Atavism: “the recurrence of a genetically controlled feature in an organism after it has been absent for several generations, usually because of an accidental recombination of genes.” This is the usual professional content of the term which rather has to be seen in its deeper psychological aspects. The compilation from the Mother’s writings on several different occasions brings out in a luminous way its true and acceptable connotation. This should help us to examine the latest biography of Sri Aurobindo in the proper perspective. Thanks to Paulette for this timely and thoughtful presentation.

“You think,” asks the Mother, “it is you who decide: these are impulses coming from outside. You think you are conscious of your will: it is a consciousness which is not yours. And everything... you are made up entirely of something which is the forces of Nature expressing a higher Will of which you are unconscious.

Only, one doesn’t understand this except when one can come out of one’s ego, though it be only for a moment; for the ego—and this is its strength—is convinced that it alone decides. But if one looks attentively, one notices that it is moved by all sorts of things which are not itself.”

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