Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 3. 1936-37

Fragment ID: 18329

1936-37

As for my bringing down the Mother’s Force into certain actions and not into others, I don’t think that I tried to bring it consciously only into the fly-toxing and painting work.

It is not a question of trying or of mental intention, it was a psychic state of the consciousness that brought it down.

The condition you described as there when the Force came down in your work was that of the true instrument, not merely thought but felt – so it opened a way for the Force to come. Quietness is not necessarily sufficient for the Force to come down. A certain state of psychic self-giving is the best condition.

It is the Mother’s Force that has to work through the sadhak, not the sadhak who has to work through the Mother’s Force.

The first stage is when one works with the outer energy, but there is an inner consciousness supporting it which relies wholly on the Mother. The second is when there is an inner consciousness and force which uses the outer instruments – the outer energy being quiescent or else a part only of the inner – while this inner consciousness knows that the force is the Mother’s or feels the Mother’s presence in it: there are different experiences in this respect. The third is when all is the Mother’s Force working.