The Mother with Madhav Pandit and Champaklal
Myself and My Creed
The Declaration of a True Slave of God
I belong to no nation, no civilization, no society, no race but to the Divine.
I give obedience to no master, no ruler, no law, no social convention, but to the Divine.
To Him I have surrendered all, will, life and self; for Him I am ready to give all my blood, drop by drop, if such is His will, with complete joy; and nothing in His service can be sacrifice for all is perfect delight.
February 1920
“Ah! Since India is the cradle of religion, since all the Gods preside over her destiny, what is he who will accomplish the miracle of resuscitating this city….!” — A. Chaumel
Blinded by false appearances, deceived by calumnies, held back by fears and prejudices, he has passed without knowing it by the side of the god whose intervention he implores; he has come close to the forces which will accomplish the miracle he demands but without waiting to recognise them; and thus he has missed the most beautiful chance of his life — a unique chance — of entering into contact with the mysteries and marvels the existence of which his mind guesses and to which his heart dimly aspires. . .
In all ages, before receiving initiation the aspirant had to pass through many tests. In the ancient schools these tests were artificial and hence lost the greater part of their value. Now it is no longer the same; the tests are hidden behind the most ordinary daily circumstances and they have a little innocent look of coincidence or chance which makes them so much the more difficult and dangerous.
So it is that India does not reveal the mystery of its treasures except to those who can conquer within themselves the mental preferences and prejudices of race and education. Others go away disappointed. . . not having found what they were in search of — because they looked wrongly for it, because they did not agree to pay the price of the Divine.
Pondicherry, 21 September 1928
Psychic beings
The quality is definite but the number is undetermined.
24 March 1932
It is always the same old story of “selling the birthright for a mess of pottage” (I understand the “birthright” as the possibility or capacity to be the first to reach the Divine Realisation).
4 May 1932
I feel inclined to reply:
I live so far from all these conventions that I had not even thought of that.
16 May 1932
Today at Pranam, for the first time I could enter D’s heart and an emanation of mine settled there.
14 June 1932
We live only because Thou willest it.
We do not die unless Thou willest it.
2 March 1934
The anniversary of my return to Pondicherry which was the tangible sign of the sure Victory over the adverse forces.
24 April 1937
What I want to bring about in the material world, upon the earth.
1. Perfect Consciousness.
2. Integral Knowledge, omniscience.
3. Power Invincible, irresistible, ineluctable (Power), omnipotence.
4. Health, Perfect, constant, unshakable (Health), perpetually renewed energy.
5. Eternal Youth, constant growth, uninterrupted progress.
6. Perfect Beauty, complex and total harmony.
7. Inexhaustible unparalleled Riches, control over all the wealth of this world.
8. The Gift of healing and giving happiness.
9. Immunity from all accidents, invulnerability against all adverse attacks.
10. Perfect Power of expression in all fields and all activities.
11. The Gift of tongues, the power of making oneself understood perfectly by all.
12. And all else necessary for the accomplishment of Thy work.
23 October 1937
Silence all outside noise, aspire for the Divine’s help; open integrally to it when it comes and surrender to its action, and it will effectively bring about your transformation.
D.’s belief:
The Divine (as manifested in me) is all irony and deceit. It thinks only of playing tricks. When it laughs it mocks; when it says to do something it makes this very thing impossible to do etc.
I was told that our boys (young or old) like to play with me (the exact words were “to give me a game”) for some reason or another, but to play truly and to learn to play they must play among themselves.
You have this extraordinary opportunity of being able to play a game and to take exercise in an atmosphere filled with Divine Consciousness, Light and Power in such a way that each of your movements is so to say permeated by the consciousness and the light and the power which is in itself an intensive yoga; and your ignorant unconsciousness, your blindness and lack of sensitiveness is such that you believe you are giving a game or even helping to play a good old lady for whom you feel a little gratefulness and some kind of affection!
(In the night of the 4th to the 5th of June 1949)
French is indeed the most precise and clearest language. But from the spiritual point of view it is not true that French is the best language to use; for English has a suppleness, a fluidity which French does not have, and this suppleness is indispensable for not deforming what is vaster and more comprehensive in the experience than what mental expression can formulate.
January 1950
Au revoir, my child, I wish that life may prove happy for you, and that one day you may be born into the Light and Truth.
Au revoir, my child, never forget what your experience was, and do not let any external darkness penetrate and veil your consciousness.
I am with you.
To my child of today and always in remembrance of our new meeting.
A prayer for August 15, 1950
Lord,
Give me the strength of a total and perfect sincerity that I may be worthy of Thy Realisation.
Lord, give us the strength to live integrally the ideal we proclaim.
The Lord has said: The hour is come and all the obstacles will be surmounted.
I am only realising what he has conceived. I am only the protagonist and the continuator of his work.
1951
Palmistry is a very interesting art but it depends for its exactitude and truthfulness almost entirely upon the real ability of the one who practises it. Moreover, it relates only to the material destiny and this destiny can be altered by the intervention of the higher forces.
3 January 1951
Do not take the sorrows of life for what they seem to be; they are in truth a way to greater achievements.
(Music of the 2nd December,’51)
“Who are you?” says the adverse force.
“I am the impartial and truthful Mirror in which everyone finds his own real image.”
25 February 1952
It is a fact that the Godhead has always taken a physical body with the intention of transforming that body and making of it a fit instrument for His manifestation upon earth. But it is a fact also that, until now, He has failed to do so and for one reason or another, He had always to leave that physical body with the work of transformation unfinished.
In order that the Divine may keep till a total transformation takes place, the body through which He is manifesting upon earth, it is necessary that at least one individual, if not more, fulfilling the required conditions of harmony, strength, sincerity, endurance, unselfishness arid poise in the physical, should consider the body in which the Divine incarnates, not only as the most important thing, but as the thing exclusively important, more important than the Divine’s work itself, or rather that this body should become for him the symbol and the concretisation of the Divine’s work upon earth.
3 October 1952
A vision repeated for the third time.
A small mountain train (funiculaire) open, without sides or roof, just seats in rows close to one another, arrives and stops at its terminus. There is only one passenger and no visible driver.
When the train stops, the passenger stands up and steps out of it, on the platform outside. Nothing can be seen of the landscape outside; yet there is a strong feeling that it is the top of a very high mountain covered with ice and snow; beyond it there is only a very clear pale blue sky.
When the passenger stands outside the train he becomes clearly visible. It is Sri Aurobindo, but clean-shaved, no hair, no moustache, no beard, his complexion is pale and ivory, almost translucid. He stands for a second on the platform, and then comes back, sits once more at the same place in the train and says quietly but very decidedly: “No, I will go further”.
And the vision stops abruptly.
4 July 1953
. . . very few, in fact, specially in an age like ours in which success alone counts and the material satisfactions it brings. However, an ever-increasing number of dissatisfied people are seeking to know the reason of life. And, on the other hand, there are sages who know and strive to help suffering humanity and to spread the light of knowledge. When the two meet, he who knows and he who wants to know, there springs up a new hope in the world, and a little light penetrates the prevailing darkness.
I dream at times of this wonderful thing we could have done together . . . but for that I ought to have been beautiful and you a sage!. . .
Today was truly a day of victory, victory over all that yet remained human in the physical consciousness.
O nature, I bring to thee force and light, truth and power; it is for thee to receive and utilise them. It is thou who wilt be receptive in the fruit of thy creation, man, and open the doors of his understanding; it is thou who wilt give him the energy of progress and the will of transformation; and, above all, it is thou who wilt make him accept the Presence and aspire for Realisation.
18 October 1953
This experience followed conclusively the one I had last night whilst seeing Pranab’s film. I felt strongly that my children were emancipated and that they no longer need my physical intervention to do their work well. It is enough that my presence among them is an inspiration and guide for them to keep a clear vision of the goal and not to go astray on the way. This leads quite naturally to a physical withdrawal into oneself so as to concentrate materially upon the work of transformation of the body. I can now leave them externally to do things according to their own ideas of execution, reducing my presence to a more or less invisible role of creative inspiration and consciousness.
10 May 1954
Spirit of service has gone away from this place.
16 May 1954
When I say that I have initiated someone, I mean that I have revealed myself to this person, without words, and that he was capable of seeing, feeling and knowing what I am.
It is their mental and vital formation of me that they love, it is not myself. More and more am I faced with this fact. Everyone has made for himself an image of me in conformity with his needs and desires and it is with this image that he is in contact, it is through this that he receives what few universal forces and still less supramental forces succeed in filtering through all these formations. Unfortunately these people cling to my physical presence, otherwise I could withdraw into my inner solitude and, from there, do my work quietly and freely; but this physical presence is for them a symbol and that is why they cling to it, for, in fact, they have very little real contact with what my body truly is, and with the formidable accumulation of conscious energy it represents.
And now, O supreme Force, now that you descend into me and penetrate more and more totally all the atoms of my body, the distance between me and everything around me seems to increase more and more, and more and more do I feel as though I were floating in an atmosphere of radiant consciousness which completely escapes their understanding.
11 June 1954
The body repeats constantly and with a poignant sincerity: “What am I to demand anything whatsoever from anyone at all? Left to myself I am nothing, I know nothing, I can do nothing. Unless the truth penetrates into me and directs me, I am incapable of taking even the minutest decision and of knowing what is the best thing to do and to live even in the most insignificant circumstance. Shall I ever be((( Am I truly))) capable of being transformed to the point of becoming What I ought to be and of manifesting What wants to manifest upon earth?” But why does this answer always come from the depths, from You, Lord, with an indisputable certitude: “If you cannot do it, no other body upon earth can do it.” There is but one conclusion: I shall persist in my effort, without giving in, I shall persist until death or until victory.
8 September 1954
Since I love only you, O Lord, it is You alone whom I love in all and in each one; and by dint of loving You in them, I shall end up by making them a little conscious of You.
For them, the real thing is to know how to let themselves be loved without any preference and obstruction. But, not only do they not want to be loved except in their own way, they do not want also to open themselves to love unless it comes to them through the intermediary of their choice. . . and what could be done in a few hours, a few months or a few years takes centuries to be accomplished.
When a child lives in normal conditions, it has a spontaneous confidence that all it needs will be given it.
This confidence should persist, unshaken, throughout life; but the limited idea, ignorant and superficial, of its needs which a child has must be replaced progressively by a wider, deeper and truer conception which culminates in the perfect conception of needs in accordance with the supreme wisdom, until we realise that the Divine alone knows what our true needs are and rely upon Him for everything.
19 November 1954
The Avatar
The supreme Divine manifested in an earthly form — generally a human form — for a definite purpose.
They have a disastrous atmosphere. They are pessimistic, dissatisfied, shrivelled up — out of tune with both sides at once, with the soul and with physical nature, which makes their life very miserable.
Yesterday morning I distributed petals of “Divine’s Love”. The previous night was, here, the darkest of the year and in India it is a great festival. Its true significance is that the Divine’s Love is at the base and core of all manifestation even where it seems most completely inconscient.
There is justice ineluctable.
There is here a Consciousness working. Each one when he goes against this divine Consciousness loses something of his consciousness every time he does so. He goes down each time he does something against it. Each one gains in his consciousness every time he acts according to this divine Consciousness.
The world goes on as it is. When there is nothing you or I can do to change it, we can only keep quiet, silent witness like Brahman. As in the world so here also. So many things go on: each one tries to prove his superiority; there is politics of all kinds, propaganda. I only witness like Brahman; I am neither for nor against, neither approve nor condemn.
26 April 1955
There we are, Lord, it is those very people to whom you have shown most love who make you responsible for their difficulties.
My Lord, Thou hast given me tonight this supreme knowledge:
We are living only because such is Thy will
We shall die only if it be Thy will.
Thou hadst decided to submit our faith to Thy test and pass our sincerity to Thy touch-stone. Grant that from this ordeal we come out greater and purer.
It is indispensable to observe the lower movements in one’s being in a detached and scientific way, like a clear-sighted and perspicacious witness; but one should never allow these movements to express and assert themselves as though they had the right to exist and govern the rest of the being. That is to say, one should never act under the impulsion of these movements, never translate physically their promptings into words or actions, never let their orders be expressed in inner or outer gestures.
19 September 1956
And yet there is an analogy. Just as for the piano you may read all the books possible on the art of playing it, if you do not play it yourself you will never be a pianist, so too you may read everything that has been written on occultism, if you do not practise it yourself, you will never be an occultist.
November 1957
Last night I had the vision of what this supramental world could become if men were not sufficiently prepared. The confusion existing at present upon earth is nothing in comparison with what could take place. Imagine that very powerful will has the power to transform matter as it likes! If the sense of collective unity did not grow in proportion to the development of power, the resulting conflict would be yet more acute and chaotic than our material conflicts.
15 February 1958
Every outer change must be the spontaneous and inevitable expression of an inner transformation. Normally, every improvement of the condition of physical life must be the flowing out on the surface of a progress realised internally.
29 March 1958
Do not ask questions about the details of material existence of this body; they are in themselves of no interest and must not attract attention.
Throughout all this life, knowingly or unknowingly, I have been what the Supreme Lord wanted me to be, I have done what He wanted me to do. This is the only thing that counts.
22 June 1958
In the final analysis, seeing the world such as it is and seems meant to be irremediable, human intellect has decided that this universe must be an error of God and that the manifestation or creation is certainly the result of a desire, the desire to manifest, know oneself, enjoy oneself. So the only thing to do is to put an end to this error as soon as possible by refusing to cling to desire and its fatal consequences.
But the Supreme Lord answers that the comedy is not entirely played out, and He adds: “Wait for the last act; undoubtedly you will change your mind.”
23 July 1958
About Peace
It is only by the growth and establishment of the consciousness of human unity that a true and lasting peace can be realised upon earth. All means are welcome although the exterior ones have a very limited effect. But the most important, urgent and indispensable of all is a transformation of the human consciousness itself, an enlightenment and a conversion in its workings.
Meanwhile some exterior steps may be taken usefully and the acceptance of the principle of double nationality is one of them.
The main objection to it has always been the possibility of war and the awkward position in which those who have adopted a double nationality would be in case these two countries were at war. But all those who sincerely want peace must understand that the first indispensable step towards it is not to foresee war; any action taking measures in prevision of a possible war is already a step taken towards its outbreak. On the contrary the larger the number of people who have a vital interest in the abolition of war the more effective the chances towards a stable peace until the advent of a new consciousness in man makes of war an impossibility.
(Sri Aurobindo’s bust by E. Frankel: )1)
From the artistic point of view, it is certainly a masterpiece. It is also an inspired work, inspired by an inner contact with Sri Aurobindo or rather with one of his aspects, with one side of his being, the intellectual side, that of knowledge, the seer.
My Lord, what Thou hast wanted me to do I have done. The gates of the Supramental have been thrown open and the Supramental Consciousness, Light and Force are flooding the earth.
But as yet those who are around me are little aware of it — no radical change has taken place in their consciousness and it is only because they trust my word that they do not say that nothing has truly happened. In addition the exterior circumstances are still harder than they were and the difficulties seem to be cropping up more unsurmountable than ever.
Now that the supramental is there —for of that I am absolutely certain even if I am the only one upon earth to be aware of it —is it that the mission of this form is ended and that another form is to take up the work in its place? I am putting the question to Thee and ask for an answer — a sign by which I shall know for certain that it is still my work and I must continue in spite of all the contradictions, of all the denials.
Whatever is in the sign, I do not care but it must be obvious.
There is nobody here, even among the best, who is ready to give up all his habits, conveniences and preferences to win the final victory, even if he is to break his neck on the way.
One loses most of the advantage of being here if one is not convinced that I can foresee better the consequences and the results of things and actions.
For those who are afraid of a word.
This is what we mean by “Divine”: all the knowledge we have to acquire, all the power we have to obtain, all the love we have to become, all the perfection we have to achieve, all the harmonious and progressive poise we must make manifest in light and joy, all the unknown and new splendours that are to be realised.
This is destined for all those who are working for the organisation and immediate future of human life upon earth, and who see that the only solution of this problem is the concrete and effective realisation of Human Unity.
At the moment, in the physical consciousness, the heart is with X, the lover, and the spiritual confidence with Y, the Guru.
I do not see very well what I have to do in this tableau if it is not as a Will that puts spokes in the wheels of the cart. . . of the truth of the Ego.
I prefer to withdraw and be the impartial and unseen witness.
I am always happy to receive and to help those who wish for harmony and conciliation, and are ready to correct their mistakes and to progress. But I can be of no help to those who throw ail the blame on the others for they are inapt to see the truth and to act accordingly.
But it goes without saying that those who are here and are ready to face some difficulties in order to remain here, will always be welcome.
As usual my words have been completely changed and their meaning quite distorted.
I said that this coming year may prove quite a difficult one.
On the road of the ascending evolution, every one is free to choose the direction he will take: the swift and steep climb towards the summits of Truth, to the supreme realisation or turning his back to the peaks the easy descent to the interminable meanders of endless incarnations.
Solution of the economic problem.
Arriving at the synthesis of two problems:
1. adjusting the production to the needs
2. adjusting the needs to the production
For me everything in human life is mixed, nothing is completely good, nothing completely bad. I cannot give my entire and exclusive support to this idea, to one cause or another. The only important thing for me, in action, is Sri Aurobindo’s work, automatically my conscious support is with all that helps that work and in proportion of the help. And for the work to be carried on as it must be I need all collaborations and all helps, I cannot accept only this one or that one and reject the others. I cannot belong to this party or that party. I belong to the Divine alone and my action upon earth is and will always be for the triumph of the Divine, irrespective of all sects and parties.
“The Wizard of Oz”
A short explanation will surely increase the interest of the picture shown to you tonight.
You will notice that it is in three sections, two black and one, the most extensive, in colour; the two black sections (first and last) show how things appear in the physical world, the coloured one expresses a similar sequence of events in the vital world, the world where one can go in deep sleep when one gets out of the body. So long as you have a body no true harm can happen to you in the vital world for the physical body acts like a protection and you can always return into it at will.
This is expressed in the picture in a classical way. You will see that the little girl wears on her feet some magic red slippers and that so long as she keeps the slippers on her feet, nothing wrong can truly happen to her. The ruby red slippers are the sign and the symbol of the connection with the physical body and so long as the slippers are on her feet she can at will return to her body and take shelter therein.
Two other details can be noted with interest. One is the snow shower that saves the party from the influence of the wicked witch who by her black magic has stopped their advance towards the blue castle of knowledge and intellectual power. In the vital, snow is the symbol of purity itself. It is the purity of their feelings and intentions that saves them from the great danger.
Note that to go to the castle of the good wizard they must follow the big path of golden bricks, the path of luminous confidence and joy.
The second is when Dorothy throws water on the straw man to save him from burning, some water falls on the face of the wicked witch who at once gets dissolved and dies. The water is the symbol of the power of purification and no hostile being or force can resist this power handled with good will and sincerity.
Finally when the good fairy teaches to the little girl, on knocking her two red slippers one against the other, how to go back home, by home she means the physical world which is the place of protection and realisation.
As you see the subject of this picture is interesting and not altogether deprived of knowledge; unhappily the whole set up is not as beautiful and harmonious as it could have been. There are some serious mistakes of taste and many regrettable vulgarities.
There is only one thing of which I am absolutely sure, and that is who I am. Sri Aurobindo also knew it and declared it. Even the doubts of the whole of humanity would change nothing to this fact.
But another fact is not so certain — it is the usefulness of my being here in a body doing the work I am doing. It is not out of any personal urge that I am doing it. Sri Aurobindo told me to do it and that is why I do it as a sacred duty, in obedience to the dictates of the Supreme.
Time will reveal how far earth has benefited through it.
A self-willed man can not be grateful, because when he gets what he wants he gives all the credit for it to his own will, and when he gets what he does not want he resents it badly and throws all the blame on whomever he considers responsible, God, man or nature.
Compassion and gratitude are purely psychic virtues. They appear in the consciousness only with the participation of the psychic being in active life. The vital and physical feel them as weakness because they put a check upon the free expression of their impulsions based on the power of force.
As usual, the mind, when it is not sufficiently educated, is the accomplice of the vital being and the slave of the physical nature whose crushing laws it does not know well through their half-conscious mechanism. When the mind awakens to the consciousness of the first psychic movements, it deforms them in its ignorance and changes compassion into pity and gratitude in to the will to recompense which is transformed gradually into the capacity to recognise and admire. It is only when the psychic consciousness is all-powerful in the being that compassion for all that is below it on the evolutionary ladder and gratitude for all that is higher than it, in whatever form, manifest in their initial and luminous purity, not containing any vestige of the sense of condescension in the compassion or of inferiority in the gratitude.
In the Bible, God calls Cain and asks him: ‘What have you done with your brother?’
Today I call man and ask him: “What have you done with the earth?”
You have brought down upon earth Peace and Freedom.
Now Freedom and Wisdom must manifest in the heart of every man.
Have you never been mistaken in any of your decisions? Yes, you have been mistaken, haven’t you? and many a time.
Then, by what right do you think that when my decision is not the same as yours, it is I who am mistaken?
. . . stand at street-corners, he held out for alms. Had we diplomatically sided with a religious or political body, we would be flourishing, but the divine white radiance must have no stain.
Selfless work, the self-giving to the realisation of an ideal is for ordinary men something so unthinkable that they hasten to sully it so as not to have to admire it.
. . . are at one in vilifying the Ashram and bespattering it with their mud. It is the old story that repeats itself. . . The worst enemies come together when it is a question of stoning a prophet, crucifying God or condemning a sage to death.
To do good work one must have good taste.
Taste can be educated by study and the help of those who have good taste.
To learn, it is necessary to feel first that one does not know.
15 December 1965
Never I sit in meditation — there is no time and no necessity for it because it is not through meditation that one gives oneself to the Divine, it is through consecration and surrender and it is through all activities of life that consecration and surrender are to be made.
26 November 1967
Until now, my spontaneous attitude was that of the supreme Mother who carries the universe in her loving arms, and I was dealing with each one as with child from whom she tolerates everything equally; and all what the people here were doing to please me I was taking as a token of their love and I was very grateful for it. Today I have learnt that many, if not most, are looking at me as their Guru and that they are eager to please me because to please the Guru is the best way to acquire merit on the path. And then I have understood that the duty of the Guru is to encourage from each one only that which can lead him quickly to the Lord and serve His Divine Purpose, — and I am very grateful for the lesson.
In our way of working we must not be the slaves of Nature; all these habits of trying and changing((( failing))), doing and undoing and redoing again and again, wasting energy, labour, material and money, are Nature’s way of action, not the Divine’s. The Divine Consciousness sees first the truth of a work, the best way of doing it according to given circumstances, and when she acts, it is final, She never comes back on what is done, She goes forward, using failure as well as success for a new progress, one more step towards the goal.
In order to progress, Nature destroys while the Divine Consciousness stimulates growth and finally transforms.
We have faith in Sri Aurobindo.
He represents for us something we formulate to ourselves with words which seems to us the most exact for expressing our experience. These words are evidently the best according to us for formulating our experience.
But if, in our enthusiasm, we were convinced that they are the only appropriate words to express correctly what Sri Aurobindo is and the experience he has given us, we would become dogmatic and be on the point of founding a religion.
He who has a spiritual experience and a faith formulates it in the most appropriate words for himself.
But if he is convinced that this expression is the only correct and true one for this experience and faith, he becomes dogmatic and tends to create a religion.
Forward! towards a better future, the realisation of tomorrow.
To cure oneself of a critical judgment expressing itself through an incontinence of speech:
1) When one is in this state to refuse absolutely to speak — if need be to make it physically impossible for oneself to speak
2) To study oneself pitilessly and become aware that one carries in oneself precisely all the things one finds so ridiculous in others.
3) To discover in one’s nature the state contrary to this (benevolence, humility, goodwill) and insist on developing it to the detriment of the opposite element.
In all religious and specially occult initiations, the ritual of the different ceremonies is prescribed in all detail; all the words pronounced, all the gestures made have their importance and the least infraction of the rule, the least fault committed can have fatal consequences.
It is the same in the material life and if one had the initiation into the true way of living, one could transform the physical existence.
This body has neither the uncontested authority of a god nor the imperturbable calm of the sage. It is yet only an apprentice in supermanhood.
On the choice of a motor-car:
Do you want to go from one place to another without getting tired and without spending much time on the way, or do you want to be smart and look like an important man?
And the body says to the Supreme Lord: “What you want me to be, I shall be, what You want me to do, I shall do.”
And you want to make me speak and mentalise the experience until a new “system” is established and you can sit down comfortably in your new mental construction.
By definition the Ashramite has resolved to consecrate his life to the realisation and service of the Divine.
For this four virtues are indispensable, without which progress is uncertain and subject to interruptions and troublesome falls at the first opportunity:
Sincerity, faithfulness, modesty and gratitude.
. . . substitute the spirit of rivalry and competition by the goodwill of collaboration and mutual understanding.
liberty and order
fraternity and independence
equality and hierarchy
unity and diversity
abundance and scarcity
effort and repose
power and compassion
discernment and benevolence
generosity and economy
wastage and avarice
Obey your soul, it alone has the right to govern your life.
In their blindness men leave the Light and go to the darkness to obtain knowledge!
. . .so that his life may be governed by a true splendour of soul, so as to face his responsibilities with a noble and generous heart.
And the radiant bliss of this splendour was felt in a perfect peace
Transformation and intimacy
with my blessings full of love and energy.
21 June 1970
I am no more living an active life; if you are open, help is bound to come.
14 December 1972
I have already warned those who go on spreading rumours, more or less false, on what I am believed to have said or not said, that this is an act of treachery.
As this pernicious habit does not seem to stop I must add that those who persist in so doing will be treated occultly as traitors.
Consciousness is a state and a power.
Love is a force and an action.
When Consciousness separated from its Origin and became inconscience the Origin emanated Love to re-awaken Consciousness from the depth of the inconscience and bright it back into touch with its Origin.
It may be said that at its origin love is the supreme power of attraction which awakens, in response, the irresistible need of an absolute self-giving, they are the two poles of the urge towards complete fusion.
No other movement could, better and more surely than this, throw a bridge across the abyss dug by the sense of separation that comes from the formation of the individual. It was necessary to bring back to itself what had been projected into space without destroying for this purpose the universe created thus.
That is why love sprang up, the irresistible power of union.
This world is a chaos where darkness and light, falsehood and truth, life and death, hatred and love are so closely enlaced that it is almost impossible to distinguish them form one another and still more impossible to decide between them and undo a grip which has all the horror of a merciless struggle, so much the more intense the more veiled it is, above all in the consciousness of man where the conflict changes into the anguish of knowing, of ability, of conquering — a dark and dolorous battle, the more atrocious because it seems without any issue, but which can be resolved above all sensations and feelings and ideas, beyond the words of the mind . . . in the Divine Consciousness.
The integral yoga is constituted of an uninterrupted series of examinations which one must pass without being warned about them beforehand — which puts you under the obligation of being always vigilant and attentive.
Three groups of examiners set these tests. Apparently they have nothing to do with one another and their procedures are so different, at times even they seem so contradictory that they do not appear to be able to move towards the same end, and yet they complete one another, they collaborate for the same purpose and are indispensable to the integrality of the result.
These three categories of examinations are those set by the forces of Nature, those set by the spiritual and divine forces, and those set by the hostile forces. These latter are the most deceptive in their appearance and in order not to be taken by surprise, unprepared, demands a constant state of vigilance, sincerity and humility.
The most banal circumstances, the events of everyday life, people, things, — apparently the most insignificant, all belong to one or other of these three categories of examiners. In this great and complex organisation of tests it is the events usually considered the most important in life which constitute the examinations easiest to pass for they find you on your guard and prepared. One stumbles more easily on the little pebbles on the road because they do not draw attention.
Endurance and plasticity, cheerfulness and intrepedity are the qualities more specially required for the examinations of physical Nature.
Aspiration, confidence, idealism, enthusiasm and generosity in self-giving for the spiritual examinations.
Vigilance, sincerity and humanity for the examinations set by the adverse forces.
And do not think that on one side there are those who pass exams and on the other those who set them. At the same time, according to the circumstances and moments, one is both examiner and examinee and it may even happen that one is simultaneously, all at once, examined and examiner. And the profit drawn from this depends upon the quality and degree of intensity in one’s aspiration and the awakening of one’s consciousness.
And, finally, a last recommendation, never pose as an examiner. For, whilst it is very well to remember constantly that one is perhaps fairly in the course of passing a very important exam, it is on the contrary extremely dangerous to think oneself appointed to set tests for others, for this is opening the door to the most ridiculous and disastrous vanities.
The overmind is the age of the gods and consequently of religions; the ideal of the unity of religions is one of the principal ideas of the age of the overmind.
In the supramental creation there will no longer be any religions, the whole of life will be the expression, the flowering into forms of the divine Unity manifesting in the world, and there will no longer be any gods. The great divine beings who will choose not to manifest physically will be friends and collaborators on a footing of equality.
When the physical substance is supramentalised, to be incarnated upon earth will not be a cause of inferiority; on the contrary, one will gain from it a plentitude which could not be had otherwise.
The whole of humanity should be organised upon these bases. But the organisation will not be true and viable unless at its centre and at its head there is the supramental Truth-Consciousness manifested in an individual or a small group of individuals who will be representatives of the new race, the incarnation of the supramental consciousness upon earth.
During the last lesson we learnt how to detach ourselves from our thoughts so as to be able to observe them like an attentive spectator.
Today we must learn how to watch these thoughts, look at them like an enlightened judge so as to discern between the good ones and the bad, between thoughts which are useful and those which are harmful, between constructive thoughts which lead to victory and defeatist thoughts which take us away from it. It is this power of discernment which we have to acquire now.
Second stage — discernment — discerning between good and bad thoughts, useful and harmful thoughts, thoughts which help progress and defeatist thoughts.
This is the counterpart of what we read last time. But note that here it is a question only of the thoughts which produce resentment. It is because rancour as well as jealously are among the most widespread causes of human misery.
But how to get rid of rancour? A vast and generous heart is surely the best means, but it is not within everybody’s reach. The control of one’s thought may be more commonly used. Thought-control is the third stage of our mental discipline. After the enlightened judge of our consciousness has discerned between the useful thoughts and the harmful ones, there comes the inner policeman who will let only the accepted thoughts pass and refuse admission strictly to every undesirable element. With a magisterial gesture this policeman will close the entry to every bad thought and push it away as far as possible.
It is this movement of admission of refusal which we call the control of thought and this will be the object of our meditation this evening.
He pushed on the table before me a scrap of paper which seemed to have been torn form an exercise-book page, without any letter-head or anything official, on which he had written for me in a clumsy hand that I was promising to pay for the extra stamps if they were necessary.
I felt like a poor traveller accosted in the comer of a wood by a band of brigands, pistols in hand, asking you to empty your pockets before letting you pass. I hesitated for a moment, but I am a sport and I signed, thinking ‘We shall see how far they dare to go. . .’
In this world one pays dearly for wanting to be unselfish!
In a severe tone:
“Madam, you are pledging your word.”
Very quietly:
“I know it, sir, and when I make a promise, I keep it. But for me these things don’t have much importance. I have no attachment for any religion, and when one has no attachment, one has no aversion either. For me religions are forms, much too human, of spiritual life. Each one expresses one aspect of the single and eternal Truth, but in expressing it exclusively of the other aspects it deforms and diminishes it. None has the right to call itself the only true one, any more than it has the right to deny the truth contained in the others. And all of them together would not suffice to express the Supreme Truth which is beyond all expression, even whilst being present in each one”.
In a dry tone:
“I am sorry, madam, but in this field I cannot follow you”.
Smiling and peaceful:
“I know that very well, sir, and I told you all this only to explain to you why I did not reply very seriously to the promise you were demanding from me”.
General Notes and Messages
It may be said that perfection is attained, though it remains progressive, when the receptivity from below is equal to the force from above which wants to manifest.
3 January 1951
Collaboration and reciprocal goodwill are indispensable for good work.
11 August 1954
The closer you come to the Divine the more you live under a shower of overwhelming evidences of His immeasurable Grace.
15 August 1955
Before getting angry for the mistakes of others one should always remember one’s own mistakes.
It is by combined and patient effort that all good work is done.
When you start a quarrel it is as if you were declaring war to the Divine’s work.
For the work steadiness and regularity are as necessary as skill. Whatever you do, do it always carefully.
If mistakes were not to be effaced, then never the world could reach salvation.
There is no fire that can be compared with passion,
no misfortune equal to hatred,
no misery comparable with the agitation of the mind.
He who follows the steep path that climbs the heights can easily slip down into the abyss.
Divine solicitude is supporting you in the disinterested work through which you will attain transformation.
Open to the New Light that has dawned upon Earth and your path will be illumined.
To be always happy, with an unclouded, unfluctuating happiness — of all things this is the most difficult to accomplish.
Our faith in the omnipotence of the Grace is never equal to what the Grace itself is.
July 1956
There is nothing which, in the last analysis, is not an instrument leading to the integral Victory of the Divine.
July 1956
Be always ready to receive the Divine for He may come to you at any moment at all.
And because He has kept you waiting at the rendezvous, that is not a reason for you to be late.
September 1956
In order to be able to conquer death and win immortality, one must neither fear death nor desire it.
To seek for pleasure is to ask for pain, for they are the obverse and reverse of the same thing.
It is a mistake or a superstition to believe that a thing or an outer circumstance can be the cause of anything whatsoever. All things and all circumstances are the concomitant effects of a Force which acts from behind the veil.
The Force acts and each one reacts according to his own nature.
Unless your goal is the Divine Realisation upon earth, at whatever cost, take good care, do not come too close to the divine messengers for their action is like a hurricane that sweeps away all established things.
7 May 1957
Every word spoken uselessly is a dangerous gossiping.
Every malicious word, every slander is a degradation of the consciousness.
And when this slander is expressed in a vulgar language and gross terms, then that is equivalent to a suicide — the suicide of one’s soul.
9 August 1957
My heart aspires to be vast enough for Thy Victory.
For those who use only their physical eyes, the victory cannot be apparent until it is total, that is to say, physical.
But this does not mean that it is not already won in principle.
2 October 1957
Widen yourself as far as the extreme bounds of the universe and beyond. Take upon yourself always all the necessities of progress and dissolve them in the ecstasy of Unity. Then you will be divine.
13 November 1957
(About the Gnostic supramental consciousness)
What gives the sense of a great simplicity, for it is always when one goes down that the complications begin.
One speaks a great deal about this teaching but one does not follow it.
Human beings for the most part have the inveterate habit of deceiving themselves. They deceive themselves in hundreds of different ways, each more slyly tricky and subtle than the other, and all this with at once a perfect candour and a perfect insincerity.
To the World Vegetarian Congress
Love alone can overcome hate and violence.
Let the Divine Compassion express itself through you always and in all circumstances.
The divine compassion reaches out not only to the one who is eaten but also to the one who eats, not only to the one who is tortured but also the one who tortures.
1957
To give oneself to the Divine, to receive and be the Divine, to transmit and spread forth the Divine: these are the three simultaneous movements which constitute our total relation with the Divine.
It is the supreme Wisdom that decides these things and not the ignorant human will.
And yet the Divine is everywhere in the ignorant man as well as in the sage.
S is always present in our thoughts and living in our hearts. For the thought the world is small, for the heart there is no distance.
Be faithful to your ideal and dedicate your work to the Divine.
The Lord will possess his universe perfectly only when the universe will have become the Lord.
Here is love and here the Presence, and indestructible Wealth.
Get rid of all violence and you will no longer have any fear.
For those whose destiny it is to scale the summits, the least false step risks being a mortal danger.
In the course of time and even in the course of your present life you can make your choice once and for all, irrevocably, and then you have only to confirm it with every new occasion; or else if you do not take a definite decision immediately((( From the beginning))), you will have to choose a new at each moment between the falsehood and the Truth.
One of the chief functions of the physical mind is to doubt. If you listen to it, it will always find a thousand reasons for doubting. But you must know that the physical mind is working in ignorance and full of falsehood.
The Divine Love is the essence of Truth and cannot be affected by the human confusions.
In the Ashram one must do only what one may do publicly, for nothing remains hidden. As for my protection it is equally over all and not over some as against others.
You cannot expect another to be perfect unless you are yourself perfect. Now to be perfect is to exactly what the supreme Lord wants you to be.
3 June 1958
Better not count upon man.
July 1959
When one works for the Divine, it is much better to do perfectly what one does rather than to aim at a very big work.
13 May 1959
All having a common uplifting ideal, we shall unite; and in this union and by this union we will face and overcome the attacks of all opposing forces of darkness and devastation. In union is the strength, in union is the power, in union is the certitude of Victory.
31 October 1959
It is not a number that we want — it is a selection; it is not brilliant students that we want, it is living souls.
August 1960
The whole value of a medicine is in the Spirit it contains.
22 February 1961
To walk on the path one must bold, must never turn back on oneself with this mean, petty, weak, ugly movement that is fear. An indomitable courage, a perfect sincerity and a sincere self-giving to the extent that you do not calculate or bargain, you do not give with the idea of receiving, you do not give offer yourself with the idea that you will be protected, you do not have a faith that needs proofs — it is that which is indispensable for advancing on the way; this alone can shelter you against all danger.
29 March 1961
It is not in man’s nature to be faithful.
A company that has no name, no business and no money, is not a company, it is a fraud.
The only salvation is in an absolute sincerity and truthfulness.
25 March 1963
A gift made through vanity is profitable neither to the giver nor to the receiver.
As long as there is within any being the possibility of an inner conflict, it means that he has still some insincerity in him.
It is better to state a truth than to disregard it; but it is much better still to live it than to state it.
There must be nobility in one’s nature not to bear a grudge against someone who has done you good.
To realise the progressive truth, theories must be modelled on practice and not practice adapted to the theory.
Men tolerate the presence of the Divine upon earth only on condition that He suffers there.
All that is conducive to the keeping of one’s consciousness in the most material planes of the being would be criminal.
There is no greater victory than that of controlling oneself.
One must not take consequences for causes.
Goodwill for all and goodwill from all, is the basis of peace and harmony.
Whatever is your personal value or even your individual realisation, the first quality required in yoga is humility.
Message to the Prime Minister of India
Let India work for the future and take the lead. Thus she will recover her true place in the world.
Since long it was the habit to govern through division and opposition. The time has come to govern through union, mutual understanding and collaboration.
To choose a collaborator, the value of the man is more important than the party to which he belongs.
The greatness of a country does not depend on the victory of a party but on union of all the parties.
The Mother
23 June 1932
Mother is with all those who are sincere in their aspiration towards a divine life.
26 March 1971
For each problem there is a solution that can give satisfaction to everybody, but for finding this ideal solution each one must want it instead of meeting the others with the will to enforce one’s own preference.
Enlarge your consciousness and aspire for the satisfaction of all.
All quarrels in the place where food is prepared, makes food indigestible.
The cooking must be done in silence and harmony.
Insincerity leads on the path to ruin.
Even within the confusion, there is the seed of the Divine order.
It is good to read a Divine Teaching
It is better to learn it.
The best is to live it.
Indeed, the goodwill hidden in all things reveals itself everywhere to that one who carries goodwill in his consciousness.
This is a constructive way of feeling which leads straight to the Future.
Those who are ready for the transformation can do it anywhere and those who are not ready cannot do it wherever they are.
12 November 1971
Take the division out of the heart and then speak of no division.
Whether I see you or not makes no difference to the help. It will always be there.
Let your consecration to Truth be complete and constant.
It is not in the outward circumstances that you must look for quietness, it is from inside yourself. Deep inside the being there is a peace that brings quietness in the whole being down to the body, if we allow it to do so. It is that peace you must seek and then you will get the quietness you wish for.
When we have to work collectively, it is always better to insist, in our thoughts, feelings and actions, on the points of agreement rather than on the points of divergence.
We must give importance to the things that unite and ignore, as much as possible, those that separate.
Even when physically the lines of work differ, the union can remain intact and constant if we keep always in mind the essential points and principles which unite, and the Divine goal, the Realisation which must be the one unchanging object of our aspiration and works.
From step to step, from truth to truth, we shall climb ceaselessly until we reach the perfect realisation of tomorrow.
A broad mind,
a generous heart,
an unflinching will,
a quiet steady determination,
an inexhaustible energy
and a total trust in one’s mission,
this makes a perfect Doctor.
Be sincere in the work you have undertaken and the Grace will always be there to help you.
Let the waves of the past flow far from you carrying away with them all attachments and all weaknesses.
The luminous joy of the divine consciousness is waiting ready to take their place.
Let each one do his very best and, peacefully, leave to the Supreme the care of the result.
If each one took the resolution of mastering oneself and controlling one’s impulses, the situation would become more clear.
When people allow their consciousness to remain in a turmoil, all their life becomes a turmoil.
Do not expect any satisfaction from physical life and you will no more be tied to it.
Let nothing short of Perfection be your ideal in work and you are sure to become a true instrument of the Divine.
It is better to use the energies received from the Divine for perfection rather than for aggrandisement.
An illness of the body is always the outer expression and translation of a disorder, a disharmony in the inner being. Unless this inner disorder is healed the outer cure cannot be total and permanent.
Disease is needlessly prolonged and ends in death oftener than is inevitable, because the mind of the patient supports and dwells upon the disease of the body.
From the standpoint of yoga it is not so much what you do but how you do it that matters most.
Which is the easiest way to forget oneself?
Always do the right thing, in the right way and at the right moment.
To be convincing when you speak think not in ideas but in experiences.
Be grateful for all ordeals, they are the shortest way to the Divine.
When difficulties besiege you know that the Divine grace is with you.
With confidence we shall advance;
With certitude we shall wait.
Never say, “I have nothing to give to the Divine.” There is always something to give, for always you can give yourselves in a better and more complete way.
Nothing can be compared to the peace that comes from a total trust in the Grace.
Realisation
That is what we aspire for and for which we shall strive unceasingly, however long it may take.
Here the only power we can dispose of is the power of love.
In the depths of the Inconscient, there also shines the Divine Consciousness resplendent and eternal.
Death is not at all what you believe it to be. You expect from death the neutral quietness of an unconscious rest. But to obtain that rest you must prepare for it.
Amrita — sketch by the Mother
- ( Exhibited now in the Sri Aurobindo Library. [↩]