Short prose pieces written between 1910 and 1950, but not published during Sri Aurobindo's lifetime.
Short prose pieces written between 1910 and 1950, but not published during Sri Aurobindo's lifetime. The material is arranged in four parts: (1) 'Essays Divine and Human', complete essays on yoga and related subjects, (2) 'From Man to Superman: Notes and Fragments on Philosophy, Psychology and Yoga'; (3) 'Notes and Fragments on Various Subjects', and (4) Thoughts and Aphorisms. (Some of this material was formally published under the title 'The Hour of God and Other Writings')
The essays in this part have been arranged chronologically in five sections. The contents of several of the sections or subsections seem to have been intended by Sri Aurobindo to be published as series or collections of essays.
More or less complete essays, most of which were given titles and revised to some extent by the author. They have been grouped by period in five sections.
All but the first piece in this section were written in a single notebook, probably in 1911. “Certitudes” belongs roughly to the same period. Above “Man” Sri Aurobindo wrote a collective title: “Essays—”.
In the deep there is a greater deep, in the heights a greater height. Sooner shall man arrive at the borders of infinity than at the fullness of his own being. For that being is infinity, is God—
I aspire to infinite force, infinite knowledge, infinite bliss. Can I attain it? Yes, but the nature of infinity is that it has no end. Say not therefore that I attain it. I become it. Only so can man attain God by becoming God.
But before attaining he can enter into relations with him. To enter into relations with God is Yoga, the highest rapture & the noblest utility. There are relations within the compass of the humanity we have developed. These are called prayer, worship, adoration, sacrifice, thought, faith, science, philosophy. There are other relations beyond our developed capacity, but within the compass of the humanity we have yet to develop. Those are the relations that are attained by the various practices we usually call Yoga.
We may not know him as God, we may know him as Nature, our Higher Self, Infinity, some ineffable goal. It was so that Buddha approached Him; so approaches him the rigid Adwaitin. He is accessible even to the Atheist. To the materialist He disguises Himself in matter. For the Nihilist he waits ambushed in the bosom of Annihilation.
ये यथा मां प्रपद्यन्ते तांस्तथैव भजाम्यहम् | Page 5
ये यथा मां प्रपद्यन्ते तांस्तथैव भजाम्यहम् |
Page 5
Circa 1911-13. The Sanskrit phrase at the end, a citation from the Bhagavad Gita (4.11), means “as men approach me, so I accept them to my love”.
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