This prayer reveals to us the place of contemplation and work.
May 16, 1914
I WAS interrupted yesterday at the moment when I was trying to formulate the experience I had. And now all seems changed. That precise knowledge, that clairvoyance, has given place to a great love for Thee, O Lord, which has seized my whole being from the outer organism to the deepest consciousness, and all has prostrated itself at Thy feet in an ardent aspiration for a definitive identification with Thee, for an absorption in Thee. I implored with all the energy of which I was capable. And once more, at the moment when it seemed to me that my consciousness was going to disappear in Thine, at the moment when my whole being was nothing but a pure crystal reflecting Thy Presence, somebody came and interrupted my concentration.
Such is, indeed, the symbol of the existence Thou givest me as my share, and in which the outer utility, the work for all, holds a much greater place than the supreme realisation. All the circumstances of my life seem always to tell me on Thy behalf: “It is not by the supreme concentration that Thou wilt realise oneness, it is by the diffusion in all.” May Thy will be done, O Lord.
Now I clearly understand that union with Thee is not an end to be pursued, so far as this present individuality is concerned; it is a fact accomplished long since. And that is why Thou seemest to tell me always: “Do not revel in the ecstatic contemplation of this union, fulfil the mission I have confided to thee on the earth.”
And the individual work to be pursued simultaneously with the collective work is the awareness and possession of all the activities and all the regions of the being and the definitive establishment of the consciousness in that highest point which will allow at once the prescribed action and a constant communion with Thee. The joy of perfect union can come only when what has to be done has been done.
We must preach to all, first union, then work; but for those who have realised the union, each moment of their life must be an integral expression of Thy Will through them.
The text above is quoted from the Third Edition, 1954 (translation by Rishabhchand Samsukha)
This book is freely available at https://www.auro-ebooks.com/prayers-and-meditations-1954-edition/
