WRITINGS BY THE MOTHER
© Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust

8 February 1956

Sri Aurobindo writes: "As long as we live in the ignorant seeming, we are the ego and are subject to the [old p. 57]modes of Nature. Enslaved to appearances, bound to the dualities, tossed between good and evil, sin and virtue, grief [new p. 57]and joy, pain and pleasure, good fortune and ill fortune, success and failure, we follow helplessly the iron round of the wheel of Maya." —The Synthesis of Yoga, p. 88

Yes. There are people who have a happy and comfortable life, and people who have a miserable one. That depends... how shall I put it?--upon individual destiny, that depends perhaps on what they have to do upon earth, on the stage they have reached, on many things. It's quite obvious that it is not they who choose. For most people would always choose the same thing. If they were asked what they wanted, there would be differences, yes, but not so great. It would be rather monotonous.

Most people want to be what they call "quiet", what they call "peaceful", to have a small organisation in their own measure--which is generally microscopic, and consists of a regular routine of almost the same activities always, within almost the same bounds, in almost the same surroundings--and all that repeated without much difference; with a sufficient variety not to become completely boring, but with nothing that might disturb this regular round which makes what is called a peaceful life. For the vast majority of people this is the ideal.

And so, the realisation of this ideal in its details depends solely on the country where they are born, the society in which they are born, and the customs of their environment. Their ideal is fashioned by the manners of the country and society in which they live.

Of course, there are exceptions, but they only prove the rule. Generally speaking, the most common ideal is to be born in an environment comfortable enough to avoid too many difficulties in life, to marry someone who won't give you too much trouble, to have healthy children who grow up normally--again to avoid trouble--and then a quiet and happy old age, and not [old p. 58]be too ill, again to avoid trouble. And then to pass away when one is tired of life, again because one does not want any trouble. [new p. 58]

Indeed, this is the most widespread ideal. Naturally, there are exceptions, one may even find the exact opposite. But existence, as men conceive it, would be rather monotonous. The differences would come in the details, for in one country people prefer one thing and in another, another; and then, in the society in which one is born, there are certain customs and an ideal of happiness, and in another society there are other customs and another ideal of happiness--and that's all.

If one speaks to Europeans, for example, they will say there is nothing more beautiful than Europe. I knew Frenchmen--not one but hundreds--who used to say that there were no women in the world more beautiful than French women! And I knew a Negro who had been entirely educated in France and who, when asked which women were the most beautiful, said, "There is no woman more beautiful than a Negress." That was quite natural, wasn't it? Well, that's how it is. There is no house more beautiful than the one you are used to living in--the houses of the country you live in, where you are born--and for the landscape it is the same thing, for food the same thing, for habits it's the same thing. And provided that this goes on fairly harmoniously, without any very violent knocks, you are perfectly satisfied.

That is the usual mentality. And one turns round and round--and sometimes it is an iron circle, sometimes a golden one--but one turns round and round and round, and the children will turn round and round and the grandchildren will turn round and round--and so it will go on. There you are.