| 1 | On Saturday morning Elizabeth and Mr. Collins met for breakfast a few minutes before the others appeared; and he took the opportunity of paying the parting civilities which he deemed indispensably necessary. | - “Collins took the opportunity at the breakfast table”.
One who avails of all the opportunity will not cease to progress.
One meets with an opportunity.
At another time an opportunity compels us to avail of it.
One takes an opportunity to avail of it.
By opportunity we generally mean social opportunities.
A psychological opportunity is far greater than the social opportunity.
A spiritual opportunity is unseen.
The Supramental opportunity compels, but Man is too resourceful in evading it.
Man seeking God is usual.
In the descent of Supermind, it is God who seeks the Man.
When Man refuses to respond to the Godhead that awaits, He changes the external situations so that Man will either be trapped or excluded.
A society that uses all its social opportunities will socially evolve.
Marriage is a social opportunity.
Marriage that came to Jane is a psychological opportunity.
She could not fully respond to it.
It is Elizabeth who responded psychologically on behalf of Jane.
Marriage was a social opportunity to Charlotte.
For her it was a windfall.
For Charlotte an opportunity came, it was given by the circumstances, and Elizabeth spearheaded it.
Lydia created an opportunity and availed of it as her mother.
For Darcy marriage was an opportunity for spiritual transformation.
He sought it, persisted in it, and courted the opportunity.
Mr. Bennet too had an opportunity for psychological progress in marriage.
He did not seek it.
What he sought as marriage was a trap for spiritual progress.
He was compelled into it.
Darcy consciously sought it, found it abhorrent, persisted in it, rose to the occasion and finally was rewarded.
Collins took the opportunity of breakfast to speak to Lizzy.
He feels it is his duty to do several things.
All his work centres around the Lady.
Any work or duty real or imagined to the Lady is what takes priority in his Mind.
Such men make all the progress their situation permits.
His getting the living itself was because of this attitude.
An attitude of exhausting one’s best energies in accomplishing what one considers himself to be paramount is the attitude of maximum progress.
Such Men are awake to all existing opportunities.
He does not spare any social opportunity.
He does not see the psychological opportunity in marrying Charlotte nor does Charlotte. - “Parting civilities deemed indispensably necessary”.
Parting civilities make one human.
The animals have no parting civilities.
A little before parting they silently decide to part and that is the parting.
Nor do they offer a welcome as human beings.
They speak to each other after some considerable time when the occasion presents.
The animal parting or reception is in sensation, men have civilities.
We know of empty ceremonies.
It is true that a small Mind feels invested with power by the ceremony.
A policeman without uniform carries no power, maybe feels no great power.
Animals have no language.
After human language was developed, every activity must be rendered into words.
It took a long time to develop parting words.
And more time for these words to become civil words.
To men like Collins, they are of great significance.
Birthdays are of great importance, especially for the devotees.
On the birthday the soul is born at a higher level in the Man.
It occurs on the completion of a year.
When aspiration is strong and constant, the soul that takes twelve months to complete its growth does so in eleven months or a few days earlier than the birthday.
Life is extended to sadhaks by this shorter period in which the year is completed.
The devotee completes a year when the soul completes its year’s growth in whatever time.
When the ‘birthday’ comes several days earlier, life celebrates it without those ceremonies.
To less developed souls the ceremonies of a birthday offer the inspiration which the flowering soul should bring in.
India Independence Day was spontaneously celebrated all over.
In Madras all the people were on the road, all traffic was suspended.
One who wanted to visit Sri Aurobindo’s Darsan on that day could not get transport to the station. He visited His Room in 1989.
One could not have the Darsan without the sanction. Even to visit His Room one had to wait 39 years.
In 1962 on August 15th HE came and sat over the Ashram during the period of meditation.
Usually HE stayed there till twelve midnight. Next morning HE will not be there.
Reading The Life Divine brings His atmosphere. Should it mature HE comes. We can see Him on the pages of the Book.
Courtesy is a human convention, not known to animals.
Among Men, there are those who when they see visitors coming take initiative to go away, so that they may not receive the visitor on entering.
These continue the animal habits of pugnacity.
Pugnacious animals growing into mild human beings behave in this fashion to avoid confrontation.
Collins follows all these civilities with a vengeance.
A scale of transition from animal to human courtesies will help evaluate the true worth of ethnic groups.
Hospitality will come on the top of the list.
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| 2 | "I know not, Miss Elizabeth," said he, "whether Mrs. Collins has yet expressed her sense of your kindness in coming to us; but I am very certain you will not leave the house without receiving her thanks for it. The favour of your company has been much felt, I assure you. We know how little there is to tempt any one to our humble abode. Our plain manner of living, our small rooms and few domestics, and the little we see of the world, must make Hunsford extremely dull to a young lady like yourself; but I hope you will believe us grateful for the condescension, and that we have done everything in our power to prevent your spending your time unpleasantly." | - In trying to tell Elizabeth how much he enjoyed her company, Collins ends up saying how much Elizabeth benefitted by the visit.
- Mr. Collins’ education has no content. The phrases he has learnt remain in his memory. His dynamic energy charges those words and it results in an elevation of sound in his mind
- “The favour of your company was much felt”.
These words are formal. How often those formal words carry more than formal significance.
He might not have missed the significance of that company when she married Darcy.
It is this visit of Elizabeth that made him a relative to Lady Catherine!
Casual formal words become true if there is a rich subtle atmosphere.
Perhaps he was subtly aware of Darcy’s proposal.
A yogi in Trichy foretold Sri Aurobindo’s arrival in Tamilnadu.
Sri Ramalinga Swami forecast that Vadalur would become like Cuddalore.
Sri Aurobindo saw the formation of the World government.
Robert Clive who founded the British Empire in India committed suicide foretelling that British would withdraw themselves.
Collins may not know the twin shock his wife had suffered from him and from the Lady. - rsquo;s presence helped her to ease the tension of the transition.
He may be gloating over the favour he conferred on Elizabeth all the time.
Edmond received great knowledge, greater wealth and the greatest possible experience from Faria. Could he regret the jail life? Had he known all that beforehand he would have preferred to marry Mercedes.
In every act there is a great significance. Only that we do not see it.
It is well known Bingley came to Meryton and conferred a blessing to Jane.
Looked at from another view, it was a visit that conferred a great blessing on Darcy.
Company is that which is enjoyable and therefore sought after.
Man who takes to consecration seeks the constant company of the Divine.
What the Rishi attains in Samadhi of a long period ONE single consecration gives him.
Samadhi and consecration are like the typewriter and computer.
These are states of consciousness that can reject death, sorrow and pain.
Man has that faculty in him. When rightly exercised and the values rendered sensationally these things are possible for him.
Presently he is like the original arboreal Ape unaware of his potentialities.
Elizabeth had in her faculties which when rightly exercised would emancipate her from infatuation and catapult her to Pemberley.
She neither knew of the faculty nor the opportunities.
If all the formal words of Collins are taken after she became Mrs. Darcy, and read in the light of the new context it will be revealing.
Coming events cast their shadows is our experience.
This conceals a profound truth scarcely known to us.
Later he discovered that Elizabeth left no message of thanks to Rosings.
The one who should express or feel gratitude to her visit is not herself and therefore it was forgotten. In some plane it has its justification.
He noted Charlotte had not yet thanked her for her stay.
Charlotte was a girl confined to Meryton all her life. For her to uproot herself from there and plant herself in another social climate where there was no kindred soul for life was no mean effort. Almost she was like the American settler. Her own nerves will crave for solace, sympathy and comfort. Elizabeth was unwilling at first, then reluctantly agreed. Later the sordid conditions at home reconciled her to her trip. Collins has no way of knowing her Mind. He knew only himself. His speech was formal. Through the formal words Life speaks out describing the past and forecasting the future. Sir Lucas stayed there for a week. Maria was with her the whole time sharing the condescension and affability of the Lady.
Their significances are equally great though they are not in our minds. - “Must make Hunsford extremely dull to a young lady like yourself”. (P. 191)
All men are very willing to say the very best when they want to please another.
The primitive Man had our intelligence.
The Supermind is capable of instantaneous miraculousness.
30,000 years can be abridged in 30 years.
One can become what he aspires for.
Surrender unto Me, I shall deliver you.
The solution for any problem lies within it.
If there is a knowledge in the universe, Man will have the faculty to know it.
No evil was ever created.
The Absolute is the relative.
All is Brahman.
All these statements go to show the infinite capacity of Man.
He uses such capacities now to accomplish his aims.
Whatever he wishes to achieve, he has two attitudes.
One is faith in Karma.
When he gives it up, he sees grace acting.
Even then he wants to achieve anything by his own capacities.
When he withdraws himself from the faith in his capacities, grace becomes supergrace.
Supergrace acts at once.
Instead of trying to achieve his own goals, can he try to achieve the divine aim?
If he agrees will his resourcefulness be exercised for that?
In that case, he will witness the infinite emerging from the finite.
Instead of relying on his own capacities will he rely on the Divine capacity?
It will reveal to him the instantaneous miraculousness.
Will he be the horse that drinks, for him to be led to water.
One who is not sleeping cannot be awakened, is the proverb.
Granting that he is willing to drink, any other issue, argument, obstacle can be met with, answered, overcome.
The above statement where he says ‘a lady like yourself’ is the ultimate flattery.
‘Like yourself’ means you are the standard for the world.
She said that to Wickham.
Whatever the situation, Man is capable of coming out with his very best, if he chooses.
It matters little that obstacles are there.
Any obstacle, it is said, has its solution inside it.
In that case it is within the human reach.
As long as he can become what he aspires for, he can become that.
If he fails to understand, there is philosophy to explain.
If he knows not the method, the method is available.
Man is employing already those methods in several places.
If he does not know, it can be told.
If he does not want, there is no argument.
If he chooses to act, the shortest route can be shown.
He himself chooses such short routes in his life.
Not only the Hour has come, the Force has descended fifty years ago.
One may not aspire to become the Supramental Being.
One may not aspire to be the world leader.
One may not aspire to be the CEO of his company.
One may not aspire for a promotion due in twenty years.
One does aspire for the next possible promotion due in three years.
He can have no objection to get it now.
If he agrees, let him find the above talent in himself and exercise it. He will get it.
Every next promotion can thus come to him instantly.
He will find himself the CEO of an international company.
If he does not stop there, he can become a Supramental being. - “We have done everything in our power to prevent your time being spent unpleasantly”.
Man’s capacity to speak appropriately is great.
His capacity to speak well unrelated to the fact is greater.
The unknowable formulates itself to the human consciousness and withdraws.
Man formulates himself to his choice and then stops.
Man, in this respect, becomes Brahman.
Of the three powers of Brahman, He says the third is self-absorption.
By self-absorption consciousness becomes Superconscient.
Also on the other side it becomes the Inconscient.
By taking one further step and admitting of partial self-absorption we get a Collins, a perfection in the imperfect condition.
Man is in life representing the subconscious and acts with intuition involved in it.
The involved intuition in the action must be released and raised to the intuition in the superconscient through the conscient.
Releasing the intuition involved in the act is to use this great capacity to rise to the superconscient.
Collins is self-absorbed, he does not see beyond Rosings.
Instead of expanding all the energy in flattering Lady Catherine, he can see why Charlotte married him.
It is possible for him to see her various cultural acquirements.
Should he raise himself to the level of her expectation, all his energies will be spent to make him cultured.
She has all the common sense and cultural sensitivities to transform him thus.
That would raise her from the present mercenary attitude.
The prospect of Longbourn has all the imaginative potential to accomplish the work.
He was educated at Oxford.
The potentials are there.
The scope is there.
The choice is the key.
The willingness to exert in that direction with the resourcefulness exhibited in the above statement is powerful.
He was not unaware of his opportunities.
He spoke them to Elizabeth.
His present purpose was different. The purpose I speak of is different.
There is no joy in being an eternal snob.
If he chose to use all his potentials and endeavour, the result would be great.
Darcy had an aim.
He took the effort.
The transformation in him was magnificent.
Collins could have earned a bishopric on his own merits.
He would have been knighted.
His energy was considerable.
His present dynamism to achieve what he aimed at was considerable.
He had everything but like the original Ape had no idea of his future life.
He left no stone unturned in his chosen field.
His abject submission to Lady Catherine was similar to spiritual surrender.
His was a spiritual profession carrying spiritual power.
Once he set his heart on any work, there was no stopping in the middle.
He was not one who frittered his energy in competition or jealousy.
He did not retaliate unless prodded.
Energy, dynamism, potentials, partner, scope for him were complete.
A case like this is a good example for spiritual transformation.
He had Darcy before him as an adorable example.
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| 3 | Elizabeth was eager with her thanks and assurances of happiness. She had spent six weeks with great enjoyment; and the pleasure of being with Charlotte, and the kind attentions she had received, must make her feel the obliged. Mr. Collins was gratified, and with a more smiling solemnity replied -- | - “Elizabeth was eager with thanks and assurances of happiness”.
Reality often answers formality.
Each sticks to his own swabhava.
Man moving away from his swabhava takes great effort to do so.
Ego has fully usurped human activities.
Existence is equally pervasive in life.
The moment Man quits ego he is in the Presence of existence.
It is true of social life also.
Man going out of his house till he returns home acts from ego, understands from his own point of view. He is turned inward.
Should he look at events outside, no event is egoistic.
Every event takes place from the social point of view.
Man never sees it except he finds himself inhibited each time he tries to act.
Man has a centre of functioning.
It is his ego.
He is oblivious of it.
Looking at the Sun, he sees an object; it never strikes him he is looking at it egoistically.
Great souls are great souls because they do not always see from the ego.
To view non-egoistically, one must be aware he is an ego.
Presently only the poet and yogi have that view.
Sri Aurobindo in ‘Pure Existent’ asks us to take a non-egoistic view.
It means Man can do so, because he is not all ego.
When you see your child playing you see him as your child. It does not mean you cannot see him as a human being outside of being your child.
We rarely do so, but we are certainly capable of it.
It is the first step in yoga.
He who withdraws from his ego sees the ocean of energy as a first thought. It is an egoistic thought.
Even when you have withdrawn from the ego to the point of seeing the ocean of energy, the ONLY view he can take in thought is egoistic.
First he withdraws from the ego-sense.
He goes into ego-thought.
Further he must withdraw from ego-thought into non-ego existence.
Ego is so pervasive that at every step it pursues us.
Till he feels he is infinite the finite ego pursues him.
Ego pursues him till he reaches moksha, even into moksha.
Ego is a creation of Mind.
Mind can destructure his ego which is Nirvana.
It is such a powerful experience that Buddha felt that the Self too could be got rid of thus.
Self is not the creation of Mind for Mind to detach itself.
As ego pursues after the ocean of energy reveals, so Mind pursues after ego is dissolved. - “She had spent six weeks with great enjoyment”.
The subconscious fact is more real, overridingly real over the surface fact.
She never wanted to visit him, she reluctantly agreed when Charlotte insisted.
Later the unhelpful atmosphere at home made her anxiously look for the visit.
It is true Charlotte offered kind attentions.
She dined at Rosings and went there for tea.
What made her greatly enjoy was the coming proposal and the proposal she wholeheartedly rejected.
Subconsciously she came to Hunsford to meet Darcy.
In the same sense, she knew his proposal was not the end in itself.
She knew the extent of Darcy’s commitment.
She also knew the final outcome.
It is this subconscious knowledge that gave her great enjoyment.
A devotee successfully launched on a project which at its beginning expanded over a hundred times.
In spite of apparent serious obstacles, everything went more than well.
The planned investment came down 60%.
In 1½ years an unforeseen luck that could increase the income ten times presented itself.
It was a time and a type of project which could not receive outside help.
The law of the land changed, making outside help possible.
Twice the help asked for was offered.
The project opened a dimension of public service meeting the cherished ideals of the founder and it was more than fulfilled.
By a mysterious invisible change total failure was presented.
As the devotee had fully adhered to Mother, he did not regret even a single development. He did not know why.
Another project just twice in size and a hundred times more profitable was offered to him unsolicited, opening up endless expansion.
Elizabeth abused, Darcy’s letter was bitter, but she had “great enjoyment”.
This is the truth of the subconscious fact. - “The pleasure of being with Charlotte and the kind attentions she received”.
Charlotte had always been her good friend of intimacy.
Now that Elizabeth had come and Charlotte knew she needed a compensation to her husband’s energetic outpourings, she made it up by kind attention.
They are certainly highly enjoyable in the context of invitations from Rosings.
Recently the continued visits from the gentlemen, however embarrassing from Darcy’s side, made life pleasurable.
The Colonel’s frequent visits, particular attention to Elizabeth that gave rise to matrimonial speculations were enjoyable in the expectation.
Beyond this lies the subconscious knowledge spoken of earlier.
She heard from Charlotte that Darcy was worth ten times Wickham.
Charlotte means to Elizabeth good will as well as one who thinks of her marrying Darcy.
Even in the subconscious it is no mean pleasure.
In their conversations, Pemberley and Georgiana might have been heard directly or otherwise.
That she was going to settle down at Pemberley was a future fact. As the sun rising at 6.00 a.m. reveals as light an hour before, all facts that will come in future arrive on our personality in the subtle plane, if not in detail, at least in essence.
To her the future marriage of Jane was as important as her marriage.
The process had already started in Darcy’s letter.
It is true the tragedy of elopement too was in store.
In actual psychological fact, Lydia’s marriage was no ordinary relief to her; one more thing she may not have noted even after the event was completed. Wickham was prevented from idleness by his marriage.
She was outraged by Darcy’s charge of profligacy and extravagance of Wickham, more than what Georgiana had consented to.
She never wanted her erstwhile love to be ruined.
Now at Hunsford, her visit to Pemberley was made possible by her change of attitude.
Lydia’s adventure, its outcome of her marriage and Jane’s marriage were subconsciously LIVE in her making her exult. - “With a more smiling solemnity replied”.
Man looks to occasions to please himself.
Serious dynamic Men constantly look for intense pleasure.
Collins was a fully organized character dynamically constituted with a will to achieve fully and at once.
These are all great characteristics.
A great talent in a low context or another context makes one clownish or beside the point.
He tried his best to be solemn.
Solemnity in a clown makes him ridiculous or at least a dumb doll.
He smiled as he was pleased by her reply.
His greatest satisfaction would have been to hear out of her mouth directly or indirectly that she had missed a golden opportunity.
His thought had power and became true later, not as he expected but as life would sanction when she went to Pemberley.
It was not she who missed an opportunity.
Life tells him that it was he who missed the opportunity that awaited him.
This is presentiment in the reverse.
If a story is examined in this light, the later events forecast in one fashion or another can be seen fully.
One who knows how to see the future in the present or the past in the future will be able to find every event so hinted.
When Mrs. Gardiner spoke of not excluding her from Pemberley, she anticipated Mrs. Bennet thus excluded.
His ‘tolerable’ ends up her describing in her own emotions his changed behaviour at Pemberley ‘tolerable’.
Caroline said it was kindly meant when she warned Elizabeth about Wickham.
Elizabeth’s behaviour, not acting as a jealous rival, accepting Caroline’s olive branch was an act kindly meant.
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| 4 | "It gives me the greatest pleasure to hear that you have passed your time not disagreeably. We have certainly done our best; and most fortunately having it in our power to introduce you to very superior society, and, from our connexions with Rosings, the frequent means of varying the humble home-scene, I think we may flatter ourselves that your Hunsford visit cannot have been entirely irksome. Our situation with regard to Lady Catherine's family is indeed the sort of extraordinary advantage and blessing which few can boast. You see on what a footing we are. You see how continually we are engaged there. In truth, I must acknowledge that, with all the disadvantages of this humble parsonage, I should not think any one abiding in it an object of compassion, while they are sharers of our intimacy at Rosings." | - nbsp;“to introduce you to very superior society”.
More than enjoying the very superior society, Man loves to introduce all his friends to that society.
Corruption in Money, nepotism in influence are two known vices.
Every society uses only a fraction of its power for its development.
Around a centre of power, as in a reservoir or a river there is a vast source of ground water all around. There is an unlimited inexhaustible power untapped because people do not know how to draw upon it rightly.
Corruption and nepotism are social recognitions of such power drawn wrongly.
The Man who has no values is corrupt.
If he has values he will develop such skills, as when McKinsey explained how $ 48 billions and $ 340 billions could be raised by India and China.
Values are the knowledge that converts into capacities unknown to society.
Values to me are spiritual skills.
Today society everywhere is booming, buoyant, surging with dynamic energy.
There is a corresponding endless reservoir of unused social energy.
Values at the Individual level can make a person 10,000 times more prosperous by excessively honourable methods.
Collective spiritual values can now found a world government, render the entire society spiritually awake and bring now a few thousand years from now.
It is not enough one has the knowledge.
He must be able to protect himself from the occult worlds of circumconscient and the intraconscient.
He must have the patience HE speaks of in “The Four Aids”.
One who has been working at his very best can attempt it successfully if he takes to consecration at the subconscious level.
We see in Collins and Wickham personalities who can excel Darcy if their potentials are harnessed by the highest values. - “The frequent means of varying the humble home scene”.
Man has always been most resourceful.
His physical knowledge prevents him from seeing mentally or vitally.
Physical knowledge is focused and therefore blind.
Suppose one takes one idea of Sri Aurobindo and brings his utmost resourcefulness to bear on it without permitting any type of blindness, he will have released the infinite spiritual power in his life.
The above words explain how actively the Mind of Collins was working.
His Mind was active to show Elizabeth his value in his relationship with Rosings.
The Mind of all dynamic Men works like that.
The resulting power is fixed by the context -- social context.
His values decide whether he is a leader or a criminal.
Very rarely we find a leader who has no criminal in him.
Education today is best devised as one that can draw upon this social power positively.
There are those who have consistently refused the opportunities.
Others have without fail converted each opportunity into a failure or tragedy.
Their souls are as great as Wickham aspiring for the Non-Being.
Occasionally one stops and realizes his folly.
Before him is an effort at the dimension of the opportunity and the intensity of Darcy’s transformation.
No one is exempt from the upward journey.
No one needs the long period.
What each Man needs is the intensity each moment deserves.
It is only instantaneous to all who honour the rules.
The intensity that matches the effort is called by Mother as sincerity.
It is this sincerity that weans one from karma and his capacity.
Sincerity is truthfulness.
Egolessness, truthfulness are spiritual awakening. - “They are sharers of the intimacy of Rosings”.
The 10,000 titled families of England are families who once served royalty or royalty conferred its patronage to them.
A centre of power has all the powers of the nation.
It includes the military, administrative, financial, social, educational powers of the entire nation.
Here is a nation of human population of bottomless ingratitude with infinite receptivity.
Royalty cannot by its very great efforts exhaust a small portion of these powers.
As the knowledge, capacity, technology, and wealth of the nation rise, this power too multiplies without end.
The sannyasi who declared the king was a piece of dust before him, when he refused this power, refused it consciously.
Now Sri Aurobindo asks the sannyasi to accept life, asks him not to enjoy this power, but to make this power available to society at large to reinforce it.
At a stage of integration as power is generated, it will be utilized to build the society further at higher and more organized levels.
There is no waste in nature.
Even now there is no waste in Nature.
The vast reservoirs of power I talk of are the fringe benefits the society can get from social evolution. It is no drain on the social evolution, as the seeds of a tree now that do not become the tree.
Rosings does not lose essentially by its courtesies or the livings it sets up.
Such an excess of power in Internet is a million-fold greater, as millions of users can simultaneously draw upon it.
Presently Man knows and loves to steal that abundant power which can be rightfully drawn by the entire population of the earth.
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| 5 | Words were insufficient for the elevation of his feelings; and he was obliged to walk about the room, while Elizabeth tried to unite civility and truth in a few short sentences. | - “Words are insufficient for the elevation of his feelings”.
Elevation of one’s feelings attracts a man to a spiritual centre.
Spiritual elevation does not accompany material joy.
The vast concourse of people who love to visit a rich Man, love this elevation of feeling while they are with him and they talk about him.
Any VIP coming to stay in a place, before he takes initiative to introduce himself, finds all the local population at his door.
Mr. Bingley experienced it.
What gives that elevation in people is the hope that the intimacy with his superior will also elevate him to some extent.
There are people who have no individuality, personality or self-respect.
The truth is the VIP will allow the entire place to serve him and will not offer any service in return except allowing them to visit him.
The entire population that experiences this elevation will never find themselves elevated.
He who is on his own when he rises will find a part of this population gravitating towards him.
That has happened to the USA since 1950.
After 1950 Europe received their money, but refused to respect them.
Again Europe imitates USA even in cultural ways of living but there is no real respect accorded to them.
They go to USA for studies, they imitate their management ways, of course their hair style and dress are emulated, but they keep their respect of culture to themselves.
It is true culture, knowledge, and values alone can win real respect.
Today the American is a divine being all over the world.
He can enter any country without visa.
What is respected in America is their wealth, their capacities and their material accomplishments.
They have not produced original scientific thinkers.
The question of a saint born in America is not in the distant future. - “He was obliged to walk about the room”.
The elevation descended into the body as uncontainable energy.
Animated discussions find members walking across the room.
To sit quiet and discuss ideas is not given to dynamic people as they receive the dynamism of the ideas in their bodily dynamism.
Mature deliberations are quiet, spoken in a low voice.
Excitement is not a pleasant word for cultured life.
The body of a wise Man can remain quiet through discussions of animosity.
The structure of ideas of wisdom absorbs most of the energies released and none is left to stir the body.
In raw material any idea releases the energy and it directly reaches the body exciting it enormously.
Mind does absorb infinite energies by its ideas that expand infinitely.
The capacity of the vital of similar constitution to absorb energies is greater still.
The body is the pedestal of the being.
Its capacity to absorb energies is greater than the Mind and vital.
Ideas of the infinite, forces of the infinite so affect the Mind and vital.
What so affects the body are acts of infinite value, value to all.
They are ideas of Being, Existence not thoughts of Truth.
In each plane – Mind, vital, physical – the energies are received by the temperament and expressed as it is, i.e. coarsely.
The temperament cultures the energies into sensitivities.
Sensitivities are the tether ends of the organized temperament in each plane.
One who is in yoga must begin with his various sensitivities.
For yoga, all sensitivities are to be dissolved.
Before dissolution, they must be positive, good, express values.
A family or nation will be evaluated by her sensitivities. - “Tried to unite civility with truth”.
Truth can be coarse or rough but combined with civilities it has to be soft and cultured.
Civilities can be empty or the opposite.
Truth and civility become true vital sensitivity.
A nation is most valued for its hospitality, its hospitality to unknown people.
People who cannot live with their parents or children start showering their affection on their pets.
Being animals, human emotion received by animals can be more intense as it is a lower denomination of sensitivity.
The love of the pet which receives the affections meant for humans is like emotional intoxication, an artificial intensity in the direction of degeneration.
The Mind-centred life removes the vital relationship with humans.
It is being replaced by relationship with animals. It is becoming a fashion.
This is another dimension of Non-Being.
Elizabeth is a mental character, but she is true.
Wickham is a No.4. He has the extraordinary intelligence of the vital.
He is false.
Darcy is mental, true, but carries false vital values in his Mind.
Collins is one to whom civilities are of prime importance.
It is an empty shell.
His energies are of the vital.
His education energized his vital organization.
Jane Austen says he merely kept the terms.
It means he did not try to benefit mentally from the course.
The entire benefit was vitally received.
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| 6 | "You may, in fact, carry a very favourable report of us into Hertfordshire, my dear cousin. I flatter myself at least that you will be able to do so. Lady Catherine's great attentions to Mrs. Collins you have been a daily witness of; and altogether I trust it does not appear that your friend has drawn an unfortunate -- but on this point it will be as well to be silent. Only let me assure you, my dear Miss Elizabeth, that I can from my heart most cordially wish you equal felicity in marriage. My dear Charlotte and I have but one mind and one way of thinking. There is in everything a most remarkable resemblance of character and ideas between us. We seem to have been designed for each other." | - He must have strong good will to bring by that wish Darcy to her.
- He accepts his wife’s manners for her character.
- “You may carry a very favourable report of us into Hertfordshire.”
Man wants a favourable report of himself to the world.
Only Collins will ask for it.
Man cannot be caught doing anything non-egoistic.
The difference between different people is in the degree of egoism.
Ego-memory, ego-sense, ego-idea are the earlier stages to the pure ego which is immense.
Pride is the conscious ego based on one’s capacity.
Whether it is knowledge, wealth or capacity, pride can form.
The consciousness of pride well formulated is the pride of possession.
Arrogance is the power of ego unformulated or unorganized.
Arrogance is vital.
Pride is Mental.
Pride is the arrogance Mind justifies as well as values.
Pride can invert itself as humility in which case it will enjoy neither power of humility nor that of pride.
Pride inverted loses its power but not its form.
The form is always recognized by another as an unbecoming behaviour.
Here is a Man asking Elizabeth to recognize his humble pride and carry a report of it into Hertfordshire.
The concealed humility peeps out through this request.
People can suffer pride, but not humble pride.
There are rare characters who can successfully hide the pride.
Such a Man converts the pride into venom like Wickham.
The greater the effort to suppress it, the greater is the venom it creates.
Characteristics are best as they are, even if it is undesirable.
They can be sublimated or transformed but not suppressed without psychological detriment.
Irresistible resentment when suppressed becomes caustic sarcasm.
The greatest opportunity cannot come through low consciousness unless it carries a tragedy. - “You were a witness to Lady Catherine’s attentions to Charlotte”.
Man combines two opposite attitudes, sometimes in the extreme.
Extending freedom authoritatively, kindness through cruelty, serious adherence of empty rituals, etc. is a known trait.
Collins indulges in crude self-importance in a language of understatement.
As one vibration leaves the society and another enters, this is one possible mixture.
Man’s folly is great in trying to achieve one thing by doing the opposite.
Man is not at fault as he can exhibit only the faculties he has.
His new ideals may require new faculties.
Till he acquires them, he will be using the old faculties.
We see Darcy giving Bingley freedom through an attitude of domination.
In advising Elizabeth and flattering Elizabeth, Caroline’s purpose is to adore status.
The centre of Collins’s life is Lady Catherine.
He wants his whole world to witness his greatness there.
That purpose he well serves by all that he knows.
He expects Elizabeth to speak out in Hertfordshire all that she has seen.
That is what he is doing to himself.
On the first day at Longbourn at the dinner table he did this copiously.
Energy that enters one becomes several things acquiring values at each level.
In Collins, he preserved his pre-Oxford personality, received the energy of education, added to it the energy of expectation after Bennet, energized it by the living at Hunsford and arranged its display. As it was approved of by the Lady, it received its final sanction.
He has no values to guide, no restraint to discipline him.
He is conscious, loves to be conscious, that he is on display.
He believes that his audience is entertained.
Behind all these the lurking violence is apparent as it peeps out.
We saw his irresistibility and his rationale for it when Elizabeth tried to advise him.
What is great in him we do not know, but he is great in some sense. - “We seem to be designed for each other.” (P. 192)
Any superstition that the society accepts finds utterance through every mouth.
Each Man exhibits his uniqueness in expressing his general belief.
Two spiritual ideas, contrary to each other, must be reconciled with each other.
One is no man is without a soul. The other is the best part of humanity is otiose.
They reconcile at the conception of the Inconscient evolving into the subconscient.
The greatest endowment of Man survives his lowest fall.
According to our approach, this speaks of Man’s greatness or lowness.
The idea of evolution reconciles both views.
The idea of Collins’s situation being one that everyone has to pass through is a consolation.
The truth about the spouses is they are complements to one another.
It can be opposites or similarities or non-conflicting difference or one of violent conflict or any one of the intermediate levels.
How such a truth came to be modified into a gullible superstition as the one above is beyond present human conception.
What is interesting is the fervour with which it is spoken out.
Those who speak it believe it and are energized by the belief.
It is a cosy organism of superstition that lasts long.
Superstition too serves the social well being in its own way.
The Gita advises us not to undo superstition.
Sherlock Holmes held the attention of the world for several decades without knowing the earth moves around the sun. He lived into the 20th century.
The knowledge of the solar system is useful but not essential to life.
Mr. Collins is a dynamic self-existing organism who makes growth possible at a great speed as he is constituted.
To know his constitution is to know the secret of human nature.
It is true they are made for each other because which other woman could have her mental peace in that domestic setup!
It is said with greater truth that Collins and Lady Catherine are made for each other.
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| 7 | Elizabeth could safely say that it was a great happiness where that was the case, and with equal sincerity could add, that she firmly believed and rejoiced in his domestic comforts. She was not sorry, however, to have the recital of them interrupted by the entrance of the lady from whom they sprung. Poor Charlotte! It was melancholy to leave her to such society! But she had chosen it with her eyes open; and though evidently regretting that her visitors were to go, she did not seem to ask for compassion. Her home and her housekeeping, her parish and her poultry, and all their dependent concerns, had not yet lost their charms. | - Charlotte’s subconscious substance enjoys the material security of being his wife. Elizabeth’s pity for her friend is superfluous.
- Now that Charlotte has exhibited her contentment to Elizabeth, she feels not only a triumph, but feels justified in marrying him.
- There is no question of their losing their charms. They are her source of physical material security which marriage is.
- “Elizabeth could safely say that it was a great happiness where that was the case and with equal sincerity could add that she firmly believed in his comforts”.
Adherence to utter truth is always possible for one wedded to truth.
To do so in an unreal context though possible is a strain.
How life interferes in relieving such a strain is one lesson in Life Response.
She forces herself to speak more than she wants because Collins expects her to speak out the thoughts she does not have, but he expects.
It is artificial convention maintained without life.
Charlotte is anxious not to expose Collins too much to Elizabeth.
She interrupts.
It is a life response governed by energies.
The whole of life can be covered under the heading Life Response.
A lady who married in another caste was asked about her marriage. She had willingly done it with enough cooperation but she was aware of the disapproval of Tamilnadu. That night current failed all over Tamilnadu for one day.
In 1915 Gandhiji announced non-violence. In 1919 he began its practice. Jallianwallahbagh announced to him the need for violence.
An employer who removed from service his best employee to serve his petty purposes was the founder and builder of that institution. At the end of a year he was unceremoniously removed from his child of an institution. The only difference is his employee came back, but he never staged a comeback.
He who wants to offend without cause is called on by life to reward him whom he offended. Ignorance cannot offend knowledge without its being compelled to acknowledge the reality behind appearances.
Non-existing organizational power desiring to order real social power finds itself mortally hurt without the victim retaliating.
When you understand life, life faithfully serves you.
Failing to understand life, she compels you to understand her.
Defying life, she destroys you or allows you to perish.
Life is a real force in Nature.
Soul in life emerging changes Nature into divine nature. - “She was not sorry for her recital to be interrupted by the arrival of Charlotte”.
Events respond to our thoughts.
Elizabeth would like to stop, life stopped her.
When does it happen like this, how is it different from the response delayed?
What is the rule for delay?
Elizabeth’s wish to break is strong. Her strength exceeding the strength of the atmosphere, the interruption arises.
Darcy met her at Pemberley. She was by then ready, but not he, because he was not sure of the lady’s response. Before that response could arise came Caroline’s provocation. After it was overcome by Lydia’s marriage, there was the obstacle created by the ruse. When it was cleared, Lady Catherine exerted herself. It was cleared by a reverse reaction. The initial response was for the consenting thought. The final response waits for all the obstacles to be cleared.
Elizabeth accepted Pemberley and Pemberley accepted her. She had not accepted Darcy as she had accepted Pemberley. Caroline’s expectation was in the atmosphere. She exhausted it by provoking Elizabeth and Darcy.
Wickham was in her Mind. When he went to Newcastle it was removed.
Without her conscious mental occupation there was Anne and her mother in the way. Final response awaited the clearance of all this. After Lydia’s elopement, Elizabeth finally gave up any hope or hope of expectation from Darcy.
Her desire to have hidden the event from him, created another barrier between them. Essentially she shut him out by that thought. The receipt of her aunt’s letter changed her Mind and created expectation during his two visits with Bingley. Now the expectation created barriers. She finally gave up. Lady Catherine removed any semblance of it. Still, it was she who was to open the topic in a wretched state of Mind. Her thanks ensured him of the absence of all possible resistances. He had to propose. It was not in her hands. To evoke it silently, she was not qualified by the rules of Silent Will. The impossibility of her marrying him because of the social distance which was seen the responses of Jane and Mr. Bennet were added barriers for her to overcome. Her thanking him on their behalf removed that barrier sufficiently for him to speak. - “She has chosen it with eyes open”.
When there is an advantage coming with a disadvantage Man chooses it in the hope it will not hurt.
Language calls it pious wish.
Psychology knows it as subconscious choice.
The subconscious compels the conscious to choose against its wishes.
She was born of an empty-headed Man and was brought up in social culture.
Empty-headedness does not hurt her essentially, but she is aware of the social deficiency.
By compensating that deficiency socially she will raise herself mentally high.
It is for that progress she chose him as a husband.
Charlotte does not have the mental faculty Elizabeth has.
She has a vital penetration based on mercenary values.
Elizabeth had a vital fall, but in two hours, she was able to get out of it because of her Mind.
Without that mental faculty Charlotte has to do it over a lifetime.
The mental learns by ideas, facts, and information.
The vital needs an experience in place of each one of them.
The Mind can perceive, the vital can only sense.
Charlotte thinks of further elevation to Collins in the church through Darcy without realising that it is her part to secure him any rise by inner psychological growth. Collins will destroy any promotion in life without further inner growth. Whether they want to make that growth or not, is left to them.
People are not aware of psychological opportunity. They are too keenly aware of social opportunities.
One does not overtake the other too much without causing a tragedy at that level.
Life giving such opportunity positively or negatively is luck.
Collins has one in the living and in the wife.
Whether they live a family life or aspire for growth is up to them. - “Her home and her housekeeping, her parish and her poultry, and all her dependent concerns had not lost their charms yet”.
The substance is more real than the consciousness.
Home is the consciousness, the house is the substance.
The ideal is the consciousness, the organization is the substance.
So, also romance and marriage; affection and property.
Here it is the Parish and Parsonage.
What is conceived of in the high must be realized in the low.
Both are in tune with each other.
There is a natural balance slowly building up.
Ego is free to interfere and choose a new balance, which it always does with a vengeance.
The mental energies are absorbed by the ideal.
The physical energies need a proper occupation.
Organising the kitchen, feeding the chicken, digging the garden exhaust the physical energies.
In the absence of enough idealism, one becomes cynical.
In the absence of enough physical absorption, the idealism becomes physical, coarse, organizing decay.
Couples who have enough energy and less culture keep up the balance by quarrelling, complaining, doubting, etc.
Such couples spending time to organize the house into a home at a higher level of orderliness and cleanliness will find their quarrels disappear.
Energy to listen to the long-winded speeches of Collins requires as much energy as to keep the house in perfect order.
The infinity can be discovered in the writing of the sermon or cultivating the grass in the close.
Attitude matters, not the hours spent in work.
It will never strike a Man that the person with him is a great psychological opportunity.
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| 8 | At length the chaise arrived, the trunks were fastened on, the parcels placed within, and it was pronounced to be ready. After an affectionate parting between the friends, Elizabeth was attended to the carriage by Mr. Collins, and as they walked down the garden, he was commissioning her with his best respects to all her family, not forgetting his thanks for the kindness he had received at Longbourn in the winter, and his compliments to Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner, though unknown. He then handed her in, Maria followed, and the door was on the point of being closed, when he suddenly reminded them, with some consternation, that they had hitherto forgotten to leave any message for the ladies at Rosings. | - Mr. Collins’ formality now extends to the Gardiners though unknown to him.
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