Sri Aurobindo Center of Los Angeles
Monthly Magazine
Theme : Aspiration
  April 2019 Issue - XV
There is nothing mind can do that cannot be better done in the mind’s immobility and thought-free stillness.

-Sri Aurobindo
Dedicated to the Mother and Sri Aurobindo who gave their lives to changing the earth-nature and earth-conditions so that the earth becomes a tenement of a Divine Life, and brought down the force of a supreme consciousness ushering a new age of Truth, Harmony, Peace and Love progressively.  The path to the Divine need not be anymore a "walk on the edge of a razor".
 
Center  Activities:

Entering into the month of April, what first comes to mind is the date April 24, the final return of the Mother to Pondicherry and join Sri Aurobindo. April 24, 1920, marks a momentous and decisive turn in the evolution of a new world and humanity because on this day converged two mighty forces of spirituality that were working towards the same goal: to make in the formula of the Veda, "Heaven and Earth equal and one".  The significance of this day is borne out by the statement that the Mother made:

Only after a whole series of experiences, — a ten months sojourn in Pondicherry, five years of separation, then the return to Pondicherry and the meeting in the same house and in the same way — did the end of the vision occur... I was standing just beside him. My head wasn't exactly on his shoulder, but where his shoulder was (I don't know how to explain it — physically there was hardly any contact). We were standing side by side like that, gazing out through the open window, and then  together,  at exactly the same moment, we felt, “Now the Realisation will be accomplished.”  That the seal was set and the Realisation will be accomplished. I felt the Thing descending massively within me, with the same certainty I had felt in my vision. From that moment on there was nothing to say — no words, nothing. We knew it was that.
The anniversary of my return to Pondicherry which was the tangible sign of the sure Victory over the adverse forces.


At the Center, it was a happy and powerful remembrance of the Mother, and the gratitude of having Her growing presence, Grace, and protection in our lives. The enthusiastic work-offerings from the members continue. The garden is in bloom carrying our aspiration to the Divine. 

We might ask ourselves: what is our responsibility in this yoga. The Mother's answer to this is that "Each one is responsible only for the sincerity of his aspiration". Sri Aurobindo also stated that a great step in this yoga is our "aspiration for the Divine Life".  We, therefore, decided on "Aspiration" as the theme for this month. 

Happy reading.



Increase steadily your own aspiration. Try to perfect your consecration to the Divine and your life will be arranged for you.


   - The Mother

All sincere aspiration has its effect; if you are sincere you will grow into the divine life.

- Sri Aurobindo. 

     
 
 This month's theme:
       Aspiration
                                     
Open the sealed door simply by aspiration                           
- The Mother

True Aspiration will make you a receptacle for His descent     
- Sri Aurobindo

The Divine is with you according to your aspirations.               
- The Mother

What to do when there is no aspiration                                     
- Sri Aurobindo

Aspiration can be cultivated                                                    
- The Mother 
 
 

Open the sealed door simply by aspiration     - The Mother                Home


We don’t want life as it is any longer, because we don’t want falsehood and ignorance any longer, because we don’t want suffering and unconsciousness any longer, because we do not want disorder and bad will any longer, because Sri Aurobindo has come to tell us: It is not necessary to leave the earth to find the Truth, it is not necessary to leave life to find one’s soul, it is not necessary to give up the world or to have limited beliefs in order to enter into relation with the Divine. The Divine is everywhere, in everything, and if He is hidden…it is because we do not take the trouble to discover Him.

We can, simply by a sincere aspiration, open a sealed door in us and find…that Something which will change the whole significance of life, reply to all our questions, solve all our problems and lead us to the perfection we aspire for without knowing it, to that Reality which alone can satisfy us and give us lasting joy, equilibrium, strength, life.

One formulates one’s aspiration, lets the true prayer spring up from one’s heart, the prayer which expresses the sincerity of the need. And then…well, one will see what happens.

 Something will happen. Surely something will happen. For each one it will take a different form.

 

True aspiration will make you a receptacle for His descent  - Sri Aurobindo  Home

Some answers by Sri Aurobindo on Aspiration.

Q: Is it true that if a person has true aspiration, the Divine makes him a fit receptacle for His descent in him even if his mind is ignorant and limited?
A: Yes—only the mind must not be small and narrow—and in love with its narrowness.

Q: What is meant by being in love with the mind's narrowness?
 A: People like to be narrow; they are attached to their own limited ideas, feelings, opinions, preferences and get disturbed, angry or full of doubt if anyone tries to make them think more widely—that is being in love with the mind's narrowness.

Q: Can a person with a weak will progress in sadhana by aspiration only?
 A: No. He must either increase his will-power or call in a Higher Power to do it for him.

Q: Can aspiration increase the will-power of a person whose will is weak?
A: Yes, it can—by calling in the Divine Will.

Q: What is meant by spiritual aspiration?
A: It means the aspiration towards spiritual things, spiritual experience, spiritual realization, the Divine.

Q: Are will and aspiration the same?
A: No, certainly not. Aspiration is a call to the Divine,—will is the pressure of a conscious force on Nature.

Q: Is prayer the same as aspiration?
A: It is an expression of aspiration or can be. For there are prayers which only express a desire —e.g., prayers for wealth, wordly success, etc.

Q: What is the difference between aspiration and opening ?
A: They have nothing to do with each other, except that aspiration brings opening. Opening means that the consciousness becomes opened to the Truth or the Divine to which it is now shut—it indicates a state of receptivity. Aspiration is a call in the being, it is not opening.

Q: Does the power of aspiration vary in different sadhaks according to their natures?
A: No. Aspiration is the same power in all; it differs only in purity, intensity and object.
 

The Divine is with you according to your aspirations    - The Mother   Home

In truth, the Divine gives to each one exactly what he expects from Him. If you believe the Divine to be distant and cruel, He will be distant and cruel, because it may be necessary for your supreme wellbeing to feel the wrath of God. He will be Kali' for the worshippers of Kali, and bliss for the bhakta.² He will be the All-Knowledge of seekers after Knowledge, the Transcendent Impersonal of the illusionist. He will be an atheist for the atheist, and the love of the lover. He will be fraternal and near, an ever faithful friend, ever helpful, to those who feel him as the inner guide of each movement, at each minute. And if you believe that He can erase everything, He will erase all your faults, all your errors, tirelessly, and at each moment you will feel his infinite Grace. In truth, the Divine is what you expect of Him in your deep aspiration.

And once you enter into this consciousness where all things are seen with a single look, the infinite multitude of the Divine's relationships with men, you realize how wonderful everything is, in every detail. You can also look at the history of mankind and see how much the Divine has evolved depending upon what men have understood, desired, hoped for or dreamed; how he was materialistic with the materialist, and how each day he grows, draws nearer, becomes more luminous, as the human consciousness widens. Everyone is free to choose. The perfection of this endless variety of relationships between man and God throughout the history of the world is an unutterable wonder. Yet all this together is but a second in the total manifestation of the Divine.

The Divine is with you according to your aspirations. This does not mean, naturally, that He bends to the whims of your outer nature - I am speaking here of the truth of your being. Yet sometimes He does fashion himself according to your outer aspirations; and if, like the devout, you live alternately in estrangement and embrace, ecstasy and despair, the Divine too will be estranged from you or draw near, according to your belief. Therefore, one's attitude is extremely important, even one's outer attitude. People do not know just how important faith is, how faith is miracle - the creator of miracles. For if at each moment, you expect to be uplifted and drawn towards the Divine, He will come and uplift you, and He will be there, very near, nearer and nearer.

What to do when there is no aspiration                - Sri Aurobindo        Home

Some answers by Sri Aurobindo,

Q: Why does aspiration become sometimes slow and sometimes rapid?
A: It is so with everyone—the nature cannot always go at a rapid pace.

Q: If the nature cannot always go at a rapid pace, why are we asked to remain constant in aspiration?
A: If you are not constant in aspiration, the nature will then sink back into the old lower ways.

Q: Will a sadhak who feels neither any intense aspiration nor any acute resistance of the obstacles of his nature, be able to go forward in his sadhana ?
A: I suppose it means that he can only progress slowly.

Q: When a sadhak does not feel any aspiration and does not get any experience, what should he do to stick on to his sadhana?
A: Remember the Mother, remain quiet and call.

Q: I feel that aspiration also is increased by the Mother's Will and Grace. Is it not so ?
A: Yes, but not if you do not aspire.

Q: You have asked me to have ceaseless aspiration. But I find that it is the Mother's Force that kindles up aspiration and strengthens and increases it in me. What personal effort on my part is then needed?
A: It is true that it is the Mother's Force that aspires in you, but if the personal consciousness does not give its assent, then the Force does not work. If the personal consciousness ceaselessly looks for the Divine and assents to the working, the aspiration and the working of the Force become also ceaseless.
 

Q: In what way my personal effort is needed to assent to the Mother's working in me?
A: By opening yourself more and more by assent to the true things, Peace, Light, Truth, Ananda —by refusing the wrong things, such as anger, falsehood, lust, etc.


Q: What are the obstacles in the way of giving full assent to the Mother's working in the sadhak's nature?
A: It is the wrong movements,—self-will, egoism, the vital passions, vanity, personal desire, etc.

Aspiration can be cultivated                                       - Mother        Home

Q: Should not one be born with a great aspiration ?
A: No, aspiration is a thing to be developed, educated, like all activities of the being. One may be born with a very slight aspiration and develop it so much that it becomes very great. One may be born with a very small will and develop it and make it strong. It is a ridiculous idea to believe that things come to you like that, through a sort of grace, that if you are not given aspiration, you don't have it – this is not true. It is precisely upon this that Sri Aurobindo has insisted in his letter and in the passage I am going to read to you in a minute. He says you must choose, and the choice is constantly put before you and constantly you must choose, and if you do not choose, well, you will not be able to advance. You must choose; there is no “force like that” which chooses for you, or chance or luck or fate – this is not true. Your will is free, it is deliberately left free and you have to choose. It is you who decide whether to seek the Light or not, whether to be the servitor of the Truth or not – it is you. Or whether to have an aspiration or not, it is you who choose. 
- Mother


[The soul's inherent aspiration] is what comes up when there is the sheer self-giving, when "I seek you for this, I seek you for that" changes to a sheer "I seek you for you."
- Sri Aurobindo

Q: Mother, what must I do so that the fire of aspiration never goes out?
A: One keeps this fire lit by throwing into it all one’s difficulties, all one’s desires, all one’s imperfections. In the morning and evening when you come to me, you should ask me in your heart to keep the fire lit and offer me all these things as fuel.

******

Never seek support elsewhere than in the Divine. Never seek satisfaction elsewhere than in the Divine. Never seek the satisfaction of your needs in anyone else than the Divine — never, for anything at all. All your needs can be satisfied only by the Divine. All your weaknesses can be borne and healed only by the Divine. He alone is capable of giving you what you need in everything, always.
- Mother


Each one is responsible only for the sincerity of his aspiration.
 17 July 1954

Nothing is difficult for those who call sincerely the Divine.
28 January 1973  

All sincere prayers are granted, but it may take some time to realise materially.
28 June 1954

 All sincere prayers are granted, every call is answered.
21 July 1954

Sincere calls surely are heard and receive an answer.
We ought to be in a constant state of aspiration, but when we cannot aspire let us pray with the simplicity of a child.
25 July 1954

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