The Divine gives Himself (13-01-10) The contributions of evil to the good of the world & the harm sometimes done by the virtuous are distressing to the soul enamoured of good. Nevertheless be not distressed nor confounded, but study rather & calmly understand God's ways with humanity. Sri Aurobindo. (Thoughts and Aphorism 186) The Divine gives Himself Sweet Mother, what is meant by “the Divine gives Himself”? It means exactly this: that the more you give yourself the more you have the experience – it is not just a feeling or impression or sensation, it is a total experience – that the more you give yourself to the Divine the more He is with you, totally, constantly, at every minute, in

The Divine Teacher (23-06-10) God took a child to fondle him in His bosom of delight; but the mother wept & would not be consoled because her child no longer existed. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms 479) The Divine Teacher THE peculiarity of the Gita among the great religious books of the world is that it does not stand apart as a work by itself, the fruit of the spiritual life of a creative personality like Christ, Mahomed or Buddha or of an epoch of pure spiritual searching like the Veda and Upanishads, but is given as an episode in an epic history of nations and their wars and men and their deeds and arises out of a critical moment in the soul of one of its leading personag

He Who Chooses the Infinite (20-01-10) That good is not our ethical virtue which is a relative and erring light in the world; it is supra-ethical and divine. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorism 547) He Who Chooses the Infinite The lotus of the eternal knowledge and the eternal perfection is a bud closed and folded up within us. It opens swiftly or gradually, petal by petal, through successive realisations, once the mind of man begins to turn towards the Eternal, once his heart, no longer compressed and confined by attachment to finite appearances, becomes enamoured, in whatever degree, of the Infinite. All life, all thought, all energising of the faculties, all experiences passive or act

Effort and Progress (21-07-10) I swore that I would not suffer from the world's grief and the world's stupidity and cruelty & injustice and I made my heart as hard in endurance as the nether millstone and my mind as a polished surface of steel. I no longer suffered, but enjoyment had passed away from me. Then God broke my heart and ploughed up my mind. I rose through cruel & incessant anguish to a blissful painlessness and through sorrow and indignation & revolt to an infinite knowledge and a settled peace. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms 495) Effort and Progress Sweet Mother, when we make an effort to do better but don't see any progress, we feel discouraged. What is the best thi

Self Awareness (19-12-10) Self Awareness …….People usually do things so automatically and spontaneously, without watching themselves doing them, that if they were to ask themselves how it comes about, they would require some time before the process becomes conscious to them. You are so used to living that you don’t even know how it happens. All the gestures and movements of life are made spontaneously, automatically, almost unconsciously, in a semi-conscious state, and one doesn’t even realise this very simple fact that in order to do something, one must first know what one is going to do and then must want to do it. It is only when something goes wrong with one of these elements – for in

How can one “learn of pure delight”? (29-12-10) If thou think defeat is the end of thee, then go not forth to fight, even though thou be the stronger. For Fate is not purchased by any man nor is Power bound over to her possessors. But defeat is not the end, it is only a gate or a beginning. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms 251) How can one “learn of pure delight”? First of all, to begin with, one must through an attentive observation grow aware that desires and the satisfaction of desires give only a vague, uncertain pleasure, mixed, fugitive and altogether unsatisfactory. That is usually the starting-point. Then, if one is a reasonable being, one must learn to discern what is desi

The Ego is only an Instrument (10-02-10) O soldier and hero of God, where for thee is sorrow or shame or suffering? For thy life is a glory, thy deeds a consecration, victory thy apotheosis, defeat thy triumph. Sri Aurobindo ( Thoughts and Aphorisms 278)   The Ego is only an Instrument The development of the experience in its rapidity, its amplitude, the intensity and power of its results, depends primarily, in the beginning of the path and long after, on the aspiration and personal effort of the sadhaka. The process of Yoga is a turning of the human soul from the egoistic state of consciousness absorbed in the outward appearances and attractions of things to a higher state in which th

Difficulties of the Path (19-09-10) Difficulties of the Path ALL who enter the spiritual path have to face the difficulties and ordeals of the path, those which rise from their own nature and those which come in from outside. The difficulties in the nature always rise again and again till you overcome them; they must be faced with both strength and patience. But the vital part is prone to depression when ordeals and difficulties rise. This is not peculiar to you, but comes to all sadhaks − it does not imply an unfitness for the sadhana or justify a sense of helplessness. But you must train yourself to overcome this reaction of depression, calling in the Mother's Force to aid you. All who cle

Have a Clear Understanding of the Meaning of Life (20-10-10) O Thou that lovest, strike! If Thou strike me not now, I shall know that Thou lov'st me not. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms 34)     Have a Clear Understanding of the Meaning of Life     Well, to find out what one truly is, to find out why one is on earth, what is the purpose of physical existence, of this presence on earth, of this formation, this existence…the vast Majority of people live without asking themselves this even once! Only a small elite ask themselves this question with interest, and fewer still start working to get the answer. For, unless one is fortunate enough to come across someone w

A Reversal of Consciousness (28-07-10) If there are things that absolutely refuse to be transformed or remedied into God's more perfect image, they may be destroyed with tenderness in the heart, but ruthlessness in the smiting. But make sure first that God has given thee thy sword and thy mission. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms 487) A Reversal of Consciousness. …. There is a moment – because it is a question which becomes more and more intense and more and more acute – when you have even the feeling, precisely, that things are strange, that is, they are not real; a moment comes when this sensation that you have of yourself, of being yourself, becomes strange, a kind of sense of