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The Mother Divine In 1926, Sri Aurobindo gave the Mother the full charge of the Ashram. She looked after the material needs of the aspirants, assigned to them their work, helped them in their daily activities and guided them in their spiritual progress. |
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The One whom we adore as the Mother is the divine Conscious Force that dominates all existence.... The Mother is the consciousness and force of the Supreme and far above all she creates.
Sri Aurobindo
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Nothing can be here or elsewhere but what she decides and the Supreme sanctions; nothing can take shape except what she moved by the Supreme perceives and forms after casting it into seed in her creating Ananda.
Sri Aurobindo
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Alone, she harbours the absolute Power and the ineffable Presence; containing or calling the Truths that have to be manifested, she brings them down from the Mystery in which they were hidden into the light of her infinite consciousness....
Sri Aurobindo
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The Mother not only governs all from above but she descends into this lesser triple universe.... she has stooped to descend here into the Darkness that she may lead it to the Light, into the Falsehood and Error that she may convert it to the Truth, into this Death that she may turn it to godlike Life....
In her deep and great love for her children she has consented to put on herself the cloak of this obscurity, condescended to bear the attacks and torturing influences of the powers of the Darkness and the Falsehood, borne to pass through the portals of the birth that is a death, taken upon herself the pangs and sorrows and sufferings of the creation, since it seemed that thus alone could it be lifted to the Light and Joy and Truth and eternal Life.
Sri Aurobindo
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.. .she is working here in the body to bring down something not yet expressed in this material world so as to transform life here....
Sri Aurobindo
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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; omnipotence.
4.Health, perfect, constant, unshakable; 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.
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We have undertaken a work which includes life and action and the physical world.... Spiritual consciousness within but also spiritual life without.... the Ashram is a first form which our effort has taken, a field in which the preparatory work has to be done.
Sri Aurobindo
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The Mother is in sole charge and arranges things as best they can be arranged within the means at her disposal and the capacities of her instruments.
Sri Aurobindo
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There is one thing everybody should remember that everything should be done from the point of view of Yoga, of Sadhana, of growing into a divine life in the Mother's consciousness.
Sri Aurobindo
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The Sadhak comes here not because the Divine has need of him, but because he has., need of the Divine.
Sri Aurobindo
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What is the exact significance of your statement: "Always behave as if the Mother was looking at you; because she is, indeed, always present"?
It is the emanation of the Mother that is with each Sadhak all the time.
Sri Aurobindo
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My dear child,
You are my son and I am your mother for eternity.
Do not worry, I take the entire responsibility of your spiritual growth and you can live in the Ashram so long as you feel it your home and you sincerely consecrate yourself to the Divine's Work.
With love and blessings.
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... the Mother's whole day from early morning and a large part of the night also has always been devoted to her other occupations connected with the Sadhana — not her own but that of the Sadhaks —
Pranam, blessings, meditation and receiving the Sadhaks on the staircase or elsewhere, sometimes for two hours at a time, and listening to what they have to say, questions about the Sadhana, results of their work or their matters, complaints, disputes, quarrels, all kinds of conferences about this or that to be decided and done — there is no end to the list:
.. .for the rest she had to attend to their letters, to reports about the material work of the Ashram and all its many departments, correspondence and all sorts of things connected with the contacts with the outside world including often serious trouble and difficulties and the settlement of matters of great importance.
Sri Aurobindo
Page-107
When I come on the Balcony I make a special concentration, you notice that I look at everybody, don't you; I look, see, pass my eyes over every one, I know all who are there, and where they are, and I give each one exactly what he needs; I see his condition and give him what is necessary. It can go fast, because otherwise I would keep you there for half an hour, but I do it, that's what I do. That's the only reason why I come out, because otherwise I carry you in my consciousness. I carry you in my consciousness always, without seeing you, I do what is necessary. But here it is a moment when I can do it by touching the physical directly, you see; otherwise it is through the mind that it acts, the mind or the vital. But here I touch the physical directly through the sight, the contact of sight; and that's what I do — each time.
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Every morning at the balcony, after establishing a conscious contact with each of those who are present, I identify myself with the Supreme Lord and dissolve myself completely in Him. Then my body, completely passive, is nothing but a channel through which the Lord passes His forces freely and pours upon all His Light, His Consciousness and His Joy, according to each one's receptivity.
The best way to receive what He gives is to come to the balcony with trust and aspiration and to keep oneself as calm and quiet as one can in a silent and passive state of expectation. If one has something precise to ask, it is better to ask it beforehand, not while I am there, because any activity lessens the receptivity.
*
... if they are simply like this {gesture), open and awaiting the Force — I go straight in and what has to be done I do. And that's the moment when I know exactly, you see, I do this {gesture), quite slowly — from above I see very well, very well — exactly the condition in which each one is. That's the morning's work.
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At the Pranam the Mother puts her force to help the Sadhak — what he ought to do is to receive quietly and simply....
Sri Aurobindo
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The proper attitude [during pranam] is one of self-dedication and simple and straightforward receptivity to what the Mother wishes to give, an undisturbed and undisturbing openness to her working in the being.
Sri Aurobindo
[Mother] What attitude should I have when I come to You?
When you come to me, you should be peaceful and open.
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The Mother deals with each person differently according to his true need... and his progress in the Sadhana and his nature.
Sri Aurobindo
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Keep yourself open to the Mother and in perfect union with her. Make yourself entirely plastic to her touch and let her mould you swiftly towards perfection.
Sri Aurobindo
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Today at Pranam, for the first time I could enter X's heart and an emanation of mine settled there.
Page-114
There is always a touch coming from Mother at Pranam,
one has to be conscious and open to receive it.
Sri Aurobindo
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Every day, at each moment, my blessings are with you.
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Let the Divine Presence be always with you.
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Let the Divine's peace always reign in your heart and mind.
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The Mother gives in both ways.
Through the eyes it is to the psychic, through the hand to the material.
Sri Aurobindo
Mother's Hand
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Mother s Foot placed on a disciple s head Sweet Mother,
I have just heard that though the Grace flows from all the limbs of the Guru (such as the eyes and hands), what emanates through the feet is the most dynamic and full of compassion. That is why, it is said, the Indian tradition enjoins Pranam to the feet. Is this true?
Here is Sri Aurobindo's answer to your query:
.. .where she presses her feet course miraculous streams of an entrancing Ananda.
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All Nature dumbly calls to her alone to heal with her feet the aching throb of life. Blessings.
Page-117
The first rale of Yoga is that the Sadhak must be content with what comes to him, much or little; if things are there, he must be able to use them without attachment or desire; if they are not he must be indifferent to their absence.
Sri Aurobindo
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All is Thine, O Lord, it is Thou who placest all things at our disposal; but how blind we are when we imagine that we can be owners of any one of these!
Page-118
There is a kind of respect for the object one has, which must make one treat it with much consideration and try to preserve it as long as possible, not because one is attached to it and desires it, but because an object is something respectable which has sometimes cost a lot of effort and labour in the producing and so must as a result be considered with the respect due to the work and effort put into it.
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Not to take care of the material objects one uses is a sign of unconsciousness and ignorance.... We must take care of them, not because we are attached to them, but because they too manifest something of the Divine Consciousness.
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The Mother and myself went for years through the utmost self-imposed bareness of life.
Sri Aurobindo
Page-119
My music resembles the inner movements of the Sadhana. Sometimes a trouble, a chaos, a problem, a wrong movement which seemed conquered returns with a greater force. But then, as an answer or as an aid, the growth, the unveiling of the consciousness — and then the final enlightenment.
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This music aims at awakening certain profound feelings.
To hear it one should make oneself as silent and passive as possible. And if, in the mental silence, a part of the being can take the attitude of the witness who observes without reacting or participating, then one can take account of the effect which the music produces on the feelings and emotions; and if it produces a state of deep calm and of semi-trance, then that is quite good.
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It is not necessary to have technical knowledge in order to feel what is behind the music. Mother, of course, does not play for the sake of a technical musical effect, but to bring down something from the higher planes and that anyone can receive who is open.
Sri Aurobindo
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It is a prayer or an invocation that Mother makes in the music.
Sri Aurobindo
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Four great Aspects of the Mother, four of her leading Powers and Personalities have stood in front in her guidance of this Universe and in her dealings with the terrestrial play. One is her personality of calm wideness and comprehending wisdom and tranquil benignity and inexhaustible compassion and sovereign and surpassing majesty and all-ruling greatness.
Another embodies her power of splendid strength and irresistible passion, her warrior mood, her overwhelming will, her impetuous swiftness and world-shaking force.
A third is vivid and sweet and wonderful with her deep secret of beauty and harmony and fine rhythm, her intricate and subtle opulence, her compelling attraction and captivating grace.
The fourth is equipped with her close and profound capacity of intimate knowledge and careful flawless work and quiet and exact perfection in all things.
Wisdom, Strength, Harmony, Perfection are their several attributes and it is these powers that they bring with them into the world, manifest in a human disguise in their Vibhutis and shall found in the divine degree of their ascension in those who can open their earthly nature to the direct and living influence of the Mother. To the four we give the four great names, Maheshwari, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi, Mahasaraswati.
Sri Aurobindo
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Imperial Maheshwari is seated in the wideness above the thinking mind and will and sublimates and greatens them into wisdom and largeness or floods with a splendour beyond them....
Nothing can move her because all wisdom is in her; nothing is hidden from her that she chooses to know; she comprehends all things and all beings and their nature and what moves them and the law of the world and its times and how all was and is and must be. A strength is in her that meets everything and masters and none can prevail in the end against her vast intangible wisdom and high tranquil power.
Sri Aurobindo
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The impulses that are swift and straight and frank, the movements that are unreserved and absolute, the aspiration that mounts in flame are the motion of Mahakali.
Sri Aurobindo
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All her divinity leaps out in a splendour of tempestuous action; she is there for swiftness, for the immediately effective process, the rapid and direct stroke, the frontal assault that carries everything before it.
Sri Aurobindo
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Of all the aspects of the Mother, Kali most powerfully expresses vibrant and active love, and despite her sometimes terrible aspect, she carries in herself the golden splendour of an all-powerful love.
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.. .on Kali Puja day I always distribute the flowers of "Divine's Love"; for Kali is the most loving of all the aspects of the Mahashakti; hers is the most active and most powerful Love. And that is why every year I distribute the petals of "Divine's Love" on Kali's Day.
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There is a sacred fire that burns in the heart and envelops the whole being: it is Agni, who illumines and purifies all. I kindle that fire in you each time that you ask me for some progress; but it destroys nothing except falsehood and obscurity.
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Love, love, love to my very dear child;
all the joy, all the light, all the peace of the divine love
and also my loving blessings.
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...she [Mahalakshmi] throws the spell of the intoxicating sweetness of the Divine: to be close to her is a profound happiness and to feel her within the heart is to make existence a rapture and a marvel....
Sri Aurobindo
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...grace and charm and tenderness flow out from her like light from the sun and wherever she fixes her wonderful gaze or lets fall the loveliness of her smile, the soul is seized and made captive and plunged into the depths of an unfathomable bliss.
Sri Aurobindo
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Harmony and beauty of the mind and soul, harmony and beauty of the thoughts and feelings, harmony and beauty in every outward act and movement, harmony and beauty of the life and surroundings, this is the demand of Mahalakshmi.
Sri Aurobindo
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Magnetic is the touch of her hands and their occult and delicate influence refines mind and life and body and where she presses her feet course miraculous streams of an entrancing Ananda.
Sri Aurobindo
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Where there is affinity to the rhythms of the secret world-bliss and response to the call of the All-Beautiful and concord and unity and the glad flow of many lives turned towards the Divine, in that atmosphere she consents to abide.
Sri Aurobindo
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Mahasaraswati is the Mother's Power of Work and her spirit of perfection and order.
Sri Aurobindo
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Maheshwari lays down the large lines of the world-forces, Mahakali drives their energy and impetus, Mahalakshmi discovers their rhythms and measures, but Mahasaraswati presides over their detail of organisation and execution, relation of parts and effective combination of forces and unfailing exactitude of result and fulfilment.
Sri Aurobindo
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When her work is finished, nothing has been forgotten, no part has been misplaced or omitted or left in a faulty condition; all is solid, accurate, complete, admirable. Nothing short of a perfect perfection satisfies her and she is ready to face an eternity of toil if that is needed for the fullness of her creation.
Sri Aurobindo
*
A mother to our wants, a friend in our difficulties, a persistent and tranquil counsellor and mentor, chasing away with her radiant smile the clouds of gloom and fretfulness and depression, reminding always of the ever-present help, pointing to the eternal sunshine, she is firm, quiet and persevering....
Sri Aurobindo
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Mahasaraswati's mission is to awaken the world to the need of perfection; but perfection itself belongs to the Supreme Lord alone; no one else can even know what it is.
Page-135
Durga is the Mother's power of Protection.
Sri Aurobindo
Durga combines the characteristics of Maheshwari and Mahakali to a certain extent....
Sri Aurobindo
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You know the story of Durga, don't you? Durga who every year has to destroy her asura; and always she is compelled to begin again. It goes on in this way till the end of the reign allotted to the titans. When they will be banished from this world, it will not be thus any longer. But till then, that is as long as they are useful... for intensifying the aspiration, clarifying the consciousness, for putting to the test the sincerity of people, they will be there. The day the test will not be needed, the day the sincerity will be pure and self-existent they will disappear. Then that day, Durga will no longer need to begin her battle over again every year.
Even the gods have to make their surrender to the Supreme if the Divine creation is to be realised upon earth.
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Keep yourself open to the Mother and in perfect union with her. Make yourself entirely plastic to her touch and let her mould you swiftly towards perfection.
Sri Aurobindo
Page-138
Live always as if you were under the very eye of the Supreme and of the Divine Mother. Do nothing, try to think and feel nothing that would be unworthy of the Divine Presence.
Sri Aurobindo
Page-139
This gesture, [about pranam, the gesture of obeisance to the Divine'] when one makes it in all sincerity, is the consecration to the Divine in the whole creation. It is that, that is the origin of the thing... like a recognition, a recognition and a submission to the Divine in the creation.
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The Mother is the consciousness and force of the Divine — or, it may be said, she is the Divine in its consciousness-force.
Sri Aurobindo
Page-141
A prayer from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad sent to Sri Aurobindo by a disciple:
From me non-being to true being,
from the darkness to the Light,
from death to Immortality.
OM Peace! Peace! Peace!
So be it
Page-142
The best way for Darshan is to keep oneself very collected and quiet and open to receive whatever the Mother gives.
Sri Aurobindo
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The right attitude to approach the Mother when she sees one is to keep the being perfectly quiet and open to receive, without any activity of the mind or desire in the vital, with only the surrender and the psychic readiness to accept whatever is given.
Sri Aurobindo
Page-143
Flowers are extremely receptive. All the flowers to which I have given a significance receive exactly the force I put into them and transmit it.
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What is the significance of the Mother s giving us flowers at Pranam every day? It is meant to help the realisation of the thing the flower stands for.
Sri Aurobindo
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It is when the Mother puts her force into the flower that it becomes more than a symbol. It then can become very effective if there is receptivity in the one who receives.
Sri Aurobindo
Page-144
Lo! here are flowers and benedictions! here is the smile of divine Love! It is without preferences and without repulsions. It streams out towards all in a generous flow and never takes back its marvellous gifts!
Page-145
I have said that the Divine does the Sadhana first for the world and then gives what is brought down to others.
Sri Aurobindo
The Mother has her own experience in bringing down the things that have to be brought down....
Sri Aurobindo
She is trying to bring down the right consciousness in the atmosphere of the Ashram....
Sri Aurobindo
It is not as a Guru that I love and bless, it is as the Mother who asks nothing in return for what she gives.
My blessings and love and the Presence of the Divine Grace are always with you.
Page-146
The Mother's consciousness is the divine Consciousness
and the Light that comes from it is the light of the divine Truth,
the Force that she brings down is the force of the divine Truth.
Sri Aurobindo
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The Mother and myself deal with all according to the law of the Divine....
Their progress in Sadhana is our main concern....
We act according to the Light within us
and for the Truth that we are striving to establish in this earthly Nature.
Sri Aurobindo
*
The Mother and myself stand for the same Power in two forms....
Sri Aurobindo
*
There is one force only, the Mother's force — or, if you like to put it like that, the Mother is Sri Aurobindo's Force.
Sri Aurobindo
The Mother is not a disciple of Sri Aurobindo. She has had the same realisation and experience as myself.
Sri Aurobindo
Page-147
The Mother's difficulties are not her own; she bears the difficulties of others....
Sri Aurobindo
*
As for the Mother and myself, we have had to try all ways, follow all methods, to surmount mountains of difficulties, a far heavier burden to bear than you or anybody else in the Ashram or outside, far more difficult conditions, battles to fight, wounds to endure, ways to cleave through impenetrable morass and desert and forest, hostile masses to conquer — a work such as, I am certain, none else had to do before us. For the Leader of the Way in a work like ours has not only to bring down and represent and embody the Divine, but to represent too the ascending element in humanity and to bear the burden of humanity to the full and experience, not in a mere play or Lila but in grim earnest, all the obstruction, difficulty, opposition, baffled and hampered and only slowly victorious labour which are possible on the Path.
Sri Aurobindo
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No difficulty that can come on the Sadhak but has faced us on the path; against many we have had to struggle hundreds of times (in fact, that is an understatement) before we could overcome; many still remain protesting that they have a right until the perfect perfection is there. But we have never consented to admit their inevitable necessity for others. It is, in fact, to ensure an easier path to others hereafter that we have borne that burden. It was with that object that the Mother once prayed to the Divine that whatever difficulties, dangers, sufferings were necessary for the path might be laid on her rather than on others. It has been so far granted her as a result of daily and terrible struggles for years that those who put an entire and sincere confidence in her are able to follow the sunlit path....
Sri Aurobindo
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...I am putting forth all my efforts to bring down the supramental Force within a measurable time. I know that it will descend but I am seeking its near descent and, with whatever dark obstruction of the earth-nature or furious inroads of the Asuric forces seeking to prevent it, it is approaching the terrestrial soil. The Supramental is not, as you imagine, something cold, hard and rock-like. It bears within it the presence of the Divine Love as well as the Divine Truth....
Sri Aurobindo
Page-148
It is because we have the complete experience that we can show a straighter and easier road to others—if they will only consent to take it. It is because of our experience won at a tremendous price that we can urge upon you and others, "Take the psychic attitude; follow the straight sunlit path, with the Divine openly or secretly upbearing you — if secretly, he will yet show himself in good time,—do not insist on the hard, hampered, roundabout and difficult journey."
Sri Aurobindo
Page-149
OM Sri Aurobindo Mira Open my mind, my heart, my life to your Light, your Love, your Power. In all things may I see the Divine.
Sri Aurobindo
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When in your heart and thought you will make no difference between Sri Aurobindo and me, when to think of Sri Aurobindo will be to think of me and to think of me will mean to think of Sri Aurobindo inevitably, when to see one will mean inevitably to see the other, like one and the same Person, — then you will know that you begin to be open to the supramental force and consciousness.
*
What is known as Sri Aurobindo's Yoga is the joint creation of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother; they are now completely identified—the Sadhana in the Ashram and all arrangement is done directly by the Mother, Sri Aurobindo supports her from behind. All who come here for practising Yoga have to surrender themselves to the Mother who helps them always and builds up their spiritual life.
Sri Aurobindo
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Without him, I exist not;
without me, he is unmanifest.
*
Mother,
Essentially, aren't you and Sri Aurobindo one, or the same?
Essentially, that is to say, outside the manifestation, always. In the manifestation, the unity occurs when it is necessary, and the duality exists when it is necessary.
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In the days when Sri Aurobindo used to give Darshan, before he gave it there was always a concentration of certain forces or of a certain realisation which he wanted to give to people. And so each Darshan marked a stage forward; each time something was added.
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Everything that is said in a Darshan message has been studied, proved, tested, beforehand. And on Darshan day it is given. First the experiment is made, then it is declared publicly. The first movement is the individual development; at the Darshan time it is spread abroad.
*
August 15, 1931
To bring the Divine Love and Beauty and Ananda into the world is, indeed, the whole crown and essence of our Yoga. But it has always seemed to me impossible unless there comes as its support and foundation and guard the Divine Truth—what I call the Supramental—and its Divine Power.
Sri Aurobindo
Page-152
Sri Aurobindo has brought to the world the assurance of a divine future.
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