Forward
Sri Aurobindo is the yogi of Integral Yoga who set about explaining mysticism in rational terms. When he did it successfully, we find the two extremes of the world are spiritually blended in thought. Thus, his thought covers ALL of life exhaustively and integrally.
To the devotees of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother who shared his yoga, a flower petal from their Samadhi (the place where their bodies are laid to rest) is a carrier of their spiritual power that in life has the power of realisation, as thoughts have in the mind. A long time ago I used to send these flowers everyday to a devotee friend. Along with the flowers I would write a line expressive of the thought of Sri Aurobindo or The Mother. Several other devotees expressed interest in these messages that were going out daily. Therefore, the early messages were published. The messages began to acquire a personality and to grow in number. Their popularity with the devotees made me write many more in the coming years. They fall under several categories and are distinguished by symbols assigned to them:
T =
truisms of life the world knows;
E = extension of their ideas applied to life situations;
&
= ideas known to be their own
The messages have grown to number about 10,000 in all and are arranged in a series of 1000 each. We begin by putting the first few thousand on this site and more will follow. It is true that many of them need explanations and illustrations, which have been written for the first 700 but only in Tamil. We hope to publish explanations in English to those messages for which explanations are required.
Karmayogi
Series I 1-100 101-200 201-300 301-400 401-500 501-600 601-700 701-800 801-900 901-1000
1) To know what you are thirsting for is self-awareness.
That alone is the Reality for you.
The surface occupies itself in non-activities when the depth is unable to express its thirst.
All surface activities, however they are seemingly directed, are really directed only to realise the self-awareness of the depths.
Man’s value lies in or is indicated by the distance between
surface and depth. T
2) Let us know where our
thirst is consciously centered. That is another measure of our value. T
3)
The pattern of transition from surface to the depth is the description of
one’s character. T
4) We are what we thirst for. T
5) Mother’s cells
thirst for Truth. What do we thirst for? At what centre? E
6) The Vedic Rishis
accomplished in the physical true integrality of spirit. E
7) Sri Aurobindo realised
the Absolute in the physical. &
8) The true physical is
different from the subtle physical. E
9) Mother sees clearly with
closed eyes.&
10)
Truth becomes falsehood when the Force puts pressure on consciousness to understand. E
11)
Material suffering is illusory. &
12)
As a child’s wailing over a broken toy is only a child’s suffering and
cannot affect an adult, the body’s suffering cannot affect an evolutionary adult. E
13) Human nature is crooked like a
dog’s tail. It is easier to straighten it than to change the body consciousness. &
14) Wider ideas change the perspective. Stronger emotions change the consciousness. Calmer sensations
change the substance. The more one is willing to change, the greater will be the change he
can effect in others. E
15) Knowing the process of Truth
becoming Falsehood helps change Falsehood into Truth. E
16) Mother created Auroville to
prevent wars. We can similarly discover a token to prevent every mishap and avail of every
opportunity. E
17) The finest expression on the face
comes when the soul is activated. It can either be adoration or anger. As long as it is
the soul that expresses on the face, it matters little whether it is positive or negative. T
18) Great changes in facial expression
come in a moment. &
19) “Sri Aurobindo could not do
it. How are you going to do this?”
‘How
is SHE going to do this?’
During
December 5-9 every year, Mother hears so.
The very
last effort of the hostile forces is to create doubt in another. Further, they raise the
disbelief in oneself. &
20) A gift is a material present.
Emotion that goes into it enriches it.
Thought behind it ennobles it.
The spirit underlying sanctions it at the beginning and sanctifies it finally. T
21) When the Supramental light touches the
physical, it turns into golden light. &
22) Any hostile force disappears when
Mother is called. There is a titan who does not budge. He too runs away when HE is
called. T
23) When strong personal emotions are
moved, they will release forces which stir up national events. T
24)
As the Grace increases, the tendency to increase stupidity also is great, perhaps
because stupidity and grace are at some level one. E
25)
It takes a long time to know where one has to change. Changing itself is not that
difficult. &
26)
Tragedy or comedy, personal or national, man, outside the essential response to the
event, is in the tight grip of the evolutionary urges inside, viz. the prakriti that
thinks in the mind and feels in the nerves.
That remains the only inner reality which constitutes his surface
being. Only when he crosses that into his depths, does he become free. T
27)
Tragedies in the environment that do not affect you are occasions for nature to
give you soul opportunities that you constantly run away from. Personal tragedies rip open
the physical consciousness to compel it to see the grace around. T
28)
He who sees the grace around constantly meets with no tragedy.
He who has faith in the grace brings in an atmosphere where no
tragedy can enter. T
29) That
which is loyal in us is the Divine inside. The human is not capable of loyalty. &
30)
Acts are all-pervasive and superior to our preferences. Even in ordinary life one
can see what a father wants to do to his pet child gets fulfilled in the life of the
neglected child and vice-versa.
Congress won freedom for the country. Those who opposed freedom rule this state.
Capacity to discern this aspect is Jnanam. T
31)
Whatever life has denied you, Mother’s Life gives you at a higher level.
Long for affection, get devotion.
Hide VIPs from yourself; they come to you.
Shut yourself away from samadhi. She
comes. T
32) Financial power is a necessary
medium between the physical and the Supramental. &
33) One sacrifice is most powerful,
the sacrifice of taking any initiative. (Sarvarambaparithyagi = one who gives up
all initiatives.) E
34) We desire what is not due to us.
When you give others what is not due to them, it becomes Love. T
35) Unless you begin at the point where you are NOW, no
real beginning is ever made. T
36) Where we are is indicated by what
we cannot give up, e.g. human attachment, self-importance, character values. T
37) Mother never punishes, never. Still Her devotees meet with troubles. Such
troubles are of the following description:
—Stubborn insistence on a foolish course;
—Going out of Mother’s Protection consciously or unconsciously;
—Doing anything we know Mother dislikes. E
38) Mother’s Protection follows
even in these cases to a great extent. Only when the personal insistence overtakes the
benevolent protection trouble arises. E
39) Man has the capacity not to see
what is before him. He can ask you, as if asking a fresh question, the thing you have
repeated 100 times. It is known as unconsciousness. T
40) We see people of low type acting
without sensation. Sensational people act without thought like rushing to the door on
hearing a drum beating. People who think act
only as their thought moves, not sensations. As thought overcomes sensation, Mother says
consciousness overcomes thought. She acts
only like that. When we do not think, we find a great idea entering us from consciousness.
It is possible for us to let ourselves move only by consciousness, suspending thought. To
do that we must give up thinking. T
41)
Consecration of thought opens up movement of consciousness, i.e. mental
consciousness. E
42)
Consecration of feelings opens up movement of vital consciousness and consecration
of sensation opens up movements of physical consciousness. E
43)
Consecration of thought, feelings and sensations leads to movement of Consciousness
of the Being. E
44)
If man does not initiate and becomes sarvaramba
parithyagi ( one who gives up all initiatives), movements of consciousness set in. T
45)
Man looks at the noblest event from below. God looks at the meanest act from above.
To man it looks low. To God it is noble. He who learns to look at things from above moves
towards being God. T
46)
Resistance replaced by aspiration makes for transformation. T
47)
Sri Aurobindo rarely used the word, ‘I’. Later he often referred to
Himself as Sri Aurobindo. &
48)
Golden colour in the vision shows the Supramental in the physical. E
49)
Suffering is the means used by the Inconscience to move towards the Divine
Consciousness. E
50)
When the Presence is constant one even forgets to call. T
51)
The Divine is Benevolence and Sweetness says The Mother.
Man becoming benevolent and sweet becomes the Divine. He can do so at least to one
who is closest. E
52)
There is always a response to attention. If the person does not respond, Life
responds through a vibration representing the person. T
53)
To love your children is a Divine emotion.
To be aware of their strength is self-awareness.
To become aware of their defects is Divine Self-awareness since it is the higher side of awareness. T
54)
Human effort is partial. The Divine effort is total. Mental effort is partial,
bodily effort is total. Moving our centre of aspiration to the physical part in any plane,
we become divine in that plane. Moving it to the centre of body itself, one is fully
divinised. E
55)
The easiest way of getting anything in great measure is to give it to the Divine.
Better still, give it to your fellowmen, e.g., if you want affection, give your affection
to others. T
56)
Consciousness moving from the Inconscience towards the Divine Consciousness passes
through suffering necessarily. Consciousness accepting Divine Consciousness and as a
result moving towards the Divine Consciousness moves not through suffering but through JOY. That is
the mission of Mother. To accept Mother is to convert suffering into JOY. E
57)
Social life honours the present, forgetting the past. Psychological life honours
the past in the present. Spiritual
Life brings the past and future into the Present, making it the Ever Present which is trikaladrishti
(knowledge of past, present and future.) T
58)
We are part of the soil from which we are born. We are also part of the spirit
which is embodied in our being. To discover that spirit one becomes a yogi; to discover
the body’s origin in the soil is to become a Supramental being. E
59)
The maker of the rule is both above his rule as well as more bound by his rule than
the ruled. T
60)
Of all the human relationships, the best are those between parents and children;
husband and wife; friends united by love and Guru-sishya.
Of these the one between the husband and wife has the greatest scope of fulfilment
while the one between Guru and sishya can consummate itself at the spiritual level taking
it higher than the rest. T
61)
Calling down Mother’s Peace disperses a quarreling crowd as well as calms down
a nation troubled by war. E
62)
In our transactions with people we can always see what is too much for them is too
little for us because we open a door into endless prosperity. E
63)
Every inner advance brings a shower of Grace on the being. Mostly it is reflected
by copious rain outside in season or out of season. E
64)
Mother’s laughter at the age of 90 used to resemble that of a 15 year girl.
When the soul rises to the surface, habits of life like laughter resemble those of youth. E
65)
People who come to Mother do not always stay with Her to the end except a few.
Those few rise in consciousness and quickly find themselves lodged literally in Her
breast. Others move away, some forget, the rare few give up what She gave. To all these
She does not refuse Her Grace. Only that it abides at the level the contact is still
there.
Those who move away do not lose the prosperity that came but now have to struggle for what
previously came by itself.
Those who forget when they occasionally remember, find the Grace fully abiding.
Those who throw away Her Grace work hard to regain it. T
66)
The inner reflects the outer in three stages. When the inner is most powerful it
creates the outer; when it is very weak it reflects the event in the outer. In between it
has both the relationships with the outer. E
67)
Brahma rishi sees the world as
Brahman, i.e. Spirit.
To be a Supramental yogi, one must be able to see the world as an expression of the
Divine even as the gold bangle is an expression of the pure gold. E
68)
Sense of neglect is the first negative awakening. Prior to that one is oblivious of
that opportunity. T
69)
When Her Grace acts, many
good things occur, not the prayed-for work. T
70)
A Jnani is one who is
aware of the fact that his comprehensive knowledge is ignorance.
Man considers his consummate Ignorance Knowledge. T
71)
There are two ends for our consciousness. One we touch in our meditation, the other
we express in our ordinary life. They are the height and ebb of our existence.
For purposes of growth, the
minimum level of our consciousness decides the maximum height to which our life can grow
spiritually. T
72) In
the material physical world one gets the power over another only when he submits. In the
vital world, such a power comes to one if you come into contact with him.
What in the physical world is possible by submission, the vital world achieves by a mere contact. T
73)
When chaste women say ‘pour’, rain pours. That is the power of a chaste
woman who is rare. Mother gives the same power to all Her devotees. T
74)
Ignorance is the seed of loss. To insist on that will bring tragedy. T
75)
Man obeys authority more readily than love. A man of higher consciousness obeys
even authority out of love. A heart of nectar is able to see only love even in authority (Iswara—Shakti). T
76)
Understanding another’s ignorance is to see the ignorance in its outer robe.
Its inner shape can be seen only when we see it inside ourselves. T
77)
Ego is a centralising force and structure. Its structure is so perfect that when it
chooses to work for its freedom, it ends up strengthening its fetters. T
78)
Those who have once come to Mother, even those who abandoned HER,
when they examine their life in its subtleties, will find HER at
every landmark of their life. In the measure they have accepted Her, She will be there in
their lives unfailingly. E
79) An impossible but an easy method
is to convince the ego to pray for its dissolution. Ego is created by insincerity, i.e. separation. To make the ego sincere is to knock its bottom out. E
80) A sincere acceptance by the ego of
its dissolution is indicated by a flash of opening extending to infinity. E
81) He who is to enjoy the world as
a marvel, must be able to enjoy at least a few ordinary things which are dull and flat to
others.
The capacity to take delight in what is otherwise ordinary is the capacity to be the Divine. T
82) Such a capacity sees loyalty to
the Divine in human betrayal. T
83) That vision can see the
spiritual riches in human poverty, Divine chastity in human prostitution, great service in
social crime. T
84) The greatest urge exists at
several levels.
There
are combinations of any two or any three. Raising the level of work is evolution, e.g. the
urge to accomplish in the society for Mother is a vital urge of devotion. Moving it to
discovery of the vital-physical principle of work (management) is evolution. T
85) While at the Samadhi, one
forgets the rest. A full heart forgets the world. T
86) ‘I forget everything when I
start speaking of Mother’.
‘If I meet you, I forget the world’ is what we hear.
That which absorbs our interest to the point of our forgetting the rest, is of the Divine. T
87) That trait which causes you the
problem for a long time, is the door that can open upon endless progress, e.g. rough
speech, assertion, impatience, etc.
Equally, that trait which has all along served you can now take you further very fast to the end, e.g. goodwill, integrity, reliability, soft speech, etc. T
88) Except lions, She has everything
in Her room. Even lions are there invisibly. &
89) Anger, fear, sex enter from
outside. We have to withdraw from them, He says. Then everything is not ours. What is our
own vibration? Our own vibration is not prakriti, but Purusha. E
90) Why do we receive outside
vibrations at all? Our structure makes us receive them. We have to undo that structure. E
91) If a vibration increases by its
opposite, it is a true vibration (e.g. love that increases by strife). T
92) The most useless person becoming
the most adorable is common in Mother’s Consciousness. T
93) An important person loses his
importance at the touch of Mother. T
94) Money value fully occupies the
mind even after all the money is given up, e.g. the Narikurava was barked at by the dogs
after he took employment. T
95) A sense of duty that is highest
in life is a bar in yoga. E
96) Attachment that is sweet is
coarse in Mother. T
97) He who discovers the joy of
making others flower cannot be attached to his own kith and kin. T
98) There is no one who does not
respond to attention. T
99) Mother responds most to human
attention. T
100) Faith achieves, capacity executes. T
