XVI THE RELATIVE BEST Whatever happens is for the best—under the circumstances, it must be added, for the best is the resultant of many forces pulling in all directions for and against and side­ways. The best means whatever leads to the goal, to the ultimate good, the final reality, the Supreme, the Divine. The universe is so arranged, the divine dispensation acts in such a way that every event, every circumstance, what­ever its appearance, always leads to the Supreme Goal. So it is said the way, whatever it is, straight or crooked, always guides you to your final realisation. Only, in the progressive march, the best can always be bettered and must

IV LOVE AND LOVE The Mother says: there is only one Love, there are not two. And it is Divine Love. The difference arises only in its expression, in its application. In its essential quality and substance it is always the same. Take for example human love; stripped of the mere human element, love remains the same original thing. Because the old ascetic orders of spiritual discipline, in the main, considered love essentially and wholly earthy and human, they rejected this limb altogether, cut it out as undivine. But that is an error. We do not regard love, even human love, as an error but a power, a force and energy. Love, even human love, is not to be amputa

XIII GO THROUGH It is said one must be free from human love if one is to enjoy Divine Love. But to be free is usually taken to mean to reject, to reject naturally by force, that is to say, to coerce, to repress and suppress. "But who can coerce a force of Nature?" the Gita asks. Indeed a force of Nature like human passion cannot be dominated or obliterated by force; it is sure to come back with a redoubled vigour. Nor can such an elemental feeling be overlooked, side-tracked or by-passed. This way also the element is sure to come back and catch you from behind. The best way to tackle the thing is, as the Mother says, to go through it. To go through means

X EFFORT AND GRACE There are, we know, as Sri Aurobindo says, two powers which in their conjunction bring about the great consummation we aim at. It is personal effort from below and Divine Grace from above. The one prepares the field, the other fructifies and fulfils. It has, however, always been declared that personal effort is not absolute in its effectivity, it is limited, relative and conditional: it does not by itself lead you to the final and supreme realisation; it takes you at the most to the threshold of Grace which follows up the work and brings it to its goal. Indeed it has also been said that personal effort itself is operative when inspired an

II BEYOND VEDANTA The first step in the spiritual life is the Vedantic experience that the world is an illusion, an absolute illusion. Rather it is the Buddhist experience of nihil, nothingness, extinc­tion that is the first step, the very basic realisation of all spiritual life. It is not the summit—the nec plus ultra, beyond which there is nothing—but it is the very foundation, the absolute minimum of spirituality—sine qua non, without which it is not. The one experience with which you start your spiritual journey is the total negation of whatever exists, reducing existence to zero: world-existence being equated with Ignorance. Life is a false­hood,

XX SAVITRI (i) Savitri, the poem, the word of Sri Aurobindo is the cosmic Answer to the cosmic Question. And Savitri, the person, the Godhead, the Divine Woman is the Divine's response to the human aspiration. The world is a great question mark. It is a riddle, eternal and ever-recurring. Man has faced the riddle and sought to arrive at a solution since he has been given a mind to seek and interrogate. What is this universe ?From where has it come? Whither is it going? What is the purpose of it all? Why is man here? What is the object of his existence? Such is the mode of human aspiration. And Ashwapati in his quest begins to explore the world an

X EDUCATION IS ORGANISATION Education is organisation. Mind's education means organisation of mental faculties. Organisation naturally involves development. The faculties in the normal and natural state are an undeveloped disorganised lot, a confused mass,—unformed, ill-formed ideas, notions, thoughts, form a jumble. They have no purpose, no direction, no common impulse or end, each runs in its own way. The mind's faculties such for example as attention, memory, discrirnination, reasoning, cogent thinking have to be clear and efficient and learn how to work harmoniously for a common objective. In the process and for that purpose they have to be

VI INDIA, THE WORLD AND THE ASHRAM India has become the symbol representing all the difficulties of modern humanity. India will become the land of the world's resurrection—the resurrection of a higher and truer life. 1.2.1968 The Mother A great revelation of a great truth that concerns the whole "world. We know also that the earth is the symbol of the cosmic evolution. What creation means has been epitomised in earth's history: the earth has been chosen as the field and means of working out a cosmic plan. As the earth is the representative of the world, so India is the representative of the earth. For the evolution of the earth

XVII 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 consciousne

XVIII SHORT NOTES (i) The sense of Earthly Evolution Ignorance is usually equated with innocence. A child is; ignorant, therefore he is innocent. Although it is said that ignorance of law is no excuse. Spiritually however, ignorance does not mean innocence. Ignorance or unconsciousness or inconscience—different degrees of the same thing —that is to say lack of consciousness, mean, at bottom, falsehood. It is through the ignorance that Maya, the great illusion, was born. Ignorance is false apprehension, it begins with the sense of separation, "I am other than the Divine." That is how Jiva is born in or through the ignorance. The world is separate