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275

Karma (Works)

Self-development and spiritual aspiration enable one to master one’s karma.

To learn is good. To become is better.

The Mother

206—God leads man while man is misleading himself; the higher nature watches over the stumblings of his lower mortality; this is the tangle and contradiction out of which we have to escape into the self-unity to which alone is possible a clear knowledge and a faultless action.

The only safety in life, the only way to escape from the consequences of past errors, is an inner development leading to conscious union with the Divine Presence; the only effective guide, the Truth of our being and of all beings.

25 November 1969

207—That thou shouldst have pity on creatures is well, but not well, if thou art a slave to thy pity. Be a slave to nothing except to God, not even to His most luminous angels.

For those who want to live according to Truth, the only way is to become conscious of the Divine Presence and to live exclusively according to Its Will.

This is the only way to escape from evil and suffering, the only way to be always in peace, light and joy.

26 November 1969

276

208—Beatitude is God’s aim for humanity; get this supreme good for thyself first that thou mayst distribute it entirely to thy fellow-beings.

209—He who acquires for himself alone, acquires ill though he may call it heaven and virtue.

Man has a right to beatitude since that is what he was created for. But any egocentric movement is the very opposite of this beatitude; so that if you seek it for yourself alone, you repel it instead of attracting it. By self-forgetfulness, by self-giving, without asking anything in return, by merging, so to say, into this beatitude so that it may shine upon all, you find the inner peace and joy which never leave you.

29 November 1969

What is the difference between “self-forgetfulness” and “self-giving”?

Self-forgetfulness may simply be a passive state resulting from a total lack of egoism. Self-giving, which takes its full value when it is directed towards the Divine, is an active movement which includes love in its purest and highest form.

A total self-giving to the Divine is the true purpose of existence.

30 November 1969

210—In my ignorance I thought anger could be noble and vengeance grandiose; but now when I watch Achilles in his epic fury, I see a very fine baby in a very fine rage and I am pleased and amused.

211—Power is noble, when it overtops anger; destruction is grandiose, but it loses caste when it proceeds from 277vengeance. Leave these things, for they belong to a lower humanity.

Anger and vengeance belong to a lower humanity, the humanity of yesterday and not of tomorrow.

1 December 1969

212—Poets make much of death and external afflictions; but the only tragedies are the soul’s failures and the only epic man’s triumphant ascent towards godhead.

Usually man is not afflicted with the only thing truly tragic, the failure to find one’s soul and to live according to its law.fnThis sentence was in English in the original.

In truth, the only thing that is truly tragic is not to become conscious of one’s soul, the psychic being, and not to be entirely guided by it in one’s life.

To die before having found one’s soul and lived according to its law, that is the true failure.

And the true epic, the true glory is to find the Divine in oneself and to live according to His law.

3 December 1969

213—The tragedies of the heart and the body are the weeping of children over their little griefs and their broken toys. Smile within thyself, but comfort the children; join also, if thou canst, in their play.

It is the narrowness of the human consciousness that makes tragedies out of events which for the Divine Consciousness are only movements in the general evolution. But even when one 278sees that, one can and must keep a profound sympathy for those who are still living in the throes of ignorance.

4 December 1969

214—“There is always something abnormal and eccentric about men of genius.” And why not? For genius itself is an abnormal birth and out of man’s ordinary centre.

215—Genius is Nature’s first attempt to liberate the imprisoned god out of her human mould; the mould has to suffer in the process. It is astonishing that the cracks are so few and unimportant.

Once a man becomes conscious of the Divine and unites with Him, he certainly becomes abnormal to ordinary eyes, for he no longer has the weaknesses that make up ordinary human nature.

But fortunately for him, by the very fact of his inner realisation, he loses man’s habit of boasting and is thus able to avoid the ill will of others.

5 December 1969

216—Nature sometimes gets into a fury with her own resistance, then she damages the brain in order to free the inspiration; for in this effort the equilibrium of the average material brain is her chief opponent. Pass over the madness of such and profit by their inspiration.

It is indeed wise to look at everything with the calm smile of perfect trust. For, with his present consciousness, man can hardly understand the aims of the Supreme Lord.

7 December 1969

279

217—Who can bear Kali rushing into the system in her fierce force and burning godhead? Only the man whom Krishna already possesses.

This is a charming and most expressive way of saying that only the conscious Divine Presence is capable of mastering and conquering all violence.

8 December 1969

218—Hate not the oppressor, for, if he is strong, thy hate increases his force of resistance; if he is weak, thy hate was needless.

219—Hatred is a sword of power, but its edge is always double. It is like the KrityafnMagic process. of the ancient magicians which, if baulked of its prey, returned in fury to devour its sender.

220—Love God in thy opponent, even while thou strikest him; so shall neither have hell for his portion.

221—Men talk of enemies, but where are they? I only see wrestlers of one party or the other in the great arena of the universe.

All this is written to awaken mankind to the sense of its own unity. When one has become conscious of this Unity and when one sees the Divine in all beings, it is easy to feel as Sri Aurobindo recommends.

9 December 1969

280

222—The saint and the angel are not the only divinities; admire also the Titan and the Giant.

223—The old writings call the Titans the elder gods. So they still are; nor is any god entirely divine unless there is hidden in him also a Titan.

224—If I cannot be Rama, then I would be Ravana; for he is the dark side of Vishnu.fnRama was an avatar or incarnation of Vishnu; Ravana was a Titan (Asura), mortal enemy of Rama.

This means that sweetness without strength and goodness without power are incomplete and cannot totally express the Divine.

I could say in keeping with the kind of image used by Sri Aurobindo, that the charity and generosity of a converted Asura are infinitely more effective than those of an innocent angel.

11 December 1969

225—Sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice always, but for the sake of God and humanity, not for the sake of sacrifice.

226—Selfishness kills the soul; destroy it. But take care that your altruism does not kill the souls of others.

227—Very usually, altruism is only the sublimest form of selfishness.

How can altruism kill the soul of others?

By helping others materially (altruism), if at the same time you want to impose your own viewpoint on them, you will kill their 281soul, because moral and social rules can be no substitute for the inner law which each one must receive from his soul.

13 December 1969

228—He who will not slay when God bids him, works in the world an incalculable havoc.

229—Respect human life as long as you can; but respect more the life of humanity.

230—Men slay out of uncontrollable anger, hatred or vengeance; they shall suffer the rebound now or hereafter; or they slay to serve a selfish end, coldly; God shall not pardon them. If thou slay, first let thy soul have known death for a reality and seen God in the smitten, the stroke and the striker.

In what kind of circumstances does God give the command to slay?

This is a question I cannot answer, because God has never asked me to slay.

14 December 1969

231—Courage and love are the only indispensable virtues; even if all the others are eclipsed or fall asleep, these two will save the soul alive.

232—Meanness and selfishness are the only sins that I find it difficult to pardon; yet they alone are almost universal. Therefore these also must not be hated in others, but in ourselves annihilated.

282

233—Nobleness and generosity are the soul’s ethereal firmament; without them, one looks at an insect in a dungeon.

234—Let not thy virtues be such as men praise or reward, but such as make for thy perfection and God in thy nature demands of thee.

Could you give me your definitions of the following words?

1. Courage and love

2. Meanness and selfishness

3. Nobleness and generosity.

1. Courage is the total absence of fear in any form.

2. Love is self-giving without asking anything in return.

3. Meanness is a weakness that calculates and demands from others the virtues one does not possess oneself.

4. Selfishness is to put oneself at the centre of the universe and to want everything to exist for one’s own satisfaction.

5. Nobleness is to refuse all personal calculation.

6. Generosity is to find one’s own satisfaction in the satisfaction of others.

15 December 1969

235—Altruism, duty, family, country, humanity are the prisons of the soul when they are not its instruments.

236—Our country is God the Mother; speak not evil of her unless thou canst do it with love and tenderness.

237—Men are false to their country for their own profit; yet they go on thinking they have a right to turn in horror from the matricide.

283
How can “altruism, duty, family, country, humanity” become true instruments of the soul?

The soul belongs to the Divine, and owes obedience and service to the Divine alone. If the Divine commands it to work for family, country or humanity, then it is all right and it can do so without being imprisoned.

If the command does not come from the Divine, to serve these things is only to obey social and moral conventions.

17 December 1969

238—Break the moulds of the past, but keep safe its gains and its spirit, or else thou hast no future.

239—Revolutions hew the past to pieces and cast it into a cauldron, but what has emerged is the old Aeson with a new visage.

240—The world has had only half a dozen successful revolutions and most even of these were very like failures; yet it is by great and noble failures that humanity advances.

What does Sri Aurobindo mean by “great and noble failures”?

The greatness and nobleness of an event do not depend on material success, but on the feelings which inspire it and the goal which men have pursued.

It is not success that confers greatness but the motive of action and the nobleness of the feelings which inspire it.

18 December 1969

241—Atheism is a necessary protest against the wickedness of 284the Churches and the narrowness of creeds. God uses it as a stone to smash these soiled card-houses.

242—How much hatred and stupidity men succeed in packing up decorously and labelling “Religion”!

Which is better: religion or atheism?

So long as religions exist, atheism will be indispensable to counter-balance them. Both must disappear to make way for a sincere and disinterested search for Truth and a total consecration to the object of this search.

21 December 1969

243—God guides best when He tempts worst, loves entirely when He punishes cruelly, helps perfectly when violently He opposes.

244—If God did not take upon Himself the burden of tempting men, the world would very soon go to perdition.

245—Suffer yourself to be tempted within so that you may exhaust in the struggle your downward propensities.

246—If you leave it to God to purify, He will exhaust the evil in you subjectively; but if you insist on guiding yourself, you will fall into much outward sin and suffering.

247—Call not everything evil which men call evil, but only that reject which God has rejected; call not everything good which men call good, but accept only what God has accepted.

285
If one gives oneself completely to the Divine, is it necessary to develop one’s personal will, one’s power of choice, etc.? Will these things not become obstacles?

Personal will and power of choice are necessary qualities for those who live in the ordinary ignorance and illusion.

True self-giving to the Divine of course means their surrender. But unfortunately, many people live in the illusion that they have entirely given themselves to the Divine, and yet preserve in themselves a very active “ego” which prevents them from clearly perceiving the Divine Will; if these people abandon their personal will and discernment, they are in danger of becoming incoherent and erratic.

You must first acquire a perfect sincerity in order to be sure of not deceiving yourself, and you must have clear evidence that it is truly the Divine Will which moves and guides you.

22 December 1969

248—Men in the world have two lights, duty and principle; but he who has passed over to God, has done with both and replaced them by God’s will. If men abuse thee for this, care not, O divine instrument, but go on thy way like the wind or the sun fostering and destroying.

249—Not to cull the praises of men has God made thee His own, but to do fearlessly His bidding.

250—Accept the world as God’s theatre; be thou the mask of the Actor and let Him act through thee. If men praise or hiss thee, know that they too are masks; and take God within for thy only critic and audience.

The first thing needed is to become conscious of the Divine Will, 286and in order to do that one must no longer have any desires or personal will.

The best way to achieve this is to direct one’s whole aspiration towards the Divine Perfection, to give oneself to it without reserve and to rely on That alone for all satisfaction.

All the rest will follow as a result.

23 December 1969

251—If Krishna be alone on one side and the armed and organised world with its hosts and its shrapnel and its maxims on the other, yet prefer thy divine solitude. Care not if the world passes over thy body and its shrapnel tear thee to pieces and its cavalry trample thy limbs into shapeless mire by the wayside; for the mind was always a simulacrum and the body a carcass. The spirit liberated from its casings ranges and triumphs.

This is to tell us that the only choice to be made is to unite with the Divine in spite of everything, even the opposition of the whole world, because the world only has an apparent strength in the mental and the physical, whereas the Divine possesses the eternal power of Truth.

26 December 1969

252—If thou think defeat is the end of thee, then go not forth to fight, even though thou be the stronger. For Fate is not purchased by any man nor is Power bound over to her possessors. But defeat is not the end, it is only a gate or a beginning.

253—I have failed, thou sayest. Say rather that God is circling about towards His object.

287

254—Foiled by the world, thou turnest to seize upon God. If the world is stronger than thou, thinkest thou God is weaker? Turn to Him rather for His bidding and for strength to fulfil it.

Why does God need to “circle about towards His object”? He can easily reach it immediately if He wants to, and make everybody’s work easier and more effective.

Surely Sri Aurobindo did not say that “God” needs to circle about, because he is all-powerful; but his power is not an arbitrary one as men understand it.

To begin to understand anything about this, one must know and feel that in the whole universe there is nothing which is not an expression of his omnipotent and omnipresent will; and only by consciously uniting with Him can one begin to understand this, not mentally, but through an experience of consciousness and vision.

In his ordinary consciousness, even with the widest intelligence, man can only grasp an infinitesimal part of creation and so he cannot understand it and still less judge it.

And if we want to hasten the transformation of the world, the best we can do is to give ourselves without reserve or calculation to That which knows.

28 December 1969

255—So long as a cause has on its side one soul that is intangible in faith, it cannot perish.

256—Reason gives me no basis for this faith, thou murmurest. Fool! if it did, faith would not be needed or demanded of thee.

288

257—Faith in the heart is the obscure and often distorted reflection of a hidden knowledge. The believer is often more plagued by doubt than the most inveterate sceptic. He persists because there is something subconscient in him which knows. That tolerates both his blind faith and twilit doubts and drives towards the revelation of that which it knows.

Is it good to have a “blind faith” which neither questions nor reasons?

What men usually call blind faith is in fact what the Divine Grace sometimes gives to those whose intelligence is not developed enough to have true knowledge. So blind faith can be something very respectable, although it is of course clear that one who has true knowledge is in a far superior position.

29 December 1969

To which plane does faith belong—mental or psychic?

Faith is an exclusively psychic phenomenon.

30 December 1969

258—The world thinks that it moves by the light of reason, but it is really impelled by its faiths and instincts.

259—Reason adapts itself to the faith or argues out a justification of the instincts; but it receives the impulse subconsciously, therefore men think that they act rationally.

260—The only business of reason is to arrange and criticise the perceptions. It has neither in itself any means of 289positive conclusion nor any command to action. When it pretends to originate or impel, it is masking other agencies.

261—Until Wisdom comes to thee, use the reason for its God-given purposes and faith and instinct for theirs. Why shouldst thou set thy members to war upon each other?

What are the highest aims of reason, faith and instinct in ordinary life and in spiritual life?

Each one has his own aims according to his nature and the goal he wants to attain in ordinary life.

As for spiritual life, it has only one goal: to know the Divine and to unite with Him, by every possible means and with the help of faith, which is certainly the most powerful motive-force for beginners.

31 December 1969

262—Perceive always and act in the light of thy increasing perceptions, but not those of the reasoning brain only. God speaks to the heart when the brain cannot understand him.

263—If thy heart tell thee, Thus and by such means and at such a time it will happen, believe it not. But if it gives thee the purity and wideness of God’s command, hearken to it.

264—When thou hast the command, care only to fulfil it. The rest is God’s will and arrangement which men call chance and luck and fortune.

290

It is obviously in the silence of the mind that it is possible to perceive the Divine Command. The true way of knowing is above words and thoughts.

When this phenomenon occurs, it becomes very clear, because one knows the Divine Command first, and the words to describe it come later.

1 January 1970

265—If thy aim be great and thy means small, still act; for by action alone these can increase to thee.

266—Care not for time and success. Act out thy part, whether it be to fail or to prosper.

267—There are three forms in which the command may come, the will and faith in thy nature, thy ideal on which heart and brain are agreed and the voice of Himself or His angels.

268—There are times when action is unwise or impossible; then go into TapasyafnAusterity, spiritual discipline. in some physical solitude or in the retreats of thy soul and await whatever divine word or manifestation.

269—Leap not too quickly at all voices, for there are lying spirits ready to deceive thee; but let thy heart be pure and afterwards listen.

It is indeed of utmost importance not to accept each and every voice as coming from the Divine, because one is liable to obey the command of an imposter. There is only one guarantee which is a complete absence of all personal desire, even the desire of 291serving the Divine, and the fact of being immersed in a total peace. Only then can one be sure of one’s discernment.

3 January 1970

270—There are times when God seems to be sternly on the side of the past; then what has been and is, sits firm as on a throne and clothes itself with an irrevocable “I shall be.” Then persevere, though thou seem to be fighting the Master of all; for this is His sharpest trial.

271—All is not settled when a cause is humanly lost and hopeless; all is settled, only when the soul renounces its effort.

This is to encourage us not to allow ourselves to be influenced by appearances and to persist in our effort even if it seems to have no result.

In life, we must do what is revealed to us as the true thing to be done, even if others mock and criticise; for the opinion of men has no value, the Divine Will alone is true and will triumph.

4 January 1970

272—He who would win high spiritual degrees, must pass endless tests and examinations. But most are anxious only to bribe the examiner.

273—Fight, while thy hands are free, with thy hands and thy voice and thy brain and all manner of weapons. Art thou chained in the enemy’s dungeons and have his gags silenced thee? Fight with thy silent all-besieging soul and thy wide-ranging will-power and when thou art dead, fight still with the world-encompassing force that went out from God within thee.

292

Truth is a difficult and strenuous conquest. One must be a true warrior to make this conquest, a warrior who fears nothing, neither enemies nor death, for, against the whole world, with or without a body, the struggle continues and will end in Victory.

6 January 1970

274—Thou thinkest the ascetic in his cave or on his mountain-top a stone and a do-nothing. What dost thou know? He may be filling the world with the mighty currents of his will and changing it by the pressure of his soul-state.

275—That which the liberated sees in his soul on its mountain-tops, heroes and prophets spring up in the material world to proclaim and accomplish.

276—The Theosophists are wrong in their circumstances but right in the essential. If the French Revolution took place, it was because a soul on the Indian snows dreamed of God as freedom, brotherhood and equality.

This is simply to show us that the power of the spirit is far greater than all material powers. But both are indispensable for the realisation.

7 January 1970

277—All speech and action comes prepared out of the eternal Silence.

278—There is no disturbance in the depths of the Ocean, but above there is the joyous thunder of its shouting and its racing shoreward; so is it with the liberated soul in the midst of violent action. The soul does not act; it only breathes out from itself overwhelming action.

293

This tells us again that That which causes action, the Consciousness and Power which are manifested in action, are quite different from the individuals who carry it out materially and who think in their ignorance that they are the originators of action.

8 January 1970

279—O soldier and hero of God, where for thee is sorrow or shame or suffering? For thy life is a glory, thy deeds a consecration, victory thy apotheosis, defeat thy triumph.

For one who is totally consecrated to the Divine, there can be neither shame nor suffering, for the Divine is always with him and the Divine Presence changes all things into glory.

9 January 1970

280—Do thy lower members still suffer the shock of sin and sorrow? But above, seen of thee or unseen, thy soul sits royal, calm, free and triumphant. Believe that the Mother will ere the end have done her work and made the very earth of thy being a joy and a purity.

281—If thy heart is troubled within thee, if for long seasons thou makest no progress, if thy strength faint and repine, remember always the eternal word of our Lover and Master, “I will free thee from all sin and evil; do not grieve.”

Here, what Sri Aurobindo calls the soul is the Divine Presence in each one of us; and the certitude of this constant Presence within us will alleviate all our sorrow by convincing us of the ultimate victory which is certain.

10 January 1970

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282—Purity is in thy soul; but for actions, where is their purity or impurity?

Sri Aurobindo does not use the word purity in the ordinary moral sense. For him, “purity” means “exclusively under the influence of the Divine”, expressing only the Divine.

At present, no action on earth can be like this.

12 January 1970

283—O Death, our masked friend and maker of opportunities, when thou wouldst open the gate, hesitate not to tell us beforehand; for we are not of those who are shaken by its iron jarring.

284—Death is sometimes a rude valet; but when he changes this robe of earth for that brighter raiment, his horseplay and impertinences can be pardoned.

285—Who shall slay thee, O soul immortal? Who shall torture thee, O God ever-joyous?

Why has death been associated with sorrow ever since the beginning?

Human ignorance and egoism are the cause of sorrow. But this sorrow has also played its part in the evolution of humanity.

13 January 1970

What part has sorrow played in the evolution of humanity?

Sorrow, desire, suffering, ambition and every other similar reaction in the feelings and sensations have all contributed to make 295consciousness emerge from the inconscience and to awaken this consciousness to the will for progress.

14 January 1970

286—Think this when thy members would fain make love with depression and weakness, “I am Bacchus and Ares and Apollo; I am Agni pure and invincible; I am Surya ever burning mightily.”

287—Shrink not from the Dionysian cry and rapture within thee, but see that thou be not a straw upon those billows.

288—Thou hast to learn to bear all the gods within thee and never stagger with their inrush or break under their burden.

This is to teach man not to be dominated or frightened by the gods of the various religions; for, as a human being, man carries within himself the possibility of uniting with the Supreme Lord and becoming conscious of Him.

15 January 1970

289—Mankind have wearied of strength and joy and called sorrow and weakness virtue, wearied of knowledge and called ignorance holiness, wearied of love and called heartlessness enlightenment and wisdom.

290—There are many kinds of forbearance. I saw a coward hold out his cheek to the smiter; I saw a physical weakling struck by a strong and self-approving bully look quietly and intently at the aggressor; I saw God incarnate smile lovingly on those who stoned him. The 296first was ridiculous, the second terrible, the third divine and holy.

Sri Aurobindo tells us that to radiate love in all circumstances is a sign of the Divine who has equal love for the one who strikes him and the one who worships him—what a lesson for humanity!

17 January 1970

291—It is noble to pardon thine own injurers, but not so noble to pardon wrongs done to others. Nevertheless pardon these too, but when needful, calmly avenge.

292—When Asiatics massacre, it is an atrocity; when Europeans, it is a military exigency. Appreciate the distinction and ponder over this world’s virtues.

All this makes us feel very deeply the foolishness of human judgments based on self-interest and the reactions of the ego.

So long as men remain in their present state of ignorance, their judgments and opinions are worthless in the face of Truth and should be considered as such.

20 January 1970

293—Watch the too indignantly righteous. Before long you will find them committing or condoning the very offence which they have so fiercely censured.

294—“There is very little real hypocrisy among men.” True, but there is a great deal of diplomacy and still more of self-deceit. The last is of three varieties, conscious, subconscious and half-conscious; but the third is the most dangerous.

297
It seems to me that conscious self-deceit is the worst, isn’t it?

Conscious self-deceit is rare because it implies a great development of consciousness together with a perverted will to deceive, which leads to the most dangerous kind of falsehood; but it is perhaps also the easiest to cure, for the consciousness is already awakened and it only has to be made aware of its mistake and to take the decision to correct it in order to have the power to do so.

Others must first become conscious of what they are doing and this usually takes a long time.

21 January 1970

295—Be not deceived by men’s shows of virtue, neither disgusted by their open or secret vices. These things are the necessary shufflings in a long transition-period of humanity.

296—Be not repelled by the world’s crookednesses; the world is a wounded and venomous snake wriggling towards a destined off-sloughing and perfection. Wait, for it is a divine wager; and out of this baseness, God will emerge brilliant and triumphant.

Sri Aurobindo tells us that man is a transitional being and that from all the sufferings of the world will emerge a being of light capable of manifesting the Divine.

Thus, all those who are not satisfied with the world as it is, know that their aspiration does not rise in vain and that the world is changing.

If consecration and effort are associated with the aspiration, things will move faster.

22 January 1970

298

297—Why dost thou recoil from a mask? Behind its odious, grotesque or terrible seemings Krishna laughs at thy foolish anger, thy more foolish scorn or loathing and thy most foolish terror.

298—When thou findest thyself scorning another, look then at thy own heart and laugh at thy folly.

Is it only our mental conception that sees grotesque and odious things, or are they really as we see them? And the same applies to beauty, doesn’t it?

It is certain that in the present state of the physical world, appearances are still very deceptive; physical beauty is not always the sign of a beautiful soul, and an ugly or grotesque body may conceal a genius or a resplendent soul.

But for one who has more inner sensitivity, appearances are no longer deceptive and he can perceive the ugliness hidden beneath a pretty face and the beauty concealed beneath a mask of ugliness.

There are also cases, and these are becoming more and more numerous, where the appearance reveals the inner reality which then becomes discernible to all.

23 January 1970

299—Avoid vain disputing; but exchange views freely. If dispute thou must, learn from thy adversary; for even from a fool, if thou listen not with the ear and the reasoning mind but the soul’s light, thou canst gather much wisdom.

300—Turn all things to honey; this is the law of divine living.

301—Private dispute should always be avoided; but shrink 299not from the public battle; yet even there appropriatefnPossible alternative reading: appreciate. the strength of thy adversary.

302—When thou hearest an opinion that displeases thee, study and find out the truth in it.

If you sincerely want to live according to the Truth, you must know that you can learn from everything and that you have the possibility of making progress at every moment. A great stupidity can often reveal a great light to you, if you know how to see it.

24 January 1970

303—The mediaeval ascetics hated women and thought they were created by God for the temptation of monks. One may be allowed to think more nobly both of God and of woman.

304—If a woman has tempted thee, is it her fault or thine? Be not a fool and a self-deceiver.

305—There are two ways of avoiding the snare of woman; one is to shun all women and the other to love all beings.

What should be the ideal of a modern woman in ordinary life?

In ordinary life, women can have all the ideas they like, it is not very important.fnLater, Mother added, “For women, in ordinary life, the ideal is good health and harmony.”

300

From the spiritual point of view, men and women are equal in their capacity to realise the Divine. Each one must do so in his (or her) own way and according to his (or her) own possibilities.

25 January 1970

306—Asceticism is no doubt very healing, a cave very peaceful and the hill-tops wonderfully pleasant; nevertheless do thou act in the world as God intended thee.

Sri Aurobindo shows us that one can be an ascetic by preference and not out of abnegation; and so he makes us understand that to be a servant of the Lord and to act only according to His will is a far higher state than any personal choice, no matter how saintly it may seem.

26 January 1970

307—Three times God laughed at Shankara, first, when he returned to burn the corpse of his mother, again, when he commented on the Isha Upanishad and the third time when he stormed about India preaching inaction.

The Lord laughed when this man, who thought himself so wise, complied with conventions, wrote useless words and gave an example of overactivity in order to preach inaction.

27 January 1970

308—Men labour only after success and if they are fortunate enough to fail, it is because the wisdom and force of Nature overbear their intellectual cleverness. God alone knows when and how to blunder wisely and fail effectively.

301

309—Distrust the man who has never failed and suffered; follow not his fortunes, fight not under his banner.

310—There are two who are unfit for greatness and freedom, the man who has never been a slave to another and the nation that has never been under the yoke of foreigners.

Certain essential qualities can only develop through suffering and difficulties. Men run away from them in their ignorance, but the Supreme Lord imposes them on those He has chosen to represent Him on earth in order to hasten their development—for he is the Supreme Wisdom.

28 January 1970

311—Fix not the time and the way in which the ideal shall be fulfilled. Work and leave time and way to God all-knowing.

312—Work as if the ideal had to be fulfilled swiftly and in thy lifetime; persevere as if thou knewest it not to be unless purchased by a thousand years yet of labour. That which thou darest not expect till the fifth millennium, may bloom out with tomorrow’s dawning and that which thou hopest and lustest after now, may have been fixed for thee in thy hundredth advent.

This is exactly the attitude we should all have towards transformation: as much energy and ardour as if we were certain of achieving it in our present life, as much patience and endurance as if we needed centuries to realise it.

29 January 1970

313—Each man of us has a million lives yet to fulfil upon earth. Why then this haste and clamour and impatience?

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314—Stride swiftly, for the goal is far; rest not unduly, for thy Master is waiting for thee at the end of thy journey.

Here again, as always, Sri Aurobindo sees every aspect of the question and while preaching calm and patience to the restless, he rouses and preaches energy to the indolent. In the union of opposites lies true wisdom and total effectiveness.

30 January 1970

315—I am weary of the childish impatience which cries and blasphemes and denies the ideal because the Golden Mountains cannot be reached in our little day or in a few momentary centuries.

316—Fix thy soul without desire upon the end and insist on it by the divine force within thee; then shall the end itself create its means, nay, it shall become its own means. For the end is Brahman and already accomplished; see it always as Brahman, see it always in thy soul as already accomplished.

Certainly, we all carry in our souls the divine end of the eternal journey, and our personal incapacity is the only thing that prevents us from being immediately aware of it.

Total and unconditional surrender to the Supreme Lord (Brahman) is the sole and wonderful way to cure this incapacity.

1 February 1970

317—Plan not with the intellect, but let thy divine sight arrange thy plans for thee. When a means comes to thee as the thing to be done, make that thy aim; as for the end, it is, in the world, accomplishing itself and, in thy soul, already accomplished.

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318—Men see events as unaccomplished, to be striven for and effected. This is false seeing; events are not effected, they develop. The event is Brahman, already accomplished from of old, it is now manifesting.

One could say it in this way: everything exists from all eternity, and we become conscious of it progressively in what we call the material world.

This way of seeing and speaking is a complete reversal of the ordinary human consciousness.

2 February 1970

319—As the light of a star reaches the earth hundreds of years after the star has ceased to exist, so the event already accomplished in Brahman at the beginning manifests itself now in our material experience.

Yes, but the will of Brahman that we should take part in this event dates back to the same moment and their relation remains the same. So the only thing that matters is not to act on personal impulse, but on the order received from Brahman.

4 February 1970

320—Governments, societies, kings, police, judges, institutions, churches, laws, customs, armies are temporary necessities imposed on us for a few groups of centuries because God has concealed His face from us. When it appears to us again in its truth and beauty, then in that light they will vanish.

321—The anarchic is the true divine state of man in the end as in the beginning; but in between it would lead us straight to the devil and his kingdom.

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The Anarchic state is the self-government of each individual. And it will be the perfect government only when each one becomes conscious of the inner Divine and obeys Him and Him alone.

5 February 1970

322—The communistic principle of society is intrinsically as superior to the individualistic as is brotherhood to jealousy and mutual slaughter; but all the practical schemes of Socialism invented in Europe are a yoke, a tyranny and a prison.

323—If communism ever re-establishes itself successfully upon earth, it must be on a foundation of soul’s brotherhood and the death of egoism. A forced association and a mechanical comradeship would end in a world-wide fiasco.

324—Vedanta realised is the only practicable basis for a communistic society. It is the kingdom of the saints dreamed of by Christianity, Islam and Puranic Hinduism.

As Sri Aurobindo tells us so well, individualism is a kind of self-justified jealousy, the reign of each one for himself.

But the only true remedy is the exclusive and universal reign of the Supreme Lord, present and conscious in all beings, with a transitional government by those who are truly conscious of Him and entirely surrendered to His will.

7 February 1970

325—“Freedom, equality, brotherhood,” cried the French revolutionists, but in truth freedom only has been practised with a dose of equality; as for brotherhood, 305only a brotherhood of Cain was founded—and of Barabbas. Sometimes it calls itself a Trust or Combine and sometimes the Concert of Europe.

326—“Since liberty has failed,” cries the advanced thought of Europe, “let us try liberty cum equality or, since the two are a little hard to pair, equality instead of liberty. For brotherhood, it is impossible; therefore we will replace it by industrial association.” But this time also, I think, God will not be deceived.

As yet liberty, equality, fraternity are only words loudly proclaimed but never yet put into practice, and they cannot be put into practice so long as men remain what they are, ruled by their ego and all its desires instead of being ruled only by the One Supreme and supremely Divine.

8 February 1970

327—India had three fortresses of a communal life, the village community, the larger joint family and the orders of the Sannyasins; all these are broken or breaking with the stride of egoistic conceptions of social life; but is not this after all only the breaking of these imperfect moulds on the way to a larger and diviner communism?

328—The individual cannot be perfect until he has surrendered all he now calls himself to the divine Being. So also, until mankind gives all it has to God, never shall there be a perfected society.

Sri Aurobindo writes here in a clear and definite way what I tried to express before: no perfection can be attained so long as the government of the Supreme Lord is not recognised and admitted everywhere and in all things.

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Liberty can only be manifested when all men know the liberty of the Supreme Lord.

Equality can only be manifested when all men become conscious of the Supreme Lord.

Fraternity can only be manifested when men feel that they are equally born of the Supreme Lord and one in His Oneness.

9 February 1970

329—There is nothing small in God’s eyes; let there be nothing small in thine. He bestows as much labour of divine energy on the formation of a shell as on the building of an empire. For thyself it is greater to be a good shoemaker than a luxurious and incompetent king.

330—Imperfect capacity and effect in the work that is meant for thee is better than an artificial competency and a borrowed perfection.

331—Not result is the purpose of action, but God’s eternal delight in becoming, seeing and doing.

It is obvious that the greatness of an action does not depend on its scope, and its perfection does not depend on circumstances or on external conditions, but on the sincerity of the consecration with which it is done.

To do what the Divine wants you to do, in a total consecration of the being: this is the only thing that matters; the outer scope of the action is of no account.

10 February 1970

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332—God’s world advances step by step fulfilling the lesser unit before it seriously attempts the larger. Affirm free nationality first, if thou wouldst ever bring the world to be one nation.

333—A nation is not made by a common blood, a common tongue or a common religion; these are only important helps and powerful conveniences. But wherever communities of men not bound by family ties are united in one sentiment and aspiration to defend a common inheritance from their ancestors or assure a common future for their posterity, there a nation is already in existence.

334—Nationality is a stride of the progressive God passing beyond the stage of the family; therefore the attachment to clan and tribe must weaken or perish before a nation can be born.

Thus Sri Aurobindo reveals to us the great political secret whose realisation can lead us to the union of all nations and finally to human unity.

11 February 1970

335—Family, nationality, humanity are Vishnu’s three strides from an isolated to a collective unity. The first has been fulfilled, we yet strive for the perfection of the second, towards the third we are reaching out our hands and the pioneer work is already attempted.

336—With the present morality of the human race a sound and durable human unity is not yet possible; but there is no reason why a temporary approximation to it should 308not be the reward of strenuous aspiration and untiring effort. By constant approximations and by partial realisations and temporary successes Nature advances.

As Sri Aurobindo has predicted, things are moving fast, and the situation of humanity has changed much since Sri Aurobindo began to work in the subtle physical: the idea of human unity has made great headway and is more widely understood.

12 February 1970

337—Imitation is sometimes a good training-ship; but it will never fly the flag of the admiral.

338—Rather hang thyself than belong to the horde of successful imitators.

This applies to artists and writers—nearly all are imitators and copyists. And yet only creators, those who have something new to say or show, should create.

13 February 1970

339—Tangled is the way of works in the world. When Rama the Avatar murdered Vali,fnKing of the monkeys. or Krishna, who was God himself, assassinated, to liberate his nation, his tyrant uncle Kansa, who shall say whether they did good or did evil? But this we can feel, that they acted divinely.

This is a supremely elegant way of saying that all notions of good and evil are exclusively human and are worthless in the eyes of the Divine.

16 February 1970

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340—Reaction perfects and hastens progress by increasing and purifying the force within it. This is what the multitude of the weak cannot see who despair of their port when the ship is fleeing helplessly before the storm-wind, but it flees, hidden by the rain and the Ocean furrow, towards God’s intended haven.

This is to teach us never to despair. Because, for those who are pure of heart and have an unshakable faith, the worst apparent defeat is only a veiled path leading to final victory.

17 February 1970

341—Democracy was the protest of the human soul against the allied despotisms of autocrat, priest and noble; Socialism is the protest of the human soul against the despotism of a plutocratic democracy; Anarchism is likely to be the protest of the human soul against the tyranny of a bureaucratic Socialism. A turbulent and eager march from illusion to illusion and from failure to failure is the image of European progress.

342—Democracy in Europe is the rule of the Cabinet minister, the corrupt deputy or the self-seeking capitalist masqued by the occasional sovereignty of a wavering populace; Socialism in Europe is likely to be the rule of the official and policeman masqued by the theoretic sovereignty of an abstract State. It is chimerical to enquire which is the better system; it would be difficult to decide which is the worse.

343—The gain of democracy is the security of the individual’s life, liberty and goods from the caprices of the tyrant one or the selfish few; its evil is the decline of greatness in humanity.

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All human governments are a falsehood or a chimera. One can hope that one day the earth will be governed by the Truth only if the Supreme Lord makes this Truth evident to all.

18 February 1970

344—This erring race of human beings dreams always of perfecting their environment by the machinery of government and society; but it is only by the perfection of the soul within that the outer environment can be perfected. What thou art within, that outside thee thou shalt enjoy; no machinery can rescue thee from the law of thy being.

345—Be always vigilant against thy human proneness to persecute or ignore the reality even while thou art worshipping its semblance or token. Not human wickedness but human fallibility is the opportunity of Evil.

No law or government can save us from meeting in life the consequences of what we are.

Submit exclusively to the Divine Truth and It will govern life outside all human laws and governments.

19 February 1970

346—Honour the garb of the ascetic, but look also at the wearer, lest hypocrisy occupy the holy places and inward saintliness become a legend.

347—The many strive after competence or riches, the few embrace poverty as a bride; but, for thyself, strive after and embrace God only. Let Him choose for thee a king’s palace or the bowl of the beggar.

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348—What is vice but an enslaving habit and virtue but a human opinion? See God and do His will; walk in whatever path He shall trace for thy goings.

This is perfect! True saintliness is to want and realise what the Divine wants for you, and true wisdom is to unite with Him so that you can clearly know what He wants of you and for you. All the rest is nothing but human convention and theory.

20 February 1970

349—In the world’s conflicts espouse not the party of the rich for their riches, nor of the poor for their poverty, of the king for his power and majesty nor of the people for their hope and fervour, but be on God’s side always. Unless indeed He has commanded thee to war against Him! then do that with thy whole heart and strength and rapture.

350—How shall I know God’s will with me? I have to put egoism out of me, hunting it from every lair and burrow, and bathe my purified and naked soul in His infinite workings; then He himself will reveal it to me.

351—Only the soul that is naked and unashamed can be pure and innocent, even as Adam was in the primal garden of humanity.

What is meant by “the soul that is naked and unashamed”? Isn’t the soul always pure?

Yes, that is what Sri Aurobindo says. The soul does not wear any disguise, it shows itself as it is and cares nothing for men’s 312judgments, because it is the faithful servant of the Divine whose abode it is.

23 February 1970

352—Boast not thy riches, neither seek men’s praise for thy poverty and self-denial; both these things are the coarse or the fine food of egoism.

353—Altruism is good for man, but less good when it is a form of supreme self-indulgence and lives by pampering the selfishness of others.

354—By altruism thou canst save thy soul, but see that thou save it not by indulging in his perdition thy brother.

355—Self-denial is a mighty instrument for purification; it is not an end in itself nor a final law of living. Not to mortify thyself but to satisfy God in the world must be thy object.

356—It is easy to distinguish the evil worked by sin and vice, but the trained eye sees also the evil done by self-righteous or self-regarding virtue.

Step by step and from every angle, Sri Aurobindo shows us how the Truth is above and beyond all contraries and opposites, beyond divisions—in a radiant and total Unity.

25 February 1970

357—The Brahmin first ruled by the book and the ritual, the Kshatriya next by the sword and the buckler; now the Vaishya governs us by machinery and the dollar, and the Sudra, the liberated serf, presses in with his doctrine of 313the kingdom of associated labour. But neither priest, king, merchant nor labourer is the true governor of humanity; the despotism of the tool and the mattock will fail like all the preceding despotisms. Only when egoism dies and God in man governs his own human universality, can this earth support a happy and contented race of beings.

There is nothing to say. Everything is clearly explained—only the divine government can be a true government.

26 February 1970

358—Men run after pleasure and clasp feverishly that burning bride to their tormented bosoms; meanwhile a divine and faultless bliss stands behind them waiting to be seen and claimed and captured.

359—Men hunt after petty successes and trivial masteries from which they fall back into exhaustion and weakness; meanwhile all the infinite force of God in the universe waits vainly to place itself at their disposal.

360—Men burrow after little details of knowledge and group them into bounded and ephemeral thought-systems; meanwhile all infinite wisdom laughs above their heads and shakes wide the glory of her iridescent pinions.

361—Men seek laboriously to satisfy and complement the little bounded being made of the mental impressions they have grouped about a mean and grovelling ego; meanwhile the spaceless and timeless Soul is denied its joyous and splendid manifestation.

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This state of things must change for the supramental consciousness to reign on earth. But although the supramental consciousness has been at work on earth for more than a year,fnMother is referring to the “New Consciousness” (or Superman Consciousness) which manifested on 1 January 1969. has anything changed in this miserable condition?

28 February 1970

Since the supramental consciousness is at work on earth, won’t these miserable conditions change in spite of everything?

Naturally, the first effect will be a change of consciousness, first among the most receptive, and then in a greater number of people.

A change in the general conditions of collective life can only come later, perhaps long after individual reactions have been transformed. The first noticeable result is a heightening of the general confusion, because the old principles have lost their authority, and men (except for a very few) are not ready to obey the Divine Command, because they are incapable of perceiving it.

1 March 1970

362—O soul of India, hide thyself no longer with the darkened PanditsfnScholars and interpreters of sacred texts. of the Kaliyuga in the kitchen and the chapel, veil not thyself with the soulless rite, the obsolete law and the unblessed money of the Dakshina;fnOffering made by the devotee to the brahmin priest. but seek in thy soul, ask of God and recover thy true Brahminhood and Kshatriyahood with the eternal Veda; restore the hidden truth of the Vedic sacrifice, return to the fulfilment of an older and mightier Vedanta.

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This is to free us from so-called religious conventions which tell us what to do and what not to do. We must recover the true wisdom and receive directly from the Divine the precise indications for living in and for the Truth.

2 March 1970

363—Limit not sacrifice to the giving up of earthly goods or the denial of some desires and yearnings, but let every thought and every work and every enjoyment be an offering to God within thee. Let thy steps walk in thy Lord, let thy sleep and waking be a sacrifice to Krishna.

364—This is not according to my ShastrafnScriptures; prescribed law. or my Science, say the men of rule, formalists. Fool! is God then only a book that there should be nothing true and good except what is written?

365—By which standard shall I walk, the word that God speaks to me, saying, “This is My will, O my servant,” or the rules that men who are dead, have written? Nay, if I have to fear and obey any, I will fear and obey God rather and not the pages of a book or the frown of a Pandit.

366—Thou mayst be deceived, wilt thou say, it may not be God’s voice leading thee? Yet do I know that He abandons not those who have trusted Him even ignorantly, yet have I found that He leads wisely and lovingly even when He seems to deceive utterly, yet would I rather fall into the snare of the living God than be saved by trust in a dead formulary.

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367—Act according to the Shastra rather than thy self-will and desire; so shalt thou grow stronger to control the ravener in thee; but act according to God rather than the Shastra; so shalt thou reach to His highest which is far above rule and limit.

368—The Law is for the bound and those whose eyes are sealed; if they walk not by it, they will stumble; but thou who art free in Krishna or hast seen his living light, walk holding the hand of thy Friend and by the lamp of eternal Veda.

369—The Vedanta is God’s lamp to lead thee out of this night of bondage and egoism; but when the light of Veda has dawned in thy soul, then even that divine lamp thou needest not, for now thou canst walk freely and surely in a high and eternal sunlight.

Strive exclusively to hear the command of the Supreme Lord, and if you are perfectly sincere, He will find a way to make you hear and recognise this command with certainty.

Such is the assurance given to all those who want to live according to the supreme Truth.

3 March 1970

370—What is the use of only knowing? I say to thee, Act and be, for therefore God sent thee into this human body.

371—What is the use of only being? I say to thee, Become, for therefore wast thou established as a man in this world of matter.

372—The path of works is in a way the most difficult side 317of God’s triune causeway; yet is it not also, in this material world at least, the easiest, widest and most delightful? For at every moment we clash against God the worker and grow into His being by a thousand divine touches.

373—This is the wonder of the way of works that even enmity to God can be made an agency of salvation. Sometimes God draws and attaches us most swiftly to Him by wrestling with us as our fierce, invincible and irreconcilable enemy.

In short, the divine grace is so marvellous that, whatever you do, it will lead you more or less quickly towards the Divine Goal.

5 March 1970

374—Shall I accept death or shall I turn and wrestle with him and conquer? That shall be as God in me chooses. For whether I live or die, I am always.

375—What is this then thou callest death? Can God die? O thou who fearest death, it is Life that has come to thee sporting with a death-head and wearing a mask of terror.

376—There is a means to attain physical immortality and death is by our choice, not by Nature’s compulsion. But who would care to wear one coat for a hundred years or be confined in one narrow and changeless lodging unto a long eternity?

If a person feels that his work is over in this life and that he has nothing more to offer, wouldn’t it be better for 318him to die and be born again instead of dragging out an aimless existence?

This is what the unsatisfied ego asks itself when it finds that things are not going as it desires.

But someone who belongs to the Divine and wants to live in the truth knows that the Divine will keep him on earth as long as He perceives his usefulness on earth and will make him leave the earth when he has nothing more to do there. So the question cannot arise, and he will live quietly in the certitude of the Divine’s supreme wisdom.

6 March 1970

You wrote yesterday: “But someone who belongs to the Divine.…” Doesn’t everyone, whoever he is, belong to the Divine?

When I say, “someone who belongs to the Divine”, I mean a being who has abolished the ego within himself, who is constantly conscious of the Divine, who no longer has any personal will, who acts only under the divine impulsion and who has no other aim than to do what the Divine wants him to do.

I do not think there are many people in this state. And certainly these people will never worry whether their life is useful or not, since they exist only for and by the Divine and no longer have any personal life.

7 March 1970

377—Fear and anxiety are perverse forms of will. What thou fearest and ponderest over, striking that note repeatedly in thy mind, thou helpest to bring about; for, if thy will above the surface of waking repels it, it is yet what thy 319mind underneath is all along willing, and the subconscious mind is mightier, wider, better equipped to fulfil than thy waking force and intellect. But the spirit is stronger than both together; from fear and hope take refuge in the grandiose calm and careless mastery of the spirit.

378—God made the infinite world by Self-knowledge which in its works is Will-Force self-fulfilling. He used ignorance to limit His infinity; but fear, weariness, depression, self-distrust and assent to weakness are the instruments by which He destroys what He created. When these things are turned on what is evil or harmful and ill-regulated within thee, then it is well; but if they attack thy very sources of life and strength, then seize and expel them or thou diest.

When these forces of destruction attack us, it proves that we are ready to be liberated from the ego and to emerge consciously into the Divine Presence which is at the centre of our being, in full light, in peace and joy, free at last from the sufferings imposed upon us by the ego. It is the ego which changes all the contacts of life into suffering, it is the ego which prevents us from being conscious of the Divine Presence within us and from becoming His calm, strong and happy instruments.

Let us make a complete offering of this ego with all its desires to the Divine, let us be confident and wait for the liberation that is sure to come.

9 March 1970

379—Mankind has used two powerful weapons to destroy its own powers and enjoyment, wrong indulgence and wrong abstinence.

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380—Our mistake has been and is always to flee from the ills of Paganism to asceticism as a remedy and from the ills of asceticism back to Paganism. We swing for ever between two false opposites.

381—It is well not to be too loosely playful in one’s games or too grimly serious in one’s life and works. We seek in both a playful freedom and a serious order.

Excess in any direction is a violence; and only in peace, poise and harmony can the truth be discovered and lived.

10 March 1970

382—For nearly forty years behind the wholly good I was weakly in constitution; I suffered constantly from the smaller and the greater ailments and mistook this curse for a burden that Nature had laid upon me. When I renounced the aid of medicines, then they began to depart from me like disappointed parasites. Then only I understood what a mighty force was the natural health within me and how much mightier yet the Will and Faith exceeding mind which God meant to be the divine support of our life in this body.

All the circumstances of life are arranged to teach us that, beyond mind, faith in the Divine Grace gives us the strength to go through all trials, to overcome all weaknesses and find the contact with the Divine Consciousness which gives us not only peace and joy but also physical balance and good health.

11 March 1970

383—Machinery is necessary to modern humanity because of our incurable barbarism. If we must encase ourselves 321in a bewildering multitude of comforts and trappings, we must needs do without Art and its methods; for to dispense with simplicity and freedom is to dispense with beauty. The luxury of our ancestors was rich and even gorgeous, but never encumbered.

384—I cannot give to the barbarous comfort and encumbered ostentation of European life the name of civilisation. Men who are not free in their souls and nobly rhythmical in their appointments are not civilised.

385—Art in modern times and under European influence has become an excrescence upon life or an unnecessary menial; it should have been its chief steward and indispensable arranger.

So long as the mind governs life with the presumptuous certitude that it knows, how can the reign of the Divine be established?

12 March 1970