…. He who chooses the Infinite has been chosen by the Infinite….
Sri Aurobindo – The Synthesis of Yoga – I: CWSA, Vol. 23, p53-54
(1) Offer yourself more and more—all the consciousness, all that happens in it, all your work and action.
(2) If you have faults and weaknesses, hold them up before the Divine to be changed or abolished.
(3) Try to do what I told you, concentrate in the heart till you constantly feel the Presence there.
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga: CWSA, Vol. 29, p104
The effort demanded of the sadhak is that of aspiration, rejection and surrender. If these three are done the rest is to come of itself by the Grace of the Mother and the working of her force in you. But of the three the most important is surrender of which the first necessary form is trust and confidence and patience in difficulty….
Sri Aurobindo – The Mother with Letters on The Mother: CWSA, Vol. 32, pp 139-40
…. one must say, “Since I want only the Divine, my success is sure, I have only to walk forward in all confidence and his own hand will be there secretly leading me to him by his own way and at his own time.” That is what you must keep as your constant mantra….
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga: CWSA, Vol. 29, p97
All can be done by the Divine, the heart and nature purified, the inner consciousness awakened, the veils removed, if one gives oneself to the Divine with trust and confidence—and even if one cannot do so fully at once, yet the more one does so, the more the inner help and guidance comes and the contact and the experience of the Divine grows within. If the questioning mind becomes less active and humility and the will to surrender grow in you, this ought to be perfectly possible. No other strength and tapasya are then needed, but this alone.
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga: CWSA, Vol. 29, p104
…. what is the meaning of your message: “Always behave as if the Mother was looking at you; because she is, indeed, always present.”
It is the emanation of the Mother that is with each sadhak all the time.
Sri Aurobindo – The Mother with Letters on The Mother: CWSA, Vol. 32, p179
The path is long, but self-surrender makes it short; the way is difficult, but perfect trust makes it easy.
The Mother – Words of the Mother: CWM, Vol. 14, p108
Live always as if you were under the very eye of the Supreme and of the Divine Mother. Do nothing, try to think and feel nothing that would be unworthy of the Divine Presence.
***
The constant presence of the Mother comes by practice; the Divine Grace is essential for success in the sadhana, but it is the practice that prepares the descent of the Grace.
You have to learn to go inward, ceasing to live in external things only, quiet the mind and aspire to become aware of the Mother’s workings in you.
Sri Aurobindo – The Mother with Letters on The Mother: CWSA, Vol. 32, p172
Sweet Mother, ought we to do some other work besides studies?
Some other work? That depends upon you. It depends upon each one and on what one wants. If you want to do sadhana, … One must do something a little unselfish, for if one is exclusively occupied with oneself, one gets shut up in a sort of carapace and is not open to the universal forces. A small unselfish movement, a small action done with no egoistic aim opens a door upon something other than one’s own small, very tiny person.
The Mother – Questions and Answers: CWM, Vol. 6, p153
Listen silently to the order which comes from the Supreme Lord and you will have the capacity to carry it out.
The Mother – Words of the Mother: CWM, Vol. 15, p228
…. If you are faithful to your soul’s call there is no reason why you should not be able to do Yoga. All that you have to do is to keep your aspiration and not lose the inner connection that has been made—then the Mother’s thought and the help will be with you and you will find your way.
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga: CWSA, Vol. 29, p33
Keep a cheerful mind and a peaceful heart. Let nothing disturb your equanimity and make every day the necessary progress to advance with me steadily towards the goal.
The Mother – Words of the Mother: CWM, Vol. 14, p179
As with everything in yoga, the effort for progress must be made for the love of the effort for progress. The joy of effort, the aspiration for progress must be enough in themselves, quite independent of the result. Everything one does in yoga must be done for the joy of doing it, and not in view of the result one wants to obtain…. Indeed, in life, always, in all things, the result does not belong to us. And if we want to keep the right attitude, we must act, feel, think, strive spontaneously, for that is what we must do, and not in view of the result to be obtained.
The Mother – Questions and Answers: CWM, Vol.9, p 316
…. the path to that realisation is long and difficult, strewn with snares and problems to be solved, which demand an unfailing determination. It is like the explorer’s trek through virgin forest in quest of an unknown land, of some great discovery. The psychic being is also a great discovery which requires at least as much fortitude and endurance as the discovery of new continents. A few simple words of advice may be useful to one who has resolved to undertake it.
The first and perhaps the most important point is that the mind is incapable of judging spiritual things. All those who have written on this subject have said so; but very few are those who have put it into practice. And yet, in order to proceed on the path, it is absolutely indispensable to abstain from all mental opinion and reaction.
Give up all personal seeking for comfort, satisfaction, enjoyment or happiness. Be only a burning fire for progress, take whatever comes to you as an aid to your progress and immediately make whatever progress is required.
Try to take pleasure in all you do, but never do anything for the sake of pleasure.
Never get excited, nervous or agitated. Remain perfectly calm in the face of all circumstances. And yet be always alert to discover what progress you still have to make and lose no time in making it.
Never take physical happenings at their face value. They are always a clumsy attempt to express something else, the true thing which escapes our superficial understanding.
Never complain of the behaviour of anyone, unless you have the power to change in his nature what makes him act in this way; and if you have the power, change him instead of complaining.
Whatever you do, never forget the goal which you have set before you. There is nothing great or small once you have set out on this great discovery; all things are equally important and can either hasten or delay its success. Thus before you eat, concentrate a few seconds in the aspiration that the food you are about to eat may bring your body the substance it needs to serve as a solid basis for your effort towards the great discovery, and give it the energy for persistence and perseverance in the effort.
Before you go to sleep, concentrate a few seconds in the aspiration that the sleep may restore your fatigued nerves, bring calm and quietness to your brain so that on waking you may, with renewed vigour, begin again your journey on the path of the great discovery.
Before you act, concentrate in the will that your action may help or at least in no way hinder your march forward towards the great discovery.
When you speak, before the words come out of your mouth, concentrate just long enough to check your words and allow only those that are absolutely necessary to pass, only those that are not in any way harmful to your progress on the path of the great discovery.
To sum up, never forget the purpose and goal of your life. The will for the great discovery should be always there above you, above what you do and what you are, like a huge bird of light dominating all the movements of your being.
The Mother – On Education: CWM, Vol. 12, pp33-35
To know is good, to live is better, to be, that is perfect.
The Mother – Words of the Mother: CWM, Vol. 15, p173
The psychological method is far more difficult but far more effective: through your actions, to be in a state of inner will to express nothing in yourself but the Truth of your being, and to make everything dependent on that Truth. Of course, if you do nothing, it is easier, but it is also easier to deceive yourself. When you sit down in isolation, in complete silence and far away from everybody, and examine yourself with more or less indulgent eyes, you may imagine that you are realising something wonderful. But when you are put to the test at every minute of your life, when you have the occasion to become aware of your imperfections, your infirmities, your little movements of bad will a hundred times a day, you soon lose the illusion of being… and so your efforts are more sincere.
That is why, instead of deciding that we would have an Ashram in a solitary forest where everything is very beautiful, very restful, instead of being aloof from the world and attending only to our own little selves, we are trying on the contrary to take up all the activities of life and make them as conscious as we can, and, in our contacts with other people, to become more clearly aware of all the inner movements.The Mother-Words of the Mother – III:CWM, Vol.15, p303
Change…
1) Hatred into harmony
2) Jealousy into generosity
3) Ignorance into knowledge
4) Darkness into light
5) Falsehood into truth
6) Wickedness into goodness
7) War into peace
8) Fear into fearlessness
9) Uncertainty into certainty
10) Doubt into faith
11) Confusion into order
12) Defeat into victory
The Mother – Words of the Mother: CWM, Vol. 15, p223
A prayer for those who wish to serve the Divine:
Glory to Thee, O Lord, who triumphest over every obstacle.
Grant that nothing in us shall be an obstacle in Thy work.
Grant that nothing may retard Thy manifestation.
Grant that Thy will may be done in all things and at every moment.
We stand here before Thee that Thy will may be fulfilled in us, in every element, in every activity of our being, from our supreme heights to the smallest cells of the body.
Grant that we may be faithful to Thee utterly and for ever.
We would be completely under Thy influence to the exclusion of every other.
Grant that we may never forget to own towards Thee a deep, an intense gratitude.
Grant that we may never squander any of the marvellous things that are Thy gifts to us at every instant.
Grant that everything in us may collaborate in Thy work and all be ready for Thy realisation.
Glory to Thee, O Lord, Supreme Master of all realisation.
Give us a faith active and ardent, absolute and unshakable in Thy Victory.
The Mother – Prayers and Meditations: CWM, Vol. 1, p382
There are two ways of doing Yoga, one by knowledge and one’s own efforts, the other by reliance on the Mother. In the last way one has to offer one’s mind and heart and all to the Mother for her Force to work on it, call her in all difficulties, have faith and bhakti. At first it takes time, often a long time, for the consciousness to be prepared in this way and during that time many difficulties can come up, but if one perseveres a time comes when all is ready, the Mother’s Force opens the consciousness fully to the Divine, then all that must develop develops within, spiritual experience comes and with it the knowledge and union with the Divine.
Sri Aurobindo – The Mother with Letters on The Mother: CWSA, Vol. 32, p200
For the aspirant and the “sadhak”, all that comes in his life comes to help him to know the Truth and to live it. Be confident, you will conquer; and it will mean a big step forward.
The Mother – Words of the Mother: CWM, Vol. 14, p220
…. By remaining psychically open to the Mother, all that is necessary for work or sadhana develops progressively, that is one of the chief secrets, the central secret of the sadhana.
Sri Aurobindo – The Mother with Letters on The Mother: CWSA, Vol. 32, p154
…as an initial help to set you on the path, I can tell you: (1) that on getting up, before starting the day, it is good to make an offering of this day to the Divine, an offering of all that one thinks, all that one is, all that one will do; (2) and at night, before going to sleep, it is good to review the day, taking note of all the times one has forgotten or neglected to make an offering of one’s self or one’s action, and to aspire or pray that these lapses do not recur.
This is a minimum, a very small beginning—and it should increase with the sincerity of your consecration.
The Mother – Some Answers from the Mother: CWM, Vol. 16, p316
