Questions and Answers 1929 – 1931
with Commentaries on the Dhammapada
(Sahana:) “On Sunday evenings [the Mother] went to Dilip's house where an English lady from London, named Miss Maitland, was also accommodated. She had come to spend six months in the Ashram – she used to attend the Sunday meetings and ask the Mother whatever questions she had and get replies from her. Besides Maitland the group was made up of Nolini, Doraiswamy Iyyer (a Madras-advocate then visiting the Ashram every week-end), the American Vaun Macpheeters and his wife Jeanette (renamed Shantimayi here), Pavitra, Dilip and myself. The Mother started with a meditation, sometimes on a particular topic, and enquired at the end of the meditation what its result was in each individual. Then followed questions and answers, which were recorded in shorthand by Shantimayi. This phase begun on 7th April 1929 and lasted fifteen weeks.”[1]
Questions and Answers 1929
7 April |
Yoga: for the sake of the Divine |
1 |
|
|
Concentration |
1
|
|
Preparations for Yoga: to be conscious |
2
|
|
Yoga and humanity |
2
|
|
“We have all met in previous lives” |
3
|
14 April |
Dangers of Yoga |
4 |
|
|
Two paths: tapasya and surrender |
4
|
|
Impulses, desires and Yoga |
5
|
|
Difficulties |
6
|
|
Unification around the psychic being |
7
|
|
Ambition: the undoing of many Yogis |
7
|
|
Powers: misuse and right use of |
7
|
|
How to recognise the Divine Will |
8
|
|
Vital devotion |
10
|
|
Need of a strong body and nerves |
10
|
|
Inner being: invariable |
12
|
21 April |
Visions: seeing and interpretation |
13 |
|
|
Dreams and dreamland |
14
|
|
Dreamless sleep |
16
|
|
Visions and formulation |
16
|
|
Surrender: passive and of the will |
18
|
|
Meditation and progress |
20
|
|
Entering the spiritual life |
21
|
28 April |
Offering: general and detailed |
23 |
|
|
Integral Yoga |
24
|
|
Remembrance of the Divine |
25
|
|
Reading and Yoga |
27
|
|
Necessity; predetermination |
28
|
|
Freedom |
29
|
|
Miracles |
31
|
|
Aim of creation |
31
|
5 May |
Intellect: true and wrong movement |
33 |
|
|
Attacks from adverse forces |
33
|
|
Faith: integral and absolute |
36
|
|
Death: not a necessity |
36
|
|
Descent of Divine Consciousness |
38
|
|
Inner progress |
39
|
|
Memory of former lives |
40
|
12 May |
Beings of the vital world (vampires) |
42 |
|
|
Money power and vital beings |
45
|
|
Capacity for manifestation of will |
46
|
|
Entry into the vital world |
47
|
|
Body: a protection |
47
|
|
Individuality and the vital world |
48
|
19 May |
Mind and its workings; thought-forms |
50 |
|
|
Adverse conditions and Yoga |
53
|
|
Mental constructions |
53
|
|
Illness and Yoga |
55
|
26 May |
Individual; illusion of separateness |
58 |
|
|
Hostile forces and the mental plane |
60
|
|
Psychic world; psychic being |
62
|
|
“Spiritual” and “psychic” |
63
|
|
Words; understanding speech and reading |
64
|
|
Hostile forces, their utility |
66
|
|
Illusion of action; true action |
66
|
2 June |
Divine love and its manifestation |
69 |
|
|
Part of the vital being in Divine love |
72
|
9 June |
Nature of religion |
76 |
|
|
Religion and the spiritual life |
77
|
|
Descent of Divine Truth and Force |
79
|
|
Religion, country, family |
81
|
|
Religion and numbers |
83
|
16 June |
Illness and Yoga |
85 |
|
|
Subtle body (nervous envelope) |
89
|
|
Fear and illness |
90
|
23 June |
Knowledge of the Yogi |
92 |
|
|
Knowledge and the Supermind |
94
|
|
Changing the condition of the body |
96
|
|
Meditation; aspiration; sincerity |
97
|
30 June |
Repulsion felt towards certain animals, etc. |
100 |
|
|
Source of evil; Formateurs |
102
|
|
Material world |
102
|
28 July |
Art and Yoga |
104 |
|
|
Art and life |
108
|
|
Music, dance |
110
|
|
World of Harmony |
112
|
4 August |
Surrender and sacrifice |
114 |
|
|
Personality and surrender |
116
|
|
Desire and passion |
117
|
|
Spirituality and morality |
118
|
Questions and Answers 1930-1931
|
The Ordinary Life and the True Soul |
123 |
|
|
Surrender, Self-offering and Consecration |
126 |
|
|
Renunciation |
128 |
|
|
Aspiration in the Physical for the Divine’s Love |
130 |
|
|
Aspiration in Plants |
132 |
|
|
Union with the Divine Consciousness and Will |
133 |
|
|
Endurance — the Vital’s Hunger for Praise — Signs of the Converted Vital |
136 |
|
|
Victory over Falsehood |
141 |
|
|
Difficulties in Yoga |
143 |
|
|
Vital Conversion — Rebirth and Personal Survival |
144 |
|
|
Resurrection |
147 |
|
|
Reincarnation — Memory of Past Lives |
148 |
|
|
Psychic Presence and Psychic Being — Real Origin of Race Superiority |
150 |
|
|
Faith |
152 |
|
|
Power of Right Attitude |
154 |
|
|
Power of Imagination |
156 |
|
|
Selfless Admiration |
158 |
|
|
Stepping Back |
160 |
 |
|
|
Knowledge of the Scientist and the Yogi |
161 |
|
|
Chance |
163 |
|
|
Different Kinds of Space and Time — Fearlessness on the Vital Plane |
165 |
|
|
Knowledge by Unity with the Divine — The Divine Will in the World |
167 |
|
|
Supermind and Overmind |
173 |
|
|
True Humility — Supramental Plasticity — Spiritual Rebirth |
175 |
|
|
The Supramental Realisation |
178 |
|
|
The Supramental Descent |
180 |
|
On the Dhammapada
|
Conjugate Verses |
183 |
|
|
Vigilance |
202 |
|
|
The Mind |
210 |
|
|
The Flowers |
213 |
|
|
The Fool |
216 |
|
|
The Sage |
219 |
|
|
The Adept |
223 |
|
|
The Thousands |
226 |
|
|
Evil |
229 |
|
|
Punishment |
233 |
|
|
Old Age |
237 |
|
|
The Ego |
239 |
|
|
The World |
243 |
|
|
The Awakened One |
246 |
|
|
Happiness |
252 |
|
|
Pleasure |
255 |
|
|
Anger |
258 |
|
|
Impurity |
261 |
|
|
The Just Man |
266 |
|
|
The Path |
270 |
|
|
Miscellany |
274 |
|
|
Niraya (Hell) |
277 |
|
|
The Elephant |
280 |
|
|
Craving |
284 |
|
|
The Bhikkhu |
288 |
|
|
The Brahmin |
292 |
|
Appendix to Questions and Answers 1929 |
|
Notes are paraphrased from the “Publisher's Note” and “Note on the Texts”.