Generosity

Generosity

1. Role of Generosity in our Sadhana

What is Generosity?

The Mother: Generosity is to find one’s own satisfaction in the satisfaction of others.

15 December 1969

Generosity: Gives and gives itself without bargaining.

Psychic Generosity: Gives for the joy of giving.

Generosity in the Vital: Gives itself unstintingly.

Perfect Generosity in the Vital:

Psycho-Physical Generosity: Generosity of thought and act.

Generosity in the Physical: Loves abundance and loves to give it.

Manifold Generosity: All in nature is spontaneously generous.

Generous Wealth: Likes to be given and spread far and wide.

“AN IDEAL CHILD” …

IS GENEROUS — He appreciates the merits of others and is always ready to help another to succeed.” (CWM 12: 151)

The Mother: Nobleness and generosity are the soul’s ethereal firmament; without them, one looks at an insect in a dungeon.

Let not thy virtues be such as men praise or reward, but such as make for thy perfection and God in thy nature demands of thee.

The Mother:

Meanness is a weakness that calculates and demands from others the virtues one does not possess oneself.

· Selfishness is to put oneself at the centre of the universe and to want everything to exist for one’s own satisfaction.

· Nobleness is to refuse all personal calculation.

Generosity — One of the 3 attributes to approach to God

Oppose anger with serenity, evil with good; conquer a miser by generosity and a liar by the truth.

Speak the truth; do not give way to anger; give the little you possess to one who asks of you; by these three attributes, men can approach the gods.

2. Why Generosity needs to be practised?

2.1 Reveals the generosity of Divine:

The Mother: The generosity of your absolute selfgiving will bring to you the revelation of the generosity of the Divine’s Love. — 30 March 1948

“The Divine’s words comfort and bless, soothe and illumine, and the Divine’s generous hand lifts a fold of the veil which hides the infinite knowledge.”

[Prayers and Meditations] November 17, 1914 …

O Divine Mother, always Thy word comforts and blesses, calms and illumines, and Thy generous hand lifts a fold of the veil hiding the infinite knowledge. How calm, noble and pure is the splendour of Thy perfect contemplation!” (CWM 1: 276)

I salute Thee, O Lord, deliverer of beings! ‘Lo! here are flowers and benedictions! here is the smile of divine Love! It is without preferences and without repulsions. It streams out towards all in a generous flow and never takes back its marvellous gifts.’ Her arms outstretched in a gesture of ecstasy, the eternal Mother pours upon the world the unceasing dew of her purest love.”

“ALL Nature hails Thee, O Lord, and with arms lifted and hands outstretched she implores Thee. Not that she doubts Thy infinite generosity and thinks she must ask in order to have; but that is her way of bowing to Thee and giving herself to Thee, for is this giving anything else than being ready to receive? She delights in thus offering a prayer to Thee though she knows that this prayer is superfluous. But it is an ardent and happy adoration. And the feeling of devotion is thus satisfied without in any way hurting the intellectual consciousness which knows Thee to be one with everything and present in everything. But all the veils must vanish and the light become complete in all hearts. O Lord, in spite of the work, in it, give us that perfect calm of the spirit which makes possible the divine identification, the integral knowledge. My love for Thee, O Lord, is Thyself and yet my love bows down before Thee in deep devotion.” (CWM 1: 188)

“Envelop this sorrowful earth with the strong arms of Thy mercy, permeate it with the beneficent outpourings of Thy infinite love. I am the powerful arms of Thy mercy. I am the vast bosom of Thy boundless love. . . . My arms have enfolded the sorrowful earth and press it tenderly to my generous heart; and slowly a kiss of supreme benediction is laid upon this struggling atom: the kiss of the Mother which soothes and heals. . . .” (CWM 1: 221)

2.3 Brings the Psychic Being towards the front.

Q. “How can one know whether the psychic being is in front or not?

The Mother: Who? Oneself?… It is not felt, no? You don’t feel it? I am not speaking of a small child, for it has no means of control and observation, it lacks the capacity of observation. But then, when one is no longer a baby, doesn’t one feel it? It doesn’t make a difference?… (The child nods in assent.) Ah!… There is not one of you who will dare to tell me that it makes no difference when the psychic is there, when one feels better within oneself, when one is full of light, hope, goodwill, generosity, compassion for the world, and sees life as a field of action, progress, realisation.” (CWM 6: 6)

2.2 Purifies the vital being:

Sweet Mother,

What will be the result of changing the vital into something good; in other words, what will be the change?

The vital is the receptacle of all the bad impulses, all wickedness, cowardice, weakness and avarice.

When the vital is converted, the impulses are good instead of being bad; wickedness is replaced by kindness, avarice by generosity; weakness disappears and strength and endurance take its place; cowardice is replaced by courage and energy.

The seat of power in action is in the purified vital.

Blessings.

Conversion of the vital: enthusiastic and spontaneous, it gives itself unstintingly.

The day the vital will be converted it will have much to give.

Generosity in the vital gives itself unstintingly.

The Mother: “No, it depends on the candour of the child. And on the trust he has in what happens to him, on the absence of the mind’s critical sense, and a simplicity of heart, and a youthful and active energy — it depends on all that — on a kind of inner vital generosity: one must not be too egoistic, one must not be too miserly, nor too practical, too utilitarian — indeed there are all sorts of things one should not be… [one should be] like children.” (CWM 8: 117)

The Mother: “A strong vital is one that is full of life-force, has ambition, courage, great energy, a force for action or for creation, a large expansive movement whether for generosity in giving or for possession and lead and domination, a power to fulfil and materialise — many other forms of vital strength there are also. It is often difficult for such a vital to surrender itself because of this sense of its own powers — but if it can do so, it becomes an admirable instrument for the Divine Work.” (CWSA 28:196)

2.3 Takes us closer to Mahalakshmi

Q. Sri Aurobindo says here about Mahalakshmi: “All that is poor… repels her advent”?

Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, p. 31

The Mother: Yes, poor, without generosity, without ardour, without amplitude, without inner richness; all that is dry, cold, doubled upon itself, prevents the coming of Mahalakshmi. It is not a question of real money, you know! An extremely rich man may be terribly poor from Mahalakshmi’s point of view. And a very poor man may be very rich if his heart is generous.

Q. When we say “a poor man — un pauvre homme”, what is the exact meaning of “poor man”?

The Mother: A poor man is a man having no qualities, no force, no strength, no generosity. He is also a miserable, unhappy man. Moreover, one is unhappy only when one is not generous — if one has a generous nature which gives of itself without reckoning, one is never unhappy. It is those who are doubled up on themselves and who always want to draw things towards themselves, who see things and the world only through themselves — it is these who are unhappy. But when one gives oneself generously, without reckoning, one is never unhappy, never. It is he who wants to take that is unhappy; he who gives himself is never so.

The Mother: “It is infinitely more difficult to be good, to be wise, to be intelligent and generous, to be more generous, you follow me, when one is rich than when one is poor. I have known many people in many countries, and the most generous people I have ever met in all the countries, were the poorest. And as soon as the pockets are full, one is caught by a kind of illness, which is a sordid attachment to money. I assure you it is a curse. So the first thing to do when one has money is to give it. But as it is said that it should not be given without discernment, don’t go and give it like those who practise philanthropy, because that fills them with a sense of their own goodness, their generosity and their own importance. You must act in a sattwic way, that is, make the best possible use of it. And so, each one must find in his highest consciousness what the best possible use of the money he has can be. And truly money has no value unless it circulates.” (CWM 7: 54)

2.4 Minimum Quality to be in Ashram for a spiritual life

The Mother: You have answered the trustful welcome given to you by an arrogant and uncomprehending attitude, judging everything from the viewpoint of an ignorant and presumptuous morality which could only alienate from you the sympathy so spontaneously extended to you as to all those who come here in quest of the spiritual life. But in order to profit by one’s stay here, a minimum of mental humility and generosity of soul is indispensable.

2.5 Purifies the surrounding Atmosphere

The Mother: “But when you are good, when you are generous, noble, disinterested, kind, you create in you, around you, a particular atmosphere and this atmosphere is a sort of luminous release. You breathe, you blossom like a flower in the sun; there is no painful recoil on yourself, no bitterness, no revolt, no miseries. Spontaneously, naturally, the atmosphere becomes luminous and the air you breathe is full of happiness. And this is the air that you breathe, in your body and out of your body, in the waking state and in the state of sleep, in life and in the passage beyond life, outside earthly life until your new life. Every wrong action produces on the consciousness the effect of a wind that withers, of a cold that freezes or of burning flames that consume. Every good and kind deed brings light, restfulness, joy — the sunshine in which flowers bloom.”

The Mother: “And this is why it is so important to choose the environment in which one lives, because there is constantly a kind of interchange between what you give and what you receive. People who throw themselves out a great deal in activity, receive more. But they receive on the same level, the level of their activity. Children, for example, who are younger, who always move about, always shout and romp and jump (very rarely do they keep quiet, except while asleep, and perhaps not even so), well, they spend much and they receive much, and generally it is the physical and vital energy that is spent and it is physical and vital energies that are received. They recuperate a good part of what they spend. So there, it is very important for them to be in surroundings where they can, after they have spent or while they are spending, recover something that is at least equal in quality to theirs, that is not of an inferior quality.

When you no longer have this generosity in your movements, you receive much less and this is one of the reasons — one of the chief reasons — why physical progress stops. It is because you become thrifty, you try not to waste; the mind intervenes: ‘Take care, don’t tire yourself, don’t do too much, etc.’ The mind intervenes and physical receptivity diminishes a great deal. Finally, you do not grow any more — by growing reasonable, you stop growing altogether!” (CWM 5: 208)

3. How can we practice Generosity in our daily life?

3.1 By Recognising the True Worth and Superiority of Others

The Mother:

To be generous”

I shall not speak here of material generosity which naturally consists in giving others what one has. But even this virtue is not very widespread, for as soon as one becomes rich one thinks more often of keeping one’s wealth than of giving it away. The more men possess, the less are they generous.

I want to speak of moral generosity. To feel happy, for example, when a comrade is successful. An act of courage, of unselfishness, a fine sacrifice have a beauty in them which gives you joy. It may be said that moral generosity consists in being able to recognise the true worth and superiority of others.

3.2 By Having Good Feelings towards All

The Mother: To be generous is to be benevolent towards everyone ­not only materially but also in the heart and in the mind. It means always to have good feelings towards all. Even in the mind there must never be any bad thoughts about anybody or anything.

3.3 By Becoming Happy with the joy of Others

The Mother: To have a generous heart is to be always joyful and happy in the happiness and joy of others and to remain in harmony with all and to approach them with kindness. This attitude helps much to widen the consciousness and to open the heart and the mind to the Divine’s influence and thus you get joy and happiness from everything.”

3.4 By Inculcating Our True Psychic Nature

The Mother: “Communications from the psychic do not come in a mental form. They are not ideas or reasonings. They have their own character quite distinct from the mind, something like a feeling that comprehends itself and acts.

By its very nature, the psychic is calm, quiet and luminous, understanding and generous, wide and progressive. Its constant effort is to understand and progress.

The mind describes and explains.

The psychic sees and understands.” (CWM 16: 426)

3.5 By Changing our Consciousness

The Mother on Transformation on Nature:

To rectify and to efface: both are possible, but in both cases, though in varying degrees, a transformation of the nature, of the character, is needed. What is wrongly done must be changed in oneself first, before one can hope to change the consequence of one’s action.

Change…

1) Hatred into harmony

2) Jealousy into generosity

3) Ignorance into knowledge

4) Darkness into light

5) Falsehood into truth

6) Wickedness into goodness

7) War into peace

8) Fear into fearlessness

9) Uncertainty into certainty

10) Doubt into faith

11) Confusion into order

12) Defeat into victory

9 October 1951

3.6 The Mother’s Experience of Integral Generosity

(From Agenda)

I was holding one of these flowers [Integral Generosity] in my hand when I saw Z, and I explained to him what I meant by ‘integral generosity.’ The effect of the ego, I told him, is to shrivel the being. It’s the cause of aging, it dries you up — the being shrivels under it like a withering flower. And as I was speaking to him, the experience came; all I remember now is the idea, but the idea is nothing — the experience itself was there.

I know that at a certain moment I was making the distinction between the two states, between the person — the individual, personal being — turning towards the Lord, imploring Him to reveal His Will, and then this experience of becoming — by extending oneself, by opening, by enlarging, by merging into the creation — of BECOMING the Will of the Lord, the Supreme’s Will. No longer any need to implore Him, to ‘know’ His Will and receive it like something foreign to you — you become that Will.

The experience was there at that moment, and it was eloquent enough.

And I was giving him the example of BEING the thing you manipulate and so — since you ARE the thing — having not only the joy of perfect knowledge of manipulation, but the joy of collaboration as well (not collaboration: rather a participation from the thing being utilized). And this from the smallest thing (objects you put in order, for example) right up to the universal transformation that comes with the new Creation — and it’s all the same movement of abolishing limits, the movement of expansion, of a generosity that abolishes limits. It begins with self-giving, it ends in identification. (silence)

I am investigating the consequences of an experience that was truly very interesting. It was one of those concrete experiences of something already ‘known,’ something one has the knowledge of… but what is knowledge! It’s only a VERY SMALL part of it. When one is the experience of the thing, then it becomes interesting…. I am in search of exactly what constitutes the Falsehood of the world.

The story began with an entirely concrete and material incident — something very amusing; this is not the first time it has happened, but it was so concrete and so precise that it became interesting. Someone was complaining of being ill, quite a serious, psychological illness: periodic possession by a spirit of falsehood, recurring regularly every month, of more or less long duration. This person comes to see me, and the moment she’s here there’s an upwelling of that profound Compassion of Love, with a considerable, concentrated Power to drive away the possession; and all of this accompanied, even outwardly, by quite an affectionate gesture. This person leaves and within half an hour I receive a letter: ‘Now I know: you hate me, you want me to be ill and you want me to die because I disgust you.’

It was interesting because it was so concrete. I was conscious of my movement of compassion and love and of what it had become in the other person’s consciousness!

It’s very easy to explain: she was already more than half possessed, and of course this spirit of falsehood hardly felt comfortable! And the identification2 (not only mental but sensory, vital) was so complete that she felt this love as a movement of hatred. When I saw the two phenomena, I also saw that this is exactly what happens in the world! It’s exactly what EVERYONE is.

I must add that the experience came after I had been concentrating for three days (concentrating almost constantly) on finding an explanation for this: why has it become this way? It is impossible to find the ‘why’ because it’s the reason asking and this goes beyond reason — but what is the MECHANISM? Finding the mechanism would already be something — to have the experience of the mechanism. And then came this CONCRETE superposition of the vibration of Love and the reception of hate. ‘But this is exactly what happens!’ I said. ‘The Lord is All-Love, All-Truth, All-Bliss, All-Delight — He is CONSTANTLY like that — and the world, especially the human world, constantly receives him in the other way.’ And the two things are superposed (Mother covers her left hand with her right).

Words don’t convey anything; it was the experience. I made… contact. It was very interesting. It lasted a long time, some two or three days. Since it was also linked to a state of health — a headache that had to be cured — it bore its consequences: a crystal clear explanation of illness came…. But I must again add something that preceded this.

This concentration on finding the mechanism sprang from the fact that there were disorders in the body which were vanishing and then reappearing — permanent cure seemed impossible. So I told myself, ‘Somewhere, probably in the subconscient, something must be justifying their presence.’ Then, after concentrating and searching and concentrating some more, suddenly a memory rose up from the subconscient (a memory which is a kind of continued existence under a certain form), the memory of a particular set of movements and actions (not physical movements, but attitudes) that go back many years and had never attracted my attention. None of it had ever been included in the general clearing-out because, like so many other things, it all seemed to be due to normal, ongoing circumstances. But that’s just where I saw (what to call it?) the hue, the taint of Falsehood. It’s very subtle. These are very subtle things. But suddenly, oh!… It caught hold of me and created a revolution in the whole being. All those vibrations were cast up and transformed — an extraordinary thing. It stirred up much more commotion and revolution than I had ever expected. And… ah!… A relief. Something was clarified, bringing a brilliant, new comprehension, and then quite interesting physical results. Before this, I was really feeling rather poorly, extremely tired, with the impression of a decline into decrepitude — relatively speaking! (It was in a very superficial part of the being, but it was enough to be disagreeable.) And all of it — pfft! Gone in a single stroke.

And that very day, I had this experience with the possessed person — it all came together. And then afterwards, a sort of mastery over the problem and the impression of a breakthrough — an opening up of the WAY to change, which is this enlargement. First, the movement of generosity (not that shriveling movement, but its exact opposite — the movement of expansion), and from there you go on to universality, and from universality to Totality.

It makes a whole set of interesting experiences.

Then there is a doctor, V., who comes here twice a year to give a check-up to all who take part in the physical education program and all the children. He is an extremely honest and sincere man who believes in the mission of medical science. Each time he comes, I write something in his diary on the day of his departure (his whole diary is full of things I’ve written — they usually appear in the Bulletin or somewhere). On that very same day I learned that V. was leaving, and it suddenly came to me — so clearly! Falsehood in the body — that sort of juxtaposition of contraries, the inversion of the Vibration (only it doesn’t really invert — it’s a curious phenomenon: the vibration remains what it is but it’s received inverted) — this falsehood in the body is a falsehood in the CONSCIOUSNESS. The falsity of the consciousness naturally has material consequences… and that’s what illness is! I immediately made an experiment on my body to see if this held, if it actually works that way. And I realized that it’s true! When you are open and in contact with the Divine, the Vibration gives you strength, energy; and if you are quiet enough, it fills you with great joy — and all of this in the cells of the body. You fall back into the ordinary consciousness and straightaway, without anything changing, the SAME thing, the SAME vibration coming from the SAME source turns into a pain, a malaise, a feeling of uncertainty, instability and decrepitude. To be sure of this, I repeated the experiment three or four times, and it was absolutely automatic, like the operation of a chemical formula: same conditions, same results.

This interested me greatly.

And then, from a purely external and practical standpoint, I said, ‘Illnesses are the falsehoods of the body’ (there is no question of lie here, it is a matter of falsehood; in French we have only the one word “mensonge”) ‘and each doctor…’ (here, of course, one would have to insert a little qualification: each sincere, honest doctor who truly wants to cure), ‘…each true doctor is a soldier in the great army of those who fight for Truth.’3

That was the sentence I wrote for my doctor.

And that’s the story of these last two days.

3.7 The Mother’s explanation on the word Being Generous

“The ordinary social notions distinguish between two classes of men, — the generous, the avaricious. The avaricious man is despised and blamed, while the generous man is considered unselfish and useful to society and praised for his virtue. But to the spiritual vision, they both stand on the same level; the generosity of the one, the avarice of the other are deformations of a higher truth, a greater divine power. There is a power, a divine movement that spreads, diffuses, throws out freely forces and things and whatever else it possesses on all the levels of nature from the most material to the most spiritual plane. Behind the generous man and his generosity is a soul-type that expresses this movement; he is a power for diffusion, for wide distribution. There is another power, another divine movement that collects and amasses; it gathers and accumulates forces and things and all possible possessions, whether of the lower or of the higher planes. The man you tax with avarice was meant to be an instrument of this movement. Both are important, both needed in the entire plan; the movement that stores up and concentrates is no less needed than the movement that spreads and diffuses.”

Questions and Answers 1929–1931 (4 August 1929)

What do you mean by “soul-type”?

What is the sentence?… (Mother looks at the text) Ah! it is the spirit of the type; just as we said that behind each animal type there was a spirit of the type, so behind each type of man there is a spirit of the type. This is what I call soul-type. It is a soul-type which may be progressive, but which is indestructible.

The soul-type corresponds, individually or in groups, to the dharma of things. Sometimes it is also called the truth of things, of each thing.

Is generosity a deformation of the truth?

Yes, all human qualities are deformations of a truth which is behind them. All that you call either qualities or defects are always a deformation of something which is behind, and which is neither this nor that but something else. But I say, moreover, what truth is found behind generosity: it is the movement of the spreading forces. But in order that these forces may spread, they must first become concentrated. So there is a sort of movement of pulsation: the forces are concentrated, then they spread, and then they are again concentrated and again spread…. But if you always want to spread out without ever concentrating, after a certain time you have nothing left to spread. For the forces — all forces — it is the same thing. I have written, besides, (or rather I shall write some time) that money is a force, it is nothing but that. And that is why nobody has the right to own it personally, for it is only a force, just like all other forces of Nature and the universe. If you take light as a force, it would never occur to anyone to say: “I possess the light”, and to want to shut it up in his room and not give it to others! Well, with money people are so stupefied as to imagine that it is something they can possess and keep, as though it belonged to them, and make something personal of it. It is exactly the same thing. I am not speaking of money as paper, naturally, because that would be just like the light you put in a lamp, you may own the lamp, and so you say: “It is my light.” Money, your notes, your pieces, of silver, that is your money. But that is not money. This is a force which is behind all that, the power of exchange which is money. That does not belong to anybody. It belongs to everyone. It is something which is alive only if it circulates. If you want to heap it up, it decays. It is as though you wanted to enclose water in a vase and keep it always; after some time your water would be absolutely putrefied. With money it is the same thing. And people have not yet understood that. Later on I shall write about it.

That won’t last always.

When there is avarice for material things…

Avarice for all things — there is an avarice for spiritual things also. There are misers who want to keep all the forces for themselves and never give them. But I have just told you the truth about it: one must have the power to accumulate in order to have the power of spreading. If you have only one of the two, that causes an imbalance. And it is then that it becomes avarice or wastage. One must have both in a balanced, rhythmic movement — the equilibrium we just spoke about. For it would be quite easy to prove that in fact at present equilibrium is the true thing: one must be neither here nor there, that is what Buddha called “the middle path”. The middle path is the path of equilibrium. And so one must know how to manage as when rope-walking with a stick to keep one’s balance.

But the most generous man in the world could give nothing if he had nothing to begin with. Hence, if it is not he who has accumulated, it is someone else who has accumulated for him. But if he has nothing in his pocket, he cannot distribute anything! That is evident. And the power of accumulation is as important as the power of distribution. It is only when these two things become egoistic that they are deformed, altogether deformed, and lose all their value.

Voilà, my children.

3.8 Impact of a Generous Act

One may seek within oneself, one may remember, may observe; one must notice what is going on, one must pay attention, that’s all. Sometimes, when one sees a generous act, hears of something exceptional, when one witnesses heroism or generosity or greatness of soul, meets someone who shows a special talent or acts in an exceptional and beautiful way, there is a kind of enthusiasm or admiration or gratitude which suddenly awakens in the being and opens the door to a state, a new state of consciousness, a light, a warmth, a joy one did not know before. That too is a way of catching the guiding thread. There are a thousand ways, one has only to be awake and to watch.

First of all, you must feel the necessity for this change of consciousness, accept the idea that it is this, the path which must lead to the goal; and once you admit the principle, you must be watchful. And you will find, you do find it. And once you have found it, you must start walking without any hesitation.

Indeed, the starting-point is to observe oneself, not to live in a perpetual nonchalance, a perpetual apathy; one must be attentive.

3.9 By Merging Oneself in the Divine

Yes, that’s just what I mean… How can one dissolve, you mean dissolve in the Divine, and lose one’s ego?

First of all, one must will it. And then one must aspire with great perseverance, and each time the ego shows itself, one must give it a little rap on the nose (Mother taps her nose) until it has received so many raps that it is tired of them and gives up the game.

But usually, instead of rapping it on the nose, one justifies its presence. Almost constantly, when it shows itself, one says, “After all, it is right.” And mostly one doesn’t even know that it is the ego, one thinks it is oneself. But the first condition is to find it essential not to have the ego any longer. One must really understand that one doesn’t want it. It is not so easy. It is not so easy! For one can very well turn words over in the head and say, “I don’t want the ego any more, I no longer want to be separated from the Divine.” All this goes on inside, like that. But it remain just there, it hasn’t much effect on your life. The next moment you do something purely egoistic, you see, and find it quite natural. It doesn’t even shock you.

One must first begin to understand truly what this means. The first method… you see, there are many stages… first, one must try not to be selfish — which is something quite different, isn’t it?… If you take the English words you understand the difference. In English, you see, there is the word “selfish”, and there is also the word “egoism”. The ego — “ego” — exists in English, and “selfish”. And these are two very different things; in French there is not this distinction. They say, “I don’t want to be selfish”, you see. But this is a very small thing, very small! People, when they stop being selfish, think they have made tremendous progress! But it’s a very small thing. It is simply, oh, it is simply to have a see of its ridiculousness. You can’t imagine how ridiculous these selfish people are!

When one sees them thinking all the time about themselves, referring everything to themselves, governed simply by their own little person, placing themselves in the centre of the universe and trying to organise the whole universe including God around themselves, as though that were the most important thing in the universe. If one could only see oneself objectively, you know, as one sees oneself in a mirror, observe oneself living, it is so grotesque! (Laughing) That’s enough for you to… One suddenly feels that he is becoming — oh, so absolutely ridiculous!

I remember I read in French — it was a translation — a sentence of Tagore’s which amused me very much. He was speaking of a little dog. He said… he compared it with something… I don’t remember the details now, but what struck me was this: the little dog was sitting on its mistress’s lap and fancying itself the centre of the universe! This struck me very strongly. It is true! I used to know a little dog like this! But there are many like that, almost all are like that. You see, they want everybody to pay attention to them, and in fact they succeed very well. Because when there is a little dog, as when there is a little child — it’s almost the same thing — everyone attends to them.

Haven’t you noticed that when a child of this height (Mother indicates the height) comes along, everything else stops? Before that, people could speak, say interesting things, be busy with something higher; but as soon as a child comes along, everybody begins to smile, to mimic a baby, to try to make it speak, to attend to it. One can’t bring along a child without everybody fussing over it, wanting to take it, to make it speak. So naturally the child feels itself the centre of the universe! It is quite natural!

For a puppy it is the same thing, for a kitten it is the same. It is a kind of… it is a very poor deformation of a kind of need to protect something that’s smaller than oneself. And this is one of the forms, one of the earliest forms of unegoistic manifestation of the ego! It feels so comfortable when it can protect something, busy itself with something much smaller, much weaker than itself, which is almost at its mercy, almost — even entirely — at its mercy, which has no power to resist. And so one feels good and generous because one doesn’t crush it!

This is the first manifestation of generosity in the world. But all this, when one can see behind it and a little above, it cures you from being selfish, for truly it is ridiculous! It is truly ridiculous!

So there is a long, long, long way to go before merging one’s ego in the Divine.

Merge one’s ego in the Divine! But first, one can’t merge one’s ego in the Divine before becoming completely individualised. Do you know what it means to be completely individualised? Capable of resisting all outer influences?

Some days ago I received a letter from someone who told me that he was very hesitant about reading books of ordinary literatures, for example, novels or dramas, because his nature had an almost insuperable tendency to receive imprints of the characters in these books and to begin living the feelings and thoughts of these characters, the nature of these persons. There are many more people than one would think who are like that. They read a book and while they are reading it they feel within themselves all kinds of emotions, thoughts, desires, intentions, plans, even ideals. They are simply just absorbed in the reading of the book. They are not even aware of it, because at least ninety-nine parts of an individual’s character are made of soft butter — inedible of course… but on which if one presses one’s thumb, an imprint is made.

Now, everything is a “thumb”: an expressed thought, a sentence read, an object looked at, an observation of what someone else does, and of one’s neighbour’s will. And all these wills… you know, when one sees them they are all there, like this, intermingled (Mother intercrosses her fingers), each one trying to get the uppermost and causing a kind of perpetual conflict within, outside… It goes in and out of people like that, you see, like electric currents. One is not at all aware of all this, and it is a perpetual conflict of all the wills which are trying to express themselves; and the strongest one will succeed. But as there are many of these and as one has to fight alone against a great number, it is not easy.

So one is tossed like a cork on the waves of the sea…. One day one wants this, the next day one wants that, at one moment one is pushed from this side, at another from that, now one lifts one’s face to the sky (Mother makes the movement), now one is sunk deep in a hole. And so this is the existence one has!

First one must become a conscious, well-knit, individualised being, who exists in himself, by himself, independently of all his surroundings, who can hear anything, read anything, see anything without changing. He receives from outside only what he wants to receive; he automatically refuses all that is not in conformity with his plan and nothing can leave an imprint on him unless he agrees to receive the imprint. Then one begins to become an individuality! When one is an individuality, one can make an offering of it.

For, unless one possesses something, one cannot give it. First, one must be, and then afterwards one can give oneself.

So long as one does not exist, one can give nothing. And for the separative ego to disappear, as you say, one must be able to give oneself entirely, totally without reservation. And to be able to give oneself, one must first exist. And to exist one must be individualised.

If your body were not made in the rigid form it is — for it is terribly rigid, isn’t it? — well, if all that were not so fixed, if you had no skin, here, like this, solid, if externally you were the reflection of what you are in the vital and mental fields, it would be worse than being a jelly-fish! Everything would fuse into everything else, like this… Oh, what a mess it would be! That is why it was at first necessary to give a very rigid form. Afterwards we complain about it. We say, “The physical is fixed, it is a nuisance; it lacks plasticity, it lacks suppleness, it hasn’t that fluidity which can enable us to merge into the Divine.” But this was absolutely necessary, for without this… if you simply went out of your body (most of you can’t do it because the vital being is hardly more individualised than the physical), if you came out of your body and went into the vital world, you would see that all things there intermingle, they are mixed, they divide; all kinds of vibrations, currents of forces come and go, struggle, try to destroy one another, take possession of each other, absorb each other, throw each other out… and so it goes on! But it is very difficult to find a real personality in all this. These are forces, movements, desires, vibrations.

There are individualities, there are personalities! But these are powers. People who are individualised in that world are either heroes or devils!

And now, in the mind… (Silence) If only you become conscious of your physical mind in itself…. Some people have called it a public square, because everything comes there, goes across, passes, comes back…. All ideas go there, they enter at one place, leave by another, some are here, some there, and it is a public square, not very well organised, for usually ideas meet and knock into one another, there are accidents of all kinds. But then one becomes aware: “What can I call my mind?“ or “What is my mind?“

One needs years of very attentive, very careful, very reasonable, very coherent work, organisation, selection, constructions, in order to succeed simply in forming, oh, simply this little thing, one’s own way of thinking!

One believes he has his own way of thinking. Not at all. It depends totally upon the people one speaks with or the books he has read or on the mood he is in. It depends also on whether you have a good or bad digestion, it depends on whether you are shut up in a room without proper ventilation or whether you are in the open air; it depends on whether you have a beautiful landscape before you; it depends on whether there is sunshine or drain! You are not aware of it, but you think all kinds of things, completely different according to a heap of things which have nothing to do with you!

And for this to become a coordinated, coherent, logical thought, a long thorough work is necessary. And then, the best of the business is that when you have succeeded in making a beautiful, well-formed, very strong, very powerful mental constructions, the first thing you will be told is, “You must break this so that you can unite with the Divine!” But so long as you haven’t made it, you cannot unite with the Divine because you have nothing to give to the Divine except a mass of things which are not yourself! One must first exist in order to be able to give oneself. I am repeating what I said a while ago.

Truly, in the present state of the world, the only thing one can give the Divine is one’s body. But that’s what one doesn’t give Him. Yes, one can try to consecrate one’s work! But still, here there are so many elements which are not true!

You want to merge your body in the Divine, eh? Just try! How are you going to do this? You can merge your mind, you can merge your vital, you can fuse all your emotions, you can fuse all your aspiration, you can fuse all that, but your body — how are you going to do that? You are not going to melt it in a boiling-pot! (Laughter) And yet it is the only thing about which you can say with certitude, “It is”, and give a name to it; yet even your name is a convention… but still, you are in the habit of calling yourself by a certain name — say, “This, this is I.” You look at yourself in a mirror, and although what you were twenty years ago is very different from what you are now… it is unrecognisable… still something makes you say all the same, “Yes, this is I.” Yes? “I am so-and-so” — Peter, Louis, Jack, André, whoever it may be…

(After a silence) And even this, if one were to look at oneself, every seven years all the cells are changed, and it is only by a kind of habit that it remain the same. Does it remain the same? Do you have photographs of the time you were very young? And the photographs when you were ten, twenty, thirty years old — it is because one very much wants to do so that one recognises oneself; otherwise, truly, one is not at all the same…. When you were this height and now when you are this height, that makes a considerable difference! So, there we are…

All this… it is not in order to swamp you that I tell you all this. It is only in order to tell you that before speaking of merging one’s ego in the Divine, one must first know a little what one is. The ego is there. Its necessity is that you become conscious, independent beings, individualised — I mean in the see of independent — that you may not be the public square where everything goes criss-cross! That you may exist in yourselves. That is why there is an ego. It is like that; that is why also there is a skin, like that… though truly, even physical forces pass through the skin. There is a vibrations which goes a certain distance. But still, it’s the skin that prevents us from blending into one another. But everything else must be like that too.

(After a silence) And then, later, one offers all this to the Divine. Years of work are needed. You must not only…(silence)… become conscious of yourself, conscious in all details, but you must organise what you call “yourself” around the psychic centre, the divine centre of your being, so that it would make a single, coherent, fully conscious being. And as this divine centre is itself already consecrated (Mother makes a gesture of offering) entirely to the Divine, if everything is organised harmoniously around it, everything is consecrated to the Divine. And so, when the Divine thinks it proper, when the time has come, when the work of individualisation is complete, then the Divine gives you permission to let your ego merge in Him, to live henceforward only for the Divine.

But it is the Divine who takes this decision. You must first have done all this work, become a conscious being, solely and exclusively centred around the Divine and governed by Him. And after all that, there is still an ego; because it is the ego which serves to make you an individual. But once this work is perfect, fully accomplished, then, at that moment, you may tell the Divine, “Here I am, I am ready. Do you want me?” And the Divine usually says, “Yes.” All is over, everything is accomplished. And you become a real instrument for the Divine’s work. But first the instrument must be constructed.

You think that you are sent to school, that you are made to do exercises, all this just for the pleasure of vexing you? Oh, no! It is because it’s indispensable for you to have a frame in which you can learn how to form yourself. If you did your work of individualisation, of total formations, by yourself, all alone in a corner, nothing at all would be asked of you. But you don’t do it, you wouldn’t do it, there’s not a single child who would do it, he wouldn’t even know how to do it, where to begin. If a child were not taught how to live, he could not live, he wouldn’t know how to do anything, anything. I don’t want to speak about disgusting details, but even the most elementary things he would not do properly if he were not taught how to do them. Therefore, one must, step by step… That is to say, if everyone had to go through the whole experience needed for the formations of an individuality, he would be long dead before having begun to live! This is the contribution — accumulated through centuries — of those who have had the experience and tell you, “Well, if you want to go quickly, to know in a few years what has been learnt through centuries, do this!” Read, learn, study and then, in the material field, you will be taught to do this in this way, that in that way, this again in this way (gestures). Once you know a little, you can find your own method, if you have the genius for it! But first one must stand on one’s own feet and know how to walk. It is very difficult to learn it all alone. It’s like that for everyone. One must form oneself. Therefore, one needs education. There we are!

3.10 By Forgetting the Past Offences and Reestablishing Harmony

The Mother:

“A generous heart always forgets the past offences and is ready to re-establish harmony.

Let us all forget all that is dark and ugly in the past, in order to make us ready to receive the luminous future.” (CWM 17: 357)

3.11 By Changing One’s Nature’s Contrasting Qualities

“One can see, when one studies oneself very attentively…. For example, if you observe yourself, you see that one day you are very generous. Let us take this, it is easy to understand. Very generous: generous in your feelings, generous in your sensations, generous in your thoughts and even in material things; that is, you understand the faults of others, their intentions, weaknesses, even nasty movements. You see all this, and you are full of good feelings, of generosity. You tell yourself, ‘Well… everyone does the best he can!’ — like that.

Another day — or perhaps the very next minute — you will notice in yourself a kind of dryness, fixity, something that is bitter, that judges severely, that goes as far as bearing a grudge, has rancour, would like the evil-doer punished, that almost has feelings of vengeance; just the very opposite of the former! One day someone harms you and you say, ‘Doesn’t matter! He did not know’… or ‘He couldn’t do otherwise’… or ‘That’s his nature’… or ‘He could not understand!’ The next day — or perhaps an hour later — you say, ‘He must be punished! He must pay for it! He must be made to feel that he has done wrong!’ — with a kind of rage; and you want to take things, you want to keep them for yourself, you have all the feelings of jealousy, envy, narrowness, you see, just the very opposite of the other feeling.” (CWM 6: 262–263)

3.12 By Practising Unquestioning Self-giving

“It is a mistake to believe that if the vital loves, it must be a love that demands and imposes the satisfaction of its desire; it is a mistake to think that it must be either that or else the vital, in order to escape from its ‘attachment’, must draw away altogether from the object of its love. The vital can be as absolute in its unquestioning self-giving as any other part of the nature; nothing can be more generous than its movement when it forgets self for the Beloved. The vital and physical should both give themselves in the true way — the way of true love, not of ego-desire.”

3.13 By Giving Ourselves Generously to the Divine

The Mother: “In your desire for progress and your aspiration for realisation, take great care not to attempt to pull the forces towards you. Give yourself, open yourself with as much disinterestedness as you can attain through a constant self-forgetfulness, increase your receptivity to the utmost, but never try to pull the Force towards you, for wanting to pull is already a dangerous egoism. You may aspire, you may open yourself, you may give yourself, but never seek to take. When things go wrong, people blame the Force, but it is not the Force that is responsible: it is ambition, egoism, ignorance and the weakness of the vessel. Give yourself generously and with a perfect disinterestedness and from the deeper point of view nothing bad will ever happen to you. Try to take and you will be on the brink of the abyss.”

(CWM 9: 241–242)

3.14 By Offering One’s Negative Qualities to the Divine

“Sweet Mother, One day in class you said, with your hands wide open, that we should give you everything, even our defects and vices and all the dirt in us. Is this the only way to get rid of them, and how can one do it?

The Mother: One keeps one’s defects because one hangs on to them as if they were something precious; one clings to one’s vices as one clings to a part of one’s body, and pulling out a bad habit hurts as much as pulling out a tooth. That is why one does not progress.

Whereas if one generously makes an offering of one’s defect, vice or bad habit, then one has the joy of making an offering and one receives in exchange the force to replace what has been given, by a better and truer vibration.” (CWM 16: 244)

3.15 By Making Ourselves More Perfect

The Mother: “With our own perfection grows in us a generous understanding of others.

3.16 By Inculcating a Sense of Beauty Within

“Can those who have a sense of beauty also become cruel?

The Mother: That’s a psychological problem. It depends on where their sense of beauty is located. One may have a physical sense of beauty, a vital sense of beauty, a mental sense of beauty. If one has a moral sense of beauty — a sense of moral beauty and nobility — one will never be cruel. One will always be generous and magnanimous in all circumstances. But as men are made of many different pieces…

For instance, I was thinking about all the artists I knew — I knew all the greatest artists of the last century or the beginning of this century, and they truly had a sense of beauty, but morally, some of them were very cruel. When the artist was seen at his work, he lived in a magnificent beauty but when you saw the gentleman at home, he had only a very limited contact with the artist in himself and usually he became someone very vulgar, very ordinary. Many of them did, I am sure of it. But those who were unified, in the sense that they truly lived their art — those, no; they were generous and good.” (CWM 6: 71–72)

3.17 By Removing all Vindictiveness within

The Mother: “Vindictiveness, with or without a real cause for it, is even worse than anger because it is more cold and deliberate in its action and less of an impulse. One should be generous in nature and free from all rancour [resentment, bitterness].” (CWSA 31: 276)

3.18 By Removing all forms of Egoism

“As to egoism and selfishness, one can be generous and yet egoistic — one can be generous with vanity, pride etc. in the generosity; one can even be egoistic in self-sacrifice.” (CWSA 31: 239)

3.19 By Removing Sense of Philanthropy and Saving the Humanity

All the same it has helped, hasn’t it? If all the schools were abolished… ?

The Mother: I don’t think that humanity is happier than it was before nor that there has been a great improvement. All this mostly gives you the feeling ‘I am something.’ That’s what I call ambition. If these very people who are ready to give money for schools were told that there was a divine Work to be done, that the Divine has decided to do it in this particular way, even if they are convinced that it is indeed the Divine’s Work, they refuse to give anything, for this is not a recognised form of beneficence — one doesn’t have the satisfaction of having done something good! This is what I call ambition. I had instances of people who could give lakhs of rupees to open a hospital, for that gives them the satisfaction of doing something great, noble, generous. They glorify themselves, that’s what I call ambition. I knew a humorist who used to say: ‘It won’t be so soon that the kingdom of God will come, for those poor philanthropists — what would remain for them? If humanity suffered no longer, the philanthropists would be without work.’ It is difficult to come out of that. However, it is a fact that never will the world come out of the state in which it is unless it gives itself up to the Divine. All the virtues — you may glorify them — increase your self-satisfaction, that is, your ego; they do not help you truly to become aware of the Divine. It is the generous and wise people of this world who are the most difficult to convert. They are very satisfied with their life. A poor fellow who has done all sorts of stupid things all his life feels immediately sorry and says: ‘I am nothing, can do nothing. Make of me what You want.’ Such a one is more right and much closer to the Divine than one who is wise and full of his wisdom and vanity. He sees himself as he is.

The generous and wise man who has done much for humanity is too self-satisfied to have the least idea of changing. It is usually these people who say: ‘If indeed I had created the world, I wouldn’t have made it like this, I would have created it much better than that’, and they try to set right what the Divine has done badly! According to their picture, all this is stupid and useless…. It is not with that attitude that you can belong to the Divine. There will always be between you and Him the conscious ego of one’s own intellectual superiority which judges the Divine and is sure of never being mistaken. For they are convinced that if they had made the world, they would not have committed all the stupidities that God has perpetrated. And all this comes from pride, vanity, self-conceit; and there is exactly the seed of that in people who want to serve humanity.” (CWM 5: 13–15)