Work - an offering

The difficulties are for the strong, and help to make them stronger. Persevere and you will conquer. The Mother

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The Difficulties

Smallness

Generally, people are altogether blind to the ugliness of their own actions. They do wrong through ignorance, through unconsciousness, through smallness, through that sort of doubling back on oneself which comes from unconsciousness and ignorance, that obscure instinct of self-preservation which makes one ready to sacrifice the whole world for the sake of one's own well-being. And the smaller one is, the more natural appears the sacrifice offered to one's smallness.

The Mother

Wrong action and good deed

Every wrong action produces on the consciousness the effect of a wind that withers, of a cold that freezes or of burning flames that consume.

    Every good and kind deed brings light, restfulness, joy - the sunshine in which flowers bloom.

The Mother

Not sincere

The moment you feel unhappy, you may write beneath it: "I am not sincere!"

These two sentences go together:

"I FEEL UNHAPPY."

"I AM NOT SINCERE."

The Mother

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Absolute laziness

...when one doesn't want to make an effort to correct oneself, one says, "Oh, it is impossible, I can't do it, I don't have the strength, I am not made of that stuff, I don't have the necessary qualities, I could never do it." It is absolute laziness, it is in order to avoid the required effort. When you are asked to make progress: "Oh, it is beyond my capacity, I am a poor creature, I can do nothing!" That's all. It is almost ill-will. It is extreme laziness, a refusal to make any effort. One accepts all one's defects and incapacities in order not to have to make the necessary effort to overcome them. One says, "I am like that, I can't be otherwise!" It is a refusal to let the divine Grace work in you. It is a justification of your own ill-will.

The Mother

Resistance

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

The Mother

The difficulties are for the strong, and help to make them stronger.

Persevere and you will conquer.

The Mother

Fear, work, courage

Fear is slavery, work is liberty, courage is Victory.

The Mother

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Weakness

To feel hurt by what others do or think or say is always a sign of weakness and proof that the whole being is not exclusively turned towards the Divine, not under the divine influence alone.

The Mother

Quarrel

When you start a quarrel it is as if you were declaring war on the Divine's work.

The Mother

Defects of others

Do not dwell much on the defects of others. It is not helpful. Keep always quiet and peace in the attitude.

Sri Aurobindo

Wilful indulgence

Everybody knows this; those who do not want to change their way of doing things or their way of being always say, "Oh! what do you expect, it is human nature." This is what is called a "wilful indulgence". That is to say, instead of becoming conscious that these are weaknesses and difficulties on the way, one justifies these things, saying, "Oh! it can't be helped, it is human nature." One wants to continue to do what one is doing, without changing, one is full of a wilful indulgence of one's demands.

The Mother

A crime

You must use everything for the purpose for which it

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is given, otherwise you commit a crime. I am not speaking merely of physical things. All the inner things that I am giving you all the time, all the strength, light, energy and life that are being poured into you all the time, are meant for the service of the Divine, for the sake of transforming you. If you use them for any other purpose, you are a robber and your crime is the worst possible.

The Mother

Doing the best

To discover how to do the work and what is the best way of doing it is very useful. But to look at oneself doing it and admire or belittle oneself, that's not only useless but disastrous.

The Mother

Inactivity

It is the same tiredness as that of the muscles when they do not work enough. Inactivity is just as tiring as over-activity. Not to work enough is just as bad as working too much.

The Mother

Boasting

Those who accomplish the work are not in the habit of boasting. They keep their energy for the task and leave the glory of the results to the Eternal Lord.

The Mother

Doing things in a hurry

What is done in a hurry is never done well.

The Mother

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