EACH OF US ON EARTH..     Each of us on earth has a short span of dreaming and doing. But the human life which we live, whether individual or collective, is not all that is ours. Through and beyond our dreaming and doing, a larger life is being dreamt and done. Our hearts and minds have a movement which we vision as our own concern. But there is a soul in us which moves to a superhuman issue. This soul gives us our rare strange spells of agonising self-exceeding and ecstatic self-giving. Sudden flashes are the acts of our soul — they seem to come as if from nowhere and to disappear as if into nothing. Often we see very little concrete result. But actu

THE TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF MOTHER INDIA       February 21, 1974 marks Mother India's "Silver Jubilee". It may be of interest to recall how this periodical was launched and to note some of the vicissitudes through which it passed. Considering the initial difficulties in its way, one may well designate it a child of Divine Grace. In its origin it was the idea of a young businessman, Kes-havdeo R. Poddar, now known as Navajata but even at that time secretly what the name signifies: "The New-born." For, although not yet a resident of the Ashram, he was devoted to the cause of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Feeling the

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