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Volume III Chapter 01: The Meeting at Pemberley

(August 1812) Elizabeth is thrilled seeing Pemberley and notes how good it might be to be the Mistress of Pemberley. The housekeeper greets them and speaks very highly of Darcy, surprising Elizabeth. Later, they run into Darcy. At first, both Elizabeth and Darcy are stunned and embarrassed. His behavior is different, he is most gentlemanly. He asks to be introduced to her friends, the Gardiners, surprising Elizabeth. Darcy also asks her if he could introduce her to his sister. Later, Elizabeth can think of nothing but Darcy and his manners.
1
Elizabeth, as they drove along, watched for the first appearance of Pemberley Woods with some perturbation; and when at length they turned in at the lodge, her spirits were in a high flutter.
  1. ‘Watched for the first appearance of Pemberley,’ ‘her spirits were in a high flutter’ (p. 215) ‘to be mistress of Pemberley might be something.’
  2. Darcy is prompted to come a day early by the energy of such attitudes.
  3. Should we know what work Darcy had with the steward, how it occurred to him, who the steward was, and her mind would explain to us more fully.
  4. Wickham is the son of the steward. It is the work with the steward that brings Darcy to her.
  5. If every detail of life on one side is not exactly represented by its complement on the other side – all the other sides – life is not integral.
  6. “Some perturbation”. Pemberley suggests the vast scale of Darcy’s personality and how she taunted it.
  7. “Elizabeth watched for the first appearance of Pemberley” (P. 215)
    The first appearance of Pemberley evoked a response “It is something” which his proposal had not evoked.
    Love at first sight is a phenomenon known to all.
    An equally powerful phenomenon is after some years of relationship one stumbles on a glorious relationship richer than one imagined.
    It is less known.
    Elizabeth comes under this second category.
    The first meeting creates the relationship in the subconscious.
    Till the subconscious is saturated there is a lull.
    At the point of saturation the relationship comes to life.
    In her case, again her substance was to be filled in.
    Her eagerness to catch sight of Pemberley and her comment ‘to be the mistress of Pemberley it is something’ on catching sight of it were the first opening her eagerness showed.
    It is significant that after her visit was over, Darcy arrived.
    When her emotions were stirred and gave their assent, he arrived.
    Had there been no rapport, it was possible they missed each other, though both were on the premises.
    A wonder about human nature is, it can remain untouched or unmoved by the Himalayan development.
    Since the proposal, neither he nor his proposal ever came back to her Mind.
    As long as his preparation was incomplete she found no response in herself.
    ‘Time should come’ we say, when we are led by external forces.
    Time comes when we act.
  8. “Her spirits were in a high flutter”
    Shallow Mind giving an intense response is excitement.
    Depth in us giving the same response indicates the sanction of life.
    After Hunsford she forgot the proposal.
    We forget what has no scope for fulfillment.
    What she forgot, life had not forgotten.
    The Lakes invited.
    It was a spatial response.
    Life acts through long forgotten ambitions.
    Time responded changing the Lakes to Derbyshire.
    From her side it was the Mental response of giving up Wickham.
    Earlier, during the last visit of Wickham we saw the response of space – He was removed to the most distant part in the house.
    The house that was gloomy revived – response of the subtle atmosphere.
    The Gardiners had no time, stayed only one night – Time responded.
    Invitation to Pemberley – Grace takes insistent initiative. She refused – First Darcy refused saying ‘tolerable’, employed a ruse to fortify his refusal in answer to which she refused the proposal. He changed inwardly.
    She came to Derbyshire. Her refusal lingered – It is seen in his two minutes meeting at Pemberley and taking leave. Aunt insisted. By that time she got the chambermaid’s information and changed. She was subconsciously ready but refusal on the surface lingered. Overwhelming experience of the sight of Pemberley. Refusal was initially overcome. Heard of Wickham gone wild, Loosened the hold of falsehood. Exquisite rooms repeated the overpowering influences. She repeated her desire, fixed Darcy’s eyes on her. They met, parted, again ran across each other. Thaw in his resistance. Mentioned sister. She had a new view. Valued his attitude, raised herself high. The lover was seen by all. Invited uncle for fishing. It never impressed the sceptic uncle. Lambton confirmed. Bingley appeared, but was quiet. Georgiana was shy. Elizabeth was embarrassed. Aunt was surprised. Caroline provoked as she found the issue had gone out of her hand, confirming negatively the accomplishment. Her provocation precipitated elopement.
    His crude selfishness reared its head. Her aunt was similar.
2
The park was very large, and contained great variety of ground. They entered it in one of its lowest points, and drove for some time through a beautiful wood stretching over a wide extent.
  1.          “The park is very large, contains a great variety of ground”
    Life is very wide, contains a great variety of experiences.
    Her Mind was confined to a few experiences, but had potential for more.
    The park reflected the possibility of her Mind.
    The settlers in America found literally freedom in space, freedom from society both of which they could never dream. But the freedom was there in a hostile climate, hostile to their nascent accomplishment. The settlers were bold and adventurous, but it was an adventure of abridging two thousand years into two hundred years. Elizabeth was equal to Pemberley in potential. But before seeing it, she could not even conceive of it. She had to abridge in her mental experience the gains of aristocracy thus far. Such an experience required a deeper foundation than she had. Elopement did it. She would not have given up Wickham even that much had he not betrayed in real fact. Darcy knew of her partiality for Wickham. It was the lover’s part to accept her defects and blemishes. She had no shame in pleading Wickham’s case. Nor had he any shame in pampering her partiality. In both it offended purity of emotions. Palliser was fully aware of Glencora’s intense passionate love for Burgo and did what she wanted.
    He cherished that wife. On her death he felt dismembered. Palliser was unemotional. He too had a past. Glencora fulfilled herself in her children. Purity of emotions do not permit such compromises. Such compromises must undergo the transformation of Akalya who remained a stone for ages.
    Compromises remain as corrupt influences until transformed.
    Neither male domination nor feminine superiority can take one to the heights of purity. It is ruled out, not only in marriage. It is a universal rule. The soul emerging in memory performs the feat of answering a hundred questions. It does not admit of failure. Failure is not in that plane. Soul and failure do not go together. Krishna’s enjoyment in Brindhavan was an experience of the soul. It admited of no sin or lapse but was pure spiritual enjoyment.
3
Elizabeth's mind was too full for conversation, but she saw and admired every remarkable spot and point of view. They gradually ascended for half a mile, and then found themselves at the top of a considerable eminence, where the wood ceased, and the eye was instantly caught by Pemberley House, situated on the opposite side of a valley, into which the road with some abruptness wound. It was a large, handsome stone building, standing well on rising ground, and backed by a ridge of high woody hills; and in front a stream of some natural importance was swelled into greater, but without any artificial appearance. Its banks were neither formal nor falsely adorned. Elizabeth was delighted. She had never seen a place for which nature had done more, or where natural beauty had been so little counteracted by an awkward taste. They were all of them warm in their admiration; and at that moment she felt that to be mistress of Pemberley might be something!
  1. Her mind was too full for conversation.
  2. She was so when he said he loved her.
  3. “To be the mistress of Pemberley”. The very soil brings out its magnificence and creates a material desire in her which is the turning point. Darcy responds to it by coming early. The place is wide, magnificent, rich in beauty and powerful to overcome Elizabeth. Still it evokes in her not love for him but a mercenary desire for the property.
  4. The issue is not mere property but what kind of property. When Darcy proposed Elizabeth assumed that he is offering her to be a mistress of another Rosings, a cold forbidding place where nature as well as inhabitants were forced to bend to the will of a dictatorial master. Pemberley was a place where both natural and human potentialities were encouraged to thrive.
  5. They were all of them warm in their admiration. Their warmth gave birth to the thought of being the mistress.
  6.      “Elizabeth’s Mind was too full for conversation”
    Man becomes speechless when the depth is filled in.
    Still the surface will speak its own convictions.
    Saturated depths immobilize the surface, not dissolve it.
    Depths transformed and saturated is purity par excellence.

    Krishna responded to Draupathi when she went in and lost herself.
    Such a response admits of no flaw of any size.
    Ignorant Man is pure.
    That too is purity, but cannot reach the depths.
    Purity is the inability to admit of impurity even as an experience to be rejected.
    Purity is purity when impurity is unable to have a fling at it.
    In the higher consciousness, even that undergoes a transformation.
    Past is no past, has no capacity to linger, when his ascent is made.

    It is an ascent where the inconscient is transformed by the Superconscient.
    One can make such yogic experiments in daily life and experience the truths of all these shades.
    This story is in life.
    It admits of higher consciousness.
    It does not admit of total transformation as it is buried in social consciousness.
    His statement about Patience is significant as one sees the reality of these aspects in Patience and Expectation.
    Moving to substance after a complete victory in consciousness, one sees one has to start afresh, but the fight will be less frustrating.
    The rise of life in Kamaraj was not possible in life, is possible in Mother. Mother’s consciousness admits of that purity making an insular security possible.
    That which is touched by Mother fully once can never be given up by Mother in the future.
    Conflicts compromised let the compromise linger.
    Conflicts reconciled allow harmony to emerge.
    Non-stop growth is a sine-qua-non for such purity.
    Anusuya is an outstanding example.
  7. “She saw and admired every remarkable spot and point of view”
    Deep below Man is always capable of total appreciation.
    Society appreciates like that people who are outside of it or newcomers who do not challenge them.

    She did appreciate Pemberley like that but consciously decided not to express it lest she should appear mercenary.
    That undesirable suppression compelled her to call herself a selfish creature and prod him into a second proposal.
    Her fullest appreciation that overwhelmed her depths and surface could be suppressed, turned into perverse indifference or even fault finding by the feminine sense of giraki – கிராக்கி.
    Those who express it fully sometimes lose the Man’s good opinion, but really energise his higher good will.
    This is not confined to women.
    Talents, capacities, goodness, purity, truthfulness are so received by society and the grades are so precise in the social response.
    Within the family, genuine family culture and goodness in that measure neutralize this perverse inclination.
    Purity that is relative is social, human.
    Purity that is purity unblemished belongs to heaven which Mother has brought to us.
    Every devotee can experience this purity by his sincerity.
    Admiration is an emotion that rises of a sudden without premeditation.
    A remarkable spot disarms even the seasoned Englishman of understatement.
    Points of view overcome formed opinions.
    Mrs. Gardiner was unaware of all these changes in her niece.
    On leaving Pemberley her Mind turned to the charms of nostalgia.
    Elizabeth was lost, was totally lost in what overtook her.
    It was her finest hour.
  8. “They found themselves at the top of considerable eminence”
    The outer reflects the inner.
    Past reflects the present as well as future.
    Our friends show who we are.
    The native place gives us the character.
    Our school and college give our manners and outlook.
    Our society decides the stamp of our career.
    Human choice determines the scope of our progress.
    Wife offers and determines the life of outer and inner life.
    Our children show what we have suppressed.
    Our slips show our subconscious determinations.
    Our desires indicate how we want to advance.
    Our aspiration offers the energies for our endeavours.
    Our attitude gives us the organization for our aspiration.
    Our motives fix the goal, width of operation and extent of achievement.
    What comes to us shows what we are.
    What we wish for others precipitates in our life.
    The character of what we receive is determined by the character of what we wish for others.

    Darcy thought ill of others. Others thought ill of him.
    Elizabeth was forgetful of herself.
    Life remembered her future accomplishments.
    Mrs. Bennet asserted against Lady Lucas. Results reversed.
    Wickham scandalized Darcy, ruined Elizabeth.
    He was scandalized, Lydia ruined his ambitions.
    Bingley patiently submitted.
    Darcy confessed.
    Mr. Bennet was sarcastic against his wife.Society laughed at him.                           Mary moved away. She was left to herself.
    Caroline pounced on Elizabeth. She meekly submitted to her later.
    Mrs. Gardiner recognized Darcy’s majesty. She was received at Pemberley.
    She was ‘tolerable’ to him. He was ‘tolerable’ to her for the sake of Pemberley.
    Mr. Bennet’s patience was rewarded in Jane and Elizabeth.
  9.           “The eye instantly caught the Pemberley house”.
    Events in the physical plane move at the speed of objects – Slowest.
    In the vital plane the speed is of the events – as fast as events move.
    In the mental plane thought moves, not acts.
    Life moves by the mental plane as fast as thought can move the events and acts.
    In the spiritual plane action is instantaneous.
    In the supramental plane acts are raised to Marvel and are made instantaneous.

    To study the speed of acts as one plane acts on another in the story is good.
    It is accomplishment in Time.
    Accomplishment in Space often goes with Time.
    Accomplishment in quantity and quality can also be studied like that.
    In all this we can see the play of the several planes and their interactions.
    Work stalls when the person does not have enough energy of the plane in which the act is to be accomplished – Mrs. Bennet does not understand by her Mind what is the nature of Bingley’s affection for Jane.
    She does not have the mental clarity to understand what all others know.
    A Man can act as he is constituted, not as the work requires.
    He who can act as the work requires is one who can accomplish.
    The study of a spoilt youth yields all the knowledge needed.
    It will come with a negative atmosphere.
    Whatever he does will be spoiled.
    He can understand how it failed.

    The instantaneous nature of the vital is confined to releasing emotions, not completing the act which belongs to the physical.
    The physical completes, the spirit completes.
    The difference is the physical completes the mere act like Lydia running away.
    The Spirit accomplishes for the family includes the public opinion, the emotions of all in the family.
    The supramental first raises the act to Marvel, as Elizabeth’s marriage and then fulfils.
    The quality of completion and the quality of the character of the person who completes it will fully correspond in all details.
    We can take one case – Jane – and study it.
  10.          “It was a large, handsome, stone building” – Pemberley.
    Largeness of a house shows material abundance.
    There is a material abundance that creates largeness of emotions and ideals, even largeness of Spirit.
    This is from below.
    A King builds a large palace to house the spirit of the wide kingdom he conquered.
    It creates rich emotions, material plenty.
    This is from above, almost a descent.

    Country houses were called Halls, Lodges in England.
    They were created as storehouses and house for the landlord.
    Such houses may be hollow, empty and innocuous.
    All landlords were not aristocratic.
    Not only the possession of land, but the possession of character made one an aristocrat.
    Pemberley was not a mere hall.
    It had a tradition of wealth, culture, service, gentlemanliness.
    It was that which saved Georgiana.
    Wickham who was there for long by his constant dwelling on the young child made her susceptible to temptation.
    It is significant a treacherous governess crept in.
    We see Caroline who visited there often yearning to kidnap Darcy without her deserving it.
    Caroline’s wish to secure Darcy and Mrs. Bennet’s wish to secure Bingley are the same.
    One is coarse and the other is vulgar.
    A building cannot be handsome without its owner having a handsome character.
    A stone building is solid, massive, as is the estate.
    It is not another Longbourn for Elizabeth to walk into it straight.
    For Charlotte to possess Longbourn she has to bask in the sunshine of Lady Catherine for some time, cherish the relationship of Darcy for a long time.
    It will qualify her in time.
  11.          “She has never seen a place for which nature has done more”
    Life is sanctioned by Nature; society too has the sanction of Nature, Nature doing something pleasant for a place is Nature’s blessings.
    Blessings are further to sanction.
    It is the French Revolution that sanctioned her marriage.

    The French Revolution ushered in the Republic, while Napoleon went back to being an Emperor.
    Elizabeth was invited to preside over Pemberley, but she retained the charm for the rogue.
    Her own mental endowment was what Nature sanctioned in the sense it was the combined product of her mother’s energy and father’s freedom.
    Great achievements have often been accompanied by the elevation of a nobody to the pinnacle.
    Elizabeth is the unwitting recipient here.
    Grace brings in the known great boon to an undeserving nobody.
    Supergrace brings the non-existent wonder to a non-entity.

    A non-entity with £4000 a year was grace to Jane.
    Darcy was a gem of a Man.
    He was one with highest principles with a well developed Mind.
    His connections with the court were real.
    Pemberley carried a long tradition – the library there was a work of generations.
    He came forward to shed his blemishes for the sake of Elizabeth.
    Of all the values we could enumerate for him, his income was the least.
    He did not come to Elizabeth only.
    He came to Lydia too.
    It is super grace.
    America joining the Allies was grace.
    Marshall Plan was supergrace to West Europe.
    She had never seen a Man like Darcy devoted to a girl.
    Darcy was not merely an aristocratic youth.
    He was exceptional, outstanding in that he initiated a transformation of his attitudes for the sake of one who liberally abused him. Abuses alienate Man.
    He adored her for her abuses – he was exceptional.
  12.          “Where natural beauty had been so little counteracted by an awkward taste”.
    Taste can be awkward.
    A building is an artificial construction, can never harmonise with a natural setting.
    The author says its interference with Nature was the least.
    It shows the founders of the estate were ones fully in tune with Nature.
    It is a sign of great eternal strength, if not refinement.
    At Longbourn there was no material foundation because of the entail.
    There was no foundation in consciousness as she was a foreign element there by her vulgar energy.
    She won Pemberley.
    Darcy won Elizabeth.
    She remained to win Darcy.
    Winning Darcy was to win Pemberley’s tradition.
    It would be great constant effort for her to raise herself to the rightful place in Pemberley.
    To win that means his friends and relatives should desire to come to Pemberley for her sake.
    Instead of Pemberley adding to her strength and status, the place must be adorned by her presidency.
    Her social graces must be infectious.
    Her cultural refinements must become contagious.
    People build big buildings to lend them weight and status.
    She must lend her personality to Pemberley so that its gain would be visible.
    Glencora was no great jewel to Gatherum Castle.
    People came there for the power and Money, not for personalities.
    Apart from being lively, Elizabeth was no idealist or one who represented a great idea.
    Nor did she embody any great cultural endowment.
    She could be Darcy’s wife.
    Darcy must be known as her husband.
  13.          “They were all warm in their admiration; and at that moment she felt, that to be a mistress of Pemberley might be something”
    It was her response to their admiration.
    In a sense their admiration gave Pemberley its value.
    The principle of Man’s achievement lies here.
    To win the appreciation of his wife, Man exerts in work.
    Psychological accomplishment is greater than material accomplishment.
    ‘Might be something’ is an understatement of the greatest accomplishment in life.
    Philosophy of a nation comes to pervade all walks of national life.
    Understatement is the gentleman’s non-egoistic speech.
    It has fully permeated all European life and mightily perverted.
    Styles of conversation a nation finally comes to espouse originate in her kings, religious aristocracy and all groups of the highest echelons.

    Presently the ruling thoughts are the ways the scientists follow.
    Measurement, evidence in writing, statistical proofs are some of the ruling ideas.
    After Rome, no nation dominated the world as Britain did.
    Now it is the turn of America.
    Rome carried the Empire, Law and religion, Britain trade and democracy.
    America’s stamp is technology and trade.
    It would not take a great effort to know the common factor to all global problems is Man – Individuality.
    The idea that an Individual, by virtue of being an individual can accomplish infinitely more cannot be a great obstacle to the nations who have discovered the value of the entrepreneur.

    To know Individuality can be more easily created by all the nations who have cherished values of one type or another is possible.
    To overcome ego is, of course, a job.
    Those who have not developed that ego may now find it an advantage.
4
They descended the hill, crossed the bridge, and drove to the door; and, while examining the nearer aspect of the house, all her apprehensions of meeting its owner returned. She dreaded lest the chambermaid had been mistaken. On applying to see the place, they were admitted into the hall; and Elizabeth, as they waited for the housekeeper, had leisure to wonder at her being where she was.
  1. “Lest the chambermaid had been mistaken.” This comes as a doubt, from fear, apprehension, simple fright or not knowing what one is about. A real doubt should have arisen when the maid spoke to her. At that time, it was the desire to see the house that made her accept it.
  2. ‘…had leisure to wonder where she was’.
  3. Darcy’s personality never was overwhelming to her, as his money was overwhelming to her mother. The physical expression of Darcy’s wealth overwhelms her. It means one of the following:
    1. Darcy does not have a fully developed cultural personality that has benefitted from his inheritance.
    2. His crudeness is so absorbent that all the weight and power of the culture of his inheritance is thus lost.
    3. Elizabeth, as a representative woman, responds to well furnished rooms and grand houses. Or she simply is downright mercenary and blind to the person Darcy is.
    4. Unless some good angel brings her to her luck she cannot see her luck.
    5. Her readiness to respond to the grandeur of the rooms is like her response to Wickham’s charm, i.e. hers is a surface personality.
    6. She is one who opens to rough, vulgar abuse.
  4. “lest the chambermaid had been mistaken”. This thought is an indicator that Darcy can be there in defiance of the maid’s news. And it did turn out to be true. A doubt arises in a mind of unsettled ideas. That is the situation here. The unsettled conditions indicate a new possibility. It is determined by the atmosphere. Here Darcy came. Not only that, she changed her attitude and found him changed. They are all positive and led to her marriage. Her doubt about the chambermaid indicates this outcome
  5. ‘With less splendour and more elegance’. Darcy is stiff. Pemberley is furnished with taste which means his father had better taste and consequently better manners. It means if Darcy tries he can transform himself. It is not so with Collins. Not that Collins is not a material that will lend itself to transformation. It may not be so easy. Darcy yielded to the effort led by the fire in Elizabeth’s eyes. Had there been an equally powerful goal for Collins even that is possible.
  6. If Pemberley reflected past taste, it makes much more sense to assume it reflected the taste of his mother rather than his father. Darcy as he later explained learned to be generous and indulgent to people within his circle. Hence, his generosity towards Georgiana. That is what she understands in Pemberley. She realizes that to be included in Darcy's inside circle is most desirable but still assumes that the price of such felicity would be giving up her family and friends. She considers it too high a price.
  7. By his behavior to the Gardiners, Darcy shows Elizabeth that at the very least he would include in the circle those he deems worthy of such inclusion. His response to Lydia's elopement demonstrates that he is willing to go much further.
  8. “They descended the hill, crossed the bridge, and drove to the door and while examining the nearer aspect of the house, all the apprehension of meeting the owner of the house returned.”
    Hesitation is the wisdom of courage.
    Boldness is an attitude.
    Courage is a quality.
    A quality is expressed as an attitude.
    Accomplishment requires both and something more.
    The idea expressed by the quality must be sound and comprehensive.
    One is apprehensive when comprehension is insufficient.
    Hesitation expresses that lack.
    It can be seen in the wisdom of the overall knowledge or timidity to act.
    One is a description as knowledge and the other is a description as energy for action.

    Subconsciously she knew it was hers; consciously from any point of view she knew the deficiencies. The rise was too high for her. Her own Mind that appreciated Wickham and condemned Darcy was shy of asking for it. It was coveting. She was related to it only by her abuse. She was sorely aware somewhere that she could not muster sympathy for Georgiana and now, as an admirer of the betrayer, how could she accept it even if it were offered to her? She was reminded of her smallness and ‘betrayal’. The idea of accepting an undeserving gift from a substandard Man – the last Man she could marry – was not flattering to the English Individuality. It is that which made her say about Wickham, ‘we may be deceived’. Her struggle was between her desert Darcy recognized and her betrayal in still adoring Wickham overlooking his elopement. Falsehood travels to truth through several stages of which it is one. Error, wrong, mistake, imperfection, falsehood, evil are the intermediary stages. It is compunction that is apprehensive. Absence of such compunction as in Lydia and Wickham is shameless impudence.
  9. “She dreaded lest the chambermaid should be mistaken” (P. 216)
    Knowledge is quick, straight.
    Ignorance passes through trial and error.
    In Tamil literature there is a concept of the love taking objection or offence to something the lover does so that the process of reunion is richer –
    ஊடல், oodal.
    Ignorance introduces oodal in evolution. He says it is a slow deliberate delight of Nature extending to infinity. Changing it into vertical evolution is a greater more intense delight. It is not the error of the chambermaid here, but life’s initiative to give her the reward in spite of her insufficiency.
    In observing a growing child, a mother instructs the baby at every mistake.
    The mother, who merely observes, observes the route the child takes through its error to arrive at its result. It is the shortest route for ultimate knowledge for the child. Compare the child that has accepted the conditioning. She has to unlearn and learn afresh. What she does in later years, the child on its own effort very quickly learns. The Indian awaits the American appreciating any value – including his own value – instead of looking at his own value. It is the wisdom of ignorance. The distance between moksha and transformation is some thousand years. The Greeks, the Romans, the Europeans are waiting to learn from the Americans. The Indians too are in the queue. Sri Aurobindo won political freedom for Asia, escape from juvenile imperialism for the world. The psychological freedom to know one’s own value is the next step. Perhaps the ultimate spiritual practice will blossom all over the world simultaneously. Sri Aurobindo was born in Italy, France and India. Perhaps He was born in England as Shakespeare. At least He never confirmed it openly.
    Mother says it is France, together with India, which will sponsor the future transformation. If France has developed anything, it is intellectuality. Should she spearhead the transformation, France should overcome intellectuality. She has given refuge to Leonardo and discovered Shakespeare to England.
  10. “While waiting for the housekeeper, Elizabeth had leisure to wonder where she was”.
    The experience that cannot be had through an explanation remains the unknowable for the soul that is incapable of aspiration.
    Proximity does not give access to higher consciousness. Time has no influence on it. Time and Space cannot render the low high.
    Absence of aspiration denies the closest, the rightful object, however long one is with it.
    Aspiration is the awakening of the soul.
    Awakening aspiration never fails to achieve.
    Its accomplishment is guaranteed when consecrated and surrendered.

    Absence of aspiration is the ordinary state of Man.
    The Human Aspiration Sri Aurobindo speaks of is what He discerns. Because He has discerned it will become true.
    Man is evolved when his body evolves with his evolving Soul.
    Its universalisation makes him evolve spiritually.
    The Life Divine explains involution and evolution.
    One can perceive them in his own constitution.
    Such a perception is the beginning of yoga.
    To be able to see those processes in Pride and Prejudice will reveal the Marvel.
    Elizabeth saw in Darcy as much as his manners revealed. It was bad.
    She saw the same in Wickham. It was bewitching.
    Charlotte’s mercenary attitude saw Darcy’s wealth.
    Elizabeth was unable to see in Darcy anything beyond what his manners revealed, as she was abused.
    She could not conceive of Pemberley before she came there.
    For her, to see was to know, that is, she was vital.
    People who refused to see Mother have exclaimed “I do not know how it will be”.
    Aspiring for Mother is aspiration for Truth which is rare or non-existent.
    Introducing successfully people who are not interested in Mother is to create aspiration where there is none.
    He came to Tamilnadu where the Psychic was developed, but the higher aspiration is not forthcoming.
5
The housekeeper came; a respectable-looking elderly woman, much less fine, and more civil, than she had any notion of finding her. They followed her into the dining-parlour. It was a large, well-proportioned room, handsomely fitted up. Elizabeth, after slightly surveying it, went to a window to enjoy its prospect. The hill, crowned with wood, from which they had descended, receiving increased abruptness from the distance, was a beautiful object. Every disposition of the ground was good; and she looked on the whole scene -- the river, the trees scattered on its banks, and the winding of the valley, as far as she could trace it -- with delight. As they passed into other rooms these objects were taking different positions; but from every window there were beauties to be seen. The rooms were lofty and handsome, and their furniture suitable to the fortune of their proprietor; but Elizabeth saw, with admiration of his taste, that it was neither gaudy nor uselessly fine; with less of splendor, and more real elegance, than the furniture of Rosings.
  1. The housekeeper has better manners, more poise, and wider comprehension than her mother.
  2. Every detail of the rooms is excellent, of taste.
  3. Every natural aspect of the hill, the woods, the slope, the stream is an endowment of nature.
  4. How then Darcy came to be low, rude, vulgar, and crude?
  5. His foundation, as he said, was fine. His exterior is coarse.
  6. So, Wickham developed as his complement.
  7. Again she thinks of this place and being a mistress of it, not the wife or the owner of this place.
  8. “The housekeeper, a respectable looking elderly woman, much less refined and more civil than she had any notion of finding her”
    Darcy’s housekeeper was more refined than her mother.
    Adverse comparisons do not occur by themselves.
    It never struck Elizabeth that his housekeeper was more refined than her mother.
    Man can be fully oblivious all his great defects, even if they are detestable.
    To be oblivious of one’s cardinal defects is the self-confidence of deficiency.

    Man survives by his self-confidence.
    He cannot undermine it by reminding himself of his own defects.
    That is for one who wants to remove the defects and move towards perfection.
    Idealists are rare.
    Idealism in one area compensates in another.
    They are proud of their ideal, are not inclined to examine the level of their idealism. The ideal of seeking the integral Absolute is not yet born. The idealist succeeds in the measure of his practical realism.
    The idealist can succeed in his idealism as long as he does not extend the material benefits to others unasked. It becomes an act of vanity or at least a thoughtless action producing nil results.
    The reality of the establishment is concrete.
    Those who succeed are not idealists but those crafty men who worm their way to power in the name of idealism, unless it is through a revolution. The hard struggles of Karl Marx for survival are an evidence.
    The team of ideal devotees should form by itself not on the initiative of the founder.
    Those who come on their own accord would readily serve the establishment not the ideal. They can serve only subconsciously.
    The subconscious in becoming conscious is a process of self-dissolution. The millions who died in the two wars worked for the establishment of peace by sacrificing their lives.
  9.         “It was a large well-proportioned room handsomely fitted up”.
    The founders of Pemberley rose to great heights.
    In later generations they valued themselves for their possessions and began to look down upon others.

    One’s value is fixed by the value he extends to others.
    He who looks down upon others only expresses what he is inside.
    When the idealist values others, others value his material status.
    The idealist can exist in his idealism, but cannot look for colleagues.
    It is like looking for fresh water in the sea.
    The strength of his own idealism can inwardly silently extend by itself.
    One should have the common sense to accept his limits.
    Social transition shifts power, wealth, strength to different sectors.
    Man accepts it as a reality, does not struggle against it.
    He recognizes the determinism of Time.
    One may not recognize the determinism of Time but cannot organize support to it.
    Alloys have their rules.
    Metals and non metals do not mix in an alloy.
    To surrender to the divine Will and follow its course is to become divine.
    Mind does not function like that, nor the soul, but the psychic only.
    The evolution of the Psychic demands all our energies from the physical to the spiritual.
    It cannot be got by any method known to humanity.
    All that humanity cherishes is to be surrendered to get it.
    It must be done in Silence, a Silence of action inner or outer.
    It is not the Silence of speech or thought or even Mind.
    It is the Silence of the whole being.
    Action is not to be given up.
    It has to issue out of that Silence.
    Silence and Peace are called God.
    It is not God in the immutable status.
    It is the evolving God.
  10.        “She went to a window to enjoy the prospect”.
    Mother went to the Supramental world and came down. For fifteen days She was laughing, closing her mouth with Her hand.
    It is not something one can experience in thought or imagination while on earth.
    Elizabeth, by the best of her faculties, could not have imagined this prospect.
    Condemnation of the low for their ignorance is poverty of imagination.
    If you can, you can show them. There is no use in condemning others.
    To each one his own light is the highest light.
    To see the value of his light for him is our Light.
    For those who want to act, there is plenty to do.
    Those who expect others to act are in a world of illusion.
    Imagine in thirty years the light that came to you and examine how it arrived. Then you will be able to appreciate others’ shortcomings.
    Culture in a society is a valuable high possession.
    But it is a bar unless it has in-built into it capacity for adjustment.
    Culture that values itself is dead.
    A culture which allows its essence to collect can survive and progress.
    It is spiritual culture.
    To know the whole world as Life conducts is to feel its weight on your inner life.
    Kural says life is sustained by such people on earth.
    Ethics too can be egoistic.
    To shed the ego, one has to be aware of it and its limitations.
    The self-awareness that can shed ego is the awakening of the world Purusha in us.
    It is often said that this is a knowledge that can reveal itself to the already enlightened.
    Service to Man is vanity.
    Service to the Divine is possible.
    Service to the divine in Man is life divine.
  11.         “The hill crowned with wood, from which they descended, receiving increased abruptness from a distance, was a beautiful object.”
    Distance lends charm.
    Proximity reveals the personal worth.
    The value of a thing is seen when closely examined.
    There are things charming at a distance, valuable on examination.

    Pemberley will qualify for that, not Darcy.
    Darcy at a distance was unattractive, even detestable.
    Near at home he was a gentleman par excellence devoted to his sister.
    Marriage before and after fits this description.
    To render it desirable both ways, certain ground rules can be laid in grades: 1) Polite manners, 2) Non-reaction, 3) introspection based on inner-outer, 4) value lies behind the valueless, 5) There is no human being without one rare endowment, 6) positive side intensely developed dissolves the negative side, 7) The negative side is in the observer, 8) There is more than one wonder in the spouse, 9) The Spouse is a Marvel, 10) The Spouse can render the other equally a Marvel.
    Darcy went through all these ten steps.
    She, at first sight, discovered Pemberley a Marvel.
    He after her abuse tried to assume that Marvel in her.
    She had to compromise with his aunt.
    He had to compromise with her family.
    Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner were a ray of sunshine for both.
    To have created that much out of Meryton, Darcy, Longbourn was the achievement of Darcy and Elizabeth.
    The inner apartments of Pemberley were a social cultural wonder.
    The outer ground was bounty given by Nature.
    It is Mrs. Bennet who sent Elizabeth to Pemberley by her energy.
    Had Mr. Bennet married a polite wife, Elizabeth would have married an officer.
    Meryton was a place where an officer with £ 100 – 200 was a big catch. Mrs. Bennet was lucky to enter Longbourn.
  12.          “She looked at the whole scene.”
    The view of the whole is the argument for the part to exist.
    A part is useful.
    A part becomes a beauty viewed from the whole.
    A part viewed as the whole brings out its transcendental significance.

    Elizabeth had the sense to look at the whole.
    It was an inherent sense in her, inherited from the essential knowledge of her father.
    A part in which the transcendence emerges becomes greater than the whole.
    Elizabeth was one such, of which she was unaware.
    Organisations begin to degenerate after some time.
    Someone at that time will realize they moved away from the founding ideal.
    He who wishes to revive the original ideal, will become more important than the whole organization.
    Gandhiji vitalized Congress like that.
    FDR staved off the crisis doing that.
    The Britisher doing to India an overdue service – uniting her territory – which she was not capable of, was rewarded with the Raj they never sought.
    Parts relating to the whole, reviving the original mission, restoring Man to his rightful situation are movements that are more than revolutionary – evolutionary.
    The Individual rebel unleashes a revolution.
    The whole society educated in the theme evolves.
    Part finding the significance of the whole converts the revolution into evolution.
    The woman in marriage is the part.
    Finding in her the original role of her a psychological goal, she becomes greater than the whole converting marriage into a field of Romance.
    An organization has that character.
    It can discover in the part its significance to the whole.

    Wealth gave the individuals that power in an organization.
    Character did it for some.
    Individuality will do it for all.
  13.            “The rooms were lofty and handsome”.
    He who seeks bigness ends with ugliness.
    The big room must be filled with something.
    To make a lofty room handsome, human personality is needed.
    Human personality is the invisible accomplishment of his material conquests.
    Acquiring vast acres is possible by brute strength.
    Then it will be accompanied by treachery.
    For wide acres to be fairly acquired, there must be the strength of fairness in the character.
    Buddha’s personality was felt fifty miles away.
    A Man who accomplishes carries a Presence.
    His Presence fills lofty rooms with strength.
    The atmosphere of strength is rendered into objects of beauty by the delicacy of human courtesy inherent in hospitality.
    Without that hospitality delivering courtesy to furniture, taste will not emerge.
    Pemberley must have done it over the generations shade by shade.

    Elizabeth who was the embodiment of cheerfulness that quickly revives from any occasion of sagging was a product of freedom.
    The wild energy of her mother was chastened into Mind that is free and thinks.
    We saw her delicacy in suppressing Darcy’s ruse from Jane.
    We saw Mrs. Gardiner discovering majesty in Darcy’s lips.
    Elizabeth was vastly rewarded by the majestic magnificence of her aunt by not asking her probing questions at Lambton.
    Elizabeth who had this side prominently was waited for by Pemberley to take it to the real heights of cultural superiority.
    How far it precipitated we have no idea.
    Surely she had the other side.
    Her transforming her other side would have enabled her to fulfil her destiny – Pemberley destiny.
  14.           “The furniture suitable to the fortune of the proprietor”
    Indians houses are bare; western houses are fully furnished.
    The furniture is an essential part of the house, its suitability fully revealing the taste of the proprietor.
    Taste is an index of culture.
    Culture is a status symbol.
    Man seeks status more than wealth.
    Of the two, status is more difficult to acquire.
    Wealth is earned by capacity, often with wrong values.
    Status comes after wealth for high personal and social values.
    Pemberley had long enjoyed that.
    Darcy’s negative attitude was a later undesirable offshoot.
    Trying to furnish rooms richly or by imitating others, as Austen says, ends in awkward taste.

    Any object long used by one will reveal his character.
    From a lost hat Sherlock Holmes found the Man was an intellectual, he had a fall in his fortune, had recently cut his hair, was of indifferent health, had forethought, had no gas in his house and his wife felt no affection for him.
    Use means touch which will never fail to leave its impress on objects.
    For an estate house to reveal the personality of its occupants is usual.
    On looking at the table of a Man, his efficiency can be assessed, says Vital Difference.
    Those who acquire an expertise in this can tell us all about a Man by one visit to his house.
    From handwriting alone there are a few hundred characteristics that can be seen.
    They do it even from typed letters.
    Under the lens a greater story will emerge.
    Once the eye of scrutiny opens, nothing can escape it sight.
  15.         “With less splendour and more real elegance than the furniture of Rosings”.
    Husbands and wives take after each other to a great extent.
    Rosings carries the personality of the husband of Lady Catherine.
    In Mother Estates a tree called the manager by his name as it was missed during the manuring.
    A Russian general used to take a handful of earth and smell it an hour before the battle commenced.
    Earth knows how the battle will go.
    There are various powers. Devotees are not to seek any power.
    We speak our thoughts to others in the hope they will understand it, offer justice, and follow it for their benefit.
    Yogic experience says, “Speak to no one; Speak to Mother.”
    She is the one who can understand, offer justice, and reveal its power to us.
    There is a further step ahead.
    We tell Mother in the hope of a result.
    It is better we seek no result.
    Instead of speaking to Her for a result, let us remember Her and seek nothing further.
    That is the ideal attitude of a devotee.
    That helps one go in.
    To go in and stay in Her is the work.
    It ends in Peace or Silence or both.
    Cherish them, they will grow.
    Man’s perversity is so pronounced that he soon wants to get out of it.
    Pemberley enshrined a tradition in its august halls.
    The devotee installs Mother in his being.
    Keep Her there forever.
    Let Her grow all over your being.
    Mother’s Peace is Mother’s Presence.
    Mother’s Silence is Mother’s Strength.
6
"And of this place," thought she, "I might have been mistress! With these rooms I might now have been familiarly acquainted! Instead of viewing them as a stranger, I might have rejoiced in them as my own, and welcomed to them as visitors my uncle and aunt. But no" -- recollecting herself -- "that could never be: my uncle and aunt would have been lost to me; I should not have been allowed to invite them."
  1. As no love for Darcy has blossomed yet, she could only love his property.
  2.  She does not go from the house to the owner; she goes to the well furnished rooms.
  3. She thinks of herself as not being a stranger – Darcy is nowhere in her thoughts.
  4. Further, she thinks of her aunt and uncle. Again it is not Darcy.
  5. Darcy’s qualification is his absence.
  6. She is timid at the thought of Darcy after responding to the rooms.
  7. Elizabeth is rejoicing at the relief afforded by his absence.
  8. ‘Again she thinks of becoming mistress of Pemberley’. The thought of possessing Pemberley reoccurs to her. She thinks of being familiar with the rooms. In her own imagination the thought grows – a clear sign of decided choice. That made him come a day earlier – Life Response. That way she would have lost her aunt and uncle. Now in her own thoughts she has to choose between Pemberley and her aunt. Again the doubt about the Master arises. Again a new possibility is created. Darcy finds the uncle and aunt acceptable. Her uncle is a well-bred gentleman of whom she can be proud. That too is now cleared
  9.          “And of this place I might have been the mistress”
    Lost opportunities are of value.
    There is a stage where Man is unable to regret what was lost.

    Elizabeth regrets the loss not after the proposal, but on seeing Pemberley.
    The poet who wrote about the lady who lost her husband and hat had a profound insight into life.
    She could not become mercenary about getting Longbourn.
    She did not regret driving away Darcy.
    She regretted losing Pemberley when its physical touch landed on her senses.
    The shades and grades of aspiration and achievement are as many as there are possibilities – infinite.
    She was one who could drive Pemberley away when it came offensively.
    She was also one who could fully appreciate when she witnessed it what an estate stands for.
    The small significant act here is her aunt’s invitation to Pemberley and insisting on it.
    Maybe it is the news of the chambermaid.
       
    In the case of Lydia, such a symptom was ‘dear Wickham’.
    Power corrupts; Money tempts; experience elevates.
    She could abuse Darcy, not abuse Pemberley.
    Now Pemberley silently abused her to change her mind.
    She saw knowing Darcy raised her in the eyes of Reynolds.
    She could be the Mistress of Mrs. Reynolds who would call her ‘madam’.
    It is very significant – feminine significance – that during that short visit she said, ‘I could have been the mistress of this place” and Darcy never once entered her Mind. At least she never pronounced his name.
    Darcy’s name was Pemberley.
    She was honest enough to speak it to Jane.
    Jane asked the right question, “When did it start?”
  10.         With these rooms I might have been familiarly acquainted.”
    Life is not in the ideal, but the living of it.
    One seeks romance, but enjoys wife’s company and her cooking.
    Sri Aurobindo asks us to live life as divine life.

    The elegant rooms, their lofty construction, their handsome look comes again to her imagination of regret, not Darcy, his person or love.
    She had discovered heaven in Pemberley, prospect, beauty of objects, and elegance of rooms. Darcy never once rose in her thoughts. Woman and property; Mrs. Bennet who did not mind her husband’s death.
    The bloom of the widow freed from the husband’s control and given the freedom of the wealth is a reality of human relationship.
    Man’s psychological identity with his wife is his being. Her enjoying his property is the power of marriage
    – Unity is the Being, multiplicity is its power.
    Man is comprehensive; woman is precise. Hence the comprehensive preciseness of marriage.
    Woman’s need of Man beyond the child and property is the illusion of the obvious.
    Man knows all his opportunities and problems.
    He lives in his choice, by his choice.
    In the human choice God emerges in Man as Man enjoys God in ignorance.
    It is his self-indulgence.
    Man prefers self-indulgence to self-discovery.
    We see it in Elizabeth by protecting Wickham from her father and lingering to him after his marriage.
    The charm of religious life lies in the ceremonies.
    The divine consciousness expressing through transforming sensitivities ceremonialises life.
    The trousseaus, wedding bells, the religious ceremony of the Indian wedding are essential to the small Man’s nerves and especially the woman.

    Self-giving to the other’s material needs divinizes it.
  11.        “I might have myself rejoiced in them as my own”.
    She let the cat out of the bag.
    To enjoy these facilities as her own was marriage to Elizabeth, one who’s Mind was ideally developed in freedom and who could appreciate life’s magnificence with taste.
    For the woman, marriage is property.
    Of course for the author writing is a creative joy. The large sales and increasing popularity is a greater joy than the mental creativity.
    Popularity is social status as well as wealth.
    Service is great, status is greater.

    Arthur Fletcher’s quiet goodness was not so charming as the attraction of Lopez’s charm issuing out of inherent falsehood.
    The father’s rigidity became firmness in Emily’s delusion.
    Glencora was anxious to be naughty all the time.
    The charm of being venomous was irresistible to Glencora.
    More than his handsome face which was an excuse, Burgo’s capacity for evil, to lose his property in gambling was attractive to her.
    In the next generation in Mary it became firmness for a gentleman. In Silverbridge it became the steady attraction to the inherent loveliness and virtues of the American girl.
    The virtues of the American girl sprang from her grandfather, a day labourer. Her loveliness was from the education of her father in freedom.
    The virtues of Being are in heaven’s static joy.
    The virtues of Non-Being are in earth’s active delight.
    The Being senses with the sense Mind.
    The Non-Being transcends senses, senses with the Supramental sense.
    The Being’s joys are selfish joys.
    The Non-Being’s joys are of self-giving.

    The Integral yoga’s existence is beyond the Superconscient, in the ascent of the conscient to transcendence.
    None of the present yogas are comparable to the Integral yoga.
  12. Nothing can be fully consecrated in its original sense till all are consecrated all the time.
    Only consecration’s comprehensiveness in the consciousness makes it move into substance which itself is to be transcended so that one enters into the Non-Being.
    Hence the significance of waking Samadhi.
    When Non-Reaction is successful and complete to outer events, one shifts inside where one has to start almost all over the completing of which goes beyond the sense Mind into waking Samadhi.
    Again the importance of surrendering to Mother giving up our own endeavour to surrender. Our endeavour is that of the ego’s which will fortify it.
    The hundred crores I speak of is only an indication, not a goal itself.
    It will surely lead to Supermind. Without it Supermind cannot be reached.
    A mean nagging perverse companion frustrates any satisfaction in any achievement.
    Insatiable dissatisfaction is an indispensable instrument of perfection.
    One must be able to see the Mother behind it and in it.

    Public opinion is a reflection of him or her who is with the devotee.
    Consecration has to go deep enough to dissolve the memory and censor.
    Censor is the memory of thinking.
    Deepening Silence is the necessary foundation.
    Peace ensures structureless existence.
    The action permissible is the action issuing out of Silence.
    All action should be in shraddha (faith) not in shakti, viryam, deva prakriti (energy, temperamental force, divinized energy).
    Nostalgia is taste of ignorance.
    Urges as well as impulses are to be consecrated before they touch the being or Mind.
    Man should live in the ever present that includes the past as well as future.
    The last seven chapters in Synthesis on Supermind and last four chapters in The Life Divine on transformation, ascent, Being and Life are important.
  13. “Welcomed to them my uncle and aunt as visitors”.
    Exhibition is more important than enjoyment.
    It is the Many seeking relationship with the other members of the Many.
    Mind readily runs to the next item as Alanaskar’s Mind.
    Soul remains in the present as the future is inside the present.
    Action ceasing, Silence arises.
    Silence sustains activity.
    Silence behind Silence sustains the Marvel.
    Transcending Mind, one enters into the divine Mind that can see both sides.
    He asked us not to shun life so that life can constantly evaluate our progress in terms of its standards!
    It is not easy to live a successful family life.
    To shun life is difficult.
    Having shunned life, it is impossible to keep life out of one’s Mind as long as one is in the Mind, as life issues out of Mind.
    To live in life without being affected by it one must move to divine Mind.
    Only after moving to Supermind, one can live in life without being affected by it but slightly influencing life.
    Such a Man relates to life through purified senses.
    For that, Supermind must have descended into his physical consciousness.
    Of course there is the physical substance beyond that.
    It is all the human body born of a woman, not in a supramental body.
    To live so for a short while is not impossible.
    It is not non-reaction that is expected of him
    but the capacity for equality that is necessary.
    Action in equality, the consciousness of the infinite, is possible only for faith – the fourth stage of energy – and it transforms Mind into Supermind.
    Non-egoistic Mind when purified of its dualities leads to perfection where one can initiate action in faith to attain Supermind.
  14. “My aunt and uncle would have been lost to me”
    To exclude what we exceeded leads to moksha.
    As is the leader, so is the population.
    Darcy can marry Elizabeth, but will keep her family at a distance.
    Yoga requires not to exclude what we have exceeded.
    To exclude is to create caste or class.
    Not to exclude is democracy.
    Man dominates woman. Now it is the woman’s turn. Man trying to include woman in his inner life will enter into a higher life with her.
    Children were under the parents’ control.
    Now they beat their own path.
    It rarely strikes people what an exercise it will be if all live together seeking harmony with each other.
    Family is shrinking. Company life is growing.
    In future, instead of the tiny family, the big corporation will become the unit of society.

    Family may vanish in the old or the new form, but society will not.
    It must have a unit – a social unit.
    It is the company that holds the promise.
    Absence of family raises the problem of rearing children with affection.
    Is it possible to found a unit of child rearing organization?
    Is it possible there for the mother’s affection to be given?
    Should it succeed the biological affection will be upgraded into human kindness.
    That is conceivable when Man sheds his selfishness, becomes outgoing gentleness that is kindness.
    It would be an emotional growth of humanity.
    Any amount of information, education, attention, comfort cannot replace the mother’s love.
    It goes with the child’s love for the mother. Exceedingly affectionate ladies taking that role too will not meet the requirement.
    The Force should blunt the ego and human kindness should mature into goodness.
7
This was a lucky recollection -- it saved her from something like regret.
 
8
She longed to inquire of the housekeeper whether her master were really absent, but had not courage for it. At length, however, the question was asked by her uncle; and she turned away with alarm, while Mrs. Reynolds replied, that he was, adding, "But we expect him tomorrow, with a large party of friends." How rejoiced was Elizabeth that their own journey had not by any circumstance been delayed a day!
  1. She does not long to see the man who loved her for eight months, who loves her after her genius indulged in vituperation. He nowhere figures in her thoughts or emotions. He is the owner of Pemberley.
  2. Elizabeth rejoiced over Darcy’s coming the next day. It made Darcy come that day itself. Consciously she rejoiced over his absence. Subconsciously she rejoiced over Darcy. He responded to the subconscious call
  3. Wickham is still in the mind of Mrs. Gardiner.
  4. He is still feebly in Elizabeth’s mind.
  5.         “She longed to inquire of the housekeeper whether her master was really absent”.
    More than achieving, Man loves not to be caught doing wrong.
    For a girl to put herself in the way of a Man is embarrassingly shameful.
    She loved to know she was safe is a rational explanation.
    She longed to meet him without her committing an error is life’s explanation.

    She thought of her uncle and aunt and banished the thought.
    She loved to know about Darcy. Her uncle asking the question on her behalf now explains how it came about.
    It was her silent will that worked through her uncle.
    Her wanting Darcy to come on his own, without herself committing an error is the way subconscious reconciles with the surface social consciousness.
    The initiative is the woman’s.
    She wants it to appear as Man’s initiative.
    That her uncle asked the question she could not bring herself to ask showed how they were in tune with each other – an affinity of culture.
    The housekeeper saying later who would be the wife of Darcy was not apparently a topic of conversation.
    Its arising then reveals its significance to her future.
    His meeting her a few minutes later outside the building was prepared by a discussion about his future wife.
    No one except Elizabeth knew of the possibility of her marrying him.
    The visit could have been before the proposal.
    In that case, even she might not have known.
    Whatever the case, the preparation of the subtle atmosphere was there.
    Her uncle fished there, thereby physically enjoyably related to Pemberley.

    To reject a thing one longs for is a human behaviour.
    To long for the thing rejected too is such a behaviour.
    Man is not cultured enough to act straightaway.
    It is possible for the physical.
    Mind is basically refractory if not perverse.
    Hence this conflict between need and action.
    He who begins to think doubts.
    Spirit of contradiction is the way Mind begins to understand.
  6.         “She had not the courage for it” – to ask about Darcy’s absence.
    Any visitor would not have hesitated to ask that question.
    As she has a past about that name Darcy, she hesitated.
    Not even her aunt and uncle knew of the proposal.
    The weight arises from the self-knowledge.
    At the highest it is Self-knowledge.
    At the lowest it is self-knowledge that is humiliating.
    Both are knowledge of what is inside.

    Yoga is to transform self-knowledge into Self-knowledge.
    Courage is measured outside in terms of the work to be done.
    Inwardly the measure of courage is the measure of inner progress.
    Potentials for courage arise out of being brought up in plenty, uninhibited by authority, social approval of unconventional initiative, general atmosphere of initiative of the extraordinary.
    Spiritually courage and timidity are the same vibrations in the reverse.
    One expresses the energy.
    The other suppresses the energy.
    Socially one is admirable the other is despicable.
    Spiritually one completes the other.
    The courageous Man will not be recognized unless there are timid Men.
    We know of the use of the river water, do not as much appreciate the use of the riverbanks.
    There will be no river without the banks.
    She gave him such a fright of her.
    How can she be not timid here.
    The huge cathedrals evoke piety by their large size.
    Size matters, magnificence matters, strength matters.
    When we know what the other man thinks, much of the mystery of life vanishes.
    When we are in tune with life, life acts on our behalf whether we need it or not.

    We must be in tune with Mother’s life.
  7.       “How rejoiced was Elizabeth that their own journey had not been delayed a day.”
    Something working out as expected is a triumph.
    Triumph is fulfilled expectation.

    They are visitors there, but she was not a mere visitor.
    She is there playing the role of a visitor with the knowledge of the proposal.
    She is a citizen of heaven domiciled on earth.
    All devotees are in that position but not aware of it.
    An army entitles a Man to enter a country and stay there as a ruler.
    Royal birth gives access to the throne.
    Awakened Mind enables to enter the vital world and be a ruler there.
    It is her Mind, awakened in freedom, that gives the title to Pemberley.
    One who is spiritually awakened can preside over life on earth.
    Entering into industrial revolution gave the occasion to Britain to rule over vast lands living by agriculture.
    The religious aristocracy by virtue of education, especially religious knowledge ruled several nations for several centuries.
    A little bit of the higher plane gives a vast advantage over the lower plane.
    Conquest is by the higher of the lower.
    It appears that the endowment is little, but gain is complete.

    A pretty face, fluent speech, smooth manners, a resourceful idea often meet with extraordinary success.
    Among the Indian politicians a degree from Harvard gets a cabinet post.
    A typist of an industrialist qualified herself with a Ph.D. and ended as a Vice- Chancellor.
    A little of the higher plane will do, but that little must be perfect.
    Knowledge of The Life Divine is such that having it, one can have all.
    Upanishads say that of Brahman.
    It is a truth of life, a truth in spirit.
    Elizabeth rejoices not by the information but by the meeting that will come a little later.
  8. “She was rejoiced that her own journey had not by any circumstance been delayed a day.”
    When things work out to our expectation and satisfaction Man congratulates himself and occasionally is grateful to grace.
    Here the events worked in the reverse, but it turned out to be to her satisfaction.
    We do not realize that whether it works out to our satisfaction or not in both cases grace is abiding.
    When the house keeper confirmed her action, she rejoiced.
    When she met Darcy out of the house, what did she think, she forgot everything.
    It too is grace, as a matter of fact a greater grace.
    If success is grace, failure too is grace.
    To realize it is difficult for anyone.
    Even as a reader, it goes out of our Minds.
    We do not realize it is grace for her.
    There are grades in grace.
    Mother explained the difference between grace and supergrace.

    She may not be conscious in one situation, but may be conscious in an earlier situation.
    Man accepts the course of events when it is favourable according to his understanding.
    What he thus accepts is too his own understanding.
    Man always tries to justify his own understanding in success or failure.

    To arrive at this point is self-justification.
    Even if it is justification it is self-awareness.
    Self-awareness works by what self is to us.
    Always it is ego. It can be rational understanding or irrational understanding.
    It may be ego, right or wrong, good or bad; Man entirely accepts what he is.
    It is vital in him.
    Mind too behaves like that, exactly like that, but it is capable of knowing.
    The soul is capable of acting as it knows to be right.
    That is the soul self-awareness.
    Vital self awareness is Mercedes marrying Fernand.
    Mental self-awareness is Glencora in love with Burgo, being loyal to Palliser.
    Soul self-awareness is Darcy’s accepting the abuse as grace.

    Self-awareness is great; the self becoming Self of the transcendence is the goal.
    The self is ego, it is the soul, it is the Self.
    Arriving at self awareness and raising the level of the self to Self is the work.
9
Her aunt now called her to look at a picture. She approached and saw the likeness of Mr. Wickham suspended, amongst several other miniatures, over the mantlepiece. Her aunt asked her, smilingly, how she liked it. The housekeeper came forward, and told them it was the picture of a young gentleman, the son of her late master's steward, who had been brought up by him at his own expence. "He is now gone into the army," she added; "but I am afraid he has turned out very wild."
  1. Hence it is his picture that comes to them at first.
  2. Wickham’s thought arises and is ready to be wiped off by the report of the housekeeper.
  3. Elizabeth willfully says they may be deceived.
  4. We can say to remove that lingering perverse admiration, an elopement is needed.
  5. Elizabeth makes one good remark about his being a good brother.
  6. Darcy is not mean enough to remove Wickham’s miniature. Even after his effort at elopement, if Darcy can retain his picture it is magnanimous of him
  7.        “Her aunt called her to look at a picture. She approached and saw it was Wickham”.
    It is the magnanimity of a gentleman not to remove his picture.
    The measure of charm the aunt felt is seen in her seeing Wickham’s picture and calling the attention of Elizabeth.
    Darcy met her for a couple of minutes and moved away. I see that in the light of her attraction to the picture of Wickham. Wickham’s picture, her aunt calling her to it, Darcy moving away in two minutes show their basic inclination is towards truth but below that the natural tendency is drawn towards falsehood.
    Darcy, though he never trusted Wickham, never suspected him of anything, particularly about Georgiana.
    His unsuspecting behaviour of a gentleman landed him in trouble.
    The World Trade centre attack was warned against clearly.
    But on that day more than hundred such warnings came.
    Everyday they are received.
    Those in a work develop a sensitivity for that work.
    It will reveal the truth of a real warning.
    To distinguish the particularly relevant from the generally irrelevant is to be efficient sensitively.

    Shankara and Ramanuja failed in it.
    God revealed to them how egoistic they were, not being able to see Shiva in the Chandala.
    Duraiswamy took a case file to Sri Aurobindo and opened it.
    He put His finger on a point and asked Duraiswamy to emphasise it.
    An important point carries a spot of light on it.
    You are what you are attracted to, what life presents to you insistently, what is inescapable to you unless you accept it and overcome it inwardly.
    That is compelling. Other circumstances, not compelling, are there.
    It means they are reflecting inner aspects that are unhelpful but not obstacles now.
    We rarely realize that an abominable Man threatening to go away is grace. Often, maybe always, we are sorry and go out of our way to retain him.
    Man’s coming as well as Man’s leaving is grace.
  8.          “Elizabeth approached her aunt. The housekeeper explained all about Wickham”.
    It is significant that they learn about the wildness of Wickham just before meeting Darcy.
    Maybe this piece of news cleared the obstacle further to bring Darcy.
    The housekeeper was not enchanted by Wickham.
    Colonel Fitzwilliam giving her news of Bingley just before the proposal was significant.
    It is true we get the news we are interested in and we deserve.
    Man’s analysis of events is to justify his own opinion.
    Only when his opinion is utterly defied by events, he begins to think.
    Life offers him events that defy his thinking because in normal occasions he refuses to exercise his thinking.
    Any issue on which you exhaust all your capacities for thinking will reveal all the knowledge you need at that moment.
    He says not to stop in the middle.
    We stop at the first convenient stage.

    We often say those under our custody do not sufficiently listen to us.
    Go in and see, you will find the same phenomenon.
    Nothing in you will listen to your own proved experience.
    Any Man who fully implements all that he knows will not be the same Man he is now.
    Man says, “I know all this. I can even advise others. But I want those things to be done without my exerting like that. What is the use of achieving by exertion? To achieve without exertion is achievement.”
    This is enlightened ignorance.
    There are others who understand an issue perfectly, explain it to others.
    When it comes to them, they are a simple blank and say, “I do not know what to do”.
    It is willful self ignorance that justifies it and explains it to himself as right understanding.
    The will in the ignorance is overpowering.
    Like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde they are two different personalities where self-awareness is not born.
    To present his ignorance as the other man’s ignorance and maintain it is what we call ‘Difficult’.
    To be difficult is to appreciate the intelligence of ignorance he clearly sees in others.
  9. “I am afraid he turned out very wild”.
    From a personal point of view it is a tragedy.
    A cemented canal carries the water to long distances while a mud channel loses much of the water by seepage. The seepage sustains the vegetation around, charges the ground water and particularly keeps the heat of the sun down. It is not a waste.

    There is no waste.
    Errors enrich environment.
    In the hundred years’ history of a university or school, dropouts will tell us a great story.
    Jayakanthan, Kamaraj, Tagore, Shaw, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs were dropouts.
    They are top products.
    Newton was a university product.
    Einstein was from a polytechnic.
    Among the brokers, vakil clerks, waiters, touts, riff raff, roughs there is a rich material of social intelligence.
    Ambani was one like that of a slightly different description.
    Khrushchev was not a dropout, he never went to school.
    The establishment produced the aristocracy, intelligentsia. But the great Minds they produced were less in number than the great Men arising out of the non-school material. A peak needs a base, which is important. To us the peak is great. To earth both are significant. There are several truths.
    Training abridges ages into years and produces valuable material out of rubbish by the pressure of discipline.
    Non-training produces an apparently widespread dullness.
    The wide spread dullness is widespread, silent, slow culture.
    What it produces is a mountain while training creates low hills.

    The Superconscient without inconscient is Man without a woman, unable to produce a child.
    The Internet is now making the widespread valueless dull heap of social dropouts a university of a higher standard that can produce great mountain peaks out of each one who aspires.
    American history analysed from this point of view can offer the lives of one lakh Men who have outstanding accomplishments on their own outside the system,
    because they were uninhibited by the system.
    They too are liable to be polluted by the value of non-system.
10
Mrs. Gardiner looked at her niece with a smile, but Elizabeth could not return it.
  1. “Mrs. Gardiner smiled at the news of Wickham, Elizabeth could not return it”.
    Mrs. Reynolds is an elderly woman not susceptible to charm.
    Mrs. Gardiner sees through his mercenary trait but is still charmed being not an old woman. Elizabeth after knowing all prefers silence to the news of wildness to ready endorsement.
    Man is a mixture of knowledge and ignorance.
    They exist at the physical, mental, vital levels.
    At each level Ignorance is as important as knowledge to Man.
    Ignorance is fully understood as knowledge at each stage.
    Only from the view of result one is different from the other.
    Both are fields of experience, equally valid.
    While you are inside, ignorance appears to be knowledge.
    While you are outside, ignorance reveals itself as ignorance.
    While you are in knowledge it is knowledge.
    Once you are outside it is ignorance.
    Knowledge and ignorance are relative terms.

    Earlier knowledge is later ignorance.
    Only when we emerge out of a level of ignorance or knowledge it is evident.
    Lydia enjoys what she is. It is impossible for her to have the view of Elizabeth.
    Equally Elizabeth cannot have a view of herself as Darcy conceives of her.
    In the movements of transition we have the external atmosphere.
    It admits of an individual progress to a certain limit by virtue of its dynamism; beyond it, it prevails.
    One cannot overcome the universal ignorance.
    The Hour of God reveals to the aspiring soul all that he aspires for.
    It does not stop there; it offers more than what we ignorantly asked for.
    It has the potential NOW to offer everything it has, if only Man does not prefer ignorance for its taste.
    Initially a great effort is needed. Later what is needed is only willingness not to reject.
    Finally willingness to receive only matters. Any Man can see these stages in his human relationships, best of all in his wife.
11
"And that," said Mrs. Reynolds, pointing to another of the miniatures, "is my master -- and very like him. It was drawn at the same time as the other -- about eight years ago."
  1. “It is my master -- drawn eight years ago”.
    It is Wickham’s picture that catches their sight first.
    Darcy’s picture produced from Elizabeth no outward comment or inward thought.
    Darcy is of no significance to Elizabeth.
    It is the housekeeper who questions her about his looks.
    Elizabeth responds out of necessity ‘very handsome’ not speaking her thoughts but echoing the housekeeper’s words.
    She has every right to feel offended by Darcy’s words at several times.
    Pemberley did not offend her. She can respond to it.
    As Mrs. Gardiner planned to visit Pemberley, we learn, Darcy decided to leave the place of his visit a day early.
    He comes alone to meet Elizabeth.
    As the housekeeper was speaking to her Darcy was within the estate.
    God comes to us as Darcy came to Elizabeth.
    His first touch is a social offence – ‘tolerable’.
    We remember the offence; do not know his love or admiration of fine eyes.
    He delivers his admiration saying he overlooked the inferior connections.
    We are proud of those connections and insist on social politeness.
    While we insist on politeness we cherish falsehood.
    Painfully God disillusions us.
    To us what matters is not God, but social respectability.
    He rises to our occasion.
    We still live in our falsehood.
    We respond to his material gifts, oblivious of his divine love.
    We want to organize clandestinely the falsehood that ruined us.
    God indulges us even there.
    The point where we level off is the point where we insist on our ego, its folly, its enjoyment.
    Our preference is to ourselves, never to Him.
    Even after 1956, we do not aspire for it, nor think of it, nor wonder where we are, how we are, why we are what we are.
12
"I have heard much of your master's fine person," said Mrs. Gardiner, looking at the picture; "it is a handsome face. But, Lizzy, you can tell us whether it is like or not."
  1. “I have heard much of your master’s fine person”.
    No one notices the fine person of an ordinary Man.
    No one misses the fine person of a rich Man.

    Important news given by an ordinary Man will be well received, remembered, used, but the Man who brought the news will be forgotten.
    Unimportant news brought by an important Man will readily circulate as news from an important Man.
    This principle finds an effective use in consecration for those who resort to consecration for its sake, not for the result.
    This is a small work which I can easily do but it is important for me that any work must be done only by consecration.
    My principle is no work that is not done by consecration is work for me.

    When Mother’s temperature rose to 107° and stayed there, the doctors from Pondicherry and Madras could not diagnose it satisfactory to Him. He called a devotee doctor from Chittagong who came after two days and diagnosed it as gout.
    From that moment onwards temperature began to come down by the hour. Mother cured many people of many diseases but she would not cure herself because she would not accept any cure, if it did not come to Her from Him. Consecration will lead him to yogic result.
    Sri Aurobindo’s power could win the war. It was a Himalayan power.
    Even for that to act, diagnosis is important.
    Power acts through a system as the lake irrigates thousands of acres through a system of canals. Without that system it may flood a few hundred acres.

    Sri Aurobindo talked of His force acting well through the organized Westerner’s Mind and unable to act through the Indian Mind that has no structure.
    Supermind has descended. There is no organized consciousness on earth through which it can act. So, it has set about organizing earth consciousness.

    Organisation is a must. Organisation is a bar.
    To know the difference is wisdom. To organize in such a fashion that it serves the purpose and dissolves at the right time is possible.
13
Mrs. Reynolds's respect for Elizabeth seemed to increase on this intimation of her knowing her master.
  1. “Mrs. Reynolds’s respect for Elizabeth seemed to increase on this intimation of her knowing her master”.
    Police officers who came to arrest Sri Aurobindo seeing on his table books in Latin and Greek were amazed and went away without arresting him.
    Knowing what is in The Life Divine the world forces, Life forces will treat him with respect and will offer to serve him.
    Elizabeth was enjoying a private joke at that time privately.
    Higher knowledge with ordinary Men is like a royal child put in a school incognito.
    The Principal may not know how or why his school is getting so many favours from so many quarters. He is likely to take it as a reward for his efficiency. All those quarters know confidentially what the Principal does not know.
    All the children in the devotee’s school are royal children.
    The ten thousand dukes, peers, knights of England at one time or another served the king in some measure, from that of a general to that of a chamber maid. They all have become for generations gentlemen farmers of rank and title. After five thousand years of giving up the Jnana, the Brahmin, by virtue of his birth possesses the brilliance of the Vedas in him in some measure. Almost any Brahmin will be dynamic or at least active. Mentally all the resourcefulness of that great knowledge stayed with them in different measures. Mother seeing the sadhaks have forgotten Her said that after all of them forget Her totally She will be active and alive in a deep part of them.
    Knowledge of The Life Divine, the Divine Touch of Sri Aurobindo or The Mother in any form will survive for eternity.

    Greatness remains great at all
    stages as the absoluteness remains
    all along its manifestation.


    It is so in the unconscious Man or Matter. Its existence in a conscious Man is incalculable. Its presence makes the Mind or any other part of the body conscious. It makes the Spirit evolve, even the body evolves. Evolution is aspiration for the Absolute, to discover the Absolute in the relative. To know objects are immortal, days are eternal, space is infinite is to know God in Matter.
14
"Does that young lady know Mr. Darcy?"
 
15
Elizabeth coloured, and said -- "A little."
 
16
"And do not you think him a very handsome gentleman, ma'am?"
 
17
"Yes, very handsome."
 
18
"I am sure I know none so handsome; but in the gallery up stairs you will see a finer, larger picture of him than this. This room was my late master's favourite room, and these miniatures are just as they used to be then. He was very fond of them."
  1. “This room is my late master’s favourite room”.
    People, events, places, books, jokes and anything can become a favourite to anyone.
    Becoming favourite means concentrating one’s force on another affectionately.
    That creates an atmosphere, a personality, a well defined force.
    He will be able to better execute his works in that room.
    To writers such places provide inspiration.
    Musicians have their favourite time, place, audience and particularly favourite songs and more so favourites ragas.
    Intensity increasing in favourite areas creates genius.

    Elizabeth became his favourite, perhaps by the force of Caroline making him a favourite.
    At the proposal, he made her abuse his favourite theme.
    The result was he became the favourite of Longbourn as well as Meryton.
    A spark of the French Revolution descended on him making him a favourite recipient which he distributed in Meryton to the Longbourn daughters.
    Wickham claimed to be the favourite of Mr. Darcy.
    Elizabeth made Wickham her favourite even when he did not deserve it.
    Favourite god is Ishta Devatha.
    It is humanly possible to make one, whether he falls into the scheme or not, whether he deserves or not, his ishta devatha, favourite God.
    A greater celestial boon that requires a more arduous self-denial is to become an ishta devatha to another.
    A temple, an ashram creates atmospheres which can become favourites to devotees. It can be physical, vital, and spiritual.
    Pemberley became her favourite and she became so to Darcy.
19
This accounted to Elizabeth for Mr. Wickham's being among them.
 
20
Mrs. Reynolds then directed their attention to one of Miss Darcy, drawn when she was only eight years old.
 
21
"And is Miss Darcy as handsome as her brother?" Said Mr. Gardiner.
 
22
"Oh! Yes -- the handsomest young lady that ever was seen; and so accomplished! She plays and sings all day long. In the next room is a new instrument just come down for her -- a present from my master; she comes here to-morrow with him."
  1. A servant’s tribute is rare and precious.
  2. “She plays and sings all day long” (P. 218)
    Youth taking to music is at it all day.
    But a music instrument and songs do not set a limit to inspire the singer.

    Such an endless capacity is seen in artistic endowments.
    Material life has such a spiritual potential but it rarely emerges.
    Stone idols come to life with the spiritual forms of deities they represent.
    The secret behind those who become millionaires in one generation, the power that raised Ambani to the heights of industry is a principle. Man in tune with the spirit of the field – e.g. Market – is rewarded with the infinity of that field.
    As we see in nuclear fission, this principle is true both ways, positively as well as negatively.

    To be in tune with the spirit is slightly different from concentrating on it, as concentration is a part of it.
    The Spiritual Individual is one who, in any plane, is in tune with the society and God – universal and transcendent.
    We see in this story how Darcy brought to life what was in potential in Elizabeth. I have, by implication, extended it as her doing a similar thing to the institution of Pemberley.
    We are reminded that Lydia’s initiative revealed these possibilities.
    Revolutions create afresh by destruction.
    Wars are such phenomena.
    Evolution creates in million souls an efflorescence imperceptibly by redirecting the revolutionary force to deeper layers of social structure.
    Revolution is a violent outburst on the surface.
    Evolution is a quiet irresistible pressure at the maximum possible depths which creates without violence, rather renders the force of violence an ever green fragrant bloom.
    Ignorance demands Revolution.
    Knowledge makes evolution possible.
23
Mr. Gardiner, whose manners were easy and pleasant, encouraged her communicativeness by his questions and remarks; Mrs. Reynolds, either from pride or attachment, had evidently great pleasure in talking of her master and his sister.
  1. “Mr. Gardiner’s manners were easy and pleasant”.
    Ease comes from strength.
    Pleasantness issues out of temperament.
    Strength is the essence of successful experience.
    Temperament is the organization of emotional action permitted by the body and guided by the Mind.
    An atmosphere of plenty meets everywhere approval. In that atmosphere a pleasant temperament taking form out of material circumstances is possible.
    Affectionate families can also be authoritative.
    They, out of freedom, can spread a sense of sweet pleasant security.

    Mental knowledge of spiritual freedom, functioning in affectionate affluent families allows children to grow as diamonds grow under pressure.
    Here the pressure is pleasure of pleasant existence.
    Culture makes pressure pleasant existence.
    As self-discipline is a value of joy, culture is the privilege to feel the joy of growth in expansive freedom making the essentials phenomenal.
    All these are found in various measures in aristocracy.
    Elizabeth possesses many of these as traits, some as characteristics, others as potentials and the rest as possibilities and actualities.
    Not all could know this value in her though she was considered the brightest jewel of the place.

    Darcy was able to perceive it not with a cultivated knowledge of sophisticated upbringing.
    This is what Pemberley needed.
    He is somehow aware of it.
    He spotted it in her and was drawn like a magnet.
    To him, in such a frame of Mind, no abuse can be seen, no abuse can hurt.
    She recognized her role early and was riveted to Pemberley.
    Her work is more with Pemberley than with Darcy.
    The two people banished from Pemberley were Mrs. Bennet and Wickham, one by vulgarity and the other by falsehood.
  2.        "Mr. Gardiner whose manners were easy and pleasant, encouraged her communication with questions and remarks".
    A truth of Love at first sight is partially touched upon here.
    Easy and pleasant manners excite a desire to relate.

    A question becomes an invitation of affection.
    A remark reveals a desire to know.
    Such a desire is attractive or even fascinating.
    Communication flows unhindered, speech becomes eloquence, eloquence mellows into endearment.
    At a higher level the medium of words is dispensed with readily or gradually.
    Feelings fuse, emotions that need no oral communication commune in sensation. Love is born. Meeting a colleague and pleasantly responding to her Man finds her a wife after some time. One can discover all these stages gradually ripening in their relationship.
    The rapport Mr. Gardiner created by his manners with the housekeeper is the symbolic, indicative, background for the conversation between the lovers later.
    Mr. Gardiner by his manners, Mrs. Gardiner by her culture and affectionate interest in her niece supplied the atmosphere in which love could formulate itself.
    Neither was Darcy sure of Elizabeth, nor was she sure of anything at this stage.
    Love is a vibration that can press for its fruition in a trice.
    In an uncertain atmosphere, it presses for some formulation.
    Formulation of ideas leads to formation of emotions.
    When one is not sure of oneself, the formulation and formation are in oneself.
    They are full of spiritual life. They live forever hoping to grow.
    They never take one step backward. To live in that half finished stage is to live a full life. In such a frame of Mind Man always relates to the world with reference to the inner formation. Its hope always increases. It awaits for seven years as in 'Notebook'. When fulfilled it continues to grow, knows no waning. Suspicion is not the inclination, doubt one is incapable of. It is a balance or equilibrium that can be achieved at all levels, as food and clothes are of several grades. Goodness, self giving, patience, sweetness of temper achieve all, in all contexts.
  3.         "Reynolds either from pride or attachment had evidently great pleasure in talking of her master and his sister".
    Every characteristic has both connotations.
    Pride in this context is an emotion that helps an attachment to grow with the master.
    It is materially the pride of being a servant of a rich master.
    Emotionally it is the pride of being a servant of a good master.
    It is an emotion that urges to be alive, loves to be active, seeks growth.
    Mr. Gardiner is a good occasion.
    Her identification with the master and his sister feels the fulfilment in their well being. It is expansive.
    The atmosphere always announces ahead of an event.
    Elizabeth may not like Reynolds as much as she deserves, as she spoke of wildness of Wickham. It soured her emotions.
    In any transaction any sour emotion must as a rule be avoided.
    Every possible emotion of pleasantness fostered sincerely in a negotiation will complete it successfully is a rule.
    In marriage it is an excellent beginning.
    The perverse element in Man feels thwarted when challenged.
    His defence organises perversity.
    Perversity when persisted in becomes hostility.
    A good number of marriages arrive at a good number of equilibriums midway between love and hate.
    What matters is the human choice.
    The results of the human choice are determined by the belief of the Man.
    The belief and the attitude that fosters it are guided by his motive.
    Let anyone make his motive one of harmony with his wife.
    He will see some of his beliefs standing in the way.
    By rendering his attitude and belief in tune with his motive, life suddenly changes for the better.
    Once a good beginning is made, one can maintain it.
    No friendship or marriage need be a failure.
24
"Is your master much at Pemberley in the course of the year?"
  1. "Is your master much at Pemberley during the course of the year" – Mr. Gardiner.
    The Tamil words இதம், இங்கிதம், idam, ingidham are not translatable in English.
    Pleasantness is the nearest word. The heart feeling pleasant goes out to another heart to touch it gently in the hope of sharing the rich feeling it has. That feeling has its origin in the spiritual motive of oneness of soul. In doing so, the attempt at touch expresses the motive in its sensation of touch. It is ingidham trying to impart idham to another. Families are religious, not spiritual.
    One taking to spirituality leaves home. Religious piety has very much of the affectionate solicitude. Devotion is exercised by dedication. Dedication is surrendered to a cause personified in a Man or woman.
    Dedication is a mental ideal delivered through devotion is the family life of a pious family. Affection annihilates animosity. It prevents perversity, nor does it allow the temper to sulk or work to stall. Work done for another is work, not done to oneself. Work is elevated by extending to another outside duty for the sake of self-giving. Self-giving is a moment when the self comes into its own. The Self grows in sweetness while its love is given to another so that his own soul will expand by receiving. An affectionate family rears children that understand that there is love in the world to be conquered by self-giving. When they go out, no act of smallness or perverse exhibition catches their attention. They see outside what is inside themselves. In such a condition the heart seeks an ideal. Once an ideal for the family, or the individual or some lofty thing is settled upon, it is their turn to grow in the field of idealism. They generally do not face unhelpful events. When so faced they take a helpful attitude towards them. Either they come along or drop out. Outer vitiated versions of human temperament are not anxious to quarrel with these idealistic specimens of Mankind. Life grows in idealism and idealism grows in life as there will be no falsehood at heart. The heart of the matter is Truth.
    An affectionate family adheres to Truth. It is passed on to its members.
25
"Not so much as I could wish, sir; but I dare say he may spend half his time here; and Miss Darcy is always down for the summer months."
  1. It is significant Mr. Gardiner talks of Darcy’s marriage.
26
"Except," thought Elizabeth, "when she goes to Ramsgate."
 
27
"If your master would marry, you might see more of him."
  1. "If your master should marry, you will find him more here" – Mr. Gardiner.
    Masculine wildness is tamed by domestic life.
    He loses all his emotional and physical energies at home and there is no energy left for wild behaviour.

    Masculine personality is energy sprouting in all directions.
    The love of a wife is emotional. Its energy is far superior to physical energy.
    It goes to her by way of attention.
    Feminine demand for attention is all absorbing extending to her dog.
    It is true all over the world Man slowly identifies with his wife's family.
    She wants to possess the Man. The Man wants to enjoy her confidence.
    She purposefully withholds her confidence so that he would run after her.
    He does respond to it or takes another woman, making her please him for the rest of her life.
    It is equally true when she makes him run after her, she loves to be dominated by him. Masculine domination is feminine fulfilment.
    She is fulfilled in the child, property and domination.

    She must outgrow all the three to qualify for yoga.
    Man qualifies for yoga in life if he does not seek sex or attachment in woman but discovers the feminine complement to his masculinity.
    He finds that fulfilment in surrendering to her.

    Bharathi wrote that idea which is not a traditional ideal, but an ideal of Sri Aurobindo.
    அவள் தாளிணை கைக்கொண்டு மகிழ்ந்திருப்பான். All the inspirations of Bharathi are Sri Aurobindo’s. Bharathi’s ego never acknowledge it. He owed his very life to Him. He went to Madras refusing His advice and died in one year.
    The whole of Tamilnadu was inspired patriotically by Bharathi's song, i.e. by His inspiration.
    That is one reason why Tamilnadu responded to Him now.
    It is significant that Darcy's marriage should be discussed there.
    She even said who would be a fit wife to Darcy, not knowing he had already chosen his wife.
28
"Yes, sir; but I do not know when that will be. I do not know who is good enough for him."
  1. When Mrs. Reynolds says she does not know who is good enough for him, it sounds as if he who it is.
  2. “I do not know who is good for him” is an appropriate comment for the occasion. Servants do not always praise the master without inhibition. Mrs. Reynolds praise, she knows, is well deserved. All this has not made any dent in Elizabeth’s opinion. What did the miracle is Pemberley and the richly furnished rooms. Wealth is weighty. Affluence affects ultimately. Opulence is overwhelming
  3. "I do not know when that will be, who is good enough for him?"
    He knew when it would be and who was good enough for him.
    Her comment was a symbolic omen.
    Society takes the greatest note of one marrying.
    A greater note is taken before the marriage when a Man takes to a woman.
    Marriage preserves the society.
    People's interest in a social preservative is natural.
    A Man's employment draws less attention, unless it is a big job.
    Social attention is social sensitivity.
    One acquiring property is fully taken note of.
    Society is moving upwards; every little move is thus noted.
    A company rising into rising profits, for the same reason, attracts attention.
    Society is a live unit, aware of everything that concerns it.
    Everything is of its concern.
    Growing awareness is converted into power, power is reduced to organisation.
    It is a movement to world government.
    Initially it was the local and national government.

    In a family everyone knows everything about everyone else.
    It is true of corporations, local communities.
    In the West it is a culture not to be inquiring about the neighbour.
    It is not a contrary trend.
    During the period Individuality forms, it needs concentration.
    He who does not notice the neighbour has twenty four hours news at his disposal.
    The basic trend is true.
    Local applications vary without offending the principle.
    Looked at any way, the laws of social development will hold good.
    There is no occasion where these principles fail or compromise.
    They are perfectly perfect to the infinitesimal.
    The finite is not a divided part of the infinite.
    It is the frontal appearance of the infinite.
    We may misconstrue, the law will not fail.
29
Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner smiled. Elizabeth could not help saying, "It is very much to his credit, I am sure, that you should think so."
  1. Elizabeth, knowing who will suit him, pays herself a compliment by her comment.
  2. In the subtle plane, it was the second proposal accepted.
  3. "It is very much to his credit that you should think so" – Elizabeth to Reynolds.
    It is significant that Elizabeth who has not participated in this conversation should remark thus.
    She thus receives the complement the housekeeper paid to the future wife of Darcy. Elizabeth is unaware of her response and its significance but she in another sense understands the sanction of life to her unexpressed ambition. At a critical moment all life turns into a series of omens. Man never fails to see that, but sees only the most prominent symptoms. At Brighton Lydia was boisterously enjoying. Still it was a good enjoyment for her from her point of view. She was not malicious or venomous or even perverse. Out of that innocent pleasure, however impermissible socially, nothing wrong will precipitate. Ultimately it proved itself – hilarious joy cannot hurt, unfailingly it will bring greater joy. We see the housekeeper here recognising her future mistress without her knowing. In saying it is very much to Darcy's credit, Elizabeth endorses her own idea and willingness to marry Darcy. Incidentally she recognises her own worth in the words of the housekeeper and enjoys that indirect compliment. It is an atmosphere of great good will vocally expressed. The atmosphere was booming. No such conversation can ever be heard in Rosings. It recognises what is in the atmosphere and will reveal itself in the next few minutes. On the day – November 23, 1969 – Talwar came to Ramapuram there was a great downpour demolishing the bridge on the Pondy-Cuddalore Road. The heavens did announce the avalanche of grace which the village and the country were to enjoy ten years later. Great events do announce themselves. Greater events like February 29, 1956, have a way of slipping into position silently unobserved. When a right thing is done in a wrong context as the celebration of birthday in 1973, it was announced on the day of the meeting by an accident to our car. A Man ran away with another Man's wife. Leaving her in a sheltered place he went to a relative and found him having lost his job. Who noted what we do not know, but things are expressive.
30
"I say no more than the truth, and what everybody will say that knows him," replied the other. Elizabeth thought this was going pretty far; and she listened with increasing astonishment as the housekeeper added, "I have never had a cross word from him in my life, and I have known him ever since he was four years old."
  1. Mrs. Reynolds who says it is no more the truth, might have recalled it when Elizabeth reached Pemberley as the wife.
  2. “I say no more than the truth. Anyone who knows him will say the same thing”.
    People arrive at a right conclusion by a method of their temperament.
    Mrs. Reynolds is a good woman, serving a good master, who speaks her truth which happens to be good.
    She does not exercise her discrimination as she has none.
    Her impression here becomes a right discrimination.
    This is one example of empty people elevated by the atmosphere.
    Suppose she served a master who was evil to some others and good to her, she would again speak the same idea.
    Impressions become reality when the circumstances compel.
    Understanding of right discriminations can arise in people incapable of understanding under right circumstances.
    General atmosphere can emerge in one as right understanding.
    An individual under social influence benefits like this.
    In such a situation, one endowed with individuality arrives at the right idea not as the general opinion, but as his own mature idea.
    Such an individuality can be given by the society to an individual, if the society is mature in the physical, mental, vital, spiritual planes.
    Mind was accepted as the guiding light in Europe five hundred years ago and European society endowed to every citizen that social privilege.
    One arriving at Individuality of the Mind himself and getting it from the society are almost the same, but he who fashions it will have the quality of the pioneer.
    Copernicus out of his mental individuality discovered.
    All citizens have the mental originality to understand and accept it.
    The Americans who got it from Europe out of their own inspiration fashioned it as Mental Individuality in action in the physical plane.
    That can form the psychological foundation to move to vital individuality while taking it from the society can have use value, not the strength of the original flavor, somewhat like the user of technology and the discoverer.
    The difference can be seen, though it is not essential or serious.
  3. “She listened to the housekeeper with increasing astonishment that she had not one cross word from Darcy”
    Astonishment arises when opinion varies.
    She knew of Darcy as one who spoke derogatively.
    The housekeeper’s opinion astonished her.
    When a foreigner speaks of Indians who cannot lie, it will be astonishing to other foreigners who have lived in India.
    She could take Darcy as a liberal master.
    It is possible for a master not to say a cross word to a servant at home and be mean to others outside.
    Elizabeth could not think of that alternative.
    It would never strike her that her entire experience could be wrong.
    That being her opinion of Darcy, she began to admire Pemberley.
    She never considered why Darcy NEVER replied to her abuse orally or met them in his letter.
    She was oblivious of her blindness.
    Only his changed behaviour when she came out made her wonder about his character and her understanding of him.
    Even then she could not account for the change.
    She saw the change, never knew he was changed himself, but understood he was changed in his behaviour towards her and her uncle.
    It was beyond her to conceive of the real change he had undergone.
    Even his good behaviour at Lambton could be taken as good behaviour to her.
    Only Mrs. Gardiner’s letter made her see the Man had really changed for the sake of her love.
    No one can conceive that another could change as Darcy changed.
    It is beyond our experience or even imagination.
    But, had she wanted to know, had she been free of prejudice, there was enough for her as food for thought: 1) He was silent about her abuse, 2) the housekeeper’s good comments, 3) Even her earlier repellent behaviour to him at Netherfield and Rosings and at Sir Lucas’ was quietly received and not resented. She made light of it.
31
This was praise, of all others most extraordinary, most opposite to her ideas. That he was not a good-tempered man had been her firmest opinion. Her keenest attention was awakened; she longed to hear more, and was grateful to her uncle for saying --
  1. Elizabeth had not witnessed bad temper from Darcy except when he declared she was tolerable. She only found him to be unpolished.
  2. Being a victim, she made it into a bad temper.
  3. She longed to hear more. She was impatient for more. They are enough to bring him a day early.
  4. “Her keenest attention was aroused, she wanted to hear more.”
    She knew him to be a bad tempered Man.
    The housekeeper had no cross word from him all his life. What to believe? She wanted to hear good comments about him. The first sign of change of attitude in her. In anyone such moments – moments of willingness to change – are great moments. Mother says a slight good act brings a monumental reward. He met her. Devotees see an expansion in business as they initially change like this of which they are unaware. After the spurt, they go back to their original attitude. The expansion levels off. They ask why. They must grow conscious of what brought the original change and recast their attitudes of the present into earlier expansive ones. She could not bring herself to truthfully reply to his question, “How do you find Pemberley”. She was careful and restrained. Still the truth – it was breathtaking – could have been spoken out. The woman is alert, lets the Man run. Maybe that much of truth would have saved her the tragedy. She, in replying to Darcy, told herself that she should not be mistaken to be mercenary. Before the feminine resourcefulness, Truth has little chance. Devotees are extremely alert in not recognizing grace, readily explain it away. Elizabeth is no exception. Gratitude is only recently born on earth. Life meets us as we meet it. Mother recognizes our unwillingness to recognize Her. Her Patience is infinite. Should a devotee go back in his life and feel gratitude at every instance he had failed earlier, there will be no occasion for him to pray in future. Man is unconscious. Even in his unconsciousness he is ungrateful. His own resourcefulness readily serves him to foster the wrong attitudes. Elizabeth never for a moment thought about why Darcy should write to her explaining his conduct to her. It never arose in her as a thought. She was one who was not like Lydia or Lady Catherine. But even in her, introspection had a limit, a limit of not wanting to know her own deficiencies. She only doubted the housekeeper.
32
"There are very few people of whom so much can be said. You are lucky in having such a master."
  1. “You are lucky in having such a master” – Gardiner to housekeeper.
    To get a guru, sishya, spouse, child, tenant, friend, manager, servant of good description is luck.
    There are various complements, at different levels.
    A good Man as an outer response gets a good spouse.
    A good Man to become better gets a bad manager.
    A good Man for him to be transferred gets a vicious tenant.
    We consider the first as luck.
    It is a social view.
    A bad manager for a good Man is a view of inner progress.
    Transformation comes for the spiritually mature soul.
    All this explains, how to act.
    For a good Man with a bad manager, on his trying to become a better Man all the time, the bad manager will never prove to be bad, or may be good.
    The spiritual Man, when his transformation is sufficient, his vicious tenant will be transferred.
    Making the progress we should make, the adverse circumstances will remain ineffective.
    Darcy getting Reynolds or Reynolds getting Darcy gave Pemberley freedom from Wickham and Lady Catherine, brought in Elizabeth.
    Our own life reviewed from a driver and a servant will reveal an abundant material.
    We are never comprehensive.
    We focus on our needs, according to our desires.
    Like Charlotte, when something comes we accept.
    Otherwise we do not ask, or think.
    A smuggler can give death punishment to his erring employees, but when an employee threatens to join his rival, he has to relent and compromise.
    What is compromise in lower life is intelligent adjustment in higher life.
    It is difficult to rise to the level of demands of Truth.
    At average levels of honesty, life for good masters is rosy, rewards with lucky circumstances, people and lucky advantages.
33
"Yes, sir, I know I am. If I was to go through the world, I could not meet with a better. But I have always observed, that they who are good-natured when children, are good-natured when they grow up; and he was always the sweetest-tempered, most generous-hearted boy in the world."
  1. In saying she is lucky enough to have such a master, she was almost saying that Elizabeth was lucky enough to have him as husband.
  2.           “Good-natured children grow up to be good natured Men” (P. 219)
    This is true when the circumstances remain the same.
    Excellent circumstances help somewhat bad men to become good.
    The worst of circumstances changes good men into bad ones.
    These rules hold good in average circumstances, to average men.
    Exceptionally good or bad men refuse to change like Dantes and Caderousse.

    Human choice is there for any Man to change into any other Man.
    A village full of criminals gave up theft when the village became prosperous.
    Poverty is the basis of crime.
    Darcy speaks of being mean to those outside the family.
    Reynolds does not seem to have noticed it, perhaps because he did not affect her that way.
    Even shrewd children at the age of twenty or thirty do not discover the lies of their mother.
    The defects of family members are not seen, when seen we do not mind it.
    In any dispute it never strikes people that their own family members could be wrong until it is pointed out.
    A customer does not mind foisting on his seller a cantankerous woman unconnected with the work.
    He is oblivious of the trouble he gave the seller for years even when pointed out.
    Life is full of pockets of venom or oases amidst goodness or desert.
    But everything comes precisely under the wider law and particular rule.
    Darcy’s bad manners with a good character is all seen in what he got in Bingley, Caroline, Lady Catherine, Lydia, Wickham, Elizabeth.
    Individual cases as we have so far analyzed disclose the intensities.
    Mrs. Reynolds sounds the wedding bells here, exposes Wickham, reveals Darcy’s good side and wishes for a suitable wife for him.
    She does it to Elizabeth.
  3. “He was always the sweetest, most generous-hearted boy in the world”.
    She talked from experience, from the heart of emotional experience.
    Such declarations are always fully true, in their context.
    A deeply felt fullest positive appreciation of Wickham’s truth can be given by Elizabeth or any girl which will be equally true, for her in her context.
    How are we to evaluate the truth of things, if such variations are there?
    No one can pass judgments on what they do not know.
    The housekeeper is fully qualified to know Darcy’s nature with respect to her.
    Nature is not something like manners that can vary.
    At her age anyone has the knowledge of nature of anyone else which can be generally true.
    Her description has a true ring of truth.
    She speaks about a subject she is qualified to speak on.
    She by her age is qualified to know what she is speaking.
    Elizabeth, had she consulted her deeply felt urges, would recall she felt gratitude to him for loving her.
    Except Truth, utter Truth, nothing can evoke gratitude.
    Elizabeth finds Reynolds in a free social atmosphere, not compelled by any foreign impulse that can motivate.
    She herself made a delightful change in her mind about wanting to become the mistress of the place.

    The topic, the person, the context, the atmosphere, the energy all must make her understand the truth of the statement.
    Nothing can overcome the prejudice.
    After seeing the change in Darcy, she, had she recollected this scene, would have appreciated the truth of the housekeeper.
    As is usual with Man, after she met Darcy, Reynolds was the last thing she could think of.
    Elizabeth would have thought of Reynolds’ words so often had these words been spoken about Wickham.
    Infatuation has a reality to the nerves.
34
Elizabeth almost stared at her. "Can this be Mr. Darcy!" Thought she.
  1. Mrs. Reynolds has seen the best side of him. No bad report has ever come to her. Being motherless, Darcy may have looked up to her for mother’s affection. Finally Mrs. Reynolds is a good woman. Elizabeth should have seen the superior culture of Mrs. Reynolds to her own mother and that would have raised Darcy in her estimation enough to pull him off from his holiday to her at Pemberley.
  2. The unstinted praise of the housekeeper does not touch Elizabeth. She only thinks they may be deceived. She could at first meeting swallow all the lies of Wickham about Darcy. Now her mind works. Then it was her adoring emotions for the admired lover
  3. Darcy’s picture captivates her imagination. His wealth and his power present to her mind; What Pemberley, the opulence of the rooms, Reynold’s praise, his power, his picture, his patronage could not create in her mind, Wickham’s captivating softness did in a trice
35
"His father was an excellent man," said Mrs. Gardiner.
  1. “His father was an excellent Man” – Mrs. Gardiner.
    To know the higher value of a partial experience is possible, if the penetration is from a wider perspective.
    The sincerity of every Viceroy was questioned by Indian leaders till Mountbatten came. Within a short time every shade of public opinion and all leaders without exception conceded his sincerity. It lasted during his tenure and he was given an affectionate send off. He drew larger crowds than Gandhiji. Sincerity makes its impact without fail. An estate of four hundred acres tried to get electricity. To make it possible they worked for electric connection to the nearest village. Electricity came to the village but the estate was excluded as it did not lie on the route. For fifteen years the estate pumps were running on diesel. They knew of my work in Ramapuram and approached me.
    The Assistant Engineer in charge of the estate area happened to be a friend of the Assistant Engineer, Cuddalore. In fifteen days power was supplied. Neither the estate manager, not the elderly Man who approached me told me of the connection. About two months later, I learnt the fact and was disappointed. Asok asked for a puppy and I approached someone in Cuddalore. An Alsatian pup readily arrived. Later I understood the puppy was from the estate. Man forgets, the land remembers is the truth of the work done. Shortly the puppy died. Man’s ingratitude prevails over the gratitude of the soil.
    The elder Darcy was an excellent Man. He was taken in by Wickham.
    Darcy knew Wickham but disregarded him. Danger came to Georgiana. £3000 was parted with. Scandal came to Meryton. Damage was done to Elizabeth’s opinion on the soil of her prejudice. Lydia eloped. Darcy paid for Lydia and Wickham took him into the family fold. He continued support after marriage. Wickham was fully exposed. Elizabeth was disillusioned. It was not enough to disenchant her. Mrs. Bennet had no access to Pemberley but Lydia had in Darcy’s absence. The services of Wickham’s father to the estate got paid after his life, for the treachery of his son.
    The wider picture explains Wickham’s mother’s extravagance.
36
"Yes, ma'am, that he was indeed; and his son will be just like him -- just as affable to the poor."
  1. “His son will be just like him”.
    Man fully readily understands and accepts what is apparent.
    He will more readily accept what he imagines or desires when it comes true.
    An exception to the rule baffles him.
    When one of his rules is rudely challenged he is frustrated.
    Life is a mixture of all these.
    To know the rule from the exception is great.
    To know the value of exception as one expression of the rule is to understand comprehensively.

    To know the rule, its opposite, its exceptions, its contradictions are all various expressions of ONE basic rule is complete knowledge.
    To see the complete knowledge in the part, partial knowledge in the whole is integral knowledge of the Marvel.
    To see it by the Psychic in us is to have the capacity to create that Marvel.
    To know that Darcy married Elizabeth for her fine eyes is true, but not the complete knowledge.
    To know that Darcy’s love is sincere enough for him to marry her in spite of her abuse is again a partial understanding.
    His sincerity made him recognize the truth of her abuse is another version.
    He exerted on behalf of Lydia for the sake of Elizabeth is one more version.
    He was a determined character, so he clung to Elizabeth in spite of the tragedy is another socially acceptable explanation.
    The French Revolution urged him to marry lower to save his head is one more explanation that many can accept.
    Love is a purifying force which purified her of her falsehood and him of his pride is a comprehensive spiritual version.
    Nehru’s daughter was not like him. Many of the Mogul princes were like their father.
    To know Lydia was a shame is a social view.
    To understand Lydia as a trigger for the great change in her family is a view of social evolution.
37
Elizabeth listened, wondered, doubted, and was impatient for more. Mrs. Reynolds could interest her on no other point. She related the subject of the pictures, the dimensions of the rooms, and the price of the furniture, in vain. Mr. Gardiner, highly amused by the kind of family prejudice to which he attributed her excessive commendation of her master, soon led again to the subject; and she dwelt with energy on his many merits as they proceeded together up the great staircase.
  1.        “Elizabeth listened, doubted, wondered and was impatient for more”.
    It is a listening giving a sense of wonder raising hopes to know more endlessly.
    It is an occasion when listening becomes creative and divine.
    Her first response was wonder.
    Soon doubt overwhelmed her.
    Still she wanted to learn all – curiosity rearing its head.

    Mind’s moment of revelation is curiosity.
    One is curious when the entire Mind is in its elements.
    When curiosity is full, the unknowable tries to formulate itself in the Mind. It is a psychologically creative moment in her life, an hour she is born anew, born into Pemberley.
    All this was enough to bring him there for a couple of minutes.
    Even at this stage of open mental receptivity, the woman in her should go into action to attract the Man.
    A strong attraction of a Man for a woman is a moment of emotional curiosity where his emotions all come on the surface to possess her.
    The physical being opening to an object of love opens down to the very cells, releases an aura of energy which envelops the lady and consummates itself at once.
    Beyond that or below that is the Being, the embodied Being.
    It opens to God and enjoys the knowledge of identity, communes in ecstasy.
    A partial expression of these openings before marriage makes one long for Romance.
    A spontaneous opening of a ripe being as above can be worked for by the idealist for his lady love or his spiritual fulfillment.
    Even this rare opening and his subsequent celestial behaviour followed by his act of generosity could not give her hope, as her own understanding of Lydia’s shame was so calamitous. All this, Elizabeth felt, would not stand when his aunt appealed to his status. Grace worked through the very aunt to fulfil her long, yearned-for dream, yearned in her subconscious.
  2.        “Mrs. Reynolds could interest her in no other point”.
    Human selfishness in its organized acme cannot know a person who had come to your small office week after week for six years.
    He who stands by the side of a VIP cannot hope to be seen by anyone. Malicious lawyers giving themselves the indulgence of hatred accuse the other party so fully forgetting they are offering to the rival his most important argument, proving hatred is love.
    Hatred intensified gives way to love.
    Pain reaching immense proportions turns into Ananda.
    International Telecom is no mere instrument of communication.
    It is a powerful instrument of social evolution.
    Every act that extends the existing social fabric produces wealth, energy that furthers evolution, as it is a tiny wave in spiritual evolution.
    The Society took great interest to present this idea to International Telecom.
    The idea was warmly welcomed with commensurate enthusiasm.
    In twenty years Internet and Web came into existence.
    From this perspective we can see all the instruments necessary to found the world government are there now.
    The era of reading is drawing to a close.
    No longer can any idea ever be communicated in any medium other than visual.
    A microscope cannot see anything 3” outside or even 1” outside.
    Elizabeth’s imagination was captivated by the good news of Darcy.
    In such moments subtle life that brings you these openings, gives you a modicum, as Vivekananda showed the Supermind to Him.
    The subtle plane has no gross instruments for its service.
    During the days of Bingley’s popularity Kitty could not see Darcy by his side. Of course, she did not know his name.
    The Prime Minister may not know who drove him to the Rastrapathi Bhavan for his swearing in ceremony.
    Concentration is tapas.
  3.          “Mr. Gardiner was highly amused by the family prejudices”.
    Fundamentalism is the creed that makes such prejudices an article of faith.
    Small minds soon saturate themselves. Kural says one cannot grieve the loss of such relationships.
    Their functions can be physically replaced soon.

    The cost of a chimney at Rosings is an argument with which Collins had armed himself.
    Around castles, painters, writers, musicians of less importance or no importance have gathered an infinity of interests that are of no value to anyone including themselves.
    In the film world there is a vast market for such things and they have a value in cost.
    Someone collected bubble gum cards.
    Sentiments have an intrinsic value for those who feel its reality.
    On December 5th, 1950 a patriot dreamed of Sri Aurobindo and wondered at its significance as Sri Aurobindo was not one he ever thought of.
    The radio announced His passing away. He came to see His body lying in state. Sri Aurobindo was in politics only for a few years, but a simple patriot who gave up politics to take to family life saw Him in his dream when He left the body.
    Faith and Grace are not altogether myths.
    Yoga is a great ideal, though not inaccessible to aspiring souls.
    Family life having the blessings of yogic power is a reality.
    What prosperity level that a society can attain in one century can be attained in a tenth of that time, if they turn to Mother.
    Mother’s consciousness is a subtle causal institution that can accomplish work on the physical plane as if by miracle.
    In the situation of Mr. Bennet, what could not happen to Lydia in London. What really happened is beyond one’s conception.
    Darcy came to them as a carrier of revolutionary blessings.
  4. “Reynolds dwelt with energy on Darcy’s many merits”.
    Organised fixed Minds taking to an idea are excessively energized which lasts a lifetime increasing in its vigour with the passage of time.
    Capable Minds without education exercise all their endowments in a small field of their choice.
    Such people are the best material for adult education.
    Adult education is national wealth in potential as the unutilized capacities of the retired population are a reservoir of resources.
    Carefully planned and utilized with organized instruments, the benefits are manifold. Firstly the phenomenon of boredom in old age which sits before the television endlessly will give place to mental fertility that is engrossing. There is no such mental resource in the country as after retirement Man can meaningfully apply himself to any other field. Cross pollination of talents is capable of producing intellectual cross-breeds.
    Turned into cash it will generate abundance. Turned into non-cash results, it can generate fresh creative ideas in administration, domestic life, pasttimes, etc.
    It is the mental topsoil.
    Knowledge will overflow, generating the soil for culture and spirituality.
    Minds stop growing at forty or even at twenty.
    Minds have a renewed lease of increasingly higher life after sixty or even eighty.
    Age produces maturity. Increasing maturity in any section of the population can absorb the violence of youth, even the terroristic urges.
    Dull, drab, knowledge organizing itself can form a strong foundation for every subject of study to grow in value.
    Population active thus, can generate a market for books suitable to them. We know in the West the literature for children is overflowing.
    If fresh dimensions are added we will find 50% of the market can be created.
    With senior people a whole new field of literature, knowledge can be beneficially created.
38
"He is the best landlord, and the best master," said she, "that ever lived; not like the wild young men nowadays, who think of nothing but themselves. There is not one of his tenants or servants but what will give him a good name. Some people call him proud; but I am sure I never saw anything of it. To my fancy, it is only because he does not rattle away like other young men."
  1. “Not like the wild young men now-a-days who think nothing but themselves”.
    Young men think of nothing but themselves. They are the unideal, self-centred, non-entities.
    Public opinion, at random, carries a good cross-section of them.

    The one great service they do to the nation is to create standards of thought to be avoided.
    Universal suffrage can give place to graded suffrage confining topics to a particular segment of population.
    The gallop polls taken at random aim at what, base themselves on what is not known.
    Democracy as it is practised is no evil. It makes no sense.
    Democracy of common interests will make sense.
    Corruption is one possible result from universal suffrage.
    Men voting on issues concerning them where they have experience, if not knowledge, can have democratic rights, not outside that.
    Society generates a variety of wide powers.
    All sorts of Men come by them.
    The best part of it is scattered about.
    Young men of no meaningful description come by a good part of them.

    Their propositions are a novel literature of public interest.
    Darcy is not of that stamp.
    He is fully organized, responsible, based on values.
    The Force picked him up because of his definition.
    The most marked trait in him is absence of vengeance.
    In that he is truly a gentleman.
    His not wanting to claim the credit for Lydia’s wedding only excels that noble trait.
    There is no question he is a nationally valuable individual.
    Reynolds’s raptures may not be informed, but are not ill-founded.
    Darcy is largely quiet.
    Absence of animation is seen in him.
39
"In what an amiable light does this place him!" Thought Elizabeth.
  1. “In what amiable light does this place Darcy,” thought Elizabeth.
    Man has to turn right about sometimes.
    This was an hour like that to her.
    No Man running can stop and suddenly run in the opposite direction.
    Thoughts when compelled by facts to turn around create a sensation in the Mind.
    A cabinet Minister visited a family for an alliance for his son.
    He and his wife behaved as a Minister and his wife. Very soon they learnt they were close friends with the Chief Minister.
    They quickly changed their manners. Humility came over them.
    A drastic change in emotion is a moment of self-discovery. Life Responds at such moments.
    Now she did not know what to think of Darcy.
    This was an occasion for emotional reversal.
    Mercedes discovered Fernand was a traitor. She did not mind it. He killed himself after being put to shame. The knowledge of her husband’s betrayal did not shock her. Its announcement to the world awakened her social conscience. She refused to enjoy his money any more.
    For Elizabeth, if this knowledge were true, it would be a new birth.
    Whatever problems of people are reported to Mother, She replied “unconsciousness”.
    We are run by inconscient energy. We are unconscious.
    A lady learnt her sister’s husband faced the failure of both his kidneys. She sat in prayer for five days. The patient saw an aged lady dressed in white in his dream. She gave a medicine and asked him to vomit. Waking up he felt fresh, passed urine freely was fully cured.
    Five day prayer made him conscious in his dream – subtle plane – and cured him.
    Elizabeth’s prejudice was not unfounded. It was true. Darcy had another side. He, after her abuse, changed dramatically. She too changed her attitude towards Wickham and Darcy. He gave up pride. She gave up her prejudice.
    Nobody changes as Darcy has changed. People will change their manners, at best their attitude. His change was transformation.
40
"This fine account of him," whispered her aunt as they walked, "is not quite consistent with his behaviour to our poor friend."
  1. “This fine account of him is not quite consistent with his behaviour to our poor friend,” whispered her aunt.
    Conflicting facts paralyze the mind. It is non-plussed.
    Mind accepting the reality of the conflict is confused.
    When it is unable to believe it raises a doubt.

    Elizabeth doubted the housekeeper, from her inner partiality for Wickham.
    At such points it is not thinking that works, but one’s instincts.
    Wickham entered into her instincts and she was possessed there.
    Again this explains why Darcy came and why he left in two minutes.
    What rose from that instinct is impulse.
    Impulses vary. Mental impulse of thinking, vital impulse of feeling, physical impulse of acting. Further impulse of memory is different from impulse of thinking.
    Every faculty in every part of the being has its basic urge and at the tether end an impulse.
    Consecration must move to these impulses.
    There are conscious impulses, behind which lie the subconscious which splits into force, urge, impulse.
    Consecration moving deeply, silence rises. Silence comes to stay when the consecration moves behind the impulse of physical action.
    At that stage one meets with the movements of Patience, caution, prudence, basic beliefs, moral, ethical – enough, not more; it is not right. Expectation at this level is uncontrollable. Expectation is a thought which knows the work will not be done. Such emptiness thinks itself away by constant expectation.
    Mind when it knows this definition slows down the expectation.
    Show the Mind how it behaves. Seeing it, it laughs, but still expects weakly. Expectation dies when at last Mind comes to fully believe the explanation. The same thing happens when for external reasons or for some other reason Mind comes to know it would not be realized. Such a realization can be broken and the original force revived. Gradual education of Mind is slow, but will not be lost when once it is achieved. To achieve this and make it permanent is consecration. What consecration originally achieves, surrender completes, i.e. it becomes automatic. It can become an attitude and finally a motive.
41
"Perhaps we might be deceived."
  1. “Perhaps we might be deceived” – Elizabeth to her aunt.
    This is Mind clutching at a straw when its belief is drowning. Suppose she readily accepted it, Mind will have no response to accept or defend.
    At such times Mind faints.
    Fainting is a defence mechanism for survival.
    Fainting is physical. At the mental level one is dazed. At the vital level a frustration overcomes the Man.
    Sensitive people feel it is their last hour of life, not knowing it is the last hour of their belief. Man does come to his last hour. Grace acting to save him converts it as the last hour of another phenomenon. Life is thus saved.
    After Elizabeth heard of Lydia’s elopement and the spurt of wailing was over, the first thought she had was all hope of Darcy was over. It was a powerful inner emotional thought no one can stand. One will physically collapse. The sadness of the occasion offset it and she survived. Then came the marriage. It is at that time her Mind vainly and falsely hoped she need not have disclosed the news to Darcy. He was the one person from whom she wanted to keep it a secret. She did not know it was that event which made her later realize the purity and depth of his love for her.
    Then came Lady Catherine. Again her thinking was contrary to fact.
    It worked again in the reverse. He came. They were alone. The inner pressure put aside her prospects. The negative pressure of shame, sense of obligation, utter humiliation all on a degree equal to what he had felt when she abused, made her prostrate. This is a human version of a sadhak’s consecration at the level of physical impulses of action that quietens the memory, leaves even the censor for a time non-plussed. She spoke truly and sincerely.
    In all literature whether there is another passage of equal sincerity, I do not know. I hope it is not there. All this was brought on her by external compulsion. That is why it is in the reverse. Consecration does this inwardly, consciously, positively, and therefore outer life acts at once. This is the maximum in life, minimum in yoga. At this stage Mother says there is no greater joy than a consecrated life.
42
"That is not very likely; our authority was too good."
  1. “Our authority was too good” – Aunt about Reynolds to Elizabeth.
    The aunt never doubted the report.
    The difference in response from both explains Elizabeth’s mental disposition.
    The conservatism of Mind asserts.
    One type of blindness in the Mind is the first information is more correct.
    It is an inclination to the self.
    Mind in its functioning is not looking for right facts. It accepts the facts that come.
    Aunt’s Mind is open; niece’s Mind is still in prejudice.
    Lady Arabella received a news of Mary which threw her Mind’s entire fabric in disarray. The Mind, unable to offer any known response, fainted.
    While in the faint, the subconscious arrived at a new equilibrium and presented it to the conscious as dear Mary.
    For her it was the weight of Money.
    To Elizabeth it is still information, not carrying any great weight.
    At Lambton when Georgiana came and she witnessed Darcy orchestrating Bingley and his sister, there was no further doubt in her. It was a live silent proposal de facto. There she was overwhelmed to embarrassment. It gave her no faint. Also it was developing slowly over two days. It was brimful of pleasant emotions. The embarrassment was due to the awareness of her behaviour at the proposal. She never spoke of them to Jane, the elopement being the excuse. Neither Jane nor Elizabeth was in the habit of sharing news as it happened. They waited for their culmination. It was the aunt who told Jane about all the events.
    Consecration is the companion who constantly shares the news as it happens.
    At this stage one sees oneself and the companion consecration receiving the news as well as the process of communication.
    The companion becomes the first person by identity and the communication is replaced by automatic communion.
    Consecration turns into surrender. Elizabeth’s passage from one stage to another happened by outer developments – elopement, wedding, attack by Lady Catherine – while she could have done it inside smoothly.
43
On reaching the spacious lobby above, they were shewn into a very pretty sitting-room, lately fitted up with greater elegance and lightness than the apartments below; and were informed that it was but just done to give pleasure to Miss Darcy, who had taken a liking to the room when last at Pemberley.
 
44
"He is certainly a good brother," said Elizabeth, as she walked towards one of the windows.
  1. “He is certainly a good brother” – Elizabeth Darcy is selfless and affectionate to his sister.
    Selfishness has several shades. Affectionate selfishness, mercenary selfishness, egoistic selfishness, dominating selfishness, submissive selfishness are some of them.
    Generosity, miserliness, selfishness, selflessness, self-giving, power, knowledge, goodness, sweetness, manners, character, etc. can seek any combination.
    Mr. Hurst is indifferent, indolent and selfish confined to eating and sleeping. Mrs. Hurst is a highly educated unthinking submissive character who can willingly serve the cause of Caroline’s selfish goals unmindful of who suffers.
    Mr. Bennet is indolently selfish without affecting anyone and allowing everyone to encroach on his authority as long as his privacy is assured.
    No one relates to Mary. Apart from her being plain, she has developed an egoistic pride in being selfish and in seclusion.
    Jane does not so much as express her opinion about anyone.
    Her one concern is no one should think ill of her. She selfishly guards her good name jealously.
    Kitty’s selfishness is to subordinate herself to Lydia.
    Lydia does not think of selfishness or selflessness. She acts in an utterly selfish way, regardless of consequences, recklessly.
    She is not aware of the authority of the father or that of the mother.
    Darcy was taught to be mean and selfish, but it was only skin-deep.
    He unlearnt the twenty year training for the sake of Elizabeth.
    Utterly selfish people often have one or two around them to shower their generosity on. It is mostly selfish intensity indulged. Occasionally a streak of true generosity issues. Udar is the Sanskrit word for generosity.
    Power issuing through joy is expressive sweetness in action. Should infinity enter the picture, generosity issues. Miserliness is concentration.
45
Mrs. Reynolds anticipated Miss Darcy's delight, when she should enter the room. "And this is always the way with him," she added. "Whatever can give his sister any pleasure is sure to be done in a moment. There is nothing he would not do for her."
  1. “This is always a way with him” – Mrs. Reynolds about Darcy’s pleasing his sister” (P. 220)
    People know others fully and readily and it is precise.
    The attitudes of masters are very minutely understood by servants.
    The fact that all Minds, bodies are one makes this possible flawlessly.
    An army of one lakh men moves in a body obeying the commands of a single General because of this inbuilt, inherent oneness of human nature.
    For an observer of thoughts in the world, the movement of sheep, goats, birds will supply the right analogy.
    Within oneself there are a host of ideas moving in all directions.
    One cannot fully observe them as long as he is a part of them. Detaching himself from them, observing their movement from an outside point, one can see the gregariousness, freedom, leadership, etc.
    The hundreds of fictional characters we know, now we can see, answer to the general pattern, individual intensity.
    Their similarities and differences will be more easily perceived from a detached perspective from above.
    Mother says it is grace that one has a large number of people to manage.
    Heads of the families, parties, governments qualify for this.
    Exercise of power is grace.
    How one uses that occasion depends upon him.
    Exercise of knowledge is a greater expression of grace.
    The Individual who enjoys the social benefits of rights, technology, etc. receives the social grace.
    He who can lead the society brings the society higher grace through his instrumentality.
    Grace is action of god.
    One who is in a position to get that Grace to other people is in a privileged position.
    Privileges are special packages of grace in view of the organizational structure over which people preside.
    The Individual is privileged to serve the society with Grace.
46
The picture-gallery, and two or three of the principal bedrooms, were all that remained to be shewn. In the former were many good paintings; but Elizabeth knew nothing of the art; and from such as had been already visible below, she had willingly turned to look at some drawings of Miss Darcy's in crayons, whose subjects were usually more interesting, and also more intelligible.
  1.          “In former times there were many good paintings”.
    As poetry captures the spirit of life in the rhythm of words that express the deeper truths of life, paintings catch similar truths in line and colour.
    Collection of works of art is a social activity that has gained the sanction of society.
    Painting is an achievement of art. Life, being what it was hundred or two hundred years ago, works of art were not recognized during the life time of the painter. Some famous painters were not able to sell any of their painting which are now world famous.
    Knowledge, culture, art advance in seclusion in pockets till they are recognized by the public, rather the market.
    Life aspiring through colour and lines is art.
    Shah Jahan who created a wonder of the world to symbolize the mental love of his dead wife, was put in prison for sixteen years by his son.
    It means Love had no sanction of Power of the society then.
    Sri Aurobindo says Matter resists transformation by ignorance, inertia and division.
    We see it all over life. We can look at it in Elizabeth.
    She was ignorant of Darcy and proved difficult for him to approach. For the simple reason she did not know any thing beyond his wealth, she was inaccessible to him.
    That ignorance was fortified by a scandalous story. There was no inclination in her to exercise her Mind to know the truth nor was there any scope.
    Darcy’s letter removed some of the causes of ignorance partly.
    She, overcoming her inertia, moved from the vital to the mental somewhat.
    She was fully divided from him to know anything of him. His proposal healed initially the division from his side.
    Reynolds gave a good bit of information to remove her ignorance.
    After Mrs. Gardiner’s letter she took great efforts to overcome her inertia and recognized his value.
    The second proposal removed the division entirely and made the union possible removing all the three obstacles.
  2. “Elizabeth had willingly turned to look at some drawings of Miss Darcy”.
    They were days before photographs. Portraits were in fashion.
    Having one’s portrait done was a landmark in life.
    Writing one’s autobiography was another.
    Nehru wrote his autobiography before he was forty.
    At forty life had not begun for him.
    As soon as one earns his wealth he would build a house. House, portrait, autobiography were status symbols of aristocracy in those days.
    The car has usurped that place in this century.
    Great Men plan a book all their life and many publish one which makes them immortal.
    Adam Smith, Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton, Karl Marx were some of them.
    They inaugurated a new era – epoch-making intellectual works. Fashion spreads.
    People at a lower level do it after a fashion. A professor of Shakespeare at Leeds writing a book on Shakespeare apologetically opens the book saying now that he is a professor he must have his say on Shakespeare.
    Sri Aurobindo wrote five hundred Aphorisms and later added forty seven to them wherein all his thoughts are cryptically expressed.
    It is Mother who asked him to write.
    He wrote six books in five years.
    Whether anyone can finish reading them in fifty years is a question. There is no question of anyone doing so in five years.

    About a thousand years later they may be intelligible. He wrote to further Spiritual Evolution.
    It was not written by thinking. Ideas descended on Him. He says ideas were transferred directly to his pen. We cannot mistake them for inspired writing as we mistake him to be an Avatar. There is a widespread belief He is a Rishi. He is a portion of the Lord come down to announce the advent of the Hour of God.

    They are the divine script in celestial sky deciphered into human speech.
47
In the gallery there were many family portraits, but they could have little to fix the attention of a stranger. Elizabeth walked on in quest of the only face whose features would be known to her. At last it arrested her -- and she beheld a striking resemblance of Mr. Darcy, with such a smile over the face as she remembered to have sometimes seen when he looked at her. She stood several minutes before the picture in earnest contemplation, and returned to it again before they quitted the gallery. Mrs. Reynolds informed them that it had been taken in his father's life time.
  1. The last para on P. 220 is Elizabeth’s estimation of Darcy as a landlord.
  2. “Elizabeth walked in quest of the only face she could recognize”.
    Pretending not to be interested when one is absorbingly interested in a human trait. That is the only possible behaviour for woman.
    She is most eager to see Darcy’s portrait. Only a few minutes ago she had said they might be deceived by the housekeeper.
    Man constantly hopes to deceive others. He meets with failure. He practises self-deception successfully.
    Nehru and Gandhi were disillusioned at the fag end of their lives. A headmaster found his son standing first in the class till he came to SSLC.
    He could not pass SSLC. The father was baffled, helped him to pass. At the college university exam he made nineteen attempts.
    Again the father moved invisible forces. At the B.A. he took seventeen attempts. Father got him the pass. The boy could not pass even Tamil. After all this the father wondered how from the first rank in eleven years, he had come to this pass.
    It was his own school. How could he not know his boy was given the first mark till he came to the government exam? Self-deception was a reality for the father.
    Self-deception does to some what Self-realisation does to some others.
    In the occult scheme of things both are equal, as both are Brahman.
    Now she goes in search of Darcy’s portrait consciously, eagerly after listening to the good remarks of the housekeeper.
    It is with the same eagerness she walked to Netherfield.
    There it was ostensibly to see Jane.
    It was a subconscious journey to meet Darcy.
    Every word of the housekeeper did its work. Every minute raised new emotions in her towards Darcy.
    Even the improper phrases of his proposal, now she thought, must be softened by her new born sentiments.
    She moved towards him inwardly, eagerly.
    Her prestige with herself and her aunt stood in the way.
    Her comments to her aunt reflected that.
    All in all, she was now emotionally ready to be surprised by his appearance.
  3.         “At last it arrested her – she beheld a striking resemblance of Mr. Darcy”.
    She was so fully open in her entire being to be arrested by the picture.
    Man seeking a woman in marriage is different from his being in love with her.
    One is daily playing. The other is the finals in a match.
    Man is not capable of seeking a woman even while in love, as a woman seeks him in marriage. It is a passionate longing of the whole being.
    Elizabeth qualifies to be a woman seeking a Man, with the additional fervour of the aspiration for Pemberley.
    Women receive the likeness of a Man they are after in a split second missing no details whatsoever.
    It was her eyes, but her whole being sought to possess.
    She remembered his smile in the picture as one she had seen on his face, especially as when he looked at her.
    The Many relates to the other members of the Many and to the One.
    In doing so, the One in the Many is touched in the depth. It is spiritual communion.
    The woman reaches such intensity in seeking a Man.
    There will be no more untapped energies in her at that moment.
    Of the four varieties of knowledge, the most powerful is one of identity.
    The woman seeks such an identity with Man. When it is achieved, she is sure he cannot stay away from her.
    Caroline was incapable of that intensity. She resorted to all known stratagems that abundantly failed every time they were practised.
    At Pemberley when she saw her game was lost she was lost in a flood of copious abuse of Elizabeth. It was her negative acme before she turned to eloquent platitudes.
    The first time when he spoke of her fine eyes, Caroline inadvertently wished him joy not knowing she was unwillingly sanctioning it.
    Words are powerful.
    They act according to rules.
  4.        “She stood several minutes before the picture and returned to it again”.
    Her vocal expression of Pemberley was now added on to by her emotional endorsement of Darcy.
    Millenniums ago Man worked for survival and begot dozens of children.
    His affection was attachment to the very body of the woman producing children.

    Attachment gently upgraded itself to affection through attention.
    In recent centuries Man married for love in the West. Marriage without love was not adored by the society overtly.
    Though love was determined by looks, status, wealth, etc. there was, by and large, a great truth in love in any marriage.
    In India one should love the boy or girl one is married to.
    A great many of those marriages generated truer love than the love marriages.
    Charlotte’s wisdom told her happiness in marriage was by chance. Love in marriage was also by chance.
    A woman, however she came to be a man’s wife does not matter, who serves him all day for years, cannot but love him.
    No Man who receives service can fail to love the woman.
    When the Man is not before her eyes she consciously and constantly thinks of him, a lingering biological attitude of the male leaving the female after the arrival of the cubs.
    Man lives in his woman subconsciously.
    It is for her he lives. She was to be satisfied. She withholds it.
    The election may be won, power may come to him, but what she says and feels matters to him.
    Darcy was great to Lizzy, but Pemberley was greater still. Or Darcy was great because of Pemberley.
    Concubinage is the balance Man has invented for marriage.
    In China concubinage is a widespread institution.
    A concubine makes the wife constantly think and seek the husband consciously. It becomes eternal honeymoon.
    Marriage striking out a balance with Romance varies with cultures.
48
There was certainly at this moment, in Elizabeth's mind, a more gentle sensation towards the original than she had ever felt in the height of their acquaintance. The commendation bestowed on him by Mrs. Reynolds was of no trifling nature. What praise is more valuable than the praise of an intelligent servant? As a brother, a landlord, a master, she considered how many people's happiness were in his guardianship! -- how much of pleasure or pain it was in his power to bestow! -- how much of good or evil must be done by him! Every idea that had been brought forward by the housekeeper was favourable to his character, and as she stood before the canvas, on which he was represented, and fixed his eyes upon herself, she thought of his regard with a deeper sentiment of gratitude than it had ever raised before; she remembered its warmth, and softened its impropriety of expression.
  1. “a deeper sentiment of gratitude”. She felt gratitude for his love, but not love. Gratitude is a deeper and wider emotion than love as thinking is a greater faculty than memory. Attraction, affection, charm, infatuation, love, intimacy are not the emotions she had for Darcy. All these she felt for Wickham. Towards Darcy she felt gratitude for having loved her
  2. Darcy arrived the moment they all left the house.
  3. I am tempted to say as long as Elizabeth was in the house, she was occupied by the house. Only when she physically left the house, she could think of him. Her emotions were so powerful that he readily appeared. He was all along fully willing to respond.
  4. She was embarrassed by having to acknowledge to herself the very opposite emotions she had spoken to him.
  5.        “The commendation bestowed on him by Mrs. Reynolds is extraordinary”
    The value of human freedom is incalculable.
    Man can speak anything under duress or temptation.

    Tyrannical party bosses stir utmost fear in the cadres.
    There are vengeful characters who, if they can, can harm anyone.
    Should he be in power in party or government, Man will lose the capacity to think.
    There will be an atmosphere of phobia in his zone.
    The Bible invoked that power through ‘Fear of God’ in the beginning of knowledge.
    In another extreme, if only Man is certain in his depths that he is free, it is not easy to get from him a good word unless he chooses.
    His choosing can undergo all the shades of fear of authority, in a free atmosphere, by self-conditioning.
    Mrs. Reynolds enjoys here one version of that freedom arising out of the general respectability in Pemberley life.
    In her expression the housekeeper was free.
    What she spoke was her honest opinion freely formed.
    It was laudable compliments, no longer ‘we may be deceived’.
    Elizabeth’s heart was as much won over to Darcy as for Pemberley. Still she had no formulation in her mind as she did for Pemberley. It could be the feminine restraint but it was absent about Pemberley where it could be construed as coveting.
    She goes to Darcy from Pemberley, not vice versa.
    Physical first, vital next.
    When he met her first he was polite and stiff, not friendly and warm which he became later.
    Every shade of thought and feelings in one character is reflected in the other.
    He did not extend the gesture of aristocratic courtesy of offering them board and lodge at Pemberley.
  6.          “What praise is more valuable than praise of an intelligent servant?”
    Praise is an emotion of appreciation that overflows the instrument of conception.
    Man would like to praise himself and not another.
    It is the generosity of emotion that becomes praise.
    Those who are below find it easier to praise than those who are equal or above.
    Among equals the occasion of praise produces frustration or jealousy.
    Superiors resent such occasions or go on to revenge.
    Inferiors praise if they are emotionally free to do what they otherwise like.
    Such servants do not often have the intelligence to praise.
    They feel a joy or expansiveness and find no words that could express them.
    His praise becomes valuable because in voicing the praise he becomes more capable of serving his master or weaning himself away to become his own master.

    At her age she was valuable to know all this, even if she could not precisely articulate it.
    The capacity to appreciate an inferior is a superior quality which is readily recognized by life by an act. Elizabeth was intelligent enough to appreciate Mrs. Reynolds. Generosity of being at once would recognize the value of the housekeeper and reward her with a word of praise or look or even smile.
    Elizabeth was all this when she was in her elements before the captivating softness of a handsome young man. One must have a higher generosity to do so with the housekeeper. That would have avoided the provocation of Caroline and Lydia’s adventure. Elizabeth was not thinking of the phenomenon or the housekeeper but of herself. He who can think of them has a human choice between selfish understanding, selfless approval of the phenomenon; an appreciation out of the urge of self-giving that finds words to formulate it. It is the human choice. Elizabeth could bring Darcy there. Before her lay the option of response that would lodge them in Pemberley or the creation of a positive expansive atmosphere that could have avoided Lydia’s aberrations. What a devotee does by consecration, a cultured Man does out of his instinct which came to him out of two hundred years of family experience. For a sensitive devotee it is the work of a few years. For one whose one aim of yoga is to come closer to Mother, it is the next step to be taken in a few minutes. In past consecration such an exercise can settle age old feuds, or collect lost property.
  7.        “She thought of his regard with a deeper sentiment of gratitude.”
    Man feels regard to his elders, superiors, people in power. Regard is mental while respect is physical.
    A cultured Man feels regard even to those who are not his equals because culture values humanity and humanity is superior to animality. Age, Money, power are material, below humanity. By virtue of being human one deserves regard in the eyes of culture. Women do not enter into those schemes of things in India or Asia; women deserve our regard as objects of affection. An Indian becomes more respectable in behaviour in the presence of women who are sacred in his eyes as she has a soul that receives his affection and sanctions his physical existence.

    To the Westerner who kneels before her to beg her consent to be his wife, women deserve a regard greater than Money, power, status. That is a concept which will defy Indian concept. Elizabeth, thinking of his tenants, money, power, and work saw the amplitude of his power. His regard for her included all those vistas and exceeded it. That revealed to her the magnitude of his proposal which she had spurned. He rose in her estimation. Already after the proposal she felt gratitude for his loving her. It was almost an abstract thought. Now that she responded to Pemberley, Pemberley awoke a sentiment which only a magnificent property can evoke. Knowledge of his status, which her father did not have, made that sentiment deeper. All these months at Netherfield and Meryton he fixed his gaze on her. After his first visit to the Assembly where he regretted his visit, there was no reason for him to visit the dances. Perhaps he joined the dances only to see Elizabeth and fix his eyes on her. More than once it attracted her attention and she orally responded to it. She did not remember any of it now. To compensate all that she went out of her way to have Darcy’s eyes in the picture fixed on her. It is usual to fix one’s eyes on the picture. Only to a woman fixing the eyes of the picture on herself will suggest. She was well on the way to losing herself in him, not knowing the great event was yet to come. Compared with his behaviour outside of the house and the one at Lambton, this was only a beginning. Caroline was capable of neutralizing the one and Lydia was capable of canceling the other.

    Human choice - of Darcy – was capable of reversing all this and restoring her to her original glory.
  8. “She remembered its warmth and softened the impropriety of expression”.
    His abusive proposal, as a proposal was warmly felt by her.
    The human heart is alive to appreciation even as it can sense the offence.
    Experienced people speak of bodily movements, words can falter, not the body.
    A timid Man blinks his eye more often. Lack of sophistication is stiffness.
    Insecurity of relationship finds no words to speak. Desire to please sends a vibration all over the body that pleases itself.
    Formality gives a straight look. Politeness may prevent a girl from smiling. It is not in her power to let the smile spread all over the face as a brightness. Social culture is thus defined in a million ways. For each of that Man has worked out a personal version. They arise in a trice, speak and disappear.
    When you are in a function where a few hundred people gather, such an observation can bring a long experience into one event. Should you personally decide to benefit by it working out a version for you, out of that one visit is a lifetime gain. We read novels for the story. Students of literature study character and get a lot out of it. Studying in a story the character of life, one novel can give all the experience one needs. Studying epics makes a Man a complete Man. Reading the story from each character’s point of view is impossible which is possible for the author. One way of personality development is, if you are thus inclined, to write a novel and then read several novels. Go back to your novel. There will be a world of difference. To a devotee who wanted to serve the centre I suggested self-giving to some visitors at the centre. She said the devotees give back a hundred times more. That made her think of transferring it to her newly wedded home. The inner begins when the outer is exhausted by saturation. At the centre where life is luckily abridged into one place, if she extends her self-giving to all the devotees and saturates it, it is equal to giving to the whole world. It will be real to turn home after that. One will find that one’s spouse is psychologically equal to the whole world. One will expand by self-giving positively. It can take a negative turn, and then we find to meet a spouse is more difficult to successfully meet the whole world.
    It is important to remain positive, though it is difficult. Self-giving at home makes a house a home and a home a centre.
    Self-giving practised at the centre by all will make the centre a paradise on earth.
49
When all of the house that was open to general inspection had been seen, they returned downstairs, and taking leave of the housekeeper, were consigned over to the gardener, who met them at the hall-door.
 
50
As they walked across the lawn towards the river, Elizabeth turned back to look again; her uncle and aunt stopped also: and while the former was conjecturing as to the date of the building, the owner of it himself suddenly came forward from the road which led behind it to the stables.
  1. “Turned back to look again”. Pemberley possessed her feeling with a deeper appreciation. That feeling having reached her substance, evoked the Response of bringing the owner to meet her. Her conscious mind was startled, confused, embarrassed, but deep down every cell received him with expansive gratitude. The meeting being abrupt, he could not bring himself to speak with composure
  2.        “Elizabeth turned back to look again at the building” (P. 221)
    Visitors to the house leaving some object forgetfully is understood in our tradition as their subconscious intention to return.
    Elizabeth’s turning back to look at the building tells us she left her sub-conscious personality inside Pemberley.
    Diarrhea that costs $600 without this knowledge costs less here for intuition.
    India could have accomplished all she had accomplished in the last sixty years before 1950 if the local knowledge had been revived and relied on.
    The local knowledge is overlaid by superstitious rituals.
    Man is overlaid by his surface Mind organized into scientific thinking structured into academic training.
    Should these two deformities be shed, Man can offer the world this knowledge.
    If that is so, why should it not be done readily?
    Consecration is encrusted with mental egoistic accretions of hundred or two hundred types.
    Gently removing them all, it is possible.
    Those hundred or two hundred layers can be seen if we begin with Elizabeth’s first meeting with Wickham, follow her through to Hunsford, Meryton, Pemberley, Lambton, Lady Catherine and end in the proposal. Study the text at every step, every word, interpret her with this knowledge, you will know what you have to do.
    The rule of consecration is, do not stop in the middle. Another rule is, better today than yesterday. More than following Elizabeth’s development of Mind, what she missed has a greater lesson for us.
    Knowledge is available in plenty.
    Practice is scarce.
    Darcy when he left the inn gave her such a parting look which explained itself by his later activities.
    Rise in society is gradual. Steep, sudden rise is occasionally considered lucky. Elizabeth’s rise can be explained like that. It is explaining it away.
    To see the outer developments in terms of inner changes is to acquire a psychological understanding of life.
  3.         “Mr. Gardiner was conjecturing as to the date of the building”
    An estate is a social institution enshrining the social values of the period.
    Properties are owned by the individual, but it was earned by a group of people.
    A collective accomplishment is handed over to an individual for management which he treats as his own.
    A little thinking will explain that an empire cannot be founded by an individual.
    The discovery of Copernicus was the result of collective thinking begun long ago in Greece and other parts of the world. No Man’s brain is capable of surveying the heavens and individually arriving at the conclusion. The contributions of all others are invisible.
    The very fact that no original scientist has been born in Asia and no saint born in America explains that these apparently individual results are really collective results which emerge in one Man.
    He has no right to it nor can he cash it for himself. Certainly it is not a property he handed over to his children as exclusive property.
    The building is a material symbol of a vital accomplishment.
    Mr. Gardiner was interested in the history of the place, the date of its construction.
    Elizabeth concentrated psychologically on the owner, her uncle materially on the building thus capturing the whole. Darcy appeared as if to answer their interest.
    Inside the house was represented by the housekeeper. Outside the building was represented by the gardener.
    Those houses where the tradition is cherished last longer.
    The estate is the creation of several hundred or thousand people. It benefits should go to all. The sharing is to be done by the landlord. The lion’s share is three fourths for the lion and the rest not to be claimed by other animals who hunted with the lion. The right distribution of profits will eventually lead to a kind of socialism. The French Revolution put an end to it by violence.
    In all other countries the usurping individual is being overruled by the other developments in the society in other sections.
    In India it came as land ceiling.
    There is no ceiling on urban wealth. In America the lower levels get more out of a greater abundance. Its non-regulation has erupted as crisis in 1929 and is looming large till day.
  4. “The owner of it himself suddenly came forward from the road”.
    What is sudden for an unobserving eye is a normal development in life.
    A car emerging from a road that meets us at right angles but hidden always gives the appearance of suddenness. There is nothing sudden about it. Only that we do not see.

    Ununderstood processes of life are always a mystery to us. We know what passed through Elizabeth’s Mind. We do not know what was in his Mind. It is possible for the author to tell us what was in the Minds of Mr. & Mrs. Bennet, Jane, Caroline, Georgiana, Bingley, Wickham, Lydia.
    There will be absolutely no mystery then.
    For one who sees the web for the first time it will be a standing miracle whereas it is run according to a system.
    The servant who takes the master’s signature on the cheques used to wonder his signing on some cheques in the reverse where there is a seal as he did not know the self cheque carries a rubber stamp in the reverse. The rules that govern such meetings are 1) Energy in that plane must balance, 2)Thoughts of those who meet must go to each other, 3) Their rivals should desire they should not meet, 4) Here the concentration of Caroline on Pemberley brought Darcy and Elizabeth together, 5) the movement of the connected people should tally – Bingley thinks of Jane nearing Pemberley, 6) Future events have a bearing on it – Lydia’s adventure brings them together,7) One of them must intensely wish something – Mr. Gardiner wishes to fish, 8) Another may sense something in the atmosphere and may have a strong wish – Mrs. Gardiner might have desired to see Darcy, 9) A related wish may precipitate – Georgiana having heard of Elizabeth might have intensely wished to meet her, 10) The mental work of Darcy might have been over.
    Energy, events, harmony, need, wish, desire, events of immediate past and immediate future decide on a single event.
    Equally so Darcy meeting Elizabeth will influence all these people proportionately. It is best described by human choice. If that is fully understood, one can raise that centre to the divine determinism.
51
They were within twenty yards of each other, and so abrupt was his appearance that it was impossible to avoid his sight. Their eyes instantly met, and the cheeks of each were overspread with the deepest blush. He absolutely started, and for a moment seemed immoveable from surprise; but shortly recovering himself, advanced towards the party, and spoke to Elizabeth, if not in terms of perfect composure, at least of perfect civility.
  1. He was embarrassed to find his dream girl in physical presence, nor just before him, but in his house. It is a confirmation to him that she would accept him or has already accepted him. As the embarrassment was too much for both of them, he took leave.
  2. Her being there is an act very opposite to what she told him at his proposal. It admits of the mischievous construction put on it. There is no defence for her. Being self-inflicted, her embarrassment was highest. As she abused him to the maximum by willing choice, life made her stand before him as a low culprit.
  3.         “So abrupt was his appearance”.
    Mind breaking into emotions is abrupt.
    Elizabeth entering Pemberley is abrupt.
    Darcy asking his Mind to give up pride is a crude movement.
    Lydia moving towards her adventure is very abrupt.
    Two days later Caroline made an abrupt comment to Elizabeth.
    Bingley meeting Elizabeth and not mentioning Jane is a rough suppression of abrupt sensations.
    Inner abruptness expresses outside as an abrupt appearance.
    Abruptness can be positive or negative; pleasant or unpleasant.

    Smoothness too can be pleasant or otherwise.
    Wickham’s first meeting with Elizabeth was smooth and pleasant spreading scandalous falsehood.
    Jane’s friendship with Caroline was very smooth.
    Abruptness as well as smoothness are passages. The result is fixed by the attitude that initiates.
    DMK’s entry to power was felt by all including themselves as abrupt in 1967. Demography explains how it was an inevitable smooth process.
    A revolution is abrupt. Movement from one plane to another is equally abrupt. One is the symbol of the other.
    Indian Independence came in two parcels with untold violence as the spiritual force was to accomplish in the vital plane overcoming an unreal vital fad of opposite nature. Still there was power at least to prevent violence. Had they not resorted to escape August 15th in the name of auspiciousness which is really its opposite, the violence could have been avoided. Cuba, Korea, China could be without overt violence as they all were in the subtle plane.
    Elopement, a violent abrupt eruption, was round the corner.
    Impatience is the body’s inability to obey Mind.
    Consecration is Mind’s willingness to obey the Spirit.
  4.       “It was impossible to avoid his sight”.
    He was within twenty feet. There was no question of avoiding his sight.
    Space has a personality. It takes initiative at the behest of life to accomplish the goals of life.
    When the policeman agreed with Udar to let Mother go while Pavitra was arguing, Pavitra did not see the currency Udar held up to the policeman.
    We do not see the forces behind. We say it so happened.
    It is impossible for Man to escape when the higher forces act.
    A Man’s brother-in-law came to take his wife and child to her mother’s place.
    While at the Samadhi an insistent inner voice asked him not to send the child. Social etiquette required sending. The next day the child died. Human intelligence – stupidity – can never bypass divine ordination.
    Impossibility indicates one is trying to escape the fixed laws.
    For one who knows both the planes there is no impossibility.
    Man is the infinitesimal. He is fixed in it. To him it is impossible to know anything outside his shell. The above statement refers to one such event.
    Everything in her surface Mind wishes to avoid the sight.
    Her whole being wants to give herself to Pemberley and to Darcy.
    The compromise in space is their coming close to each other.
    Glencora missed meeting Burgo like this as space refused to cooperate. She could not find a place to meet him to arrange the elopement. Thus she escaped marrying that scapegrace. The significance of her missing the elopement is confirmed by her daughter marrying a steady meaningful gentleman, her son marrying a lovely magnificent American girl.
    In the next generation or in the next birth one can see how meaningful one’s present acts and urges are. Had Glencora been thwarted by malicious minds, her daughter would have eloped with one like Burgo or worse. Lydia’s elopement was a fulfillment of her mother’s urges about the red coat.
  5.        “Their eyes instantly met”
    On such occasions, eyes do not fail to meet.
    When in Longbourn she accepted him, a sweet pleasurable joy overspread his face. She could not see it as she was looking down.
    It was a characteristic movement of hers. She could not see him full in the face, meet his eyes. Her response was to Pemberley not to Darcy.
    Now, before he committed, she met his eyes straight as he had not yet committed. At Longbourn he had already proposed. It was her turn to be away.
    This is not a meeting of Minds.
    Their emotions met. He started.
    He lost all his composure, retained his civility.
    Only fiction can be so true to life.
    History can only record they met and what transpired.
    Literature is a more powerful tool to study life than history.
    There are one time occurrences in life for anyone.
    Such a moment fully abridges their entire emotional history into this one meeting.
    Only fiction can do justice, not a biography.
    Even fiction cannot fully bring out the intensity. That can be done by poetry only.
    Poetry is the autobiography of emotions lived intensely.
    Love is the poetry of life.
    Man may have missed love; but love never misses Man. It is there before him constantly to aspire for.
    Man has discovered the church, not God.
    So also he has discovered marriage, not love.
    To discover love in marriage is to discover god in life.
    Man seeks god in heaven, love and romance outside marriage.
    To discover god in life, love and romance in marriage is the divine life He advocates in The Life Divine.
  6.        “The cheeks of each were overspread with the deepest blush”.
    One blushes when what he does not want to disclose is seen by others.
    Lovers always blush; but love is nothing to be ashamed of.
    The blossoming of love passes through a process till it is completed.
    One finds it difficult to discuss it in public.
    An idea can be discussed; an emotion does not lend itself to be discussed.
    Love is not a personal emotion. There is another in the issue, often unsettled.
    Surely one does not want negative developments to be spoken.
    Then, why not positive developments to be spoken.
    In the emotion of a lover a positive conversation has the effect of a negative conversation.
    A sore may hurt when handled.
    Love is an open heart which can be touched only by a lover.
    Any other touch is likely to make it sore.
    Lovers are sensitive enough to know others will not handle his love as gently as it demands. Any other person may find the lover’s emotion funny, silly, superstitious. That is an offence.
    The great secret of Romance is that in what many discover as silly fads, the lover discovers intense Romance. It is an eternal truth of all Romance which is generally missed. “I do not find anything in her. Why are you enamoured of her?” is a question no lover will be able to answer. He can only blush. How can Darcy explain to Caroline what made him change inside out? It is an impossible task. Those who have discovered love in Burgo will cherish it. The lady herself often wonders what he admires in her. Palliser saw a whole world in Glencora which no one else saw. And she did not see it herself. Romance is an attitude that can discover gold in mud. What is thus discovered is often pure gold to the discoverer, not to others. Maybe that is the secret of Romance.
  7. “Darcy absolutely started”
    To find something other than the expected causes surprise.
    Surprise is an unexpected understanding.
    It is a moment of mental freshness we love to cause in others.
    A surprise can be pleasant or otherwise.
    Emotional surprise expands happily.
    One is startled when such a surprise has no ready response from us and it takes a minute or two to acquire it. A new nervous comprehension is possible in one minute.
    Mind, emotions, nerves, body have their settled understandings.
    Surprise, startling, starts are their response to create a new understanding.
    They can be positive or negative, pleasant or unpleasant.

    Personality grows by such openings becoming permanent.
    One blushes when all those points, circumstances reveal to others what we keep for our own consumption.
    Darcy was caught unawares physically and therefore he absolutely started.
    Man makes a progress. He does not understand it till late when events confirm.
    It was his own inner opening down to the physical which had brought her to Pemberley. Only when she was before him he understood it. Hence he started. It is another explanation for his going away at once. Man who makes great progress may not know it for a long time till outer events confirm it. Jinnah, DMK, MGR were thus surprised. One looking back on his life will see the progress he has made unconsciously and that will raise his confidence. It is true equally on the opposite side. Man is unconscious in his success and failure. Devotees who have come to Mother can by such observation know Mother came to them long before they came to Mother.
    That is to know one more way of Mother’s life. The Life Divine in its course makes so many provisions; 1) We stop our efforts in the middle, 2) What cannot be understood by Mind can be understood by consciousness, 3) We forget earth is our basis, 4) We often err logically, e.g. the vessel made of gold, we forget is still gold. We mistake it for the vessel, 5) Till Faith becomes knowledge we have to act on faith, 6) We exclude what we have exceeded,
    7) We do not belong to one plane, but we exist in all planes, 8) We mistake the phenomenon for the essential, e.g. think ego is our true being,
    9) We consider Mind as the ultimate and take the Purusha as immutable,
    10) We look at life through ego and are baffled, 11) Out of the two great phenomena we choose one instead of accepting both and discovering their relationship, e.g. Being and Becoming, 12) Instead of knowing our organizations as a power of Man we take them to be independent, e.g. Force is inert, 13) We apply a rule of one plane to another instead of discovering what is common to all planes, e.g. ethics is not common to Man, animal and god, 14) we limit ourselves to Being and exclude Non-Being, 15) we foist our inability on to the Absolute, 16) We limit our definition of Freedom, 17) We limit ourselves to the phenomena – Divine Maya, 18) We mistake the lower partial instrument as the instrument of creation – Mind, 19) Time and Space are taken as metaphysical constructions, 20) we mistake the part for the whole, 21) Ignorance is what is intentionally created to reach higher heights of joy, 22) We do not consider God in the ascent – Man emerging as an Individual in the society is almost forgotten, 23) To us life is evil while it is a plane of existence, 24) Desire upgrades as love and it is not to be suppressed, 25) We forget Matter is delight of being, 26) Our soul is the evolving Purusha, not Purusha, 27) Our view matters, Matter is a result of our view,
    28) Existence can be of seven or eight, ten or twelve planes – Nothing is fixed, 29) At a time only one principle evolves out of the seven, 30) The goal is inevitable, 31) We are the determinants 32) The six-Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara, Maya, Prakriti, Shakti – are one, 33) There is one more dimension of Time where the Timeless can be permanent in Time 34) The relative is the Absolute, The Individual is the Eternal 35) There is nothing undivine,
    36) Dream and hallucination are real, 37) We mistake ignorance as illusion 37) Ignorance is knowledge modified, 38) Ego is the self-experience of self-consciousness, 39) Memory is a faculty of Mind, not Mind, 40) The evolving Soul can identify with the Absolute in life, 41) Practical ignorance cannot go till the original ignorance dissolves, 42) losing contact with Supermind is Ignorance, 43) Ignorance is a greater power than knowledge, 44) Simple contrary becomes complex perversity, 45) Neither the One nor the Many is the ultimate, 46) The Transcendent must express in life, 47) Not only unity of the inconscient and the superconscient but they must ascend to Transcendence,
    48) Rebirth is essential for us not for any other school, 49) Body must evolve along with the evolution of the soul, 50) One can help another when he universalizes, 51) Transformation exists at three levels,
    52) The Spirit too must be transformed, 53) The low must willingly submit itself to the high to qualify for freedom, 54) It is taste of Ignorance that stands in our way, 55) Man makes God anthropomorphic. There are lofty principles that govern human spiritual evolution. We see in practice just taking the husband’s point of view and watching television for his sake changes the domestic atmosphere drastically. A lifeless Man who cannot look at you, by one session of training in self-confidence raises himself to be the top salesman in his area. Self-giving to devotees brings hundred fold positive response. Moving from vital to Mental, Elizabeth did wonders. Prayer for a non-devotee by his sister-in-law cures both the failed kidneys in a dream where Mother appears in white. Silent will alone helped a Man to earn tens of thousands of crores. Above is a list of fifty-five principles almost touching each chapter of The Life Divine. Following ONE principle fully, faithfully, perfectly is enough for several generations of well being. Let us take all the principles of Mother, understand them all fully and decide to follow them all minutely. We will be exhausted, all our energies will be exhausted. Of course, we cannot work beyond that. Let us settle down to some principles for our serious practice. Not one Man can fail in it. Not one problem can remain unsolved. If still there are problems, I am sure he is one who does not want to solve that problem for whatever reason. He is not our concern. Let him wait till he drinks. He is Mrs. Bennet who wanted to solve her problems going to Brighton. Without a little sincerity one cannot do anything. This is sincerity to falsehood. I am speaking of a vast wealth recently. The above effort is abundant to secure that wealth. It is the surest foundation for Supermind. This story shows us almost all the rules, their effective reality. One cannot have a greater medium. Any book of mine read as if it is written to that one reader contains many principles of Mother. A devotee can choose a book and try to follow it fully. Comments of Pride and Prejudice are comprehensive of life. It is impossible for readers not to find parallels in the story for most of their problems. In the story they see every problem raised resolves. In us there are arrears in the Mind. Most of them we will know. Whatever we do not know meditation will reveal. Or any other person can tell us.
  8. “For a moment seemed immovable from surprise, but shortly recovering himself”.
    The very body loses its motion by the stunning experience of Mind. Mind extends its power to the body.
    There is Mind in the body.

    Human resilience is endless.
    Subconsciously everyone has that capacity.
    To be consciously equally resilient, a developed vital Mind is necessary.
    A boy had an interview card for MBBS and another for B.Sc.
    He took the MBBS interview and asked his younger brother to impersonate him at the other interview as both were on the same day at different places. The one who impersonated forgot his role and answered, “He will prefer it” to a question. His alert awareness was so great that the interviewer, after the first hesitation, forgot it.
    As and when the Mind develops, Man loses his vital faculties.
    Those lower functions are now done by the higher faculty which appears to be less efficient.
    Mind becoming less efficient than the vital is different from what is happening in India where Man chooses to withdraw from these faculties as an urban fashion. It is a tragedy. Mind should not consider them as of no value. The right thing is Mind should gather the essence of the vital knowledge to be used by it at its own level as it can employ. Man who has outgrown the compelling employment of agriculture does not give it up, but cultivates using modern methods more efficiently. The attitude of Indians must be one of knowledge not fashion.
    The Western way of life does not demand giving up traditional knowledge. Nothing compels one to spend Rs. 30,000/- for diarrhea instead of Rs. 300/-. Jaundice is powerfully curable in three doses. The population has come to forget it and VIPs dying in hospitals of jaundice are frequent. There is compulsion in management to follow Western methods. In practice Indian managers clumsily follow an odd mixture of Western and Indian methods. The social leadership should guide them through national institutions. Individuals are incapable of following Indian methods on their own.
  9. “Spoke to Elizabeth, if not in not perfect composure, at least of perfect civility.”
    One in love parts with his composure forever.
    In a moment like that it is to his very great credit that he could command perfect civility. Composure in behaviour is inner emotional tranquility.
    One whose Mind is settled about his beliefs can have emotional tranquility.

    Settled beliefs of life come to one from his family.
    Or, by long study and serious thinking one arrives at settled beliefs.
    Settled beliefs in life can give a sedate temperament.
    Settled beliefs in religions gives a status in religious hierarchy.
    There can be settled beliefs in spirituality.
    In maturity one sheds such beliefs to enter into a spiritual experience.
    Spiritual experience expressing as social temperament is calm, quiet.
    Any Man would be flustered in Darcy’s position.
    One cannot find words then. In such a condition if he thinks of Elizabeth the mouth would speak it as Georgiana.
    His condition was one fit for blurting.
    It is a condition where words will fail him, everything will fail him.
    In the second meeting he found himself asking her how she found Pemberley, invited them for refreshment, Mr. Gardiner for fishing.
    Mr. Gardiner never believed the invitation to fish because Darcy was not himself at that moment. His liking for fishing was so great he was unable to believe the invitation.
    The absence of composure was made up by a small break in the meeting.
    To her, composure on the premises of Pemberley towards which her emotions were turned was difficult. Also there was a sense of guilt in her though not justifiable. As a lady she could not face him, and turned away. For him it was surprise,
    astonishment; for her it was embarrassment.
52
She had instinctively turned away; but, stopping on his approach, received his compliments with an embarrassment impossible to be overcome. Had his first appearance, or his resemblance to the picture they had just been examining, been insufficient to assure the other two that they now saw Mr. Darcy, the gardener's expression of surprise, on beholding his master, must immediately have told it. They stood a little aloof while he was talking to their niece, who, astonished and confused, scarcely dared lift her eyes to his face, and knew not what answer she returned to his civil enquiries after her family. Amazed at the alteration in his manner since they last parted, every sentence that he uttered was increasing her embarrassment; and every idea of the impropriety of her being found there recurring to her mind, the few minutes in which they continued together were some of the most uncomfortable of her life. Nor did he seem much more at ease: when he spoke, his accent had none of its usual sedateness; and he repeated his enquiries as to the time of her having left Longbourn, and of her stay in Derbyshire, so often, and in so hurried a way, as plainly spoke the distraction of his thoughts.
  1. As she is more than embarrassed, he cannot but share it.
  2. Repetition arises when the mind refuses to function.
  3. He was distracted as he was unable to comprehend her visit.
  4. It is a great fact of physiology that he could not remain there when all thoughts deserted him as thoughts originate in the body as its action.
  5. Her more fully accepting emotional act arises amidst shame.
  6. Her own family has a monopoly of shame.
  7. Desire when fulfilled leads to shame.
  8. She could not meet his gaze as she was shy of her material response to his property. Servants delighting in the close presence of the Master is a rare pleasant privilege. The gardener expressed his pleasant surprise. The emotion that binds the master and the servant can range from servility to loyal admiration. The Master is a social adult and represents royalty to the servant. In India, the Master is addressed as God, which he really is to him
  9. “Instinctively turned away, received the compliments with an embarrassment impossible to overcome”.
    The conception of embarrassment is an expressive idiom, expressive of emotions that refuses to formulate itself.
    Blushing is out of an undefined shame. Embarrassment is out of an inability to know what to feel or how to conduct oneself.
    தர்ம சங்கடம் Dharma sangadam is its direct translation but this latter phrase pits the Man against dharma.
    Embarrassment implies conflict but a conflict ununderstood.
    For a spiritual aspirant life is a constant embarrassment till his detachment is final and decisive.
    The instinctive reaction of Elizabeth was to turn away. Ordinarily if two people meet, they talk and conduct business.
    Here there was a world of disagreement, distrust, between them.
    He was sorely aware of having spoken ill of her family in the proposal. Even in the letter, he was conscious of having offended her. On her part she violently let loose a virulent abuse calling him names, and capped it all saying he was the last Man she would ever marry.
    Of, course, she was hurt by her own position.
    He was embarrassed by what he was.
    How was it possible for either of them to face the other.
    He overcame all that he was and all that she was and entered into a civil dialogue, asked for an introduction, invited Gardiner to fish, asked all of them to take refreshments, desired to know where they stayed, offered to introduce his sister and bring Bingley with him.
    It was a feat for anyone in his position.
    She swallowed all that she was, walked with him, was polite.
    He came up to the coach, handed the ladies into the coach, walked back slowly as a love-lorn youth.
    Only that he did not offer them bed and board, offering to vacate the inn, pack their things and bring them there by his men.
  10. “The gardener’s surprise on seeing his master”.
    Human capacity to submit, adore is equal only to the desire to dominate.
    Any trait in Man is endless, infinite. The gardener melts in the emotion of obedient devotion.

    Man looks for one to dominate.
    Man looks for one to whom he can submit.
    Devotion, dedication, adulation, admiration, adoration, appreciation are some such emotions.
    Devotion is of the emotion, particular to religious emotion towards the Divine.
    It is given to a guru in the place of the Divine.
    Dedication is devotion directed to service.
    Adulation is of the turbulent sensation of the nerves.
    Admiration is of the Mind expressing through emotion.
    Adoration is thought maturing into overflowing emotion.
    Appreciation is an admiring understanding.
    Men after power value power as much as Money.
    Servants loyal to the master value that loyalty equal to the income.
    Given the alternative of income and loyalty, loyal hearts will prefer the latter as it is soul-satisfying. In practice loyalty goes with a higher income.
    Before loyalty forms in one or his family, they are in a position where they would have been betrayed. Now they have two alternatives.
    One is to take revenge for this betrayal to all their future contacts. The other is rare, but is existent. The bitterness of betrayal turns into loyalty and they become wedded to loyalty to all future relations. The history of human attitudes, their vicissitudes, their successive stages, invasions, reversions is a vast study. He who reads Mahabharata will find every expression in it. Maybe all epics enshrine within them all human traits. The Mahabharata is of 1,00,000 slokas each of two lines expanded from an original of 20,000 slokas. It is an epitome of human wisdom.
    Every serious writer knows of human nature too well.
  11. “They stood a little aloof while he was talking to their niece”
    Etiquette requires them to let privacy prevail.
    He should seek an introduction which he did a little later.
    It was perfect civility on his part. They too rose to the occasion.
    It was not lost on him. He saw the magnanimity of their restraint.
    Not to excitedly respond to the owner of Pemberley talking to their niece is a measure of aristocratic culture.
    He saw it, sensed it, appreciated it and acted on it.
    He too rose to the occasion of extending two invitations at the second meeting.
    This is all of historical significance in the lives of all four.
    Every word, every look, every gesture, every movement at these moments, they know is decisive for their future.
    These are no occasions for thought, but opportunities for creative action.
    If thought is an action ever, it is this moment.
    If the least act can be decisive ever, it is at such a moment. They never thought of Darcy’s love for Elizabeth till then. That arose a little later.
    Good will is divine will in life.
    It is their good will that brought her there.
    A moment of good will is a charged sensitive atmosphere for accomplishment.
    What that accomplishment maybe they had no idea.
    His behaviour in the next half an hour gave them the idea.
    The creative consciousness of the society has conceived that idea at that moment in the womb of Pemberley.
    It is an interesting situation.
    It deserves to be treated as a close emotional preserve.
    It requires a cultural cocoon.
    The wonder of it is the object of love itself was unaware of the sprout.
    No wonder the lady saw majesty in his mouth.
    Love was evident, too self-evident to ignore.
    The Man was a lover par excellence requires no explanation.
    They preserved the possibility of the moment with creative silence.
  12. “Elizabeth astonished and confused, scarcely dared to lift her eyes”.
    Inner emotions express as outer movements.
    Sales people are trained in body language.
    Facial muscles express all emotions precisely.
    Looks can be open books of unopened hearts.
    No timid Man can meet the eyes of others in a work.
    Movements of the head, eyes, face, lips, bodily movements are in no one’s control.
    Should one have them in control, he should be a saint or a master criminal.
    Novels that accurately explain them will be a success.
    Writers have developed sensations, more than their minds.
    Only a mother knows the meaning of such movements in her last child.
    It is a vastly developed localized talent, not transferable.

    In a crisis, the history of our thought abridges into a few words.
    For lovers there is only one moment in life. It is one winning the other.
    Entering into marriage, they are like a motor without the coil.
    Shakespeare was produced by Elizabethan England.
    He overshot the average of Men, even the cream, as it was a richly creative period. England forgot him for long. It was France’s intellectuality that discovered him. England readily possessed him as a pride of possession, though was incapable of rising to the need of the hour.
    The conservatism of England smothered her own creativity.
    It is the best example of a great man not being popular in his own place during his lifetime.
    Sri Aurobindo brought the Hour of God on earth unperceived.
    His contribution to English prose and poetry was incomprehensible by the native Englishmen.
    His spiritual discovery remains unknown in his own country.
    Great Men serve their country or humanity incognito.
    Bravely fighting and saving his country and his world, the leader goes down the drain.
    Popularity and service are not always coexistent.
    Not all the Rishis have left their sacred names to us to worship.
  13. “Amazed at the alteration of his manners”.
    Severe thrashing made the paint stealer declare, “You are my leader.”
    Fourteen years in jail with Faria transformed the ship’s captain into the wisest Man of infinite wealth.
    What fourteen years of penance did, here initiation of the guru does it to the sishya.
    One right word at the ripe moment dissolves the feud of decades.
    The whole trend of Depression was reversed by FDR in a week of fireside chats.
    Forty years of bodily tension was instantly removed by balcony Darsan.
    Seventeen years of mental agony of tension disappeared on entering Her room.
    Egoistic separative assertion accepting love pure discovers an emotional wonder.
    What her abuse did to him, Pemberley and Reynolds did to her.

    Purani came and saw Sri Aurobindo, agreed to join the Ashram. He went home and returned after some time. There was such a change in Him that Purani was amazed. To his question, Sri Aurobindo gave an evasive answer quipping back pointing to his beard, ‘What is this’. Yoga changes Man drastically in a short time. What Darcy did was a transforming alteration. That struck her dumb. It was Cheapside he laughed at. Now he wanted the same uncle and aunt residing at Cheapside to be introduced to him. It was no ordinary change.
    She found it as an alteration of manners. Really it was deeper than manners. His whole character at that depth had changed.
    One can see it in his movements, voice, tone, words, looks, gestures, etc.
    He had decided to worship her, no longer consider the inferiority of her family. For her sake he decided to accept all her family, even those dwelling in Cheapside. Education changes the social status.
    Marriage gives one the status of the spouse, higher or lower. Politics opens up new avenues for one. Power suddenly raises one so much that he changes out of all recognition.
    Success raises a Man suddenly; failure throws down a Man. In yoga, the decision to take to yoga changes one so much that his inner life changes from darkness to light.

    One decision is so powerful as to change the social animal into an idealistic spirit.
  14. “Every sentence he uttered was increasing her embarrassment”.
    In times of transition every bit of news changes the world of the hearer.
    One who was on Rs. 96,000/- p.m. was called for an interview at a big metropolis.
    The news added they would pay for his flight. One more piece of news was a room in a five star hotel was reserved. When he went to the interview he was offered per month Rs. 120,000/- . He was amazed at every further piece of information. This is rare.
    Opening life opens on all sides to the utter bewilderment of the hearer.
    Life is neutral. It can open either way. On any side it opens only like that.
    Kural advises us that to those who have done an evil turn to us, we must act so magnanimously that they are put to shame.

    Darcy had no intention of putting her to shame, but what he did was exactly that.
    She was overcome with embarrassment as she was thinking of her abuse.
    Indian religion speaks of working out the past karma and getting out of the cycle of birth.
    Jesus asks us to forgive the sinners.
    Law gives the offender punishment, sometime retributive punishment.
    Through births or punishment or forgiving, the sinner is raised out of sin.
    Mother’s consciousness dissolves sin and all its lingering effects.
    We know past acts reversed leave a remainder. We call it legacy.
    Mother’s consciousness transforms, which means every evil propensity and the old act is reversed to its good aspect.
    In a transfer of property the news came to the beneficiary in raghukalam. The devotee believed in it. Property came without power of attorney. The devotee realized the futility of raghukalam and began to consecrate the transfer. The first result was the onus of repaying the bank due was shifted away from him. Next he got a huge bank loan without his signing any document. Finally he who was holding the power of attorney itself paid him a sum equivalent to the value of the property.

    Transformation transfigures. She was ashamed of her abuse. He received the abuse as blessing. She was ashamed of meeting him. To him meeting her was a privilege which he even wanted his sister to have. Even her relatives were felt by him as a privilege. He wanted Pemberley too to share the privilege of her dining there.
  15. “Every idea of the impropriety of her being found there”
    While in low consciousness every vice appears to be a virtue.
    For the vital Man increasing his possessions is the ultimate goal.
    Moving the Mind and Spirit, one discovers that every possession inhibits knowledge.
    Man who accepts Mother, having human values, is unable to move closer to her.
    She found each moment highly uncomfortable whereas to him every moment with her was a moment of devotion, when his consciousness entered refined purity. She was unaware of it.
    It was an error of perspective, illusion of the obvious.
    Man can think of himself only from his point of view.
    From her point of view she had thrown herself in his way in bad taste.
    She could not know his point of view. It is practical ignorance. To know that, she must know the Absolute.
    If she loved him, she could know his perspective, that he congratulated himself on seeing her there.
    Love does here the work of the Absolute.
    At every moment of life, something represents to us the Absolute.
    To know that human choice becomes divine choice.
    Mother is the mediatrix between the divine and the human.
    He then made the right human choice. She was the beneficiary.
    Her own mental reservations in accepting Darcy’s love brought the two vitiating events of Caroline’s provocation and elopement.

    In spite of his effusive enthusiasm, she was feeling guilty.
    At a moment consecration surges as an act of grace, Man indulges in his thought and abridges the Presidentship of the nation as a local job.
    Her Mind was not as free as his was.
    She could not pardon herself for the abuse, nor could she give up Wickham.
    She allowed the externals to work out her inner arrears.
    He took his inner insufficiencies in their essence and overcame them without any other reference in the outer life.
    The ease with which he disposed of his aunt after the engagement shows he had no outer reference whatsoever.
  16. “The few minutes in which they continued together were some of the most uncomfortable of her life.”
    The most fortunate moments were felt to be the most uncomfortable because of what one is.
    Comfort or discomfort is not a present from outside, but something that decides from inside.
    It is a great spiritual truth given to us as the Unknowable’s formulation in us.
    It formulates to our consciousness.
    The Divine in Man determines the divine course.
    The Man in the Divine determines the human course of the divine stream.
    Those few minutes decided her life in Pemberley.
    The poises of the human consciousness are many, are almost infinite.
    When does the Unknowable come down to formulate itself?
    Between Man and the Unknowable there are infinite levels.
    At each level, the force of that level responds to Man as the unknowable does.
    At one level we all know society activates itself to formulate itself.
    It is the dispensation of social justice or legal justice.
    Above the society exists life and the universe who also act exactly like that.
    When society and law fail, Man’s just position is responded to by life which officiates for the unknowable. Man exclaims at such moments ‘God is great’.
    The universe responding like that is rarely understood by Man.
    He receives the gift not knowing what happened or how.
    Below the society family rises to the individual’s occasion and gives him what he fails to accomplish.
    He himself sometimes represents to himself the unknowable and determines the work.

    The wife, Man’s psychological centre has the comprehensive capacity of all these – the unknowable, the universe, life, society, family, himself – combined when she is in tune with him. In Tamil this knowledge refers only to the longevity of him as மாங்கல்ய பலன். To such a woman Mother will be all this without her praying for it. The woman who is all this to all around becomes the Mother in herself.
  17. “Nor did he seem much more at ease” He who pleases another, pleases himself.
    He who offends another pleases himself, offends himself later.
    He who pleases others, by virtue of his small personality, offends himself.
    Causing embarrassment to another can be embarrassment or joy to oneself.

    Darcy caused discomfort to her and, in spite of his joy, felt a little of it himself.
    The course of true love never did run smooth. The goal of JOY is never reached by a course of unmixed JOY. But below the surface of events there never has been anything but joy.
    Joy in human life is seen as activity. Seen in this perspective from the first visit of Bingley till Darcy’s second proposal, the story is a chain of brisk activities, in a way unusual to the life in the village.
    The one great tragedy that hit the family sent the father to London, brought from tour all of them home, sent Darcy to London and to Cheapside, the couple to Newcastle, brought Lady Catherine to Longbourn and again Darcy.
    This philosophy holds good to all life of prosperity as well as adversity. Even the worst of tragedies are moments of chains of activities.
    An active moment on the surface is solid stable joy below the surface.
    If this thesis can be conceded, the theme all life is only Delight will be true.
    It is said that the Man in constant depression has a joy in clinging to it.
    He who complains against so many or even against himself has a joy in complaining.
    Consecration of a movement of complaint in its origin of the first physical impulse which is the point where it enters the conscious from the subconscious, will turn it into joy.
    Subconscious consecration is at the origin of that movement in the subconscious. The subconscious is the evolved part of the inconscient. When Lydia said, “Bingley will choose me”, she may or may not remember it, but it was half-conscious.
    At a time great good fortune was coming down on him crashing, it occurred to him to help a Man in dire distress which was not an obligation, nor was that Man aware that act would ruin him utterly. It was a subconscious urge. Charlotte’s invitation to a reluctant Elizabeth, Mrs. Gardiner’s invitation to Pemberley are such movements. These fortunate and unfortunate initiatives are conscious, unconscious, half-conscious and sub-conscious.
  18. “When he spoke his accent had none of its usual sedateness”
    Accent is a subconscious skill.
    Its losing his usual sedateness means he was disturbed in the subconscious.
    Man lives by his manners, at best by behaviour.
    Manners and behaviour belong to the surface Mind. They are acquired, lived, altered in the conscious Mind – surface Mind.
    Character is a subconscious faculty or skill or we can even say capacity.
    A Man’s subconscious grows gradually and gently surfaces.
    We call it maturity. Maturity is a smooth process, as the ripening of the fruit.
    The region that touches the subconscious is the region of sensitivities.
    Great discontent spreads in societies if these sensitivities are questioned or threatened. When they are to be destroyed, a Revolution breaks out.
    The Individual never opens his subconscious except in moments of fear or greed.
    One in bankruptcy, a Man whose home is rudely broken, a disappointed love, a bleak future makes him revalue his sensitivities so as to start life afresh.
    Positively, as for Iacocca, when a huge opportunity opens threateningly, a Man determines to act in such a fashion that he walks roughshod over his sensitivities.

    There is no progress without the subconscious becoming conscious. It can slowly mature as in education or shockingly open as in experience.
    Marriage is really a live institution at the level of the subconscious if a Man wants to benefit by that.
    The story ‘Notebook’ reviewed in detail, scene by scene, will show how the knowledge begins as urge in the subconscious and Man organizes it in conscious life, waiting for the result to confirm. As there are two, man and woman, their interactions add rich substance and open in several dimensions of possibilities. We see the subconscious pushes the conscious rudely and compels progress. As love and affection are the substratum, Romance is the pronounced goal, it is a story that lends itself to study this phenomenon.
    Sedateness is one attribute of steady culture.
    Embarrassment is the sign of losing it.
    A shock opens the subconscious.
  19. “as plainly spoke of the distraction of his thoughts”
    Thought becomes speech when Mind has endorsed and sanctioned its structure.
    A thought is the coordinated result of several facts or thoughts or both.
    Mind continually receives facts that are stored in memory.
    An issue makes one think.
    Thinking is to commission all the relevant facts, thoughts, opinions, beliefs into action.
    The action is coordination of them all around a centre.
    That centre is ego or an opinion or even belief.
    Such a coordination is called reasoning.
    Reason, He says, is ego.
    Reason endeavours to discover the unity in them.
    Reason that is ego has the element that undoes it.

    Once a thought is sanctioned and settled, it preserves its character.
    Its character is its structure.
    When the subconscious gives a jolt, the thought loses its structure.
    A structureless thought tries to restore its structure. It is distraction of thoughts. He finds himself repeating. Body is paralyzed; thought is distracted. She moved from one mental position to another. Its reflection in him is seen in his distracted thoughts. Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner were people well settled in life, with steadfast manners. Between the embarrassed lovers, they were a sheet anchor of stability. Their presence helped seal their unexpressed love. The second proposal was given in Pemberley and accepted. It was in the subtle plane.
    The actual performance of it was at Longbourn.
    Only on its premises the proposal had a validity of space.
    In the proposal Man seeks the woman.
    This woman was of objectionable family.
    It must be accepted on these premises.
53
At length every idea seemed to fail him; and, after standing a few moments without saying a word, he suddenly recollected himself, and took leave.
  1. ‘Every idea seemed to fail him’. Seeing Elizabeth’s non-opposition to him he was overwhelmed by surging emotions and all thoughts deserted him. For him to find Elizabeth at Pemberley and friendly is more than what he can comprehend
  2. “At length, every idea seemed to fail him”
    In a condition where thoughts are destructured, no idea will sprout.
    A wet pot can be crushed into clay and remoulded as a different vessel.
    A thought that loses its structure will be of intangible forces to be recaptured into the form of another thought.
    India had a democratic system promulgated by the Raj from 1919. In 1947 she had nearly a thirty year experience of democracy. The old system was not dismantled. A new system under a new dispensation took on the old system. What changed was the spirit of the government, not the form of it. In the next sixty years it has not come to stay. If anything it has lost its old virtues, acquired new vices. The same thing happened in 1776 in USA. For them to find their feet it took nearly two hundred years.
    In the Mind the replacement of old thoughts by new needs a long time. Darcy took three or four months. Now Elizabeth abruptly appeared before him. What he achieved in four months, he had to give a presentable form in four minutes. He could not. He took leave. Life brought them together again in a short time. He regained his composure, resumed his personality.
    The forester in Shakespeare’s prologue who was made a Duke after the initial confusion of a short while did not find it very difficult to assume the ducal authority, if not manners. Man’s resilience is famous. Very quickly Napoleon crowned himself Emperor.
    The stages from low clarity to high clarity are doubt – distraction – confusion – stray thoughts – unformed idea – well formed, well defined idea – clarity.
    Emotions of one level, say attention, maturing to another level, affection, pass through a chain of similar stages. An emotion endorsed by thought becomes a well defined emotion. A thought charged with emotion becomes an emotionally clarified idea.
    When such ideas are practised by a community as a whole, culture is born, practised, organized and comes to stay as a way of life.
    Emotions enrich a thought. Thought defines an emotion.
    It can be practised as an idea that practises culture.
54
The others then joined her, and expressed their admiration of his figure; but Elizabeth heard not a word, and, wholly engrossed by her own feelings, followed them in silence. She was overpowered by shame and vexation. Her coming there was the most unfortunate, the most ill-judged thing in the world! How strange must it appear to him! In what a disgraceful light might it not strike so vain a man! It might seem as if she had purposely thrown herself in his way again! Oh! Why did she come? Or, why did he thus come a day before he was expected? Had they been only ten minutes sooner, they should have been beyond the reach of his discrimination; for it was plain that he was that moment arrived -- that moment alighted from his horse or his carriage. She blushed again and again over the perverseness of the meeting. And his behaviour, so strikingly altered -- what could it mean? That he should even speak to her was amazing! -- but to speak with such civility, to inquire after her family! Never in her life had she seen his manners so little dignified, never had he spoken with such gentleness as on this unexpected meeting. What a contrast did it offer to his last address in Rosings Park, when he put his letter into her hand! She knew not what to think, nor how to account for it.
  1. ‘Overpowered by shame and vexation’. It is really the shame she feels for the family and her own irrational petulant intransigence
  2. The one natural idea for anyone in Darcy’s position would be that she came there purposefully.
  3. Mrs. Gardiner would not have brought her there had she known of the earlier proposal.
  4. There would have been no Life Response if he had come ten minutes later.
  5. Life Responses are known to take place just at the moment.
  6. Earlier when Darcy met her often consciously in Hunsford Park it was called perverse. Here life is perverse, if it is perverse.
  7. His manner was dignified.
  8. Now that she is on the premises of Pemberley, she deserves dignity.
  9. His behaviour is changed as he is in Pemberley and she is with her aunt and uncle, cultured people. At Hunsford it is the personality of Collins that rules or that of Lady Catherine. At Meryton and Netherfield there is the village personality, her mother’s and Caroline’s.
  10. One knows not what to think when there is no reference point.
  11. She recognised love in his voice. Her recognition of it brought him back. Both needed time and privacy to shed the embarrassment. Now that the aunt and uncle are with her, the embarrassment is less. He did not mean to go away. His own embarrassment took him away. It is not like Darcy of that period to go away after seeing her.
  12. “The others then joined her, expressed their admiration for his figure”.
    They saw his figure now, in the second meeting saw his manners; both were external.
    How much of the inner is expressed by the outer in this instance.
    Rarely people know the inner from the outer.
    No one seemed to have known it in Wickham.
    In Darcy the exterior now expressed the interior.
    A little disinterested observation of Wickham could have raised serious doubts in the observer. The first revelation of his dubiety was his contradictory explanation given for his absence at the Netherfield ball. Later with Miss King it was obvious.
    Elizabeth painstakingly justified him on both occasions.
    Mrs. Gardiner did not miss his behaviour with Miss King.
    Wickham, being devoid of conscience, had a complete command of his countenance.
    Darcy had no such countenance. His emotions were on his face.
    Anyone could see he was sincere, as they saw his pride.
    The voice is deceptive in imposters.
    To those who can discriminate, an assumed voice discloses itself by its formality. One’s voice can pretend to be smooth; one cannot dissimulate sincerity.
    The voice of sincerity reaches the hearer’s emotion.
    An assumed voice can be heard by the Mind only.
    Should someone’s voice reach your sensation, the impression is unmistakable. Mind can be deceived, not emotions; the senses can never be deceived.

    Man is not open in his physical sensations. It can never err if it is true. A false physical sensation can accept another’s falsehood to be true. In the swyambara of Damayanthi who was in love with Nala, the Tirumurthis took the form of Nala and competed. What can a poor mortal do against divine competition. Truth always prevails. Damayanthi was in love. Love is divine and pure. She noticed the gods’ feet were not on the ground. Their garlands were unfading. She could now know Nala, the human. Deceit is powerful.
    Love that is Truth is most powerful, at least more powerful than deceit. Darcy’s sincerity was unmistakable.
  13. “Elizabeth heard not a word and was wholly engrossed in her own emotions”.
    Very few people in the history of romantic love would have faced such a reversal of behaviour in the Man after what she was pleased to shower him with.
    While in an accident, the body turns off the Mind, awakes and saves itself.
    After recovery the victim never remembers what happened. It is physical.
    What Elizabeth met with was a vital accident. She did not faint, but her mind stopped functioning letting the emotion rise and submerge the thoughts. She was immobilized, not in command of her speech or movements. God had given her Darsan, she lost her moorings, at least the moorings of thought. Movement in one direction when reversed, one comes to a dead stop. She was like that. Ascending thoughts to the purity of consciousness gradually lose momentum of thinking, enter into silence, light and intuition. In human experience when one is shocked into inaction, mind lapses into Silence. She felt utter shame in being there. It is an occasion for admiration for him. She was overpowered by shame. Faced with a being all adoration for her, she could only feel guilt and shame. Surely this was not the truth of her being. The guilt and shame were the self-awareness of Mrs. Bennet in her. For her to affirm in love, she had first to affirm herself in shame. All roads lead to Paradise. Even the door of shame can open on heaven.
    One feels a certain comfort if, for any failure, he can blame another, rightly or wrongly. There is a self-justification and a relief in conscience.
    There are occasions where one is sorely aware of his own error or lapse.
    It is frustrating or vexatious. The shift from complaining against another to being vexed with oneself is a psychological progress as it is a step towards self-discovery. Wickham’s service to Elizabeth was self-discovery.
    Wickham’s service to Darcy was Elizabeth’s abuse. Darcy purchased that service with nearly £ 10,000, maybe more. No Money paid out fails to return its service.
    In the Will £1000 was there. For the living a compensation of £3000 was given. His debts were over £1000 apart from the debts at Lambton. £1000 was settled on Lydia. The commission could be anywhere around £5000. A neat sum of £10,000 was paid out. It did its service unfailingly.
  14. “Followed them in silence. She was overpowered by shame and vexation”.
    Life has its rules for correcting the errors. Jesus changed it.
    Spirit has another better answer.
    Error in the physical plane must be paid for by physical punishment that is even loss of life.

    Vital Man pays with shame. Mental Man learns his lesson, but something is to be lost in every plane though it becomes less as you rise. Forgiving is a spiritual principle by which the sinner is redeemed if his repentance is deep enough. Paul qualified for it. The conviction in guilt, called guilty conscience, persists, even when the results are satisfying or overwhelming. Guilty conscience is understanding in the Mental substance. She did also abuse him with gusto and vehemence very few would have. She did have all the right to abuse him. He deserved the abuse for his ‘tolerable’ and ruse. From the point of view of her future, it was not wise. He took it in the Supramental sense as few devotees can take and got results for him and her.
    From the Supramental point of view, there is no sin ever committed by anyone. It is there in one’s opinion, attitude and motive. The power of revelation rises from opinion to motive.
    A parent in 1940 who had severely beaten the child later realized his cruelty. He even saw in beating the child the native cruelty in him enjoyed it, as Elizabeth enjoyed abusing Darcy. The boy’s future was well-shaped as the punishments gave him a discipline. Later when the parent changed his opinion, attitudes, motive or consciousness, what happened. The sin of cruelty was washed away, we say. What happened to the act of cruelty? The fact that there was no sin in the widest scheme of things is seen more and more clearly as we move from opinion to consciousness. In the chapter ‘The Knot of Matter’, He says Matter is in existence by our view. Changing our view, it is Sachchidananda. Sin is a product of our view. Changing the view, sin disappears. In cases where as a result of past action there was a result, the changed view should change the result. In Darcy’s case he originally took the attitude that whatever she said was absolutely true and he must rise to that occasion.
    It made him a far better Man, a Man of higher spiritual consciousness. He got the wife he wanted and her gratitude. In the process he helped her move to the Mental, but did not succeed in her giving up her infatuation. Still we see that she knew Darcy had pardoned her with magnanimity, but she remained the admirer of the scoundrel. Her guilty conscience could disappear and make her see the need of her earlier falsehood for the whole scheme of things, if she overcame the infatuation. Sin lies in the infatuation, does not exist by itself.
    Human choice is at the tether end of one’s character where the sensitivities are alive. One can experience the sense of sin reversing into a simple act and even Marvel if he examines himself at that level.
  15. “Her coming there was most unfortunate”
    We look at the work from the point of view of result, not intention.
    Result is material, physical, allows little scope to reversal.
    Intention is non-material, can give a greater scope.

    She naturally looks at the shame from a girl’s social point of view.
    It is not possible for her to look at it from his point of view or from the view of evolution.
    It is possible for us.
    He needed the abuse and the abuse had a salutary effect on him. Therefore she was the instrument to deliver to him. The executioner may do a great social service but it is not pleasant to be an executioner. She did it enjoying the abuse. She was not in a consciousness to do it for the sake of Darcy. Had she been in such a state, no sin even at the time of the act would be there in essence or in her consciousness. In that case, her abuse instead of being virulent would have carried the strength of calm and had a greater effect on him, more so on her. Rising still further, he who came to her with those offensive remarks would have forgotten them and spoken like an ordinary lover. His proposal would have been postponed. The social situation of the colonel meeting her daily for long pleasant conversations generated a pressure for him to act. Rationally she took the right precaution. Her intention was not to catch him, but to escape him. After this vexatious result, she was in no position to justify her intention, but only to regret the result. To look at each incident from the higher point of view will help us know the higher point of view more fully. Of course, the story will reveal more to us. When she sees how she walked into the trap, how trustingly she accepted Wickham’s story, more for his sake, the sake of his love, she will now understand how Darcy accepted her abuse with thanks for the sake of her love. Then she can look at herself with Wickham at Philips, with Darcy at Hunsford and Darcy at Pemberley. The changes in him will readily reveal the parallel changes in her. A great scrutiny of the text will make it abundantly clear. In the case of Elizabeth, events will disclose their significance readily, as we dwelt on her for long and in detail. In the case of other characters, the study requires a greater patience and perseverance.
  16. “In what a disgraceful light will it not strike such a vain Man”
    To seek what one has refused by a subterfuge is disgraceful.
    Darcy’s vanity was well known.
    It was natural for Darcy to think of her like this.
    What he would think of her depended upon what he was, not what she did.
    To listen unquestioningly is excellent behaviour.
    To be unsuspecting one needs to have an excellent character.
    Not to know of the negative side of life is fine upbringing. He who knows of all the negativity of life and exhibits behaviour of not assuming negativity, is more than magnanimous.
    Inborn magnanimity cannot recognize negative behaviour even when it is displayed.
    Smallness cannot hurt magnanimity.
    Meanness loves to imply meanness in other’s behaviour.
    Shrewdness is meanness of understanding.
    Shrinking self-defence in Mind becomes mean understanding.
    Insecurity of comprehension is violence in manners.
    Stable, steady, secure inner psychological status is capable of discerning goodwill, goodness, selflessness in others.
    Elizabeth was not mean, but she understood mean thinking.
    She had discrimination and discernment, but it did not degenerate into condemning others for what they were not.
    She was not naive like Jane or bookish like Mary.
    Even if Darcy had not changed in his attitude, even if he was capable of putting a mean construction on their visit, there was enough gentlemanliness in him to take them as visitors without suspicion.
    Giving the benefit of doubt to the other is a trait of a gentleman. We cannot deny him that credit. She was in disgrace more by what she was than by what he considered her to be.
  17.        “It might seem that she had purposely thrown herself in his way”
    Whether it is Sachchidananda or Matter is determined by the view.
    Whether one is a criminal or an active member of utmost creativity outside the society is dependent on the view -- social or non social.
    The harlot from a social viewpoint is an abominable sinner.
    From the cosmic point of view, she offers the delight of existence to every soul that seeks her.
    Wickham is a scandalmonger ruining the good name of Darcy. From another higher point of view he is one who is prompting Elizabeth to move from her mother’s vital falsehood to the Mental truth she had inherited from her father so that she would be rewarded with its physical, vital equivalent – Pemberley.
    From the same point of view, Lydia is one who compels her father to come out of indolence and irresponsibility and Elizabeth to see behind Darcy’s pride the truth of her life in him.
    Caroline can be viewed from life or beyond. To cure Jane of her silly superstitious psychological illusion of goodness, life uses Caroline’s ruse.
    We certainly see Darcy’s appreciation of the fine eyes. His aristocratic hesitation arises and makes him withdrew into his insularity. It is the constant reminder of Caroline that gives intensity and direction to Darcy’s initial attraction. Collins and Mrs. Bennet raised Darcy’s repugnance to saturation. Repugnance can be overcome at its point of saturation. No movement can be reversed till it is saturated. Surrender, the capacity to voluntarily give up all the capacities so far acquired converts grace into supergrace, removes not only the attributes of ego but nature’s vitality and physicality, rendering this rule – that a movement is to be saturated – dispensable. Here the slow deliberate delight of Nature’s evolution turns, by the office of surrender, into the instantaneous miraculousness of the Marvel dropping amidst Nature’s darkness and evil. It depends upon the view Man takes. A view of Nature and a cosmic view are before him. It is for him to choose. It is the Hour of God that gives life and reality to the choice. It should be our endeavour to explain each of the lower movements of the story in the higher perspective.
  18. “Why did she come?”
    She blamed herself for having come to Pemberley.
    Hamlet was born to announce the birth of Mind in the common Man.
    Its massiveness was an unbearable suffocating oppression on him.
    Elizabeth was acquiring the right to preside over Pemberley. It is too much.
    She mistook that basic pressure in the depth as a momentary embarrassment of social demeanor.
    Grace coming prematurely to a Man announces itself as tragedy or catastrophe or at least a discomfort.
    Millions of trees dying and decomposing created the top soil.
    The long term good is a short term loss for the myopic human view.
    Embarrassment is the way vaster quantities of energy are uncomfortably absorbed by the weak nerves to qualify later for higher culture and great accomplishment.
    Embarrassments can be oppressive or expansive.
    It is expansive either by the outer or inner circumstances.
    Its expansiveness results in opening opportunities.
    Its oppressiveness results in inviting tragedies.
    In her the latter was true.
    What proved to be oppressive to her was expansive to Lydia.
    In between, Wickham was sandwiched not knowing what attitude to take.
    Celestial Fire descends on human circumstances as unbearable light.
    It is she who made him come a day early.
    She now excessively regretted it, not knowing he was exceedingly pleased.
    Her oppression was his opening.
    His oppression at the proposal was her opening into the genius of abuse.
    From a partial point of view, it is pain to a particular person at a time.
    From a wider point of view, there is no pain for anyone.
    A little right attitude shows it is only effort not pain. It is a pleasurable effort.
    On closer look what is pain on the surface is the greatest enjoyment to the depth, to the subliminal.
  19. “Had they been ten minutes sooner, they would have been beyond his discrimination”.
    The secret of life expresses in the exactness of Time and the preciseness of space.
    Space is objective; Time is subjective.
    They meet in Mind and senses.
    Inner acting on the outer is life.
    It is Time expressing in Space.
    The expression is governed by a law.
    It is a divine law, called causality.
    He who knows that Law cannot err; cannot be subject to karma.
    Time is in the plane of Mind; Space is in the plane of senses.
    Time and Space are together one in the plane of the Spirit.
    Spirit divides as inner Mind and outer space.
    The inner fully in tune with the outer is progress.
  20. Not so in tune with each other is effort, struggle.
    For her to realize that he came in response to her inner change of attitude is the inner to be in tune with the outer.
    Her decision called him.
    Her inner decision was her own personality.
    Outer embarrassment was her social personality.
    What reward she received was not from the society.
    It was a reward for the growth of the inner consciousness.
    At Hunsford her inner consciousness had the reflection of Collins and his wife.
    Here it was her aunt and uncle whose reflection she enjoyed.
    When the inner is in tune with the outer, the problem solves itself.
    In a few minutes, he came back to stay longer means she had overcome her inner struggles and subconsciously called him as inside the building she wished to be its mistress. What came to her was too great. It was not enough she wished to be mistress; she must also wish to be his wife.
    In feeling embarrassed, she lost that right.
    In feeling happy and feeling the privilege, she would qualify to be the wife.
    Wishing for Pemberley, Pemberley would come.
    She has again to wish strongly for Darcy.
  21. “She blushed again and again over the perverseness of the meeting”.
    Man is perverse, not life.
    She foisted her perverseness on the meeting.
    The sight of Darcy should have overwhelmingly made her happy.

    She blushed at its perverseness.
    Something was perverse.
    Perversity was in the perception.
    It was of the ego. There is nothing perverse in Nature.
    In it there are evolving grades, no perversity.
    Because ego is limited and separated and its movements are ingoing, perversity belongs entirely to ego.
    The contradiction between her subconscious urge to meet Darcy and her surface social consciousness that dreaded the woman in the way of Man, translates itself into perversity for her.
    Here, this perversity is her own, entirely.
    We see her perversity lingered long after her marriage pleading for help for Wickham.
    Its origin is in her mother’s insatiable dynamic ambition for rich grooms.
    She now blushed again and again.
    I do not know her mother was ever capable of blushing including in her youth.
    Another reason for her discomfort was the presence of her aunt and uncle whom she knew he could disapprove of.
    She had the right argument on her behalf that she came knowing he was not there.
    How could she explain that to him.

    Life that denies justice to emerge is perverse.
    Life, social life, that perceives pure truth as venomous falsehood, is maliciously perverse.
    Circumstances that involuntarily present the unwanted facts to a critical audience is certainly perverse.
  22. “His behaviour so strikingly altered”
    All creative moments are strikingly altered movements.
    To the supramental view every view, including those routine events, is such a strikingly altered movement.
    It is a moment of creative movement.
    A creative moment is one where the universal existence realizes in the individual.
    It realizes the delight of becoming in the delight of being.

    They are changes in the spiritual evolution. Spirit is beyond Time and Space.
    Therefore the changes are sudden or appear to be sudden.
    We live in the surface plane of pleasure and pain.
    That movement belongs to the plane of Self-existent consciousness.
    There delight is Self-existent, Existence is Self-existent.
    Certainly Darcy moved from pride, arrogance, meanness to a plane where her abuse was the advice of grace.
    The abuse was pain in his hearing, pleasure in her speaking when the genius of abuse emerged.
    From that surface he moved to the plane of Self-existent delight where the delight of being changes into the delight of becoming.
    He was aware of his inner change; she only moved from the vital to the mental, where she shed her irrational infatuation and acquired the rational appreciation of the facts Darcy presented.
    God came to him as a transforming agent whom Darcy received accordingly and worshipped while the god, aware of her human personality, was shy in the social sense.
    The problem of pain and suffering in thus solved by Sri Aurobindo showing us the evolution of Delight from being to becoming. He quotes the Upanishads in support which say creation is in Delight, sustained in Delight, returns to Delight.
    The essential nature of that self-consciousness is infinite, inalienable, self-existent delight.
  23. “What could it mean? That he should even speak to her is amazing”
    The chick coming out of the egg is one of the greatest surprises.
    All acts that are turning points have this element of surprise and suddenness.

    As the chick was forming inside the egg, the new behaviour was forming in Darcy.
    As the egg was fertilized by the cock, Darcy’s transformation was fertilized by Elizabeth’s abuse.
    What is socially abuse, spiritually is the seed for action.
    The action was unconsciously created by her.
    She was the unconscious end, he was the conscious tether end.
    What Lydia sowed, Elizabeth reaped.
    Mentality is separative knowledge seeking knowledge of identity.
    Elizabeth’s mentality seeking identity with Darcy employed abuse as an instrument.
    When the change of transformation comes, even the beneficiary – Elizabeth to whom he would not speak, will become the wife.
    What that transformation brings is the Force of the French Revolution.
    Elizabeth only moved to the Mind. She was not transformed.
    What she received was the maximum in her consciousness status, not what that Force could give.
    The intelligence of the inner Mind needs no training. It can know all the significance of the object at once.
    A touch of that was there in Darcy. He saw all that she was instantaneously. She did not have it. So she was baffled. She saw the very opposite.
    Hers was the ego consciousness – self consciousness of self-experience. She remembered her experience. It was the experience of her own consciousness. It could not see what Darcy was.
    The unknowable – It becomes itself in the world by knowing itself. It knows itself by becoming itself.
    Darcy becomes Elizabeth to know her. Darcy knows her by becoming Elizabeth. It is knowledge by identity, communion.
  24. “Never in her life had she seen his manners so little dignified”
    Man alone has in him the capacity to exceed himself.
    The capacity is exercised by the rare few.
    When Shakespeare wrote, the age became an age of literature.

    The peak represented the whole society.
    It is true of the scientific age too.
    As Greece of Socrates and Europe of Hamlet represented the birth of the Mind at two opposite points – the Peak in one individual or a few individuals and the masses in all – Darcy represented the Revolution.
    Individuality in action is widespread in America, while the same thing in thought showed itself in Tom Peters.
    Darcy exceeded himself.
    All great acts originate in the surface Mind.
    The whole invisible movement of the story is fully acted by Elizabeth subconsciously. And all others do so. But the major act originated in Darcy. It originated in his surface Mind consciously.
    He consciously gave up his pride and acquired those changes.
    Giving up evil means giving up good also, says Sri Aurobindo.
    That was all right in his not giving up to the evil of Lydia, but when he gave up the evil of Pride, it was for his good.
    Giving up the evil coming through Lydia from outside upholds this rule, not so with respect to one’s own evil.
    Darcy, Elizabeth changed to good in different measures and received differently.
    Wickham, Lydia, and Mrs. Bennet never felt the need for change, but they too received a minimum benefit on the fringe. It is true that change to good is welcome. To receive from Mother for our desert limits. Maybe it is true about material gifts. For higher spiritual gifts, deserts are a bar. To expect too is an obstacle; surrender is our part. What She gives is Her part, not our concern. Our concern can have a vitiating influence.
  25. “Never had he spoken with such gentleness as on this unexpected occasion.”
    Gentleness is of the spirit.
    The spiritual change in him made him speak gently.
    Force of consciousness, Love of Ananda together become gentleness.
    Love renders force gentle.

    His behaviour was unpremeditated. So, it was genuine and true.
    The gentleness of falsehood can be charming, but the gentleness of Truth will be sweet and pleasant.
    Mrs. Gardiner saw a little majesty in his mouth.
    Romance exists in marriage in order to discover Romance in itself.
    As there was no rain, the girls at the farm were dispersed.
    They offered to pray to Mother 8 P.M. At 9.30 it rained. Work continued.
    Mother exists in Rain in order to discover Mother in Herself.
    The girls wanted work. Rain came and gave them work.
    Neither work nor rain matters. What matters is Mother.
    The girls through work and rain discovered Mother in Herself.
    Elizabeth initially in the proposal felt gratitude to him for loving her.
    It was a great spiritual discovery.
    Later she discovered Pemberley.
    At the meeting with him she discovered gentleness in him.
    Gratitude, Pemberley, gentleness were there in him.
    She needed to discover more in him.
    Marriage comes to us so that we might discover Romance in it.
    Romance in itself is Brahman.
    Phenomena entering ether disappears.
    All expressions of married life – Good and Bad – disappear when they enter Romance.
    Romance is a solvent of all aspects of marriage.
    After the second proposal she asked him what in her he loved. She herself answered her question, “who thinks of all that when love is there”. Love is a solvent of all our admiration or otherwise.
  26. “She knew not what to think and how to account for it”.
    Man cannot account for anything that lies outside his ken.
    Ignorance is to understand what we do not know in terms of what we know.
    Darcy who was deeply in love with her in a human way, after her abuse, decided to love her not as a mere girl, but as one endowed with a fine personality. She never knew till the proposal that he loved her. After the proposal, she only knew she had rejected him in her anger. She never thought about why he wrote to her. Except to wonder with gratitude that he loved her, she was not at all thinking of him. We can fairly say the proposal went out of her Mind, if not memory. She endeavoured to wean herself away from the trap into which she had walked. Her Mind was obsessed and depressed about Jane’s fate now that she fully directly knew the forces behind Jane’s disappointment. At Pemberley the property evoked a deep response. But of course, it was a lost opportunity. Mrs. Reynold’s tribute made her change her attitude to Darcy. All of this according to her thinking could not bring about a change in his attitude. She saw him with those eyes and was baffled to know his altered behaviour. She could not account for it. She never saw the streak of majesty which her aunt saw in him. Though she heard with interest all that the housekeeper said, there was nothing in her that could see him in that light. There was no motive. She could not think of his coming again to her with the old attitude. She, of course, was moved and deeply touched. She never knew why he was like that nor could she anticipate their visit to Lambton, invitation to Pemberley and of course Lydia’s overture. Her Mind was open, no longer closed towards him. She was fresh in her opening emotions, not knowing how much she could respond to him. Whether she was a mere visitor or the abominable Elizabeth still or whether he had discovered in her something deeper than her abuse which he could adore, her Mind opened, was fresh, formative, but unformed. She had not overcome her embarrassment. She had no time or disposition to evaluate what was happening. She was not non-plussed, but emotionally what poise she should take, her Mind was incapable of formulating because of the shock of the moment.
55
They had now entered a beautiful walk by the side of the water, and every step was bringing forward a nobler fall of ground, or a finer reach of the woods to which they were approaching; but it was some time before Elizabeth was sensible of any of it; and, though she answered mechanically to the repeated appeals of her uncle and aunt, and seemed to direct her eyes to such objects as they pointed out, she distinguished no part of the scene. Her thoughts were all fixed on that one spot of Pemberley House, whichever it might be, where Mr. Darcy then was. She longed to know what at that moment was passing in his mind -- in what manner he thought of her, and whether, in defiance of everything, she was still dear to him. Perhaps he had been civil only because he felt himself at ease; yet there had been that in his voice which was not like ease. Whether he had felt more of pain or of pleasure in seeing her she could not tell, but he certainly had not seen her with composure.
  1. Pemberley has a border of ten miles. It is about 3600 acres in extent. While he was overwhelmed by her changed emotional attitude, she was overcome by the physical magnificence of the house. For different reasons both needed time to recover
  2. “Her thoughts were fixed on Darcy wherever he might have been.”
    Concentration is capacity to dwell on oneself, a condition self-gathered.
    The Absolute is in this condition, but certainly cannot attribute concentration as a quality of the Absolute.

    Man getting something of it at his level, is able to travel inwardly to the Absolute.
    The Absolute created force and a suitable form for that force.
    Human concentration on his whole being reverses the direction of that force and sends it back to the Absolute.
    When it goes back, the form that outwardly supported it gives way to support a force of a different poise.
    Human force carries human nature.
    In the measure it surrenders it becomes divine nature.
    Divine nature gives rise to divine form.
    For what he had done, Darcy’s outer personality invisibly changed into a new form. Her aunt said the stateliness in him was confined to his air.
    It means it was newly born. Her aunt immediately said Darcy could not have behaved with Wickham as she had heard.
    She could not believe that Darcy could have been disagreeable at Meryton.
    She knew his acquaintance with her niece was trifling; there was no scope for another interest. Nor was she strikingly pretty.
    Elizabeth had no way of not seeing the change and equally she had no way of comprehending it.
    Still, she understood this all after the second proposal.
    For a third person with an acute vision what Elizabeth heard from Darcy at the end could have revealed very much, if not fully. It had to be observed in the voice, tone, movements of the body, particularly the head, the eye movements, the sensations his movements create in the observer, etc. The striking revelation of the lover which emerged with Caroline about fine eyes, we do see in his description of Georgiana that she was as tall as Elizabeth.
  3. “She longed to know what at that moment was passing in his Mind”.
    To know what another thinks is telepathy.
    One who is in the universal Mind can know another’s thoughts.
    There is only one Mind. It is ego that divided that and separated it as several Minds.
    Love seeks unity with the being of the other.
    True love must be able to know the thoughts of another at least in essence.
    Darcy, who deeply loves her, knows, if not her conscious thoughts, at least her subconscious urges.
    At Lambton, she never requested him to help find Lydia.
    He knew she would be pleased if he found Lydia. He did so.
    When Bingley rented Netherfield, he never knew of Jane nor did Jane know of him.
    He was brought there so that Jane could marry him.
    Bingley and Jane met at the first Assembly.
    The movement was for Darcy to meet Elizabeth. Bingley was a subplot.
    A higher level of aristocracy meeting in alliance commoners or lower levels of it was the Movement of the French Revolution.
    The French Revolution started in the Himalayas as an aspiration for equality of Men.
    Equality is eminently possible where inequality is more pronounced.
    Napoleon joked about England as a nation of shop keepers.
    That fact of shop keeping all over the nation made inequality less pronounced.
    Intellectual eminence makes exclusive possession, rendering the existing social inequality psychological exclusiveness.
    In England which was outgoing in search of markets enjoying the initial taste of founding an Empire, the sense of national pride gave a sense of unity.
    Trade brings profits not only to the capitalists, but to all levels of people in some measure.
    In France it was less so. National integrity gave way because of widespread dissipation that began in wine and spread to women.
    The roots of strength of character were eroded.
    The cleavage was final.
  4. “In what manner he thought of her and whether in defiance of everything she was still dear to him”.
    Hatred is only an incident in human relationship.
    As Love is self-existent, there is no self-existent hatred.
    Hatred is a reverse form of love.
    Division leading to separation can poise two people in opposition.
    It creates hatred.

    Physically proximity makes for love.
    Vitally frequent positive relationship is affection.
    One comprehending another as Palliser and Grey, Dante and Faria, Haydee and Dante creates love in the Mind.
    Haydee was physically with him, frequently having family relationship. Her Mind was his Mind. The question of comprehension never arose. Only that psychologically to him she was a child. In a woman the only emotion towards Man when it is intense is identification through submission. In a characteristic feminine response which is uncharacteristic of a female, she tore up the Will. It was a psychological emancipation from the social relationship of an adult protecting a youth. The veil was rent, Love was born. The one thing he longed for was sincerity, loyalty expressed in love. Being an Asian girl, there was no question about sincerity and loyalty. In Asian countries such emotions were presided over by property. Indians and Muslims were religious. Their religion was based on devotion. Asia was emotional, less mental.
    Purity foisted on women by authority in aristocracy and royalty tends to become noble, magnanimous thus reaching the spiritual purity in rare cases. Haydee was one. Her extreme purity inside went with the outside of his enormous wealth. Persia was, then the seat of Mental culture. So, he came to her with a vast learning. His having been a slave of unjust law had a parallel in her. Magnanimity does not develop deficiency by adversity. Adversity made her inner longings absolutely pure.
    Life responded to him almost instantaneously when his heart was vacated by Mercedes. It was a great contrast between Mercedes who pleaded that she had no forbearance and fortitude to wait for him and Haydee who never gave outer or inner expression to her love of Edmund. Haydee would have felt what Edmund felt subconsciously. The impure subconscious cannot err in the matter of purest of love. Love can purify even the subconscious.
  5. “Yet there had been that in his voice” (P. 223)
    A light cannot be hidden by darkness.
    That in one cannot hide itself in his voice.
    To her to whom it was due, everything in him would reveal it.
    After Bingley’s engagement or even in his visit prior to that Elizabeth was uncertain of it in him.
    Man fails to see God, not because He is not here.
    Man fails to see grace, not because grace is not acting.
    When Man activates his Mind, grace, God, love is all hidden by his own Mind.
    Once a lover, a lover forever is true in many things, but in love it is very true.
    It is the undue finiteness of thought conception that creates the difficulty.
    Thought understands by difference.
    Thought is the form of ideas. Each form is different from the other.
    It is this difference that leads to perception.
    Elizabeth was too much in his Mind. With Wickham she declared a holiday to her thinking and allowed her emotions to rush on to him.
    Thought differentiates the thinker from the object.
    Voice informs emotion.
    Her emotions recognized love in his voice.
    Cannot thought admit of love?
    Thought whose emotions overcome its definition can express love.
    Long separated lovers, separated by doubts, often run into each others arms on meeting. It is the vital sensation overcoming mental doubts.
    Emotions of thought rising prevents the separative function of thought and let one melt into another. In that case the reunion will be stronger and more pleasant. When she said she was a selfish creature, she was not modest, but spoke the plain truth out of necessity. Having justly called him selfish, the act repeats. She had to describe herself as voluntarily selfish. In the society of 1790 Man had an absolute authority over woman. Her calling him selfish was absolutely right. In a higher scheme of things it was not permissible. So, out of her mouth, she had to define herself exactly as she called him. One who is perfectly right on any showing cannot declare himself so under some conditions.
    • If he is aspiring to rise to a higher plane.
    • In the same plane if he is not accorded the strength he enjoys.
    • When he is trying to transcend dualities.
    • One who seeks the Psychic in the field of Nature.
    • He who aspires for the right of not having rights at all.
    • One who knows conscience is adversary.
    • He who has seen the self-existing Light.
    Mrs. Bennet felt all the time she was more than right, though she never declared it. She acted within limits. If there was success it would be within limits or limits within limits as the rain obliged her or Bingley proposed on the second day.
    Kitty holding the secret was treachery to the family.
    In England the idea of not betraying a confidant became a fad that is dangerously foolish. No one at home took Kitty to task.
    Her not betraying Lydia, according to the rule, resulted in events not betraying the family.
    In the relationship between Bingley and Darcy, Darcy did a cardinal service to his friend. He was within his right. As a matter of fact, had Darcy not warned him and the marriage proved a fiasco, Darcy would have been guilty of a lapse. But here, he is in a higher atmosphere of which he is himself the centre. Life will not allow him to be insistently right.
    As Mr. Bennet aspired for a far higher life than his wife was capable of, he never insisted that he was right till Lydia ran away. And he was right.
    Elizabeth’s not wanting to be RIGHT in disclosing Darcy’s service to his friend was another occasion.
    One single event lends itself to be described from various principles.

    Every event can be explained from every principle if we have full knowledge and patience of discovery.
  6. “He had not certainly seen her with composure”.
    Pain and pleasure are only habitual reactions, not obligatory.
    This philosophy is socially practiced as good manners or courtesy.
    Courtesy prevents a Man from disclosing he was hurt.
    What applies to courtesy applies to transformation.
    The world is an expression of the Self, the Being, which is Delight.
    Pain is the sensational response of the surface Mind.
    Mind deciding to bear pain, pain has no limit.
    Pain can reach immensity, not infinity.
    When in excess, pain can become ananda.
    Darcy, in response to his proposal, got her reply which by a decision of his Mind, he took to be a celestial message for his soul.
    What he did with Elizabeth is suggested by Sri Aurobindo, as the solution to the problem of evil in the world.
    Composure is the social response to inner pain unexhibited.
    She, says the author, did not know whether he felt pain or pleasure.
    His composure did not hide pain.
    A great ecstasy of pleasure he did not feel free to express was turned into composure.
    What he refused to express as animation, expansive excitement or even exuberance, spread all over his face as a beaming light, giving the impression of stateliness to her aunt.
    Stateliness is the joy of secure power of the throne.
    Seeing her there was a message of psychological stability in his being.
    As an emotion on his face, it can be stateliness.
    Winning a wife, one describes himself the happiest Man in the world. Winning a psychological conquest inside and seeing its outer result as a willing lady, gives him the happiest moment he ever lived.
    Should he know he gave her the happiest moment in her life, it could have raised his joy no further, but his sense of being a valuable Man would have been gratified.
56
At length, however, the remarks of her companions on her absence of mind roused her, and she felt the necessity of appearing more like herself.
  1. It is too big a place for them on any count.
  2. Mr. Gardiner wanted to go round the place.
  3. “The remarks of her companions on her absence of Mind roused her”
    Human life is one of self-protection from the environment.
    When it is too much, it is pain.
    One can return an ascetic response of indifference.
    Loss of ego by surrender as the Vedic Rishis practiced can return an equal pleasure to both the touches.
    Pain, pleasure, indifference can be transformed into self-delight directly.

    To his comment of ‘tolerable’ she was indifferent, even returned a response of positive pleasure of a joke, taking the view of the Vedic Rishis.
    When he spoke of her inferior connections, explained how he stopped Jane’s opportunities, she only showed him he was wrong, he was not gentlemanly. Only when he pressed her further, she declared he was the last man for her to ever marry.
    As she did not react to ‘tolerable’, she did not respond with pleasure or eagerness to his enquiries of her family, request for introduction of aunt and uncle at Pemberley.
    To the provocation of Caroline she returned an ascetic reply of neutrality.
    The complete solution for pain, pleasure, and indifference lies in their direct transformation into self-existent delight.
    That Sri Aurobindo explains in another phenomenon.
    Sachchidananda conceals itself in its opposite (P. 110 of The Life Divine) before it reemerges into fullness. The infinite being in Non-Being, infinite consciousness in the inconscient, the infinite Force in apparent powerlessness, the infinite delight in insensibility, the infinite unity in multiplicity.
    Elizabeth goes through all these stages because of his effort at transformation.
    The most pleasant social invitation of an ardent lover to the utter amazement of her aunt and even to herself was reversed at Pemberley by Caroline.
    A further richer height to which the relationship could be taken needed one more reversal caused by Lydia. Elizabeth’s love was almost concealed in Lydia’s adventure, before his purity and magnanimity could fully emerge.
    One who reads this chapter on Delight, and traces the arguments through hypnosis, jugupsa, titiksha, rasa – fear, strength, and essence – can see all the stages of varying responses of Elizabeth to the touches of life.
  4. “She felt the necessity of appearing more like herself”
    A growing child is taken care of by the parents in varying measures in its various stages of growth. Finally he comes to take care of himself.
    As a full grown adult, he sees he is fully taken care of by the society in many ways. Further, spiritual awakening shows that grace and supergrace have been so acting in his life. Spiritual awakening, spiritual life means the spirit directly fully running our life consciously. Such a Man will be aware of inner movements – attitudes, motives, urges, impulses in the gross and the subtle planes – and gradually shift them to the rule of the higher force. To observe our life or study the story from this point of view takes us through the planes of life where the rules of life act exactly. To observe the precision of the forces reflecting the precision of results is the study. While at Pemberley after meeting Darcy, Elizabeth’s absence of Mind was patent to her aunt. This was a new situation for her. What acted in her, acted automatically, or unconsciously, i.e. out of the inherited habit, inherited from the mother, father and society. Had it been a conscious inheritance, she could not have lost herself. At a point like this, when her conscious awareness was exhausted and her unconscious equipment failed to rise to the occasion, we see in her words, in her inability to speak, to think, her taking over to higher ways of life. Or the higher way of life overtook her behaviour. We say ‘I don’t know what these words were which came out of me’, ‘It struck me I know not how’, ‘I was aware I was speaking, but I also knew I was under no control of mine’. These grades are numberless. The events reflect them, the people reflect them, our own conscious mentality receives and absorbs them, finds it difficult to absorb them, we use them with some conscious mastery, etc. Kitty’s coughing, her mother’s initiating, Elizabeth’s silence over Darcy, Kitty keeping the secret, Lydia giving it out, aunt not asking questions, Elizabeth’s defence of Wickham, Jane’s process of disillusionment of Caroline have been explained each in their context with respect to one principle – the power of words, the value of culture, small significant acts, irresistible charm, Man’s dissipation, woman’s conservatism, etc. Theoretically all of them can again be taken and explained as a stage in outgrowing parents, society, allowing grace to act, withdrawing our faith in our capacity, letting supergrace overtake us.
    At many such points of analysis, we will stumble upon the Marvel. Even one instance is of value.
57
They entered the woods, and bidding adieu to the river for a while, ascended some of the higher grounds; whence, in spots where the opening of the trees gave the eye power to wander, were many charming views of the valley, the opposite hills, with the long range of woods overspreading many, and occasionally part of the stream. Mr. Gardiner expressed a wish of going round the whole park, but feared it might be beyond a walk. With a triumphant smile, they were told that it was ten miles round. It settled the matter; and they pursued the accustomed circuit; which brought them again, after some time, in a descent among hanging woods, to the edge of the water, in one of its narrowest parts. They crossed it by a simple bridge, in character with the general air of the scene; it was a spot less adorned than any they had yet visited; and the valley, here contracted into a glen, allowed room only for the stream and a narrow walk amidst the rough coppice-wood which bordered it. Elizabeth longed to explore its windings; but when they had crossed the bridge, and perceived their distance from the house, Mrs. Gardiner, who was not a great walker, could go no farther, and thought only of returning to the carriage as quickly as possible. Her niece was, therefore, obliged to submit, and they took their way towards the house on the opposite side of the river, in the nearest direction; but their progress was slow, for Mr. Gardiner, though seldom able to indulge the taste, was very fond of fishing, and was so much engaged in watching the occasional appearance of some trout in the water, and talking to the man about them, that he advanced but little. Whilst wandering on in this slow manner, they were again surprised, and Elizabeth's astonishment was quite equal to what it had been at first, by the sight of Mr. Darcy approaching them, and at no great distance. The walk being here less sheltered than on the other side, allowed them to see him before they met. Elizabeth, however astonished, was at least more prepared for an interview than before, and resolved to appear and to speak with calmness, if he really intended to meet them. For a few moments, indeed, she felt that he would probably strike into some other path. This idea lasted while a turning in the walk concealed him from their view; the turning past, he was immediately before them. With a glance, she saw, that he had lost none of his recent civility; and, to imitate his politeness, she began as they met to admire the beauty of the place; but she had not got beyond the words "delightful," and "charming," when some unlucky recollections obtruded, and she fancied that praise of Pemberley from her, might be mischievously construed. Her colour changed, and she said no more.
  1. He was told it was 10 miles long.
  2. Mrs. Gardiner could go no further.
  3. The personality of Pemberley is so great that their physical energies are not enough to inspect it fully.
  4. Mr. Gardiner’s long standing wish of fishing is fulfilled there, foreshadowing the fulfillment of their marriage.
  5. Darcy appearing again is made possible by their better appreciation of Pemberley, its size, its resources, and Elizabeth’s concentration.
  6. He asked to dance twice. He proposed twice. He met her now twice.
  7. In each person’s character there are elements which make them repeat at once or after a long time. Shakespeare brings them all out.
  8. ‘Delightful’, ‘Charming’, the lady spoke first.
  9. Now he asks to be introduced to her aunt and uncle. The interval between the two meetings helped him to ask for the introduction.
  10. He said at Rosings he could not speak to strangers. Here he takes the trouble to overcome that shortcoming.
  11. “They entered the woods, and bidding adieu to the river for a while”.
    The outer landscape and events unfailingly echo the inner emotions.
    Man in his serious moments deserts the outside and enters inside. Brahman deciding to emerge out from inside – objectivise – creation came into existence. All great moments for Man are inward movements. As long as the outside is a compromise Man feels no pressure. Pressure builds up when the outside breaks down – an elopement. The outside is a laxity, compromise, a routine with ups and downs. Going inside is in-gathering, indwelling, concentration, tapas. Elizabeth was in some such minor tapas to call him to her. She succeeded. As the master gets up from his chair in his office, his dog at home gets up walks to the corner of the street welcoming him – It is sensation.
    Mind does not work like that.
    The animal sensation which the growth of Mind lost is regained as a sensation of the subtle Mind which too acts instantaneously.
    The dog acting on sensation gives a physical welcome.
    Elizabeth, acting on higher subtle mental sensation, of a sudden entered into a higher new world she had created by moving so much up.
    Lydia’s impulsive initiative gave her Wickham.
    Lydia’s maximum was only that.
    Elizabeth calling him to her in the grounds of Pemberley saw a new world opened to her.
    Lydia gave Elizabeth more work. She moved further still, repeating her new exercise in substance.
    He who accepted her in spite of the family, now accepted the entire family embroidered with his arch enemy Wickham for her sake. Mother grants our deepest wishes, whether they are right or wrong. Perhaps Mrs. Bennet’s deepest wishes were granted in multiple versions. One characteristic of it was her least favoured child received the most exalted status.
  12. “There were many charming views of the valley”
    What you are, what is coming is reflected outside.
    A spiritually perceptive Man can more or less know what is coming.
    Darcy coming again is indicated here by the many charming views.
    Instinct is the vital perception of the Self.
    The passage from one grade to another is a metamorphosis.

    Elizabeth, Mrs. Bennet’s daughter, becomes mistress of Pemberley.
    The metamorphosis she passed through was moving to the Mental from the vital.
    That change in her was kept to herself, as if in a cocoon. She was released from the vital infatuation.
    Her instinct worked wonderfully with respect to Pemberley.
    Her mind was able to see his changed manner.
    In him there were newly born sentiments towards her.
    Her instinct did see it as that – love – in his voice.
    It was not a complete vision.
    Darcy in his transformation was inside a cocoon.
    As soon as he emerged out of it, she came to Pemberley.
    He had undergone an inner change.
    He saw in her the same inner change.
    No transformation is necessary for marriage. But, for this marriage, nothing would move without transformation.
    It is through the knowledge of the Self Man arrives at the knowledge of God.
    Elizabeth came to know of Darcy by knowing herself. Knowledge of herself was given to her by Darcy in his proposal. It is Wickham that made her falsehood active in her by listening to his stories and it is Darcy who disillusioned her about the trap of falsehood. Thus she came to know of herself.
    Having discovered her own Self, she was able to discover Pemberley. There was one more step of Self-discovery which Lydia compelled her to know. By that step, she who had already won Pemberley, made room in her heart to Darcy. Pemberley preceded Darcy.
  13.          “Mrs. Gardiner wished to go round the entire park”.
    She wished to fully experience what she had a glimpse of.
    Elizabeth who appreciated the view, the rooms, was silently contemplating becoming the mistress of the place.
    Man, who tries to probe into his Mind, occasionally crosses the Mind for a split second when the door opens on the spirit. That is a moment when he decides to sit in meditation to fully conquer the soul.
    There are several methods to accomplish it.
    Sri Aurobindo’s method is surrender.
    Man accumulates skills and capacities.
    Presently they function to fortify the ego.
    His habit of relying on his past subjects him to karma.
    The Mind that awakens gives up essentially the faith in karma.
    That was how Europe burst into civilization and prosperity.
    Fate, destiny, the inevitability of things, is a sophisticated version of karma. Europe and Mankind have not emancipated themselves from those beliefs.
    In the measure the Individuality in action is developed in karma, Man is free of them.
    But it is not enough to give up one’s faith in his capacities.
    His capacities are capacities created in Nature.
    Those capacities are the efficiency fashioned in Ignorance.
    It is taste of ignorance that makes Man stick to them.
    Voluntarily giving up of well earned capacities is surrender.
    To surrender, one has to exercise his will to exhaustion.
    Exhausted human will invites Divine Will.
    One who tries surrender will know the limits of his taste of ignorance.
    Events, attitudes in the border are of cardinal significance. Turning the attitude opposite – reversal - - one sees a small event achieving great things. Darcy, who left them two minutes earlier returned for a long relationship. It is such a significant Act.
  14.        “With a triumphant smile, they were told it was ten miles around”
    Servants feeling a triumph over master’s power is devotion.
    Man never feels such a sense of triumph about God’s power.
    It was God who brought Darcy to Elizabeth.
    Neither she, nor we the readers, see God’s triumph in this act.
    Every moment of our life is like that.
    At least when life opens grandly we can feel as the gardener felt about God.
    He who feels that is a devotee. He who feels all the time like that is the sadhaka.
    Delight is permanently there.
    Pain is an occasional occurrence.
    We are more aware of the occasional incident than the permanent Delight.
    One is of the surface, the other is of the depth.
    Man’s progress is the depth emerging into the surface.
    Tragedies are the violent openings of the depth into the surface.
    Smile is soul in life.
    In the animal, mating is its soul.
    Those who have studied it called the smile mating call.
    Human soul’s mating call to the Divine Soul is Smile.

    When she accepted Darcy at Longbourn, the Smile that spread all over his face became full. She did not see it, but was looking at the ground. The spiritual fullness of the being is eternity. To Darcy it was a moment of Spiritual fullness. Spiritual fullness embraces the opposite and blesses it too as much. It was the spiritual fullness of Darcy that filled Elizabeth, Bingley and Lydia.
    The whole geographical area becomes prosperous when a saint is born.
    Birth of happiness in Darcy, was the birth of the soul in dead Meryton.
    Sakthi is both conceptually creative and dynamically executive.
    Darcy is capable of creation and execution.
    The idea he conceives of making her a wife, can be dynamically executed by him.
  15.        “It settled the matter, and they pursued the accustomed route”.
    The moment Man feels something is not possible, he readily gives it up.
    Are we to appreciate this as sensible behaviour or timid giving it up.
    A rule works both ways.
    To know how it works in the given context is good.
    Here it is right to give it up.
    Sri Aurobindo always insists on not giving up.
    Darcy followed it with Elizabeth, having tried the other side of the rule earlier unsuccessfully. How are we to know what is the context.
    A Man must always be looking up.
    Going round Pemberley ten miles is no progress to any one.
    Persisting with Elizabeth made Darcy a better Man.
    Knowledge of the context is the desire for progress.
    Progress is conquest of Time, maybe space also.
    Context is to evaluate oneself not with respect to his ego, but in a wider way.
    Knowledge of the context, desire to know that is widening one’s ego.
    That creates an opportunity to progress.
    How to create an opportunity?
    Aspiration creates opportunities.
    Man wants opportunities to be given to him.
    That happens when the society is moving ahead, by social aspiration.
    Such opportunities are limited to such periods.
    One’s own aspiration creates an opportunity for him.
    Aspiration for an opportunity creates small opportunities.
    Aspiration by itself creates a greater opportunity.
    Aspiration for Mother creates still greater opportunities. Aspiration becoming subconscious at its maturity, makes Mother aspire for Man.
    Man’s aspiration is the call.
    Mother’s answering it is grace. Call and grace render life an ever living aspiration.
  16.          “They crossed it by a simple bridge”.
    In a world of total symbolism, this bridge symbolizes her crossing from one stage of life to another.
    Water courses serve as borders.
    Life is limited by such borders as bridge was a later arrival.
    The arrival of the bridge expands life beyond its natural limits.
    Initially activities expand across the bridge, while life confines itself to its original territory.
    Crossing the bridge is a symbolism of a life willing to expand.
    World is conceived as Maya or Prakriti or Lila viewing it with respect to Being, consciousness or Delight.
    These worlds have suffering, pain or evil.
    Viewing the world from the point of view of ananda, we see He is the Play, He is the Player, He is the Playground where there is only Delight and no evil.
    Viewing her life from her point of view, she met with obstacles.
    Viewing his life from his point of view, he received abuse.
    He viewed life from the view of both and came to be transformed enough to appreciate her to the extent she too appreciated him.
    After Lydia’s creative action, he extended his view by one more dimension of her family. It created the complete context after which there could be no room for regret.
    His idea that he accepted Lydia, particularly Wickham for her sake, widened his perspective, raised him to noble heights in his own eye. Contemplating what he had done and why he had acted like that gave her a realization of the nobility he was. As he had done it for her sake, she now saw what she had received from her father. A sum of two is always greater than the quantitative sum. It brings in a higher quality activating the subtle plane. She now saw their married life was better than what either of them could have conceived till then.
  17.         “The bridge was in character with the general air of the scene”.
    As our view becomes finer, we see the discard receding, accord arising, maturing harmony, their meeting lines giving out sparks of celestial beauty, and at the integrated stage we feel the force entering force generating joy, form meeting form creating consciousness, consciousness melting into consciousness maturing into Being, Being disappearing in existence on meeting Being, existence elevating into Self-existing Absolute.
    One who aspires for Romance Eternal can trace this path.
    Discord created by him, he must unwind. Discord created by another dissolves in the determination not to sustain discord.
    Accord in him calls forth accords from another accords that assent to harmony. One who is in earnest will see it in the voice, words, books, forms of movements, context of the space, significance of Time, essence of being, intensity of consciousness. Each of these perceptions is a field of work for life for human consciousness.
    For one who sees the opportunity here, the turning of human consciousness into divine consciousness creates the ecstasy of love that enables him to surrender. Lines of beauty emerge when ananda loses its limits expanding to infinity. Any occasion of joy enables one to widen the context of joy, the field of experience turning into joy, at which moments the expanding borders give out sparks of beauty. An aspiration to integrate one’s life and existence with another reveals every meeting point as a point of celestial creativity. In form it is beauty. In sensation it is joy. In expanding perception it is infinite. Any attempt to bring love to Truth issues sweetness. In an integrated vision, sweetness emerging at one point simultaneously releases sweetness at all similar points. Opening oneself inwardly it creates initial sensations that will end as thrilling. Though it is a method suitable to all, only with the feminine complement it gains life, acquires momentum, takes shape, arrives at fruition. When your vision is mature as well as ripe, sometimes you see ecstasy is rough, roughness issuing ecstasy. It means you are growing into Non-Being.
  18.         “Elizabeth longed to explore the windings of the narrow stream”
    A stream is an emotional outflow in the material earth of the human body.
    At moments of crisis, Man wants to know all the ins and outs of his emotions.
    She is what she is by the maturing of her emotions, whether she knew it or not.
    It is a moment of intense longing of her physical emotions urging her by their surge. She knew it would determine her future – the future hours.
    The active urge of her emotions trying to collect itself and organize itself, could draw up all the energy available in the vicinity.
    Her aunt was unable to walk, overcome by fatigue. When a Man longs for something, it becomes a yearning drawing all the energy physically around; and those caught in that movement are physically drawn to him.
    Darcy came to her again as if by chance.
    There is no chance in life. We should know the determinism.
    Making scarce is the forte of women. Of mean woman it is a powerful weapon.
    The meanness of a petty Mind that makes itself scarce is so powerful that for years living in the vicinity, life will prevent them from meeting.
    A life of meanness organized as such will readily oblige her.
    Giraki – கிராக்கி  - is socially detestable to people of honour especially those of generous emotions of honour.
    It is an essential instrument of life.
    God, who is after Man, tries his best to awaken his soul. The moment Man realizes the value of God, God makes Himself utterly scarce. Man may be right in His Presence, but not once will God’s looks fall on him until Man rises to His divine expectation. Men destined to be God, labouring under the illusion of human goodness are unable to live up to this standard of absolute giraki -
    கிராக்கி - - and undergo divine tension. As fame is the last infirmity of noble Minds, generous goodness of honour is the last infirmity of a soul on the borders of divine territory. To set one’s face against may be achieved with difficulty. To do so in the strength of goodness that is kindness to the other soul, requires something more than compassion -- grace that annihilates.
  19.         “Elizabeth perceived their distance from the house”
    Liking creates attachment; attachment loves proximity.
    Separation from the object of love causes pain or dismay.
    Very rarely devotees have a deep meditation, a descent of silence, a Darsan in the subtle plane.
    It is a moment of richness unknown.
    Sometimes it is wide, apart from the depth.
    Man knows the human sweetness of affection, loyalty, courage, passion, etc.
    Affection elevated to divinity is devotion; loyalty is identity; courage a breaking into infinity.
    Sweetness makes domestic life ideal.
    Divine sweetness is love of the Divine that has the urge to quit home.
    All these great intensities occupy the being by themselves.
    Also they withdraw by themselves, when Man feels helpless.
    The distance that is being created is disappointing.
    One rule Man has discovered out of experience to retain the intensity is to continuously increase it.
    Yogic intensity is like rolling a heavy stone up a gradient.
    One cannot afford a short rest, however transitory it is.
    One reason for disappointment immediately after marriage is the unreal understanding that romance once won will last forever if secured by marriage.
    It is an ordinary ignorance of a rule of life.
    That courtship is to be intensified after marriage is not a palatable thought soon after wedding.
    It is a general truth of life. Education begins after graduation.
    The life of a politician begins after winning an election.
    Securing admission to a rare course is the commencement of a very hard working session. Successful courtship is lucky. It is a period of expansive generosity of intense emotion arising out of ever living expectation. What has been achieved in a nebulous atmosphere of illusion is now to be confirmed in terms of the hard realities of harsh social life that is the established field of organized selfishness cemented by falsehood.
    The forces unleashed by wedding are so powerful that within the first twenty four hours the accounts are settled, - who is to rule for the rest of their lives.
  20.         “Mr. Gardiner was very fond of fishing”
    What one is extremely fond of, one is not able to indulge in frequently.
    He works so hard that he takes little time to indulge his fancy.
    He is the very opposite to Mr. Bennet who is indolent.
    Hard intelligent work of Gardiner goes with the culture of his wife.
    Indolent irresponsible Bennet has a loud mouthed vulgar wife.
    Personalities of spouses have several rules of correspondence.
    Of that this is one.
    The relationship between the spouses of the three daughters can be thus explained.
    Mr. Gardiner’s holiday became a holy period for the niece as his work was one of dedication, intelligence as well as responsibility.
    Diligence in the work of the day offers a restful sleep that recoups.
    Sri Aurobindo discovered the occult secret of rising to the Supermind as the precondition of going into the inner being.
    Elizabeth, Darcy, Jane, her father all did achieve at the end.
    The version of this principle in life was their experience, not by self-choice, but by external compulsion. The age old controversy between Maya, Prakriti, Lila arises because the world was viewed from the point of view of Being, consciousness, ananda by each school. Viewing the world from the whole, one arrives at the formula Himself the Player, Himself the Play, Himself the Playground.
    Viewing the family from the father, the mother, the daughters we get various conflicting versions.
    Looking at them all as a whole we see how each significantly completes the deficiency in the others. This will be palpable.
    Separative knowledge striving for knowledge by identity is human mentality.
    Each member of the family separately striving for her fulfillment ends in their discovering identity with the family’s reputation.
    That way we are unable to separate one strand from the other.
    Still the whole picture does not mature into the Marvel we are seeking.
  21.        “Mr. Gardiner watched the occasional appearance of trout in the stream.”
    For a sportsman to catch sight of game is like the lover having a glimpse of his love.
    A sportsman is first a sportsman and then a professional.
    A lover is a lover in the fullness of existence. He has no life other than that.

    Purani, returning home after meeting Sri Aurobindo, said it was the first night he had a good restful sleep. A patriot does not sleep or work or exist. He is his patriotism. His whole body burns with the aspiration of patriotism.
    A patriot never visualizes the end of his service to his country.
    His emotions for the land grow with his growing service.
    A Man in love tries to exceed humanity by love.
    One revolutionary individual by his untiring effort awakens slowly the entire nation to an evolutionary progress.
    He holds in him the energy of the whole society intensified as revolution.
    Revolution is society compressed into one individual as passionate longing.
    The athlete, the singer, the artist, the patriot, the idealist are partial expressions of a lover in whom Love is existence.
    The lovely smile of a driver who is a thief absolves him in feminine eyes of his crime.
    Love in society is confined to its own class.
    Charm transgresses barriers.
    Charm scarcely matures into affection or infatuation.
    Charm exercises a transitory spell on susceptible nerves.
    This is a passing phase of a wider vibration that is strong.
    The wider vibration is love of one soul to another soul.
    One, as Darcy, in love deeply burns in its flames all the debris of the human vulgarity.
    It is the chastening power of that pure flame.
    Partially he ennobles himself not to be affected by vitiating influences.
    Wholly, he elevates her, really purifying her in her depths.
    The crime of theft becoming invisible in the eyes that are bewitched is one ray of that profound vibration descending on the whole earth.
  22.         “They were again surprised by the sight of Mr. Darcy approaching them”
    Luck does not repeat even as surprise.
    A surprise that repeats is luck that flowers into love, grace that enlarges into Supergrace.

    What was embarrassment to both earlier was no longer so.
    Embarrassment repeated, in this case, became enchantment.
    Pain reaching immensity occasionally changes into ananda.
    The rules of Being open up heaven, avoid evil.
    The rule of the whole, being as well as non-being, transforms the world into heaven by not avoiding evil.
    Love that is Romance is Being dissolving in Non-Being to evolve in the world.
    In the case of Elizabeth, one further step after Lambton awaited.
    Even great personalities when life opens to them in a big way need at least one experience to recover from the newness of the predicament.

    What was offered to him by life at the first meeting was, on any showing, inconceivable – Elizabeth on the premises of Pemberley.
    Taking it positively, it opened up unthought ideas, inconceivable possibilities to handle for which he was ill-equipped.
    The instinct of undiscovered unity with her was there behind.
    The spark of the first meeting became a quiet flame in this meeting.
    It was a flame that purified without burning.
    The celestial flame can also be cool, if it chooses.
    For the first time in their short acquaintance they have a polite conversation devoid of tension informed by eager interest in the other.
    To the uncle and aunt this was a wondrous surprise, as they never knew the history.
    As Elizabeth knew the history, it was a surprise she could not believe as she was experiencing it.
    It was something to be experienced, not explained.
    Experience that does not lend itself to explanation is overwhelming.
  23.         “The walk being less sheltered, allowed them to see each other at a distance”.
    Life acts as if it is monitoring our inner and outer needs.
    This time it was no shock or surprise.
    The Force of the world penetrated is seen as a Being that is Delight.
    The walk of each towards the other seen in subtle vision is their life enveloped by love.
    Maya makes the Unknowable knowable, the limitless measurable.
    Courtesy makes the unknown personality pleasantly visible.
    Attitude makes the inconceivable an effectual reality.
    Pleasant smile brings sociable people close and intimate.
    An unexpressed smile turning into a beaming face brings out of the other person unknown courtesies.
    Elizabeth and Darcy were in moments when life becomes a dream.
    He who abruptly went away was now courteous, solicitous, invited them home for refreshments, offers to introduce his sister, walks to the coach.
    The irrepressible love flowed out unhindered.
    The Mind has the capacity to lift it to the Absolute – moksha.
    In this exercise, it loses itself in a swoon.
    Mind raising itself through universalizing it to Absolute is integral divine life.
    At this point, the marriage of Darcy was possible.
    Had she now married him, it would have been individual moksha.
    Lydia made her universal.
    Her family was her universe.
    She had to raise herself to the Absolute through universality, in the course of which the weddings of Jane and Lydia were to be celebrated.
    Elizabeth was the sadhaki of Integral yoga of which her own family was her universe, Darcy was her goal.
    The psychological significance of his going away after the first meeting emerges in its fullness in the second meeting.
  24.          “Elizabeth was more prepared than before”
    Progress is to be better prepared to face life.
    He who successfully faces life will not be half as successful to face his wife.
    The eternal problem of the woman is to create sustenance for her offspring without depending on Man.
    Employment for women has almost met that need as the society also offers maternity benefits.
    Physical material needs are met in advanced nations.
    Such needs to be effective must be complemented by vital, mental attitudes.
    A child cannot grow by food and attention only, it needs affection essentially.
    A woman to fully enjoy the needs supplied readily also needs the human touch of confidence, affection, affectionate solicitude.
    So far, nowhere in the world is such an arrangement in sight.
    That is the invisible link supplied by metamorphosis.
    It is not only in maternity but everywhere.
    Darcy was ardently in love; at Pemberley Elizabeth was fully willing.
    It was not enough. More was called for. Here it was Caroline, Bingley, Georgiana, Jane, Lydia, Wickham, Bennet and Mrs. Bennet. They represent their physical needs.
    Lydia’s physical needs came to them as social need of emotional approval.
    Wickham’s need seemed to be that of revenge. Put into our language, falsehood’s role must be fully played out and falsehood rewarded with Truth for it to transform at the level it can. The psychological growth into responsibility Mr. Bennet had to make had to be provided for by social approval and monetary compensation. Jane had to outgrow her illusion through Elizabeth’s outgrowing her infatuation. Caroline to reverse herself needed an occasion to let off steam. All of them had to be seen as a psychological attitudinal change in the society. Personally inner progress is to be made in tune with the social growth to generate a positive social atmosphere which can endorse, approve and sanction the events generated by this trend. It is earth’s evolution seen as social events, personal attitudes, mental opinions, monetary payment. The time gap between the two meetings prepared Elizabeth to meet him better disposed.
  25.          “Resolved to speak with calmness if he meant to speak to them”.
    Calmness she mentions is the inner calmness of the spirit.
    In the earlier meeting there was no such calmness in her.
    Calm, quiet, stillness, peace, silence are all of one species. Still there is a difference.
    Undisturbed temperament is calmness.
    Non-initiative of inner energy is quiet.
    Running thoughts stopping is stillness.
    Inability to think is silence.
    Peace is structurelessness of thought or Mind.
    Man actively relating to others cannot enjoy any of these in any considerable measure or a meaningful significance.
    People who readily relate to others are social.
    Those who relate to others out of necessity are meaningful serious persons.
    Those who only respond to others are strong, deep personalities.
    Those finding no necessity to relate to others are formed self-sufficient personalities.
    Those who can go in at will have developed yogic capacities.
    Those easily going out pleasantly and concentrating when required are balanced personalities.
    To command as much calm as required by the occasion is to have a measured inner character.
    Anger overpowers.
    Anger that does not overpower is rowdhram ரௌத்திரம்.
    Only those whose emotions are under mental control can have it.
    As there is Mental Silence, there is emotional Silence and physical silence.
    Beyond all of them is the Silence of the Being.
    Even that is not supramental Silence.
    Supramental Silence is that which gives birth to Supramental love.
    Shedding of ego gives one universal silence.
  26.         “
    For a few moments she thought he would strike a new path”
    No thought is certain in a vacillating Mind.
    One thinks by his habit of thinking. It is powerfully influenced by the sounds and sights that catch the eye and the ear.

    Her thinking he would not meet her was in relation to her own thoughts.
    His bodily movements sent their own message to her.
    Their combination still needed the endorsement of her own Mind.
    Unformed personalities in the presence of an opportunity cannot bring themselves to relate themselves to it by wishing for it.
    Formed personalities behave like unformed ones in the face of a vastly higher opportunity.
    Thought does not reflect what it does not relate to.
    Desire, coveting, aspiration, ambition are formed emotions.
    Emotions do not take shape with unrelated objects.
    Darcy had not been an object of her ever.
    Even after the proposal, it was only an unrelated information to her.
    Pemberley she related with as a mistress, but not yet Darcy.
    Of course, he as well as she was going to strike a new path.
    Those who have observed their mental movements can remember the Mind trying to take a poise each time they had to decide. Even when they were to speak in an inconsequential conversation their Mind waited for a poise. In an interview the candidate’s Mind will be so revealed to the interviewer.
    There will be no thoughts in some Minds.
    Others will have uncontrollable thoughts.
    Man thinks with respect to someone or something.
    One who thinks unrelated to people or facts is a thinker. Should he think unrelated to any known idea, he is an original thinker.
    Resourcefulness is to think of new possibilities in old situations.
    Mind relating to vital is resourceful.
  27.         “The turning in the walk concealed him from their view”.
    No Man can know anything outside him.
    How close it is does not matter.

    The ego’s view is microscopic. Shedding the ego, it is the universal view as the eye withdrawn from the microscope can see all the world the eyesight can reach.
    She met him again by the strength of her view and the fairness of her attitude.
    Palliser, standing on the brink of domestic tragedy knowingly, went to bring her scarf from another room. The strength of his chivalry and its purity saved his honour. For Palliser it was to avoid a tragedy.
    For Elizabeth it was to accept the opportunity that had opened before her.
    In buying a property after the price is settled, the procedures to be filled until possession is taken are a good many and each needs an attitude as a strategy. In these few moments as many were required by her. These are not strategies one can learn and practice. One can learn, but at the moment required the old ideas will automatically come out. It comes either out of culture or a ready turning of the being to the MOMENT. It is possible to make the right attitude come out automatically, if we shift from the ego and the Mind to the Psychic. Non-egoistic attitude is what we know. Ceasing to think at the moment, we leave the Mind. Then we are straightaway in the lap of the Psychic. One more advantage to the devotees is to call Mother. We see here in Elizabeth, at this moment, she did not exercise her ego, nor was her Mind active. Hence the Psychic atmosphere would automatically come. It is Darcy who had now the atmosphere of transformation. Think of him, it will land on her. Elizabeth was out of her absence of mind only now. Absence of Mind, because of the astonishment, helped her discount her Mind. By the time he had come close, she recovered her presence of Mind enough to be cautious in her description of the place. The weight of the atmosphere was pleasant. The tension of the occasion was great. There was no question of her Mind interfering.
  28.         “The turning past, he was immediately before them”.
    The soul suddenly appears for a split second, when the Mind is crossed.
    It can be made permanent only in Samadhi.
    As against this Vedantic experience, Sri Aurobindo offers us the alternative of waking Samadhi.

    If Samadhi is like a phone call to a distant place, Waking Samadhi is talking to anyone anywhere without the aid of a phone.
    Her earlier meeting outside the house was the first, now she had the next experience.
    Any big company meeting the revenue needs of the nation will quickly exhaust itself. Many may not last one full day. Only the government can meet such a need.
    Waking Samadhi is like private wealth meeting national needs.
    Marriage and Romance are so different. They are in drastically different planes as our surface Mind and the Spiritual inside.
    On the surface Mind we function in time taking care of our needs only. Others we do not know there. Inside, you see the whole world in a flash and relate to all souls in all respects. Their supply to you is infinite, of the world. Your supply must be equal to that, if possible at a higher level. Thus, He said, one Man’s perfection can save the world.
    Darcy’s perfection invisibly served all of English aristocracy.
    Directly he served Mr. Bennet’s family materially, socially.
    Transformation is in the plane of transcendence.
    His surrender is in the vital and Mental planes.
    Ego that sustained his pride was dissolved.
    On page 59 of The Life Divine a short summary of the evolution appears.
    Moving from the ego centre to the Divine centre, Man shifts himself to the plane of physical Nature in the material universe.
    It is the ocean of Rig Veda Hyrdya samudra. It was ego that divided the subconscious one into the subconscious Many.
    Shedding the ego Man overcomes the dualities and is trying to evolve as the Conscious Being. Thus Man the universal Incarnation is in the path of evolution.
  29.        “With a glance she saw he had not lost the recent civility”.
    The inner Mind can comprehend the entire significance in one look.
    She could know of Darcy in a single glance.
    In the instinct this faculty becomes permanent.
    Instinct is the vital perception of the Self.
    Grace comes and settles down on us as Silence so that the vital can perceive the Self.
    [Instinct, intuition, identity are the perceptive results of Mental, vital, body.
    What they perceive are the Self, the Soul, the Purusha, the Psychic. A rational scale can be constructed but to gather the authority of a quotation from The Life Divine is good.]
    Women perceive the make up of other women like that.
    Children in the street corner do not miss the stranger who passes by.
    Such faculties can be selective or general.
    For a long time we do not know the perceptions we have.
    To have the perception is different from defining it.
    Definition is a mental faculty of conceptually organizing perceptions into an idea.
    To know all the perceptions we have, to be able to define them gives the Mind a clarity that will help acquire fresh perceptions.
    Entering a new community or family one can evaluate them in terms of the perceptions they have and those they don’t have.
    Similar efforts can be taken for skills, capacities, values all of which can go to create a scale to measure the civilized value of a collective or the individual.
    Self-awareness is the sum total of such scales of perceptions.
    One who is self-aware thus is conscious in that measure.
    In poor communities it becomes a vital resourcefulness of survival.
    In high diplomatic conclaves, one who is so endowed at that level can conceive of all the ideas that can take the world a step ahead.
    Original thinkers see humanity at the level of their own personal perceptions.
    Such Minds can know the measure of Individuality they enjoy and can fix themselves in the real plane of their social value.
    Light in any part of the being provides the potential at that level for such evaluation.
  30.          “To imitate his politeness, she began to admire the beauty”.
    Spontaneity is spoiled by assumed formality.
    Man, who takes one step toward God, finds God taking ten steps towards him.
    Reason fulfils itself by hope or certitude.
    Instinctive certitude yields exact results, if not readily.
    The Hour of God brought down by Him, must inspire in us instinctive certitude.
    The American settlers in an atmosphere of freedom and plenty were inspired by the instinctive certitude that achieved.
    Such a certitude is made possible by freedom in the society, earlier achievements of others, knowledge that something is feasible, aspiration that is undying.
    The entrepreneur is one who is so inspired in business.
    The pioneer is more directed by an inner urge.
    The leader exercises the available power of leadership.
    His fifth goal is the birth of the Supramental Being.
    Prior to it is the Guruhood of India.
    For India to be the Guru of the world, the world should be politically united and before that India should be territorially united.
    World Unity is his third goal.
    All the components or ingredients for the future world government – EU, global trade, financial unity de facto, international organizations, visible role of NGOs, Internet – are there.
    The one thing missing is the human factor – the Individual.
    Pollution and financial crises are negative assurances to it.
    People all over the world are looking for answers, though in terms of the problems.
    They created the problems.
    The answers must be from the opposite quarter.
    Still, asking for an answer is welcome.
    The new mindset can be created positively or negatively.
    Pluck at a gown of gold, you will get a sleeve of it.
    Now, pluck at the sleeve, you will get a shower of gowns.
    Times have changed; Mind has to rise.
  31.       “She had not yet gone beyond the words ‘delightful’, ‘charming’. ”
    Caution, patience, alertness are basic values of survival.
    It is true her being was split open as never before.
    It is equally true that she was cautious, consciously.
    These are ever-present qualities that surface rarely.
    The ego is an intermediate principle between Man and God.
    It has survived several great ego–destroying religions because its value of survival is great.
    Sri Aurobindo tells us how to overcome the ego by treating it as an intermediate term which will help us replace it by God.
    All our values of survival have learned to survive against heavy odds of life forces.
    This was a meeting where she opened her destiny to higher skies.
    This was the same occasion where her prudence had worked to limit her scope as Darcy opened limits that were endless.
    Reason, which is popularly believed to be a bar to spirit, HE says, can take us to transcendence.
    Emphasizing the practical realities, it justifies the popular belief.
    Emphasizing its higher potentialities, we can reach transcendence through reason.
    At what level one levels off, is decided by human choice, the available instinctive certitude, the scope of his personality, his willingness to shed the inhibiting factors.
    She did what no one in her position could do.
    Still, in view of what opened up before her, she fell short of the goal.
    We see she was carried by a wave of luck far beyond her control.
    Darcy decided to do what few Men had ever done before him and spread before her a veritable ocean of opportunities while she was looking for a bathing ghat.
    He was never aware of what he was determined to achieve.
    He reached positive peaks through negative initiatives.
  32.        “Praise of Pemberley might be mischievously construed.”
    Refusal of the ascetic, affirmation of practical facts, taking Mind as Man, considering the One as ultimate, shunning life, assuming Force is independent, granting Bliss its ultimate status, mistaking ego as the individual, Life as evil, missing the link between the lower and higher Maya, explaining Maya as illusion are many of the points of yoga where Sri Aurobindo departs company from the tradition.
    These and several others are points which let karma survive along with suffering, pain, death and evil. The Life Divine in most of its chapters explains how this departure can make life immortal. These aspects penetrate life and appear in all of our existence. The above is one.
    Her thought was worldly wisdom. At the end of the story she never allowed life to whisper that wisdom in her ears. She broke the rule, spoke out, told him what he wanted to keep secret. Had she done so here, the tragedy could have been averted. The rule is if she is sincere the outcome will be brilliant. What she spoke mattered little. We see it in Palliser twice. Life honoured his sincerity when he brought the scarf and sent Burgo into his house. For one who is sincere, a good strategy serves well, a bad strategy does the service of a good one, and no strategy acts as the best of strategies. Sincerity includes in itself the right strategy it needs and life brings it out at the required moment. A sincere person who employs consciously the best of strategies allows Life to accomplish not at his level, but at the widest level of his partial insignificant work. In his battle he wins the war. One Man’s perfection overflows his being into the Being of the world. Caution is good. When the atmosphere is like this, throwing caution to the wind is better. Politeness is welcome. In a non-social hour giving the go by to politeness will serve God.
    Man’s faith comes to the surface when he is compelled to give up his all.
    The Mystery of Faith is the Miracle of Man.
  33.          “Her colour changed. She said no more”.
    In the most critical moments, lovers lapse into Silence.
    It is true of all critical moments between Men.
    The apt answer is so revolting that it cannot find words.
    In the opposite context, the capacity to formulate thoughts into words deserts them.

    The whole face becomes red, red spots appear on the cheeks, blood runs fast to the heart, one becomes pale, a blush rises or spreads all over the face, at its peak one faints.
    A week long diplomatic conference avoids a war.
    A moment like this, especially here for Elizabeth, condenses some generations into one year.
    Its inner intensity is acute pain even if it is ecstatic pain.
    One who aspired for a post over the heads of a dozen seniors, lost himself in his ambition for half an hour as if he were in trance.
    One who was denied the promotion to the Deputy Directorship had an inveterate ambition to become the Director, Vice Chancellor and a Member of a Planning Commission.
    Such people live in 100% intensity all the time.
    Yoga needs such aspiration.
    Every one of us has such an experience.
    Some have it often.
    A few have their whole life organized at that level.
    As long as Man lives a routine life, he has a few cares.
    The moment he wants to rise outwardly or inwardly he enters into another rhythm of life which is drastically different.
    Life then becomes a bird that never lands on earth.
    His lightning steadies itself in his sky.
    He is a member of another psychological species.
58
Mrs. Gardiner was standing a little behind; and on her pausing, he asked her if she would do him the honour of introducing him to her friends. This was a stroke of civility for which she was quite unprepared; and she could hardly suppress a smile at his being now seeking the acquaintance of some of those very people against whom his pride had revolted in his offer to herself. "What will be his surprise," thought she, "when he knows who they are? He takes them now for people of fashion."
  1. They meet again. He asks to be introduced to her uncle and aunt. This is another milestone in their relationship. The two meeting on these grounds with Darcy is the turning point in their relationship
  2.        “He asked her if she would introduce her friends”
    Progress is opportunity that matures into actuality opening further opportunities.
    Vitally each joy leading to greater joy is progress.
    Mental ideas rising to resolve into a higher harmony of accomplishment generating fresh ideas is mental progress.

    Spiritually consecration completes the work that gives spiritual joy.
    Consecration that consecrates the result of spiritual joy is ever living.
    Body, vital, Mental, Spiritual are instruments of accomplishment.
    The accomplishment gives a higher physical skill, a vital attitude, mental idea or a spiritual joy.
    Continuous progress is to make the end the beginning.
    The result of the first act serving as the beginning of the next act is progress.

    An organization that relates the result to the next beginning is a live organization.
    One seed yields twenty grains.
    In a similar organization of production the result will be one with twenty as the coefficient of the progression.
    In psychological or spiritual growth, when the right attitude is sustained one soon becomes infinity.
    The coefficient in a spiritual progression is infinity.
    Elizabeth meeting Darcy, in view of his changed attitude, is such an occasion.
    The descent of Supermind releases such an ascent in human consciousness.
    Reason can end in practical materialism or transcendence depending upon what you emphasize.
    Consecration that consummates can surrender the consummation to generate Mother’s consciousness forever.
    As thirteen days are thirteen years in spiritual progress, instantaneous results are always possible, though they defy all the rules, or perhaps because of it, unless one seeks ignorance to level off in the intensity of the existing security. Cutting the Gordian knot of ego, Pure Existent, opens the hyrdaya samudra to render Force conscious and land in the Delight of Becoming. Delight of Becoming is recovering Sachchidananda concealed in its opposite.
  3.         “This was a stroke of civility for which she was not prepared”
    The unexpected is the surprise; this is an unexpected surprise.
    From the first moment of meeting him till now she never realized what she was in.
    The first surprise was the proposal, but, in view of her response, it went out of her mind.
    Only in this meeting she really saw what he was to her.
    Her Mind changed in the last hour, but she saw him changed now.
    Man lives only in moments of change.
    How he meets that change, is what we call Human choice.
    The least of those choices makes life interesting.
    The very best of choices will raise a Man to the maximum in his life.
    Man often initiates a better change and reverses.
    The history of such vacillations is life as well as literature.

    One can give a response better than the best.
    Given negatively, he falls and loses what he has either as a possession or an opportunity.
    Possessions are lost when the response is that of physical possessiveness.
    Opportunity is lost when the response is from the vital or the Mental.
    A positive response breaks through his social cordon.
    A positive idealistic response breaks through his psychological formulation.
    For one who wants it to be a spiritual response, his whole life should be one of such choices.
    Hers was one to move to the Mind.
    His was one to move to the Psychic.
    Mr. Bennet’s decision was one from inaction to action.
    She was next not prepared for another stroke of humanity when he found Lydia.
    His own second proposal was neither an act of civility nor humanity but one of a lover in the best sense of the word.
    From social he moved to psychological goodness. Finally he acted from neither plane, as he was almost oblivious; not knowing what he was doing and not at all expecting what she gave.
  4.        “She could hardly suppress a smile at the introduction he was seeking”
    Rejection of something demands it be claimed again in humiliating situations.
    Things come to you, if not for acceptance, but at least for careful examination.
    Rejecting out of hand may lead to a total reversal.
    Darcy himself now courted Elizabeth whom he rejected in the beginning.
    Rejection of someone or something means bitter introspection.

    Courting properly what was proudly rejected gives you more than you deserve or ask for.
    Such an attitude is an avenue for grace to act through.
    In Darcy’s case it came to be amply true.
    She could hardly suppress a smile because her playful expansiveness had already come to the surface.
    It created a creative atmosphere. It did create a wonderful emotion in him which he had not felt till then.
    The fall -- Lydia’s action – was not at all indicated in any fragment of this meeting.
    This meeting showed it could smoothly culminate itself.
    Caroline’s provocation and Lydia’s flight were not part of this meeting.
    As we know of motiveless malignity, Caroline’s action was a causeless construction. She was negatively creative.
    Lydia belonged to another plane.
    Had she married Darcy through a proposal at Lambton, Elizabeth would have been the happy wife of an adoring husband.
    She was to know the romantic purity of his love and raise herself to that pitch.
    Lydia made that possible.
    It made him embrace her family more comprehensively than now.
    Attraction to fine eyes is different from adoration of a rare soul meant for him as a complement. That revealed on his face when she accepted him.
    She could hardly comprehend Darcy on reading her aunt’s letter.
  5. “He takes them now for people of fashion”
    As the view changes, facts reveal themselves differently.
    To be in the fashion is to sedulously keep up appearance.
    The appearance is in the dress, small talk, manners, airs, social habits.
    To acquire wealth is not so difficult as to acquire status.
    Both become easy as against blood.
    To be in the fashion is as difficult as any of these.
    It is a total occupation for all, preoccupation to some.
    To acquire it without the natural strength is a disgusting labour.
    Strong people of character whose natural life is habitual accomplishment do not know they are in fashion as they are oblivious
    as majesty comes to Royalty.
    He had inwardly acquired a great endowment. Now was the first time he was trying to express it. It was awkward by nature of things.
    Awkwardness is the ill adapted higher or lower behaviour in a higher or lower context.
    Darcy was always awkward everywhere, even at Rosings.
    When the inner supramental conquest is there and the outer was left unattended to we have the versions of balavat, unmattavat, pisasavat – child, insane, devilish poises.
    She inwardly reversed, and now witnessed outward reversal.
    One who has insulted another reverses himself if he is to go to him for help.
    Of course, the manners have changed diametrically.
    The will has commanded the manners to reverse.
    The will does not have the same command over the behaviour.
    In the act of reversal the outer expression cannot be as pleasant as in manners.
    Such a reversal cannot be ordered by the will to change one’s character.
    Character forms by overtaking the will.
    With manners the Will can easily command, but with behaviour the will struggles whereas with character, the will knows it is unavailable for any meaningful exercise.
59
The introduction, however, was immediately made; and as she named their relationship to herself, she stole a sly look at him, to see how he bore it, and was not without the expectation of his decamping as fast as he could from such disgraceful companions. That he was surprised by the connexion was evident; he sustained it, however, with fortitude, and, so far from going away, turned back with them, and entered into conversation with Mr. Gardiner. Elizabeth could not but be pleased, could not but triumph. It was consoling that he should know she had some relations for whom there was no need to blush. She listened most attentively to all that passed between them, and gloried in every expression, every sentence of her uncle, which marked his intelligence, his taste, or his good manners.
  1. Certainly the manners of Mr. Gardiner mattered.
  2.        “She named the relationship to her and stole a sly look at him.”
    A sly look arises when he keeps back something.
    Slyness is the sensitivity of those who are not frank.
    For frank people a moment arises to keep back an information out of delicacy. It is dexterous courtesy.
    All negative qualities do have their positive counterparts.
    A wrongly spelt word in an important communication can either mean a great opportunity to a small Man or the cancellation of it.
    To know what it signifies is the right knowledge at that time.
    To know how to convert the symptom into an opening of a world-shaking opportunity is the spiritual perception.
    This is the knowledge of the subtle plane.
    Such a knowledge of Krishna – thirteen years – could not be converted into power because of Dharma’s rigidity.
    In periods where everything is an opportunity as today every politician has an opportunity for wealth, or every destitute child has an opportunity for education, Man by his perverse obstinacy can insist on his negativity.
    In such a situation one must be open all over, cannot afford to take anything at its face value.
    In a negative atmosphere of tense competition, great opportunities announce themselves as mishaps.
    One should know how to reach the opportunity from the mishap.
    This knowledge leads.
    Emotionalising this knowledge, it becomes power.
    Every minute is the Hour of God.
    We often do not even respond to the Hour of Man.
    A Sadhak is one who is all aspiration.
    He cannot offer a negative response to any event.
    Opportunity coming to the work done is Grace.
    Opportunity coming by itself is Supergrace.
    Man’s faith in his capacity stands in the way of Supergrace.
  3.        “Was not without the expectation of decamping as fast as he could”
    Luck is when our worst expectations are belied. Grace turns our worst expectations into their opposites.
    We are our expectations.
    Expectation energises the incoming event into what we expect.
    So we say our fears have come true, not realising we gave them life.
    An atmosphere of grace is full of life potentialities of the highest order.
    Whatever your demand of that atmosphere, it can only give you the very best.
    Only the ordinary atmosphere is capable of making our fears true.
    Even this exalted atmosphere has its minimum and maximum.
    It also, at its level, retaining its character, respects the rule that you get what you ask for.
    These high potentials have their inverse relations with human expectations.
    The criminal, in that sense, is the inverse of an acute politician.
    Elizabeth had high potentials of Mind and rational culture.
    Her Mind only knew what she had heard of Darcy.
    He had reversed himself, created the positive atmosphere.
    She projected her expectations of his quickly decamping from there.
    It reached him as a hospitable movement abiding in Pemberley.
    There was nothing in him now for him to rise to her old expectations.
    Hence the invitation to fishing; hence her uncle’s skepticisms; her aunt’s quickly turning to her old friends.
    Her expectation of her imagination was realized by Wickham’s decamping with Lydia.
    No expectation or no part of it is left unrealized.
    He did go to London from Lambton as fast as he could.
    Expectation stalls work.
    In this atmosphere she expected him to put up his old behaviour.
    The atmosphere realized the expectations not as she conceived, but in a fashion inconceivable by her.
    The atmosphere realized itself taking her initiative of expectation.
    All the potentials in her for her to accept him were then created.
  4.      “That he was surprised by the connection was evident”
    He never expected Cheapside uncles to undertake a pleasure tour.
    Tour is undertaken by well to do people.

    Human mentality is separative knowledge struggling to reach identity.
    His conversation was an exercise in such a mentality.
    Their presence diluted his embarrassment.
    The Rishi knows the Universe through his Self.
    Darcy knew his world by knowing himself.
    Presently he had discovered a new Self, hence a new world.
    Brahman is the supreme reality which being known all can be known.
    The wife is Man’s Brahman.
    He who knows his wife can know every other thing.

    As Man in another culture trying to find his feet, Darcy, having been born anew, was trying to forge new relationships.
    Darcy’s future life was created by his character, not by his wealth.
    His wealth would organize for him a life like that of his aunt.
    His previous character was not capable of creating a happy life for himself.
    Small indications of great opportunities make them come true.
    Small lapses in great opportunities ruin them.
    The world is more than ready to receive Sri Aurobindo’s message.
    The book Trouble with Physics is a great indication.
    The many appreciations of Senior Fellows are great symptoms.
    One’s ever present alertness to expand in every possible way alone can capitalize on it.
    One is capable of innumerable lapses while not a single lapse will be permitted by the work.
    One small slip will cost $2000 for loose motion at concessional rates. Darcy never made one.
    Elizabeth contemplated one after Lydia’s wedding.
    Grace prevented her by its incessant course.
    There is a strong urge, wrong attitude, impermissible impulse at every moment to be consecrated.
  5.        “He sustained it with fortitude and asked them to be introduced.”
    Fortitude is the will of emotion to achieve a higher cultural result.
    In a frank confession Mercedes told Dantes she never had the fortitude and forbearance needed to wait for him to be released from jail.
    It was an effort to shed the vital ego when the eye sees light in the night.
    Physical ego giving way sounds like the tearing of the cloth.
    Mental ego dissolving does not feel hurt when abused. Darcy put up that attitude in his proposal to Elizabeth.
    Women won by status and Money will be submissive, cannot be affectionate.
    Man in love, after Romance not marriage, cannot win a woman by status or Money.
    He can win her only by affection.
    Woman not won by affection, will not be a source of Romance.
    Money that is not won by consecration cannot serve Mother, can only serve the ego.

    What is not accomplished by consecration will not serve Mother, can serve social ego.
    Money won by efficiency is not Money won for Mother.
    The body sustained by food and breath will not serve Mother, will serve ego.
    Food and breath consecrated will sustain the body to serve Mother.
    Unconsecrated speech cannot serve Mother.
    Introduction to her relations was Darcy’s shedding the social vital ego that offended her most as pride and arrogance.
    Her abuse rising to evolutionary heights touched her genius.
    Abuse that is socially impermissible is spiritually a blessing.

    Darcy took it in that sense, thanked her for it, while she was ashamed.
    Advice becomes abuse to acquire negative intensity to remove a negative trait. That is how Mother’s punishments are grace.
    He who cannot accept life’s punishments of misfortune as grace, will undergo punishment without its positive outcome.
    Man’s egoistic responses create dualities. Not responding so ego can be shed.
    Shankara took the condition of cosmic existence as egoistic dualities.
    Darcy never committed the mistake of Shankara. Marriage taken as a field for Man to dominate woman cannot yield Romance.
  6. “Darcy when he proposed was in that mentality.”
    As the abuse began to pour instantaneously he saw marriage that seeks Romance cannot be a field for domination either by Man or the woman.
    At that moment he gave a spiritual response which made him write the letter only justifying him not vilifying Wickham.
    With her he not only did not defend her abuses, in the end he was sorry for the offensive initial part of his letter.
    He said he wrote the letter calmly, but later realized it was in bitterness of spirit.
    He felt bitter to give up his pride and accept her family passively.
    She was bitter. In receiving her bitterness quietly his own spirit became bitter. It still accuses the other whereas he should adore her.
    Adoration of all those who accuse is an article of faith in this yoga.
    Adoration without strength is squeamishness.
    Strength of inner poise that is culture adoring the incoming abuse is exercising the patience of growth of cultural sweetness.
    Gita spells out all these values, but does not insist on practicing them, turns the soul to moksha, not through asana but through surrender.
    The Gita’s surrender is surrender of Dharmas, the beliefs of the Mind.
    That asked Arjuna to fight his relatives, elders, gurus, etc.
    It is the toughest task one can think of.
    Shedding the vital, physical sensitivities is unthinkable.
    Even the vital sensitivities of social cultural values are most incomprehensible to the most enlightened Man.
    Adore the feet of the criminal and the harlot! Is it conceivable?
    In practice it must be not only conceivable but adorable attitudes.
    Further down a pin pricking must be given the response of no pain or better still glad laughter of the soul.
    America has rendered many of the social values in terms of freedom and democracy. The psychological value of Money is as a compensation fortified. For one to aspire for Individuality, Money value must be dissolved and Manliness emancipated.
  7.         “Elizabeth could not but be pleased, could not but triumph.”
    Man receives success not as it requires, but as it pleases him.
    What makes the fresh gains in the society established is the society acquiring values of the new arrival.
    Industry introduced in India in 1850 did not take over the society for 150 years because Indian society had not accepted the industrial culture.
    One of the reasons education began to spread in India after the sixties is, society instead of trying to fit education into it, rose to accept the educational values.
    Man understanding that ego must be shed will make no progress.
    A psychological acceptance of it will make him overcome the dualities, e.g. at night he will see light, caste will not be a sensitivity to him.
    Elizabeth was pleased, felt the triumph as she remained what she was. Her rising to the occasion was to be pleased by the change he had made. It must be an appreciation of his progress, not a triumph of hers. The meeting could not be consummated in her present attitude. She did make that progress after the visit of Lady Catherine. Her triumph was the triumph of her ego. Appreciation of his inner progress of change was overcoming her ego.
    Overcoming of ego is accomplishment of work.
    The birth of the Individual will be real, will come to stay when the society learns the values of that Individual – non-possessiveness, self-giving, equality. Caste can be abolished when the social value of the caste is abolished.
    Industrial Revolution, introduction of a new religion, education, setting up of a new empire, even a new important product requires a whole, rather a comprehensive psychological infrastructure to survive.
    Change in Darcy and Elizabeth was like that as far as they were concerned.
    We see Sir Lucas could not take the dinner at Rosings comfortably.
    He was subdued by the overwhelming atmosphere.
    These changes were radical for both of them.
    To handle them quietly was difficult.
    To rise to the occasion with delicate culture requires experience.
    Of all the things in life for a Man to acquire, culture is the most difficult.
  8.           “It was consoling that she had some relations for whom she need not blush.”
    The one aspiration for every single individual is status.
    His ‘inferior connections’ was a mortification for her. No one can pardon him.
    It is not the untouchable who is most oppressed, but the social outcaste born out of wedlock.

    One who is condemned in his own opinion is worse still.
    Positively it is self-esteem, self-confidence that helps psychological survival.
    He who knows he needs no one’s approval is safest and the luckiest.
    Kural says he who knows he is loved by his beloved has that pride.
    The Individual is one who instinctively feels the spiritual affinity to all others.
    He can establish the world government as he happily goes out to everyone.
    Even to the Individual, the surface may differ or even conflict, but he has the knowledge to see them as complements.
    Mean characters never fail to refer to the social weaknesses of others to put them down. Generous characters are pleasing because they readily recognize the sweetest aspects of another’s life.
    In doing so, the other Man expands inside and outside and you expand with him.
    The very atmosphere becomes lively, expansive, and inexhaustibly enjoyable.
    Good will is good manners.
    Spiritual good will is the blessings of love, love of other souls.
    Material wealth is spirituality in the physical plane.
    Status is pure spirituality universally in the vital social plane.
    Mentally agreeable social ideals are spiritual.
    No one needs spirituality for its own sake.
    Mother gives us the same comfort enormous wealth can give.
    She gives us vitally what rich powerful status cannot give.
    No genius can have the Mental fulfillment that comes from Mother in the Mind.
    Spiritually Mother is Blessings and Love blended together.
    To have her in the heart is not a human experience. It is celestial.
    The fulfillment She gives is from Her inherent fullness.
    She saturates our being with the power of knowledge, with the sweetness of Perfection.
  9.         “She listened most attentively to all that passed between them and gloried in every expression”.
    Attention becomes attentive when interest is intense.
    Interest is the application of all available energy to something that raises its level of energy.
    Biological interest is in children.
    Vital interest is in the spouse or friends.
    Mental interest is in the ideal.

    Spiritual interest is devotion as well as dedication. Expanding energy is interest. It is done by an attitude. The knowledge in the attitude being of a higher plane is the spur to widen.
    The widening vital enjoys its growth of size and capacity.
    Man takes interest in anything that raises his intensity of existence.
    To Elizabeth, Darcy, the critical aristocrat, is the highest of standards.
    Her own uncle and aunt are the most polished products of her family.
    It is these very people he castigated in his proposal.
    How they fare now is of great significance to her in the final tally of things.
    They fared well, the uncle fished, Darcy was thus culturally secured.
    His meeting them there paved the way for him to work with them for Lydia.
    It can be seen positively like this. Negatively, because he met them, sustained it with fortitude, it flared up later as elopement.
    Either way, the rule that no act in a scheme of things is superfluous, is seen true.
    We can explain any small act completely in its significance to the context.
    We already have a long list of them.
    Each of these acts can be taken and analysed for the energy, attitude, magnitude of power of delivery, etc. which will show the original analysis with a distinct precision.
    She took in every phrase spoken by the uncle and gloried in it for their social worth.
    Our subtle life does not miss or neglect any single thought or imagination.
    It has a way of knocking the events off its fetters of causality to deliver more when the energy supplied is great or there is an earnesnesst of energy.
    Man taken unawares – she was now so taken – brings out the best or finds himself blurting, as he is not equal to the situation verbally.
    Thus Elizabeth was always a ready wit.
  10.         “Every sentence of her uncle marked his intelligence, his taste and his manners.”(p. 225)
    Taste and manners are vital, intelligence is Mental.
    Intelligence guides willing vital into channels of good taste, fine manners. That intelligence has a character.
    When the character of the vital wants to learn, it learns.
    Mind is free to act. It can choose to be egoistic or the opposite. Mind choosing not to be egoistic is a moment of civilization, it liberates.
    Only when the period of ego is over it strikes the Mind not to be egoistic.
    The moment comes from inside or outside or both.
    Inner occasion is ripeness of the soul. The outer occasion is the march of civilization.

    Mind liberating itself from the ego, fortifying itself with emotions and physicality, is a ripe moment for liberation. Liberation must be followed by universalisation.
    A gentleman is one who is seriously universalizing himself in the society.
    Mind, constantly endeavoring to relate to others is a moment of universalisation.
    More than the Mind, the Psychic can do it better.
    So, Psychisisation is the first step.
    Elizabeth’s intense good will for Jane was a ray of the Psychic.
    His wanting to relate to her fully, unconditionally was a spiritual endeavour of universalisation, rather its first step towards one person outside oneself.
    It must be followed by the aspiration to the Transcendent Being.
    There is one more step.
    One should offer his nature to the Nature of the Divine.
    That movement is completed by integralisation.
    His restoring Lydia was partly his nature being offered to the higher nature.
    By accepting Lydia, his nature rose.
    He did not attempt integralisation which meant bringing Mrs. Bennet and Wickham into Pemberley and his relating to them on an equal footing.
    Transformation is painful for the unwilling vital.
    To relate to a refined vital it may be less painful. She could not see Mrs. Bennet talking like her uncle.
    She would like Wickham to relate to Darcy and she would appreciate it.
60
The conversation soon turned upon fishing; and she heard Mr. Darcy invite him, with the greatest civility, to fish there as often as he chose while he continued in the neighbourhood, offering at the same time to supply him with fishing-tackle, and pointing out those parts of the stream where there was usually most sport. Mrs. Gardiner, who was walking arm-in-arm with Elizabeth, gave her a look expressive of her wonder. Elizabeth said nothing, but it gratified her exceedingly; the compliment must be all for herself. Her astonishment, however, was extreme, and continually was she repeating, "Why is he so altered? From what can it proceed? It cannot be for me -- it cannot be for my sake that his manners are thus softened. My reproofs at Hunsford could not work such a change as this. It is impossible that he should still love me."
  1. Darcy’s behaviour is as much a surprise to Elizabeth as to her aunt.
  2. Elizabeth arrives at the only conclusion she can.
  3. No one can ever change as he has changed.
  4. She understood that he changed for her.
  5. Elizabeth is astonished that her abuses at Hunsford brought about such a change in him. Had he not been in love with her, her reproofs would have turned him off. What brought about the change is his love for her and his basic character of sincerity. ‘he still loves me’
  6.        “The conversation soon turned upon fishing.”
    To please one most is to please him in his least aspect of personality.
    Man’s pleasure is decided by the least valuable aspect of his personality.

    The maximum is decided by the minimum.
    A great speech is a great success by its fine words, more so by the simplest of anecdotes.
    The biggest peerages were awarded by the King for a fine bottle of oldest wine.
    This is a great strategy in married life.
    Viewed ordinarily, it is a cheap mean trick.
    Understood philosophically, the highest door to the soul opens by the lowest of sensations because of its integrality. Elizabeth reaching Darcy began by a juicy scandal that was malicious.
    The asset of her fine eyes, for a reverse reason, was open to an unbecoming scurrilous news.
    The reverse reason is she was the daughter of Mrs. Bennet.
    Fishing is an innocent sport though it kills the fish.
    Hunting is a vigorous sport where there is risk and great violence.
    Though harmless, the thrill of the sport is fully retained by the act.
    Violence carries physical intensity; thrill vital intensity.
    Man seeks thrills. God’s touch thrills the very body. In that sense tapas and fishing have something in common.
    The first phase of successful Romance opens with a thrill.
    The soul being born at a higher level on one’s birthday can happen on every birthday, theoretically more often. As it happens to most once in a lifetime the Romantic thrill does not repeat a second time for the majority. They feel better than those who have never felt such a thrill.
    Romantic thrill is emotions opening into physical consciousness.
    Spiritual thrill is Supermind flashing into the body consciousness.
    Body consciousness rising in surrender to emotions or spirit is a great moment of rising aspiration.
  7.        “Darcy invited him with the greatest civility to fish there”.
    Invitation is extension of social emotions to include them.
    One invites another as he wants something of his social endowments.
    Society exists at various levels. At the lowest Man endeavours to survive physically.
    At the highest he aspires to grow, rather outgrow his status by generous emotions.
    The peak can grow only by broadening its base and raising all below.
    A king expands his empire by raising all the nobles around him to his status.
    In a democracy the apex constantly desires to raise the bottom so that democracy can become more refined.
    It is a process where tactlessness can raise those below to his level at his expense.
    The French noble who recommended Napoleon to be appointed General warned that if they failed he would get elected as General.
    That is the indication of a rising Man.
    Darcy, here, tried to raise himself in the eyes of Elizabeth, by raising her uncle to his level by the courtesy of invitation to fishing.
    Roger rose on the strength of his capacity brought out from a stone mason by the wave of the industrial revolution.
    Mary Thorne rose to great heights by the culture of the Thornes and the wealth of Roger.
    Roger’s rise itself was supported by the aristocratic child growing in high culture.
    It looks as if he earned his wealth for Mary.
    Frank was ruined by his mother, his father never courted the ruin.
    To restore Frank’s father whose affections nurtured Mary, Mary came there with enormous wealth.
    In a proper social setup, culture includes wealth and has the capacity to attract it.
  8.          “Offering to supply him with fishing tackle.”
    The fact that he offered the tackle and showed him the points where fish was to be located was a confirmation of his real intention.
    Also he who has no intention will speak in details, but his voice will betray.
    Tapas for moksha, evolution for transformation.
    Tapas releases one part of the being. Evolution transforms all the parts of the Being.

    Darcy’s tapas was for moksha, but Lydia dragged him into transformation.
    The infinite being loses itself into the Non-Being, emerges as the finite soul. (p. 110,The Life Divine).
    Darcy followed Elizabeth who dissolved into her family and emerged as Lydia.
    He wanted to change and be accepted. His change changed her and he had to accept the whole family.
    Consecration of a work can continue till one surrenders all the related works where instead of solving one problem, he ushers himself into yoga.
    Consecration developing from one problem to another issue is to expand oneself from one circle to the next under concentric circles.
    In doing so the movement changes from urge to impulse, moving on the scale from up and down and down and up – mental, vital, physical, subtle, causal – completing itself in the subtle spiritual plane of impulses.
    As consecration raises its scope, the time of completion is abridged, till it becomes instantaneous.
    Instantaneousness is the hallmark of Timelessness, Supramental consciousness.
    One who feels time flying is conquering Time. It is the expansive vital.

    Time moves slowest in the physical plane.
    When you do not understand what you read and must plod along, the feeling of an hour’s work will really be five minutes because Time moves in the brain, not the Mind.
    Maria felt the six weeks passed like a flash as her vital was overwhelmed.
    While sadhana is intense at 5 pm, one will feel he was up only just then.
    At the age of seventy or ninety one can feel like that if there is good will for others.
  9.          “Mrs. Gardiner gave Elizabeth a look expressive of wonder.”
    Looks communicate more than speech.
    When work fails, we see we have long laboured towards the result.
    When work completes, we see – rather do not see – it was done by itself.
    No amount of labour could bring Darcy there or make him behave pleasantly to them. He came on his own, was nice on his own. Nor was it in anyone’s power to bring him to Lambton with Bingley and Georgiana. All happened by itself readily.
    When it happens like this we do not see the grace. We do not also see that we made that grace possible sometimes.
    Mrs. Gardiner’s insistent invitations to Pemberley, Mr. Gardiner’s polite commentary there, her own change of Mind were their part.
    A swami came to see Mother from North India. Whoever met him found himself incapable of speaking in his presence. The will can be so powerfully trained to acquire the strength before which no one can speak.
    That power is communicated through looks.
    Darcy’s behaviour caused a sense of wonder in her aunt as she had heard a different account of him till then.
    Of course, she did not suspect Elizabeth of lying.
    Also she had heard the same version from all others.
    A new incomprehensible event causes wonder.
    The impossible becoming possible too causes wonder.
    Wonder is a pleasant emotion incapable of comprehending.

    A new emotion comprehending inexpressible pleasure is wonder.
    Darcy, early in his relationship with Elizabeth, felt her to be such a wonder.
    He saw it in her eyes.
    It is that which attracted Wickham and he opened his budget of heart-felt complaints.
    He was such a wonder to her at first sight.
    Lady Catherine was one to Sir Lucas.
    Mrs. Bennet heard one from Elizabeth about Darcy.
    Wonder is an emotion lost in wonder.
  10. “Elizabeth was gratified exceedingly; the compliment must be all for herself”
    Once in a lifetime one becomes the centre of life. Elizabeth now was such.
    He who is important to everyone becomes such a centre.
    He who keeps everyone in his own centre, becomes a centre of life.
    For a Man to become a centre of our life, we must know his highest value.
    It may not be always known to him.
    The attitude to know such a value in another is spiritual good will.
    Darcy discovered such a value in Elizabeth.
    He also saw a similar higher centre in Lydia and Wickham.
    They were valuable to Darcy as Elizabeth valued them.
    To value the valueless things another values is to value the other more than he himself values.
    It is a step towards valuing God in the other person.
    Such an attitude blunts ego in oneself and induces universality.
    A leader sees in the volunteers around him the capacities unknown to them.
    He who sees Individuality in others is an Individual.
    170 years ago, Tocqueville saw America’s present value for the world.
    His book still remains in print and is oft quoted.
    Her aunt never accused her of wrongly reporting on Darcy.
    She saw Elizabeth was not wrong in her understanding but Darcy was different.
    Not to accuse Elizabeth was a strong cultural restraint.
    Darcy’s behaviour gave a new message of love to her aunt which Elizabeth herself received only then.
    As Mr. Bennet said, “It is a day of wonders”.
    He could not comprehend Elizabeth’s news of Darcy in any other light.
    As Sri Aurobindo gave Mother the message that She would take care of the Ashram by speaking it to the sadhaks, Darcy made Elizabeth know of his love by silently giving the message to her relations.
    It was a pleasant, silent profound Surprise.
    It shows the great strength of his character.
  11.         “Her astonishment was extreme”
    Man’s view is severely limited. He is astonished when he sees the developments behind his back come to light.
    She never knew what was happening in Darcy.
    She had no knowledge that her inner change would produce corresponding changes in Darcy and every other person in the family. To bring about a true change in one person is change in all people.
    Sometimes very little change in one leads to Himalayan change in another.
    The reverse phenomenon is also true.
    One who reaches the centre of world’s consciousness can witness this phenomenon of correspondence between his consciousness and world events.
    Here lies the Truth that one Man’s perfection can save the world.
    Had she been seeing Darcy all the time, she would have seen the gradual change in him. Now that it is sudden, the astonishment is in the extreme.
    We see a leaf but do not stop to think of it, we pass on.
    To a poet or a scientist, the leaf is a wonder as the lines on it are unique, its form expresses a mathematical equation, and it stands before the artist’s eye as a wonder.
    To the gardener, his master was talking to the visitors.
    To her uncle and aunt, Darcy is behaving politely contrary to their information.
    To her, he was astonishing in the extreme and she was wondering why he was so altered.
    To himself, he was expressing the new attitude of the new personality with restraint of fortitude.
    To the author, he was opening a new psychological world for himself and others.
    To the historian, Darcy was being the harbinger of social evolution sparing the aristocratic heads.
    The author cannot fully explain her astonishment as it defies explanation.
    In one look she saw a radically altered behaviour in Darcy which she knew he was incapable of, but he exhibited that gentlemanly courtesy.
    It was no behaviour he was capable of which means he had recently acquired it. It was a great psychological effort. She saw it in him. And how did he acquire it? For what reason had he acquired it? Was it for her?
  12.         “Why is he altered? From what can it proceed?”
    Man ultimately lives on his understanding.
    She was now not able to find her understanding of his actions.
    He who understands that the world is sustained by Brahman, becomes a Sannyasi.
    You are what you understand.
    You really are what you emotionally feel.

    This was the first time she saw and recognized that Darcy loved her, not when he proposed.
    It is one thing that Darcy loved her, and another thing that he loved her after that proposal.
    By no streak of imagination one can know why Grace acts.
    Sometime even after an explanation, it will remain inexplicable.
    Was it possible for her to believe he loved her for her abuse?
    To concede this possibility is to understand infinity.
    A reasonable explanation is possible after the event.
    One who understands infinity must see reason in an unreasonable explanation.
    Infinity is unreasonable reason.
    Reason transcends into infinity by unreasonable behaviour.
    Virtue enters infinity by sin.
    Sin becomes a virtue in the plane of infinity.
    Elizabeth unconsciously entered infinity when she saw Darcy loved her after her abuse.
    She would consciously enter infinity if she saw he loved her because of her abuse.
    She could do it in a lower or higher way.
    In the lower way she would remain an instrument, he would get the benefit. In the higher way she would cease to be the instrument but would participate in his consciousness of progress.
    In the story she made partial progress, got a partial benefit which was overwhelming to her. Her fulfillment in Jane’s wedding and the relief of Lydia’s marriage took away all her energy.
    That Wickham was not ruined, was in her family, was the greatest relief to her.
  13.          “It cannot be for my sake”.
    Descending Grace in floods occasionally makes a Man exclaim, “it cannot be for anything I have done or I have deserved.”
    Like Christopher Sly, often after the first shock of surprise, Man easily becomes acclimatized by the new situation.
    One version of the unconsciousness Mother often speaks of is this.
    By these words Elizabeth recognized the action of grace.
    This is a subtle rich atmosphere that continues to grow. It is extremely sensitive; one memory can make it flat.
    She was conscious enough to recognize grace in his action. He was oblivious of what he was doing. He was impelled by the new discipline he had accepted. It was the unknowable formulating itself to his aspiration that he was civil to her aunt and uncle.
    It could not stand even the Mental recognition that it was there. An oblivious moment is a non-egoistic moment. It just opens one to universality, revealing power and Light.
    Darcy’s initial decision to take her abuse as advice had the character of transformation. It was an effort to open to the Transcendent infinite that gave him the power of infinity – to do what he wanted which no reason could explain.
    The touch may be only a flash.
    It created a new, wide, powerful atmosphere inconceivable.
    The provocation of Caroline was, in effect, because of its being negative equal to this power, as it could cancel.
    Accomplishment is not given to the positive infinite potential unless it has overcome its negative complement.
    Overcoming its ill-effects, he raised his marriage to the level of Romantic potential.
    Absence of regret in facing a reversal has the potential to complete the positive potential with the capacity to overcome the negative potential.
  14.            “My reproofs at Hunsford could not work such a change as this.”
    No one could believe at the introduction of telephone that the voice traveled such long distances.
    Elizabeth felt like one who by hitting one mango by a stone brought all the hundreds in the tree down. She was intrigued, dumbstruck.
    Tom Gooth when he found his wallet lost somewhere on a bush, on opening his eyes from meditation could not believe his calling had brought it about.
    What a magician could not do, Tom’s calling Mother did. Magic can create illusions. It can create actualities.
    We see Mother acts like this always, but we never really believe in it.
    To believe in Mother is to believe Her Force will work. When there is a headache we take aspirin, do not believe in the relief She would administer. If we resort to Her, we do so as a last resort or without belief.
    One who does not seek non-Mother redress is a devotee.
    Such a decision at once brings in the Supramental consciousness.
    Hurting the hand and feeling intense pain, a devotee must be able to feel himself that it is Delight, not pain. Moving from the nerves to Mind, he can see the pain disappear. Moving still further to the Psychic, it becomes Delight. It is a moment when Her consciousness acts. It is supramental consciousness.
    Hearing a bad news, one should refuse to believe in it and believe it is good news.
    Some good news will come and correct.
    To be able to call Mother in nightmares, we see it disappears.
    To do so, one is conscious in the subtle plane.
    Someone abuses you, you know only your ego is abused. Realising it so, the abuse stops, praise follows. It is a Supramental moment.
    Each time our call is REAL – She is born in the voice of our call – our life is extended by one year. Her birth in any part of us completes that year in that moment.
    Should you know that part in you which attracts your wife’s unpardonable abuse for days on end, remove it if you can and call Mother. Her coming into you will make your virago wife praise you undeservingly. Mother can Suprementalise the world.
  15. “It is impossible that he should still love me”
    The ordinary conception of rejection is a break of relationship.
    One possibility of rejection is a strong attraction in the rejected.

    She understood that her rejection of Darcy was an irrevocable end in itself.
    His proposal went out of her Mind and even the letter was a surprise to her.
    It never occurred to her that the letter gave life to his lingering interest in her. After Indian Freedom we witnessed the phenomena of increasing British capital in India, increasing British residents in India and above all the increasing influence of the English language in the national life. It is true after the break all these should shrink vastly and vanish. The factor of life behind it is, India is to play a leading role in human unity and English is going to be the international language. After a vigorous period of materialism, religion and Spirit are more intensely accepted by the population. The intense period of materialism only served to cleanse the spiritual life. Darcy’s love for Elizabeth was no mere social phenomenon of attraction of a pretty face – she never had one – but it was the fire of her eyes that fascinated him. Her abuse only served to purify his passion of its dross of pride and arrogance. Her rejection was a rejection of his own deficiencies. Rejection can lead to diminished hope or increased vigour of aspiration. Sometimes even in petulant attitudes, petty rejections with the sole view of making oneself scarce, the aspiration rises to higher ideals on his side where he tries to discover the divine behind that smallness. The smaller the frontal appearance of the finite, the greater is the Truth that tries to reveal. The subtle law of instincts is explained in the dog at home responding to the master in the office. It is an eternal relationship that admits of no break. Any attempt at break increases the existing bond in intensity. He related to her from his instincts. She did not relate to him thus. She only responded to him subconsciously as a woman responds to marriage in quest of property and security. His response, his still lingering love for her was a total surprise to her. After Napoleon’s empire collapsed, Code Napoleon survived all over Europe, France conquered all Europe by the intellectual eminence of her language and cultural superiority. Old lasting cultural relationships survive political fiascos. What is lost at one level grows at another deeper level, testifying to the truth of the underlying unity falsifying the outer apparent multiplicity.
61
After walking some time in this way, the two ladies in front, the two gentlemen behind, on resuming their places, after descending to the brink of the river for the better inspection of some curious water-plant, there chanced to be a little alteration. It originated in Mrs. Gardiner, who, fatigued by the exercise of the morning, found Elizabeth's arm inadequate to her support, and consequently preferred her husband's. Mr. Darcy took her place by her niece, and they walked on together. After a short silence, the lady first spoke. She wished him to know that she had been assured of his absence before she came to the place, and accordingly began by observing, that his arrival had been very unexpected -- "for your housekeeper," she added, "informed us that you would certainly not be here till to-morrow; and indeed, before we left Bakewell, we understood that you were not immediately expected in the country." He acknowledged the truth of it all, and said that business with his steward had occasioned his coming forward a few hours before the rest of the party with whom he had been travelling. "They will join me early to-morrow," he continued, "and among them are some who will claim an acquaintance with you -- Mr. Bingley and his sisters."
  1. He loves her more now.
  2. Darcy’s mind moving towards Elizabeth, Mrs. Gardiner moved towards her husband.
  3. Not only he came a day early, but came without Caroline.
  4. She again in her mind raises her visit. The doubts about the truth of the maid rose in her twice. They made him come. Now she raises it with him to clear it. Those doubts are the love-sensations in her. She wants to pass it on to him
  5.        “After walking sometime in this way, the two ladies in front and the two gentlemen behind…”
    Even in England of 1790 Men related to Men and women related to women naturally.
    There was a natural affinity here as well as social etiquette of the period.

    In spite of the attraction to the opposite sex, companionship was among the same sex.
    Society in England of those times severely regulated Men and women meeting together, writing letters to each other, except in ways society allowed for a boy to choose his girl.
    The eternal truth here is Man is subordinated to the society entirely in all respects.
    It is equally true today. Though there is far greater freedom in all respects, still we must remember that every inch of that freedom is not what Man has taken by himself, but society has given. Even the pioneer, entrepreneur, leaders have their limits carved out by the society. The freedom Man has for action is not in social acts, but in his personal, non-social acts. The fact that eminent personalities of the world prefer not to express their opinion where it differs from the society is proof that Man is totally subordinated to society.
    Man cannot exercise that freedom without acquiring a greater power than society to defend himself. Knowledge is serviceable only when it acquires power. Power first, knowledge next. Love preceding power got Jesus crucified. That knowledge is the knowledge that he is universal. Man should recover that universality not in his Mind but in his Spirit. Only he who sheds his ego can aspire to be an individual. The sex urge keeps Man in the physical plane to physical reproduction. Therefore he who has not overcome the sex urge cannot become the Individual. That knowledge comes to Man when he learns the universal Truths about the problems and opportunities of his life. Such a knowledge turns into power at that level in the measure he overcomes pain, desists seeking pleasure, lengthens his life, sees good in the Evil. To him, pain is the backwash of the universal delight, limitation is infinity turning on itself, evil is the perfection of good circling itself. He will be able to reject pain and even death. He gets a glimpse of cosmic consciousness as he is replacing ego as the centre of his life by God. He emerges from the hold of tamas, rajas and even Sattwa and the Psychic in him emerges in his outer life actions. Thinking in him is gradually replaced by Silence. He begins to see Mother in himself and occasionally in others, rarely in Herself above.
  6.         “There chanced to be a little alternation”.
    This alternation that brought Darcy and Elizabeth together, in this context, is least significant.
    In the total context, it is this small act that proved to be all significant.
    The smallest of acts, in its native context, is capable of leading to the greatest results.
    How can it be? It is so because this act holds within the entire positive possibility of the whole. Whether it is positive or negative such a small act has its determinism. It was here he asked Georgiana to be introduced. He asked if it was too much. This one event fully convinced her of his not still lingering love but a love she had not seen in the proposal. We may see it as the thin end of the wedge or a small beginning, but we cannot miss its greatest significance.
    The fatigue of the aunt symbolizes that her own energies were insufficient to support the vast cultural descent that was coming.
    Shedding the ego is a spiritual exercise in the Mind. Its overt uncouth expressions are initially overcome. Later, in the more defined acts of Mind shedding its faith in the capacities already developed, those capacities after the initial virulent assertions can be seen giving way. In any action Man who tries to shift from his capacity to Mother, can see vastly improved results. A time comes when a veil gives way. The veil that momentarily gives way reveals a universe of light. It is ego giving way to universality in that respect. Such an inner change is expressed outwardly in an act like when Darcy wanted Georgiana to know her. Life at that moment shifted Darcy to Elizabeth. They are crucial moments when Mind interferes often perversely or meanly. At other times it is quiet. Rarely it responds expansively. Being quiet is neutral. Expansiveness quantitatively expands to results of grace. If someone is grateful at that moment, her human choice becomes an occasion to make the Divine act. In May 1940 when Churchill was made the Prime Minister, it was such a moment for the world. Any devotee coming to Mother, that occasion is an occasion like this. One may or may not be conscious of what was happening. In great moments of the soul’s opening, the march of Time can be seen in the meditation revealing a succession of a series of moments. Each such moment is a great moment like that. One can act on it only spiritually. It is to feel gratitude to Grace. On such days our very lapses resulting in good can be seen.
  7.           “Fatigued by the morning exercise…”
    Exercise exhausts energy. Ladies are not usually given to exercise.
    Elizabeth, without the knowledge of aunt and uncle, was involved in an exercise.
    It was an inner exercise of shifting her attitude, requiring great energy.
    The deaths of emperors are announced by heavenly comets.
    Two young men in Switzerland at night were engaged in a scheme which involved a great change of their mental values for the worse.
    Outside there was a commotion on the road. They gave up their idea.
    The government took up valuation of lands belonging to Mother having arrived at a false decision and passing an order based on it. Devotees were waiting in the next house on the veranda. The owner of the house rushed inside and attempted to murder his wife who howled. He gave up the attempt and came out, spoke to the devotees, “He is a good officer, will not do wrong”.
    The false order was reversed. Outer circumstances fully reflect the inner movements. While Mother was on the balcony, an ass that was walking on the road by the side turned his head towards Mother and looked at Her.
    Mother saw the aspiration of the ass and asked him to be brought. She stroked him with affection and sent the animal to one of her gardens.
    Animals are aware of Her Presence and exhibit aspiration.
    Darcy had made an enormous transition since the proposal.
    At the proposal Darcy whose manners were bad, whose aunt was uncultured, whose sister was on the brink of ruin, told Elizabeth her people were of inferior station and provoked her anger. Man who is lower than the lowest evaluates another by the highest possible standard and finds them lower than himself.
    One whose intellectual powers were not equal to reading a postcard wanting to evaluate another asked him to write a summary of world philosophy. It is the fairness of Man’s sense of comparison. Having spoken so thoughtlessly, he took efforts to transform.
    That inadequacy has the capacity to transform himself, a task no human being can attempt, because that insufficiency is the frontal aspect of this infinitely vast labour.
  8. “Consequently preferred her husband’s arm”.
    There is no moment a Man can declare he has received no support.
    A lady who inadvertently crossed traffic saw a bus was speeding towards her and at 12 inches she called Mother and was hauled up into the air and dropped on a heap of gravel nearby.

    In any situation help is always around. Man refuses to avail of it. No Man can say, especially when he was not guilty, that he found no help.
    He refuses much help, does not recognize many others. One Tamil scholar who retired on 50/- p.m. was indigent, as in those days there was no pension. His student was a famous Tamil Professor and a very famous writer. He got a lakh of rupees from an industrialist for this starving scholar.
    The scholar refused it on the principle of prestige.
    When Mrs. Gardiner needed help, it was there.
    Life is not vindictive, but mostly it is positively helpful.
    A writer said life has turned into a sword and unleashed a war on him.
    The truth is his own ego sharpened itself and was cutting him to pieces.
    This aspect of Life is fully in evidence after people come to Mother.
    They receive it as Her Grace.
    Life was hard, if not vindictive, in the prewar days, more helpful now.
    Ignorance of life’s rules, as in touching fire, punishes. It is not the punishment of life. It is ignorance acquiring knowledge through experience.
    Mother’s devotees can often, maybe always, see their ignorance going unpunished. Very often the ignorance of devotees is rewarded, sometimes after a dip. Once they pass through such a depression the reward is far greater than the magnitude of punishment it could have attracted. Wanton evil thoughts do receive what can be described as punishments. The philosophy of neutral life or a life that does not come out to punish Man’s lapses is difficult to explain here, but it equally holds good here too. Exhaustion creates a vacuum, leading naturally to a depression. Here, the atmosphere is exceedingly positive, determined to pour grace on the people. It takes the occasion of exhaustion to offer an unparalleled boon to Elizabeth and all her family and its extension.
  9. “Darcy took her place by her niece”
    What Man labours to achieve, life, acting on universal instinct, automatically achieves.
    The right pairing was achieved by a move of life – restoring the equilibrium of energy.
    Faria, by a miscalculation, landed in Dante’s cell on the day he was contemplating suicide.
    Comprehension growing incomprehensible is a symptom of events that defies comprehension taking place.
    It occurs when Man moves to a higher plane.
    While moving to a higher plane faculties of the lower plane are unable to function, lose their effectivity becoming inefficient.
    Musicians, speakers, athletes when they exhaust their known skills perform at their best, rather excel their best.
    Known skills are energies organized, performing efficiently.
    Efficiency has limits set by the structure it has acquired.
    Inspiration excels efficiency.
    It enters into zones that permit no organization.
    Creation, unhampered by organization, is celestial.
    Of course, these organizations as we know cannot exist.
    There is an organization permitted by Freedom.
    Such an organization dissolves as soon as it is formed, like the present that perishes on its birth.
    A creativity of a higher order comes into existence.
    This is a field of social creation of human magnanimity in pursuit of Romance.
    The onrush of the creative energy was so copious that neither had ready social forms of courtesy through which it could pass.
    It was an embarrassed Silence inwardly delighting.
    Her aunt’s fatigue gave them time. No speech was found by either; inward delight was on the increase in intensity.
  10.           “After short silence, the lady first spoke”.
    The initiative is always from the lady.
    Initiative is the outline of a project.
    He who needs the project lays out the outline.
    Man’s part is energy; the woman organizes it into accomplishment.

    It is she who commands his work.
    Lady’s requests are in a tone of command.
    Lovers speak more eloquently in silence.
    Speech does not have the same intensity as silence.
    One lapses into silence as he does not want to dilute its intensity by speaking which brings a psychological relationship to social relationship.
    After marriage couples often rise to that pitch.
    By that time they develop the courtesy to each other which preserves the silence as the background while routine matters are exchanged.
    Over the years when that culture grows by careful preservation every small act becomes a service acceptable only from the hand of love.
    That hand hands out love in the guise of service.
    Service is an occasion or even an excuse for relationship of love.
    Relationship relentlessly issues love that is beautiful and joyous.

    It is a condition which in thinkers ripens into emotional ideas.
    Thought is devoid of emotions.
    Emotions are obstacles to thought.
    Such a relationship energises emotion to generate thought.
    They are emotionalized thoughts or thoughts of emotion.
    A language that expresses it acquires the richness of poetry.
    Thought makes language weighty, with emotions it rises to richness too acquiring the higher power of communication as the communication is to the emotion of thought.
    This is not an age for poetry as society is fast developing.
    But this is an age for universal ideas. They can raise the language to these heights of expressing wider ideas of greater height.
  11.         “She wished him to know she was assured of his absence”.
    One is not convinced by proofs of any description.
    Convictions are arrived at independent of proofs or even convictions.

    She saw her plan was outwitted by life.
    He would have accepted her, had she come there to meet him.
    To Darcy it would have been a reward of a high tribute.
    Man’s movements are based on one of the seven ignorances.
    Work is accomplished outside these ignorances.
    Man’s instrument is Mind. Life’s instrument is Supermind.
    Supermind sees the complements and seeks them.
    It acts according to the plan of the universe and the dictates of the Transcendent.
    Man moves by ignorance as he needs to move.
    The moves of ignorance are part of a wider plan and are inevitable.
    Supermind makes these moves quicker. It is grace.
    She spoke to him as above for her satisfaction.
    He was more than willing to be satisfied whatever she said.
    Some errors can be corrected and others cannot be.
    In the higher consciousness errors correct themselves; errors act as if they are not errors. They turn out to be master strategies to accomplish.
    What is an error to the human Mind is an act above, a simple act.
    We look at error, failure as something undesirable.
    In a wider scheme of things, they play an inevitable role.
    As there is no waste in Nature, no act can be dispensable.
    Man arriving at the right result erroneously is his experience.
    Darcy had overcome all his objections to her family. He saw no blemish in her.
    How could he misunderstand her visit.
    To him it would be a God-sent boon, endorsing his labours inside.
    To discover the value of errors for us, is our view of life.
    He who had spoken for two minutes and left now spent a long time with her.
    How can common sense account for it?
  12.        “She observed his arrival had been very unexpected”
    That being the most crucial event centrally situated in her life, it lends itself to study from any number of angles. It cannot be exhausted.
    One who examines such a moment in his life can see, if he chooses, the response every type of human character will give at that moment.
    Writers are there who have a sense knowledge about it.
    Identifying with each character, they are able to speak as the character would.
    These sensations seen as ideas makes one a great writer.
    Seen as impersonal truth expressed in an individual, a great poet is born.
    To extract the spiritual essence of those ideative experiences one must resort to yoga.
    Mind cannot normally rise to those heights.
    Those who had the experience of Sachchidananda had seen it as Force or Ananda or Being.

    Professionals in India, especially those who have founded the science of each branch, are those tapasvis who have attained various levels in this endeavour.
    Those who followed are those who, based on that strength, reached an equal eminence.
    Almost all such eminent professionals had the subtle plane opened.
    Hence the Gurukulam was inevitable.
    That life long apprenticeship can be abridged in a short training.
    Secrecy plagued the field and prevented knowledge from spreading.
    There was no widespread communal demand for education.
    Today the need is there. It is now possible, knowledge is widespread. It is from below the knowledge is acquired. Should the world recognize the possibility and need for such a training, what experts alone acquire at the end of their career, can be given to all the students at the beginning of their careers. The woman who was entirely dependent on Man economically was totally relieved of this dependence at one stroke by her taking to employment. Education enabled it. Every woman is now totally free essentially. A similar freedom for marriage from the controversies that plagues it all through can be given if the available knowledge is abridged into a training programme.
    The institution of marriage can thus be relieved of this nightmare if such a training is availed of.
  13.         “Your housekeeper informed us that you would not be here till tomorrow”
    Man relies on a rational position of his. He relies on a position he takes to be rational.
    Man can rely on an irrational position as he believes it to be rational.
    Knowing a position is irrational, he hopes to foist its on another as rational.

    Man expects another to believe him whether he is right or not.
    Mental Man relies on rationality.
    A foolish Man relies on his own rationality.
    A vital Man is rational to himself in his eyes.
    A vital Man always wants all others to give him all that he wants whatever is the reason.
    Each Man WANTS on a pretext that is right for him.
    Elizabeth’s explanation belongs to this spirit.
    Only after visiting Pemberley the housekeeper informed.
    Man believes he is right, he believes in his being right.
    Life gives in response to neither.
    It gives when you are right according to life.
    Grace gives, whatever you are, if you are turned towards it.
    Grace thinks of you when you do not think of yourself – your wrongs or rights.
    The world appreciates your beauty if you do not think of it – Burgo FitzGerald.
    Whatever Man grows conscious of, the world ignores.
    The possession of a talent or beauty becomes egoistic, the moment you consider it.
    Non-egoistic, universal possessions are universally recognized.
    Can we shift from recognition to Mother?
    When we realized it, can we try to express Mother in the work?
    Should we succeed in it, we rise out of Time, Mind and ego, or the surface Mind.
    Our expressing Mother in the work can acquire Silence.
    In that Silence, SHE will express Herself, initiating the act Herself.

    To be able to do so once in a lifetime is great.
    Once achieved, with the greatest pains, we must try to maintain it.
    He who does that enters yoga.
    Rightly done, a major problem of yours on which you are not focusing now, will resolve itself without your knowledge. It is your moving from life to yoga.
    Should an opportunity open, Mother takes on Herself your yoga.
  14.          “He acknowledged the truth of it all”
    We call FACTS truth.
    Philosophically Truth admits of no conflict.
    Spiritually Truth is the objective state of which Spirit is the subjective state.
    The Self expresses in the cosmos as unity, Truth.

    He knows she spoke the truth.
    Her Mind here was not what it was at Hunsford. Then it was false.
    The news of Wickham’s wildness was the latest shock that pushed her to truth.
    There was a greater truth in her just then, the truth of the Mistress of Pemberley.
    Gita says one can become what one aspires for.
    In life, what one Man deeply aspires for, he always gets, however long it may take.
    If there is a truth in it – his desert, social sanction, his justifying past, etc. – it is surely realized more than one truth, one conflicting with another, expressing their structure in the result.
    What she spoke were facts. In her truth there was no conflict.
    Of course, her truth was the objective state of her inner spirit, the spirit that wanted to preside over Pemberley.
    It did express an aspiration to unite with him in marriage.
    But these facts, truth, unity all belong to one level, the level of her consciousness.
    Beyond that there is his substance and her substance.
    In her substance there is Wickham smiling commanding her affection.
    Lydia too is there actively planning her ideas of enjoyment.
    In his substance is the reservation about her family.
    There is Anne and his aunt, his responsibility towards them.
    Further the hesitation about her partiality to Wickham.
    No Man can forget his lady love speaking with tender solicitude about another, another whose character he knew fully.
    He is also conscious of the rivalry he saw in Collins and he implied in the colonel. So, there is further work to be done.
  15. “Business with his steward necessitated his coming a day early”.
    Hitler knew he wanted to attack the USSR in 1941, never knew Mother monitored that initiative of his.
    We know Duryodhana humiliated Draupadi, do not see that Lord Krishna’s power had to be manifest at least once for the evil to be vanquished.

    Life brought Darcy to meet Elizabeth and took the form of work with the steward.
    She was concentrating on Pemberley and he had work with the steward.
    It is interesting to note that Wickham, who occupied her vital, was the son of a steward.
    About the fog on Dunkirk, Sri Aurobindo said it was a mysterious fog.
    Pavitra was pleased that the constable agreed with his argument.
    The story opens with the arrival of Bingley. We do not see Mrs. Bennet’s burning aspiration.
    Behind the material life in the gross physical plane, is the plane of life. Cosmic Life lies behind. There is existence supporting all these planes beyond all of them.
    Whenever a work is completed, wisdom sees behind the scenes invisible forces.
    To meet the army of veterans, God puts Napoleon on the other side.
    In a discussion of several people, one Man does not speak. We hear all the arguments given, do not see the unspoken ‘words’ of the silent will of the Man who has not spoken. We rarely see the result was according to his silent will.
    Those who give a rousing reception to a shipload of soldiers returning home, don’t see the contagion of fever they are bringing.
    Elizabeth heard the stiff opposition of Lady Catherine and feared she would appeal to Darcy on his vulnerable point of status. She could not conceive that he was waiting for an opening and his aunt was providing that message that Elizabeth was willing.
    ‘Barkis is willin’.
    John Clay was asking for the sack from his pal, not knowing the Agent, the police, and Holmes were waiting for him sitting on the very boxes he had in his Mind.
    The British merchants landing in Madras in 1639 never dreamt of the Empire that was founded in 1774.
    How could Japan foresee that Pearl Harbour was the end of Japanese imperialism?
    How could Mr. Bennet know of Lydia’s interest in Wickham or that it was Darcy who gave them life and respect when she told him of her engagement.
  16.         “His coming forward a few hours before the rest of the party”
    It was not a day ahead, only a few hours. As we see here the few hours – small significant event – deciding the entire outcome, our analysis at the end will see the significance of a second. Seeing such a significance of every second, every point of space, one sees the Marvel, going beyond Time and Space.
    One who is progressing towards the Marvel will know more than discovering the significance of every particle of Time and Space positively, he has to know their negative significance and be able to avoid them. It can be avoided by rejection which needs great strength. Or by indifference it can be avoided. A positive method will be to concentrate positively so that no energy will go to the negative side. That way the Being grows into a whole which includes the Non-Being.
    She rejected her negative infatuation, particularly the opinions issuing out of it. If left a negative residue.
    He accepted her wholly as positive and rose to the fullness of the occasion.
    Time and Space are extensions of the Spirit.
    Overcoming them, one enters directly into the Spirit.
    Memory and censor are in the surface Mind, as a faculty of Mind with respect to Time and as the memory of a faculty of Mind-thinking.
    On the surface, our being has an intuition of it as witness Purusha.
    The intuition of the whole is the central Being.
    The Being also has two other intuitions of it, viz. Pranamaya Purusha, Annamaya Purusha.
    His going away from her in a few minutes after the first meeting can possibly be necessitated by the memory of the party that was following him.
    When a Man is decided to act reversing his attitude, at first the old attitude surfaces without life. Its energyless form does not dissolve till the force of the act dissolves it.
  17.        “They will join me early tomorrow”.
    He was not only brought to meet her, but he was separated from the party so that she could meet him alone. Again they joined and she was to meet him with them. All the intrigues Man uses, life too uses as he got them only from life.
    This meeting was for her to fully understand him and next she must know he was part of a wider group, as she now put up her best behaviour, while in her the whole family was there, recently fortified by Wickham. Early the next day, he brought Georgiana and Bingley to her. That too was done without disruption. The free element in the relationship was greater than the element of disruption, but disruption was inescapable. The rude jolt was related to Wickham who lived in her vital.
    The long-suffering aspirant persists tenaciously till he understands that he will not at last prevail. At that moment the patient persistence changes character, turns into an opposition in the hope of exhausting the effort negatively. Individual human resources, like social resources, are inexhaustible, as the more they are drawn upon, the more they grow. When the Individual emerges he will have at his command the entire resources of the society, as the government acquires the entire power of the society. We see one Man -- Newton, Darwin, and Copernicus – fully dominating the thought of the entire society in their field. The head of the nation wields the entire power of the society. In an ideally mature democracy, every individual will have all the knowledge and capacity of the society. Each member of the Many is the One in essence as well as entirety. Life is full of such clues for the perceptive. An insecure family saw that one such clue may have a vast advantage in their circumstance, and honoured it. Soon they became the richest family in the town and went away to new wider pastures. That finite clue, for them, contained the infinity – social infinity. It was Darcy who acted, she only went along. The fire was in her, the power was in him. He was dynamic, took initiative. She was passively quiet, ready and willing to receive what came as much as she could absorb without stirring in her depths.
  18.         “among them there are some who will claim acquaintance with you”.
    In life any event extends, extends infinitely, one leading to the other as the whole existence is one.
    It is this suggestion that clinched her understanding that he was in love with her.
    We are able to see that here as it is explicit.
    The fact the turning made him run into her tells the same story.
    His coming too tells us the same. How then can we understand his going away?
    His going away too tells us of his love, if we see his sensation.
    It was the intense love of his for her that could not take the meeting calmly that drove him away.
    Mrs. and Mr. Gardiner saw at a glance the truth of this.
    It is a knowledge of identity of a certain shade.
    It is only the Mind that fully separates us from others because thought understands by difference, rather it is the ego.
    At the level of sensations, if there is no identity, the separation is less pronounced.
    Hence a greater understanding.
    Women retain this faculty especially about other women fully all their life.
    At the level of women, the separative ego is fully separative till an instinctive rivalry arises.
    It is self-preservation.
    In Men it is there exactly as in women among accomplished Men about other accomplished Men.
    Frustrated Men for any reason feel it about those who have accomplished.
    It is ego doing its infinite duty exhaustively.
    Man knows he has a knowledge and relies on it fully instinctively. What he does not know is that knowledge is fully useful in the taste of ignorance, which means preserving what is. In doing anything further, its only role is to be an obstacle.
    Even when that knowledge has a useful role to play, life renders it useless.
    Mother indulges that preference.
    That is why ‘Let Thy will be done, not my will’ cannot be spoken as sincerely as the sadhana requires.
    To come face to face with our will and to refuse it is a sincerity worth aspiring for.
  19.          “Mr. Bingley and his sisters” (P. 226)
    By this Darcy gave the sanction for Caroline to provoke her.
    Being a gentleman, Caroline’s rivalry was not a real thought in him.
    To her, Caroline’s rivalry was unknown, Bingley meant Jane’s lover.
    Her thinking of it energised the ploy of Darcy and Caroline.
    Life allows the smooth flow of events as long as the positive energy is in excess.
    Next he spoke of his sister; there she confirmed his love which she found in his voice. This step in her was not fully supported from inside as she had not yet admitted Darcy into her love. It was only Pemberley. That deficiency gave scope for provocation. It is significant the provocation is at Pemberley. My argument is had she dwelt on Darcy as much as on Pemberley, either Caroline would not have been there or she would have had no energy to provoke.
    An act that is accomplished is accomplished by several rules; they are endless.
    1. It is composed of any number of components.
    2. One of which is so essential that if it is present, accomplishment is inevitable.
    3. If one of opposite description is present, accomplishment is ruled out.
    4. Many components are essential.
    5. Many others are inessentials.
    6. There are winning combinations.
    7. There are annihilating combinations.
    8. An essential component can be rendered inessential.
    9. An inessential component can be rendered essential.
    10. There are some parts that can acquire the power of all essentials and accomplish.
    11. There are other parts that can be so powerful and prevent accomplishment.
    12. Man’s attitude energises any of them as they are.
    13. It can make the essential and inessential exchange character.
    14. It can act in the opposite direction.
    15. It can create a pocket of oasis in a wide spread famine and the opposite.
    16. Any of these components, in rare circumstances, can play the role of human attitude positive or negative.
    17. An assessment on these lines of any problem will solve it.
    A.K. Sen’s Famine policy is one minor application of a part of these rules. The fact he won a vast international reputation, especially for an Indian winning a Nobel Prize, shows the power of these principles.
    Any of these events – one of a few dozens – of the story can lend itself to such an analysis.
    It will be a staggering wonder to see the whole story answers to one dinner party.
    Going by what is in the text, the results, antecedents, silent will, Life Response, can explain the whole story as if it was monitored by one event.
    Post War history or post cold war history so analysed directly will lead us to the solution of all present problems.
    Double entry created trade.
    The Tsar’s inability to say No to his Queen made the Russian Revolution.
    Viceroy’s invitation to Jinnah, which made Jinnah feel equal to Gandhi, created Pakistan.
    Mother’s instruction to Hitler won the war.
    A bag of sugar gave me release from evil days.
    Kalimark’s letter won Cadburys.
    Mere Cie was closed because one Man was brought from Mother Estates.
    One could become the chairman of the Bank by his one attitude of treating every Ashramite as a sadhak.

    Silent will won a Man several thousand crores.
    Going round the village with Mother’s photo brought so much of rain to a parched village till they prayed for it to stop.
    One ray from the Supreme, He says, can pervade millions of universes.
    While in Nature Man is bound by rules.
    While in the Being rules are bound by his choice.
    We are not able to solve all the problems of the world because we believe in all Her rules more than we believe in Her.
    Belief in the rules, even if they are Her rules, is belief in oneself.
    Darcy’s faith in his love brought her there.
    It was a faith in love, not so much his love. Love that is pure and simple is Spirit entire.
62
Elizabeth answered only by a slight bow. Her thoughts were instantly driven back to the time when Mr. Bingley's name had been last mentioned between them; and, if she might judge from his complexion, his mind was not very differently engaged.
  1. Caroline is in the picture, cannot be got rid of.
  2. But overcoming her presence, life lets Darcy and Elizabeth meet alone.
  3.       “Elizabeth answered only by a slight bow”
    People bow touching the floor with the head or just by their eyelids.
    Bowing is gentlemanly courtesy expressed physically.

    Bowing is egolessness in the relationship.
    Internet removes the scope of ego, if it is employed.
    One who wants one thousand times progress can try to break the mould of his ego.
    Pride is vital ego, opinion is mental ego, stiffness is physical ego, cursing is spiritually egoistic assertion.
    The vital ego that wants to possess, makes it more than perfect by desiring that no one else should get what he has.
    The story can be seen as Darcy’s progress in overcoming his pride and acquiring the charm of captivating softness.
    Had Darcy fully acquired it, Wickham would have disappeared from his life.
    Bowing is the language of the body.
    After she left the building, met him before they met again, we saw the language of the woods, brook, bridge, etc.
    Every one is alive, everything is alive, every movement is alive.
    She was more than alive inwardly in her thoughts, emotions and sensation.
    Such a moment where everything inside and outside is alive is a creative moment.
    Here it created Love in its pure form in him and in her, receptivity for that love was created.
    The Being is Delight. Such a delight was welling up in her and him but it stopped at the penultimate step.
    He was uncertain about her.
    She had absolutely nothing she could expect of him.
    Language suddenly acquires a new topical idiom that is psychological when such a delight is not expressed in words.
    The body language, the few words that escape express such an idiom vigorously.
    At the proposal, though negative, a similar higher idiom was born.
    The story can record only the verbal part of it.
  4.         “Her thoughts were instantly driven back to the time when Mr. Bingley’s name had been last mentioned between them.”
    Memory links the past with the present.
    Mental characters live in their thoughts. Vital characters live in their emotions.

    The last time Bingley’s name was not mentioned in an auspicious context.
    She was more interested in Bingley for Jane, than Darcy for her sake.
    The self-oblivious good will for Jane was something extraordinary, unless it was biological as she was the psychological twin of Jane.
    The past intensely dwelt on becomes the Present.
    The past comes into Mind as thoughts or figures in human consciousness, i.e. in the light that we are accustomed to because of the ego.
    When the ego is shed, the figures acquire a brilliant light of the universe.
    Ego means the head will ache.
    Dissolving ego is peace.
    Ego mainly survives on the organized capacity one has.
    With respect to Jane she had no ego at all.
    She was identified with her, her life, her future.
    Forms of reply are social.
    In such moments one should shed it.
    Mother came on the Balcony every day. No one from Pondicherry came there.
    Sadhaks were Indians. They would be there in their shoes.
    While wearing the shoes only Mother’s physiological presence can be seen.
    One may not realize it for decades.
    Whenever that realization comes, he will be able to see the difference between standing there with and without shoes.
    One who changes his attitude, on seeing the inner effect will be struck.
    Any event of the past can now be reversed.

    We have no right to do what others do.
    We must go by our own inner sensations, not our social forms.
    She bowed slightly for social reasons.
    Her inside had a given total response.
    Her outside was social.
  5.         “if she might judge from his complexion”.
    Complexion has its own language.
    An idea in the Mind has its versions in the Mind, vital, body and Spirit.

    Here we see complexion speaking.
    Life is universal. Each event is responded to by everything in the universe.
    It is a yogic faculty to know the language of the wind, trees, ants, etc.
    Mother heard the coconut husks, carpet, mango tree, banyan tree speak.
    Till the strength of the Ashram was one hundred and fifty, SHE held the thoughts of all in her control.
    In important meetings people do not respond to arguments, but respond to persons.
    The attitude evokes a response.
    Behind the attitude is motive and ultimately the person.
    We can see when a VIP is responding copiously to our personality our Mind will be actively considering, speaking out the arguments.
    A Russian general used to judge the outcome of a day’s battle by smelling the earth that morning.
    The inter-disciplinary studies begun after the war made no real headway in spirit. It was a mechanical mixture. After 1968 a Nobel Prize was instituted for Economics and won the Prize. The result was economics has been mathematicised.
    Mathematicians and physicists migrated to economics. Subjects are severely specialized. There is no capacity to integrate them. So, a violent combination is tried. What is common to mathematics and economics is Man. He is forgotten.
    She judged his thoughts from his complexion. It is great. What is common to both of them was love for each other. Their opinions, attitudes, motives were so compartmentalized that she was not able to think of it. People can take a Nobel Prize from another subject, but find it difficult to think of the root-cause, the MAN, the human Individual who has made civilization possible.
  6. “his Mind was not very differently engaged”
    Minds that meet are engaged on the same subject, differently.
    The differences in thought are various versions of the same idea.
    Human life is the course that discovers the unity in dissimilar views.
    Shankara could not concede immortality to the Individual.
    To him the Individual is to merge in the One.
    Doing this, the alternative before Man is moksha or Maya.
    The Individual to whom we ascribe immortality escapes moksha as well as Maya – one becomes transformation, the other the Marvel.
    At the proposal Darcy expected her to merge with him – moksha.
    She virulently refused and abused.
    He withdrew and opted for transformation and expected her to accept his transformed status.
    Her accepting his transformed status was a Marvel to him.
    She did not aspire to transformation. She only moved to rationality from irrationality.
    Partial accomplishments can be reversed or have the reverse appearance.
    Accomplishments can be partial, total, complete, full, entire, perfect, integral, perversely entire in the reverse, petulantly beneficial, small, great, wonderful, etc. according as the components of accomplishment combine. All these various accomplishments can be fully positive though partial or opposite.
    Jane’s accomplishment was full. Only that it was delayed. The delay was to disillusion her. Lydia’s accomplishment was destruction restored to respectability banished at the cost of social shame as well as personal shame unfelt.
    Elizabeth’s accomplishment was all inclusive – Jane’s wedding, Lydia’s restoration to society – raising her to a Love she never dreamt of on the material pinnacle of majestic status where she could enjoy the rival’s submission, husband’s adoration of blessed love.
    Her real enjoyment was the luxurious rooms of Pemberley.
63
"There is also one other person in the party," he continued after a pause, "who more particularly wishes to be known to you. Will you allow me, or do I ask too much, to introduce my sister to your acquaintance during your stay at Lambton?"
  1. His asking her to be introduced to his sister removes all her doubts about his love. * She is now engaged to him to be married in his emotions and she is clear about it. Uncle and aunt do see that truth now
  2. She was anxious to let him know her mind.
  3. He was anxious to introduce his sister to her.
  4. Bingley for Jane, even in this hot emotional context, catches her imagination.
  5.        “There is also one other person in the party who more particularly wishes to be known to you”.
    The whole secret of his dignified behaviour is more revealed by this news.
    When matters of moment are discussed, every thing is a symptom that speaks. Some are explicit, others are implied.
    Aspiration in a higher atmosphere always comes true, if the right clue is seen and acted upon.
    World shaking events choosing an instrument chase him, adjust to his conveniences, and he escapes to make his wife’s shopping possible. Still he wins an international award. When the whole scientific community can be introduced to rationality, the chosen instrument undexterously or through discourtesy escapes that opportunity. This is an occasion that can be rectified variously by self-giving or taking the weight on oneself and asking him to be a front. He may escape but the work will be done. Grace blesses even those who wished to escape. Lydia’s restoration is like that.
    This news is unmistakable and Elizabeth understands his Mind more clearly. At this point she was ready to receive. At this point a proportionate gratitude creates receptivity. She never had it. There was an opposite development which later reversed when, after receiving her aunt’s letter, she felt a deeper gratitude, though not as a felt emotion, but by the sense of shame his generosity had evoked. Gratitude is a handsome generous emotion that is willing to recognize another’s goodness. In its absence one sees one’s own smallness or feels shrunk before majestic nobility. This is the unexpressed generosity of the lower vital that is unwilling to be under an obligation. She could not go beyond that. There is an earlier state of meanness which at once questions the motive and cleverly attributes mercenary expectation. She never did that. Even that is the gratitude of meanness. Mercenary suspicion is the gratitude of mean smallness whose greatest generosity is jealous opposition or competition. The falsehood of low consciousness of her mother rears its head thus. Even her father in receiving his engagement did not generously appreciate Darcy, but took him to be a violent lover which he himself was in his youth. Gratitude came to her neither from her father nor her mother. In her own growth what was developed was liveliness.
    Gratitude is far, far away from liveliness. Gratitude is the awareness of the human soul of its own smallness while the Divine is making for it. The human soul while in ignorance enjoying the taste of it, unaware of the existence of the Divine, sees the latter is offering itself to it. To receive it is grace, whether there is gratitude or not. At the moment of reception the self-awareness of the human soul – its lack of receptivity – gives it an emotion towards the approaching Divine. It is an emotion of gratitude. A sinking Man under a sheet of water when pulled out certainly can feel gratitude to the saviour. In one case it was the saviour who felt the gratitude for having the opportunity to save him and offered as an immense token to marry his sister. This fortunate marriage did not come off because there was no gratitude in the recipient. A Man who lost his job was offered the help – Grace – of Mother directly against his refusal. The devotee who gained the job never felt the emotion of gratitude. He had to restore the job, livelihood, lost opportunities for many without their being grateful. There is a knowledge behind us that generates gratitude. It is the knowledge of the Divine Hand that leads, that stays. To know of that Hand, to be able to sense that Hand generates Gratitude. Gratitude is an emotion. It must be felt in the heart – an emotional knowledge. On receiving a rupee from an unknown Orissa farmer Mother exclaimed “How can the Divine repay this?” More than material benefits received, constantly Mother’s Hand protects Man. Gratitude here is of great value. Even when Man falls flat on the ground, She says it is grace. Such a sense sees that Hand there. A jeep to avoid a barricade of fallen trees left the road, entered the fields and half fell into a pit – two of the wheels were in the pit – but the devotee who was driving it was safe. Nothing happened to the vehicle. The moment he realized what had happened he was shocked, stopped the vehicle, and got down. A woman said she saw Mother holding the vehicle in her spread saree-end. It certainly was a moment for Gratitude. Gratitude is Brahmic knowledge. He who feels it never meets catastrophes in his life. Crude consciousness that is insular meets such violent events so that gratitude may awaken in him. Every event is an occasion to feel gratitude. Man’s skin is thick, his Mind is perverse, hostile, leaves no room for finer emotions. Gratitude is the emotion of the awakened soul, awakened in the parts of his being – Psychic.
  6.         “Will you allow me or do I ask for much?”
    He clearly discloses the value he ascribes to her. It is not a polite form of speech. It is a real doubt in his Mind. He did not expect her to concede that much of scope for him or family in her scale of values.
    To find a value for oneself in someone is a characteristic of Romance.
    Romance does not seek something valuable in itself. It seeks something valuable to oneself. It is the infinitesimal in which infinity can be revealed to him. It becomes unique as well as infinite – the value of the valueless. He who is in love sees in the other this aspect. She, and she alone, he sees, can release the infinite love in him.
    Everyone has this element buried in her or in him.
    Where it reveals the element of being a complement, Love endures and grows.
    The Kali idol that revealed Kali in live form for Sri Aurobindo was simply an idol for others, to foreign tourists it is a work of stone.
    One cannot be in love without seeing this element in the other. It is unique, infinite, and capable of becoming invaluable though valueless.
    Love exists, not in itself, but in the relationship. One can be a goddess to a Man while she is a simple woman. If she is cantankerous, she qualifies more.
    Sri Aurobindo saw Kali in the temple statue. For him to see the same Kali on a stone in the road, his own soul must be greater.
    The stone too can grow in importance.
    What Darcy saw in her was beyond her human personality.
    We first see in him something like a jealous pursuit of her, when she rescued Bingley from Darcy’s low estimation and turned it around.
    It hurt him that she valued Bingley perhaps more than himself.
    It is after that he decided not to speak to her at all. Hence the conflict.
    The conflict raised the intensity of his emotion. One of the symptoms of Love is the ever-present possible loss before marriage.
    After marriage, it turns around as a sense of security in the emotions.
    A woman in love gives that security and knows the Man in love is above the human response of satiation leading to satisfaction.
    Romantic Love differs in all aspects from selfish human love.
    Love that does not become divine is not Love.
  7.          “to introduce my sister to your acquaintance during your stay in Lambton”
    Access to a high place is accompanied by the desire to introduce our people to that eminence.
    In doing so, he is aware of risking the present privilege. The power structure in the society, especially the unofficial, is thus built up.
    Without risk, it cannot be done. Every time it is a total risk.
    Risking constantly totally but successfully is the strategy of success.
    The strategy is to centre oneself at the higher end of the work.
    The lower end is the end of result, the higher end is that of responsibility.

     
    The Lower End
    The Higher End
    Physical work
    Mental enjoyment of work
    Execution
    Conception of execution.
    Expectation
    Oblivious of result.
    Successive work 
    Simultaneous execution.
    Impatience           
    Patience.
    Intrigues               
    Honest strategy.
    Enthusiasm
    Expansiveness.
    Planning
    Inspiration.
    Egoistic selfishness
    Selfless self-giving
    Jealous competition
    Unmindful execution.
    Clumsy work       
    Organised arrangement
    Authority
    Attention
    Tension
    Ease
    Local efficiency
    Responsibility for the whole.
    Present convention
    Original ideal.
    Dead convention
    Fresh perspective.
    Haste     
    Steadiness
    Conflict
    Harmony
    Demand                
    Silent Will
    Seek the result
    Wait for the result to come.
    Inward ideal
    Outward ideal
64
The surprise of such an application was great indeed; it was too great for her to know in what manner she acceded to it. She immediately felt that whatever desire Miss Darcy might have of being acquainted with her must be the work of her brother, and, without looking farther, it was satisfactory; it was gratifying to know that his resentment had not made him think really ill of her.
  1. He is hesitant, not being sure of her attitude.
  2. She was surprised about his wanting to introduce his sister.
  3. He was surprised that it was welcome.
  4. “The surprise of such an application was great indeed”.
    Man knows of his searching for God.
    There are times it dawns on him that it is God who is searching for him.
    Hers was such a surprise. It is the essence of human existence.
    Man by his organization which is the result of his attitude converts infinite plenty into finite scarcity, and feels at a dead end.
    Sirapunji receives 450” of rain. There is water scarcity in summer.
    Such a scarcity cannot be removed by reordering the rainfall.
    It is not water scarcity, but a scarcity of common sense in living.
    Learning to conserve water, water scarcity is overcome.
    It comes out of forethought, related to means of water conservation.
    Material circumstance and mental propensities coordinated produce convenience.
    A woman seeking a husband, relating it to social circumstances, creates such an opportunity in all directions.
    Keeping quiet, they all will converge on her.
    Social stipulations for marriage are money, beauty, status, age, opportunity to meet, etc. The girl dwells on them by her knowledge and receives the result in the fixed mould of her Mind which creates a scarcity of Men for her because she has evoked a response to her beauty and wealth.
    The truth is she is a woman. In the society there are a few hundred eligible Men who want to marry her. Working on the basic vibration she would attract a large number of Men from whom she can choose.
    Money is created by Man. In the West Man values himself and he creates a great wealth. In slavish India Man was dust. Free India gave education to some extent, gave his vote. It made him value himself. Development was planned. Man realized he is no longer a worm. Whether new roads or new hospitals they made Men who are of value. Every Law made emphasized his value. Some trickled down. The population expanded. Men moved to the cities and realized a little their value. Employment is guaranteed. Man comes into his own. Still neither the common Man, nor the government nor the society at large knows this. It is an unconscious process. Man’s realising his value is the nation’s wealth, his own prosperity. The salary of the clerk rose from Rs. 30/- to 6000/-.
  5. “It was too great for her to know in what manner she had acceded to it”.
    It was an opening of herself. She became oblivious, dazed, and pleasantly self-forgetful. A child is like that all the time. Only that as he grows, the sense of wonder diminishes. Upbringing, education, social living can reverse the diminishing trend into one of growing trend. It started in her life at the proposal, continued at Pemberley, expanded into its full wideness by her aunt’s letter and finally made all of them an unbelievable reality of an impossible dream in the second proposal. She had the right human potential to receive the benefit of the Movement. The Force was from France, the work was Darcy’s, hers was the reception. Education can be conceived as education of information, education of ideas. It can also be conceived as education of facts, education of skills, education of faculties, education of attitudes, education of motives, education of consciousness, education of change and progress, education of evolution. Facts are taught by giving information. Skills are trained by exercise. The essence of this training is a knowledge. This knowledge when given to the child, trains implicitly the skill in the Mind of the child. So, also there is a knowledge to learn ideas, to imbibe Real-Ideas. The ideas are best taught through stories. Great ideas are learnt from great acts in the school. Real-Ideas are received as higher consciousness from the atmosphere where the living presence of that faculty to learn higher consciousness is ever present. You cannot teach what you do not have. That is about facts, information, ideas. The child cannot learn a consciousness that is not richly present in the very atmosphere. The consciousness of the school must be an oasis of self-protecting higher consciousness where low consciousness cannot enter and survive. It is a self-existing strength that preserves itself needing no outside protection. Such an education will produce the Individual who is the psychological I-Phone. To deliver it on the web, graduated to various age groups – maybe only two groups are necessary – is eminently possible as the world has developed all the tools necessary.
  6.        “She immediately felt his sister’s interest in her must be the work of Darcy”.
    It was said Nehru reflected the public opinion in India, first having created it.
    It is true of all great personalities at all levels.
    In a big family in size and wealth, everything is the contribution of the head of the family, as Mother Earth has created the world of humanity.

    You cannot find a single influence in the entire history of the Ashram that is not theirs. All light in the world is from the Sun. All the political parties in India including Muslim League, Mahasaba, DMK were once part of the Freedom Movement. What most pleases one is that he is known to another – popularity. The first time one sees his name in print is an experience. It puts you in touch with a wider existence of the public. That his sister knew of her was flattering. Flattery is most successful when it is not seen as flattering. Its power rises when one’s children receive recognition, better still one’s servants. To get a work done gives satisfaction. To get a work done by consecration gives the satisfaction that in that act one is closer to the Divine.
    She now had a glimpse of the truth the unknowable formulates itself to human consciousness and disappears.
    Man who prays for his wants, moves to consecration. From consecration of his faculties he moves to the whole – Mind or vital. A time comes when he can consecrate the very impulse of Life, beyond which there exists only one more level – the impulse of existence. Elizabeth started with Pemberley, a desire to become its mistress. Now she saw Georgiana wanted to be introduced to her. Later Lady Catherine also related to her in an altered fashion. It is she who brought the idea of Darcy more forcefully before her consciousness and declared, of course negatively, that she would not accept his proposal. In truth it was a thought of her Mind that she should accept a proposal by him. It was like that he understood Lady Catherine. While she stopped with Pemberley, Georgiana and Lady Catherine forged a relationship with her. Life compeled her to think of Darcy and accept him.
  7.         “It was gratifying to know that his resentment had not made him think really ill of her”.
    The truth is he had never felt any resentment towards her.
    Resentment makes one think ill of that person.
    Resentment is an emotion that repulses.
    The idea created by that repulsion is an ill-opinion.
    She knew he must have had resentment.
    She saw no ill-opinion in him of her.
    How, she could not understand, but she was gratified.
    He who offends another expects him to be offended.
    When he sees no offence is received he must wonder why he was not offended. “Well, there is no offence, let us proceed is the attitude”. She behaved like the oblivious ignorant person who mistakes magnanimity to be insensitivity.
    She did not even stop and wonder, but felt gratified.
    She took his magnanimous goodness for granted.
    Had she sufficiently recognized the truth of the greatness of his character, the tragedy could have been averted.
    The tragedy is the physical equivalent of her mental lapse – a lapse of unconscious oblivious attitude.
    It was a small significant act as far as the tragedy was concerned.
    Human choice acts in these fleeting moments.
    The smaller the moment, the greater is the consequence.
    On the receipt of Jane’s letter on Lydia, suppose Elizabeth had stopped all her inner excitement and looked inside herself for the moment or the event that had triggered the elopement, she would have seen several of which this event might be the most recent. It was within her power to reverse that. That reversal would have been enough to cancel the elopement.
    Every event small or big is the cause for a following event. The chain has the power of consequences, also
    the power of hastening slowing or reversing an event.
65
They now walked on in silence, each of them deep in thought. Elizabeth was not comfortable: that was impossible; but she was flattered and pleased. His wish of introducing his sister to her was a compliment of the highest kind. They soon outstripped the others, and when they had reached the carriage, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner were half a quarter of a mile behind.
  1. Silence issues out of many situations.
  2. Here she accepted his sister. That thought needs some time and energy to be absorbed.
  3. The one act of wanting to introduce his sister removes all questions from her mind.
  4.         “They walked on in Silence”
    Complete endorsement of the inner embarrassment is Silence of approval.
    Silence can express any temperament or decision.
    Mr. Bennet’s long silence was silence of distressed disapproval.
    Lady Lucas listening to the ridicule of Mrs. Bennet is silence of submission.
    Darcy listened to her abuse in silence. It was a silence that silently saw the truth of her abuse. It was a transforming Silence.
    Mrs. Gardiner’s Silence about Darcy at Lambton was the Silence of a cultivated lady.

    The phrase culture of silence has become popular when a whole community amazed at the superior success of one person, by a subconscious unanimity, decides not to take notice of his success.
    Jealousy of the physical Man is fighting trying to liquidate.
    The vital Man converts his jealousy into competition.
    Philosophical disagreement is the jealousy of the Mind that has no physical vital capacities of fighting or competing.
    The cultural Man’s jealousy is the culture of Silence.
    A woman’s silence to a Man’s appreciation is silent encouragement.
    A sycophant is inspired by the silence of his object of adoration.
    Mrs. Bennet’s short silence to the news of Lizzy’s engagement was the paralysis of her nerves.
    Kitty’s silence in keeping Lydia’s secret was formality of a fad becoming treacherous betrayal.
    Man’s capacity for social suicide in the name of artificial politeness is seen here in the extreme.

    Secondary causes perfectly organized are capable of defeating the original purpose is one experience of Man.
    Irrational superstition in the name of scientific inquiry, religious fanaticism in the name of spirituality, organizing stupidity in the name of education, allowing promiscuity to come to stay as a socially approved behaviour in the name of non-interference in one’s privacy are some expressions of human unwisdom.
  5. “Each of them deep in thought”.
    Thought makes Man vivacious.
    Deep thought makes one silent, often emotional.
    Deep thought is a conference of our faculties in silent coordination.
    Reason and thinking coordinate consciously our thoughts and ideas.

    Serious moments render thoughts, even emotions, ineffective.
    Ineffectiveness on the surface is reorganization in the depths.
    One is not conscious in the depths.
    The structure of thinking in the depths is the same as on the surface.
    Subconscious coordination of thoughts is positively obliviousness, negatively depression.
    He wanted to talk, ask, invite, relate, exchange, even commune, but he was a burnt cat wary of milk, hot or cold.
    She wanted to hear, receive, encourage, wanted him to enlarge, but she being a woman could only wait.
    The only encouragement she could give was inside.
    A little inside, something else refused to die: ‘courtesy to Darcy is treachery to Wickham’. It no longer had life, but its dead body was there. Something in him sensed it, and shrank from expanding. The net result was a very pleasant exchange that came abruptly to a silent embargo on all subjects.
    She could not make the moment a sacrilege by referring to Meryton.
    To him it was too sacred a moment to be exposed to non-love ideas.
    Love had gone silent as it is its native domain.
    The awkward silence that was no embarrassment relapsed into enjoyable companionship. Finn felt an exquisite joy when Laura refused him. Overcoming his disappointed frustration of the surface, his substance that knew neither had Money, felt the joy of relief. What we do not know, our subliminal knows. Darcy and Elizabeth knew the new developments and old residues.
  6. “Elizabeth was not comfortable”
    Her greatest comfort was lively expansive exchange of ideas.
    She did not know, now, what prevailed, how or why.
    Absence of knowledge of what is, is an embargo on rising energies.
    It is the presence of her aunt and uncle that developed the meeting. It is their same presence, though at a distance, that drove them dumb.
    Lovers’ liveliness issues out of inner ease that presses for expression.
    Now there was a little inner unease which was overwhelmed by the inner welling of joy at the prospect of love. The unease restrains.
    Theirs was not a straight love-making.
    But theirs was also a love-making which had opened the floodgates of love out of reversed attitudes.
    Pleasant proximity is pleasing companionship.
    It is a companionship that is uncommunicative.
    She was not free to ask him why there was a change in his attitude.
    He was not free to tell her now what had happened to him.
    Lydia, Bingley and Lady Catherine gave him the willingness to speak it out.
    Her own frank initiative of humiliating modesty made it possible for him to speak out.
    The overburden in both of them was represented by Lydia, Bingley and Lady Catherine.
    The vulgarity of Lydia, unmanly submission of Bingley, offensive arrogant authority of his aunt were there in both of them in various degrees.
    Man or woman who indulges in the impermissible, while the course reverses, has to deny themselves the indulgence in the permissible – a stark reality of Life no one can disregard. They could not meet each other’s eyes lest they should be embarrassed. Recollection of lighter topics of travel thawed the frozen pleasantness. Even that was on her part. He was anxious to take them inside where there was no Caroline.
    Politeness refused pleasure.
  7.        “To be comfortable was impossible, but she was flattered and pleased”
    Inner comfort, outer convenience.
    Similar disposition offering settled security is comfort.
    Mild agreeable excitement is pleasing.
    Outer meaninglessness expanding inner shallowness is flattery.
    Flattery can be either positive or negative.
    Real inner value expanding pleasantly by outer recognition is flattering.

    She saw he valued her for what she did not know.
    That, after such a confrontation, her value was undiminished was flattering to her.
    Value valued is valuable.
    She did know she was valuable, but what he found in her she did not know.
    To know there are values in us without our knowledge is a pleasing discovery.
    The outer life is like the dress; inner life has everything, all the things.
    This is a new strange situation of embarrassment.
    It does not permit comfort of any measure.
    In the tradition, gods are propitiated for securing benefits.
    Fear of God is the beginning of knowledge is the wisdom of the world.
    Love of God is pure knowledge, is ultimate Jnana.
    The eternal delight is the incentive for Man to live.
    In his Mind it translates as immortality, self-preservation.
    In situations like this, the eternal delight translates itself as inner comfort issuing out of flattery.
    Men do not have occasions that flatter them.
    Ordinarily one does not flatter another.
    An occasion that flatters is something to be cherished.
    Excellent victory, magnanimous culture, genuine good will, well-earned reputation are rare in life, especially for the ordinary Man.
    Descending grace in abundance because of Man’s constitution shrinks as above. These are moments, if Man is aware as well as alert, that can be openings to receiving grace. Man does not know of grace. Hence that question does not arise.
  8.        “His wish of introducing his sister was the compliment of the highest kind”.
    Of all the compliments, that which is paid to existing true value is the greatest. When that is unintentionally paid, its dividends are overwhelming.
    Compliments paid elsewhere reaching the Man in the course of life, flatter one out of his wits.
    When a child is recognized as a vibhuti, it becomes one. Such recognition is a great part in its accomplishment.
    Nehru had the Psychic in him, on seeing which Mother predicted his future.
    He was the only son. While at Cambridge his allowance was equal to his professor’s salary. At home he was called Bharat Ratna. Gandhiji adopted him as his heir. Crowds were attracted. They do play a part in the result. The opposite is true. Churchill was a neglected child. He never saw his parents. His mother would not write to him. Even during Christmas holidays he could not meet his mother. He became a bully and a world leader.
    It is significant that in two or three days after she met Georgiana who had once consented to elopement, Lydia eloped with the same hero.
    To be able to trace this precipitate result from the side of Elizabeth, Georgiana, Darcy, Lydia, Wickham and pronounce all the rules that governed those movements is a study in the subtle laws of life. Elizabeth’s inner adoration of Wickham and that of Georgiana’s together appear to have consummated his earlier incomplete perfidy. We saw Caroline’s interest in Darcy, Darcy’s interest in Elizabeth and Elizabeth’s in Wickham and Lydia’s in Wickham. The forces act, but each person who receives the energy spends it as she chooses. Darcy had forgotten Wickham, i.e. his focus had shifted from the conscious to the subconscious. It will act in the reverse – if he wanted to forget, Wickham would move towards him. Darcy’s bringing his sister and Elizabeth completed Lydia’s plan. To analyse the changing directions in terms of the result is to know all the rules. We cannot know all the rules but in our own life sincerity will give us all the protection.
  9.          “They soon outstripped others.”
    Youth walks faster than age.
    Active inner emotions activate the physical movements.
    Every small act is a symbol of the total movement.
    The infinite never moves, but it is always ahead, if you try to catch it.
    In every progressive act, this property of the infinite is seen.
    Human evolution is to feel in the finite the touch of the infinite.
    That will express in energy, Time and Space.
    Tom Peters never knew his value till the publisher discovered him.
    Everyone is Peters, let us be the publishers.
    In everyone the Individual is there.
    Elizabeth helped Darcy discover it.
    The Force in the atmosphere since 1956, places such circumstances before us.
    Still we see the circumstances, not their significance.
    The Force comes to everyone externally.
    It must also emerge internally.
    One who is internally awake can give the inner chance to others.
    Japan opened the American eyes by her competition.
    The American forte is her originality.
    The strength of Japan is imitation.
    Her market strength emerged because Japan expressed her cultural values in production, the value of honour, loyalty to the company.
    India has spiritual values to express in all walks of life.
    If India wants to rise to any level, all that she has to do is to achieve by her spiritual values. Then she will excel them.
    We have nothing to imitate, emulate.
    We need not try to achieve in any field.
    It is enough we express our old spiritual values in the new life we want to live. It will be our new spiritual value.
    We have something new to contribute, nothing old to imitate. Self-awareness is called for.
  10. “Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner were half a quarter mile behind.”
    It is the social distance we see here as the spatial separation.
    It is Mrs. Gardiner who brought her here, now she is left behind.
    In the lives of the organization it often happens.
    Congress saw this.
    When an organization becomes famous, sometimes the founder’s name cannot be known.
    An organization at its peak can work against its ideals or even founder.
    It can eject a founder, give up its ideals and that may allow it to grow.
    The founder of an organization may become its guru.
    Its ideals can continue to become better.
    Tracing the beginning of the organization, taking it to its present position you can discover all the curves of life in it.
    One aim of Life is to equalize all people, all work, all organisations. The zigzag process helps achieve equality negatively.
    In the lives of individuals, we can witness all these phenomena.
    Every one of these changes follows its own rules.
    Greek, the father of knowledge and culture is forgotten.
    ‘Gift from the Greek’ has become an unsavory phrase.
    Democracy ushered in by the loss of a royal head is presided over now by royalty.
    A religion is banished from its birthplace and flourishes elsewhere.
    Socialism thrives under official capitalism.
    Small nations rule vastly greater nations.
    The civilized become a piteous victim of the uncivilized.
    Nations that destroyed the world are at the top of the lists.
    A nation that saved the world is forgotten by the world.
    Another nation that saved the world rules the world.
    Dictatorship thrives under monarchy as well as socialism.
    After two atom bombs, Japan did not consider surrender.
    Indians excel any foreign nation they settle in. At home they are dull.
    Man tries to rectify a vastly grown defect by the original cause that created the defect.
66
He then asked her to walk into the house; but she declared herself not tired, and they stood together on the lawn. At such a time much might have been said, and silence was very awkward. She wanted to talk, but there seemed an embargo on every subject. At last she recollected that she had been travelling, and they talked of Matlock and Dovedale with great perseverance. Yet time and her aunt moved slowly -- and her patience and her ideas were nearly worn out before the tête-à-tête was over. On Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner's coming up they were all pressed to go into the house and take some refreshment; but this was declined, and they parted on each side with the utmost politeness. Mr. Darcy handed the ladies into the carriage; and when it drove off, Elizabeth saw him walking slowly towards the house.
  1. It is entirely a fresh situation as a speaker is asked from the audience an unexpected question.
  2. Her psychological context, her social situations are entirely new. In these situations, words don’t form themselves. Even presence of Mind deserts. Resourcefulness, if it is there, will have no energy.
  3. Silence is safe, awkwardness is usual.
  4. “He then asked her to walk into the house”.
    Enemies becoming friends, hatred changing into liking is a phenomenon of life.
    A student leader was banished from the hostel as he hosted an All India leader.
    A few years later he became the local sub-collector.
    The university authorities invited him to speak to the students.
    Changes are compelled by the external circumstances.
    They can be prompted by inner maturity.
    Good human behaviour is topical; there is nothing eternal in it.
    The eternal element in it is the relationship.
    It can be positive or negative. What matters is the relationship.
    Man is gregarious; his vital is universal; relationship is a must; initial stages are mildly positive; next it enters into negative versions; finally all negative relationship turns positive.
    Initially it is ignorant unity; with a little growth which comes in the smaller aspects, negativity asserts; maturity seeks harmony. Harmony goes with unity and mutuality.
    Mutuality that facilitates harmony ripens into unity.
    The author has in Mind the developments in the story.
    A character is startled by the move of another character.
    Neither the character who makes the move nor the author is startled.
    Life is a drama; it is acted as a drama.
    She never expected him to invite her to the house.
    He had the experience of not expecting a normal answer from her.
    Abuse is intense relationship.
    He who seeks only the relationship sees only intensity in the abuse.
    Failure, abuse, snubbing, ridicule, taunting, challenging deeply hurt.
    Even after total continued success and present authority, the hurt feelings of earlier wounds do not heal for half a century or even a full one.
    Growth in the vital through knowledge if it has the character of transformation can overcome it. Usually they lose their force, do not disappear.
  5.        “She declared herself not tired”.
    At the moments grace acts, polite attitude alienates oneself.
    Politeness is most appropriate for social situations.
    In great moments the atmosphere is sensitive in the extreme.
    It acts as an active person.
    It admits of attitudes appropriate to the action of grace.
    Open, eager, grateful, ready expansive attitude alone is permissible.

    Jane agreeing to dance, to converse with Bingley espouses this attitude without squeamishness.
    Elizabeth agreeing to listen to Wickham puts up this attitude expressed through refinement of social culture.
    Darcy’s second proposal she received with such an attitude in essence.
    In its expression it was awkward, embarrassed, demanding the proposal.
    Hence it lost the magnanimity of refinement she was capable of with Wickham as she had to painfully force herself to speak out.
    We see Georgiana giving the invitation with saturated feelings of proper emotions, but, due to inexperience she was crushed by the occasion.
    To enter into the Presence of Mother, one needs a well developed personality of stable strength.
    One known to be strong found his teeth chattering.
    Another swami of repute could not meet Her eyes.
    One long in service found, on entering Her room, all his nerves suspended. An experienced professional on being taken into the Ashram on a Darsan Day could not remain there for a few minutes.
    There were others whose lost inner voice was restored at the Samadhi.
    Sitting at the Samadhi another heard her name called – a thought in another.
    The same lady saw Mother at the Darsan changing into Sri Aurobindo.
    One saw Her at 95 years as a girl of 20.
    One devotee asked Her to reveal Her four Powers which She did.
  6. “They stood together on the lawn” While she was at Netherfield, the path would not admit of four and she left them, exactly signifying Darcy’s decision not to evoke any expectation.
    Here they stood together for a considerable time, exactly reflecting his mental status.
    Human birth is a turning point in the evolution of earth nature.
    In 1818 India was territorially united. It was such a turning point in Indian Freedom.
    Industrial Revolution was such a turning point in the standard of living of Man.
    French Revolution, in abolishing serfdom, served as such a turning point in the life of the world.
    Greek thought, Roman Law, the double entry, Charles I’s head, 1688, 1789, 1917 were such turning points before 1947.
    1900 was such a date for world population.
    Saturation of one state giving birth to another state is a turning point.
    1872, 1878, 1910, 1914, 1956 are such dates in the life of the earth.
    The real turning point in the story is Lydia’s adventure.
    Her meeting Darcy at Pemberley is its positive symptom by reflection.
    The birth of the Individual will be such a point in Social Evolution.
    Vedas were such early dawns of spirituality in the world.
    2500 years ago Asoka renounced war while humanity could not do so in the 20th century. The Spirit of India expressed itself thus.
    Asoka was strong to renounce war. A famous historian of India exhibits his utter incomprehension of the human existence by ridiculing Asoka’s policy as velvet gloves covering an iron grip. The caste system and the mentality that created it weakened the Spirit of India and her civilized state became vulnerable later, admitting of invasions.
    Today PROSPERITY of India will make her voice heard all over the world.
    Today’s Prosperity is the erstwhile military strength.
    Spirit needs a material foundation.
    Life-shunning asceticism is no longer legal tender.
    Spirit must be discovered in Life and expressed as such.
  7.          “At such a time much can be said”
    Both of them had seen a new horizon opened before them and were lost in it.
    The Rishi is lost in Samadhi. His very bodily functions are almost suspended during Samadhi.
    Romantic reward is the Samadhi for lovers.
    Samadhi gives a new spiritual birth to the Rishi.

    The moment of consent for the lover is a new higher birth for him.
    It is in Samadhi the Rishi gets his fresh spiritual illuminations.
    At the moment of consent, Silent or vocal, the lover gets new fresh conceptions of Romance not known to him till then.
    Lord Chiltern was a half-mad, savage Lord not under his own control.
    Violet always felt a danger in his personality.
    That danger never deterred her; rather it attracted her to him.
    Danger gives life to Romance.
    Danger is the signal of one plane breaking into another plane.
    As the plane that breaks into the present plane is far too wide and strong, danger is sensed.

    Ever present danger is the index of eternal romance entering one’s life.
    Danger is the sensation when we shrink at the new Touch.
    Danger becomes expansiveness when we welcome the new world.
    To accept Pemberley was really a danger to the personality of Longbourn.
    Mrs. Gardiner was fatigued by the walk.
    Elizabeth did not know what was happening and why.
    Nor was she sure how long it would last.
    Her overwhelming experience did not overcome in her Mind the many objections he had raised at the proposal.
    A more valid reason of which she was not aware was she must recognize Wickham was a scoundrel for which nothing in her was ready.
    It created an uncertainty, insecurity inside.
    He had crossed those hesitations. Not even Lady Catherine was an obstacle to him. All that he expected was her full endorsement.
  8.         “The silence was awkward”.
    Of three partners, one who was defrauded by the other two suggested parting. At once they fell into a silence which lasted three full hours.
    It is the most expressive silence in work.
    This silence is due to the fear of expressing what is inside.
    The partnership lasted another ten years.
    The three hour silence gave a ten year lease of life to a dying partnership.
    This is a negative example.
    Two friends embarked on a venture with total faith in each other and the project.
    The financing partner came out with a romantic revolutionary idea of asking the working partner not to write accounts as it offended the spirit of friendship.
    In eighteen months the value of the project rose thirty times.
    Not interfering is SILENCE in work. It is powerful.
    Silence sustains activity.
    Silence was imposed on Mr. Bennet after a fashion.
    Its reward was great.
    Silence in any form, followed for whatever reason is creative.
    Fresh thoughts arise in our Minds during moments of Silence.
    Mind rises to Sachchidananda during the physical silence of sleep.
    Consecration deepens as the inner silence grows.
    One act of consecration of an issue completes it instantaneously if the consecration wells up from Silence.
    We sit in prayer for three days to reach that depth.
    We are able to see the stable earth on which a train moves fast.
    We know earth itself is spinning at a good speed.
    Behind that spinning is the solid, stable Silence.
    The silence we perceive is visible.
    There is the invisible Silence.
    And beyond that Silence is another greater Silence.
    Their silence now was awkward.
    Still it made their marriage possible.
  9.          “She wanted to talk”.
    Her change was great, her surprise was great, but against his change it was shallow.
    He was deeply stirred, rewarded at his depths. She was resilient in view of her liveliness.
    Socially or personally she was ready to talk, but his deep response had created a weighty atmosphere and no subject came to her help. He sought romantic depths; she was on the surface of marriage. In view of the big property, she went to the depths of her surface.
    Society is creative. It creates by organization. Organisation comes out of observed knowledge and experience. Organization is power. Power is productive. Also it is pure power. That excess power raises people who wield it. Such a power is seen in the aristocracy of Spirit, religion, knowledge, land, ruling class, production, organization and social eminence. It is used in both ways. Used negatively it is tyrannical, deceitful, and dishonest. Tyranny is for the rulers, deceit is for the trader, and dishonesty is public possession. Tyranny lasts as long as the oppressed worships tyranny. Deceit rules as long as the deceived also receive part of the benefit. Dishonesty thrives as long as it works. He who knows the inner satisfaction of being honourable quickly sheds dishonesty. He is ashamed of it. The gains of deceit are not lasting. He who sees that quickly gives it up. The masses come to know that tyranny is weakness. They take over to enjoy widespread tyranny. The Being evolves through tyranny, deceit and dishonesty. The touts in the market, the power brokers in politics are two ends. The Money lender is ubiquitous. Society always detested the usurer though always utilized him extensively. The Money lender turned the value of deceits into a physical possession. He cannot give it up unless his body is broken. The light from above can transform the physical if the vital Mind consents. The tiny consent of the vital Mind creates worldwide revolutions. Psychologically it is seen in the vulgarity of the physical offence to cultural sensitivity. Politically it is equality. The driver sitting by the owner in the car in 1900 was that thin wedge. The marriages between royal houses that averted the wars vested that power in the Queens. Trade raises agriculture from its status of self-sufficiency, subsistence farming. Art, music, sports commercialized comes to stay. Commerce gives social life to art and education. Commerce is the lifeline of social survival even as the army is the mainstay of security. It is values that perform transformation of the low into the high.
  10.         “There seemed to be an embargo on every topic”.
    It is not an embargo imposed by either of them, but by the circumstances.
    He left her in two minutes after meeting her but was now standing with her for long.
    The Divine extended in multiplicity is the Self in individual existence.
    Darcy had a glimpse of it when he decided to rise to her occasion.
    She had the same inspiration but the charm of her falsehood compromised.
    Revolutionary atmosphere offers to all evolutionary perspectives.
    At his first meeting the social attitude unable to assert through his psychological opening stopped him in two minutes.
    He may give up, the movement will not. Again she met him or he met her.
    The new found energy expressed consciously as skills of conversation with the uncle and expressions of adorable love to her. It is then he took the higher initiative – of asking for an introduction – of telling her how valuable she was really to his own deeper well being. She responded with an inability to speak or agree or endorse. She simply listened to be dazed. It was a moment when she as well as he was evolving inwardly, silently lending all the available energy for that formation. As the body grows every moment, the Mind too grows. The Spirit evolves through their growth which we see as activity. The evolution of parts is invisible but can be felt in liveliness, cheerfulness, expansiveness.
    Sri Aurobindo compressed all his linguistic creativity within the precise bounds of grammar. Occasionally in dropping an ‘and’ or changing the spelling, He provided for the evolutionary growth of the English language. HE profusely supplied the evolutionary energy by way of ideas expressing in creative phrases – e.g. law shall be its deliverance, formulating expression, sovereign irresponsibility, illusion of the obvious. Evolution is Revolution of the organized entirety of the whole society choosing to move ahead. Moksha is the revolutionary break of the Spirit with life and body. Transformation is the evolution of the Spirit in every part of the being through every activity of its existence. Transformation transfigures the part of the being, simultaneously transforming the ACT.
    Transformation of the act is done by the attitude changing its direction from the negative to the positive. It can be from inside – inward going selfishness – to outside – the outward going selflessness. The change of the centre – from ego to the Divine – is the ultimate. It is done by the change of motive, from human existence to divine evolution. Surrender is a method that contains the essential essence of all the known yogic exercises – asana, japa, etc. – making it all powerful. Surrender does not become constant till it becomes an attitude of all our activities. At this stage surrender is taken by our will as its mission. The subtle plane knocks then at the million doors of the being. Still surrender is his, his attitude, that of his vital, attitude being that of the vital tendency endorsed by mental opinion. Motive is of the being, very much operative in the body, the body in many senses acting as the all-inclusive being. It is so as the vital and Mind have evolved out of the body. Motive of the body sits on the borders of existence. The motive is the dispersed Will of every particle in action. Surrendering this will, the Divine Will begins to act. It is commissioned into action when the action is taken over by Faith bypassing the earlier three stages. The vital lives by breathing, the physical survives by being in tune with the subtle atmosphere, the being is in constant live touch with all the beings. It tries to exchange with the One while in constant exchange with the Many. The subtle opening reveals the Many, the Causal opening opens to the One. There is a further height to reach That which includes the One and the Many. The various stages of surrender are in exact parallel with the various stages through which aspiration rises to surrender through consecration and surrender moves from the opinion to motive through attitude. All these developments take place in inner silence. The inner silence grows in intensity by becoming outer silence, a silence in activity. At moments as the one in which the lovers find themselves, the vague inner opening passes through all these stages and we find them mixed with our surface social attitudes resulting in embarrassments, awkward silences, dazed delights, etc. Surrender is ours. Still in rare cases of emotional identification with the Divine, the Divine itself, She Herself can impart an impetus to human surrender. It is identification in action.
  11. “At last she recollected she had been traveling and they talked of that”
    Every moment of life is an opportunity for progress. Leveling off is a temptation.
    Between Darcy and her, since the proposal, at Pemberley, at Lambton, he was making steady progress while she had made a progress after reading the letter and she stopped there.
    One of the rules of psychic education is constant progress.
    One who got a job of his desire lost it in a fortnight. After eight years he asked me and got it. It never occurred to him to ask how to get it back. It is leveling off.
    Phineas accepted the duel, afterwards became friends with the duelist. He was self righteous with the earl, Laura, Kennedy, all of whom came to grief. From his point of view he was right, finally he thrived. It is negative progress. He was conscientious. He had no light to act without hurting people. His conscientiousness ruined all of them, except Chiltern. There is always a way to do a thing rightly and rise. Insistence on unenlightened conscience is ruinous to those who trust him. Chiltern was not ruined because he shot him in the shoulder and took Violet from him. Self-righteousness of small men ruins others at their expense. The crisis was presented to him for him to make a progress. Phineas progressed at their expense. Small men can be jealous or not. Do not give small Men help or hope, he will ruin you or himself or both. In Mother’s atmosphere, ruin is sometimes loss of benefit. Small men getting anything from anyone feel it is their own. When you ask for it back, they cannot give and giving it they will be ruined. Small people can be low, or jealous or even hostile. The one rule variously applies to all. Anyone who comes to you comes to give a progress. We feel the duty. It is at the first level. After duty is performed we are unable to give this up for various reasons. They want to progress according to their values. Small Men serve great Men as instruments of perfection. For one who is decided upon constant progress, age is no bar. At any age a fresh life can open. Phineas is an Irish character. Kennedy is Scottish. The Scot is rigid, ruins himself by his rigidity. The Irish are honest and sensitive, but small and narrow. Their idealism will hurt others. Once a Man, a devotee, a sadhak, makes progress by the instrumentation of another, one of the following happens. The instrument progresses, or the instrument leaves. Who is benefited, how, to what extent depends upon the value of each. The play of the Many with the Many is Man meeting Man. Each is an instrument of progress to the other according to their values. The member of the Many exchanging with the One, is a vast progress to him and to the other members of the Many. No one can ruin a devotee. He can progress or ruin himself according to his values. The devotee remains unhurt.
  12. “They talked of Matlock and Dove Dale with great perseverance”
    A genuine little interest expresses as several effusive acts of solicitude.
    A trait of little perversity expresses itself as several remarks that offend.

    Morally moving from perversity to goodness is welcome. Spiritually, one marked with a trait of perversity, will do well not to try to remove it as it will energise it, but actively move towards expansive goodness. The energy of goodness will dissolve the formation of perversity. In life no one will respond to that deficiency. In yogic life he may get one who will constantly dwell upon it. Should he be a yogic intellectual, he would know how to interpret that. The criticism is not so much about what he does but as to what he is. Perversity is delight in wrongdoing or in wronging other people. Gossip that delightfully dwells on others’ wrongs is perversity expressed in speech. As the infinitesimal is the infinite, to get rid of one atom of perversity one has to do an infinity of good acts. Mother says of many people that they have received the punya, benefits of several births. To surrender to Mother one marked trait of perversity will remove it, giving him the benefit of many, many births. The instrument of his perfection can have endless defects. Dwelling on them, his own perversity will be strengthened. A discipline not to dwell on them, not to think of them, to understand it in its yogic light is a right attitude. Darcy did so. When one thus gets rid of it, all the defects the instrument had will be turned into strengths. Another better way to practically understand it is not to react inwardly to the display of such defects. The normal tendency to injustice is to be hurt and long for revenge. The yogic attitude is to receive it as the Divine touch and let it dissolve the defect. Social response to yogic touch or even ethical response will be beside the point. One does not remember experiences from which he has derived the experiences. Should the memory of an event linger, it means there is work to be done. Should a Man be totally unconscious, his past experiences will be forgotten as they are not yet ready to come to the surface. Memory that persistently irritates is a memory that reminds one of his arrears. It is equally true that a deep meditation dissolves them. An event has a memory, an emotion, a structure of the act – mental, vital, physical. They dissolve in that order. The physical structure persists in repeating the lifeless event. Human relationship is a psychological map of our inner domain. He who has withdrawn from it will carry the memory as a faint remainder. To lose memory is great. To dissolve the censor is greater still.
  13.         “And yet time and her aunt moved slowly…”
    Small gifts are pleasantly delivered.
    Great gifts appear to be bitter punishments.
    Gifts of grace fashion themselves in grades according to the receiving ignorance.

    To know the significance of the insignificant is wisdom.
    Such a comprehension admits of the conception of a repellent beauty.
    Failing success, ignorant wisdom, conquering weakness, strength of weakness are then permissible concepts.
    Romance starts with ignorance of defects and ends with inability to see the defects.
    Offence ensures defence. Capacity to destroy is security recognised. Weakness recognizes strength as culture or patience. Inability to offend is strength that is implicitly recognised and worshipped. Quiet efficiency is strength that can accomplish without exertion or expression. Consummate strength is completely silent. Knowledge that is total is total power.
    A letter is a literary product. A note is a communication. A note that evolves into an exercise of literary talents is not attained by the individual. It is originally, at least subconsciously, a collective product. Collective subconscious maturity emerges as conscious accomplishment.
    Mary Thorne’s culture absorbed the wealth of her uncultured uncle’s immense capacity.
    Capacity earns, culture enjoys.
    Culture is the capacity for enjoyment Culture that is condemned capacity inherits for enjoyment.
    Enjoyment inherited is potential spiritual growth.
    To be a disciple of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, to be in Their atmosphere is to inherit spiritual realisation in its fullness.
    A Rishi’s lifetime achievement is given in fullness to his disciple through one mantra.
    Every word written by them is a mantra.
    Their names are Mantras that can transform Man into Superman.

    It is said the elephant living or dead is worth a thousand sovereigns.
    Her institutions even in their decline carry Her atmosphere. Vedas recited by unvedic Brahmins who do not know its meaning can revive the dying. Realisation once attained is attained forever.
    She says She is responsible for those who met Her for a second.
  14.        “her patience and ideas were nearly worn out before the tete-a-tete was over”
    She has come to be patient for the arrival of the aunt.
    Only some ideas could be talked to him at that point. All such ideas were out.
    Love-making cannot be done in public. Only two is company. They were lovers, but were not in the process of love-making just then.
    Love arises of a sudden and will not wait to be accepted.
    If not accepted, it cannot retire into its origin.
    Love does not release if it is not to be readily absorbed.
    Rather the release in one and receptivity in the other are simultaneous.
    Such a movement is not social.
    It is a movement non-social.
    The psychological world, though conditioned by the social atmosphere, is not of the society. Certainly it is not controlled by the society any more than the blowing winds are. Such a moment between them was in the second proposal.
    When it surfaced, time passed without their knowledge, recognition of space was lost, and they never knew where they were.
    At home people did not wait for them or look for them which meant both went out of the Minds of people at home. Their absorption in themselves was so full that the chord of connection in the subtle world was snapped – a true indication of pure love.
    Love has very many celestial characteristics expressing in the subtle plane of Time, Space, Matter, Life, Mind, etc. Obliviousness of Time and Space is one such character.
    Any smell, even bad smell, smelling nicely is one possibility.
    Each person has a bodily smell which we do not sense. While in love one smells it. Dirty clothes reveal lines of unearthly attraction.
    Abuse, vulgarity, obscenity are received as ordinary occurrences or even their opposites, praise, nobility, magnanimity.
    As long as the spell is on, one is incapable of the ordinary thinking process but the process itself may be functioning without one’s knowledge.

    In the sky the lovers can see a rainbow invisible to others, even figures like that of a peacock.
  15.         “They were all pressed to go into the house and take some refreshments”
    This is a social courtesy.
    Their refusing it initially appears to be one of spirit of contradiction.
    Social inferiority finds social superiority in the refusal.
    It is an invitation of the superior aristocracy not dining with the commoners.
    Had they accepted the invitation, the informal courtesy would have been strengthened, and later for anyone to disturb it by provocation would be less possible.

    His emotions of superior courtesy were true and genuine, but were nascent.
    They could not formulate themselves by then. The love-lorn attitude is an attitude of the unformed emotions.
    A Harijan student from a country town high school entered the university. Boys rarely spoke English in the campus. Some mischief maker took this Harijan’s notebook and forged the professor’s signature. By an accident the professor was in his class and this notebook came into his hands. He was aghast and unleashed a tirade against the boy who stood up speechless not knowing what was happening. At last he decided to offer an excuse or apology. He had never spoken one sentence in English. In his condition of cold perspiration he said, “I excuse you sir”. Thought does not go into words as soon as they are formed. Elizabeth had enough mental alertness even in that condition not to express unformulated phrases. When a new idea was born as unformed thought and an effort is made to speak it out, the old words would emerge for no fault of theirs. Men lost in the spell of concubines used to call their wives by the names of the concubines.
    Mind needs something to link all together so that it may fulfill in Nature.
    Darcy who met them tried to fulfill that meeting in good relationship. Had they allowed it, this meeting would have matured as an irrevocable friendship.
    Mind is a dividing instrument but also aggregates. Its function is division and later it unites. This refusal of the invitation and the desire to have concealed Lydia’s elopement from Darcy issue out of the same attitude, an unhelpful attitude. Here it made Caroline act, there it invited Lady Catherine to attack.
  16.        “But the refreshments were declined”
    The society by offering the citizen the vote, destroys monarchy.
    One not in need of subsidised rations, refusing the ration card does not know he refuses the basic rights of being a citizen.

    What they refuse is not refreshment.
    It is to share his privilege and through that avail of subtle security.
    Duryodhana refusing Krishna and choosing his army, refused victory.
    In such a refusal we can see the human choice.
    The Indian groom who refuses dowry is suspect.
    The Republicans in fighting against slavery, fought for the Union.
    The Hindi Zealots imposing Hindi as national language opt to divide India.
    The Rishis who shunned life perpetuated suffering, pain, evil and death.
    The husband, who rejects the defects of the wife, rejects Romance.
    Every moment we reject something, we accept something.
    It is human choice, a choice for human ignorance.
    Man who accepts grace or refuses does so unconsciously.
    Acting from the ego, one is unconscious.
    Acting rationally, one is less unconscious.
    Unconsciousness comes from ignorance or ego.
    The party, instead of responding socially, had they responded to the spirit of his invitation, would have accepted the invitation.
    The self-righteousness of Finn led to the death of Kennedy, and Mary, ruin of Laura and her father, duel with Chiltern, but he emerged unscathed.
    It was ignorant compunction.
    They all lifted him and paid miserably for it.
    All of them were selfless towards Finn. His self-righteousness was selfish.
    Serving selfishness, even selfish conscience will ruin people.
    Selfishness in accepting help or refusing help can only bring ruin to others.
    The only valid relationship with selfishness is avoidance.
    You cannot accept a gift from selfishness and escape punishment in life.
    Man can only outgrow selfishness in himself or in others.
  17. “They parted on each side with utmost politeness”
    Utmost politeness arises in artificial circumstances.
    Because of reconciliation, politeness is asserted.
    Politeness is upgraded by courteous behaviour. To be gracious is next higher one.
    To be formal is to be less than polite.
    ‘Tolerable’ was neither polite nor formal. It was less than both. It was discourtesy.
    The second proposal was truly gracious in the circumstances.
    At Cheapside Darcy was formal in accepting to dine there.
    To be informal is to be better than polite. It is friendly.
    Bingley in agreeing to a ball with Lydia was friendly and informal.
    Caroline’s invitation to dinner was informal; their attention to the patient was formal.
    Good will makes politeness gracious in intention.
    Kindness delivers politeness courteously.
    Gratitude and kindness together express as graciousness.
    Imagine the mental, nervous exercises Mrs. Bennet has to undergo for her to become gracious by nature, we will have all the grades of behaviour.
    Good will is of the Mind essentially.
    Vital good will is liking.
    Charlotte’s good will is respect for rank and regard for intelligence.
    Instinctive good will is an expansive mental exercise.
    Elizabeth’s good will for Jane is biological as that of a mother. In human relationship we find interest, kindness, friendliness, good will, informal, formal behaviour, courtesy, graciousness are positive. Their various combinations express the various circumstances externally, various temperaments internally.
    When the inner and outer new-combine, temperament becomes creative. Mrs. Gardiner with all her good will in coming to her married niece comes to Pemberley. Mr. Bennet comes to Pemberley to meet Elizabeth. Shades of behaviour enrich life, bringing out various facets of behaviour. Caroline comes to Pemberley neither to meet Darcy nor Elizabeth but to preserve her status retaining her connection with the tradition of Pemberley.
  18. “Mr. Darcy handed the ladies into the carriage” (P. 207)
    Courtesy, formality with guests, ladies, at dinner, at a ball, at receptions, and sendoffs mark the spirit of each culture.
    They vastly vary in content, spirit, display.
    Society acquires new values like equality towards inferiors in times of transition. How the new values are implemented expresses the maturity of culture.
    A very long list of etiquette, procedure, propriety arises and they modify by themselves according to the level of society where it is implemented. One who was elected Prime Minister of England to seek the blessings of his erstwhile Master walked behind him a considerable distance till the Master who had not recognized him turned back and inquired.
    On hearing his guru has arrived at the city the disciple, a nationally famous musician, was on his legs, removed the towel from his shoulder and wrapped it around his waist.
    Small Men sometimes espouse powerful ideas of which they are uncomfortable.
    The weight of the ideas, their possibility of generating a responsibility when broadcast in their name is so oppressive that it deprives the writer of minimum courtesy. A normally courteous Man is unable to maintain the courtesy in the context of espousing a powerful idea which he has written about.
    Personalities are not strong enough in many to take a phone call from a friend.
    A rich Man coming to make pranams to a spiritual Man makes the latter shrink if his inner weight of personality is light.
    Mother says entering into Sri Aurobindo’s atmosphere one feels the softness that yields sweetly silence.
    Spiritual inner growth usually renders the flesh soft and tender.
    Yoga releases the fat in the body making the hair darker.
    Sri Aurobindo always rose from His seat to receive his visitors.
    It is a courtesy He maintained uniformly. In India it is done to elders. In England ladies are so respected. Sri Aurobindo did it to those who came to make pranams to Him. He combined the highest sentiments of Indian spirituality with Western social politeness.
  19. “Elizabeth saw him walking slowly towards home”.
    One in love loses the effective function of every faculty.
    The nervous energy is withdrawn from the bodily muscles.
    Nowhere except in her presence he could be active and alive.
    That was the first touch of love he experienced from her.
    Love fires Man. When its touch is withdrawn he is energy-less.
    Next day he had to witness the provocation of Caroline.
    Ineffective desire to relate takes negative initiative in that direction.
    In their open emotions each gave himself fully to the other in that half an hour.
    Psychologically the proposal was given and accepted once and for all. USA after the civil war was huge, teeming, endlessly varied, multicoloured, multilateral, immensely materialist, overwhelmingly idealistic, ceaselessly innovative, thrusting, grabbing, buttonholing, noisy, questioning, and anxious to do the right thing, to do good, to get rich, to make everybody happy. This was the collective attitude and energy that a free people in their success felt after shedding the one fetter of slavery. After saturation it emerges in the individual citizens as an urge to grow inwardly psychologically to repeat the material feat in the vital universality. That will be the birth of the vital Individuality. A lover is this dynamic not in the physical or vital plane, but in the mental emotion. Darcy was on the verge of exhibiting this character. Just then he was inhibited by the fact that she had not orally accepted his silent proposal. Hence the slow walk. What USA was in 1870 physically, India is poised to be spiritually NOW, but like Darcy, she holds herself in leash. India is not living for herself alone. She must live for the world. For the world to happily receive her help, she must be overwhelmingly prosperous. American prosperity is one of hard, planned, organized work. Indian Prosperity will be one that descends on her from the spiritual heights for what she is in her spirit.
    Her spiritual potential will be changed into actualities of material plenty by the people awakening to its reality.
67
The observations of her uncle and aunt now began; and each of them pronounced him to be infinitely superior to anything they had expected. "He is perfectly well-behaved, polite, and unassuming," said her uncle.
  1. He would rather follow her.
  2. “The observations of her uncle and aunt now began”
    Royal visits, finals in international matches, and events of that significance, though of a short duration are topics of loving observations dwelt for a life time, like Sir Lucas’s presentation at court.
    To them meeting Darcy was almost such an event, especially because of his unexpected attitude of a friendly gentleman.
    It was an unbelievable experience.
    Unbelievable emotions surge till the newness is worn out.
    This is a newness which will grow with time.
    Such a development in the Master of the House could change Longbourn into Pemberley.
    Pemberley can rise sky high by the power he unleashed if she too rose to the occasion.
    Even now what happened to Pemberley Jane Austen does not tell us.
    Certainly the progress would have been made.
    Love in human circumstances can turn into hate.
    Love that has touched the boundary of Spirit or crossed it cannot turn into hate. It is love, pure in its spirit.
    Darcy had unleashed such a love.
    The residue of falsehood in her was capable of such a change.
    On her prompting, he reconciled with Lady Catherine which was a fall for him from his height.
    It would not help her shedding her lingering falsehood, but would fortify that.
    Love, devotion, Truth, etc. do need an atmosphere that supports.
    Lady Catherine and Caroline would not be supportive. Lydia too visited her.
    Mr. Bennet and the Gardiners would help.
    It was a sea-change in her life.
    We do not know whether she and Darcy aspired to further heights.
    Should they aspire, there would be scope in her giving up Wickham.
  3. “Each of them pronounced him to be infinitely superior to anything they had expected.”
    There are moments where grace gently envelops and is ready to come to stay if called in with solicitude.
    Treated socially it gives way to external attacks giving a nightmare.
    Elizabeth was in one such situation.

    As she had not made it permanent by loving solicitude, the opposite of an attack happened.
    In this sense solicitude and attack are the same.
    Their intensities are the same; the direction is in the reverse.
    To them he was an interesting important Man only.
    Only at Lambton they saw the more interesting dimension of love.
    I am tempted to say that their knowing of his love at once cancelled it by the tragedy.
    It is called evil eye.
    How can we attribute evil eye to the Gardiner’s who were responsible to bring her there?
    The effect of evil eye can arise by the great size of luck that has come down, as evil is good changing its character, here by its volume. Good when perfect circles itself as evil.
    An inherently evil Man was self compelled by circumstance to do good which by virtue of the atmosphere swelled to ten times and subsided to double size. As soon as the initial registration was concluded, a visit to the property of the Project was met with an accident on its return. Evil even while doing good leaves its stamp on the work.
    We saw it in Charlotte’s good will.
    The rule is more abundantly proved by the exception.
    The Life Divine applied to life generates knowledge that becomes power that can rule the universe. The world is too small for its operation. It creates opportunities for everyone to fully share that power if only they come forward to drink.
  4. “He is perfectly well behaved, polite and unassuming”.
    Society is not constituted for us to say this of the majority.
    People are interested in the behaviour only of those who matter.
    Popularity, wealth, power, talents, birth make people VIPs.

    Darcy is of the elite, earned notoriety of manners.
    Now that there is a marked change in it, he is restored to decency.
    Mrs. Gardiner does not expect of him who refused to dance with Elizabeth, ordinary politeness nor did she anticipate unassuming behaviour in one she had heard was proud.
    His behaviour drew commentary as they were on his territory.
    They took interest in him as the landlord of Pemberley while he behaved as the lover of Elizabeth.
    All along Elizabeth had a big secret of a private joke which unfolded itself the next day at Lambton.
    Social intercourse is the interchange between the Many. It is at the levels of being, consciousness, ananda.
    At the level of emotions it is ananda; work, consciousness; family, being.
    He was acting from all the three levels. The Gardiners received it at the level of consciousness. Elizabeth responded fully to him. The exchange of the Many with the One arises by implication as he represents the force of the Revolution.
    Normally in the society the individual’s relation with the society is of that character.
    The Absolute including the One and the Many can be seen in the parallel of the Ideal of the society; here it is the evolving equality of Men.
    The exchange of Men is a parallel to the universal existence. The exchange of the individuals with the ideal is a move towards the transcendent. The Individual raises himself and the cosmos towards the Transcendent. Darcy identifying with Longbourn and rising to the ideal is his raising the cosmos to the Transcendent.
    Human life at all levels has minute parallels with the divine life.
68
"There is something a little stately in him, to be sure," replied her aunt; "but it is confined to his air, and is not unbecoming. I can now say with the housekeeper, that though some people may call him proud, I have seen nothing of it."
  1. The uncle saw polite behaviour, the aunt saw stateliness in him.
  2.        “There is something a little stately in him to be sure” – Mrs. Gardiner.
    Power exercised yields strength. Strength tempered by culture becomes the culture of power. Power is crude in its initial expressions. Over a long period power by exercise becomes strength. At some time during some generations power has no need to exercise itself. Power is respected, obeyed and recognized. Then power and strength transform themselves into stateliness. Pemberley was in existence for generations. We see the degeneration in his pride. Below the pride there can be stateliness. Jane Austen never said anything about such a quality in him. All that we know of him is from his conversations at Netherfield, Rosings and Hunsford. We are aware of none. Now that he is transformed, sheds the pride, the inner endowment of stateliness has an occasion to emerge. At present there is enough incentive to his personality to let any submerged stateliness emerge. Stateliness, magnanimity, magnificence, opulence, majesty, royalty are traits possessed only by royalty, not others. The aristocrats may have a lesser version of them, not the full expression of it as they do not receive the respect due to state power as the king does. Such traits do not have a fixed expression, say by the curl of a lip. The poise of the body, the look, the wave of the hand, the voice, the way courtesy is expressed, how he silently relates to others all express these qualities. It is often seen in how others conduct themselves towards him. When a strong Man enters a crowd, the various members suddenly change their behaviour in accordance with his personality. A leader always silently prevails. A wealthy Man is likely to be pompous. He may not have the personality mainly or only by virtue of his wealth. A pompous Man often sends a pilot to announce his greatness. A leader, by virtue of his personality strength finds all others responding to it. Such great qualities survive even mental derangement. Those who dream of such Men defer to them even in their dreams. Personality is pervasive.
  3.         “but is confined to his air”
    Families, like individuals that rise high usually excel in one aspect and have others in varying measures of support. Shankara was initiated at eight, realized at sixteen, completed his mission at thirty two. It tells us the infinite scope of the human Mind and its attainments in Shankara. He was a vibhuti. We cannot expect such endowments in others. To have one of the great endowments is great. Bearing, mien, air are those expressions. The body expressing these noble heights is bearing. The mien is vital bearing. What personality carries is air. Faculties have ways of specialized expression. Intelligence memory, thinking, intellectuality usually go together. But one can be very pronounced and another least present. If you extend the inquiry to body, the health and intelligence may have any possible combinations. Spoonerism, malapropism emanating from Oxford dons is revealing. The Mind that speaks of well boiled icicle must have a fixed structure, though perverse. Wonderful public speakers sometimes have no tenacious memory which lets them down badly. For them the memory of the logic is the best. Mostly it is the memory of the habit. A speaker receiving a sudden inspiration in the middle of his speech performs wonders, but in rare cases will not be able to go back to their original structure and will feel hamstrung. Gait is noted in Men for majesty, in woman for elegance. Elegance of gait emanates from exquisite character inside, inherited or acquired. The body inherits the power of character as a form. The substance of character and the substance of the body meet. Elegance is beauty of expression. Beauty is a spiritual determinant of Ananda received in the Mind. Beauty of character lies in its form. The form of character is rounded smoothness. It expresses as mildness of strength.
  4.          “and it is not unbecoming”
    Ultimate value accommodates appearance.
    Appearance is often at variance with the inner truth.
    Outer appearance perfectly reflecting the inner worth is becoming.
    Greater pretence becomes pompous, false.
    Culture expressing in the countenance is becoming appearance.
    The inner maturity expressing in the outer culture is becoming.

    Glencora’s impetuous low impulse is unbecoming in the Prime Minister’s wife.
    An improper behaviour that is not wrong is unbecoming.
    Occupation of the being is the ordinary status of Man, but is unbecoming in a devotee.
    Pride in Darcy was unbecoming.
    Behaviour expressing culture in the countenance is becoming.
    It was unbecoming in Mr. Bennet to be sarcastic to his wife before the children.
    It was very unbecoming in Mrs. Bennet to wink at Kitty.
    Elizabeth’s apologetic gratitude became herself very well after conceiving an idea of hiding Lydia’s elopement from Darcy.
    The point of progress in one’s life is full of effort.
    The effort expresses in the body, particularly in the face as unformed facial expressions. It expresses unease.
    The effortless expression of culture is seen in the ease of behaviour.
    Majesty becomes royalty.
    Forgiving petty misbehaviour becomes greatness.
    It is unbecoming in a great Man to take offence at petty petulance.
    To work above one becomes a Sannyasi.
    To work in the world is all right for a citizen.
    It is unbecoming in a Sannyasi to seek family life.
    It becomes divine nature to live the domestic life ideally.
    It was unbecoming in the gods to compete for Damayanti against a human prince Nala.
    To say Wickham’s intrusion was not unwelcome was unbecoming in Elizabeth.
  5. “I can say I have seen nothing of pride in him” – Mrs. Gardiner
    To give up a prejudice is progress.
    Yogic practice demands breaking through the old Mindset in favour of the new.
    It is always present, though we see the opportunity only in a crisis.
    To see the intensity of the crisis in non-crisis is yogic perception.
    To see is knowledge, to act is power.
    Having seen a truth but not acting on it is the Mind’s attitude which is not fully saturated.
    Man can wait in any poise for an eternity.

    To him who aspires, the dull moment becomes a crisis.
    Aspiration converts an ordinary moment into an opportunity.
    Opportunity is ever present for an ever living aspiration.
    The parts of the being do not aspire.
    The soul in the surface is constant aspiration.
    The housekeeper saw no pride in him when he prided over the superiority of pride.
    Mrs. Gardiner saw no pride in him when he had shed it.
    Perceptive people can see lurking ambition in a cultured countenance.
    One with a deep insight could have seen in Darcy earlier that the pride was only on the surface, but the gentleman was inside.
    It requires a deeper insight to see the scoundrel in Wickham at first meeting.
    A supramental insight could have seen his second proposal in his ‘tolerable’.
    Faria was able to see the count in Dante.
    Mrs. Bennet seeing Jane’s wedding in the beginning is not vision but ambition.
    Millions of dying ambitions create one living aspiration.
    Water flowing up a gradient is possible for pure faith.
    It did flow when our guest house was in Chitrakudam. The shamelessness of the fund raiser is the indication of all our ideas coming to fruition if only we do not react to him, better still if we see the perverseness of his vision.
69
"I was never more surprised than by his behaviour to us. It was more than civil; it was really attentive; and there was no necessity for such attention. His acquaintance with Elizabeth was very trifling."
  1. Neither of them saw pride in him.
  2. “I was never more surprised than by his behaviour to us” – Mr. Gardiner.
    He was surprised because she was a mere acquaintance.
    There is one more phenomenon. When you meet a Man from your town to whom you have rarely talked in another place, he suddenly becomes close, warm and more than friendly.
    Acquaintance in the native place becomes an affectionate friend elsewhere.
    At home the acquaintance remains so, gives no occasion to expand its reality.
    Elsewhere the same acquaintance becomes precious, is worth cherishing.
    An elderly woman of Salem went to Kurukshetra on a tour. On an impulse she left her group for sightseeing, lost her way. She was terrified, unable to speak. She had only heard of Mother.
    When no prayer to the Gods evoked response, in desperation she thought ‘People speak of Mother, won’t She save me?” Instantly she heard Tamil voices who took her to her group.
    Great distance from native security gives charm to unknown mild influences.
    Of course Darcy was different now towards Elizabeth which he did not know.
    People from Auroville who go out feel a longing to return after the first or second day.
    It is the atmosphere they miss.
    Meeting a local Man outside, he feels the power of the local atmosphere he then misses.
    Darcy was his new self when they met him.
    His new personality was at work.
    It was a nascent personality.
    Nascent forces are more powerful than usual.
    What impressed Gardiner was the nascent power.
    It was the birth of a new culture in him.
    Though new, it was there in his blood in potential.
    Faculties when born afresh have a fragrance of their own.
    It is its bloom.
    Fresh faculties are always uncut gems.
    Fresh faculties blooming on their native soil will be like precious stones mounted on a gold setting.
    It is born as a finished gem as the opening flower does not require to be polished like the diamond from the mine. Darcy acquiring cultural courtesies is nature putting forth flowers on the plants.
  3.        “It was more than civil, it was really attentive”
    Civility is formal, attention is personal.
    Formality grows into informal friendliness, attention upgrades into affection.
    Civility can get a wife not a love.
    Forces in Nature work for union.

    All human relationships are points of union.
    These forces are positive, neutral, negative.
    A very highly educated Man does not recognize the value of ideas he is exposed to all the time, as his comprehension of them is from his point of view.
    It means he receives new ideas to fortify old Ideas of his as his Mind is closed.
    Mental Individuality giving a negative opening comes forward not to accept nonsensical ideas issuing out of celebrities.
    Not to accept ideas just because VIPs voice them is mental Individuality.
    It will give us access to his thought through a negative door.
    Individuality of action can similarly give a negative opening.
    The President of America listens to all experts but is unable to get views that convince him. What is best in the circumstances he does, which is not his action as an Individual.
    His Individuality of action now is not able to take initiative.
    One who is not such an Individual will do anything the experts say.
    His Individuality now asserts in not acting on their advice but letting the minimum be done as something is to be done.

    This is a negative opening of the Individuality of action.
    He needs not ideas for understanding, but ideas that can be acted upon.
    To enter into the Mental Individuality successfully will give us access to the Individuality of Action, though negatively, in time.
    Our own positive conviction, conviction not in Force, but in Being will convert the negative opening in the Mind into positive. That Mind can fashion Ideas for Action rather than ideas for understanding.
    Slowness of comprehension reflects the slowness of the world’s receptivity.
  4.        “There was no necessity for such attention”
    God has no necessity to pay attention to Man. His attention is grace.
    That is why it is often said with force of insistence which is mistaken for repetition that Grace has no need to have a cause for action.
    To bring out the manifold aspects of a Truth, it is endlessly repeated. Those who miss the newly stated aspect find it as repetition.

    Incomprehension finds wider aspects of Truth stated as repetition.
    Glencora paid great attention to Alice, Madam Max, Phineas, Lopez, Emily Wharton and a great many other people without condescension. It made her widely popular. She was silly, impetuous, longing for action. Serious, sedate people, with no urge for action paying attention to simple folk are spoken of as divine beings. Men who have risen from below can do so easily. It will be popularity without context. Born high, holding high positions still people like Nehru and Gandhiji took to simplicity.
    It was their greatness.
    Values make Men valuable. I have described values as spiritual skills.
    The physical skill accomplishes work. The vital skill secures relationships. Mental skills assimilate ideas. Spiritual skills raise all the other skills to spirit. A carpenter’s values help him cease to be a carpenter and raise him to the position to study scriptures. A lawyer, even a lawyer’s clerk expressing values can rise to be a law giver. Values of a scholar make him a sage. A nation having VALUES, but not skills at all the lower levels can acquire them overnight, but it takes ages for the skills to acquire values. Today, if we examine the distribution of skills, capacities, talents, abilities and values, any part of the world can acquire ALL, if only they choose. The Presence of the Supramental Consciousness is the prime reason. Honour in Japan, technology in Europe and USA have been taken to the penultimate step of total perfection. That is the foundation for this accomplishment. Darcy who had inherited wealth and tradition put up an abominable pride and contemptible meanness. In a few months he changed himself fully by virtue of his foundation. A skill can be acquired, but to acquire it to express a value is very difficult. One can learn a word, but to use it in the proper, especially high context is not given to him. Consecration is such a word anyone can learn. How many can use it to express the consecration he practices? Skill is in the plane of work, values are in the plane of total accomplishment.
  5. “His acquaintance with Elizabeth was very trifling”
    Sannyasi is one who goes away from home. It is the first essential step.
    Such an essential step in Integral yoga can be said to be many or can be explained in many ways: 1) All inclusive concentration, 2) consecration, 3) Silence in the Mind, 4) emergence of the Psychic, 5) First Fundamental Siddhi, 6) Aspiration of the whole being, 7) Awakening of the Soul. How can anyone claim to be a sadhak or even a devotee without qualifying for one of these initial steps? To deserve the attention of Darcy there are a few qualifications none of which they possess. The only assumption is his love for their niece. That is out of question. Hence they are baffled.
    Great events in life do have such a surprising beginning – a causeless one.
    A causeless cause is the presence of grace.
    Grace is the action of God.
    His inner change had raised him to a consciousness that was God-consciousness for them.
    The decision to transform himself went beyond the universal plane, touched the Transcendent.
    However faint, it was God-consciousness. The Absolute can be reached by the perfection of any of its aspects. (p. 476 – The Life Divine)
    His desire to win her love as it was LOVE for the sake of LOVE carried that element of perfection. It is a condition water flows up the gradient, Tom’s wallet appeared on a bush, and Darcy exhibited effusive solicitude to Elizabeth. It is an inner condition from where the devotee cannot find himself enough to call Mother. It is richness that is fullness overwhelming memory and the censor. Extreme sadness at that moment transforms itself into extreme ecstasy. Man develops compunction, ashamed of the joy rising at a moment of sadness, forgetting what is happening inside.
    There are practical Men who are skeptic about these exalted moments. Let them try one of these acts of transformations. The practical results will not only be there, but will be found in overwhelming measures. No practical success can ever give this practical result. To be practical, it is best one gives up practical mindedness totally. When a mean boss denies a small payment due, such an attitude brings ten times more – Rs. 3000/- in place of Rs. 350/-. The abundant compensation comes from Life outside. The next step where the compensation comes out the mean boss’s hand is difficult to achieve, but possible. Undue yearning for gifts worth a paltry sum of Rs. 5/- or even 100/- unleashes forces that make him deliver a gift of 200,000/- rupees. All that the devotee has to do afterwards is to fully comprehend, appreciate, and rise to the occasion of such an event. Inwardly it is done by gratitude commensurate with Grace.
70
"To be sure, Lizzy," said her aunt, "he is not so handsome as Wickham; or, rather, he has not Wickham's countenance, for his features are perfectly good. But how came you to tell us that he was so disagreeable?"
  1.        “To be sure, Lizzy, he is not so handsome as Wickham”.
    To be handsome is a consummate value in feminine eyes.
    Earning capacity is the ultimate value in a bridegroom.
    Electoral support cuts across all considerations in politics.
    No such consideration weighs with the Spirit.

    Mysore Maharaja when he solicited Darsan was asked to come in the queue.
    On his complaint, he was put at the head of the queue.
    Excellent dress, table manners, fluent speech, and fine exterior win till today over great inner values unattainable by anyone in the world.
    Presentation prevails.

    Monetary policy, an instrument of the effective exterior, ruled the world almost for a century.
    Till today it is the church that canonizes the Saints! Form rules over the content.
    While form is readily accepted on presentation, the content has to acquire world fame before being recognized.
    Supramental life presents form that is content.
    The supreme surge of the inner Spirit as content becomes the perfect form outside.
    Ugliness of the face is converted into the handsomeness of the countenance by reading The Life Divine.
    In this world of human affairs, content has no chance against appearance.
    Even when the appearance exposes itself as devoid of content, its value continues to rise.
    Apparent appearance that serves opposite forces is still sought after – Dr. Radhakrishnan.
    Sri Aurobindo has demonstrated to his devotees that this Force can compel very opposite forces to serve the cause and remove them if it chooses – Churchill.
    Pemberley from a higher point of view is only appearance.
    Even appearance when it grows out of proportion, is overwhelming.
    Beauty is Ananda seen by the Mind. Elizabeth’s Mind is fully developed and is able to appreciate beauty truly.
    The conflict between appearance and content highlights the fact that partial endowments do not ultimately prevail and can always be tricked on the way.
    As appearance is partial, content too is partial. In that they are equal. Complete perfect appearance has no chance against complete content.
  2.       “He has not Wickham’s countenance”
    Countenance is facial expressions to suit the emotions.
    It is an artificial effort to maintain higher standards of social culture.
    Only aristocratic gentlemanliness can maintain it effortlessly.
    Wickham had the talent, employed it for his heinous purposes.

    Darcy did not acquire it as it was superfluous to him.
    He had naturally good features.
    In the journey towards Truth, great souls can create great orders that are not necessarily an order of Truth. It can be anything, even a violent disorder or a settled disorder. New religions have been founded like that. They last one thousand years. All that gives way to an endeavour of transformation in a trice. Human preference can compromise even that. If there is a value in logic for human life, it is equally true that human choice that is determination can create something to last a thousand years in spite of the hostile circumstances. It is a choice in favour of Thy Will which one reaches giving up the three levels of energy in favour of faith. So, it is true that faith moves mountains. Mahabharatha is the typical story of deceit by Evil. Krishna destroyed it by Overmental power. Now the Supramental power is there pressing on us. The moment we decide to avail of it, the opposing forces are shrunk to their size. Availing of that Force, victory is certain. It has a capacity to continue in higher measures to which it grows by itself. In Darcy’s case it gave him total victory and had an excess – kosur,கொசுர் - of helping her to move to her Mind. His decision was so perfect that such a formidable aunt was dismissed by a sheet of paper that needed no time or inner effort.
    For the infinite consciousness with its knowledge by identity there is in each finite the feeling of the Infinite. (p. 977 – The Life Divine).
    It is for the devotee to reach Mother’s consciousness and from there feel any finite. The Infinity will certainly be found. The finite Darcy touched was her liberal abuse that took her to the heights of genius – genius of abuse. It does not matter what that finite is, even Mrs. Bennet’s excited vulgar exuberances will yield to its touch.
  3.        “His features are perfectly good”.
    The inner Mind does not need training. At one look, it can know all the essentials. Women survey other women, especially rivals, like that. It is a plane of sensations fully open. They know a Man they are interested in like that. She who gives herself at this level to her Man is a fully qualified candidate for Romance. Consecration taken to at this level will be rewarding. This faculty rising to the Mind and fully rediscovering itself is the faculty that achieves. Great Men like Milton and Mill are not exempt from superstition. They do not sense the reality, they go by what they read and hear. Milton could describe India as an infernal despotism. His greatness does not give him immunity from gross misconception. Had he had the sensation some have, he would not have been misled. Nehru did not have that penetration with China. De Gaulle who was no lover of America felt the freedom in the streets of New York. Unity with the high enables the discovery of the high in the low. One can be a great poet without rising to that height. The sensational opening women have is vital sense faculty. As Mind develops, it is lost. It comes back as subtle Mental faculties. It comes back as subtle endowments at any high level beyond Mind. Man loves his ignorance so much that he wants, rather insistently demands, the fruits of knowledge through the values of ignorance. It is not ignorance that clings to him. It is he who clings to ignorance. Hence Taste of Ignorance. The phrase is there on pages 1069 and 1070 of The Life Divine. What is awake in us is Mind and vital. In the Gnostic Being, it is the conscious Being which is awake and senses Nature. In us that Purusha is dormant. By tapas it seeks release. Only the Psychic Being of any level senses Nature. What senses in women is not the Psychic, but the vital. One who has perfectly good features need not develop a countenance. Perversity, in Wickham, took the positive route of acquiring what Elizabeth called captivating softness. It is falsehood.
  4. “But how came you to tell us that he was so disagreeable”
    It was true he was disagreeable. It was also true now he was not.
    As in metamorphosis, a change had come over him.
    The change was subtle, defied rules of rationality. What proof could be given?
    Whether it is saving the world or a kidney stone disappearing, millions of acts of this description do take place all the time. Man accepts them as a fait accompli and asks for no rational explanation. Forgetting that unconscious specimen, let us turn to such events in our own experience.
    Accept the truth of it in gratitude, make that observation knowledge and raise it to the pedestal of faith. Such a faith becoming consciousness, Mother’s consciousness begins to form in us. Of the six mteps in Perfection, the first is to raise work to faith. The next is to raise the consciousness to gnosis. Should we do the above experiment, we would have entered that phase. It is there all around us, but we do not know. It is unconsciousness. The rationalist who asks for proof will find in his life, in his own work innumerable instances of the type. Let him first explain it to himself. In a film about outer space, a young woman constantly asked for proof. She herself travelled to outer space and returned. A great many came to hear her and heard of her experiences. They asked for proof. She then realized experiences could not be explained. She was utterly frustrated and went to some children seeking solace. Dantes in fourteen years acquired a great wisdom and through wealth acquired all aristocratic manners. His aim was vengeance. The change that came over him no one knew. Mercedes alone knew him at first sight from his voice. It is a woman’s intuition. On the very first day when a devotee accepts Mother – initiation, தீட்சை - he gets much in the potential of consciousness. It is up to him to let it emerge. He allows it to emerge through his ignorance as Edmund used his knowledge to wreak vengeance. Mind receives any fresh knowledge and changes it into its own fixed habits. What Mother gives unasked Man destroys with a vengeance. He who realizes this, after knowing her for decades can let all Her consciousness surface. It will be a progress of a century or several births. He said the main work in this yoga is calling. He said Mother and Sri Aurobindo are more powerful mantras than all the mantras He Himself has written. we are brought to water and it is for us to drink.
71
Elizabeth excused herself as well as she could; said that she had liked him better when they met in Kent than before, and that she had never seen him so pleasant as this morning.
  1.          “Elizabeth excused herself as well as she could”
    It was a question no one could answer, not even Darcy.
    It is the Question the Scientist must ask himself.
    I feel like coining a phrase scientific rationality and explain it by another phrase egoistic rationality. It is the complete position of the intellectuals. The ego in any situation readily accepts whatever is convenient to itself and rejects whatever is inconvenient. The rejection arises by a rational question. Over the ages a justice has prevailed. It is, the lion’s share, the politician is above law, authority is right. It is time for us to shout from the housetops that it is superstition. To realize that the scientist is irrational and superstitious is to emancipate one’s Mind from superstition. To be able to voice it is to be the voice of Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo repeats the arguments of some schools of Indian philosophy with great cogency and says at the end, ‘It is all very well. It is theology, not philosophy’. In all His writings he quietly exposed the inadequacy, irrationality, illogicality of the past schools of thought. He has never condemned them with any vehemence. To change as Darcy changed is to change human consciousness into divine consciousness. Consecration does it. Consecration exists at the surface as well as in the depth. In between there are several stages. They respond according to the intensity. An object lost is readily restored by consecration, if we do not resort to searching for it. From that simple humble beginning, one can move to consecrate his entire consciousness often. It must be done all the time for the yoga. In our own language the final stage can be described as “Let me not accept any work, any emotion, any existence, if is it not consecrated”. Such a devotee will be following the sixth rule of Psychic education. Consecration completes what aspiration begins. Surrender completes it through nine stages – faith, worship, obedience, adoration, self-giving, delight, Love, ecstasy, surrender – and it is better that surrender becomes an attitude and then motive. Even such an effort the ego is capable of taking over and building on. So, He advises to work on Shakti so that its overtaking us will dissolve the ego. Shakti responds to Faith. Work done in equality by a perfected human instrument generates Faith and raises us to Supermind.
  2.           “She had liked him better when they met in Kent than before”
    Elizabeth gave a partial answer which did not communicate anything to her aunt.
    She did so with her father, Jane, to Darcy at Pemberley and now.
    With her father and Darcy the results were negative.
    With Jane the result was positive.
    Hers was an expression of her temperament; the character of the result was determined by the circumstances.

    Our attitude is one that fixes the character of the result.
    With her father she wanted to protect Wickham, with her aunt she wanted to protect herself, with Jane she wanted to protect Darcy.
    The character of the result is determined by the character of the person she protects. There is a method by which only positive results will always emerge.
    Whether it is an event, or attitude, or person, it must always be positive is the rule. Any event or person has the colouring of the ego. Ego can be positive sometimes. What you want to protect must be the Light in you, the Mother in you.
    It will always be positive.
    Such an attitude is consecration as it always protects the Mother in us. Wickham can be wrong, she may be wrong, Darcy may be wrong, but Mother is always right.

    Consecration always gives the right result.
    In the human context, its human equivalent is sincerity.
    In any small act of hearing or not hearing, one can know his sincerity.
    The triumph of the ego, the willingness to listen, the evaluation of the speaker, the importance of the subject throw up attitudes and sincerity is coloured.

    Sincerity is the evolving soul of the embodied being.
    Deeply lurking perversity which is in all can practice colourable imitation of itself however small the act is.
    It is heard in the voice, seen in the eyes.
    This too can slightly fail in rare cases where a Man is sincerely selfish or sincerely wicked which will give him the true feeling of sincerity and wrong results. The Psychic will not fail even there, nor consecration.
  3. “Elizabeth had never seen him so pleasant as that morning”
    Sincerity impresses even those who are determined to misunderstand.
    It is true sincerity, not only in words or only feelings or in countenance only.
    In that case it becomes total.
    Totality is a reversal of all partial imperfections.

    What sincerity is to behaviour, the Psychic is to character.
    How does a Man bring the Psychic out?
    Soul comes out when the Mind is put aside.
    Mind may not act out of confusion or when stunned or dazed by an accident.
    The being of the body can emerge and protect itself at such moments.
    Mind not acting, the soul can act.
    At such moments the soul acts through another person or an event.
    The Psychic emerges when all attitudes are put aside, better still all motives.
    Even when the Mind does not act, there can be an attitude to protect oneself.
    Then the soul can act only through that attitude.
    The action of the Psychic is the action of the Divine.
    Society by preserving the purity of its status puts each Man in his own place.
    Any attitude however lofty can be non-divine, by virtue of humanity.
    To put aside opinions is a mental effort.
    To put aside attitudes is a vital effort.
    To put aside motives is a physical effort, almost an effort of the being.
    The discipline of not telling anyone but only Mother can largely achieve it.
    The discipline of not even telling Mother, but only remembering Her will fully achieve it.
    Such a remembrance is possible only for constant remembrance.
    It can be emotional remembrance if greater yogic results are aimed at.
    It is a remembrance of Mother which makes us forget our problem.

    It is a method of solving a problem by forgetting it.
    Our remembrance energises the problem.
    Our remembrance of Mother energises our awakening into the divine consciousness.
    No problem will survive in the divine consciousness.
72
"But perhaps he may be a little whimsical in his civilities," replied her uncle. "Your great men often are; and therefore I shall not take him at his word about fishing, as he might change his mind another day, and warn me off his grounds."
  1. whimsical in his civilities’. Gardiner says so as Darcy has changed his attitude to Elizabeth
  2.          “Perhaps he may be a little whimsical in his civilities” – Mr. Gardiner
    This little doubt, Caroline’s provocation, Jane’s letter on Lydia go together.
    A doubt may reflect Darcy’s lingering hesitation, Gardiner’s own insufficiency or the incomplete context.
    Elizabeth felt they had mistaken Darcy’s character entirely. Each cause fortifies the other causes, making us think there is no primary cause.
    If there is a primary cause here, it is her own reservation about Wickham.
    Mrs. Gardiner on learning a little more about the unreliability of Wickham after Jane’s letter was received was surprised that Elizabeth knew all this about Wickham, confirming the partial nature of Elizabeth’s communication.
    In a conversation everyone comes out in the measure the prime mover discloses.
    What is always true is below the surface, everyone – Darcy, Gardiner, his wife, Elizabeth – contributes to the result. On the surface it can very much differ. Darcy the gentleman employed a ruse – Gardiner’s ‘whimsical’ is explained. Mrs. Gardiner already moved in her Mind to her old friends – lack of interest can justify lack of sincerity in Darcy.
    Elizabeth did NOT know why he was like that – undecided Mind admits such comments.
    As perversity lurks inside, below that lies hostility.
    Deeply buried hostility can emerge as perversity or abuse or hesitation to believe.
    One may have pronounced doubts about someone else which during a conversation with another may sprout as a mild doubt.
    Past feelings of gratitude or offence without fail unconsciously will present to the Mind or even come out as speech.
    To be pure, devoted, and not hostile in those depths is not given to Man.
    A devotee who is thus pure loses himself in laya லயம், in a swoon for long.
    It is the Samadhi of the Jnani or its equivalent.
    The Integral yogi never goes into a Samadhi of any type.
    Mother said She never experienced it. He said He never had it.
    The memory and the censor disappear at that moment.
    Again in the waking consciousness they reappear because they have not dissolved. It is a further stage.
  3.          “Your great men are often whimsical” – Mr. Gardiner
    As a form of conversation, a reference to some VIP or cine star is so referred and instantly evokes a usual reply “He is not my star.”
    The general preference one has has a truth and enters into formal speech. Though here it is utterly not meant at all, this reference of ‘your great men’ made him in the end her Darcy, only that she did not own him even after the engagement.
    Otherwise this statement is fully valid and true.
    All Men of wealth are not really gentlemen. Some do not even allow pretence.
    Often they assume a behaviour and if the occasion arises suddenly shed it. It is true with people outside aristocracy. The aristocrat does not love to really treat a non-aristocrat as an equal.
    In politics the pretences are more quickly shed. FDR would not reply to Churchill’s congratulatory telegram on his election. The great fondness of Mr. Gardiner for fishing and its uncertainty in view of the social distance between him and Darcy made him skeptical. One is wounded by his position. Intelligent men espouse ideals, even write popular books. If asked to stand by what they advocated, many feel insecure and back out.
    One who has a considerable status, if not endowed by commensurate inner poise of strength, will have endless calls on him to grace others with his status, which he cannot do. Strong Men are unapproachable. It is very rare that such Men are easily accessible without being bothered as lesser Men. It is one thing for him to push people away. It is another thing that no one feels free to ask him for favours though they have free access. One can be Silent or active. How can one act in Silence. That of course is the goal before us. Pretty girls in the West have several suitors, more than what they like. Not all girls have the strength not to let all and sundry follow her. To deny courteously is a great strength. To have the strength not to deny because no one dare approach her is more than strength, a poise of inner culture. Such a girl may want someone to approach her. He may not be aware of it for years like David Copperfield. Great posts in the government go to the deserving occasionally. R.K. Shanmugham Chettiar was so sought after for the post of the Finance Minister in free India.
  4.         “I shall not take him at his word about fishing”
    Desire debilitates. He becomes weak and complaining by his fondness for fishing.
    A great sincerity not ordinarily found would say that he wished the offer to materialize.
    The capacity to project one’s defects onto another is a human capacity.
    Sri Aurobindo says Man does so with the Absolute about determinism.
    When Man is incapable of conceiving the Non-Being, he calls it a zero or Nihil. Grace acts and in a trice, opens an opportunity of over thousand times he could imagine. Man sees the reality. Something in him doubts the feasibility of it. It gradually disappears. His own unfitness to receive translates itself as a suspicion of the reality of the offer.
    A great opportunity is best received with no thoughts in the Mind.
    Money given to scoundrels when returned or offered to be returned will create such doubts.
    She felt such a wonder at Darcy’s words.
    He felt such a wonder, perhaps with trepidation, at her normal politeness to him.
    Devotees do not easily trust when they hear that Mother seeks Men.
    It is not in the scheme of their things, it is something inconceivable.
    The cosmic scheme of things between the One and the Many is each approaches the other for exchange. It is the presence of the ego that gives us the reverse values.
    At least one man told me when I was considering how the population could become rich, “It is difficult for such a thought to occur in the Mind”. The joy of the thinking Mind is discovery and the penetration of the mystery of creation.
    The joy for the patriot is to discover the key that would usher in freedom.
    It is a greater joy to locate the key of prosperity for all.
    Prosperity in India today is like the service of the Internet, abundant and free.
    It is an abundance the world has not known till the advent of Internet.
    All that one has to do is to learn the operation and acquire a computer.
    Such a computer for prosperity is the Individuality. Prosperity is there all around.
    The atmosphere is like a tree full of ripe fruits. One has to get up the tree and shake it. At every turn of the society – agriculture, industrial revolution –prosperity burst forth. Now the phenomenon is the same. Only that the abundance of information is phenomenally great.
  5. “he might change his mind another day and warn me off his grounds”
    Mr. Gardiner not only expects a refusal, but expects to be sent away. It is not real, but a figment of his fancy.
    Subhashchandra Bose deeply believed that the Japanese would help free India and would allow Indians to rule themselves freely. It was against all common sense for an imperialistic nation that had set about conquering the world. Still, it was real to Subhash. That freedom was in his Mind, not a reality in Japanese conception.
    Percival Spear the great Indian historian could not see the extraordinary strength of the spirit of Asoka. He called it an iron hand with a velvet glove. Has there been such a glove before or after Asoka? Petty Minds cannot see historical strength of infinite dimension. The low can submit to the high in abject slavishness, can never comprehend its vast great magnificence. The visionary cannot be comprehended by myopic short sightedness. He called Indian philosophy a fog of obscurity. He could not fathom the luminous abyss of spiritual secrecy. It is a well known phenomenon that the person or organization one solicits one day suddenly becomes an anathema in the eyes of the solicitor. It is so because he is a victim to a rumour or suddenly develops a fictitious fear. Truth, utter Spiritual truth cannot be easily served by the falsehood of society.
    Generally there is no contact.
    When such contact is established the falsehood receives a shock and disappears.
    Sometimes falsehood inadvertently speaks out the truth and wishes to back out.
    Darcy fell in love and was alarmed by the intensity of her attractiveness.
    Movement towards the truth is not a continuous straight line. It goes back too. The path of spirituality is full of pitfalls, dangers. One may accomplish inside and still become a pisacha – devil. One may lose his health or life. Thousands came forward to risk their all to explore Spirit. Now there is a hoary tradition of several thousand years for the newcomer to follow. Sri Aurobindo has hewn a new path in the virgin forest so that Evil and death might be abolished from earth. Man’s cooperation is not available. HE did it all by Himself. SHE worked as His instrument. Since 1956 we see changes the world has not witnessed till then. Now that the Supramental consciousness is organised on earth even in 1970, we have all the spiritual possibilities at our disposal.
73
Elizabeth felt that they had entirely mistaken his character, but said nothing.
  1.          “Elizabeth felt they had entirely mistaken his character”
    Her knowledge of the Man was from Netherfield, Hunsford, and the letter.
    It was the knowledge of a girl whom he loved and who had copiously abused him. Their knowledge of him was that of the previous half an hour, one of two invitations without the benefit of her relationship of rejected love. She herself loved Pemberley, not the Man. Her own heart lovingly longed for Wickham who had heinously wronged Darcy. Still their questioning his character hurt her. A Man may wrong his wife vastly for long but when another person, even his sister, finds any fault with his wife, it will hurt him. Man’s soft corner for the one whom he loves is strongly sensitive. Its psychology is inexplicable. It lies in his egoistic centre. There he alone can rule unjustly, but no one is admitted even justly. It may be called egoistic justice of injustice. Man wants the world to do him justice to be unjust. It is a monopoly of injustice. Aurangazeb’s son raised an army against his father. He ordered his son to be captured uninjured. The son jailed his father for eighteen years. He saw the right of jailing his father but that act turning his son militarily against him was not seen by him. His solicitude for his son overtook him. His releasing his father, he did not see, would quell the wrath of his son was something which did not strike him. That is human choice. That is the sense of justice of one who is in absolute power. Each Man is an emperor of his psychological kingdom. Romance gained at this point of self-awareness turns into Romance eternal. One’s awareness changes from his self to his own Eternal Self deep inside, unborn into the cosmos. Modern times recognize cosmic consciousness. It knows of Individuality in a social sense. It is a great beginning. Telepathy is known. Secret knowledge of the plants is becoming widely recognized. It is like the uneducated rural population wondering about the solar system, coining a proverb out of their profound insight “Look at the lunar eclipse, if you do not believe astronomy -
    சாஸ்திரம் பொய்யானால் சந்திர கிரஹணத்தைப் பார்”. It is a great opening of a superstitious Mind, not anywhere close to the subject of astronomy or the tool of Hubble’s telescope. It is indicative of times, not the symptom of awareness of any description. They cannot conceive that the world financial crisis will lend itself to solution by a serious touch of this attitude.
  2. “but said nothing”
    One is compelled to say nothing from 1) total inability, 2) comprehensive wisdom, 3) the other is not in a frame of Mind to listen, 4) one finds no words to formulate one’s thought, 5) out of deference or affection, 6) one loves the other with a greater solicitude than he can have for himself, 7) because he is in another plane, 8) it may be used for self-destruction, 9) it can be directly turned against you with venom, 10) it is pointless. All of them belong to Silent will.
    • Anyone talking any sense to Mrs. Bennet in confinement is pointless.
    • Mrs. Gardiner speaking to Lydia was conscious she was not heard.
    • Elizabeth speaking to her father knew he was determined not to act.
    • Caroline warning Elizabeth understood that Elizabeth was not disposed to listen.
    • Charlotte found her valuable advice on Darcy and Bingley fell on deaf ears.
    • Collins could never know he and his lady love were in two different worlds.
    • Lady Catherine at Rosings or Longbourn was not receptive to any ideas but her own.
    • Darcy could not have told Elizabeth the contents of his letter at the proposal because he had not that faculty then nor was she in a mood to listen.
    • Bingley could not have differed from Darcy when he advised him to drop Jane.
    • Mrs. Bennet at the Netherfield ball could not have been given any advice by anyone.
    About the Silent Will mentioned above:-
    • Its expressions are many, even contrary or appearing to be working at cross purposes and actually accomplish by working at cross purposes.
    • The French Revolution was created by Silent Will.
    • Capitalism was compelled to work for socialism more successfully than USSR by a process no one ever contemplated as Silent Will.
    • Elizabeth called Darcy back to her at Pemberley by Silent Will.
    • Indian Freedom was achieved through Non-violence by the Silent will of eternal violence which prided on its prerogative of being violent.
    • Silent Will of the subconscious accomplishes consciously.
    • Silent will reaches its spiritual acme in domestic life by the chaste Indian wife.
    • For the Bhakta it abridged a lakh of births into an hour of dance.
    • The greatest accomplishment of Silent Will is The Hour of God.
    • One who seeks eternal Delight of endless dimensions will find it useful.
74
"From what we have seen of him," continued Mrs. Gardiner, "I really should not have thought that he could have behaved in so cruel a way by anybody as he has done by poor Wickham. He has not an ill-natured look. On the contrary, there is something pleasing about his mouth when he speaks. And there is something of dignity in his countenance, that would not give one an unfavourable idea of his heart. But, to be sure, the good lady who shewed us the house did give him a most flaming character! I could hardly help laughing aloud sometimes. But he is a liberal master, I suppose, and that, in the eye of a servant, comprehends every virtue."
  1. The uncle listening to the changed behaviour of Darcy was inclined to think him whimsical.
  2. Mrs. Gardiner is perceptive.
  3. Looking at his expression Mrs. Gardiner can say Darcy would not have been cruel to anyone. She herself could not see that much in Wickham’s countenance. Nor could Elizabeth ever see in Darcy’s face the possibilities of generosity
  4.         “From what we have seen of him” – Mrs. Gardiner.
    One is able to know essentially all about a Man at first sight.
    Long number of years of intimacy is not enough to know what a Man really is.
    These two are true. The first is about what one is to all intents and purposes. The next is an area of swabhava where he does not know himself.

    Several millenniums of spiritual experience were distilled into the epic of Mahabharata so that it could be claimed that what is not in it is not on earth. It is true. All that was not enough to know 1) the secret of creation, 2) the key to abolishing evil, 3) to destroy evil without resorting to a ruse of falsehood, 4) that the Spirit is evolving. What you readily perceive is the boundless finite. What escapes your perception is the infinity of Freedom that can even lose its freedom.
    For the thinking Mind the joy of existence is discovery, the penetration of the mystery of creation. (P. 982 The Life Divine)
    In ordinary people that discovery is the discovery of people who matter to them. The mystery of creation for them is the key to social accomplishment. People like Mrs. Gardiner, especially women, develop the faculty of knowing Men at first sight. Wickham’s wickedness escaped her perception. Women are more of sensations than of Mind. So, they develop an intuitive capacity about Men and matters which eludes Men. Her perception extended to his behaviour towards Wickham, she readily announced a disbelief in the report she had heard. Her insight into Wickham’s mercenary attitude, her inference from Darcy’s visage that there could have been no injustice were not enough to know how deeply treacherous he really was. This is so because the rogue cunningly turned the very intensity of his evil into intensity of charm. Who could conquer Vali who had the boon of receiving half of his enemy’s strength? In him, it was the master stroke. She trusted his very character of treachery. And its Life Response from Darcy ws he adored her very abuse of which later she was heartily ashamed. Wickham never boasted about his handsome looks though he valued them, cashed in on them, and knew their effect on women. As he did not express a conscious awareness of his handsomeness, everyone else valued it. Darcy who inordinately valued his wealth and status found no one respected him for that. Sir Louis lived in the memory of his presentation. To others it became an innocent joke of an innocuous Man.
  5.         “I should not have thought that he could have behaved in so cruel a way as he had done by poor Wickham”.
    A delta region cannot be poor.
    A place with 10” rainfall cannot be agriculturally rich.
    The presence of a certain faculty compels Man to be rich and well off.
    The absence of certain aspects prevents a place from becoming something.
    Healthy criminals or diseased saints are not known.

    Mr. Gardiner saw the element of majesty in him and eliminated injustice to anyone.
    It is a sound inference of a rich common sense and deep penetration.
    What Dantes was unable to know of his own life, Faria knew at once because he possessed a wisdom whose formula not only explained the issue to him but could convince Dantes himself. Knowledge is power. There is a knowledge that is wealth. Wealth is the result of accomplishment of work in the physical, vital planes that commands social power. To accomplish work one needs the capacity of various skills. Such a work can make a Man survive financially, but not become wealthy. Wealth is social power. The rules of material accomplishment and the rules of social accomplishment are the same. Only the plane differs. Material organisation of work is what one creates. Social organisation of power exists with which one has to forge an effective relationship. The most commonly available centre of power is market. Market is the rich centre of all the commercial wealth. He who understands it will find it effectively serving him. It will move towards one who values its values. To know them is easy as it is of public knowledge. To follow them, value them, cherish them requires a patience of a social dimension. To look at the lives of successful people, one can see all these values in their lives. The government is the seat and centre of all social administrative power which includes market power as it has military power. Some of these powers are general, others selective, yet others are exclusive or inclusive. These powers lend themselves positively as well as negatively. These powers allow one man or a body of Men to accumulate wealth as well as power. But to those whose emphasis is not on accumulation of any kind, they offer leadership of the nation or even mankind. Once a plateau of this description is reached, beyond this the rise is not generally as a whole plane, but many independent lines branch off. At this level, the branching off is available at the mental, vital levels as discovery of scientific invention or artistic heights, or even mental brilliance such as genius, though all these can be initiated without earlier organizing such planes of power. They will be individual success of popularity like Ramanujam or Tom Peters. Done on the basis of power, one becomes an Edison or a house of Tata or a corporate house of America which can put out thousands of inventions year after year. One fascinating field that is available here is Romance. Men at this level become not mature and ripe but coarse and vulgar, loving display. To them romance is at the physical level of dissipation with what they think to be a pretty face. Romance is a field that can readily absorb all these energies and ask for more. I do not think that has ever happened. We know of organised and unorganised harems. Material culture does not naturally mature into spiritual quest. Most of the Rishis were men who were capable of generating this power and who channeled it into Spirit. For every successful case, there are thousands of also-rans. Asoka was one who created political military power and went on in quest of Spiritual Peace for the world. The Hour of God worked above in the heavens and made it possible for knowledge to conquer a power beyond the Spiritual power – Supramental Power. It is not a power that seeks exercise as a power – to get for itself. Its strategy is self-giving. It wants to descend on earth and help it evolve now accomplishing the work of thirty millenniums. It came to abolish evil, death, suffering, pain by abolishing ego. It can accomplish through divine Nature if the human nature will surrender to it. Mother has extensively spoken about the workings of this Power whose principles Sri Aurobindo has explained in twenty five chapters. It culminates in God enjoying Man when he becomes the woman as his paramour. Having come with this mission, he saw the dark forces in the occult planes organised and were fed on by the physical urge of honour to fight and die the death of a martyr for the cause of patriotism. His Force went to win the wars and particularly the freedom of Asian nations headed by India. He was to accomplish His mission through the caste system maintained intact and the old fad of non-violence. He did it not without a token compliance to those forces. The superstition in the battlefield has lost its force, but the same superstition lives in the market as financial crisis. A greater organised impediment is the pride of superstitious faith in the knowledge of the senses. Romance, a high fulfillment of it, occupies the highest place in the scheme of things looked at from below, though from above it is less than a stray incidence not indispensable. I look at life now from below because Man has to start from where he is. He is still possessive of his little properties of a trinket. From there Romance Eternal is a mountain peak, as for the Man who asked for the Sun to be turned off – the street light. Romance is far better than business of physical exertion and academic accomplishments that are mental labour. Romance gives the necessary spiritual elevation being based on pure Love. Neither business, politics nor academic degree has that ennobling element. It is also true that Man will discard all his possessions without a thought in favour of God. His life must prepare him for that. Much of the wealth of the world is in possession of people whose ancestors worked like the devil. Necessarily they are stingy. To overcome stinginess not only several millenniums should pass but they should pass through ethics and culture. Man must be able to throw away any or all accretions on his embodied soul. Power and Money are to be given up. Money must be thrown away. Before he throws away Money he must have it in superabundance which means it must be earned without physical exertion, not even vital or mental exertions. Internet has largely achieved it. A stingy Man cannot enter the eye of the needle. Stinginess is sticking to inconscience. If he comes to Mother, all his Money will be taken away. Money due to him will go on spiritual strike to come to him. How can a Man who worships Money have any command over it? Grace and Faith are not altogether myths, said He. I feel like saying culture and ethics are not altogether myths. To Man who dominates usually and who specially dominates woman, He prescribes submission to the woman. To the woman who loves to bear children and loves to be dominated by Men, Mother says she must give up both. One great aspect of Romance is it weans Mankind from the birth of a child physically, which is essential for the advent of Supermind. It is ego tht desires progeny. It is taste of physical ignorance. Romance can strike at the root of the physical ego. Mother pleads for the abolition of property. I see the present crisis directly related to the possession of property. To Man the woman is a property. In these days of women’s freedom successful domestic happiness is earned by woman enjoying Man’s domination.
  6.         “He has not that ill-natured look”
    For alert senses intentions readily reveal.
    Stumbling upon a great truth by a higher receptivity, we do not realize we stand on the old truth – ignorance.

    The aunt’s conclusion was penetrating and profound.
    The false foundation revealed as Lydia.
    That Mrs. Gardiner’s commendable insight was still based on the usual social ignorance is shown by her asking what about Pemberley.
    For Darcy the transformation had a limit, to Elizabeth the change left a hangover, and it is seen here in the aunt. Pride and Prejudice, in the annals of literature opened an evolutionary window and stopped at the first level of progress. Even then it is unparalleled.
    How ultimately Mr. Bennet accepted Darcy fully endorses this view.
    When a great work is perfectly conceived from below and executed to a t and the results are profound, we know for a view from above it is clumsy. The street light is the sun to human eyes. Mother laughs at us closing her mouth with Her hand. It is possible to be pure in law, not in intention. Even then one cannot guarantee subconscious promptings.
    Consecration of impulses gives control over subconscious intention. Darcy’s looks had changed so much that she could find no ill-nature in it, which means his change must cross the behaviour and deeply touch the character.
    Elizabeth called him mean, proud, selfish and he accepted he was brought up so by the attitude of the family.
    To accept the truth of her words at that level Darcy’s sincerity to her should have been the sincerity of a lover who worshipped the ground on which she walked.
    A father who put his daughter in the town school preserved her footmark in wet mud covering it with a tile. It is certainly an affection that comes from sentiment.
    To Darcy she was sacred in every sense of the word.
  7. “On the contrary there is something pleasing about his mouth”
    The mouth expresses the vital.
    A charming mouth is far greater than a pleasing mouth.
    Either can express both ways – positive or negative.
    The determinant is not the mouth only. The receiving end too determines.
    As you respond, so it acts.

    She was startled at this encounter and he left.
    She began to think of him, longed for him, he came back.
    An infinite Mind creates infinite chaos. The moment we find something overmastering, the chaos disappears, falls into a pattern. It rests with our seeing.
    Going from below, we may construct magnificently over centuries as we earn Money working physically, planning the work. Should you shift your centre from physicality to vitality, you see every rupee multiplies nine-fold. As the vitality is fortified by speed, organisation, reliability, precision, rewards, unfailing systems, the nine-fold expansion rises to nine million fold. This is a recent experience. The rise is from physical to vital with some benefit of Mind. We can rise to the Supermind by consecration or raise that one act to Supermind. Then it pours down energy, power, force, delight all of which make the nine million fold expansion meaningless. One is painfully slow, a trickle. The other is ecstatic, quick and a flood. That consecration, as everything in life, is at various levels. At the lowest it completes the act magnificently. At the highest it does so for the universe. Still there is a beyond. It is the transcendent.
    Anyone who takes what happens to him as Darcy has taken her abuse, will find a reward as great as she had. His reward cannot be explained in earthly terms, hers can be said to be two hundred fold income. He simply asked for her, telling himself she was the handsomest women of his acquaintance. He could not conceive what it was for his mean selfish proud personality to enter into her freedom of liveliness and expand to the limits of all his acquaintances. To him it was infinity. He never conceived of it. He only experienced it on her acceptance. It is true girls at that moment cannot meet the eyes of Men. But she sought only Pemberley where her wide-eyed appreciation bloomed. He was to her the bringer of Pemberley. She was to him the field of ever expanding delight of which she had no idea nor could she meet its blaze.
  8.        “It emerges when he speaks”
    Talents are buried; do not show on the face, they reveal in their performance.
    We do not see the soul of anyone, even ours, but we believe it is there inside.
    Those who inflict cruelty on their bodies are child souls in whom the soul is deeply buried and needs strong measures to awaken it.
    Darcy was not infatuated, he was in love.
    If a rogue talks to someone, he implies he is himself a good Man, never sees any flaw in his life. Often he goes on to regret that others are not like him. It is unconsciousness.
    Man holds himself before the world as a model to be followed. After the proposal, Darcy never entertained that mentality.
    He took contradictions to be complements, maybe compliments. It is a yogic attitude of surrender.

    The direct result of it was she came to Pemberley.
    It was his purity of adoration that brought her to Netherfield and Hunsford.
    He was a true lover, whose love was appreciated after a fashion.
    With marriage in view, love takes a side seat.
    Property prompting marriage finds love an inconvenient interference.
    He was the instrument of the Revolution; she was the beneficiary of that evolution.
    Pride in him had not degenerated into ill-nature.
    Liveliness in her had not blossomed into love. It went up to infatuation and disillusioned her. The intensity of Mrs. Bennet may be sublimated as infatuation but cannot soar even to receive love. She was too coarse and strongly vulgar to admit of the vibration of love in her vicinity. Her dynamism was for action, for accomplishment, to get husbands for her daughters. It did not have the evanescent purity love needs in any small measure. Her husband was a poor creature before the steamroller that she was. All that he could offer was the power of freedom for those who could take it and benefit by that. What happened, happened in spite of him, in spite of Elizabeth. She was not even considering her marriage. After Wickham fell out, her heart would not entertain anyone in any sense. No one took interest in her. She was drifting. Darcy came on the scene and compelled her attention.
  9.          “There is something of dignity to his countenance that would not give one an unfavourable idea of the heart”.
    Her aunt was perceptive and unprejudiced. She readily saw the truth about Wickham.
    Not to offend a Man’s ego even in offering him something wonderful is the best way to dissolve one’s ego.
    Man does not like to receive the most coveted prize as a favour and is likely to refuse it.
    Refusing what life offers, life will certainly punish him which it did to Elizabeth and Phineas.
    Life is egoless. Its awards do not honour your ego or sense of honour.
    Man refusing the honour of life, life will dishonour his honour.

    Elizabeth was offered more than she deserved. It was a reward of life. She put up a social attitude which meant she denied the greater reward. So life gave her a social punishment by Lydia’s elopement.
    Phineas was not vain. It was oratory that distinguished him. He was pleasant. Barrington picked him up. Laura took up the lead and introduced him to the top political elite. He was readily accepted because of his pleasant behaviour.
    Three times he was elected. Twice he was in office. The third time Marie, Laura, Glencora, and Violet tried to put him in office. He took special efforts to ask them not to do so. He was arrested.
    Man receives free many things on the Internet. To give the user something valuable free is a privilege of one who wants to dissolve the ego.
    Sri Aurobindo’s consciousness has created a universal organization for everyone to dissolve his ego. It is Internet.

    Elizabeth took the attitude of the offended ego to the end. Darcy rose to her occasion every time. Whether it is the knowledge of Buddha or Socrates those who cannot even understand it want to receive it standing on equal footing with the Buddha. Such an egoistic attitude must be fully and respectably recognized by one who can effectively offer the knowledge.
    The giver of knowledge, for its full communication, must have the humility of the receiver. The giver who acts as the receiver gives successfully.
  10.         “The good lady gave him a flaming character” – Mrs. Gardiner.
    Mrs. Gardiner responded as much to Darcy as Elizabeth had responded to Pemberley.
    The coming events had cast their shadow already.
    The relationship of Elizabeth and Darcy can be viewed from the capacity for receptivity.
    She was fully prepared to receive Pemberley, not Darcy.
    It did not once cross her mind that about such a Man she had heard from a bad character great scandal. Her recognizing that wickedness was necessary for receptivity.
    It never occurred to her to condemn the Man who had condemned Darcy.

    Mrs. Gardiner and Darcy opened up, not Elizabeth in that measure.
    Being the daughter of Longbourn she was a small vessel with a great opening.
    Darcy released a force and did two things: 1) Made the force the object of his consciousness, and 2) harmonized it. Force becoming the object of his consciousness gave him full control over it. Harmonizing the Force extended the harmony to her. This is the process of creation. (P. 120 – The Life Divine) In this process there was no scope for social formality. Her part was only to receive it silently. Hence the formality, the caution surfaced in her.

    Man lives on the surface of his Mind. Behind it there are two more levels.
    1) Self-forgetful knowledge, 2) Supramental Time vision. Our surface Mind is in Time, full of doubts, timid, unable to receive grace. Generally it is unconscious, rejects grace. In deep moments of sincerity, as Mrs. Gardiner now wanted to understand Darcy, a flash of the next higher faculty appears. All knowledge is there. Only that we have forgotten it. One need not think, argue, and reason with. It reveals the truth in a flash and disappears. So her aunt had seen the truth of Darcy without any human difficulty. Elizabeth did have some such opening and she too saw the magnificence of her own situation. Worldly wisdom whispered into her ears. She grew formal, cautious. Her own attitude – ‘I can become the mistress’ – opened a new world. She availed of it in the first half, was not willing to go the full length. Can we know every moment is like that for us? At least the moments that open to us can be so availed of. Even in the present we live in the memory of the past. The present is not the ever-present to us.
  11.         “I could hardly help laughing aloud sometimes”
    Goodness overdone becomes ridiculous.
    Anything has its corresponding other side.
    Flaming character goes with the liberal master.
    A lady love is called a flame as she converts his passion into a flame.
    Flame is the appropriate metaphor to love.
    Love is a flame that converts him who harbours it into a flame.
    Mother called Herself a burning brazier.
    That which does not burn is not love.
    One who lives at the edge of his impulses does not live.
    Consecration at those points only is consecration of real sense.
    Darcy and Elizabeth meeting on Pemberley grounds was a moment of that description.
    It is natural to ask how those moments can become normal.
    At a far higher level of living, each moment in its routine life will have this intensity. What is occasional at one level is routine at a higher level.
    All moments are moments of growth, as it is in health, so it is in life.
    Once you can consecrate the impulse, you must keep that before your eye as the standard. The first consecration is difficult.
    To solve a problem whenever it presents to the Mind as impulse, that impulse must be consecrated. To consecrate such an impulse forcing it to the surface solves it at once. Opinions, attitudes, motives consecrated at the level of impulses give way. Consecration at that level keeps one eternally alert.
    It takes one from conscious awareness to subconscious awareness.
    Subconscious awareness that remembers Mother opens up the subliminal at the surface.
    Results of subliminal action are almost instantaneous.
    Proceeding further one meets with the Psychic.
    The Psychic coming forward evokes a Life Response of bringing at once all that you want Men, Money, material, circumstances, resources, rain, new ideas, new attitudes, etc.
  12.         I suppose that – liberality – in the eyes of the servant comprehends every virtue”
    This is a profound truth of life applicable to all walks of life.
    The robber baron who provides security is adored in spite of his tyranny, or because of his tyranny.
    A woman who is fully supplied by the husband does not remember the several concubines he has.
    The most corrupt politician is adored as he offers the cheapest rice.
    No one is able to see the manifold evil of Money as it is extremely useful.
    Mr. Bennet is practically oblivious of the steady ruin of the family since his wife does not break the family outright.
    The impermissible domination of Darcy even if it banishes his love from him, is acceptable and even adorable to Bingley as long as his social prestige is not at stake.
    The Indians had come to accept the British Raj to the point of singing their praise because the Raj provided a peaceful administration and a famine free life. Killing thirty million Men does not matter if Stalin offered guaranteed employment.
    Socially successful marriages mostly rest on this natural compromise between husband and wife.
    The increasing standard of life all over the world overshadows nuclear proliferation, financial crisis, increasing unemployment.
    Children come to accept, even adore cruel parents.
    The most typical example I often quote is the destitute boy who earned a fleet of buses losing the entire wealth by paying worshipful submission to his cruel uncle and aunt who drove him out of the house.
    The Being thus reemerges through non-Being as finite soul. Lydia exhibited this trait in great perfection when her joy welled up because of Wickham. No shame arose in her from inside. She was outside the social discipline like her mother. The two great statements of Mrs. Bennet made her an original character full of creative vitality devoid of social conditioning: 1) Redcoats, 2) She did not mind anything except for the entail.
75
Elizabeth here felt herself called on to say something in vindication of his behaviour to Wickham; and therefore gave them to understand, in as guarded a manner as she could, that by what she had heard from his relations in Kent, his actions were capable of a very different construction; and that his character was by no means so faulty, nor Wickham's so amiable, as they had been considered in Hertfordshire. In confirmation of this she related the particulars of all the pecuniary transactions in which they had been connected, without actually naming her authority, but stating it to be such as might be relied on.
  1. Elizabeth gives out the details of Wickham’s life to Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner which she forgets when the news of the elopement comes. Even Mrs. Gardiner was a victim to Wickham’s countenance
  2.        “Elizabeth felt she must explain something about Wickham”
    Self-preservation is a dominant instinct.
    It degenerates into self-defence in a weak position.
    Man, except in voluble cases, is not called upon to give information to another uncalled for.
    Information is volunteered for one’s own sake.
    Information is an aspect of structured society.
    Man has an irresistible urge to be within the structured society.
    Only life or inner urges compel him to go out of the structure.
    All progress comes out of going outside the structure.
    The heights and scope within the structure are Himalayan and infinite.
    Yoga lies outside the society.
    Integral yoga lies outside Existence in uncreated Absolute.

    Within each small structure, there is the zone of non-structure.
    Acting there, one becomes creative.
    Within the smallest structure one can be creative enough to go out of the main structure of society.
    Consecration passes through all these stages.
    The last stage is apparently the consecration of impulses.
    Refusing the impulses expression is negative discipline.
    Converting them into their opposite is transformation.
    An impulse controlled in one place will divert the energy in another place. Till such diversions are managed, transformation of any impulse is not possible.
    Behind the impulse is the urge and the motive supported by attitude and opinion. Thinking generates mental energy to form opinions.
    Silence in the Mind is great but is only the beginning.
    All these are the disciplines of the individual. They all are submerged when the Psychic emerges. It does so in response to sincerity from us and grace from above. We live in a period when the earth’s atmosphere is more than saturated by Supergrace.
  3.       “Therefore gave them to understand in a guarded manner how Wickham was to be understood”.
    She gave out her information after Wickham was exposed.
    In her own heart, no such exposure was contemplated.
    In that measure she was sincere to him, i.e. she was insincere.
    It is the sincerity of falsehood.
    She saved a rogue’s good name, little knowing she was undermining herself.
    No service to falsehood will go unpunished.
    Man’s justice, even sense of justice is selfish, is defensive.
    Between fairness and liking, the latter will prevail.
    Wisdom after the event, supporting a party that wins is not ideal character.
    Elizabeth, with respect to Wickham, was like that.
    She gave the information in a guarded manner. It means in a fashion the blame did not hurt him.
    To expect a girl to be truthful with respect to her lover is moonshine.
    People are guarded not to offend the listener. She protests the offender.
    Her behaviour of partiality was fully understandable in the beginning.
    After the Netherfield ball, one smells a rat. It stinks after his desertion.
    After the proposal, it was unpardonable. It was vulgar on her part, as her mother or Lydia. Essentially she was low and coarse in her deeper emotions.
    Her defending or protecting his ‘good’ name offends against the feminine virtue.
    One may justify it as a generally obtaining feminine behaviour.
    Miss King moved away from him knowing his motive.
    Elizabeth’s developed Mind was offended by her ugly vital emotions.
    She had a vested interest to protect his name with her aunt.
    She had not pardoned her aunt to have warned her against him.
    Nor had she forgotten that she had found him mercenary.
    Now added to these, how could she betray Wickham to her aunt.
    She had a soft corner for his falsehood.
    Falsehood is charming by virtue of being falsehood.
    Handsome face is the ultimate argument with any girl.
  4.          “Darcy’s actions were capable of very different construction”.
    An action is capable of very many different constructions, including opposite conclusions.
    Varying constructions are determined by hearing, listening, seeing, opinion, prejudice and every other thing prevalent in the situation.
    The other man’s point of view is powerful because it is the supramental view.
    When a Man wanted to give his all to another, the listener heard the opposite, because of his predisposition.
    The other Man’s point of view is capable of expanding on all the above dimensions.

    Her interest here was to defend herself from prejudice and an extended interest was to mitigate the bad reputation of Wickham.
    Varying constructions are the prerogative of rapidly spreading rumour.
    The situation admits that.
    Urge in each Man finds a scope for play there.
    The message is of the Being, the embellishments are of the Non-Being.
    In the long run the Being prevails over the Non-Being. In rare cases of socially important events, the evolving truth which is of neither the Being nor the Non-Being will emerge. Mrs. Gardiner did not even remember this communication after the elopement as by that time she heard it from her niece, her Mind was on her friends at Lambton.
    Elizabeth, intimate as she was with Jane, was very reticent even with her.
    She tried to speak with caution to her aunt whose interest in listening was not keen.
    The colonel’s news of Darcy’s triumph interpreted by Elizabeth in her own way turned out to be true, as it was done by the receptive sensation.
    Interpreted mentally, it can go awry as Mind dwells on the words.
    Sensations reach the serious truth and therefore will not fail in a context like this where the issues concerned are only sensations.
    There is no idea involved here to allow misinterpretation.
    Senses are unidimensional with respect to events.
    Ideas are multidimensional with respect to interpretations.
  5.          “Darcy’s character was by no means so faulty” – Elizabeth to her aunt and uncle.
    Life has endless possibilities that enable Man to change his view any how when required.
    Touched in his sensitivities, Man is readily capable of changing as required.
    Men with individuality too change, but not as the society requires or the situation requires. He changes as his individuality demands.

    Elizabeth was too resourceful too readily.
    Perhaps seeing her ready change, her aunt’s Mind turned to Lambton readily.
    It also reveals that her own Mind had begun to consider Darcy’s character as not so faulty. Her Mind was under the influence of her first information. Mrs. Reynold’s news was only later and recent. The first hearing has all the eventual energy to its reception. The second information has no such freedom. It has to overcome the influence of the first impression and use only the energy left over. Hence its effect is less, partial, secondary, ineffective. It is human nature. The individual is helpless. There are other occasions when Man readily accepts fully and wholly as she responded to Pemberley. That is Man’s response to Power, Money, woman, etc. In such a case, Man accepts the new forgetting decades of earlier experience. He has no thought of overcoming it, because the sight of the new automatically makes him shed his all in an instant. Love at first sight acts like that. Man has opinions, attitudes, and motives in several degrees. For him to accept something new he has to compromise with them or overcome them. He has his personality built beyond his motives. When he meets one who can fulfil him at that level in her, his whole being unorganized as it were behind even the motive rises to embrace her at an equal depth. It is love at first sight. One can, in exceptional cases, love another from such a depth even if the other is not inviting him from a similar depth. Darcy’s love began as that of an ordinary suitor. After her refusal, it found its real depths in him. Hence his total response. She did not understand him as he felt. It was not possible.
    She was really baffled by his solicitude. To the end, she was unaware of the depth of his love.
  6.         “Nor Wickham so amiable”
    She felt the infinite charm of Wickham.
    Towards Darcy she could feel a gratitude for loving her.
    Sincerity is an attitude; gratitude is an emotion.
    Gratitude in life is the expansive emotion help generates.
    Soul that recognizes grace of God for the undeserved attention is gratitude in the spiritual life. At its height it touches bliss.
    Being shrinks in ignorance in involution.
    Being expanding in emerging knowledge is evolution.
    Mother says gratitude is recently born on earth.
    Gratitude is symbolized as a young woman in white.
    She is not invited to any of the gods’ conclaves.
    It is Mind that feels gratitude by its light of knowledge.
    The power of gratitude is felt when it is an emotion.
    Only in the sensation in the body gratitude is in its elements when it thrills.
    Thrilling is in ecstasy.
    Ecstasy is the penultimate stage of surrender.
    Surrender completes the great magnificence of gratitude.
    Surrender qualifies for transformation into the Divine.
    Of the nine stages that culminate in surrender, the first is faith.
    Man rarely qualifies himself to faith.
    Faith is the fourth stage of action and the four together become the first of the six stages of perfection.
    He who feels grateful to God for all that he has received so far has no reason to pray in future.
    Gratitude for the past is fulfillment for the future.
    Matter evokes gratitude for material benefit.
    Spirit expands in gratitude for the undeserved grace.
    Material gratitude realizes bliss.
    Spiritual gratitude enjoys in expanding into delight of becoming.
    It is identity in bliss turning into delight.
  7.            “As Darcy and Wickham had been considered in Hertfordshire”
    Public opinion is the first impression.
    One Man’s interested opinion becomes socially accepted public opinion.
    Such opinions can be engineered by interested Men.
    One Man’s prejudice is everyone’s exalted opinion.
    Organised shallow silly superstition is accepted as opinion or even facts.
    What serves our interested ignorance organizes as acceptable, enjoyable, even sacred superstition.

    Behaviour taken as character is the tragedy of superstition.
    The exterior mistaken for inner truth is an illusion everyone clings to. Superstition becoming sacred gives pain in parting.
    Everyone was a general victim, Elizabeth was a special victim.
    The victim cherishing his victimization is vital superstition.
    Physical superstition is to believe what is not – land ends in the Atlantic.
    Belief in the senses creates superstition in the Mind – Sun goes round the earth.
    That which is not available is undesirable.
    What is pleasing is desirable goodness.
    The individual can put up a social appearance. It is deceit.
    The individual putting up individual appearances is self-deception.
    Apart from Darcy’s abuse and Wickham’s charm, the relish of scandal is intensely interesting to the falsehood of Elizabeth inherited from her mother.
    Truth is valuable in itself.
    Falsehood is enjoyable in itself for the falsehood in our depth.
    Falsehood finds even unrelated truth unpalatable.
    Falsehood is tasty in sensation even before communication.
    Caste system is conditioned falsehood.
    Psychological falsehood is intense in its enjoyment more than social falsehood.
    Evolution is Truth emerging from falsehood. To organize falsehood out of truth has a social charm that has the dynamism to travel to the entire community.
    To do it psychologically is the ideal for one possessed by Money power.
  8.         “She related all the pecuniary transactions between Darcy and Wickham”
    The final law and last consummation of human relationship is money transactions.
    A Man is best understood there.
    Money defines mental attitudes.
    It precisely measures the character of attitudes – positive or negative.
    Money represents human labour, more so human ingenuity, ultimately human worth.
    Sometimes one’s character can be exactly measured by the Money he earns.
    In a comprehensive comprehension Money measures everything in Man’s character.
    In the case of Wickham the Money he got - £ 1000, £ 3000, £ 1000+, £ 1000 and £ 5000+ sundry debts – from Darcy tells us exactly all that he was.
    Transactions render Man transparent.

    Love never goes by facts or ideas. It goes by liking. The heart that loved once remains soft towards his love at that depth, like a stone dropped into a well. No amount of baling water will move the stone. Having voiced these transactions, she allowed Darcy a little scope into her heart.
    Another Man, whether it be Bingley or Wickham or even Collins could not see in her anything more than a useful wife.
    To Darcy she was a complement that endlessly received his love.
    It came essentially by his attitude, though she did receive.
    Just by taking this attitude any Man can let a great scope of Romance into his life. It is true that such an attitude opened in her something good.
    That is enough for his lifetime.
    Indian wives have uniformly done that and made marriage successful in all ordinary cases which is nearly 95%. The Indian disciples gave the same worship to their Gurus.
    It is seen in all walks of life.
    It is a national psychological asset.
    The first thing a wife, or a disciple wishes is long life to the husband or Guru.
    It can be positively organized and drawn upon for the national welfare.
  9.        “She spoke without actually naming the authority”
    Caution in one’s own affairs is consummate.
    Man survives physically because his caution has become an instinct.

    Her caution was mental to safeguard her feminine reputation. We see people on the Internet keeping their name secret without any necessity. They are people of maximum efficiency. They will be extremely stingy. He is one who cannot give you the privilege of knowing his name. He certainly will not part with Money he owes you. When touched by Her consciousness, he will behave as one who gives his all to you. Maybe he will bring his entire world to you.
    Neither Jane nor Elizabeth share their feelings of love with the other in spite of the greatest possible intimacy. It does not appear to be a want of confidence. It appears to be the sacred value of their love. There is a great joy in sharing thoughts of love with a loved one. There is a greater joy in keeping it to oneself. The only ear that it is meant for is her own sacred ears. A woman he is in love with is sacred to him like the kali Sri Aurobindo saw emerging from the idol. She revealed herself to him not to others. He must keep it for himself. It is not meant for any other, however important or intimate he is to him otherwise.
    To be in love is a pride of privilege.
    It is an inner emotion that cannot be exhibited outside without loss.
    That sensitivity is of the inner Mind. It is capable of transcending Time. Time is of the Mind.
    Love is Bliss received in the soul.
    Bliss is of Sachchidananda.
    Sachchidananda touching one’s soul is not an information for another.
    Nor can it be converted into speech or information.
    Speech is oral, is of sound, and belongs entirely to the outside.
    Information is of the Mind that assimilates a sensation according to its mentality. Mind can receive Bliss only as beauty, not as love.
    Beauty is of the lines, love is an emotion.
  10.   “Stating it to be such as might be relied on”

    Man enjoys his own resourcefulness and is mighty proud of it. Life rewards such pride with a vehement exposure, as it did here.
    Man is his ego. Life is infinitely vaster than his little ego. His pride about his ego’s resourcefulness acts like a taunt to Life which acts to destroy that pride.
    Wickham never had a thought in his Mind when he eloped. It was a taunt to social life. What did life do to him? On pain of entering the jail which was implied in Darcy’s compulsion preceded by his threat to Mrs. Young, he was to play the husband to Lydia. Should he avoid the same shame in his life, he must have his entire Mind occupied by how to captivate her when he had lost all his energy. That will keep Wickham forever, as Bennet’s family was after her elopement.
    Falsehood, negative initiative, wrong doing, error, mistake progress by this method – inviting the discipline it needs to evolve or emerge into knowledge.
    Elizabeth asked them to rely on her information without disclosing her source.
    Of course she could not disclose the news of value.
    At a time Man needs to make a greater progress than usual so as to cross over to the next plane, life presents irrational situations to him. Progress is made by having rational faith in irrational methods. The wonder is the method works, indicating the end result. At least Elizabeth faced such situations more than once. Some were of her creation, others were real. They were in both directions – one in which she had to believe, the other in which others had to believe in her. She was to convince her father of the danger of Lydia without telling him of Wickham’s character.
    She was to carry full conviction with Jane suppressing Darcy’s role in her life.
    She was to inform Darcy at Netherfield about his pride without telling him of her low understanding of his character.
    She was to tell Wickham, after the elopement, that she knew more of his roguery at Pemberley but suppressing it, she was to be pleasant. She had to ask Jane to believe in his engagement without telling how it came about.
76
Mrs. Gardiner was surprised and concerned; but as they were now approaching the scene of her former pleasures, every idea gave way to the charm of recollection; and she was too much engaged in pointing out to her husband all the interesting spots in its environs to think of anything else. Fatigued as she had been by the morning's walk, they had no sooner dined than she set off again in quest of her former acquaintance, and the evening was spent in the satisfactions of an intercourse renewed after many years discontinuance.
  1. It is not information that convinces, if it is given partially.
  2.       “Mrs. Gardiner was surprised and concerned”
    Mrs. Gardiner who warned her of Wickham was not told these details. It surprised her.
    Mrs. Gardiner was concerned to know of the wrong side of Wickham as he was often with Mr. Bennet’s family.
    Mrs. Gardiner got a new evaluation of her niece on knowing those facts now, not as soon as it reached Elizabeth.
    That revealed her niece’s partiality for a disreputable character and caused her concern.
    Confidence is created by communication.
    A news is to be communicated to one who has confidence in you at the first possible instance, if she is concerned. If not, the confidence will be impaired.

    Delivering the information when compelled by circumstances is selfish or even mercenary.
    This is an uncle who was ready to spend several thousand pounds on his niece.
    He certainly deserved a better treatment from Elizabeth.
    Elizabeth was not only reserved and reticent, but was positively defending a rogue.
    Elizabeth exhibited a lack of confidence in her aunt, but the next day she received the highest reward in her life – the visit of Georgiana, Bingley and Darcy with an invitation to Pemberley. Her lack of confidence was unbecoming. It showed initially as the provocation, later as elopement.
    Mrs. Gardiner seeing the quality of attention Darcy gave her niece, supposed more than there was between them. In the circumstance she was justified in distrusting Elizabeth. Life acts like that. One is evaluated not by one does but by what one is. The invitation was mainly addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner though she too was included. They are elders and married. So propriety requires them to be the leading personages of the team. That being the case, how could Elizabeth withhold any information about Darcy from her. Of the many causes for the subsequent disturbance, is this also.
    No single event will fail to play its part in the result.
  3.       “They were now approaching former scenes of pleasure”
    The past is compellingly ever present.
    The joy of the past is to repeat known safe emotions.
    Fresh emotions, however enjoyable, are accompanied by a sense of danger.
    The danger is there in the unknown adventure.
    It is not the bringing out the unknown, but the emerging known. (Life Divine, p. 682 )
    Newness is freshness.
    Newness has nascent energy.
    Emerging energy expands enjoyably.
    Conservation is an emotion that enjoys repetition.
    It is within safe grooves that possesses one effectively.
    Habit is enjoyable, if freshness is enjoyable.
    Coffee drunk for ages is enjoyable. Change is detested.
    An old dress that fits well gives an enjoyable tactile sense.
    Falsehood pervades all the past as knowledge, emotion, sensation, etc.

    Truth is powerful, falsehood is charming, charm comes from its excitement.
    Excitement is unsteady expansion.
    Truth is power, masterful possessiveness. It is steady, not intermittent.
    Falsehood creates suspense, its appeal is excited, it gives and stops, holds the attention by the withheld attention. It is the constitution of falsehood.
    Dynamism cultivated into cultured charm is the forte of falsehood.
    Response to falsehood is universal.
    Truth goes unperceived.
    Truth being the outer status of Spirit, there is nothing in us to respond, our own spirit being deeply buried.
    The whole being responds to falsehood.
    All our senses are utterly false.
    We live in our senses.
    Senses urge.
    Our Spirit is not on the surface. It cannot urge. Hence the success of falsehood over truth.
  4.        “Every idea gave way for the charm of recollection”.
    Man does not like to learn anew, cherishes what he has known.
    Learning is progress. It is painful. For the child learning is enjoyable.
    The child learns in freshness. Man is formed, dry, has lost his freshness.
    It happens after one is twenty five. For many it comes at fifteen or ten or even earlier.
    One reaches his intellectual maximum at some time.
    Such people lose themselves in shopping.
    Women level off more quickly than Men.
    Functions and ceremonies and festivals are for these people.
    Their ideals must be converted into periodically repeatable sensible symbols.
    Religion provides for it. பாட்டும் கூத்தும் பரிமளிக்கும்.
    To such Men the employer is Brahman ஆண்டே.
    To such women the husband is Purusha புருஷன்.

    Darcy who belonged to this crowd, rose to worship Brahman in her but in deference to Mrs. Bennet’s family and his own immediate past, celebrated functions, ceremonies and festivals – restored Lydia to womanhood.
    Bingley was lower still.
    His ceremonies had to be fixed by Darcy.
    Elizabeth was one who could rise above these, but loved the lower life, responded to Pemberley.
    Her response to Pemberley was her response to Wickham’s falsehood.
    Wickham was sore that Pemberley was not his, as the MLA who focused on the Chief Minister’s chair for long.
    Her response to Pemberley was a vicarious aspiration on behalf of Wickham.
    Yearning for a property just because he came into touch with it without having any semblance of right is the violence of low falsehood for the high results of Truth.
    One can appreciate the great sense of magnanimous honour of the British who having enjoyed ruling India for over a hundred years came forward to quit. Mahatma’s self-abnegation of power enabled the Britisher to act so. Gandhiji’s renunciation was the base for the Britisher’s quitting.
  5. “Mrs. Gardiner was too much engaged in pointing out all the interesting spots”
    At the Paris Peace Conference after World War I while the husbands were engaged in peace talks, the wives were interested in sight seeing.
    In everyone’s life in his outer life in work and inner life at home, this divergence can be seen.
    Further it can be seen between his Mind and vital.
    In an integral life, these vast differences fully resolve and reveal their significance.

    At Potsdam the full pig Churchill ate endeared him to Stalin. Gandhiji’s magnificent success of non-violence was fully vitiated by his unconscious moral violence in 1942.
    The entire marriage ceremony in the Hindu religion is completed by the seven steps saptapathi– at its end.
    To attract rain, more than prayer it is important to eliminate waste of water.
    The billions of the Marshall Plan depended on who initiated for its success.
    The Bank may come to the villager, the Demand Draft may come there, but he must come to us to take it.
    The final success of a huge plan depends on whether you visit Samadhi first or the patron.
    A thirty million dollar project can be completed by an offering of $10.
    Pemberley may be willingly offered, but its acceptance depends upon the vacancy in the Mind that accepts.
    A simple poor scheme accepted leads to an enormous wealth, rejected leads to bankruptcy.
    ICPF’s future depended upon the alertness to protect the phone call.
    The Tsar lost his throne and life because he could not say No to his wife.
    Whether you live up to sixty or ninety is determined by a simple discipline.
    A life long sacrifice that brings the eternal reward from the enemy is blissfully lost by an irresistible charm for a mean act.
    Whether the future is Romance or marriage is determined by the slightest egoistic impulse accepted or denied.
    The physical universe confirms it by its physical constants.
    One way of making a company take off – Apple becoming Microsoft – is to discover the little complement and honour it.
    In 1943 the Bengal famine was eradicated not so much by the increased supply of food grains as by administrative stringency.
77
The occurrences of the day were too full of interest to leave Elizabeth much attention for any of these new friends; and she could do nothing but think, and think with wonder, of Mr. Darcy's civility, and above all, of his wishing her to be acquainted with his sister.
  1. It is the totality of information that evokes faith.
  2. Mrs. Gardiner’s mind turns to Lambton.
  3.        “The occurrences were too full of interest to leave Elizabeth any time for any thought”
    The running thoughts of the Mind overcome any serious thought.
    The ceremonies submerge the significance of the festival.
    In the elaborate wedding trappings, the bride is lost.
    The king is forgotten in royal formalities.
    The insignificant many oust the significant centre.
    State Socialism forgot the proletariat for whose sake the state had come into existence.
    Man who made Money forgets himself for whom he made it.
    Education is given up in favour of the degree.

    The personal life is incidental to institutional life which is the permanent basis.
    Almost the lives of all people are routine.
    There is an intense liveliness in the maintenance of the routine.
    It is the life of death fully relished and lived with excitement.
    Any aspect of such a life can be restored to divine life by human choice.
    The social structure is a great fortification for the below average especially when the structure comes forward to support the individual for the sake of its own protection.
    This is the story where at one positive point by Darcy and another negative point by Lydia the structure faced the danger.
    The result was the whole fabric was essentially broadened vastly by the positive energy of Darcy to include Lydia in its fabric.
    It is social progress in the sense every Meryton girl could at least aspire high.
    Already an old maid, Charlotte, was the trail blazer.
    In India more than the usual aristocracy of the landed property, the concept of aristocracy was expanded by the aristocracy of caste and according to Percival Spear, after the advent of the Raj, the aristocracy of government service was added. The Spiritual aristocracy so far remained outside life.
    Aristocracy of land, wealth, spirit, knowledge, rituals, and service has come into being in India. In America the base is so much elevated as to include the whole population in an aristocracy of wealth of work.
  4.       “She could but think and think with wonder about Darcy’s civility”
    Abuse is real, attraction is real.
    Abuse is not easily forgotten by Mind, never forgotten by the vital.
    Attraction to Wickham was real. The body once responded cannot forget. Akalya, the daughter of Brahma, knowing Indra wanted to ravish her, proudly punned on the word marjara, my lover – the cat – to become stone. One cannot give up the joy of being loved even at the cost of turning into stone.
    Duryodhana was ready to put Draupadi to shame for she ridiculed him.

    Elizabeth was between the ridicule and fascination.
    A small Man’s sincerity will have the work executed responsibly but subconsciously covet all the benefits to himself.
    Life will almost support him.
    One who wants to destroy another will execute responsibilities in a fashion that the work has to be done over again.
    One who is humiliated by the society will burst out in laughter at others’ misfortune which he brought on their heads.
    Meanness hurts meanly, serves later, expects to be rewarded to do further harm.
    Smallness when no further damage can be done moves away accusing the other.
    To know Life is wider than human smallness, Mother is superior to Life and Men, and trust them, one needs faith, a faith that believes in the sacred power of irrationality. The monkey in the Professor that provokes the dog can never be stopped by any force that belongs to Nature, as it is the chosen method of Nature.
    When a work takes off, falsehood in the shape of selfish mean interests will powerfully rear its multiple heads outside as events, inside as promptings. The least of them is capable of creating a universe or the opposite. To go inside, have a full view of their character, understand them in their truth, and be able to deny their impulse is the human choice needed for a yogi. It is a whole universe against a feeble half hearted human effort. Done properly it can bring 20” of rain on the parched land. It can move a million rupees towards a stingy cantankerous treacherous unbeliever. It has moved thousand times greater than that. Moving is not impossible, but who can make the horse drink. The horse is obstinate, peevish, self-willed, prides on its Individuality of misfortune, தரித்திரம்.
  5. Above all his wishing to introduce his sister”
    Turning points in life are unmistakable.
    He who misses it will either be rewarded with something vastly great or is unfortunate.

    Bingley’s choice of Jane at first sight was a clear signal universally acknowledged.
    That Palliser was a rising star was evident from his work.
    The psychic, as Mother saw in Nehru, shows leadership.
    Organised work honestly done makes for steady progress of leadership.
    Selfless people pass on their luck to others.
    Selfish people are not ashamed of asking for anything. They even ask for the luck of selfless people.
    To implement one’s ideas assured of failure at another’s expense is organized selfishness that is unconsciousness.
    Friendships are lasting as long as non-issues are the meeting ground.
    Friendship is mostly used by selfish people to practice treachery which is impossible in other contexts of relationships as there are vested interests.
    Devoid of the organization of selfishness, Man collapses.
    Human relationship is not a field for loyalty or goodness, human goodness is.
    One meets in his life all the human types he needs for his growth.
    Values sprout in innocuous areas, invade vested interests in the measure society is mature.
    A selfish Man has not been true to another for a second. Truth and selfishness do not go together.
    Liking, affection, goodness, fairness, honesty, etc. are skin deep.
    Issues like women, prestige, property, Money prick that bubble.
    As long as one does not know your defects or does not question your defects, you trust him.
    Trust is security of psychology.
    Going beyond all these varieties of smallness, the milk of human kindness flows, the infinite charms of the incandescent light shines. God is true; Divine in Man is true; we must seek it in ourselves, not others.

 

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382.After the proposal, it

382.After the proposal, it was unpardonable. It was vulgar on her part, as her mother or Lydia. Essentially she was low and course in her deeper emotions. 
                                               as

After the proposal, it was unpardonable. It was vulgar on her part, as her mother or Lydia. Essentially she was low and coarse in her deeper emotions.
 



book | by Dr. Radut