The Stress of the Spirit THE universe is a close-knit pattern in which each part, each point is inextricably linked with every other part and point. Each element acts and reacts upon every other: the karma of one is echoed and re-echoed in the karma of all others. An inevitable, inescapable mutuality rules the behaviour of the constituent entities of a whole; in other words, there is only one Force, one Presence that permeates all, even constitutes the All. The material universe makes one single block of reality, homogeneous and indivisible. Modern knowledge has proved the fact to the hilt. It is one continuous extension like the ocean's rippling wet sheet. If you

Value of Religious Exercises What is the value of religious exercises (such as Japa etc.) ? THESE things, if they help you, are all right; if they do not, naturally they are of no use. The value is quite relative. It is worth only the effect it has on you or the measure of your belief in it. If it is an aid to your concentration, then, as I say, it is wel­come. The ordinary consciousness takes to the thing through a kind of superstition; one thinks, "If I go to the temple or to the church once a week, for example, if I say my prayers regularly, something good will happen to me." It is a superstition spread all over the world, but it has no spiritual value.

How to Become Indifferent to Criticism? IN one's own consciousness one must look at things from a wider, more general standpoint. If at any moment something holds you, holds you tight and you have to face it, if you are compelled to wrestle with a formidable obstacle and at that time you begin to feel that before this moment thousands and thousands of years have passed and after that moment yet more thousands and thousands of years will pass, you immediately see the inconsequence of this little point of time; you need not enter into a high spiritual condition, you have simply to contact Time and Space, with all that is before and all that is after and

Love Divine "THE intensity of Divine Love does not produce any perturb­ation in any part of the being".¹ Why should it? If there is a perturbation, it is more likely that a different kind of love was in question. If it is Divine Love, there can be no perturbation, for each one receives it according to his capacity. Divine Love is there in its full intensity, as a tremendous force. But most people, ninety-nine out of a hundred, feel nothing at all. What they feel is exactly in proportion to what they are, what they can receive and hold. Indeed, you are always bathed in an atmosphere vibrant with Divine Love. Sometimes, on rare occasions, for a few seconds perhaps, there is

Health in the Ashram (1) THERE are people who come to me and say that they would like to go home, for their health does not permit them to con­tinue here; it is gradually getting worse and worse and they ask for my permission. I wonder at their ignorance. Perhaps I should not wonder; human nature is like that. These people do not know or see or feel in the least that they are here in the best of conditions for cure, nowhere else in the world would they get anything like the opportunity or the help that is here. Naturally, if one is to be here and derive the full benefit of his stay, one has to fulfil certain conditions or rather one condition. That one condition

Miracles: Their True Significance MIRACLES are happenings where we see the result only without the process that leads to the result. It is like a mathematical problem where the solution only is given and not the gradual steps leading to the solution. The steps may be shortened or altogether suppressed, in the latter case it looks like a puzzle or a riddle or a paradox. We know of mathematical prodigies, we marvel at the capacity they show in performing formidable calculations for which an ordinary mind would need sheets of paper and considerable amount of time. But the prodigy can do it in the twinkling of an eye. He has a consciousness that can contain

The Significance of Dates Does a particular date or a series £if dates carry any special significance? THE way of framing a calendar is a convention. If the convention is made general, as there is an attempt now to do, it can become a very powerful formation. But in order to become significant for many, many must first accept it. I mean by a formation an image infused with a force that makes it something living, an image which can be used as a symbol. There are people who may form images and use them as symbols, but all is done only for themselves, as in the case of dream-symbols. These are purely subjective and valid in so far as those people are perso

Meat- Eating What happens when one eats meat? I WILL tell you then a story. I knew a young woman, Swedish, who was doing Sadhana. Normally she was a vegetarian, by habit as well as by inclination. One day she was invited to a dinner. She was given fowl to eat. She did not like to make a fuss and quietly ate her fowl. Now at night she found herself, in dream of course, in a basket and her head in between two bits of sticks and being shaken to and fro. She felt very unhappy, very miserable. And then she saw herself head down and legs up in the air and being shaken, shaken continually. She was thoroughly miserable. All on a sudden she felt she was being skinned, flayed and how

PART TEN Cycles of Creation THE present cycle of creation has for its goal the advent of the Supermind, the coming of a supramental race of beings. The world, it seems, moves in cycles. There are periods of creation with a hiatus or a gap in between of dissolution. Present-day science too speaks of the universe proceeding in pulsations, that is to say, alternate expansion and contraction. Indian mythology speaks of alternate 'Pralaya' and 'Srishti'. The Indian system speaks also of 'Mahapralaya', utter dissolution or 'Yoganidra' of the Supreme. In other words, there are periods when the universe retires altogether into its origin and when it comes

Meditation COLLECTIVE meditation, of which the most external form is collective prayer, has been practised since ancient times for different reasons, in different ways, and with different purposes. Groups of persons, whether belonging to the same Church or not, come together to express a common feeling; in certain cases, it is to sing together in praise of God, to chant a hymn of gratitude, expressing love, adoration, thankfulness. In other cases, there are many historical examples of this – people gather together for a common invocation, to ask something from the Divine in the hope that a prayer done collectively will have more effect than an individual prayer. Thus, in Europe p