Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

SABCL 26

Fragment ID: 7747

Q: Since it is the Divine which does everything, what is the difference between ordinary happenings and those in which you are consciously active?

Is there any essential difference between one happening which you simply foresee, and one happening which you consciously direct? Since all happenings take place in the Divine Consciousness, to foresee is for you simply to turn your attention towards them in such a way as to become conscious of them in the most external consciousness – and then what is the nature of your conscious action on them?

A: To answer your question I would have to speak in the terms of a consciousness to which the mind has no key and at the same time try to explain its relations to the lower consciousness in which things are now happening. What is the use of doing this? The mind will either understand nothing or misunderstand or think it has understood when really it has understood nothing.

Or I would have to make up a mental answer to the question which would not be the real thing, but just something to keep the questioning mind quiet.

The true way to enter into these things is to still the mind and open to the consciousness from which things are done. Then you would first have a direct experience of the way the divine consciousness acts on different planes and secondly a light of knowledge about the experience. This is the only true way – all the rest is only words and sterile mental logic.

1928