Progress

I am not clear about the present sadhana. My consciousness seems to be coining more and more downwards. What is the matter?

There is nothing new, it is always the same thing. It is clear that the contrary forces are using the remnants of the old Nagin to prevent the progress of the sadhana. So you have to change that.

I see that the progress of the outer being is practically at a standstill. But what about the inner being? In my unawareness is it still rising up or has it fallen like the external being?

I suppose it is neither — but is being prepared for a fresh advance.

Each part of my being seems to be going its own old way. Is the long and laborious sadhana the Mother did in me dispersed?

No, it is waiting for the solution of the physical difficulty. Nothing has been lost.

Instead of my waiting for that solution cannot the past progress be of any help to me?

It is a future progress that is needed, not the past.

But what can I do under the present clouded circumstances?

Get rid of the “what can I do” mentality. That is the one thing to do under any circumstances.

If you shake off your sense of helplessness and call down the force or let it pass, then something can be done.

Are you sure I am still on the right path of the sadhana?

You are on the path, but stopped for the time being.

I fail to understand this. Since my sadhana is stopped, how could I still rise to the higher consciousness for some periods of the day?

‘Stopped’ is a relative term. It is not able to go farther or even to complete the descent that was taking place, because the vital has not yet consented to the necessary change.

I think the sadhana by itself does not refuse to go farther. It is some part of our being that determines the action of the sadhana.

If so then there is no need of any other force than the sadhaka’s own. My own experience is different, that the sadhana very often does refuse to go on except under certain conditions or until those conditions are realised. But yours may be different.

The other day you wrote, “It was simply that what was not done before during the first descent of peace and knowledge has to be done now.” You have not mentioned what exactly was not done which is to be done in the future progress of my sadhana.

Peace and silence full and lasting in the whole consciousness including the physical, — permanent separateness of the inner being so that the suggestions of the lower nature cannot cover up or invade or get a response, — establishment of the psychic basis so that ego, sex etc. may be eliminated.

What is the place of competition in the yoga?

All that has to be dropped off if any real progress is to be made. The spirit of competition is contrary to progress in yoga.

In the beginning of yoga, often we continue to use the same method of progress as in the worldly life. That is, from the outer to the inner. But by that method we shall never reach the truth. It is only through the light of the inner or higher consciousness that we can know and realise the truth of the exterior movements.

Yes, that is the truth. It is because people live in the vital and physical mainly that they cannot progress.

For the last two days, the Mother seems to be introducing me to a new dimension of consciousness. Most of the old experiences appear to be of less importance and they are not so much in front as before but seem to have been shifted into the background. In addition to the pure-existence and pure-consciousness something new seems to have entered. Am I not correct?

It is quite natural that new things should come. The sadhana once begun is a constant state of progression.