Chapter 69176–177

failed and suffered, I would have lost my life’s supreme blessings; yet at the time of the suffering and failure, I was vexed with the sense of calamity. Because we cannot see anything but the one fact under our noses, therefore we indulge in all these snifflings and clamours. Be silent, ye foolish hearts! Slay the ego, learn to see and feel vastly and universally.

177 – The perfect cosmic vision and cosmic sentiment is the

cure of all error and suffering; but most men succeed only in enlarging the range of their ego.

What is “the cosmic vision and cosmic sentiment” and how can they be attained?

This simply means the vision of the whole earth at the same time and the sentiment which is the result of this vision of the whole. This whole contains all things at the same time, light and darkness, suffering and pleasure, happiness and unhappiness, and all together makes a vibration of adoration turned towards the Divine, just as all sounds heard together make the supreme invocation to the Divine: OM.

18 October 1969 178 – Men say and think “For my country!”, “For human-

ity!”, “For the world!”, but they really mean “For myself seen in my country!”, “For myself seen in humanity!”, “For myself imaged to my fancy as the world!”. That may be an enlargement, but it is not liberation. To be at large and to be in a large prison are not one condition of freedom.

To be free, one must come out of the prison. The prison is the ego, the sense of separate personality. To be free, one must unite consciously and totally with the Supreme and through this identification break the limits of the ego and eradicate the very existence of the ego by universalising oneself, even though the individualisation of the consciousness is preserved.

19 October 1969 179 – Live for God in thy neighbour, God in thyself, God

in thy country and the country of thy foeman, God in humanity, God in tree and stone and animal, God in the world and outside the world, then art thou on the straight path to liberation.

There is nothing to add. It is true — very obviously true — and to be sure, you must experience it, for only experience is absolutely convincing.

21 October 1969 180 – There are lesser and larger eternities; for eternity is a

term of the soul and can exist in Time as well as exceeding it. When the Scriptures say “´s¯a´svat¯ıh. sam¯ah.”, they mean for a long space and permanence of time or a hardly measurable aeon; only God Absolute has the absolute eternity. Yet when one goes within, one sees that all things are secretly eternal; there is no end, neither was there ever a beginning.

How can one experience eternity?

By uniting with the Eternal, that is to say, with the Divine.

23 October 1969 181 – When thou callest another a fool, as thou must, some-

times, yet do not forget that thou thyself hast been the supreme fool in humanity.

182 – God loves to play the fool in season; man does it in

season and out of season. It is the only difference.

For some years, almost all our children, big or small, have been in the habit of always using vulgar words in their everyday speech. For example, they punctuate every sentence with words like “idiot”, “fool”, etc... and other similar Indian terms, without any bad intention. How can we help them to get rid of this bad habit which has become so common?

The only remedy is to learn to think before you speak and to say only the words that are absolutely indispensable to express your thought. The less you speak the better. And if it is indispensable to communicate something to anyone else, it would be wise to speak only the words that are indispensable, no more.

24 October 1969 183 – In the Buddhists’ view to have saved an ant from drown-

ing is a greater work than to have founded an empire. There is a truth in the idea, but a truth that can easily be exaggerated.

184 – To exalt one virtue, — compassion even, — unduly

above all others is to cover up with one’s hand the eyes of wisdom. God moves always towards a harmony.

Any exaggeration, any exclusiveness, is a lack of balance and a breach of harmony, and therefore an error in one who seeks