Sincerity and the Middle Path (HH 089)

Evolution of man and of sadhana is from the gross to the subtle, from the small and limited to the vast and universal. For each stage of human evolution there is a yoga appropriate to that stage. The qualities too evolve and change their sense as we move from the gross to the subtle and from the outer to the inner domain. The focus of this talk is on Sincerity and taking to the Middle Path avoiding both extremes in our application of the Yoga.

Words of the Mother

X scolded me for not putting kumkum on my forehead any more. I didn’t reply, didn’t say anything. 

He’s afraid that when you stop making the gestures, you forget the path!

It’s ridiculous! 

No, it’s not! I tell you, he can’t understand. To him, sadhana…. I sent him word that I was fully engrossed in sadhana, and then I immediately saw his mental image of me sitting cross-legged doing a perpetual puja! You get the idea. For him, sadhana means certain fixed rules, and if you let the rules go, you let go of the sadhana. But it doesn’t matter, don’t worry about it.

He is “ill” because something is trying to make him go through several lifetimes in one. If it succeeds, well, he will eventually understand; if it doesn’t succeed, we will have done what we could, he will have done what he could, and everything will be for the best. That’s all. 

I’ve come to a point where I can see the effort towards the Divine even in very unconscious little beings: puppies, kittens, little babies, a tree – it’s visible. And that is the immense sadhana of the earth … preparing itself to receive the Divine.
That’s all that is needed.

Outer forms are totally irrelevant – totally. Voilà.

September 8, 1962

* * *

Sri Aurobindo, too, wrote it: “Aspire intensely, but without impatience….” The difference between intensity and impatience is very subtle (everything is a difference of vibration); it’s subtle, but it makes the whole difference.
Intensely, but without impatience…. That’s it: that’s the state in which we must be.
And then, for a long, a very long time, we should be content with the inner results, that is, results of personal and individual reactions, of inner contacts with the rest of the world, and not hope for or will things to materialize too soon. Because that haste people have generally delays things.
If this is the way things are, it’s the way things are.
We – people, I mean – live a harried life. It is a sort of semiconscious feeling of the shortness of their life; they don’t think about it, but they feel it semi-consciously. So they are forever wanting to go – quickly, quickly, quickly – from one thing to another, to do one thing quickly in order to go on to the next, instead of each thing living in its own eternity. We are forever wanting to go forward, forward, forward … and we spoil the work.

That is why some have preached that the only important moment is the present moment – which isn’t true in practice, but from the psychological point of view, it should be true. In other words, let us live every minute to the utmost of our possibility, without foreseeing or wanting or expecting or preparing the next minute. Because we are forever in a hurry-hurry-hurry … and we do everything wrong. We live in an inner tension which is totally false – totally false.
All those who tried to be wise have always said it (the Chinese have preached it, the Indians have preached it): live with the sense of Eternity. In Europe, too, they said you should contemplate the sky, the stars, identify with their infinitude – all of which makes you wide and peaceful.
They are methods, but they are indispensable.
And I have observed it in the body’s cells: they would seem to be forever in a hurry to do what they have to do for fear of not having the time to do it. So they do nothing properly. Clumsy people (there are people who bump into everything, their gestures are brusque and clumsy) have this to a high degree – this sort of haste to do things quickly, quickly, quickly…. Yesterday, someone was complaining of rheumatic pains in his back and said to me, “Oh, it makes me waste so much time, I do things so slowly!” I said to him (Mother laughs), “So what!” He wasn’t happy. You understand, to complain if you have pain means you’re soft, that’s all, but to say, “I’m wasting so much time, I do things so slowly!” was the very clear picture of that haste in which people live – they hurtle through life … where to? … to end up in a crash!

What’s the use?

(silence)

Basically, the moral of all these aphorisms is that it is far more important to BE than to be seen to be – you must live, not pretend – and that it is far more important to realize a thing entirely, sincerely and perfectly than to let others know you’re realizing it!
It’s the same thing again: when you feel the need to proclaim what you are doing, you spoil half of your action.
And yet, at the same time, it helps you to take stock and know exactly where you stand.
It was Buddha’s wisdom when he said, “The middle path”: not too much on this side, not too much on that side, don’t fall on this side, don’t fall on that side – a bit of everything, and a balanced … but PURE path.

Purity and sincerity are the same thing.

September 16, 1964

* * *

The three images of total self-giving to the Divine:

1) To prostrate oneself at His feet in a surrender of all pride, with a perfect HUMILITY.

2) To unfold one’s being before Him, to open entirely one’s body from head to toe, as one opens a book, spreading open one’s centers so as to make all their movements visible in a total SINCERITY that allows nothing to remain hidden.

3) To nestle in His arms, to melt in Him in a tender and absolute CONFIDENCE.

These movements may be accompanied by three formulas, or any one of them, depending upon the case:

1) May Your Will be done and not mine.

2) As You will, as You will …

3) I am Yours for eternity.

Generally, when these movements are made in the right way, they are followed by a perfect identification, a dissolution of the ego, bringing about a sublime felicity.

October 19, 1955

(2014 12 20)