Daily Offerings
In Absolute Silence Sleeps an Absolute Power
There is a zero sign of the Supreme;
Nature left nude and still uncovers God.
But in her grandiose nothingness all is there:
When her strong garbs are torn away from us,
The soul’s ignorance is slain but not the soul:
The zero covers an immortal face.
A high and blank negation is not all,
A huge extinction is not God’s last word,
Life’s ultimate sense, the close of being’s course,
The meaning of this great mysterious world.
In absolute silence sleeps an absolute Power.
Awaking, it can wake the trance-bound soul
And in the ray reveal the parent sun:
It can make the world a vessel of Spirit’s force,
It can fashion in the clay God’s perfect shape.
To free the self is but one radiant pace;
Here to fulfil himself was God’s desire.
[Savitri: Book Three Canto Two]
Melt into Thee
July 16, 1914
Salutation of my silent and humble adoration….
I bow down before Thy glory, for it dominates me with all its splendour….
Oh, let me dissolve at Thy feet, melt into Thee!
[Prayers and Meditations]
Purifying the Mind
We have already said that there are four successive stages for the purification of the mind. A purified mind is naturally a mind that does not admit any wrong thought, and we have seen that the complete mastery of thought which is required to gain this result is the last achievement in the four stages I have spoken of. The first is: to observe one’s mind.
Do not believe that it is such an easy thing, for to observe your thoughts, you must first of all separate yourself from them. In the ordinary state, the ordinary man does not distinguish himself from his thoughts. He does not even know that he thinks. He thinks by habit. And if he is asked all of a sudden, “What are you thinking of?”, he knows nothing about it. That is to say, ninety-five times out of a hundred he will answer, “I do not know.” There is a complete identification between the movement of thought and the consciousness of the being.
To observe the thought, the first movement then is to step back and look at it, to separate yourself from your thoughts so that the movement of the consciousness and that of thought may not be confused. Thus when we say that one must observe one’s thoughts, do not believe that it is so simple; it is the first step. I suggest that this evening in our meditation we take up this first exercise which consists in standing back from one’s thought and looking at it.
[The Mother: CWM 3]
Songs of the Soul: December 31, 2024
Mother Divine, Maa, may the year that we leave behind us, may see an end to all that refuses and resists the New Consciousness, all that retards Thy manifestation, all that obstructs Thy working in us.
Maa, as the new year approaches, may the increase of earthly Light be for us an increase of Thy Light within us. Full of faith in Thee and confidence in Thy Grace may we take a leap towards the future.
Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa
A New Year Resolution
The New Year is often a time for looking back and looking forward. Looking back it is a time to check our balance sheet for the year, to see how much ground we have covered in our great and tremendous journey of life. Looking back we can also discover what were the chief obstacles that stood in our way, what impeded and resisted our advance, what stopped us from moving forwards towards the Goal. Looking towards the Future we can see what we still need to develop to make our self-giving complete, our surrender total, our consecration perfect, our faith and sincerity integral, our aspiration, intense and one-pointed, an all-consuming fire that burns down all the dross in our nature and release all that is ready and strong and beautiful to receive Her Force without breaking down under the pressure.
Some would say that a new year is after all a convention. In a certain sense everything is a convention, a habit or a pattern woven into our thoughts and beliefs. The universe is born anew each moment and there is nothing in us that repeats the hour that is left behind. Yet we can equally say that all is the same and nothing essential changes in this seeming march of Time. This is because time moves in a linear as well as a cyclic manner. The linear movement carries us always forward, even without our conscious effort or choice. It is as if we were all being carried in a super-giant wave or ocean of Consciousness driven by the Breath of the Lord, inevitably, helplessly, inevitably towards HIM who is the Source and Origin of all things. But if this were all then we have nothing more to do but drift with the flow and flux of time towards whatever shore or destination it is leading us. But the cyclic movement is also there. All things move in a circle, from the atom to the galaxies and universes. Our thoughts and feelings and impulsions, our very body follows both these motions. We return back to the same point again and again. But this is not any retrogression but a chance to give a fresh impulsion to our forward motion. It is a chance to pick up the threads we have left behind in an over-eager step forward. It is a chance to reawaken in us the urge for conscious progress so that the same ocean wave impels us much farther helped by our own propulsion and the momentum gained through several attempts.
The New Year is one such cyclical motion of Time. It is when the earth returns to the same point even though it has moved forward in linear terms. The moment returns regardless of when we take as the starting point of the year. The Earth completes one parikrama (circumambulation) and is ready for a fresh change of seasons. It is an annual renewal of its energies. We too can therefore use this occasion to start afresh, to renew our energies for the needed effort, to rekindle the fire of aspiration for a fresh drive towards the Goal. Let us then use this moment to once again surge forwards with a fresh enthusiasm towards the Goal. Let us pray with the Mother thus:
“O LORD, grant that this collective convention of the ending year be for us also the occasion to put an end to a whole lot of bonds and attachments, illusions and weaknesses which have no longer any purpose in our lives. At every moment we must shake off the past like falling dust, that it may not soil the virgin path which, at every moment also, is opening before us.
May our mistakes, acknowledged and rectified within us, be no more than vain mirages powerless to bring any consequences and, pressing our foot down firmly upon all that no longer should exist, on all ignorance, all obscurity, all egoism, may we take our flight boldly towards wider horizons and intenser light, a more perfect compassion, a more disinterested love. . . . towards Thee.
I hail Thee, O Lord, Master of our life, and I want to proclaim Thy reign over all the earth.”
[The Mother, Prayers and Meditations, December 29, 1913]
How to establish peace in mental and vital?
Ways to establish Peace can be summarised as follows:
1. Progressive widening of the mind and heart and the vital. A small and narrow mind and vital are very prone to turbulence.
2. Building strength and suppleness in these parts also helps establish a firm ground for peace.
3. Deep breathing focusing the awareness on breath.
4. Witnessing meditation. Practising sakshi bhaav and stepping back.
5. inner detachment, especially from the fruits of efforts. Doing things as an offering to the Divine.
6. Dynamic meditation to invoke Peace.
7. Calling Peace as one calls a friend. Peace is an aspect of the Divine. It is a conscious power and responds to our call. Even apart from that repetitive mechanical calling primes the brain to receive what is being invoked.
8. Mantras and Japa has tremendous power to quieten the mind, especially the physical mind and create a stilling effect upon the consciousness in general.
9. Pray for Peace with a heart full of trust.
10. Avoid activities that disturb peace through excitement, anger, fear, worry, or on the other hand inertia, boredom, alcohol, smoking that disturb the nerves.
Finally, relying upon Grace as that alone can give us unalloyed Peace in all circumstances.
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