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Acronyms used in the website

SABCL - Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library

CWSA - Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo

CWM - Collected Works of The Mother

Resource name: /E-Library/Works of The Mother/English/CWMCE/Questions and Answers_Volume-04/12 May 1951.htm
12 May 1951 “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... Where love and beauty are not or are reluctant to be born, she does not come.” Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, p. 31 *                              When the surroundings, circumstances, atmosphere, the way of living and above all the inner attitude are altogether of a low kind, vulgar, gross, egoistic, sordid, love is reluctant to come, that is, it always hesitates to manifest itself and generally doe
Resource name: /E-Library/Works of The Mother/English/CWMCE/Questions and Answers_Volume-04/23 December 1950.htm
23 December 1950 Mother reads out her article “Concentration and Dispersion” (On Education), then comments on it: To solve a problem, to learn a lesson, a lot of concentration and attention is needed, everyone knows that – an intellectual attention and concentration. But concentration is not only an intellectual thing, it may be found in all the activities of the being, including bodily activities. The control over the nerves should be such as would allow you a complete concentration on what you are doing and, through the very intensity of your concentration, you acquire an immediate response to external touches. To attain this concentration you need a
Resource name: /E-Library/Works of The Mother/English/CWMCE/Questions and Answers_Volume-04/24 March 1951.htm
24 March 1951 You say, “Love is everywhere. Its movement is there in plants, perhaps in the very stones....”¹ If there is love in a stone, how can one see it ?                              Perhaps the different elements constituting the stone are coordinated by the spark of love. I am sure that when the Divine Love descended into Matter, this Matter was quite unconscious, it had absolutely no form; it may even be said that forms in general are the result of the effort of Love to bring consciousness into Matter. If one of you (I have my doubts, but still) went down into the Inconscient, what is called the pure Inconscient, you would realise what it is. A stone
Resource name: /E-Library/Works of The Mother/English/CWMCE/Questions and Answers_Volume-04/7 May 1951.htm
7 May 1951                Mother reads the first part of Chapter 6 of The Mother by Sri Aurobindo. What is a “hierarchy”?                              It is a grouping organised in order of merit. For instance, you have a chief at the centre and you may have four persons around him, and around these four, 8, then 12, 24, 36, 48,124, and so on, each with his special mission, his special work, his particular authority, and all referring in an ascending order to the centre. That is a hierarchy. In governments they try to form hierarchies, but these are untrue, they are arbitrary and not worth anything. But in all ancient initiations there were hierarchies which were
Resource name: /E-Library/Works of The Mother/English/CWMCE/Questions and Answers_Volume-04/22 February 1951.htm
22 February 1951 “Yoga means union with the Divine, and the union is effected through offering – it is founded on the offer- ing of yourself to the Divine.” Questions and Answers 1929 (28 April) * What is the difference between surrender and offering?                               The two words are almost synonymous: “I make the offering of myself and I surrender myself”, but in the gesture of offering there is something more active than in the gesture of surrender. Unfortunately, soumission, in French, is not the true word; in English we use “surrender”; between the words “surrender” and “offering” there is hardly any difference. But the F
Resource name: /E-Library/Works of The Mother/English/CWMCE/Questions and Answers_Volume-04/23 April 1951.htm
23 April 1951                Mother reads Sri Aurobindo's “The Divine Superman” (Cent. Vol. 17, p. 74). “Thou must reach thy own summit,” says Sri Aurobindo. Is the summit the same for everybody or does each one have his particular summit ?                              In the last analysis, it is always the same summit- the divine oneness which is behind all things- but everyone will reach his own summit, that is, through his own nature and own way of manifesting the divine unity. This is what we were saying the other day: each one represents a special way of having a relation with the Divine and manifesting the Divine. You don't need to follow ano
Resource name: /E-Library/Works of The Mother/English/CWMCE/Questions and Answers_Volume-04/19 March 1951.htm
19 March 1951 “Mind is one movement, but there are many varieties of the movement, many strata, that touch and even press into each other. At the same time the movement we call mind penetrates into other planes... Now, there are mental planes that stand high above the vi- tal world and escape its influence; there are no hos- tile forces or beings there. But there are others and they are many that can be touched or penetrated by the vital forces.” Questions and Answers 1929 (26 May) * Which mental plane are you speaking of ?                              Of the physical mind. Certainly not of the higher mind, f
Resource name: /E-Library/Works of The Mother/English/CWMCE/Questions and Answers_Volume-04/26 February 1951.htm
26 February 1951 Mother reads a question asked during her talk  in 1929: “In the initial stages of Yoga, is it well for the Sa- dhaka to read ordinary books?” Questions and Answers 1929 (28 April) *                             It is a question I have been asked many times. If someone can tell me the effect on him of the reading of ordinary books, it will interest me very much. Ordinary books tire me.                              It is a good sign. They give rest to the mind and have no effect on me.                              No! The subconscient records everything, and if you have the impression that an ordinary boo
Resource name: /E-Library/Works of The Mother/English/CWMCE/Questions and Answers_Volume-04/26 March 1951.htm
26 March 1951 “At every moment one must know how to lose all in order to gain all.” What does this mean ?                              We have already spoken about this. When we enter upon the path of yoga, why do our dear ones leave us ? One loses all worldly possessions, all one's attachments; sometimes, even, one loses one's position, and to gain what ? – the most important thing, the only thing which is valuable: the divine Consciousness. And to gain this one must know how to lose all the goods of this world, to let go of all one's possessions, all desires, all attachments, all satisfactions; one must know how to lose all this if one wants to get the divine Con
Resource name: /E-Library/Works of The Mother/English/CWMCE/Questions and Answers_Volume-04/12 February 1951.htm
12 February 1951 “Some persons ask: `Why has not the Divine come yet?' Because you are not ready. If a little drop makes you sing and dance and scream, what would happen if the whole thing came down? “Therefore do we say to people who have not a strong and firm and capacious basis in the body and the vital and the mind: `Do not pull', meaning `Do not try to pull at the forces of the Divine, but wait in peace and calmness.' For they would not be able to bear the descent. But to those who possess the neces sary basis and foundation, we say, on the contrary, `Aspire and draw.' For they would be able to receive and yet not b