The
Mother on Sri Aurobindo's Thoughts and Aphorisms
Karma (Works)
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206.
God leads man while man is misleading himself; the higher nature
watches over the stumblings of his lower mortality; this is the
tangle and contradiction out of which we have to escape into the
self-unity to which alone is possible a clear knowledge and a
faultless action.
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The
only safety in life, the only way to escape from the consequences
of past errors, is an inner development leading to conscious union
with the Divine Presence; the only effective guide, the Truth
of our being and of all beings.
25
November 1969
- The Mother
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207.
That thou shouldst have pity on creatures
is well, but not well, if thou art a slave to thy pity. Be a slave
to nothing except to God, not even to His most luminous angels.
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For
those who want to live according to Truth, the only way is to
become conscious of the Divine Presence and to live exclusively
according to Its Will.
This is the only way to escape from evil and suffering, the only
way to be always in peace, light and joy.
26
November 1969
- The Mother
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208.
Beatitude is God's aim for humanity; get this supreme good for
thyself first that thou mayst distribute it entirely to thy
fellow-beings.
209.
He who acquires for himself alone, acquires ill though he may
call it heaven and virtue.
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Man
has a right to beatitude since that is what he was created for.
But any egocentric movement is the very opposite of this beatitude;
so that if you seek it for yourself alone, you repel it instead
of attracting it. By self-forgetfulness, by self-giving, without
asking anything in return, by merging, so to say, into this beatitude
so that it may shine upon all, you find the inner peace and joy
which never leave you.
29
November 1969
What
is the difference between "self-forgetfulness" and "self-giving"?
Self-forgetfulness
may simply be a passive state resulting from a total lack of egoism.
Self-giving, which takes its full value when it is directed towards
the Divine, is an active movement which includes love in its purest
and highest form.
A total self-giving to the Divine is the true purpose of existence.
30
November 1969
- The Mother
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210.
In my ignorance I thought anger could be noble and vengeance
grandiose; but now when I watch Achilles in his epic fury, I
see a very fine baby in a very fine rage and I am pleased and
amused.
211.
Power is noble, when it overtops anger; destruction is
grandiose, but it loses caste when it proceeds from vengeance.
Leave these things, for they belong to a lower humanity.
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Anger
and vengeance belong to a lower humanity, the humanity of yesterday
and not of tomorrow.
1 December 1969
-
The Mother
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212.
Poets make much of death and external afflictions; but the only
tragedies are the soul's failures and the only epic man's triumphant
ascent towards godhead.
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Usually
man is not afflicted with the only thing truly tragic, the failure
to find one's soul and to live according to its law.
In truth, the only thing that is truly tragic is not to become
conscious of one's soul, the psychic being, and not to be entirely
guided by it in one's life.
To die before having found one's soul and lived according to its
law, that is the true failure.
And the true epic, the true glory is to find the Divine in oneself
and to live according to His law.
3 December 1969
-
The Mother
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213.
The tragedies of the heart and the body are the weeping of children
over their little griefs and their broken toys. Smile within thyself,
but comfort the children; join also, if thou canst, in their play.
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It
is the narrowness of the human consciousness that makes tragedies
out of events which for the Divine Consciousness are only movements
in the general evolution. But even when one sees that, one can
and must keep a profound sympathy for those who are still living
in the throes of ignorance.
4 December 1969
-
The Mother
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214.
"There is always something abnormal and eccentric about
men of genius." And why not ? For genius itself is an abnormal
birth and out of man's ordinary centre.
215.
Genius is Nature's first attempt to liberate the imprisoned
god out of her human mould; the mould has to suffer in the process.
It is astonishing that the cracks are so few and unimportant.
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Once
a man becomes conscious of the Divine and unites with Him, he
certainly becomes abnormal to ordinary eyes, for he no longer
has the weaknesses that make up ordinary human nature.
But fortunately for him, by the very fact of his inner realisation,
he loses man's habit of boasting and is thus able to avoid the
ill will of others.
5 December 1969
-
The Mother
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216.
Nature sometimes gets into a fury with her own resistance, then
she damages the brain in order to free the inspiration; for in
this effort the equilibrium of the average material brain is her
chief opponent. Pass over the madness of such and profit by their
inspiration.
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It
is indeed wise to look at everything with the calm smile of perfect
trust. For, with his present consciousness, man can hardly understand
the aims of the Supreme Lord.
7 December 1969
- The Mother
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