How
to Read Mother and Sri Aurobindo
Sweet
Mother,
How should we read your books and the books of Sri Aurobindo
so that they may enter into our consciousness instead of being
understood only by the mind?
To
read my books is not difficult because they are written in the
simplest language, almost the spoken language. To get help from
them, it is enough to read with attention and concentration
and an attitude of inner good-will, with a desire to receive
and live what is taught.
To
read what Sri Aurobindo writes is more difficult because the
expression is highly intellectual and the language far more
literary and philosophic. The brain needs a preparation to really
be able to understand and generally this preparation takes time,
unless one is specially gifted with an innate intuitive faculty.
In
any case, I always advise reading a little at a time,
keeping the mind as quiet as one can, without making an effort
to understand, but keeping the head as silent as possible and
letting the force contained in what one reads enter
deep inside. This force, received in calm and silence, will
do its work of illumining and will create in the brain, if necessary,
the cells required for understanding. Thus, when one re-reads
the same thing some months later, one finds that the thought
expressed has become much clearer and closer and even at times
quite familiar.
It is preferable to read regularly, a little every day and at
a fixed hour if possible; this facilitates the brain's receptivity.
-
The Mother