Daily Offerings
The Unfallen Planes
But our dwarf will and cold pragmatic sense
Admit not the celestial visitants:
Awaiting us on the Ideal’s peaks
Or guarded in our secret self unseen
Yet flashed sometimes across the awakened soul,
Hide from our lives their greatness, beauty, power.
Our present feels sometimes their regal touch,
Our future strives towards their luminous thrones:
Out of spiritual secrecy they gaze,
Immortal footfalls in mind’s corridors sound:
Our souls can climb into the shining planes,
The breadths from which they came can be our home.
His privilege regained of shadowless sight
The Thinker entered the immortals’ air
And drank again his pure and mighty source.
Immutable in rhythmic calm and joy
He saw, sovereignly free in limitless light,
The unfallen planes, the thought-created worlds
Where Knowledge is the leader of the act
And Matter is of thinking substance made,
Feeling, a heaven-bird poised on dreaming wings,
Answers Truth’s call as to a parent’s voice,
Form luminous leaps from the all-shaping beam
And Will is a conscious chariot of the Gods,
And Life, a splendour stream of musing Force,
Carries the voices of the mystic Suns.
A happiness it brings of whispered truth;
The re runs in its flow honeying the bosom of Space
A laughter from the immortal heart of Bliss,
And the unfathomed Joy of timelessness,
The sound of Wisdom’s murmur in the Unknown
And the breath of an unseen Infinity.
In gleaming clarities of amethyst air
The chainless and omnipotent Spirit of Mind
Brooded on the blue lotus of the Idea.
A gold supernal sun of timeless Truth
Poured down the mystery of the eternal Ray
Through a silence quivering with the word of Light
On an endless ocean of discovery.
Far- off he saw the joining hemispheres.
On meditation’s mounting edge of trance
Great stairs of thought climbed up to unborn heights
Where Time’s last ridges touch eternity’s skies
And Nature speaks to the spirit’s absolute.
[Savitri: Book Two Canto 11]
From Wonder to Wonder
March 28, 1914
From the time we started and every day more and more, in all things we can see Thy divine intervention, everywhere Thy law is expressed, and I need all my inner conviction to feel that this is perfectly natural, so that I do not pass from wonder to wonder.
At no moment do I feel that I am living outside Thee and never have the horizons appeared vaster to me and the depths at once more luminous and unfathomable. Grant, O Divine Teacher, that we may know and accomplish our mission upon earth better and better, more and more, that we may make full use of all the energies that are in us, and Thy sovereign Presence become manifest ever more perfectly in the silent depths of our soul, in all our thoughts, all our feelings, all our actions.
I find it almost strange to speak to Thee, so much is it Thou who livest in me, thinkest and lovest.
[Prayers and Meditations of the Mother]
Fear as the Main Cause of Illness
Nine-tenths of the danger in an illness comes from fear. Fear can give you the apparent symptoms of an illness; and it can give you the illness too,—its effects can go so far as that. Not so long ago the wife of one who frequents the Ashram but is not herself practicing Yoga, heard that there was cholera in the house where her milkman lived; fear took her and the next moment she began to show symptoms of the disease. She could however be rapidly cured, because the apparent symptoms were not allowed to develop into the real illness.
There are physical movements, effects of the pressure of the Yoga, which sometimes create ungrounded fears that may do harm if the fear is not rejected. There is, for instance, a certain pressure in the head of which there has been question and which is felt by many, especially in the earlier stages, when something that is still closed has to open. It is a discomfort that comes to nothing and can easily be got over, if you know that it is an effect of the pressure of the forces to which you are opening, when they work strongly on the body to produce a result and to hasten the transformation. Taken quietly, it can turn into a not unpleasurable sensation. But if you get frightened, you are sure to contract a very bad headache; it may even go as far as a fever. The discomfort is due to some resistance in the nature; if you know how to release the resistance, you are immediately free of the discomfort. But get frightened and the discomfort may turn into something much worse. Whatever the character of the experience you have, you must give no room to fear; you must keep an unshaken confidence and feel that whatever happens is the thing that had to happen. Once you have chosen the path, you must boldly accept all the consequences of your choice. But if you choose and then draw back and choose again and again draw back, always wavering, always doubting, always fearful, you create a disharmony in your being, which not only retards your progress, but can be the origin of all kinds of disturbance in the mind and vital being and discomfort and disease in the body.
[The Mother, CWM 3:90-91]
Songs of the Soul: October 18, 2024
Mother Divine, our most beautiful, most precious moments are those when we are alone with Thee. As a mother You know and provide all that we need inwardly and outwardly even before we have asked or even become conscious of it.
Mother, sweet Mother, as a Guide, You not only lead us through the paths meant for us, but also protect us against the dangers within and without, most of all the danger from our own self. Not only do You Guide and Protect, in all critical moments You carry us safe in Your arms and it is only when we have crossed the perilous bridge do we realize what the passage meant.
As a Friend and Confidante, it is You alone who listens and understands not just the words but the thought, feeling, intent and everything else that is behind it. Indeed You know us more than anyone including what we ourselves can know, yet who never judges or condemns but is always there to help, to heal, to succour and even to enjoy together. Your counsel looks beyond the moment and sees the yet unborn future. Your denials are a Compassion and if You let us go through the difficulties and challenges of life it is only to help us progress fast and draw nearer to Thee.
What else and whom else would one need. The whole world and its powers are a travesty of Thy Beauty and Light and Love and Power. What else can one want but to walk with You alone on any and every path through which You choose to take us, O eternal Guide, Friend, Beloved….
May our hearts grow tranquil and free. May our thoughts grow luminous and pure. May our body grow receptive to Thy touch.
Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa
Play of Forces
Added to this primary source of disharmony, there are secondary causes as well. These arise due to the fact that Man is neither alone nor isolated in the cosmos. He himself is one field for the complex play of forces that weave the fabric of his nature. But in a deeper view of things everything in this cosmos can be seen and understood in terms of energies and forces. These are broadly of three or four categories. There are the gross physical forces that material Science studies. There are also the subtle forces that psychological Science tries to explore. Finally, there are occult forces hidden to our present abilities and capacities for perception and conception. To use the term from Indian Thought, these forces can be each categorized by their action as forces of creation or constructive forces, forces of preservation or balancing forces, forces of disintegration or destructive forces. Indian Thought gave to these forces significant names of Rajas (constructive and creative), Sattwa (preserving and balancing), Tamas (destroying and disintegrative). The respective beings and powers behind these three are Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh, the trinity of Indian spiritual thought and vision. Illnesses also arise when there is an imbalance between these forces either due to an unequal stress in the nature or due to coming in contact and proximity with one or the other.
Let us take an example, words, written or spoken, music that is expressed, food, air, water, organisms, etc. are all gross forces and each exercise influence us to a certain degree. The corresponding subtle forces would be Thought, inner harmony and rhythm, feelings, strength, will etc. The occult element would be the various types of energies and beings that enter into us unseen and move us even without our knowledge. Now, words of Thought, food, air, feelings, organisms, people, plants, for that matter anything can have on us a destructive, constructive or preservative influence. Indian thought elaborately classified these phenomena and discovered that each and every object or form can be resolved into varying degrees of combination of five elements, namely space (etheric vibrations), air (movement), water (attraction and repulsion), fire (energizing a form), earth (concretizing, precipitating, gravitational). Different activities of life require different elements. However, if the use of one of these elements is in excess or in deficiency compared to the others, the balance is disturbed leading to a state of disharmony and illness.
Finally, we have a whole range of physical and biological phenomenon which can upset the state of harmony and trigger an imbalance. This means that the vision of Integral Health provides us with a comprehensive understanding of health and illness, and, man’s relation with the world around. It takes into account and does not exclude physical causes of health and illness. But it sees them in a New Light, thereby allowing a deeper and more holistic understanding. Similarly Integral Health takes into account and does not exclude different forms of healing practices that mankind has evolved so far. But here too it sees them in a New Light providing us with a greater flexibility and a more holistic approach.
Alok Pandey
Is It advisable to Join the Ashram for a Teenager?
Q: I told my family that I want to go to Pondicherry after graduation to server Her and live there only forever. But I am advised to take some time to think about it, and I have also many questions. Please advise, I don’t want to waste my life without serving her, and how do I serve Her outside the Ashram?
ALOKDA: Maa is everywhere and the world is everywhere. This is a fundamental truth that we must always remember. It is true that the Ashram does facilitate the yoga in certain ways, especially because of the Samadhi and Her touch and the intense supramental vibration in the atmosphere. Yet each one receives and progresses according to one’s receptivity and openness. There are everywhere only a few people who respond to the core demands of the central aim that gave birth to an idea or an institution. This is especially so if the aim is high and something that has never been even conceived before. This difficulty is here as well. However since the activities of the Ashram and its basic lifestyle has been organised keeping this central goal in mind and also since the Mother has built it as a special formation for the practice of the yoga it does facilitate the sadhana of the Integral Yoga. That is something that cannot be denied.
Of course different people come for different purposes but that is their concern and the Divine’s. Yet by the very fact that they have landed here and have at least aspired however momentarily and imperfectly to strive for something higher and more beautiful, they deserve our salutations. Even if they fall and fail at least they tried something high and beautiful rather than the normal life of human beings that is centered largely around their physical-vital-emotional needs with some sprinkling of intellectual spice and rare moments of a spiritual upsurge. Having said that it is important to remember that not all are called upon or meant to practice the yoga in the Ashram setting. Different people follow different paths and according to their inner needs and the experiences they still must have the Divine and the world-forces arrange the events and circumstances until man is ready to leave behind everything and follow the path and the goal opened before him. Each one must feel his way through life and move towards the Goal as the path opens up step by step depending upon the choices we make and the approach and the attitude we take.
For a person who has just begun the great journey of life it is better to have some experience of life before thinking about joining the Ashram permanently. It is better to face and grapple with the forces that challenge us and our right to grow divine rather than come here prematurely and remain drawn to the world and its ways that meander far and long before man takes the decisive turn.
Best therefore for you would be to study and earn some livelihood. Meanwhile stay inwardly connected to Her and come here from time to time. Leave the rest for Time and Grace to unveil. We cannot plan the entire journey. It is the first step that is given to us and the goal towards which we must move. take that first step and it is to study and equip yourself for Her Work while remembering Her and offering all to Her inwardly.
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