Our life is a life of
wants and needs. We always feel that we need so many things. We
make efforts to get them, or we pray to the Divine to give them
to us, and we keep trying in so many different ways.
We give below excerpts
from the Mother's revealing talk which analyses beautifully the
psychology and movement behind our need and our asking, and the
way we react when we get the thing we desire or when the Divine
does not give it to us.
The Mother also explains
what is the true way of asking something from the Divine.
Question: If one wants
to know something or one needs guidance, or something else, how
can one have it from the Divine, according to one's need?
By asking the Divine
for it. If you do not ask Him, how can you have it?
If you turn to the
Divine and have full trust and ask Him, you will get what you
need - not necessarily what you imagine you need; but the true
thing you need, you will get. But you must ask Him for it.
You must make the experiment
sincerely; you must not endeavour to get it by all sorts of external
means and then expect the Divine to give it to you, without even
having asked Him...
Do you know what you
need
In the ordinary consciousness
the movement is just the opposite. You assume something, saying,
"I need this, I need this relationship, I need this affection,
I need this knowledge, etc. Well, the Divine ought to give it
to me, otherwise He is not the Divine." That is to say, you
reverse the problem completely.
First of all, you say,
"I need." Do you know whether you truly need it or whether
it is only an impression you have or a desire or quite an ignorant
movement? First point: you know nothing about it.
Second point: it is
precisely your own will you want to impose upon the Divine, telling
Him, "I need this." And then you don't even ask Him
for it: "Give it to me." You say, "I need it. Therefore,
since I need it, it must come to me, quite naturally, spontaneously;
it's the Divine's job to give me all that I need."
But if it so happens
that truly you don't know what you need and it is merely an illusion
and not a truth and that, into the bargain, you ask it from life
around you and don't turn to the Divine, don't create any relationship
between yourself and Him, don't think of Him or turn to Him with
at least some sincerity in your attitude, then, as you ask nothing
from Him, there is no reason for Him to give you anything.
In both cases you
protest
But if you ask Him, as
He is the Divine He knows a little better than you what you need;
He will give you what you need. Or else, if you insist and want
to impose your own will, He may give you what you want in order
to enlighten you and make you conscious of your mistake, that it
was truly not the thing you needed. And then you begin to protest
- I don't mean you personally, I am speaking of all human beings
- and you say, "Why has the Divine given me something which
harms me?" - completely forgetting that it was you who asked
for it!
In both cases you protest
all the same. If He gives you what you ask and then that brings
you more harm than good, you protest. And again, if He doesn't give
it, you also protest: "What! I told Him I needed it and He
doesn't give it to me."
In both cases you protest,
and the poor Divine is accused.
If instead of all
that…
Only, if instead of all
that, you simply have an aspiration within you, an urge, an intense
ardent need to find That, which you conceive more or less clearly
to be the Truth of your being, the Source of all things, the supreme
Good, the Answer to all we desire, the Solution to all problems;
if there is this intense need in you and you aspire to realise it,
you won't any longer say to the Divine, "Give me this, give
me that", or, "I need this, I must have that." You
will tell Him, "Do what is necessary for me and lead me to
the Truth of my being. Give me what Thou in Thy supreme Wisdom seest
as the thing I need."
And then you are sure
of not being mistaken, and He will not give you something which
harms you.
There is a still higher
step, but it's a little more difficult to begin with that.
But the first one is
already a much truer approach than that of telling the Divine, "I
need this. Give it to me." For indeed, very few people really
know what they need - very few. And the proof of it is that they
are always in pursuit of the fulfilment of their desires, all their
effort is bent upon that, and each time one of their desires is
fulfilled, they are disappointed. And they pass on to another.
And after much seeking,
making many mistakes, suffering a good deal and being very disappointed,
then, sometimes, one begins to grow wise and wonders if there isn't
a way out of all this, that is to say, a way to come out of one's
own ignorance.
And it is then, at that
moment that one can do this [inner movement], "Here I am, take
me and lead me along the true path."
Then all begins to go
well.
- The Mother
