Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
4. The Mother in the Life of the Ashram
So far I had the belief that all work sanctioned by the Mother was her work and work done for her is our kartavyaṃ karma. Is this not so? If a person gives up all duties to his family, country and society and sincerely does work only for the Divine, as an offering to the Mother, is he not doing the Mother’s work and is it not his kartavyaṃ karma? Outside it may be difficult to decide this, but here, under the living Presence of the Mother, is this not an assured fact? If not, then what is really meant by kartavyaṃ karma?
I was asked [in the preceding letter] whether everything done that had the Mother’s permission was not a kartavyaṃ karma. People ask for permission to a host of things dictated by various reasons – it does not follow that the Mother’s permission to all these things are her dictates. What work is given by the Mother is her work – also whatever work is done with sincerity as an offering to the Mother is her work also – that goes without saying. But Karma covers all kinds of actions and not work only.
31 July 1937