Death—a
Stepping Stone
Sri
Aurobindo writes here: "... Few and brief in their
visits are the Bright Ones who are willing or permitted
to succour." Why?
One
must go and ask them! But there is a conclusion, the last
sentences give a very clear explanation. It is said: "Nay,
then, is immortality a plaything to be given lightly to
a child, or the divine life a prize without effort or the
crown for a weakling?" This comes back to the question
why the adverse forces have the right to interfere, to harass
you. But this is precisely the test necessary for your sincerity.
If the way were very easy, everybody would start on the
way, and if one could reach the goal without any obstacle
and without any effort, everybody would reach the goal,
and when one has come to the end, the situation would be
the same as when one started, there would be no change.
That is, the new world would be exactly what the old has
been. It is truly not worth the trouble! Evidently a process
of elimination is necessary so that only what is capable
of manifesting the new life remains. This is the reason
and there is no other, this is the best of reasons. And,
you see, it is a tempering, it is the ordeal of fire, only
that which can stand it remains absolutely pure; when everything
has burnt down, there remains only the little ingot of pure
gold. And it is like that. What puts things out very much
in all this is the religious idea of fault, sin, redemption.
But there is no arbitrary decision! On the contrary, for
each one it is the best and most favourable conditions which
are given. We were saying the other day that it is only
his friends whom God treats with severity; you thought it
was a joke, but it is true. It is only to those who are
full of hope, who will pass through this purifying flame,
that the conditions for attaining the maximum result are
given. And the human mind is made in such a way that you
may test this; when something extremely unpleasant happens
to you, you may tell yourself, "Well, this proves I
am worth the trouble of being given this difficulty, this
proves there is something in me which can resist the difficulty",
and you will notice that instead of tormenting yourself,
you rejoice—you will be so happy and so strong that
even the most unpleasant things will seem to you quite charming!
This is a very easy experiment to make. Whatever the circumstance,
if your mind is accustomed to look at it as something favourable,
it will no longer be unpleasant for you. This is quite well
known; as long as the mind refuses to accept a thing, struggles
against it, tries to obstruct it, there are torments, difficulties,
storms, inner struggles and all suffering. But the minute
the mind says, "Good, this is what has to come, it
is thus that it must happen", whatever happens, you
are content. There are people who have acquired such control
of their mind over their body that they feel nothing; I
told you this the other day about certain mystics: if they
think the suffering inflicted upon them is going to help
them cross the stages in a moment and give them a sort of
stepping-stone to attain the Realisation, the goal they
have put before them, union with the Divine, they no longer
feel the suffering at all. Their body is as it were galvanised
by the mental conception. This has happened very often,
it is a very common experience among those who truly have
enthusiasm. And after all, if one must for some reason or
other leave one's body and take a new one, is it not better
to make of one's death something magnificent, joyful, enthusiastic,
than to make it a disgusting defeat? Those who cling on,
who try by every possible means to delay the end even by
a minute or two, who give you an example of frightful anguish,
show that they are not conscious of their soul...After all,
it is perhaps a means, isn't it? One can change this accident
into a means; if one is conscious one can make a beautiful
thing of it, a very beautiful thing, as of everything. And
note, those who do not fear it, who are not anxious, who
can die without any sordidness are those who never think
about it, who are not haunted all the time by this "horror"
facing them which they must escape and which they try to
push as far away from them as they can. These, when the
occasion comes, can lift their head, smile and say, "Here
I am."
It
is they who have the will to make the best possible use
of their life, it is they who say, "I shall remain
here as long as it is necessary, to the last second, and
I shall not lose one moment to realise my goal"; these,
when the necessity comes, put up the best show. Why?—it
is very simple, because they live in their ideal, the truth
of their ideal; because that is the real thing for them,
the very reason of their being, and in all things they can
see this ideal, this reason of existence, and never do they
come down into the sordidness of material life.
So, the conclusion:
One must never wish for death.
One must never will to die.
One must never be afraid to die.
And in all circumstances one must will to exceed oneself.
23
April 1951
- The Mother
