Work in the World (05-09-12) The sense of sin was necessary in order that man might become disgusted with his own imperfections. It was God's corrective for egoism. But man's egoism meets God's device by being very dully alive to its own sins and very keenly alive to the sins of others. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms-68) Work in the World I have seen persons who had no pretensions of doing yoga, who were simply filled with enthusiasm by the idea of terrestrial transformation and of the descent of the Divine into the world and who did their little bit of work with that enthusiasm in the heart, giving themselves wholly, without reserve, without any selfish idea of a personal salvati

Service To Humanity (05-12-12) There have been hundreds of perfect Sannyasins, because Sannyasa had been widely preached and numerously practised; let it be the same with the ideal freedom and we shall have hundreds of Janakas Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms-105) Service To Humanity One of the commonest forms of ambition is the idea of service to humanity. All attachment to such service or work is a sign of personal ambition. The Guru who believes that he has a great truth to teach to humanity and who wants many disciples and who feels uncomfortable when the disciples go away or who seizes on anybody that comes and tries to make him a disciple, is evidently following nothin

A Certain Number Of Rules (26-12-12) To see the composition of the sun or the lines of Mars is doubtless a great achievement; but when thou hast the instrument that can show thee a man's soul as thou seest a picture, then thou wilt smile at the wonders of physical Science as the playthings of babies. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms-110) A Certain Number Of Rules Morality is something altogether artificial and arbitrary, and in most cases, among the best, it checks the true spiritual effort by a sort of moral satisfaction that one is on the right path…. What really helps, until one has found the inner light, is to make for oneself a certain number of rules which naturally shou

THE SUPRAMENTAL AND THE NEW BEING(01-04-12) THE SUPRAMENTAL AND THE NEW BEING Let us prepare, as best we can, the coming of the New Being. The mind must be silenced and replaced by the Truth-Consciousness − a consciousness of the whole harmonised with a consciousness of detail. The mind must be silent to allow the Supramental Consciousness to take its place. The Truth-Consciousness must pervade all the being, dominate all the movements and quiet the restless physical mind. These are the preliminary conditions for the manifestation. Wisdom in the physical mind: a first step towards the supramental manifestation upon earth. It is only when the Supramental manifests in the body-mind that its

The Relelease from the Ego (03-06-12) The Relelease from the Ego THE formation of a mental and vital ego tied to the body-sense was the first great labour of the cosmic Life in its progressive evolution; for this was the means it found for creating out of matter a conscious individual. The dissolution of this limiting ego is the one condition, the necessary means for this very same Life to arrive at its divine fruition: for only so can the conscious individual find either his transcendent self or his true Person. This double movement is usually represented as a fall and a redemption or a creation and a destruction, – the kindling of a light and its extinction or the formation first of a smalle

To Help Humanity- I (12-12-12) Sannyasa has a formal garb and outer tokens; therefore men think they can easily recognise it; but the freedom of a Janaka does not proclaim itself and it wears the garb of the world; to its presence even Narada was blinded. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms-106) To Help Humanity- I The Divine is everywhere. So if one serves humanity, one serves the Divine, isn’t that so? That’s marvellous! The clearest thing in this business is to say: “The Divine is in me. If I serve myself, I am also serving the Divine!” In fact, the Divine is everywhere. The Divine will do His own work very well without you. I see quite well that you do not understand.

The True Aim of Life (22-01-12) The True Aim of Life Why are we on earth? To find the Divine who is in each of us and in all things. Only one thing is important, it is to find the Divine. For each one and for the whole world anything becomes useful if it helps to find the Divine. Life is meant for seeking the Divine. Life is realised when finding the Divine. Let this be our one need in life, to realise the Divine. Yes, to live in the consciousness of the Divine Presence is the only thing that matters. To want only what the Divine wants in us and for us, is the one important thing. The individual self and the universal self are one; in every world, in every being, in each thing, in every atom

Human Relationships in Yoga (07-10-12) Human Relationships in Yoga YOU seem not to have understood the principle of this yoga. The old yoga demanded a complete renunciation extending to the giving up of the worldly life itself. This yoga aims instead at a new and transformed life. But it insists as inexorably on a complete throwing away of desire and attachment in the mind, life and body. Its aim is to refound life in the truth of the spirit and for that purpose to transfer the roots of all we are and do from the mind, life and body to a greater consciousness above the mind. That means that in the new life all the connections must be founded on a spiritual intimacy and a truth quite other t

Organise With The Help Of Reason (19-07-12) To hate the sinner is the worst sin, for it is hating God; yet he who commits it, glories in his superior virtue. Sri Aurobindo Thoughts and Aphorisms-51)   Organise With The Help Of Reason In order to set on these paths(towards the higher realities) without fear and without any danger, one must have organised his being with the help of reason around the highest centre he consciously possesses, and organised it in such a way that it is inwardly in his control and he has not to say at every moment, “Ah! I have done this, I don’t know why. Ah! That’s happened to me, I don’t know why” – and always it is “ I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t

Win Your Little Victories (31-10-12) If Life alone were and not death, there could be no immortality; if love were alone and not cruelty, joy would be only a tepid and ephemeral rapture; if reason were alone and not ignorance, our highest attainment would not exceed a limited rationality and worldly wisdom. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms-91) Win Your Little Victories If through an effort of inner consciousness and knowledge, you can truly overcome in yourself a desire, that is to say, dissolve and abolish it, and if through inner goodwill, through consciousness, light, knowledge, you are able to dissolve the desire, you will be, first of all in yourself personally, a hundred