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A Method for the Seeker to Obtain Guidance Through Accessing a Random Passage in a Book · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  The idea that one can receive guidance in response to a
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  question or aspiration 1 is holding within oneself from a
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  randomly chosen page of a book is not based on some idea of
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  magic, but is grounded in an understanding of the unity of
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  consciousness and the interactive nature of
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  consciousness in action. Shirley MacLaine, in her book
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  and film of the same name, Out on a Limb, described an
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  experience she felt was extraordinary.
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  She entered a bookshop with questions about the meaning of
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  her life, the significance of relationships she was forming,
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  and the possibility of past lives impacting the present.
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  These questions were very active in her being.
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  As she started browsing the shelves, a particular book
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  literally fell off of a higher shelf and landed in her hands.
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  It was a book that responded to the question she had.
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  Mysterious, no doubt, but it illustrates this interactive
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  nature of the entire manifestation with a deeply felt
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  aspiration. The answers are provided.
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  Sometimes it comes through a book, sometimes through a
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  serendipitous meeting with a person, or a particular event or
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  experience that occurs, whether you call it a response to a
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  prayer or a matter of synchronicity, or a tuning of
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  the individual consciousness to the universal consciousness.
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  There is no doubt, based on the experience of vast numbers of
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  people throughout the world and spanning virtually every
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  spiritual tradition, that such guidance is available to the
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  sincere seeker who concentrates his aspiration.
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  For this process to work, not only the seeker's consciousness
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  must be focused and concentrated, but he must be
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  applying to a book that carries the force that can provide such
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  answers. Great spiritual texts are thus
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  more readily able to guide as they are created with the force
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  of the wider, higher consciousness, and thus are more
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  easily accessed and themselves focused on the issues raised by
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  sincere seekers. The Mother provides a clue that
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  using texts with aphorisms tends to work better simply because
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  the answer is much more clear and easily assimilated than if
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  one tries to ferret out the sense from a long passage in a
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  much more dense text. Many have found that using Sri
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  Aurobindo's epic poem Savitri, a legend and a symbol, in this way
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  seems to be particularly beneficial, as it is a
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  storehouse of spiritual energy in a very concentrated form.
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  The Mother notes quote. There is always a way of reading
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  and understanding what one reads which gives an answer to what
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  you want. It is not just a chance or an
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  amusement, nor is it a kind of diversion.
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  You may do it just like that and then nothing at all happens to
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  you. You have no reply and it is not
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  interesting. But if you do it seriously, if
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  seriously, your aspiration tries to concentrate on this
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  instrument. It is like a battery, isn't it,
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  which contains energies. If it tries to come into contact
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  with the energy which is there and insists on having the answer
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  to what it wants to know, well, naturally the energy is there.
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  The union of the two forces, the force given out by you and that
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  accumulated in the book will guide your hand and your paper
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  knife, or whatever you have. It will guide you exactly to the
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  thing that expresses what you ought to know.
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  Obviously, if one does it without sincerity or conviction,
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  nothing at all happens. If it is done sincerely, 1 gets
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  an answer. Certain books are like this,
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  more powerfully charged than others.
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  There are others where the result is less clear, but
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  generally books containing aphorisms and short sentences,
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  not very long philosophical explanations, but rather things
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  in a condensed and precise form. It is with these that one
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  succeeds best. Naturally, the value of the
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  answer depends on the value of the spiritual force contained in
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  the book. If you take a novel, it will
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  tell you nothing at all but stupidities.
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  But if you take a book containing a condensation of
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  forces of knowledge or spiritual force or teaching power, you
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  will receive your answer. End Quote Reference Sri
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  Aurobindo and the Mother Powers within, Chapter 10 Obtaining
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  Answers and Solutions, pages 93 to 94.