Consent to be....... nothing!

The Mother says:

 

“From the point of view of a spiritual life, it is not what you do that matters most, but the way in which it is done and the consciousness you put into it. Remember always the Divine and all you do will be an expression of the Divine Presence.”

“When all your actions are consecrated to the Divine, there will be no longer activities that are superior and activities that are inferior; all will have an equal importance - the value given them by consecration.”

 

“Do not take the sorrows of life for what they seem to be- they are in truth a way to greater achievements.”

April 7, 1914

"WHAT kind of courage is mine that I always try to avoid the fight?
What kind of energy is mine, that I am instinctively frightened of the new effort to be made and try, without being aware of it, to go to sleep passively, relying upon the results of previous efforts?
In order to act, I have to be compelled and my mute contemplation is partly made of laziness.... All this is becoming more and more clearly apparent to me. All that I have done till now seems to me to be nothing. The poverty and limitations of the instrument I put at Thy service, Lord, are evident to me, and I laugh a little sorrowfully at the idea that at times I could have a good opinion of my being, its efforts and their results. This threshold of the true life that I always think I have reached is like a hope bestowed upon me but never a tangible realisation; it is the toy promised to a child, the reward held out for a moment before the weak.
When shall I become a truly strong being, made entirely of courage, energy, valour and calm perseverance; when shall I have forgotten my own person completely enough to be nothing but an instrument moulded solely by the forces it has to manifest?

When will my consciousness of unity be no longer tinged with any inertia; when will my feeling of divine love be no longer mixed with any weakness?

O Lord, all thought seems dead within me, now that I have asked these questions. I search for my conscious mind and I do not find it; I search for my individuality and I cannot discover it anywhere; I search for my personal will and it is not there. I search for Thee, and Thou art silent.... Silence, silence....

Now I seem to hear Thy voice:
"Never hast thou known how to die integrally. Always something in thee has wanted to know, to witness, to understand. Surrender completely, learn how to disappear, break the last barrier that separates thee from me; accomplish unreservedly thy act of surrender."
Alas, O Lord, for a long time have I wanted it, but I could not. Now wilt Thou give me the power to do so?

O Lord, my sweet eternal Master, break this resistance which fills me with anguish... deliver me from myself!"

The Mother

March 20, 1914

"THOU art consciousness and light, Thou art peace in the depth
of all things, the divine love that transfigures, the knowledge that triumphs over darkness. To feel Thee and aspire to Thee one should have emerged from the immense sea of the subconscient, one should have begun to crystallise, to grow distinct so as to know oneself and then give oneself as that alone which is its own master can do. And what effort and struggle it takes to attain this crystallisation, to emerge from the amorphous state of the environment; and how much more effort and struggle yet to give oneself, to surrender once the individuality has been formed.

Few beings consent willingly to make this effort; so life with
its brutal unforeseen events obliges men to make it unintentionally, for they cannot do otherwise. And little by little Thy work is accomplished despite all obstacles."

The Mother

March 21, 1914

“EVERY morning my aspiration rises ardently to Thee, and in the silence of my satisfied heart I ask that Thy law of Love may be expressed, that Thy will may manifest. And in anticipation I adhere with joy and serenity to those circumstances which will express this law and this will.

Oh, why be restless and want that for oneself things should
turn out in one way and not another! Why decide that a particular set of circumstances will be the expression of the best possibilities and then launch into a bitter struggle so that these possibilities may be realised! Why not use all one's energy solely to will in the calm of inner confidence that Thy law may triumph everywhere and always over all difficulties, all darkness, all egoism! How the horizon widens as
soon as one learns to take this attitude; how all anxiety vanishes
giving place to a constant illumination, to the omnipotence of
disinterestedness!

To will what Thou wiliest, O Lord, is to live constantly in communion with Thee, to be delivered from all contingencies, to escape all narrowness, to fill one's lungs with pure and wholesome air, to get rid of all useless weariness, be relieved of all cumbrous loads, so as to run briskly towards the only goal worth attaining: the triumph of Thy divine Law!

O Lord, with what joy and trust I greet Thee this morning!”

The Mother

With due courtesy and thanks to chandan_0203@yahoo.co.in for posting these beautiful prayers, http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/themother/

“HOW many different levels there are in   consciousness!

This word should be reserved for what is illumined in a being by Thy Presence, is identified with Thee and partakes of Thy absolute Consciousness, for that which has knowledge, that which is “perfectly awakened”, as the Buddha says.

Outside this state there are infinite grades of consciousness, going right down to complete darkness, the veritable  inconscience which may be a domain yet untouched by the light of Thy divine Love (but this seems improbable in physical substance), or which is, for some kind of reason of ignorance, outside our individual range of perception.

This is, however, only a way of speaking, and a very incomplete one; for when the being becomes aware of Thy presence and is identified with Thy consciousness, it is conscious in all things and everywhere. But the fleeting duration of this supreme consciousness can be explained only by the complexity of the elements of the being, by their unequal illumination and by the fact that they enter into activity successively. It is, moreover, because of this successive activity that they can gradually become aware of themselves as a result of their experiences, both objective and subjective (which are really one and the same), that is, discover Thee in their unfathomable essence.

The subconscient is the intermediate zone between precise perception and ignorance, total darkness; it is probable that most beings, even human beings, live constantly in this subconscient; few emerge from it. This is the conquest that is to be made; for to be conscious in the true sense of the word is to be Thyself integrally; and is not this the very definition of the work to be accomplished, the mission to be fulfilled upon earth ?

Deliver us, O Lord, from darkness; grant that we may become perfectly awake....

Sweet Master of Love, grant that all my consciousness may 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 on our journey; may this physical journey be like a symbol of our action and may we leave   everywhere a trace of Thee like a trail of light and love.

O Divine Master, eternal Teacher, Thou livest in all things, in all beings, and Thy love bursts upon the sight of even the most ignorant. Grant that all may become aware of it in the depths of their being and that hatred may disappear for ever from their hearts.

My ardent gratitude rises to Thee like a tireless chant.”

 

-The Mother

“Prayers and Meditations”

March 13, 1914

February 7, 1961

(Mother reads the following letter aloud in English, before sending it to a disciple.)

'You ask me what you must do.

It would be better to ask what you must be, because the circumstances and activities in life have not much importance. What is important is our way of reacting towards them.'

This is where it begins....

'Human nature is such that when you concentrate on your body you fall ill; when you concentrate on your heart and feelings you become unhappy; when you concentrate on the mind you get bewildered.'

(Laughing) And it's absolutely true!

'There are two ways of getting out of this precarious condition.

'One is very arduous: it is a severe and continuous tapasya. It is the way of the strong who are   predestined for it.

'The other is to find something worth concentrating upon that diverts your attention from your small, personal self. The most effective is a big ideal, but there are innumerable things that enter into this category. Most commonly, people choose marriage, because it is the most easily available (Mother laughs). To love somebody and to love children makes you busy and compels you to forget your own self a little. But it is rarely successful, because love is not a common thing.

'Others turn to art, others to science; some choose a social or a political life, etc., etc.

'But here also, all depends on the sincerity and the endurance with which the chosen path is followed.  Because  here also, there are difficulties and obstacles to surmount.

'So, in life, nothing comes without an effort and a struggle.

'And if you are not ready for the effort and the struggle, then it is better to accept the fact that life will be dull and unsatisfactory, and submit quietly to this fact.'

That's for the complainers.

(long   silence)

And it's absolutely true - true at each stage, on all levels. Whatever level you have attained, even the very highest, if you concentrate on that [the body], it is finished! And all the difficulties begin, you know, with that very concentration that tries to draw down Light and Power - yogic concentration itself.

So it would seem ... that if one wants to use his individuality, his body, to transform the whole - that is, if one wants to use his bodily presence to act upon the universal corporeal substance - there's no end to it. No end to the difficulties, no end to the battle ... BATTLE!

(silence)

Those who try to lead a spiritual life have always been compared to warriors (there are classic writings on this subject), and one must truly be a fighter - 'fighter' is more exact than 'warrior' because you wage war against no one: everything wages war against you! Everything ... (Mother makes a gesture like an avalanche falling upon her) and with such savage opposition! ...

Ah, well....

(silence)

You see, as long as there are currents swirling within you - swirling in the mind or the vital - you tell yourself that these currents are the cause of all the difficulties. But when there is nothing any longer? ... When there is a serene and immutable peace ... but still you are relentlessly hounded - oh, with such ferocity! ... You cannot imagine.

(silence)

Since mid-November, this body has been living through every possible difficulty, one after another, one after another - sometimes all together - with relentless violence!

It has been good for it (not externally, but inwardly, for its state of consciousness: the body-consciousness), it has done the body some good, but.... Now it's like this (Mother opens her hands in a gesture of total surrender). For each blow it receives (it's a bludgeoning, my child!), for each blow, it remains like this (same gesture).

Yesterday, to make it happy, I wrote down something like this (concerning its latest difficulty): If this present difficulty is useful ... (it's the body addressing the Lord, and the Lord.... it's a perpetual adoration: all the cells vibrate, vibrate with the joy of Love; yet despite that .... ), if this or that difficulty is useful for Your Work - so be it. But if it is an effect of my stupidity (it's the body speaking), if it's an effect of my own stupidity, then I beseech  You  to cure me of this stupidity as quickly as possible.

It doesn't ask to be cured of the illness! It doesn't  ask, it is ready; 'All right,' it says. 'As long as I can keep going, I will keep going. As long as I can last, I will last. But that's not what I'm asking for: I am asking to be cured of my stupidity.' I believe this is what enables it to ... yes, what gives it the necessary endurance.

That's enough. I said I wouldn't say anything! You see how you are.... When I'm up in my room, I always tell myself, 'Not a word today!' I don't want to start saying unpleasant things. And then....

Unpleasant?

Yes. It is better to speak of victory than ... (Mother laughs) to speak of difficulties!

(silence)

When we used to discuss all these things and the difficulties of the path, Sri Aurobindo told me (he was comparing his body to mine):

“I don't have the stuff of such endurance. I was not cut out like that - your body is solid!”   (gesture)

What trials it has gone through! ... And it's so docile, so docile, it doesn't complain.

So, my child, if your body has some trouble, just tell yourself they are sympathy pains (Mother laughs), then you won't be troubled. That's all.

-     The Mother

 

Thankfully, excerpted from

“The Agenda”   Entry dated 7^th February 1961

"LIE cradled in my heart and do not worry: what has to be done will be done. And it is just when thou doest it unknowingly that it is done best”...

I am in Thy heart, Lord, and nothing can take me away from it. And it is from the unfathomable depths of this heart, in the smiling peace of its beatitude, that I look at all the outer forms of Thy manifestation struggling and endeavouring to understand Thee better, manifest Thee better.

If the hour has come, as Thou lettest me know, for the new forms of Thy realisation, these forms will inevitably be born. Something in the being senses it but does not yet know; so it makes an effort to adapt itself, to prove equal to what Thou askest of it. But what is conscious of Thee and lives in Thy force knows that this new form is only an infinitesimal progress in the infinite progression of Thy manifestation, and looks at every form with the serenity of eternal plenitude.

And in this serenity is the very omnipotence of realisation.

One must know how to soar in an immutable confidence; in the sure flight is perfect knowledge.

--The Mother

"Prayers and Meditations"

June 15, 1914

May 24, 1967

Yesterday, someone wrote to me and asked:

"In the end, what is the Divine?"

I answered.

I told him that I gave one answer to help him, but that a hundred could be given, each as good as any other:

"The Divine can be lived, but not defined....

Here, I added, "But anyway, since you ask me the question, I will answer you."

"The Divine is an absolute of perfection, eternal source of all that exists, whom we grow progressively conscious of, while being Him from all eternity."

Once, Amrita also told me that for him, the Divine was something simply unthinkable. So I answered him, "No! That way, it won't help you. Just think that the Divine is everything (to the fullest possible extent, of course), everything we want to become in our highest, most enlightened aspiration. All that we want to become - that's what the Divine is." He was so happy! He told me, "Oh, that way it becomes easy!"

But when you look at it - when you emerge from mental activity and look at the experience you have, you wonder, "How to say it? How to explain it?..." The nearest, most accessible, is this: into that "something" we aspire to become, we instinctively, spontaneously put everything we want to exist, all the most marvelous things we can imagine, all the objects of an intense (and ignorant) aspiration, all of that. And with all that, you draw near "something" and ... Ultimately, you don't get the contact through thought; you get the contact through something IDENTICAL in your being, which is awakened through the intensity of your aspiration. So, as soon as you have got for yourself, be it for one second, this contact - this fusion - there's no more need to explain: it's something that imposes itself in an absolute way, outside and beyond all explanation.

But to go there, everyone puts into it all that makes it easier to lead him there.

And when you have the experience, at the time of this fusion, this junction, to the consciousness it's obvious that the identical alone can know the identical, and that, therefore, it's proof that That is here (Mother points to the heart center). It's a proof that That is here. And through the effort of aspiration, It awakens.

When I was given the question, it was just as if that person were saying to me, "Yes, yes, that's all very fine, but after all, what IS the Divine!" So I read his letter, and there was that total silence of everything, and a sort of SINGLE gaze - a single gaze encompassing everything - which wanted to see ... I remained like that, gazing, until the words came. Then I wrote: "Here is ONE answer" - there could be a hundred ... which would be just as good.

And at the same time, when there was that gaze at the "something" which had to be defined, there was a great silence everywhere and a great aspiration (gesture like a rising flame), and all the forms that that aspiration has taken. It was very interesting.... The story of the aspiration of the earth ... towards the marvelous Unknown we want to become.

And everyone - everyone who was destined to effect the junction - thinks in his simplicity that the bridge he has walked is the only one. The result: religions, philosophies, dogmas, creeds - battle.

Seen as a whole, it's very interesting, very charming, with a Smile that looks. Oh, that Smile ... looking on. It seems to be saying, that Smile, "How complicated you make it! While it could be so simple."

To put it in a literary way, we could say, "So much complication for something so simple: being what one is."

(silence)

And what do YOU think the Divine is?

I don't know, I never ask myself that sort of question.

Neither do I! I've never asked myself that question. Because, spontaneously, as soon as there was a need to know, there was an answer. And not an answer with words that can be argued ... like that, a something: a vibration. It's something almost constant now.

Naturally, men make it difficult (I think they must love difficulties, because ...), with everything, the SMALLEST thing, there's always a world of difficulties. So you spend your time saying, "Quiet, quiet, quiet - be quiet." Even the body lives in difficulties (it too seems to love them!), but all of a sudden the cells chant their OM ... spontaneously. Then there is a sort of childlike joy in all those cells, they say (in a tone of wonder), "Oh, really, we can do that? We are allowed to do that?!" It's touching.

And the result is immediate: that great, peaceful, all-powerful Vibration.

But as for me, if I weren't under the constant pressure of all the wills around, I would say, "But why do you want to know what the Divine is? What does it matter to you! - Just become the Divine!" But they don't know a joke when they see one.

"I want to know what the Divine is."

"But no! It's perfectly useless."

"Oh?" they answer with a shocked look, "Oh, it's not interesting?!"

"You don't need to know what the Divine is: you must BECOME it."

For them, I mean the vast intellectual majority, doing or being something without knowing what it is is inconceivable.

We could also say this, if we liked joking: "You are the most divine when you don't know you are."

-The Mother

Thankfully excerpted from the Mother's Agenda, entry dated 24 May, 1967

Prayer and the Divine Grace

Words of the Mother

Sweet Mother, if one needs something for example, one wants to know something or one needs guidance, or something else, how can one have it from the Divine, according to one's need?

“By asking the Divine for it. If you do not ask Him, how can you have it?

If you turn to the Divine and have full trust and ask Him, you will get what you need - not necessarily what you imagine you need; but the true thing you need, you will get. But you must ask Him for it.

You must make the experiment sincerely; you must not endeavour to get it by all sorts of external means and then expect the Divine to give it to you, without even having asked Him. Indeed, when you want somebody to give you something, you ask him for it, don't you? And why do you expect the Divine to give it to you without your having asked Him for it?

In the ordinary consciousness the movement is just the opposite. You assume something, saying, "I need this, I need this relationship, I need this affection, I need this knowledge, etc. Well, the Divine ought to give it to me, otherwise He is not the Divine." That is to say, you reverse the problem completely.

First of all, you say, "I need." Do you know whether you truly need it or whether it is only an impression you have or a desire or quite an ignorant movement? First point: you know nothing about it.

Second point: it is precisely your own will you want to impose upon the Divine, telling Him, "I need this." And then you don't even ask Him for it: "Give it to me." You say, "I need it. Therefore, since I need it, it must come to me, quite naturally, spontaneously; it's the Divine's job to give me all that I need."

But if it so happens that truly you don't know what you need and it is merely an illusion and not a truth and that, into the bargain, you ask it from life around you and don't turn to the Divine, don't create any relationship between yourself and Him, don't think of Him or turn to Him with at least some sincerity in your attitude, then, as you ask nothing from Him, there is no reason for Him to give you anything.

But if you ask Him, as He is the Divine He knows a little better than you what you need; He will give you what you need.

Or else, if you insist and want to impose your own will, He may give you what you want in order to enlighten you and make you conscious of your mistake, that it was truly not the thing you needed. And then you begin to protest - I don't mean you personally, I am speaking of all human beings - and you say, "Why has the Divine given me something which harms me?" - completely forgetting that it was you who asked for it! In both cases you protest all the same. If He gives you what you ask and then that brings you more harm than good, you protest. And again, if He doesn't give it, you also protest: "What! I told Him I needed it and He doesn't give it to me." In both cases you protest, and the poor Divine is accused.

Only, if instead of all that, you simply have an aspiration within you, an urge, an intense ardent need to find That, which you conceive more or less clearly to be the Truth of your being, the Source of all things, the supreme Good, the Answer to all we desire, the Solution to all problems; if there is this intense need in you and you aspire to realise it, you won't any longer say to the Divine, "Give me this, give me that", or, "I need this, I must have that." You will tell Him, "Do what is necessary for me and lead me to the Truth of my being. Give me what Thou in Thy supreme Wisdom seest as the thing I need."

And then you are sure of not being mistaken, and He will not give you something which harms you.

There is a still higher step, but it's a little more difficult to begin with that.

But the first one is already a much truer approach than that of telling the Divine, "I need this. Give it to me." For indeed, very few people really know what they need - very few. And the proof of it is that they are always in pursuit of the fulfilment of their desires, all their effort is bent upon that, and each time one of their desires is fulfilled, they are disappointed. And they pass on to another.

And after much seeking, making many mistakes, suffering a good deal and being very disappointed, then, sometimes, one begins to grow wise and wonders if there isn't a way out of all this, that is to say, a way to come out of one's own ignorance.

And it is then, at that moment that one can do this (Mother opens her arms): "Here I am, take me and lead me along the true path."

Then all begins to go well.

...if one has ... trust in the divine Grace, if one has the faith that there is something in the world like the divine Grace, and that this something can answer a prayer, an aspiration, an invocation, then, after making one's mental formation, if one offers it to the Grace and puts one's trust in it, asks it to intervene and has the faith that it will intervene, then indeed one has a chance of success.

Try, and you will surely see the result.

But, Mother, when one prays sincerely for the intervention of the Grace, doesn't one expect a particular result?

Excuse me, that depends on the tenor of the prayer. If one simply invokes the Grace or the Divine, and puts oneself in His hands, one does not expect a particular result. To expect a particular result one must formulate one's prayer, must ask for something. If you have only a great aspiration for the divine Grace and evoke it, implore it, without asking it for anything precise, it is the Grace which will choose what it will do for you, not you.

That is better, isn't it?

Ah! that's quite another question.

Why, it is higher in its quality, perhaps. But still, if one wants something precise, it is better to formulate it. If one has a special reason for invoking the Grace, it is better to formulate it precisely and clearly.

Of course, if one is in a state of complete surrender and gives oneself entirely, if one simply offers oneself to the Grace and lets it do what it likes, that is very good. But after that one must not question what it does! One must not say to it, "Oh! I did that with the idea of having this", for if one really has the idea of obtaining something, it is better to formulate it in all sincerity, simply, just as one sees it. Afterwards, it is for the Grace to choose if it will do it or not; but in any case, one will have formulated clearly what one wanted. And there is no harm in that.

Where it becomes bad is when the request is not granted and one revolts. Then naturally it becomes bad. It is at that moment one must understand that the desire one has, or the aspiration, may not have been very enlightened and that perhaps one has asked for something which was not exactly what was good for one. Then at that moment one must be wise and say simply, "Well, let Thy Will be done." But so long as one has an inner perception and an inner preference, there is no harm in formulating it. It is a very natural movement.

For example, if one has been foolish or has made a mistake and one truly, sincerely wishes never to do it again, well, I don't see any harm in asking for it. And in fact, if one asks for it with sincerity, a true inner sincerity, there is a great chance that it will be granted.

You must not think that the Divine likes to contradict you. He is not at all keen on doing it! He can see better than you what is really good for you; but it is only when it is absolutely indispensable that He opposes your aspiration. Otherwise He is always ready to give what you ask.”

"EVERYTHING works together to prevent me from remaining a creature of habits, and in this new state, in the midst of these circumstances, so complex and unstable, I have never before so completely lived Thy immutable peace or rather the “1” has never before disappeared so completely that Thy divine peace alone is alive there. All is beautiful, harmonious and calm, all is full of Thee. Thou shinest in the dazzling sun, Thou art felt in the gentle passing breeze, Thou dost manifest Thyself in all hearts and live in all beings. There is not an animal, a plant that does not speak to me of Thee and Thy name is written upon everything I see.
O my sweet Lord, hast Thou at last granted that I may belong entirely to Thee and that my consciousness may be definitively united with Thine? What have I done to be worthy of so glorious a happiness? Nothing except to desire it, to want it with constancy — that is very little.
But, O Lord, since now it is Thy will and not mine that lives in me, Thou wilt be able to make this happiness profitable to all; and its very purpose will be to enable the greatest possible number of beings to perceive Thee.
Oh, may all know Thee, love Thee, serve Thee; may all receive the supreme consecration!
O Love, divine Love, spread abroad in the world, regenerate life, enlighten the intelligence, break the barriers of egoism, scatter the obstacles of ignorance, shine resplendent as sovereign Master of the earth."







-The Mother,
in 'Prayers and Meditations'
Karaikal, April 13,1914

There is an interesting debate going on in the blogosphere.

Quote:

"I don’t know if you have read Tolle’s A New Earth, but he has the following to say about Descartes (a little bit off-topic, but interesting nonetheless):

Jean-Paul Sartre… looked at Descartes’s statement “I think, therefore I am” very deeply and suddenly realized, in his own words, “The consciousness that says ‘I am’ is not the consciousness that thinks.” What did he mean by that? When you are aware that you are thinking, that awareness is not part of thinking. It is a different dimension of consciousness. And it is that awareness that says “I am”. If there were nothing but thought in you, you wouldn’t even know you are thinking."

from another comment:

"Despite his categorical rejection of conventional religion, Brooke said that Einstein became angry when his views were appropriated by evangelists for atheism. He was offended by their lack of humility and once wrote. “The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.”

courtesy and thanks to

http://www.thechangeblog.com/2008/05/19/einstein-and-the-path-to-god/

"The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this." from a letter written by Einstein:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/12/peopleinscience.religion/print

'The life you lead conceals the light you are.”'

Savitri B. IV, C. III, P. 370

 

The web page in http://searchforlight.org under contemplation stirred some memoirs, offering a right solution I was searching for. This is not new or unique, who are associated with the Ashram or the devotees of The Mother. Whatever you ask, comes through the Grace. The Mother herself had asserted this:

“All prayers are granted; every call is answered”

Sometime back, I put this message in the Y! 360 blast”:

 

Some people make things happen,

some watch things happen,

while  others wonder what has happened

What kind are you?

 

And there was one reply..the only reply:

‘All Three !’

The reply from a blog friend, was the material for contemplation I chose today.

வலைப்பதிவில் கிடைத்த அறிமுகம் தான்.. ஆனாலும் மகளே என்று அழைக்கத் தோன்றியது மகளாகத் தான் நினைத்தேன் முகம் தெரியாது ஆனாலும் குரல் தெரியும் .. வெள்ளிச் சதங்கை போல கல கல என குரலில் ஒலித்த அந்த ஆர்வம் ..எதையும் நன்கு ஆராய்ந்து எழுதுகிற பக்குவம்..  திருமணமாகி பெங்களூரில் வாழுகிற மகளே நலமா?

 

Then there was another reply sent to another blog friend, to her query:

“There is a wisdom in the Hindu mythology.

A Guru, wanted to test his disciples, their level of understanding, and called them all. He gave them a vessel each and asked them to empty the air out of the vessel.

One by one tried to empty the air…..one tried sucking, one filled the vessel with stones and so on…. they could not succeed as they could see that there were some gaps and there was air.

One disciple went to the Guru, saying that he had fulfilled the task. when the Guru asked for proof and how he had done it, the disciple humbly replied that he had replaced the empty vessel with water to the brim and there was no room for air.

The moral of this story preaches, not one but two beautiful lessons, Nisha!

One is,nothing can remain vacuum in this world..something has to occupy the space….if you don' t like one, you've the liberty to replace it with another!

The second is, in order to gain the next upper stage, you’ve to empty all your old accumulations, otherwise you'll become stagnant/inert….one has to empty the old accumulation in order to receive new things.

I am not a Guru, nor a learned person, capable of offering solutions to every problem, I cannot suggest anything except prayers and I can see you ve some preconceived notions as to that.

The solution has to come from within.”

 

When I wrote the reply, I never had the faintest idea, that the reply is going to offer a permanent solution to the problem I am having with my employers.

இதுவும் வலைப்பதிவில் கிடைத்த அறிமுகம் தான்.. தற்சமயம் திருமணமாகி சிங்கப்பூரில் வாழுகிற,  நிஷா என்கிற புனை பெயரில் அறிமுகமான இன்னொரு மகளே நலமா?

"O Force-compelled, Fate-driven earth-born race,
O petty adventurers in an infinite world
And prisoners of a dwarf humanity,
How long will you tread the circling tracks of mind
Around your little self and petty things?
But not for a changeless littleness were you meant,
Not for vain repetition were you built;
Out of the Immortal's substance you were made;
Your actions can be swift revealing steps,
Your life a changeful mould for growing gods.
A Seer, a strong Creator, is within,
The immaculate Grandeur broods upon your days,
Almighty powers are shut in Nature's cells.
A greater destiny waits you in your front:
This transient earthly being if he wills
Can fit his acts to a transcendent scheme.
He who now stares at the world with ignorant eyes
Hardly from the Inconscient's night aroused,
That look at images and not at Truth,
Can fill those orbs with an immortal's sight.
Yet shall the godhead grow within your hearts,
You shall awake into the spirit's air
And feel the breaking walls of mortal mind
And hear the message which left life's heart dumb
And look through Nature with sun-gazing lids
And blow your conch-shells at the Eternal's gate.
Authors of earth's high change, to you it is given
To cross the dangerous spaces of the soul
And touch the mighty Mother stark awake
And meet the Omnipotent in this house of flesh
And make of life the million-bodied One.
The earth you tread is a border screened from heaven;
The life you lead conceals the light you are.

Immortal Powers sweep flaming past your doors;
Far-off upon your tops the god-chant sounds
While to exceed yourselves thought's trumpets call,
Heard by a few, but fewer dare aspire,
The nympholepts of the ecstasy and the blaze.
An epic of hope and failure breaks earth's heart;
Her force and will exceed her form and fate.
A goddess in a net of transience caught,
Self-bound in the pastures of death she dreams of life,
Self-racked with the pains of hell aspires to joy,
And builds to hope her altars of despair,
Knows that one high step might enfranchise all
And, suffering, looks for greatness in her sons.
But dim in human hearts the ascending fire,
The invisible Grandeur sits unworshipped there;
Man sees the Highest in a limiting form
Or looks upon a Person, hears a Name.
He turns for little gains to ignorant Powers
Or kindles his altar lights to a demon face.
He loves the Ignorance fathering his pain.
A spell is laid upon his glorious strengths;
He has lost the inner Voice that led his thoughts"

Sri Aurobindo

SAVITRI,

"I used to hate and avoid pain....”

“It suffers; sometimes it suffers with a very ... a strange kind of suffering! A very strange kind of suffering. But then, how everything is wonderfully arranged! In the Aphorisms, there are all those things of Sri Aurobindo about the unreality of suffering, and it has come just at the right time!

On April 23, Mother received aphorism 494:

"I used to hate and avoid pain and resent its infliction; but now I find that had I not so suffered, I would not now possess, trained and perfected, this infinitely and multitudinously sensible capacity of delight in my mind, heart and body. God justifies himself in the end even when He has masked Himself as a bully and a tyrant."

Mother commented it thus:

"This is the very lesson the Supreme Lord is trying to teach the body He is transforming."

Then on April 28, Mother received aphorism 500:

"Suffering makes us capable of the full force of the Master of Delight; it makes us capable also to bear the other play of the Master of Power. Pain is the key that opens the gates of strength; it is the high-road that leads to the city of beatitude."

I said to myself, "But how wonderfully arranged it is!" It just came to tell my body, "Don't worry!..." The duality [suffering and bliss] is so, so concrete that my body is ... it groans, literally groans as if it were suffering terribly, and at the same time it says to itself, "Ah, this is bliss!" And it groans! You understand, the two are like this ... (fused gesture).

It depends on a little something that looks like an act of will - but that's not it. That's not it. I really don't know ... it's something new.

The body groans, and it says, it says to itself it's suffering, then a little something occurs (but I don't exactly know what it is; it looks more like an act of will, but that's not it), and there's no more suffering, yet it's not at all what we call "bliss" - we don't know what it is ... it's something else. It's something else. But extraordinary. New, completely new - completely new. So all this is blurred, as it were, imprecise, it's like ... something taking place in a nebula, which is not this and not yet that.

(silence)

It's no longer, no longer ... visibly no longer the body consciousness as it was. No longer: the relationships are no longer the same, the way of hearing, of speaking ... (speaking is very difficult, it takes a considerable effort). And it isn't yet ... oh, it's on the way to something, but it's not there yet.

(long silence)

But the presence of the Grace is an absolutely marvelous thing! Because as I see things, the experience as it is ... if I were not given at the same time the true meaning of what's taking place, it would be endless agony - it's the old way of being which is dying.

Naturally, there is the whole yogic preparation, but the body is ... you know, it's a constant miracle! People couldn't bear it for more than a few minutes, and it goes on and on and on....

It began exactly on the day of darshan.

Once or twice, the body was offered to go back to the previous condition - it refused. It said, "No, it's EITHER this, or else leaving."

That's why it's going on.... How many days is it since the darshan? 24, 25, 26 ... today is?

The 29th: six days.

It didn't seem so long! That's another miracle: I thought it was three days.

(long silence; then Mother looks at something with a smile and shakes her head several times)

It's ... it's FAR MORE marvelous than we can imagine - everything, everything ... “

thankfully excerpted from

“The Agenda”

entry dated 29 April, 1970.

to read the entire entry,

http://www.aurobindo.ru/workings/ma/agenda/11/1970-04-29.htm

I feel harassed!

I feel very harassed.

Harassed?

Especially in the subconscient.

Oh, me too! Oh, there's a general revolt. But the consciousness of the "how," that is to say, of what must be done inwardly, is growing more and more clear and precise. But everything, absolutely everything seems to be going awry - people, things, everything. Not a day passes when I am not told four or five hair-raising stories ... and some take place here. At the same time, the consciousness is clear, clear, increasingly clear.

But I can't see what has the power to dissolve that, because in the waking consciousness one is more or less ... I won't say luminous, but anyway, striving towards the Light; then you close your eyes and fall asleep-three minutes later you're being chased and fighting against things .... Why is it like that? What can dissolve that?

Oh, is it like that?

Yes. What can dissolve that?

The Supreme's consciousness, the true consciousness.

Yes, but then you feel as if you close your eyes and are someone else, and that's that.

(Mother gasps for breath)

It's true, I spent years and years and years changing that - that is, having the consciousness remain conscious the whole night.

But it takes a very long time.

Do you do a concentration before going to sleep?

Oh, always. That's the surprising thing, in fact.

What's the nature of it? Vital or mental?

I feel it's vital .... Last night, for instance, there was a huge ship on which I was a stowaway, or ticketless, and I spent I don't  know how many hours running from one place to another to hide, chased because I had no ticket, or because I had no right to be there, chased and pursued. What world is that?

The vital.

And what ship is that? ... Society?

But it's very interesting, tell me!

(after a silence)

You see, all movements of evolution - all of them, on whatever plane they may be - all movements of evolution are expressed as a means of transport: ship, train, car, anything. So then ... were there lots of people on the ship?

Yes, a lot.

Was it a big ship?

Yes, it was a big liner.

Then (laughing) it's surely that! It's collective evolution, as it is according to the laws of ordinary nature, and what you represented there was the higher knowledge wanting to change the pace, change the course of the ship. It's very clear. And of course (laughing), you know the ways of the world: it doesn't want to be troubled! So you had to hide.

Oh, yes, I was chased, I ran from one cabin to another, looking for some corner or the other to take refuge.

Yes, that's it.

It's very tiring.

Only, if in your sleep you remained in touch with the supreme Consciousness, instead of feeling chased, you would probably have felt that you WANTED to be there, that you were not wanted and were hiding so as to do your work. It's simply a nuance in the sensation, you understand? But this image ... oh, how many times it's happened to me!

Me too, several times.

Yes, and places with a huge crowd that wants to attack you. But then, when you remain like that, in contact, you have the sensation of this Consciousness guiding you away from all ill wills.

It's very interesting! It's a very correct image. That's how they are, those who show the way.

They're assailed.

Assailed, yes, literally.

It's in the vital, but if the vital keeps contact, then you can see that you are assailed, but you know you are fully protected. So then, you do what's necessary so as not to be found, but you don't have a sensation of threat.

Yes, those things will change only when ... when the world changes. But right now, it's fully in revolt, oh, as if something had been thrown into it which caused a seething furor everywhere.

Because even during the day, without any reason, at times I have the feeling that everything grates, that I am ill at ease or unwell. And yet, in my clear consciousness, there's no ground for it.

Yes, that's right. But recently (quite recently, once yesterday, and once last Friday), I had that sort of ... (what's the word? I don't know what they call it, but he thinks [["He thinks," that is to say, the doctor looking after Mother thinks. ]] it's a "disease" - I said, "I have no diseases!") ... it's the nerves, the nerves which are nervously attacked by others' nervous atmosphere - it results in almost intolerable sufferings. Since I settled here, I had never had that, it was Sri Aurobindo who took it away from me (I had explained it to him: it had happened to me when I went back from India to France, and it was rather serious). But since I came here, never. And it came back the other day through someone who was here and who caused it. Yet that someone doesn't know at all and has no CONSCIOUS ill will. And yesterday again, with someone else, it was the same thing. So I had to ... put the Lord on the nerves forcefully - it took me more than half or three quarters of an hour to succeed in restoring order.

Then I said to myself, "Goodness! The battle is getting serious."

It's a "disease." They call it a disease of the nerves: all the nerves are sensitized and suffer terribly. When I first had it, I could no longer eat, no longer sleep, no longer move, no longer ...

And that was because ... [[That was the time when, in France, Mother spent nights walking through gardens full of snakes (Richard's atmosphere). ]] I had done something mad: I went back to France after leaving my psychic being here; so it seized me as soon as I was far enough from the atmosphere; as soon as I entered the Mediterranean, it began. And it was very serious.

Now and then, there were attacks like that, but when I came back here, Sri Aurobindo drove it away completely (that was long ago). It's only last Friday that it came, and yesterday ... I hope it won't recur.

But that's the battle .... It's like what's happening there for P.L.: everywhere it's a battle. Especially in the vital, especially, still more than in the mind; in the mind, there's a movement of understanding, but in the vital ... a rage, you know, a rage.

We must hold out. That's what I said to myself: we just have to hold out, there's nothing else to be done.

And the only way is ... you understand, it's to cling to the Supreme Consciousness (Mother clenches her two fists), and to cling to such a point that It alone exists - not to be directly conscious of the surrounding ill will. That's very important. You see, there is NOTHING but the Supreme, all the rest doesn't exist, isn't true. Like this (same gesture with clenched fists). So then, one must do like that, hold on like that, as if you stood on a peak surrounded by attacking waves.

You understand, the consciousness can no longer feel - it sees, it is aware, but it can no longer feel, that's over. But the physical is still ... I thought that was over, but it can still feel.

It's vital ill will, everywhere. It makes people unpleasant, angry, with reactions ...

We only have to hold out, that's all - nothing to be done, there's nothing else to be done.

(silence)

If we aren't capable, then everything has to be done all over again!

(silence)

It's the possibility for the physical cells to bear out the physical transformation. That's why ... that's why there is death! (laughing) When one can't bear up, one dies.

It's not a joke, you know. But it's interesting.

It's interesting because, I remember, I had already been doing the yoga; I already had an experience greater than most people have when I had that difficulty with the nerves (it was in 1915), I remember how it was and how I held out. And it has come back after ... 1915 and now it's 1969, that is to say more than fifty years later. And I really felt the difference in my body, really. The first day it came (I should tell you that it's one of the pains regarded as hardest to bear), when it came, the only ... there was nothing but, "Ah, You." That's all. Like that. And clinging like this (same gesture with clenched fists), not moving anymore. Those are pains that prevent you from breathing, prevent you from moving; they're extreme, all the nerves go awry; well, before, I knew, I would call, but I was somehow (at least partly) identified with the pain, whereas this time, the reaction wasn't one of suffering - the suffering was there, but no reaction of ... oh, what might be expressed as that wonderful "self-pity" people always have. Well, that was completely gone, there was only, "Ah! ... You, You, You, You, You ..." And there was a pressure on the person who was there - who by the way wasn't aware of anything, neither the other day nor yesterday (the first time, it was a woman; yesterday it was a man): they didn't notice anything.

But I said to myself, "Well, well, things are getting serious!" The vital world has started rebelling.

That's it: before going to sleep, you should concentrate with the will - an obstinate will - of being completely identified with the Supreme Consciousness, like this (same gesture with clenched fists), whatever happens. So the circumstances will be the same, but instead of that discomfort at being chased, you see everything with ... you see how the Consciousness is with you to help you in all circumstances.

Then it becomes very interesting. Very interesting.

Are you tired when you wake up?

Generally, yes.

But I take it as a good sign! (Mother laughs) It means you're doing well, things are doing well!

Good!

Thankfully excerpted from the Mother's Agenda, entry dated 12^th November, 1969. This being acknowledge with gratitude, for the insight and a possible solution to a current predicament, gained by reading......and the Mother's Grace always protecting.

In all circumstances, Be always with this being, Maa!

Thankfully, excerpted from

A Prayer To Recognize My Own Faults
And Keep in Mind the Objects of Refuge

"When I examine myself, I see
That everything I’ve done has only added on to my confusion,
That all my thinking has been stained
By the obscuring emotions and by grasping.
Not seeing that even my virtuous acts
Are polluted with negativities
Where else is there to end up but in the lower realms?
As for the way I behave and what I’ve done,
Bringing these to mind, I am sickened.
Looking to others, I am only more discouraged;
There are no friends to benefit and ease my mind.

If I cannot take care of myself now,
Others cannot give me refuge when hope is exhausted
And I’m in the hands of the messengers of the Lord of Death.
To wait for a rescue that can never come,
Isn’t that self-deception?

Thus, with shame and remorse recognizing my own errors,
Whatever offenses against Dharma have occurred,
Whatever samaya transgressions and violations,
I won’t try to conceal from those with wisdom vision.

From the bottom of my heart, I confess;
With your compassion, please endure me.
Be my refuge from the danger of the precipitous, errant path;
Grant the deliverance of finding the perfect, liberating path.

My whole life has been spent practicing this and practicing that
With nothing in my hands to show for it,
No attainment.

"From now on, avoiding the miserable path of knowing much,
And missing the one thing I need
Why not go on the path of knowing the one thing that frees all? "

....................

.....................

Grant your blessing that I have no wish to see the faults of others.

Grant your blessing that evil, cruel, and vicious thoughts be pacified.

Grant your blessing that wholesome thoughts arise deep from within.

Grant your blessing that desire may lessen and contentment increase.

Grant your blessing that I remember the uncertainty of the time of death.

Grant your blessing that I be unconcerned at the time of death.

Grant your blessing that I develop trust in Dharma.

Grant your blessing that I practice impartial pure perception.

Grant your blessing that I develop unfabricated devotion and respect.

Grant your blessing that I persevere, seeing that I have so little time left.

Grant your blessing that I be able to establish Dharma as my ultimate innermost goal.

Grant your blessing that I free my mindstream the innermost practice.

Grant your blessing that I have no obstacles to practice

Grant your blessing that the fruit of my practice may ripen quickly.

Grant your blessing that all conduct with those with whom I have a karmic link may be meaningful.

Grant your blessing that the duality of hope and fear be extinguished.

Grant your blessing that I see nondual wakefulness.

Grant your blessing that I recognize my own innate wakefulness.

Grant your blessing that I hold the dharmakaya citadel.

Grant your blessing that I gain the great effortless certainty."

Wth gratitude, for this beutifully worded Prayer.

http://sealevel.ns.ca/buddha/

Here is how Mother defined Surrender:

Surrender, Self-offering and Consecration

“Surrender is the decision taken to hand over the responsibility of your life to the Divine.
Without this decision nothing is at all possible: if you do not surrender, the Yoga is entirely out of the question.
Everything else comes naturally after it, for the whole process starts with surrender.

You can surrender either through knowledge or through devotion. You may have a strong intuition that the Divine alone is the truth and a luminous conviction that without the Divine you cannot manage. Or you may have a spontaneous feeling that this line is the only way of being happy, a strong psychic desire to belong exclusively to the Divine: "I do not belong to myself," you say, and give up the responsibility of your being to the Truth.

Then comes self-offering: "Here I am, a creature of various qualities, good and bad, dark and enlightened. I offer myself as I am to you, take me up with all my ups and downs, conflicting impulses and tendencies - do whatever you like with me." In the course of your self-offering, you start unifying your being around what has taken the first decision - the central psychic will.

All the jarring elements of your nature have to be harmonised, they have to be taken up one after another and unified with the central being. You may offer yourself to the Divine with a spontaneous movement, but it is not possible to give yourself effectively without this unification.
The more you are unified, the more you are able to realise self-giving.

And once the self-giving is complete, consecration follows: it is the crown of the whole process of realisation, the last step of the gradation, after which there is no more trouble and everything runs smoothly.
But you must not forget that you cannot become integrally consecrated at once.
You are often deluded into such a belief when, for a day or two, you have a strong movement of a particular kind. You are led to hope that everything else will automatically follow in its wake; but in fact if you become the least bit self-complacent you retard your own advance. For your being is full of innumerable tendencies at war with one another - almost different personalities, we may say. When one of them gives itself to the Divine, the others come up and refuse their allegiance. "We have not given ourselves," they cry, and start clamouring for their independence and expression. Then you bid them be quiet and show them the Truth.
Patiently you have to go round your whole being, exploring each nook and corner, facing all those anarchic elements in you which are waiting for their psychological moment to come up.
And it is only when you have made the entire round of your mental, vital and physical nature, persuaded everything to give itself to the Divine and thus achieved an absolute unified consecration that you put an end to your difficulties. Then indeed yours is a glorious walk towards transformation, for you no longer go from darkness to knowledge but from knowledge to knowledge, light to light, happiness to happiness....

The complete consecration is undoubtedly not an easy matter, and it might take an almost indefinitely long time if you had to do it all by yourself, by your own independent effort.
But when the Divine's Grace is with you it is not exactly like that. With a little push from the Divine now and then, a little push in this direction and in that, the work becomes comparatively quite easy.
Of course the length of time depends on each individual, but it can be very much shortened if you make a really firm resolve. Resolution is the one thing required - resolution is the master-key.”

The Mother

as quoted by Shakuntala, a participant in Lotus Hall forums in an entry in Yr 2003

with due courtesy to the author and the site

http://searchforlight.org

“A self-fulfilling transcendence treads man's road; The driver of the soul upon its path, It knows its steps, its way is inevitable, And how shall the end be vain when God is guide? “

Savitri Bk. III, C. IV, Pp. 339