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<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><b>
<span
style='mso-bidi-font-style:italic'><font size="4">EIGHT TALKS</font><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:
16.55pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>&nbsp;</p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:
16.55pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<b><font size="4">To Read Sri Aurobindo</font></b><i><span
style='font-size:18.0pt;color:blue'><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><i><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></i></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>I LEARNED that you want to
know something about Sri Aurobindo and the Mother from me. But then there are
three lines of approach: you may want to know <i>about </i>them, know <i>of </i>them
or know them. Of course the last is the best. Indeed if you want to know truly something
you have to become it. Becoming gives the real knowledge. But becoming Sri
Aurobindo and the Mother means what? Becoming a portion of them, a part and
parcel of their consciousness <span style='font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>―</span>
that is what we are here for. And if you can do that, you know enough. . . .<i><o:p></o:p></i></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Once
I told you, I think, how to study or approach Sri Aurobindo and the Mother in
order to read them or understand their writings. There are two things: studying
and reading; I made a distinction between the two. To study Sri Aurobindo is <span
style='font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>―</span> I won't say fruitless, that is too
strong a word, but it can only be an aid or a supplementary way. Study means:
you take the text, you understand mentally each word and phrase; if you don't
understand, you take a dictionary and try to catch the external meaning
expressed by the words. That may be necessary but it is not the way to
approach their works.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Simply
to read them in the right way is sufficient. Read, it does not matter what you
understand and what you do not, simply read and wait in an expectant silence.
In studying you approach them with your external mind, your external intelligence.
But what is there in the text is beyond your mind, beyond your intelligence.
And to understand mentally means you drive your intellect forward into the
thing. It is an effort and takes you only to the outside of the thing. It is an
exercise of your brain, developed in that way, but it doesn't take' you very
far. Instead of that, suppose you could keep quiet, silence your mind, and only
read, without unduly trying to understand,
<span style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>
<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-indent:.15in;
line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:
none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page
– 35<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-bottom:0'>and wait
for what is there in the text to enter into you. Instead of your intelligence
driving forward, pushing forward and trying to catch the thing, let the thing
come into you; for what is there in their writings is not words and phrases,
dead material, it is something very living, something conscious, that they have
expressed in the words, phrases and the sound and rhythm. And I may tell you
that each sentence anywhere, not to speak of <i>Savitri, </i>is a living being
with whom you have to make acquaintance <span style='font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>―</span>
not that you understand or are able to explain, but it is a living being, an
entity, a friend, even a Lover whom you have to know. And your attempt in that
way will be rewarded. You</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>will enjoy much more. You
may ask: &quot;Just because I open a book and read, how can what are in the
lines come to me?&quot; But I say they are living entities <span
style='font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>―</span> if you approach in the right
spirit, they come into you. The consciousness, the being in each line comes to
you. And you find how beautiful it is. This is an approach of love, not of the
intellect to understand and explain. Take for example, the very first verse of <i>Savitri:<o:p></o:p></i></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><i><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></i></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:27.0pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>It
was the hour before the Gods awake.<span style='font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>&sup1;<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>It
is a Mantra, a living person, how beautiful it is, you needn't understand much <span
style='font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>―</span> and a whole world is there. </p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Or,
take the opening sentence of <i>The Life Divine <span style='font-family:
"Book Antiqua"'>―</span> the </i>rolling cadence of the vast ocean is there. It
brings you a sense of vastness, a sense of Infinity and takes you there. And,
as I said, it is a very living entity and personality. </p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:8.85pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Here
is the whole passage:</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:
8.85pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none; margin-bottom:0'><span style='mso-spacerun:yes'>&nbsp; </span>The earliest
preoccupation of man in his awakened thoughts and, as it seems, his inevitable
and ultimate preoccupation, <span style='font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>―</span>
for it survives the longest periods of scepticism and returns after every
banishment, <span style='font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>―</span> is also the
highest which his thought can envisage: It manifests itself in the divination
of Godhead, the impulse towards perfection, the search after pure Truth and
unmixed Bliss, the sense of a secret immortality. The ancient dawns of human
knowledge have left us their witness to this constant aspiration; today we see
a humanity satiated </p>
	<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:
8.85pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none; margin-bottom:0'>&nbsp;</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0;text-align:justify;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-bottom:0'><span
style='font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>&sup1;</span> <span style='font-size:10.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt'>Book I, Canto 1.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-top:0;text-align:center;
line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:
none; margin-bottom:0'>
<span style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page
– 36</span></p>
	
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</div>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:9.0pt;text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>but
not satisfied by victorious analysis of the externalities of Nature preparing
to return to its primeval longings. The earliest formula of Wisdom promises to
be its last, <span style='font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>―</span> God, Light,
Freedom, Immortality.<span style='font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>&sup1;</span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>There
is indeed a personality behind it and you have to make acquaintance with that
personality. That is what I meant when I said: become it, by an approach through
love, an approach through your soul. Even in studies you shouldn't approach
with the mere intellect, mere mental understanding; however fine an
understanding or intellect you may have, it won't lead you very far. Only
through your soul you can go far. Even intellectual things can be approached
through your soul <span style='font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>―</span> because the
soul is the very essence of all your faculties and being. The soul is not mere
consciousness, mere being, it gathers in all the elements of your personality.
The seeds of your mind, your vital, even of the physical personality, the true
physical personality, are there in your soul, and you can establish a true
relation with things and persons through that part of your being <span
style='font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>―</span> your soul. And remember the soul is
not very far from you because you are that-rather your mind, your vital, your
physical are away from you; they are not your true personality. It is your soul
that is nearest to you.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>In
this connection you may remember what the Mother has said more than once: what
is one here for? What are the children here for? And what is she giving here in
the school, in the playground, in all the activities? It is not simple
efficiency in the outer activities that is given here, or meant to be given
here. For such things one can get outside in a more successful way-external
efficiency of your intellect, of your mind, of your vital capacity and your
physical strength-the Russian or the German type. Our records don't match
theirs, do they? But we don't aspire for those records. For, as the Mother has
said: &quot;I am giving here something which you won't get anywhere else in the
world-nowhere except here.&quot; In your external expression you may cut a very
poor figure: low marks-but that is not the sign of the Truth that we acquire
here. You acquire it even without your knowing it. When you are in the swimming
pool you are soaked all through, aren't you? </p>
		<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>&nbsp;</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
style='font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>&sup1;</span> <span style='font-size:10.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt'>Book I, Chapter 1.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-indent:11.75pt;
line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:
none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page
– 37<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>You can't help it; so here
also; even without your knowing it you are soaked with the inner consciousness
of your soul. It is a very precious thing <span style='font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>―</span>
I should say, the only precious thing in the world. And through that, if you
study, you learn <span style='font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>―</span> if you
approach that way, you will get another taste, another interest in things.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:12.2pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>When
I was reading with Sri Aurobindo, he didn't lay much stress upon the grammar or
the language <span style='font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>―</span> just the most
elementary grammar that was necessary. He used to put me in contact with the
life, the living personality of the poet <span style='font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>―</span>
what he was, what he represented in his consciousness. That was the central
theme, because a truly great poet means a status of consciousness; in order to
understand his consciousness you must become identified with his being.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:12.0pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Amrita
also used to say the same thing, because he was learning the Gita from Sri
Aurobindo. He could feel the spirit of <st1:place>Krishna</st1:place> and the
spirit of Arjuna throughout <span style='font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>―</span>
their relations and the atmosphere they created. It is not the mere lesson, the
teaching, that is important <span style='font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>―</span>
that is secondary. The person is the primary thing. And the person in the book
or outside, you can approach only through your soul, through love. The soul
alone can love.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>I
think I told you that once somebody asked me: &quot;You speak of the soul but
where is it?&quot;</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>I
said: &quot;It is very near you; still you don't believe. If you see into
yourself quietly, you will find that there are very many good things in you,
not only bad things <span style='font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>―</span> bits
perhaps, shades or shadows perhaps, but you know this is a good thought in you,
this is a noble impulse, a sweet feeling. Each one has all these things, you
have only to recognise them. All this is the expression of the soul in you.
The beautiful, the luminous, the noble things that appear to you, in your
consciousness, from time to time, all come from your soul.&quot; Even the
greatest villain has such moments. You remember Lady Macbeth <span
style='font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>―</span> known as the cruellest woman; well,
she said about <st1:City><st1:place>Duncan</st1:place></st1:City>, &quot;I
would have killed him myself but he looked like my father&quot;<span
style='font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>&sup1; ― </span>well, that is the feeling even
she had. So let us not despair, even the</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:10.05pt;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
style='font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>&sup1;</span> <span style='font-size:10.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt'>Shakespeare: <span style='mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>Macbeth,
</span>Act II, Scene 2.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;tab-stops:5.0pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'><span
style='mso-tab-count:1'>&nbsp; </span>Lady Macbeth: ... Had he not resembled<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;tab-stops:52.05pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'><span
style='mso-tab-count:1'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>My father as he slept, I
had done't.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:150%;
mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:52.05pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:
none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>Page – 38<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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10.05pt;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:52.05pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none'>

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</div>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0;text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-bottom:0'><span
style='mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>weakest among us should not despair. First
of all, each one has a soul, and secondly, we have the luminously strong sup
port of the Mother. It is the nature of the Divine that even if you don't think
of Him He thinks of you. It is true, very true; because you are part of the
Divine. Only you have to concentrate consciously on that part, that portion;
then gradually it will increase. <o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;
mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:12.7pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:
none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><i><span style='mso-tab-count:1'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Question: What is the
distinction you make between &quot;to know about Sri Aurobindo and the
Mother,&quot; and &quot;to know of them&quot;?<o:p></o:p></i></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;
mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:12.7pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:
none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><i><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></i></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;
mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:12.7pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:
none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span style='mso-bidi-font-style:italic'><span style='mso-tab-count:1'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>ANSWER:
&quot;About&quot; means what a man does, what his profession is, his
occupation<i> <span style='font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>―</span>
kim<span style='font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>Ä</span>sita vrajeta kim? <span
style='font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>―</span> </i><span style='mso-bidi-font-style:
italic'>and &quot;of &quot;means his personality, his character, nature.</span><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:150%;
mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:12.7pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:
none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>Page – 39<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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  <p align=right style='text-align:right; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><i><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt'><a href="file:///F|/Inetpub/wwwroot/new-saa.info/_StaticContent/SriAurobindoAshram/-04-Early-Disciples/-01-Nolini-Kanta-Gupta/Works-of-Nolini-Kanta-Gupta/Volume-1/index"><span
style='text-decoration:none;text-underline:none'></span><span
style='text-decoration:none;text-underline:none'></span><span
style='text-decoration:none;text-underline:none'><a href="-00_-Content"><img border=0 width=69
height=19 id="_x0000_i1033" src="_Jpeg%20image/set10_home_on.gif"></a></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
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