to help others draws away from the inner work.
To grow in the spirit is the greatest help one can give to others, for then something flows out naturally to those around that helps them.Sri Aurobindo
The Mother with the Letters on the Mother
3. The Mother and the Practice of the Integral Yoga
Fragment ID: 19633
(this fragment is largest or earliest found passage)
Sri Aurobindo — Unknown addressee
April 9, 1937
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Mother does not set much value on propaganda, but still work of that kind can be her work. Only it has to come from her impulsion, be done with quietude, with measure, in the way she wants it to be done. It is from the inner being that it should be done in union with the Mother’s will, not from the vital mind’s eager impulse. To concentrate most on one’s own spiritual growth and experience is the first necessity of the sadhak – to be eager to help others draws away from the inner work. To grow in the spirit is the greatest help one can give to others, for then something flows out naturally to those around that helps them.
9 April 1937
1 CWSA, volume 31: too eager
2 After this letter CWSA, volume 31 contains (perhaps taken from another letter) this sentence: There is also likely to be an overzeal and haste which clouds the discrimination and makes what help is given less effective than it should be.
Current publication:
[Largest or earliest found passage: ] Sri Aurobindo. The Mother with the Letters on the Mother // CWSA.- Volume 32. (≈ 25 vol. of SABCL).- Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 2012.- 662 p.
Other publications: