My Pilgrimage to the Spirit

To Money and Things

###(Undated?)

Q What is the difference between samata of the soul and mental equality?

A. Yogic samata is equality of soul, equanimity founded on the sense of the one Self, the one Divine everywhere—seeing the One in spite of all differences, degrees, disparities in the manifestation. The mental principle of equality tries to ignore or else to destroy the differences, degrees and disparities, to act as if all were equal there or to try and make all equal. It is like Hridaya, the nephew of Ramakrishna, who when he got the touch from Ramakrishna began to shout, "Ramakrishna, you are the Brahman and I too am the Brahman; there is no difference between us", till Ramakrishna, as he refused to be quiet, had to withdraw the power. Or like the disciple who refused to listen to the mahout and stood before the elephant, saying, "I am Brahman", until the elephant took him up in his trunk and put him aside. When he complained to his guru, the guru said, "Yes, but why didn't you listen to the mahout Brahman? That was why the elephant Brahman had to lift you up and put you out of harm's way." In the manifestation there are two sides to the Truth and you cannot ignore either.

###February 28, 1931

Q. Is the way of sending stamps for correspondence objectionable?

A: No, it is not objectionable; on the contrary, people who want to correspond with the Ashram do well to send stamps for replies. But, as these are of the Mother takes them for the Ashram will give you ordinary stamps in exchange.

Sri Aurobindo

###March 5, 1931

Q. Should a sadhaka ask for things from outside?

A. A sadhaka should not have demands and ask for things for his personal use from people outside, but if they of their own accord and without any request or suggestion send them to him, he can receive them. The most important point is that he should not indulge any spirit of greed or desire under any excuse or colour; and should be unaffected in his vital being by the presence or absence of these things that satisfy desire.

Sri Aurobindo

###(Undated?)

Q. What should be the true necessity of a sadhaka? Should he try to get extra things from outside—apart from Ashram supply? What is the idea behind giving pocket expense?

A. The idea when the arrangement was made was simply to see how and in what spirit the sadhakas dealt with money when they had any at their disposal.

###March 8, 1932

The necessities of a sadhaka should be as few as possible; for there are only very few things that are necessities in life. The rest are either utilities or things decorative to life or luxuries. These a yogin has a right to possess or enjoy only on one of two conditions:

1) If he uses them during his sadhana solely to train himself in possessing things without attachment or desire and to learn to use them rightly, in harmony with the Divine Will, with a proper handling, a just organization, arrangement and measure;—or

2) If he already attained a true freedom from desire and attachment and is not the least moved or affected in any way by loss or withholding or deprival. If he has any greed, desire, demand, claim for possession or enjoyment, grief, anger or vexation when denied or deprived, he is not free in spirit and his use of the things to possess is contrary to the spirit of sadhana. Even if he is free in spirit, he will not be fit for possession, if he has not learned to use things not for himself, but for the Divine Will, as an instrument, with the right knowledge, and action in the use for the equipment of a life lived not for oneself but for and in the Divine.

Sri Aurobindo