How is one to meet Adverse Forces

Sadhak : How is one to meet adverse forces—forces that are invisible and yet quite living and tangible?

Mother : A great deal depends upon the stage of development of your consciousness. At the beginning, if you have no special occult knowledge and power, the best you can do is to keep as quiet and peaceful as possible. If the attack takes the form of adverse suggestions try quietly to push them away, as you would some material object. The quieter you are, the stronger you become. The firm basis of all spiritual power is equanimity. You must not allow anything to disturb your poise: you can then resist every kind of attack. If, besides, you possess sufficient discernment and can see and catch the evil suggestions as they come to you, it becomes all the more easy for you to push them away; but sometimes they come unnoticed, and then it is more difficult to fight them. When that happens, you must sit quiet and call down peace and a deep inner quietness. Hold yourself firm and call with confidence and faith: if your aspiration is pure and steady, you are sure to receive help.

SVS Interpretation of Mothers Answer
Occult = (Ref : Rand Hicks) Hidden of concealed from view, ergo mysterious. Also, pertaining to the knowledge or existence of supernatural and mysterious agencies, realities, and influences capable of impinging upon, but hidden from gross physical nature.
First of all, we need to take into consideration the stage of development of our consciousness. In the initial stages we do not possess any special occult knowledge and power. At this initial stage the best we can do is to keep quiet and peaceful to the extent we can. The attack of adverse forces may take the form of adverse suggestions. Generally we do not notice that the impulses or the thoughts that dwell in our mind are not our own but that which we have got from the sources outside to our person. It is like a virus. The virus has no independent living existence of its own. It becomes live when it ‘latches’ on to the cells of our body and in a way take charge of the cell, causing us the disease. Similarly, the suggestions are like virus. They do not have their own independent living existence. They can NOT cause the effect which it contains. They can cause the effect only through the MEDIUM of human personality. As we are ignorant of these workings of our nature, we mistakenly ‘OWN’ the responsibility for these suggestions, when in fact, we are only ‘BEING USED’ by these suggestions to carry out the effect as desired by them. It is a different subject of discussion about the origin of these suggestions. It is suffice to say that these are generally the ‘adverse forces’ bent on creating the disturbances in our personality.

As a first level of ‘strategy’ in winning the battle against these adverse forces, we need to quietly and without any mental agitation or disturbance REJECT these suggestions. It is similar to putting away the material objects. When it rains and we do not want to get drenched in water, we put on the umbrella and stop the drops from falling on our physical body. While walking on the road when we see a person coming from opposite direction is about to dash against us, we impulsively put our hands out to stop the person and get to the sideways to avoid or minimize the physical impact. This we can do because we can actually see the rain or the person in action. However, in the case of outside suggestions, we do not see it with our physical eye and are therefore oblivious of their inroads into us. That is why we need to be VIGILENT about it and take an instant notice of any impulse of anger, hatred, repulsion, attraction etc arising inside us. It is most likely because of the outside suggestions floating in the atmosphere around us and we ‘catching’ it sub-consciously. Do not give our consent to these suggestions. Just quietly and silently say to yourself that you are NOT accepting the suggestion. Remember that without our CONSENT, these adverse suggestions can have NO impact on us. This thief can enter our house only if we open our doors to him. Close the door and be safe inside the temple of your person.

Being quiet is being STRONG. Equanimity is the key word. It is the firm basis of all spiritual power. If your are successful in keeping your inner poise in a quiet and equanimious manner, then you can resist any kind of attack of the adverse forces. The major weapon in the armory of these adverse forces is the emotions of excitement – either for good or for bad reason. Once we are excited, we are ‘off our balance’ and ‘off our guard’. The enemy will ENGAGE us in our state of excitement and then COMFORTABLY SNEAK inside of our person without any difficulty. To keep us excited is the tactics of our enemy and to keep our poise is our sure defense.

We need to develop the poser of discernment. We should be able to ‘trap’ or ‘filter’ out the evil suggestions as they come to us. It is like the SECURITY CHECK as vital installations. If we are able to develop our ENTRY LEVEL SECURITY CHECK, then we can push back the enemy.

If for any reason, these vital forces still manage to cleverly sneak inside of our person, then we have to apply the SECOND LINE OF DEFENCE. We need to “sit quiet and call down peace and a deep inner quietness.” We need then to call for the outside help of our allies. For this purpose, we need to constantly practice through Sadhana and learn the art of receiving forces of the divine. We need to hold ourselves firm and call with full CONFIDENCE and FAITH. If our aspiration is PURE and STEADY, we are sure to receive help.

Mother : Attacks from adverse forces are inevitable: you have to take them as tests on your way and go courageously through the ordeal. The struggle may be hard, but when you come out of it, you have gained something, you have advanced a step. There is even a necessity for the existence of the hostile forces. They make your determination stronger, your aspiration clearer.

SVS Interpretation of Mothers Answer
We can not stop these adverse forces from attacking us. At the same time, we can turn this problem into an OPPORTUNITY. We can use them as our ‘testing equipment’ to gauge the level of our progress on the Path. If we have this attitude towards this situation, we can fight the battle with courage and without any disturbance or agitation. Even thought it may be a tough battle, but once we are through it, we will notice we have marched further on our Path. We may even say that there is a NECESSITY for the existence of these adverse forces. They result in much stronger determination. Our aspiration become more clear and pure. It is like TRIAL BY FIRE. Finally, the pure gold comes out of the multistage purification process.

Mother : It is true, however, that they exist because you gave them reason to exist. So long as there is something in you which answers to them, their intervention is perfectly legitimate. If nothing in you responded, if they had no hold upon any part of your nature, they would retire and leave you. In any case, they need not stop or hamper your spiritual progress.

SVS Interpretation of Mothers Answer
On the other hand, it is also true that existence of these adverse forces is because we NEED them to exist. It sounds weird but it is true. These forces are draw their legitimacy from our RESPONSIVENESS to them. The electricity need a good CONDUCTING wire to reach its destination. It will be ineffective on non-conducting material like wood. If we stop being responsive to these adverse forces, they will REBOUND back from you, without making any dent on your person. They will then spare you in frustration. At least it is for sure that these forces will then not be able to put obstacles in our spiritual progress.

Mother : The only way to fail in your battle with the hostile forces is not to have a true confidence in the divine help. Sincerity in the aspiration always brings down the required succour. A quiet call, a conviction that in this ascension towards the realisation you are never walking all alone and a faith that whenever help is needed it is there, will lead you through, easily and securely.

SVS Interpretation of Mothers Answer
We are sure to win in this battle if we stick to one cardinal rule : to have a true confidence in the divine help. The divine help is received in direct proportion to the sincerity and purity of our aspiration.
To summarise, we need to keep in mind the following principles in order to succeed in our path :

• A Quiet and Firm Poise without any disturbance or excitement
• A firm conviction that the Divine is with us all along in this ascension towards the realisation.
• A complete Faith the divine help is always available whenever needed and called for and that this help will sail our boat safely to the other shore through the stormy waters.

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5 May 1929, Pg 33-34, Conversations with Mother

Function of Intellect

Function of Intellect..................................Shrikant Soman

Sadhak : What is the proper function of the intellect? Is it a help or a hindrance to Sadhana?

Mother : Whether the intellect is a help or a hindrance depends upon the person and upon the way in which it is used. There is a true movement of the intellect and there is a wrong movement; one helps, the other hinders. The intellect that believes too much in its own importance and wants satisfaction for its own sake, is an obstacle to the higher realisation.

SVS Interpretation of Mothers Answer
We can not attach a fixed ‘label’ to the intellect as either a HELP or a HINDRANCE to Sadhana. It can be a hindrance in one case whereas it may be a help to Sadhana. It is relative to the person who is having and using it and also to the manner in which it is being used. The true movement of the intellect helps in Sadhana and the wrong movement of the intellect hinders Sadhana. As a general rule, any ‘egoistic’ use of the intellect is an obstacle to the higher realisation. This is the intellect which believes too much in its own importance and wants satisfaction for its own sake. It is a selfish manner and therefore not the intellect per se but the selfish manner in which it is being used is a hindrance to the Sadhana.

Mother : But this is true not in any special sense or for the intellect alone, but generally and of other faculties as well. For example, people do not regard an all-engrossing satisfaction of the vital desires or the animal appetites as a virtue; the moral sense is accepted as a mentor to tell one the bounds that one may not transgress. It is only in his intellectual activities that man thinks he can do without any such mentor or censor!

SVS Interpretation of Mothers Answer
We can say that this is a general rule and not just specific to the intellect alone. This rule also applies to the all-engrossing satisfaction of the vital desires or to the animal appetites e.g. sex, money, power, food etc. However, in these matters, we have our ‘moral values’ as a guide and it helps us to decide what is good or helpful for higher realisation and what is bad or harmful on the path. Unfortunately, in the case of intellect, we tend to slip out of this moral sense. We feel that in matters of intellect, morality has nothing to do or that it is outside the scope of moral values. This is the real problem.

Mother : Any part of the being that keeps to its proper place and plays its appointed role is helpful; but directly it steps beyond its sphere, it becomes twisted and perverted and therefore false. A power has the right movement when it is set into activity for the divine’s purpose; it has the wrong movement when it is set into activity for its own satisfaction.

SVS Interpretation of Mothers Answer
To put it differently, as a general theory, all the activities of any part of our being are helpful and conducive to our Sadhana which are within their proper place and play their appointed role. When they step beyond its sphere and become twisted and perverted – they become false. The cardinal test is this : Does the movement is serving the purpose of the divine or it is driven by selfish motive ? It is a right movement when it is set into activity for the divine’s purpose. It is a wrong movement when it is set into activity for its own satisfaction. The one is based on Vidya or true knowledge and the other on Avidya or the ignorance.

Mother : The intellect, in its true nature, is an instrument of expression and action. It is something like an intermediary between the true knowledge, whose seat is in the higher regions above the mind, and realisation here below. The intellect or, generally speaking, the mind gives the form; the vital puts in the dynamism and life-power; the material comes in last and embodies.

SVS Interpretation of Mothers Answer
Let us get to the root function of the intellect. The intellect is an instrument of expression and action. Like any instrument, it does not have any intrinsic label of good or bad. A gun for example, is bad in the hands of a terrorist and good in the hands of a soldier. Intellect acts as a ‘translator and interpreter’ of higher regions above mind to help the lower regions of our being ‘understand’ the messages of true knowledge or Vidya. The intellect, as an instrument of the mind, gives the form to the Vidya. The vital part of our being puts in the dynamism and life power to make it a living entity. The material world which is at the lowest level, gives it a body and solidity. This is the place of intellect in the overall scheme of our being. It is for us to make best use of this scheme for our progress on the path towards higher realisation or go downhill in a roller-coaster ride of selfish and egoistic satisfactions.

..............................................................pg 33, Conversations 1929-1931, 5th May 1929

Has Creations a Definite Aim ?

Has Creations a Definite Aim ?....................Conversations with Mother.............Shrikant Soman



Sadhak : Has creation a definite aim? Is there something like a  final end to which it is moving?

Mother : No, the universe is a movement that is eternally unrolling itself. There is nothing which you can fix upon as the end and one aim. But for the sake of action we have to section the movement, which is itself unending, and to say that this or that is the goal, for in action we need something upon which we can fix our aim. In a picture you need a definite scheme of composition and colour; you have to set a limit, to put the whole thing within a fixed framework; but the limit is illusory, the frame is a mere convention. There is a constant continuation of the picture that stretches beyond any particular frame, and each continuation can be drawn in the same conditions in an unending series of frames. Our aim is this or that, we say, but we know that it is only the beginning of another aim beyond it, and that in its turn leads to yet another; the series develop always and never stop.
..............................................................pg 31, Conversations 1929-1931, 28th April 1929

SVS Interpretation of Mothers Answer

Time is a continuum towards ETERNITY. We can not ‘segmentize’ time into different and distinct slots of days, weeks, years or even different births, epochs etc in a cosmic sense. There is no fixed ‘End’ or ‘Start’ for Time. There is no single aim or purpose for the time process. We do segmentize time for the sake of our convenience. There is nothing wrong in it provided you understand and constantly keep in mind that this is only a ‘convenient arrangement’ for the transactions and expressions of activity of our world. We need to fix some target and a destination for the purpose of our aim or goal. Therefore it becomes necessary to ‘artificially’ fix a certain ‘point in time’ as a part of our goal setting.


Take the example of a painting of a marvelous view of a sunset in the backdrop of mountain, river, clouds, birds etc. There is a certain scheme of composition and color. We have necessarily to set the parameters in order to give a structure and a frame to our painting. But we should keep in mind that painting is only a ‘representation’ of the scene of sunset, fixed in a particular framework of composition, color and style and NOT the actual sunset itself. To put it in other words, the actual view of the sunset is beyond any ‘painting of it’, howsoever a masterly work it has been. The sunset view is a ‘continuum’ – we can not break it into pieces.


Similarly, when we fix our aim, like say, passing of an examination, it is NOT the end of it. After we pass the examination, there is a next aim of passing the higher examination or of securing a nice job… and so on. Life is a continuous process of ‘unending series’ of evolutionary journey. There is no beginning or end to it.


To summarise, and to answer the question directly, we can say : NO, the Creation has NO definite aim in the COSMIC SENSE. There is NO final end towards which the Creation can be said to be moving. There can be intermediate stops and ‘milestones’, however.

Freedom and Fatalism

Conversations 1929-1931 - The Mother....................................Shrikant Soman

Freedom and Fatalism 28 April 1929, Pg 29
Sadhak : Is there then no real freedom? Is everything absolutely determined, even your freedom, and is fatalism the highest secret?
Mother : Freedom and fatality, liberty and determinism are truths that obtain on different levels of consciousness. It is ignorance that makes the mind put the two on the same level and pit one against the other. Consciousness is not a single uniform reality, it is complex; it is not something like a flat plain, it is multidimensional. On the highest height is the Supreme and in the lowest
depth is matter; and there is an infinite gradation of levels of consciousness between this lowest depth and the highest height….
SVS Interpretation of Mothers AnswerWe must first understand that the Consciousness is not FLAT. It is a whole Universe with higher and still higher levels. We make the mistake of putting everything in a very simplistic way on a single level. This is the real source of error and confusion. Freedom and Fatality (i.e. the notion that everything is predetermined – exact opposite of freedom) appear to be as MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE, i.e., we can either have freedom of choice, free will or we are forced to live under the conditions of fatalism and determinism, but NOT BOTH. This is NOT TRUE. BOTH EXIST. The apparent conflict is solved when we consider that these things have their own plane of consciousness. As an analogy, consider the night sky. We see thousands of stars above us. All of them appear to be more or less on the same level encircling the Earth. Actually, all these stars are on different levels. At the time of eclipse of Moon and Sun, in ignorance the man at earlier times thought that these two planetary bodies have banged on each other like the two aircrafts dashing each other mid air. After the advancement of astronomy, we now know that the Sun and Moon do NOT and cannot bang each other as visually appears from Earth. They are on the same line of vision from Earth, but because of their being at different levels in the cosmos, they are comfortably and safely far away from each other.

Mother explains to us that at the highest of the level is the Supreme and at the lowest level is the Matter.
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Mother : In the plane of matter and on the level of the ordinary consciousness you are bound hand and foot. A slave to the mechanism of Nature, you are tied to the chain of Karma, and there, in that chain, whatever happens is rigorously the consequence of what has been done before. There is an illusion of independent movement, but in fact you repeat what all others do, you echo Nature’s world-movements, you revolve helplessly on the crushing wheel of her cosmic machine…….
SVS Interpretation of Mothers Answer
At the plane of matter as we ordinarily perceive, we do not have much of a freedom. We are ‘slave’ to the mechanism of Nature. We are tied to the chain of Karma. It is an endless chain of ‘cause and effect’ … one leading to the other. We are under the illusion of having a free will. But in reality our actions are only ‘mechanical responses’ to the external stimulus of our environment. We are dragged in the ‘crushing wheel of cosmic machine’ of Nature – Prakriti.
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Mother : But it need not be so. You can shift your place if you will; instead of being below, crushed in the machinery or moved like a puppet, you can rise and look from above and by changing your consciousness you can even get hold of some handle to move apparently
inevitable circumstances and change fixed conditions. Once you draw yourself up out of the whirlpool and stand high above, you see you are free. Free from all compulsions, not only you are no longer a passive instrument, but you become an active agent. You are not only not bound by the consequences of your action, but you can even change the consequences. Once you see the play of forces, once you raise yourself to a plane of consciousness where lie the origins of forces and identify yourself with these dynamic sources, you belong no longer to what is moved but to that which moves…….
SVS Interpretation of Mothers Answer
However, one must note that this is NOT the final word in the matter. It is our CONSCIOUS CHOICE to operate at a particular LEVEL of Consciousness. At the lowest level, we have no free will. As explained above, this is the level where the principal of ‘fatalism’ operates. We are CRUSHED in the Wheel of Nature. We are mere Puppets in her hands. On the other hand, if we chose to operate at higher level of consciousness, we get more and more freedom to determine our life and our circumstances. If we learn the technique properly, we can even get a ‘handle’ – meaning some lever of the machinery. We can pull this handle or the lever, like a skilled operator of a machinery, and change the circumstance of our life which earlier appeared to us as inevitable when we operated at the lowest level of consciousness. What we thought as ‘fixed conditions’ become ‘flexible’ in our hands. So far as we are caught in the ‘whirlpool’ we are mercilessly moved with the current. All our efforts to swim against the current of the whirlpool are frustratingly and hopelessly ineffective. The solution is to get out and above the whirlpool completely and get free of the mechanisms of the Nature. Then we realise we are ‘master of our own destiny’. Instead of being ‘slave’ of the cosmic machinery of Nature, we are the ‘operators’ of this machinery. We can change the apparently fixed conditions of life at the lower level of material world. We then realise that it is all ‘play of forces’. This is the secret. Having known this secret, we take the thread of our journey further backwards to understand the ‘source’ of these forces. We then shift our identity from that of being something that is get moved by these forces to the origin of these forces – from that of SLAVE to that of MASTER.
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Mother : This precisely is the aim of Yoga,—to get out of the cycle of Karma into a divine movement. By Yoga you leave the mechanical round of Nature in which you are an ignorant slave, a helpless and miserable tool, and rise into another plane where you become a conscious participant and a dynamic agent in the working out of a Higher Destiny. This movement of the consciousness follows a double line. First of all there is an ascension; you raise yourself out of the level of material consciousness into superior ranges. But this ascension of the lower into the higher calls a descent of the higher into the lower. When you rise above the earth, you bring down too upon earth something of the above,—some light, some power that transforms or tends to transform its old nature. And then these things that were distinct, disconnected and disparate from each other—the higher in you and the lower, the inner and the outer strata of your being and consciousness—meet and are slowly joined together and gradually they fuse into one truth, one harmony……..
SVS Interpretation of Mothers Answer
The objective of Yoga is to get out of the cycle of Karma and into a divine movement. We have known ‘what’ needs to be done in order to get out of the crushing wheel of nature. Now we are told as to ‘how’ it is to be done – through Yoga. By practicing Yoga, we get ourselves free of the mechanical rule of Nature (e.g. Newton’s famous law of physics) and rise to a higher level of consciousness where we enjoy the freedom of our actions and become the master of our life. We become the ‘partner with God’ instead of his subjects. We become ‘conscious participant and a dynamic agent’ in executing the divine plan of action from the point of view of higher plane of consciousness.

Here we come to an important SECRET of the Cosmic Law. Mother tells us that this movement of consciousness has a ‘two way’ line of action. When we get out of the whirlpool or the crushing wheel of nature and rise to a higher plane, simultaneously, and as a necessary and inevitable part of it, something else is also happening. When we rise from material plane to higher plane, some force of the divine descends into our material plane. Therefore it is called a double or two way movement. Some light or force descends on Earth to transform and change her nature and get ‘enlightened’. Once this happens, the dichotomy of our inner and outer, lower and higher levels of consciousness is ‘fused’ into a harmonious unified whole. There is no more distinct and separate inner and outer levels of consciousness. It then becomes one harmonious TRUTH.
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Mother : It is in this way that what are called miracles happen. The world is made up of innumerable planes of consciousness and each has its own distinct laws; the laws of one plane do not hold good for another. A miracle is nothing but a sudden descent, a bursting forth of another consciousness and its powers—most often it is the powers of the vital—into this plane of matter.
There is a precipitation, upon the material mechanism, of the mechanism of a higher plane. It is as though a lightning flash tore through the cloud of our ordinary consciousness and poured into it other forces, other movements and sequences. The result we call a miracle, because we see a sudden alteration, an abrupt interference with the natural laws of our own ordinary range, but the reason and order of it we do not know or see, because the source of the miracle lies in another plane. Such incursions of the worlds beyond into our world of matter are not very uncommon, they are even a constant phenomenon, and if we have eyes and know how to observe we can see miracles in abundance. Especially must they be constant among those who are endeavoring to bring down the higher reaches into the earth-consciousness below.
SVS Interpretation of Mothers Answer
This is the origin of what we ordinarily call ‘miracles’. As we have already seen, our world is made up of different planes of consciousness. Each of these planes is having its own laws of action, independent of one another. The laws of one level do not operate on another level. When there is a sudden descent of the force of higher level into the lower level, it results in an abrupt and drastic change and alteration in the material condition of the lower level. As we are unable to understand or correlate it to our normal understanding of the laws of the material world, we call it miracle. This descent is like a bursting forth of the forces from higher plane to the lower plane – something like the effect of the bursting of the Dam. This generally happens in the case of the descent of the powers of the vital world into the material world. This is the most common and likely occurrence. It is like a ‘lightening flash’ we see on a rainy day, tearing down through the clouds in an abrupt manner. We are not able to ‘rationalize’ the sequence of events with the help of our normal intellectual mind. This is because this event is NOT governed by the laws of our material world. It belongs to the laws of the higher world. In any case, it DOES obey a LAW. It is NOT any irrational happening. It does NOT break any law of nature. It only belongs to the laws of higher plane of consciousness which we are not yet fully equipped to understand.

Here we should note that such type of miracles are not a rare happening. We ordinarily feel it is rare because we are unaware of its happenings. Actually they happen all the time. We need to develop our faculty of perception to observe these phenomenon. This is particularly true for the higher practitioners of Yoga who endeavor to bring down the higher levels of consciousness into our earth plane of consciousness.