5    If you want to be a true doer of divine works, your first aim must be to be totally free from all desire and self-regarding ego. All your life must be an offering and a sacrifice to the Supreme; your only object in action shall be to serve, to receive, to fulfil, to become a manifesting instrument of the Divine Shakti in her works. You must grow in the divine consciousness till there is no difference between your will and hers, no motive except her impulsion in you, no action that is not her conscious action in you and through you.       Until you are capable of this complete dynamic identification, you have to regard yourself as a soul and body created for her service, one who

Comments on Chapter 5         "If you want to be a true doer of divine works, your first aim must be to be totally free from all desire and self-regarding ego."       Sri Aurobindo, The Mother         Sometimes we go to the bazaar to buy our things. Is that good?   One cannot make general rules. This depends on the spirit in which you make your purchases. It is said that you should have no desires — if this is not a desire, it is all right. You understand, there is no movement, no action which in itself is good or bad; it depends absolutely on the spirit in which it is done. If, for instance, you are in a state of total indifference about what you h

3   To walk through life armoured against all fear, peril and disaster, only two things are needed, two that go always together — the Grace of the Divine Mother and on your side an inner state made up of faith, sincerity and surrender. Let your faith be pure, candid and perfect. An egoistic faith in the mental and vital being tainted by ambition, pride, vanity, mental arrogance, vital self-will, personal demand, desire for the petty satisfactions of the lower nature is a low and smoke-obscured flame that cannot burn upwards to heaven. Regard your life as given you only for the divine work and to help in the divine manifestation. Desire nothing but the purity, force, light, wide-ness, ca

THE MOTHER   by Sri Aurobindo   with the Mother's Comments                 SRI AUROBINDO ASHRAM PONDICHERRY       First edition 2002 (Typeset in 10.5/13 Sabon)                 Rs. 60.00 ISBN 81-7058-671-2  © Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 2002 Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department, Pondicherry - 605 002 Printed at Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry PRINTED IN INDIA    PUBLISHER'S NOTE   This book contains The Mother by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother's spoken comments on passages from that book. First published in 1928, The Mothe

Comments on Chapter 1         "Reject too the false and indolent expectation that the divine Power will do even the surrender for you. The Supreme demands your surrender to her, but does not impose it: you are free at every moment, till the irrevocable transformation comes, to deny and to reject the Divine or to recall your self-giving, if you are willing to suffer the spiritual consequence. "         Sri Aurobindo, The Mother       What does an "irrevocable transformation" mean?         The transformation is irrevocable when your consciousness is transformed in such a way that you can no longer go back to your old condition. There is a moment when the change

Comments on Chapter 2   This talk could not be recorded very clearly because of the noise of the fireworks celebrating the French Republic Day. Sweet Mother, does Sri Aurobindo make a difference between the Divine and the Shakti? Here he speaks of "surrender of oneself and all one is and has and every plane of the consciousness and every movement to the Divine and the Shakti". He has said that the Divine is the Supreme. That's the origin. He has said, hasn't he, at the very beginning of this chapter, I think, he has said, "The Divine..."            (The child reads the text) "... through his Shakti is behind all action..."'   He takes the Sha

-013Comment on Chapter 6(continued 1)       Comments on Chapter 6       (Continued)   "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   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 does

    Comments on Chapter 6       At the very beginning is written: "The four Powers of the Mother." Which are these four powers, Sweet Mother?   These!         The aspects, aren't they, Mother?                       (Long silence)   Yes.         What does this mean: "The Supreme is ... manifested through her in the worlds as the one and dual consciousness of Ishwara-Shakti and the dual principle of Purusha-Prakriti...."?   What does this mean? It means what it says. (Laughter) It means that in the world the single force of the creating energy is divided in all the manifestations, even the most contrary manifestations, you see. It is thi

      Comments on Chapter 4 "Money is the visible sign of a universal force, and this force in its manifestation on earth works on the vital and physical planes and is indispensable to the fullness of the outer life. In its origin and its true action it belongs to the Divine. But like other powers of the Divine it is delegated here and in the ignorance of the lower Nature can be usurped for the uses of the ego or held by Asuric influences and perverted to their purpose."           How does money manifest on other planes?   What other planes? He speaks of the vital and physical, doesn't he?... that it is a force which manifests on the vital plane and the physic

Comments on Chapter 2         "But so long as the lower nature is active the personal effort of the Sadhaka remains necessary."         Sri Aurobindo, The Mother   Outwardly, one believes in one's own personality and one's own effort. So long as you believe in personal effort, you must make a personal effort.       There is one part of the being which is not at all conscious of being a part of the Divine. The whole of the outer being is convinced that it is something separate, independent and related only to itself. This part of the being must necessarily make a personal effort. It can't be told, "The Divine does the sadhana for you", for it would never do a