WRITINGS BY THE MOTHER
© Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust

Progress

10 December 1969

Progress is going on at a giant's pace--that shakes the house a little, but it goes on at a giant's pace. And for some, like X for example, it is very conscious. She had an accident in the knee long ago and this leg is a little weaker than the other one--there was a possibility of an upsetting. She noticed that so long as she had the correct attitude she felt nothing, there was nothing, it seemed to have gone altogether. As soon as she fell back into the ordinary consciousness, the illness returned.... And she has had innumerable experiences. I found it very interesting. Others also.

And it is truly interesting. It is truly interesting because it has a clarity altogether limpid and obvious, because it is solely a state of consciousness. When one has the consciousness (that is to say, as the consciousness grows more and more true--not something that is arrested, but a consciousness that is ascending), when you are within that, everything is all right; as soon as you fall back into the old consciousness, either unprogressive or progressing slowly and imperceptibly, then the disorder returns. And that is as though a lesson given in an altogether clear and obvious way.

It is truly interesting.

And the body goes on learning. It learns very quickly.

(Silence)

Surely a big stride will have been taken when man will naturally turn to perfect himself instead of waiting to find perfection in others.... This reversal is the very basis of all true progress. The first human instinct: "It is the fault of circumstances, the fault of people, the fault... this one is like this, that one is like that, the other one..." And this goes on indefinitely. The first step, the very first step is to say: "If I were as I ought [old p. 209]to be or if this body [new p. 209]were as it ought to be, all would be perfectly all right for it." If in order to progress, you were to wait for others to progress, you would have to wait indefinitely. That is the very first thing that is to be circulated everywhere. Never put the blame on others or on circumstances, because whatever the circumstances, even those that appear the worst, if you keep the true attitude and have the true consciousness, they will have no importance at all for your inner progress, no importance--I say this and I include even death.

Indeed, that seems to be the first lesson to learn.

(Silence)

Sri Aurobindo had written (I translate freely) that the notion of sin has been introduced to hasten progress, and immediately (Mother laughs) man saw sin in all others--he never saw it in himself! Sri Aurobindo's sentence is charming, but I do not remember it.[Note: "The sense of sin was necessary in order that man might become disgusted with his own imperfections. It was God's corrective for egoism. But man's egoism meets God's device by being very dully alive to its own sins and very keenly alive to the sins of others." (Thoughts and Aphorisms, Cent. Vol. 17, p. 86)] [new p. 210][old p. 210]

Collected Works of The Mother, First Edition, Volume 11, pp. 208-209