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straight path, starting the same thing all over again several times to see what will happen.
And these enlightened cranks, who want to get there at once, as soon as possible, who
thirst for truth, light, beauty, balance — they bother her, they urge her on, they tell her
that she is wasting her time. Her time! She always replies, “But I have all eternity before
me. Am I in a hurry? Why are you in such a hurry?” And again, with a smile: “Your haste
is all too human; widen yourselves, become infinite, be eternal, and you will no longer be
in a hurry.”

There is so much fun on the way, for her... but not for everyone.

This is what happens when one sees things from a great height, from a great distance,
when one’s view is vast, almost infinite. Everything that upsets human beings and makes
them suffer, disappears; so those who are very wise, who have abandoned life for the sake
of higher wisdom tell you with a smile, “Why suffer? Come out of it and you will suffer
no more.” That is all very well individually but, in fact, if you think about others you may
wish this rather tragic comedy would come to an end sooner. And it is very justifiable to
feel tired of living like a beast at pasture, of roaming from one patch of grass to another, of
ruminating in a corner, of having such narrow horizons and of missing all the splendours
of life.

Perhaps it amuses Nature that we should be like that, but we are tired of it, we want to
be different.

And that is it. When you have truly had enough of it and want things to be different, then
you have the courage, the strength, the capacity to conquer these three terrible enemies:
fear, doubt and scepticism. But I repeat, it is not enough to sit down one fine day, watch
yourself be, and struggle with these things inside you once and for all. You have to do it
and do it again and again and continue in a way which seems almost endless, to be sure
that you have got rid of it all. In reality, you are perhaps never truly rid of it, but there
comes a time when inside yourself, you are so different that you can no longer be touched
by these things. You can see them, but you see them with a smile, and at a simple gesture
they go away, back to where they came from, perhaps a little changed, perhaps a little
less strong, less obstinate, less aggressive — until the time when the Light is so strong
that all darkness vanishes. As for the marvels Sri Aurobindo tells us about, it is better
not to describe them, because each individual feels them, undergoes them, experiences
them in his own way — and for each person that is the best way. One must not adopt
another’s way, one must go one’s own way, then the experience has its full value, its full
inestimable value.

And finally, I wish that you may all have these experiences yourselves. And for that, faith,
confidence, much humaneness and great goodwill are needed.

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