Sri Aurobindo

The Harmony of Virtue

Early Cultural Writings — 1890-1910

Passing Thoughts

Stray Thoughts and Glimpses [3]

Mankind hath hitherto placed God too far above man for each to approach the other. But on the identity of the human with the divine shall rest the foundation of the coming ages of humanity.

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In His ascent of evolution God moveth not only from success to success, for he often useth victory and defeat, honour and dishonour as the twin processes of an efflorescent movement.

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The New Yoga begins where all efforts at personal salvation end, where the self of the individual consecrates itself to the self of Humanity and proceedeth to realise an individual life.

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The Pentecostal showers of inspiration descend upon him who worketh unceasingly for God, not upon him who waiteth actionless for inspiration to come and move him to action.

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Only when the gorgeous temples of the Earth have ceased to monopolise our God, and He is realised in the flight of the sparrow and the mattock of the labourer that leavening of humanity shall begin.

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Not in the eager rushing of the senses towards the objects of the earth but in the spiritual enjoyment of sense objects, consisteth the bhoga of the integral Yogin.

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Renunciation is cowardice only when it evadeth the objects of sense and taketh refuge in the lonely forest or in the meditation room, but it surpasseth the highest intrepidity when moving among the objects of sense it showeth a high-seated and divine indifference to the beatings of waves of desire and passion.