A Prayer (18-03-09) I knew my mind to be conquered when it admired the beauty of the hideous, yet felt perfectly why other men shrank back or hated. Sri Aurobindo. (Thoughts and Aphorisms 49 ) A Prayer Thou art the one and only goal of my life and the centre of my aspiration, the pivot of my thought, the key of the synthesis of my being. And as Thou art beyond all sensation, all feeling and all thought, Thou art the living but ineffable experience, the Reality lived in the depths of the being but untranslatable in our poor words; and it is because human intelligence is powerless to reduce Thee to a formula that some, a little disdainfully, label “sentiment” the knowledge that it is possib

Joy & Depression (18-01-09) Joy & Depression   Q: Sweet Mother, sometimes when one feels depressed it lasts quite a long time; but when one feels a special kind of joy, it does not last. “Yes, that is very true.” Q: Then what should one do to make it last longer? “But it is not the same part of the being that has the depression and the joy. If you are speaking of pleasure, the pleasure of the vital is something very fleeting, and I think that in life – in life as it is at present – there are more occasions for displeasure than for pleasure. Pleasure in itself is extremely fleeting, for if the same vibration of pleasure is prolonged a little, it becomes unpleasant or even repu

Absolute Sincerity (15-07-09) There are two who are unfit for greatness and freedom, the man who has never been a slave to another and the nation that has never been under the yoke of foreigners. Sri Aurobindo. (Thoughts and Aphorism 309) Absolute Sincerity If you are not absolutely sincere, not only with others but also with yourself, if at any time you try to cover up your imperfections and failings, you will never make any progress, you will always remain what you are throughout all your life, without ever making any progress. So, even if you only want to grow out of this primitive unconscious state into a progressive consciousness, the most important thing, the one absolutely importan

Unity which is the True Expression of Freedom (30-12-09)  Men seek laboriously to satisfy & complement the little bounded being made of the mental impressions they have grouped about a mean & grovelling ego; meanwhile the spaceless & timeless Soul is denied its joyous & splendid manifestation. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorism 360 ) Unity which is the True Expression of Freedom It is in perfect union with the supreme Reality that perfect freedom is found, for all ignorance, all unconsciousness is a bondage which makes you inefficient, limited, powerless. The least ignorance in oneself is a limitation, one is no longer free. As long as there is an element of unconsciousness in the bei

Aid in the Work of Self-unfolding (16-12-09) God is the supreme Jesuit Father. He is ever doing evil that good may come of it; ever misleads for a greater leading; ever oppresses our will that it may arrive at last at an infinite freedom. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms - 543 Aid in the Work of Self-unfolding Ordinarily, the Word from without, representative of the Divine, is needed as an aid in the work of self-unfolding; and it may be either a word from the past or the more powerful word of the living Guru. In some cases this representative word is only taken as a sort of excuse for the inner power to awaken and manifest; it is, as it were, a concession of the omnipoten

Transformation of the Physical (01-11-09) Transformation of the Physical   NO NEED to despise the physical being − it is part of the intended manifestation. Sri Aurobindo SABCL, vol. 24, page 1423 A time comes when after a long preparation of the mind and vital being, it becomes necessary to open also the physical nature. But when that happens very often the vital exaltation which can be very great when the experience is on its own plane, falls away and the obscure obstructive physical and gross material consciousness appears in its unrelieved inertia. Inertia, tamas, stupidity, narrowness and limitation, an inability to progress, doubt, dullness, dryness, a constant forgetfulness of

Rebirth (28-01-09) God loves to play the fool in season; man does it in season & out of season. It is the only difference. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorism 182) Rebirth THE soul takes birth each time, and each time a mind, life and body are formed out of the materials of universal nature according to the soul's past evolution and its need for the future. When the body is dissolved, the vital goes into the vital plane and remains there for a time, but after a time the vital sheath disappears. The last to dissolve is the mental sheath. Finally the soul or psychic being retires into the psychic world to rest there till a new birth is close. This is the general course for ordinari

Spiritual Presence (04-11-09) O Death, our masked friend and maker of opportunities, when thou wouldst open the gate, hesitate not to tell us beforehand; for we are not of those who are shaken by its iron jarring. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorism 282)   Spiritual Presence Sweet Mother, is there a spiritual being in everybody? That depends on what we call “being”. If for “being” we substitute “presence”, yes, there is a spiritual presence in everyone. If we call “being” an organised entity, fully conscious of itself, independent, and having the power of asserting itself and ruling the rest of the nature – no! The possibility of this independent and all-powerful being is in everybo

THE TRUE REASON (06-05-09) Someone was laying down that God must be this or that or He would not be God. But it seemed to me that I can only know what God is and I do not see how I can tell Him what He ought to be. For what is the standard by which we can judge Him? These judgments are the follies of our egoism. Sri Aurobindo. (Thoughts and Aphorisms), 17) THE TRUE REASON Those who want to follow the true path will naturally be exposed to the attacks of all the forces of ill-will, which not only do not understand but generally hate what they do not understand. If you are troubled, vexed, even discouraged by all the spiteful stupidities that people may say about you, you will not be

All Depends Upon One’s Attitude (04-02-09) God is great, says the Mahomedan. Yes, He is so great that He can afford to be weak, whenever that too is necessary. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorism 63) All Depends Upon One’s Attitude There is a state in which one realises that the effect of things, circumstances, all the movements and actions of life on the consciousness depends almost exclusively upon one’s attitude to these things. There is a moment when one becomes sufficiently conscious to realise that things in themselves are truly neither good nor bad: they are this only in relation to us; their effect on us depends absolutely upon the attitude we have towards them. The same thing,