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Admonitions
It is always the same old story of “selling the birthright for a mess of pottage” (I understand the “birthright” as the possibility or capacity to be the first to reach the Divine Realisation). 4 May 1932 An evil that the Divine has forgotten ought to be forgotten by everybody. 18 December 1933 By what right do you want your will to influence others? Each one should be free. It is only the guru who has the right to impose his will on the will of the disciple who has chosen him. 21 March 1934 It is with the actual need that comes the true solution. 2 July 1936 Let us be always very careful to avoid all that might encourage in us the spirit of display.
The more unimportant people are, the more seriously they take themselves. 15 December 1944 Page - 272 Titles give no value to a man unless he has acquired them in the service of the Divine.
An utterance must be judged on its own value, not on the value of the signature over which it stands.
A saying is good only if it is good without a signature.
One does not become wise by talking much; one is called wise if one is forbearing, without fear or foe.
Nothing is easier than to speak holy words to those who expect them from you. But it is more difficult to find people who want to hear holy words.
I did not feel the necessity of informing Sri Aurobindo’s disciples that the Ashram is not a place to follow the silly habit of fooling people on the first of April. But now I see that some of the inmates have taken advantage of my silence to indulge in such stupidities, and I am sorry for it. 1 April 1945 Page - 273 Do not try to hide things; whatever you want to conceal becomes all the more visible. 19 April 1952 Only those who are capable of transmitting, along with a written word, the Divine force and consciousness, ought to give their autograph. 10 April 1954 Let us hope that the inner realisation will prove equal to the outer one. 26 April 1954 Better not count upon man. July 1959 It is not in man’s nature to be faithful.
Mother, why has God created so many human beings?
In the hope of having one good one.
And yet the Divine is everywhere, in the ignorant man as well as in the sage.
With man’s appearance on earth first came the power of controlling fire. Page - 274 Among earthly creatures man was the first to kindle a warming flame in the hearth, to set an illumining light shining in the darkness. Mastery over fire is the clear indication of man’s superiority over the animal.
One thing alone, the privilege of man if he is truly a man: moral and physical cleanliness.
How can you hope to make any spiritual progress so long as you remain shut up in such a bargaining and calculating spirit? 17 December 1959 There is only one apology that I can accept; it is this: “I will never do it again”, and keep your promise. All the rest is pretence. 7 April 1963 It is very easy not to do a thing. You must never again go to the cinema in town, never, and the fault will be wiped away. The heart belongs to the terrestrial human world; the soul belongs to the universal spiritual world. Blessings. 7 March 1965 It is clumsy and unbecoming enough to kiss a girl when she likes it; but to kiss a girl when she does not want it, is a coarse and imbecile act. Page - 275 At least one lakh Americans have had experiences with LSD and mescaline − experiences called “psychedelic”, which means “consciousness-expanding”. These drugs may become legalised in America, and a nation-wide campaign is afoot. Here is a copy of the Psychedelic Review (1966, No. 7) with an article claiming a high Yogic state achieved with mescaline.
I have read the passage marked in the magazine. One thing is sure − these experiences are not spiritual and to give them that name is a proof of complete ignorance of what is really a spiritual experience. The effect of the drug must be either an erratic wandering in the vital or the waking up of some subconscient notation gone asleep in the subconscient part of the being. No time to say any more on such a futile subject. 1968 To seek for pleasure is to ask for pain, for they are the obverse and reverse of the same thing.
All that is conducive to the keeping of one’s consciousness in the most material planes of the being would be criminal.
Prizes belong to a rather low standard of life − but if we are still there… Page - 276 (On the choice of a motor-car)
Do you want to go from one place to another without getting tired and without spending much time on the way, or do you want to be smart and look like an important man?
Shrinking is as bad as desire − so have the fan and let the Divine’s will be done, for − after all − it is always His will that prevails!
One must be without preferences and without desire to know the Divine’s will.
Superficial reactions are not desirable.
A company that has no name, no business and no money, is it not a company; it is a fraud.
Honest business is getting more and more risky.
The will not to cheat but also that of not being cheated. Page - 277 (About a woman who claimed to be Sri Aurobindo’s successor)
All this must stop at once and for all. It is sheer forgery and the people who do forgery ought to go to prison¹ or, at least, not be allowed to go about spreading their falsehood and duping credulous people. Her first predictions all failed. These will fail in the same way, and those who believe are simply fooled.
(About a sadhak who had been a Sannyasi before joining the Ashram. During a meditation, he saw snakes all around him.)
He must have a fear (perhaps subconscious) of the consequences of having rejected the Sannyasi’s robe and this fear translates by the attacks of snakes, etc. You can tell him not to fear, that I am informed and nobody will hurt him. Let him try again to meditate with the confidence that he is protected − but he must not try in public first. If his meditation becomes quiet he can once more meditate with the others.
He pushed on the table before me a scrap of paper which seemed to have been torn from an exercise-book, without any letterhead or anything official, on which he had written for me in a clumsy hand that I was promising to pay for the extra stamps if they were necessary. I felt like a poor traveller accosted in the corner of a wood by a band of brigands, pistols in hand, asking you to empty your pockets before letting you pass. I hesitated for a moment, but
¹Mother wrote the word “joke” in the margin to point out that she did not want the Ashram to go to court. Page - 278 I am a sport and I signed, thinking, “We shall see how far they dare to go.” In this world one pays dearly for wanting to be unselfish!
(An extremely wealthy man visited the Ashram. Upon departure he made only a token contribution, apologising that he did not have enough money in hand. While journeying home, hoodlums held him up and threatened his life; he at once gave Rs. 5000 to be released. When informed of the episode, the Mother wrote:)
The same story, with small differences in the setting, could be told so many, many times! And what about the stories of the efficiency of the Divine Grace? They are less in number perhaps, but so much more comforting !
When you speak of sacrificing everything for the Divine, it means that you are very greatly attached to those things, you have a great value for them and still you are ready to leave them for the sake of the Divine. Actually you should not be attached to anything or anybody except the Divine, and apart from Him nothing should have any value for you. And in that case you cannot speak of your sacrificing for the Divine.
Everything is contagious. Every good thing and every bad thing has its vibrations. Page - 279 If you Catch those vibrations, you get that thing. The true Yogi knows these vibrations and can handle them; that is how he can give you peace, etc. Even so-called accidents are contagious. You catch others’ sorrow and then feel sorrowful in the same way.
From the aesthetic point of view I can say that the brown colour is better than the white, but it is quite absurd and foolish to think that anybody is better or worse simply because of his colour. The African negro thinks that his colour is the most beautiful of all. The Japanese thinks that his colour is superior to any other. Colour prejudice is a very low thing. It indicates a very low state of consciousness − a consciousness just emerging from the inconscient. It is not an idea, it is not a feeling, it is something still lower than that. When you think in terms of colour prejudice, your own psychic laughs at your foolishness; it knows that it has lived in white, brown, yellow, red, black and all sorts of bodies. When you get this sort of prejudice, bring it before your consciousness and it will disappear.
There are people who can stand on their own legs. They do a thing because they find that it is good to do it. They offer themselves freely to the guru and take his guidance. But all the time it is a free movement. There are others who are slaves. They always want to have a social or official recognition for what they do. They can have self-confidence only if some authority recognises them. This is the slave mentality. Page - 280 |