Reflections and Recollections

Part 7

Reflections on Psychic Education

The day's lesson on Psychic Education felt good. Quietness prevailed. About five children did not attend the session because of other commitments. Two or three adults in the room were invited to participate in the activities. We spent some time talking about what the Psychic could mean. The participants were seated in a circle. In the middle of the circle, Sudha, our co-facilitator, placed a lighted candle and some large, red hibiscus flowers around the flame. These two elements symbolised the psychic in many ways and was a point of discussion at the start. The lights were switched off. The ambience was good and enabled the children to go a little deeper into themselves. We presented The Mother's and Sri Aurobindo's idea of the psychic. The children had many questions to ask about the Divine, about God and how to know the psychic, among other concerns. We constantly referred the children to "Truth", "Beauty" and "Goodness" as qualities very close to the psychic. This was conveyed to the children by Prof Nadkarni earlier in the year in a talk he had with the children and their parents.

The next part of the activity centred around writing a letter to The Mother. The objective of this exercise was to enable pupils to open the inner, deeper being to The Mother. An important rule that all had to adhere to was truth, honesty and sincerity in addressing The Mother. Prolonged practice of this activity is likely to familiarise the children with a quiet inner being seeking a relationship with the Divine.

Those of us who were willing shared our letter with the rest of the class. The sharing was to expose the participants to many ways of writing to The Mother, to illustrate different degrees of depth in the address. Whatever the content, the ruling principles would have to be truth, honesty and sincerity. Through the sharing, we learnt how the adults as well as the children had attempted to communicate intimate feelings to The Mother and also their aspirations. Many of the readings brought tears to our eyes. An invisible bridge or link was there that brought us closer. A potent silence reigned in the background throughout the sharing session.

I would like to include an excerpt from my page of reflection on the lesson, which I wrote at the end of the day. It was a reflection addressed to The Mother:

"There was a sense of contentment at the end of today's lesson. The level of perfection, Amma, in what we did, we cannot measure. But it feels good just to know that You used all of us, at whatever levels of consciousness we were at, according to a certain plan, bringing the psychic nature a little bit to the front. You were there throughout, working it all out.

May we discard always our "I" ness and become Your perfect instruments, and that too, only if that is Your will. May the self-offering be, to the core. The prayer (3rd May 1914) that Swati read at the beginning of the lesson was so very apt, as You have chosen."

Words cannot explain the way things are worked out by the hand of the Divine, unobtrusively, quietly and decisively.

- Jayanthy

- Participants Reflection

(Psychic Education at IEP)

Today, for our IEP, we had Psychic Education. It was very quiet. All of us were in a meditative and silent mode. It was easier to concentrate today because of the silence and quiet, quite different from other lessons, like the physical, when we make a lot of noise and there is movement. During nosier times, it is also more difficult to concentrate.

One of the activities done today was to recall whatever I did today before coming for the IEP lesson. Another activity was to write a letter to The Mother. I enjoyed writing the letter to The Mother. I also drew a picture at the bottom of the page. The Mother was the first person I was writing a letter to and it felt good, just writing. In fact I was surprised that I could write a letter as long as the one I wrote. It was a fun activity and I wish to carry on writing every night to The Mother.

- Vatsala