Sweet Mother, with what attitude should I read Sri Aurobindo’s
books when they are difficult and when I do not understand? Savitri, The Life
Divine,
for example.
Read a little at a time, read again and again until you have understood.
[CWM, Vol. 12, p. 204, 23 May 1960]
Sweet Mother,
This morning in my meditation I saw so many things which were
logically unrelated but which definitely produced the impression that something
extraordinary is about to happen. This is the first time, perhaps, that I have
had such a presentiment, lasting almost an hour. I want to know whether there
is any truth in it and how we should prepare for it.
Last night, we (you and I and a few others) were together for quite
a long time in Sri Aurobindo’s permanent dwelling-place in the subtle physical
(what Sri Aurobindo called the true physical). Everything that took place there
(far too long and complicated to relate) was organised, so to say, to express
concretely the rapidity of the present movement of transformation. And with a
smile, Sri Aurobindo told you something like this: “Do you believe now?” It was
as if he were evoking the three lines from Savitri:
God shall grow up while the wise men talk and sleep;
For man shall not know the coming till its hour
And belief shall be not till the work is done.
(Savitri, p. 55)
I think that this is a sufficient explanation of the meditation you
refer to.
My blessings.
[CWM, Vol. 15, p. 112, 1 February 1963]
All things shall change in God’s
transfiguring hour.
(Savitri, p. 341)
Can man delay or hasten the coming of
this hour?
Neither the one nor the other in their apparent contradiction
created by the separative consciousness, but something else that our words
cannot express.
In the present state of human consciousness, it is good for it to
think that aspiration and human effort can hasten the advent of the divine
transformation, because effort and aspiration are needed for the transformation
to take place.
[CWM, Vol. 16 p, 391, 21 December 1968]
(Written
by the Mother at the beginning of a notebook containing quotations from Sri
Aurobindo’s Savitri)
Some extracts from Savitri, that marvellous prophetic poem which
will be humanity’s guide towards its future realisation.
[CWM Vol. 16, p. 294, 27 November 1963]
Sri Aurobindo has written in Savitri:
Yes, there are happy ways near to
God’s sun;
But few are they who tread the sunlit
path;
Only the pure in soul can walk in
light.
(Savitri, p. 448)
What a joy it would be to possess the required purity!
When one is living among men with all their miseries, it is only the
Grace that can bestow this state—even in those who by Tapasya have abolished
their ego.
It is beyond all personal effort.
[CWM Vol. 16, p. 379, 27 May 1968]
Sri Aurobindo speaks of Savitri’s firmness of purpose in the
following line:
Immutable like a fixed eternal star.
(Savitri, p. 606)
Can one say that such determination is demanded of the sadhak who
aspires for transformation?
This is the great mystery of creation: immutable and yet eternally
renewed.
[CWM, Vol. 16, p. 380, 17 June 1968]
Savitri says:
Not only is there hope for godheads
pure;
The violent and darkened deities
Leaped down from the one breast in
rage to find
What the white gods had missed: they
too are safe;
A Mother’s eyes are on them and her
arms
Stretched out in love desire her rebel
sons.
(Savitri, p. 613)
What had the white gods missed?
The conversion of the Asuras.
[CWM, Vol. 16, p. 381, 24 June 1968]
Isn’t the power of the Asuras as boundless as the power of the
gods?
The vibrations of evil are in truth less powerful than the
vibrations of good.
[CWM, Vol. 16, p. 381, 26 June 1968]
Can one say that total sincerity and the abolition of the ego are
closely interdependent?
Only the Supreme Lord is perfectly sincere. And when the ego is
abolished, only the Supreme Lord exists.
[CWM, Vol. 16. p. 381, 28 June 1968]
Aswapati was very fortunate. For him,
Each day was a spiritual romance…
Each happening was a deep experience.
(Savitri, pp. 30-31)
This possibility is open to all whose aspiration is fervent.
[CWM, Vol. 16, p. 385, 1 November 1968]
A knowledge which became what it
perceived,
Replaced the separated sense and heart
And drew all Nature into its embrace.
(Savitri, p. 28)
Is Sri Aurobindo referring here to knowledge by identity?
Yes, it is a very exact description.
[CWM, Vol. 16, p. 386, 7 November 1968]
A greater force than the earthly held
his limbs…
Unwound the triple cord of mind and
freed
The heavenly wideness of a Godhead’s
gaze
(Savitri, p. 82)
What does the triple cord of mind mean?
The cords symbolise the limitations of the mind; and there are three
of them because there is a physical mind, a vital mind and a mental mind.
[CWM, Vol. 16,
p. 386, 9 November 1968]
The days were travellers on a destined
road,
The nights companions of his musing
spirit.
(Savitri, p. 43)
Yes, there comes a time when nothing, absolutely nothing isoutside
the yoga and the Divine’s Presence is felt and found inall things and all
circumstances.
[CWM, Vol. 16, pp. 386-87, 11 November 1968]
A last high world was seen where all
worlds meet;
In its summit gleam where Night is not
nor Sleep,
The light began of the Trinity
supreme.
(Savitri, p. 89)
Is the Trinity supreme Sachchidananda?
Yes.
[CWM, Vol. 16, p. 387, 15 November 1968]
Through
Speed is not necessarily a sign of superiority.
These “instantaneous” conversions aremost often the result of many
lives of preparation.
[CWM, Vol. 16, p. 387, 17 November 1968]
Our body’s cells must hold the
Immortal’s flame.
(Savitri, p. 35)
Is this the secret of the luminous body?
It is a poetic way of expressing the transformation which is going
to take place and which is more complicated than that.
[CWM, Vol. 16, p. 387, 19 November 1968]