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WRITINGS BY THE MOTHER
© Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust

Reversal of consciousness

5 March 1958

Mother, won't you please speak to us about the "reversal" you have already mentioned to us several times? You said that a reversal was necessary to obtain the new consciousness.

A reversal?

What kind of reversal do we need, now? You said "a reversal of consciousness".

That is a way of speaking. It doesn't mean that you should walk on your head!... It is an image.

Yes, Sri Aurobindo has said this too, [Note: "The necessary condition for the change from the normal animal to the human character of existence would be a development of the physical organisation which would capacitate a rapid progression, a reversal or turnover of the consciousness, a reaching to a new height and a looking down from it at the lower stages, a heightening and widening of capacity which would enable the being to take up the old animal faculties with a larger and more plastic, a human intelligence, and at the same time or later to develop greater and subtler powers proper to the new type of being, powers of reason, reflection, complex observation, organised invention, thought and discovery.... Such a reversal has been made in each radical transition of Nature: Life-Force emerging turns upon Matter, imposes a vital content on the operations of material Energy while it develops also its own new movements and operations; Life-Mind emerges in Life-Force and Matter and imposes its content of consciousness on their operations while it develops also its own action and faculties; a new greater emergence and reversal, the emergence of humanity, is in line with Nature's precedents; it would be a new application of the general principle." The Life Divine, pp. 838-39] so...

So, if the image leads you to some kind of perception, it is good, but it is not with this (Mother points to the head) that you can understand. If it gives you an impression which explains things to you or makes you understand them better, it is all right, [old p. 287]but [new p. 287]it is not with many words and by going through the brain that you will understand them better.

It is this kind of sensation one has of seeing things in an altogether different way--then one speaks of reversal. It is like... it is always compared with a prism: if you look at it from one side, the light is white, and if you turn it over, it splits up into all its elements. This is something similar.

Words are not good and useful unless through a special grace they put you into contact with the Thing, but in themselves they have no value.

In fact, the ideal condition--which has already been partially realised by some people--is to transmit the essential idea and even something that is higher than the idea: the state--the state of consciousness, of knowledge, of perception--directly through the vibration. When you think, the mental substance vibrates in a certain way in accordance with the form your consciousness gives to your thought, and it is this vibration which should be perceived by the other mind if it is well attuned.

Indeed, words serve only to draw the attention of the other consciousness or the other centre of consciousness, so that it may be attentive to the vibration and receive it; but if it is not attentive and doesn't have the capacity to receive in comparative silence, you may pour out miles of words without making yourself understood in the least. And there comes a time when the brain, which is very active in emanating certain vibrations, can only receive vibrations which are clear and precise, otherwise it is a kind of vague mixture of something confused, imprecise, which gives the impression of a cloudy, woolly mass and doesn't evoke any idea. So one speaks, the sound is clearly heard, but it conveys nothing--it is not a question of sound, it is a matter of precision in the vibrations.

Collected Works of The Mother, First Edition, Volume 09, pp. 286-87