WRITINGS BY THE MOTHER
© Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust

The Divine's Way of Working

You don't understand the way of my working. You can as well say, "You have the supramental force, why don't you use it and finish all this muddle?" But it is not like this that the work can be done. The world is not ready for the supramental force and if it is used without preparing the base, things will shatter completely. I have to prepare the base and then bring down the force.

Your human vision sees things in a straight line. For you it is either this way or that way. For me it is not like this. I see the whole thing as a mass of consciousness moving towards its end or goal. For every small movement I have to see what its reactions will be on the whole mass, what repercussions may follow.

When I say something should be done in this way or that way, your human mind takes it as a principle and tries to apply it rigidly in all cases. For me it is not like that. For me there are no rules, no regulations and no principles. For me each one is an exceptional case, to be dealt with in a special way. No two cases are similar.

In the movement of this mass of consciousness I know that a certain point should move in a certain direction for reaching the goal more easily. With this point in view I declare that this should be done or not done, but I find that sometimes there is a big obstruction in the way. Now, it can be dealt with in two ways: either I should allow the point to change its direction and leave the barrier alone for the time being till more and more light falls upon it and it gets changed, or I should break the barrier. As I have said, every small movement has its reactions and repercussions on the mass, so this breaking also will cause a chain of reactions which may affect a much larger field. I am no respecter of persons, but I have to see at every moment the changing circumstances due to the change of the person or persons concerned and the change of time and the channel through which the thing passes. I have to see with all these changes how best the thing can be done so that it may help the progress of the mass. I have to see whether it is worthwhile to break the barrier and have all the resulting consequences or whether it would not be better to leave it for the moment and tolerate the human stupidity. What appears to you to be contradiction is not contradiction when the whole thing is seen as one. There are various ways to reach the same end. So if I find that breaking will cost much more than what it is worth, then I allow you to go the way you like. But that does not prevent me from condemning the obstruction and saying that it ought to go.

After all, sooner or later each and everything in this mass of consciousness has to move towards the same goal. But to lead the consciousness towards that goal I have to allow human beings to move with me and I have to appear in their own form and speak in their own language. I have to adopt a crude expression. I can see the stupidity of the way in which I have to speak and lay down rules and regulations, but this is a concession that I must make to humanity; otherwise it would not be able to understand anything. Even when I speak in their own language, people misunderstand me and make a mess. If I were to speak in the language of the light, then the whole thing would pass over their heads and they would be left gaping without understanding anything.

X has a very well-developed mind. I can say that his mind is very open towards the light. Twice I tried to speak to him in the language of what Sri Aurobindo calls the mind of light, but even he could not understand it. He could catch a little, but the fullness of the sense escaped him.

With the others it is still worse; they fail to understand anything and look dazed. For the sake of these people I have to make a compromise. I say that a certain thing is stupid, but I see that you cannot remain without doing it, so I have to tolerate it. I see the relative value of things and adopt the way that may be helpful in making the progress. In your interest and in the interest of the progress of the whole mass of consciousness, I may have to allow a good many things, but it does not mean that I am blind to them and cannot see their stupidity. Sometimes it is necessary that you should have an experience and so the thing is allowed. But when I say No definitely, it is dangerous to oppose it. There can be many reasons for the same action; but it is not possible to explain them to your mind.

In this particular case I had said No. Then Y intervened. Now Y is a very nice person and he is very sincere in some parts. I know that he is weak and has the habit of grabbing and possessing. I could have refused. But that would have given a big shaking to him. It would have been difficult for him to adjust himself. As I told you, I see the relative values and I saw that the thing was not worth the shaking and so I have given my permission. But that does not prevent me from saying that it is not the right thing.

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