldéenne, il y avait une image que l’on donnait très souvent aux jeunes novices quand on les revêtait de la robe blanche ; on leur disait : « N’essayez pas d’enlever les taches une à une, il faut que la robe tout entière soit purifiée. » N’essayez pas de guérir vos défauts un par un, de surmonter vos faiblesses une par une, cela ne mène pas très loin. C’est la conscience tout entière qui doit changer, c’est un renversement de la conscience qu’il faut obtenir, c’est surgir de l’état dans lequel on est vers un état supérieur d’où l’on domine toutes les faiblesses que l’on veut guérir, et d’où l’on a une vision d’ensemble de l’oeuvre à accomplir.

Je crois que Sri Aurobindo l’a dit : les choses sont telles qu’on peut dire que rien n’est fait à moins que tout ne soit fait. Un pas en avant ne suffit pas, il faut une conversion totale.

Que de fois ai-je entendu ceux qui faisaient effort me dire : « J’essaye, mais à quoi cela sert que j’essaye ? Chaque fois que je crois avoir gagné quelque chose, je m’aperçois qu’il faut encore que je recommence. » C’est parce qu’ils essayent d’avancer en restant sur place, ils essayent de progresser sans changer de conscience. Il faut que le point de vue tout entier soit déplacé, il faut que la conscience tout entière sorte de l’ornière dans laquelle elle se trouve, pour monter au-dessus et voir les choses d’en haut. C’est seulement comme cela que les victoires ne seront pas changées en défaites.

Autre chose ? Non, plus rien ?

Mère, comment changer sa conscience ?

Naturellement il y a beaucoup de moyens, mais chacun doit le faire par le « bout » qui lui est accessible ; et l’indication du moyen vient généralement spontanément, par quelque chose comme une expérience inattendue. Et pour chacun, elle se présente d’une façon un peu différente.

Par exemple, on peut avoir la perception de la conscience ordinaire, qui est répandue en surface, d’une façon horizontale, et qui travaille sur un plan qui est en même temps une surface des choses et qui a un contact avec l’extérieur superficiel des choses, des gens, des circonstances ; et puis tout d’un coup, pour une raison quelconque (je dis, pour chacun c’est différent), il y a un déplacement vers le haut et, au lieu de voir les choses horizontalement, d’être au même niveau qu’elles, tout d’un coup on les domine et on les voit d’en haut, dans leur ensemble, au lieu de ne percevoir qu’un petit nombre de choses qui sont immédiatement proches ; c’est comme si quelque chose vous tirait en haut et vous faisait voir comme du haut d’une montagne, ou d’un aéroplane. Et au lieu de voir le détail et de le voir à son niveau, on voit l’ensemble comme une unité, et de très haut.

Il y a beaucoup de manières d’avoir cette expérience, mais généralement cela vous arrive comme par hasard, un jour.

Ou bien, on peut avoir une expérience qui est presque opposée et qui revient au même. Tout d’un coup, on s’enfonce dans une profondeur, on s’éloigne de la chose que l’on percevait, elle vous paraît lointaine, superficielle, indifférente ; on entre dans un silence intérieur, ou un calme intérieur, ou une vision interne des choses, un sentiment profond, une perception plus intime des circonstances et des choses, où les valeurs changent. Et l’on s’aperçoit d’une sorte d’unité, d’identité profonde, qui est unique malgré les apparences diverses.

Ou bien, tout d’un coup aussi, le sens de la limite disparaît et on entre dans la perception d’une sorte de durée indéfinie, qui n’a ni commencement ni fin, de quelque chose qui a toujours été et qui sera toujours.

Ces expériences-là vous viennent tout d’un coup pour un éclair, une seconde, un moment de votre vie, on ne sait pas pourquoi ni comment... Il y a d’autres moyens, il y a d’autres expériences — elles sont innombrables, elles varient suivant les gens ; mais c’est avec cela, une minute, une seconde de l’existence comme cela, qu’on attrape la queue de la chose. Alors il faut se souvenir de cela, il faut tâcher de le revivre, aller au fond de l’expérience, la rappeler, aspirer, se concentrer. C’est le point de départ, c’est le bout du fil conducteur. Pour tous ceux qui sont destinés à trouver leur être intérieur, la vérité de leur être, il y a toujours au moins un moment de leur vie où ils n’ont plus été les mêmes, peut-être comme un éclair — mais cela suffit. Cela indique le chemin que l’on doit prendre, c’est la porte ouverte sur ce chemin. Et alors il faut passer par la porte, et avec une persévérance, une obstination à toute épreuve, chercher à renouveler un état qui vous mènera vers quelque chose de plus réel et de plus total.

On a toujours donné beaucoup de moyens ; mais un moyen que l’on vous a appris, un moyen que l’on a lu dans les livres ou que l’on a entendu d’un instructeur, n’a pas la valeur efficace d’une expérience spontanée qui est venue sans raison apparente, et qui est tout simplement l’épanouissement de l’éveil de l’âme, une seconde de contact avec son être psychique qui vous indique quel est le meilleur chemin pour vous, quel est celui qui est le plus à votre portée, et qu’il vous faudra suivre alors avec persévérance pour arriver au but — une seconde qui vous indique comment aller, le commencement... Certains ont cela la nuit en rêve ; certains ont cela à une occasion quelconque : quelque chose que l’on voit et qui éveille en vous cette conscience nouvelle, quelque chose que l’on entend, un beau paysage, une belle musique, ou bien simplement quelques mots qu’on lit, ou bien l’intensité de concentration dans un effort — n’importe, il y a mille raisons et mille moyens de l’avoir. Mais je le répète, tous ceux qui sont destinés à réaliser ont eu cela au moins une fois dans leur vie. Cela peut être très fugitif, cela peut être quand ils étaient tout petits, mais toujours on a, une fois dans sa vie au moins, l’expérience de ce que c’est que la vraie conscience. Eh bien, cela, c’est l’indication la meilleure du chemin à suivre.

On peut chercher en soi, on peut se souvenir, on peut observer ; il faut remarquer ce qui se passe ; il faut faire attention, c’est tout. Quelquefois, quand on voit un acte généreux, quand on entend parler de quelque chose d’exceptionnel, quand on est le témoin d’un héroïsme ou d’une générosité ou d’une grandeur d’âme, quand on rencontre quelqu’un qui fait montre d’une capacité spéciale ou qui agit d’une façon exceptionnelle et belle, il y a une sorte d’enthousiasme ou d’admiration, ou de gratitude qui s’éveille tout d’un coup dans l’être et qui ouvre la porte à un état, un état de conscience nouveau, une lumière, une chaleur, une joie que l’on ne connaissait pas. Cela aussi, c’est une façon d’attraper le fil conducteur. Il y a mille façons, il faut seulement être en éveil et observer.

Il faut d’abord concevoir la nécessité de ce changement de conscience, adopter l’idée que c’est cela le chemin qui doit mener vers le but ; et une fois qu’on accepte le principe, alors il faut observer. Et on trouvera, on trouve. Et une fois qu’on a trouvé, alors il faut se mettre à marcher, sans hésitation.

Au fond, le point de départ, c’est de s’observer soi-même, de ne pas vivre dans une nonchalance continue, un laisser-aller continu ; il faut être attentif.

C’est tout ?

(silence)

Il y a ici une question que l’on m’a posée (il paraît que beaucoup de personnes se la posent !). Je vais vous lire ce qui est écrit, puis je vous dirai après. Cela a l’air si convaincant, cette question !

« Que faut-il comprendre par “ne pas avoir de préférence”? Ne doit-on pas avoir de préférence entre l’ordre et le désordre, la propreté et la saleté, etc.? Est‑ce que ne pas avoir de préférences veut dire traiter tout le monde de la même manière? »

Moi, je vous réponds : c’est jouer sur les mots! Ce que vous appelez préférence, moi je l’appelle choix. Il faut être dans un état de choix perpétuel; à chaque minute de votre vie il faut faire un choix entre ce qui vous tire en bas et ce qui vous tire en haut, entre ce qui vous fait progresser et ce qui vous fait aller en arrière ; mais moi, je n’appelle pas cela avoir des préférences, j’appelle cela faire un choix — faire un choix, choisir. À chaque minute il faut choisir, et c’est indispensable, et encore infiniment plus que de choisir une fois pour toutes entre la propreté et la saleté, morale ou physique. Le choix : à chaque seconde le choix est devant vous, et vous pouvez faire un pas vers le bas ou faire un pas vers le haut, faire un pas en arrière ou faire un pas en avant ; et cet état de choix doit être constant, perpétuel, vous ne devez jamais vous endormir. Mais ce n’est pas cela que j’appelle avoir des préférences. Les préférences, c’est justement de ne pas choisir. Il y a une chose pour laquelle vous avez de la sympathie ou de l’antipathie, de la répulsion ou de l’attrait, et aveuglément, sans raison, vous vous attachez à cette chose ; ou bien quand vous avez un problème à résoudre, la solution de ce problème ou de cette difficulté, vous préférez qu’elle soit de cette façon ou de cette autre. Mais cela, ce n’est pas du tout choisir — n’est‑ce pas, la chose la plus vraie, il n’en est pas question, il est question d’avoir une préférence. Pour moi, le mot a un sens très clair : une préférence, c’est une chose aveugle, c’est une impulsion, un attachement, un mouvement qui est inconscient, et qui est généralement terriblement obstiné.

Vous êtes mis en présence de certaines circonstances ; il peut arriver une chose ou une autre et vous-même, vous avez une aspiration, vous demandez à être guidé, mais au-dedans de vous il y a quelque chose qui préfère que la réponse soit comme cela, que l’indication soit comme cela, ou que l’événement se produise d’une façon plutôt que d’une autre ; mais cela, ce n’est pas une question de choix, c’est une préférence. Et cette préférence fait que, quand la réponse à votre aspiration ou à votre prière n’est pas en accord avec votre désir, vous vous sentez malheureux, vous avez de la difficulté à l’accepter, il faut que vous vous battiez pour l’accepter. Tandis que si vous êtes sans préférences, quelle que soit la réponse à votre aspiration, au moment où elle vient, joyeusement, spontanément vous adhérez, dans un élan sincère. Autrement, vous êtes obligé de faire un effort pour accepter ce qui arrive, la décision qui vient en réponse à votre aspiration ; vous voulez, vous désirez, vous préférez que les choses soient comme ceci et non comme cela. Mais cela, ce n’est pas un choix. Le choix, c’est à chaque minute ; à chaque minute vous êtes mis en présence d’un choix : le choix de monter ou le choix de descendre, le choix de progresser ou de reculer. Mais ce choix n’implique pas que vous préfériez que les choses soient comme ceci ou comme cela : c’est un fait de chaque minute, une attitude que vous prenez.

Le choix est une décision et une action. La préférence, c’est un désir. Le choix est fait et doit être fait, et si c’est vraiment un choix, il est fait sans se soucier des conséquences, sans attendre aucun résultat. Vous avez choisi ; vous avez choisi selon votre vérité intérieure, selon votre conscience la plus haute ; quoi qu’il arrive, cela ne vous regarde pas, vous avez fait votre choix, le vrai choix, et ce qu’il en arrivera, cela ne vous concerne pas. Tandis qu’au contraire, si vous avez des préférences, c’est la préférence qui vous fera choisir d’une manière ou d’une autre, c’est la préférence qui déformera votre choix : ce sera le calcul, ce sera le marchandage, vous agirez avec l’idée que telle chose doit arriver, parce que c’est cela que vous préférez et non parce que c’est cela la vérité, la chose vraie à faire. La préférence s’attache au résultat, agit en vue d’un résultat, veut que les choses soient de telle manière et agit pour qu’elles soient de telle manière ; et alors cela ouvre la porte à n’importe quoi. Le choix est indépendant du résultat. Et certainement, à chaque minute on peut choisir, on est mis devant la nécessité de choisir à chaque seconde. Et on ne choisit vraiment bien, en toute sincérité, que quand c’est la vérité du choix qui vous intéresse, et non le résultat de votre choix. Si vous choisissez en vue d’un résultat, cela fausse votre choix.

Alors je dis que c’est jouer sur les mots, c’est mélanger deux choses différentes ; et puis vous posez des questions qui paraissent insolubles parce que c’est un mélange. La confusion est dans la question.

Quant à traiter tout le monde de la même façon, c’est encore une bien pire confusion ! C’est le genre de confusion que l’on fait quand on dit que le Divin doit traiter tout le monde de la même façon. Alors cela ne vaudrait pas la peine qu’il y ait de la diversité dans le monde, cela ne vaudrait pas la peine qu’il n’y ait pas deux individus pareils ; parce que c’est la contradiction du principe de diversité.

Vous pouvez — ou vous devriez si vous ne pouvez pas — aspirer à avoir la même attitude profonde, de compréhension, d’unité, d’amour, de compassion parfaite pour tout ce qui est dans l’univers ; mais cette même attitude s’appliquera dans chaque cas d’une façon différente, selon la vérité du cas et la nécessité du cas. Ce que l’on pourrait appeler le mobile, ou plutôt l’origine de l’action est la même, mais l’action peut être même totalement et diamétralement opposée suivant les cas et la vérité profonde du cas. Mais pour cela justement, il faut avoir l’attitude la plus haute, la plus profonde, la plus vraie essentiellement, celle qui est libérée de toutes les contingences extérieures. Alors on peut percevoir à chaque minute non seulement la vérité essentielle, mais aussi la vérité de l’action ; et dans chaque cas elle est différente. Et pourtant, ce que nous pouvons appeler le « sentiment » (quoique ce soit un mot incomplet) ou l’état de conscience dans lequel on agit est essentiellement le même.

Mais cela ne peut se comprendre que si l’on entre dans la profondeur essentielle des choses et qu’on les voie depuis la hauteur supérieure. Et alors, c’est comme un centre de lumière et de conscience, qui est assez haut ou assez profond pour pouvoir voir toutes les choses en même temps, non pas dans leur essence seulement, mais dans leur manifestation ; et quoique le centre de conscience soit unique, l’action sera aussi diverse que la manifestation est diverse : c’est la réalisation de la Vérité divine dans sa manifestation. Autrement, c’est supprimer toute la diversité du monde et le ramener à l’Unité essentielle non manifestée, parce que c’est seulement dans la non-manifestation que l’Un se manifeste par l’Un. Mais dès que l’on entre dans la manifestation, l’Un se manifeste par la multiplicité, et la multiplicité implique la multitude d’action et de moyens.

Alors, pour résumer : le choix doit être fait sans souci des conséquences, et l’action doit être faite suivant la vérité de la multiplicité de la manifestation.

Voilà.

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