Chapter 11Proper Conduct

By definition the Ashramite has resolved to consecrate his life to the realisation and service of the Divine.

For this four virtues are indispensable, without which progress is uncertain and subject to interruptions and troublesome falls at the first opportunity:

Sincerity, faithfulness, modesty and gratitude.

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What qualities are necessary for one to be called “a true child of the Ashram”?

Sincerity, courage, discipline, endurance, absolute faith in the Divine work and unassailable trust in the Divine Grace. All this must be accompanied by a sustained, ardent and persevering aspiration, and by a limitless patience.

28 December 1966

* The Ashram is meant for those who want to consecrate their lives to the Divine.

June 1971

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The two indispensable conditions to live as a disciple in the Ashram

1. To be resolved to make the needs of the soul come before all others, and to satisfy the other needs, those of the body, vital and mind, only so far as they do not interfere with the fulfilment of the needs of the soul.

2. To be convinced that I am in a position to know the needs of the soul of each and every one and that therefore I have the right and the competence to judge in this respect.

* One loses most of the advantage of being here if one is not convinced that I can foresee better the consequences and the results of things and actions.

I know that people are fussy and unreasonable. But unless their consciousness changes, what else can we expect from them?

* People are here to change their consciousness. Unless they become, all of them, true to their aim, nothing true can be done.

* It is evident that those who want to live here must change not so much their way of living as their way of being.

We are striving towards a consciousness more deep, more total and more true; because our raison d’ˆetre is to manifest this consciousness.

* What is the use of being a sadhak if, as soon as we act, we act like the ignorant ordinary man?

* We are expected to give to the world an example of better life but surely not of misbehaviour.

* The moment one enters the life of the Ashram and takes up the yoga, he ceases to belong to any creed or caste or race; he is one of Sri Aurobindo’s disciples and nothing else. To cut jokes about what he was in the past is altogether incongruous and in bad taste, and only helps to keep up in both him and the speaker an old and wrong mental attitude.

January 1929

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When X, a dancer, came here to see You, many sadhaks flocked around him. They insisted on his performing some dances. But he said he had come here without any dance dresses. He did not appreciate people’s desires for dances. He secretly told me that if he came here again he would take particular care not to bring the dance costumes. For he would come not for showing himself off but for the yoga!

He is quite right. Too many people in the Ashram forget that they are here for yoga.

7 January 1938

* The Ashram is meant for Yoga, not for musical entertainment or other social activities.

Those that live in the Ashram are requested to live quietly and noiselessly and if they are not capable themselves of meditation they must, at least, leave the others to meditate.

* I do not know who is spreading the rumour that I do not like music. That is not true at all — I like music very much, but it should be heard in a small circle, that is, played for five or six people at the most. When there is a crowd it becomes a social gathering, more often than not, and the atmosphere that is created is not good.

* Apart from the fact that the Ashram is not meant for those who seek the satisfaction of their vital or sentimental desires, but for those who aspire to perfect their consecration to the Divine, I have to warn you that here you must do only what can be done publicly because nothing can remain hidden.

25 April 1958

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