Love-II

How to distinguish between psychic bhakti, mental bhakti and vital bhakti for the Mother?
The psychic is made up of love and self giving without demand, the vital of the will to be possessed by the Mother and serve her, the mental of faith and unquestioning acceptance of all that the Mother is, says and does. These, however, are outside signs—it is in inner character quite recognisable but not to be put into words that they differ.

Is there no use of mental and vital bhakti in our Yoga?
Who says there is not? So long as it is real devotion, all bhakti has a place.

Is psychic bhakti the same as perfect devotion?
It is the basis of perfect devotion.

What is the difference between psychic emotion and psychic bhakti?
Bhakti is psychic emotion, psychic feeling directed towards the Divine, the Guru, etc.

What is the meaning of "Prem Bhakti'? In what ways is it different from simple bhakti?
I suppose it is bhakti with love as its basis; there can be bhakti of worship, submissions, reverence, obedience, etc., but without love.

I often feel an aspiration to see all in the Mother and Mother in all. Will it be fulfilled?
To see all in the Mother and the Mother in all is a necessary experience in the Yoga. There is no reason why it should not happen.

Often a very strong feeling comes to me that I am very far from the Mother. Why do I have this feeling?
It is the feeling of the physical or outward being which is by its ignorance unable to feel the Mother's nearness.

How to overcome this feeling of being far away from the Mother?
The Mother is always near and within, it is only the obscurity of mind and vital that does not see or feel it. That is a knowledge which the mind ought to hold firmly.

What is the right way of maintaining a relation of harmony and goodwill with others?
In the life of Yoga it is the psychic alone that can do that. The mind and vital can only do it with this or that person with whom it has a mental or vital affinity and it is not the real thing.

If my love is associated with demand, is it vital love?
Yes, that is the nature of vital love. It is based of desire and the sense of claim or sense of possession; psychic love is based on self-giving.

"If you love me, I will love you"; is this not an expression of vital love?
Yes—bargaining vital love.

"Even if you hate me and do not care for me, I will love you"; can this be an expression of vital love?
It may be the expression of a certain kind of passionate vital love—but it can also be the expression of a certain kind of psychic love too.

"I will love you as much as you love me"; what kind of love is revealed in this expression?
It is not love at all—it is commercial barter.

- Sri Aurobindo