The Relevance of Aurobindo

Sri Aurobindo - Some Reflections

"Pain is the hammer of the Gods to break
A dead resistance in the mortal's heart,
His slow inertia as of living stone.
If the heart were not forced to want and weep,
His soul would have lain down content, at ease,
And never forced to exceed the human start."

"A civilisation is to be judged by the power of its ideas.... Evolution is the one eternal dynamic law and hidden process of the earth-nature."

"All existence is a manifestation of God.... We imagine that the soul is in the body, almost a result and derivation from the body; but it is the body that is in the soul and a result and derivation from the soul."

"A deeper brotherhood, a yet unfound law of love is the only sure foundation possible for a perfect social evolution, no other can replace it."

"Only by the ascent to a highest Truth and the descent of that highest Truth can Love be delivered from the cross and placed on the throne."

"To find, know and possess the Divine existence, consciousness and nature and to live in it for the Divine is our true aim and the one perfection to which we must aspire."

"True happiness lies in the finding and maintenance of a natural harmony of spirit, mind and body."

"The heart of man is nearer to the Truth than his intelligence."

"Without realisation our mental belief cannot become a dynamic reality."

"The example is more powerful than the instruction."

"An inch of experience goes farther than a yard of logic."

"This world was not built with random bricks of chance,
A blind God is not destiny's architect,
A conscious power has drawn the plan of life,
There is a meaning in each curve and line."

"A prayer, a master act, a king idea
Can link man's soul to a Transcendent Force.
Then Miracle is made the common rule,
One mighty deed can change the course of things;
A lonely thought becomes omnipotent."

"There are moments when
the Spirit moves among men
and the breath of the Lord
is abroad upon the waters of our being;
there are others when it retires
and men are left to act in the strength or the weakness
of their own egoism.
The first are periods when
even a little effort produces great results and changes destiny;
the second are spaces of time when
much labour goes to the making of a little result.
It is true that the latter may prepare the former,
may be the little smoke of sacrifice going up to heaven
which calls down the rain of God's bounty.

Unhappy is the man or the nation which,
when the divine moment arrives,
is found sleeping or unprepared to use it,
because the lamp has not been kept trimmed for the welcome
and the ears are sealed to the call.
But thrice woe to them who are strong and ready,
yet waste the force or misuse the moment;
for them is irreparable loss or a great destruction.

In the hour of God cleanse thy soul
of all self-deceit and hypocrisy and vain self-flattering
that thou mayst look straight into thy spirit
and hear that which summons it.
All insincerity of nature, once thy defence
against the eye of the Master and the light of the ideal,
becomes now a gap in thy armour and invites the blow.
Even if thou conquer for the moment,
it is the worse for thee, for the blow shall come afterwards
and cast thee down in the midst of thy triumph.
But being pure cast aside all fear;
for the hour is often terrible,
a fire and a whirlwind and a tempest,
a treading of the winepress of the wrath of God;
but he who can stand up in it on the truth of his purpose
is he who shall stand;
even though he fall, he shall rise again;
even though he seem to pass on the wings of the wind, he shall return.
Nor let worldly prudence whisper too closely in thy ear;
for it is the hour of the unexpected, the incalculable, the immeasurable.
Mete not the power of the Breath by thy petty instruments,
but trust and go forward.

But most keep thy soul clear,
even if for a while, of the clamour of the ego.
Then shall a fire march before thee in the night
and the storm be thy helper
and thy flag shall wave on the highest height
of the greatness that was to be conquered."