Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

4. The Mother in the Life of the Ashram

Fragment ID: 19791

I can only repeat what I have already written whenever these circumstances and feelings come to you. To leave your work is not a solution – it is through work that one can detect and progressively get rid of the feelings and movements that are contrary to the Yogic ideal,– those of the ego.

Work should be done for the Mother and not for oneself,– that is how one encourages the growth of the psychic being and overcomes the ego. The test is to do the work given by the Mother without abhiman or insistence on personal choice or prestige,– not getting hurt by anything that touches the pride, amour-propre or personal preference.

It is a high and great ideal that is put before the sadhak through work and it is not possible to realise it suddenly, but to grow steadily into it is possible, if one keeps the aim always before one – to be a selfless and perfectly tempered instrument for the work of the Divine Mother.

27 September 1935