FOOD AND FORCES       The year 1933         I always take salt with curds and vegetables. Is It good?        It is not good. On the seashore one ought not to take too much salt. Salt in curds is always bad for health.         X says that a little pepper should be taken with certain kinds of fruits. She got this bit of advice from you!       It is very strange — Pavitra himself gives me daily pamplemousse with sugar, never with salt and pepper. So how I could have written that, I do not know — there must have been a mistake somewhere either in my writing or her reading.       Pepper is not to be eaten with fruits — it is very bad for it would spoil

THE INNER BEING       The year 1933         What is the outer consciousness? Is it connected with the inner being?       The outer consciousness is that which usually expresses itself in ordinary life. It is the external mental, vital, physical. It is not connected very much with the inner being except in a few — until one connects them together in the course of the sadhana.         Is it not true that our vital lays bare all our hidden desires and impulses?       It is not the vital that does that. It is either the psychic or something from the inner mind or the higher consciousness.         I did some offering, but something was kept back. Someone f

ASPIRATION - CONCENTRATION - WILL - SURRENDER           What is the meaning of "aspiration"?       It is the call of the being for higher things — for the Divine, for all that belongs to the higher or Divine Consciousness.         I think many aspire only on the mental plane in the beginning. How can I bring down this aspiration into the heart, so that it may have an effect more easily and quickly?       By concentrating on the heart while aspiring.         There are so many things to aspire for. How is a man to choose one from another? How can he know his own true need with his mind?       He can't—It is either by the will or t

      LETTERS OF THE MOTHER           Ce n'est pas pas la Mere qui prend ou qui repousse, c'est I'enfant qui s'approche ou s'eloigne.       It is not the Mother who takes up or pushes back, it is the child who draws near or moves away.         Non, ce n'est pas par manque d'interet que je n'ai pas repondu par ecrit — j'ai fait une reponse silen-cieuse.      Quand je ne reponds pas c'est que la reponse est trop subtile pour pouvoir etre donnee en quelques mots et je n'ai pas toujours le temps d'ecrire longuement.       No, it is not for lack of interest that I have not answered in writing — I have made a silent reply.       When I do not answer, it

      THE DESCENT OF THE SUPERMIND     I       The years 1933 to 1936         Naik has made the following remark: "The present preparation is going on to bring down the Supermind into the physical of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo." Is it true?       Not quite correct in all points. The things to be brought were in us no doubt but not all outwardly manifested from the beginning. Of course Naik's statement is altogether true only as far as the bracket goes.*          But have you not noticed that you have cut off the last much-emphasised part of Naik's statement?       Yes, of course. What is being done is meant to prepare the manifest

THE EGO         I want to be free of my ego. Is it possible now?       I do not see how you can be free from ego at this stage.        I find it difficult to keep myself free from feeling disgust for X whenever I see him. When I meet him all the wrong actions he has done come up before my memory. How am I to throw away such stupid reactions from my nature?       By having dislike and disgust for nobody — remembering that the Divine is in all.         I do not understand how I manage to forget that once I too did the wrong things even more freely than X.       It is the vital ego that does like that.       Ego is not only common in man, it is universal.

      WORK         Work has played a big part in my sadhana. In my early life in the Ashram, before becoming conscious of what Yoga or Yoga of Works was, I took up work and did it as simply and innocently as a child plays and studies, without in the least knowing that by this one's body and mind are automatically developed. The Divine acts best in us when we least intercept Him with our minds. The work proved a good field for the Mother to prepare and lift up my inner being. A little later, when I did become aware of the sadhana, it was a surprise to find myself suddenly touching depths and heights. The Mother's Force acts, of course, in all states and not in the work only. The question is:

      HUMAN GREATNESS         Till the other day I did not know how great men rise, flourish and then fall. So I tried to study H and R. But even in these cases I had to despair, for I failed to trace any greatness in them except perhaps in their ego!       I do not know to whom you refer as great men here; but H is certainly a great poet. So what is the difficulty in recognising his greatness?       Men with great capacities or a powerful mind or a powerful vital have very often more glaring defects of character than ordinary men — or at least the defects of the latter do not show so much, being like themselves, smaller in scale.         What particularly is there

THE CRUCIFIXION, by Matthias Grunewald (c. 1475-1528) The Crucifixion or The Passion of Jesus A Brief Background How did Jesus die? He was crucified. Crucifixion was the method of execution used for outlaws by the Romans at the time of the New Testament. It was not only humiliating, but crucifixion was a particularly cruel death as the Gospels will describe below. Briefly, the victim to be executed was tied to or nailed to a wooden cross. Jesus was nailed. The cross was raised straight up, and the condemned man was left hanging to die in the hot sun. That is, the excruciating torture before dying was the Roman'

Illumination, Heroism and Harmony Preface The task of preparing teaching-learning material for value oriented education is enormous. There is, first, the idea that value-oriented education should be exploratory rather than prescriptive, and that the teaching learning material should provide to the learners a growing experience of exploration. Secondly, it is rightly contended that the proper inspiration' to turn to value-orientation is provided by biographies, auto biographical accounts, personal anecdotes, epistles, short poems, stories of humour, stories of human interest, brief pas sages filled with pregnant meanings, reflective short essays written