The
Mother Answers on Supermind and the Life Divine - I
Sweet
Mother, what is the involved supermind?
It
is the same as the uninvolved one! It is the same thing when
Sri Aurobindo says that if the Divine were not at the centre
of everything, He could never manifest in the world; it is
the same thing when he says that essentially, in its origin
and deepest structure, the creation is divine, the world is
divine; and that is why this divinity will be able to manifest
one day, become tangible, express itself fully in place of
all that veils and deforms it at present. Up to now, all that
has manifested of this divinity is the world as we know it;
but the manifestation is boundless, and after this mental
world as we know it, of which the apex and prototype is man,
another reality will manifest, which Sri Aurobindo calls the
Supermind, for it is in fact the next step after the mind;
so, seen from the world as it is, it will naturally "supramental",
that is, something above the mind. And he also says that it
will truly be the changing of one world into another, for
so far the whole creation belonged to what he calls "the
lower hemisphere" as we know it, which is governed by
Ignorance and based upon the Inconscient, whereas the other
one will be a complete reversal, the sudden appearance of
something which will belong to quite a different world, and
which instead of being based on Ignorance will be based upon
Truth. That is why it will truly be a new world. But if the
essence, the principle of this world were not included
in the world as we knew it, there would be no hope of the
one being transformed into the other; they would be two worlds
so totally different and opposed that there would be no contact
between them and that necessarily, as soon as one came out
of this world and emerged into the world of Truth, Light and
Knowledge, one would become, so to speak, imperceptible, non-existent
for a world belonging exclusively to the Ignorance and the
Inconscience.
How
is it that even when this change has taken place, there will
be a connection and this new world will be able to act upon
the old one? It is that in its essence and principle the new
is already enclosed, involved in the old world. So, in fact,
it is there, inside, in its very depths, hidden, invisible,
imperceptible, unexpressed, but it is there, in its essence.
Still, unless from the supreme heights the supramental consciousness
and force and light manifest directly in the world, as it
happened a year and a half ago, this Supermind which in principle
is at the very bedrock of the material world as it is, would
never have any possibility of manifesting itself. Its awakening
and appearance below will be the response to a touch from
above which will bring out the corresponding element hidden
in the depths of matter as it is now... And this is precisely
what is happening at present. But as I told you two weeks
ago, this material world as it actually, visibly is, is so
powerful, so absolutely real for the ordinary consciousness,
that it has engulfed, as it were, this supramental force and
consciousness when it manifested, and a long preparation is
necessary before its presence can be even glimpsed, felt,
perceived in some way or other. And this is the work it is
doing now.
How
long it will take is difficult to foresee. It will depend
a great deal on the goodwill and the receptivity of a certain
number of people, for the individual always advances faster
than the collectivity, and by its very nature, humanity is
destined to manifest the Supermind before the rest of creation.
At
the basis of this collaboration there is necessarily the will
to change, no longer to be what one is, for things to be no
longer what they are. There are several ways of reaching it,
and all the methods are good when they succeed! One may be
deeply disgusted with what exists and wish ardently to come
out of all this and attain something else; one mayand
this is a more positive wayone may feel within oneself
the touch, the approach of something positively beautiful
and true, and willingly drop all the rest so that nothing
may burden the journey to this new beauty and truth.
What
is indispensable in every case is the ardent will for
progress, the willing and joyful renunciation of all that
hampers the advance: to throw far away from oneself all that
prevents one from going forward, and to set out into the unknown
with the ardent faith that this is the truth of tomorrow,
inevitable, which must necessarily come, which nothing,
nobody, no bad will, even that of Nature, can prevent from
becoming a realityperhaps of a not too distant futurea
reality which is being worked out now and which those who
know how to change, how not to be weighed down by old habits,
will surely have the good fortune not only to see but
to realise.
People
sleep, they forget, they take life easythey forget,
forget all the time... But if we could remember... that we
are at an exceptional hour, a unique time, that we
have this immense good fortune, this invaluable privilege
of being present at the birth of a new world, we could easily
get rid of everything that impedes and hinders our progress.
So,
the most important thing, it seems, is to remember this fact;
even when one doesn't have the tangible experience, to have
the certainty of it and faith in it; to remember always, to
recall it constantly, to go to sleep with this idea, to wake
up with this perception; to do all that one does with this
great truth as the background, as a constant support, this
great truth that we are witnessing the birth of a new world.
We
can participate in it, we can become this new world. And truly,
when one has such a marvellous opportunity, one should be
ready to give up everything for its sake.
24
july 1957
- The Mother
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