Series III   301-400

301)      Consummate artists, athletes, craftsmen have an eye of observation that catches the least little flaw automatical­ly. A novice remembering Mother in work is given that capacity of observation.

302)      Impulses, opinions, attitudes, motives are finite forces in their structure, direction and action. After transformation they only lose their fixity of every type but continue to do duty as before. Then motives become urges that can change direction, attitudes flexible forces, opinions thoughts of an open mind and impulses quiet expressions of energy lying in wait to be released into action.

303)      If the actions of a confirmed fool are analysed from the point of view of evolutionary organisation and the right role is assigned to him, we will discover that his actions are the same as our conclusions dic­tate.

             "Democracy is the Brahman in action in social political organisation."

304)      The Perfect Perfection HE speaks of is not the perfection of an aus­tere ceremony; it is the rich, full, dangerous perfection of the wild growth of a tropical rain forest infested with poisonous animals, ferocious tigers and the wealth of the forest.

305)      The merest method will yield full results instantaneously when the motives are pure.

306)      Marriage, by definition, is a social, psychological, ethical, senti­mental union that is a bondage for life. Joy of emotional union is by definition not in any of these planes, rather any of these planes or their forces are capable of stamping that Joy out of life. No wonder the institution of marriage is joyless.

307)      Consecration surely brings results. Instantaneous results issue when the impulses of one's basic characteristics are consecrated.

308)      The intensity of excited emotions rising to levels of sophisticated quiet sweetness turning into benevolence of equality is felt by the lingering sensations of erstwhile nervous being as a state of having lost the very capacity to feel emotions.

309)      Achievers  seek emotions of their own level. They rear their heads as patriotism, poetic imagination, emotional oblivion in the intimacy of the beloved, passionate sympathy for the suffering humanity, elevating compassion or even dissipating indulgences.

310)      The growing sense of discovery is a sense of growth. To have a growing sense that constantly outgrows the perceptions of sin, weakness, shame, disgust, evil, etc. is a sign of evolutionary growth.

311)      Partial perception seeks; matured vision awaits the Touch of the Eternal.

312)      The emerging infinite ardently seeks the object or situation which the finite avoids in fear. In a finite field it is rewarded with success or failure both of which excite the seeking infinite to further adven­tures. Beyond the line the failures lose their inhibitive limitations offering the seeker ever-increasing measures of expansive growth of enjoyment.

313)      How can the same act be a step towards death and a vehicle for pro­gress? That is the difference between the finite and infinite and is true of all the acts when they cross the line. The last thing that sticks as an obstacle is the physical sensitivity.

314)      When Grace descends on the finite, the finite becomes infinite. Hence the great endless expansion. If the finite chooses to insist on being what it is, the finite does succeed, but the infinite also makes itself fully felt by letting the finite destroy the possibilities opened by Grace by infinite speed.

315)      Emotional experience converts conception into perception. Material physical experience changes perception into sensation. As even in the mind these three components are there, an emotional thought can gener­ate perception and the brain realising the thought can give the sensation. Imagination can help accomplish both.

316)      Socially survival, rising, and maintaining the attained status are the problems for the individual. Society at large has the same problems. Psychologically too, the problems are similar. Hence human problems are ones that are of movements in either direction of progress or deterioration, hastening the progress, preventing the sliding down.

317)      A fully conscious Will generates Good. Evil results when part of it becomes unconscious.

318)      Truth is of Existence; Good is of Consciousness; Beauty is of Ananda.

319)      Silence and Peace are of the Spirit, rather more of the Spirit than of anything like Truth, etc.

320)      When the Will moves into the domain of the mind it becomes Light, Love in the heart and power in the body, joy in the vital.

321)      Infinity and Eternity are of Space and Time. Hence they are the objec­tive and subjective extension of Consciousness.

322)      Bliss and Delight are static and dynamic aspects of Satchidananda sensing itself; the unmanifest and manifest conditions of infinite Freedom.

323)      The great impersonal truths the world knows today are the ones great men realised in their lives as personal truths from life experience.

324)      The fundamental major determinant of accomplishment by great men is the energy level meant for the work and the final determinant is their character-organisation, i.e., expressed external manners in human interaction and decision-making.

325)      The man of passion, idealistic sentiments that consume, emotions that overpower, finds those that are incapable of them unevolved. Either by age or by outliving these experiences or by frustration, he comes to have no energy or impulse for the god-like urges he once had.

326)      The unorganised unprofessional entrepreneur refusing professional help indirectly raises his level of self-confidence and brings his rewards of professional advice. The agnostic who refuses to pray rises in the scale of personality strength attracting the results of prayer.

327)      Vast differences in behaviour in irrevocable relationships often baffle. In the ultimate scheme of things each man's behaviour is of supreme importance to him and is a field of enjoyable evolutionary growth of inner self-discovery of the hidden spirit. In this sense, no man is of any consequence to the other. He who seeks a wider goal goes deeper into his subconscious and reaches out to corresponding external relationships to consummate it. The tapasvi, centred in his soul, forcibly gives up family and life. Purna Yogi, accepting all life, refuses to break any one of the relationships given to him until they outgrow their use and fall off by themselves.

328)      He who releases Mother's Energy at will is one who is in touch with Her. Energy is released if the act is conscious; if unconscious, the released energy is not felt but the work gets completed. The rest is theoretical preparation for a practical result.

329)      Intense prayer over the years to overcome the disgusting infidelity at last was answered. The disgust was no longer there. The mind now goes back to all those details with the same intensity as when it was disgusting. Disgusting or non-disgusting, the mind sticks to its round of indulgences.

330)      One man is perfectly capable of enjoying the very same situation which is disgusting to another. The same man can be found to enjoy a situation that was earlier disgusting because of altered conditions.

                Altered circumstances give rise to altered emotions, even the opposite ones.

331)      To punish other people by your standards that are different is to punish others for your ignorance; or punish your ignorance vicarious­ly.

332)      When a problem is solved normally there is relief which is natural. The best yogic response is "Once more Mother has prevailed."

333)      Hides as God; emerges as Man.

334)      Social tragedies when they occur for no fault of ours, are psychologi­cally tolerable; psychological tragedies can be spiritually explain­able; spiritually there are no tragedies.

335)      Body's interest is based on interest/need; vital's interest on energy; mind's interest on understanding;  spirit's interest on its spiritual significance; Supermind’s interest on the perception of its soul; Ananda on the joy; consciousness’ interest on its being conscious; Being's interest on its being; The Absolute's interest on its being the relative determined by Itself.

336)      The world reveals itself as a marvel to HIM who has created; or to the man who has grown to HIS perception, not to him who remains the thing created.

337)      Gopala Krishnan's relationship with anyone is impersonal. He enjoys the relationship without personally equating him with the other, wher­eas all the others see a personal equation or the absence of it in any relationship. Also, by his being a rustic villager, he has the need of urban contacts.

338)      Everyone has a centre of reference towards which his progress moves. It is social, psychological, ethical, yogic etc. Purna yoga needs NO methods in the sense that one, having taken it, continues to live as before, shifting the centre of reference upwards. Life continues to be what it is; only the centre moves. When the centre dissolves it becomes a centreless reference or a referenceless life. At that point the Absolute is realised at the plane where centre dissolves.

339)      A society's level of civilisation, a family's level of culture, the level of a person's worth or value are decided by the lowest level of their existence, a level below which they are unable to fall.

340)      Fact is an event in material space, not necessarily related to think­ing. Thought is a mental process of relating facts together and its results. Idea is a result of mental effort on its own, not related to facts.

              Real idea is one that can translate itself into actuality by its own inner validity.

341)      Our prayers that are unfailingly answered begin to fail at one point, the point where our faith ceases to be in the Grace but shifts to the reality of human experience. However much we try to push the border line, it slips or the mind fails to go back to prayer. Man, at that point, fixes his limits of faith; it is not as if faith fails at some point.

342)      Self-restraint based on austerity that led to growth to the next level is always inevitably followed by an overwhelming indulgence in that which he denied himself earlier till that vibration is exhausted. No continuous progress based on austerity succeeding austerity is ever possible. Austerity, enjoyment that is indulgence followed by austerity at higher levels seems to be the rule. Progress continues when the indulgence is within limits, leaving an excess of austere strength.

343)      'Destructive service' offered to an institution such as removing the founder of a university as her Pro-Chancellor, was returned by the institution or by that very Pro-Chancellor as constructive service to the original sponsor.

              Service evokes service, in the very spirit in which it was (is) of­fered.

344)      The conscious occupation of the surface mind becoming the subconscious routine is a measure of the yogic poise.

345)      The possibilities are finite when our mind looks at an object from the point of view of that object whose physical definitions are finite. The object and its possibilities begin to lose their finite nature when the mind looks at the object from its own (mind's) point of view. Should we view an object from inside, from the Absolute's point of view, the possibilities grow to being infinite.

346)      To accept a person (not necessarily as a guru) means to accept him as he is in toto which means to be able to understand all his lowest acts as the best of acts. If accepted in the right spirit, he will turn out to be one like Nell in The Old Curiosity Shop. Discrimination and 'acceptance' do not go together.

347)      The Infinite changes into the finite; Being, Consciousness, Ananda change into Non-Being, Inconscience, Insensibility; the Absolute does not change into its 'opposite' or anything because it is the Absolute. Only its manifestations undergo the changes.

348)      We ardently adore several capabilities in others and equally condemn several propensities in yet others. What we adore or condemn is of the same structures of different intensities and direction and occult­ly present in us, too. Manifestation is a small expression based on large suppression while the character or structure of both remains the same. Brahman is the same in suppression as well as expression.

 349)      As there are many routes to the Absolute, even in opposite directions, the goal of success can be reached by a dozen methods, some of which will look like avowed paths of failure. The right method, essential ways, perfection, innovation, tradition, expansiveness and many others will lead to great success; only that the inner energy that issues should overflow the measure of our operations.

350)      Accepting a Master or Guru who can lead you to the inner Guru, you should be able to adore every one of his actions, notwithstanding their real merit, not hypocritically but with the understanding that when his actions and your appreciation of them are in tune, the inner window will open. To accept the man on the street like that is to become the evolving Godhead in the human frame.

351)      To take interest in anything is natural and possible. It is to express a movement of Prakriti. The effort to evolve replacing the interest is transformation of life into yoga. Interest in explaining an idea turns into evolution if the explanation gives place to silence and silence into a capacity to communicate in silence. Moral abhorrence losing its edge and changing into  adoration of the very act one detested is emotional evolution.

352)      Of the many ways in which Joy and pain can be explained, one is: work accepted, in the doing of it, expands the foundations, joy issues; contracts, pain results. Education that enlivens the mind or ensures a career gives joy. Office work where credit will go to others while you are high and dry oppresses.

              The deeper the foundation that expands, the greater is the JOY. Youth­ful joy results from expansion of physical energy; the achiever re­ceives the psychological joy; the moksha-seeking yogi from the expand­ing spirit; Purna yogi from the evolving level of the spirit.

              At any given moment what gives us joy can be the physical energy, psychological achievement, the opening spiritual horizon, the evolving mind or Supermind or Satchidananda or the Absolute.

              For the Absolute to evolve in us now, we must have realised the Abso­lute in that plane. The evolving ego gives pain, evolving out of ego gives expansiveness and hence no pain but joy.

353)      The creative genius finds it harder to understand what is presented to him even if it is from another genius than to examine himself crea­tively. In other words, it is easier for a genius to create afresh than to exercise a lower faculty like comprehension. It is easier to found a company than to set right an existing one.

354)      Self-discovery is formation of skill at the physical, pleasant victory over a situation in the vital, comprehension in the mental; silence, drishti, intuition at further levels. Discovering the determinant is supramental self-discovery. To continue the search, it can be discov­ered as Ananda, Consciousness, Purusha and finally the Absolute, all in the ascent.  Knowing the corresponding stages of self-hiding which is necessary for the self-discovery from the Absolute to Matter helps in the subsequent process of self-discovery.

355)      The dualistic system of balanced pairs of opposites is a necessity for intellectual conception. This is the method of Maya. As the intellec­tuality conceives of an external object, unlike the infinite's self-conception, the conceiving subject and the object which is conceived of become opposites. In developed intellects, the opposition is bal­anced making thought viable. Undeveloped intellects have unbalanced opposites that generate confusion where no thought could function.

 356)      The One Eternal in the many transient; The One Consciousness in many consciousnesses; He am I; I am Brahman the Eternal, the four pillars on which Vedanta has raised itself, taken together can be summarised as Objective Realisation moving to Total Subjectivity, since they start with the outside and proceed inward.

                      I - The external perception of the Eternal.

                     II - To see the Being as Consciousness

                    III -The Outer being recognised the inner, a movement from outside  to inside.

                    IV - The same viewed from inside, the outside having lost its reality.

357)      Shakespeare, rather the Parabrahman in Shakespeare, created original thoughts in the subtilised atmosphere, a field of immortality. Hence it is Eternal. Hallucination, apparition is the same in the field of sensation. Permanence issues out of the depth from which it originates and the nature of the field where it expresses. Theoretically man can create similar permanences in the material field.

358)      Accomplishment requires submission to the entire circumstances. The weak, the idealist and the yogi accomplish through this principle. The submission is the same everywhere, but the purpose is different on each occasion.

359)      It is our belief that one who responds to charm, lure, attraction outside his right is an animal, i.e. we expect to meet a man of psy­chological values. Humanity can evolve a man of psychological values only when the social plane is saturated with social values which is not yet a fact. Man of psychological values can be held as an ideal whereas the social man is the only reality.

360)      Human relationship is between people of humane qualities. It does not come into existence between two people of different levels of charac­ter.

361)      Families do have excellent atmosphere of affection in spite of alcohol drinking and compromising sex behaviour, since it is composed of individuals of character.

            The character of the family ensures higher happiness overriding the factors of dubious behaviour. [George's mother-in-law vowed not to touch alcohol and runs a non-alcoholic restaurant in France. Hers is a happy family which enjoys a wedding dinner between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. None of them is a moralist in matters of sex.]

362)      Mother acting instantaneously conferring full benefits happens when Mother's Great Energy descends. It happens either when there is a great inner determination from an equally great calm or a call rises from great turbulence inside. Thought that is passing or a strong conviction never does it. Surely no wish moves such forces.

             If ever thought does it, it must be an earth-shaking idea such as generosity for a miser or free woman in a household. In theory, thought that is penetratingly full can perform this even if it is an ordinary one.

             The secret key is -- whether it is energy, thought or aspiration or prayer, it must enjoy a fullness of totality man does not presently know.

363)      When weakness realises what it is, it starts becoming strength. Weak­ness that mistakes itself to be strength is irritated, bursts out in anger, wants to wreak vengeance, contemplates the various sides of the issue and lapses into sadness.

364)      The evolutionary foundation is laid where Mind dominates Matter. Work done by Mind initiated by Matter becomes structures to be overcome and undone for evolutionary growth.

365)      Fullness of being comes out of fulfilment at a deeper level of inner existence. It happens when a wider idea is expressed by the emotion that accepted it or when the body has the circumstance to live it as an enjoyable experience. Feeling of fullness becomes complete in the psychic experience.

366)      Silent, calming Quiet in the mind, energising joy that expands the emotion, sense of cosy comfort in a relaxed body or an ease that enjoys itself in the being are indications of fullness.

367)      The static Absolute chose to move. That movement that began at Exist­ence will not and cannot stop till it goes back to its Origin. What we see as irresistibility is that movement.

368)      Purusha as well as Prakriti are stung by that movement of irresist­ibility. For Prakriti it is dissipation, for Purusha it is evolution.

369)      Irresistibility cannot be overcome or given up. It can change its character or direction. Even in stability or quiescence the movement continues in withholding action. It is only in the Absolute either before the Movement begins or after its return to it that the movement dissolves changing into an eternal potential of every possibility of which this Movement is one.

                 When we say the Absolute is beyond and above Movement and Stabili­ty, we mean it is capable of both as well as withholding both.

370)      Thinking as we know -- the mental effort of which facts or thoughts are the raw material -- cannot help in comprehending Supermind, Satchidananda, Absolute which reveal themselves to intuition. Transi­tion from one to the other is effected by consecration which relates the part to the whole.

371)      Crossing the borderline, the finite becoming the Infinite, irresist­ibility turns into evolutionary force. Force can return to its an­terior state of Being and further the Being can choose to lose its manifest state, thus returning to the Origin, the Absolute.

372)      He who can rise from thought to Silence or from Mind to Supermind or make his emotion accept an idea is the traveller on the path of Being returning to its Origin. Though his stage is primary, the capacity is ultimate.

373)      The first obstacle in dhyana is sleep. Mind goes to sleep when it is not active, says He. Dhyana is concentration of energy. Comprehension of the mind is limited, Increasing concentration after comprehension ends sends mind to inactive but blissful sleep.

374)      Equality is the condition of the soul when it realises the Absolute. (p. 792, S.Y.U Edition)

375)      Enjoyment of one is felt by enjoyment of all in the depths. Only the surface sulks. A cheat's delight in successfully robbing you is re­ceived in your subliminal as the same delight. That is why Sri Auro­bindo speaks of Krishna's tricks behind the temptation of the devil.

376)      Intentional cruelty, sin, perversity on the surface is still felt as joy in the depths, not only of the perpetrator but also by the depth of the victim, because there is nothing but JOY at that level.

377)      Living in the depths of the surface life, one can feel the rasa, the essential joy of living. There is no pain in the act. Pain is felt by the surface personality in the act, rather the act is received by the surface as pain or pleasure while the act is in essence only Joy.378)      Psychic sadness is a phenomenon of the psychic growing into its full­ness and the resistance it finds in the Nature to its growth. It is not yet the glad laughter of the soul.

379)      When a subject is too vast or too lofty and everyone finds it escapes their comprehension, we find two phenomena: 1) localised issues, or 2) the general outline is clearly grasped by those that are intelligent and interested. It becomes complete knowledge only when one explains in terms of the other all the way through.

380)      Such a knowledge becomes integral knowledge when the reader knows the significance of each detail. Its significance lies in its capacity to explain the outline. The outline becomes significant when we know why a certain detail is permitted into its scheme of things. Understanding Life Divine that way is a Jnana Siddhi, is Purna Yoga.

381)      In the absence of culture man sees himself as the centre and wants only to take. Touch of culture gives an urge to give in every contact.

382)      A man of great devotion and small personality cannot offer great service to Mother because his personality is not capable of it. Be­cause of perseverance, if he does so, the entire atmosphere either revolts or non-co-operates, as his own personality is part of it. It amount to doing violence to the equilibrium of Nature. Should he succeed in his endeavour, he must first work to raise the atmosphere and offer service in the measure that possibility permits.

383)      It is the irony of life or logic of super-life that negative people, even when inclined to offer service, can do so only negatively. For example, the urge for a negative man to serve as sincerely as possible surfaces as a desire to quit the arena of service so that he would not spoil the work.

384)      Planes, people, work of entirely different or opposite character cannot adjust with each other. The strong can only dominate the situa­tion. The dominant party can offer a cultural adjustment to a weak uncultured party from his own side of convenience, not from the op­posite side. The militancy of an invader can offer not to attack the civilian people or places from his own sense of self-restraint, not in consultation with the enemy.

385)      Growth is described as moving from unconsciousness to consciousness. Infancy is a period of physical unconsciousness. Till we emerge into adulthood, we are moved by the society, i.e. we are socially not conscious. The academic scholar till he becomes a thinker is mentally unconscious. Emerging psychic makes us spiritually conscious. Humanity is spiritually unconscious.

386)      Material property, functioning organisation, the power of a moving mass of adherents are necessary for evanescent idealism to strike roots in the ground. Otherwise idealism becomes an unideal unreality and va­nishes into thin air. Even the gods are unable to reach constant remembrance without the base of a physical body. Blood is thicker than water is true when that blood flows through concrete work relationship that is really profitable business propositions.

                            Material Prosperity is the physical body that makes constant remembrance of the blood relationship real and lasting.

387)      What is evident to genius in one generation becomes commonplace knowl­edge in the next generation. Here too, the cream that carries on the tradition of genius rises to the intellectual occasion of absorbing the essence of the knowledge the genius gave. The rest belongs to the crowd mouthing the words.  The Life Divine has not yet created that cream to appreciate its import. The appearance of the genius creates that permanent possibility in posterity, but to avail of that possibility is left to posterity.

388)      Thrusting an external discipline on unwilling shoulders, one can witness the general atmosphere resisting. An unwilling engineer, if pressed to accept a major responsibility of the entrepreneur, which he is not by inner makings, will witness his shed sealed for the default of another.

389)      Willingness to work is the sign of excess energy and capacity in greater measure; unwillingness the sign of their opposites.

390)      Capacity is high on the scale of human work next only to character and values. Training can give skill, not capacity or talent. Several skills meshing and letting their essence pool in a centre generates capacities. Even when a person is willing, it is a long drawn out process. With unwilling people, the proposition does not arise at all. A tyran­nical, overbearing mastery may achieve a modicum of it.

391)      Cruel tyranny has the positive side of creating capacity in an unwill­ing population.

392)      Divine Love that descends as Grace will have the same overbearing power of cruel tyranny, as there is a parallel in their powers.

393)      When disciples who are masters of methods to whom method is the mantra and godhead, want to destroy their guru, they cannot resist the temp­tation of seeking the approval and blessings of the self-same guru they aim at destroying.

394)      Those who are punished for no fault of theirs are those who pester everyone else for undeserving help.

395)      Life brings you exactly the opportunity of offering advice to others which you yourself need.

396)      Curing the ache by inner light or removing a correspondence or prayer is finite becoming Infinite.

397)      The powerful, inner, silent bargaining comes to you as the nagging, nasty, irrational outer bargaining.

398)      Polite hesitation to expose self-styled great men is impotent spiritu­ality, not inherent nobility.

399)      Romance is high strung, short-lived, fleeting, ends as fast as it appeared, perhaps as romantically, and cannot keep company with deep devotion that loyalty generates forever.

400)      An inner turnaround surely expresses as outer drastic change of events and attitudes, almost bringing about changes in events that are past remedy. That inner reality does have the capability of this outer reality.