Daily Offerings
One Who Could Love Without Return for Love
One who could love without return for love,
Meeting and turning to the best the worst,
It healed the bitter cruelties of earth,
Transforming all experience to delight;
Intervening in the sorrowful paths of birth
It rocked the cradle of the cosmic Child
And stilled all weeping with its hand of joy;
It led things evil towards their secret good,
It turned racked falsehood into happy truth;
Its power was to reveal divinity.
Infinite, coeval with the mind of God,
It bore within itself a seed, a flame,
A seed from which the Eternal is new-born,
A flame that cancels death in mortal things.
All grew to all kindred and self and near;
The intimacy of God was everywhere,
No veil was felt, no brute barrier inert,
Distance could not divide, Time could not change.
A fire of passion burned in spirit-depths,
A constant touch of sweetness linked all hearts,
The throb of one adoration’s single bliss
In a rapt ether of undying love.
An inner happiness abode in all,
A sense of universal harmonies,
A measureless secure eternity
Of truth and beauty and good and joy made one.
Here was the welling core of finite life;
A formless spirit became the soul of form.
[Savitri: Book Two Canto 14]
This is How You Should Love
May 24, 1914
O my sweet Master, let me not be submerged by outer things. They have no interest, no savour for me. If I busy myself with them, it is because I feel that such is Thy will and the work must be accomplished integrally, down to the least details of the action and substance. But it is quite enough to turn one’s attention to them and infuse Thy forces into them as much as possible. They must not be allowed to take precedence of the true realities in one’s consciousness.
O my sweet Master, I aspire for Thee, for the knowledge of what Thou art, for identification with Thee. I ask for a greater love, growing always purer, always vaster, always more intense and I find myself as it were submerged in Matter; is this Thy reply? As Thou hast Thyself accepted to be thus submerged in Matter so as to awaken it gradually to consciousness, is this the result of a more perfect identification with Thee? Is this not Thy answer to me: “If thou wouldst learn to love truly, this is how thou shouldst love…” …in darkness and unconsciousness?
O my Lord, my sweet Master, Thou knowest that I belong to Thee and that always I want what Thou willest; but do not let any doubt about what Thou willest arise in me. Enlighten me in some way in the immutable peace of the heart. Let me be submerged in darkness if that is necessary, but at least let me know that it is Thou who willest it.
Lord, in response, I hear singing within my heart the hymn of gladness of Thy divine and permanent Presence.
[Prayers and Meditations of the Mother]
Victory Over Falsehood
The lords of Falsehood hold, at present, almost complete sway over poor humanity. Not only the lower life-energy, the lower vital being, but also the whole mind of man accepts them. Countless are the ways in which they are worshipped, for they are most subtle in their cunning and seek their ends in variously seductive disguises. The result is that men cling to their falsehood as if it were a treasure, cherishing it more than even the most beautiful things of life. Apprehensive of its safety, they take care to bury it deep down in themselves; but unless they take it out and surrender it to the Divine they will never find true happiness.
Indeed the very act of bringing it out and showing it to the Light would be in itself a momentous conversion and pave the way to the final victory. For the laying bare of each falsehood is in itself a victory—each acknowledgment of error is the demolition of one of the lords of Darkness. It may be an acknowledgment to oneself, provided it is absolutely honest and is no subtle regret apt to be forgotten the next moment and without the strength to make an unbreakable resolution not to repeat the mistake. Or it may be the acknowledgment to the Divine embodied in the Guru. As a result of direct personal confession to the Guru, your resolution remains no longer your own, because, if you are sincere, the Divine’s fiat goes forth in your favour. To give you an idea of what this means I shall relate an experience of mine when I first met Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry. I was in deep concentration, seeing things in the Supermind, things that were to be but which were somehow not manifesting. I told Sri Aurobindo what I had seen and asked him if they would manifest. He simply said, “Yes.” And immediately I saw that the Supramental had touched the earth and was beginning to be realised! This was the first time I had witnessed the power to make real what is true: it is the very same power that will bring about the realisation in you of the truth when you come in all sincerity, l0saying, “This falsehood I want to get rid of”, and the answer which you get is “Yes.”
[The Mother: CWM 3]
Songs of the Soul: November 18, 2024
The Mother’s Room
As we cross the threshold of Thy sacred sanctuary, the seat of Thy tapasya for earth and humanity, all our being bows down in spontaneous gratitude before Thee, before all that Thou hast done and continue to do, before the great assurance and the Promise that Thou hast given that ‘The transformation is going to be: nothing will ever s top it, nothing will frustrate the decree of the Omnipotent. Cast away all diffidence and weakness and resolve to endure bravely awhile before the great day arrives when the long battle turns in to an everlasting vic tory.’
These mighty words born out of Thine and Sri Aurobindo’s tapasya, continue to give us the hope and the certitude of the future.
We know we are not ready, humanity is not ready, the earth is not ready. Yet this too we know that Thou art carrying us towards the goal despite ourselves.
Grant, O Mother Divine that all in us be ripe and open, receptive to Thy Force.
Maa, make us worthy of Thy Grace.
May we become worthy of Thy Grace.
Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa
The Victory
The darkness is dense and clouds assail the sky, denying the sun an unhindered passage to the earth.
Yet the Light grows and the children of Sun throw themselves into the darkness until it cleaves and gives way. In the end it is the drop of Light that conquers.
This is the faith we must always keep alive and burning in our hearts and trust that after the storms and the nightmare there is the day break and the victory.
How can we truly love the Mother with this limited heart and mind?
Q: How can we truly love the Mother with this limited heart and mind? I feel as if her love surrounds me at every moment, but how to thank Her for each breath which confirms that we are alive? I dream of following the path of bhakti, where by getting the nectar of Mother’s love soul get immersed into eternal Vrindavan, forgetting itself. Writing this brings tears in eyes, but there is a natural joy asking you about how to love the source of our existence.
ALOKDA: Dear A., love for the Mother begins when She choses and picks up the soul to enter into the Path of Integral Yoga. However in the beginning, the human being does not feel it as love. More often than not he is attracted or drawn towards Her for some outer or inner reason or the other.
Its first expression is the awakening of some kind of interest in the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, some kind of inner or outer contact with Them such as meeting a devotee, visiting a centre or the Ashram, reading a book by or about Them. Then this contact begins to grow. One wants to read more, visit the Ashram more and more, meet devotees and disciples.
The next phase comes when one wants to serve Her and wants to find Her Presence within. One wants to know more and more so that one can serve Her better and live life surrendered to Her Will. The final culmination is the urge to give oneself completely to Her.
Through this process the one method that helps at every step is to call Her Name, Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa.