Selections from the Works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother
This compilation deals with the aims and ideals of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, its character and way of life. The subjects covered include living in the Ashram, the practice of the Integral Yoga, the place of work, relations with others, religion, philanthropy, politics and business. The texts are all brief passages from the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother; most are letters to disciples who were living in the Ashram. At the end there are notes on Sri Aurobindo, the Mother and the Ashram, and a glossary.
The book has been prepared especially for the members of the Ashram, but it will be of interest to anyone who wishes to understand the purpose of the Ashram and its way of life.
Chapter 1
THE FOUNDATION
Sri Aurobindo1 lived at first in retirement at Pondicherry with four or five disciples. Afterwards more and yet more began to come to him to follow his spiritual path and the number became so large that a community of sadhaks had to be formed for the maintenance and collective guidance of those who had left everything behind for the sake of a higher life. This was the foundation of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram which has less been created than grown around him as its centre.
SRI AUROBINDO
*
There was no Ashram at first, only a few people came to live near and practise Yoga. It was only some time after the Mother came from Japan that it took the form of the Ashram, more from the wish of the Sadhaks who desired to entrust their whole inner and outer life to the Mother than from any intention or plan of hers or of Sri Aurobindo.
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The facts are: In the meantime, the Mother, after a long stay in France and Japan, returned to Pondicherry on the 24th April, 1920. The number of disciples then showed a tendency to increase rather rapidly. When the Ashram began to develop, it fell to the Mother to organise it; Sri Aurobindo soon retired into seclusion and the whole material and spiritual charge of it devolved on her.
Mother was doing Yoga before she knew or met Sri Aurobindo; but their lines of Sadhana independently followed the same course. When they met, they helped each other in perfecting the Sadhana. What is known as Sri Aurobindo's Yoga is the joint creation of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo they are now completely identified the Sadhana in the Ashram and all arrangement is done directly by the Mother, Sri Aurobindo supports her from behind. All who come here for practising Yoga have to surrender themselves to the Mother who helps them always and builds up their spiritual life.
The Mother is not a disciple of Sri Aurobindo. She has had the same realisation and experience as myself.
The Mother's Sadhana started when she was very young. When she was twelve or thirteen, every evening many teachers came to her and taught her various spiritual disciplines. Among them was a dark Asiatic figure. When we first met, she immediately recognized me as the dark Asiatic figure whom she used to see a long time ago. That she should
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come here and work with me for a common goal was, as it were, a divine dispensation.
The Mother was an adept in the Buddhist yoga and the yoga of the Gita even before she came to India. Her yoga was moving towards a grand synthesis. After this, it was natural that she should come here. She has helped and is helping to give a concrete form to my yoga. This would not have been possible without her co_operation.
One of the two great steps in this yoga is to take refuge in the Mother.2
At the beginning of my present earthly existence I came into contact with many people who said that they had a great inner aspiration, an urge towards something deeper and truer, but that they were tied down, subjected, slaves to that brutal necessity of earning their living, and that this weighed them down so much, took up so much of their time and energy that they could not engage in any other activity, inner or outer. I heard this very often, I saw many poor people I don't mean poor from the monetary point of view, but poor because they felt imprisoned in a narrow and deadening material necessity.
I was very young at that time, and I always used to tell myself that if ever I could do it, I would try to create a little world-oh! quite a small one, but still small world where people would be able to live without having to be preoccupied with food and lodging and clothing and
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the imperative necessities of life, to see whether all the energies freed by this certainty of a secure material living would turn spontaneously towards the divine life and the inner realisation.
Well, towards the middle of my life-at least, what is , usually the middle of a human life-the means were given to me and . I could realise this, that is, I could create these conditions of life.
THE MOTHER
THE AIM
My aim is to create a centre of spiritual life which shall serve as a means of bringing down the higher consciousness and making it a power not merely for 'salvation' but for a divine life upon earth. It is with this object that I have withdrawn from public life and founded this Ashram in Pondicherry (so called for want of a better word, for it is not an Ashram of Sannyasins, but of those who want to leave all else and prepare for this rule).
SRI AUROBlNDO
This is not an Ashram like others-the members are not Sannyasis; it is not moksa that is the sole aim of the yoga here. What is being done here is a preparation for a work-a work which will be founded on yogic consciousness and Yoga-Shakti, and can have no other foundation. Meanwhile, every member here is expected to do some work in the Ashram as part of this spiritual preparation.
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This Ashram has been created with another object than that ordinarily common to such institutions, not for the renunciation of the world but as a centre and a field of practice for the evolution of another kind and form of life which would in the final end be moved by a higher spiritual consciousness and embody a greater life of the spirit. There is no general rule as to the stage at which one may leave the ordinary life and enter here; in each case it depends on the personal need and impulsion and the possibility or the advisability for one to take the step
The usual sadhanas have for aim the union with the Supreme Consciousness (Sat-chit-ananda). And those who reach there are satisfied with their own liberation and leave the world to its unhappy plight. On the contrary Sri Aurobindo's sadhana starts where the others end. Once the union with the Supreme is realised one must bring down that realisation to the exterior world and change the conditions of life upon the earth until a total transformation is accomplished. In accordance with this aim, the sadhaks of the integral yoga do not retire from the world to lead a life of contemplation and meditation. Each one must devote at least one-third of his time to a useful work. All activities are represented in the Ashram and each one chooses the work most congenial to his nature, but must do it in a spirit of service and unselfishness, keeping always in view the aim of integral transformation.
To make this purpose possible the Ashram is organised so that all its inmates find their reasonable needs satisfied and have not to worry about their subsistence.
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The rules are very few so that each one can enjoy the freedom needed for his development but a few things are strictly forbidden: they are-(1) politics, (2) smoking, (3) alcoholic drink and (4) sex enjoyment.
Great care is taken for the maintenance of good health and the welfare and normal growth of the body of all, small and big, young and old.
24 September 1953
Here we do not have religion. We replace religion by the spiritual life, which is truer, deeper and higher at the same time, that is to say, closer to the Divine. For the Divine is in everything, but we are not conscious of it. This is the immense progress that man must make.
Ours is neither a political nor a social but a spiritual goal. What we want is a transformation of the individual consciousness, not a change of regime or government. For reaching that goal we put no confidence in any human means, however powerful; our trust is in the Divine Grace alone.
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A LABORATORY OF YOGA
It is necessary or rather inevitable that in an Ashram which is a "laboratory", as X puts it, for a spiritual and supra- mental yoga, humanity should be variously represented. For the problem of transformation has to deal with all sorts of elements favourable and unfavourable. The same man indeed carries in him a mixture of these two things. If only sattwic and cultured men come for yoga, men without very much of the vital difficulty in them, then, because the difficulty of the vital element in terrestrial nature has not been faced and overcome, it might well be that the endeavour would fail. There might conceivably be under certain circumstances an overmental layer superimposed on the mental, vital and physical, and influencing them, but hardly anything supramental or a sovereign transmutation of the human being. Those in the Ashram come from all quarters and are of all kinds; it cannot be otherwise.
In the course of the yoga, collectively-though not for each one necessarily-as each plane is dealt with, all its difficulties arise. That will explain much in the Ashram that people do not expect there. When the preliminary work is over in the "laboratory", things must change.
Also, much stress has not been laid on human fellowship of the ordinary kind between the inmates (though good feeling, consideration and courtesy should always be there,) because that is not the aim; it is unity in a new consciousness that is the aim, and the first thing is for each to do his sadhana, to arrive at that new consciousness and realise oneness there.
Whatever faults are there in the sadhaks must be removed by the Light from above-a sattwic rule can only change
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natures predisposed to a sattwic rule.
GROWTH BY CONSCIOUSNESS
What seems to me of more importance is to try to explain how things are worked out here. Indeed very few are the people who understand it and still fewer those who realise it.
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. The two obstacles that stand in the way of a smooth and harmonious working in and through the Sadhaks are:
(l) the preconceived ideas and mental constructions which block the way to the influence and the working of the Conscious Force. (2) the preferences and impulses of the vital which distort and falsify the expression. Both these things are the natural output of the ego. Without the interference of these two elements my physical intervention would not be necessary. . . . There is a clear precise perception of the Force and the Consciousness at work, and whenever this Force gets distorted or the Consciousness is obscured in their action,I
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have to interfere and rectify the movement. In most cases things are mixed up and there again I have to intervene to separate the distorted transcription from the pure one.
Otherwise a great freedom of action is left to all, because the Conscious Force can express itself in innumerable ways and for the perfection and integrality of the manifestation no ways are to be a priori excluded, a trial is very often given before the selection is made.
Sri Aurobindo has told us and we are convinced by experience that above the mind there is a consciousness much wiser than the mental wisdom, and in the depths of things there is a will much more powerful than. the human will.
All our endeavour is to make this consciousness and this will govern our lives and action and organise all our activities. It is the way in which the Ashram has been created. Since 1926 when Sri Aurobindo retired and gave me full charge of it (at that time there were only two rented houses and a handful of disciples) all has grown up and developed like the growth of a forest, and each service was created not by any artificial planning but by a living and dynamic need.This is the secret of constant growth and endless progress. The present difficulties come chiefly from psychological resistances in the disciples who have not been able to follow the rather rapid pace of the "sadhana" and the yielding to the intrusion of mental methods which have corrupted the initial working.
A growth and purification of the consciousness is the only remedy.
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None of the present achievements of humanity, however great they are, can be for us an ideal to follow. The wide world is there as a field of experiment for human ideals.
Our purpose is quite different and if our chances of success are small just now, we are sure that we are working to prepare the future.
I know that from the external point of view we are below many of the present achievements in this world, but our aim is not a perfection in accordance with the human standards. We are endeavouring for something else which belongs to the future.
The Ashram has been founded and is meant to be the cradle of the new world. The inspiration is from above, the guiding force is from above, the creative power is from above, at work for the descent of the new realisation.
It is only by its shortcomings, its deficiencies and its failures that the Ashram belongs to the present world. None of the present achievements of humanity have the power to pull the Ashram out of its difficulties. It is only a total conversion of all its members and an integral opening to the descending Light of Truth that can help it to realise itself. The task, no doubt, is a formidable one, but we received the command to accomplish it and we are upon earth for that purpose alone. We shall continue up to the end with an unfailing trust in the Will and the Help of the Supreme. The door is open and will always remain open to all those who decide to give their life for that purpose.
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Chapter 2
LIVING IN THE ASHRAM AND OUTSIDE
By coming to the Ashram difficulties do not cease-they have to be faced and overcome wherever you are. For certain natures residence in the Ashram from the beginning is helpful-others have to prepare themselves outside.
Do not judge on appearances and do not listen to what people say, because these two things are misleading. But if you find it necessary to go, of course you can go and from an external point of view it may be indeed wiser.
Moreover it is not easy to remain here. There is in the Ashram no exterior discipline and no Visible test. But the inner test is severe and constant, one must be very sincere in the aspiration to surmount all egoism and to conquer all vanity in order to be able to stay.
A complete surrender is not outwardly exacted but it is indispensable for those who wish to stick on, and many things come to test the sincerity of the surrender. However the Grace and the help are always there for those who aspire for them and their power is limitless when received with faith and cofidence.
20 November 1948
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The path is not an easy one.
To remain here is possible only for those who feel deep in themselves that here is the only place in the world Where they must live.
This may - (must) - come to you - but meanwhile it is better to go back to the world and see what it has to give you.
I will be with you always in your aspiration towards a more true future.
3 July 1968
THE FIRST CONDITION OF ADMISSION
It is not from disgust for life and people that one must come to yoga.
It is not to run away from difficulties that one must come here.
It is not even to find the sweetness of love and protection, for the Divine's love and protection can be enjoyed everywhere if one takes the right attitude.
When one wants to give oneself totally in service to the Divine, to consecrate oneself totally to the Divine's work, simply for the joy of giving oneself and of serving, without asking for anything in exchange, except the possibility of consecration and service, then one is ready to come here and will find the doors wide open.
I give you the blessings given to all my children wherever they are in the world and tell you, "Prepare yourself, my help will always be with you."
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You say that you wish to lead the spiritual life, but for that you should understand that the first point is to overcome all the lower movements, all the attractions, all the attachments, for all these are absolutely contrary to the spiritual life.
The spiritual life demands that one is exclusively turned towards the Divine and the Divine alone. All that one does should be done for the Divine; all occupations, all aspirations, all, without exception, should be directed towards the Divine with a complete surrender of the whole being.
I know that this cannot be done in a day. But the decision that it may be so should be taken in an unshakable manner.
It is only on this condition that I can accept you for the spiritual life.
First indispensable condition
to be admitted in the Ashram
The candidate must have taken the resolution to dedicate his life unconditionally to the service of the Divine.
The Ashram is meant for those who want to consecrate their lives to the Divine.
June 1971
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QUALITIES INDISPENSABLE FOR PROGRESS
What should the Ashramites, if they truly wish to transform themselves totally, do in order to make things easy for themselves, for others and for the Mother as well?
By definition, the Ashramite has resolved to dedicate his life to the Divine Realisation. But to be true to his resolution he must be sincere, faithful, modest and grateful in his consecration, because these qualities are indispensable for all progress, and progress, a steady and rapid progress, is indispensable to follow the pace of Nature's evolutionary advance.
Without these qualities, one may have sometimes the appearance of progress but it is only an appearance, a pretence, and at the first occasion it crumbles down.
To be sincere, all the parts of the being must be united in their aspiration for the Divine - not that one part wants and the others refuse or revolt. To be sincere in the aspiration, -to want the Divine for the Divine's sake, not for fame or name or prestige or power or any satisfaction of vanity.
To be faithful and steady in their consecration,-not to have faith one day and the next one, because things are not as they wish them to be, to lose their faith and shelter all sorts of doubts. Doubt is not a sport to indulge in with impunity; it is a poison which drop by drop corrodes the soul.
To be modest means to have correct appreciation of what one is, and never to forget that whatever are one's achievements, they are practically nothing in comparison with what one ought to be to fulfil the Lord's expectation.
And above all to feel in an absolute way one's own incapacity to judge the Divine and His ways.
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To be grateful, never to forget this wonderful Grace of the Supreme who leads each one to his divine goal by the shortest ways, in spite of himself, his ignorance and misunderstandings, in spite of the ego, its protests and its revolts.
The pure flame of gratefulness must always burn in our heart, warm, sweet and bright, to dissolve all egoism and all obscurity; the flame of gratefulness for the Supreme's Grace who leads the Sadhak to his goal-and the more he is grateful, recognises this action of the Grace and is thankful for it, the shorter is the way.
What qualities are necessary for one to be called "a true child of the Ashram"?
Sincerity, courage, discipline, endurance, absolute faith in the Divine work and unassailable trust in the Divine Grace. All this must be accompanied by a sustained, ardent and persevering aspiration, and by a limitless patience.
THE NECESSITIES OF A SADHAK
The necessities of a sadhak should be as few as possible; for there are only a very few things that are real necessities in life. The rest are either utilities or things decorative to life or luxuries. These a yogin has a right to possess or enjoy only on one of two conditions -
(1) If he uses them during his sadhana solely to train himself in possessing things without attachment or desire and
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learn to use them rightly, in harmony with the Divine Will, with a proper handling, a just organisation, arrangement and measure - or,
(2) if he has already attained a true freedom from desire and attachment and is not in the least moved or affected in any way by loss or withholding or deprival. If he has any greed, desire, demand, claim for possession or enjoyment, any anxiety, grief, anger or vexation when denied or deprived, he is not free in spirit and his use of the things he possesses is contrary to the spirit of sadhana. Even if he is free in spirit, he will not be fit for possession if he has not learned to use things not for himself, but for the Divine Will, as an instrument, with the right knowledge and action in the use, for the proper equipment of a life lived not for oneself but for and in the Divine.
8 March 1932
It is quite true that, so long at least as the Sadhaks are not Siddha Yogis, self-control is the law; they have to learn to refrain from indulgence of excess in any direction -the provision made for them being ample for a Sadhak and much more than is allowed elsewhere- and from negligence, greed or the pursuit of individual fancy.
The Mother does not provide the Sadhaks with comforts because she thinks that the desires, fancies, likings, preferences should be satisfied-in Yoga people have to overcome these things. In any other Ashram they would not get one tenth of 'what they get here, they would have to put up
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with all possible discomforts, privations, hard and rigorous austerities, and if they complained, they would be told they were not fit for Yoga. If there is a different rule here, it is not because the desires have to be indulged, but because they have to be overcome in the presence of the objects of desire and not in their absence. The first rule of Yoga is that the Sadhak must be content with what comes to him, much or little; if things are there, he must be able to use them without attachment or desire; if they are not he must be indifferent to their absence.
7 January 1937
COMFORT AND HAPPINESS
The reason for people to come and settle here is surely not to find comfort and luxury -this can be found anywhere if one is lucky enough. But what one can get here, that is not got in any other place: it is the Divine Love, Grace and-Care. It is when this is forgotten or disregarded that people begin to feel miserable here. Indeed whenever somebody feels unhappy and discontented, it can be taken as a sure sign that he is turning his back on what the Divine is always giving and that he has gone astray in pursuit of worldly satisfaction.
13 January 1947
If you want to be happy here, you must come with the will to do the yoga of self-perfection; for if you do not come for that, you will be shocked at every moment by things that are contrary to your habits and to the principles of ordinary life, and it will not be possible for you to stay here, because
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these things are necessary for the work and organisation here and cannot be changed.
People who feel miserable here and find that they have not the comfort they require ought not to stay. We are not in a position to do more than we do, and after all our aim is not to give to people a comfortable life, but to prepare them for a Divine Life which is quite a different affair.
1964
Sri Aurobindo said that the physical was to be taken into the yoga and not rejected or neglected. And almost all here thought they were doing yoga in the physical and fell a prey to physical "needs" and desire.
To speak frankly, I like better that mistake than that of the so-called ascetics who are full of contempt, bad will and scornful feeling for others.
No time to say all that could be said on the subject.
We are not here to make our life easy and comfortable; we are here to find the Divine, to become the Divine, to manifest the Divine.
What happens to us is the Divine's business, it is not our concern.
The Divine knows better than we do what is good for the progress of the world and of ourselves.
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Chapter 3
WHAT IS THE INTEGRAL YOGA?
There are many Yogas, many spiritual disciplines, paths towards liberation and perfection, Godward ways of the spirit. Each has its separate aim, its peculiar approach to the One Reality, its separate method, its helpful philosophy and its practice. The integral Yoga takes up all of them in their essence and tries to arrive at a unification (in essence, not in detail) of all these aims, methods, approaches; it stands for an all-embracing philosophy and practice.
The integral Yoga is so called because it aims at a harmonised totality of spiritual realisation and experience. Its aim is integral experience of the Divine Reality, what the Gita describes in the words samagram mam, "the whole Me" of the Divine Being. Its method is an integral opening of the whole consciousness, mind, heart, life, will, body to that Reality, to the Divine Existence, Consciousness, Beatitude, to its being and its integral transformation of the whole nature.
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THE OBJECT OF THE YOGA
The yoga we practice 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. Its object is not personal Mukti, although Mukti is a necessary condition of the yoga, but the liberation and transformation of the human being. It is not personal Ananda, but the bringing down of the divine Ananda . . . upon the earth.
The object of the yoga is to enter into and be possessed by the Divine Presence and Consciousness, to love the Divine for the Divine's sake alone, to be tuned in our nature into the nature of the Divine, and in our will and works and life to be the instrument of the Divine.
THE CALL TO THE YOGA
The goal of yoga is always hard to reach, but this one is more difficult than any other, and it is only for those who have the call, the capacity, the willingness to face everything and every risk, even the risk of failure, and the will to progress towards an entire selflessness, desirelessness and surrender.
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This yoga implies not only the realisation of God, but an entire consecration and change of the inner and outer life till it is fit to manifest a divine consciousness and as become part of a divine work. This means an inner discipline far more exacting and difficult than mere ethical and physical austerities. One must not enter on this path, far vaster and more arduous than most ways of yoga, unless one is sure of the psychic call and of one's readiness to go through to the end.
By readiness, I did not mean capacity but willingness. If there is the will within to face all difficulties and go through, no matter how long it takes, then the path can be taken.
22 February 1936
NO SET METHOD
The way of yoga must be a living thing, not a mental principle or a set method to be stuck to against all necessary variations.
The general principle of self-consecration and self-giving is the same for all in this yoga, but each has his own way of consecration and self-giving. The way that X takes is good for X, just as the way that you take is the right one for you, because it is in consonance with your nature. If there were not this plasticity and variety, if all had to be cut in
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the same pattern, yoga would be a rigid mental machinery, not a living power.
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.
SELF-OPENING
The object of the self-opening is to allow the force of the Divine to flow in bringing light, peace, Ananda, etc. and to do the work of transformation. When the being so receives the Divine Shakti and it works in him, produces its results (whether he is entirely conscious of the process or not,) the he is said to be open.
In this yoga all depends on whether one can open to the Influence or not. If there is a sincerity in the aspiration and a patient will to arrive at the higher consciousness in spite of all obstacles, then the opening in one form or another is sure to come. But it may take a long or short time according to
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the prepared or unprepared condition of the mind, heart and body; so if one has not the necessary patience, the effort may be abandoned owing to the difficulty of the beginning. There is no method in this yoga except to concentrate, preferably in the heart, and call the presence and power of the Mother to take up the being and by the workings of her force transform the consciousness; one can concentrate also in the head or between the eyebrows, but for many this is a too difficult opening. When the mind falls quiet and the concentration becomes strong and the aspiration intense, then there is a beginning of experience. The more the faith, the more rapid the result is likely to be. For the rest one must not depend on one's own efforts only, but succeed in establishing a contact with the Divine and a receptivity to the Mother's Power and Presence.
There are two ways of doing Yoga, one by knowledge and one's own efforts, the other by reliance on the Mother. In the last way one has to offer one's mind and heart and all to the Mother for her Force to work on it, call her in all difficulties, have faith and bhakti. At first it takes time, often a long time, for the consciousness to be prepared in this way - and during that time many difficulties can come up, but if one perseveres a time comes when all is ready, the Mother's Force opens the consciousness fully to the Divine, then all that must develop develops within, spiritual experience comes and with it the knowledge and union with the Divine.
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Keep yourself open to the Mother, remember her always and ket ger force work in you, rejecting all other influences-that is the rule for yoga.
By remaining psychically open to the Mother, all that is necessary for work or Sadhana develops progressively, that is one of the chief secrets, the central secret of the Sadhana,
SURRENDER
There is not much spiritual meaning in keeping open to the Mother if you withhold your surrender. Self-giving or surrender is demanded of those who practise this Yoga, because without such a progressive surrender of the being it is quite impossible to get anywhere near the goal. To keep open means to call in her Force to work in you, and if you do not surrender to it, it amounts to not allowing the Force to work in you at all or only on condition that it will work in the way you want and not in its own way which is the way of the Divine Truth.
Surrender is giving oneself to the Divine-to give everything one is or has to the Divine and regard nothing as one's own, to obey only the Divine will and no other, to live for the Divine and not for the ego.
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If one wanted the Divine, the Divine himself would take up the purifying of the heart and develop the sadhana and give the necessary experiences; it can and does happen in that way if one has trust and confidence in the Divine and the will to surrender. For such a taking up involves one's putting oneself in the hands of the Divine rather than relying on one's own efforts alone and this implies one's putting one's trust and confidence in the Divine and a progressive self- giving. It is in fact the principle of sadhana that I myself followed and it is the central process of yoga as I envisage it. . . .
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FAITH
Faith is a general word-shraddha-the soul's belief in the Divine's existence, wisdom, power, love and grace.
The fundamental faith in yoga is this, inherent in the soul, that the Divine exists and the Divine is the one thing to be followed after-nothing else in life is worth having in comparison with that. So long as a man has that faith, he is marked for the spiritual life and I will say that, even if his nature is full of obstacles and crammed with denials and difficulties, and even if he has many years of struggle, he is marked out for success in the spiritual life.
One must say, "Since I want only the Divine, my success is sure, I have only to walk forward in all confidence and His own Hand will be there secretly leading me to Him by His own way and at His own time." That is what you must keep as your constant mantra. Anything else one may doubt but that he who desires only the Divine shall reach the Divineis a certitude and more certain than two and two make four. That is the faith every sadhak must have at the bottom of his heart, supporting him through every stumble and blow and ordeal. It is only false ideas still casting their shadows on your mind that prevent you from having it. Push them aside and the back of the difficulty will be broken.
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The experience you had of the power of the Name and the protection is that of everyone who has used it with the same faith and reliance. To those who call from the heart for the protection, it cannot fail. Do not allow any outward circumstance to shake the faith in you; for nothing gives greater strength than this faith to go through and arrive at the goal. Knowledge and Tapasya, whatever their force, have a less sustaining power-faith is the strongest staff for the journey.
SINCERITY
To be entirely sincere means to desire the divine Truth only, to surrender yourself more and more to the Divine Mother, to reject all personal demand and desire other than this one aspiration, tooffer every action of life to the Divine and do it as the work given without bringing in the ego. This is the basis of the divine life.
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Strength, if it is spiritual, is a power for spiritual realisation; a greater power is sincerity; the greatest power of all is Grace. I have said times without number that if a man is sincere, he will go through in spite of long delay and overwhelming difficulties. I have repeatedly spoken of the Divine Grace. 1 have referred any number of times to the one of the Gita:
"I will deliver thee from all sin and evil, do not grieve."
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Chapter 4
THE MEANING OF WORK
What you write shows that you had a wrong idea of the work. The work in the Ashram was not meant as a service to humanity or to a section of it called the sadhaks of the Ashram. It was not meant either as an opportunity for a joyful social life and a flow of sentiments and attachments between the sadhaks and an expression of the vital movements, a free vital interchange whether with some or with all. The work 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. Self-affirmation is not the aim, the formation of a collective vital ego is also not the aim. The merging of the little ego in union with the Divine, purification, surrender, the substitution of the Divine guidance for one's own ignorant self-guidance based on one's personal ideas and personal feelings is the aim of Karmayoga, the surrender of one's own will to the Divine Will.
If one feels human beings to be near and the Divine to be far and seeks the Divine through service of and love of human beings and not the direct service and love of the Divine, then one is following a wrong principle -for that is
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the principle of the mental, vital and moral not the spiritual life.
I do not mean by work action done in the ego and the ignorance, for the satisfaction of the ego and in the drive of rajasic desire. There can be no Karmayoga without the will to get rid of ego, rajas and desire, which are the seals of ignorance.
I do not mean philanthropy or the service of humanity or all the rest of the things-moral or idealistic-which the mind of man substitutes for the deeper truth of works.
I mean by work action done for the Divine and more and more in union with the Divine-for the Divine alone and nothing else.
We must find the Self, the Divine, then only can we know what is the work the Self or the Divine demands from us. Until then our life and action can only be a help or means towards finding the Divine and it ought not to have any other purpose. As we grow in the inner consciousness, or as the spiritual Truth of the Divine grows in us, our life and action must indeed more and more flow from that, be one with that. But to decide beforehand by our limited mental conceptions what they must be is to hamper the growth of the spiritual Truth within. As that grows we shall feel the Divine Light and Truth, the Divine Power and Force, the Divine Purity and Peace working within us, dealing with our actions as well as our consciousness, making use of them to reshape
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us into the Divine Image, removing the dross, substituting the pure gold of the Spirit. Only when the Divine Presence is there in us always and the consciousness transformed, can we have the right to say that we are ready to manifest the Divine on the material plane.
YOGA THROUGH WORK
Yoga through work is the easiest and most effective way to enter into the stream of this Sadhana.
. . . to quiet the mind and get the spiritual experience it is necessary first to purify and prepare the nature. This sometimes takes many years. Work done with the right attitude is the easiest means for that-Le. work done without desire or ego, rejecting all movements of desire, demand or ego when they come, done as an offering to the Divine Mother, with the remembrance of her and prayer to her to manifest her force and take up the action so that there too and not only in inner silence you can feel her presence and working.
As for the work, the inner development, psychic and spiritual, is surely of the first importance and work merely as work is something quite minor. But work done as an offering to the Mother becomes itself a part of Sadhana and a means and a part of the inner development. That you will see more
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SR1 AUROBINDO
WORK AND MEDITATION
The Mother does not think that it is good to give up all work and only read and meditate. 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.
It is not our experience that by meditation alone it is possible to change the nature, nor has retirement from outward activity and work much profited those who have tried it; in many cases it has been harmful. A certain amount of concentration, an inner aspiration in the heart and an opening of the consciousness to the Mother's presence there and to the descent from above are needed. But without action, without work the nature does not really change; it is there and by contact with men that there is the test of the change in the nature. As for the work one does, there is no higher or lower work; all work is the same provided it is offered to and done for her and in her power.
6 October 1934
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THE AUROBINDO
The more I go, the more I know that it is in work that Sri Aurobindo's integral yoga is best done.
It is the old methods of yoga which demand silence and solitude.
The yoga of tomorrow is to find the Divine in work and in relation with the world.
PERFECTION IN WORK
Let us work as we pray, for indeed work is the body's best prayer to the Divine.
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.
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23 August 1955
For the work steadiness and regularity are as necessary as skill. Whatever you do, do it always carefully.
Whatever work you do, do it as perfectly as you can.
That is the best service to the Divine in man.
DISCIPLINE IN WORK
In the most physical things you have to fix a programme in order to deal with them, otherwise all becomes a sea of confusion and haphazard. Fixed rules have also to be made for the management of material things so long as people are not sufficiently developed to deal with them in the right way without rules.
I do not agree myself with him in the idea that there is perfect discipline in the Ashram; on the contrary, there is a
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great lack of it, much indiscipline, quarrelling and self-assertion. What there is is organisation and order whichthe Mother has been able to establish and maintain in spite of all that. That organisation and order is necessary for all collective work; it has been an object of admiration and surprise for all from outside who have observed the Ashram; it is the reason why the Ashram has been able to survive and outlive the malignant attacks of many people who would otherwise have got it dissolved long ago. The Mother knew very well what she was doing and what was necessary for the work she has to do.
25 February 1945
I don't see on what ground you expect order and organisation to be carried on without rules and without discipline. You seem to say that people should be allowed complete freedom with only such discipline as they choose to impose upon themselves; that might do if the only thing to be done were for each individual to get some inner realisation and life did not matter or if there were no collective life or work or none that had any importance. But this is not the case here. We have undertaken a work which includes life and action and the physical world. In what I am trying to do,the spiritual realisation is the first necessity, but it cannot be complete without an outer realisation also in life, in men, in this world. Spiritual consciousness within but also spiritual life without. The Ashram as it is now is not that ideal, for that all its members have to live in a spiritual consciousness and not in the ordinary egoistic mind and mainly rajasic vital nature. But, all the same, the Ashram is a first form which our effort has taken, a field in which the preparatory
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work has to be done. The Mother has to maintain it and for that all this order and organisation has to be there and it cannot be done without rules and discipline.
Without discipline no proper work is possible.
Without discipline no proper life is possible.
And above all, without discipline no Sadhana is possible.
Each department has necessarily a discipline and you must follow the discipline of your department. Personal feelings, grudges and misunderstandings must never interfere with the work which is done as a service to the Divine and not for human interests.
Your service to the Divine must be scrupulously honest, disinterested and unselfish, otherwise it has no value.
25 January 1965
HARMONY AND COOPERATION IN WORK
If anybody in the Ashram tries to establish a supremacy or dominating influence over others, he is in the wrong. For it is bound to be a wrong vital influence and come in the way of the Mother's work.
All the work should be done under the Mother's sole authority. All must be arranged according to her free decision. She must be free to use the capacities of each separately or together according to what is best for the work and best for the worker.
None should regard or treat another member of the Ashram as his subordinate. If he is in charge, he Should
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regard the others as his associates and helpers in the work, and he should not try to dominate or impose on them his own ideas and personal fancies, but only see to the execution of the will of the Mother. None should regard himself as a subordinate, even if he has to carry out instructions given through another or to execute under the supervision the work he has to do.
All should try to work in harmony, thinking only of how best to make the work a success; personal feelings should not be allowed to interfere, for this is a most frequent cause of disturbance in the work, failure or disorder.
If you keep this truth of the work in mindand always abide by it, difficulties are likely to disappear; for others will be influenced by the rightness of your attitude and work smoothly with your or,if through any weakness or perversity in them, thy create difficulties, the effects will fall back on them and you will feel no disturbance or trouble
12 October 1929
Independent workdoes not exist in the Ashram. All is organised and interrelated, neither the heads of departments nor the workers are independent. To learn subordination and co-operation is necessary for all collective work; without it there will be be chaos.
A clear and precise vision of what is to be done and a steady, calm and firm will to have it done are the essential conditions for an organisation to be run properly. And as a
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general rule never ask from others the virtues you do not possess yourself.
Here nobody can be an exclusive head-everyone must learn to collaborate. it is a very good discipline for vanity, self-conceit and the excessive sense of personal importance.
You seem to forget that by the fact that you are living in the Ashram, it is neither for yourself nor for a boss that you are working, but for the Divine. Your life must be entirely consecrated to the Divine Work and cannot be governed by petty human considerations.
DIFFICULTIES IN WORK
The difficulties you have are the difficulties which are met in each department and office of the Ashram. It is due to the imperfections of the Sadhaks, to their vital nature. You are mistaken in thinking that it is due to your presence there and that if you withdrew all would go smoothly. The same state of things would go on among themselves, disagreements, quarrels, jealousies, hard words, harsh criticisms of each other. . . . The way out can only come by a change in the character of the Sadhaks brought about by the process of the Sadhana. Till then you should understand and be patient and not allow yourself to be disturbed by the wrong behaviour.
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of the others, but remain quietly doing your best, sustaining yourself on the trust and support given you by X and the Mother. It is the Mother's work and the Mother is there to support you in doing it; put your reliance on that and do not allow the rest to affect you.
The greater the difficulties that rise in the work the more one can profit by them in deepening the equality, if one takes it in the right spirit. You must also keep yourself open to receive the help towards that, for the help will always be coming from the Mother for the change of the nature.
If other Sadhaks commit errors that is their responsibility, one can observe and avoid similar mistakes in oneself, but one Sadhak cannot correct the errors of others unless that comes within his responsibility-each has to correct himself and his own defects and mistakes.
If you leave it to the Mother entirely, then what the Mother would want you to do is to go on with the work as best you can without allowing yourself to be disturbed or troubled by these things which you enumerate in your letters, without insisting on your own ideas or vital feelings. That is indeed the rule that all ought to follow, to do their work here as the Mother's work, not their own; the worker must not insist on the work being done according to his own ideas; for that
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is to treat it as his own work, not the Mother's. If there are inconveniences, troubles, things done-not as he would like them to be, still he should go on doing his work as best he can under the circumstances. That is a rule of the Sadhana, to remain unconcerned by outward circumstances and quietly do what one has to do, what one can do, leaving the rest to the Mother.
As a general rule it is better not to intervene in things that do not fall within one's own work.
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.
When a baker wants his dough to rise, he puts yeast into the dough, and it is from within that the transformation takes place.
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When the Divine wanted to uplift matter, to awaken it and make it rise towards Him, He cast Himself into matter in the form Of Love, and it is from within that the transformation is taking place.
Thus it is by remaining within an organisation that one can help to illumine it and make it rise towards the Truth.
Continue your work where you are and my force and my blessings will help you always to be a living example of what must be the true attitude and action of a disciple.
With love
PAID WORKERS AND SERVANTS
There may be some dignity in being rough with your superiors, but with those who depend on you, the true dignity is to be very courteous.
I am sure that servants behave according to the way they are treated.
10 March 1935
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It is very bad to constantly rebuke servants-the less you scold them, the better it is. When X asks you to scold them you must refuse to do so and tell him that I have forbidden you to do it.
As for your co-workers, each one must be left free to do according to his own feelings.
16 May 1940
Do not be indulgent, do not be severe.
They should know that you see everything, but you should not scold them.
A servant is not a convict and must be allowed some amount of liberty and free movement.
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Chapter 5
HARMONY WITH OTHERS
I would suggest that in your relations with others, -which seem always to have been full of disharmony, -when incidents occur, it would be much better for you not to take the standpoint that you are all in the right and they are all in the wrong. It would be wiser to be fair and just in reflection, seeing where you have gone astray, and even laying stress on your own fault and not on theirs. This would probably lead to more harmony in your relations with others; at any rate, it would be more conducive to your inner progress, which is more important than to be the top-dog in a quarrel. Neither is it well to cherish a spirit of self-justification and self-righteousness and a wish to conceal either from yourself or from the Mother your faults or your errors.
Each one has his own way of doing Sadhana and his own approach to the Divine and need not trouble himself about how the others do it; their success or unsuccess, their difficulties,their delusions, their egoism and vanity are in [the Mother's] care; she has an infinite patience, but that does that she approves of their defects or supports them in all they say or do. The Mother takes no sides in any quarrel or antagonism or dispute, but her silence does
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not mean that she approves what they may say or do when it is improper. . . . The Mother tolerates all; she does not forbid any criticism of the Sadhaks by each other nor does he give these criticisms any value. It is only when the Sadhaks see the futility of all these things from the spiritual level that there can be any hope that they will cease.
I see no reason therefore why you should care so much if any body is not behaving well with you. I have told you already that people in the Ashram-it is true even of those who have inner experiences and some opening-are not yet free in their outer selves from ego and wrong ideas and wrong movements. It is no use getting distressed or depressed by that. What you must do is to be turned only to the Mother and relying on her go forward quietly with your work and Sadhana until the time when the Sadhaks are sufficiently awakened and changed to feel the need of greater harmony and union with each other. Let only your spiritual change and progress matter for you and for that trust wholly in the Mother's force and her grace which is with you-do not let things or people disturb you,-for compared with the truth within and the journey to the full Light of the Mother's Consciousness these things have no importance.
6 December 1935
If you want to have knowledge or see all as brothers or have peace, you must think less of yourself, your desires,
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feelings, people's treatment of you, and think more of, the Divine-living for the Divine, not for yourself.
25 February 1936
You must never forget that I disapprove of quarrels and always consider that both sides are equally wrong. To surmount one's feelings, preferences, dislikes and impulses, is an indispensable discipline here.
In human life the cause of all difficulties, all discords, all moral sufferings, is the presence in everyone of the ego with its desires, its likes and dislikes. Even in a disinterested work which consists in helping others, until one has learned to overcome the ego and its demands, until one can force it to keep calm and quiet in one corner, the ego reacts to everything that displeases it, starts an inner storm that rises to the surface and spoils all the work.
This work of overcoming the ego is long, slow and difficult; it demands constant alertness and sustained effort. This effort is easier for some and more difficult for others.
We are here in the Ashram to do this work together with the help of Sri Aurobindo's knowledge and force, in an attempt to realise a community that is more harmonious, more united, and consequently much more effective in life.
As long as I was physically present among you all, my presence was helping you to achieve this mastery over the ego and so it was not necessary for me to speak to you about it individually very often.
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But now this effort must become the basis of each individual's existence, more especially for those of you who have a responsible position and have to take care of others. The leaders must always set the example, the leaders must always practise the virtues they demand from those who are in their care; they must be understanding, patient, enduring, full of sympathy and warm and friendly goodwill, not out of egoism to win friends for themselves, but out of generosity so that they may understand and help others.
To forget oneself, one's own likings and preferences, is indispensable in order to be a true leader.
26 August 1969
Beyond all preferences and limitations, there is a ground of mutual understanding where all can meet and find their harmony: it is the aspiration for a divine consciousness.
24 November 1972
CRITICISM OF OTHERS
Do not dwell much on the defects of others. It is not helpful. Keep always quiet and peace in the attitude.
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That is quite right. Only those who sympathise can help-surely also one should be able to see the faults of others without hatred. Hatred injures both parties, it helps none.
There is no harm in seeing and observing if it is done with sympathy and impartiality-it is the tendency unnecessarily to criticise, find fault, condemn others (often quite wrongly) which creates a bad atmosphere both for oneself and others. And why this harshness and cocksure condemnation? Has not each man his own faults-why should he be so eager to find fault with others and condemn them? Sometimes one has to judge but it should not be done hastily or in a censorious spirit.
The psychic self-control that is desirable in these surroundings and in the midst of discussion would mean among other things:
2. To avoid all debate, dispute or too animated discussion and simply say what has to be said and leave it there. There should also be no insistence that you are right and the others wrong, but what is said should only be thrown in as a contribution to the consideration of the truth of the matter.
3. To keep the tone of speech and the wording very quiet and calm and uninsistent.
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4. Not to mind at all if others are heated and dispute, but remain quiet and undisturbed and yourself speak only what can help things to be smooth again.
6. To avoid all that would hurt or wound others.
If only people did remain a little quiet before speaking, acting or writing, much trouble could be avoided. So many things are said uselessly, they bring misunderstandings and bad feelings which could have been saved with silence.
If were spoken only the words that needed to be spoken, the world would be a very silent place.
An atmosphere of spirituality sometimes helps much more than an exchange of words.
It is always a sign of strength to be able to say things gently and it is always weakness that bursts out into unpleasantnesses.
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Do not trouble yourselves with what others do, I cannot repeat it to you too often. Do not judge, do not criticise, do not compare. That is not your lookout.
When, in ignorance, one speaks ill of others, he debases his consciousness and degrades his soul. A respectful and modest silence is the only attitude befitting a disciple.
A good advice to all the Ashramites
in their dealings with visitors and foreigners
(and even among themselves)
"When you have nothing pleasant to say about something or somebody in the Ashram, keep silent.
You must know that this silence is faithfulness to the Divine's work."
ATTACHMENT TO FAMILY AND FRIENDS
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as souls travelling the same path or children of the Mother than in the ordinary way or with the old viewpoint.
All attachment is a hindrance to sadhana. Goodwill you should have for all, psychic kindness for all, but no vital attachment.
In yoga friendship can remain but attachment has to fall away or any such engrossing affection as would keep one tied to the ordinary life and consciousness.
27 July 1936
To give oneself to an outsider is to go out from the atmosphere of sadhana and give oneself to the outer world forces.
One can have a psychic feeling of love for someone, a universal love for all creatures, but one has to give oneself only to the Divine.
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The love of the sadhak should be for the Divine. It is only when he has that fully that he can love others in the right way.
The Ashram is not a place for being in love with anyone. If you want to lapse into such a stupidity, you may do so elsewhere, not here.
SEXUAL RELATIONS
Conditions to Live in the Ashram
and to Become a Disciple 1
The whole principle of this yoga is to give oneself entirely to the Divine alone and to nobody and nothing else, and to
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bring down into ourselves by union with the Divine Mother-Power all the transcendent light, force, wideness, peace, purity, truth-consciousness and Ananda of the supramental Divine. In this yoga, therefore, there can be no place for vital relations or interchanges with others; any such relation or interchange immediately ties down the soul to the lower consciousness and its lower nature, prevents the true and full union with the Divine and hampers both the ascent to the supramental Truth-consciousness and the descent of the supramental Ishwari Shakti. Still worse would it be if this interchange took the form of a sexual relation or a sexual enjoyment, even if kept free from any outward act; there- fore these things are absolutely forbidden in the sadhana. It goes without saying that any physical act of the kind is not allowed; but also any subtler form is ruled out. It is only after becoming one with the supramental Divine that we can find our true spiritual relations with. others in the Divine; in that higher unity this kind of gross lower vital movement can have no place.
To master the sex-impulse,-to become so much master of the sex-centre that the sexual energy would be drawn upwards, not thrown outwards and wasted- it is so indeed that the force in the seed can be turned into a primal physical energy supporting all the others, retas into ojas. But no error can be more perilous than to accept the immixture of the sexual desire and some kind of subtle satisfaction of it and look on this as a part of the sadhana. It would be the most effective way to head straight towards spiritual downfall and throw into the atmosphere forces that would block the
supramental descent, bringing instead the descent of adverse vital powers to disseminate disturbance and disaster. This deviation must be absolutely thrown away, should it try to
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occur and expunged from the consciousness, if the Truth is to be brought down and the work is to be done.
To those who want to practise the integral Yoga, it is strongly advised to abstain from three things:
1.) Sexual intercourse
2.) Smoking
3.) Drinking alcohol
12 June 1965
Sexual relations are forbidden in the Ashram.
So, honesty demands a choice between the Ashram and sexual relations. It is a matter of conscience.
A RULE FOR BEHAVIOUR
Always behave as if the Mother was looking at you; because she is, indeed, always present.
One rule for you I can lay down, "Do not do, say or think anything which you would want to conceal from the Mother."
18 May 1932
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It is impossible to give a single answer for all cases. With each person and on each occasion, it will differ. But, at any rate, it can be said that whoever lives in a community must follow, as much as possible, the rules of that community. Moreover people have a right to go against collective rules only when all their actions are prompted exclusively by the Divine in them. If all they do, all they say is done and said as they would do and say in the presence of the Divine, then, but then only, they have the right to say, "I follow my own rule and no other."
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Chapter 6
RELIGION AND SPIRITUAL LIFE
The Ashram is not a religious association. Those who are here come from all religions and some are of no religion. There is no creed or set of dogmas, no governing religious body; there are only the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and certain psychological practices of concentration and meditation, etc., for the enlarging of the consciousness, receptivity to the Truth, mastery over the desires, the discovery of the divine self and consciousness concealed within each human being, a higher evolution of the nature.
The Ashram has nothing to do with Hindu religion or culture or any religion or nationality. The Truth of the Divine which is the spiritual reality behind all religions and the descent of the supramental which is not known to any religion are the sole things which will be the foundation of the work of the future.
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I may say that it is far from my purpose to propagate any religion, new or old, for humanity in the future. A way to be opened that is still blocked, not a religion to be founded, is my conception of the matter.
I see no reason for us to worship the gods, great or small. Our adoration ought to go only to the Supreme Lord, who is one in all beings and things.
Those who still believe in gods can certainly continue to worship them if they feel like it-but they must know that this creed and this worship have nothing to do with the teaching Of Sri Aurobindo and no connection whatsoever with the Supramental Realisation.
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Why do men cling to a religion?
The time of religions is over.
We have entered the age of universal spirituality, of spiritual experience in its initial purity.
HELPING HUMANITY
The true object of the yoga is not philanthropy, but to find the Divine, to enter into the divine consciousness and find one's true being (which is not the ego) in the Divine.
Yoga is directed towards God, not towards man. If a divine supramental consciousness and power can be brought down and established in the material world, that obviously would mean an immense change for the earth including humanity and its life. But the effect on humanity would only be one result of the change; it cannot be the object of the sadhana. The object of the sadhana can only be to live in the divine consciousness and to manifest it in life.
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To concentrate most on one's own spiritual growth and experience is the first necessity of the sadhak- to be eager to help others draws away from the inner work. To grow in the spirit is the greatest help one can give to others, for then something flows out naturally to those around that helps them.
The best way of helping others is to transform oneself. Be perfect and you will be in a position to bring perfection to the world.
PROPAGANDA
As for propaganda I have seen that it is perfectly useless for us - if there is any effect, it is a very trifling and paltry effect not worth the trouble. If the Truth has to spread itself, it will do it of its own motion; these things are unnecessary.
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Then, again, I don't believe in advertisement except for books etc., and in propaganda except for politics and patent medicines. But for serious work it is a poison. It means either a stunt or a boom-and stunts and booms exhaust the thing they carry on their crest and leave it lifeless and broken high and dry on the shores of nowhere - or it means a movement. A movement in the case of a work like mine means the founding of a school or a sect or some other damned nonsense. It means that hundreds or thousands of useless people join in and corrupt the work or reduce it to a pompous farce from which the Truth that was coming down excedes into secrecy and silence. It is what has happened to the "religions"and is the reason of their failure. If I tolerate a little writing about myself, it is only to have a sufficient counter-weight in that amorphous chaos, the public mind, to balance the hostility that is always aroused by the presence of a new dynamic Truth in this world of ignorance. But the utility ends there and too much advertisement would defeat that object. I am perfectly "rational", I assure you, in my methods and I do not proceed merely on any personal dislike of fame. If and so far as publicity serves the Truth, I am quite ready to tolerate it; but I do not find publicity for its own sake desirable.
2 October 1934
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POLITICS
The Ashram is not a political institution; all association with political activities is renounced by those who live here. All propaganda, religious, political or social, has to be eschewed by the inmates.
1934
What is called politics is too rajasic, unsound and muddled with all sorts of egoistic motives. Our way is the pressure of the Spirit upon the earth-consciousness to change.
Our aim is to bring down a higher Truth, but that Truth must be able to live by its own strength and not depend on the victory of one or other of the forces of the Ignorance.That is the reason why we are not to mix in political or social controversies and struggles; it would simply keep down our endeavour to a lower level and prevent the Truth from descending which is none of these things but has a quite different law and basis.
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We are not here to do politics but to serve the Divine.
Sri Aurobindo withdrew from politics; and, in his Ashram, a most important rule is that one must abstain from all politics - not because Sri Aurobindo did not concern himself with the happenings of the world, but because politics, as it is practised, is a low and ugly thing, wholly dominated by falsehood, deceit, injustice, misuse of power and violence; because to succeed in politics one has to cultivate in oneself hypocrisy, duplicity and unscrupulous ambition.
The indispensable basis of our Yoga is sincerity, honesty, unselfishness, disinterested consecration to the work to be done, nobility of character and straightforwardness. They who do not practise these elementary virtues are not Sri Aurobindo's disciples and have no place in the Ashram. That is why I refuse to answer imbecile and groundless accusations against the Ashram emanating from perverse and evil-intentioned minds.
Sri Aurobindo always loved deeply his Motherland. But he wished her to be great, noble,/ pure and worthy of her big mission in the world. He refused to let her sink to the
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We do not fight against any creed, any religion.
We do not fight against any form of government.
We do not fight against any social class.
We do not fight against any nation or civilisation.
We are fighting division, unconsciousness, ignorance, inertia and falsehood.
FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS AND BUSINESS
Finally, about financial arrangements. It has been an arduous and trying work for the Mother and myself to keep up this Ashram, with its ever-increasing numbers, to make both ends meet and at times to prevent deficit budgets and their results; . . . only one accustomed to these things or who had similar responsibilities can understand what we have gone through. Carrying on anything of this magnitude without any
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settled income could not have been done if there had not been the working of a divine Force. Works of charity are not part of our work, there are other people who can see to that. We have to spend all on the work we have taken in hand and what we get is nothing compared to what is needed. We cannot undertake things that would bring in money in the ordinary ways. We have to use whatever means are possible. There is no general rule that spiritual men must do works of charity or they should receive and care for whatever visitors come or house and feed them. If we do it, it is because it has become part of our work. The Mother charges visitors for accommodation and food because she has expenses to meet and cannot make money out of air; she charges in fact less than her expense. It is quite natural that she should not like people to take advantage of her and allow those who try to take meals in the Dining Room under false pretences; even if they are a few at first, yet if this were allowed, a few would soon become a legion.
First of all, from the financial point of View, the principle on which our action is based is the following: money is not meant to make money. This idea that money must make money is a falsehood and a perversion. Money is meant to increase the wealth, the prosperity and the productiveness of a group, a country or, better, of the whole earth. Money is a means, a force, a power, and not an end in itself. And like all forces and all powers, it is by movement and circulation that it grows and increases its power, not by accumulation and stagnation.
What we are attempting here is to prove to the world.
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27 May 1955
If business cannot be done with the true attitude of consecration to the Divine, then business will be stopped and banned from the Ashram as politics are banned for the same reason.
So unless the consciousness of the sadhaks recovers from this sad condition of confusion and pettiness, I shall find myself under the necessity of forbidding all commercial activities as it will be proved that they cannot be done in the true spirit.
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Chapter 7
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Some, of course, might ask why any sports at all in an Ashram which ought to be concerned onl y with meditation and inner experiences and the escape from life into Brahman. But that applies only to the ordinary kind of Ashram to which we have got accustomed and this is not that orthodox kind of Ashram. It includes life in Yoga, and once we admit life we can include anything that we find useful for life's ultimate and immediate purpose and not inconsistent with the works of the Spirit. After all, the orthodox Ashram came into being only after Brahman began to shun all connection with the world and the shadow of Buddhism stalked over all the land and the Ashrams turned into monasteries. The old Ashrams were not entirely like that; the boys and young men who were brought up in them were trained in many things belonging to life. . . .
It might be better to remind you that we are here for a special work, a work which is done nowhere else. We want to come in contact with the supreme consciousness, the universal consciousness, we want to bring it down in ourselves and to manifest it. But for that we must have a very solid base; our base is our physical being, our body. Therefore we have
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to build up a body solid, healthy, enduring, skilful, agile and strong, ready for everything. There is no better way to prepare the body than physical exercise: sports, athletics, gymnastics, and all games are the best means to develop and strengthen the body.
Therefore I call you to go through the competitions beginning today, full-heartedly with all your energy and all your will.
On this occasion of our physical education and sportive activities; I must tell you once more that for us spiritual life does not mean contempt for Matter but its divinisation. We do not want to reject the body but to transform it. For this physical education is one of the means most directly effective.
Do not forget that to succeed in our yoga one must have a strong and healthy body.
For this, the body must do exercise, have an active and regular life, work physically, eat well, and sleep well.
It is in good health that the way towards transformation is found.
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Physical culture is the best way of developing the consciousness of the body, and the more the body is conscious, the more it is capable of receiving the divine forces that are atwork to transform it and give birth to the new race.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Sweet Mother, Is it bad to go to the cinema in town?
Sweet Mother,
There are too many tight knots in the immense organisation of this Ashram. When will the promised day come when there will be nothing but unmixed harmony, joy and peace ?
If each one were more concerned with correcting his own faults than with criticising those of others, the work would go more quickly.
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In a discussion with a friend about our physical education programme and the countless other activities we have here, he asked me:"Can you give me a valid example of even one person who takes part in so many activities and maintains a fairly high standard i one single person in the whole, world? "
Do not forget-all of you who are here-that we want to realise something that does not yet exist upon earth; so it is absurd to seek elsewhere for an example of what we want to do.
He also told me this:"Mother says that there is full freedom and every facility for those who are gifted in a particular subject and want to pursue it to the full. But where is this freedom to become, for instance, a great musician?"Sweet Mother, can you please say a few words on the subject of this freedom?
The freedom I speak of is the freedom to follow the will of the soul, not all the whims of the mind and Vital.
The freedom I speak of is an austere truth that strives to overcome all the weaknesses and desires of the lower, ignorant being.
The freedom I speak of is the freedom to consecrate oneself wholly and without reserve to the highest, noblest, divinest- aspiration in oneself.
Who among you sincerely follows this path? It is easy to judge, but more difficult to understand, and far more difficult still to realise.
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When a stranger asks us what the Ashram is, how can we give him a reply that is both short and correct?
The Ashram is the cradle of a new world, of the creation of tomorrow.
And if other questions are put to you, the only reply to be made is: you must read the books and study the teaching.
We see many people leaving the Ashram1 either to seek a career or to study; and they are mostly those who have been here since childhood. There is a kind of uncertainty in our young people when they see others leave here and they say cautiously:"Who knows whether it won't be my turn some day!"I feel there is a force behind all this. What is it?
This uncertainty and these departures are due to the lower nature. which resists the influence of the yogic power and tries to slow down the divine action, not out of ill-will but in order to be sure that nothing is forgotten or neglected in the haste to reach the goal. Few are ready for a total consecration. Many children who have studied here need to come to grips with life before they can be ready for the divine work, and that is why they leave to undergo the test of ordinary life.
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How can one make use of every moment of this unique privilege of living here in the Ashram?
Never forget where you are.
Never forget where you are living and the true aim of life. Remember this at every moment and in all circumstances. In this way you will make the best use of your existence.
Somebody asked me this question:"Is it not a great loss for human society if persons endowed with an exceptional capacity to serve mankind, such as a gifted doctor or lawyer, come to stay here in the Ashram for their own salvation? They could perhaps serve the Divine better by serving men and the world! "
Nobody comes here for his own salvation because Sri Aurobindo does not believe in salvation; for us salvation is a meaningless word. We are here to prepare for the transformation of the earth and men so that the new creation may take place, and if we make individual efforts to progress, it is because this progress is indispensable for the accomplishment of the work.
When department heads or superiors make mistakes or commit an injustice towards their subordinates, what should be the attitude of those affected by these errors?
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Should one keep silent and say,"It is none of my business", or should one try to point out the mistake to them?
Neither the one nor the other. . First and always, we must ask ourselves what our instrument of judgment is. One must ask,"What is my judgment based on? Do I have perfect knowledge? What in me is judging? Do I have the divine consciousness? Am I completely disinterested in this matter? Am I free of all desire and all ego?"
And since the answer to all these questions 'will be the same, namely,"NO", the honest and sincere conclusion must be:"I cannot judge, I do not have the elements needed for a true judgment; therefore I will not judge, I will keep quiet."
Sweet Mother, I really feel that there is a great lack of harmony and cooperation here among us and among the various departments.' This results in a great waste of money and energy. Where does this disharmony come from and When will it be set right? Or is this feeling I have only a reflection of my own nature!
Here is the best answer to your questions, written by Sri Aurobindo:
Each one carries in himself the seeds of this disharmony, and his most urgent work is to purify himself of it by a constant aspiration.
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Formerly you were very strict about permitting people to come and live in the Ashram. Now it is no longer so. Why?
As long as the Ashram was reserved for those who wanted to practise yoga, it was natural to be strict.
As soon as children were admitted here, it was no longer possible to be strict and the nature of the life changed. Now the Ashram has become a symbolic representation of life on earth and everything can find a place 'in it, provided it has the Will to progress towards a diviner life.
Sweet Mother, We are supposed to be attempting something that no one has ever tried before. But, Mother, isn't it true that we. now tend to direct our lives and activities more and more towards the principles and ways of ordinary life? In that case, aren 't we straying from the true path?
You are still in the old rut that separates spirituality from life, whereas Sri Aurobindo has declared,"All life is Yoga", and affirmed that it is in life that one must do Yoga. You seem to have forgotten this.
Isn't this immense freedom we are given dangerous for those of us who are not yet awake, who are still unconscious? What is the explanation for this opportunity, this
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Danger and risk are part of every forward movement. Without them nothing would ever stir; and also they are indispensable for moulding the Character of those who want to progress.
I feel it is most shameful on our part to waste the Divine Grace, to misuse this unique privilege granted to us here. But, Mother, why do we do this? For, each one of us has surely felt and enjoyed -at least once in his life, in a blessed moment- the infinite Splendour which is within our reach and awaits us. Yet there are so few of us who take the yoga seriously. Why?
It is quite simply unconsciousness, incoercible TAMAS.
For several years now, we have been hearing that the Ashram is in a terrible financial condition, and from time to time we clearly see this for ourselves. But, Mother, we also see extravagant spending by certain individuals and departments. Moreover, these expenditures are possible only through your generosity. So how can it be said that the Ashram is undergoing a financial crisis?
But perhaps it is just because certain individuals and departments are spending extravagantly that there is a financial crisis! . . . .
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30 November 1966
There is something here that is so much better than the appearances, something like a warm and living sun in the heart and in the spirit.
This is true discernment and I congratulate you. Those who see only the appearances are unable to discern in them the differences, subtle but of capital importance, which arise from the presence of a true and luminous consciousness.
0n the occasion of Sri Aurobindo's centenary, many people will come to the Ashram. What can we do to show them the reality of the Ashram?
Live it. Live this reality. All the rest-talking, etc. -is of no use.
How to prepare ourselves for it?
an intense aspiration,
a perfect concentration,
a constant dedication.
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PERSISTENT PRACTICE
All of you who have come here have been told many things; you have been put in contact with a world of truth, you live in it, the air you breathe is full of it. And yet how few of you know that these truths have value only when they are put into practice and that it is useless to talk about consciousness, knowledge, equality, universality, infinity, eternity, supreme truth, the divine presence and all sorts of things like that, if you yourselves don't make an effort to live these things and feel them concretely in you. And don't tell yourselves," Oh, I have been here so many years! Oh, I would really like to see some result for my efforts!"You must know that very persistent efforts and very steadfast endurance are necessary to overcome the least weakness, the least pettiness, the least meanness in one's nature. What is the use of talking about divine love if one cannot love without egoism? What is the use of talking about immortality if one is stubbornly attached to the past and the present and one doesn't want to give anything in order to receive everything?
You are still very young, but you must learn right away that to reach the goal you must know h0w to pay the price and that to understand the supreme truths you must put them into practice in your daily life.
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A DREAM
There should be somewhere on earth a place which no nation could claim as its own, where all human beings of goodwill who have a sincere aspiration could live freely as citizens of the world and obey one .single authority, that of the supreme truth; a place of peace, concord and harmony where all the fighting instincts of man would be used exclusively to conquer the-causes of his sufferings and miseries, to surmount his Weaknesses and ignorance, to triumph over his limitations and incapacities; a place where the needs of the spirit and the concern for progress would take precedence over the satisfaction of desires and passions, the search for-pleasure and material enjoyment. In this place, children would be able to grow and develop integrally without losing contact with their souls; education would be given not for passing examinations or obtaining certificates and posts but to enrich existing faculties and bring forth new ones. In this place, titles and positions would be replaced by opportunities to serve and organise; the bodily' needs of each one would be equally provided for, and intellectual, moral and spiritual superiority would be expressed in the general organisation not by an increase in the pleasures and powers of life but by increased duties and responsibilities. Beauty in all its artistic forms, painting, sculpture, music, literature, would be equally accessible toall; the ability to share in the joy it brings would be limited only by the capacities of each one and not by social or financial position. For in this ideal place money would no longer be the sovereign lord; individual worth would have a far greater importance than that of material wealth and social standing. There, work would not be a way to earn one's
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living but a way to express oneself and to develop one's capacities and possibilities while being of service to the community as a whole, which, for its own part, would provide for each individual's subsistence and sphere of action. In short, it would be a place where human relationships, which are normally based almost exclusively on competition and strife, would be replaced by relationships of emulation in doing well, of collaboration and real brotherhood.
The earth is certainly not ready to realise such an ideal, for mankind does not yet possess sufficient knowledge to understand and adopt it nor the conscious force that is in dispensable in order to execute it; that is why I call it a dream.
And yet this dream is in the course of becoming a reality; this is what we are striving for in Sri Aurobindo's Ashram, on a very small scale, in proportion to our limited means. The realisation is certainly far from perfect, but it is progressive; little by little we are advancing towards our goal which we hope we may one day be able to present to the world as a practical and effective way to emerge fromthe present chaos, to be born into a new life that is more harmonious and true.
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Sri Aurobindo
Sri Aurobindo was born in Calcutta on 15 August 1872. At the age of seven he was taken to England for his education. There he studied at St. Paul's School, London, and at King's College, Cambridge. Returning to India in 1893, he worked for the next thirteen years in the Princely State of Baroda in the service of the Maharaja and as a professor in the state's college.
In 1906 Sri Aurobindo quit his post in Baroda and went to Calcutta, where he became one of the leaders of the Indian national movement. As editor of the newspaper Band Mataram, he boldly put forward the idea of complete independence from Britain. Arrested three times for sedition or treason, he was released each time for lack of evidence.
Sri Aurobindo began the practice of Yoga in 1905. Within a few years he achieved several fundamental spiritual realisations. In 1910 he withdrew from politics and went to Pondicherry in French India in order to concentrate on his inner life and work. During his forty years there, he developed a new spiritual path, the Integral Yoga, whose ultimate aim is the transformation of life by the power of a supramental consciousness. In 1926, with the help of the Mother, he founded the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. His vision of life is presented in numerous works of prose and poetry, among which the best known are The Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga and Savitri. Sri Aurobindo passed away on 5 December 1950.
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The Mother
The Mother was born Mirra Alfassa on '21 Februaryv1878 in' Paris. A student at the Academic Julian, she became an accomplished artist. Gifted from an early age'with a capacity for spiritual and occult experience, she went to Tlemcen, Algeria, in 1906 and 1907 to study occultism with the adepts Max The on and his wife Alma. Between 1911 and 1913 she gave a number of talks to various groups of seekers in Paris.
In 1914 the Mother voyaged to Pondicherry, South India, to meet the Indian mystic Sri Aurobindo. After a stay of eleven months, she was obliged by the outbreak of the First World War to return to France. A year later she went to Japan, Where she remained for four years. In April 1920 the Mother rejoined Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry. Six years later, when the Sri Aurobindo Ashram was founded, Sri Aurobindo entrusted its material and spiritual charge to her, for he considered her not a disciple but his spiritual equal and collaborator. Under her guidance, which covered a period of nearly fifty years,-the Ashram grew into a large, many-faceted spiritual community. She also established a school, the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, in l952, and an international township, Auroville, in 1968. The Mother passed away on 17 November 1973.
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Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Founded in 1926, the Sri Aurobindo Ashram has grown from a small group of Mo dozen disciples into a large diversified community with more than 1400 members. There are, in addition, about 400 students in the Ashram school, hundreds of visitors staying in guest houses, thousands of local devotees, and many tourists.
Situated in a bustling city of nearly one million people, the Ashram is not a quiet place of retreat secluded from the world, but a vibrant centre of life. The dynamic urban setting of the community reflects the life-affirming aim of Sri Aurobindo's Yoga. Work is an important part of the Yoga, and Ashram members who are fit do some useful work every day in one of the departments.
In the sadhana or spiritual discipline of this Yoga, there is no set mental teaching or fixed method of practice. For this reason, the Ashram has no systematic instructions in Yoga and no compulsory rituals, meditations or gatherings. Each sadhak is left free to determine the line of his spiritual path in accordance 'with his nature. 'But the general principles of the Yoga are the same for all: there must be an aspirationfor the divine life, a rejection of the movements of the lower nature, a self-opening to the Divine Force, and a surrender of one's being to the Divine.
The Ashram is located in the eastern part of Pondicherry. Its members live and work in a large number of buildings spread throughout the area. The focus of community life is the Ashram main building, often called simply "the Ashram", which consists of an interconnected block of
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houses, including those in which Sri Aurobindo and the Mother dwelt for most of their lives. At the centre of its tree-shaded courtyard lies the samadhi, a rectangular white-marble shrine holding their mortal remains.
The Ashram provides its members with all they need for a decent and healthy life. Various departments have been organised to look after the basic requirements of food, clothing and shelter, as well as medical care. The Ashram has farms and gardens, a printing press and a number of small scale industries. There are also libraries for study and facilities for a wide range of cultural pursuits.
The Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education is an integral part of the Ashram. Inaugurated in 1952, it currently has around 400 students, with classes ranging from kindergarten to college level. It seeks to provide a complete education for its students by encouraging the growth of all the parts of their being. All the students (and many Ashram members as well) take part in the daily physical activities organised by the Physical Education Department. A group of instructors known as captains give training in athletics, gymnastics, acquatics, games, combative sports and asanas.
The Ashram is administered by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust.
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Most of the texts of this book have been taken from the thirty-volume Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library (SABCL) and the seventeen-volume Collected Works of the Mother (CWM), both published by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry. Some texts have been taken from other books and journals, all of them published by the Ashram unless otherwise indicated. The titles of the works, with their abbreviated titles and years of publication, are listed below.
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The references on the following pages are given in an abbreviated form. In most cases the abbreviation is an SABCL or CWM volume and its page number(s); in some cases the abbreviation is the abbreviated title of a book or journal and its page number(s).
For these references, the page number of this book is given in the left column. It is followed by the references to the texts appearing on that page. For example, the first two references are;
1. SABCL 232559 1. CWM 132113
These references indicate that the first text on page 1 of this book is from SABCL volume 23, page 559; the second text on this page is from CWM volume 13, page 113.
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The philosophical and psychological terms in this glossary are defined almost entirely in Sri Aurobindo's words.
Ashram - the house or houses of a Teacher or Master of spiritual philosophy in which he receives and lodges those who come to him for the teaching and practice; a spiritual community.
bhakti - love for the Divine, devotion to the Divine.
Brahman-the Reality, the Eternal, the Infinite, the Absolute, the One besides whom there is nothing else existent.
Chit-Tapas - Conscious Force.
Gita - the Bhagavad Gita, the "Song of the Blessed Lord", being the spiritual teachings of Sri Krishna spoken to Arjuna on the battlfield of Kurukshetra.
Integral Yoga - a union (yoga) in all the parts of our being with the Divine and a consequent transmutation of all their now jarring elements into the harmony of a higher divine consciousness and existence.
Ishwari Shakti - the Divine Conscious Force and World Mother.
Karmayoga -the yoga of (desireless) works.
Mantra -s et words or sounds having a spiritual significance or power; sacred syllable, name of mystic formula.
moksa -l iberation, spiritual liberation.
Mukti - liberation, spiritual liberation.
ojas-physical (and vital physical) energy; a primal physical energy supporting all the other energies of the body, vital, mental, spiritual.
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overmental - of or relating to the Overmind, the highest gradation of spiritualised mind.
psychic - of or relating to the soul (as distinguished from the mind and vital); used in the sense of the Greek word "psyche". The term "psychic" refers to all the movements and experiences of the soul, those which rise from or directly touch the psychic being. The psychic being is the evolving soul of the individual, the divine portion in him which evolves from life to life, growing by its experiences until it becomes a fully conscious being.
rajasic - of the nature of rajas, the quality of Nature that energises and drives to action; the quality of action and passion and struggle impelled by desire and instinct.
retas - semen.
sadhak - one who practises a spiritual discipline; one who is getting or trying to get spiritual realisation.
sadhana - spiritual practice or discipline; the practice of Yoga.
samagram mam -"the whole Me" of the Divine Being.
Sannyasi(n) -one who has renounced the world and action; an ascetic.
Sat-chit-ananda - the One Divine Being with a triple aspect of Existence (Sat), Consciousness (Chit) and Delight (Ananda).
sattwic-of the nature of sattwa, the quality of Nature that illumines and clarifies; the quality of light, harmony, purity and peace.
Shakti - Force, Power; the Divine Power; the Power of the Divine Mother.
shraddha - faith; the soul's belief in the Divine's existence, wisdom, power, love and grace Siddha Yogi-one who is perfected (siddha) in Yoga.
Siddha Yogi - one who is perfected (siddha) in Yoga.
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supramental - of or relating to the Supermind, the highest divine consciousness and force operative in the universe.
tamas - the quality of Nature that hides or darkens; the quality of ignorance, inertia and obscurity, of incapacity and inaction.
Tapasya - effort, energy, austerity of the personal will; concentration of the will and energy to control the mind, vital and physical and to change them or to bring down the higher consciousness or for any other yogic or high purpose.
vital - the life-nature made up of desires, sensations, feelings, passions, energies of action, will of desire, reactions of the desire-soul of man and of all that play of possessive and other related instincts, anger, greed, lust, etc., that belong to this field of nature.
Yoga - joining, union; union with the Divine and the conscious seeking for this union. Yoga is in essence the union of the soul with the immortal being and consciousness and bliss of the Divine, effected through the human nature with a result of development into the divine nature of being.
Yoga-Shakti - yogic force, spiritual force. Yogi - one who practises Yoga, but especially one who has attained the goal of Yoga and is already established in spiritual realisation.
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