Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 1. 1933

Letter ID: 1108

Sri Aurobindo — Nirodbaran Talukdar

May 4, 1933

I read in The Synthesis of Yoga that every act, movement etc. must be done as an offering, even if by a mental effort. This mental discipline is easy in acts of mechanical nature but not so easy in those of concentrative nature where the attention gets divided.

It is because people live in the surface mind and are identified with it. When one lives more inwardly, it is only the surface consciousness that is occupied and one stands behind it in another which is silent and self-offered.

What is meant exactly by “opening oneself”? Calling you, praying to you, remembering you, etc.?

These are acts of the mind, openness is a state of consciousness which keeps it turned to the Mother, free from other movements, expecting and able to receive what may come from the Divine.

I hear you have some special hours when you work for us?

No, it is not so.