Daily Offerings
Mystic Motive Drives the Stars
All is not here a blinded Nature’s task:
A Word, a Wisdom watches us from on high,
A Witness sanctioning her will and works,
An Eye unseen in the unseeing vast;
There is an Influence from a Light above,
There are thoughts remote and sealed eternities;
A mystic motive drives the stars and suns.
In this passage from a deaf unknowing Force
To struggling consciousness and transient breath
A mighty Supernature waits on Time.
The world is other than we now think and see,
Our lives a deeper mystery than we have dreamed;
Our minds are starters in the race to God,
Our souls deputed selves of the Supreme.
Across the cosmic field through narrow lanes
Asking a scanty dole from Fortune’s hands
And garbed in beggar’s robes there walks the One.
Even in the theatre of these small lives
Behind the act a secret sweetness breathes,
An urge of miniature divinity.
A mystic passion from the wells of God
Flows through the guarded spaces of the soul;
A force that helps supports the suffering earth,
An unseen nearness and a hidden joy.
[Savitri: Book Two Canto 5]
Peace, Peace Upon All the Earth
February 14, 1914
Peace, peace upon all the earth!
May all escape from the ordinary consciousness and be delivered from the attachment for material things; may they awake to the knowledge of Thy divine presence, unite themselves with Thy supreme consciousness and taste the plenitude of peace that springs from it.
Lord, Thou art the sovereign Master of our being. Thy law is our law, and with all our strength we aspire to identify our consciousness with Thy eternal consciousness, that we may accomplish Thy sublime work in each thing and at every moment.
Lord, deliver us from all care for contingencies, deliver us from the ordinary outlook on things. Grant that we may henceforth see only with Thy eyes and act only by Thy will. Transform us into living torches of Thy divine love.
With reverence, with devotion, in a joyful consecration of my whole being I give myself, O Lord, to the fulfilment of Thy law.
Peace, peace upon all the earth!
[Prayers and Meditations of the Mother]
Constant Contact with the Divine
When we are concentrated in mental movements or intellectual pursuits, why do we sometimes forget or lose touch with the Divine?
You lose it because your consciousness is still divided. The Divine has not settled into your mind; you are not wholly consecrated to the Divine Life. Otherwise you could concentrate to any extent upon such things and still you would have the sense of being helped and supported by the Divine.
In all pursuits, intellectual or active, your one motto should be, “Remember and Offer.” Let whatever you do be done as an offering to the Divine. And this too will be an excellent discipline for you; it will prevent you from doing many foolish and useless things.
Often in the beginning of the action this can be done; but as one gets engrossed in the work, one forgets. How is one to remember?
The condition to be aimed at, the real achievement of Yoga, the final perfection and attainment, for which all else is only a preparation, is a consciousness in which it is impossible to do anything without the Divine; for then, if you are without the Divine, the very source of your action disappears; knowledge, power, all are gone. But so long as you feel that the powers you use are your own, you will not miss the Divine support.
In the beginning of the Yoga you are apt to forget the Divine very often. But by constant aspiration you increase your remembrance and you diminish the forgetfulness. But this should not be done as a severe discipline or a duty; it must be a movement of love and joy. Then very soon a stage will come when, if you do not feel the presence of the Divine at every moment and whatever you are doing, you feel at once lonely and sad and miserable.
Whenever you find that you can do something without feeling the presence of the Divine and yet be perfectly comfortable, you must understand that you are not consecrated in that part of your being. That is the way of the ordinary humanity which does not feel any need of the Divine. But for a seeker of the Divine Life it is very different. And when you have entirely realised unity with the Divine, then, if the Divine were only for a second to withdraw from you, you would simply drop dead; for the Divine is now the Life of your life, your whole existence, your single and complete support. If the Divine is not there, nothing is left.
[The Mother: CWM 3]
Songs of the Soul: September 18, 2024
Maa, Mother Divine, Thou art the sole doer, the accomplisher of all Thy works, the giver of all fulfilment. Nay, Thou art the fulfilment for to find Thee in our inner depths, to discover Thee in our inmost being, to be one with Thee in our soul is to turn existence into a rapture and life into a perpetual marvel. On the other hand, to forget Thee, to lose contact with Thee, to live for the petty satisfactions of the ego rather than in Thy Service is the greatest single sorrow from which all suffering stems. We offer to Thee this hymn of adoration by the Lord Sri Aurobindo which is and should become the deepest cry of our being.
“O Truth defended in thy secret sun,
Voice of her mighty musings in shut heavens
On things withdrawn within her luminous depths,
O Wisdom-Splendour, Mother of the universe,
Creatrix, the Eternal’s artist Bride,
Linger not long with thy transmuting hand
Pressed vainly on one golden bar of Time,
As if Time dare not open its heart to God.
O radiant fountain of the world’s delight
World-free and unattainable above,
O Bliss who ever dwellst deep-hid within
While men seek thee outside and never find,
Mystery and Muse with hieratic tongue,
Incarnate the white passion of thy force,
Mission to earth some living form of thee.”
Come, O Mother, come! We are not ready, the earth is not ready. But can it ever be ready, can man ever understand Thy Glory or become a fit receptacle of Thy Force or manifest even a Ray of Thy Glory without the benediction of Thy Grace?
Come, Mother Come! Fill our life with Thy Breath, redeem our earthly matter by Thy touch, break the seals upon our soul with Thy kiss, save us by Thy smile of Love.
Come, Mother Come!
Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa
The Egg and the Chick (a parable)
The young aspirants were full of enthusiasm to spread the gospel of their Master. Was it not the best way for them to express their gratitude to Him who had shown them the Light? But the Master generally discouraged this. He would often say that Truth needs no advertisements and the sun needs none to announce its coming to the world. He would tell them jocularly that the crow and the cock remain the same even though they are among the first ones to feel the coming of the sun and wake up the entire neighbourhood by their shouts and cries.
‘But is it not our duty to announce to the world the truth that we have known?’ asked a few.
‘Yes, you must share the joy of your discovery. But reading of it or even hearing of it is not enough’, said the Master, and added, ‘first hear, then think and meditate till you can see and realize it in yourself. That is knowing.’
A few persisted. The Master left them free to discover the truth of His words their own way. For this was His method. He would suggest but never impose, counsel but never order. He left each one free to follow his own nature and led each according to their law of inner growth.
Some felt confused at this. Their small minds wanted a narrow rigid doctrine applicable to all. The Master would explain how such a thing would soon turn the truth of His words into a narrow sect and a religion. For the Divine does not act according to a fixed principle or dogma but in infinite freedom and liberty. His is not a dictatorial kingdom where all be compelled to obey Him. That would make a truly mechanical world of men who are more like robots than living and thinking creatures. God lives in freedom and gives this freedom to all as the first condition of growth.
‘But is this freedom not dangerous when we do not know what is good and what is bad for us’, asked someone who was a strict disciplinarian by nature. But the Master simply smiled and said, ‘Perhaps, but how else can there be authentic growth without the direct experience of things. And as of danger, did I not create them for man to overcome them and grow stronger through the difficulties! Man fears danger and is afraid of error and thereby man also limits his perfection. But God dallies with evil and sin to bring light and good and makes our errors the stepping stones upon the heavenward way.’
One among them who felt himself holier than others lamented as he observed how this freedom had spoilt the disciples. He mused under his breath if there was any difference at all between the life of the aspirants here and the life of ordinary men.
And the Master heard his unspoken thought and felt the disciple’s ego of holiness heave under his holy breast even as He spoke: ‘Be not deceived by appearances. Some sticks that seem straight outside are crooked below the water. Others that appear twisted and kinked at several places are so because they have entwined their life around the vast and complex body of the tree of Truth. Unable to clasp it they have thus entwined themselves around It and thereby appear crooked. Yet are they centered around Truth in their inner being!’
‘But sometimes we find no difference between some of us here and those who are outside leading an ordinary life. Is this too a deception of the eyes or is there a difference?’ Asked another, unable to fathom the diverse ways of the Master who dealt differently with each one, often defying a simple understanding based on standard norms and conventions.
‘Of course there is a difference. It is like the difference between the fertilized and the unfertilized egg. To all outer appearances they may look alike for a long time with common virtues and vices. But to an inward eye they are different. The aspirant however is like a fertilized egg in whom the seed of divinity has been cast. His inner being begins to get shaped by the power within it even though the outer nature may appear the same as anyone else. Then a time comes when all is ripe and something breaks free from within the fertilized egg and the chick is born. The soul-force is released and the resistances and barriers of the outer nature break under its growing pressure. But the unfertilized egg has been delivered prematurely. It remains the same until it is swallowed by the cosmic powers and dies to itself.’
And as a word of caution to their premature enthusiasm he added: ‘While the highest possibility of an unfertilized egg is to provide nourishment to another by its own destruction, the fertilized egg must avoid this. Its destiny is fulfilled by going under the brooding wings of the Divine Grace and wait with patience letting the new thing develop within. The heat of the Divine Tapas then prepares the chick and one day sets it free to grow into the likeness of its creator. Only then are they ready to go into the world and mingle amidst ordinary life and yet carry the seeds of Fire and Light that the Divine has put in them to places far and wide.’
Why Disciples Don’t Describe Their Attainments as the Mother in Agenda?
What the Mother describes in the Agenda is not psychic realisation, not even the spiritualisation or the Supramental realisation. All these came much earlier and can be found in the Prayers and Meditations as well as Conversations. What She is describing in the Agenda is the supramental transformation of the cells.
But how did you draw the conclusion that the disciples did not write about the psychic and spiritual realisation? Please read the memoirs of Amrita, Kapali Sastry, Amal Kiran and others.
Yes, there are people even now who have had both psychic as well as spiritual realisations and the cosmic consciousness. Why should they disclose it to you or just about to anybody randomly? If you are sincere seek them out with humility, meet them as a humble seeker and they may share some of the special gems including the psychic realisation if they wish. But you can’t shove a mike on their faces like an inquisitive reporter and force them to disclose their experiences to you simply to satisfy an idle curiosity. These things are not shared like that. The Mother too did not share it publicly. It is after decades that some of Her realisations are freely and publicly available.
By the way how does it matter whether anyone realised anything or not. It is enough that one has the aspiration and has faith in Sri Aurobindo’s words and is thereby willing to undertake the journey even if none before him believed or walked. After all the merit of a spiritual possibility is not decided by a vote as to how many or who all experienced it as if a headmaster is asking students to raise hands and confirm. Your questions shows an approach that will get you nowhere as it smacks of vanity and arrogance rather than humility and seeking.
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