Questions and Answers 1955
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Questions and Answers 1955
5 January Attunement of the outer nature 1 
Hostile forces try to delay transformation 2 Knowledge of the future and action 3 Coué’s system: autosuggestion 3
12 January Questioning and resistance increase difficulties 8
Right spirit in which to face difficulties 9 Depression and progress 10 Ego, individual and collective 11 Purification of experience 13
19 January The role of the higher mind 15
Hostile forces and progress 15 Catastrophes, their cause; resistance 16 Function of the hostile forces; boasting 17 Self-regarding vanity and hostile forces 19 Well-developed psychic being and outer nature 20
26 January Suicide, reasons for and effects of 23
Pleasure in loud noises; boredom 24 Cowardice and tamas 25 Story of animal-tamer; courage and fear 26 Animals and fear 28 Courage during war 30 True courage 31
2 February Right attitude 32
The body needed for sadhana 32 Progress possible only in the body; suicide 33 Experiences never identically repeated 34
9 February Desire is contagious; its source 37
Primitive form of love 38 True joy is desireless; the artist’s delight 38 Lady at the opera practising Buddhism 39 Psychic need; mind as an instrument 41 How the psychic being expresses itself 42 Distinguishing the parts of one’s being 43 The psychic guides the mind, vital and physical 44 Illness: body and mind connected 44 Ultra-modern painting; coloured photographs 45 Stained glass; Mother’s vision 48
16 February Losing something given by Mother 49
Using things well 50 Sadhak collecting soap-pieces 51 What things are truly indispensable 52 Nature’s harmonious arrangement 53 Riches a curse; philanthropy 54 Misuse of things creates misery 56
23 February The sense of taste; educating the senses 57
Fasting; drawing energy 60 The body and food 62
2 March Right spirit; aspiration and desire 64
Sleep and yogic repose; how to sleep 65 Remembering dreams 67 Concentration and outer activity 68 Mother opens the door inside everyone 69 Error of the lower vital 70 Sleep, a school for inner knowledge 70 Source of energy 71
9 March Psychic directly contacted through the physical 74
Transforming egoistic movements 75 Work of the psychic being 76 Contacting the psychic and the Divine 77 Experiences of different kinds 79 Attacks of adverse forces 80 Ugly forms seen in meditation 81
16 March Rejecting and transforming wrong movements 83
Destiny after death; reincarnation of the psychic 86 Light of Truth burns dark insincerities 88 Mental inconsistencies and contradictions 91 Ideas, a collective wealth; pure idea 92 Religions, partial realisation 93
23 March Procedure for rejection and transformation 94
Learning by heart; true understanding 95 Vibrations, movements of the species 96 A cat and a Russian peasant woman 97 A cat doing yoga 98
30 March Yoga-shakti 101
Energies of the earth; higher and lower 102 Illness; curing by yogic means 103 The true self and the psychic 104 Solving difficulties by different methods 105
6 April Freud’s psychoanalysis; the subliminal being 107
The psychic and the subliminal 108 True psychology 111 Changing the lower nature 113 Faith in different parts of the being 114 Psychic contact established in all in the Ashram 116
13 April Psychoanalysts with their torch-lights 117
The “underground super-ego”; dreams 118 Dreams, sleep, control of night-activities 118 Archetypes, Overmind and higher 121 Dream of someone dying, its meaning 122 Recurring dreams 123 Integral repose, entering Sachchidananda 124 Organising one’s life; concentration; repose 125
27 April Symbolic dreams and visions 127
Curing pain by various methods 128 Different states of consciousness 131 Seeing oneself dead in a dream 132 Exteriorisation 133
4 May Drawing on the universal vital forces 135
The inner physical 137 Receptivity to different kinds of forces 138 Progress and receptivity 139
11 May Immunity of the body to attacks 141
The subconscient; changing it 141 Illness; preventing it 141 Supramental nature in the body 146 Transforming pain into pleasure 147 Collective illness in the Ashram 149
18 May “The Problem of Woman” 151
Men and women 153 The Supreme Mother; the new creation 154 Gods and goddesses 156 A story of Creation; earth 157 Nature employs sex as a means for evolution 159 What is Nature? Matter on other planets 160 Psychic being only on earth; beings everywhere 161 Going to other worlds by occult means 163 The range of the senses 164
25 May Religion and reason 166
Reason: its true role and field 167 Reason, an obstacle to or minister of the Spirit 170 Developing the reason 170 Reason prepares the path 174 Learning how to live; the élite 175 Reason controls and organises life 175 Nature is infrarational, man has reason 176
1 June The aesthetic conscience 179
Beauty and form 181 The roots of our life 181 The sense of beauty 182 Educating the aesthetic sense; taste 182 Man who preached “the morality of Nature” 183 Mental constructions based on a revelation 184 Changing the world and humanity 185 Modern painting; art, old and new 186
8 June Working for the Divine and personal motives 189
The ideal attitude is a perfect consecration 190 The Divine manifesting on earth 191 Reversal of consciousness; knowing oneself 192 Integral progress; facing difficulties 195 People in the Ashram 197 The decision to do Yoga 199 Ashram children given exceptional freedom 199
15 June Dynamic realisation; transformation 201
The negative and positive side of experience 202 The image of the dry coconut fruit 203 Purusha, Prakriti, the Divine Mother 204 The Truth-Creation; Pralaya 205 We are in a transitional period 207
22 June Awakening the Yoga-shakti 208
The thousand-petalled lotus 209 Reading: how far a help for yoga 210 Simple and complicated combinations in men 212
29 June The true vital and true physical 214
Time and Space 216 The psychic’s memory of former lives 218 The psychic organises one’s life 218 The psychic’s knowledge and direction 219
6 July The psychic and the central being or jivatman 223
Unity and multiplicity in the Divine 223 Having experiences and the ego 225 Mental, vital and physical exteriorisation 226 Imagination has a formative power 227 The function of the imagination 228 The universe is progressive 230
13 July Cosmic spirit and cosmic consciousness 232 
The wall of ignorance; unity and separation 233 Aspiration to understand, to know, to be 235 The Divine is in the essence of one’s being 236 Oneness and multiplicity through division 237 Realising desires through the imaginaton 237 Realising things by self-giving to Divine Grace 239
20 July The Impersonal Divine 240
Escaping from the influence of others 241 Surrender to the Divine brings perfect freedom 242 “The Divine gives Himself”: its meaning 243 The Impersonal Divine; Nirvana 244 The principle of the inner dimensions 245 The paths of aspiration and surrender 246 Linear and spherical paths and realisations 247
27 July Concentration on the heart-centre 248
Rising beyond the mind 248 Mistaking vital feelings for the psychic 249 “To dry up the heart” 249 Concentrate, concentrate, concentrate 250 Knowing what one’s consciousness is 250 Assimilation and dispersion 252 Mother’s work at the Balcony Darshan and in the Playground 253
The March Past and the Marching 255 Heroism in the First World War 256
3 August Nothing is impossible in principle 258
Psychic contact and psychic influence 260 Occult powers; adverse influences; magic 260 Magic, occultism and Yogic powers 261 Hypnotism and its effects 263
10 August How to meditate 265
17 August Vertical ascent and horizontal opening 266
Liberation of the psychic being 266 Images for discovery of the psychic being 267 Sadhana to contact the psychic being 269
24 August Concentrating on photographs of Mother 271
Self-awareness; kinds of meditation 272 Concentration and meditation 272 Contemplation and concentration 273 Poetry is the sensuousness of the spirit 274 Beauty and truth in poetry 275 Inspiration and men of genius 276 Silence; inner state and in things 277 Living withdrawn from the surface existence 278
31 August Choosing the work in sadhana 280
Education; learning through experience 282 Never make rules 282 True rest is an ascent into the Light 283 Reading “Classics Illustrated” 283 Vulgarisation of everything in modern times 284
7 September Work, a school of experience 287
Life as an illusion: Buddha and Shankara 288 Action expressing an inner realisation 289 Avatars of Vishnu and Shiva; Buddha 292 Taking interest in things; vulgarity 293 Modern world: perversion and vulgarity 295 Cinema as an instrument of education 295
14 September Politics and finance 297
“The Great Secret”; its purpose 299 World politics; America and Russia 300 The evolutionary curve 301 The Divine working during war 302 India’s role in the world 303
21 September Literature and the taste for forms 304
The characters of “The Great Secret” 304 How literature helps us to progress 305 Reading to learn; cheap, vulgar books 306 The commercial mentality 306 How to choose one’s books 308 Learning to enrich one’s possibilities 309 The attitude and general condition of men 309
5 October Science and Ignorance 312
Knowledge, science and the Buddha 313 Knowing by identification 315 Discipline in science and in Buddhism 316 Progress in the mental field and beyond it 317
12 October The problem of transformation 319
Evolution; man and superman 320 Awakening need of a higher good 322 Sri Aurobindo and earth’s history 323 Setting foot on the new path 323 The transformation of animality 324
The true reality of the universe 326 Evolution; man, superman, the new race 327 Mutual attitude of man and superman 328
19 October The rhythms of time 332
The lotus of knowledge and perfection 334 Potential knowledge 335
The teguments of the soul 336 Shastra and the Guru’s direct teaching 337 “He who chooses the Infinite...” 338
26 October The Divine and the universal Teacher 341
The power of the Word 341 The Creative Word; the mantra 342 Sound, music in other worlds 345 The domains of pure form, colour and ideas 345
2 November The first movement in Yoga 349
Interiorisation; finding one’s soul 350 The Vedic Age 352 An incident about Vivekananda 353 The imaged language of the Vedas 354 The Vedic Rishis; involutionary beings 355 Involution and evolution 356
9 November Personal effort; egoistic mind 358
Man is like a public square; Nature’s work 360 Ego needed for formation of individual 361 Adverse forces needed to make man sincere 361 Determinisms of different planes; miracles 361
16 November The significance of numbers 363
Numbers; astrology; true knowledge 364 “Divine’s Love” flowers for Kali puja 365 Is personal effort egoistic? 366 Desire, aspiration and progress 368
Determining one’s approach to the Divine 369 Liberation is obtained through austerities 371 An Old Chaldean Legend 373
23 November One reality, multiple manifestations 374
Integral Yoga: approach by all paths 375 The supreme man and the divine man 375 Miracles and the logic of events 376
30 November Time as a friend or enemy; forces of Nature 380
Rain and snow in Algeria 381 Stopping rain at the Ashram 384 Work for integral perfection 386 Ashram criticised by ignorant outsiders 386
Mme. David-Neel 387 False idea of superiority 387 How can one become indifferent to criticism? 390 Acting without attachment to results 391
7 December Emotional impulse of self-giving 394
A young dancer in France 394 The heart has wings, not the head 396 Only joy can conquer the Adversary 397
14 December Rejection of life as illusion in the old Yogas 400
Fighting the adverse forces 401 Universal and individual being 402 Three stages in Integral Yoga 402 How to feel the Divine Presence constantly 403
21 December Integral Yoga and collective sadhana 408
The formation of the Ashram 409 Yoga of transformation: collective work 410 Ashram children and yoga 411 Miraculous interventions in human history 413 Capacities and difficulties in human nature 414 Intensification of difficulties 415
28 December Aspiration in different parts of the being 417
Enthusiasm and gratitude 418 Aspiration is in all beings 419 Unlimited power of good; evil has a limit 419 Progress in the parts of the being 420 The physical being and progress 421 Significance of a dream 422