THE INTEGRAL YOGA, WORK AND LIFE-ACTIVITY       SOME NOTES FOR AN AMERICAN SEEKER     Q: Please define Sadhana and Integral Yoga. What is their relationship to each other? What is the Mother's and Sri Aurobindo's attitude toward work and what part do work and life-activity play in the life of one who undertakes Integral Yoga?   Sadhana is the practice, system, method by which one tries to attain spiritual perfection. It may be called also the process of Yoga — Yoga meaning the union of the human consciousness with the Divine.   The Integral Yoga sets before the sadhak, the doer of sadh

WHAT SRI AUROBINDO MEANS TO ME *     I was at college when I first heard of Sri Aurobindo. I read somewhere that he was a master of English as well as familiar with several other languages both ancient and modern. I also learnt that he was a great Yogi who had the power to appear in many places at the same time! What impressed my young mind was not so much this alleged power as his multi-linguism. I took it for granted that a great Yogi should be able to flout the common laws of space and time . But I was struck by the fact that this spiritual figure should be at home in such a number of languages and therefore of literatures. Here was

-044_The Mother's Programme for a Devotee.htm THE MOTHER'S PROGRAMME FOR A DEVOTEE       Page-191

THE FOUNT OF POETRY     The Roman poet Horace has the dictum: "No poems can please long, nor live, that are written by water-drinkers." Horace touches a sympathetic chord in me with his winy nature, but I cannot echo his thought on poetry-writing. I should rather say: "There can be no long-pleasing or living poems by those who need to be wine-drinkers in order to be drunk." And I would add: "No man can be a poet who, in order to be drunk, needs to give up water-drinking." But a caveat must be entered: "It one is such as to make a fetish of water-drinking, one can't be a poet." A bit of complexity here. May 1 explain a little? According to me, a poet

SOME MISUNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT THE ASHRAM     A LETTER   There are several misunderstandings about the Ashram, which I would like to clear up. First of all, take the ideal here and the life we lead. The impression you have received from what you call X's interpretation of Sri Aurobindo is quite wrong. You have come to believe that a society based on Yoga "is built on self love". The truth is that it is precisely self love in all its subtle no less than gross ramifications that the life of Yoga is meant to free us from. We distinguish two sides of our self: the so-called normal personality which is distinct from every other p

MONEY AND THE SPIRITUAL ASPIRANT     SOME QUESTIONS AND REPLIES     (This correspondence between two sadhaks dates back to 1952 but the fundamentals of it hold for the present time also.)   The Questions   1.How is a sadhak to earn money divinely? What should be the attitude of the sadhak living outside the Ashram when he goes into the field of business to earn his livelihood? If one labours to earn money with the sole aim of offering all his earnings at the feet of the Mother when he goes to Pondicherry, the matter is quite different, but the difficulty comes in the case when money is required to

AN EXPERIENCE RECOLLECTED     A REPORT BY AMAL KIRAN     It was in 1963. Sehra was ill. I informed the Mother. Having acted as usual with her spiritual force she expected a result. But somehow the attack of asthma continued. Then a strange incident took place. I wrote to the Mother about it. On the night of January 13, racked by a terrible asthmatic spasm, Sehra was sitting on her bed with her legs hanging to the floor. She felt her feet were getting cold; so she wanted to put on her sandals. When she bent towards them she became aware of something at once very soothing and very energising. To her great surprise she faced the Mother'

-026_A Poet's Sincerity.htm "A POET'S SINCERITY"     A LETTER IN ANSWER TO A CRITICISM     I have kept you hanging for quite a time, I I am sorry, but couldn't help it, for I had a Himalaya of work on my hands. Having written this, I am visited by a scruple. Could I have justifiably penned a line of poetry like: A Himalaya of work on my frail hands? How would such a line fare face to face with the two criteria of AE's, which you endorse but which I have considered insufficient for "a poet's sincerity" if not even irrelevant in essence? Is my line prompted by "a passionate desire for truth" and can it pass the test: "Do I really believe this? Is this t

SRI AUROBINDO, OTHER TEACHINGS, THE BUILDING OF AUROVILLE     A LETTER     Your circular is full of goodwill and a sincere desire to bring about harmony. You seem to have come across Aurobindo-nians who tend to be more religious than spiritual in their attitudes. It is the usual religious mind that sets up one alleged revelation in opposition to the approaches of other religions towards God. But one who claims to do an Integral Yoga cannot be exclusive in this fashion or come out with cudgels against people who are not yet aware of what Sri Aurobindo stands for. No true Aurobindonian tries to bully or browbeat anyone into

TWO LETTERS FROM THE ASHRAM     MAY 12,1954   I wonder why you write: "Nobody mentions the Mother." Either my letters haven't reached you or else you don't read them rightly. I think they mention hardly anything except the Mother. Surely one need not speak of her directly in order to mention her. My letters are one long spiritual autobiography. And what is a spiritual autobiography from here except a various presentation of Mother-moodedness? What shall I say to your question about Sehra and me and the psychic being? Both of us live, each in an individual way, in something of its glow at least frequently if not all the time. But that i