Chapter 4
Work in the Ashram
THE MEANING OF WORK
What you write shows that you had a wrong idea of the work. The work in the Ashram was not meant as a service to humanity or to a section of it called the sadhaks of the Ashram. It was not meant either as an opportunity for a joyful social life and a flow of sentiments and attachments between the sadhaks and an expression of the vital movements, a free vital interchange whether with some or with all. The work was meant as a service to the Divine and as a field for the inner opening to the Divine, surrender to the Divine alone, rejection of ego and all the ordinary vital movements and the training in a psychic elevation, selflessness, obedience, renunciation of all mental, vital or other self-assertion of the limited personality. Self-affirmation is not the aim, the formation of a collective vital ego is also not the aim. The merging of the little ego in union with the Divine, purification, surrender, the substitution of the Divine guidance for one's own ignorant self-guidance based on one's personal ideas and personal feelings is the aim of Karmayoga, the surrender of one's own will to the Divine Will.
If one feels human beings to be near
and the Divine to be far and seeks the Divine through
service of and love of human beings and not the direct
service and love of the Divine, then one is following a wrong
principle -for that is
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SRI AUROBINDO
*
I do not mean by work action done in the ego and the ignorance, for the satisfaction of the ego and in the drive of rajasic desire. There can be no Karmayoga without the will to get rid of ego, rajas and desire, which are the seals of ignorance.
I do not mean philanthropy or the
service of humanity or all the rest of the things-moral or
idealistic-which the mind of man substitutes for the deeper
truth of works.
I mean by work action done for the
Divine and more and more in union with the Divine-for the
Divine alone and nothing else.
SRI AUROBINDO
*
We must find the Self, the Divine, then only can we know what is the work the Self or the Divine demands from us. Until then our life and action can only be a help or means towards finding the Divine and it ought not to have any other purpose. As we grow in the inner consciousness, or as the spiritual Truth of the Divine grows in us, our life and action must indeed more and more flow from that, be one with that. But to decide beforehand by our limited mental conceptions what they must be is to hamper the growth of the spiritual Truth within. As that grows we shall feel the Divine Light and Truth, the Divine Power and Force, the Divine Purity and Peace working within us, dealing with our actions as well as our consciousness, making use of them to reshape
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us into the Divine Image, removing the dross, substituting the pure gold of the Spirit. Only when the Divine Presence is there in us always and the consciousness transformed, can we have the right to say that we are ready to manifest the Divine on the material plane.
SRI AUROBINDO
YOGA THROUGH WORK
Yoga through work is the easiest and
most effective way to enter into the stream of this Sadhana.
SRI AUROBINDO
*
. . . to quiet the mind and get the spiritual experience it is necessary first to purify and prepare the nature. This sometimes takes many years. Work done with the right attitude is the easiest means for that-Le. work done without desire or ego, rejecting all movements of desire, demand or ego when they come, done as an offering to the Divine Mother, with the remembrance of her and prayer to her to manifest her force and take up the action so that there too and not only in inner silence you can feel her presence and working.
SRI AUROBINDO
*
As for the work, the inner development,
psychic and spiritual, is surely of the first
importance and work merely as work is something quite minor. But work
done as an offering to the Mother becomes itself a part of
Sadhana and a means and a part of the inner development.
That you will see more
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SR1 AUROBINDO
WORK AND MEDITATION
The Mother does not think that it is
good to give up all work and only read and meditate. Work is
part of the Yoga and it gives the best opportunity for
calling down the Presence, the Light and the Power into the vital
and its activities; it increases also the field and the
opportunity of surrender.
SRI AUROBINDO
It is not our experience that by meditation alone it is possible to change the nature, nor has retirement from outward activity and work much profited those who have tried it; in many cases it has been harmful. A certain amount of concentration, an inner aspiration in the heart and an opening of the consciousness to the Mother's presence there and to the descent from above are needed. But without action, without work the nature does not really change; it is there and by contact with men that there is the test of the change in the nature. As for the work one does, there is no higher or lower work; all work is the same provided it is offered to and done for her and in her power.
6 October 1934
SRI AUROBINDO
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THE AUROBINDO
*
The more I go, the more I know that it
is in work that Sri Aurobindo's integral yoga is best done.
THE MOTHER
It is the old methods of yoga which
demand silence and solitude.
The yoga of tomorrow is to find the
Divine in work and in relation with the world.
THE MOTHER
PERFECTION IN WORK
Let us work as we pray, for indeed work
is the body's best prayer to the Divine.
THE MOTHER
*
Try to enjoy doing everything you do.
When you are interested in what you do,
you enjoy doing it.
To be interested in what you do, you
must try to do it better and better.
In progress lies true joy.
THE MOTHER
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23 August 1955
THE MOTHER
*
For the work steadiness and regularity are as necessary as skill. Whatever you do, do it always carefully.
THE MOTHER
Whatever work you do, do it as
perfectly as you can.
That is the best service to the Divine
in man.
THE MOTHER
DISCIPLINE IN WORK
In the most physical things you have to fix a programme in order to
deal with them, otherwise
all becomes a sea of confusion and haphazard. Fixed rules
have also to be made for the management of material things
so long as people are not sufficiently developed to deal
with them in the right way without rules.
SRI AUROBINDO
I do not agree myself with him in the
idea that there is perfect discipline in the Ashram; on
the contrary, there is a
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great lack of it, much indiscipline, quarrelling and self-assertion. What there is is organisation and order whichthe Mother has been able to establish and maintain in spite of all that. That organisation and order is necessary for all collective work; it has been an object of admiration and surprise for all from outside who have observed the Ashram; it is the reason why the Ashram has been able to survive and outlive the malignant attacks of many people who would otherwise have got it dissolved long ago. The Mother knew very well what she was doing and what was necessary for the work she has to do.
25 February 1945
SRI AUROBINDO
*
I don't see on what ground you expect
order and organisation to be carried on without rules and without
discipline. You seem to say that people should be
allowed complete freedom with only such discipline as
they choose to impose upon themselves; that might do if the
only thing to be done were for each individual to get some
inner realisation and life did not matter or if there were no
collective life or work or none that had any importance. But
this is not the case here. We have undertaken a work which
includes life and action and the physical world. In what
I am trying to do,the spiritual realisation is the first
necessity, but it cannot be complete without an outer realisation
also in life, in men, in this world. Spiritual consciousness
within but also spiritual life without. The Ashram as it is now
is not that ideal, for that all its members have to live in a
spiritual consciousness and not in the ordinary egoistic mind
and mainly rajasic vital nature. But, all the same, the
Ashram is a first form which our effort has taken, a field in
which the preparatory
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SRI AUROBINDO
*
Without discipline no proper work is
possible.
Without discipline no proper life is
possible.
And above all, without discipline no
Sadhana is possible.
Each department has necessarily a
discipline and you must follow the discipline of your
department.
Personal feelings, grudges and
misunderstandings must never interfere with the work which is
done as a service to the Divine and not for human interests.
Your service to the Divine must be
scrupulously honest, disinterested and unselfish, otherwise
it has no value.
25 January 1965
THE MOTHER
HARMONY AND COOPERATION IN WORK
If anybody in the Ashram tries to
establish a supremacy or dominating influence over others, he
is in the wrong. For it is bound to be a wrong vital influence
and come in the way of the Mother's work.
None should regard or treat another
member of the Ashram as his subordinate. If he is in
charge, he Should
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regard the others as his associates and helpers in the work, and he should not try to dominate or impose on them his own ideas and personal fancies, but only see to the execution of the will of the Mother. None should regard himself as a subordinate, even if he has to carry out instructions given through another or to execute under the supervision the work he has to do.
All should try to work in harmony, thinking only of how best to make the work a success; personal feelings should not be allowed to interfere, for this is a most frequent cause of disturbance in the work, failure or disorder.
If you keep this truth of the work in mindand always abide by it, difficulties are likely to disappear; for others will be influenced by the rightness of your attitude and work smoothly with your or,if through any weakness or perversity in them, thy create difficulties, the effects will fall back on them and you will feel no disturbance or trouble
12 October 1929
SRI AUROBINDO
Independent
workdoes not exist in the Ashram. All is organised and interrelated,
neither the heads of departments nor the workers are independent. To
learn subordination and co-operation is necessary for all collective
work; without it there will be be chaos.
SRI AUROBINDO
A clear and precise
vision of what is
to be done and a steady, calm and firm will to have it
done are the essential conditions
for an organisation to be
run properly. And
as a
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general rule never ask from others the virtues you do not possess yourself.
SRI AUROBINDO
*
Here nobody can be an exclusive head-everyone must learn to collaborate. it is a very good discipline for vanity, self-conceit and the excessive sense of personal importance.
THE MOTHER
*
You seem to forget that by the fact
that you are living in the Ashram, it is neither for yourself
nor for a boss that you are working, but for the Divine. Your
life must be entirely consecrated to the Divine Work and
cannot be governed by petty human considerations.
THE MOTHER
DIFFICULTIES IN WORK
The difficulties you have are the
difficulties which are met in each department and office of the
Ashram. It is due to the imperfections of the Sadhaks, to their
vital nature. You are mistaken in thinking that it is due to
your presence there and that if you withdrew all would go
smoothly. The same state of things would go on among themselves,
disagreements, quarrels, jealousies, hard words, harsh
criticisms of each other. . . . The way out can only come
by a change in the character of the Sadhaks brought about
by the process of the Sadhana. Till then you should
understand and be patient and not allow yourself to be disturbed by
the wrong behaviour.
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of the others, but remain quietly doing
your best, sustaining yourself on the trust and support given
you by X and the Mother. It is the Mother's work and
the Mother is there to support you in doing it; put your
reliance on that and do not allow the rest to affect you.
SRI AUROBINDO
The greater the difficulties that rise
in the work the more one can profit by them in deepening
the equality, if one takes it in the right spirit. You must
also keep yourself open to receive the help towards that, for
the help will always be coming from the Mother for the change
of the nature.
SRI AUROBINDO
If other Sadhaks commit errors that is their responsibility, one can observe and avoid similar mistakes in oneself, but one Sadhak cannot correct the errors of others unless that comes within his responsibility-each has to correct himself and his own defects and mistakes.
SRI AUROBINDO
*
If you leave it to the Mother entirely,
then what the Mother would want you to do is to go on with
the work as best you can without allowing yourself to be
disturbed or troubled by these things which you enumerate in
your letters, without insisting on your own ideas or vital
feelings. That is indeed the rule that all ought to follow, to
do their work here as the Mother's work, not their own; the
worker must not insist on the work being done according to his
own ideas; for that
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is to treat it as his own work, not the Mother's. If there are inconveniences, troubles, things done-not as he would like them to be, still he should go on doing his work as best he can under the circumstances. That is a rule of the Sadhana, to remain unconcerned by outward circumstances and quietly do what one has to do, what one can do, leaving the rest to the Mother.
As a general rule it is better not to
intervene in things that do not fall within one's own work.
THE MOTHER
*
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.
THE MOTHER
*
When a baker wants his dough to rise,
he puts yeast into the dough, and it is from within that
the transformation takes place.
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When the Divine wanted to uplift matter, to awaken it and make it rise towards Him, He cast Himself into matter in the form Of Love, and it is from within that the transformation is taking place.
Thus it is by remaining within an
organisation that one can
help to illumine it and make it
rise towards the Truth.
Continue your work where you are and my force and my blessings will help you always to be a living example of what must be the true attitude and action of a disciple.
With love
THE MOTHER
PAID WORKERS AND SERVANTS
There may be some dignity in being
rough with your superiors, but with those who depend on you, the true
dignity is to be very courteous.
THE MOTHER
I am sure that servants behave
according to the way they are treated.
10 March 1935
THE MOTHER
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It is very bad to constantly rebuke
servants-the less you scold them, the better it is. When X
asks you to scold them you must refuse to do so and tell him
that I have forbidden you to do it.
As for your co-workers, each one must
be left free to do according to his own feelings.
16 May 1940
THE MOTHER
*
Do not be indulgent, do not be severe.
They should know that you see
everything, but you should not scold them.
THE MOTHER
*
A servant is not a convict and must be
allowed some amount of liberty and free movement.
THE MOTHER
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