ü To Be Conscious of the Divine Presence: For each individually, to be conscious in himself of the Divine Presence and to identify himself with it.

ü To Awaken Ourselves and the Earth: To individualise the states of being that were never till now conscious in man and, by that, to put the earth in connection with one or more of the fountains of universal force that are still sealed to it.

ü To Be a Living Demonstration of his Teaching and to Spread the Message of Supreme Truth and Harmony: To speak again to the world the eternal Word under a new form adapted to its present mentality. It will be the synthesis of all human knowledge. It is a truth which is eternal, which manifests itself through all possible words and ideas. It is the origin of all speech and all thought.

ü To Create Ideal Society/Centres of Awakened and Enlightened Souls: Collectively, to establish an ideal society in a propitious spot for the flowering of the new race, the race of the Sons of God.

1.3 What is Work for the Divine?

· Work done not in the ego and in the ignorance,

· Work is not to satisfy our ego and our rajasic desire.

· Not the work of philanthropy or the service of humanity

· Not the moral or idealistic work which the mind of man substitutes for the deeper truth of works.

· Work should be of right spirit and attitude

· Work should be with the right will in us: dedicate our will to the Divine, by the merging of one’s will in the Divine Will. There should be no other will in us except the Divine Will in our Work.

· Work done in quietude, purity, silence, and peace after rejecting our desire, rajas and ego

· Work done where we feel the universal Force doing one’s works

· Work done where one feels all our works works taken from one and done by the universal or the supreme Mother

· Work done where one feels the Divine Power controlling and acting from behind the heart.

· All acts are included in action:

· Work is action regulated towards a fixed end and methodically and constantly done.

· Service is work done for the Mother’s purpose and under her direction.

· All Work Equal in the Eyes of the Spirit

· Self-dedication does not depend on the particular work you do, but on the spirit in which all work, of whatever kind it may be, is done.

· Any work, done well and carefully as a sacrifice to the Divine, without desire or egoism, with equality of mind and calm tranquillity in good or bad fortune, for the sake of the Divine and not for the sake of any personal gain, reward or result, with the consciousness that it is the Divine Power to which all work belongs, is a means of self-dedication through Karma.

Who does the Divine Work?

· It is the Divine who does the work through us like Krishna used Arjuna.

· He uses us as a means to express His Mission. But we are unaware of this.

· We are just instruments. He is the Driver, Director, and Creator of our Work.

What is the Most Useful Work to be Done in this Timeless Moments?

We are living in timeless moments of our souls’ journey. The present is the most important moment of life. We should work for the soul’s perfection in these moments of Eternity.

1.4 Difference Between Personal Work and Divine Work

Characteristic

Personal Work

Divine Work

Dimension

- Work for the outer little “self” only

- Work for the “I”, the Ego

- Static

- Personal Ananda

- Real Action is Outside

- Individual centric

- Full of Conditions

- Full of Interest and Profit

- Doubts and Fears

- Narrow Limited Mindset

- Life of Duality

- Work for the Vast “Self” present in our Centre

- Work for the Divine

- Dynamic

- Divine Ananda

- Real Action is Within

- Collective, Universal, Cosmic centric

- Unconditional, not even for siddhi

- Disinterestedness

- Faith and Receptivity

- Widening, Expanding Consciousness

- Life of Oneness

Life

Must be an

- A Hungry Mass of Desire, Profit, Greed, Fame, Ego and Success

Must be an

- Offering and a sacrifice to the Supreme

Aim

- Achieve individual success

- Achieve success for the family, society, or nation

- Unite with the Divine

- Realise the Divine

- Be Perfect like the Divine

To be

- A Successful Person in Family, Society, or in the world

To be

- Free from all desires and self-regarding ego

To get

- Outer Progress

- Money, Fame, Wealth, Success

- Human Appreciation,

- Awards, Recognition

To get

- Inward Progress

- Divine Light, Knowledge, Force

- Delight, Bliss, Ananda, Peace

- Joy of being the Mother’s Instrument

- Universal Oneness

To Satisfy

- Ego (Personal and Spiritual),

- Desire, Demands, Cravings, Lust, Preferences

To Satisfy

- Only Mother, None Other

Ways

- Act for personal motive

- Act with ordinary consciousness — pretension, greed, cheat etc.

- Perform no jobs/any Jobs: Farming, Teachings, Business, or IT etc.

- Act for the impersonal motive

- Live in the Divine

- Live with the Divine

- Live for the Divine

- Work for the Divine

- Work by the Divine

- Work with the Divine

Work with

- Anger, Jealousy, Hatred,

- Competitive mindset,

- Ambition, Personal Motives, Narrowmindedness,

- Silence, Peace, Calmness

- Disinterestedness,

- Quietness, Wideness, Broadness

- Tranquillity

Attitude

- Take, Take, Take,

- Loot, Grab, Fool, Cheat,

- Swindle, Fraud,

- Give all one has and One is

- Serve, to receive, fulfill Her

- Become a manifesting instrument of the Divine Shakti in her Works

- Surrender oneself and everything

- Feel the Divine in each work & in each being

Results

Will be

- Restless, Hopeless, Depressed, Dejected, Unhappy, Fearful, Disturbed

Will be

- Calm, Quiet, Peaceful, Blissful, Hopeful, Loving, Stable, Courageous

- United with the Divine Mother

- Protected with the Divine Grace

Will achieve

- Disharmony, Imbalance, Instability, Suffering, Pain

- Attachment with the work or family or self

Will achieve

- Pleasure of the Divine Mother

- Detachment with ego, family or the work

- Fulfilment of Her work, Ananda

- Equality, Purity, Vastness, Harmony

Compensation

- Salary, Wealth, Stocks,

- Houses, Lands, Cars etc

- Insurance from LIC, Tata, Reliance, AIG etc.

Compensation

- The Joy of Service of The Mother

- The Joy of Divine Smile within heart

- The Joy of inner growth through works.

- Protection of the Divine Grace

Reward/Recognition

- Job, Career, Degree, Bank Balance

- Prizes, Success, Fame

Reward/Recognition

- A constant progression in Divine consciousness,

- Growth and Merging towards calm, and strength and bliss of the Divine.

1.5 Why It is Important to know the Work of the Supreme?

For Work for the Earth-Consciousness

The Mother returned to Pondicherry in 1920, on the 24th of April.

Sri Aurobindo has said, “Sadhana and the work were waiting for the Mother’s coming”.

Q. Mother, Did you have any communications with Sri Aurobindo before you came to know him? For I have read some books where it is said that you and Sri Aurobindo have done almost the same work.

The Mother:

The work was and is the same, because the source of his inspiration and mine is the same: the Supreme.

Since the beginning of earth history, Sri Aurobindo has always presided over the great earthly transformations, under one form or another, one name or another.

Sri Aurobindo does not belong to the past nor to history.

Sri Aurobindo is the Future advancing towards its realisation.

Sri Aurobindo does not belong to a country but to the whole earth. His teaching leads us towards a better future.

Sri Aurobindo is an emanation of the Supreme who came on earth to announce the manifestation of a new race and a new world: the Supramental.

****

…my Sadhana was not done for myself but for the earth-consciousness as a showing of the way towards the Light, so that whatever I showed in it to be possible — inner growth, transformation, manifesting of new faculties, etc. — was not of no importance to anybody, but meant as an opening of lines and ways for what had to be done. — Sri Aurobindo

When I concentrate, I work upon others, upon the world, upon the play of forces.

Sri Aurobindo

I am seeking to bring some principle of inner Truth, Light, Harmony, Peace into the earth-consciousness;… I believe the descent of this Truth opening the way to a development of divine consciousness here to be the final sense of the earth evolution. — Sri Aurobindo

I have borne every attack which human beings have borne, otherwise I would be unable to assure anybody “This too can be conquered”.

Sri Aurobindo

…anyone who wants to change earth-nature must first accept it in order to change it. To quote from an unpublished poem of my own:

He who would bring the heavens here,

Must descend himself into clay

And the burden of earthly nature bear

And tread the dolorous way.

Sri Aurobindo

To Prepare the Supramental Race

The work consists in helping humanity as a whole to prepare itself for the new creation, that is to say, the supramental race.

For Victory Over Anti-Divine Forces

…the Mother, after a long stay in France and Japan, returned to Pondicherry on the 24th April, 1920.

About 24 April 1920

The anniversary of my return to Pondicherry, which was the tangible sign of the sure Victory over the adverse forces.

To Eliminate All Difficulties from Nature

For myself, the dark conditions do not discourage me or convince me of the vanity of my will to “help the world”, for I knew they had to come; they were there in the world-nature and had to rise up so that they might be exhausted or expelled and a better world freed from them might be there. — Sri Aurobindo

To Transform the Human Nature

The nature of man and of things is at present a discord, a harmony that has got out of tune. The whole heart and action and mind of man must be changed… by realisation of God in ourselves and the world and a remoulding of life by that realisation. This can only be effected by Purnayoga… — Sri Aurobindo

1.6 Who is Actually Working? Divine or Man?

A Few Misconceptions About Real Worker

It is a Force that exerts pressure on the Earth and that makes people do the most improbable things. — — The Mother

Pressure of Consciousness-Force: All the time, in the smallest detail as well as on the whole, the Force is pressing on Matter for the transformation. The New Consciousness becomes clearer and clearer. Almost as if a new Mind were being formed.

Q. I hope and believe Your work does not depend upon human beings.

The Mother: No, it does not depend at all upon human beings. What has to be done will be done despite all possible resistances.

There is only one thing of which I am absolutely sure, and that is who lam. Sri Aurobindo also knew it and declared it. Even the doubts of the whole of humanity would change nothing to this fact.

But another fact is not so certain — it is the usefulness of my being here in a body doing the work I am doing. It is not out of any personal urge that I am doing it. Sri Aurobindo told me to do it and that is why I do it as a sacred duty, in obedience to the dictates of the Supreme.

Time will reveal how far earth has benefitted through it. — The Mother

For me everything in human life is mixed, nothing is completely good, nothing completely bad. I cannot give my entire and exclusive support to this idea or that idea, to one cause or another.

The only important thing for me, in action, is Sri Aurobindo’s work, automatically my conscious support is with all that helps that work and in proportion to the help. And for the work to be carried on as it must be I need all collaborations and all helps, I cannot accept only this one or that one and reject the others. I cannot belong to this party or that party. I belong to the Divine alone and my action upon earth is and will always be for the triumph of the Divine, irrespective of all sects and parties.

– The Mother

Many a time, a question arises in Sadhak’s minds, that he is working for the Divine cause. Man is so much engrossed in his personal work that he thinks whatever he is working if we surrender everything at the end, it will be termed as a Divine Work. We will keep on continuing our personal work, but just surrender, offer the results, tell to the Mother it is all yours, nothing belongs to me. That’s it. The Job is over. We will keep continuing our personal work and Mother is there to satisfy all our list of demands, desires, and preferences. This is nothing but cheating the Divine.

If Divine Work had been so much easy for the Humans, what was the need for the Divine or various Gods to come to Earth, in many avatars, starting from Earth’s creation to this date? Why God came in many Dasavataras, and killed many demons, asuras from the Earth?

Man just have to tell after all his actions, “I Offer myself at Your Lotus Feet.”

And That work will be changed to Divine Work

— — — — — — — — — —

More pointedly, the Mother once told Champaklal, and this was more than a month before the founding of the Ashram:

The Mother: Do you think that you are working? No, your Mother is working.

Then, two days later: You know, only one Purusha is working in the whole world.

The Work gets done in spite of mental incomprehension, even in spite of mental comprehension”! Only, it is a pity that people do not see the beauty of the Play and do not consciously take part in it. — — The Mother

We need to understand the basic difference between Our Work and Divine Work:

Work of the Nature:

Whatever circumstances that has come to us naturally without our knowledge is by the act of Prakriti. The reason we have been born in a particular family, or working in a particular place is because of Nature, not because of God. We keep ourselves engaged in the activities of Nature, starting from family, society, nation. Sometime, we live happily if the surrounding is good, or adjust if the environment is not good, or quit after sometime out of our nature’s urge.

All the Work that we currently do — be it in any form — personal or professional — is due to our nature. Our Nature has made us agree or consent to do its work. It is applicable to a labourer or to a scientist or an Engineer. These urge to work has come from our Nature. Nature has used us, made us its instruments and created these works. All our actions be it good or bad will create our Karma. Nature will help add more karmic consequences till the time we are aware of the Divine Presence. We are trapped by a false illusion of growth, outer well-being, or a deeper bond/attachment with the family, jobs, career, money, success, wealth etc.

Work of the Divine:

“All this world and every object in this world of Prakriti (Nature) has been created

as a habitation for the Lord.

… where she presses her feet course miraculous streams of an entrancing Ananda.

All the work of the universe is part of the Great Divine Plan. He has given us a choice, free will to accept Him or reject Him. Till the moment we are unaware of His Actions, we will flow with the Nature. Nature will not help us in erasing our Past Karmas, which keep on adding every birth. Divine uses Nature to manifest this creation.

We should know that Nature is used by the Divine, either creatively or destructively. Divine and nature both work in tandem. If Divine finds an unfit race in us, He will replace it (like dinausaurs) with another set of race using the nature’s forces. Nature also aspires for the Divine mildly, as it is also an active force of the conscious being.

All Nature dumbly calls to her alone

To heal with her feet the aching throb of life

The Role of Humans:

The day we come out of this Natures’ Grip and bondage and get into the vibration of the Divine, aspire for the Divine with an intense zeal or aspiration or a Vyakulata, that day we will connect with the Divine. We will have to live and work in the psychic, by connecting with the Inner Divinity, and grow slowly towards the Divine. We have to realise that the nature created bond is not going to take us to complete Divine Realisation. It will create only karmic consequences. We have to come out of the first circle of nature of pain and suffering, karma and enter into the circle of the Divine Grace. The Divine Grace only will protect us from our Karma.

Mother is the Doer

Of course, of course. All my realisations- Nirvana and others — would have remained theoretical, as it were, so far as the outer world was concerned. It is the Mother who showed the way to. a, practical form. Without her, no organized manifestation would have been possible. She has been doing this kind of sadhana and work from her very childhood. — Sri Aurobindo

— -

I do not give positions to the sadhaks — I give them work; and to all I give an equal opportunity. It is those who prove to be most capable and most sincere, honest and faithful that have the biggest amount of work and the greatest responsibility.

Whatever the external circumstances, they are, without exception, the objective projection of what is inside yourself. When in your work you find something giving trouble outside, look within and you will find in yourself the corresponding difficulty.

Change yourself and the circumstances will change.

26 June 1954

The Mother

It’s the Mother’s Work We Are Called Upon to Do

Sri Aurobindo: Remind yourself always it is Mother’s work you are doing and if you do it as well as you can remembering her, the Mother’s Grace will be with you. Work should be done for the Mother and not for oneself, — that is how one encourages the growth of the psychic being and overcomes the ego. The test is to do the work given by the Mother without abhimāna or insistence or personal choice or prestige, — not getting hurt by anything that touches the pride, amour-propre or personal preference. It is a high and great ideal that is put before the Sadhak through work it is not possible to realise it suddenly, but to grow steadily into it is possible ….

I know that I cannot do much — I cannot satisfy the human desire for wonders and miracles. There was a time when I could and did do it. But for that one must live in the vital consciousness and use vital forces, which is not very recommendable.

23 January 1952

It will be said of me: “She was ambitious, she wanted to transform the world.” But the world does not want to be transformed except by a very long and slow process, so slow that the change cannot be perceptible from one generation to the other.

I find that Nature delays and wastes. But she finds that I am too much in a hurry and too troublesome and exacting. Let me write down all I have to say; let me foretell all that will be done, and then, if no one finds that I am doing it properly,

then I shall retire and leave the others to do it.

31 March 1953

Difference Between Karma, works, Karma Yoga, Divine Work, Sadhana

Karma:

Ø Karma means all works, all action, all thoughts.

Ø Any action, inaction, meditation, eating, sleeping, thinking can be called Karma.

Ø All Life is a field of Karma.

Ø Karma means subjection to lower Nature;

- If it [the soul] goes on with its Karma, then it does not get liberation. If it wants only farther experience, it can just stay there in the ordinary nature.

- Noone remains without doing any work even for a moment.

- Everyone is made to do action helplessly by the modes, 3 gunas, born of Prakriti.

- The bondage to the effects of Karma remains so long as one has not passed out of the ordinary human consciousness which is its field to the higher spiritual consciousness where all bonds are untied. As for peace one can gain it by an entire reliance on the

- Divine and surrender to the Divine Will.

Yoga:

The aim of Yoga is to transcend Karma.
Through Yoga the soul goes towards freedom, it gets freedom from nature.
Yoga is union or joining with the Divine, union with one’s highest Self.
If we live in the Psychic 24x7, it will gradually erase the past Karmas, of this life and past lives.

Karma Yoga:

It is the discipline for finding and uniting with the Divine through our day-to-day actions, thoughts, and works.
It is the way to make our ordinary human actions into a Divine one.

Principle of Karma Yoga:

To be able to do anything with equanimity is the principle of karmayoga and to do it with joy because it is done for the Mother is the true psychic and vital condition in this Yoga.

Divine Work:

Any Action is for self-finding, for self-fulfilment, for self-realisation and not only for its own external and apparent fruits of the moment or the future.

The soul searching and realisation should start from individual level to collective level.

Sadhana: It is known as Practice of Yoga.

Ø The practice by which perfection, siddhi, is attained.

Ø To do the sadhana for the sake of the Divine and not for one’s own sake is of course the true attitude.

Sadhaka: The Yogin who seeks by that practice the Sidhhi.

The Sadhana of this Yoga does not proceed through any set mental teaching or prescribed forms of meditation, mantras or others, but

by aspiration,
by a self-concentration inwards or upwards,
by self-opening to an Influence, to the Divine Power above us and its workings, to the Divine Presence in the heart, and
by the rejection of all that is foreign to these things.

It is only by faith, aspiration and surrender that this self-opening can come.

The Mother: In the integral Yoga there is no distinction between the sadhana and the outward life; it is in each and every movement of the daily life that the Truth must be found and practised.

Essence of the Sadhana of this Yoga:

To reach the Light, to manifest it in oneself and also in the collectivity.
The Light is the light of the Divine Consciousness. The aim of this Yoga is first to come into contact with this consciousness and then to live in its light and allow the light to transform the whole nature, so that the being may live in union with the Divine and the nature become a field for the action of the Divine Knowledge, the Divine Power and the Divine Ananda.
He can succeed in that only if he makes it the supreme object of his life and is prepared to subordinate everything else to this one aim. Otherwise, all that can be done is only to make some preparation in this life — a first contact and some preliminary spiritual change in part of the nature.

Work

Ø Work is not only for work’s sake, but as a field of Sadhana, for getting rid of the lower personality and its reactions and acquiring a full surrender to the Divine.

Ø The work in the Ashram … was meant as a service to the Divine and as a field for the inner opening to the Divine, surrender to the Divine alone, rejection of ego and all the ordinary vital movements and the training in a psychic elevation, selflessness, obedience, renunciation of all mental, vital or other self-assertion of the limited personality.

Sri Aurobindo

Who is Working as a Witness?

The Mother: There is here a Consciousness working. Each one when he goes against this divine Consciousness loses something of his consciousness every time he does so. He goes down each time he does something against it. Each one gains in his consciousness every time he acts according to this divine Consciousness.

The world goes on as it is. When there is nothing you or I can do to change it, we can only keep quiet, silent witness like Brahman. As in the world so here also. So many things go on: each one tries to prove his superiority; there is politics of all

kinds, propaganda. I only witness like Brahman; I am neither for nor against, neither approve nor condemn.

1.7 A Comparison between Car Production from a Factory and Man’s Creation from the Divine Factory

Phase

Right Action of the Car

Right Action of the Man

Lab. Testing Phase

With Man’s Mind Faculty

- Car Design, Shaping, Colouring,

- Studying the Need of the Market

With the Divine Grace

- Visiting Ashram,

- Touching Samadhi,

- Reading Books,

- Meeting Sadhaks,

- Learning about the purpose of life

- Knowing Process of soul’s timeless journey

Factory Production Phase

Assembly phase

- Connecting Chassis, Body, & all Components with the Engine of the car

- Pollution check, Quality Check

- ISO Audit Check

- Collision Testing performed to test its safety

- Test Drive in Public Roads and get approval from public

Man Making Phase

- Connecting all nature to Engine of Man i.e. with Psychic Being 24x7

- Purifying Process of the Nature (Mind, Vital, and Body)

- Discovering and Preparing the Psychic to receive the Force of the Supreme

- Mingling with Public with equality and equanimity

- Taking the Word of the Mother to the Masses by conducting Pathachakra

& Working for the Divine Mission silently

On Road of Life

Car launched for Public

- Advertisement made with celebrity

Divine Man will not be launched but He and His vibrations have to be felt in public

Be the living demonstration of His teaching 24x7

Must Lead a Collective Life with aspiring souls

Must not lead an individual centric life

No advertisement required,

Just Carry The Mother and Sri Aurobindo in the Psychic Centre, carrying the assurance of the Divine Protection

Note: We need to introspect which phase of soul’s journey we are at present.

True Divine Worker:

Swami Vivekananda: He who finds in the midst of intense activity the greatest rest, and in the midst of the greatest rest intense activity, he has become a Yogi. He alone is a real worker, none else. We do a little work and break ourselves. Why? We become attached to that work. If we do not become attached, side by side with

it we have infinite rest.

— — -

Actually, we do not seek; we are sought.

We do not call; we are called.

We grope about only as long as we want to do everything by ourselves.

There is nothing to do! There is everything to undo,

and let the new world flow freely, let its unexpected rivers

and paths run under our steps.

One brief second of abandon, and it comes in;

it is there, smiling. Everything is already there!

It takes but a simple call.

It takes but a little cry of pure truth.

1.8 How Mother Selects Sadhaks For Her Work

Many years later, Sri Aurobindo told Surendra Mohan Ghose that the Mother’s choice of sadhaks was not exclusively governed by their spiritual advancement or intellectual brilliance: “She selects different types …. she wants to observe how the Divine works in different types. “The Ashram was, after all, a laboratory for a spiritual and supramental Yoga, and in it humanity had to be represented in all its diversity. From the very beginning, the Ashram community had a cosmopolitan cast, and this only came to be emphasised more and more with the passage of time, for thus alone could the Ashram microcosm serve as the matrix of the future humanity.

As regards the selection of the sadhaks, the work assigned to them and the system of arrangements for the smooth running of the Ashram, the principle governing these had little in common with the normal criteria of the outside world.

1.9 How Mother Selects Works for the Sadhaks

Again, even as the selection of the sadhaks was governed by considerations other than the sheerly logical, not easily analysable by the mere intellect, the allocation of work to the inmates could also sometimes baffle the surface understanding.

Ø Why should a poet be asked to look after furniture?

Ø Why should an affluent businessman be asked to wash plates in the dining hall?

Ø Why should a trained physician be put in charge of nuts and screws?

Ø Why should a serious student of philosophy be asked to dust books in the library?

Ø Why should one trained for the legal profession be made to move food-carriers in a push-cart and distribute them to the different houses?

Ø Why should one Nuclear Scientist takes care of Toilets of the Ashram?

Ø Why should one Ayodhya Mutt Head take charge of cleaning utensils of Dining Hall?

On the other hand, the work — of whatever kind — attracted no wages as such. And although, as the Ashram grew and the work proliferated, there arose the necessity to have heads of the various departments that was only for convenience and despatch, and not to create masters and subordinates; all the work was still an offering to the Mother, to the Divine, and not to the departmental head.

But even the grumblers had in the end to acknowledge that the work assigned, although apparently unsuitable and even uncongenial at first, had somehow grown into the sadhaks’ life. Of course, things did not always work with complete precision and coordination, and this was because all the sadhaks were not equally, or at all times, ready and efficient channels of the Force and the Consciousness at work in the Ashram. In such cases, Sri Aurobindo or the Mother had to intervene, generally from behind, and set right the distortion. And sometimes the Mother made a trial of diverse arrangements before deciding upon the best course.

This, then, was the difficult psychological hurdle that the sadhak had to cross silencing the insidious promptings of his ‘reason’ and ‘common sense’ : that, firstly, the work assigned to him was really the Divine’s work, and must be done in the right attitude of consecration; and, secondly, that the work being the Mother’s, the Divine’s, if the application or dedication was truly sincere and free from all egoistic distortion, the Mother herself would give the strength and the expertise to the sadhak to see the work through.

Sri Aurobindo clarifies to the Sadhaks:

…it was axiomatic that when one did the Divine’s work, the Divine must lend a helping hand.

This too was reiterated in Sri Aurobindo’s letters:

If the mind and the vital get the habit of opening to the Mother’s Force, they are then supported by the Force, and may even be fully filled with it — the Force does the work and the body feels no strain or fatigue before or after.

The intellectual and poet, K.D. Sethna, was first asked to take charge of Ashram’s stock of furniture Dept. This brought him daily in contact with the Mother to take her signature on the requisition slips.

He reminisced: “There was no other job, I suppose, open at that time which could bring me in touch with her so much,” and he added the revealing comment:

But I realised that the Mother, when she gives any work, gives two things also with it:

Ø first, the Ananda of the thing because without that joy you couldn’t carry on at all, and,

Ø secondly, the capacity — to some extent at least!

1.10 Workers of the Divine

Academic laurels, the lure of marriage and motherhood and social life, the pull of the homestead, kith and kin — all were nothing, less than nothing. To be with the Mother Divine was everything! It was with such one-pointed, unwavering and almost unselfconscious consecrations that the Mother built the marvellous House of the Divine that is Sri Aurobindo Ashram.

The Force attracted many ignited souls from various parts of the Country and also from foreign countries. They quit families, jobs, countries to come to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. US President’s daughter Nishtha Wilson also became one of the Ashramites after getting awakened by Sri Aurobindo’s writings

It was now Vasudha’s destiny to educate herself (for at first she had but small English and no French), to render whatever service was asked of her by the Mother, and by these and other means to advance in the Integral Yoga. If she was absurdly young, she was also unusually eager to serve the Mother. In the early stages she did odd jobs like making mats for the vases, embroidering the Mother’s saris, and washing, mending and ironing her clothes. “I never asked for any work,” she says remembering those distant days, “and never refused any.” Later, Vasudha had to attend to the Mother’s personal work, always — as if by gravitational pull- getting closer and closer to her, and a time was to come when Vasudha would be like a part of the Mother. Also, in the thirties, Vasudha too started writing letters, to the Mother almost every day, and to Sri Aurobindo from time to time.

1.11 Meaning of Yoga of Works (Karma Yoga)

Work is part of the Yoga and it gives the best opportunity for calling down the Presence, the Light and the Power into the vital and its activities; it increases also the field and the opportunity of surrender.

The one true reward of the works of love is to -> grow ever in capacity and delight of love up to the ecstasy of the spirit’s all-seizing embrace and universal passion;

The one reward of the works of right Knowledge is -> to grow perpetually into the infinite Light; The one reward of the works of right Power is to -> harbour more and more of the Force Divine, The one reward of the works of purity to -> be freed more and more from egoism into that immaculate wideness where all things are transformed and reconciled into the divine equality.

To seek other reward is to bind oneself to a foolishness and a childish ignorance; and to regard even these things as a reward is an unripeness and an imperfection. Sri Aurobindo

1. In Karma Yoga, things come to us but there should be no attachment.

2. We feel that they have been given to us that whatever we need for a particular work will be given to us at the right time.

3. He has his own plans of working. Everything comes according to His plans, be it money, jobs, ticket, gift, etc. But we cannot decide the time or amount or reason for his action.

4. On our part, we do not have to act, but to remain united with Him, so that He can act in us. It is a long inner process.

5. We have to be united with the Higher consciousness at every level in our body, by concentration, by meditation, by constant practice.

6. Karma Yoga is the only purpose of human existence.

7. Not to do Karma Yoga means not to use the body and mind for the service of the Divine. Then there is wastage and decay.

8. When we start working for the Lord, we prolong our life.

9. We can progress only in a conscious body, and if life is cut short, His work will continue only in the next life.

10. If we are in Karma Yoga, our view point about life changes.

11. What may look like a misery to other ordinary people is not misery to us. We are in a different zone of Ananda, Bliss, Happiness, Light, Power and Love.

12. We wont be slave to money, wealth, power, jobs, family or nation.

13. We get everything from the Divine as His trustee. With no permanent control over anything. We do not misuse the money as it does not belong to us, and belongs only to the Divine.

14. Nothing matters to us. We have the sense of power, we have the sense of richness.

15. We do not have the money because we do not need it. If we need money, it comes to us.

16. Our consciousness is purified by the Divine.

17. We start loving the Creation because everywhere we see the Divine and we start working for Him.

18. Our life comes to have only one meaning, to be more purposeful, to be more enlarged, widened with the consciousness of the universe.

19. We have a true sense of fulfillment which does not exist in normal life.

3. Why Must We Do the Divine Work for our Sadhana?

2.1 What Happens When We Work Consciously?

1. We are beings of multiple personalities, multiple forces. Many forces are driving us when we do any work, be it mental, vital, physical, subconscious, inconscient, psychic, or spiritual. When we work, we can know and identify the part from which we operate and integrate ourselves as one whole.

2. Work is the outer manifestation through which we can observe ourselves and thereby work upon ourselves.

3. Our work is like a Mirror to ourselves.

4. It is a means through which we can confront ourselves, look into ourselves, see those outer and inner forces controlling us.

5. It is a means through which we can become conscious of who we really are.

6. We can gauge ourselves and see our inward progress, the true progress

7. It is a means through which we can make direct contact with the Divine present within.

8. If we don’t do any work, we cannot have any experience.

9. We should use our whole life as a field of experience, each moment as moment of experience with Eternity.

2.2 Points to Introspect While Doing Any Work

1. Are we living inwardly while doing any external work?

2. Is transformation our aim while doing the work?

3. Is our aim just at an ordinary personal or society, even country level? Is our work for humanity?

4. Are we aware of our Aim of Life?

5. Are we connected to the Divine while doing any work at four levels: Physical, Mental, Emotional and Psychic Level?

6. Is Work the most difficult or the easiest way to reach the Divine?

7. Can all the different works lead us to the Divine?

8. Without psychic realisation — hindrance, limitation selfishness, personal desire.

9. Do we have any ambition, desire or attachment while doing the Work?

10. Did I reach the goal after doing so many ordinary work?

11. Are we prestige conscious while doing the Divine Work?

12. Are we conscious of the situation while doing the Divine Work?

13. Did we do the Divine Work with any personal motive?

14. Is there any work which can connect me to the Divine? Direct Divine Work

15. Did I do Nama Japa while doing my work?

16. Are we sincere and surrender our work to the Divine while doing our Work?

The following are the reasons why should work for the Divine to help us in our Sadhana.

· Work to unite with the Divine — for the Divine alone and nothing else.

· Work done to discover and bring forward our psychic being

· Work should lead to the death of ego

· Work done to enlarge our consciousness into the cosmic consciousness or else the uplift into what is above the cosmic

· Work done where we can experience the separation of Purusha or Self from Prakriti

· Work done to allow our Self or Purusha watch or witness our outer work and become free

· Work done to liberate us from the shackles of the outer nature

· Work done to make us aware of our True inner being

· Work done to make us feel that outer nature is just an instrument

· Work done to grow the love for the Divine more and more and adore Her more and more.

· Work done to open to an increasing consciousness and knowledge

2.3 To Transform the Earth

We have to remember the following quotes of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo why this work is important for transformation of Earth.

Will you Collaborate? The Earth is preparing for a big change. — The Mother

Sri Aurobindo’s work is a unique earth-transformation. — The Mother

My work is… to bring down a higher spiritual light and power of a higher character which will make a radical change in the earth-consciousness. — Sri Aurobindo

2.4 To Collaborate in Collective Transformation

If it is Yoga of the Earth, how can it be done only by individual level sitting all alone? Entire Humanity is bound to join this journey of new consciousness. We can’t exclude our family members, or a friend who is unwilling to join this movement. We just have to send a single prayer to the Divine Mother for the collective transformation of the consciousness.

From the very beginning, from the very first steps, the seeker has realized that this yoga of the superman was not an individual yoga, though the individual is the starting point and instrument of the work, but a collective yoga, a form of concentrated evolution in which the individual is but an outpost, the spreader of the possibility, the embodier and transmitter of the new vibration. It is a yoga of the earth.

— — — — — — -

The yoga we practise is not for ourselves alone, but for the Divine; its aim is to work out the will of the Divine in the world, to effect a spiritual transformation and to bring down a divine nature and a divine life into the mental, vital and physical nature and life of humanity.

Sri Aurobindo

The call upon us is to grow into the image of God, to dwell in him and with him and be a channel of his joy and might and an instrument of his works. Purified from all that is assubha, transfigured in soul by his touch, we have to act in the world as dynamos of that divine electricity and send it thrilling and radiating through mankind, so that wherever one of us stands, hundreds around may become full of his light and force, full of God and full of Ananda. — Sri Aurobindo

2.5 To Manifest the Divine Reality Present within Us

The Divine is already there immanent within us, ourselves are that in our inmost reality and it is this reality that we have to manifest; it is that which constitutes the urge towards the divine living and makes necessary the creation of the life divine even in this material existence. — Sri Aurobindo

2.6 To Feel the Power of Divine Grace

Grace works especially on those who have been predestined for some definite work in life. Yes, the Grace is unconditional; but at the same time how will it work if a man is throwing it away or doesn’t recognise it? It would be like constantly spilling from a cup in which something is being poured. If one recognises the Grace and expresses gratitude, it acts more quickly and more powerfully. — The Mother

A grace is actually working to drive those karmas away — sometimes far, far away — and it’s no good to call them back.

The Divine Grace alone has the power to intervene and change the course of Universal Justice.

The great work of the Avatar is to manifest the Divine Grace upon earth.

To be a disciple of the Avatar is to become an instrument of the Divine Grace.

The Mother is the great dispensatrix — through identity — of the Divine Grace with a perfect knowledge — through identity — of the absolute mechanism of Universal Justice. The Mother

2.7 To Get the Ultimate Divine Protection

In Champaklal Speaks we read the following anecdote from the time the Mother still gave darshan on the balcony of the central Ashram building in the morning: “When Mother had her breakfast after ‘Balcony’, she said that she had come to know a very interesting thing. She had seen on the forehead of Mritunjoy’s sister (who had just passed away), the symbol of Sri Aurobindo. Mother said that she was very much surprised and had said to herself: ‘What?

On this one? …’ Then she heard Sri Aurobindo saying: ‘Henceforth whoever who dies here [i.e. in the Ashram], I will put my seal upon him, and in any condition unconditional protection will be given.’”

We find this confirmed by the Mother herself in the Agenda conversation of 24 June 1961. Mritunjoy’s sister was psychologically in a terrible state, said the Mother: Elle n’avait pas la foi — she did not have the faith. This led the Mother to ask Sri Aurobindo what happens to people who do not have the faith when they are in the Ashram and die there. Sri Aurobindo said: “Watch.” The woman in question was in the act of leaving her body at that very moment,

and the Mother “saw on her forehead the symbol of Sri Aurobindo in a kind of solid golden light … And because of the presence of that symbol the psychological condition did not have any importance anymore, for nothing could touch her.” As we have seen, it is the psychological condition at the time of death which attracts the corresponding worlds and their beings. Then Sri Aurobindo said to the Mother: “All those who have lived in the Ashram and who die there have automatically the same protection, whatever their inner state.”

2.8 To Receive the Supreme Delight

And so according to your mission in the world, you have to find for yourself the right proportion between this work and external, intellectual or organizational work; and then there are the body’s needs, which can be met in the same way, trying to make it possible for the Lord to take delight in them. I have seen this for trivial things: for example, making your bath a pleasant experience, or caring for your hair, or whatever (of course, it’s been a long time since there have been any of those stupid, petty ideas of personal pleasure), so that these things aren’t done indifferently, out of habit and necessity, but… with a touch of beauty, a touch of charm and delight for the Lord. — The Mother:

2.9 To Transform One’s Consciousness

The conditions in which men live on earth are the result of their state of consciousness. Trying to change the conditions without changing the consciousness is a vain chimera.

Change yourself if you want to change the world.

2.10 To Connect with our Soul

There is something to be done: to work, it’s so interesting! Go inside the little person and you will find the key which opens all the doors.

2.11 To Eliminate all our Desires

Yoga is done precisely to change the nature; otherwise it has no meaning.

If we consciously do Work, it will erase our mental, vital and physical desires.

2.12 To Be Her at Every Moment

To get the Divine Bliss, Joy, Ananda, Light we must do the work for the Divine consciously.

Human beings always do a thing for something, with a goal, for a reason, from a motive; even

spiritual life, even spiritual effort are for the progress of consciousness, for reaching the Truth, for…it’s a vibration that always has a tail — a tail in front. And these cells have realized that if you can have the vibration without the tail, the power increases tenfold — “tenfold” is nothing! At times the difference is fantastic. And actually, when they said, “To be what You want…,” it was a way of expressing a need they felt for that; but once it was expressed, they said, “What’s this platitude! What’s this ‘me’ poking its nose in!” Then, all of a sudden, came the True Vibration — the True Vibration, without cause and effect, which at every moment of the universe is total and absolute. And it was translated into: “To be You, Lord, at every moment the supreme Spontaneity.”

April 24, 1956

Individually, each one’s goal was to make himself ready, to enter into a more or less intimate

individual relationship with this Force, so as to help the process; or else, if he could not help, at

least be ready to recognize and be open to the Force when it would manifest. Then instead of being an alien element in a world in which your OWN inner capacity remains unmanifest, you suddenly become THAT, you enter directly, fully, into the very atmosphere: the Force is there, all around you, permeating you. If you had had a little inner contact, you would have recognized it immediately, don’t you think so? — The Mother

2.13 To Feel the Power of Supramental

Arrival of Supramental Being:

The Mother: Man is the creation of yesterday. Sri Aurobindo came to announce the creation of tomorrow: the coming of the supramental being. 15 August 1972

The manifestation of the Supramental upon earth is no more a promise but a living fact, a reality. It is at work here, and one day will come when the most blind, the most unconscious, even the most unwilling shall be obliged to recognize it.

I am speaking of a supramental manifestation evident to all, even the most ignorant — as the human manifestation was evident to all when it happened.

Open yourself to the new Force. Let it do in you its work of Transformation.

Humanity is not the last rung of terrestrial creation. Evolution continues and man will be surpassed. It is for each one to know whether he wants to participate in the adventure of the new species. — The Mother:

The supramental principle is at work

Power of Supramental Force: I have come to this conclusion that the Supramental is something that will make Matter more susceptible and “responsive” to the Force: it has the power to move Matter; it can cause a material accident, it can cancel the consequences of an absolutely material event — -it is stronger than Matter.

The Mother: This is becoming more and more true from day to day, from hour to hour — the feeling that this Force, when it is directed by what we call “the Divine”, it can, truly it can — you understand — it has the power to move Matter, it can produce a material accident; and it can efface the consequences of an absolutely material thing — it is stronger than… Matter. This is what is altogether new and incomprehensible; and therefore it produces a kind of panic in the ordinary consciousness of people. Yes, it is that. It seems… it is no more what it was. And truly there is something new — it is no more as it was.

All our common sense, all our logic, all our practical sense is dashed to the ground! Useless! It has no force any more, no reality any more; it no longer corresponds to what is. It is truly a new world.

‘I am neither exclusively this nor exclusively that.’ And actually, to do Sri Aurobindo’s work is to realize the Supramental on earth. So I began that work and, as a matter of fact, this was the only thing I asked of my body. I told it, ‘Now you shall set right everything which is out of order and gradually realize this intermediate supermanhood between man and the supramental being or, in other words, what I call the superman.’

What I call a ‘descent’ is this: first of all, the consciousness climbs in ascent, then you catch the

Thing up above and redescend with it. This is an INDIVIDUAL event.

When this individual event has taken place sufficiently to allow a more general possibility to

emerge, it is no longer a ‘descent’ but a ‘manifestation.’

From Man to Superman:

Superman is not a denial of man but his fulfillment, not a denial of the mind but its rightful placement among the many tools, known and unknown, that man must use until the day he enters into possession of the direct power of Truth. This understanding of the great Goal — or rather of the next goal, for the development is infinite — is one of the keys to collective realization.

It takes only a little crack in the human consciousness, a tiny call for air, a very small prayer, one day, without reason, for the new Possibility to rush in and change our whole way of seeing and doing things. It does not expect great efforts or arduous discipline, as we have said; it awaits a moment of abandon, a tiny little cry inside, a little flame that awakens. And once men — a few men — have tasted that wine, they will never be able to go back to the old routine of suffering.

2.14 To Start Working like an Apprentice Superman

The Mother: Now it is the work of each day, each minute.

The Mother: I am learning to work. I am only an apprentice, simply an apprentice — I am learning the trade!

There was indeed a possibility to enter into contact with I am learning to work. I am only an apprentice, simply an apprentice — I am learning the trade!

A certain number of people would enter into contact with this Force through their inner effort and their aspiration. We had called it the ascent towards the Supermind. And IF and when they had touched the Supermind through an inner ascent (that is, by freeing themselves from the material consciousness), they should have recognized it SPONTANEOUSLY as soon as it came. But a preliminary contact was indispensable — if you have never touched it, how can you recognize it?

That’s how the universal movement works (I read this to you a few days ago): through their

inner effort and inner progress, certain individuals, who are the pioneers, the forerunners, enter into communication with the new Force which is to manifest, and they receive it in themselves. And because a number of calls like this surge forth, the thing becomes possible, and the era, the time, the moment for the manifestation comes. This is how it happened — and the Manifestation took place. But then, all those who were ready should have recognized it.

2.15 To Transform our Physical

We should make our physical ready to receive the higher forces descending from above. We should make it flexible, strong, robust, and make it ready to carry the Divine Light, Force and Vibrations always, making it ready to get victory over Death.

The Mother: That’s why Sri Aurobindo used to tell me this body had been specially prepared and chosen for the Work — because of its capacity for obstinate endurance and will. But that’s no reason to exercise this ability uselessly!

The Mother: My body gives the impression of two things: a very concentrated, very stubborn will, and… such endurance! Should be ready to hold on the Energy

One must be able to do the same work always with enthusiasm and at the same time be ready to do something else or enlarge one’s scope at a moment’s notice.

Whenever a god has donned a body, it was always with the intention of transforming the earth and creating a new world. Yet until now, he always had to give up his body without being able to complete his work; and it has always been said that the earth was not ready, that mankind did not fulfill the conditions necessary for the work to be accomplished. The Mother

Our body’s cells must hold the Immortal’s flame.

Else would the spirit reach alone its source

Leaving a half-saved world to its dubious fate.

Not one of them has ever thought of helping my body — besides, I don’t ask them to because that is not their purpose. But it is more than obvious that if the people around me were receptive, She could permanently manifest since they could receive Her — and this would help my body enormously because all these vibrations would run through it. But She never gets even a chance to manifest — not a single one. She only meets people … who don’t even feel Her when She’s there! They don’t even notice Her, they’re not even aware of her presence. So how can She manifest in these conditions? I’m not going to ask Her, ‘Please come and change my body.’ We don’t have that kind of relationship! Furthermore, the body itself wouldn’t agree. It never thinks of itself, it never pays attention to itself, and besides, it is only through the work that it can be transformed.

- The Mother

3. How to Do Divine Work Consciously for our Transformation?

We can carry out work of the Divine by various ways:

· Work done by constantly referring of all one’s will and works to the Divine,

· Work done by surrendering to the Higher Power constantly and allow the Force to descend into us from above

3.1 By Converting Our Personal Work into Working for the Divine

Man usually works with ordinary motives of nature, mostly driven by vital being, need, desire of wealth, security, success or position or power or fame or pleasure. This leads to either good or bad fortune, their Karma.

If we want to work for the Divine, we need to

Ø Consecrate our lives to the Divine.

Ø Replace the ordinary motives of the vital to psychic and spiritual motive.

Ø Enable ourselves to work with the same Force as before

Ø Work will be no longer for ourselves, or our little ego and desire

Ø Work only for the Divine

Ø Have no attachment to the results

Ø Have the feeling that the idea or the aspiration that all the life and work are the Mother’s

Ø Have a strong joy of the vital nature in this consecration and surrender to the Divine

Ø Develop the Calm and Quiet consecration

Ø Remove all signs of egoistic attachment to the work and personal results

Ø Feel great joy of work in the presence of the Divine, or feeling of Her Force working behind our actions

Ø Have the full faith in the Divine and also have patience and persistence.

3.2 By Consecrating Ourselves Completely

The first step on this long path is to consecrate all our works as a sacrifice to the Divine in us and in the world; this is an attitude of the mind and heart, not too difficult to initiate, but very difficult to make absolutely sincere and all-pervasive.

Be faithful to your ideal and dedicate your work to the Divine.

To give oneself to the Divine,

To receive and be the Divine,

To transmit and spread forth the Divine:

These are the three simultaneous movements which constitute our total relation with the Divine. The Mother

Let us offer our work to the Divine; this is the sure means of progressing.

Consciousness develops best through work done as an offering to the Divine.

Indolence and inaction end in tamas: that is a fall into unconsciousness; it is contrary to all progress and light.

To overcome one’s ego, to live only in the service of the Divine — that is the ideal and the shortest way towards acquiring the true consciousness.

You must do the work as an offering to the Divine and take it as part of your Sadhana. In that spirit the nature of the work is of little importance and you can do any work without losing the contact with the inner presence.

When there is not enough work in my department, can I spend my time reading or drawing?

Your work is your sadhana, and it is by doing your work in a spirit of consecration that you can make most progress.

I think it would be better not to tire yourself too much by reading or drawing.

18 February 1933

I would like to know, isn’t there also the same sadhana in reading and drawing?

Everything can be made into a means of finding the Divine. What matters is the spirit in which things are done. (21 February 1933)

…I am convinced that we agree upon the result to be obtained, that is, an integral and unreserved consecration — in love, knowledge and action — to the Supreme AND TO HIS WORK. I say to the Supreme and to his work because consecration to the Supreme alone is not enough. Now we are here for the supramental realization, this is what is expected of us, but to reach it, our consecration to it must be total, unreserved absolutely integral. The Mother

Whatever is our work and whatever we do, we must do it sincerely, honestly, scrupulously, not in view of any personal profit, but as an offering to the Divine, with an entire consecration of our being. If this attitude is sincerely kept in all circumstances,

whenever we need to learn something to do the work more effectively, the occasion to acquire this knowledge comes to us and we have only to take advantage of the opportunity.

Now that you are about to take your first steps on the path of action, it is time to decide whether you will consecrate your life to your own personal interest or whether you will make an

offering of it for the accomplishment of the work.

In either case the field of action remains the same. But the spirit in which it is done is totally different.

It must not be forgotten that the offering is made to the Divine’s Work and not to any human enterprise. So the only thing that can be done is to express some appreciation in a few words.

Be faithful to your ideal and dedicate your work to the Divine.

I am quite satisfied with your way of doing the work and it is sure to help you to come nearer to me.

Work
Let us offer our work to the Divine, this is the sure way of progressing.

I make no difference between work and yoga. Work itself is yoga if it is done in a spirit of dedication and surrender. 25 January 1938

…we put surrender first… to do the integral yoga one must first resolve to surrender entirely to the Divine, there is no other way, this is the way, But after that one must have… the five psychological perfections… Sincerity or Transparency Faith or Trust (Trust in the Divine, naturally) Devotion or Gratitude Courage or Aspiration Endurance or Perseverance

Should I try meditation?

It is not necessary if your work is a constant offering to the Divine. 13 April 1965

How can I offer my work?

Usually one works for one’s own profit and satisfaction; instead of that, one should work to serve the Divine and express His will. 23 June 1965

True Love for the Mother

The true love for the Divine is self-giving, free of demand, full of submission and surrender; it makes no claim, imposes no condition, strikes no bargain, indulges in no violences of jealousy or pride or anger — for these things are not in its composition. In return the Divine Mother also gives herself, but freely — and this represents itself in an inner giving her presence in ‘your mind, your vital, your physical consciousness, her power re-creating you in the divine nature, taking up all the movements of your being and directing them towards perfection and fulfilment, her love enveloping you and carrying you in its arms Godwards.

3.3 By Not Seeking any Results — Nishkama Karma

We have to renounce all attachments to the results of the Work.

For the only true, inevitable and utterly desirable fruit of sacrifice — the one thing needful — is the Divine Presence and the Divine Consciousness and Power in us, and if that is gained, all else will be added. This is a transformation of the egoistic will in our vital being, our desire-soul and desire-nature, and it is far more difficult than the other.

These results certainly do not come all at once; they come more or less slowly, more or less completely according to the condition and growth of the being. There is no royal road to the divine realisation.

This is the Karmayoga laid down in the Gita as I have developed it for the integral spiritual life. It is founded not on speculation and reasoning but on experience. It does not exclude meditation and certainly does not exclude Bhakti, for the self-offering to the Divine, the consecration of all oneself to the Divine which is the essence of this Karmayoga are essentially a movement of Bhakti. Only it does exclude a life-fleeing exclusive meditation or an emotional Bhakti shut up in its own inner dream taken as the whole movement of the Yoga. One may have hours of pure absorbed meditation or of the inner motionless adoration and ecstasy, but they are not the whole of the integral Yoga.

Q: What are the steps to follow for (1) sadhana and (2) silence of the mind?

The Mother:

(1) Do work as sadhana. You offer to the Divine the work you do to the best of your capacities and you leave the result to the Divine.

(2) Try to become conscious first above your head, keeping the brain as silent as possible.

If you succeed and the work is done in that condition, then it will become perfect. 2 April 1970

True Sincerity:

· To live for the Divine without expecting any benefit from Him in return.

· To be You, at every moment the supreme Spontaneity.

Disinterested work done for the Divine: the surest means of progressing.

Disinterested Work Done for the Divine
The surest way to progress.

Disinterested work: work done with no other motive than of doing as well as possible the Divine’s work.

Disinterested Work Done for the Divine in the Vital
Calm and powerful, it reaches its goal.

3.4 By Abolishing Our Ego Sense

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

For centuries and centuries humanity has waited for this time. The time has come. We want a race without ego. The Mother

The third step is to get rid of the central egoism and even the ego-sense of the worker.

That is the most difficult transformation of all and it cannot be perfectly done if the first two steps have not been taken; but these first steps too cannot be completed unless the third comes in to crown the movement and, by the extinction of egoism, eradicates the very origin of desire. Only when the small ego sense is rooted out from the nature can the seeker know his true person that stands above as a portion and power of the Divine

3.5 By Feeling the Presence of the Mother within

Whatever we do, we must feel the Presence of the Divine Mother to get the best outcome. We have to always behave as if She is watching us, as she is indeed present.

The Mother: One more word to tell you that you must not avoid seeing me, because it gives a kind of support to the parts of your being which are somewhat unwilling to open to my influence.

With my love and blessings.

The Mother:

I am glad that through experience you have become conscious of the fact that I am with you.

This is the true relation between us, much more than a superficial contact.

You are my Force at work to uplift earth’s fate,

My self that moves up the immense incline

Between the extremes of the spirit’s night and day.

Sri Aurobindo: There is a confusion here. The Mother’s grace is one thing, the call to change

another, the pressure of nearness to her is yet another. Those who are physically near to her are not so by any special grace or favour, but by the necessity of their work — that is what everybody here refuses to understand or believe, but it is the fact:

that nearness acts automatically as a pressure, if for nothing else, to adapt their consciousness to hers which means change, but it is difficult for them because the difference between the two consciousnesses is enormous especially on the physical level and it is on the physical level that they are meeting her in the work.

3.6 By Participating in this Unique Hour of God

Anyhow, the work is being done very fast. This is truly what Sri Aurobindo called “the Hour of

God”: it’s being done very fast.

I live completely outside time. A sort of non-existent existence. I think a few minutes have elapsed while it’s been a very long time. I am in a hurry. I need all those who love me to understand me. The Mother

And you, mon petit, it’s your destiny. It is your destiny: to become conscious and manifest the Divine — it is your destiny. You must…. Me, I am in a hurry because I see circumstances becoming more and more… acute — dangerous. Only a miracle can save us — that is to say, what we consider a miracle: an intervention… an intervention of the Divine Will in its purity, undistorted, uncontroverted, unobstructed– just That.

(silence)

We have to be at our highest — and it is still far from being what it should be.

I am in a hurry. I need all those who love me to understand me

- It’s only by clinging desperately to the Divine — but to the purest and most powerful Divine-that we can avoid a general conflagration. Not a single minute should be lost. ..

- I need, I need all those who love me to understand me.

- And so there is such an urgency … it’s frightening.

- Nothing is left, nothing, nothing, only, only a will- a will, an aspiration, a compelling need : oh ! the reign of the Divine must come.

- I am in a hurry.

The Mother

Mother’s Agenda

Sri Aurobindo:

Evening I read something in the book …. Sri Aurobindo is writing to someone who said, “How lucky people are who live near the Mother.” “You don’t know what you’re talking about! “ he replies. “To live in the Mother’s physical presence is one of the most difficult things.” Do you remember this passage? I didn’t know he had written that. “Well, well…” I thought. He writes, “It is hard to stay near her, because the difference between the physical consciousness of all you people and her physical consciousness is so enormous….”Indeed, that’s what tires me out. That’s what tires my body, because it is used to living in a certain rhythm, a universal rhythm.

3.7 By Right Attitude towards Work

The Mother:

All depends on the attitude with which you do the work. If done with the right attitude, it will surely bring you nearer to me.

Right Attitude Towards Work should be: Love, Equality, Humility, Gratitude,

Works of Love

The best condition for work.

Sri Aurobindo: All depends on the spirit in which a thing is done, the principle on which it is built and use to which it is turned. I have done politics and the most violent kind of revolutionary politics, ghoram˙ karma, and I have supported war and sent men to it, even though politics is not always or often a very clean occupation nor can war be called a spiritual line of action. But Krishna calls upon Arjuna to carry on war of the most terrible kind and by his example encourage men to do every kind of human work, sarvakarmani. Do you contend that Krishna was an unspiritual man and that his advice to Arjuna was mistaken or wrong in principle? Krishna goes farther and declares that a man by doing in the right way and in the right spirit the work dictated to him by his fundamental nature, temperament and capacity and according to his and its dharma can move towards the Divine. He validates the function and dharma of the Vaishya as well as of the Brahmin and Kshatriya. It is in his view quite possible for a man to do business and make money and earn profits and yet be a spiritual man, practise Yoga, have an inner life. The Gita is constantly justifying works as a means of spiritual salvation and enjoining a Yoga of works as well as of Bhakti and Knowledge. Krishna, however, superimposes a higher law also that work must be done without desire, without attachment to any fruit or reward, without any egoistic attitude or motive, as an offering or sacrifice to the Divine. This is the traditional Indian attitude towards these things, that all work can be done if it is done according to the dharma and, if it is rightly done, it does not prevent the approach to the Divine or the access to spiritual knowledge and the spiritual life.

I would myself say that no man can be spiritually complete if he cannot live ascetically or follow a life as bare as the barest anchorites. Obviously, greed for wealth and money-making has to be absent from his nature as much as greed for food or any other greed and all attachment to these things must be renounced from his consciousness. But I do not regard the ascetic way of living as indispensable to spiritual perfection or as identical with it. There is the way of spiritual self-mastery and the way of spiritual self-giving and surrender to the Divine, abandoning ego and desire even in the midst of action or of any kind of work or all kinds of work demanded from us by the Divine. If it were not so, there would not have been great spiritual men like Janaka or Vidura.

One can progress through meditation, but through work provided it is done in the right spirit one can progress ten times more. 6 April 1954

The progress in sadhana comes from the rectification of the inner and outer attitude, not from the nature of the work one does — any work, even the most humble, can lead to the Divine if it is done with the right attitude. 16 July 1955

It is not so easy to do work. In true work you have to do all that is done in Sadhana and much more. 21 August 1955

You have to do all that a yogi does, you have to reach the highest heights and bring down those conditions of consciousness, light and peace and manifest them in your everyday work. For you no job is insignificant or trivial. 22 August 1955

Go and prepare yourself and the best preparation is to be useful to the Divine’s work.

May 1963

3.8 By Engaging in Physical Work

A golden Force that feels terribly heavy and presses down on Matter. A Force that is pressing down to produce the result by any means whatsoever. — The Mother

There has been a kind of perception of a variety of bodily activities, a whole series of them, having to do exclusively (or so it seems) with the maintenance of the body. Some are on the borderline — sleep, for instance: one portion of it is necessary for good maintenance of the body, and another portion puts it in contact with other parts and activities of the being; but one portion of sleep is exclusively for maintaining the body’s balance. Then there is food, keeping clean, a whole range of things. And according to Sri Aurobindo, spiritual life shouldn’t suppress those things; whatever is indispensable for the body’s well-being must be kept up. For ordinary people, all other bodily activities are used for personal pleasure and benefit. The spiritual man, on the other hand, has given his body to serve the Divine, so that the Divine may use it for His work and perhaps, as Sri Aurobindo said, for His joy — although given the present state of Matter and the body, that seems to me unlikely or at best very intermittent and partial, because this body is much more a field of misery than a field of joy. (None of this is based on speculation, but on personal experience — I am relating my personal experience.) But with work, it’s different: when the body is at work, it’s in full swing.

That’s its joy, its need — to exist only to serve Him. To exist only to serve. And of course, to reduce maintenance to a bare minimum while trying to find a way for the Divine to participate in the very restricted, limited and meager possibilities of joy this maintenance may give. To associate the Divine with all those movements and things, like keeping clean, sleeping (although sleep is different, it’s already a lot more interesting); but especially with personal hygiene, eating and other absolutely indispensable things, the attempt is to associate them with the Divine Presence so that they may be as much an expression of divine joy as possible. (This is realized to a certain extent.

That totality of substance of which you r body is made, is as though one had gathered together carefully, accumulated a certain number of vibrations and put them at your disposal for you to work upon them. It is your field of work. Nobody can take it away from you.

There are things in Matter which cannot be transformed unless the whole of Matter has undergone a certain degree of transformation …It is as though all had to reach a certain level for one to be able to take off and go further.

Sometimes when I am absorbed in meditation I see and feel that my physical being aspires through work. Then I see a sun manifesting in my physical with its brilliant light. All the gods and forces emanating from You are in this sun.

Yes, it is true that in and through work one can enter into contact with the sun of divine light and force.

Let us work as we pray, for indeed work is the body’s best prayer to the Divine.

11 December 1945

To work for the Divine is to pray with the body.

The laws of Nature crumble away. I no longer know what it is to be tired-even physically. The body is learning to call all the time, to repeat its mantra. When it leaves that, it feels it’s going to disintegrate the very next minute. — — The Mother

3.9 By Praying Constantly

“Let us work as we pray. For indeed work is the body’s best prayer to the Divine” The Mother

We need to learn from the Divine Mother how She used to pray to the Supreme for Her Work.

For example, the following prayers in Prayers and Meditations:

O my Lord, my sweet Master, for the accomplishment of Thy work I have sunk down into the unfathomable depths of Matter, I have touched with my finger the horror of the falsehood and the inconscience, I have reached the seat of oblivion and a supreme obscurity. But in my heart was the Remembrance, from my heart there leaped the call which could arrive to Thee… “Lord, give the command to conquer and victory will be there.” — The Mother

December 26, 1916

Once more Thou hast taken me in Thy omnipotent arms and cradled me on Thy unfathomable heart, and Thy heart said to me, “Torment not thyself at all, be confident like a child: art thou not myself crystallised for my work?” — The Mother

The Prayers are mostly written in an identification with the earth consciousness. It is the Mother in the lower nature addressing the Mother in the higher nature, the Mother herself carrying on the Sadhana of the earth consciousness for the transformation…”

March 4, 1915

…something in the depths of consciousness turns to the Invisible and Sovereign Witness and tells him: “Thou dost plunge me, O Lord into the thickest darkness; this means that Thou hast established Thy light so firmly in me that Thou knowest it will stand this perilous ordeal. Otherwise wouldst Thou have chosen me for the descent into the vortex of this hell as Thy torch-bearer? January 22, 1916

…Thou art at work in each one of its cells to knead it and make it supple and enlighten it, and in the whole being, to arrange, organise and harmonise it. Everything is in movement, everything is changing; Thy divine action makes itself felt as an ineffable spring of a purifying fire that circulates through all the atoms.

…O Lord, I implore Thee, hasten the blessed day when the divine miracle will be accomplished, hasten the day of the realisation of the Divine upon earth.

A silence that worships. My one resource is to say the Mantra: OM Namo Bhagavate… An active peace, contagious. Only the weak are agitated.

3.10 By Using the Power of Nama Japa

Make Exclusive Relationship with the Divine through Japa

The Mother: For me, you know, japa means a moment when all physical life is EXCLUSIVELY for the Divine. A moment when nothing but the Divine exists — every single cell of the body, each second, is EXCLUSIVELY for the Divine, there is nothing but the Divine.

When you succeed in doing that, it’s good. Japa shouldn’t become so exclusive that it’s done twenty-four hours out of twenty-four, because then it’s equivalent to asceticism — but there should be a good dose of it. It’s almost the one luxury of life — that’s how it feels to me. The luxury of That alone, nothing but that divine vibration around you, within you, everywhere. Nothing but the divine vibration.

Ø Japa, like meditation, is a procedure — apparently the most active and effective procedure — for joining, as much as possible, the Divine Presence to the bodily substance. It is the magic of sound, you see.

Ø Naturally, if there’s also an awareness of the idea behind it, if one does japa as a very active CONSCIOUS invocation, then its effects are greatly multiplied. But the basis is the magic of sound.

Ø This is a fact of experience, and it’s absolutely true. The sound OM, for instance, awakens very special vibrations (there are other such sounds as well, but of course that one is the most powerful of all).

Ø It is an attempt to divinize material substance. From another, almost identical point of view, it fills the physical atmosphere with the Divine Presence. So time spent in japa is time consecrated to helping the material substance enter into more intimate rapport with the Divine.

Ø And if one adds to this, as I do, a mantric program, that is, a sort of prayer or invocation, a program for both personal development and helping the collective, then it becomes a truly active work.

Ø Then there’s also what I call “external” work: contact with others, reading and answering letters, seeing and speaking to people, and finally all the activities having to do with the organization and running of the Ashram (in meditation this work becomes worldwide, but physically, materially, it is limited for the moment to the Ashram).

Ø In the course of my observation, I also saw the position of X and people like him, who practically spend their lives doing japa, plus meditation, puja, ceremonies (I am talking only about sincere people, not fakers). Well, that’s their way of working for the world, of serving the Divine, and it seems the best way to them — perhaps even the only way — but it’s a question of mental belief.

Ø In any case, it’s obvious that even a bit of… not exactly puja, but some sort of ceremony that you set yourself to do — habitual gestures symbolizing and expressing a particular inner state — can also be a help and a way of offering yourself and relating to the Divine and thus serving the Divine. I feel it’s important looked at in this way — not from the traditional viewpoint, I can’t stand that traditional viewpoint; I understand it, but it seems to me like putting a brake on true self-giving to the Divine.

Ø I am speaking of SELFIMPOSED japa and rules (or, if someone gives you the japa, rules you accept with all your heart and adhere to). These self-imposed rules should be followed as a gesture of love, as a way of saying to the Divine, “I love You.” Do you see what I mean? Like arranging flowers in a certain way, burning incense, dozens of little things like that, made beautiful because of what is put into them — it is a form of self-giving.

Do not do Japa with the motive to get something

Now, I think that doing japa with the will and the idea of getting something out of it spoils it a little. You spoil it. I don’t much like it when somebody says, “Do this and you will get that.” It’s true — it’s true, but it’s a bit like baiting a fish. I don’t much like it. Let it be your own manner of serving the Divine, of relating to Him, loving Him, of joining Him to your physical life, being close to Him and drawing Him close to you — that way it’s beautiful. Each time you say the Word, let it be an invocation, let it be like the recitation of a word of love; then it’s beautiful.

3.11 By Connecting with the Universal Consciousness

Ø When we start working with the psychic contact inside, our soul get in touch with the wideness and universality of this universe. This will lead to converging of spiritual aspirations of spiritually liberated men and women who are seeking the Divine for the same cause.

Ø When we become one with the inner Godhead, we become one in depth with all, and it is through Her and by Her that we must come into contact with all beings. Then, free from all attraction and repulsion, all likes and dislikes, we are close to what is close to Her and far from what is far Her.

Ø Thus we learn that in the midst of others we should become always and more and more a divine example of integral activity both intellectual and spiritual, an opportunity which is offered to them to understand and enter upon the path of divine life.

Ø This, then, is the conclusion of the matter: there shall be no running away from — no betrayal of — earth-life, even with all its present limitations. Karma is not to be avoided, either when we are engaged in inner development, or when the development is complete. Even the Buddha must become the ‘Bodhisattva’, give up his hard-won ‘Arhatship’, and return to the fellowship of other human beings, not only those who a Bodhisattvas like him, but also those who are yet blindly chained to the revolving wheel of terrestrial life.

3.12 By Overcoming the Difficulties or Obstacles in the Path

(The disciple sent to the Mother the letter of a worker who complained that he lacked the strength to do his work and could not feel her Grace. The Mother replied:)

The Mother: Here, for each work given, the full strength and Grace are always given at the same time to do the work as it has to be done. If you do not feel the strength and the Grace it proves that there is some mistake in your attitude. The faith is lacking or you have fallen back on old tracks and old creeds and thus you lose all receptivity.

1 October 1952

Try to be spontaneous and simple like a child in your relations with me — it will save you from many difficulties.

If in the work you meet with some difficulties, look sincerely into yourself and there you will discover their origin.

The difficulties in work come not from circumstances or petty outer occurrences, they come from something which is wrong in the inner attitude, especially in the vital attitude: egoism,

ambition, fixity of mental conceptions regarding work, vanity, etc. And it is always good, in order to correct the disharmony, to look for the cause in oneself rather than in others.

19 April 1938

The obstacle is bound up with the very reason of the work to be accomplished: such is the present state of physical matter’s imperfection. Thus whatever the possible degree of the perfection, the consciousness, the knowledge of our deepest being, the very fact of its incarnation in a physical body creates obstacles to the purity of its manifestation; however, the aim of its incarnation is victory over these obstacles, the transformation of matter.

When I give work to someone it is not only for the sake of the work but also as the best means to advance on the path of Yoga. When I gave you this work, I was quite aware of your difficulties and shortcomings, but at the same time I knew that if you opened yourself to my help and force you would be able to surmount these obstacles and at the same time to increase your consciousness and open yourself to the Divine’s Grace.

Now it is time for you to make a real progress and to check your outbursts of temper whenever your will is contradicted. If you want to please me — and I have no doubt of that — you will sincerely try to collaborate with X and to carry on with him the work.

I do not want anyone of you two to be the boss of the other — I want you both to feel as brothers, children of the same Mother, working sincerely and courageously for the sake of her love.

I hope you will agree to this and I assure you that my love and blessings will always be with you in this endeavour.

Once one has decided to find the truth of our being, everything seems to conspire to help one to advance.

Q: I always thought that in other Yogas seekers first had to undergo a rigorous disciplined period of 12 years of Brahmacharya, and only when the Guru certified their physical, vital, mental immunity were they allowed to enter into its practical course.

The Mother: Never heard of this 12 years affair or of any certificate. Perhaps in European occultism there are noviciates, stages, ordeals, grades etc. In India the Guru gives a mantra as soon as he accepts a disciple and tells him to go ahead with it. We have no mantra except the Mother’s name. But usually we give work, tell them to aspire, reject, open to the Mother. I don’t know whether you call that the practical course. Anyhow people have got into difficulties here even without any practical course, most while doing their “twelve years” and in some cases we have had to push them into active sadhana as the only way to control the lower forces and get them out of it.

The resistance with which we meet in the accomplishment of our work is proportionate to its importance. 10 October 1954

For work the present is the most important thing: the past must not come in the way and the future must not pull you away. 21 December 1954

Your work can never be good if you go on thinking of the next thing. For work, it is the present that is most important. The past should not drag you behind, the future should not pull you

forward. You must be fully concentrated on the present, on what you are doing. You must be so concentrated on what you are doing that it is as if the salvation of the whole world depended

only upon your work.

Unless you work hard you do not get energy, because in that case you do not need it and do not deserve it. You get energy only when you make use of it. 13 August 1955

Be sincere in the work you have undertaken and the Grace will always be there to help you.

14 April 1959

Concentrate on your work — it is that that gives you strength. Blessings.

10 September 1961

Q. Mother, I am facing a personal problem and I pray for the Mother’s guidance. As yet I do not have any sense of inner guidance. My days are not well spent. I am sticking on with the department work although I often feel I am not wanted or trusted. But I do not wish to be guided by any ordinary thought or feeling. I crave for isolation at times. I pray that I may have a surer feeling that I am doing what my Master wishes of me. Let my personal likes, dislikes and

egoism not tarnish the purity of action or word. “Mother” has been my mantra and I take refuge in Her.

The Mother: You are not only wanted but indispensable for the work which would not be done properly without you. So I ask you to be patient and not to attach importance to the difficulties on the way.

Love and blessings. 3 May 1970

Difficulties in Work

This morning I felt tired after five minutes’ work. It was only polishing furniture!

All manual work is tiring the first few times one does it. But gradually the body gets used to it and becomes strong. However, when you feel really tired, you must stop and rest.

11 February 1933

With consecration the work can be done much more easily and happily. But nobody must be asked a greater effort than what he can do.

27 February 1935

The best way to work without getting tired is to offer the work you do (whatever work it is) to the Divine and to find in the Divine the support you need — for the Divine’s Force is inexhaustible

and He answers always to whatever offer is made to Him sincerely. Then, when you will feel that it is the Divine’s Force that has done the work in you and through you, in your sincerity you will know that the merit is His and not yours — so there is no more reason to be proud.

Blessings.

Do not worry about the work; the more you will do it quietly and calmly, the more it will become effective. 29 July 1935

Sometimes I fear that the rigidity of my nature does not allow you to act properly in me.

Sri Aurobindo: The extreme acuteness of your difficulties is due to the yoga having come down against the bed-rock of Inconscience which is the fundamental basis of all resistance in the individual and in the world to the victory of the Spirit and the Divine Work that is leading toward that victory. The difficulties themselves are general in the Ashram as well as in the outside

world…

Q. Mother, my being wants to spend its time in silence. But it cannot because of my helpers. They tell me that it becomes difficult to ask me anything when I am grave. This creates confusion in the work. Mother, will You give me Your advice?

The Mother: I don’t quite understand your question. Certainly the work should be done as conscientiously as possible. But that does not mean that you have to be grave. What is necessary is to be always peaceful and full of calm energy.

Q. Mother, My mind is greatly perplexed. I do not know where I stand. The work we have taken up is huge. The commitments are many. What I have to do is not clear from outside or from within. Every day the decisions are altered, new questions posed, the ego confronted with unacceptable situations. I pray to the Mother that I be released from the department work till such time as I have some clear guidance or the Mother’s definite directions as to the work I have to do. This is a personal crisis. I have no quarrels or complaints about people. I wish to keep my mouth closed.

The Mother: Take up the work and have faith, the force will come in proportion to the need; and your receptivity depends on your faith and confidence.

Love and blessings.

24 December 1971

I have been feeling for quite some time that I should limit my outward activity and confine myself to quiet work where I have not to do much running about. I am facing some kind of inner crisis. My life is becoming aimless. A persistent dream warns me of my inner instability. It is my urgent necessity that I should achieve inner poise and stability. The obscurity and heavy inertia must diminish.

If the Mother would permit me I would like to be free from my department work. However I shall do as the Mother directs me. Kindly guide me.

The Mother: If you leave the department, the work will be ruined! As soon as I have a moment free I shall call you in the morning and we shall talk it over.

The more I grow, the more I know that it is in work that Sri Aurobindo’s integral yoga is best done. Love and blessings. 9 October 1966

It seems to me that the proof of sincerity is in work and not in planning.

This is exactly what I have tried to make them understand — but the tendency to plan and talk seems to be too strong to be checked. Let us hope some work also will be done.

Q. To work in the Divine’s way is not easy for a blind and egoistic person like me. By that I mean: to work unegoistically and to keep myself open to your force so that it may work unhampered in me. Am I right?

The Mother: Yes, it is correct.

Q. Judging by that standard I have no right to work for you at all; but it is also not desirable, perhaps, to cease to work for you.

The Mother: Certainly you must not stop working for me. It is by working that the perfection of the working comes. 12 April 1947

I trust you fully and know you are capable of fulfilling quite well your responsibilities. As for the difficulties and deficiencies, everybody has some and one is here to overcome them. This is

the meaning of the sadhana of works. Go on courageously with your duties, keeping all faith in the Divine and relying only on the Divine’s help and grace. 6 January 1942

Continue doing your work with a simple and peaceful heart and a quiet mind. The aspiration will come gradually according to the need. 21 April 1965

3.13 By Keeping No Feelings for Big and Small Work for the Divine

One must be able to do the same work always with enthusiasm and at the same time be ready to do something else or enlarge one’s scope at a moment’s notice.

We must follow the Sri Aurobindo’s Advice:

- first, an unquestioning acceptance of her as the Mother;

- second, a total surrender to her of one’s whole life;

- and third, a ready and happy submission to the discipline laid down by her for the smooth and efficient functioning of the Ashram

Is there any type of Divine Work?

No Big Work or Small Work.

Ø Of course, the idea of bigness and smallness is quite foreign to the spiritual truth. Spiritually there is nothing big or small. Such ideas are like those of the literary people who think writing a poem is a high work and making shoes or cooking the dinner is a small and low one. But all is equal in the eyes of the Spirit — and it is only the spirit within with which it is done that matters. It is the same with a particular kind of work, there is nothing big or small.

Examples:

Ø There are those who have done the lawyer’s work with the Mother’s force working in them and grown by it in inward consciousness.

Ø On the other hand, religious work can be merely external and vital in its nature or influence.

Ø I may say however that I do not regard business as something evil or tainted, any more than it was so regarded in ancient spiritual India. If I did, I would not be able to receive money

No Preferences:

Ø The sadhak ought to be ready to do any work that is needed, not only the work he prefers.

Ø It is not that you have to do what you dislike, but that you have to cease to dislike.

Ø To do only what you like is to indulge the vital and maintain its domination over the nature — for that is the very principle of the untransformed nature, to be governed by its likes and dislikes.

1. Here, at the Ashram, our aim is to express a higher Truth, not to follow the ordinary human conventionalities.

2. I do not give to these official documents any undue importance. They are mere necessities in the present condition of the world, but do not correspond to any deep reality.

3. In the actualities of life the power of a man does not depend on an official title, but on the force and the light of his inner consciousness.

The Lord and his Shakti

God and his devotee

The father and his child

The master and his disciple

The Beloved and Lover

The Friend and co-worker

The child and his mother

A being free from all bondages, flying from height to height in a happy seeking for Divine transformation.

3.14 By Joining the Divine Mission with a Constant Will

Here the object is different. Ours is a problem of world-change. People here are an epitome of the world. Each one represents a type of humanity. If he is changed, it means a victory for all who belong to his type and thus a great achievement for our work. But for this change a constant will is required. If that will is there, lots of things can be done for the man.

This morning while I was on the balcony, I had an interesting experience: the experience of man’s effort, in all its forms and through all the ages, to approach the Divine. And I seemed to be growing wider and wider so that all the forms and all the ways of approaching the Divine attempted by man would be contained in the present Work.

It was represented by a kind of image in which I was as vast as the Universe, and each way of

approaching the Divine was like a tiny image containing the characteristic form of this approach.

And my impression was this: Why do people always limit, limit themselves? Narrow, narrow,

narrow! They understand only when it is narrow.

Take all! Take all within you. And then you will begin to understand — you will begin.

The Mother

To be able to receive the Divine Power and let it act through you in the things of the outward life, there are three necessary conditions:

(i) Quietude, equality — Not to be disturbed by anything that happens, to keep the mind still and firm, seeing the play of forces, but itself tranquil.

(ii) Absolute faith — Faith that what is for the best will happen, but also that if one can make oneself a true instrument, the fruit will be that which one’s will guided by the Divine Light sees as the thing to be done — kartavyath karma.

(iii) Receptivity — The power to receive the Divine Force and to feel its presence and the presence of the Mother in it and allow it to work, guiding one’s sight and will and action. If this power and presence can be felt and this plasticity made the habit of the consciousness in action, — but plasticity city to the Divine force alone without bringing in any foreign element, — the eventual result is sure.

3.15 By Purifying Ourselves from the Subconscient Level

Sri Aurobindo: Previous Yogis came down to the vital level, they did not descend farther, and they were quite sensible in not doing so! But if I too had left it there, the real work would have remained undone. Once the subconscient is conquered, things will become easy for those who come after. That is what is meant by the “realisation of one in all”.

Through constant Nama Japa and offering ourselves to the Mother, we can erase the past Karma from past lives.

3.16 By Working not for Rewards and Recognition

Mother rejects Nobel Prize for Sri Aurobindo.

I am only realizing what He has conceived.

I am only the protagonist and the continuator of His work.

(This note, originally written in English, was meant for the officials who had wanted to present

Mother with the Nobel Peace Prize proposed for Sri Aurobindo in 1951)

3.17 By Creating A Gnostic Society

What is Collective Yoga

To bring into oneself the Power which can conquer. A collective correspondence

Ø Instead of running away, to bring into oneself the Power which can conquer.

Ø We are here to do difficult things.

Ø Is it possible to attain a total personal transformation without there being at least a correspondence in the collectivity? This does not seem possible to me.

Need to Form Gnostic Society:

Sri Aurobindo: The coming of a spiritual age must be preceded by the appearance of an increasing number of individuals who are no longer satisfied with the normal intellectual, vital and physical existence of man, but perceive that a greater evolution is the real goal of humanity and attempt to effect it in themselves, to lead others to it and to make it the recognised goal of the race.

The coming of such a spiritual age cannot, of course, be taken for granted, or prepared for institutionally. Much would depend upon those — not just an isolated Gnostic Being or Mahatma or Mahayogi, but a number of them — who by their self-evolution or self-transcendence into a higher mould have qualified to be leaders of the spiritual march. But although these first few may by their own exertions have won the leadership of the spiritual age, it will not be for themselves alone, but for all; they will take all human life for their province and strive to regenerate the life of humanity as a whole to fit the conditions of the spiritual age. If the number of these spiritual men — these samurai in the service of the Divine, these Rishis and Mahapurushas — is sufficiently large to make a critical mass, “then the Spirit who is here in man, now a concealed divinity, a developing light and power, will descend more fully as the Avatar of a yet unseen and unguessed Godhead from above into the soul of mankind and into the great individualities in whom the light and power are the strongest. There will then be fulfilled the change that will prepare the transition of human life from its present limits into those larger and purer horizons….” (Source: Sri Aurobindo — A biography by KRS Iyengar)

Sri Aurobindo: ”Yoga is not a thing of ideas but of inner spiritual experience. …The realisation of the Divine is the one thing needful and the rest is desirable only in so far as it helps or leads towards that or when it is realised, extends and manifests the realisation. Manifestation and organisation of the whole life for the divine work, — first, the sadhana personal and collective necessary for the realisation and a common life of God-realised men, secondly, for help to the world to move towards that, and to live in the Light — is the whole meaning and purpose of my Yoga. But the realisation is the first need and it is that round which all the rest moves, for apart from it all the rest would have no meaning.

…a gnostic collectivity would be a collective soul-power of the Truth-consciousness, even as the gnostic individual would be an individual soul power of it: it would have the same integration of life and action in unison, the same realised and conscious unity of being, the same spontaneity, intimate oneness-feeling, one and mutual truth-vision and truth-sense of self and each other, the same truth-action in the relation of each with each and all with all; this collectivity would be and act not as a mechanical but a spiritual integer.

Formation of a Deva Sangha

A working group oriented towards the Divine, that would begin as a pilot project somewhere, and then spread over the whole world. All human activity would come within the purview of the Deva Sangha, “but we must give them a new life, a new form”. At the root of it all would be a feeling of delight in everything, in the body as much as in the spirit …. No one is a god, but each man has a god within him. To manifest Him is the aim of divine life. The Mother

Yet it is one of the most common types of human collectivity — to group together, band together,

unite around a common ideal, a common action, a common realization but in an absolutely artificial way. In contrast to this, Sri Aurobindo tells us that a true community — what he terms a gnostic or supramental community — can be based only upon the INNER REALIZATION of each one of its members, each realizing his real, concrete oneness and identity with all the other members of the community; that is, each one should not feel himself a member connected to all the others in an arbitrary way, but that all are one within himself. For each one, the others should be as much himself as his own body — not in a mental and artificial way, but through a fact of consciousness, by an inner realization.

This means that before hoping to realize such a gnostic collectivity, each one must first of all

become (or at least start to become) a gnostic being. It is obvious that the individual work must take the lead and the collective work follow; but the fact remains that spontaneously, without any arbitrary intervention of will the individual progress IS restrained or CHECKED, as It were, by the collective state. Between the collectivity and the individual, there exists an interdependence from which one cannot be totally free, even if one tries. And even he who might try, in his yoga, to free himself totally from the human and terrestrial state of consciousness, would be at least

subconsciously bound by the state of the whole, which impedes and PULLS BACKWARDS. One can attempt to go much faster, one can attempt to let all the weight of attachments and

responsibilities fall off, but in spite of everything, the realization of even the most advanced or the leader in the march of evolution is dependent upon the realization of the whole, dependent upon the state in which the terrestrial collectivity happens to be. And this PULLS backwards to such an extent that sometimes one has to wait centuries for the earth to be ready before being able to realize what is to be realized.

This is why Sri Aurobindo has also written somewhere else that a double movement is

necessary: the effort for individual progress and realization must be combined with the effort of

trying to uplift the whole so as to enable it to make a progress indispensable for the greater progress of the individual: a mass progress, if you will, that allows the individual to take a further step forward.

Why Man must Grow into the Gnostic Being?

Man must now grow into the complete Superman, the supramental being, or the Gnostic being. The induction of the supramental principle and power into the human being must also mean the gradual supramentalisation of man’s environment, in other words the transformation of nature into supernature. The “gnostic being” would be the consummation of the climb of the spiritual man:

…his whole way of being, thinking, living, acting would be governed by the power of a vast universal spirituality. All the trinities of the Spirit would be real to his self-awareness and realised in his inner life… all his action would originate from and obey the supreme Self and Spirit’s divine governance of Nature.

(Source: Sri Aurobindo — A biography by KRS Iyengar)

The Mother:

There is a state of consciousness which may be called “gnostic”, in which you are able to see at the same time all the theories, all the beliefs, all the ideas men have expressed in their highest consciousness — the most contradictory notions, like the Buddhistic, the Vedantic, the Christian theories, all the philosophical theories, all the expressions of the human mind when it has managed to catch a little corner of the Truth — and in that state, not only do you put each thing in its place, but everything appears to you marvellously true and quite indispensable in order to be able to understand anything at all about anything whatsoever. There is a state of consciousness… Oh, I was going to tell you things you cannot yet understand. I shall give you a simpler example. Anatole France said in one of his books: “So long as men did not try to make the world progress, all went well and everybody was satisfied — no worry about perfecting oneself or perfecting the world, consequently all went well. Therefore the worst thing is to want to make others progress; let them do what they like and don’t bother about anything, that will be much more wise.” On the contrary, others tell you: “There is a Truth to be attained; the world is in a state of ignorance and one must at all costs, in spite of the difficulty of the way, enlighten man’s consciousness and pull him out of his ignorance.” But I tell you that there is a state of consciousness in which both the ways of seeing are absolutely equally true. Naturally, if you take only two aspects, it is difficult to see clearly; one must be able to see all the aspects of the truth glimpsed by the human intelligence and… something more. And then, in that state, nothing is absolutely false, nothing is absolutely bad. In that state one is free from all problems, all difficulties, all battles and everything appears to you wonderfully harmonious.

But if you try to imitate this condition mentally — do you understand? To make a mental imitation of it — you may be sure of doing stupid things; you will be one of those who have a chaos in their head and can say the most contradictory things without even being aware of it.

In that condition there is no contradiction — it is a totality and a totality in which one has the full knowledge of all the truths expressed (which are not sufficient to express the total Truth), in which one knows the respective places of all things, why and of what the universe is formed. Only — I hasten to tell you this — it is not by a personal effort that one reaches this condition; it is not because one tries to obtain it that one obtains it. You become that, spontaneously. It is, if you like, the crowning of an absolute mental sincerity, when you no longer have any partiality, any preference, any attachment to an idea, when you do not even try any longer to know the truth.

You are simply open in the Light, that’s all.

I am telling you this, this evening, because what is done, what has been realised by one can be realised by others. It is enough that one body has been able to realise that, one human body, to have the assurance that it can be done. You may consider it still very far off, but you can say, “Yes, the gnostic life is certain, because it has begun to be realised.”

What Perfection We should aim to achieve?

We thirst for perfection. Not this human perfection which is a perfection of the ego and bars the way to the divine perfection. But that one perfection which has the power to manifest upon earth the Eternal Truth. — The Mother

Why We Need to Collectively Aspire?

Power of Collective Aspiration: A harmonious collective aspiration can change the course of circumstances. Collective harmony is the work undertaken by the Divine Consciousness; it alone has the power to realise it. Collective emotion open to the Divine: Crowds responding to the impulsion coming from the Divine. An event that makes the great stages of terrestrial life.

The Mother

The Mother: The earth is a symbolic representation of the universe, and the group is a symbolic representation of the earth. Sri Aurobindo and I had discussed the matter in 1914 (quite a long time ago), for we had seen two possibilities: what we are now doing, or to withdraw into solitude and isolation until we had not only attained the Supermind, but begun the material transformation as well. And Sri Aurobindo rightfully said that we could not isolate ourselves, for as you progress, you become more and more universalized.

Sri Aurobindo: Our ideal, therefore, is fixed, — to become one with God and lead individually the divine life, but also to help others to the divine realisation and prepare, by any means, humanity for the kingdom of God on earth, — satyadharma, satyayuga.

”Always it is the individual who progresses and compels the rest to progress; the instinct of the collectivity is to stand still in its established order. Progress, growth, realisation of wider being give his greatest sense of happiness to the individual; status, secure ease to the collectivity. And so it must be as long as the latter is more a physical and economic entity than a self-conscious collective soul.

What constitute the essence of the Integral divine perfection of the human being?

Three Elements:

1) A union with the supreme Divine,

2) Unity with the universal Self, and

3) a supramental life action from this transcendent origin and through this universality, but still with the individual as the soul-channel and natural instrument.

– Sri Aurobindo (Synthesis of Yoga)

Basic condition for Integral Divine Perfection?

To break out of his ego into the larger freedom of union with the universal Divine: He must cease to be the mental, vital, physical ego; for that is always the creation, instrument and subject of mental, vital, physical Nature… While the identification lasts, there is a self-imprisonment in this habitual round and narrow action…. The liberation from an externalised ego sense is the first step towards the soul’s freedom and mastery. — The Mother

3.18 By Creating Centres for Sadhana

The Ashram symbolises all the difficulties to be resolved. The Mother

(Source: Sri Aurobindo — A biography by KRS Iyengar)

Sri Aurobindo on Creating Centres for Sadhana

Sri Aurobindo: In his letter of 18 November 1922, he set forth his objectives clearly:

“I have been till now and shall be for some time longer withdrawn in the practice of a Yoga destined to be a basis not for withdrawal from life, but for the transformation of human life …. But the time is approaching … when I shall have to take up a large external work proceeding from the spiritual basis of this Yoga. It is, therefore, necessary to establish a number of centres small and few at first but enlarging and increasing in number as I go on, for training in the Sadhana, one under my direct supervision, others in immediate connection with me … but for the present these centres will be not for external work but for spiritual training and Tapasya. The first, which will be transferred to British India when I go there, already exists at Pondicherry …. The second I am founding through you in Bengal. I hope to establish another in Gujarat during the ensuing year.”

The Ashram in Pondicherry is that temple of the living Bhawani, where her devotees, the men and Women who aspire to a new life on earth, offer Her worship, serve Her through their works, prepare themselves for receiving the new Light according to the best of their ability, so that the Light may spread and usher in a new world to take the place of the old.

The Mother on creating Organizations for Sadhana

The Mother: We want an organization that is the expression of a higher consciousness working for the manifestation of the Truth of the Future.

I came to Sri Aurobindo with the question very precisely formulated. For the two possibilities were there: either to do an intensive individual sadhana by withdrawing from the world, that is, by no longer having any contact with others, or else to let the group be formed naturally and spontaneously, not preventing it from being formed, allowing it to form, and starting all together on the path. Well, the decision was not at all a mental choice; it came spontaneously. The circumstances were such that there was no choice; that is, quite naturally, spontaneously, the group was formed in such a way that it became an imperious necessity. 7 May 1912

The Mother : (Message for the inauguration of Sri Aurobindo Nilaya, Santiniketan) To open a centre is not sufficient in itself. It must be the pure hearth of a perfect sincerity in a total consecration to the Divine.

The terrestrial transformation and harmonisation can be brought about by two processes which, though opposite in appearance, must combine — must act upon each other and complete each other:

· Individual transformation, an inner development leading to the union with the Divine Presence*.

· Social transformation, the establishment of an environment favourable to the flowering and growth of the individual.

We need a world organisation. But by whom? It should be by people who have at least a world consciousness!

All human organisations are based on: the visible fact (which is a falsehood), public opinion (another falsehood), and moral sense, which is a third falsehood! So …

The Mother

How to become Divine Example of Integral Activity In a Group?

If inner illumination, integral transformation, is the main aim of individual life, this is to be sought, not as a self-sufficient end, but as a means to a further end — the transformation of the environment through radiation from these illumined centres of realisation. It is not man as he is, this bundle of ego-stuff and of ironies of circumstance, this wailing heir to desire, death and incapacity, but man as he might be — man who has recovered the veiled divinity within — who will then contact other men who have been likewise emancipated, and strive to achieve a perfect and integral understanding with them. Since there are four principal avenues of consciousness — physical, vital, mental, psychic — we may try to establish contact with other people (friends, the family, the neighborhood) at one or more levels, but the psychic contact, which is the most important, is established through “converging spiritual aspirations”. In such a world of spiritually liberated men and women, the medium of understanding will be the spirit’s wideness and universality: When we become one with the inner Godhead, we become one in depth with all, and it is through Her and by Her that we must come into contact with all beings. Then, free from all attraction and repulsion, all likes and dislikes, we are close to what is close to Her and far from what is far Her. Thus we learn that in the midst of others we should become always and more and more a divine example of integral activity both intellectual and spiritual, an opportunity which is offered to them to understand and enter upon the path of divine life.

(Source: On The Mother, Srinivasa Iyengar)

The Mother: ”For this transformation to succeed, all human beings — even all living beings as well as their material environment — must be transformed. Otherwise things will remain as they are: an individual experience cannot change terrestrial life. This is the essential difference between the old idea of transformation — that is, the becoming conscious with the psychic being and the inner life — and transformation as we conceive it and speak of it. Not only an individual or a group of individuals or even all individuals, but life, the overall consciousness of this more or less developed material life, have to be transformed. Without such a transformation we shall have the same misery, the same calamities and the same atrocities in the world. A few individuals will escape from it by their psychic development, but the general mass will remain in the same state of misery.

What is Gnosticisation or Supramentalisation?

Supramentalisation or gnosticisation would not, of course, mean a sudden or wholesale annulment of the lower orders and formations of consciousness, from Overmind to Mind, from Mind to Matter: the hierarchy would continue, but would be progressively emptied of the incursions of the Ignorance.

The supramental transformation, the supramental evolution must carry with it a lifting of mind, life and body out of themselves into a greater way of being in which yet their own ways and powers would be, not suppressed or abolished, but perfected and fulfilled by the self-exceeding.

But even if the supramental individuals should be but a few, their influence on the rest would still be profound. The “untransformed part of humanity” must throw up in due course more and more highly evolved beings, some intuitivised, some overmentalised, some in constant communion with the higher thought-planes. Sri Aurobindo also makes it clear that, although it is the elected individual who spearheads each evolutionary advance, he will not by himself be able to bring about the transformation of the earth-nature; a “critical mass” of such individuals too would be necessary:

The inner change can begin to take shape in a collective form only if the gnostic individual finds others who have the same kind of inner life as himself and can form with them a group with its own autonomous existence or else a separate community or order of being with its own inner law of life.

Impact of Gnostic Consciousness

With the appearance of the gnostic being and the beginnings of the gnostic dispensation in earth-nature, the “Life Divine” itself would become no longer a pretext for dreaming and speculative system-building but a marvel of daily manifestation and realisation. Indeed, the change from our present to the new gnostic consciousness would prove to be a fundamental change in the very texture, temper and tone of existence:

Our nature, our consciousness is that of beings ignorant of each other, separated from each other, rooted in a divided ego, who must strive to establish some kind of relation between their embodied ignorances…. An innate character of the gnostic consciousness and the instrumentation of Supernature is a wholeness of sight and action, a unity of knowledge with knowledge, a reconciliation of all that seems contrary in our mental seeing and knowing, an identity of Knowledge and Will acting as a single power in perfect unison with the truth of things….

.. .what has to be developed is there in our being and not something outside it: what evolutionary Nature presses for, is an awakening to the knowledge of self, the discovery of self, the manifestation of the self and spirit within us and the release of its self-knowledge, its self-power, its native self-instrumentation. It is, besides, a step for which the wholeSupr evolution has been a preparation and which is brought closer at each crisis of human destiny…. Our evolution in the Ignorance with its chequered joy and pain of self-discovery and world-discovery, its half-fulfilments, its constant finding and missing, is only our first state. It must lead inevitably towards an evolution in the Knowledge, a self-finding and self-unfolding of the Spirit, a self-revelation of the Divinity in things in that true power of itself in Nature which is to us still a Supernature.

A mind of light will replace the present confusion and trouble of this earthly ignorance…. a new humanity uplifted into Light, capable of a spiritualised being and action, open to governance by some light of the Truth-Consciousness, capable even on the mental level and in its own order of something that might be called the beginning of a divinised life.

3.19 By Working in Collaboration and in Collective Harmony

…the need for you to be in harmonious relationship with all around you, whether at the hospital or at home, besides feeling the Mother’s presence all the time within you. A radiation of that presence towards whoever you work with, whoever you live with is very necessary for one who aspires to be the Mother’s true child. Your letter of the 1st is accompanied by a prayer to her in which occurs the appeal: “Correct still more my attitude towards work, studies, towards my parents and other people.” It is clear that our minds and hearts are interlinked with each other through the Mother’s gathering of both of us into her single light. Ups and downs of the sadhak in us are natural. Don’t worry about them. The progress towards perfection is never uniform until the whole of our being has been unified. The unification takes long but it is certain if the central self, the innermost psyche, grows more and more active in all our movements. It has the master-key to open every part of us to feel*. The Mother

The field of work does not change. What you are doing now, you will continue to do. It is in the attitude in the work, especially in the relation with the other workers, that the change must take place. Each one sees the work in his own way and believes it is the only true way, the only way that expresses the Divine Will. But none of these ways is completely true; it is only by rising above these divided conceptions that one can reach a better understanding of the Divine’s Will. This means mutual understanding and collaboration instead of opposition and clash of wills and feelings. 23 May 1934

For harmony and better work, it is not by changing men that things can get better, but by changing one’s own consciousness and character. 25 January 1937

As a general rule it is better not to intervene in things that do not fall within one’s own work.

7 October 1937

To recognise the presence of a “disharmonious atmosphere” is useful only so far as it wakes in each one the will to change it into a harmonious atmosphere and to do that the first important

step is for each one to get out of his own limited point of view in order to understand the point of view of others. It is more important for each one to find the mistake in himself than to

insist on the mistake of others.

I add that all those to whom I have given responsibility in the work are expected to be faithful to this responsibility and, without allowing of any “hurt feeling” to creep in, do their best

to carry on successfully their duty.

My blessings are with all those who are sincere and have goodwill.

Indeed I have allowed X to shift her rose plants there. But I do not think she needs the whole place for them. Moreover, in the present food-crisis it is not wise to use for flowers a place

where vegetables have always grown very well. It seems that the place where tomatoes were grown is now ready for beans — these beans must be sown and well looked after so that they may be productive. The trees and shrubs must be left in place and the sitaphal tree (custard apple) must be very carefully attended to as it gives excellent fruits. In consequence I wish that this garden should be looked after by both X and Y, each one taking care of the things with which they are concerned reciprocally. I hope they will take advantage of this occasion to show that work can be done unselfishly and harmoniously, putting in first place the welfare of the work itself and checking in themselves all wrong movements that could stand against this achievement.

With my love and blessings.

Psychic work: a work governed by harmony.

I came to the bindery to explain to all of you what you had to do, and expect that you will do accordingly. I want you to work all together harmoniously, helping one another as much as you

can.

Everyday programme

The university work goes first, then the library work, then the individual work, if there is time.

Blessings.

Without discipline, no good work can be done.

Each one to his place, doing conscientiously the work assigned to him, and all will be well.

17 August 1938

Organised teamwork: each one at his place and all together.

To make any change in a work, I require before taking any decision that both parties should write to me explaining their case and the proposed change and then I shall decide.

My love and blessings. 25 July 1947

Organised Team-Work
Each in his place and all together.

I do not believe that to change work will help you to change your character; it has never proved successful before.

The reasons for which you ask to change your work are psychological and do not depend on the work itself. Wherever you will go, you will carry them with you and nowhere will you be able

to find peace unless you have the peace in your heart. 22 August 1949

When one has work to do for a community, to take a decision for personal motives and to abandon one’s work is a serious mistake.

You mention faults committed which cannot be corrected: this is wrong. Any fault can be corrected if you sincerely set to work to correct yourself. To run away from the progress to be

made is an act of cowardice and I cannot approve of it. First of all make a sincere and complete confession of faults committed. Afterwards I shall see what is to be done.

30 May 1953

No Quarrel

When you start a quarrel it is as if you were declaring war to the Divine’s work. The Mother.

Collaboration and reciprocal goodwill are indispensable for good work. 11 August 1954

To concentrate on a close collaboration in the work would be obviously a more useful attitude than to concentrate on mutual grievances.

The most important point is that the work should be quickly done and well done.

21 December 1957

To the Bangavani Workers

No great work can be done without co-ordination and discipline.

A true and organised collaboration is the condition of success. 20 June 1959

To undo one thing in order to build another is not a good policy. Those who are consecrated and want to work for the Divine must be patient and know how to wait for things to be done at

the right moment and in the right way.

14 February 1959

It is better to use the energies received from the Divine for perfection rather than for aggrandisement.

The perfection of the work done is much more important than its bulk or the bigness of its scope.

May 1959

When one works for the Divine, it is much better to do perfectly what one does than to aim at a very big work.

13 May 1959

It is better to do well than to do quickly.

To begin a work and to leave it half done and to start another

work elsewhere, is not a very wholesome habit.

5 July 1959

It is only in harmonious collaboration that effective work can be done.

The important thing is to find the point on which you can all agree — and after this is firmly established, each one must be ready to yield his personal will in order to keep intact this point

of harmony. 29 March 1966

When we have to work collectively, it is always better to insist, in our thoughts, feelings and actions, on the points of agreement rather than on the points of divergence.

We must give importance to the things that unite and ignore, as much as possible, those that separate.

Even when physically the lines of work differ, the union can remain intact and constant if we keep always in mind the essential points and principles which unite, and the Divine Goal, the Realisation which must be the one unchanging object of our aspiration and works.

If anyone were capable of seeing the welfare of the work quite independent of his preferences and without turning everything into a personal question, then most of the difficulties would be

solved.

If people could stop speaking of the work as their work it would put an end to a lot of trouble. Here, all work is the Divine’s.

It is the work which is important, not the way in which our little self does the work.

Unless you can rise above your personal ideas, opinions and preferences, you cannot become a good worker. As long as you have your personal preferences, you will not be able to do the

exact thing needed.

3.20 By Feeling the Consciousness in action During Work

The conditions in which men live upon earth are the result of their state of consciousness. To want to change the conditions without changing the consciousness is a vain chimera.

The Consciousness is at work, working all the time: it kneads them from within, whether they want it or not. To change each organ into a centre of conscious energy. May 21, 1912

We are not here to repeat what others have already done, but to ready ourselves for the blossoming of a new Consciousness and a new life. it’s not a mere Force, it’s a Consciousness-Force, it’s like a smile — -a smile that knows everything. We have to be the few who are conscious.

The Mother: My children, you all live in an enormous sea of vibrations and you don’t even realize it! Because you are not receptive. There is such a resistance in you that if something manages to penetrate, three quarters of what enters is violently thrown out because of an incapacity to contain it…. Take simply the example of the consciousness of Forces, such as the force of love, the force of comprehension, the force of creation (it is the same for all of them: the force of protection, the force of growth, the force of progress, all of them), just take Consciousness, the consciousness that covers everything, permeates everything, that is everywhere and in everything — it is almost felt as something trying to impose itself violently on the being, which balks!… Whereas if you were open and simply breathed — that’s all, just breathed — you would breathe in Consciousness, Light, Comprehension, Force, Love and all the rest.”

These minutes of contact with the soul are often those that mark a decisive turning point in one’s life, a step forward; a progress in consciousness, and they frequently result from a crisis, a situation of extreme intensity, when a call surges forth from the whole being, a call so strong that the inner consciousness pierces through the unconscious layers that envelop it and is revealed fully luminous upon the surface. This very strong call of the being can also call forth the descent of a divine emanation, an individuality, a divine aspect that unites with your own individuality at a given moment to do a given work, to win a particular battle, to express this thing or that. Then, when the work is accomplished, this emanation most often withdraws. So it may be that one retains the memory of the circumstances surrounding these minutes of revelation or inspiration, one sees again a landscape, the color of a garment one was wearing, the shade of one’s skin, things that were around you at that particular moment — all this is imprinted in an indelible way, with an extraordinary intensity, for the details of ordinary life are then also revealed in their true intensity, their true tonality. The consciousness that reveals itself in you reveals at the same time the consciousness in things. These details can sometimes help you reconstitute the period in which you lived or the deeds that were accomplished, surmise the country where you lived, but it is quite easy, too, to fantasize and mistake one’s imaginings for reality.

Serious obstacle is that the ignorant and falsifying outer consciousness, the ordinary consciousness legitimizes all the so-called physical laws, causes, effects and consequences, all that science has discovered physically and materially. All this is an unquestionable reality to the consciousness, a reality that remains independent and absolute even in the face of the eternal divine Reality.

If you want the consciousness for true actions very much and aspire for it, it may come in one of several ways:

Ø You may get the habit or faculty of watching your movements in such a way that you see the impulse to action coming and can see too its nature.

Ø A consciousness may come which feels uneasy whenever ever a wrong thought or impulse to action or feeling is there.

Ø Something within you may warn and stop you when you are going to do the wrong action.

3.21 By Living at the Soul level

Pure Existence should mean the Self, Atman. The work is in the base and it can be done best in that state, by remaining in the Self. Remain in Pure Existence. The work is being done at the base. What is this base? The whole of Nature, Prakriti I suppose, including the subconscious on an individual level.

O Sun-Word, thou shalt raise the earth-soul to Light

And bring down God into the lives of men;

Earth shall be my work-chamber and my house,

My garden of life to plant a seed divine.

When all thy work in human time is done

The mind of earth shall be a home of light,

The life of earth a tree growing towards heaven,

The body of earth a tabernacle of God

When we work from the soul level, we experience unconditional love, oneness with the Divine and with the universe.

Still, for actions in this domain, actions of transformation, I don’t say solitude because that’s silly — there is no such thing as solitude — but peace is necessary, that is, the perfect control over the activity: the activity must be kept on a level where it doesn’t interfere with the inner work — that’s the point.

Your attitude towards work is the right one and I see no changes to suggest. The work done through love and because of love is surely the most powerful. (8 June 1942)

Works of love: the best condition for work.

Work for the Divine and you will feel an ineffable joy filling your being.

3.22 By Working with Regularity and Carefulness

For the work steadiness and regularity are as necessary as skill. Whatever you do, do it always carefully. It is by combined and patient effort that all good work is done.

Nothing is too small to be neglected, the same care meets all circumstances.

With method, order and care there is no difficulty that cannot be solved.

Always do what you do with care.

Any work done with care becomes interesting.

Skilful hands, precise care, a sustained attention and one compels

Matter to obey the Spirit.

3.23 By Living in Goodwill and Collaboration

Collaboration and reciprocal good will are indispensable for good work.

The Mother: When I give work to someone it is not only for the sake of the work but also as the best means to advance on the path of Yoga. When I gave you this work, I was quite aware of your difficulties and shortcomings, but at the same time I knew that if you opened yourself to my help and force you would be able to surmount these obstacles and at the same time to increase

your consciousness and open yourself to the Divine’s Grace.

Now it is time for you to make a real progress and to check your outbursts of temper whenever your will is contradicted. If you want to please me — and I have no doubt of that — you will

sincerely try to collaborate with X and to carry on with him the work.

I do not want anyone of you two to be the boss of the other — I want you both to feel as brothers, children of the same Mother, working sincerely and courageously for the sake of her love.

I hope you will agree to this and I assure you that my love and blessings will always be with you in this endeavour.

19 January 1945

I do not see why you should feel oppressed. It is not an easy job to run an establishment like X Garden and many bitter experiences may be necessary before you learn the job. I only ask that you should keep a good will to learn and to improve your capacities.

For the rest, that is to say the results, we must be patient.

With my love and blessings.

1 May 1944

3.24 By Intense Aspirations for the Divine

They are stuck. They are very good objects to be put in a museum. I admit that I prefer for my work someone. who knows very little, has not laboured too much, but who has a great aspiration and who feels in him elf this Flame, this need to progress.

3.25 By Working not to earn one’s living but to Please the Divine

Work would not be for earning one’s living, but the means to express oneself and develop one’s capacities and possibilities, while at the same time being of service to the group as a whole, which would in turn provide for everyone’s subsistence and field of action. In short, it would be a place where human relationships, ordinarily based almost exclusively on competition and strife, would be replaced by relationships of emulation in trying to do one’s best, of collaboration and real brotherhood.

The earth is not ready to realize such an ideal, for humanity does not yet possess either the

knowledge necessary to understand and adopt it or the conscious force indispensable for its execution. This is why I call it a dream.

Yet this dream is on the way to becoming a reality, and it is what we are endeavoring to do at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, on a very small scale and in proportion to our limited means. The achievement is indeed far from being perfect but it is progressive; little by little we are moving towards our goal, which, we hope, we shall one day be able to show to the world as a practical and effective means of emerging from the present chaos to be born to a new life, more harmonious and truer.

3.26 By Practising Inner Silence and Peace

Work Silently

For the sake of sadhana and for the sake of work, it is always better to work silently.

When there is some work to do, the less one speaks of it the better it is.

Talk as little as possible.

Work as much as you can.

X has a very bad habit of coming and talking to people while they are working. If he does not work himself, he should at least allow others to work conscientiously.

So if he comes again to talk while you are working, you had better tell him — “No, not now, we can talk when I have finished my work.”

7 January 1933

3.27 By Working with Joy and Ananda

Try to enjoy doing everything you do. When you are interested in what you do, you enjoy doing it. To be interested in what you do, you must try to do it better and better.

In progress lies true joy. 6 January 1952

When work becomes attractive and is done with joy, how much better it is.

We need to be cheerful while doing the work for the Divine.

Cheerfulness in Work for the Divine

Work for the Divine and you will find an ineffable joy filling your being.

3.28 By Working Towards Perfection

It is true that my force is always with him to help him to do his work; but my force is essentially a force for perfection, and to be able to allow it to work fully, one must have a constant will for progress in the work. 12 May 1952

Mahasaraswati’s Perfection in Works

It is not satisfied with makeshift.

It is by combined and patient effort that all good work is done. 8 April 1954

Skill in Integral Work
All that is done is done well, whatever the work undertaken.

Perfection in the work must be the aim, but it is only by a very patient effort that this can be obtained. 12 April 1954

Open yourself more and more to the Divine’s force and your work will progress steadily towards perfection. 11 June 1954

Let nothing short of perfection be your ideal in work and you are sure to become a true instrument of the Divine.

There must be order and harmony in work. Even what is apparently the most insignificant thing must be done with perfect perfection, with a sense of cleanliness, beauty, harmony and

order. 23 August 1955

Artistic Work
Work at the service of beauty.

In works, aspiration towards Perfection is true spirituality. October 1961

Whatever work you do, do it as perfectly as you can. That is the best service to the Divine in man. 1 November 1961

Skill in Integral Work
All that is done is done well, whatever the work undertaken.

I was intending to write to you that this neglected work must be carried out immediately.

I accept your explanation that it is not bad will but negligence. But I must tell you that for me negligence is the worst form of bad will, for it is the refusal to surrender to the divine inspiration and consciousness which demand a constant vigilance.

I hope that this new year will bring you all the breadth of mind and generosity of heart which will make such unfortunate incidents impossible.

Blessings. 4 January 1966

Skilful hands, a clear vision, a concentrated attention, an untiring patience, and what one does is well done.

Physical Skill in Work
Skillful hands, a clear vision, a concentrated attention, an untiring patience and what one does is done well.

Skilful hands, precise care, a sustained attention and one compels Matter to obey the Spirit.

Skill in Psychic Work

Listen silently to the command that comes from the Supreme Lord and you will have the capacity to carry it out.

To know how to observe in silence is the source of skilfulness.

Skill in works must be used knowingly.

Skill in Works
Must be used consciously.

Skill in Mental Work

To know how to observe in silence is the source of its skillfulness.

Emotional Skill in Work

Emotional Skill in Work
When work becomes attractive and is done with joy, how much better it is done.

Skill in Vital

Skill in Vital Work
The seat of all capacities and all skills, which have only to be disciplined in order to be realised.

Skill in Material Work

Skill in Material Work
Skillful hands, precise care, a sustained attention and one compels matter to obey the spirit.

Faultless planning of work cannot be obtained except with the consciousness of the Divine.

Perfect Planning of Work
Can only be obtained with the consciousness of the Divine.

If men had to stop work when they are not perfect, everybody would stop working. It is in the work that we must progress and purify ourselves.

Continue to do the work you are doing but never forget that it can and must become better.

23 December 1971

To do the work that one does with all sincerity, as perfectly as one can, is certainly one of the best ways to serve the Divine. 18 May 1972

Radiating Skill in Work
When the instruments of work (hands, eyes etc.) become conscious and the attention is controlled, the capacity for work seems to be limitless.

When the instruments of work — hands, eyes, etc. — become conscious and the attention is controlled, the capacity for work seems to have no bounds.

3.29 By Working not for Charitable or Philanthropy Purpose

For those who practise the Integral Yoga, the welfare of humanity can be only a consequence and a result, it cannot be the aim. — The Mother (Bulletin November 1954)

She gives two notable examples of people who received the same psychic shock in their contact with human misery, and reacted in two different ways.

One was Prince Siddhartha, for whom suffering was the result of life itself, and hence the way out was a release into Nirvana.

The other was Saint Vincent de Paul, the result of whose apostleship was the creation of “an appreciable sense of charity in the mentality of a certain section of the well-to-do”, but by and large the wretched and the poor of the earth have remained what they were.

Alas, “the work was truly more useful to those who were giving charity than to those who were the object of this charity.”

The Mother’s conclusion is that, for a lasting solution to the problem of human misery, “a change in the human consciousness is absolutely indispensable… a new consciousness must manifest on earth and in man” at the same time.

3.30 By Working Always for Mother’s Victory

The Mother’s victory is essentially a victory of each sadhak over himself. It can only be then that any external form of work can come to a harmonious perfection.” — November 12, 1937

Sri Aurobindo

The moment one enters the life of the Ashram and takes up the yoga, he ceases to belong to any creed or caste or race; he is one of Sri Aurobindo’s disciples and nothing else. — The Mother

Every small victory over our lower nature will be termed as a work for the Mother’s Victory in the universal plane.

The Mother says: People here are an epitome of the world. Each one represents a type of humanity. If he is changed, it means a victory for all who belong to his type and thus a great achievement for our work. But for this change a constant will is required. If that will is there, lots of things can be done for the man. — — Sri Aurobindo

The aberrations of jealousy, pride, anger, mean calculation, immature impatience will all be burnt away in the fire of integral self-giving to Divine and the answering response of Grace. Once the aspiration and surrender have evoked the descent of Grace, the very elements the recalcitrant body, the ‘turbulent vital and the knot of vipers that is the mind — these very elements that earlier barred the way to progress in the sadhana will now undergo an alchemic change and transformation and merge in the psychic flame. It may be added that love for the Divine, while it starts as psychic love, can presently infuse body, vital and mind also with its fire- pure quality, and this transformation will be facilitated when all action, all endeavour, all artistic or creative work is pursued, not for the sake of egoistic satisfaction, nor even in a spirit of k∋nisāma karma(desireless service), but as the body’s, heart’s, mind’s, soul’s offering to the Divine. Hence the special importance of Karmayoga in the Ashram: accepting any assignment whatever from the Mother, and doing one’s best and offering it as the expression of one’s love and devotion. The instruments of body, vital, mind are not denied; they are not diminished or maimed; only, they are invaded and purified and transfigured by the descending light of the Spirit so as to become fit vehicles for rendering service to the Divine.

3.31 By Building and Intensifying Our Relationship with the Mother

The singular nature of this child-mother and disciple-Guru relationship — its life-sparks, illuminations, ministrations of love — can be illustrated by a few extracts. Thus, on the 1st of February 1934, the Mother wishes Vasudha “A happy, calm, an invariable peace, a luminous silence.” Next day Vasudha writes: Mother, I shall capture You in my heart. I don’t need to think of peace and happiness. When You dwell in our hearts, these things are sure to be there. The Mother answers immediately: “You will not have to go far to seize me, for I am already in your heart and as soon as your eyes are opened you will see me there

…. “ Barely a few years have elapsed since her arrival in February 1928, and already Vasudha is mistress of herself and of the resources of language. She has progressed far in her sadhana indeed! It is not, however, roses, roses, all the way. There are unpredictable its moments of depression, there are the attacks by the ubiquitous adverse forces, and life even in the Ashram, life even in the immediacy of the Mother, becomes inexplicably difficult, and Vasudha pours out her anxieties, uncertainties and agonies at the Mother’s feet. And the Mother at once rushes to rescue and reassure her child:

Poor little one, I very gladly take you on my lap and cradle you to my heart to soothe this heavy sorrow which has no cause and to quell this great revolt which has no reason.

Let me take you in my arms, bathe you in my love and wipe away even the memory of this unfortunate incident.

Evidently the cure is not complete, for Vasudha writes a few days later to Sri Aurobindo complaining of unease and restlessness, and of an inability to retain the Mother’s presence all the time. In his reply Sri Aurobindo tells her that the disturbing fancies and forces are not really the emanations of her own mind but merely “foreign matter thrown on it from outside”. She should train her mind to throw back these alien things, and if she keeps herself “inwardly confident and open”, the Mother’s and his own help will do what is needed to be done. Vasudha is by now “Little Smile” to the Mother, and is the recipient of unending Grace from both her and Sri Aurobindo. Perhaps, difficulties come to Vasudha (as to many other sadhaks) only to provoke the Grace to act in due measure. So long as life is not wholly supramentalised, it is too much to hope that an inner poise can be continually maintained. There is a rhythm in these things — the alternations of elation and moodiness, faith and doubt, self-confidence and enervating defeatism. When Vasudha asks what is it in her that is closed to the Mother — is it the heart? the mind? or something else? — and how she is to effect the opening, the answer readily comes:

My dear little smile, I know of one way: to give oneself — a complete consecration to the Divine. The more one gives oneself, the more one opens; the more one opens, the more one receives; and in the intimacy of this self-giving one can become conscious of the inner Presence and the joy it brings.

3.32 By Becoming True Instruments of the Divine

Let us constantly aspire to be a perfect instrument for the Divine’s work. (27 August 1954)

There has never been, at any time, a mental plan, a fixed programme or an organisation decided beforehand. The whole thing has taken birth, grown and developed as a living being by a movement of consciousness (Chit-Tapas) constantly maintained, increased and fortified. As the conscious Force descends in matter and radiates, it seeks for fit instruments to express and manifest it. It goes without saying that the more the instrument is open, receptive and plastic, the better are the results.

Power Aspiring to become an Instrument for the Divine Work
Power, opening to a higher consciousness, awakens to the need of being at the service of the Divine.

Sri Aurobindo: The Ashram, organised not for the renunciation of the world nor for a life of meditative retirement, but for advancing the work of future-building on yogic consciousness and yoga-shakti, had to place the accent on Karma yoga which would both help the Ashram to thrive as a self-poised, self-sustained human aggregate and also advance the sadhaks’ spiritual training. A few excerpts from Sri Aurobindo’s letters to his disciples will make this clear: The work here is not intended for showing one’s capacity or having position or as a means of physical nearness to the Mother, but as a field and an opportunity for the Karmayoga part of the integral yoga, for learning to work in the true yogic way, dedication through service, practical selflessness, obedience, scrupulousness, discipline, setting the Divine and the Divine’s work first and oneself last, harmony, patience, forbearance, etc.

3.33 By Realising that All Talent and Intelligence Belongs to Higher Plane

Whatever work we do, we must use the True Knowledge of the Divine. The Higher Knowledge of the Force.

Mind’s incapacity: The mind is incapable of judging spiritual things. Get out of your mind to have true intelligence.

The Mother: Two irrefutable signs prove that one is in relation with the supramental:

1. a perfect and constant equality,

2. an absolute certainty in the knowledge.

To be perfect, the equality must be invariable and spontaneous, effortless, towards all circumstances, all happenings, all contacts, material or psychological, irrespective of their character and impact.

The absolute and indisputable certainty of an infallible knowledge through identity.

Then came the Darshan of 24 November. Vasudha, Sahana found Sri Aurobindo “seated, on a sofa leaning back, still and majestic like the Himalayas, a perfect image of a glorious sublimity”, and the Mother, as she blessed Sahana, “poured into me the nectar of her incomparable smile”. In the weeks and .months that followed, Vasudha, Sahana Devi’s talent for music, already pure and richly seasoned, grew new dimensions of intensity and spiritual fervour under the Mother’s fostering care, and once a month or at times once in two months, along with Dilip, Vasudha, Sahana would give recitals in the Meditation Hall. “It was all a sort of votive offering to the Mother and Sri Aurobindo through music come from some mysterious overhead source; Vasudha, Sahana no doubt did the actual writing, but some higher Force was doing the work! In this connection Sri Aurobindo wrote reassuringly.

The Ananda of creation is not the pleasure of the ego in having personally done well …. The Ananda comes from the inrush of a greater power, the thrill of being possessed and used by it. And about her singing he once commented:

You sing your best only when you forget yourself and let it come out from within without thinking of the need of excellence or the impression it may make. Sri Aurobindo

Next Vasudha, Sahana wished to make a votive offering of her dance. She was no dancer, — “but why should the Mother not see the little I could do?” After a dance-recital of Tagore’s “In the steps of the Dance”, the Mother herself gave Vasudha, Sahana the idea of a dance on Radha, along the lines of her own Radha’s Prayer. And so with the march of the years Vasudha, Sahana Devi made unfaltering progress in the sadhana, never halting, never taking things for granted, but ever with her eyes on the Vision yonder, ready and eager always to fare forward towards the Goal.

3.34 By Showing our Bhakti/Devotion in Work

I have never put any ban on Bhakti. Also I am not conscious of having banned meditation either at any time. I have stressed both Bhakti and knowledge in my Yoga as well as works, even if I have not given any of them an exclusive importance like Shankara or Chaitanya.

The difficulty you feel or any Sadhak feels about Sadhana is not really a question of meditation versus Bhakti versus works. It is a difficulty of the attitude to be taken, the approach or whatever you may like to call it.

If you can’t as yet remember the Divine all the time you are working, it does not greatly matter. To remember and dedicate at the beginning and give thanks at the end ought to be enough for the present. Or at the most to remember too when there is a pause. Your method seems to me

rather painful and difficult, — you seem to be trying to remember and work with one and the same part of the mind. I don’t know if that is possible. When people remember all the time during work (it can be done), it is usually with the back of their minds or else there is created

gradually a faculty of double thought or else a double consciousness — one in front that works, and one within that witnesses and remembers.

There is also another way which was mine for a long time — a condition in which the work takes place automatically and without intervention of personal thought or mental action, while the consciousness remains silent in the Divine. The thing, however, does not come so much by

trying as by a very simple constant aspiration and will of consecration — or else by a movement of the consciousness separating the inner from

the instrumental being. Aspiration and will of consecration calling down a greater Force to do the work is a method which brings great results, even if in some it takes a long time about it. That is a great secret of Sadhana, to know how to get things done by the Power behind or above

instead of doing all by the mind’s effort. I don’t mean to say that the mind’s effort is unnecessary or has no result — only if it tries to do everything by itself, that becomes a laborious effort for all except the spiritual athletes. Nor do I mean that the other method is the longed-for short cut; the result may, as I have said, take a long time. Patience and firm resolution are necessary in every method of Sadhana.

Strength is all right for the strong — but aspiration and the Grace answering to it are not altogether myths; they are great realities of the spiritual life.

3.35 By Not Succumbing to the Onslaught of Falsehood

Falsehood comes in various forms from disease, to death. Our Vital is easily captured by it.

We must cling, cling so tightly to the Truth. Such an ardent faith would be needed … but … lies are becoming visible here too. The mixture is everywhere. The Mother

There is not “we must be patient,” there isn’t “it will come in its own time,” there isn’t … all those very reasonable things, they don’t exist anymore. It’s That (Mother lowers her fist sharply) like a sword-blade. And it’s That despite everything. All the rest is falsehood, falsehood, and falsehood that must disappear. There is only one reality, there is only one life, there is only one consciousness: the Divine. You feel that only what is really true has the power to resist. There is only one solution for Falsehood: it is to cure in ourselves all that contradicts the presence of the Divine in our consciousness. — The Mother

3.36 By Caring of Material Things

Ø Material things are not to be despised — without them there can be no manifestation in the material world. The rough handling and careless breaking or waste and misuse of physical things is a denial of the yogic consciousness ness and a great hindrance to the bringing down of the Divine Truth to the material plane.

Ø Wanton waste, careless spoiling of physical things in an incredibly short time, loose disorder, misuse of service and materials due either to vital grasping or to tamasic inertia are baneful to prosperity and tend to drive away or discourage courage the Wealth-Power.

Ø These things have long been rampant in the society and, if that continues, an increase in our means might well mean a proportionate increase in the wastage and disorder and neutralise the material advantage. This must be remedied if there is to be any sound progress.

Ø Asceticism for its own sake is not the ideal of this yoga, but self-control in the vital and right order in the material are a very important part of it — and even an ascetic discipline is better for our purpose.

Appendix 1:

4.0 How to be a True Doer of Divine Works

Source: The Mother Book (Chapter 5)

4.1 Stage 1: Sense of Divine Worker in You

To be a True Doer of Divine Works

1. Your 1st Aim: To free from all desires and self regarding ego

2. Your Life: Must be an offering and a sacrifice to the Supreme

3. Your Only object in action: To serve, to receive, to fulfill, to become a manifesting instrument of the Divine Shakti in her Works

How far will you grow in the Divine Consciousness?

1. Till there is no difference between your will and her.

2. Till there is no motive except her impulsion in you.

3. Till there is no action that is not her conscious action in you and through you.

How to completely dynamically identify with Her?

1. First you have to regard yourself as a soul and body created for Her service

2. You have to do all for Her sake.

3. You must do all work for Her alone even if you have the feeling of separate worker in you

4. Must destroy completely from nature:

· All stress of egoistic choice

· All hankering after personal profit

· All stipulation of self- regarding desire

5. Must have no demand for fruit and no seeking for reward.

6. Only fruit for you: Pleasure of the Divine Mother and fulfillment of Her work

7. Your Only reward: A constant progression in Divine consciousness, calm, and strength and bliss.

8. Your sufficient recompense (compensation): The Joy of service and the Joy of inner growth through works.

4.2 Stage 2 — Becoming Divine Instrument from Divine Worker

1. By the force of your devotion, your contact with the Divine Mother becomes intimate 24x7.

2. To have Her present guidance, Her direct command and impulse, to get a sure indication of the thing to be done and the way to do it — — — You have only to concentrate and to put everything into Her hands.

3. Then you realise that the Divine Shakti only

è initiates your work,

è carries out your work,

è inspires you, and

è guides you.

è originates all your movements

4. Then you also realise that:

è All your powers are hers

è All your mind, life and body, are

o Conscious and Joyful instruments of Her action.

o Means for Her play

o Moulds for Her manifestation in the physical universe

5. Then you realise that

è There can be no more happy condition than this union and dependence

è This step carries you back beyond the border line from the life of stress and suffering in the ignorance into the

è truth of your spiritual being, into its deep peace and it’s intense Ananda.

During this Transformation Phase of becoming an Instrument

1. Keep yourself free from all taints of the perversion of the ego.

2. Must not allow any demand or insistence to creep in to stain the purity or self-giving and the sacrifice.

3. Must have no attachments to the work or the result

4. Must not lay down any conditions.

5. Must have no claim to possess the Power that should possess you.

6. Must have no pride of the instrument.

7. Must have no vanity or arrogance.

8. Must not allow your mind, body and vital parts to suffer to distort for their own personal use and separate satisfaction of greatness of the forces that are acting through you.

9. Your faith, sincerity, purity of aspiration should be absolute and pervasive of all the planes and layers of the being.

10. Every disturbing element and distorting influence must progressively fall away from your nature.

4.3 Stage 3 — After Your Identification with the Divine Mother is Complete

1. You will feel yourself to be no longer another and separate being, instrument, servant, or worker.

2. You will feel yourself to be truly a child and eternal portion of the Divine Mother ‘s Consciousness and Force.

3. She will be in you Always and you in Her.

4. All your thought and seeing and action, your very breathing or moving come from her and are hers. This should be your constant, simple and natural experience 24x7

5. You will know, see and feel that

è you are a person and power formed by her out of herself.

è you are put out from her for the play and yet always safe in her

è you are being of her being

è you are consciousness of her consciousness

è you are force of her force

è you are Ananda of her Ananda.

6. When this condition is entire and her supramental energies freely move you, you will be perfect in Divine works,

7. Your knowledge, will, action will become sure, simple, luminous, spontaneous, flawless, an outflow from the Supreme, a Divine Movement of the Eternal.

Appendix 2:

5.0 Who is Apprentice Superman and Its Working?

[Source: On the Way to Supermanhood, By Satprem]

I am only realizing what He has conceived.

I am the protagonist

and the continuator of His work. – — -The Mother

One is never anything but a divine apprentice: the Divine of yesterday is only an apprentice to the Divine of tomorrow. This intermediate supermanhood between man and the supramental being or, in other words, what I call the superman.

I am learning to work. I am only an apprentice, simply an apprentice — I am learning the trade!

The Mother.

The apprentice superman could begin his battle very early, not just in himself but in his children, and not just from their birth but right from their conception.

Ø We are in our point of eternity, in a look of truth.

Ø We are at that crossroads of being, which, for a moment, seems to open innumerably upon everything.

Ø One full little second.

Ø Each passing circumstance divulges its keynote, its pure music, its innermost meaning, without addition or subtraction, without false visual color — through things and beings we watch one and the same tranquil eternity unfolding.

Ø At every moment the seeker must struggle against the old way of looking, correct himself, catch himself in the act. The new vision demands a long apprenticeship.

Ø One knows neither where it leads nor its use.

Ø And yet, the seeker comes back to it, as if drawn in spite of himself;

Ø He receives little signs, demonstrations in the flesh.

Ø It is as if somebody or something were there, watching over everything and taking advantage of the least crack in the old machinery to slip in a drop of light –

Ø a hole is needed, a crack in the shell, a lapse in the old habit of being,

Ø for the new world to get in!

Ø Little by little the seeker yields.

Ø He lets himself go,

Ø He turns his look on the thousands of everyday useless things, the meaningless incidents, the senseless encounters, the multitude of microscopic “unconnected” events.

Ø He is in his fire of being and he looks;

Ø He looks at each thing as a would-be revelation, a truth concealed; and

Ø If nothing is revealed, he still persists,

Ø He observes everything, records everything: the futile steps, the useless detours, the closed faces, the accidents without reason.

Ø Instead of jumping at the desirable, he watches its movement, how it follows its course and attains its goal;

Ø Instead of rejecting an unpleasant encounter, he watches it come, welcomes it, lets it give out its little drop of truth, its message beneath the falsehood or confusion;

Ø Instead of running away from the darkness, evil or negation flung at him, he waits calmly for the darkness to disclose its lesson for him, the evil its drop of good beneath its venom, the negation, its vaster yes awaiting its hour.

Ø And finally he discovers a YES everywhere, a good everywhere, a meaning everywhere, and that everything is ascending, moving in the Great Direction, beneath the good and the evil, the black and the white, the useful and the harmful.

Ø Gradually, the world teems with a thousand little truths twinkling here and there, filling this vacuum, plugging that useless hole, connecting things to one another, dropping the missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle into place, and everything ties together as one continuous message — every moment things whisper in our ear and destiny speaks in a dove feather lifted by the wind.

The Questions arises what is the next action item for those people who are aware of this fact?

Ø What, then, is the role of those who are beginning to understand and perhaps to experience?

Ø How does their work fit into the unconscious yoga of humanity?

Ø How can the movement spread and accelerate?

Ø What sort of collective realization can they bring into the world as a sample of what will be?

Each transition to a higher equilibrium is at first a dis-equilibrium and total disruption of the old

equilibrium. Therefore, these apprentice supermen, will be either from unorthodox elements of society or crusaders or highly evolved mental beings.

5.1 Discover the City of Truth and Advent of Truth:

ü City of Truth will not and cannot see the light of day until they themselves live totally in the Truth, and that that building site is first and foremost the site of their own transmutation.

ü One does not deceive Truth. One may deceive men, make speeches and declarations of principle, but Truth doesn’t care a damn. It catches you in the act and throws your deception right back into your face at every step. It is a merciless searchlight, even if it is invisible.

ü It catches you every time, at every twist and turn; and since it is a Truth of matter, it foils your plans, checks your gesture, confronts you with a sudden lack of materials, workers or funds, stirs up revolt, sets people at odds with each other, sows impossibilities and chaos — until, suddenly, the seeker realizes that he was on the wrong track, putting up the old false structure with new bricks and exuding his small egoism, small ambition or small ideal, his narrow idea of truth and good.

ü So he opens his eyes, opens his hands, attunes himself again to the great Law, lets the rhythm flow, and becomes clear, clear and transparent, plastic to the Truth, to the something seeking to be — anything as long as it be that, the exact gesture, the right thought, the true work, the pure truth expressing itself as it wishes, when it wishes,

in the way it wishes.

ü For a second he lets go of everything.

ü For a second he calls out to that new world — so new he understands nothing of it, but which he wants to serve, embody, grow in this rebellious soil.

ü What does it matter what he thinks, feels or deems, oh, what difference does it really make? — just let it be the true thing, the one necessary and inevitable thing. And everything tips into the light — in a second.

ü Everything instantly becomes possible: the materials arrive, and the workers and the funds, the wall crumbles, and the little egoistic structure he was building changes into a dynamic possibility he had not even suspected.

ü He repeats this experience a hundred times, a thousand times, at every level, personal and collective, from the repair of his bedroom window to the sudden million that comes as a “godsend” to build that Olympic stadium.

5.2 Trust and Carry the Power of Truth Always

ü It is a fabulous experience every minute, a test of Truth and, even more marvelously, a test of the power of Truth.

ü Step by step he learns to discover the effectiveness of Truth, the supreme effectiveness of a clear little second — he enters a world of continuous little marvels.

ü He learns to trust Truth, as if all those blows, blunders, conflicts and confusion were leading him knowingly, patiently, but relentlessly to take the right attitude, to discover the true lever, the true look, the cry of truth that topples walls and makes every possibility blossom amid the impossible chaos.

5.3 Follow Truth: The Only Law of City of the Future

ü It is an accelerated transmutation, multiplied by the resistance of each one as much as by the goodwill of each one — as if, truly, both resistance and goodwill, good and evil, had to be changed into something else, another will, a will-vision of Truth that decides the gesture and action at each instant.

ü This is the only law of the City of the Future, its only government: a clear vision that accords with the total Harmony, and spontaneously translates the perceived Truth into action.

ü The fakers are automatically eliminated by the very pressure of the Force of Truth, driven out, like fish, by a sheer excess of oxygen.

ü And if one day these ten or fifty could build a single little pyramid of truth, whose every stone has been laid with the right note, the right vibration, simple love, a clear look and a call to the future, the whole city would actually be built, because they would have built the being of the future in themselves.

ü And perhaps the whole earth would find itself changed by it, because there is only one body, because the difficulty of the one is the difficulty of the world, the resistance and darkness of the other are the resistance and darkness of the whole world, and because that insignificant little enterprise of a tiny city under the stars may be the very Enterprise of the world, the symbol of its transmutation, the alchemy of its pain, the possibility of a new earth by the single transfiguration of one piece of earth and one piece of mankind.

5.4 Develop the Fighting Muscles Against Suffering — The Law of Falsehood

ü To prevent the City of Divine Truth under construction, the Lord of Suffering or Falsehood comes full blazing and intensify its operation relentlessly in more violent and merciless manner.

ü Suffering is a sign of falsehood, the product of falsehood; they go hand and hand. Although City of Truth contains both positive and negative possibilities, still Falsehood is skilled at holding on to the insignificant minute details, resistance at sticking to everyday trifles and continue its attacks from the subconscient level. Falsehood knows how to make great sacrifices. It can follow a discipline, extol an ideal, collect merit badges and Brownie points. To believe that suffering is enriching is to believe that cancer is a boon from the gods.

ü This City of the Future is a battlefield, a difficult adventure. What is decided over there with machine guns, guerrilla warfare and glorious deeds is decided here with sordid details and an invisible warfare against falsehood. But a single victory won over petty human egoism is more pregnant with consequences for the earth than the rearranging of all the frontiers of Asia, for this frontier and this egoism are the original barbed wire that divides the world.

ü Like all virtues, this negative virtue leaves a permanent shadow on us; and even the unobscured sun is still blemished by it. The blows, truly and necessarily, leave their mark; they produce liberated beings with scorched hearts who remember having suffered.

ü That memory is yet another veil over the artless look. The law of the gods is a sunlit one. And perhaps the whole work of Sri Aurobindo and Mother is to have brought the world the possibility of a sunlit path on which suffering, pain and disaster are no longer necessary in order to progress.

5.5 Create the City of Future Brick by Brick

1. The apprentice superman does not believe in suffering.

2. Believes in enrichment through joy;

3. Believes in Harmony.

4. Does not believe in education;

5. Believes in the power of truth in the heart of all things and all beings –

6. He Only helps that truth to grow with as little interference as possible.

7. Trusts in the powers of that truth.

8. Knows that man always moves toward his goal, inexorably, despite everything he is told or taught — he only tries to suppress that “despite.”

9. He simply waters that little sapling of truth — and then again, with some caution, for some saplings prefer a sandy and rocky soil.

10. But, at least, in that City — or rather, laboratory of the future — the child will be born in less stifling conditions.

11. Will not be brainwashed, met at every street corner by screaming posters,

12. Will not be corrupted by television or poisoned by vulgar movies,

13. Will not be burdened by all the vibrations of anxiety, fear or desire that his mother may

have conscientiously accumulated in her womb through “entertaining” reading, debilitating films or a torn home life — for everything is recorded, the slightest vibration, the least shock; everything enters the embryo freely, remains and accumulates there.

14. The child of that City will be born with a flame, consciously, voluntarily, without having to undo millennia of animality or abysses of prejudice.

15. Will not be told incessantly that he has to earn a living, for nobody will earn a living in the City of the Future, nobody will have money.

16. Living will be devoted to serving the Truth, each according to his capacity or talent, and the only earnings will be joy.

17. Will not be deluged with musts and must-nots;

18. Will only be shown the immediate sadness of not listening to the right little note.

19. Will not be tormented with the idea of finding a job, being a success, outranking others, passing or failing grades,

5.6 Follow All Conditions and Beauty of City of Future

20. Nobody succeeds or fails, nobody has “a job,”

21. Nobody takes precedence over anybody;

22. One does the one job of pursuing a clear little note that lights up everything,

23. One does everything for one, takes care of everything for one,

24. Unites everything in its tranquil harmony, and

25. Whose only success is to be in accord with itself and with the whole.

26. Will not learn to depend on a teacher, a book or a machine, but to rely on that little flame inside, that sprightly little flowing that

ü guides his steps,

ü prompts a discovery,

ü leads by chance to an experience and

ü brings out knowledge effortlessly.

27. Will learn to cultivate the powers of his body the way others today cultivate the powers of push buttons.

28. His faculties will not be confined in ready-made forms of vision and comprehension;

29. In him will be fostered a vision that has nothing to do with the eyes,

30. A comprehension that is not from books,

31. Dreams of other worlds that prepare tomorrow’s, direct communications and instant intuitions and subtle senses.

32. And if machines are still used in the City of the Future,

33. he will be told that they are temporary crutches until we find in our own heart the source of the pure Power which will one day transmute matter as we now transmute a blank sheet of paper into a green prairie with the stroke of a pencil.

34. He will be taught the Look, the true and potent look, the look that creates, that changes everything –

35. he will be taught to use his own powers and to believe in his power of truth, and that the purer and clearer he is, in harmony with the Law, the more matter responds to Truth.

36. And, instead of entering a prison, the child will grow up in an atmosphere of natural oneness,

37. Free of “you,”, “me,” “yours” or “mine,” where he will not have been taught constantly to put up screens and mental barriers,

38. But to be consciously what he unconsciously has been since the beginning of time:

ü to extend himself into all that is and lives,

ü to feel in all that feels,

ü to comprehend through an identical more profound breathing,

ü through a silence that carries everything,

ü to recognize the same little flame everywhere,

ü to love the same clear little flowing everywhere, and

ü to be the self everywhere, behind a thousand different faces and in a thousand

musics that are a single music.

39. Then there will be no more boundaries inside or outside,

40. No more “I want,” “I take,”

41. No more lack or absence, no more confined and lonely self,

42. No more against or for, good or evil.

43. There will be one single supreme Harmony in thousands of bodies,

ü plucking its chord in this one and that one, this circumstance and that accident, this gesture and that one,

ü unifying everything in one single movement whose

Ø every second is perfect

Ø and every act true,

Ø every word exact,

Ø every thought right,

Ø every line rhythmical,

Ø every heart in unison — and

44. Truth will mold matter according to its right vision.

45. And this little city without boundaries will radiate by its simple power of truth,

a. Attracting what must be attracted,

b. discarding what must be discarded, simply by its own force of concentration,

c. touching this point of the universe or that one, this soul or that one,

d. answering thousands of invisible calls,

e. continuously emitting its high, clear note which will brighten the world and lighten hearts, unbeknownst to all.

46. For such is Truth, so simple no one sees it, so light it travels around the world in a second, unties knots, crosses boundaries and pours out its marvelous possibility in the midst of all the impossibilities, at the slightest call.

5.7 Merge with the Divine in World of Silence and Stillness

47. He lost his small self, lost his small ideas of family and country, good and evil — he has in effect no more ideas, or has them all, exactly when needed.

48. For him, ideas and feelings are simply the imperative translation of a movement of force — a will-idea or force-idea

49. It is one and the same Force of the Divine in different languages — pictorial, musical, material or economic. He is tuned in to the Rhythm Divine.

There every thought and feeling is an act,

And every act a symbol and a sign,

And every symbol hides a living power. — Savitri

50. He is perfectly still and tranquil, like the lotus on the pond, drinking in the rays of the sun, without a quiver, without a ripple, without the least trace of “I want” anywhere — He only wants what that wants. — Simplicity of Truth

51. His tranquil silence is not inactivity — nothing is inactive in the world, not even even the silence of the immobile Buddha on the verge of Nirvana

52. He does not do any ecstatic meditations atop a festooned gaddhi nor show off a white beard and immaculate clothing

53. He attends to the trifling details of life, and no one knows who he is.

54. He cares nothing about being recognized, he who recognizes all.

55. And those trifling details are the minute lever with which he operates on all similar substance throughout the world,

56. for there are no boundaries anywhere, except in our heads and our small imprisoned body — life extends infinitely, and, this sorrow, a thousand sorrows.

57. His whole life becomes an intense meditation.

Its stillness bears the voice of the world

58. His gestures are the symbol of a great Rite that embraces the stars and the movement of crowds, together with this young locust sapling and that wayside encounter.

59. He may also lead a revolution or accomplish an awe-inspiring and striking deed, if such is the flow of the Truth in him.

60. He is unpredictable, elusive as Truth itself;

61. He chaffs as he looks grave and smiles as he pores over the world’s misery;

62. for he listens to invisible calls and works ceaselessly to pour the Rhythm Divine over the earth’s wounds

63. He does not perform miracles that flare up like a flash in the pan, then leave the earth to its unrepentant darkness;

64. He does not play with occult siddhis that upset the laws of matter for a time, then let it

fall back into its old routine of pain;

65. He has no need to convert men or preach to nations, for he knows all too well that men are not converted by ideas or words or by sensational demonstrations, but by a change of inner density, which creates a sudden little breath of ease and sunshine in the darkness — he sows another law in the world, opens the window to another sun;

66. He changes the density of hearts by the tranquil outpouring of his ray.

67. He does not strike or break, does not condemn or judge; he tries to free the same particle of truth contained in each being and each thing and each event, and convert each by its own sun.

68. His power is a power of truth, of matter to matter, and his vision embraces everything, because he has found the little point within that contains all points and beings and places.

69. He sees the whole earth and its millions of buds growing toward their kindred Truth, and the world’s exact position in a faltering of chance or the remark of a passerby. Everything is his field of action.

70. Through the minuscule, he acts upon the whole; in the minuscule, he deciphers the whole.

5.8 Prepare a Luminous Body for the Divine Work

71. From one end of the world to the other, he touches his own body.

72. But the work is not finished. Evolution has not reached its summit; it has not even entered its solar Truth.

73. Our widened consciousness, our direct perceptions, our refined senses, our exact gestures and movements, our perfect actions, our right thoughts and right wills, our unalterable joy would still rest upon an animal body — an aging, precarious and decaying body, which would threaten our luminous poise with abrupt collapse at every moment

74. The new being will not come out of the clear blue sky, ready-made. We have to make it!

75. For the point is not to produce a mind endowed with miraculous and luminous powers, to impose on this body a law superior to its own, or even to push the physical substance to its supreme degree of refinement, but “to create a new physical nature,” and yet out of this body, this poor, frail animal body, since it is our very base, our instrument of evolution

76. We have to find the key to our own transmutation in our substance, the Secret of all secrets in the microscopic, in the smallest cells.

77. We must knock at the door of death and free its powerful secret — for Truth hides there too, since everything that is Truth.

78. We must unseal the rock of the Inconscient and find the primal base, the solar foundation upon which all existence rests.

79. We have to touch rock bottom in order to touch the supreme Sun.

A voice arose that was so sweet and terrible

It thrilled the heart with love and pain, as if all hell

Tuned with all heaven in one inextricable note.

Born from abysmal depths on highest heights to float,

It carried all sorrow that the souls of creatures share,

Yet hinted every rapture that the gods can bear.

80. Within a cell of our body lies the identical mystery of all galaxies and all earths.

81. Our Soul — One point, one minuscule point, contains all — the supreme Power and ever radiant Truth, the supreme darkness and death eternal (or so it seems), bound together in a perilous embrace pregnant with an inconceivable Possibility.

82. It is up to us to unravel this knot, this mortal mixture, up to us to find the key and dare the supreme adventure

The path of descent is not yet finished.

5.9 Final Work of Victory Over Death

83. The Seeker is no longer caught up in the mental machinery or the vital machinery; or to the subconscious machinery

84. Those forces still remain like a shadow on a movie screen, or a lingering memory of pain, a sort of old but still sensitive wound.

85. They have no longer any hold on the Awakened Soul, except through that shadow, which taints joy and leaves a dull feeling of uneasiness in the depths,

86. an unfathomable something still unhealed, a sort of lurking Threat without a face or a name — something is still there, like the memory of a catastrophe that can unleash catastrophe at any moment — as if everything were in fact terribly precarious and one forgetful second were enough to tip everything over into the old mortal habit again

87. An infallible Supreme Hand outlines its meanders in order to take us directly, through a thousand detours, to its happy totality

The one inevitable supreme result

No will can take away and no doom change,

The crown of conscious immortality,

The godhead promised to our struggling souls

When first man’s heart dared death and suffered life.

88. Hence, it is not through an arbitrary and morbid decision of his own that the seeker will undertake this dark descent — for a long time he has stopped willing anything, he only obeys the little rhythm, the flowing that is growing in him, and directs it here or there according to where it presses.

89. The descent takes place gradually, almost unknown to him, but it is accompanied, as it were, by certain phenomena which become increasingly clear and define the “psychological conditions” of the descent.

90. These psychological conditions are threefold.

ü There is that little “flowing” we have often spoken about,

ü there is that “Divine Rhythm,” and

ü there is that “fire” of being which opens the doors of the new world.

91. One may be tempted to think that this is a poetic fiction, an imagery for children, but it is nothing of the sort, and the whole world is a poem becoming true, an image becoming clear, a rhythm taking body.

92. Little by little, a Child looks at the world with eyes of Truth and discovers the lovely Image that was always there;

93. He listens to an undying Rhythm and, attuned to that Rhythm, he enters the immortality he had never ceased to be.

94. That flowing actually grows, that rhythm becomes clearer, that fire intensifies as the first mental and vital layers are clarified.

95. In fact, it is no longer simply a “flowing” but a sort of continuous current, a descending mass that envelops first the crown of the head and the nape of the neck, then the chest, the heart, the solar plexus, the abdomen, the sex organs, the legs, and which even seems to reach under the feet, as if there were an extension of being all the way down

there, an abyss of existence.

96. There is only one Force, Force of the Supreme

97. It is our receptivity which changes and makes it look different from what it always was.

98. It is that “flowing” which spontaneously, automatically, without any will or decision on our part (all our wills add more confusion), effects the descent, overturns obstacles, exposes falsehoods under its relentless searchlight, exposes the gray elf, brings to light all our hiding places, cleanses, purifies, widens and brings infinity to each level and into

each cranny — and does not give up, does not stop for a second until everything, down to the least detail, the smallest movement, is restored to its original joy, its infinity, its light, its clear vision, its right will and divine acquiescence.

99. This is the Force of the yoga, the Consciousness-Force Sri Aurobindo spoke of.

100. It is the one which forges the superman, the one which will forge the supramental being — the one which will forge itself in that forgetfulness of itself.

101. It starts dislodging all signs of falsehoods: wrong thoughts and wrong impulses of the mind and heart, illnesses are the falsehoods of the body — and death the foremost of all falsehood.