Under Her Guidance

In the Ashram, "work is carried out not for a personal end but in a selfless way for the realisation of an ideal".

Indeed, her miraculous touch is seen in every walk of life.

"The Light of Truth broods over the world to permeate and mould its future."

Inspired by her vision, the new township —Auroville, has come into being.

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...Sri Aurobindo's sadhana starts where the others end. Once the union with the Supreme is realised one must bring down that realisation to the exterior world and change the conditions of life upon the earth until a total transformation is accomplished.

In accordance with this aim, the sadhaks of the integral yoga do not retire from the world to lead a life of contemplation and meditation. Each one must devote at least one-third of his time to a useful work. All activities are represented in the Ashram and each one chooses the work most congenial to his nature, but must do it in a spirit of service and unselfishness, keeping always in view the aim of integral transformation.

To make this purpose possible the Ashram is organised so that all its inmates find their reasonable needs satisfied and have not to worry about their subsistence.

*

This is not an Ashram like others — the members are not Sannyasis; it is not moksa that is the sole aim of the yoga here. What is being done here is a preparation for a work — a work which will be founded on yogic consciousness and Yoga-Shakti, and can have no other foundation. Meanwhile, every member here is expected to do some work in the Ashram as part of this spiritual preparation.

Sri Aurobindo

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...the daily activity is the anvil on which all the elements must pass and repass in order to be purified, refined, made supple and ripe for the illumination which contemplation gives to them. All these elements must be thus passed one after the other through the crucible before outer activity becomes needless for the integral development.

*

Whose work is it if it is not the Mother's work? All that you do, you have to do as the Mother's work. All the work done in the Ashram is the Mother's.

All those works, meditation, reading Conversations, studying English, etc. are good. You can do any of them dedicating them to the Mother.

Sri Aurobindo

*

Work for the Mother done with the right concentration on her is as much a Sadhana as meditation and inner experiences.

*

One can progress through meditation, but through work provided it is done in the right spirit one can progress ten times more.

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Message for Harpagon Workshop

Let peace and good will always prevail here. With my blessings.

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Whatever occupation or task falls to your lot, you must do it with a will to progress; whatever one does, one must not only do it as best one can but strive to do it better and better in a constant effort for perfection.

In this way everything without exception becomes interesting, from the most material chore to the most artistic and intellectual work.

The scope for progress is infinite and can be applied to the smallest thing.

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.. .when we eat, we should be conscious that we are giving our food to that Presence in us; it must be a sacred offering in a temple and the sense of a mere physical need or self-gratification must pass away from us.

Sri Aurobindo

*

I tasted the bun — the taste is very good. They did not rise because they are not cooked enough. The oven must have been too hot, the bun burned and the outside began to brown before the inside was cooked.

*

I came to the bindery to explain to all of you what you had to do, and expect that you will do accordingly. I want you to work all together harmoniously, helping one another as much as you can.

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I think you must have been proud today to see your superb sari — it is truly regal; and as for me, I was proud of my little smile and her beautiful work!

Mother, I think the sari You wore today is my finest embroidery, don't You think so?

It is a work of art. It is simply splendid. I feel as if I were dressed in light.

*

My dear little smile,

You are quite right. I much prefer a beautiful embroidered sari to a lace gown. It is not a question of number or of need. For years I was perfectly satisfied with two saris a year — but I am proud of the beautiful things my dear children make for me and I wear them with affection and joy.

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Good health is the exterior expression of an inner harmony.

*

When one is caught in an illness, how should one pray to the Mother? Cure me, O Mother!

...it is the Grace alone that cures. The medicines only give a faith to the body. That is all.

Finally it is Faith that cures.

*

To keep quiet and to concentrate, leaving the Force from above to do its work, is the surest way to be cured of anything and everything. There is no illness that can resist that if it is done properly, in time and long enough, with a steady faith and a strong will.

The body should reject illness as energetically as we reject falsehood in the mind.

If the body is considered as the tabernacle of the Lord, then medical science, for example, becomes the initiatory ritual for service of the temple and doctors of all categories are the priests who officiate in the different rituals of the worship. Thus, medicine is truly a priesthood and should be treated as such.

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Message for the inauguration of the Ayurvedic Section

In this new activity the knowledge of the past must be illumined by the revelation of today.

With my blessings.

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When I was twenty, a doctor told me that in cases of troubles of the stomach or intestines, the best thing is to continue eating as usual and not to bother about the trouble. He said, "If you have acidity, it will come from whatever food you take and the more you bother about it, the more it will increase. If you go on changing your food, in the end you will find that you cannot even drink a drop of water without getting into trouble. But if you remain normal and don't worry, you will become all right."

And I have found this advice to be quite true.

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My advice is that medicines should not be used unless it is absolutely impossible to avoid them....

*

An hour's moving about in the sun does more to cure weakness or even ansemia than a whole arsenal of tonics.

*

The only unfailing method for getting rid of illnesses is to turn one's attention away from them and refuse to give them any importance.

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So long as we are in a body, whatever its age and difficulties, it is certain that we have something to do or learn in it, and this conviction gives the necessary strength to face all vicissitudes.

*

It is during one's physical life on earth that one has the opportunity to purify oneself, to make spiritual progress.

*

There is no disease from which I have not suffered. I have taken all the diseases upon my body to see their course and to have their knowledge by experience in the physical, so that I may be able to work upon them. But as my physical has no fear and it responds to the higher pressure, it is easier for me to get rid of them.

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What work is given by the Mother is her work — also whatever work is done with sincerity as an offering to the Mother is her work also — that goes without saying.

Sri Aurobindo

Remind yourself always it is Mother's work you are doing and if you do it as well as you can remembering her, the Mother's Grace will be with you.

Sri Aurobindo

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In the integral Yoga there is no distinction between the sadhana and the outward life; it is in each and every movement of the daily life that the Truth must be found and practised.

*

Here, for each work given, the full strength and Grace are always given at the same time to do the work as it has to be done.

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Be sure that I am always present among you to guide and help you in your work and your sadhana.

*

I am quite satisfied with your way of doing the work and it is sure to help you to come nearer to me.

*

There must be order and harmony in work. Even what is apparently the most insignificant thing must be done with perfect perfection, with a sense of cleanliness, beauty, harmony and order.

*

For harmony and better work, it is not by changing men that things can get better, but by changing one's own consciousness and character.

*

The Divine is in things also and that is why they must be treated with care.

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For the sake of sadhana and for the sake of work, it is always better to work silently.

*

We know, we have said this many a time, that all work is a prayer made with the body and that the true attitude in work is an offering to the Divine.

Do I serve You as best I can?

You serve me as best you can, but your best of tomorrow must be better than your best of today.

*

It is ages of ardent aspiration that have brought us here to do the Divine's Work.

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Work is not only for work's sake, but as a field of Sadhana, for getting rid of the lower personality and its reactions and acquiring a full surrender to the Divine. As for the work itself, it must be done according to the organisation arranged or sanctioned by the Mother. You must always remember that it is her work and not personally yours.

Sri Aurobindo

*

No wonder that Ojas [a bullock] gave some trouble. These bullocks are quite intelligent enough to feel the change of people. This new man is not an expert and moreover he has something of a brute around him. You will have to look carefully after him, for I do not like his way of dealing with the bullocks.

I object strongly to his way of twisting the tails of the beasts. If somebody twisted one of his limbs like that, what would he say? And I am pretty sure that our bullocks are more sensitive than he is.

*

I can tell you this to finish with the subject, that from the roof I concentrated the power on the bullocks ordering them to yield and obey and I found them quite receptive. To use a quiet, steady, unwavering conscious will, that is the way, the only true way really effective and worthy of an aspirant for Divine Life.

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Always do with pleasure the work you have to do. Work done with joy is work done well.

*

If you can't as yet remember the Divine all the time you are working, it does not greatly matter. To remember and dedicate at the beginning and give thanks at the end ought to be enough for the present.

Sri Aurobindo

Love of Nature is usually the sign of a pure and healthy being uncorrupted by modern civilisation. It is in the silence of a peaceful mind that one can best commune with Nature.

*

When one is in the countryside, when one walks under the trees and feels so close to Nature, to the trees, the sky, all the leaves, all the branches, all the herbs, when one feels a great friendship with these things and breathes that air which is so good, perfumed with all the plants, then one opens oneself, and by opening oneself communes with the universal forces.

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When one eats an egg, doesn't one eat the chicken inside it?

It's not yet formed, the consciousness of the chicken. Of course, one must take care to eat the egg fresh before the chick begins to be formed.

Sweet Mother, if the agony of a chicken can attack us, so too can that of a beetroot or a carrot, can't it?

For all that, I believe the chicken is more conscious than the beetroot. (Laughter) But I ought to tell you my own experience. Only I was thinking this was not something common.

In Tokyo I had a garden and in this garden I was growing vegetables myself. I had a fairly big garden and many vegetables. And so, every morning I used to go for a walk, after having watered them and all the rest; I used to walk around to choose which vegetables I could take for eating. Well, just imagine! there were some which said to me, "No, no, no, no, no." ... And then there were others which called, and I saw them from a distance, and they were saying, "Take me, take me, take me!" So it was very simple, I looked for those which wanted to be taken and never did I touch those which did not. I used to think it was something exceptional. I loved my plants very much, I used to look after them, I had put a lot of consciousness into them while watering them, cleaning them, so I thought they had a special capacity, perhaps.

But in France it was the same thing. I had a garden... where I used to grow peas, radishes, carrots. Well, there were some which were happy, which asked to be taken and eaten, and there were those which said, "No, no, no, don't touch me, don't touch me!"

... At times it was indeed that the plant was not edible.... At other times it happened that it was not ready, ...a day or two later it said to me, "Take me, take me, take me!"

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Animals have much more perfect senses than those of men. I challenge you to track a man as a dog does, for instance!

This means that in the curve or rather the spiral of evolution, animals... are governed by the spirit of the species which is a highly conscious consciousness. Bees, ants, obey this spirit of the species which is of quite a special quality. And what is called "instinct" in animals is simply obedience to the spirit of the species which always knows what ought and ought not to be done.

There are so many examples, you know. You put a cow in a meadow; it roams around, sniffs, and suddenly puts out its tongue and snatches a blade of grass. Then it wanders about again, sniffs and gets another tuft of grass, and so it goes on. Has anyone ever known a cow under these conditions eating poisonous grass? But shut this poor animal up in a cow-shed, gather and put some grass before it, and the poor creature which has lost its instinct because it now obeys man, ...eats the poisonous grass along with the rest of it....

It is quite strange, they lose their ability. Dogs, for instance the sheep-dog which lives far away from men with the flocks and has a very independent nature... if it is bitten by a snake, it will remain in a corner, lick itself and do all that is necessary till it gets cured. The same dog, if it stays with you and is bitten by a snake, dies quietly like man.

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All animals which live close to man lose their instinct because they have a kind of admiration full of devotion for this being who can give them shelter and food without the least difficulty — and a little fear too, for they know that if they don't do what man wants they will be beaten!

Animals in their natural state do not ever overeat, they eat according to their hunger and if some food is left over... they hide it with great care so that they may find it again when they are hungry. But an animal living with man loses this instinct.... I lived for some time in a small town in the South of France. There was a grocer there who kept goats and one of them had become quite greedy. He had just received a barrel of molasses.... he opened the lid and forgot to put it back. And there it was and the goat was roaming around.... It began to eat it and found it truly excellent. And it went on — as it had lost all its instinct — until literally it fell dead, having eaten too much.

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In animals there is sometimes a very intense psychic truth. Naturally, I believe that the psychic being is a little more formed, a little more conscious in a child than in an animal. But I have experimented with animals, just to know; well, I assure you that in human beings I have rarely come across some of the virtues which I have seen in animals, very simple, unpretentious virtues.

As in cats, for example: I have studied cats a lot; if one knows them well they are marvellous creatures. I have known mother-cats which have sacrificed themselves entirely for their babies — people speak of maternal love with such admiration, as though it were purely a human privilege, but I have seen this love manifested by mother-cats to a degree far surpassing ordinary humanity.

I have seen a mother-cat which would never touch her food until her babies had taken all they needed. I have seen another cat which stayed eight days beside her kittens, without satisfying any of her needs because she was afraid to leave them alone; and a cat which repeated more than fifty times the same movement to teach her young one how to jump from a wall on to a window, and I may add, with a care, an intelligence, a skill which many uneducated women do not have.

And why is it thus? — because there was no mental intervention. It was altogether spontaneous instinct. But what is instinct? — it is the presence of the Divine in the genus of the species, and that, that is the psychic of animals; a collective, not an individual psychic.

*

You know, I had a cat which was doing yoga. Well, the yoga of the cat could not be as powerful as the yoga of man, and yet it was as integral, it was quite complete; even its body took part in its yoga.

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I had a very sweet little cat, absolutely civilised, a marvellous cat. It was born in the house and it had the habit all cats have, that is to say, if something moved, it played with that. Just then there was in the house a huge scorpion; as was its habit, the cat started playing with the scorpion. And the scorpion stung it. But it was an exceptional cat; it came to me, it was almost dying, but it showed me its paw where it was bitten — it was already swollen and in a terrible state. I took my little cat — it was really sweet — and put it on a table and called Sri Aurobindo. I told him, "Kiki has been stung by a scorpion, it must be cured." The cat stretched its neck and looked at Sri Aurobindo, its eyes already a little glassy. Sri Aurobindo sat before it and looked at it also. Then we saw this little cat gradually beginning to recover, to come round, and an hour later it jumped to its feet and went away completely healed....

In those days, I had the habit of holding a meditation in the room where Sri Aurobindo slept... and it was regularly the same people who came; everything was arranged. But there was an arm-chair in which this very cat always settled beforehand.... And regularly it went into a trance! It was not sleeping... it certainly had visions.... It remained thus for hours together. And when it came out from that state, it refused to eat. It was awakened and given food, but it refused: it went back to its chair and fell again into a trance! This was becoming very dangerous for a little cat.... But this was not an ordinary cat....

I was interested in cats to make an experiment, a sort of inverse metempsychosis, if one can call it that, that is, to see if this could be their last incarnation as animals, if they were ready to enter a human body in the next life. The experiment succeeded fully, I had three absolutely flagrant instances; they left with a psychic being sufficiently conscious to enter a human body.

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Once, it was completely dark, here, near the fishing village of Ariankuppam. There was a river and it happened just at the place where it flows into the sea. It was dark — the night had fallen very quickly. We were walking along the road and just as I was about to put my foot down — I had already lifted my foot and I was going to put it down — I distinctly heard a voice in my ear: "Be careful!" And yet nobody had spoken. So I looked and saw, just as my foot was about to touch the ground, an enormous black cobra, which I would have comfortably stepped on — those people don't like that. He streaked away and across the water — what a beauty, my child! His hood open, head erect above the water, he went across like a king. Obviously, I would have been punished for my impertinence.

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Quietude is a very positive state; there is a positive peace which is not the opposite of conflict — an active peace, contagious, powerful, which controls and calms, which puts everything in order, organises....

And this is true even in the physical field.... A lion sitting and looking at you always seems to be telling you, "Oh, how fidgety you are!" It looks at you with such a peaceful air of wisdom! And all its power, energy, physical strength are there, gathered, collected, concentrated and — without a shadow of agitation — ready for action when the order is given.

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All work done for the Divine, from poetry and art and music to carpentry or baking or sweeping a room, should be made perfect even in its smallest external detail as well as in the spirit in which it is done; for only then is it an altogether fit offering.

Sri Aurobindo

There is no greater joy than to serve the Divine.

*

Perfection in the work must be the aim, but it is only by a very patient effort that this can be obtained.

*

Open yourself more and more to the Divine's force and your work will progress steadily towards perfection.

*

It is by combined and patient effort that all good work is done.

For the work, steadiness and regularity are as necessary as skill.

My help is always with you to help you in your progress and your work....

*

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. To insist upon one's own mind and its ideas, to allow oneself to be governed by one's own vital feelings and reactions should not be the rule of life here. One has to stand back from these, to be detached, to get in their place the true knowledge from above, the true feelings from the psychic within.

Sri Aurobindo

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Those who believe in the yoga of Sri Aurobindo must understand that money is not meant to bring money but to help the earth to prepare for the advent of the new creation.

In the supramental creation the money-force has to be restored to the Divine Power....

Sri Aurobindo

*

The financiers and businessmen have been offered the possibility to collaborate with the future....

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Wealth is a force.... It is something which can serve to produce, to organise. ...it is only a means of making things circulate fully and freely.

This force should be in the hands of those who know how to make the best possible use of it, that is... people who have... got rid of every personal desire and every attachment. To this should be added a vision vast enough to understand the needs of the earth, a knowledge complete enough to know how to organise all these needs and use this force by these means.

If, besides this, these beings have a higher spiritual knowledge, then they can utilise this force to construct gradually upon the earth what will be capable of manifesting the divine Power, Force and Grace.

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Message inscribed on the foundation-stone of the New Horizon Sugar Mills Faithfulness is the sure basis of success.

Message for New Horizon Sugar Mills

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A day shall come when all the wealth of this world, freed at last from the enslavement to the antidivine forces, offers itself spontaneously and fully to the service of the Divine's Work upon earth.

*

You are rich only by the money that you give to the Divine Cause. The true fortune is to spend in the right way.

You become truly rich when you dispose of your wealth in the best possible way.

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You must neither turn with an ascetic shrinking from the money power, the means it gives and the objects it brings, nor cherish a rajasic attachment to them....

Sri Aurobindo

To the rich God gives money, but to the poor He gives Himself.

Wealth should not be a personal property and should be at the disposal of the Divine for the welfare of all.

Regard wealth simply as a power to be won back for the Mother and placed at her service.

Sri Aurobindo

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All wealth belongs to the Divine and those who hold it are trustees, not possessors. It is with them today, tomorrow it may be elsewhere. All depends on the way they discharge their trust while it is with them, in what spirit, with what consciousness in their use of it, to what purpose.

Sri Aurobindo

.. .I do not regard business as something evil or tainted, any more than it is so regarded in ancient spiritual India....

All depends on the spirit in which a thing is done, the principles on which it is built and the use to which it is turned.

Sri Aurobindo

Messages for some business concerns An honest business for honest people

Message for Aurofood, August 14, 1968 We shall work for a better tomorrow. Blessings

"Commerce under Sri Aurobindo's Guidance".

The divine life will reject nothing that is capable of divinisation; all is to be seized, exalted, made utterly perfect.

Sri Aurobindo

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Messages to various Organisations

Among the first organisations that came up was "L "Idee Nouvelle ". It was started by the Mother. It had its headquarters at Pondicherry. This announcement appeared in the very first issue of the Arya, in August 1914.

A Society has been founded in French India under the name of the New Idea (L'Idee Nouvelle). Its object is to group in a common intellectual life and fraternity of sentiment those who accept the spiritual tendency and idea it represents and who aspire to realise it in their own individual and social action.

The Society has already made a beginning by grouping together young men of different castes and religions in a common ideal. All sectarian and political questions are necessarily foreign to its idea and its activities. It is on a higher plane of thought superior to external differences of race, caste, creed and opinion and in the solidarity of the spirit that unity can be realised.

The Idee Nouvelle has two rules only for its members, first, to devote some time every day to meditation and self-culture, the second, to use or create daily at least one opportunity of being helpful to others. This is naturally, only the minimum of initial self-training necessary for those who have yet to cast the whole trend of their thought and feeling into the mould of a higher life and to enlarge the egoistic into a collective consciousness.

The Society has its headquarters at Pondicherry with a reading-room and library. A section has been founded at Karaikal and others are likely to be opened at Yanam and Mahe.

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Suggested programme for a study group

October 31, 1942

1.Prayer

(Sri Aurobindo, Mother — grant us your help in our endeavour to understand your teaching.)

2.Reading of Sri Aurobindo s book.

3.A moment of silence.

4.One question can be put by whoever wants to put a question on what has been read.

5.Answer to the question.

6.No general discussion.

This is not the meeting of a group but simply a class for studying Sri Aurobindo's books.

*

Message for America August 4, 1949

Stop thinking that you are of the West and others of the East. All human beings are of the same divine origin and meant to manifest upon earth the unity of this origin.

*

Message for the Society for the Spiritual and Cultural Renaissance of Bharat August 23, 1951

Let the splendour of Bharat's past be reborn in the realisation of her imminent future with the help and blessings of her living soul.

*

Message for the inauguration of the Sri Aurobindo Philosophical Circle, Hong Kong

June 26, 1954

Let the eternal Light dawn on the eastern horizon.

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Message for the inauguration of the Delhi Branch of Sri Aurobindo Ashram

February 12, 1956

Let this place be worthy of its name and manifest the true spirit of Sri Aurobindo's teaching and message to the world.

Two Messages to the Mother's International School, Delhi

April 23, 1956

A new Light has appeared upon earth. Let this new School opened today be guided by it.

April 23, 1969

The Future is full of promise. Prepare yourself for it.

*

Message for the inauguration of Sri Aurobindo Nilaya, Santiniketan

December 21, 1962

To open a centre is not sufficient in itself. It must be the pure hearth of a perfect sincerity in a total consecration to the Divine.

Let the flame of this sincerity rise high above the falsities and deceptions of the world.

*

Message for the world conference of Sri Aurobindo Society

August, 1964

The future of the earth depends on a change of consciousness. The only hope for the future is in a change of man's consciousness and the change is bound to come.

But it is left to men to decide if they will collaborate for this change or if it will have to be enforced upon them by the power of crashing circumstances.

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Message for a seminar on Human Unity

How can humanity become one? By becoming conscious of its origin.

What is the way of making the consciousness of human unity grow in man? Spiritual education, that is to say an education which gives more importance to the growth of the spirit than to any religious or moral teaching or to the material so-called knowledge.

What is a change of consciousness? A change of consciousness is equivalent to a new birth, a birth into a higher sphere of existence.

How can a change of consciousness change the life upon earth? A change in human consciousness will make possible the manifestation upon earth of a higher Force, a purer Light, a more total Truth.

Message for a film unit

"Aurofilms at the service of beauty and truth."

*

Message for the World Vegetarian Congress

1957

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.

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Message for the Italian magazine 'Domani'

To survive and renew oneself.

*

Message for the Sri Aurobindo Society, Osaka, Japan

October 16, 1972

Japan was in the physical world the teacher of beauty. She must not renounce her privilege.

*

Message for the inauguration of Sri Aurobindo s Action

To speak well is good. To act well is better. Never let your actions be below your words.

Message for the Rayagada Study Circle, Orissa

The moment approaches when the Truth will govern the world.

Will you work to hasten its coming?

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Message for 'Vers L 'Avenir' 1967, a students' magazine of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education

To know how to be reborn into a new life at every moment is the secret of eternal youth.

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Auroville wants to be a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities.

The purpose of Auroville is to realise human unity.

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Message for the Inauguration of Auroville

Greetings from Auroville to all men of good will.

Are invited to Auroville all those who thirst for progress and aspire

to a higher and truer life.

Auroville Charter

1.Auroville belongs to nobody in particular. Auroville belongs to humanity as a whole.

But to live in Auroville one must be the willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness.

2.Auroville will be the place of an unending education, of constant progress, and a youth that never ages.

3.Auroville wants to be the bridge between the past and the future.

Taking advantage of all discoveries from without and from within, Auroville will boldly spring towards future realizations.

4.Auroville will be a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual human unity.

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We would like to make Auroville the cradle of the Superman.

*

February 28, 1968

Auroville the City

at the service of Truth

*

Symbol of Auroville

The dot at the centre represents Unity, the Supreme; the inner circle represents the creation, the conception of the City; the petals represent the power of expression, realisation.

Stone with the Mother's blessings for Matrimandir foundation

Feburary 21, 1972

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The Matrimandir wants to be the symbol of the Divine's answer to man's aspiration for perfection.

Union with the Divine manifesting in a progressive human unity.

The Matrimandir wants to be the symbol of the Universal Mother according to Sri Aurobindo's teaching.

*

The Matrimandir will be the soul of Auroville.

*

Let the Matrimandir be the living symbol of Auroville's aspiration for the Divine.

February 21, 1972

Let Auroville be the symbol of a progressive Unity.

And the best way to realise this is a unity of aspiration towards the Divine Perfection in work and in feeling, in a consecration of the entire life.

*

.. .aim of Auroville is to discover a new, deeper, more complete, more perfect life and to show the world that tomorrow will be better than today.

Auroville The city the earth needs.

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