Answer: I believe
this is only an apparent contradiction.
If one wants to follow
a discipline of yoga, naturally, before undertaking anything one
must try to discern and know if the inspiration received is a
real one, coming from the Divine, or whether it is simply a reaction
to outer circumstances and an impulse, either vital or mental.
It is quite important, even very important, to try to discern
and act in full knowledge of the cause. But there are very many
things one does and about which one is not in the habit of thinking
beforehand. When the circumstance comes, one obeys it, so to say.
And, indeed, these things, like almost everything one does in
life, are not important in themselves.
The Only Thing
that matters
The only thing that
matters is the attitude with which they are done. The fact that
you do something because that action is present there before you
for one reason or another and that you are, so to say, always
obliged to act as long as you are in the outer life - all this
has a certain importance from the point of view of the management
of life if these acts are liable to have far-reaching consequences
in life, as for example, getting married or going to live in one
place or another or taking up one occupation or another; these
things are generally considered important, and they are so to
a certain extent; but even for them, from the point of view of
yoga, everything depends much more on the attitude one takes than
on the thing itself. And so, above all, for all the very small
actions of daily life, the importance is reduced to a minimum.
There are some scrupulous
people who set problems to themselves and find it very difficult
to solve them, because they state the problem wrongly. I knew
a young woman who was a theosophist and was trying to practise;
she told me, "We are taught that the divine Will must prevail
in all that we do, but in the morning when I have my breakfast,
how can I know whether God wants me to put two lumps of sugar
in my coffee or only one?"… And it was quite touching,
you know, and I had some trouble explaining to her that the spirit
in which she drank her coffee, the attitude she had towards her
food, was much more important than the number of lumps of sugar
she put into it.
How to know what
to do
It is the same with
all the little things one does at every moment. The divine Consciousness
does not work in the human way. It does not decide how many lumps
of sugar you will put in your coffee. It gradually puts you in
the right attitude towards actions, things - an attitude of consecration,
suppleness, assent, aspiration, goodwill, plasticity, effort for
progress - and this is what counts, much more than the small decision
you take at every second. One may try to find out what is the
truest thing to do, but it is not by a mental discussion or a
mental problem that these things can be resolved. It is in fact
by an inner attitude which creates an atmosphere of harmony -
progressive harmony - in which all one does will necessarily be
the best thing that could be done in those particular circumstances.
And the ideal would be an attitude complete enough for the action
to be spontaneous, dictated by something other than an outer reason.
But that is an ideal - for which one must aspire and which one
can realise after some time. Till then, to take care always to
keep the true attitude, the true aspiration, is much more important
than to decide whether one will do gymnastic-marching or not and
whether one will go to a certain class or not. Because these things
have no real importance in themselves, they have only an altogether
relative importance, the only important thing is just to keep
the true orientation in one's aspiration and a living will for
progress.
The Right Way
As a general rule,
and so that the experience may have its full benefit, when one
has undertaken something one must do it with persistence, without
caring for obstacles and difficulties, until an absolutely irrefutable
event indicates that one no longer has to do it. This happens
very rarely. Usually, things follow their own curve and when they
reach an issue - either they have come to an end or have produced
the desired result - one becomes aware of the reason for doing
them. But the obstacles, oppositions - or encouragements - should
not be considered as irrefutable signs to be followed, for these
things may have very different meanings according to the case,
and it is not at all on the basis of these outer events that one
must judge the validity of one's undertaking.
When one is very attentive
and very sincere, one can have an indication, an inner but perceptible
indication, of the value of what one has undertaken or the action
one is doing. Truly, for someone who has an entire goodwill, that
is, who in all sincerity, with the whole conscious part of his
being, wants to do the right thing in the right way, there is
always an indication; if for some reason or other one launches
upon a more or less fatal action, one always feels an uneasiness
in the region of the solar plexus; an uneasiness which is not
violent, which doesn't compel recognition dramatically, but is
very perceptible to someone who is attentive - something like
a sort of regret, like a lack of assent. It may go as far as a
kind of refusal to collaborate. But I must stress it, without
violence, without brutal self-assertion: it makes no noise, does
not hurt, it is at the most a slight uneasiness. And if you disregard
it, if you pay no attention, attach no importance to it, after
a little while it will completely disappear and there will be
nothing any longer.
It is not that it increases
with the growing error, on the contrary, it disappears and the
consciousness becomes veiled.
Therefore, one cannot
give this as a sure sign, for if you have disobeyed this little
indication several times, well, it will no longer come. But I
tell you that if in all sincerity you are very attentive to it,
then it will be a very sure and precious guide.
But if there is an
uneasiness, it comes at the beginning, almost immediately, and
when it doesn't show itself, well, no matter what one has started,
it is preferable to do it to the very end so that the experience
may be complete, unless one receives, as I said, an absolutely
precise and categorical indication that it should not be done.
The Mother
