Living Within

All ocean lived within a wandering drop,

A time-made body housed the Illimitable,

To live this Mystery out our souls came here.

— — (Savitri) Sri Aurobindo

There are three ways to live this human life.

Outer Life, Inner Life and Higher Life. Or Outer Life and Inner Life Or Outward Living or Inward Living and Higher Living.

Before I proceed, I would like to mention here that: Human Being is the only animal in this planet which can live and grow in these three dimensions, in outer and inner and higher dimensions.

Outward Living: We live for our family, society, nation completing many aims and objectives of our journey. From the childhood, we first work towards our education, then career, then job, then wealth (house or car or bank balance), then marriage, then family, then think of our family’s future, studies, jobs, marriage, wealth. In Andhra we have one more thing added: Onsite. If your children do not settle onsite in US, people consider you as a failure in the society. This whole cycle continues. Also in between we get time to think and work for our society, or nation in different times. We feel our duty or purpose of life is over. If we analyse our outward growth, we find enough material prosperity as society’s measuring unit of growth, but these are all temporary. Not permanent at all. We all pass through an illusion of career, success, money, power, sex etc. in our outward life.

Results of Outward Living: Chaos, confusion, anxiety, depression, anger, jealousy, lust, desire, suffering, disharmony, discord, destruction. Our Outward life is living at the Mind, Vital and Physical level is based only to increase our Ego envelope. Our Ego and Desire pile up in our ordinary Outward living in this rat race of Life. If we continue to lead this life outwardly based on little ego and desire, humanity will fail completely in all aspects.

Inward Living: Today’s topic is Inward Living, or Inmost or Psychic way of living.

We have an inner mind, inner vital, inner physical (subtle physical) along with the psychic being. The psychic being is the representative of the divine, its purpose is to divinise the mind, body and vital.

Results of Inward Living: Envelope of Inner silence, Calm, Peace.

Higher Living: Living life at Spiritual or Supramental way of living. That can be a different topic altogether.

Inward living is the foundation of a higher spiritual way of living. When we allow our psychic to guide and rule the outer beings. Root cause of human failure is because man has forgot to live inwardly, he has to bring the rule of the Soul/Spirit upon earth. Our Soul or spirit should decide and direct our every action and reaction.

True Living is to live inwardly every moment, true way of living, where we can discover our psychic or awaken our psychic. The real value of MAN, is present in his soul. By going inward, we can discover the Truth of the existence of this world, the Supreme Reality of Existence.

Steps to Live Within:

1. Utilise these timeless moments

There is no end to the wonders of the universe. The more we get free from the limits of our small ego, the more these wonders disclose themselves to us.

The new world is born, born, born. The outer weight of ignorance cannot hold it down eternally.

That old world is choking. There is an almost despairing intensity in that body’s aspiration — as if it suffocated under a weight.

Q. But Mother, by Your descent the things will be done in a flash. I have read that You help the creation to advance by formidable leaps.

The Mother: Things can descend like a thunderbolt. Yes, my presence helps to advance the process. I have compressed the work of many centuries.

We are all fortunate to be in this Supramental Era:

We are living in a favourable Time

The Mother: There is no one for whom it is impossible to realize the Divine. Only for some it will take many many lives, where as there are others who will do it in this very life time. It is a question of will. It is for you to choose. But I must say that at the present moment conditions are particularly favourable. 22.7.69

We are on earth to progress. This is the reason for taking birth after birth, because our psychic can only make progress here on earth when it takes on a human body…

Essentially there is but one single true reason for living: it is to know oneself. We are here to learn — to learn what we are, why we are here, and what we have to do. And if we don’t know that, our life is altogether empty — for ourselves and for others.”

Trivial amusements stimulate and waste

The energy given to him to grow and be.

His little hour is spent in little things.

His small successes are failures of the soul,

His little pleasures punctuate frequent griefs:

2. Live only for the Divine

A few shall see what none yet understands;

God shall grow up while the wise men talk and sleep;

For man shall not know the coming till its hour

And belief shall be not till the work is done. — Savitri

“Some give their soul to the Divine, some their life, some offer their work, some their money. A few consecrate all of themselves and all they have — soul, life, work, wealth; these are the true children of God. Others give nothing. These whatever their position, power and riches are for the Divine purpose valueless ciphers.”

I do not want hundreds of thousands of disciples. It will be enough if I can get a hundred complete men, purified of petty egoism, who will be the instruments of God. — Sri Aurobindo

3. Going within

· Go within yourself and light up there the sacred flame.

· Go within into yourself, find your psychic being and you will find me at the same time, living in you, life of your life, ever present and ever near, quite concretely and tangibly.

· Remain very quiet, open your mind and your heart to Sri Aurobindo’s influence and mine, withdraw deep into an inner silence (which may be had in all circumstances), call me from the depths of this silence and you will see me standing there in the centre of your being.

· Wherever you work, physically near or far, I am always with you in your work and in your consciousness. You ought to know that.

· The Mother and Sri Aurobindo say: We must try to live Inwardly every moment.

• Concentrate on the Lord alone, pray to Him, for He always hears prayers and helps. But it all depends on perfect sincerity and receptivity.
• There is no other way than this. You must nestle in Him, do not look here and there; shut your eyes, mouth and ears. Think only of the Lord and His Love. In a drop of His Love dwells the eternity of the Truth. Everything will vanish but the Lord is always there in Eternity. So cling only to Him.
• Do not let your mind and thoughts wander and grasp the outward things. Otherwise, your consciousness will scatter and you will be unhappy. The Lord waits and watches the movement. You must always have only one aim and that is the Lord, His Love and His work.
• If people and things do not lead you to the Lord, then you must not have any connection with them. Do not care for them. Only listen to the Lord. If bad things come to you, put the Lord in between and you are saved.
• Be content and live within your heart-deep inside-it is the only way to have peace.
• You must gather yourself within more firmly. If you disperse yourself constantly, go out of the inner circle, you will constantly move about in the pettinesses of the ordinary outer nature and under the influences to which it is open. Learn to live within, to act always from within, from a constant communion with the Mother. It may be difficult at first to do it always and completely,

but it can be done if one sticks to it — and it is at that price, by learning to do that, that one can have the Siddhi in the Yoga.

4. Fling Yourself on Her Arms

The Mother: There are two ways of uniting with the Divine. One is to concentrate in the heart and go deep enough to find there His Presence; the other is to fling oneself in His arms, to nestle there as a child nestles in its mother’s arms, with a complete surrender; and of the two the latter seems to me the easier.

Be like a child.

Try to do what I told you, concentrate in the heart till you constantly feel the Presence there. — — Sri Aurobindo.

Do not forget even for a moment that all this has been created by Him out of Himself. Not only is He present in everything, but also He is everything. The differences are only in expression and manifestation. If you forget this you lose everything.

Strong Aspiration

The first movement of aspiration is this:

you have a kind of vague sensation that behind the universe there is something which is worth knowing, which is probably (for you do not yet know it) the only thing worth living for,

something which can connect you with the Truth;

something on which the universe depends but which does not depend upon the universe,

something which still escapes your comprehension but which seems to you to be behind all things….

I have said here much more than the majority of people feel about the thing,

but this is the beginning of the first aspiration — to know that, not to live in this perpetual falsehood where things are so perverted and artificial, this would be something pleasant; to find something that is worth living for.

5. Concentrate on the Supreme in Photos, books, Blessing Packets, Samadhi, Each Word, Quote:

There is “a real and concrete presence” in the photos of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. The photos carry with them an accumulation of force and power.

“It is an entity that is present there; it is not just a picture on a piece of paper, but a living Presence, a vibrant Force and an Entity or an Emanation which is projected and has a tremendous power of action and a means of execution.”

“It is a part of myself, materialised, concrete, which is revealed in such a way that the Force acts through the photo itself, because my Presence is living there and a portion of myself is manifested in the photo.”

“It is one of my infinite states of Consciousness and various moods of expression caught externally in a moment.”

“The Universal Mother in one of Her infinite forms”.

“My child, I am there in the photos. Exactly as you see me here now, the whole being, like this, I am there in the photos. Only, in each photo a different aspect of myself is revealed. All the same, it is I who am there.”

The Mother has said, “Sri Aurobindo and I always put a force into the photographs we sign.”

6. Find the meaning and purpose of each circumstances

There is a meaning in each curve and line. — Savitri

Whatever happens in front of us has a meaning and significance.

We must try to learn something and decode some message for our soul from each circumstances, from each things or each relationship or each universal being in front of us.

A piece of paper flying on the road — can teach us many things in life:

It has no aim, it is wandering because of any wind movement, as it is not stable. Till it gets a wet place or a place where it gets root intact. Can we get back at the reasons of our living just by looking at the paper

Experience the wonder elements in front of us.

Don’t ever take lightly all the circumstances of each day, all the tiny little things of life, all the small events, you know; never take all this lightly.” Never react with your lower being. Each time you are

told to do something or not to do it — you are not told this very often, but each time you are told, before reacting think a little, try to find in yourself the part which reacts. Do not react just like that with what is most commonplace in you. Enter within yourself, try to find the best in yourself and with this you must react.

7. Become That.

Q.: Mother, Why did you come like us? Why did you not come as you truly are?

The Mother: Because if I did not come like you, I could never be close to you and I would not be able to tell you: “Become what I am.”

The Mother: A single occupation, a single aim, a single joy — the Divine.

8. Establishing Peace Within:

The Mother: First of all, you must want it. You sit quietly, to begin with; and then, instead of thinking of fifty things, you begin saying to yourself, “Peace, peace, peace, peace, peace, calm, peace!” You imagine peace and calm. You aspire, ask that it may come: “Peace, peace, calm.”

And then, when something comes and touches you and acts, say quietly, like this, “Peace, peace, peace.” Do not look at the thoughts, do not listen to the thoughts, you understand. You must not pay attention to everything that comes. Do this on getting up in the morning, do this in the evening when going to bed.

Before beginning to eat you sit quietly for a while and say, “Peace, peace, peace!” and everything becomes calm. It seems as though all the noises were going far, far, far away. and then you must continue; and there comes a time when you no longer need to sit down, and no matter what you are doing, no matter what you are saying, it is always “Peace, peace, peace.” Very simple, very simple, you must be very simple in these things. It is as though you were learning how to call a friend: by dint of being called he comes. Well, make peace and calm your friends and call them: “Come, peace, peace, peace, peace, come!”

9. Stepping Back:

The Mother: Most of you live on the surface of your being, exposed to the touch of external influences. You live almost projected, as it were, outside your own body, and when you meet some unpleasant being similarly projected you get upset. The whole trouble arises out of your not being accustomed to stepping back. You must always step back into yourself — learn to go deep within — step back and you will be safe. Do not lend yourself to the superficial forces which move in the outside world. Even if you are in a hurry to do something, step back for a while and you will discover to your surprise how much sooner and with what greater success your work can be done. If someone is angry with you, do not be caught in his vibrations but simply step back and his anger, finding no support or response, will vanish. Always keep your peace, resist all temptation to lose it. Never decide anything without stepping back, never speak a word without stepping back, never throw yourself into action without stepping back. All that belongs to the ordinary world is impermanent and fugitive, so there is nothing in it worth getting upset about. What is lasting, eternal, immortal and infinite — that indeed is worth having, worth conquering, worth possessing. It is Divine Light, Divine Love, Divine Life — it is also Supreme Peace, Perfect Joy and All-Mastery upon earth with the Complete Manifestation as the crowning.

10. Saying Absolutely Indispensable Words:

The Mother: Take one hour of your life, the one which is most convenient for you, and during that time observe yourself closely and say only the absolutely indispensable words. At the outset, the first difficulty will be to know what is absolutely indispensable and what is not. It is already a study in itself and every day you will do better. Next, you will see that so long as one says nothing, it is not difficult to remain absolutely silent, but as soon as you begin to speak, always or almost always you say two or three or ten or twenty useless words which it was not at all necessary to say.

11. Be aware and Remove the Agents of Hostile Forces

The four original emanations from the Supreme — Consciousness, Bliss, Truth, Life — lost contact with their origins and became Inconscience, Suffering, Falsehood and Death.

Of the initial emanations that turned themselves into their opposites, the first two are converted again into Consciousness and Bliss.

there is one infallible insurance, the Grace Divine.

No human will can prevail against the Divine’s Will. Let us put ourselves deliberately and exclusively on the side of the Divine, and the Victory is ultimately certain.

What comes from the Truth->…at the beginning, one can take as a guiding rule that all that brings with it or creates peace, faith, joy, harmony, wideness, unity and ascending growth;

What comes from Falsehood -> restlessness, doubt, scepticism, sorrow, discord, selfishness, narrowness, inertia, discouragement and despair comes straight from the falsehood

Only control over the subconscious can give an invariable resistance to every attack.

Only remain united with the Mother in complete surrender. The rest will surely be done for you. Sri Aurobindo.

“There is only one solution for falsehood.

“It is to cure in ourselves all that contradicts in our consciousness the Presence of the Divine.”

Yes, I insist on that; it is very true, very true. It may not be easy to understand, but it is a very profound truth. All that veils and deforms and prevents the manifestation of the Divine in us: it is that, the falsehood.

Falsehood in full swing:

Only were safe who kept God in their hearts. Savitri

We don’t want falsehood and ignorance any longer, because we don’t want suffering and unconsciousness any longer, because we do not want disorder and bad will any longer.

It is not necessary to leave the earth to find the Truth, is not necessary to leave life to find one’s soul, it is not necessary to give up the world or to have limited beliefs in order to enter into relation with the Divine. The Divine is everywhere, in everything, and if He is hidden… it is because we do not take the trouble to discover Him.

If money and politics have become by and large the preserve of the Lords of Falsehood and of Death, what then is the duty of those who have the knowledge given by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother? It is obvious that the answer to Falsehood is Truth, the answer to Death is Life, the Life Eternal, the Life Divine. The fight against falsehood and death must therefore start with the utmost intensity of aspiration and purity and determination. This is how the counter-movement has to start and save what must be saved and conquer what can be conquered:

…even if, outside, things are deteriorating completely and the catastrophe cannot possibly be avoided, there remains for us, I mean those for whom the supramental life is not a vain dream… there remains for them the possibility of intensifying their aspiration, their will, their effort, to gather their energies together and shorten the time for the realisation. There remains for them the possibility of working this miracle… that the storm may pass over the world without being able to destroy this great hope of the near future….

It is in the mental and practical application to life and action that the falsehood appears and disfigures everything. The time has come when all those who are more or less connected with the Ashram and wish to base their action on Sri Aurobindo’s or my teaching must abstain from all these low movements of political polemic and remain on the higher levels of the spirit.

Stay away from Newspapers, Media, Social Media spreading falsehood, crude politics and money.

The Mother: Our position is clear. We do not fight against any creed, any religion. We do not fight against any form of government. We do not fight against any social class. We do not fight against any nation or civilisation. We are fighting division, unconsciousness, ignorance, inertia and falsehood. We are endeavouring to establish upon earth union, knowledge, consciousness, truth; and we fight whatever opposes the advent of this new creation of Light, Peace, Truth and Love.

Q. Why is India, which has such a rich past and the promise of such a brilliant future, in such a miserable condition at present? When will she emerge from this pitiable condition and reaffirm her greatness?

The Mother: When she renounces falsehood and lives in the Truth.

The whole world is in a condition of strife, conflict, between the forces of truth and light wanting to manifest and the opposition of all that does not want to change…. Naturally, each individual feels his own difficulties…. There is only one way for you. It is a total, complete and unconditional surrender….

…It’s the only remedy, for everybody without exception…. All suffering is the sign that the surrender is not total. Then, when you feel in you a “bang” like that, instead of saying, “Oh, this is bad” or “This circumstance is difficult,” you say, “My surrender is not perfect.”

12. Widening your consciousness

The Mother: To go within yourself, that is the first step. And then, once you have succeeded in going within yourself deeply enough to feel the reality of that which is within, to widen yourself progressively, systematically, to become as vast as the universe and lose the sense of limitation. These are the first two preparatory movements. And these two things must be done in the greatest possible calm, peace and tranquillity. This peace, this tranquillity brings about silence in the mind and stillness in the vital. The easiest way is to identify yourself with something vast….

13. Living in Harmony:

We are on earth to progress and we have everything to learn. Living with harmony with all parts of our own being: Mental, vital and physical beings in relation to Psychic being is the only way. True Living is to live harmoniously, without any disharmony and discord. It should be both at individual or collective level.

All problems of existence are essentially the problems of Harmony.

14. Remaining immobile without being shaken or touched

(Become conscious of your immortal spirit):

The Mother: Suppose someone insults you; if in the face of these insults, you can remain immobile (not only outwardly, I mean integrally), without being shaken or touched in any way: you are there like a force against which one can do nothing and you do not reply, you do not make a gesture, you do not say a word, all the insults thrown at you leave you absolutely untouched, within and without; you can keep your heart-beats absolutely quiet, you can keep the thoughts in your head quite immobile and calm without their being in the least disturbed, that is, your head does not answer immediately by similar vibrations and your nerves don’t feel clenched with the need to return a few blows to relieve themselves; if you can be like that, you have a static power, and it is infinitely more powerful than if you had that kind of force which makes you answer insult by insult, blow by blow and agitation by agitation.

15. Utilising the unoccupied moments (To know why am I here)

The Mother: Correct contemplation. Egoless thought concentrated on the essence of things, on the inmost truth and on the goal to be attained.

How often there is a kind of emptiness in the course of life, an unoccupied moment, a few minutes, sometimes more. And what do you do? Immediately you try to distract yourself, and you invent some foolishness or other to pass your time. That is a common fact. All men, from the youngest to the oldest, spend most of their time in trying not to be bored. Their pet aversion is boredom and the way to escape from boredom is to act foolishly. Well, there is a better way than that — to remember.

When you have nothing to do, you become restless, you run about, you meet friends, you take a walk, to speak only of the best; I am not referring to things that are obviously not to be done. Instead of that, sit down quietly before the sky, before the sea or under trees, whatever is possible (here you have all of them) and try to realise one of these things — to understand why you live, to learn how you must live, to ponder over what you want to do and what should be done, what is the best way of escaping from the

ignorance and falsehood and pain in which you live.

The fact of being born with a psychic being and upon earth which is a spiritual symbol proves that we have each one of us a great responsibility.

The more conscious and individualised one becomes, the more should one have the sense of responsibility. But this is what happens at a given moment; one begins to think that one is here not without reason, without purpose. One realises suddenly that one is here because there is something to be done and this something is not anything egoistic. This seems to me the most logical way of entering upon the path — all of a sudden to realise, “Since I am here, it means that I have a mission to fulfil.

Since I have been endowed with a consciousness, it is that I have something to do with that consciousness — what is it?

16. Place yourself in infinity and eternity:

The Mother: When you are bored by something, when something is painful to you or very unpleasant, if you begin to think of the eternity of time and the immensity of space, if you think of all that has gone before and all that will come afterwards, and that this second in eternity is truly just a passing breath, and that it seems so utterly ridiculous to be upset by something which in the eternity of time is… one doesn’t even have the time to become aware of it, it has no place, no importance, because, what indeed is a second in eternity? If one can manage to realise that, to… how to put it?… visualise, picture the little person one is, in the little earth where one is, and the tiny second of consciousness which for the moment is hurting you or is unpleasant for you, just this — which in itself is only a second in your existence, and that you yourself have been many things before and will be many more things afterwards, that what affects you now you will have probably completely forgotten in ten years, or if you remember it you will say, “How did I happen to attach any importance to that?”… if you can realise that first and then realise your little person which is a second in eternity, not even a second, you

know, imperceptible, a fragment of a second in eternity, that the whole world has unfolded before this and will unfold yet, indefinitely — before, behind — and that… well, then suddenly you sense the utter ridiculousness of the importance you attach to what happened to you…. Truly you feel… to what an extent it is absurd to attach any importance to one’s life, to oneself, and to what happens to you. And in the space of three minutes, if you do this properly, all unpleasantness is swept away. Even a very deep pain can be swept away. Simply a concentration like this, and to place oneself in infinity and eternity. Everything goes away. One comes out of it cleansed. One can get rid of all attachments and even, I say, of the deepest sorrows — of everything, in this way — if one knows how to do it in the right way. It immediately takes you out of your little ego. There we are.

For instance, when you feel that you are shut up in a completely narrow and limited thought, will, consciousness, when you feel as though you were in a shell, then if you begin thinking about something very vast, as for example, the immensity of the waters of an ocean, and if really you can think of this ocean and how it stretches out far, far, far, far, in all directions, like this you feel that you are floating on this sea, like that, and that there are no limits…. This is very easy. Then you can widen your consciousness a little.

Other people, for example, begin looking at the sky; and then they imagine all those spaces between all those stars, and all… that kind of infinity of spaces in which the earth is a tiny point, and you too are just a very tiny point, smaller than an ant, on the earth. And so you look at the sky and feel that you are floating in these infinite spaces between the planets, and that you are growing vaster and vaster to go farther and farther. Some people succeed with this.

17. Increasing your power of concentration:

The Mother: To concentrate one’s attention and one’s energy, think only of what one is doing and not of anything else, not to make a movement too much, to make the exact movement in the most exact way, and you can do in fifteen minutes what you were formerly doing in half an hour, and do it as well, at times even better, without forgetting anything, without leaving out anything, simply by the intensity of the concentration.

For all that you do — study, play, work — there is only one solution: to increase one’s power of concentration. And when you acquire this concentration, it is no longer tiring. Naturally, in the beginning, it creates a tension, but when you have grown used to it, the tension diminishes, and a moment comes when what fatigues you is to be not thus concentrated, to disperse yourself, allow yourself to be swallowed by all kinds of things, and not to concentrate on what you do. One can succeed in doing things even better and more quickly by the power of concentration. And in this way you can make use of work as a means of growth.

18. Getting rid of Unpleasant Thoughts

The Mother: The first step is to think of something else (but in this way, you know, it will be indefinitely repeated); — — to think of something else. That is, to concentrate one’s attention upon something that has nothing to do with that thought, has no connection with that thought, like reading or some work — generally something creative, some creative work. For instance, those who write, while they are writing (let us take simply a novelist), while he is writing, all other thoughts are gone, for he is concentrated on what he is doing. When he finishes writing, if he has no control, the other thoughts will return. But precisely when a thought assails you, one can try to do some creative work;

the second is to fight; — method of rejection — those who have begun to control their thought can make a movement of rejection, push aside the thought as one would a physical object. But that is more difficult and asks for a much greater mastery. If one can manage it, it is more active, in the sense that if you reject that movement, that thought, if you chase it off effectively and constantly or almost repeatedly, finally it does not come any more.

and the third is to transform. When one has reached the third step, not only is one cured but one has made a permanent progress. — bring down a sufficiently great light from above. if the thought which comes is something dark (and especially if it comes from the subconscient or inconscient and is sustained by instinct), if one can bring down from above the light of a true knowledge, a higher power, and put that light upon the thought, one can manage to dissolve it or enlighten or transform it — this is the supreme method.

19. Becoming what one does

The Mother: If, in oneself, one succeeds in becoming what one does, it is a great progress. if you want to do the work properly, you must become the work instead of being someone who works, otherwise you will never do it well. If you remain “someone who works” and, besides, if your thoughts go vagabonding, then you may be sure that if you are handling fragile things they will break, if you are cooking, you will burn something, or if you are playing a game, you will miss all the balls! It is here, in this, that work is a great discipline. For if truly you want to do it well, this is the only way of doing it.

Example: Writing a book or painting.

There is nothing which cannot be a yogic discipline if one does it properly. And if it is not done properly, even tapasya will be of no use and will lead you nowhere. For it is the same thing, if you do your tapasya, all the time observing yourself doing it and telling yourself, “Am I making any progress, is this going to be better, am I going to succeed?”, then it is your ego, you know, which becomes more and more enormous and occupies the whole place, and there is no room for anything else.

What gives most the feeling of inferiority, of limitation, smallness, impotence, is always this turning back upon oneself, this shutting oneself up in the bounds of a microscopic ego. One must widen oneself, open the doors. And the best way is to be able to concentrate upon what one is doing instead of concentrating upon oneself.

20. Feeling that you are a conscious soul and intelligent will

The Mother: It is the lower nature, the instincts of the subconscient which govern you and make you do things you should not do. And so it is a choice between your will and accepting submission. There is always a moment when one can decide.

And if the will is clear, if it is based on truth, if truly it obeys the truth and is clear, it always has the power to refuse the wrong movement. It is an excuse you give yourself when you say, “I could not.” It is not true. It is that truly you have not wanted it in the right way.

Because you are not these impulses, you are a conscious soul and an intelligent will, and your duty is to see that this is what governs you and not the impulses from below.

A breath has passed, you see. You don’t know… something…a moment of unconsciousness… “Oh, I was not conscious.” You are not conscious because you do not accept… And all this because you don’t know how to will. To learn how to will is a very important thing. And to will truly, you must unify your being. In fact, to be a being, one must first unify oneself. If one is pulled by absolutely opposite tendencies, if one spends three-fourths of one’s life without being conscious of oneself and the reasons why one does things, is one a real being? One does not exist. One is a mass of influences, movements, forces, actions, reactions, but one is not a being.

One begins to become a being when one begins to have a will. And one can’t have a will unless one is unified.

21. No Divine No Life

Whenever you find that you can do something without feeling the presence of the Divine and yet be perfectly comfortable, you must understand that you are not consecrated in that part of your being. That is the way of the ordinary humanity which does not feel any need of the Divine.

But for a seeker of the Divine Life it is very different. And when you have entirely realized unity with the Divine, then, if the Divine were only for a second to withdraw from you, you would simply drop dead; for the Divine is now the Life of your life, your whole existence, your single and complete support. If the Divine is not there, nothing is left.

The world is preparing for a big change. Will you help?

22. Having a Witness Attitude

There is a stage in the sadhana in which the inner being begins to awake.

Four Elements of the Witness condition:

1. A sort of witness attitude, in which the inner consciousness looks at all that happens as a spectator or observer, observing things but taking no active interest or pleasure in them. — -àthere should be no disgust or impatience or anger when people talk, only indifference and an inner peace and silence.

2. A state of neutral equanimity in which there is neither joy nor sorrow, only quietude. — à there

should not be a mere neutral quiet and indifference, but a positive sense of calm, detachment and peace.

3. A sense of being something separate from all that happens, observing it but not part of it.

4. An absence of attachment to things, people or events.

It is a question of habit. You have not yet conquered the illusion which sees you as the doer. Naturally this witness attitude is necessary, it is a first step. All the parts of the mind can thus be made automatic. And from above one watches them; one can stop or modify them.

23. Stopping Spontaneous Reactions

We should stay away from Spontaneous reactions in our life. This takes us away from the falsehood. We should stop our unwanted suggestions, gossiping or word exchanges.

24. Practising Endurance:

We must Increase our endurance level. Endure, endure and Endure.

Endurance makes us strong, and brings stability in our life.

Sri Aurobindo to Mrinalini Devi on some difference with His sister Sarojini:

Each time his advice would be, “Endure, endure”, which did not please her much. She wanted that at least for once Sarojini should be administered a mild rebuke, but entreaties went unheeded. At last Mrinalini told Sri Aurobindo in a firm tone that unless he did something she would refuse to do any household chores. Now Sri Aurobindo had to act. Fixing his gaze upon Mrinalini he said, Look here, do you think anybody’s conduct can be changed in the way you want it? If I rebuke you or Sarojini, will it immediately make either of you give up your defects? Rather, instead of the peace you are asking for, it will have quite the opposite effect. I have told you to endure. If you follow sincerely the path advised by me, you will see that everything will move on peacefully as if by magic, after a few days.”

25. Practising Inner Courage

A firm will (strong will) True courage, in its deepest sense, is to be able to face everything, everything in life, from the smallest to the greatest things, from material things to those of the spirit, without a shudder, without physically… without the heart beginning to beat faster, without the nerves trembling or the slightest emotion in any part of the being. Face everything with a constant consciousness of the divine Presence, with a total self-giving to the Divine, and the whole being unified in this will; then one can go forward in life, can face anything whatever.

26. True Meditation

In the common meditation… it was a movement of ascent, of aspiration — whereas what we do here, in concentration, is a movement of descent. Instead of an aspiration which rises up, what is required is a receptivity which opens so that the Force may enter into you…. What is asked here is a receptive offering, not of the body or the mind or the vital, of a piece of your being, but of your entire being. No other thing is asked of you, only to open yourself, the rest of the work I undertake.

Practise silence of mind, it gives power of understanding. the brain blank, immobile and turned upward. This is the necessary condition to receive the answers. If you can hand over the care of your existence and your development to the Supreme Consciousness, then peace will enter your heart and your problems will be solved. The clear indication of any work or any decision comes in the silence of the mind.

Quality of meditation is more important than the quantity of meditation. A person may sit for hours without concentrating a single minute. Our connection with outer will be so intense that there is no distinction between meditation and work. All life is yoga.

It is by living inwardly in a similar or identical impersonality that the soul within, released

from the siege of things, can best become capable of oneness with this immutable Brahman which regards and knows but is not affected by the forms and mutations of the universe.

His nature we must put on as he put ours;

We are sons of God and must be even as he;

His human portion, we must grow divine.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -

The sun-eyed children of a marvellous dawn,

The great creators with wide brows of calm,

The massive barrier-breakers of the world

And wrestlers with destiny in her lists of will,

The labourers in the quarries of the gods,

The messengers of the Incommunicable,

The architects of immortality.

27. Conclusion:

Once inner life is ready, we can make the outer life a field of connectivity.

Remain young…” (1968)

“No words — acts” (1969)

The world is preparing for a big change. Will you help? (1970)

Are you ready?

but of a radical change in the very quality of our existence

In the Hour of God — in the hour of the big change — His breath might come with a terrific force, and also as Divine Grace. He was Rudra, he was Shiva too! And what was the response expected of mankind?

The best possible way is to allow the Divine Grace to work in you, never to oppose it, never to be ungrateful and turn against it — but to follow it always to the goal of Light and Peace and unity and Ananda. The proffered hand was not to be rejected, the working of Grace was not lo be hindered; far better would it be to meet it with trust and gratitude, join hands with it, and march towards the Goal.

The changes we see in the world today are intellectual, moral, physical in their ideal and intention: the spiritual revolution waits for its hour and throws up meanwhile its waves here and there. Until it comes the sense of the others cannot be understood and till then all interpretations of present happening and forecast of man’s future are vain things. For its nature, power, event are that which will determine the next cycle of our humanity.

Nature shall live to manifest secret God,

The Spirit shall take up the human play,

This earthly life become the life divine