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WRITINGS BY THE MOTHER
© Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust

Progress

7 April 1954

Sweet Mother, can it happen that though a person does not move forward very much he doesn't move backward either? [Note: "In Nature everything is in movement; thus whatever does not move forward is bound to fall back."]

I have only said that one cannot remain still. You say, "does not move forward much"--one may go forward just a very little! And that is enough for not moving backward. But if one is not very careful all the time, as one is made up of a lot of pieces, if he doesn't have the habit of dragging along those parts which lag behind, he may advance on one side and go backward on another. That happens. And then the sum total is not very, very satisfactory.

In ordinary life, with ordinary people, this happens all the time. For instance, take someone who is studying, working--a scientist making discoveries. He progresses in his studies, he knows more and more. But as he does not take any care of his inner life or private life or outward life, he may become more and more backward or unconscious or even full of nasty defects; even though he progresses from the scientific point of view, as a man he may become an absolutely regrettable being. That's quite a frequent occurrence. And for oneself, if one does not take good care, one may have a part which is progressing and another that's going backward. If one does not keep a close watch, if one does not control one's outer movements, if one does not take a special care not to allow the vital to go according to its own fancy, well, he will suddenly realise that he has formed very bad habits and is following a very nasty road though the mental part of the being was full of aspiration and progressing in knowledge and even in the spiritual life. If one does not pay attention, things slide very easily into a hole: one takes a false step, then slips and suddenly bumps against the bottom of the hole. Then one asks oneself, "But how did this come about? What happened?" Simply a false step: you did not take care, you allowed that part of the being [new p. 97]to draw you into its own field; because you did not pull it out of its way, did not compel it to [old p. 97]follow you, it now drags you back instead.

If one wants to lead the spiritual life, one must not be three-fourths asleep. It is necessary to be wide awake and very attentive, otherwise you are like a little boat upon a river or a great sea with terrible currents, and if you are not alert, if you do not pay close heed to these currents, if you relax, relax your vigilance, all of a sudden you find that you are at the other end from where you wanted to go! You are carried away, just like that, quite naturally. "Why, yes, I wanted to go there and I find myself here!"

That's how it is.

In ordinary life this happens all the time. Only, you know, in ordinary life one says, "It is circumstances, it is fate, it's my bad luck, it is their fault", or else, "I have no luck." That is very, very, very convenient. One veils everything and expects... yes, one has happy moments and then bad ones, and finally--ah, well, finally one falls into a hole, for everybody tumbles over, and expects to, sooner or later. So, one does not worry, or worries all the time--which comes to the same thing. That is, one is unconscious, one lives unconsciously and puts all the blame for what happens on others and on the circumstances but never tells oneself: "Why! It is my own fault."... It needs a sufficiently vast consciousness to begin. Even among those who profess to be conscious, there are not many who see clearly enough to become aware that all that happens to them comes from what they are and from nothing else. They always say, "He is wrong; circumstances are unfavourable; oh! Why was that done?"--If you were not what you are, it would not happen in this way. It would happen differently.