The Mother's brief written statements on various aspects of spiritual life including some spoken comments.
This volume consists primarily of brief written statements by the Mother on various aspects of spiritual life. Written between the late 1920s and the early 1970s, the statements have been compiled from her public messages, private notes, and correspondence with disciples. About two-thirds of them were written in English; the rest were written in French and appear here in English translation. The volume also contains a small number of spoken comments, most of them in English. Some are tape-recorded messages; others are reports by disciples that were later approved by the Mother for publication.
Greed for anything concerning physical consciousness, so-called necessities and comfort of whatever nature―this is one of the most serious obstacles to sadhana.
Each little satisfaction you get through greed is one step backward from the goal.
When you have a desire you are governed by the thing you desire, it takes possession of your mind and your life, and you become a slave. If you have greed for food you are no more the master of food, it is the food that masters you.
A sadhak must eat to satisfy the needs of his body and not to meet the demands of his greed.
4 April 1937
If you prefer the pleasures of the palate to the union with the Divine, it is your own look-out and I have nothing to say, except that I do not approve, but each one must be free to choose whether he will rise above his lower nature or sink down in the material pit. My help is always for those who choose the higher path.
It is an inner attitude of freedom from attachment and from greed for food and desire of the palate that is needed, not undue diminution of the quantity taken or any self-starvation. One must take sufficient food for the maintenance of the body and its strength and health, but without attachment or desire.
27 April 1937
Page 251
It would be a hundred times more effective to never waste food than to cut down one meal as a show and to eat more before and after.
A strong, ardent, sincere campaign against the waste of food is essential and full-heartedly I approve of it.
Let the inmates of the Ashram show their goodwill and collaboration in never eating more than they can digest and never ask for more than they can eat.
Kindly suggest some simple way by which one can slowly diminish one's abject dependence on ordinary material food and open oneself more and more to the universal vital energy.
There is no easy way to get over physical animality and vital greed. It is only an obstinate perseverance that can succeed.
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