The Hierarchies of Ashram Living

The Hierarchies of Ashram Living

 

            Ashram³⁷ is an ancient Indian terminology used for collective Divine living and if one individual at its centre is having direct contact with the Divine, then this collective living around this Soul Centre is identified as the Divine Centre. Ashram's living evolves through the slow and swift evolution of Consciousness; thus, a hierarchy of ascending Consciousness is built which completes its action through a hierarchy of descent of Divine Consciousness.

 

            The collaborators of The Mother’s work in Consciousness are Sadhakas, Children and Integral Yogis, who are an indispensable part of collective Divine Living called the Ashram, the Divine Centre, while Visitors, Devotees and Ashramites¹ are its dispensable organ; the former represents the indivisible Spiritual Consciousness of developed Soul and the latter stands for the divisible mental consciousness of developing Soul. Visitors, Devotees, Ashramites, Sadhakas, Children and Integral Yogis are the beginners, expanders, stabilisers, intensifiers, identifiers and integrators of Consciousness respectively. Here they do not represent an individual or a person but a symbol of a transitional formative state in the hierarchy of ascending Consciousness. Each formative Consciousness has some limitation that inhibits our growth and Spiritual possibility that augments our progress, to which we are most concerned now.  

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              A Visitor makes his upward gaze out of curiosity and receives the Divine’s touch beyond his expectation. He is unable to hold this Presence. His business in early preparatory steps is to evolve his capacity, distinguish his personality and possess firmly, powerfully and completely his own individuality.⁴⁶ His self-giving to the Divine is dependent on the evolution of a well-formed part of his personality. In him, the individual consciousness appears as Mind and Intellect and is given as a vehicle of progressive evolutionary manifestation to be clearly aware of itself and things.

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             An enthusiastic Visitor turns into a Devotee, who lives in the Spiritual aspiration of the heart, accumulates inspiration towards God-given work, takes the responsibility of spreading, expanding and creating Mission/Centres and devotes his time to serve the Divine Power and develops ideas, ideals and a new range of activities. His analytic mind cannot transform his nature but can control, harmonise, lay on it the law of mental ideal and can impose a summary patchwork on his divided and half-constructed being. The need of his separative personal life limits his Spiritual pursuit. The observing and governing dynamic Consciousness of a devotee is responsible for generalising an incomplete Spiritual movement and the initial approach of mind turning towards Spirituality is a growth of religious temperament, some devotion in the heart, new values for all things, faithful in the conduct and many-sided effort striving to embrace the all containing Knowledge.

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            A seeking devotee turns into an Ashramite in this life or after many births of preparation, who receives the Divine’s call to lead a Divine Life, yet compromises in between the Law and downward pull²⁶ of his past world attraction, attachment and habits. Ashramites⁵ are of three types, ‘tamasic, rajasic and sattwic’.⁴ based on their dynamic nature and are of four categories that of Brahmana, Khyatriya, Vaisya and Shudra based on the predominance of their Soul force, dominant tendencies and efficiency. An Ashramite stabilises the main function of collective living. His action is appreciated by entire self-giving of the outer life to the Divine and partial dissolution of separative personal life in the Divine. His mental waking Consciousness is a small selection of our entire conscious being which always limits the Illimitable, divides the Indivisible and in the end a growing obstacle to the truth of things; behind it, there is much vaster subliminal and subconscious mind which is identified as the starting point of a true science of Spirituality. Finally, in Ashram living, two types of Ashramites find their safe shelter; one that of moderate Ashramite, who consecrate his actions and emotions to the Divine through the practice of Karma and Bhakti Yoga; the other that of ascetic Ashramite, who in addition to consecrated action and devotion, practice Self-control as means of uniting with the Divine. An Ashramite’s right living is ensured when he gives first priority to the Divine which is reconciled with the second priority, the Law of Divine Living, here known as integral Yoga and further reconciled with the third priority of collective living, the symbol of mutuality. The objective of a true Ashramite is not to ‘be a big Purna Yogi or a supramental being’³² but to leave everything in the hand of the Mother ‘and to wish to be whatever she wants you to be.’³²

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            A dedicated Ashramite turns into a Sadhaka³ in this life or after many births of preparation, in whom the Law of integral Yoga is intensified in its process of manifestation. The separative personal life of a devotee and separative collective life of an Ashramite are dissolved in him ‘with the progressive disappearance of egoism and impurity and ignorance’³⁶ and by uniting more and more with the Divine. He establishes himself in Sadhana by developing or retracing his own path of Yoga. There are two types of Sadhakas; one that of later Vedantic integral Sadhaka preoccupied with individual Yoga and does not have the responsibility of bearing the burden of earth and the other that of ancient Vedantic integral Sadhaka preoccupied with universal Yoga of bearing a part of the burden of the earth. The former Sadhaka’s liberated Soul status does not influence the surrounding world in perfecting their imperfection and he does not have the sense of fatherhood, motherhood and compassion towards the brother Souls and remains satisfied with his own isolated ecstatic Soul status. The latter Sadhaka is a perfect Arya with realisation of three poises of the Self. He is one with the Transcendent Self, one with the universal Self, represented as oneness with the whole of earth and its humanity and his own individual Psychic Self carrying the Transcendent and Universal Mother. He feels responsibility and care towards the brother Souls and does not follow the path of escapism. Each Sadhaka in this path is preoccupied with his own scientific method of Yoga developed and confirmed by regular experiment, practical analysis, psychological observation, constant revelatory results, established Spiritual experiences, profounder catholic understandings and he is not indifferent towards world sufferings, world miseries and world falsehood. For him, Divine life is real, concrete and verifiable. He does not act according to the construction of a fixed and routine system but with a sort of free, scattered and gradually intensive purposeful working based on his temperament, helpful material his nature offers, widening of consciousness and life and obstacles which he experiences to purification and perfection. An integral aim is pursued through integral and synthetic methods to arrive at the result of integral Purification, Realisation, Liberation, Perfection and Delight of active oneness. In a Sadhaka the waking consciousness is extended to Cosmic Consciousness by an inner enlargement from the individual into universal existence and his instrumental individual action, will, personal feeling, thought and energy disappear while taking up transformation action of the lower grades of this Nature. He does not make an effort to think, act, will and feel separately but the Divine Shakti thinks, enjoys, feels and acts in his system and he feels his body one with all bodies, his life one with the whole sea of infinite life and his mind one with the struggle, thought and joy of all existence.

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            A growing Sadhaka through arduous tapasya emerges into a consecrated Child,⁴⁵ no longer cherishes a duality between a Sadhaka and the Mother but identifies as a part and indispensable portion of Her Divine Consciousness. This working of Her Consciousness-Force, Shakti, in Knowledge through Her children is defined as possession of Calm within to accommodate the fine entries of Celestial Fire into the manifesting Nature and welling out from its silence the perennial source of inexhaustible Action, Creation and Ananda. His action is appreciated by the entire ecstatic consecration of inner and outer living, knowledge of the movement of Consciousness and limitless plasticity towards Divine transformation.³¹ Thus, a constant dynamic Supramental Divine union is the state of the Consciousness of a King Child.

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            An integral Yogi⁴⁰ or the dearest Child is at once a Child, not doing any sadhana, but it is done for him due to his entire childlike reliance on the Mother through absolute consecration and the Sadhaka of integral Yoga pursuing sadhana through rigorous effort, askesis and self-control and he can serve as a link in between the supreme Mother Consciousness and the earth consciousness. He is outwardly a mere man of action, Nara and inwardly possessor of Divine Consciousness, Narayana, shall preoccupy himself in entire effort to reveal God in humanity, Nara-Narayana. The goal of his evolving Integral Consciousness, Maya, is the basis of the entire harmonisation of life, the development of a seven-fold Divine personality, and the total transformation and integration of Nature and Being.

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            The Mother is at once the Supreme Mother, the Chit Shakti, the Creatrix Mother of the universe, not doing any Sadhana; as the Mediatrix Mother, She stands in between Sri Aurobindo’s sadhana and the World, and the Sadhaka of integral Yoga pursuing Her universalised Sadhana in the body; as the Executrix Mother, She draws heaven seeking and world shunning liberated Souls earthward to reconcile Self and Nature, fills in them the equal Divine Presence and builds in the abysm of Hell a road to Heaven and as the Ambassadress Mother She calls down ceaselessly Timeless Eternity and Spaceless Infinity to transform the human Nature.

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            Sri Aurobindo is at once the Supreme Purusha, the Purushottama, carrying within Him the immutable, the unmanifest Divine, the Akshara Purusha and the mutable, the manifest Divine, the Kshara Purusha; as an Intermediary, the Guru, He links the disciples with the three Purushas and He fuses Himself with the Supreme Prakriti, The Mother, for the highest action and delight of the Divine Lila.

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            The Mother is the living representative of Consciousness, Chit Shakti, by whose movement one will arrive at Sri Aurobindo, the living representative of the Being, Supreme Self, Sat Purusha. Their relationship is the union between Sat and Chit leading the creation to Ananda. Supramental Consciousness, Vijnana, is the fourth name of the Divine activated through the multiplication of Their Soul Force and this supreme relation links the Sachchidananda Consciousness to the lower triple creation of the mind, life and body; if dynamised sufficiently then the lower creation retains the lost Divinity and the Life Divine becomes practicable.

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          In Their effort to enlarge the experience of integral Divine Union of three Powers of the Will, Iccha Shakti, Knowledge, Jnana Shakti and Love, Prema Shakti in harmonising and transforming the earth nature, the Law of the Divine, cosmos, collectivity and individual Soul were evolved which gave birth to the norms of inner and outer living, ideals, right standards of conduct and self-discipline of integral Yoga. These outer laws of self moulding are continually evolving temporary higher and higher standards ‘as long as they are needed’²⁴ to serve the Divine in the world march and in the Supramental plane they become free automatic obedience to the truth of things and inevitable right execution in the action and all is determined by the Consciousness and Being. Any imposition of a rigidly fixed set of strict principles, precise mental rules, constructed laws of conduct and artificial limiting standards are abrogated because they stand as barriers to the eternal onflow of Divine opulence. Its method has been the method of evolutionary Nature with many-sided wideness, catholicity, plasticity,²⁵ universality, integration of being followed by the outcome of the largest, deepest, widest and highest form of every possible line of Spiritual realisation and Spiritual self-discipline and complete dynamism of that return to the truth of Nature. 

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            So, a Visitor’s outward living cannot free his ‘gaze to reach wisdom’s sun.’²¹ He feels the need to serve the Divine and becomes a Devotee. A Devotee’s intermittent contact with the Divine’s ray gives him hope and aspiration to trace the Divine’s Sun Light and to live in the vicinity of the ‘deathless sun.’¹¹ He feels the need that his service and subordination to the Divine must be entire and he emerges as Ashramite. ‘A ray has touched him from the eternal sun’¹² and thus his hope and aspiration are intensified. An Ashramite through the mental effort of consecrated action, consecrated thought and consecrated emotion experiences static Divine union and he emerges as Sadhaka. He learns the lesson of the ascent of the Soul and traces ‘through white rays to meet an unseen Sun.’¹³ A Sadhaka dynamises his union with the Divine to become one with the Divine Shakti, lives constantly ‘in the rays of an intuitive Sun’¹⁴ and emerges as a Child. A Child further moves the consciousness to feel the Divine Mother’s ‘high Transcendent’s sunlike hands’²³ and ‘in the ray reveal the parent sun.’²⁰ He finds the established relation between static and dynamic Divine to hold together The Mother and Sri Aurobindo as ‘the deathless Two-in-One’¹⁵ or as 'incarnate dual Power'³⁸ and emerges as an integral Yogi. Their supreme relation of ‘trance of bliss’¹⁵ sustains this mutable world and works out the intense and large universal action ‘To lift earth-hearts nearer the Eternal sun’³⁵ or 'one high step might enfranchise all.'³⁹

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The Basic Indispensable Law⁴⁴ of Ashram Collective Living:

            "First indispensable condition to be admitted in the Ashram: The candidate must have taken the resolution to dedicate his life unconditionally to the service of the Divine."⁸

The Mother

            “The indispensable basis of our Yoga is sincerity, honesty, unselfishness, disinterested consecration to the work to be done, nobility of character and straight forwardness. They who do not practice these elementary virtues are not Sri Aurobindo’s disciples and have no place in Ashram.”⁵

The Mother

 

            “You must never forget that I disapprove of quarrels²² and always consider that both sides are equally wrong. To surmount one’s feelings, preferences, dislikes and impulses, is an indispensable discipline here.”⁶

The Mother

                                                                       

            “Ninety-nine out of a hundred people come here to be comfortable and do nothing; one in a hundred comes with a Spiritual aspiration, and even then…it is mixed.

The three conditions: (A set of rules for admission to Ashram)

a: The sole aim of life is to dedicate oneself to the Divine realisation.

b: Sri Aurobindo’s absolute authority (represented by The Mother) (through inner contact) is recognised.

c: To those who want to practice the integral Yoga, it is strongly advised to abstain from three things. So the three things ([laughing] you put your fingers in your ears): sexual intercourse (it comes third) and drinking alcohol and... [whispering] smoking.”⁷

The Mother

            “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.”⁸

The Mother

            “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 fulfillment 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.”⁸

The Mother

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            “Take advantage of the circumstances to get rid of all attachment to the members of your family. You must learn that you have no more brothers, sister, father, mother, except Sri Aurobindo and myself, and you must feel free and unconcerned whatever happens to them. We are your whole family, your protection, your all in all.”⁹

The Mother

“It is not from disgust for life and people that one must come to yoga.

It is not to run away from difficulties that one must come here.

It is not even to find the sweetness of love and protection, for the Divine’s love and protection can be enjoyed everywhere if one takes the right attitude.

            When one wants to give oneself totally in service to the Divine, to consecrate oneself totally to the Divine’s work, simply for the joy of giving oneself and of serving, without asking for anything in exchange, except the possibility of consecration and service, then one is ready to come here and will find the doors wide open.”¹⁰

The Mother

            There exists an inner and subtle Divine Centre of which Sri Aurobindo Ashram is an objective manifestation. In this subtle Ashram disciples and devotees are linked only³⁴ with Their all-inclusive Consciousness inwardly through Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental ascension and linked only with Them in the outer Ashram through Their Divine Action, Divine Presence and live Their Teachings spontaneously.

 

            In this future Spiritual evolution of the Gnostic community, nothing can be regarded as irrational, incredible and insignificant and even a small beginning of work can drive towards mighty Supramental fulfillment; ‘each wayside act’³⁰ can heighten and deepen the Soul’s movement;  a Supramental vision seen in the flash of moments can toil through ages to express and stabilise; everything moves, acts, things to be done and the way to do it are guided by spontaneous intuitive Light and Truth from beyond. The growth of higher consciousness equips a Sadhaka with new supernormal capacities of action and his Divine work in the world is spontaneous development of his triple instrumental overhead power of Will, Knowledge and Love which opens for him unlimited prospect of self-concentration and self-expansion. If the inception of his Divine work through activation of Divine Will, the descent of overhead knowledge, music and word continue to inspire people, and continue to radiate its light and love through centuries then that action is identified as Supramental action. In brief, the Supramental action, knowledge and love do not become old and obsolete in the passage of time and it survives for the longest period.

 

            Any manifestation through activation of three gunas are short lived and makes life poor, insecure, narrow and limited. Any manifestation through activation of Psychic being, Spiritual being and Supramental being are long lived and it makes life opulent, secured and experience of unlimited free flow of Divine energies.  

 

            If other Divine Centres/Gnostic Centres are to evolve in other parts of the world on the basis of impersonal and universal Consciousness then its broad modalities are hinted in The Synthesis of Yoga and The Life Divine. It ‘matters little for them of what aspect of personal or impersonal Divine they adore or even what guide they choose.’¹⁷ The ‘free individual spirit who is the soul centre of its’¹⁸ multiple liberating Souls is the basis of the formation of the Divine Centre.¹⁹ When his consciousness is raised towards Supramental Consciousness then a Gnostic Centre is born. Thus, the community of Divine Centre can act as the energy centre of the world of its sole responsibility of calling down the Transcendent Divine force to earth and man. 

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            The aim of Divine Life is perfection. In order to arrive at perfection, one must have a complete account of his imperfection. This full account is possible by identifying his imperfection in tamasic, rajasic and sattwic Nature. The imperfection and limitation of sattwic mind is further segregated as schoolman mind, fixed mind and outer mind. He has to identify his imperfections and limitations in three untransformed subliminal inner nature which are identified as mother of seven sorrows, mother of might and mother of light. A Sadhaka of integral Yoga must recognise that one part of his Nature (particularly surface life) is a Visitor; other parts are segregated as a Devotee, Ashramite, Sadhaka, Child and integral Yogi. He must be thoroughly dissatisfied with the achievements of his partial Divine union and must strive for complete Divine union and integral perfection. For the integration of his Being and Nature, he must learn the lesson of movement of Consciousness through which his multiple Selves and multiple subtle sheaths can be purified, transformed, integrated and perfected.

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            A seeker of Truth is considered fit²⁷ to begin Ashram living if he has gone through the prior experience of overcoming extreme adversity. He is considered fit²⁹ to become a Sadhaka of integral Yoga if he has a strong foundation of Vedantic Spirituality and has exhausted the perfections of traditional Yoga. And he is considered fit²⁸ to become an integral Yogi if he does not live content like traditional Yogi in a pure ecstatic state of higher Consciousness but utilises his Spiritual energy to bear a part of the burden and miseries of earth.

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Recapitulation:

            “To remain here is possible only for those who feel deep in themselves that here is the only place in the world where they must live.”⁴²

The Mother

            “If you want to find your soul, to know it and obey it, remain here at any cost.

            If this is not the aim of your life and you are ready to live the life of the immense majority of men, you may certainly go back to your family.”⁴²

The Mother

            “It is good that you have decided to concentrate on the true object of your coming here, but while absorption in mental work and social contacts is not favourable for Yoga, excessive seclusion has also its spiritual disadvantage. An inner concentration supported by a limitation of external contacts is sufficient. Some kind of activity and service to the Divine is also a very necessary element in the integral spiritual life.”⁴³ 

Sri Aurobindo

            A Visitor is not aware of the vertical movement of ascending and descending Consciousness, instead, he is aware of the horizontal movement of limited mental consciousness subject to three gunas.³³ A Devotee experiences partial union with the Divine through the intermittent movement of Consciousness between higher plane and lower untransformed triple modes of mind. An Ashramite repeats this experience in a protected environment. A Sadhaka moves the Consciousness through rigorous self-control. A Child moves the Consciousness through Vedic and Vedantic Sacrifice. An integral Yogi integrates Consciousness through triple movements of Will, Wisdom and Love in the higher plane. The Mother and Sri Aurobindo are the primary Sources and symbols of the comprehensive movement of Consciousness. For a Sadhaka, those who are ahead of him in Consciousness are identified as secondary Sources and behind him in consciousness are tertiary Sources. A Sadhaka of integral Yoga meets all the above personalities within himself and does not waste time⁴¹ in helping others or gathering together of devotees, lokasangraha, and utilises time exclusively to bridge the gulf between the highest Sachchidananda Consciousness and the lowest dark Consciousness of the Inconscient plane.

 

          A Sadhaka’s Spiritual life is secured through the complete union of the Soul with the Divine. His primary motive is to give Them (dual Divine Consciousness) consecrated service without rest and earthly ease, which will establish him as a slave of all humanity and in the consciousness of the King Child with the extension of the inner and outer Kingdom. His secondary motive is to develop his own path of Yoga through concentration, contemplation and meditation of written truth and constant restatement and renovation of the best standards of the race which will establish him as a disciple of the Lord, Prophet, Pathfinder, Pioneer of new Consciousness and Teacher. His tertiary motive is to emerge as Lover of the Divine, lover of brother Souls and lover of all creatures and humanity. Thus, his Spiritual life is fulfilled by the emergence of triple overhead energies of Delight, Love and Beauty.

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              OM TAT SAT

 

References:

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1: “The other day, I told N, (and I told him loud enough for everyone to hear): ‘We can dispense with a good half of the Ashramites straight away and not lose a single Sadhaka…’ People imagine that by the simple fact of being here they become disciples and apprentice Yogis! But it is not true…” The Mother’s Agenda-2/184,

2: The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol.3/178-179,

3: “What is aimed at by us is a spiritual truth as the basis of life, the first words of which are (1) surrender and (2) union with the Divine and (3) transcendence of ego. So long as that basis is not established, a Sadhaka is only an ignorant and imperfect human being struggling with the evils of the lower Nature.” Sri Aurobindo/The Mother’s Agenda-4/422, “There are three main possibilities for the sadhak — (1) To wait on the Grace and rely on the Divine. (2) To do everything himself like the full Adwaitin and the Buddhist. (3) To take the middle path, go forward by aspiration and rejection etc. helped by the Force.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-171,

4: “Tamas brings in all the ignorance, inertia, weakness, incapacity which afflicts our nature, a clouded reason, nescience, unintelligence, a clinging to habitual notions and mechanical ideas, the refusal to think and know, the small mind, the closed avenues, the trotting round of mental habit, the dark and the twilit places. Tamas brings in the impotent will, want of faith and self-confidence and initiative, the disinclination to act, the shrinking from endeavour and aspiration, the poor and little spirit, and in our moral and dynamic being the inertia, the cowardice, baseness, sloth, lax subjection to small and ignoble motives, the weak yielding to our lower nature. Tamas brings into our emotional nature insensibility, indifference, want of sympathy and openness, the shut soul, the callous heart, the soon spent affection and languor of the feelings, into our aesthetic and sensational nature the dull aesthesis, the limited range of response, the insensibility to beauty, all that makes in man the coarse, heavy and vulgar spirit. Rajas contributes our normal active nature with all its good and evil; when unchastened by a sufficient element of sattwa, it turns to egoism, self-will and violence, the perverse, obstinate or exaggerating action of the reason, prejudice, attachment to opinion, clinging to error, the subservience of the intelligence to our desires and preferences and not to the truth, the fanatic or the sectarian mind, self-will, pride, arrogance, selfishness, ambition, lust, greed, cruelty, hatred, jealousy, the egoisms of love, all the vices and passions, the exaggerations of the aesthesis, the morbidities and perversions of the sensational and vital being. Tamas in its own right produces the coarse, dull and ignorant type of human nature, rajas the vivid, restless, kinetic man, driven by the breath of action, passion and desire. Sattwa produces a higher type. The gifts of sattwa are the mind of reason and balance, clarity of the disinterested truth-seeking open intelligence, a will subordinated to the reason or guided by the ethical spirit, self control, equality, calm, love, sympathy, refinement, measure, fineness of the aesthetic and emotional mind, in the sensational being delicacy, just acceptivity, moderation and poise, a vitality subdued and governed by the mastering intelligence.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga-686,

5: The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol-13/p-123,

6: The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol-14/p-262,

7: The Mother’s Agenda-6/p-128-129,

8: The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol-13/p-112-113,

9: The Mother’s Centenary Edition/14/305,

10: The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol-13/p-111,

11: Savitri-452,

12: Savitri-622,

13: Savitri-23,

14: Savitri-299,

15: Savitri-295,

16: The Mother’s Centenary Works (second edition)/8/240,

17: “That is why it is always said that, no matter what aspect of the Divine you adore or even what guide you choose, if you are perfect in your self-giving and absolutely sincere, you are sure to attain the spiritual goal.” The Mother/The Mother’s Centenary Works (second edition)/8/243,

18: CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga-675,

19: “If on the other hand the soul moves in its impulse of freedom towards the discovery of another and divine centre of control through which the Infinite can consciously govern its own action in the individual, it is moving towards the gnosis where that centre pre-exists, the centre of an eternal harmony and order.” CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga-502,

20: Savitri-312,

21: Savitri-53,

22: “The division of our being from the being of others can only be healed by (1) removing the divorce of our nature from the inner soul-reality, (2) by abolishing the veil between our becoming and our self-being, (3) by bridging the remoteness of our individuality in Nature from the Divine being who is the omnipresent Reality in Nature and above Nature.” CWSA/21/The Life Divine-655,

23: Savitri-635,

24: CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga-191,

25: ‘The Law divine is truth of life and truth of the spirit and must take up with a free living plasticity and inspire with the direct touch of its eternal light each step of our action and all the complexity of our life issues.’ CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga-203,

26: “Everybody has to deal with the lower nature. No Yoga can be done without overcoming it, neither this Yoga nor any others. A Yogic life means a life in which one tries to follow the law of Yoga, aim of Yoga in all details of life…Here people do not do that, they live like ordinary people, quarrelling, gossiping, indulging their desires, thinking of Yoga only in their spare moments.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-. 603-04,

27: “Mon petit, that's why we started the Ashram! That was the idea. Because when I was in France, I was always asking myself, "How can people have the time to find themselves? How can they even have the time to understand the way to free themselves?" So I thought: a place where material needs are sufficiently satisfied, so that if you truly want to free yourself, you can do so. And it was on this idea that the Ashram was founded, not on any other: a place where people's means of existence would be sufficient to give them the time to think of the True Thing. (Mother smiles) Human nature is such that laziness has taken the place of aspiration (not for everyone, but still fairly generally), and license or libertinism has taken the place of freedom. Which would tend to prove that the human species must go through a period of brutal handling before it can be ready to get away more sincerely from the slavery to activity.” The Mother’s Agenda/September 16, 1964, “The truth is, VERY FEW people are ready to be here, very few. We have taken in all types – we accept, we accept, we accept – afterwards, we sift. And the sifting goes on more and more. Actually, we accept everything, the entire earth, and then ... (gesture) there’s a churning. And everything useless goes away.” The Mother’s Agenda-04.03.1961, “It really amused me. If you asked ... if you asked people here, not too many would have such a clear idea: "They have come to do something entirely new and very difficult."” The Mother’s Agenda-14.08.1962, “I was very young at that time, and I always used to tell myself that if ever I could do it, I would try to create a little world — oh! quite a small one, but still... a small world where people would be able to live without having to be preoccupied with food and lodging and clothing and the imperative necessities of life, so as to see whether all the energies freed by this certainty of a secure material living would turn spontaneously towards the divine life and the inner realisation…Well, towards the middle of my life — at least, what is usually the middle of a human life — the means were given to me and I could realise this, that is, create such conditions of life. And I have come to this conclusion, that it is not this necessity which hinders people from consecrating themselves to an inner realisation, but that it is a dullness, a tamas, a lack of aspiration, a miserable laxity, an I-don’t-care attitude, and that those who face even the hardest conditions of life are sometimes the ones who react most and have the intensest aspiration… And of these, the foolishness which seems to me the most disastrous is to keep one’s tongue going: chatter, chatter, chatter. I haven’t known a place where they chatter more than here, and say everything they should not say, busy themselves with things they should not be concerned with. And I know it is merely an overflow of unused energy.” TMCW-8/Questions and Answers-1956/160-161, “Sweet Mother, Some say that You have stated: “Among the 1500 people who are here, there are only 250 or so who under- stand Sri Aurobindo’s yoga, only forty-five who practise it, five who are capable of realisation and only one who can be transformed.” What is the truth? (Answer given by the Mother) I may have said something of the kind. But the exactness of the numbers is certainly fanciful... It is true that the number of those who take the yoga seriously is not considerable...But the Divine Grace is infinite!” TMCW/Vol-16/p-337,

28: “Actually, we are very lazy...Sri Aurobindo wrote that he was very lazy – that consoled me! We are very lazy. We would like (laughing) to settle back and blissfully enjoy the fruit of our labors!...” The Mother’s Agenda/July 18, 1961,

29: “His Yoga may be governed for a long time by one Scripture or by several successively, — if it is in the line of the great Hindu tradition, by the Gita, for example, the Upanishads, the Veda. Or it may be a good part of his development to include in its material a richly varied experience of the truths of many Scriptures and make the future opulent with all that is best in the past.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-p-55, “I may say that the way of the Gita is itself a part of the Yoga here and those who have followed it, to begin with or as a first stage, have a stronger basis than others for this Yoga. To look down on it therefore as something separate and inferior is not a right standpoint… I suggested the Gita method for you because the opening which is necessary for the Yoga here seems to be too difficult for you. If you made a less strenuous demand upon yourself, there might be a greater chance.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II-445-446,

30: Savitri-636,

31: “To be a Yogi, a Sannyasi, a Tapaswi is not the object here. The object is transformation, and the transformation can only be done by a force infinitely greater than your own; it can only be done by being truly like a child in the hands of the Divine Mother.” 7 June 1928/ CWSA-32/The Mother and Letters on the Mother-142-143,

32: “Everyone who is turned to the Mother is doing my Yoga. It is a great mistake to suppose that one can “do” the Purna Yoga i.e. carry out and fulfil all the sides of the Yoga by one’s own effort. No human being can do that. What one has to do is to put oneself in the Mother’s hands and open oneself to her by service, by bhakti, by aspiration; then the Mother by her light and force works in him so that the sadhana is done. It is a mistake also to have the ambition to be a big Purna Yogi or a supramental being and ask oneself how far have I got towards that. The right attitude is to be devoted and given to the Mother and to wish to be whatever she wants you to be. The rest is for the Mother to decide and do in you.” April 1929/CWSA-32/The Mother and Letters on the Mother-151-152,

33: “The three gunas become purified and refined and changed into their divine equivalents:  sattwa becomes jyotih., the authentic spiritual light; rajas becomes tapas, the tranquilly intense divine force; tamas becomes s´ama, the divine quiet, rest, peace.” “You cannot drive out rajas and tamas, you can only convert them and give the predominance to sattwa. Tamas and rajas disappear only when the higher consciousness not only comes down but controls everything down to the cells of the body. They then change into the divine rest and peace and the divine energy or Tapas; finally sattwa also changes into the divine Light. As for remaining quiet when tamas is there, there can also be a tamasic quiet.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-47,     

34: “There are two atmospheres in the Asram, ours and that of the sadhaks. When people with a little perceptiveness come from outside, they are struck by the deep calm and peace in the atmosphere and it is only when they mix much with the sadhaks that this perception and influence fade away. The other atmosphere of dullness or unrest is created by the sadhaks themselves — if they were opened to the Mother as they should be, they would live in the calm and peace and not in unrest or dullness.” CWSA-35/On Himself and the Ashram-632

35: Savitri-397,

36: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-61,

37: “An Asram means the house or houses of a Teacher or Master of spiritual philosophy in which he receives and lodges those who come to him for the teaching and practice. An Asram is not an association or a religious body or a monastery — it is only what has been indicated above and nothing more.” CWSA-36/Autobiographical Notes-p-530,

38: Savitri-705,

39: Savitri-371,

40: “Such a complexity (evolution of Subliminal, Psychic and Spiritual Self etc.) and gathering up of many personalities in one person can be a sign of a very advanced stage of the individual’s evolution when there is a strong central being that holds all together and works towards harmonisation and integration of the whole many-sided movement of the nature.”​ Sri Aurobindo/​CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-849,

41: "Whoever is too great must lonely live.

Adored he walks in mighty solitude;

Vain is his labour to create his kind,

His only comrade is the Strength within." Savitri-368 

“To concentrate most on one’s own spiritual growth and experience is the first necessity of the sadhak — to be too eager to help others draws away from the inner work. There is also likely to be an overzeal and haste which clouds the discrimination and makes what help is given less effective than it should be. To grow in the spirit is the greatest help one can give to others, for then something flows out naturally to those around that helps them.” Sri Aurobindo, CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV-317, “As for the people who want to draw others to the Yoga, I should say that if they draw themselves nearer to the inner goal that would be a much more fruitful activity. And in the end it would “draw” much more people and in a better way than the writing of many letters.” CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-325,"

42: TMCW-13/Words of the Mother-I/p-140-141,

43: CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-380,

44: “You say that you wish to lead the spiritual life, but for that you should understand that the first point is to overcome all the lower movements, all the attractions, all the attachments, for all these are absolutely contrary to the spiritual life…The spiritual life demands that one is exclusively turned towards the Divine and the Divine alone. All that one does should be done for the Divine; all occupations, all aspirations, all, without exception, should be directed towards the Divine with a complete surrender of the whole being…I know that this cannot be done in a day. But the decision that it may be so should be taken in an unshakable manner. It is only on this condition that I can accept you for the spiritual life.” TMCW/Vol-13/Words of the Mother-I/p-112,

45: “Sweet Mother,

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

Sincerity, courage, discipline, endurance, absolute faith in the Divine work and unshakable trust in the Divine Grace. All this must be accompanied by a sustained, ardent, persevering aspiration and a boundless patience.” TMCW-16/Some Answers from the Mother-345-346, TMCW-13/Words of the Mother-113,

“Only those who are perfectly truthful can be my true children.” TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-190,

“MESSAGES TO STUDENT BOARDING HOUSES: We all want to be the true children of our Divine Mother. But for that, sweet Mother, give us patience and courage, obedience, goodwill, generosity and unselfishness, and all the necessary virtues.” TMCW-12/On Education-127

46: "In fact, the first victory is to create an individuality (separative identity). And then later, the second victory is to give this individuality to the Divine. And the third victory is that the Divine changes your individuality into a divine being... There are three stages: the first is to become an individual; the second is to consecrate the individual, that he may surrender entirely to the Divine and be identified with Him; and the third is that the Divine takes possession of this individual and changes him into a being in His own image, that is, he too becomes divine... Generally, all the yogas stopped at the second. When one had succeeded in surrendering the individual and giving him without reserve to the Divine to be identified with Him, one considered that his work was finished, that all was accomplished.... But we begin there, and we say, “No, this is only a beginning. We want this Divine with whom we are identified to enter our individuality and make it into a divine personality acting in a divine world.” And this is what we call transformation. But the other precedes it, must precede it. If that is not done, there is no possibility of doing the third. One can’t go from the first to the third; one must pass through the second." The Mother's Centenary Works/Vol-7/p-402-403