Sri Aurobindo: The Mother approves or disapproves what is suggested or suggests something herself or changes what is proposed. Work done in this way is as much work done according to the Mother’s will as anything initiated, thought of and planned in whole and detail by her alone. I do not quite understand why you should consider that this way of work implies an absence of unity with the Mother’s will or of surrender on your part. It is the offering within you that is important and brings in time the full completeness of surrender.


Sri Aurobindo: I do not quite understand on what you want the. If it is about embroidery, I have said that to follow the existing arrangement, viz., when you have the will or the inspiration to do some work of embroidery, then to put it before the Mother and take her sanction or ask for her decision, is quite a right way to work according to the Mother’s will; it is not at all inconsistent with surrender. But if you prefer to leave everything to the Mother and not suggest or propose anything yourself, you can do that.  Mother only asked me to write to you about the way things are usually done, because as she is not in the habit of thinking herself about these things, it is not as easy for her to remember and think out something as to decide upon suggestions put before her.


Sri Aurobindo:   The Mother can give indications and open out possibilities [], but if the mind interferes and if they are not followed up, what can be done?  Now that the Granary has moved to a building which belongs to the Mother and has been repaired at much expense, it is necessary that there should be someone among its inmates charged with seeing to the place and to the proper order and maintenance of things there — a manager. The Mother wishes you to take up the charge of manager. You will see to the observance of the general rules that have to be followed if the house is to be maintained in good condition and also to all matters pertaining to the management.


Sri Aurobindo: Whenever you are in doubt, you can refer or report to the Mother. I trust you will ﬁnd that all the inmates when they know of the Mother’s wishes will sincerely cooperate with you in seeing that all goes well and in an orderly way in the Ganapati House.    I do not agree. It is impossible to maintain order if one is indulgent to everybody and strictness is indispensable.


Sri Aurobindo: That is what Mother found when she was herself looking after the work; indulgence only brought absolute disorder, people became entirely selﬁsh, undisciplined, taking every advantage they could.  I do not see either how a system of indulgence to the moods of the women is likely to help their sadhana, — it is likely rather to nourish what is wayward and exacting in them. If they do not learn discipline and self-control, on what basis can they build their sadhana and character?   It is not physically possible for the Mother to give the work direct to each worker and exercise a direct control, so that physically as well as inwardly he may offer it to her. For every department there must be a head who consults her in all important matters and reports everything to her, but in minor matters he need not always come for a previous decision — that is not possible.


Sri Aurobindo: is there in the B. D. as the head because he is a qualiﬁed engineer.  That is a necessity of outward organisation which is unavoidable here as elsewhere and has to be accepted if the work is to be done. But it does not mean that or any other head is to be considered as a superior person or that one has to surrender to his ego. One has to get rid of his own ego as far as possible and regard the work done under whatever conditions as an offering to the Mother.    is not wrong in giving importance to persons.


Sri Aurobindo: It is quite true that the work would go on if the persons now in charge were not there and others were in their place, but in most cases it would go on badly or at least worse than now and there would be no certainty that those others would be adequate instruments of the Mother’s will. For the work of the charge of departments for instance done by men like,,, there is needed a combination of qualities, a special capacity, a personality and the power of control called organisation and above all ﬁdelity and obedience to the Mother’s will, the faith in her perceptions and the desire to carry them out. It is not many in the Asram who have that combination. Before the Mother took up directly through the work, now concentrated in Aroum´e and the granaries, all was confusion, disorder, waste, self-indulgence, disregard of the Mother’s will. Now though things are far from perfect, because the workers are not at all perfect, still all that is changed.


Sri Aurobindo: In that change your presence in the kitchen and’s in the granary has counted for much; without you there it would have been far more difﬁcult to realise the organisation of things the Mother wanted and in these two parts of the work it might even have been impossible. The Divine Will is there but it works through persons and there is a great difference between one instrument and another — that is why the person can be of so much importance.    In fact, if and a few others had not made themselves the instruments of the Mother and helped her to reorganise the whole material side of the Asram, the Asram would have collapsed long ago under the weight of a frightful mismanagement, waste, selfindulgence, disorder, chaotic self-will and disobedience. He and they faced unpopularity and hatred in order to help her to save it.


Sri Aurobindo: It was the Mother who selected the heads for her purpose in order to organise the whole; all the lines of the work, all the details were arranged by her and the heads trained to observe her methods and it was only afterwards that she stepped back and let the whole thing go on on her lines but with a watchful eye always.  The heads are carrying out her policy and instructions and report everything to her and she often modiﬁes what they do when she thinks ﬁt. Their action is not perfect, because they themselves are not yet perfect and they are also hampered by the ego of the workers and the sadhaks. But nothing can be perfect so long as the sadhaks and the workers do not come to the realisation that they are not here for their ego and self-indulgence of their vital and physical demands but for a high and exacting Yoga of which the ﬁrst aim is the destruction of desire and the substitution for it of the Divine Truth and the Divine Will.


Sri Aurobindo:   From the letters you write about there can be only one conclusion that his behaviour is the cause of all the trouble, a constant cause of friction and disturbance. If that is so, the only way is to withdraw him from the kitchen so that there may be peace and things may go on there more smoothly. If you are so upset by his conduct and ways of action and all he does is wrong and disturbing, so much so that also gets upset and you want to be relieved of the work or go home, there is no other course possible. We have no other reason for withdrawing him than this — for personally the Mother has had no reason to complain of his management of the work.


Sri Aurobindo: But there must be some solution for this constant friction and trouble. If on the other hand the trouble lies in yourself, then it is that that must be put right and there is no use in these letters full of complaints against his behaviour; for then you should bear whatever trouble comes as quietly as possible and concentrate on receiving the Mother’s force to cure you. It must be one course or the other.  My proposal made by the Mother to was that he should now withdraw from the work he is doing in the kitchen so as to diminish the causes of friction and even as head of the Aroum´e interfere with your work as little as possible, leaving you to do things in your own way. If that is not done, something at least must be arrived at which would be a clear understanding and a practicable arrangement.


Sri Aurobindo: It seems to me that as you have been doing the work so long, there ought not to be so many occasions for telling you what to do. But I am writing to him telling him what you say about his telling you plainly what to do; he and you must talk it over and arrange it and must let us know clearly what is proposed to be done.     spoke to the Mother this evening about the proposal of more work in the kitchen for you. But before that we had received your letter and what you write makes it necessary to make certain things precise and clear.


Sri Aurobindo: I gather that what you want is to be independent in your work, taking from what you need, and after a time improve the cooking according to your own ideas. But this is not the understanding with which you were given the work and it is not possible. The understanding is that you do the work with the materials given you and nothing more, as you are doing now. Also you seem to say that you will ﬁnd it difﬁcult to work under the control of and will resent it if in a clash with him Mother upholds him against you. In that case it is better not to go farther with the proposal of extending your work.


Sri Aurobindo: For there has been too much clash and disharmony already in the D. R. and kitchen and the Mother wants no more, especially as a more harmonious working has been established after long difﬁculty.  The arrangements of the work are not’s but the Mother’s.  Several years ago she put him at the head of the food departments and organised them through him according to her own will not only in general but in detail. All changes since then have been made in the same way. He is there so that she may exercise through him her single control over all the work.


Sri Aurobindo: It is the same system in all the departments and it cannot be changed. There has been much resistance owing to the wish of the workers to be independent, to impose each his own ideas and arrangements, and to resentment against the control of the head of the department. But all that could only lead to friction and clash of ideas and clash of egos and constant disturbance. The Mother has succeeded ﬁnally in getting rid of that and imposing some amount of harmony and discipline. It is not therefore a question of’s independent control but of the Mother’s control of the work through the person chosen by her.


Sri Aurobindo: I may remind you of what I wrote about the spirit in which work should be done to be helpful for sadhana. It has to be done as an offering, without vital egoism or assertion of self-will, as the Mother’s work and not one’s own, to carry out her ideas and will and not one’s own. It is work done in that spirit that opens the vital to her and allows her Force to work in the being and the nature.


Sri Aurobindo: We did not say that you must do tells you; but if you work under anyone who is the head of the department ( or another), the work must be done according to his instructions, as he is responsible.  The work itself is the Mother’s and it is the Mother who gives you the work.  The suggestion to go, like the desires which support it, come from adverse forces. If you take the right attitude of self-giving, all that will disappear.  You need not mind’s quick temper.


Sri Aurobindo: Remind yourself always it is Mother’s work you are doing and if you do it as well as you can, remembering her, the Mother’s Grace will be with you.  That is the right spirit for the worker, and if you do it in that spirit, a calm consecration will come.     Union in the Mother.


Sri Aurobindo:   Everybody says his report or account is true and all the others are liars. Our experience is that each pulls his own way and arranges the facts in his own mind so as to be most convenient for his own case. But that is not the point. The point is that the rules laid down by the Mother must be kept in the spirit as well as the letter.


Sri Aurobindo:   Do not allow yourself to be grieved or discouraged. Human beings have unfortunately the habit of being unkind to each other. But if you do your work in all sincerity, the Mother will be satisﬁed and all the rest will come afterwards.


Sri Aurobindo:   It is quite impossible to take you away from the kitchen and leave the others to work in your place. Such a solution would be very bad for you, for it would mean your losing a work in which the Mother’s force has been long with you and sitting in your room with your thoughts which will not be helpful or according to your active nature. It would be very bad too for the kitchen; your place cannot be ﬁlled by anyone else there, however well they may work in their own limits — none of them could be trusted with the responsibility the Mother has given to you.


Sri Aurobindo: The difﬁculties you have are the difﬁculties which are met in each department and ofﬁce of the Asram. It is due to the imperfections of the sadhaks, to their vital nature. You are mistaken in thinking that it is due to your presence there and that if you withdrew all would go smoothly. The same state of things would go on among themselves, disagreements, quarrels, jealousies, hard words, harsh criticisms of each other. ’s or any other’s complaints against you are because you are ﬁrm and careful in your management; there are the same or similar complaints against and others who discharge their trust given to them by the Mother scrupulously and well.


Sri Aurobindo: There are against them the same murmurs and jealousies as are directed against you in the kitchen because of their position and their exercise of it. It would be no solution for or others trusted by the Mother to withdraw and leave the place to those who would discharge the duty less scrupulously and less well. It is the same with you and the kitchen work; it is not the way out. The way out can only come by a change in the character of the sadhaks brought about by the process of the sadhana. Till then you should understand and be patient and not allow yourself to be disturbed by the wrong behaviour of the others, but remain quietly doing your best, anchoring yourself on the trust and support given you by  and the Mother.


Sri Aurobindo: It is the Mother’s work and the Mother is there to support you in doing it; put your reliance on that and do not allow the rest to affect you.    All that has happened between you and, as described by you, are triﬂes and a little good sense and good will on both sides should be enough to deprive them of importance and to get over any slight disturbance they may create. Quarrels take place and endure because both sides think the other is in the wrong and has behaved ill; but neither side can be in the right in a vital quarrel. The very fact of quarrelling like that puts both in the wrong.


Sri Aurobindo: Moreover, it is not right to be so sensitive about being dominated or controlled. In the work especially one must accept the control of anyone whom the Mother puts in charge, so far as the work goes. In other matters, one can keep one’s due independence without breaking off relations or any kind of quarrel.  There would be no use in changing your work or your residence, even if it were possible under the circumstances. It is the inner attitude that has to be kept right, the will to harmony must be fully established.


Sri Aurobindo: A change of work is not the remedy. The idea of a good atmosphere or bad atmosphere in the house is also a thing not to be indulged. One must create one’s own atmosphere not penetrable by other inﬂuences and one can always do that by union and closeness to the Mother.    But why allow the behaviour of others to affect you so much?


Sri Aurobindo: To go on with your work as if nothing had happened is all right and a progress in the right direction, but inwardly also nothing should be affected.  You must never think or imagine that the Mother is not looking towards you with love and blessing or that she can for a moment turn her face away from you. You are her child and her love is steadfast towards you.    I wrote that your letter showed an attack of the old consciousness because of its tone: “I will not bear these things — it is better for me to go away from here etc.”


Sri Aurobindo: These are the old suggestions, not the attitude of your inner being which was to give yourself and leave all to the Mother. The attitude of your inner being must also extend to your attitude to these outer things — knowing that whatever imperfections there are have to be worked out from within by each one, just as your own imperfections have to be worked out from within yourself by the Mother’s aid and working in you.  That is with regard to your former letter. As to the present — to say what you see is all right but there is also in what you write a judgment passed upon what you see. These judgments you have expressed in a statement of what you think to be’s wrong motives, actions and mistakes.


Sri Aurobindo: You put these statements and judgments before the Mother — for what? That she may take some action? But for that she must form her own judgment, and this she cannot do without facts, precise facts — she cannot act on a general statement by anyone. It is only if the person whom blindly trusts is named that she can judge whether  is making a mistake in trusting him. If he listens to certain people and not to others, she must know who these people are and what are the circumstances in which he does that; then only can she judge whether he is right or wrong in doing so.


Sri Aurobindo: So with everything. Many general statements have been made against by others, but whenever it has come to particulars in dispute, Mother has seen that it is only sometimes in details that she had to change what he decided, his general management was in accordance with what she had laid down for him as the lines to follow. Ways of speech, defects of character, errors of judgment in particulars, these are a different matter. Each one has them and, as I have often said, they must be changed from within;  but I am speaking of outer things, particular actions, particular ways of doing things.


Sri Aurobindo: There she must be told with precise facts what is complained of in his action.  If it is not a general complaint you make about the D. R. and Aroum´e work but in regard to yourself and your work particularly, there too you must give the precise facts of what he has done or failed to do before Mother can judge or say or do anything. What is it that he has not reported to her or has stated wrongly to her about your work or you? What are the conveniences that he has not conceded to you?  I write all that because you seem to expect Mother to do something. But she must know what it is, what it is based on and whether she can do it or not with beneﬁt to the work.  Quarrels and clashes of ego there have been plenty in the D. R. and Aroum´e, but that she cannot accept as a base of her action; she does not side with one or against another in these things.


Sri Aurobindo: What is proper or necessary for the work is the thing she has to consider.    Your whole upset is founded on imaginations. has not made any “lying” report to the Mother; the Mother did not show any displeasure to you for two days or any days. Your vital thought she must be like yourself and make a huge fuss about the perfectly insigniﬁcant triﬂe out of which you have made something gigantic, desperate and catastrophic.


Sri Aurobindo: There was never any rule that’s permission must be taken for anything to be done in the kitchen; it is who is head of the kitchen and whose permission has to be taken.  All the rest is pure self-inﬂation of an imaginary trouble because you choose to think of the Mother as a capricious tyrant acting according to the ideas of false reports of her favourites, an idea which has no better foundation than the fact that she does not ﬂatter or pamper your ego by agreeing with you and taking your side or giving value to your mental reasons, each one of course thinking that his own “reasons” are the only right way and to disagree with them is high treason against Truth and Justice.  What is amazing is that you should have got into such a state about anything so trivial as this boiling of milk and going to for an explanation. No man in his senses ought to quarrel over such matters or magnify into a stupendous tragedy. It shows that egoistic sensitiveness not only in your case but in that of many others in the Asram has reached enormous and fantastic proportions.


Sri Aurobindo: It is time that the sadhaks of this Asram realised what they have come here for; — it is not to nourish the ego and to insist on its being considered and fondled, but to abnegate the ego and seek only after the Divine.   It is very good that you have spoken and cleared up things.  Certainly, it is quite true that the inner being should be turned to the Mother and her alone.  As for the work, the inner development, psychic and spiritual, is surely of the ﬁrst importance and work merely as work is something quite minor. But work done as an offering to the Mother becomes itself a part of the sadhana and a means and part of the inner development.


Sri Aurobindo: That you will see more as the psychic grows within you. Apart from that the work is important because necessary to the maintenance of the Asram, which is the frame of the Mother’s action here.    I do not know why there should be so much difﬁculty about the instructions; you have been doing this work for many years and must surely know the lines on which it has been conducted by  and what to do in most cases. In the others where there is no guide in past experience, you have to do your best and in case ’s instructions are incomplete and you have to act on your own judgment, you can point it out to him if he ﬁnds fault with what is done.


Sri Aurobindo: For the rest your judgment about his method of work does not agree with the Mother’s observation of him and his work.  She has found him one of the ablest organisers in the Asram and one of the most energetic workers who did not spare himself until she compelled him to do so, one who understood and entered completely into her views and carried them out not only with great ﬁdelity but with success and capacity. She has known more instances than one in which he has organised so completely and thoroughly that the labour has been reduced to a minimum and the efﬁciency raised to a maximum. I may say however that the saving of labour is not the main consideration in work; there are others equally important and more so. As for the principle that everyone should be allowed to do according to his nature, that can apply only where people do independent work by themselves; where many have to work together, it cannot always be done — regularity and discipline are there the ﬁrst rule.


Sri Aurobindo: I do not understand your remark about the Mother. The whole work of Aroum´e, of the Granary, of the Building Department, etc. was arranged by the Mother not only in general plan and object but in detail. It was only after she had seen everything in working order that she drew back and allowed things to go on according to her plan, but still with an eye on the whole. It is therefore according to the Mother’s arrangement that people here are working. When it was not so, when Mother allowed the sadhaks to do according to their own ideas or nature, indicating her will but not enforcing it in detail, the whole Asram was a scene of anarchy, confusion, waste, disorderly self-indulgence, clash and quarrel, self-will, disobedience, and if it had gone on, the Asram would have ceased to exist long ago.


Sri Aurobindo: It was to prevent that that the Mother chose and a few others on whom she could rely and reorganised all the departments, supervising every detail and asking the heads to enforce proper methods and discipline. Whatever remains still of the old defects is due to the indiscipline of many workers and their refusal to get rid of their old nature. Even now if the Mother withdrew her control, the whole thing would collapse.  You are mistaken in thinking that conceals things from the Mother or does as he pleases without telling her. She knows all and is not in a state of ignorance.


Sri Aurobindo: What you write in your second letter is nothing new to her. There were hundreds of protests and complaints against (as against other heads of departments), against his methods, his detailed acts and arrangements, his rigid economy, his severe discipline and many things else. The Mother saw things and where there was justiﬁcation for change, she has  made it, but she has consistently supported, because the things complained of, economy, discipline, refusal to bend to the claims and fancies and wishes of the sadhaks, were just what she had herself insisted on — without them he could not have done the work as she wanted it done. If he had been loose, indulgent, not severe, he might have become popular, but he would not have been her instrument for the work.


Sri Aurobindo: Whatever defects there might be in his nature, were the Mother’s concern; if there was too much rigidity anywhere, it was for her to change it. But she refused to yield to complaints and clamour born of desire and ego; her yielding would only have brought the old state of things back and put an end to the Asram.     Certainly, I cannot say that the ideas you put forward in this letter are true.


Sri Aurobindo: They are errors of the physical mind which seldom gets hold of the real truth of things. It is not a fact that the Mother got displeased and frowned on you every time you wrote about. That is the kind of thing the sadhaks are always thinking and saying about the Mother, that she is frowning on them in displeasure for this reason or smiling on them for that, and the reasons they assign are those suggested by their own physical minds, but have nothing to do with anything in the consciousness of the Mother which is not in a constant bubbling of human pleasure and displeasure. I have tried to explain that to the sadhaks again and again but they prefer to believe that their own minds are infallible and that what I say is untrue. So I will only say that your idea is mistaken.


Sri Aurobindo: It is also not a fact that you cannot do sadhana, for you were doing it for a time and doing it very well. But your physical mind came across and took you outside and is trying to keep you outside instead of allowing you to go and remain within.  That is why I have been trying to persuade you to go within and not live in these outside ideas and reactions of the physical being which prevent sadhana and only give trouble.  It is not a fact that the Mother wants you to be a puppet of . Of the two questions that have arisen, in one, as to the vital relation which entered into your personal friendship with him, she has fully supported your view that this vital element must not be there and from what has written I believe he is himself now convinced that he made a mistake and that it must stop.


Sri Aurobindo: If he still has any desire for it, you need not in any way yield to him, but on the contrary must be ﬁrm about it. But there is the work. As regards the work it is not at all clear that all you think is right and all does is wrong. You speak of your personality and what you seem to say is that is in the work trying to impose his personality and that you want to afﬁrm yours against it and Mother ought to have supported you, but she does not regard your personality at all but insists on your subordinating it to’s.  But the Mother does not at all look at it from that standpoint or regard anybody’s personality.


Sri Aurobindo: In her view people’s personalities which means their ego ought to have no place in the work. It is not your work or’s work, but the Divine work, the Mother’s work and it is not to be governed by your ideas or feelings or ’s ideas or feelings or’s or’s or’s or anybody else’s, but by the vision, perception and will of the Mother which does not express any human personality (if it did there would be no justiﬁcation for the existence of this Asram), but proceeds from a deeper consciousness. It has been the great obstacle to the full success and harmony of the work that everybody almost has had this idea of his own personality, ideas, feelings etc. and more or less tried to insist on them — this has been the cause of most of the difﬁculties and of all the disharmony and quarrel. We want all this to stop; for when it stops altogether then there will be some possibility of the differences and turmoil ceasing and the work will better serve the purpose for which the Mother created it. That is why I have been trying to explain to you about the necessity of subordinating the personality and doing the work for the Divine, not insisting on one’s own personality, ego, ideas, feelings as the important thing.


Sri Aurobindo: P. S. When I say that you are mistaken or do not agree with you, you seem to think my letters show displeasure and that my disagreeing with you means that I am vexed with you for writing your views; but that is not so. If I answer what you write, it must be to tell you what seems to myself and to the Mother the true way of seeing things and acting. That does not imply any displeasure.   I do not think I said anywhere you had done anything contrary to’s instructions in your work.


Sri Aurobindo: I was speaking of what you had written in criticism of his way of doing things, and especially I wanted to remove your idea that the necessity of acting under his instructions meant a disregard of your personality or a desire on Mother’s part to make you a puppet of. Where there is a big work with several people working together for a purpose which is common to all and not personal to any, it cannot be done unless there is a ﬁxed arrangement involving subordination and discipline in each worker. That is so everywhere, not here alone.   has to act under the Mother, carry out her instructions, work according to the ideas she has given him. She has laid down the lines on which he must work, and whatever he does must be on those lines.


Sri Aurobindo: He is not free to change them or do anything contrary to the ideas given him. Where he makes decisions in details of the work, they must be in consonance with these lines and ideas. He has to report to the Mother, to take her sanction and accept her decisions on all matters. If the Mother’s decisions are contrary to his proposals or contradict his own ideas of what should be done, he has still to accept them and carry them out.  The idea that the D. R. work is done according to his ideas and not the Mother’s is an error.


Sri Aurobindo: But all that is simply the necessity of the work, it is not a disregard of’s personality. In the same way you have to carry out’s instructions because he is charged by the Mother with the work and given authority by her. All the D. R. workers are in the same position and are supposed to carry out his instructions and keep him informed, because he is directly responsible to the Mother for everything and unless he has this authority he cannot carry out his responsibility. In the same way has been asked to carry out your instructions in the kitchen because you are at the head of the kitchen. All that is not a disregard of your personality or of’s personality or an assertion of’s — it is the necessity of the work which cannot be smoothly done if there is not this arrangement.


Sri Aurobindo: That is what I wanted you to understand so that you might see why the Mother wanted you to do like that, not for any other reason, but for the necessity of the work and so that it may be smoothly done.  On the other hand as you are at the head of the work and the practical working is in your hands, you have every right to put any difﬁculties before and ask for a solution. He on his side will often need information from you and may need also to know what you think should be done. But if even after knowing, he thinks it right to follow his own idea of what should be done and not yours, you should not mind that. He has the responsibility and must act according to his lights subject to the sanction of the Mother.


Sri Aurobindo: Your responsibility ﬁnishes when you have informed him and told him your idea. If his decision is wrong, it is for the Mother to change it.  I hope I have made the conditions clear. There is no necessity for you to agree with’s ideas nor outside the work are you under any obligation to do what he wants you to do. There you are quite free.


Sri Aurobindo: It is only in the work that there is this necessity in action — for the sake of the work.  I have written so much because you wanted to know what the Mother expected you to do. It is not meant as a pressure upon you, but only to explain things and show you the way and the reason for which they have to be done.   It seems that there is friction between you and. He says that you are keeping him at a distance from his work and asks to be given work elsewhere.


Sri Aurobindo: The Mother does not approve of this and she wants all friction to be removed and work harmoniously done. Personal feelings ought not to be allowed to come into the work or disturb it in any way. It is you and who know the Bakery work thoroughly and are the best workers; for some time you two carried it on between you. Mother has relied on this collaboration for the Bakery work to go on well. If personal misunderstandings are allowed to break up the collaboration, it will be bad for the Mother’s work and also for the sadhana of both.


Sri Aurobindo: If misunderstandings arise, they ought not to be cherished in silence on either side, but cleared up by a frank and friendly explanation. I am writing to to the same effect. Mother expects you both to remove all misunderstanding between you and work together in a friendly spirit.


Sri Aurobindo: The fact that people do work for the Mother does not mean that she must do all that they ask for with regard to that work and that if she does not do so it means lack of support or disapproval.  That is the attitude of most workers in the Asram including, that is an entirely mistaken attitude.  If sadhaks get upset when the Mother does not do what they ask from her or begin to get suggestions of this kind, that means that they are bringing their vital ego into the work, — they are thinking, “ work is not supported, the Mother is upholding someone else and not” and other “I”s and “my”s of the same kind. It is only they who are feeling the work to be theirs, it is not the Mother who is so regarding it.  The Mother knows perfectly well’s character which is not alterable — it was for that very reason that she asked not only you but and everybody else in the Garden Department to avoid quarrelling with him even in case of extreme disagreement.


Sri Aurobindo: Quarrels and clashes are a proof of absence of the Yogic poise and those who seriously wish to do yoga must learn to grow out of these things. It is easy enough not to clash when there is no cause for strife or dispute or quarrel; it is when there is cause and the other side is impossible and unreasonable that one gets the opportunity of rising above one’s vital nature.    You say that Mother showed her severity or displeasure towards you and she always does so when you write about; but this is not a fact. It is your mind that creates the severity and displeasure out of its own feeling or imagination.


Sri Aurobindo: At the time you came to the Mother I had not spoken a word to her about your letter and she did not even know that you had written about. I wanted to read the letter over again and see that I understood everything in it before speaking to her (that was why I wrote it would take me a day or two) and I told her only in the evening after your letter of today reached me. As a matter of fact the Mother’s feeling to you was just the same as it is always — there was no severity or displeasure. This has happened before; it is not the ﬁrst time. It ought to show you that the mind is not infallible and in following its observations and inferences it is quite possible to fall into entire error.


Sri Aurobindo: I do not think it is any use going into the detail of the things you write of — most of them are triﬂes which could easily be set right if there were not a settled misunderstanding between you and which makes both nervous about everything the other does so that you magnify small things and give them an undue importance. It is the natural result of personal feelings getting into the work and there is no remedy except doing the work without personal feelings. I had hoped from what you said in your letter a few days ago that you had determined to get rid of it altogether on your side and do the work looking to the Mother alone and not mind what did or did not do. If you could do that, Mother would have been better able to put a persistent pressure on him and make him gradually change and become less self-occupied, tactless and sensitive.  We shall have to consider the whole problem of the work and see on what new basis it can be put.


Sri Aurobindo: Some temporary arrangement may be possible meanwhile, but not at the present moment. I hope till then you will try to carry on in spite of the friction with. At the moment things are difﬁcult for the Mother and you must give her some time to ﬁnd out what is to be done and how to make it possible to do it.   The remedy for these things is to think more and more of the Mother and less and less of the relations of others with yourself apart from the Mother. As is trying, so you should try to meet others in the Mother, in your consciousness of unity with the Mother and not in a separate personal relation.


Sri Aurobindo: Then these difﬁculties disappear and harmony can be established — for then it is not necessary to try and please others — but both or all meet in their love for the Mother and their work for her.  Mistakes come from people bringing their ego, their personal feelings (likes and dislikes), their sense of prestige or their convenience, pride, sense of possession, etc. into the work. The right way is to feel that the work is the Mother’s — not only yours, but the work of others — and to carry it out in such a spirit that there shall be general harmony. Harmony cannot be brought about by external organisation only, though a more and more perfect external organisation is necessary; inner harmony there must be or else there will always be clash and disorder.


Sri Aurobindo: Do not allow yourself to be so much disturbed by so small a matter. It is not at all necessary to apologise to. When one has a wrong movement, all one has to do is to recognise it and reject and be more careful to avoid it in the future. As you have told the Mother, let the thing disappear from your mind and recover your movement.


Sri Aurobindo:   If you want strongly and if you always try to be careful, then that too will come.   What Mother said was that she was perfectly aware of errors done in the work, but as she had to work out a certain Force in these things looking at them from an inner viewpoint, not with the external intellect, she found it often necessary to pass over imperfections and errors. This does not at all mean that the sadhak worker has not to care whether there are errors in his own work where he is responsible. If other sadhaks commit errors that is their responsibility, one can observe and avoid similar mistakes in oneself, but one sadhak cannot correct the errors of others unless that comes within his responsibility — each has to correct himself and his own defects and mistakes.


Sri Aurobindo: We are here in this material world and not in the others except by an inner connection. Also our life and action lie here, so it will not do to neglect the material world and things, though we should not be attached and bound to them by and desire.  We have to acquire a knowledge of the nature and powers of other worlds (planes) so far as they are connected with this one and we can use them to help and uplift the action here. But still the ﬁeld of action is here and not elsewhere.  The relation of the child to the Mother is that of an entire, sincere and simple trust, love and dependence.


Sri Aurobindo:   The relation of the disciple to the Guru in the Guruvada is supposed always to be that of worship, respect, complete happy conﬁdence, unquestioning acceptance of the guidance. It is only in this Asram that another theory has sometimes been advanced and reached its height as a result of the or wrong extension of the relation with the human Mother (which in itself, rightly understood, was not to be discouraged as a phase) and also of certain other misunderstood notions — not only , but egoistic unspiritual demand, hostile criticism, revolt, anger and other still more undesirable vital reactions (usually supposed to be foreign to the spiritual consciousness) have been put forward by some, admitted by many in practice, as a part of the Yoga! I do not see how such a method can lead to any good results in the spiritual life.


Sri Aurobindo:  Yes, the connection is always there, in the self and in the psychic; but if there are obstacles in the mind, vital and physical, then the connection cannot be manifest or, if it is at all manifest, it is mixed with elements which make it imperfect and unstable. The true connection is the psychic and spiritual relation; the relation in the other parts must be built up on this psychic and spiritual connection and then it can be permanent.     One rule for you I can lay down, “Do not do, say or think anything which you would want to conceal from the Mother.”


Sri Aurobindo: And that answers the objections that rose within you — from your vital, is it not? — against bringing “these petty things” to the Mother’s notice. Why should you think that the Mother would be bothered by these things or regard them as petty? If  the life is to be Yoga, what is there that can be called petty or of no importance? Even if the Mother does not answer, to have brought any matter of your action and self-development before her in the right spirit means to have put it under her protection, in the light of the Truth, under the rays of the Power that is working for the transformation — for immediately those rays begin to play and to act on the thing brought to her notice.  Anything within that advises you not to do it when the spirit in you moves you to do it, may very well be a device of the vital to avoid the ray of the Light and the working of the Force.


Sri Aurobindo: It may also be observed that if you open yourself to the Mother by putting the movements of any part of you under her observation, that of itself creates a relation, a personal closeness with her other than that which her general, silent or not directly invited action maintains with all the sadhaks.  All this, of course, if you feel ready for this openness, if the spirit moves you to lay what is in you bare before her. For it is then that it is fruitful — when it comes from within and is spontaneous and true.    It was certainly true that you saw the Mother and she was teaching secrets to your inner being — for your inner being is in close relation with her.


Sri Aurobindo: It is only by your opening yourself that this inner being can come out and change the relations of your external self with her, remove from it its sense of not being connected, its misunderstandings, wrong attitudes, confused movements. That is why I am always pressing on you to open and keep in touch with the Force — for it is your inner being that feels naturally in touch with it, — it is only the external and physical mind and vital that feel it is as if it were not real, not truly connected etc. etc. This you have experienced yourself more than once when the inner being came into the front.   It is perfectly true that in your inner being there is nothing that stands between you and nearness to the Mother; but in your outer there are many reactions that make it difﬁcult — and the chief cause of these reactions is the readiness with which your outer mind listens to the suggestions and accepts the reasonings and obeys the movements of the obscure ignorant physical Nature. That is why I want you to get rid of this habit of the outer mind and to recognise that it is the inner being which is the real truth of yourself and not this outer consciousness with its confusions which is a present fact but not your true permanent being.


Sri Aurobindo:   The Mother replied to you through that you could take the rest you wanted — at any rate she told him to tell you that; I hope he did so.  Feelings of this kind ought to be rejected always and there is nothing else to be done with them. The relation with the Divine, the relation with the Mother must be one of love, faith, trust, conﬁdence, surrender — any other relation of the vital ordinary kind brings reactions contrary to the sadhana, — desire, egoistic , demand, revolt and all the disturbance of ignorant rajasic human nature from which it is the object of the sadhana to escape.


Sri Aurobindo:  I am afraid you have allowed some old movement of the vital to come up and obstruct the work that was being done.  You know perfectly well that your inner being is near to the Mother, can feel her peace and force, can receive her thought, can respond and that that is the one thing that helps you. When you speak of the Mother seeming aloof to your senses, you are referring evidently to the physical nearness. You know very well what was the reason why it could not be for the time. But even there there was a great improvement recently and it was becoming possible and natural for you to approach the Mother physically without the old vital reactions, and the Mother was welcoming the change.


Sri Aurobindo: This is not a time to allow the old reactions to come up and impede or throw back the progress made. Cast off this invasion, let your consciousness recover the quietness it was more and more gaining, let your soul go on growing as it was growing — throw out this reaction that impedes it. Let the Divine work in you and establish in time the true outward and inward relation which is the only one that can satisfy and endure.    It is desire and jealousy that are the cause of these movements.


Sri Aurobindo: It prevents you from seeing that each is dealt with according to the needs and possibilities of his case. Your vital wishes on the contrary to impose a rule by which you shall get what the vital wants and if it does not, and if another gets it, you consider it a personal wrong and an injustice. So if something disagreeable to your vital, e.g. putting, is suggested, you consider that because the Mother’s proposal was disagreeable to you, therefore it was wrong. The whole thing is that — that you are putting a personal standard — the standard of your desires and feelings — as the measure of truth and right. Most men do that — almost all practically; but to do Yoga you must free yourself from that altogether.


Sri Aurobindo: You are concerned only with yourself and the Divine; in your relations with the Divine you are concerned not with the Divine’s satisfaction of your personal desires, but with being pulled out of these things and raised to your highest spiritual possibilities, so that you may become united with the Mother within and as a result in the outer being also. That cannot be done by satisfying your vital desires — to do so would only increase them and give you into the hands of the ignorance and restless confusion of the ordinary Nature. It can be done only by your inner trust and surrender and by the pressure of the Mother’s peace and Force working from within and changing your vital nature. It is when you forget this that you go wrong and suffer; when you remember it you progress and the difﬁculties become less and less insistent.


Sri Aurobindo: The Mother is not giving every day, only from time to time. But why do you want to meet her as a “human” mother — if you can see the divine Mother in a human body, that should be enough and a more fruitful attitude. Those who approach her as a human Mother often get into trouble by their conception making all sorts of mistakes in their approach to her.


Sri Aurobindo: You are the Mother’s child and the Mother’s love to her children is without limit and she bears patiently with the defects of their nature. Try to be the true child of the Mother: it is there within you, but your outward mind is occupied by little futile things and too often in a violent fuss over them. You must not only see the Mother in dream but learn to see and feel her with you and within you at all times. Then you would ﬁnd it easier to control yourself and change, — for she being there would be able to do it for you.


Sri Aurobindo:   If that were the case the Mother would have to be in a profound state of million-fold misery all the time — for why should she be miserable only for the sadhak — why not for each soul that is wandering in the Ignorance? The child need not be miserable, but simply come back when the Mother calls.    Quite right.


Sri Aurobindo: To live inside is the ﬁrst principle of spiritual life and from inside to reshape the physical existence. But so many insist on remaining in the external and their relation with the Mother is governed by the ordinary reactions of the external unspiritualised nature.    An inner (soul) relation means that one feels the Mother’s presence, is turned to her at all times, is aware of her force moving, guiding, helping, is full of love for her and always feels a great nearness whether one is physically near her or not — this relation takes up the mind, vital and inner physical till one feels one’s mind close to the Mother’s mind, one’s vital in harmony with hers, one’s very physical consciousness full of her. These are all the elements of the inner union, not only in the spirit and self but in the nature.


Sri Aurobindo: I do not recollect what I had written, but this is the inner close relation as opposed to an outer relation which consists only in how one meets her on the external physical plane. It is quite possible — and actual — to have this inner close relation even if physically one sees her only at pranam and meditation and once a year perhaps on the birthday.    One has to become conscious by the awakening of the inner mind and vital — or best of all by the awakening of the psychic.  It is quite possible for two persons to have a relation of which one is conscious and the other is not — his mental blindness or vital misunderstandings coming in the way.


Sri Aurobindo: That is frequent even in ordinary life. Very often one becomes conscious of it only when he loses it (by the death of the other person or otherwise) and is then full of repinings for his blindness.   This thought of yours that Mother cares for all as her children and does not care for you is evidently a quite groundless idea and does not rest on any solid basis. She is as affectionate in her love and care for you and in her way towards you as to any others and more than to most. There is nothing solid or speciﬁc that we can see on which the idea can rest.


Sri Aurobindo: Certainly, it corresponds to no reality in the Mother’s feelings.  But I have noted that this kind of idea comes up in the minds of sadhaks and sadhikas (especially the latter) when they become despondent or listen to the suggestions from outside them. Always they say the same thing as you, “You love and care for all; only for me you do not love and care. I am evidently unﬁt for the Yoga or you would not keep me far from you like that. I shall never arrive at anything.


Sri Aurobindo: What is the use of my remaining he


Sri Aurobindo: re only to trouble you? What have I to live for?”  But when the psychic being is well awake, then these thoughts, this despondency, these wrong notions are bound to go away.  What you feel therefore is just this despondency and the wrong suggestions it brings; it does not correspond to any reality in the Mother’s feelings or behaviour towards you. It will go with the rest as the inner being, the soul in you comes more and more forward — for the soul in you knows that it loves the Mother and the Mother loves you; it cannot be blinded by the suggestions that deceive the mind and the vital nature.


Sri Aurobindo: Do not therefore remain in these thoughts that have no foundation but are only a mood of despondency or a suggestion from outside. Let the psychic being in you grow and the Mother’s force work. The relation of the child and the Mother is there in your soul; it will make itself felt in your mind and vital and physical consciousness till it becomes the foundation of the whole consciousness on which all the sadhana can be ﬁrm and secure.    The connection between you and the Mother is there and has always existed.


Sri Aurobindo: Inside it is very evident and, when you are in the psychic condition, that which is inside begins to work. It is only the physical mind that suggests the idea to the contrary because outward circumstances are still inharmonious and unfavourable.  Do not allow these suggestions to sway you. Seek the connection within you in your psychic being; then even through the outward circumstances it will shine out and change all into oneness.   You know now what this depression and the feelings that come with it are — they are the recurrences of the old unconsciousness attempting to prevent the rapid or full ﬂowering of the inner consciousness which was growing in you.


Sri Aurobindo: You should therefore not accept the suggestions of the depression or the idea of not being the Mother’s. The eye within is growing — it is sure to be full and open after a time. It is why the old consciousness is trying hard to return and keep hold. You must get more and more to say no to its suggestions and efforts — so that the development may go more quickly.


Sri Aurobindo: It depends on the source of the feeling. If it is true happiness, then it is not ego. If it is due to a feeling of superiority, then it is ego.  Let the inner contact with the Mother increase — unless that is there, the outer contacts if too much multiplied easily degenerate into a routine.   It was the contact with the Mother that originally brought the opening to the Light, the descent of the golden light, the wideness and the knowledge.


Sri Aurobindo: The two things naturally go together or follow one on the other; it is a mistake to think that there is any incompatibility or opposition between them.    That is your mistake to think the contact is not enough. The contact with the Mother’s consciousness will lead to necessary realisations and the fulﬁlment of all true aspirations.   Aspire and want it always — that is the ﬁrst thing.


Sri Aurobindo: As for methods, perhaps it is best not to go to sleep straight in the ordinary way, but to meditate and through meditation pass into sleep.  At least before going to bed have a meditation.   You have to learn to live in yourself with the Mother, in contact with her consciousness, and meet others only with your exterior surface.


Sri Aurobindo: It is a realisation attended with vision and feeling. It is the psychic and the mental together that produced it.     The one thing that is most needed for this sadhana is peace, calm, especially in the vital — a peace which depends not on circumstances or surroundings but on the inner relation with a higher consciousness which is the consciousness of the Divine, of the Mother.


Sri Aurobindo: Those who have not that or do not aspire to get it can come here and live in the Asram for ten or twenty years and yet be as restless and full of struggle as ever, — those who open their mind and vital to the Mother’s strength and peace can get it even in the hardest and most unpleasant work and the worst circumstances.   To ﬁx times is not possible or desirable — you must yourself organise your day in such a manner as to make the best use of it and let the Mother know how you do it.  The most important thing is to be turned inwardly towards the Mother and to her alone. To avoid too many outward contacts is necessary only in order to help in this — but it is not necessary nor desirable to avoid all contacts with people. What is necessary is to meet these contacts with the right inner consciousness, not throwing yourself out — treating them as things of the surface — not getting attached to them or absorbed by them in any way.


Sri Aurobindo:   At any rate if you want the Mother’s contact always, you must get rid of depression and the mental imaginations that bring it.  Nothing comes more in the way than that.


Sri Aurobindo:   No one need be jealous of anything or anybody, since each has his own point of contact which nobody else has — apart from what all have.     I meant the inner contact in which one either feels one with her or in contact with her or aware of her presence or, at the very least, turned towards her always.


Sri Aurobindo:   Of course, it was the Mother you met and the meeting must have been due to your thought about meeting her.    If it is like that, it is probably because you are living outside, allowing yourself to be disturbed by outward contacts.


Sri Aurobindo: One cannot ﬁnd happiness of a lasting character unless one lives within. Work, action must be offered to the Mother, done for her sake only, without any thought for yourself, your own ideas, preferences, feelings, likes and dislikes. If one’s eyes are ﬁxed on these latter things, then at every step one gets some friction either in the mind or vital or, if these are comparatively quiet, in the body and nerves. Peace and joy can only become stable if one lives within with the Mother.  The contact between mother and child means not only that the mother should love the child but that the child should love the mother and obey her.


Sri Aurobindo: You want to be the true child of the Mother, but the ﬁrst thing for that is to put yourself into her hands and let her guide you and to follow her will — and not disregard it or revolt against her. You know all this perfectly well — why do you ignore it?  It is part of the true Mother’s love not to do whatever the vital of the child demands, for she knows that it would be extremely bad for him. Do not obey the impulse of the vital, but follow rather your true perception and make yourself a channel for the will of the Mother — because her will is always that you should grow into your true being.


Sri Aurobindo: The love which is turned towards the Divine ought not to be the usual vital feeling which men call by that name; for that is not love, but only a vital desire, an instinct of appropriation, the impulse to possess and monopolise. Not only is this not the divine Love, but it ought not to be allowed to mix in the least degree in the Yoga. The true love for the Divine is a self-giving, free of demand, full of submission and surrender; it makes no claim, imposes no condition, strikes no bargain, indulges in no violences of jealousy or pride or anger — for these things are not in its composition. In return the Divine Mother also gives herself, but freely — and this represents itself in an inner giving — her presence in your mind, your vital, your physical consciousness, her power re-creating you in the divine nature, taking up all the movements of your being and directing them towards perfection and fulﬁlment, her love enveloping you and carrying you in its arms Godwards. It is this that you must aspire to feel and possess in all your parts down to the very material, and here there is no limitation either of time or of completeness.


Sri Aurobindo: If one truly aspires and gets it, there ought to be no room for any other claim or for any disappointed desire. And if one truly aspires, one does unfailingly get it, more and more as the puriﬁcation proceeds and the nature undergoes its needed change.   Keep your love pure of all selﬁsh claim and desire; you will ﬁnd that you are getting all the love that you can bear and absorb in answer.  Realise also that the Realisation must come ﬁrst, the work to be done, not the satisfaction of claim and desire.


Sri Aurobindo: It is only when the Divine Consciousness in its supramental Light and Power has descended and transformed the physical that other things can be given a prominent place — and then too it will not be the satisfaction of desire, but the fulﬁlment of the Divine Truth in each and all and in the new life that is to express it. In the divine life all is for the sake of the Divine and not for the sake of the ego.  I should perhaps add one or two things to avoid misapprehensions. First, the love for the Divine of which I speak is not a psychic love only; it is the love of all the being, the vital and vital-physical included, — all are capable of the same self-giving. It is a mistake to believe that if the vital loves, it must be a love that demands and imposes the satisfaction of its desire; it is a mistake to think that it must be either that or else


Sri Aurobindo: the vital, in order to escape from its “attachment”, must draw away altogether from the object of its love. The vital can be as absolute in its unquestioning self-giving as any other part of the nature; nothing can be more generous than its movement when it forgets self for the Beloved. The vital and physical should both give themselves in the true way — the way of true love, not of ego desire.   What I want of you is not to love the Mother from a distance, but to become accustomed to feel her presence, her help, the working of her forces even when she is not physically present and this not only in your sleep or inward-drawn condition (which seems to be sufﬁciently easy for you) but in your waking consciousness whether in meditation or in ordinary hours. And this I want because it would give a great push to your Yoga.


Sri Aurobindo: It would besides give a deeper meaning and power to your physical contact with her. I am sure that all this will come fully in time.   Become truthful, pure, sincere, straightforward.    It is a mistake to think like that.


Sri Aurobindo: The experiences prepare the different parts of the being for loving in the right way, so that it is not the soul alone that loves. So long as they are open to ignorance and ego they cannot receive and hold the love rightly.    Both the love for the Mother which you feel so strongly and the other tendency of harmony and affection with those with whom you live or work come from the psychic being. When the psychic intensiﬁes its inﬂuence, this love for the Mother becomes strong and is the main mover of the nature.


Sri Aurobindo: But there is also a feeling of good will, harmony, kindness or affection towards others which also comes up and is not so much personal as the result of the soul’s inmost relation to all souls who are children of the Mother. There is no harm in this psychic feeling, on the contrary it creates happiness and harmony — it is only the vital love between persons that has to be rejected because it draws away from full consecration to the Divine. But this helps the growth of the soul into the Mother’s consciousness and helps the work and helps also the inner life to grow.  Yes, Mother is always willing to give and nothing pleases her better than to see her children receiving what she has to give.  The unwillingness to tell the whole truth, the wish to conceal or justify things is another general trait of human nature which is common in the Asram.


Sri Aurobindo: It is perfectly true that to do that is to stand in the way of one’s own progress, but the lower nature is strong and overcomes the. People also think that Mother will not know if they do not tell or at least she won’t know the physical facts even if she can read the inner movements and they prefer to conceal or else to write in such a way that they may stand well in her eyes. This weakness like others can only go by the growth of the psychic and its taking hold of the mind and vital so that they will not be able to hide from themselves their own wrong movements or try to hide them from the Mother.  Your dream was certainly not a mere dream or an imagination, but a true experience. It expressed the relation between your psychic being and the Mother.


Sri Aurobindo: That relation is always there; it is prevented from ﬁlling up the whole vital and physical consciousness by the old habitual movements that return upon the lower vital and physical and by the assent some part of the mind, when it is obscured, gives to these movements. Do not allow your mind to give this assent, and do not allow any demand to rise in your vital, for it is usually some vital demand or disappointment of demand that is the occasion for these returns.  The whole mental, vital and physical consciousness will then begin to be ﬁlled with the permanent relation which is natural to the psychic part of you. There would then be no serious difﬁculty or disturbing struggle.


Sri Aurobindo:   All that is simply the unregenerated vital which is full of ego and desire and demand and therefore of dissatisfaction, complaint, false ideas and self-made sorrow.  What you write here is an exact description of the psychic being and its relation to the Mother. That is the true relation. If you want to succeed in this Yoga, you must take your stand on the psychic relation and reject the egoistic vital movement.


Sri Aurobindo: The psychic being coming to the front and staying there is the decisive movement in the Yoga. It is that which happened when you saw the Mother last — the psychic being came in front. But you must keep it in front. You will not be able to do that if you listen to the vital ego and its outcries. It is by faith and surrender and the joy of pure self-giving — the psychic attitude — that one grows into the Truth and becomes united with the Divine.


Sri Aurobindo:   No. I said it came out as the result of your last coming to Mother — I meant by that what Mother put there. It was evident to me afterwards by your condition.  That was enough to allow Mother to work.


Sri Aurobindo: It is when the vital demands, complains, becomes sorrowful and tragic that difﬁculty is created.    How can your convenience or inconvenience be the indication of the Mother’s will? You have to develop the psychic feeling which distinguishes the truth from the falsehood, the divine from the undivine.


Sri Aurobindo: Not always. There are plenty of people who have some faith without love, though they may have a certain kind of mental bhakti, and plenty who have some love but no faith. But if it is the true psychic love, then faith goes with it, and if there is the entire faith, then the psychic love becomes soon awake.  You are right — if it is the soul’s faith, the soul’s love — but in some there is only a vital feeling and that brings, when it is disappointed, revolt and anger and they go away.


Sri Aurobindo:  It is psychic.  Psychic.  Psychic.  Psychic.


Sri Aurobindo: By the absence of ego, by pure devotion, by submission and surrender to the Divine.     That is the psychic love.


Sri Aurobindo:   But the Mother is there not only on the Supramental but on all the planes. And especially she is close to everyone in the psychic part (the inner heart), so when that opens, the feeling of nearness naturally comes.    As for the love and Ananda, it depends on the psychic coming up.


Sri Aurobindo:   That was obviously psychic.  These are psychic tears of devotion etc.


Sri Aurobindo:  It is not a question of the psychic coming in front. She has a psychic being which is awake and has long been in connection with the Mother on the inner plane.     Of course it is the thrill of the Mother’s touch coming from above and felt by the psychic and vital together.


Sri Aurobindo:   Yes. The psychic is always there.    That which calls is your own psychic being whose place is deep inside behind the heart-centre.


Sri Aurobindo: Many people feel at times the call for the Mother going on from there. It comes more easily in sleep or in a half-waking condition because then the surface mind is not active so that what is going on within in the inner being can manifest itself.     It can’t be the psychic in that case.


Sri Aurobindo: The psychic never feels that it cannot love the Divine.     That would of itself be the psychic state.


Sri Aurobindo:   This is altogether the wrong attitude. It is once more the vital coming in — it is not a psychic attitude. If in asking for the psychic love, you take an attitude that is vital not psychic, how do you expect the psychic to come?


Sri Aurobindo:   The attitude is good for the awakening of the psychic and the inner being generally. But if higher experience comes, it should not be stopped.    If your psychic is in front and active, i.e. busy changing and controlling the mind, vital and physical, how is it that there is an upsetting of your nature by the Mother’s dealings with you?


Sri Aurobindo: If the psychic is in front and active, it would immediately tell any part of the nature that wanted to get upset, “Whatever the Mother does or decides must be accepted with surrender and gladness. The mind must not believe that it knows better than the Mother what ought to be done, the vital must not want the Mother to act according to its wants and preferences. For such ideas and desires belong to the old nature and have no place in the psychic and spiritual. They are the errors of the ego.” And if it had the control of the nature, the upsetting would at once cease or fade away.


Sri Aurobindo: Indeed if it had full control, such upsettings would be impossible. It must be assumed therefore that the psychic may have been exerting some inﬂuence on the being, but that its control is far from complete or that the vital has risen up and covered the psychic and suspended its inﬂuence. But if the psychic is fully in front, not veiled or not merely emerging, then it would be impossible to cover it up altogether — there could only be at most an upsetting on the surface while within all remained quiet, conscious and devoted.    That is one of the most important things for the psychic opening and the inner relation to the Mother.


Sri Aurobindo: Yes.  Yes, certainly, it was a psychic opening and at the point emphasised, which is very important — the opening to the higher Purity.  As for the to see the Mother, it depends on the nature of the feeling. If there is no demand or claim in it, no dissatisfaction when it is not fulﬁlled, but only the feeling of the will to see her whenever possible and the joy of seeing her, then it is all right.


Sri Aurobindo: Of course no trace of anger or jealousy must be there. The vital has also to participate in the sadhana, so the mere fact that there is a vital element does not make the thing wrong, provided it is a vital element of the right kind.     It is again your own misunderstanding that you have erected between yourself and the Mother.


Sri Aurobindo: The picture-ﬂower which she sent to you in return for your peacock is the pomegranate-ﬂower, the ﬂower of Divine Love and I do not know what better answer you could have expected. Yet merely because you could not recognise it in its reduced picture form, you jumped to the conclusion that the Mother had not understood you or else that she refused to make any response to you. This with still worse feelings was what you used to do when she was giving ﬂowers and it was because of this violent and ignorant wrong reaction that she had to stop giving ﬂowers to you. How can you expect any answer to your expression when you meet the answer in this way? It is quite true that there is still behind your reaction or associated with it a measure of vital demand and expectation of return and the old want of conﬁdence.


Sri Aurobindo: The movement may have come from the psychic but around it there was this vital mixture. You must ﬁrst learn, therefore, to give yourself without demanding a return and you must learn to accept the Mother’s action, whatever it may be, without judging it, since it is repeatedly proved that in judging you put an ignorant misconstruction upon it. The inmost being, the psychic, accepts without question, because it has faith in the Divine; by that psychic acceptance the soul opens, the mind clariﬁes, the vital is puriﬁed and enlightened and a spiritual change becomes possible.    What you have felt is a revival or return on you of the lower vital with its demands and desires.


Sri Aurobindo: Its suggestion is, “I am doing the Yoga, but for a price. I have abandoned the life of vital desire and satisfaction, but in order to get intimacy with the Mother — instead of satisfying myself with and the world, to satisfy myself and get my desires fulﬁlled by the Divine. If I do not get the intimacy of the Mother and immediately and as I want it, why should I give up the old things?” And as a natural result the old things start again — “ and and and and the wrongs of.” You must see this machinery of the lower vital and dismiss it.


Sri Aurobindo: It is only by the full psychic relation of self-giving that unity and closeness with the Divine can be maintained — the other is part of the vital ego movement and can only bring a fall of the consciousness and disturbance.   It will not do to indulge this restless vital movement. It is not by that that you can have the union with the Mother. You should aspire calmly — eat, sleep, do your work. Peace is the one thing you have to ask for now — it is only on the basis of peace and calm that the true progress and realisation can come.


Sri Aurobindo: There must be no vital excitement in your seeking or your aspiration towards the Mother.    That is what you must get rid of — the demand of the vital in the relation with the Mother. It has been the cause of much disturbance and several frictions, for behind it is a claim of the ego. The psychic relation is the true relation, the psychic gives itself without any demand asking only for love and surrender and union with the Divine, and even in that the asking is not a vital demand but an aspiration.


Sri Aurobindo:  There is no harm in the vital love provided it is puriﬁed from all insincerity (e.g. the self-importance etc.) and from all demand.  To feel joy in seeing the Mother is all right, but to demand it as a right, to be upset or in revolt or abhiman when it is not given, to be jealous of others who get it — all that is demand and creates an impurity which spoils both the joy and the love.     How do you expect the psychic to be in full activity with these things there and not thoroughly rejected?


Sri Aurobindo: Moreover if the love comes forward in full, what is to prevent the selﬁsh vital taking hold of it and making demand on demand on the Mother which she will certainly refuse to satisfy — as so many have done and afterwards revolted because “the Mother does not love them” — otherwise she would do whatever they want?    This demand for a physical manifestation of love must go. It is a dangerous stumbling-block in the way of sadhana. A progress made by indulgence of this demand is an insecure progress which may any moment be thrown down by the same force that produced it.


Sri Aurobindo:   It is self-love that makes them do it. It is just the same kind of vital love that people have outside (loving someone for one’s own sake, not for the sake of the beloved). What is the use of that in sadhana here?


Sri Aurobindo: It can only be an obstacle.    Love and devotion depend on the opening of the psychic and for that the desires must go. The vital love offered by many to the Mother instead of the psychic love brings more disturbance than anything else because it is coupled with desire.


Sri Aurobindo:   If you have no abhiman against the Mother, that also is surely very desirable. Abhiman, disturbance, etc. may be signs of life but of a vital, not of the inner life. They must quiet down and give room for the inner life. At ﬁrst the result may be a neutral quiet, but one has often to pass through that to arrive at a more positive new consciousness.


Sri Aurobindo:   Reject the suffering. Reject every vital movement that would take you away from the Mother.


Sri Aurobindo: Cling close to her always with your inner being — without demand or question, in perfect faith.     There are always in a sadhak two sides of the nature, one that wants the Divine, the other that wants only its own way and will and expects the Divine to satisfy it. When you were in the ﬁrst, the Mother was always close to you and you were happy; when you indulged the second, then all went wrong.


Sri Aurobindo: Your mistake recently has been to indulge this second part too much. But you can always recover the constant closeness of the Mother in your inner being and happiness and progress in the sadhana. But to do so you must make it a point to give your love without asking for anything at all except the inner nearness — for unless you do that very strongly, it will be difﬁcult for you to get rid of the other tendency and change the demanding vital part in you.


Sri Aurobindo: It depends on whether it comes by drawing vital force from her or simply by the joy of seeing her or by receiving something from her. In the two latter cases it is usually psychic or psychic-vital, in the former it is vital.  The desire for the Divine or of bhakti for the Divine is the one desire which can free one from all the others — at the core it is not a desire, but an aspiration, a soul need, the breath of existence of the inmost being and as such it cannot be counted among desires.


Sri Aurobindo:  Pure worship, adoration, love for the Divine without claim or demand is what is called.  From the psychic.  One has to separate oneself in thought from mind and vital and body and look at these as not oneself but only outer instruments or movements of nature. In the end one begins to be aware of something behind them which is the real self, the true being.


Sri Aurobindo:   It is the basis of perfect devotion.  By sincere aspiration.  The psychic is made up of love and self-giving without demand, the vital of the will to be possessed by the Mother and serve her, the mental of faith and unquestioning acceptance of all that the Mother is, says and does.


Sri Aurobindo: These however are outside signs — it is in inner character quite recognisable but not to be put into words that they differ.  Who says there is not? So long as it is real devotion, all bhakti has a place.    It is always a mistake to attach importance to what others say — it is enough to have true devotion and the right attitude towards the Mother.


Sri Aurobindo: You need have no apprehension of this kind at all.     Get quiet ﬁrst — then from the quietude aspire and open yourself quietly and sincerely to the Mother.


Sri Aurobindo:   It is an excellent foundation for the other truths that are to come — for they all result from it.     It is the old vital with its ego which comes up again and again.


Sri Aurobindo: It refuses to follow the higher being and be as the true bhaktas are who ask nothing and are content with all that the Mother does or does not do, because whatever she does must be good, since she is the Mother. You must impose the truth on this vital part.     Do not allow mental anxiety to harass you.


Sri Aurobindo: Wait on the working of the Mother’s force which will open the lotus of the heart. In the light from above devotion will blossom in you.  The atmosphere you carry around you is part of your consciousness as much as the rest that you feel inside you. When you repeat the name of the Mother, it begins to echo in all your consciousness, outside as well as inside you. What you experience therefore is quite true and it is a good experience.


Sri Aurobindo:   It means the devoting of all that comes to you, all your experiences and progress to the Mother.  The same thing — do all with a quiet mind, not throwing yourself out in what you do, but seeing quietly what is done and what happens.   There is no need to ask for pardon, for the Mother has not in the least been angry or displeased with you.


Sri Aurobindo: You may be sure of her love always.    Yes, that is the truth and it is the attitude every sadhak should take.   It does not mean that there is no love, but that the love is mixed up and covered with egoism, demand and vital movements. At least that is the case with many.


Sri Aurobindo: There are some of course who have no love at all, or “love” — if it can be called so — only for what they get, one or two who love truly — but in a great many there is a psychic spark hidden in much smoke. The smoke has to be got rid of so that the spark may have a chance of growing into a blaze.     Do not think whether people agree with you or do not agree with you or whether you are good or bad, but think only that “the Mother loves me and I am the Mother’s.”


Sri Aurobindo: If you base your life on that thought, everything will soon become easy.     It is because of the thoughts about others and your “badness” that you feel far from the Mother. All the time she is very near to you and you to her.


Sri Aurobindo: If you take the position I told you and make it the basis of your life, “the Mother loves me and I am hers”, the curtain would soon disappear, for it is made of these thoughts and nothing else.    Obviously, if people expect the ordinary kind of love from the Mother they must be disappointed — the love based on the vital and its moods. But that is just the kind of love that has to be overpassed in Yoga or transformed into something else.


Sri Aurobindo:   Certainly, it is not necessary for you to become “good” in order that the Mother may give you her love. Her love is always there  and the imperfections of human nature do not count against that love. The only thing is that you must become aware of it always there.


Sri Aurobindo: For that it is necessary for the psychic to come in front — for the psychic knows, while the mind, vital and physical look only at surface appearances and misinterpret them. It is that for which the Mother’s force is working, and whenever the psychic comes near the surface, you have felt love and nearness coming up. But it needs time to prepare the other parts so that they also may know and feel. Therefore the patience is necessary and the conﬁdence that through all the delays and difﬁculties of the sadhana the Mother is leading you and will surely lead you home to her.    is probably making two mistakes — ﬁrst, expecting outward expressions of love from the Mother; second, looking for progress instead of concentrating on openness and surrender without demand of a return.


Sri Aurobindo: These are two mistakes which sadhaks are constantly making. If one opens, if one surrenders, then as soon as the nature is ready, progress will come of itself; but the personal concentration for progress brings difﬁculties and resistance and disappointment because the mind is not looking at things from the right angle. The Mother has a special kindness for and every day at Pranam she is trying to put a sustaining force upon him. He must learn to be very quiet in mind and vital and consecrate himself so that he may become conscious as well as receive. The Divine Love, unlike the human, is deep and vast and silent; one must become quiet and wide to be aware of it and reply to it.


Sri Aurobindo: He must make it his whole object to be surrendered so that he may become a vessel and instrument — leaving it to the Divine Wisdom and Love to ﬁll him with what is needed. Let him also ﬁx this in the mind not to insist that in a given time he must progress, develop, get realisations and experiences — whatever time it takes, he must be prepared to wait and persevere and make his whole life an aspiration and an opening for the one thing only, the Divine. To give oneself is the secret of sadhana, not to demand and acquire a thing. The more one gives oneself, the more the power to receive will grow. But for that all impatience and revolt must go; all suggestions of not getting, not being helped, not being loved, of going away, of abandoning life or the spiritual endeavour must be rejected.


Sri Aurobindo:   As for the feelings about the Mother and that her love is only given for a return in work or to those who can do sadhana well, that is the usual senseless idea of the vital-physical mind and has no value.   It is not Mother who makes you cry. It is forces from the vital Nature that make you sorrowful and think of dying and of the past. What comes from Mother is love and light and peace and joy and the spiritual life of the future.


Sri Aurobindo:   Never mind about the purity of the body. The love of the Mother puriﬁes both heart and body — if the soul’s aspiration is there, the body also is pure. What happened in the past does not in the least matter.  That did not succeed in the past.


Sri Aurobindo: I do not know how you are going to the manifested physical form. To live in the Mother’s consciousness even to the physical with the manifested form as the centre of this unity is possible. Perhaps you mean that? But how are you going to do that if the other parts are left to remain as they are? They will go on pulling you out of the true consciousness as they do now.


Sri Aurobindo: And how are they to be changed if the Mother’s Force is not there in them to change them?    It is true that the Mother is one in many forms, but the distinction between the outer and the inner Mother must not be made too trenchant; for she is not only one, but the physical Mother contains all the others in herself and in her is established the communication between the inner and the outer existence. But to know the outer Mother truly one must know what is within her and not look at the outer appearances only. That is only possible if one meets her with the inner being and grows into her consciousness — those who seek an outer relation only cannot do that.


Sri Aurobindo:  The spiritual union must begin from within and spread out from there; it cannot be based on anything exterior — for, if so based, the union cannot be spiritual or real. That is the great mistake which so many make here: they put the whole emphasis on the external vital or physical relation with the Mother, insist on a vital interchange or else physical contact and when they do not get it to their satisfaction, enter into all kinds of disturbances, revolt, doubt, depression. This is a wrong viewpoint altogether and has caused much obstruction and trouble. The mind, vital, physical can participate and are intended to participate in the union, but for that they must be submitted to the psychic, themselves psychicised; the union must be an essentially psychic and spiritual union spreading out to the mind, vital and physical. Even the physical must be able to feel invisibly the Mother’s closeness, her concrete presence — then alone can the union be truly based and completed and then alone can any physical closeness or contact ﬁnd its true value and fulﬁl its spiritual purpose.


Sri Aurobindo: Till then any physical contact is of value only so far as it helps the inner sadhana, but how much can be given and what will help or hinder, the Mother only can judge, the sadhak cannot be the judge — he will be led away by the desires and lower vital ego, as so many have been in fact. Such means of help by physical contact as the Mother had established have been largely spoiled by the sadhaks’ misuse of them, the wrong attitude of which I have spoken. When the vital demand is there with its claims and revolts and takes the desire for the exterior contact or closeness as a cause or occasion for these things, then it becomes a serious hindrance to the development of the inner union, it does not help at all. The sadhaks always imagine in their ignorance that when the Mother sees more of one person than of another, it is because of personal preference and that she is giving more love and help to that person. That is altogether a mistake.


Sri Aurobindo: Physical closeness and contact can be a severe ordeal for the sadhak; it may raise the vital demands, claims, jealousies etc. to a high pitch; it may on the other hand leave him satisﬁed with an outer relation without making any serious effort for the inner union; or it becomes for him something mechanical, because ordinary and familiar, and for any inner purpose quite ineffective — these things are not only possible but have happened in many cases.   The Mother knows that and her arrangements in this matter are therefore dictated by quite other reasons than those which are attributed to her.  The only safe thing is to concentrate on the inner union foremost and altogether, to make that the one thing to be achieved and to leave aside all claims and demands for anything external, remaining satisﬁed with what the Mother gives and relying wholly on her wisdom and solicitude. It ought to be quite evident that a desire which raises revolt, doubt, depression, desperate struggles cannot be a true part of the spiritual movement.


Sri Aurobindo: If your mind tells you that it is the right thing, then surely you must distrust the mind’s suggestions. Concentrate entirely on the one thing needful and put away, if they come, all ideas and forces that want to disturb it or make you deviate. The vital assent to these things has to be overcome, but for that the ﬁrst thing is to refuse all mental assent, for the mental support gives them a greater force than they would otherwise have. Fix the right attitude in the mind and the deeper emotional being — cling to that when contrary forces arise and by your ﬁrmness in that psychic attitude repel them.  You ought to train yourself not to mind what people say — for what they say is also childish and stupid.


Sri Aurobindo: Your sadhana — and your life also — lies between you and the Mother; other people do not matter.   If you bring somebody in between you and the Mother, it is bound to give trouble.


Sri Aurobindo: It was your mistake to listen to what people say about you and  and and attach any value to their foolish chatter. did not grow serious with you because of that. He was puzzled by your change of manner, the stiffness of your attitude towards him and your apparently diminished interest in the work. It is what the Mother says that is true and matters and not what people say; if you listen to what people say, you will lose touch with the Mother’s consciousness. It is because of that that these thoughts have come back on you about your badness and the rest of it.


Sri Aurobindo: The Mother had told you to work freely with; she told you that his inﬂuence was good for you, and for many days you had peace and joy and freedom from the restless mind and you had the psychic opening. Now you must go back to that and do as you were doing before. Turn to the Mother only and let her consciousness and her will work in you. Then you will recover what you had got, silence the mind and be free.


Sri Aurobindo:  To be turned wholly to the Mother and have nothing but friendly relations with the sadhaks, the same for all, is a counsel of perfection; but not many can carry it out — hardly one here and there. Yet to have that in tendency is to have the real turn towards the one-pointedness of sadhana; but people take time to arrive at it.     Yes, it is the thing to be attained — not to receive any other inﬂuences than the Divine, as human nature ordinarily does.


Sri Aurobindo: Then under the sole inﬂuence of the Mother’s Light and Force, all that has to be changed in the nature can be quietly and smoothly changed, all that has to be developed can be developed without disturbance or trouble.    The direct relation with the Mother is always open to you and it is there whenever you can feel it; for it is a thing of the inner being. Whenever you go deep within yourself you ﬁnd it; it has to come out and govern the outer nature and life. That is why I want you to give time for going inside and for inner progress in the sadhana.


Sri Aurobindo: The relation with which the Mother thought of establishing was of two friends and fellow workers in her work, it was never intended that she should be between you and the Mother. In’s case there was a help to be given to you so that you might not be carried away by the attacks from which you suffered and might have time and support till you could reach a point at which you could seek the Mother’s presence within you and with you. That you can do now and there is no reason why anyone should be asked to intervene in any way — our work is directly in you and upon you and not through anyone.  It is not surprising that you could not ﬁnd out what you had done to make the Mother change her attitude towards you, and this for two good reasons, — ﬁrst, that you had done nothing, and, second, that the Mother’s feeling for you and her attitude had not changed at all — . She has the same care and love as she always had and during the last few days of which you speak, they were not clouded for a moment.


Sri Aurobindo: Then you ask, if so, why do I feel like this or like that? I can only answer that, in their origin, these were not your own feelings at all, but rather ideas, impressions, impulses pushed into your lower vital from outside; your mistake has been to admit them and identify them as your own — from want of knowledge and experience in these matters. There are certain vital forces of this lower vital plane that are constantly wandering about the Asram and trying to push their movements now on one, now on another, now on several at a time. The processus is always the same. First, suggestions: the Mother has done this or not done that, she has said this or not said that, she has had this or that thought about me or feeling towards me, she is displeased with me, unfair to me, partial to others etc. etc. etc.;


Sri Aurobindo: next, discouragement, wounded feelings, jealousy, despondency, revolt or any other kindred vital downfall or upheaval; result, the impulse to withdraw from the Mother, not to give her ﬂowers or take ﬂowers, to go away from soup or Pranam, not to come there, to shut oneself away from her altogether, to give up the Yoga, to go away — or worse. I give you the whole round in its ground plan, omitting many variations, so that you may be on your guard the next time these suggestions try to come. If you don’t want to be misled by them and to go through much quite groundless and unnecessary disturbance and trouble, you must recognise them immediately they come, cast them out by the neck or break their backs as you would a snake’s.  For they are in their nature not only irrational, but strongly mechanical. Irrational, because they have no true ground in reality.


Sri Aurobindo: They are ready enough to seize on some (usually triﬂing) outward appearances and twist them this way or that in order to convince the easily deceived physical mind; they will even create circumstances and make them appear to have that colour. But if they cannot ﬁnd or create, they will go on just as merrily with no other ground than imaginations or impressions which they persuade their victims to take for realities. And they are mechanical because, once they can make the mind their ﬁeld, they always recur with the same inevitable round of suggestions, the same ideas, the same feelings, the same impulses, the same actions in consequence. It is like a recurrent illness with always the same series of symptoms and the same “course”. And the object is always the same, to create a distance between the sadhak and the Mother and so to break the sadhana.


Sri Aurobindo: It is a great mistake to think, as some do, that the Mother in such cases pushes the sadhaka away from her; on the contrary, it is he who pushes her away from him under the inﬂuence of these forces and believes all the time — for they have a great power of blinding the mind and clouding the judgment — that she is to blame.  To show how these suggestions mislead once one starts listening to them, I may instance the matter of your sister’s letters.  The Mother and I have always accepted without reservation your sister’s coming and neither today nor at any other time had she the least idea in her mind against it. On the contrary, when you came in the midst of a hard and trying morning, she gave you full time, heard all you had to say, made her own suggestions and gave her full acquiescence. What more could she have done?


Sri Aurobindo: And yet you have this suggestion made to you that she does not really want, that she is not frank, that she is cold to you about the matter. Why? Precisely because there was this predisposing inﬂuence at work on the lookout for any pretext to mislead you, — any, even less than a shadow’s shadow.  I must ask you therefore to dismiss this kind of suggestion, these feelings and all the cycle in future the moment they try to come. Never mind what circumstances or justiﬁcations they may allege.


Sri Aurobindo: Nothing is more dangerous than the inferences of the physical mind trying to build up conclusions upon outward appearances — they have nine chances out of ten of being false.  One must learn to distrust hasty conclusions from surface appearances — is not that the ﬁrst condition of true knowledge?  — and learn to see and know things from within.  You ask how to stem these movements? To begin with, observe three rules:


Sri Aurobindo: (1) Keep always conﬁdence in the Mother’s care and love — trust in them and distrust every suggestion, every appearance that seems to contradict.  (2) Reject immediately every feeling, every impulse that makes you draw back from the Mother — such as that about the Pranam — from your true relation with her, from inner nearness, from a simple and straightforward conﬁdence in her.  (3) Do not lay too much stress on outward signs — your observation of them may easily mislead you. Keep yourself open to her and feel with your heart — the inner heart, not the surface vital desire, but the heart of true emotion, — then you are more likely to ﬁnd her and be always near her in your self and receive what constantly she is working to give you.


Sri Aurobindo:   Yes, it is a being of falsehood from the vital world which tries to make one take its false suggestions for the truth and disturb the consciousness, and get it to leave the straight path and either get depressed or turned against the Mother. If you reject and refuse to listen or believe always, it will disappear.   All these [] are the mere ravings of the vital Force that attacks the mind with its lying suggestions until it succeeds in getting the sadhak to turn away from the Mother and against her. There is a part of the vital that accepts it, luxuriates in an exaggerated misery and suggestions of personal tragedy and catastrophe, the blame for which it wants to lay on the Divine.