Work - an offering
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through work is the easiest and most effective way to enter into the stream of this sadhana Sri Aurobindo |
The Necessity
Yoga through work
Yoga through work is the easiest and most effective way to enter into the stream of this Sadhana.
Sri Aurobindo
The activity of each
moment
It is in the activity of each moment that we must serve Thee and identify ourselves with Thee rather than in deep and silent contemplation or in meditation, written or unwritten.
The Mother
Daily activity is the anvil
...the daily activity is the anvil on which all the elements must pass and repass in order to be purified, refined, made supple and ripe for the illumination which contemplation gives to them.
The Mother
Running away
It is not by running away from the world that you will change it. It is by working there, modestly, humbly but with a fire in the heart, something that burns like an offering.
The Mother
Work as offering
Consciousness develops best through work done as an offering to the Divine.
The Mother
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Work
is yoga
I make no difference between work and yoga. Work itself is yoga if it is done in a spirit of dedication and surrender.
The Mother
The body's best prayer
Let us work as we pray, for indeed work is the body's best prayer to the Divine.
The
Mother
Praying with the body
To work for the Divine is to pray with the body.
The Mother
Progress through work
One can progress through meditation, but through work provided it is done in the right spirit one can progress ten times more.
The Mother
The surest means
Disinterested work done for the Divine: the surest means of progressing.
The Mother
Becoming more plastic
But through work the nature becomes less rigid, more plastic and supple.
The Mother
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Existence is an action
Man embodied in the natural world cannot cease from action, not for a moment, not for a second; his very existence here is an action; the whole universe is an act of God, mere living even is His movement.
Sri Aurobindo
Integral yoga is best done in work .
The more I go, the more I know that it is in work that Sri Aurobindo's integral yoga is best done.
The Mother
Working for the Divine
Your object is not only to practise yoga for your internal progress and protection but also to do a work for the Divine.
Sri Aurobindo
Work as a test
Yes, obviously, that is one great utility of work that it tests the nature and puts the sadhak in front of the defects of his outer being which might otherwise escape him
Sri Aurobindo
Become aware
If you live closed up in yourself, without acting, you may live in a completely subjective illusion; the moment you externalise your action and enter into contact with others, with circumstances and the objects of life, you become aware absolutely objectively of
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whether you have made progress or not, Whether you are more calm, more conscious, stronger, more unselfish, whether you no longer have any desire, any preference, any weakness, any unfaithfulness - you can become aware of all this by working.
The Mother
A field of experience
If you don't do anything, you cannot have any experience. The Whole life is a field of experience. Each movement you make, each thought you have, each work you do, can be an experience, and must be an experience; and naturally work in particular is a field of experience where one must apply all the progress which one endeavours to make inwardly.
The Mother
A school of experience
Work can be of two kinds - the work that is a field of experience used for the sadhana, for a progressive harmonisation and transformation of the being and its activities, and work that is a realised expression of the Divine. But the time for the latter can be only when the Realisation has been fully brought down into the earth-consciousness; till then all work must be a field of endeavour and a school of experience.
Sri Aurobindo
Walking, working or speaking
Meditation is only a means or device, the true movement
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is when even walking, working or speaking one is still in sadhana.
Sri Aurobindo
Keeping up the balance
To keep up work helps to keep up the balance between the internal experience and the external development; otherwise one-sidedness and want of measure and balance may develop. Moreover, it is necessary to keep the sadhana of work for the Divine because in the end that enables the sadhak to bring out the inner progress into the external nature and life and helps the integrality of the sadhana.
Sri Aurobindo
Preparing the way
For centuries and centuries humanity has waited for this time. It is come. But it is difficult. I don't simply tell you we are here upon earth to rest and enjoy ourselves, now is not the time for that. We are here... to prepare the way for the new creation.
The Mother
Work, bhakti and meditation
I have always said that work done as sadhana - done, that is to say, as an outflow of energy from the Divine and offered to the Divine or work done for the sake of the Divine or work done in a spirit of devotion is a powerful means of sadhana and that such work is especially necessary in this yoga. Work, bhakti and meditation are the three supports of yoga. One can do with all three or two or one.
Sri Aurobindo
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A physical work is as indispensable to the balance of the body as food.
The Mother
Yoga in action
The object of the sadhana is opening of the consciousness to the Divine and the change of the nature. Meditation or contemplation is one means to this but only one means; bhakti is another; work is another. Chitta - shuddhi was preached by the yogins as a first means towards realisation and they got by it the saintliness of the saint and the quitetude of the sage but the transformation of the nature of which we speak is something more than that, and this transformation does not come by contemplation alone; works are necessary, yoga in action is indispensable.
Sri Aurobindo
Forgetting oneself
"What is the easiest way of
forgetting oneself ? "
Naturally that depends on each one; everyone has his special way of forgetting himself, which is the best for him. But obviously there is a fairly general method which may be applied in various forms: to occupy oneself with something else. Instead of being occupied with oneself, one may be busy with someone else or with others or some work or an interesting activity requiring concentration.
The Mother
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