Thematic Index of the Collected Works of the Mother
Thematic Index of the Collected Works of the Mother
© Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust
motivation and emotion
| 04, p. 001-2 | “To choose without preference and execute without desire is the great difficulty at the very root of the development of true consciousness and self-control.....If you observe yourself attentively, you will see that before acting you need an inner impetus, something which pushes you. In the ordinary man this impetus is generally desire. This desire ought to be replaced by a clear, precise, constant vision of the Truth.” (also under: 2.3, 4.3.2) |
| 05, p. 003 | Story of the woman who thought she was coming to India to seek a remedy for her lumpy face which had been spoiled first by grief over a broken love affair and then by a botched operation. But unconsciously it was something in her inner being which had pushed her to India, to the Mother and to the practice of yoga |
| 07, p. 037-38, 39 | Desire is something in the being that fancies that it needs something else in order to be satisfied. The proof that it is ignorance is that when one has satisfied it one usually no longer cares for it. In its origin it is an obscure need for growth just as in the lowest forms of life love is changed into the need to swallow, absorb, become joined with another thing. Overcoming one’s desires makes one happier than trying to satisfy them. |
| 07, p. 365 | “For all this darkness, all this inconscience, all this ignorance is not at all something personal. It is the condition of the world, the state of matter, the state of physical life. And it enters you, makes you act; it’s like something pulling the strings of the puppet. All these desires, all these impulses, all these currents of force are things which pass through you, which you obey without even being aware of it, and which you take for yourself.” |
| 08, p. 052-55 | A very good discussion of this subject which describes how all your reactions come from atavism and from the environment in which you have lived and from the impressions which have accumulated in you. Mother compares us to a gramophone which reproduces the sounds put into it. Everyone is a transmitting and receiving centre. The easiest thing to discern when you observe yourself is the circulating aspect of desires and emotions—how they suddenly enter oneself and one thinks one wants something but it came from others, from outside circumstances. It is the same with emotions. Mother tells here the story of herself as a child suddenly feeling sorrow at a funeral of someone she didn’t know. The sadness she suddenly felt she realized had come inside her from the other people. |
| 08, p. 388-94 | A good discussion of the distinction between will and “willings” and also an explanation of the working of these influences from outside—their motivations and their methods. Very often these forces present themselves in the form of suggestions—and thus their action takes place first in the mental field, then becomes vital, then physical. Mother is speaking not of the pure mind but of the physical mind. She explains what this means and how it works. She also speaks of influences from the vital world itself and how one can recognize them and she gives the remedy for dealing with them. |
| 03, p. 133-35 | “The force which, when absorbed in the Ignorance, takes the form of vital desires is the same which, in its pure form, constitutes the push, the dynamis towards transformation.” Be receptive to the Divine and allow the Truth to enter in the darkest corners. Of course it depends on the path by which you approach the Divine whether the union with the Consciousness comes first or with the Will. First the union will come and go, “but when the union lasts you will be as if somebody else!” |
| 05, p. 005 | Many people accept convenient theories and say that everything is the result of the Divine Will and not merely personal inspirations. Do not use the Divine as a pretty cloak to hide your desires. |
| 06, p. 369-71 | This is a discussion of what to do when your will is opposed by other people’s wills. There are two kinds of situations and depending on which it is one acts differently. It is only if you have been set in motion by a higher truth that you can go straight on your way without caring for anything and anyone and you must not take your desire for the higher truth. One way to know this is if you are disinterested about the thing. Only then do you proceed without caring for the consequences. Otherwise, if the conflicting wills are all of the same quality—i.e. based on ordinary opinions and preferences and knowledge and desires, then one has to decide on the basis of the inner result one wants to get—act on the basis of the best good will and perception one has. An example is given of how one could handle the situation when one has decided not to chat and meets people who want to chatter. |
| 06, p. 410-11 | Excellent discussion on the difference between will and desire. Will is an executing power which ought to be at the disposal of the reason or higher force. Desire is an impulse which takes hold of you. You can put your will at the service of your desire, but desire is not will. “Generally speaking, with very few exceptions, people live in perpetual desires.” |
| 08, p. 070-72 | “In the path of works action is the knot we have first to loosen.” —Sri Aurobindo. Mother explains that the knot of ego is that you act because you desire. And if one acts only under the influence of need or desire then one is unable to act at all if you eliminate desire. Once the ego knot is loosened then it becomes possible and one can act without desire by an impulsion from above which frees you also from the consequences of the action. This is a wonderful phenomenon of consciousness and quite concrete and does not last long at first. Mother then tells how some people misuse their memory of this experience in harmful ways. |
| 08, p. 367-68, 369 | Mother explains what is meant by “When we have passed beyond enjoyings, then we shall have Bliss. Desire was the helper; Desire is the bar.” |
| 09, p. 100-02 | These pages are a good discussion of the subject and emphasize the conclusion of the importance of learning (and teaching children as early as possible) to allow reason to govern rather than impulses and desires. There is also an interesting discussion about how desire (instinct) works in an unperverted way in animals. It is the wrong use of his mental capacity that creates the perversion in man. |
| 10, p. 176-82 | This is an excellent discussion of the relationship of desire and divine will. All depends on the proportion of the vibrations. Mother discusses it from the psychological and the physical point of view. |
| 16, p. 113b | “When you have a desire you are governed by the thing you desire; it takes possession of your mind and your life, and you become a slave.” |
| 05, p. 193-94 | A thing seems to have been completely determined but if you have within you a will that surges up in a great aspiration that is in harmony with a higher Will and you force it upon the event, a kind of combination occurs that changes the nature of the event. This happens often for important earth events such as war. Or for preventing the “spirit” of death from entering a particular place but it will go to another because it cannot be deprived of its due. |
| 06, p. 139 | “The will—what I call the will—is something that’s here (centre of the chest), which has a power of action, a power of realisation.” |
| 06, p. 390-91 | A description of what is meant by the “knot of ego” and methods for cutting it. She says to imagine the will as a very sharp sword blade and with all one’s force one strikes an imaginary blow on the knot. She also tells how to do this work from the psychological point of view, discovering all the elements constituting the knot and then by concentration calling in the divine Force and the Grace and strike a good blow on the formation. Then you must resolve only to do the Divine will. (also under: 4.3.3, 4.5) |
| 08, p. 005-6 | Those who indulge in vice like drinking and drug injections and who know very well that this is leading them to destruction and death choose to do it knowingly. It is not a matter of not having control over themselves. There is always a moment when everyone has self-control. If people say they can’t do otherwise it is because they do not want to do otherwise. They have accepted to be slaves of their vice—or even, one step farther, to accept an illness. One tolerates some things as acceptable which after one has made some progress begin to seem bad and at that moment a will awakes which will do what is necessary to get rid of them. The will acts as a lever which can push things out or help one break with a habit that one has decided is no longer acceptable. |
| 08, p. 359-361 | A discussion about the difference between “willings” and “Power”. Mother comments on Sri Aurobindo’s statement “When we have passed beyond willings, then we shall have Power. Effort was the helper, Effort is the bar.” She also comments on the truth of the expression, “where there’s a will, there’s a way.” |
| 08, p. 368-69 | When can one say that one is conscious? Mother answers. The moment there is a conscious will capable of reacting [to the movements in oneself] one may say that one has begun to be conscious. In addition one must become aware within of something like a goal or purpose or ideal to realize that is other than a mere instinct which impels you to live without knowing why or how. Nobody is perfectly conscious—it is progressive. (also under: 1.2.1, 1.3.4.b, 4.3.2.e) |
| 08, p. 405-08 | “At every minute of your life you must make a choice between what drags you down and what draws you up, between what makes you progress and what makes you go backwards.” Mother then tells how this is different from having preferences which are something blind—an impulse, attachment or unconscious movement which is usually terribly obstinate. Choice means a decision and an action—it is an attitude you take. Preference is a desire. Choice is independent of the result. If you choose with the result in view, that falsifies your choice. |
| 09, p. 255, 259-61 | Here is a basic explanation about the role and operation of the will both in the individual and in the unfolding of the Divine in the evolution. Told in a very simple way to the children with examples from their own life. |
| 03, p. 059 | “There are many planes of consciousness [also in the individual]; and the determinism of one plane is not the same as the determinism of another.” (e.g. the psychic or the vital). |
| 03, p. 154-55 | “If, in the presence of circumstances you can take the highest attitude possible—that is, if you put your consciousness in contact with the highest consciousness within reach, you can be absolutely sure that in that case it is the best that can happen to you. But as soon as you fall from this consciousness into a lower state, then it is evidently not the best that can happen, for the simple reason that you are not in your very best consciousness.” (also under: 4.1.2.a) |
| 03, p. 163 | What do we understand by the term “Chance”? Chance is not merely a conception to cover our ignorance of the causes at work; it is a description of the uncertain melee of the lower Nature which lacks the calm one-pointedness of the divine Truth. The world has forgotten its divine origin and become an arena of egoistic energies; but it is still possible for it to open to the Truth, call it down by its aspiration and bring about a change in the whirl of chance.” |
| 03, p. 170-71 | “All that happens [in this world] is not, in fact, divine: the Supreme Will is distorted in the manifestation owing to the combination of lower forces which translate it”...“We must be vigilant to co-operate with the Divine and not placidly think that whatever happens is always the best. All depends on the personal attitude. If, in the presence of circumstances that are on the point of occurring, you take the highest possible attitude...you can be absolutely certain that in such a case what happens is the best that can happen to you. But when you fall in a lower state it cannot be the best.”As Sri Aurobindo once said, “What happened had to happen, but it could have been much better.” We must open our lower nature to the highest Will. “For, life is a battlefield in which the Divine succeeds in detail only when the lower nature is receptive to its impulsions instead of siding with the hostile forces....What you have to do is to give yourself up to the Grace of the Divine; for, it is under the form of Grace, of Love, that it has consented to uplift the universe after the first involution was established. With the Divine Love is the supreme power of Transformation.” (also under: 2.5.4.a) |
| 04, p. 036-37 | Life is a constant exchange of forces. … “in the inner world, in your consciousness there are all the time forces and influences acting and reacting upon you” ... “To be individualised in a collectivity one must be absolutely conscious of oneself. And of which self? — the Self which is above all intermixture, that is, what I call the Truth of your being....Collective thought, collective suggestions are a formidable influence which act constantly on individual thought. And what is extraordinary is that one does not notice it.” (also under: 2.1) |
| 05, p. 086-89 | Discussion of the levels of consciousness and the interaction of the planes upon each other. How the determinisms of higher planes by their intervention or descent produce changes and unforeseen consequences when introduced into the lower planes. The highest plane of absolute freedom can see consequences, and if you can bring it down into the others you change absolutely everything including the intermediary planes where all the great forces and form makers are at work and play and struggle with each other to see which possibilities will manifest. Pages 88-89 tell how things manifest in the unfolding and how one can even change the path of the unrolling by sufficient aspiration and intense prayer. (also under: 3.2.1) |
| 05, p. 192-94 | The problem [of free will] is extremely complicated and subtle. It also depends on the plane of consciousness from which you look (see fn. on p. 194) “At times the direction of a movement can be altered a little; at other times, the movement can be reversed; and at still others just the consequences and the inner attitude with regard to the movement alone can be changed.” To understand truly one must have a universal consciousness. (also under: 2.3.f) |
| 05, p. 361-63 | Explanation of “Justice is the strict logical determinism of the movements of Universal Nature”. Every act has a consequence which in turn brings on another and this is absolutely ineluctable according to universal justice. One can only escape it through the intervention of Grace. |
| 06, p. 048-49, 51 | Lower and higher determinisms in relation to the time that one dies. Examples are given. |
| 06, p. 284-86 | The material universe is in the course of construction and at any moment one or several new elements may be introduced into the whole and immediately all the internal combinations change. This can give the impression of something incoherent or of a miracle depending on how one looks at the problem. The two things are concomitant: a determinism which would be absolute in itself if it were not for this freedom, also absolute, of the unexpected and additional in the universe. The same is true of each human being who has different domains with different destinies. The addition is made in the universe by the aspiration of the supreme Consciousness. For the individual, when one aspires to the new Force it can alter all the domains. (also under: 1.3.3) |
| 07, p. 366-67 | There are many fields or zones of consciousness superimposed upon one another and in each one there is a determinism which seems absolute. But the intervention in one field of a higher field—like the intervention of the vital in the physical—necessarily transforms the determinism of the physical. And if through aspiration, inner will, self-giving and true surrender one can enter into contact with the higher regions or even the supreme region then that determinism will come down and transform all the intermediate determinisms. This is in fact what happens in the case of so-called miracles. The whole secret is to know how to climb up right to the top. |
| 08, p. 060-61 | The essential difference between a man and an animal is that a man can become aware of the force which makes him act and control it by a determined will. At that point he begins to become a conscious human being. All those who feel themselves driven by a force, “I was forced to do it” without participation of their will are still deeply rooted in animality, i.e. in the inconscient. (also under: 1.3.1) |
| 08, p. 143 | A short discussion about morality. Some people are helped by it but many are not helped at all. “Morality is something altogether artificial and arbitrary, and in most cases, among the best, it checks the true spiritual effort by a sort of moral satisfaction that one is on the right path and a true gentleman, that one does one’s duty, fulfils all the moral requirements of life. Then one is so self-satisfied that one no longer moves or makes any progress.” Each one must set up a number of principles in himself to follow until one has found the inner light. (also under: 3.4.3) |
| 09, p. 285 | “…this notation which is called in astrology a horoscope is not something absolute and …this destiny is not inevitable, for by taking up yoga and developing spiritually, one escapes from the absolute law of these horoscopes. This would be a kind of notation on the material plane of the relations between universal and individual life, and these relations can be altered by the introduction of a higher plane of consciousness into the material plane of consciousness.” (also under: 2.2.1) |
| 10, p. 243-45 | Here are several aphorisms and comments on the subject of laws of nature and of the spirit and of the role of human aspiration and effort in a world where all is foreseen. |
| 11, p. 221-23 | “More and more and in an absolute way, I see…I feel: everything has been decided.” Mother elaborates on this statement of hers from the point of view of her experiences of transforming the body. |
| 12, p. 077-79 | “We are not a single being.” “…human beings are made up of a combination of several entities that come together, interpenetrate, sometimes organising and completing each other, sometimes opposing and contradicting one another…each of these…carries within it its own destiny, its own determinism.” Mother elaborates. (also under: 2.1.1) |
| 15, p. 046 | Three short statements about morality. One is: “You have no right to dispense with morality unless you submit yourself to a law that is higher and much more rigorous than any moral law.” And: “Moral laws have only a very relative value from the point of view of Truth. Besides, they vary considerably according to country, climate and period.” And:”You can break the moral rules only when you observe the Divine Law.” (also under: 2.5.2) |
| 15, p. 184 | A good quotation for this topic: 1955 New Year Message: “No human will can finally prevail against the Divine’s Will. Let us put ourselves deliberately and exclusively on the side of the Divine, and the Victory is ultimately certain.” |
| 15, p. 307-13 | Additional comments of the Mother to her talk on destiny, determinations and the complexity of our personality. The original discussion is in Vol. 12, pp. 77-79. (also under: 2.1.1) |
| 16, p. 206 | “Yoga frees us from subjection to the horoscope; the horoscope expresses the position one has in relation with the material world, but by the sadhana we get free from the slavery to that world.” |
| 16, p. 229a-30 | A short definition of and general discussion about “luck”. |
| 16, p. 402b | “Do astrology and other studies always predict things correctly, or are men still unable to do that?” “ Human incapacity is necessarily behind all that men do. Only he who has become conscious of the Divine and has become his instrument can avoid error, if he is careful to act only at the divine command and to add nothing personal to it. …this is not easy. Only he who no longer has any ego can do it…” |
| 03, p. 008 | How to know when it is the Divine Will or not that makes us act? You must listen to the small voice that is in the heart. “Once you are accustomed to listen, if you do anything that is contrary to the Divine Will, you feel an uneasiness.” |
| 07, p. 039 | “There is a kind of inner communion with the psychic being which takes place when one willingly gives up a desire, and because of this one feels a much greater joy than if he had satisfied his desire.” In the preceding pages Mother discusses what desire is and also tells the story of the woman who gave up her good view at the theater to someone else even though she wanted to see the play herself—and was so happy. |
| 15, p. 026 | Do you know what is your own will…what comes from you and what comes from elsewhere? “If you have a strong will… if your will, your impulses …are centred around the psychic…then alone can you have some taste of liberty and freedom; otherwise you are a slave.” (also under: 2.3) |
| 03, p. 027-30 | Choice and determinism; how free are we? There is a gradation in the levels of consciousness and each level has its own freedom. |
| 05, p. 090-93 | The feeling (illusion) of freedom to choose, the will to choose and the act of choosing are the 3 devices (tricks) that Nature uses in us to make us act, otherwise we would not move. The Supreme Consciousness has no tricks but quite simply enters into all things with her consciousness, because it is the consciousness, and with that She is at work everywhere trying to put consciousness into unconsciousness. The Divine Grace can completely contradict determinisms of Karma, whose laws are not as rigorous as many believe, and it responds to sufficient aspiration or intense prayer in the same way of intervention that one uses on the material plane to change the destiny of a falling stone by deciding to catch it. The decision and act brought in a higher determinism. |
| 05, p. 192-94 | The problem [of free will] is extremely complicated and subtle. It also depends on the plane of consciousness from which you look (see fn. on p. 194) “At times the direction of a movement can be altered a little; at other times, the movement can be reversed; and at still others just the consequences and the inner attitude with regard to the movement alone can be changed.” To understand truly one must have a universal consciousness. (also under: 2.3.d) |
| 05, p. 198 | Good list of questions for getting students to ask, think about and to begin the process of self-observation. What effect do you exercise upon yourself? How do you feel? How do decisions take place in you? What makes you decide one thing rather than another? What is the relation on your decision to your action? To what extent do you have the freedom to choose between one thing and another? How far do you feel you are fee to do this or that or nothing? (also under: 2.2.2.a, 4.3.2.c) |
| 08, p. 051 | Mother comments on this passage of Sri Aurobindo from the Synthesis of Yoga (p. 88): “At best we have only the poor relative freedom which by us is ignorantly called free will. But that is at bottom illusory, since it is the modes of Nature that express themselves through our personal will; it is force of Nature, grasping us, ungrasped by us that determines what we shall will or how we shall will it. Nature, not an independent ego, chooses what object we shall seek, whether by reasoned will or unreflecting impulse, at any moment of our existence.” |
| 09, p. 005-6 | Mother answers the question: “…this new force which is going to act, will it act through individual effort or independently of it? Two possible attitudes can be taken after the discovery that it is an illusion that individual effort is due to the individual. One attitude is to passively give up all effort. The other, the true attitude, is an enthusiastic collaboration to play the game with all one’s energy and will power. |
| 09, p. 264-67 | Mother tells about the Divine unfolding in the manifestation (based on a passage from The Life Divine) “Everything is absolutely determined, for everything is from all eternity, and yet the path traversed has a freedom and unpredictability which is also absolute.” |
| 10, p. 054 | Mother answers the question, “If everything is God’s will, what is the use of personal will?” She gives good definitions of the two kinds of will and concludes that “personal will is one of the means that God uses to bring us back to Him”. |
| 10, p. 088 | “Mind has the impression that it can choose between one thing and another, but this impression is the distortion of a true principle which would be completely realisable only when the soul or psychic being…were to take up the governance of the being.” |
| 11, p. 030-32 | Mother describes her experience showing how all kinds of life upon earth and other worlds are simply a question of choice—you choose constantly to be like this or like that—even choosing to believe that you are under the compulsion of certain laws. The state she describes makes it possible to change everything, all the circumstances around oneself. “Everything is a choice… the Lord’s choice, but in us… we can choose our choice, it is wonderful.” |
| 12, p. 351 | “What you are in the truth of your being is ineluctably decreed and nothing and no one can prevent you from being it; but the path you will take to attain it is left on your own free choice.” |
| 03, p. 118-20 | Spirituality is meant to grow into divine consciousness. Morality is a mental construction, with a few ideas in which all must force themselves. The consequences of these two ways of life. |
| 03, p. 069 | “Love is one of the great universal forces; it exists by itself and its movement is free and independent of the objects through which it manifests.” It manifests wherever there is receptivity. “Love is a Divine force; for the distortions we see in its apparent workings belong to its instruments.” (also under: 2.5.4.b) |
| 03, p. 070-71 | “Love, the eternal force, has no clinging, no desire, no hunger for possession, no self-regarding attachment; it is, in its pure movement, the seeking for union of the self with the Divine.... Love divine gives itself and asks for nothing.” Human beings have made it into a repulsive thing. “The wider and clearer the opening in them, the more they manifest love divine in its original purity...” (also under: 2.5.4.b) |
| 03, p. 074-75 | “The creation moves upward through love towards the Divine and in answer there leans downward to meet the creation the Divine Love and Grace.” (also under: 2.5.4.b) |
| 05, p. 237-39, 241 | Love to the Divine for most people is conditional. Page. 241 tells that the love of rather unintellectual men for the divine is similar to the love that animals have for men. It is made up of admiration, trust and a sense of security. The other pages are a discussion about true love and human love. (also under: 2.5.4.b) |
| 06, p. 101-07 | This is about love human (like muddy water) and love divine (like crystalline pure water). “If one wants to know what love is, one must love the Divine”. “The quality of the love is in proportion to the transformation of your consciousness…if you have the consciousness of an animal you will love like an animal, of an ordinary man like and ordinary man, of. an elite being like an elite being, of a god then you will love like a god. If by aspiration and growth and effort for progress your consciousness becomes vaster then the love you experience will be vaster and vaster. Some illusions about maternal love are dispelled. (also under: 1.3.4.c, 2.5.1.e, 2.5.4.b) |
| 06, p. 144-46 | Here is an explanation of human sorrow as an egoistic turning on oneself and a description of how to deepen one’s sorrow, go right to its heart, and open the door to a state of divine compassion which is a psychic peace and sweetness and understanding of things that is not egoistic and not intellectual. (also under: 4.3) |
| 08, p. 339-40 | About divine love and human love. The human consciousness is not able to bear the intensity of the purity of Divine Love which nevertheless “animates all things, penetrates all, upbears all and leads all towards progress and an ascent to the Divine.” It is only when it is diluted, deformed attenuated and obscured that it becomes acceptable to human nature. |
| 10, p. 215-18 | Commenting on two aphorisms Mother says the vibration of hatred is fundamentally the same as the vibration of love. She explains how that is so. “All feelings have a mode of vibration, with something very essential at the core, and covering layers, as it were.” When the most central vibration expands to express itself it becomes distorted. Human morality labels some distortions good and others bad. She also describes her study of these vibrations and her conclusion. |
| 14, p. 122-39 | Divine love and human love. This chapter is about love, the nature of both divine love and human love, the love of humans for each other and also of human love for the Divine. On p. 128 Mother tells the 4 stages of capacity to love {Rungs of Love}. Pages 131-35 throw light on the subject of love and sexual desire. (also under: 2.5.1.e, 2.5.4.b) |
| 15, p. 343-46 | Mother answers the question “Is an emotion always a vital movement?” A good discussion which distinguishes psychic love from vital love. (also under: 2.5.1.e) |
| 16, p. 175-76 | Several short answers of Mother distinguish between different types of love i.e. sentimentality, psychic and vital love. |
| 16, p. 336 | “Anger is a violent reaction of the vital to some shock that is unpleasant to it; and when it involves thoughts or words, the mind responds to the influence of the vital and also reacts violently. Any expression of anger is a sign of a lack of self-control.” |
| 17, p. 018a | “What is real happiness and when does it come? When one no longer feels any attraction for the other, false happiness. Real happiness is of divine origin; it is pure and unconditioned. Ordinary happiness is of vital origin; it is impure and depends on circumstances.” |
| 08, p. 083-85 | You are always under the illusion that pain belongs to you. It is not true. It is something thrust upon you. The same event could occur without throwing the shadow of pain on you. It depends on whether you identify with the negative things you wish to eliminate or with the positive Grace that is eliminating the unwanted movements. If you are identified with the sources below you suffer, if with the forces from above, you are happy—not the happiness of pleasure. (also under: 4.2.1, 4.3.2.h) |
| 08, p. 191-92 | A brief discussion of why pleasure is fleeting and how, because one is almost constantly in an ordinary vital state where the least unpleasant thing spontaneously brings revolt or depression, one is not in the necessary psychological condition to experience joy. Joy can be lasting (but only when one enters into contact with the truth of the being which holds this joy permanently). |
| 09, p. 040-42 | A general discussion of the subject as Mother comments on a passage from Thoughts and Glimpses by Sri Aurobindo. Pleasure vapourises us; it deceives us, leads us astray. To seek it is to miss out on the real purpose of our life. Pain brings us back to a deeper truth by obliging us to concentrate…. It is in pain one most easily finds true strength and true faith. Mother also tells the secret of the way to pass beyond suffering to the eternal rapture of divine life. (also under: 4.2.1) |
| 16, p. 298 | “Ananda belongs to the Supreme Lord. Ecstasy belongs to the perfected yogi. Joy belongs to the desireless man. Pleasure is within the reach of all living beings, but with its inevitable accompaniment of suffering.” |
| 05, p. 165fn | 99 people out of 100 think the proof of spirituality is poverty and abstinence from everything that is pleasant or comfortable or sitting still all day without moving. This is a mental construction that must be thrown down if one is to be free to follow the spiritual truth. “The smile of equanimity is much higher than a narrow ascetic rule.” (also under: 1.2.3) |
| 03, p. 058 | “If you look from one plane of consciousness, the individual will appear to you as if he were not only an instrument and recorder, but a creator. But look from another and higher plane of consciousness with a wider view of things and you will see that this is only an appearance.” |
| 03, p. 156 | “The imagination is really the power of mental formation. When this power is put at the service of the Divine, it is not only formative but also creative.” You can use your imagination unhealthily by giving form to fears etc., or in an optimistic way. Example given of a woman who cured herself from getting bald. “...let your imagination be always hopeful and joyously plastic to the stress of the higher Truth, so that the latter may find you full of the necessary formations to hold its creative light.” (also under: 4.5.c) |
| 06, p. 098-99 | Mother gives the general idea of the planes in answer to the question: What does the Word mean? She explains that one rises from the region of thought formulated in words to the higher plane of silent idea and then rises higher yet to the Force that is the Consciousness of the thought. Then once you possess this light in itself and want to act upon matter to produce a result this will comes down from plane to plane becoming more material and when it touches matter it becomes a word with sounds—vibrations—that will directly act on matter. (also under: 3.2.1) |
| 07, p. 122-23 | In response to the question, “What is the heavenly archetype of the lotus?” Mother explains about how everything expressed on earth physically was conceived in higher worlds and if one can enter the consciousness of these higher worlds one sees how they are distorted here and how they are meant to be and so one can then work at making material things here take their true form. Our imagination is something very poor and quite material compared to what one can see in these very high realms of the fashioners. (also under: 1.3.2) |
| 07, p. 232-35, 241-43 | These pages deal with the subject of imagination—what it is, what its purpose is, and how writers and scientists use it. It is a faculty one can develop and use for progress and creation and also for realizing aspirations and ideals if one fulfils the necessary conditions. (also under: 3.2.4, 4.5.c) |
| 08, p. 116-19 | A discussion of how it is possible for a child to create a beautiful material life for himself by dreaming each night in the vital world where forms are created. Each night one returns to the same place and continues his “story”. Mother tells the requirements to be able to do it. (also under: 2.1.4, 2.1.7.b) |
| 09, p. 385-88 | Mother tells what the imagination is, how it works, and how one can discipline, control and master and utilize it. (also under: 4.5.c) |
| 05, p. 069, 75-77 | Mother uses music as an example of how the concentric and vertical systems of the being interrelate. How the essential quality of music depends upon its origin. Nothing can be physically manifested upon earth that has not a higher truth at its origin. So it is possible even if listening to bad music or reading indifferent books you can pass through it to that which it expresses and enjoy it not for its outward self but for what is behind it. But even the highest inspiration must be executed through the vital passage. The true value depends on the height but the value of the execution depends on the vital strength. Examples given of composers and of western versus Indian music. |