Chapter 12

Cure of Depression – V

When a depression comes, what should one do?

Shake it off, as you shake off the dust from your feet.

How to avoid attacks of depression?

Do not pay attention to the depression and act as if it was not there.

It is the ego that gets depressed.

Do not mind it. Go on quietly with your work and the depression will disappear.

Dear Mother, for the past two days I have felt a great despair and sadness – so much that I think if it goes on for a few days more, it may be very difficult for me to get rid of these things.…

There are thieves in the subtle world just as in the outer world. But you must close to them the doors of your thoughts and feelings as carefully as a prudent man bolts the doors of his house.

These suggestions of sadness, despair and suicide come from them (the thieves of the vital world), because it is when you are depressed that they are best able to rob you. You must not listen to them – you must reject the wicked suggestions and become yourself once again, that is to say, my “little smile”.

My dear child, will and energy can be cultivated just as the muscles are: by exercise. You must exercise your will to be patient and your energy to reject depression. I am always near you to help you with all my love.

What you must do is to give your vital a good beating as soon as it protests; for,when the physical is concerned, there is reason to be considerate and to take precautions, but with the vital the only method is a sound “kicking”. Kick your vital the moment it complains, because there is no other way of getting out of the petty consciousness which attaches so much importance to creature comforts and social amenities instead of asking for the Light and the Truth.

One of the commonest demands of the vital is for praise. It hates to be criticised and treated as if it were of little importance. But it must be always prepared for rebuffs and stand them with absolute calm; nor must it pay attention to compliments, forgetting that each movement of self-satisfaction is an offering at the altar of the lords of falsehood.

Do not indulge in such ridiculous ideas. “Madness” and “hell” and “dark cell” are all in your imagination.

You had better replace them by the sense of my love and blessings.

Indeed, depression is the worst of all illnesses and we must reject it with as much energy as we use to get rid of a disease.

My dear child, it seems to me that you are so often sad and depressed because your nerves are not very strong. You should eat more, sleep longer, take some exercise in the open air, etc.

[In periods of obscuration] to be able to remain in peace you must keep in your heart gratitude towards the Divine for all the help He gives. If gratitude also is veiled, the obscure periods last much longer. There is, however, a swift and effective remedy: it is to keep always burning in your heart the flame of purification, the aspiration for progress, the intensity, the ardour of consecration. This flame is kindled in the heart of all who are sincere; you must not let ingratitude cover it up with its ashes.