On Thoughts and Aphorisms

Aphorism - 509, 510, 511, 512

509—Has thy effort succeeded, O thou Titan? Dost thou sit, like Ravana and Hiranyakashipou,¹ served by the gods and the world's master? But that which thy soul was really hunting after, has escaped from thee.

510—Ravana's mind thought it was hungering after universal sovereignty and victory over Rama; but the aim his soul kept its vision fixed upon all the time was to get back to its heaven as soon as possible and be again God's menial. Therefore, as the shortest way, it hurled itself against God in a furious clasp of enmity.

511—The greatest of joys is to be, like Narada, the slave of God; the worst of Hells being abandoned of God, to be the world's master. That which seems nearest to the ignorant conception of God, is the farthest from him.

512—God's servant is something; God's slave is greater.

Sri Aurobindo gives us the true way to understand the Scriptures, which thus become universal symbols.

12 May 1970