Study and Sadhana

At present my sadhana has practically come down to the level of the physical and hence is much retarded. Is this not a good opportunity to train my intellect?

The best opportunity was when the sadhana was in the mind.

If I don’t study like S. how will my mind be trained or enlightened?

From above. However, there is no harm in training from below also.

Shall I start by taking lessons?

I don’t see much use in your taking lessons. What you can do is to read not for pastime but with the clear intention of furnishing your mind with knowledge.

But I would not like to waste my time reading unless it is given me as part of the sadhana.

Yes, reading can be done for the improvement of the mental instrument as part of the sadhana.

Once you wrote to me, “Before you read offer it to the Mother, call down her Force.” Is not her Force already within us and working?

If it is there you will have no difficulty.

Is it not possible to do the mental work and sadhana simultaneously as I do with the physical work?

It is not so easy to do mental work and do sadhana at the same time, for it is with the mind that the sadhana is done. If one gets back from the mind as well as the body and lives in the inner Purusha consciousness, then it is possible.

Here the question is of separating myself even from the mind; — a difficult problem no doubt. But is it not to be done one day?

Yes, but it is not done yet.

If I start studying, it must be taken up as seriously as I did with the sadhana. As I have to learn English and French several hours have to be sacrificed for it.

Study cannot take the same or greater importance than sadhana.

I have already said that you can spend time in study as the sadhana is not active. If the sadhana were active then study can be done in the spare time i.e., in times not given to work or meditation.

If there is a pressure and a descent then at that time it is better not to read.

There was a strong higher pressure while I was studying. Normally I would have left the reading and attended to the pressure. But today I put a will that study and sadhana both must continue together. Was it correct?

It is all right. A time must come when the reading as well as any other outward occupation does not interfere with the pressure or activity of the higher consciousness.

There was an understanding between us that I should stay above and not pay too much attention to the ordinary movements of my outer being and that I need not report to you about the negative side of my sadhana. But now that the lower nature has become active shall I resume writing about it?

Yes, you can write. The other arrangement was for going on with the positive side of the sadhana and not paying an undue attention to the outer being. But if the outer being imposes attention like that it is better to write about it.

I am told that in sadhana the outer mind can be developed directly from above. At present I see many changes in my inner being, particularly in the inner mind. But the outer mind seems to have remained as ignorant and unchanged as before!

The change there can only come when the higher consciousness takes possession of the physical mind also.

I wonder why any part of my mind identifies itself with the outer vital. Certainly it did not do so before.

You were too much preoccupied with higher experience at that time for the mind to do that. Coming down into the physical the physical mind became strong and it is the physical mind (or part of it) that so identifies itself.