The Mother
with Letters on the Mother
— Sri Aurobindo
| Price: Rs 475 Pages: 662 Dimensions (in cms): 14x22 ISBN: 978-81-7058-990-7 | Soft Cover |
| Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department, Pondicherry | |
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About The Mother
This volume contains Sri Aurobindo's most famous short work on the Divine Mother describing her nature and function, with letters on his spiritual collaborator, the Mother; and translations of some of her "Prayers and Meditations".
"The One whom we adore as the Mother," wrote Sri Aurobindo, "is the divine Conscious Force that dominates all existence. . . The Mother is the consciousness and force of the Supreme." In his essay in Part One on the Divine Mother, Sri Aurobindo describes her nature and function and way of working; in other essays he discusses some central aspects of his Yoga.
In Part Two, a large section of letters, Sri Aurobindo speaks about his spiritual co-worker, the Mother, whom he held to be the individual embodiment of the Divine Mother.
Contents: Part One: The Mother;
Part Two: Letters on the Mother;
Part Three: Translations from the Mother's "Prieres et Meditations".
Subjects: Yoga, Philosophy, Indology
Extract
There are two powers that alone can effect in their conjunction the great and difficult thing which is the aim of our endeavour, a fixed and unfailing aspiration that calls from below and a supreme Grace from above that answers.
But the supreme Grace will act only in the conditions of the light and the Truth; it will not act in conditions laid upon it by the Falsehood and the Ignorance. For if it were to yield to the demands of the Falsehod, it would defeat its own purpose.
These are the conditions of the Light and Truth, the sole conditions under which the highest Force will descend;' and it is only the very highest supramental Force descending from above and opening from below that can victoriously handle the physical Nature and annihilate its difficulties. . . There must be a total and sincere surrender; there must be an exclusive self-opening to the divine Power; there must be a constant and integral choice of the Truth that is descending, a constant and integral rejection of the falsehood of the mental, vital and physical Powers and Appearances that still rule the earth-Nature.
The surrender must be total and seize all the parts of the being. It is not
enough that the psychic should respond and the higher mental accept or even
the inner vital submit and the inner physical consciousness feel the influence. There must be in no part of the being, even the most external,
anything that makes a reserve, anything that hides behind doubts, confusions
and subterfuges, anything that revolts or refuses.
If part of the being surrenders, but another part reserves itself, follows
its own way or makes its own conditions, then each time that happens, you are yourself pushing the divine Grace away from you.
If behind your devotion and surrender you make a cover for your desires,
egoistic demands and vital insistences, if you put these things in place of the true aspiration or mix them with it and try to impose them on the Divine
Shakti, then it is idle to invoke the divine Grace to transform you.
If you open yourself on one side or in one part to the Truth and on another
side are constantly opening the gates to hostile forces, it is vain to expect that the divine Grace will abide with you. You must keep the temple clean if you wish to instal there the living Presence.
If each time the Power intervenes and brings in the Truth, you turn your back on it and call it again the falsehood that has been expelled, it is not the divine Grace that you must blame for failing you, but the falsity of your own will and the imperfection of your own surrender.
(p.1-3)
"The One whom we adore as the Mother," wrote Sri Aurobindo, "is the divine Conscious Force that dominates all existence. . . The Mother is the consciousness and force of the Supreme." In his essay in Part One on the Divine Mother, Sri Aurobindo describes her nature and function and way of working; in other essays he discusses some central aspects of his Yoga.
In Part Two, a large section of letters, Sri Aurobindo speaks about his spiritual co-worker, the Mother, whom he held to be the individual embodiment of the Divine Mother.
Contents: Part One: The Mother;
Part Two: Letters on the Mother;
Part Three: Translations from the Mother's "Prieres et Meditations".
Subjects: Yoga, Philosophy, Indology
Extract
There are two powers that alone can effect in their conjunction the great and difficult thing which is the aim of our endeavour, a fixed and unfailing aspiration that calls from below and a supreme Grace from above that answers.
But the supreme Grace will act only in the conditions of the light and the Truth; it will not act in conditions laid upon it by the Falsehood and the Ignorance. For if it were to yield to the demands of the Falsehod, it would defeat its own purpose.
These are the conditions of the Light and Truth, the sole conditions under which the highest Force will descend;' and it is only the very highest supramental Force descending from above and opening from below that can victoriously handle the physical Nature and annihilate its difficulties. . . There must be a total and sincere surrender; there must be an exclusive self-opening to the divine Power; there must be a constant and integral choice of the Truth that is descending, a constant and integral rejection of the falsehood of the mental, vital and physical Powers and Appearances that still rule the earth-Nature.
The surrender must be total and seize all the parts of the being. It is not
enough that the psychic should respond and the higher mental accept or even
the inner vital submit and the inner physical consciousness feel the influence. There must be in no part of the being, even the most external,
anything that makes a reserve, anything that hides behind doubts, confusions
and subterfuges, anything that revolts or refuses.
If part of the being surrenders, but another part reserves itself, follows
its own way or makes its own conditions, then each time that happens, you are yourself pushing the divine Grace away from you.
If behind your devotion and surrender you make a cover for your desires,
egoistic demands and vital insistences, if you put these things in place of the true aspiration or mix them with it and try to impose them on the Divine
Shakti, then it is idle to invoke the divine Grace to transform you.
If you open yourself on one side or in one part to the Truth and on another
side are constantly opening the gates to hostile forces, it is vain to expect that the divine Grace will abide with you. You must keep the temple clean if you wish to instal there the living Presence.
If each time the Power intervenes and brings in the Truth, you turn your back on it and call it again the falsehood that has been expelled, it is not the divine Grace that you must blame for failing you, but the falsity of your own will and the imperfection of your own surrender.
(p.1-3)
