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Psychological
Perfection
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Mother
shows the white Champak flower she is holding in her
hand. She has named the flower "Psychological
Perfection".
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Who
remembers this?
(Counting the petals) One, two, three, four, five
psychological perfections. What are the five psychological
perfections?
For they can be changed. And in fact, to tell you my secrets,
every time I give it to someone, they are not always the
same psychological perfections. That depends on people's
needs. Even to the same person I may give at different times
different psychological perfections; so it's not fixed.
But the first time this flower was named "Psychological
Perfection'', I remember very well it was at a gathering
up there where Prosperity ("Prosperity'' is the place
where, on the first of every month, Mother used to distribute
to the disciples what they needed for the month.) now is,
where I go on the first of the month; there was a gathering
and we had decided the five psychological perfections, at
that time they were noted down, but as for me it is something
very fluid — I told you it depends on the circumstances
and needs — I don't remember what was chosen the first
time.
So, if someone knows it, he can tell us, we'll compare.
I am not sure.
You are not sure. Is there anyone
who is sure?
Aspiration,
devotion, sincerity and faith.
That
makes only four, so far.
And
surrender.
Surrender?
Someone told me something else.
(To a disciple) You, do you know? Well, then, come and tell
us.
In
English, Mother?
Ah,
no, my child, this is a French class, not in English!
Faith,
sincerity, aspiration, devotion, surrender.
But that's what he just said. (Turning
to another disciple) You a little while ago, you told me
"faithfulness''.
I
said that, but it's not faithfulness, instead of faithfulness
it's faith.
But why should there not be faithfulness?
I didn't put it down, because I didn't try to recall anything,
I simply wrote down what seemed to me the most important
and most general. But it may be put in various ways.
In
any case, what is always there, in all combinations and
to whomever I give it, the first among them all is sincerity.
For if there is no sincerity, one cannot advance even by
half a step. So that is the first, and it is always there.
But
it is possible to translate it by another word, if you prefer
it, which would be "transparency''. I shall explain
this word:
Someone is in front of me and I am looking at him; I look
into his eyes. And if this person is sincere or "transparent'',
through his eyes I go down and I see his soul — clearly.
But — this is precisely the experience — when
I look at somebody and see a little cloud, then I continue,
I see a screen, and then sometimes it is a wall, and afterwards
it is something quite black; and all this must be crossed,
and holes bored in order to go through; and even then I
am not sure if at the last minute I may not find myself
before a door of bronze so thick that I shall never get
through and see his soul; so, of such a person I can immediately
say that he is not sincere. But I can also say, figuratively,
that he is not transparent. That is the first thing.
There
is a second, which is obviously, as indispensable if you
want to go forward; it is to have faith. Or another word,
which seems more limited but is for me more important, because
(it is a question of experience) if your faith is not made
of a complete trust in the Divine, well, you may very easily
remain under the impression that you have faith and yet
be losing all trust in the divine Power or divine Goodness,
or the Trust the Divine has in you. These are the three
stumbling-blocks:
Those
who have what they call an unshakable faith in the Divine,
and say, "It is the Divine who is doing everything,
who can do everything; all that happens in me, in others,
everywhere, is the work of the Divine and the Divine alone'',
if they follow this with some kind of logic, after some
time they will blame the Divine for all the most terrible
wrongs which take place in the world and make of Him a real
demon, cruel and frightfulif — they have no trust.
Or
again, they do have faith, but tell themselves, "Well,
I have faith in the Divine, but this world, I see quite
well what it's like! First of all, I suffer so much, don't
I? I am very unhappy, far more unhappy than all my neighbours''
— for one is always far more unhappy than all one's
neighbours — "I am very unhappy and, truly, life
is cruel to me. But then the Divine is divine, He is All-Goodness,
All-Generosity, All-Harmony, so how is it that I am so unhappy?
He must be powerless; otherwise being so good how could
He let me suffer so much?''
That is the second stumbling-block.
And
the third: there are people who have what may be called
a warped and excessive modesty or humility and who tell
themselves, "Surely the Divine has thrown me out, I
am good for nothing, He can do nothing with me, the only
thing for me is to give up the game, for He finds me unworthy
of Him!''
So,
unless one adds to faith a total and complete trust in the
Divine Grace, there will be difficulties. So both are necessary....
Now,
we have put "devotion'' in this series. Yes, devotion
is all very well, but unless it is accompanied by many other
things it too may make many mistakes. It may meet with great
difficulties
You
have devotion, and you keep your ego. And then your ego
makes you do all sorts of things out of devotion, things
which are terribly egoistic. That is to say, you think only
of yourself, not of others, nor of the world, nor of the
work, nor of what ought to be done — you think only
of your devotion. And you become tremendously egoistic.
And so, when you find out that the Divine, for some reason,
does not answer to your devotion with the enthusiasm you
expected of Him, you despair and fall back into the same
three difficulties I was just speaking about: either the
Divine is cruel — we have read that, there are many
such stories, of enthusiastic devotees who abuse the Divine
because He is no longer as gentle and near to them as before,
He has withdrawn, "Why hast Thou deserted me? Thou
hast abandoned me, O monster!...'' They don't dare to say
this, but think it, or else they say, "Oh! I must have
made such a serious mistake that I am thrown out'', and
they fall into despair.
25
January 1956
- The Mother
