Questions and Answers 1950-51
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: The Mother, Questions and Answers 1950-51, bahai-library.com.
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The Mother

BIR TH
February 21, 1878

ARRIVAL IN INDIA
March 29, 1914

MAHASAMAD'HI
November 17, 1973

.
CENTENARY
February 21, 1978

De luxe Volume 4
> WORKS OF THE MOTHER • CENTENARY EDITION
indo Ashram Trust 1972. Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram
1 India at Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry 605 002
THE MOTHER-April 1950
Questions and Answers

quite a commonplace materialist if he does not receive his in-        14 April 1951
spiration from a higher state. It is the mind which makes little
categories, this is more convenient for it, but that does not re-
Mother reads a question asked during her talk
semble the truth very much.                                           in 1929:

You have said that Wagner had an intuition of the oc-
"ls not surrender the same as sacrifice ?"
cult and that to have spiritual power one must con-
Questions and Answers 1929 ( 4 August)
quer sexuality. In fact, Wagner had the intuition of
this victory to be achieved, for in "The Ring of the
Nibelungen" there is a treasure hidden at the bottom       Who is going to answer ? What is the difference ?
of a river. Three nymphs guard the treasure and to
take it one must renounce all desire for love and                     Surrender comes spontaneously.
woman.
I congratulate those whose surrender is spontaneous ! It is not
This is an old tradition in Nordic countries. But in his story it   so easy. No, that is not the difference.
ends badly: the one who had to renounce the love of woman
Sacrifice diminishes the being.
is drowned and it ends with the twilight of the gods.
That is true, but why ? One thing is so, so simple - it is the
ve.ry mea?ing of the word. To sacrifice means to give up some-
thmg to which one clings. To sacrifice one's life is to give up
one's life to which one clings; otherwise it would not be a sa-
crifice, it would be a gift. If you use the word "sacrifice", it
means lt is something which makes you suffer when you give it
up. The word "sacrifice" is used at random, that is understood,
but I am speaking of the true sense. One can sacrifice only what
one holds dear. If one does not cling to it, it is not a sacrifice,
it is a gift with all the joy of the giving. Surrender has no value
if it is painful, if it is a sacrifice. Surrender must be truly a
joyous offering (I am using the word soumission in the sense
of surrender, but it is not quite surrender - surrender is be-
tween soumission and abandon). One gives up something,
surrenders oneself, but without sacrifice.

"In our Yoga there is no room for sacrifice. But

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Questions and Answers                                                                                                                        14 April 1951

everything depends on the meaning you put in the                  to preach his fat.her's religion. He told me his story and what
word. In its pure sense it means a consecrated giving,           had happened in Persia at the beginning of the religion. And I
a making sacred to the Divine. But in the significance           remember him telling me with what intense joy, what a sense
that it now bears, sacrifice is something that works             of the divine Presence, of the divine Force, these people went
for destruction; it carries about it an atmosphere of            to the sacrifice - it can't be called "sacrifice", it was a very joy-
negation. This kind of sacrifice is not fulfilment; it is        ful gift of their life .... He always spoke to me of someone who
a deprivation, a_ self-immolation .... Whená you do any-         was, it appears, a very great poet and who had been arrested as
thing with the sense of a compression of your being,             a heretic because he followed the Bahai religion. They wanted
be sure that you are doing it in the wrong way."                 to take him away to kill him - or burn or hang or crucify him,
Ibid.    I don't know what, the manner of death in vogue at the time
- and, because he expressed his faith and said he would be
Why does sacrifice have such a great value in reli-              happy to suffer anything for his faith and his God, people de-
gion?                                                           vised the plan of fixing small lighted candle-ends on his body,
his arms, his shoulders. Naturally the candles melted with the
Many religions are founded upon the idea of sacrifice; for in-             hot wax all over, till the wick of the candle burnt the skin. It
stance, all the Chaldean religions. The reforms of the Muslim              seems Abdul Baha was there when this man was tortured and
religion also had a very strong tendency towards sacrifice. All            as they came to the spot where he was to be killed, Abdul Baha
the first adepts, the first faithful, paid with their life for changing    went up to speak to him affectionately - and he was in an ecs-
their religion. In Persia, they were persecuted beyond all telling.        tasy of joy. Abdul Baha spoke to him of his sufferings; he re-
There are even many writings in which the joys of sacrifice are            plied, "Suffer ! it is one of the most beautiful hours of my
praised highly - that is a Chaldean idea. But you should be on             life .... " This cannot be called a sacrifice, can it?
your guard; all depends upon the meaning given to the word.                      Generally, all those who have suffered tortures for their
It is obvious that for him who sacrifices himself willingly, that          faith, that is, for their highest thought, their most sublime ideal,
is, who gives up his life voluntarily and with joy, it is no longer       have always felt a kind of divine grace helping them and keep-
a sacrifice, by the very definition we have given to the word.            ing them from suffering. Of course, outsiders call this a "sacri-
We also speak of the "sacrifice" of the Divine. But I have           fice" (that is understandable, they have sacrificed their life), but
noticed that this is called "sacrifice" when one understands that         one cannot use the word for what personally concerns them, be-
if obliged to do it oneself it would be very difficult ! it would         cause for them it was not a sacrifice, it was a joy. All depends
give you much pain, it would be very hard (laughing) so one               on the inner attitude. Now, if for a single moment during the
speaks of sacrifice, but it is probable that for the Divine it was        torture they had had the least idea, "Why am I being tortured ?"
not painful and he did it willingly, with all the joy of self-giving.     they would have undergone unbearable suffering. A single pass-
I knew Abdul Baha very well, the successor of Baha Ullah,            ing thought suffices.
founder of the Bahai religion; Abdul Baha was his son. He was                   Almost all events - at least all the important circumstances
born in prison and lived in prison till he was forty, I believe.          of human life - may be looked at from two sides: from below
When he came out of prison his father was dead and he began               or from above. If you see them from below, with the feel-

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-- Questions and Answers 1950-51 (Used by permission of the curator)