Questions and Answers 1950–1951 (CWM Vol.4)

Questions and Answers 1950–1951

Collected Works of the Mother Volume 4

This volume consists of talks given by the Mother in 1950 and 1951 to the students of her French class as well as some sadhaks of the Ashram. She usually began by reading out a passage from one of her works or her French translation of one of Sri Aurobindo’s works, and then invited questions. During this period the Mother discussed several of her recent essays on education, her conversations of 1929, some letters of Sri Aurobindo and his small book The Mother.

It is worth tracing the origin of the Mother’s French class, in which these talks were given. The Ashram school was founded by the Mother in 1943, and by the end of the decade its first students had learned French fairly well. As more and more children joined the school, there were not enough teachers in French. When the new school year began in December 1950, the Mother decided to take the highest class in French three times a week. At first she spoke to the students and some of the teachers, but gradually many sadhaks of the Ashram were allowed to join the class. As a result, the questions they asked arose from many different levels of understanding.

Book Details

Author: The Mother

Print Length: 432 pages

Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Book format: PDF, Online

Language: English

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Contents

Part I. 1950

December

  • 21 December 1950
  • 23 December 1950
  • 25 December 1950
  • 28 December 1950
  • 30 December 1950

Part II. 1951

January

  • 4 January 1951
  • 8 January 1951
  • 11 January 1951
  • 13 January 1951
  • 15 January 1951
  • 20 January 1951
  • 25 January 1951
  • 27 January 1951

February

  • 3 February 1951
  • 5 February 1951
  • 8 February 1951
  • 10 February 1951
  • 12 February 1951
  • 15 February 1951
  • 17 February 1951
  • 19 February 1951
  • 22 February 1951
  • 24 February 1951
  • 26 February 1951

March

  • 1 March 1951
  • 3 March 1951
  • 5 March 1951
  • 8 March 1951
  • 10 March 1951
  • 12 March 1951
  • 14 March 1951
  • 17 March 1951
  • 19 March 1951
  • 22 March 1951
  • 24 March 1951
  • 26 March 1951
  • 29 March 1951
  • 31 March 1951

April

  • 2 April 1951
  • 5 April 1951
  • 7 April 1951
  • 9 April 1951
  • 12 April 1951
  • 14 April 1951
  • 17 April 1951
  • 19 April 1951
  • 21 April 1951
  • 23 April 1951
  • 26 April 1951
  • 28 April 1951

May

  • 3 May 1951
  • 5 May 1951
  • 7 May 1951
  • 11 May 1951
  • 12 May 1951
  • 14 May 1951

Book Sample

Questions and Answers 1950–1951

21 December 1950

“O Consciousness, immobile and serene, Thou watchest at the confines of the world like a sphinx of eternity. And yet to some Thou confidest Thy secret. These can become Thy sovereign will which chooses without preference, executes without desire.” – Prayers and Meditations, 10 November 1914

This immobile Consciousness is the “Mother of Dreams”,1 the sphinx of eternity who keeps vigil on the confines of the world like an enigma to be solved. This enigma is the problem of our life, the very raison d’être of the universe. The problem of our life is to realise the Divine or rather to become once again aware of the Divine who is the Universe, the origin, cause and goal of life.

Those who find the secret of the sphinx of eternity become that active and creative Power.

To choose without preference and execute without desire is the great difficulty at the very root of the development of true consciousness and self-control. To choose in this sense means to see what is true and bring it into existence; and to choose thus, without the least personal bias for any thing, any person, action, circumstance, is exactly what is most difficult for an ordinary human being. Yet one must learn to act without any preference, free from all attractions and likings, taking one’s stand solely on the Truth which guides. And having chosen in accordance with the Truth the necessary action, one must carry it out without any desire.

If you observe yourself attentively, you will see that before acting you need an inner impetus, something which pushes you. In the ordinary man this impetus is generally desire. This desire ought to be replaced by a clear, precise, constant vision of the Truth.

Some call this the Voice of God or the Will of God. The true meaning of these words has been falsified, so I prefer to speak of “the Truth”, though this is but a very limited aspect of That which we cannot name but which is the Source and the Goal of all existence. I deliberately do not use the word God because religions have given this name to an all-powerful being who is other than his creation and outside it. This is not correct.

However, on the physical plane the difference is obvious. For we are yet all that we no longer want to be, and He, He is all that we want to become.

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