Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

5. On Three Works of the Mother

Fragment ID: 20229

The Mother asks: “What do you want the Yoga for? To get power?” [p. 1] Does “power” here mean the power to communicate one’s own experience to others?

Power is a general term – it is not confined to a power to communicate. The most usual form of power is control over things, persons, events, forces.

“What is required is concentration – concentration upon the Divine with a view to an integral and absolute consecration to its Will and Purpose” [p. 1]. Is the Divine’s Will different from its Purpose?

The two words have not the same meaning. Purpose means the intention, the object in view towards which the Divine is working. Will is a wider term than that.

“Concentrate in the heart” [p. 1]. What is concentration? What is meditation?

Concentration here means gathering of the consciousness into one centre and fixing it on one object or on one idea or in one condition. Meditation is a general term which can include many kinds of inner activity.

1 January 1937