December 31, 2022
Alina (0:00:28):
Namaste. Today is the last day of the year 2022, 31st of December. Namaste Sraddhalu.
Sraddhalu (0:00:37):
Namaste. Happy to be with all of you.
Alina (0:00:40):
Today we continue Part III, “On Learning and Expressing”.
How to develop our capacity for learning and expressing ourselves was already discussed in the previous sessions. And we all started with a question from Suraj. Suraj was addressing this question: “How do I develop the better listening, retaining, articulating and delivering abilities?” We covered this and other related questions in the previous sessions, and today we will take the same subject and invite you to address other questions.
And I will be addressing now Sraddhalu a question that we received from Vachaspathi. Vachaspathi, she's addressing a few questions, so I think I will take all of them or one by one?
Sraddhalu (0:01:46):
All of them.
Alina (0:01:47):
We will do all of them:
“What makes one a born orator?”
Second question: “There are people who speak so much so spontaneously. How do they do it? It is as if they can speak unendingly. Do they all possess strong intuitive conceptual chain of memory?”
Third question: “Some people connect power of expression to activation of viśuddhi chakra, is there any truth to it? Through Shakti-Path can this power of expression be transmitted? Please explain to us the fundamental principles of power of expression. And what place has the Mahasaraswati’s anugraha, the blessings now?”
Sraddhalu (0:02:47):
Yes, So this question actually continues from the previous, builds on Suraj's question also, which was listening, retaining, articulating and delivering. So we took the overall theme of learning and expressing.
Vachaspathi's question is quite detailed with five parts, and I will address that also, but I will again broaden the question to not just oratory, not just speech, but the whole power of expression, which can include also writing, singing, dancing, or generally manifesting in your life.
And so this will be the broad sense of expressing oneself and the power of expression that we will take up, although I will specifically look at speech also.
And as in the previous two sessions, we will look at it from the classroom-level content as relevant, let’s say, to a student in a classroom through to our daily life, in as adult life to its deeper, higher spiritual implications, content, principles and origins. So it will be a one continuous sweep of the full, let’s say, gamut spectrum of the theme. Necessarily, it will go at least two sessions that we will develop it over maybe more.
And just for those who might not have heard the previous two, which is the evening series number 141 and 142, I would highly recommend that you hear those first before coming to this so that you get a sense of continuity as well as recognise the value of the things upon which we are building. And for those who have already watched those two, just a quick recap of some of the key points which we had covered during those discussions:
We had looked at how the learning can be of various modes, visual, auditory, kinesthetic. And even in a child's basic learning skills, the distinction between these can be critical, and if we do not understand the distinction and do not address it correctly, you might end up thinking a child is a slow learner or even retarded, when actually their mode is different from the mode that you are using. And ideally we would want to develop all the modes.
(0:05:18):
And we looked at also the aspects which are in relation to memory- the emotional memory, conceptual memory, intuitive memories as distinct from merely word, verbal memory or grammatical memory. We looked at the different parts of the being in which memory is held. All consciousness, we saw, is essentially repository of all experience and the basis for the Akashic records therefore. We looked at the positional influence of the body, environmental influence. We dealt with specific issues such as stagefright, the necessity of integration of these parts, and how memory essentially goes beyond the brain itself, and therefore it is possible even to access past-life memories and, or even draw upon the huge sense of the experience, even without specific memories. And all these can have implications for different kinds of learning, which may not be merely intellectual but also practical in the body learning, applied learning, interactive learning.
We dwelt on listening skills. We particularly highlighted the importance of the state of consciousness in which one is receiving, that being the core, the essence of it all, and what are the different kinds of states and how one could get into those. As far as memory was concerned, we identified how memory is only part of a chain. If you have not observed, then there is nothing to remember, or it is wrongly remembered, because you did not observe in the first place. And so there is a whole chain in the gradations of consciousness which, in which the whole experience of learning has been organised by nature.
And we dwelt with many questions which came, and so based on those questions, amplified certain aspects. One was, how it is possible for some people to have automatic perfect recall of everything.
And we looked at the automatic working of the Chitta and how that is clouded by our emotions or other agitations in the surface layers. And, therefore, one of the key-principles of developing our innate deeper potential, because we all have it already, but developing that or rather allowing it to express itself or come forward is the removal of obstructions.
And we looked at particularly nāḍī-śuddhi, cittaśuddhi as basic principles for removal of obstacles key being the ability to put yourself in a state of complete stillness, which is entirely aware and receptive at the same time. And in this state one can receive transmission, intuitive absorption, not just from higher sources but even from people in front of you or circumstances around you. Somebody is narrating something from their life-experience, maybe an incident of learning, or some deep emotional or life-learning experience that they had at some point, and as you listen, putting yourself in this state, there is a level where there is an identification in which literally you can receive their learning experience as if you yourself have learned it and grown from it. And so once we develop this kind of a skill, we find that every occasion can be a means of extraordinary learning. Extraordinary literally in the sense of beyond the ordinary, in which one draws on multiple levels, multiple facets, dimensions, of whatever it is the experience [it is], (0:09:05) even a cinema for example, or sitting alone in the forest on the top of a mountain or in the middle of a crazy crowd of tourists or at an airport or train station, it does not matter what your circumstances are, you can actually tune yourself and draw extraordinary learning from those circumstances.
We also touched upon this aspect of the physical basis for amplifying mental power, which is discussed by Sri Aurobindo in The Brain of India.
And all this went to finally the intuitive memory and the supramental memory by which we literally can draw deeper and higher knowledge which was always present but forgotten on the surface and drawn forward at will.
(0:10:00):
So this kind of covers broadly some of the key-themes that we had covered, which we covered. We also dwelt with some of the questions regarding the secret of the skill of doing eight things at a time, avadhānaṃ; bringing the mind into stillness; tuning into historical memories of spaces; and so on.
Broadly we have covered what I thought was, would be relevant in the aspect of learning, and we come now to this aspect of expression, which is inevitably the consequence of something learnt whether discovered within or acquired from outside.
And so the question from Vachaspati is particularly helpful because it is so comprehensive even as a question. I will take these up step by step not only with the theme of speech but also general expression. First he asks: What makes one a “born orator?”. With quotation marks “born orator”. Because we all use this phrase ‘oh so and so, it's as if by magic he has this capacity of oratory’.
That is, normally by that we understand the skill of speech. So the person can speak eloquently, sometimes with clarity, sometimes unendingly, but he seems to be able to do it effortlessly. Not always it makes sense. Orator need not always make sense. He may be even wrong in what he speaks, but when he speaks there is some skill.
Now there are many dimensions to oratory which I will touch upon, but generally the first sense we have is, oh the fellow can talk in an interesting way. Extend this now to other forms, paint, draw, play music or dance or generally express yourself, communicate in some very smooth, transparent, effortless manner but in a manner that is convincing, that is interesting, that can hold attention. So there are many dimensions to it as we will touch.
But the idea that someone is born so, is how it seems to us superficially. In fact, everybody, everybody who has an unusual skill like this has worked for it in the past. All you are seeing is the benefit of that prior work, which is carried over in some essential form but still needs to be so to say unpacked in this personality or in this life. When you catch this principle, you will find, even when you have not worked upon it too much, not as much as that person let's say, you can still draw it out and unpack it and therefore awaken to it, all of us irrespective of what was done or not done in the past.
I am assuming we don't have a major problem of developmental or learning disability. Assuming that is not there, with what you are today and I am going to give a few examples of this also, which will also elaborate on some of the points of Vachaspati's question about how it can be received in this way, but that will come later.
So you are not born, there was something which was received, but that you can receive even today directly without having worked on it in prior lives. But in any case behind it some work will go. In this case your capacity to receive, you will have to work on that.
So think about it this way: You could develop 20 specialised skills across 20 lives or across 20 years in this life. Or you could develop this one special faculty of being able to receive, hold and allow it to shape you, and you could receive 20 different skills or a hundred different skills in this way rapidly, easily. That's the interesting thing. Think about it.
You remember that question we touched upon earlier: know that by knowing which all is known. It's something in that direction. Develop that, by developing which all else can be developed easily, can be received, can be imbibed. And this requires a basis of, well, let's say: yogic preparation; and the action of yoga force.
So all that will come in the fourth question. But there is no such thing as born. It was there somewhere, and then it was drawn out, because it was felt as a, an automatic, instinctive imprint often brought by the soul or in some part of the personality which was integrated in the soul and infused into the new personality.
(0:15:06):
Sometimes it seems as if it is hereditary, oh, you're born in a family of musicians. Yes, perhaps there is a hereditary influence, perhaps there is an environmental influence because you have been listening to music from the time you were in the womb and as your foetus is forming, every day you are listening to all the musical practices going on in your home and obviously that has an influence.
But a child having come out of that womb with all that influence might say, I've had too much of this music I'm sick of it, and walk away from music. Or you may say, oh this is such a wonderful gift I have, it has prepared me. What determines whether it's this or that? The soul's intention.
So while you may have been born in a special environment and received hereditary or environmental influences, more likely it is the soul that chose that environment for this purpose. And if it had not, it chose it for a different purpose, it might not find it so interesting to pursue that line. So this would broadly take care of the question 1, but it will be fully answered by the time we finish the fifth question.
The second question is: There are people who speak so much so spontaneously, how do they do it? So there are aspects of much and spontaneous. And then there is the aspect of interesting. And then there is the aspect of truth of what is spoken. They are totally different and often quite unconnected.
I recall, there was an example in what is today known as ‘S-VYASA University’ in Bangalore. At that time it had not yet become a university. There was a conference, and each time they would try, try to bring-in some paranormal performances or topics of interest. And so one of the conferences that invited somebody who, they said, had a gift of speech and he could talk unendingly for hours and hours and hours, and I think he broke the world record with so many 20 or 30 or 40 hours unbroken speech. And then he gave us a performance.
So initially people were wonderstruck, oh he is talking. And what was interesting in his speech was, he was given an arbitrary topic, as he was talking, there would be alliterations, there would be words which would be, let's say, adjectives of various kinds describing things, and after about five or ten minutes I felt, ha now the audience is getting restless.
After 15 minutes it was, okay. After half an hour people were looking around, when will this end. So, and, but I was listening very carefully. And at some point, I think, 15 minutes down, I said, but that's not correct what he just said. And I said it loudly, and my neighbour looked at me, and I realised, he was not even thinking.
So what happens with people who speak so much is that they don't always speak sense, but since the listeners mostly don't make an effort to try to question or understand or even think about what's being heard, most people don't realise.
Very often, I've seen this in some of these prolific speakers, they end up contradicting themselves 10 minutes down or half an hour down. And nobody realises. Well, I shouldn't say nobody, but 99% of people don't realise it. And occasionally you find, and it's a very small percentage, 1% or 2% sometimes, out of 100 people, who will say, ah but he just said half an hour back this, and now he's saying this, and it does not match. Now, you see, all of us have to develop this.
And this is part of the training of your: listening skill; comprehensive skill; retention skill; recall skill; but more than anything else, thought power. This Sri Aurobindo said was the “bane” not only of India but large parts of the world that there is not enough effort to develop thought power. This of course he was speaking about India about a hundred years ago. I think it was 1909 or so that he wrote this to his brother Barin that this insufficiency of thought power everywhere, you have the ordinary man, common man, and common man is, today it's worse. In countries where thought power was praised, it has largely faded out. It remains today in certain communities where knowledge is valued, and only those communities seem to retain.
(0:20:09):
But if you go into mainstream education, it's deliberately dulling your thought power. And we have to develop it. And it would be like this, that: you understand; you think; and your mind works upon what is given to you as the raw material.
So, but I am speaking of speaking now. So, these people who speak a lot often don't have that basic thought power and so they end up contradicting themselves. If they did not, if they had the power of thought, as they are contradicting themselves, they would say, ah yes but I said that before, and then they would compensate for the contradiction or correct for it or explain why or say, no, this is wrong, and make a correction even before they speak. Now this would be part of your training if you really want to develop this power of speech.
And that's why when we speak of developing the power of thought, it's not just for listening and absorbing, it's also for expressing. Because as you speak, before you speak, that same thought power would be organising the thoughts. And before you speak, you would detect that there is a contradiction, there is a problem. And you would compensate for it either by correcting the wrong idea you had or looking for a higher synthesis between these two contradictions and then articulate accordingly.
And that's why you want to develop the power of expression, you must develop this foundation of your mind so that the power of expression can be sufficiently mentalised, sufficiently developed in intellect, in intelligence, and so on.
Otherwise you can express on lower levels, and it doesn't matter. A very large part of modern cinema is in the vital-mental range: so from, in the vital consciousness turning to mind or wallowing in vital emotions or sensory experience, that's the range. The bulk, the mass of cinema is on this level. And if you watch people watching cinema, you'll find them wallowing in this range. Occasionally you have cinema which touches the more rational parts and it provokes you to think, and it’s, most of this, the masses will get uncomfortable at that point and will be relieved falling back into this.
Now this is very important to observe in oneself equally and make corrections for, because something similar happens when you move into a spiritual consciousness or a spiritual domain or even experience. After a while, some parts within you begin to tire, and then you want a relief by going back to the lower wallowing ranges.
I've seen this for example in people who had apparently a spiritual aspiration, quite genuine at least in the way they spoke of it, they came to Pondicherry and Auroville, they were here for a few days, and then after a while they are getting restless, and then somebody took this person to some kind of a disco, night-club type thing, and the feedback I got was this person entering that space went, ahh-hoof what a relief! Interesting!
So maybe there is this part which has a higher turn and then there is this whole mass which was struggling: too much of that, not enough of this, but the two are not integrated. Even when integrated, you will find, they have different needs, and sometimes you have to deal with those needs and give them what they need. But if it can be done with integration, you have a continuum, then all of this which has been integrated can become a vehicle not only for reception of experience but also powerful expression.
So expression will not be just in the mental and in the speech that comes through the mind, but it will also be in the power that you can fill of the emotions and the vital energies and the physical senses and how you can integrate these in what you project making for a complete experience, into that the spiritual power coming, that can be quite an extraordinary experience.
We will have occasion to deal with all this as we develop the theme itself, but this is to set a background that these are all the things you should ideally consider. So speaking so much in itself would not be of much value, you can just keep on talking as long as your mind can hop around to ideas or just words. That part can be trained by the way.
(0:25:04):
There's a very simple exercise which you can all do as as a way of training this.
When I saw it the first time it was called ‘Just a Minute’, and the exercise was that you were given, ad hoc somebody gives you a topic, and without pause without taking time to think you have to speak on this topic continuously for one minute without pause, without hesitation, without errors, just one minute.
So we were given this, I believe it was at the age of 15 or so, and almost everybody in our class went 20 seconds and then they lost the thread. They had either nothing to say or they ended up, you cannot repeat yourself, they would end up repeating themselves or they would say something which made no sense at all and then they would get flustered and lose it. A few pushed it to about 30 or 40 seconds.
And I found that when I did it, initially it was challenging, but as I was doing it, the mind split into two parts, and because I already had this prior experience from the training, this other part now began to plan ahead of what I had to say next from what I was speaking. But I had never experienced it in this way so vividly, but it was there, the capacity. So, and as I'm speaking, this part of the mind is planning what I'm going to say next, and in the very first shot I went, I crossed one minute, and I was able to do it.
So we did it a second or third time, and then it, I think, it barely took three sessions to be able to firm up this part of the experience. And I said, this is so fascinating! And there was nothing at all till that age in all that we had done in all our education which had ever triggered this faculty. And this is to tell you how poorly designed our educational system is.
So it's a very simple exercise. I would suggest you do this with your family members if you like. And people pick a topic, give it to you, and you'd make an effort really with this full concentration to speak this way. Now when you start doing that, a part of the mind separates, it can plan ahead, and it can, you have already the next material, and the next, and the next. So in principle you could keep on speaking. After a while you may run out of things to say, and here comes the interesting part.
This is again part of the training of the mind. Let's say, your topic, and I was given one of these topics in that particular event, they gave the topic ‘Buckets’. A bucket! What a bucket!
So I spoke about buckets, and then I saw how much more can I push it. So there's a point where there's nothing more you can say. At that point, I began to, the mind automatically widened out. So here are different kinds of materials with which you can make buckets, and the benefits of those different kinds of materials, and their application for, let's say, buckets. Now you can extend the mind one, another direction, marketing those different kinds of buckets and their materials. Manufacturing those kinds of buckets and their materials. How long they would last?
You see, from any little piece in the universe, you can bring associated aspects related to that piece and widen the domain without losing the overall theme. So, in principle, just speaking on buckets, one could have extended it all the way to the size of the universe, in principle. You can imagine as an exercise how you would do that. This is just to provoke you and to show you that anything, however arbitrary, however silly, however meaningless, in principle you can easily widen out and continue to build and hold interest even.
Now the value of what you say may not be too great for the people who are listening, but it will have value in reality somewhere for somebody, and if presented in a skillful way, would also be interesting.
So speaking a lot in itself is not a big deal. Speaking continuously without pause, without hesitation and with content, that would be more interesting. Now you have used the word, Vachaspati has used the word “speak so … spontaneously”. Of course there is an operation going on of thinking ahead, looking ahead. Now I give an example here to show you how easy it can be.
If I ask you to narrate a certain experience, an important experience of your life, let's say you had gone for some programme, function, holiday, some event let's say, where the entire day that happened was an extraordinary experience for you, and I ask you to narrate it. Will you have trouble speaking continuously for a long time? Because you already know all that you want to say. Isn't it?
(0:30:12)
So you are going to start by: That morning when I woke up, first of all the heater was not working, then I went out and the food was not ready, then I went out and the car failed, and then when I went out, something.
So you had a whole chain of mishaps, let's say. You don't have to create something. You're recalling what you already know. And the entire chain is already laid out ahead of you, you don't even have to remember specially, because one thing leads to the next. Isn't it? It's effortless.
Now when in your mind, in your consciousness, you stand back and view the whole landscape, and I ask you to describe now what is in the landscape. Do you have to remember? Rather you just describe: First there is this hill, and then there is that valley, beyond that is that forest, after that is this lake. As you are seeing, you are describing it in sequence. No special effort.
So the spontaneity and the flow is inbuilt in the sense of continuity in your consciousness of what it is you want to express. Now if you have this kind of continuity or clarity with ideas, so let's say now, you've just read a chapter from Sri Aurobindo's Life Divine. That's a tough one. Okay, start with something simpler. But, oh, you've read a short story book. And start with a short story. Start with a really short story, two or three pages.
And now look back, in your mind you have the full story. Now in your consciousness, can you bring the totality of that story as a continuum? How you do it internally does not matter. You can do it as an image, you can do it as a series of ideas or as a feel of things. Now you pick the starting point, you don't have to make any effort. Each leads to the next automatically. At best, you forgot a little piece, but then you could weave that in when you remember it. Isn't it? Like a flashback.
So, in principle, you see, the spontaneity is not difficult if in your consciousness you have developed this basic capacity to lay out a chain of ideas or events for that matter in stories. But it comes to exactly the same skill in the domain of ideas. Sometimes you don't even need to lay out the full chain.
So you have the beginning, you have a broad sense of the direction, what's the goal that you want to take to, and from where you are you take the next step, and the next step, and the next step, literally like a path, and you build the pieces, you join them as you go along, and if you have missed something, you can again do an automatic like a recall, flashback, and weave it in, and continue. So the basic capacity of this spontaneous smooth flow of communication finally boils down to this capacity of the mind to hold the sense of continuity.
Now I'm going to say this, it might sound surprising: All of us have it!
Yes, of course, it can be developed more, but what you have is already good enough to be able to, in that training of ‘Just a Minute’, speak not one minute but five minutes unbroken.
And so this would be a part of a very useful workshop to help you evoke it. But I don't need to do that with you. You can do it on your own just by becoming conscious and making that effort and recognise the point I made: in your mind you have the sweep; you don't need to know all the steps; starting-ending-direction; and build the steps as you go. Start doing it. And by practice you will find the power very quickly comes forward and begins to organise itself.
So “how do they do it”?
I think, broadly I have described this, and this part does not require anything great. It's as if they can speak unendingly, yes, they can, because of these reasons.
Do they all possess “strong intuitive” and “conceptual chain of memory”?
No. They don't. But if they do, then what is conveyed will be of far greater value. So first of all, with the conceptual chain, you will have a logical sequence of thought, development of thought. If there is an intuitive content, then there will be insight and, I will say, life-changing transmissions in the insights. Something will touch you deeply, awaken, shape you, help you wake up, or give you the sense that, oh I have learned so much. But even if that is not there, this conceptual chain, it would be interesting and logical.
(0:35:13):
Now there's a very interesting example Sri Aurobindo gives of, when he was writing, I think, it was, when he was writing this journal in, in, while he was in Bengal, I don't remember the name which one it was of the journal, perhaps it was Vande Mataram, but he said, there was another person who was part of his team, so many of the articles were written anonymously, and he said, not all the articles which sound like him are his. Because he said, there was one person in their team who had developed the skill of writing in Sri Aurobindo's style. But Sri Aurobindo said, you can find out which one is his because there is no clear development of thought. Interesting!
So when Sri Aurobindo wrote, the style could be the same, but Sri Aurobindo had clear development of thought. That man had a similar style, similar sway of language, let's say, but not the development of thought. Now again for most people who are listening, since they themselves don't have even the effort to try to think, it doesn't matter.
You will see this often among politicians where the goal is really to shake you emotionally, and pump you vitally, and make you behave, do what they want, basically, hold you in, bring you into their sway, so there, there's no logic, ideas can jump across, and it is fascinating to listen to them.
So it doesn't have to be intelligent, or conceptually consistent, or development of thought, to be interesting. The interest, like as I said in cinema, is because it moves you emotionally, shakes your passions or directs you, and that's enough for most people. But if you are thinking and you are looking for some deeper insight and understanding or clarity of thought, you will feel this very disconcerting. So if in your mind you develop this clarity, you will be able to bring it into your articulation.
We must do this, all of us. It's very important.
Because if we are to become eventually and the whole goal of our discussion is to become instruments to express a higher truth, not just through ideas, not just through words, not just through life-energies, not just through emotions which would include very beautiful emotions, not just through the senses, not just through movement, but in the very state of consciousness in which we live in life to manifest a higher spiritual truth, eventually the supramental consciousness, the Sachchidananda itself, to be able to manifest.
That means, if it is truth consciousness, then everything in its articulation must be truth, including in its unfoldment, it has to be unfolding of truth.
And so in a sense, your intellect, mind, is given to you as the vehicle for organisation of thoughts and ideas, and thereby of course speech, and form in which the truth would be articulated, in these domains.
If you had to express it in the body, then the plasticity of the body, the harmony of the body, or if it is in dance, in the harmonisation of different parts and their movements, would be an aspect to be able to capture the harmony of that truth.
If it is in state of consciousness, then within you, there has to be total integration, so that there are no two parts which are in conflict or contradiction, separate. Integrated. Sincerity would be the other side of it. Total integration, in which a single truth without fracturing can express in many different facets. So you see how the principle, going back to the origin, requires you to prepare these external instruments.
So if mind is the vehicle for expression through thought and speech, the life-energies in power and aspects of power and emotion, and the body in beauty and harmony, and the soul as a vehicle of love, which holds all this together and transmits all this in this fourfold transmission. So all these four parts need to be fully developed, and made plastic, and integrated, and capable of truth expression.
(0:40:12):
So in the bulk of the question we still come back to the mind, thought and speech aspect, but you see how this has to apply in every way in all these aspects. But centrally since we we are first and foremost mental beings, the clarity of mind and making the mind a transparent vehicle for a greater truth would make it easier for that truth then to be able to express itself in all these other parts, which are less conscious, but upon which the mind can impress itself more easily. So the mind becomes like a linkpoint, opening upward to the higher truth and turning downward to be able to express it, but itself as an intermediary must be made a fit vehicle for the truth.
Now if you look at this little booklet of the Mother called The Four Austerities and The Four Liberations”, you will find there's a whole chapter on the yoga, the tapasya of Knowledge, and one of the things there she says is, unless you speak the truth all the time, how do you expect to become an instrument for the divine truth? Isn't it?
So speech, as truth speech, or at least true in a very moral, ethical, factual level, would be like a very first preliminary training for it. Now it does not mean you have to spill every, the beans and speak all your secrets. You can certainly couch your speech. But the point is the precision of articulation, behind that the clarity of thought, unmixed by clouding of emotions, preferences, desires, fears and hopes, which typically cloud, distort the knowledge to be able to speak clearly with precision.
Very often you see in sentimental-emotional talk, there is a blurring of thought because the emotions want to fit it into a certain feel. So you are in a certain relationship with X, you express yourself in a certain way, you now meet Y and there is a different base of emotional relationship, the same thing now takes a completely different form. And then when X and Y meet, they find the communication was totally different. It's very common. And that's because there has not been a clear transmission. It has been clouded by the state of emotions and further distorted by the expectations, desires, perhaps to please, to hide from fear, whatever it is.
So the clarity and precision of truth would be an important aspect to the conceptual chain. The intuitive would of course give it a gratefulness. But none of these are required to be able to hold interest. But all of these would make for the interest to be much more real, much more deep.
There's another factor which is the charismatic aspect, which is what I refer to in the politicians that they can hold people and keep them swaying to their will and whims, with their speech, with their power. And this charisma is primarily of a vital character, but it can come through speech. And quite a number of those who pass as great orators are really utilising a kind of a charisma and very little in the clarity of thought.
When that is there, that has its own kind of charisma, when there is a clarity of thought or flashes of the intuitive insights which come, wow, that is far greater, but it doesn't have the vital hold of charisma.
The vital hold of charisma binds you, whereas this light of the intuitive flashes of insight, they liberate you, so to say, you are given something which is yours, you are not bound to the source in any way. I think, this covers broadly various aspects of this free-flowing capacity for speech. I think with what I have described, you should be able to build that capacity if you so choose, if this, the base is sufficiently broad and broad and the principles are sufficiently clear.
The third question is: Some people connect power of expression to activation of viśuddhi Chakra, is there any truth to it?
Viśuddhi Chakra is this, the throat chakra, obviously based in the throat. So very naturally it seems to be the centre for power of speech or expression. Sri Aurobindo gives to these same chakras different names which are more functionally descriptive, and so the throat centre he describes as the “externalising mind”. Whereas what is called the ‘third eye’ is the centre of will and intelligence, intellect, buddhi, “intelligent will” would be the right term.
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So “externalising mind” is centred in the throat. Now I will put the other way, instead of saying, the opening of the chakra creates that or awakens that capacity, when you develop that capacity for turning, through mind turned outward expressing yourself, it is, it activates this centre, you are utilising this centre.
In your conceptual visual ability, it will be the third eye centre which will be activated. When you, when you turn that conception to articulation, expression, then it will be through this throat centre. But it is only “externalising mind”, it is not externalising vital, which is different.
So if you had the throat centre, let's say, the “externalising mind” faculty operational more than usual, it need not always be charismatic, but it will be clear, it will be precise, it will be able to express what it chooses to, to whatever degree.
So there are practices in which they would focus on activating the chakra, which would give you something perhaps, at least there would be a freer flow, but that would not give you the necessary clarity. You can talk like that man I spoke of earlier who could talk for hours, but what he spoke was not necessarily correct, was not necessarily interesting and what's the point?
So yes, just this activation might give you a free flow to be able to dump all the junk that is in your mind, but a junk containing mind will then express junk effectively. So activation of expression in itself is not enough. What you express is far more important. Isn't it?
So in the way we have been describing it, we are focusing much more on the what and the state of consciousness and the power of expression itself, and then as you develop these, naturally the chakra itself would begin to get activated in the very fact of making that effort. You don't need to particularly focus on it for any reason.
So this is the reason why you'll find in Sri Aurobindo's yoga and in generally whatever he teaches, he will rarely refer to any chakras. Only reference coming when somebody asks him about it, otherwise you don't worry about it. The chakra only represents a tiny focal point of a grade of consciousness. Our goal is to develop the whole grade of consciousness and transform it. When that happens, the focal point naturally automatically, well, opens, transforms, activates, whatever word you use.
But what you have is far more valuable than if you had just merely opened a hole and there was a passage through which stuff was coming which was not of much value.
You see. So the concept of awakening of consciousness and transformation of consciousness is far greater, far more valuable than merely opening of a centre or a grade of consciousness. So yes, there is a connection, but as we see it's not so important. Rather develop the capacity, and as you work on the consciousness, those things will fall into place.
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Now comes fourth question:
Though Shakti-Path, that is, transmission of spiritual energy. Or Shakti-Path can be even used for vital energy or other grades of energy. So ‘Shakti’ is energy generally, we would normally use it for spiritual but it could be applied to anything, even vital energy. ‘Path’ is pouring-in or dropping down. So it’s, literally it means falling. But it's like somebody blesses you and pours, fills, pumps energy into you. So ‘Shakti-Path’, at its crudest level would be pumping of energy of any kind. Of course if it is spiritual energy, then it has a greater value, that's all.
Through Shakti-Path can this power of expression be transmitted?
Yes. And in fact from the Yoga point of view, it is one of the most effective means for developing any capacity. But there will be many things involved to really appreciate what would be the higher use and the lesser, inferior use of these things. So let me start with the more inferior use.
In Institute of Noetic Sciences, there is a Dr. Dean Radin who has done some extraordinary work. He is today, I believe, in my opinion, at least the pioneer scientist working in paranormal and what they call ‘psychic phenomena’, validating by scientific means and proving not only that they are real but exploring dimensions which most people would not even realise were possible, and all in the most rigorous scientific ways.
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And when I first met him, maybe 10, 12 years ago, he was doing certain experiments with Shakti-Path. So he has enough background of the yoga tradition to draw on the vocabulary and also draw on some of the methods.
So that somebody sitting in a insulated, isolated room where particularly you know modern fancies for electromagnetic waves, so they put like a cage of electrical, of wires in a mesh which prevents all electromagnetic signals from passing through. And supposedly that's all they know of electromagnetic signals. They don't know so many other deeper and higher forms of transmission. So supposedly you have isolated the person. Now somebody sitting outside that room is told, who claims to have this power to transmit energy, now you activate your energy. And they are measuring this patient for changes. And then they tell that transmitter of Shakti-Path, ‘stop now’, ‘start now’, ‘stop now’, ‘start now’, and they watch whether it correlates. Now, these were preliminary experiments.
He went far beyond in subsequent experiments. But that was the first time when I had met him. So this obviously is valid. It works. Somebody is transmitting energy, and on this receiver whether he's conscious or not there is a distinct shift that is taking place in physiological responses.
So yes, Shakti-Path is transmitting something. But can it transmit a capacity? In a vital transmission, you can pick up, or give, or lose certain capacities. So this is often the case when people are very close emotionally, energetically, physically, and if they have also particularly a lot of exchange of energy as sexual partners, there can be a lot of transfer of substance as well as formations and habits of substance and energies from one to the other.
Which is the reason why you will see couples who have been together for a long time tend to resemble each other. Or pets and their masters, so dogs for example and their masters, tend to resemble each other eventually. Because as the dog grows, it acquires elements from the master and acquires as if an appearance or a shape, a similarity, to their master. Interesting! But this is to show that there's a huge exchange taking place all the time, and with it things get exchanged which we may not even be conscious of, including tendencies for anger, upset, or calm and goodwill that also can transfer.
What happens though is because most of these transfers are unconscious, you pick up more of junk than of good. Because it's easier to slip down when you're unconscious than rise up. So you might catch a good feel, so you feel more peaceful, but the next person who comes throws something disturbing, you catch the disturbing which overrides the good feel and calm. Why?
Because in you that's the normal state which is more common. If you were already capable of distinguishing between these and your calm was more natural, you would immediately feel the disturbance from the other and either refuse it or eventually overcome it.
So the nature of your consciousness according to its level of evolution, you are either receiving all the junk that comes or if you are more conscious and therefore more refined by choice, then automatically you filter out. The junk can still come, but you filter out and then you can receive consciously the higher and finer grade of things. But we do all the time. In fact this is a major way of transmission of basic capacities from parents to children.
Because remember, we are going to discuss this in a few sessions subsequently about raising children, a child is literally formed of the substance of its mother, biological tissue, torn out, separated. And lifeforce is the same initially flowing through. Mind substance is shared, and as it individualises more after birth, these things begin to distinguish more and more. But still at a very biological level, there are very strong bonds, and there's a huge content that is transferred into the child in the, from conception through gestation through childbirth.
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The Mother even makes this observation that sometimes as a mother pushes out the child from her body in childbirth, often she is throwing out a lot of her consciousness and with it often the worst part of her is being thrown out.
It is quite a statement. We will look at this again in a different context later. But just to tell you that there's actually a transmission, infusion and subsequently of post-birth there is a nourishing. The child is automatically opening to its parents to receive and absorb energy, but the parents automatically pour their love and affection and energy therefore, and so there is a huge transmission taking place which is in fact the basis for most of the early learning of the child, except it took place automatically, unconsciously.
How much did you do consciously? What grade did you transmit consciously?
I know of parents for example where, you know child starts crying in the middle of the night, the mother gets up to feed it. What do you do? You are half-drowsy, you're tired, you're sleepy, you feed the child, put the child, go to sleep. What did you just transmit? Well, biological substance, doesn't matter.
No. It's full of your psychological substance and even your spiritual content if you have. And so I know of parents where actually the mother says, I will make myself conscious so that what I nourish my child with is of the highest grade, it's not just biological liquid, it is consciousness that's being transmitted. And it makes a difference.
Otherwise, your lowest grade of consciousness you just transferred into your child. It lays a baseline. Of course, none of these things are final, you are always building upon these over time. But this is just to tell you that these things have a huge, huge place in life.
The same happens in a teacher-student relationship on a finer grade of content of mind substance, ideas or even intuitive insights. The same can happen in a teacher-student where the teacher is not physically present.
There's this very famous story in the Mahabharata. You see, some of these stories have such great importance because they are archetypal. So the characters are archetypal, the circumstances are archetypal, and then certain very specific situations, unusual situations are also archetypal. Okay, now I'm reminded of two stories. Very quickly.
One is, in the child, in the mother's womb, while the child is still present, Sri Krishna is teaching, I think, his sister at that point, he is teaching her the secret of how to in a battlefield get into the, in the middle of the formation, break through, and then how to come out. As she is listening, she is awake as he describes the method of breaking through, but by the time he describes the methods of getting out, she falls asleep. This becomes of huge consequence in the future, because this child born now has the technique of getting in but does not know how to come out. It becomes critical later.
‘Chakravyūha’ is the term in Sanskrit, but it is the, I forget, the maze. But it is more complex because these were specific structures built in warfield, where you, the, protected a central figure with complex structures around and there was no way for somebody else to get in, to be able to confront the central figure. And so, anyway these are details. The point is, the state of the mother's consciousness directly affected the learning capacity of the child. When she fell asleep, the child was pulled into sleep with her.
There is another story which is more interesting even, and in this context, where this young boy is Ekalavya. He is rejected by some great teacher. So he goes into the forest, makes a statue of his teacher and learns. What is amazing is that he learns all the knowledge which the teacher could have given him, to perfection.
Now you will say, aah these are stories. No. There's a deep truth in it.
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These truths in fact are today being articulated in modern psychology using all kinds of newfangled terms and they will call, I think the phrase they use is, I forget that word now, but they tell you to actually conceive of, let's say, an ideal figure and try to feel what the ideal figure would tell you.
So, let's say, you want to study your sciences, you pick up Richard Feynman as a great physics teacher, you of course have read, maybe seen videos, but now when you have a problem you think, what would Richard Feynman do? And it's as if you tune in at that point to his consciousness and you gain an insight as if he just talked to you. And it comes because you tuned it to a quality of consciousness that he represents. So there is a rationale behind it.
But the point being that you can receive in this way, but also if the teacher is conscious, he can transmit in this way and so that becomes the basis for the Shakti-Path of specific knowledge. But especially when that specific knowledge is more intuitive as a skill and a capacity and your capacity to receive is sufficiently developed, you can receive an imprint and it is embedded. The whole of the Indian system of education drew upon this principle.
And then especially when it went into specialised forms of training of mastery in specific fields, they drew upon this because this is the only way to reach extraordinary levels of mastery. But somewhere you have to be open enough to be able to receive and then something higher has to imprint. So quite a large part of the training was to make yourself flexible and receptive and humble in consciousness because if you are not humble you cannot receive.
If I already know, my cup is full, how do I receive?
And then the relationship with the teacher, especially if there was a higher knowledge with the Guru, you serve the Guru, and in so doing you put yourself in a relationship of receptivity, service, self-giving, where the identification and thereby the transmission could be made more easy. And then the Guru as if his skill capacity, let's say a music Guru, imprinted the capacity while he is training you and interacting with you. Interesting.
But if they are conscious, it can happen much more rapidly. If they are not conscious, it is still happening, even without them knowing a tiniest bit of this theory. It doesn't matter.
So in principle, it can happen without your knowing, but it can be consciously done, both the receptivity as well as the transmission. So through Shakti-Path we would expect that in a single transmission whole capacity is transferred. Yes, that is possible, if on the other side the receptivity is also equally developed. If it is not, then, well, something was transmitted, the bulk of it spilt or not received and something is got. Now once we understand this, we have to also know the importance of receptivity.
Otherwise, let's say a great master will say: Alright humanity, line up before me, I am going to do Shakti-Path on all of you and you will all get whatever it is that I have to give. Very simple. Isn't it? Why didn't they do that?
So just to push the point fully: You take a dog or a monkey, and you can do all the Shakti-Path you want, you cannot get it to speak, because the biology is incapable. The mind consciousness has a certain limit within the framework of biology in which, with which it is identified. And it cannot. So Shakti-Path could be of any grade, your receptivity would still determine what is the value of what you get or what stays. You get momentarily lifted, oh it's so nice, after one night's sleep it's all gone. Which by the way is the case for most of us when we have a spiritual experience. Isn't it? On a special birthday, on a darshan day or one day suddenly there's a special descent or some awakening and you have this extraordinary afflatus. In most cases you go to sleep, you wake up, and it's gone. So that was the Shaktipat which you just lost. Isn't it?
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So you have to recognise the necessity for preparation of the vessel into which that can be poured to be able to have a worthwhile outcome.
So often you will see in specialised training such as let's say music or dance, the teacher, and in this case the Guru, because they're transmitting a certain experience of certain grade, realisation even of a certain kind in a skill, the Guru will say, my best student is this one because I am able to transmit everything, somebody else, I don’t have the, I cannot transmit, they are just unable to receive.
I have perhaps mentioned in this series at one point, I had met with Swami Vedabharathi who was in the lineage of Swami Rama, his foremost disciple and successor in the lineage. And a few years before he passed away, for some reason he was, he shared with me some of his more personal things. And one of the things he said was, unfortunately I have not been blessed with a disciple who can receive all that I could give, and so he said with me, so much will be lost. Very interesting.
He was aware of it that all this, there was no way he could, there was not, they were not the right people or capable people, and it would be lost with him. What he had received from his teacher, he had the capacity to transmit, but the vehicles? So, so much depends on what we choose in conscious effort to prepare ourselves to receive, and then with that, yes, a lot can be transmitted, including this power of expression. So I give you a few examples here.
You know Huta Hindocha was one of those that the Mother trained especially, for painting, and from scratch, from zero, and she tried to make her a fit vessel and instrument to receive the highest spiritual experiences and transmit them into form of painting, art.
Whenever you get a chance, when you are visiting Auroville, go to Savitri Bhavan and look at the paintings that they did on themes from Savitri. Each is literally a spiritual experience organised in image form. And when you stand before the painting, if you open yourself, you can actually get an imprint of that experience, some paintings more, some less, varies.
And there are occasions I have seen or I have heard from her also, I have seen transcripts and heard from her, where Mother said, those, each of those individuals in the painting are conscious beings. And that's why Mother did not want those paintings to be used casually for book covers, cards, messages, and so on. It's very interesting.
So she had infused a certain presence, a force, a power, linking not only the experience but the personalities which have been drawn. So to make Hota a fit vehicle for this, the whole training began from scratch, from how to clean the brushes, how to prepare the paints, mix the paints, kinds of strokes, different kinds of materials, and so on. Mother didn't need to train her. There were so many famous artists or students of famous artists who were themselves famous artists in the Ashram.
Mother could have said, go for training to X or Y, learn these techniques then come to me. She didn't. She prepared her from scratch, from zero and forbid her from doing anything outside that. It was a very strict training. And one occasion, Huta saw a beautiful picture in a magazine and then drew from that inspiration some scene which Mother had wanted with her.
Mother saw that painting and immediately she got upset. She said, where did you get this? Tell me where did you get this? This is not coming from the source. And Huta confided, yes, I saw that picture and it inspired me.
You see that was the degree of warping of the transparency to the truth. For that she built a fit vessel. Wow! What an achievement! Well, to put it in other words, it's not Huta's achievement, it is Mother's achievement to have taken raw material from zero and built like this.
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How much patience! How much effort! And how much persistence in the midst of all those other things she was doing. And then she even told Huta: “I tried with so many of the others, it did not work, because they were too fixed, too formed. And in their own consciousness, they had this idea, ‘I’ am skilled in this and this is my art.”
So the formation was rigid, could not open to receive a higher, was not flexible to the touch of the infinity of the truth. And Mother couldn't get them to do it although they were more skilled than Huta in the techniques and in their painting styles or methods. You see.
So here is one example. The other was,..and then she told Huta, she would paint through her hands. So there was literally an identification with the physical hands where Mother infused her own consciousness, her own hands into Huta's hands. One of the results interestingly was that Huta's handwriting resembled the Mother’s so amazingly close that you cannot distinguish sometimes.
So once Huta wrote something, she wrote a message and gave me, and I said, wow, this looks like Mother's handwriting. So first she was embarrassed. She said, you know, at one point when I was writing Savitri lines and having Mother read, she could not read, so I copied her handwriting too, so that it would be easier for her to read, and it helped. That was her interpretation.
I said, no, that doesn't work. You try to do it, try to copy Mother's handwriting. Beyond a point you can't. Your hand will come back to your pattern. It's because Mother was infusing her hands into hers that externally she felt the impulse and externally the mind covered it up saying, oh I need to write like this. And the result was, effortlessly, her style itself is in Mother's handwriting. It's quite amazing!
And in Sunil-da's case, Mother worked through his hands, again told him, I will play through your hands, played the music through him, and so on.
But that's not all. We have still not come to the power of expression, art being one side.
Mother asked Huta to write her experiences and the whole journey of how she awoke to this spiritual life and the training she received with the Mother. Mother asked her to write. And the title for that series was given, The Story of a Soul, given by the Mother.
And I think it was written by the Mother, in Mother's handwriting the title for what she would write. And Huta said, but Mother, I don't know how to write, I don't have the capacity to express myself. And Mother said, don't worry, I will “give you the power of expression”, exact phrase, I will “give you the power of expression”.
Now Huta documents this also in her narration, and I think it comes in the first volume of, of her life story. I don't know if what it, what it is titled, but she starts with this, this incident in that article. And reading that, I actually felt, wow this is so fascinating.
The way she writes is so fascinating. And I had met her personally. If you asked her to narrate something, of course when she narrated, she was identified with what she was experiencing. But you did not see an unusual skill in the power of expression, in speech, that is. And you did not see a very trained intelligence either. And yet when she begins to write, it's as if what flows is written by as if a master storyteller. It's interesting.
So literally the Mother transmitted that power of expression.
I've also mentioned example of Pranab-da, who was head of the Physical Education Programme. And he, Mother one day told him, you will play tennis with me this evening. And he says, I've never played tennis in my life. And Mother said, don't worry, I will give you the capacity to play tennis.
So he goes to his office, pulls out a book and reads up the rules of the game and looks at pictures of what is called ‘forehand stroke’ and ‘backhand stroke’ and takes a racket for the first time in his life, goes and plays as Mother's partner and plays like a pro, and everyone says, wow you must have been playing for years. And he says, no, I've just lifted the racket and she just infused the capacity to play tennis.
It's fascinating. Now, in principle, all of us can choose to receive, well, choose to call, she can choose to give, and then you will choose to receive, but capacity to receive.
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So yes, the power of expression can be transmitted in this way, Shakti-Path.
We are of course speaking now of a spiritual transmission, in which the spiritual force which is intuitive and higher and therefore can become an experiential transmission, can also have intellectual and vital and physical components, but in its origin being intuitive, it integrates or being spiritual generally, it integrates all these and can, if your reception is good enough, imprint on all these levels, integrating all these levels of the functioning.
And then literally it's as if ‘I've been doing this all my life and it just flows’. Otherwise, the Shakti-Path can be in one level, in one part, in one faculty, and that only functions, and other things are disjointed, not, not integrated.
My teacher, Sri M.P. Pandit, was told by, no, rather he shared with us that his teacher, Kapali Sastriar, once told somebody, “My pen, I have given to Madhav”, meaning that, that skill, that power, he has transmitted, handed over to him.
So yes, one can, one who is conscious can transmit, one who is receptive can receive and make much of it. But now taking this to a still broader level: We, as human beings generally with all our parts and faculties and so on, are meant to become vehicles for the Shakti-Path of the divine truths to become vessels and instruments for it.
So while we can speak of power expression only relative to speech, or art, or writing, or something, we can also speak of it as the full power of total expression of the Truth, in all parts, on all levels, through all means, through all functions, faculties and skills. And this is what we are aspiring to be.
Or this is what would be the fulfilment of the Integral Yoga itself, for which the substance of your mind, lifeforce, even the body, has to become much more conscious, acquire the character of the higher substance and literally transform itself into its image to be able to represent that here.
So if you put it in the context of the Integral Yoga, yes, not only all this is possible, this is in fact our purpose but not limited to just this narrow part of the power of expression, but to make ourselves in totality vehicles for the divine expression itself in all ways. Or, utilising our nature, the particular form in which our Swabhava, temperament, is built, utilising it and its skills and capacities for the divine work as needed, overriding it where needed, but otherwise simply utilising our current mould, lifting it to its highest possibilities.
It's good enough. I mean, that's already a lot. Isn't it?
So in this way, we have fulfilled the fifth question, which was explained the fundamental principles of power of expression and the place of the blessings of Mahasaraswati. I would not limit it to Mahasaraswati which is only one aspect of the power of expression. Remember, now expression will include all four aspects of the Divine Mother:
the knowledge;
the power;
the harmony;
as well as the perfection and beauty.
So Mahasaraswati would be only the fourth, but all these should, so to say, bless you, or ultimately the best is open yourself to the Divine Mother and let her pour into you, fill you, shape you, act through you. That would be the fulfilment of it. Isn't it?
So always aim for the highest, it includes all these lesser aspects and faculties and experiences or developments. Aim for the highest.
Open yourself totally, entirely, exclusively to that highest, and then whatever comes is far more than if you caught one piece and then another piece and then one aspect or another faculty or power. This is so much more. Isn't it? And then you leave it to her to choose in her wisdom what are the capacities you have or what are the capacities she chooses to build in you as a transparent instrument.
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So, I end with one, a couple of examples which Sri Aurobindo gives in his note, in his letters to Nirodbaran where Nirod-da is always worried, he's asking: Is it true? Does it work? I don't feel it. And then Sri Aurobindo has to give him evidence.
So he gives couple of examples in the Ashram and say, these people who came, when they came to the Ashram, they had no special skill or capacity. And within one or two years you find them spouting extraordinary poetry of the highest standard, writing extraordinary literature, becoming experts in music, and instrumental and vocal.
One particular, Romain Palit, I believe, in two years was singing beautifully, playing instruments, and writing poetry, and writing extraordinary literature. Just like that in two years, coming from practically zero. When he came, nobody could have said, this man would be great at any of these. Another person who came as a tabla player who had no other capacity, skill, suddenly becomes an extraordinary artist, within a year or two. And Sri Aurobindo says, these are the results of the Yoga force.
Now if it takes just barely two years to get from zero to this to somebody like that, it can happen to you also, to all of us. Isn't it?
So in principle, as we open to the action of the Divine Shakti, the force of the Yoga, which is the force of the Divine Mother, as it fills you, lifts you, and amplifies all your instruments, whatever may be the particular readiness, need, either of the force or of your soul's aspiration or your nature's natural proclivities, is lifted, enhanced, amplified and turned into something extraordinary, by her effort, to the extent you give yourself to be shaped and formed.
So, yes, ultimately it is always the divine blessings which do it all. In the slow struggle of life's journey, it is still the Divine Shakti which is pushing you now from inside, from below, secretly, unconscious to you, with you on the surface claiming, ‘I made so much effort therefore I got this capacity’.
But your effort itself and the energy of your effort was sustained secretly by her push within you, and the awakening and shaping of that capacity was sustained by her, was given to you again secretly through the apparent form of your external effort.
Now you take that effort of two or three hundred years across several lives or two or three decades in a single life, compress that down to two or three years, and then you say, ah, this is miraculous. Compress that down to a few weeks, and you say, this is unimaginable, you must be exceptional.
No. It's not you. Shakti is working, is exceptional. But she was always capable of that. It was only your capacity to give yourself to be shaped, instead of through resistance against you that she works over so many decades. Here she works with your support and by your conscious self-giving and therefore rapidly, and within a few days or weeks depending on what you reach, within a few years, you reach an excellence of a kind which even you couldn't have imagined because it was never yours.
You were shaped by her, into her form, in you. Isn't it? So I suppose this covers the fundamental principles of this whole theme. And I believe Vachaspati's questions were a good starting point. Having got the crux of the whole thing, next time we will take up more specifically aspects of:
retaining;
articulating;
expressing;
organising thought-structures,
stages of how you can formulate a message, for example; and
tuning to the flow of experience.
Some of it will be perhaps amplification, it may seem like a repetition, but we will take examples much closer to both classroom as well as our daily-life circumstances.
And so the questions which are there in the chat box I will take them up next time because they will all be in alignment with this. So, this would be a good point for us to pause.
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This being also the last day of this year, beginning of a new year, a point of transition and a significant point of transition in a few hours, of course the value of the new year is only the value that we give to it, and because we give to it a certain value, we can take advantage of that and make it as if a gateway through which we take a leap, we leave behind our past, the rigidities and limitations which bound us, and literally step free as if newborn through the gateway into a new future, if we so conceive of this transition. Otherwise it's just another day.
So we can use this occasion because a large mass of humanity is going to be observing it specially for this purpose as a transition into a new year, we can also, so to say, use the momentum of the mood of humanity for this purpose. And putting in the context of what we discussed about the power of expression and the manifestation of the divine truths, and beauty, and love, and knowledge, and power, nowhere on earth, in any surviving tradition, will you find this as the object of the spiritual tradition.
In all the traditions that survive, there is always an otherworldly fulfilment, finally. Whatever you may do is at best a transitory passage, at worst an illusion or a domain of suffering. But at best it is a transitory passage for that which comes later as a fulfilment elsewhere on a higher, other world or plane.
This is the only tradition today on earth which conceives of the divine manifestation here on earth, in life, in a human body transformed even, and a life transformed and divinised, where this divine-truth consciousness is expressed fully, fully revealed, as perfectly and completely as it should be without distortion, limitation of any kind. It’s a huge, extraordinary challenge even, impossibility from the conventional mind of humanity.
But once you shape yourself in the mould Sri Aurobindo shows you that all this is an expression of That to begin with, although limited, distorted, and bound, narrow, darkened, dark and limited expression, but essentially is formed of that, then not only is this possible but this is inevitable and our purpose in taking birth, in taking incarnation in human body. Isn't it?
And so this, the truth of this, the conviction of this, and our alignment to this purpose, can make all the difference. Remember, the Shakti-Path is there, awaiting your receptivity.
So if in your receptivity you say, ‘oh in this life I will be happy if I have got a little bit of self-realisation, a little bit of perfection there and some comfort there, and that's good enough’, then your vessel is small, and you are choosing to keep it small.
But if you choose to say, ‘I give myself for this’, with the conviction that this can be done here and now and at each moment, with all of your consciousness committed to this self-giving, this ideal, well, whatever you are conscious of, and open yourself to receive, then the divine Shakti-Path will fill your vessel, shape you, and make you all that you can at this very moment to the extent that you are able to and accept to be.
But then each moment thereafter, and each day thereafter, and each year thereafter, one could continue in principle. Okay with pauses, with a bit of dislocations here and there occasionally, but if broadly we set ourselves this goal, this purpose, and align ourselves to this truth and this deep faith and conviction, then in this life, what will be realised by her force working in you, by the Yoga force, will be extraordinary, more than you can ever conceive. And this choice we can make.
(1:30:03):
So all that we have discussed now, you can review, but now we put it in this context of our life-purpose to become instruments, vehicles to manifest the Divine, Sachchidananda, the divine truth, and perfect vehicles. However long it takes, that's not our concern. But this should be as integrally, as totally, as completely, seeped into us as our sense of purpose. And with this, we leave behind all that we were in the past with the year that ends and let this be our form, our substance, our purpose, our very being and aspiration in the year that begins, as a new birth.
We can concentrate on this all together for a while and then perhaps every day on your own or all together as the sense of purpose of our whole lives, of journey of our lives and particularly the purpose of this life.
Namaste.
Alina (1:31:59):
Namaste and Happy New Year.
Sraddhalu (1:32:03):
And Happy New Birth to all.