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= What is Individualisation? =
Individualisation, is the capacity to take up all experiences and organise them around the divine centre. (The Mother, 24 February, 1951) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/24-february-1951#p38</ref>
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One can't merge one's ego in the Divine before becoming completely individualised. (The Mother, 28 July, 1954) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/28-july-1954#p40</ref>
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In order to become a conscious, individualised being, one needs his ego; that is why it is there. It is only when one has realised his own individuality sufficiently, has become a conscious, independent being with its own reality, that he no longer needs the ego. And at that time one can make an effort to get rid of it. (The Mother, 22 September, 1954) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/22-september-1954#p42</ref>
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'''''Before it's Formation'''''
“...the first state of your being is a state of an almost total mixture with all things from outside, and that there is almost no individualisation, that is, specialisation which makes you a different being. You are moved—a kind of form which is your physical being is moved—by all the common universal forces, vital forces or mental forces, which go through your form and put it in motion. (The Mother, 14 December, 1955) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/14-december-1955#p18</ref>
'''''It’s not the Cause of Individuality'''''
It is purposely, mind you, that I have not mentioned the ego as one of the causes of the sense of individuality. For the ego being a falsehood and an illusion, the sense of individuality would itself be false and illusory (as Buddha and Shankara affirm), whereas the origin of individualisation being in the Supreme Himself, the ego is only a passing deformation, necessary for the moment, which will disappear when its utility is over, when the Truth-Consciousness will be established. (The Mother, 3 March, 1951) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/3-march-1951#p31</ref>
''''' Growth towards Integral Self-Knowledge '''''
=== The Role of Ego ===
The ego was created for the work of individualisation; when the work is achieved, it is not unusual for the ego to accept its own dissolution. (The Mother, 7 December, 1968) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/16/7-december-1968#p2</ref>
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...before speaking of merging one's ego in the Divine, one must first know a little what one is. The ego is there. Its necessity is that you become conscious, independent beings, individualised—I mean in the see of independent—that you may not be the public square where everything goes criss-cross! That you may exist in yourselves. That is why there is an ego. It is like that; that is why also there is a skin, like that... though truly, even physical forces pass through the skin. There is a vibration which goes a certain distance. But still, it's the skin that prevents us from blending into one another. (The Mother, 28 July, 1954) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/28-july-1954#p56</ref>
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In order to become a conscious, individualised being, one needs his ego; that is why it is there. It is only when one has realised his own individuality sufficiently, has become a conscious, independent being with its own reality, that he no longer needs the ego. And at that time one can make an effort to get rid of it. (The Mother, 22 September, 1954) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/22-september-1954#p42</ref>
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Certainly, if one were to lose one's ego too soon, from the vital and mental point of view one would again become an amorphous mass. The ego is surely the instrument for individualisation, that is, until one is an individualised being, constituted in himself, the ego is an absolutely necessary factor. If one had the power of abolishing the ego ahead of time, one would lose one's individuality. But once the individuality has been formed, the ego becomes not only useless but harmful. And only then comes the time when it must be abolished. But naturally, as it has taken so much trouble to build you, it does not give up its work so easily, and it asks for the reward of its efforts, that is, to enjoy the individuality. (The Mother, 12 January, 1955) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/12-january-1955#p25</ref>
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So, for everyone—except for those who are born free, and this is obviously very rare—for everyone this state of reason, of effort, desire, individualisation and solid physical balance in accordance with the ordinary mode of living is indispensable to begin with, until the time one becomes a conscious being, when one must give up all these things in order to become a spiritual being. (The Mother, 28 November, 1956) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/28-november-1956#p15</ref>
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=== Safety and Limitations of Ego ===
To live without a fortress is extremely difficult—people have the feeling that they are not living, that they are not individualised, that they are floating about. It is extremely difficult to live in something infinitely vast, moving, constantly changing, perpetually in progress, not to be held by anything to which one can cling, saying "I am this; this is my way of thinking." It is very difficult, one must not try it too soon; there are those whose mind gets deranged by it. (The Mother, 12 March, 1951) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/12-march-1951#p19</ref>
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It (The Psychic) is always pure. But it is either more or less individualised and independent in its action. What is psychic in the being is always pure, by its very definition, for it is that part of the being which is in contact with the Divine and expresses the truth of the being. But this may be like a spark in the darkness of the being or it may be a being of light, conscious, fully formed and independent. There are all the gradations between the two. (The Mother, 16 December, 1953) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/16-december-1953#p15</ref>
'''''Aim of the Psychic Being'''''
The aim of the psychic being is to form an individual being, individualised, "personalised" around the divine centre. Normally, all the experiences of the external life (unless one does yoga and becomes conscious) pass without organising the inner being, while the psychic being organises these experiences serially. It wants to realise a particular attitude towards the Divine. Hence it looks for all favourable experiences in order to have the complete series of opportunities, so to say, which will allow it to realise this attitude towards the Divine. (The Mother, 24 February, 1951) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/24-february-1951#p39</ref>
=== Evolution of the Psychic ===
'''Kinds of Progress'''
There are in the psychic being two very different kinds of progress: one consisting in its formation, building and organisation. For the psychic starts by being only a kind of tiny divine spark within the being and out of this spark will emerge progressively an independent conscious being having its own action and will. The psychic being at its origin is only a spark of the divine consciousness and it is through successive lives that it builds up a conscious individuality. It is a progress similar to that of a growing child. It is a thing in the making. For a long time, in most human beings the psychic is a being in the making. It is not a fully individualised, fully conscious being and master of itself and it needs all its rebirths, one after another, in order to build itself and become fully conscious. (The Mother, 5 August, 1953) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/5-august-1953#p2</ref>
'''Growth happens only on Earth'''
It is only upon earth that the psychic being gets its experiences to individualise itself. Hence there is an almost absolute interdependence between the psychic world and the earth. (The Mother, 10 March, 1951) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/1-march-1951#p25</ref>
=== Individualisation and the Purusha ===
=== The Psychic Presence in the Vital World ===
As soon as there is organic life, the vital element comes in, and it is this vital element which gives to flowers the sense of beauty. It is not perhaps individualised in the sense we understand it, but it is a sense of the species and the species always tries to realise it. I have noticed a first rudiment of the psychic presence and vibration in vegetable life, and truly this blossoming one calls a flower is the first manifestation of the psychic presence. The psychic is individualised only in man, but it was there before him; but it is not the same kind of individualisation as in man, it is more fluid: it manifests as force, as consciousness rather than as individuality. Take the rose, for example; its great perfection of form, colour, scent expresses an aspiration and a psychic giving. Look at a rose opening in the morning at the first touch of the sun, it is a magnificent self-giving in aspiration. (The Mother, 1 March, 1951) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/1-march-1951#p34</ref>
=== The Psychic in the Realm of Matter ===
If there were no psychic in Matter, it would not be able to have any direct contact with the Divine. And it is happily due to this psychic presence in Matter that the contact between Matter and the Divine can be direct and all human beings can be told, "You carry the Divine within you, and you have only to enter within yourself and you will find Him." It is something very particular to the human being or rather to the inhabitants of the earth. In the human being the psychic becomes more conscious, more formed, more conscious and more independent also. It is individualised in human beings. But it is a speciality of the earth. It is a direct infusion, special and redeeming, in the most inconscient and obscure Matter, so that it might once again awake through stages to the divine Consciousness, the divine Presence and finally to the Divine Himself. It is the presence of the psychic which makes man an exceptional being.. (The Mother, 9 June, 1954)<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/9-june-1954#p28</ref>
=== Full Individualisation ===
But this sort of progress has an end. There comes a time when the being is fully developed, fully individualised, fully master of itself and its destiny. When this being or one of these psychic beings has reached that stage and takes birth in a human being, that makes a very great difference: the human being, so to say, is born free. He is not tied to circumstances, to surroundings, to his origin and atavism, like ordinary people. He comes into the world with the purpose of doing something, with a work to carry out, a mission to fulfill. From this point of view his progress in growth has come to an end, that is, it is not indispensable for him to take birth again in a body. Till then rebirth is a necessity, for it is through rebirth that he grows; it is in the physical life and in a physical body that he gradually develops and becomes a fully conscious being. But once he is fully formed, he is free, in this sense that he can take birth or not, at will. So there, one kind of progress stops. (The Mother, 5 August, 1953) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/5-august-1953#p3</ref>
For the complete individual is the cosmic individual, since only when we have taken the universe into ourselves, — and transcended it, — can our individuality be complete. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/22/the-gnostic-being#p9</ref>
=== Psychic Being and the Eternal Truth ===
It organises itself around it and enters into contact with it. The psychic is moved by the Truth. The Truth is something eternally self-existent and dependent on nothing in time or space, whereas the psychic being is a being that grows, takes form, progresses, individualises itself more and more. In this way it becomes more and more capable of manifesting this Truth, the eternal Truth that is one and permanent. The psychic being is a progressive being, which means that the relation between the psychic being and the Truth is a progressive one. It is not possible to become aware of one's psychic being without becoming aware at the same time of the inner Truth. All those who have had this experience—not a mental experience but an integral experience of contact with the psychic being, not a contact with the idea they have constructed of it, but a truly concrete contact—all say the same thing: from the very minute this contact takes place, one is absolutely conscious of the eternal Truth within oneself and one sees that it is the purpose of life and the guide of the world. One can't have one without the other; in fact, it is this that makes you realise that you are in contact with your psychic being. It may not be a conscious contact, but something that governs your life. (The Mother, 18 January, 1951) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/15/18-january-1951#p18</ref>
= Why Individualisation? =