Chapter 6General

paintings by an Ashram artist, drawn in collaboration with the Mother)

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Its subject is universal. Its revelation is prophetic. The time spent in its atmosphere is not wasted. Take all the time necessary to see this exhibition. It will be a happy compensation for the feverish haste men put now in all they do.

10 February 1967 What is the Divine?

The Divine is what you adore in Sri Aurobindo.

28 March 1932

* How beautiful is the day when one can offer one’s devotion to Sri Aurobindo.

* You must feel that Sri Aurobindo is looking at you.

* It is not a question of disobedience. I know nothing about your additions to the Life Sketch of the sources from which they were taken. My point of view is this, that anything written by a sadhak about Sri Aurobindo which brings him down to an ordinary level and admits the reader to a sort of gossiping familiarity with him is an unfaithfulness to Him and His work. Good intentions are not sufficient, it is necessary that this should be understood by everybody.

3 June 1939

* Sri Aurobindo says that it is impossible for him to take up political action and enter the political field which would involve a sacrifice of his spiritual work. His spiritual help is given to the country and individually to all those who aspire for it. He is ready to continue this help and even to increase it if it is necessary. But he is convinced that written messages alone are not sufficient to have a permanent effect or even a sufficiently wide effect.

* (Message for the Durga Puja of 1957)

To express our gratitude to Sri Aurobindo we can do nothing better than to be a living demonstration of his teaching.

30 September 1957

*

SRI AUROBINDO’S SYMBOL

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The descending triangle represents Sat-Chit-Ananda. The ascending triangle represents the aspiring answer from matter under the form of life, light and love.

The junction of both — the central square — is the perfect manifestation having at its centre the Avatar of the Supreme — the lotus. The water — inside the square — represents the multiplicity, the creation.

4 April 1958

* His Grace is always with those who want to progress and realise the Truth of tomorrow.

10 January 1959

* Somebody wants to visit Sri Aurobindo’s room again and sit there to meditate for some time.

What are his qualifications and titles to such a great privilege? Visiting again is all right. People can come to Sri Aurobindo’s room. But to be allowed to sit and meditate there, one must have done much for Sri Aurobindo.

11 June 1960

* Sweet Mother, You have said that to be allowed to sit in Sri Aurobindo’s room and meditate there, “one must have done much for Him”. What do you mean by that, Mother? What can one do for the Lord which will be this “much”?

To do something for the Lord is to give Him something of what one has, or of what one does, or of what one is. That is to say, to offer to Him one part of our goods or all of our possessions, to consecrate to Him one part of our work or all our activities, or to give ourselves to Him totally and without reserve so that He may take possession of our nature in order to transform and divinise it. But there are many people who, without giving