All book in single file (DJVu-format)The Mother
The Lesson of Life
178 Sayings in the Handwriting of the Mother
All book in single file (DJVu-format)
Publisher's Note
This book contains facsimiles of 178 sayings chosen by the Mother and written in her hand. 37 of them are words of her own, mainly from her Prayers and Meditations; 23 – from the writings of Sri Aurobindo; 118 – from world's scriptures and from the works of various thinkers and sages. The first entry in the book is Sri Aurobindo's neatly penned transcription of a letter first written on an earlier occasion.
The genesis of the book is this: in the fall of 1934, a young man asked the Mother if she would write one sentence a day to him. When she agreed to do so, he presented her with a bound notebook in which to write. By filling up one page a day, the Mother completed the notebook in the course of six months. That handwritten book is now – fifty years later – being reproduced for a wider audience.
It is the lesson of life that always in this world everything fails a man – only the Divine does not fail him, if he turns entirely to the Divine. It is not because there is something bad in you that blows fall on you,– blows fall on all human beings because they are full of desire for things that cannot last and they lose them or, even if they get, it brings disappointment and cannot satisfy them. To turn to the Divine is the only truth in life. Sri Aurobindo [Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library in 30 Volumes. - Volume 24. - Letters on Yoga] |
2 November 1934 ■ 1
The Buddha has said: "There is more joy in one desire conquered than in a thousand desires satisfied.”
3 November 1934 ■ 2
Saadi, the Persian poet, has said: "Contemplate the mirror of your heart and thou shalt taste litle by litle a pure joy and unmixed peace.”
4 November 1934 ■ 3
Another Buddhist saying:
“The mind constructs its own abode; directed falsely from the beginning it thinks in erroneous ways and engenders its own distress. Thought creates for itself its own suffering.”
6 November 1934 ■ 4
The Buddists Scriptures from the Chinese, tell us:
“Let us watch over our thoughts.”
“A bad thought is the most dangerous of thieves.”
7 November 1934 ■ 5
The Mahayana teaches thus:
“When the disciple considering an idea sees rise in him bad or inhealthy thoughts, thoughts of covetousness, hatred or error, he should either turn his mind away from that idea, or concentrate it upon a healthy thought, or else examine the fatal nature of the idea, or analise it and decompose it into its different elements, or, making appeal to all his strength and applying the greatest energy, suppress it from his mind; these are removed and disappear these bad and unhealthy ideas and the mind becomes firm, calm unified full of vigour.”
8 November 1934 ■ 6
Angelus Silesius, the Christian mystic, has said:
“Eternal wisdom builds:
I shall be her palace when she finds repose in me and I in her.”
9 November 1934 ■ 7
The following saying can be read in the Book of Wisdom:
“We fight to win sublime Wisdom; therefore men call us warriors.”
10 November 1934 ■ 8
Ramakrishna very nicely said:
“Whenever thinks himself an imperfect and worldly soul, is really an imperfect and worldly soul; whenever seems himself divine, becomes divine. What a man thinks he is, he becomes.”
11 November 1934 ■ 9
Seneca has said.
“Let us lend ear to the sages who point out to us the way.”
12 November 1934 ■ 10
In the Proverbs we read:
"He who walks with wise men will be wise."
13 November 1934 ■ 11
The Mahaparinibbana Sutta teaches thus:
“To avoid the company of fools, to be in communion with the sages, to render honour to that which merits honour, is a great blessedness.”
14 November 1934 ■ 12
Here is on of Ramakrishna's sayings:
“The company of saints and sages is one of the chief agents of spiritual progress.”
15 November 1934 ■ 13
The ancient wisdom of China says:
“He who know haw to find instructors for himself, arrives at the supreme mastery.... He who loves to ask, extends his knowledge; but whoever considers only his own personal opinion becomes constantly narrower than he was.”
16 November 1934 ■ 14
The Epistle to the Hebrews gives this advice:
“Obey them that guide you and submit yourselves; for they watch over your souls.”
17 November 1934 ■ 15
Saint Paul says in the First Epistle to the Thessalonians:
“And we beseech you to know Them who labour among you and are over you and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake.”
18 November 1934 ■ 16
Confucius has sais:
“It is impossible to arrive at the summit of the mountain without passing through rough and difficult paths.”
19 November 1934 ■ 17
In the Bhagavad Gita one reads:
“All that man does comes to its perfection in knowledge. That do thou learn by prostration to the wise and by questioning and by serving them; they who have the knowledge and see the truths of things shall instruct thee in the knowledge.”
20 November 1934 ■ 18
In very ancient Egypt Ptah Hotep said:
“Do what thy Master tells thee; it is good.”
21 November 1934 ■ 19
Here is another good advice from Ramakrishna:
“Do not listen if one criticises or blames thy Master, leave his presence that very moment.”
22 November 1934 ■ 20
Another saying of Ramakrishna:
“One who thinks that his spiritual guide is merely a man, can draw no profit from his contact.”
23 November 1934 ■ 21
The great Egyptian initiate Hermes has said:
“Things mortal change their aspect daily; they are nothing but a lie.”
24 November 1934 ■ 22
Giordano Bruno has said:
“The external forms are alone subject to change and destruction; for these forms are not the things themselves. Deliver thyself from the inconstancy of human things.”
27 November 1934 ■ 23
In the Book of Knowledge one can read:
“When thou hast recognised the impermanence of all formations, thou shalt contemplate that which does not perish and remains for ever.”
28 November 1934 ■ 24
The Book of Golden Precepts tells us:
“Silence thy thought and fix all thy attention on the Master within whom thou seest not yet, but of whom thou hast a presentiment.”
29 November 1934 ■ 25
Baha Ullah has said:
“The seeker ought to avoid any preference of himself to another; he should efface pride and arrogance from his heart, arm himself with patience and endurance and follow the law of silence to that he may keep himself from vain words.”
30 November 1934 ■ 26
Here is a saying from Hermes:
“The eyes of our mentality are incapable as yet of contemplating the incorruptible and incomprehensible Beauty.... Thou shalt see it when thou hast nothing to say concerning it; for knowledge, for contemplation are silence, are the sinking to rest of all sensation.”
1 December 1934 ■ 27
Emerson has said:
“It is god within who hushes the tongue of prayer by a sublimer thought. A voice speaks to us in the depths of the heart, ‘I am, my child, and by me are and subsist thy body and the luminous world. I am, all things are in me and all that is mine is thine. ’ ”
2 December 1934 ■ 28
Here is what Carlyle says about silence:
“When one considers the clamorous emptiness of the world, words of so little sense, actions of so little merit, one loves to reflect on the great reign of silence. The noble silent men scattered here and there each in his province silently thinking and silently acting, of whom no morning paper makes mention, these are the salt of the earth."
3 December 1934 ■ 29
and this is from Emerson:
“Real action is done in moments of silence.”
Spiritual Laws / Essays: First Series.- 1841.
(Original text was: But real action is in sile
4 December 1934 ■ 30
In the Book of Golden Precepts we read this:
“Before the soul can understand and remember it must be united to Him who speaks by His silence, as to the mind of the potter the form on which the clay is modelled.”
5 December 1934 ■ 31
An advise from Orphic Hymns:
“Love light and not darkness.”
6 December 1934 ■ 32
Here is a bit of Chinese Wisdom expressed by Meng-Tse:
“Our inner self is provided with all necessary faculties.”
7 December 1934 ■ 33
Ramakrishna has said:
“If you live one sixteenth part of what I teach you, you will attain the goal.”
8 December 1934 ■ 34
Confucius has said:
“There is as much virtue in the humblest things as in the most sublime.”
9 December 1934 ■ 35
One can read in the Chu-king:
“It is easy to know what is good, but not so easy to practice it.”
10 December 1934 ■ 36
Demophilus has said:
“Do what thou knowest to be good without expecting from it any glory. Forget not that the Vulgar are bad judge of good actions.”
11 December 1934 ■ 37
Antione the Healer has said:
“Often man is preoccupied with human rules and forgets the inner law.”
12 December 1934 ■ 38
We read in the Sutra in 42 articles:
“The important thing is to practise what is taught. It is no use being with the Master if one does not oneself practise or cannot profit by it.”
13 December 1934 ■ 39
Confucius has said:
“It is better to love the Truth than merely to know its principles, but better than loving the Truth is to make it one's sole delight and practice.”
14 December 1934 ■ 40
In the Zendavesta we read:
“Let this be thy aim to have always the right thought, right speech, right action.”
15 December 1934 ■ 41
Baha-Ullah has said:
“In the world of unity heaven and earth are one.”
16 December 1934 ■ 42
The Book of Golden Precepts teaches:
“One must learn to dissipate the shadow and live in that which is eternal. For that you must live and breathe in all as all you perceive lives in you; you must feel that you are in all things and all things in yourself.”
17 December 1934 ■ 43
Hermes has said:
“Raise thyself above every height, descend below every depth, assemble in thyself all the sensations of created things, of water, of fire, of the dry, of the moist; suppose that than art at once everywhere, on earth, in the sea, in the heavens, that than wast never born, that than art still in the womb, that that art young, old, dead, beyond death; comprehend all at once, times, spaces, things, qualities, and thou shalt comprehend God.”
18 December 1934 ■ 44
and again Hermes has said:
“Surpass all bodies, traverse all times, become eternity and thou shalt comprehend God.”
19 December 1934 ■ 45
The buddhist scripture Fo-sho-hing-Tsan-king tells us:
“When you have learned the teaching, let your purified hearts find their joy in doing actions that are in harmony with it.”
20 December 1934 ■ 46
Schopenhauer has said:
“It is one and the same Being who manifests in all that lives.”
21 December 1934 ■ 47
Sri Aurobindo sais:
“There is no greater pride and glory than to be a perfect instrument of the Master.”
[Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library in 30 Volumes. – Volume 16. – The Supramental Manifestation]
22 December 1934 ■ 48
Sri Aurobindo sais:
“Be conscious first of thyself within, then think and act.”
[Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library in 30 Volumes. – Volume 16. – The Supramental Manifestation]
23 December 1934 ■ 49
Sri Aurobindo sais:
“Immortality, unity and freedom are in ourselves and await there our discovery; but for the joy of love God in us will still remain the Many.”
24 December 1934 ■ 50
Sri Aurobindo sais:
“Those who are poor, ignorant, ill-born or ill-bred are not the common herd; the common herd are all who are satisfied with pettiness and an average humanity.”
25 December 1934 ■ 51
Sri Aurobindo sais:
“Love is the keynote, Joy is the music, Power is the strain, Knowledge is the performer, the infinite All is the composer and audience. We know only the preliminary discords which are as fierce as the harmony shall be great; but we shall arrive surely at the fugue of the divine Beatitudes.”
[Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library in 30 Volumes. – Volume 16. – The Supramental Manifestation]
26 December 1934 ■ 52
Sri Aurobindo sais:
“What I cannot do now is the sign of what I shall do hereafter. The sense of impossibility is the beginning of all possibilities.”
[Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library in 30 Volumes. – Volume 16. – The Supramental Manifestation]
27 December 1934 ■ 53
Sri Aurobindo sais:
“There is no more benumbing error than to mistake a stage for the goal or to linger too long in a resting-place.”
[Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library in 30 Volumes. – Volume 16. – The Supramental Manifestation]
28 December 1934 ■ 54
Sri Aurobindo sais:
“Patience is our first great necessary lesson, but not the dull slowness to move of the timid, the sceptical, the weary, the slothful, the unambitious or the weakling; a patience full of a calm and gathering strength which watches and prepares itself for the hour of swift great strokes, few but enough to change destiny.”
[Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library in 30 Volumes. – Volume 16. – The Supramental Manifestation]
29 December 1934 ■ 55
Sri Aurobindo sais:
“God has all time before him and does not need to be always in a hurry.”
[Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library in 30 Volumes. – Volume 16. – The Supramental Manifestation]
30 December 1934 ■ 56
Sri Aurobindo sais:
“Immortality, unity and freedom are in ourselves and await there our discovery.”
[Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library in 30 Volumes. – Volume 16. – The Supramental Manifestation]
31 December 1934 ■ 57
Sri Aurobindo sais:
“In all these things there is a meaning and for all these contradictions there is a release.”
[Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library in 30 Volumes. – Volume 16. – The Supramental Manifestation]
1 January 1935 ■ 58
Prayer of the 31st December midnight:
“We surrender to Thee this evening all that is artificial and false, all that pretends and imitates. Let it disappear with the year that is at an end. May only what is perfectly true, sincere, straight and pure subsist in the year that is beginning.”
[The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother.– Volume 15. – Words of the Mother]
2 January 1935 ■ 59
Mohy-uddin-arabi has said:
“When one discovers the enigma of a single atom, one can see the mystery of all creation, that within us as well as that without.”
3 January 1935 ■ 60
Sri Aurobindo sais:
“When we have passed beyond enjoyings, then we shall have Bliss. Desire was the helper; Desire is the bar.”
[Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library in 30 Volumes. – Volume 16. – The Supramental Manifestation]
4 January 1935 ■ 61
Sri Aurobindo sais:
“When we have passed beyond individualising, then we shall be real Persons. Ego was the helper; Ego is the bar.”
[Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library in 30 Volumes. – Volume 16. – The Supramental Manifestation]
5 January 1935 ■ 62
Sri Aurobindo sais:
“All would change if man could once consent to be spiritualised.”
[Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library in 30 Volumes. – Volume 16. – The Supramental Manifestation]
6 January 1935 ■ 63
Sri Aurobindo sais:
“The Spirit is the truth of our being; mind and life and body in their imperfection are its masks, but in their perfection should be its moulds.”
[Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library in 30 Volumes. – Volume 16. – The Supramental Manifestation]
7 January 1935 ■ 64
Sri Aurobindo sais:
“All religions have saved a number of souls, but none yet has been able to spiritualise mankind.”
[Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library in 30 Volumes. – Volume 16. – The Supramental Manifestation]
8 January 1935 ■ 65
Sri Aurobindo sais:
“Distrust a perfect-seeming success, but when having succeeded thou findest still much to do, rejoice and go forward; for the labour is long before the real perfection.”
[Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library in 30 Volumes. – Volume 16. – The Supramental Manifestation]
9 January 1935 ■ 66
Lao Tse has said:
“When the intelligence is master over the vital movements, then one has force.”
10 January 1935 ■ 67
Manu has said:
“One should destroy through deep meditation the qualities that are contrary to the divine nature.”
11 January 1935 ■ 68
Lao Tse has said:
“The spiritual man thinks more of what is within him than of outer things.”
12 January 1935 ■ 69
Lao Tse has said also:
“He makes his thought dynamic, he opens his heart, he assembles the inner lights.”
13 January 1935 ■ 70
We read in the Dhammapada:
“Thought is difficult to control, light, running where it will; to master it is very helpful; for, mastered, it brings happiness.”
14 January 1935 ■ 71
again we find in the Dhammapada:
“As in a house with a good roof the rain cannot penetrate, so into the concentrated mind passion cannot enter."
15 January 1935 ■ 72
Patanjali has said:
“When concentration becomes natural and easy, a power of accurate discrimination begins to develop.”
16 January 1935 ■ 73
We read in the Upanishad:
“The mind and senses are like a chariot drawn my wild horses, the wise man is careful to keep them well under rein.”
17 January 1935 ■ 74
We read in the Book of Golden Precepts:
“Be master of thy thoughts O thou who strivest after perfection.”
18 January 1935 ■ 75
In the Initiation of Christ is said:
“How can a man remain at peace who is busy with alien cares, tries to spread himself outside and withdraws within very little or rarely.”
[Thomas a Kempis. The Imitation of Christ]
19 January 1935 ■ 75
Baha Ullah has said:
“He shall pass from doubt to certitude, from darkness of error to the light of the guidance; he shall see with the eye of knowledge and begin to commune in secret with the Well-Beloved.”
20 January 1935 ■ 77
Giordano Bruno has said:
“These who follow carefully the inner contemplation have no grief to fear; no vicissitude of fate can touch them. They observe the history witten [?] within to guide them in the execution of the divine laws which also are engraved within in our hearts.”
21 January 1935 ■ 78
Ramakrishna has said:
“Let not thoughts and anxieties trouble your mind. Do all that is necessary at its proper time, but let your mind be always fixed on the Divine.”
22 January 1935 ■ 79
Sri Aurobindo sais:
“The Divine gives itself to those who give themselves without reserve and in all their parts to the Divine. For them the calm, the light, the power, the bliss, the freedom, the wideness, the heights of knowledge, the seas of Ananda.”
[Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library in 30 Volumes. – Volume 23. – Letters on Yoga.– P.2-3]
23 January 1935 ■ 80
Ramakrishna has said:
“The greater the aspiration and concentration, the more one finds the Eternal.”
24 January 1935 ■ 81
“If we go a little way within ourselves, we shall discover that there is in each of us a consciousness that has been living throughout the ages and manifesting in a multitude of forms.”
[The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother.– Volume 3. – Questions and Answers (1929)]
25 January 1935 ■ 82
Ramakrishna has said:
“When a man is able to concentrate his mind, then wherever he may be he can always rise above his surroundings and rest in the Eternal.”
26 January 1935 ■ 83
“When you sit in meditation you must be as candid and simple as a child, not interfering by your external mind, expecting nothing, insisting on nothing. Once this condition is there, all the rest depends upon the aspiration deep within you." ...."And if you call upon the Divine, then too .... you will have the answer.”
[The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother.– Volume 3. – Questions and Answers (1929)]
27 January 1935 ■ 84
Ramakrishna has said:
“It is an old saying ‘Whoever is perfect in meditation is near to liberation’. Do you know when a man is perfect in meditation? When as soon as he sits to meditate the atmosphere of the Divine is around him and his soul is in touch with the Ineffable.”
28 January 1935 ■ 85
Sri Aurobindo sais:
“In the end a union, a closeness, a constant companionship in the soul with the Divine, and a yet more wonderful oneness and inliving.”
[Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library in 30 Volumes. – Volume 17. – The Hour of God]
29 January 1935 ■ 86
“One Divine Consciousness is here working through all these beings, preparing its way through all these manifestations. At this day it is here at work upon earth more powerfully than it has ever been before.”
[The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother.– Volume 3. – Questions and Answers (1929)]
30 January 1935 ■ 87
Mino Khired has said:
“Wisdom is a thing of which one can never have enough.”
1 February 1935 ■ 88
Job has said:
“To have wisdom is worth more than pearls.”
2 February 1935 ■ 89
Porphyry has said:
“The possession of wisdom leadeth to the true happiness.”
3 February 1935 ■ 90
Theng-Tse has said:
“In this state of pure felicity the soul is enlarged and the material substance that is subject to it profiteth also.”
4 February 1935 ■ 91
The Ecclesiasticus said:
“Wisdom strengtheneth the wise more than ten mighty men which are in a city.”
5 February 1935 ■ 92
Porphyry has said:
“To find our real being and know it truly is to acquire wisdom.”
6 February 1935 ■ 93
“See how outer circumstances are of little importance... Be more supple, more trusting.... It is in the calm of the deep waters that is found the only possibility of True Service.”
“Torment thyself not, child, silence, peace, peace.”
(August 1913)
[The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother.– Volume 1.– Prayers And Meditations]
7 February 1935 ■ 94
The Book of Wisdom says:
“Having thought of these things, meditating on them in my heart and having considered that I shall find immortality in the union with Wisdom, I went in search of her on all sides, that I might take her for my companion.”
8 February 1935 ■ 95
a prayer
“May all escape from the ordinary consciousness and be delivered from the attachment for material things; may they awake to the knowledge of Thy divine Presence, unite themselves with Thy supreme Consciousness and taste the plenitude of Peace that springs from it.”
(February, 1914)
[The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother.– Volume 1.– Prayers And Meditations]
9 February 1935 ■ 96
The Book of Wisdom says:
“I have preferred wisdom to kingdoms and thrones and I have believed that riches are nothing before Wisdom, for she is an endless treasure for men.”
10 February 1935 ■ 97
Here is a Formula of devotion of Mahayanist Buddhism:
“Honour to the high and sublime excellence of Wisdom!”
11 February 1935 ■ 98
“In the calm contemplation that precedes the down, better than any other moment, my thought rises to Thee, O Lord of our being, in an ardent prayer:
May this day which is about to begin bring to the earth a little more pure light and true peace.”
12 February 1935 ■ 99
The Lalita Vistara says:
“That which satisfies the soul is the Wisdom which governs the world.”
13 February 1935 ■ 100
In the Buddhist Meditations from the Japanese we read:
“Wisdom is like unto a beacon set on high, which radiates its light even in the darkest night.”
14 February 1935 ■ 101
The Fo-shu-hing-tsan-king says:
“As the light of a torch illumines the objects in a dark room, even so the light of wisdom illumines all men, whosoever the be, if they turn towards it.”
9 March 1932 ■ 102
greed, greed, always greed... is the response of material nature.
In whatever way the Divine manifests there, it becomes at once an object of covetousness. A rush to appropriate, an endeavour to rob, exploit, squeeze, swallow and, in the end, crush down the Divine, this is the receptivity of matter to the divine touch...
O my Lord, Thou comest as the Redeemer and these would make of Thee a dupe! Thou comest for union, for transformation, for Realisation, and they think only of absorption and selfish increase...
[The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother.– Volume 14. – Words of the Mother]
14 December 1932 ■ 103
If it is the Will of the Supreme that those who depend on me should have no faith in me, I have nothing to say. I am responsible only for the absoluteness of my own sincerity.
15 February 1935 ■ 104
(a prayer)
“O Thou, inconceivable splendour, O Thou, conqueror of all ignorance, vanquisher of all egoism, Thou who dost illumine hearts and enlighten minds, Thou who art Knowledge, Love and Existence, let me live constantly in the consciousness of Thy unity, let me always conform to Thy Will.”
16 February 1935 ■ 105
The Book of Wisdom says:
“The desire for wisdom leads us to the Eternal Kingdom.”
17 February 1935 ■ 106
Again the Book of Wisdom says:
“Wisdom is full of light and her beauty is not withered.”
18 February 1935 ■ 107
“Spiritual experience means the contact with the Divine in oneself (or without, which comes to the same thing in that domain). And it is an experience identical everywhere in all countries, among all peoples and even in all ages.”
19 February 1935 ■ 108
It is said in the Ecclesiasticus:
“I am the Mother of pure love and of science and of sacred hope.”
20 February 1935 ■ 109
a prayer:
“Let me live constantly in Thy divine Love, so that it may live in me and through me.”
21 February 1935 ■ 110
a prayer:
“O Lord, our heart is light, our thought at rest. We turn to Thee with full trust and say peacefully:
May Thy will be done, in it is realised true harmony.”
22 February 1935 ■ 111
The Book of Wisdom says:
“I have learnt all that was hidden and all that was yet undiscovered because I was taught by Wisdom herself that created every thing.”
23 February 1935 ■ 112
Angelus Silesius has said:
“Eternal wisdom builds:
I shall be her palace when she finds repose in me and I in her.”
24 February 1935 ■ 113
It is said in the Buddhist Canons in Pali:
“True knowledge does not grow old, so have declared the sages of all times.”
25 February 1935 ■ 114
In the Instructions of Asoka one can read:
“May the partisans of all doctrines in all countries unite and live in a common fellowship. For all alike profess mastery to be attained over oneself and purity of the heart.”
26 February 1935 ■ 115
(meditation)
“Blessed be the day when I came to know Thee, O Ineffable Eternity!
Blessed among all days be that day when the earth at last awakened shall know Thee and shall live for Thee!”
27 February 1935 ■ 116
St Luke has said:
“The day-spring from on high has visited us to give light to them that sit in the darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet in the way of peace.”
28 February 1935 ■ 117
Hermes has said:
“Language is different but man is the same everywhere.”
1 March 1935 ■ 118
(meditation)
O my divine Master, Thou hast taken my life and made it Thine; Thou hast taken my love and identified it with Thine; Thou hast taken my thought and replaced it by Thy absolute consciousness.”
2 March 1935 ■ 119
Tsen-tse has said:
“The sage's rule of moral conduct has its principle in the hearts of all men.”
3 March 1935 ■ 120
(a prayer)
“Deliver us, O Lord, from obscurity; grant that we may become perfectly awakened....”
[The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother.– Volume 1.– Prayers And Meditations]
4 March 1935 ■ 121
Tolstoi has said:
“In order to live a happy life, man should understand what life is and what he can or cannot do.”
5 March 1935 ■ 122
(a prayer)
“O sweet Master of love, grant that my whole consciousness be concentrated in Thee so that I may live only by love and light, and that love and light may radiate through me and awaken in all upon the way.”
6 March 1935 ■ 123
(meditation)
“At each moment all the unforeseen, the unexpected, the unknown is before us, at each moment the universe creates itself anew in its entirety and in every one of its parts.”
7 March 1935 ■ 124
Schopenhauer has said:
“Will is the soul of the universe.”
8 March 1935 ■ 125
Sri Aurobindo sais:
“There is no stage of the sadhana in which works are impossible, no passage in the path where there is no foothold and action has to be renounced as incompatible with concentration on the Divine.”
[Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library in 30 Volumes. – Volume 23. – Letters on Yoga.– P.2-3]
9 March 1935 ■ 126
Hermes has said:
“Each separate movement is produced by the same energy that moves the sum of things.”
10 March 1935 ■ 127
(meditation)
“O Lord, the hour of Thy manifestation has come and soon canticles of rejoicing will burst forth from all sides.”
12 March 1935 ■ 128
Sri Aurobindo sais:
“Openness in work means the same thing as openness in the consciousness.”
[Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library in 30 Volumes. – Volume 23. – Letters on Yoga.– P.2-3]
12 March 1935 ■ 129
Here Sri Aurobindo answers to your question:
“The same Force that works in your consciousness in meditation and clears away the cloud and confusion whenever you open to it, can also take up your action and not only make you aware of the defects in it but keep you conscious of what is to be done and guide your mind and hands to do it. If you open to it in your work, you will begin to feel this guidance more and more until behind all your activities you will be aware of the Force of the Mother.”
[Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library in 30 Volumes. – Volume 23. – Letters on Yoga.– P.2-3]
13 March 1935 ■ 130
(meditation)
“To turn towards Thee, unite with Thee, live in Thee and for Thee, is supreme happiness, unmixed joy, immutable peace; it is to breathe infinity, to soar in eternity, no longer feel one's limits, escape from time and space.”
[The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother.– Volume 17. – More answers from the Mother]
14 March 1935 ■ 131
Sri Aurobindo sais:
“Faithfulness is to admit and to manifest no other movements but only the movements prompted and guided by the Divine.
[The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother.– Volume 1.– Prayers And Meditations]
15 March 1935 ■ 132
(meditation)
“O Love, resplendent Love, Thou penetratest, Thou transfigurest all.”
[The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother.– Volume 1.– Prayers And Meditations]
16 March 1935 ■ 133
Aswaghosha has said:
“In the true nature of Matter is the fundamental law of the Spirit. In the true nature of Spirit is the fundamental law of Matter.”
17 March 1935 ■ 134
(meditation)
“O, the divine splendour of Thy eternal Unity!
O, the infinite sweetness of Thy Beatitude!
O, the sovereign majesty of Thy Knowledge!
Thou art the Inconceivable, the Marvellous!”
18 March 1935 ■ 135
Thales has said:
“Wherever you find movement, there you find life and a soul.”
19 March 1935 ■ 136
(meditation)
“A new Light shall break upon the earth.
A new world shall be born,
And the things that were announced shall be fulfilled.”
[The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother.– Volume 1.– Prayers And Meditations]
20 March 1935 ■ 137
Aswaghosha has said:
“Things in their fundamental nature can neither be named nor explain. They cannot be expressed adequately in any form of language.”
21 March 1935 ■ 138
The Book of Golden Precepts says:
“Flee the Ignorance and flee also the Illusion. Turn thy face from the deceptions of the world; distrust thy senses, they are liars.”
22 March 1935 ■ 139
(a prayer)
“Accomplish this supreme miracle so eagerly awaited which will break down all ignorant egoisms; awaken Thy sublime flame in every heart.”
[The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother.– Volume 1.– Prayers And Meditations]
23 March 1935 ■ 140
Lao Tse has said:
“Something beyond our power of discrimination existed before Heaven and Earth. How profound is its calm! How absolute its immateriality! It alone exists and does not change; It penetrates all and It does not perish. It may be regarded as the Mother of the universe. For myself I know not Its name but to give it a name I call It Tao.”
24 March 1935 ■ 141
Sri Aurobindo sais:
“Sincerity means to lift all the movements of the being to the level of the highest consciousness and realisation already attained.
Sincerity exacts the unification and harmonisation of the whole being in all its parts and movements around the central Divine Will.”
[The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother.– Volume 14. – Words of the Mother]
25 March 1935 ■ 142
Seneca has said:
“We must choose a virtuous man to be always present to our spirit and must live as if we were continually under his eyes and he were scrutinising all that we do.”
26 March 1935 ■ 143
(meditation)
“Lord, Thou hast given me the happiness infinite, what being, what circumstance can have the power to take it away from me?”
27 March 1935 ■ 144
The Lord says:
“It is truly the supreme Light, inaccessible and unknowable, from which all other lamps receive their flame and their splendour.”
28 March 1935 ■ 145
St Paul has said:
“Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest does the same things.”
29 March 1935 ■ 146
(meditation written in October 1914)
“O Divine Mother, the obstacles shall be surmount, the enemies appeased,
Thou shalt dominate the whole earth with Thy sovereign love, and the consciousness of all shall be illumined with Thy serenity.
This is the promise.”
30 March 1935 ■ 147
Baha-Ullah has said:
“In each thing there is a door to knowledge and in each atom is seen the trace of the sun.”
31 March 1935 ■ 148
(meditation)
“And for a moment, the Master and the instrument were but one: the Unique, the Eternal, the Infinite.”
1 April 1935 ■ 149
Hermes has said in adoration:
“O Inexpressible, Ineffable, whom Silence alone can name!”
2 April 1935 ■ 150
(a prayer)
“O my sweet Master, grant to all the sovereign benefit of Thy Illumination!”
3 April 1935 ■ 151
We read in the Ecclesiasticus:
“My son, if thou hearkenest to me with application thou shalt be instructed and if thou appliest thy mind thou shalt get wisdom.”
My son, if thou hear keenest to me with application thou shalt be instructed and if thou appliest thy mind thou shalt get wisdom. If thou lend thine ear
4 April 1935 ■ 152
Hermes has said:
“Opinions on the world and on God are many and conflicting and I know not the truth. Enlighten me, O my Master.”
5 April 1935 ■ 153
Again Hermes has said:
“To be ignorant of the path one has to take and set out on the way without a guide, is to will to lose oneself and run the risk of perishing.”
6 April 1935 ■ 154
(a prayer)
“Lord, everywhere Thy enemies appear triumphant; falsehood is the monarch of the world.... doubt has usurped the place of Hope and revolt has pushed out surrender; Faith is spent, Gratitude is not born.... Lord, wilt Thou permit Thy enemies to prevail, falsehood and ugliness and suffering to triumph!”
7 April 1935 ■ 155
Patanjali has said:
“The obstacles met by the seeker after concentration are illness, languor, doubt, negligence, idleness, the domination of the senses, false perception, impotence to attain and instability in a state of meditation once attained....
Such difficulties are root and product of both physical and mental workings.”
8 April 1935 ■ 156
“Alas, O sublime Mother, how great must be Thy patience!”
(Written in November 1914 and still true...)
[The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother.– Volume 1.– Prayers And Meditations.– November 20, 1914]
10 April 1935 ■ 157
“True surrender enlarges you; it increases your capacity; it gives you a greater measure in quality and in quantity which you could not have had by yourself.”
[The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother.– Volume 3. – Questions and Answers (1929)]
10 April 1935 ■ 158
St Paul has said:
“Examine all things and hold fast that which is good.”
11 April 1935 ■ 159
“The Yogi knows by his capacity for a containing or dynamic identity with things and persons and forces.”
[The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother.– Volume 14. – Words of the Mother]
12 April 1935 ■ 160
Pascal has said:
“The whole dignity of man is in thought. Labour then to think aright.”
13 April 1935 ■ 161
“The movement that stores up and concentrates is no less needed than the movement that spreads and diffuses.”
[The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother.– Volume 3. – Questions and Answers (1929)]
14 April 1935 ■ 162
“O Lord, Thy sweetness has entered into my soul, and Thou hast filled all my being with joy.”
15 April 1935 ■ 163
Marcus Aurelius has said:
“O my soul, wilt thou be one day simple, one, bare, more visible than the body which envelops thee?”
16 April 1935 ■ 164
“If you ask from within for peace, it will come.”
[The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother.– Volume 3. – Questions and Answers (1929)]
17 April 1935 ■ 165
In the Bhagavad Gita we read:
“The mind is restless, violent, powerful, obstinate; its control seems to me as difficult a task as to control the wind.”
[Bhagavad Gita, 6-34]
18 April 1935 ■ 166
Ramakrishna has said:
“So long as the mentality is inconstant and inconsequent, it is worthless, though one have a good teacher and the company of holy men.”
19 April 1935 ■ 167
The Dhammapada says:
“On his mind vacillating, mobile, difficult to hold in, difficult to master the intelligent man should impose the same straightness as an arrowmaker gives to the arrow.”
20 April 1935 ■ 168
Antoine the Healer has said:
“When a thought rises in us, let us see whether it is not in touch with the inferior worlds.”
21 April 1935 ■ 169
The Mahabharata says:
“By dominating the senses one increase the intelligence.”
22 April 1935 ■ 170
The Book of Golden Precepts says:
“Action like inaction may find its place in thee; if thy body is in movement, let thy mind be calm, let thy soul be as limpid as a mountain lake.”
23 April 1935 ■ 171
Chwang-Tse has said:
“When water is still, it reflects objects like a mirror. This stillness, this reflect level is the model of the sage. The heart of the sage in perfect repose is the mirror of earth and heaven and all existences.”
24 April 1935 ■ 172
Ramakrishna has said:
“The Eternal is seen when the mind is at rest. When the sea of the mind is troubled by the winds of desires, it cannot reflect the Eternal and all divine vision is impossible.”
25 April 1935 ■ 173
Ramakrishna has said also:
“So long as a man cries aloud, O Allah, O Allah, be sure he has not yet found his Allah; for whoever has found Him becomes calm and full of peace.”
26 April 1935 ■ 174
Carlyle says....
“Silence, the great empire of silence, loftier than the stars, profounder than the kingdom of death! It alone is great! All the rest is petty.”
27 April 1935 ■ 175
a prayer:
“O Divine Master, Thine is our life, our thought, our love, our whole being. Take possession of thy own once again; for Thou art ourselves in our Reality.”
[The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother.– Volume 1.– Prayers And Meditations]
28 April 1935 ■ 176
(meditation)
“In the depths of all that is, of all that shall be, is Thy divine and unvarying smile.”
[The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother.– Volume 15. – Words of the Mother]
29 April 1935 ■ 177
(written on 15.1.33)
Here, each one represents an impossibility to be solved; but as for Thy divine Grace all is possible, will not Thy Work be, in the detail as in the whole, the accomplishment of all these impossibilities transformed into divine Realisations.”
[The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother.– Volume 15. – Words of the Mother]
30 April 1935 ■ 178
This book closes with the end of the month. Let it be also the end of all your difficulties and troubles, and the beginning of an always happy life.
With love and blessings.