Works of Sri Aurobindo

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September 1, 1914 *

 

      O Mother Divine, with what fervour, what ardent love I came to Thee in Thy deepest consciousness, in Thy high status of sublime love and perfect felicity, and I nestled so close into Thy arms and loved Thee with so intense a love that I became altogether Thyself. Then in the silence of our mute ecstasy a voice from yet profounder depths arose and the voice said, “Turn towards those who have need of thy love.” All the grades of consciousness appeared, all the successive worlds. Some were splendid and luminous, well ordered and clear; there knowledge was resplendent, expression was harmonious and vast, will was potent and invincible. Then the worlds darkened in a multiplicity more and more chaotic, the Energy became violent and the material world obscure and sorrowful. And when in our infinite love we perceived in its entirety the hideous suffering of the world of misery and ignorance, when we saw our children locked in a sombre struggle, flung upon each other by energies that had deviated from their true aim, we willed ardently that the light of Divine Love should be made manifest, a transfiguring force at the centre of these distracted elements. Then, that the will might be yet more powerful and effective, we turned towards Thee, O unthinkable Supreme, and we implored Thy aid. And from the unsounded depths of the Unknown a reply came sublime and formidable and we knew that the earth was saved.  

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September 4, 1914  

 

      Darkness has descended upon the earth, thick, violent, victorious… All is sadness, terror, destruction in the physical world, and the splendour of Thy light of love seems darkened by a veil of mourning….

    O sweet Mother, I merge into Thee in an immense love and an intense supplication to the Lord of all things that HE may show us the way, that HE may trace out for us the path of His work, so that we may tread it boldly.

    Time presses: the divine powers must come, O Lord, to the help of the agonised earth.

    O Mother, sweet Mother, Thou dost clasp all Thy children close to Thy vast breast, and Thy love enfolds them all alike.

    I have become the purifying fire of Thy love. O Lord, silent Unthinkable One, accept the holocaust of this brazier of love, that Thy reign may come, Thy light triumph over darkness and death.

    Manifest Thy power. From day to day, from hour to hour we implore Thee: “O Lord, manifest Thy power!”  

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September 5, 1914  

 

     …“Face the danger!” Thou saidst to me, “why dost thou wish to turn away thy gaze or flee far away from action, flee from the battle, into the deep contemplation of Truth? It is its integral manifestation which must be realised, its victory over all the obstacles of blind ignorance and dark hostility. Look the danger straight in the face and it will vanish before the Power.”

    O Lord, I understood the weakness of this most external nature which is always ready to surrender material things and escape, as a compensation, into a supreme intellectual and spiritual independence. But Thou expectest action from us, and action does not allow such an attitude. It is not enough to triumph in the inner worlds, we must triumph right down to the most material worlds. We must not flee from the difficulty or obstacle, because we have the power to do so by taking refuge in the consciousness where there are no obstacles…. We must look the danger straight in the face with faith in Thy Omnipotence, and Thy Omnipotence will triumph.

    Give me integrally the heart of the fighter, O Lord, and Thy victory is sure.

   “Conquer at any price” should be the present motto. Not because one is attached to the work and its results, not because one needs such an action, not because one is incapable of escaping from all contingences.  

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    But because Thou hast commanded action from us. But because the hour of Thy triumph upon earth has come. But because Thou willest the integral victory.

    And in an infinite love for the world… let us fight!  

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September 6, 1914  

 

      Higher, ever higher! Let us never be satisfied with what is achieved, let us not stop at any realisation, let us march always onwards, ceaselessly, energetically, towards an ever completer manifestation, an ever higher and more total consciousness…. Yesterday’s victory must be only a stepping-stone to the victory of tomorrow, and the power of the day gone by a weakness beside the effectivity to come.

    O Mother Divine, Thy march is triumphal and uninterrupted. He who unites with Thee in integral love journeys unceasingly towards ever vaster horizons, towards an ever completer realisation, leaping from peak to peak in the splendour of Thy light, to the conquest of the marvellous secrets of the Unknown and their integral manifestation.

    O divine Victor, all the earth sings Thy praises, and all forces will obey Thee.

    For the Lord has said: “The hour has come.”

    And all obstacles will be surmounted.  

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September 9, 1914  

 

      The world is divided between two opposite forces struggling for supremacy, and both are equally against Thy law, O Lord; for Thou dost not want either mortal stagnation or blind destruction. It is in a constant, progressive and luminous transformation that Thou expressest Thyself; and it is this we must establish upon earth if we want to manifest Thy will.

    At times our impatience would like to know immediately the means of this manifestation. But our impatience is futile and receives no answer. For the knowledge will come at the opportune moment, at the moment of action.

    Hence it is with the thought at peace and with the realising will calm and strong that we await the sign Thou wilt give us.  

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September 10, 1914  

 

      Thy love is like a rising tide, invading the entire being and breaking upon all things. Lord, Thy love will penetrate all hearts and kindle in them the divine flame which never goes out, the divine beauty which does not fade, and, above every contrast and contradiction, it will establish in all that unchanging Bliss which is the supreme good.

    Thy light is like a rising tide, invading the entire being and breaking upon all things. Lord, Thy light will penetrate all thoughts and create in them that sovereign clarity which does not waver, the divine clear-sightedness which never errs, and, above every contrast and contradiction, it will establish in all the splendour of Thy knowledge which is the supreme wisdom.

    Thy force is like a rising tide, invading the entire being and breaking upon all things. Lord, Thy force will penetrate all life and create in it the effective strength which never fails, the divine power which is invincible, and, above every contrast and contradiction, it will establish in all Thy mastering energy which is the supreme will.  

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September 13, 1914

  

      With fervour I hail Thee, O divine Mother, and in deep affection identify myself with Thee. United with our divine Mother I turn, O Lord, to Thee, and bow to Thee in mute adoration and in an ardent aspiration identify myself with Thee.

    Then all becomes a marvellous Silence; Being is absorbed in Non-Being, all is suspended, at rest, motionless.

    How shall one express the inexpressible?  

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September 14, 1914  

 

      There is no longer an “I”, no longer an individuality, no longer any personal limits. There is only the immense universe, our sublime Mother, burning with an ardent fire of purification in honour of Thee, O Lord, divine Master, sovereign Will, so that this Will may meet with no farther obstacle in the way of its realisation.

    A mighty canticle of fervent love and exultation arises to Thee, O Lord, all the earth in an inexpressible ecstasy unites with Thee.

    Let Thy potent breath feed the brazier, that it may become ever vaster and more formidable, that all darkness and blind resistance may be absorbed, set ablaze, transfigured into Light in the marvellous purifying flame.

    Oh, the peace-giving splendour of Thy purification!  

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September 16, 1914  

 

      Hearken to the voice that rises, hearken to the chant that is lifted up to hail Thy divine Dawn.

    Let the supreme Law be fulfilled; whether it be existence eternal, universal, or re-absorption into Non- Being matters little. Must one choose between the two? I cannot; in my consciousness there is no longer any preference, only one Will persists – Thine, O Ineffable.

    And all this universe is now only a chant, ever vaster and more harmonious, arising to salute Thy divine Dawn.  

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September 17, 1914  

 

      No longer can any impulse to action come from outside or from any particular world. It is Thou, Lord, who settest all things in motion from the depths of the being, it is Thy will which directs, Thy force which acts; and no longer in the limited field of a small individual consciousness but in the universal field of a consciousness which, in every state of being, is united with the whole. And the being has at once the conscious perception of all universal movements in their complexity and even their confusion, and the silent and perfect peace of Thy sovereign immutability.  

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September 20, 1914  

 

      My pen is mute, for thought is silent, but my heart aspires to Thee, O Lord, uniting Thee with our divine Mother in one love, one veneration. And through Thee the entire being strains towards the Ineffable; beyond Being, beyond the very Silence, that is united with That.  

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September 22, 1914  

 

      O Lord, Thou who art on the threshold of the Unknowable, I greet Thee!

    And is it not Thou greeting Thy own self in the Unthinkable Essence of Being, in its immeasurable depths, and even in its most external realisations? For the Being is Thyself, whatever its mode of existence, and the Unthinkable Eternal is also Thyself in Thy essence. And this integral consciousness Thou hast made ours, so that we may be Thyself, not only in fact but consciously and effectively. And thus all is an interchange of salutations full of love and joyous adoration, in an ardent aspiration of our Mother towards Thee and an infinite and powerful response from Thee to our Mother, and finally from the totality of Thyself to all that is not yet manifested, to all the Unknowable which we shall know more and more, better and better, but which will ever remain the Unknowable.

    In the absolute silence all is, now and eternally; in the universal manifestation all will be in a perpetual becoming.

    In the perfection of consciousness and the integral life, the being sings a canticle of gladness for That which at once is and will be eternally.

    Hail to Thee, Master of the world, art Thou not the intermediary between what is and what will be, even while being simultaneously what is and what will be?

    O marvellous Immensity, perceptible and indefinable at once, in an integral illumination I bow to Thee.  

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September 24, 1914  

 

      How present Thou art in our midst, beloved Mother! It is as if Thou wouldst assure us of Thy complete assistance, as if Thou wouldst show us that the Will which means to manifest through us, has found in us instruments which can realise Its Law, by placing it in complete accordance with Thy present possibilities. The things which seemed most difficult, most improbable, perhaps even most impossible, become wholly realisable, because Thy Presence is our assurance that the material world itself is prepared to manifest the new form of the Will and the Law.

    I greet Thee in the joyful plenitude of perfect harmony – Thee, Thy Principle and Thy works.  

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September 25, 1914 *

 

      O divine and adorable Mother, with Thy help what is there that is impossible? The hour of realisations is near and Thou hast assured us of Thy aid that we may perform integrally the supreme Will.

    Thou hast accepted us as fit intermediaries between the unthinkable realities and the relativities of the physical world, and Thy constant presence in our midst is a token of Thy active collaboration.

    The Lord has willed and Thou dost execute:

    A new Light shall break upon the earth.

    A new world shall be born,

    And the things that were promised shall be fulfilled.  

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 September 28, 1914 *

 

      My pen is mute to chant Thy presence, O Lord; yet art Thou like a king who has taken entire possession of his kingdom. Thou art there, organising, putting all in place, developing and increasing every province. Thou awakenest those that were asleep. Thou makest active those that were sinking towards inertia; Thou art building a harmony out of the whole. A day will come when the harmony shall be achieved and all the country shall be by its very life the bearer of Thy word and Thy manifestation.

    But meanwhile my pen is mute to chant Thy praise.  

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September 30, 1914  

 

      Lord, Thou hast broken down the barriers of thought and the realisation has appeared in all its amplitude. Not to forget any of its aspects, to carry out their accomplishment at the same time, without neglecting any of them, not to allow any limitation, any restriction to come in the way and delay our march, this is what Thou wilt help us to do through Thy supreme intervention. And all those who are Thyself, manifesting Thee in the perfection of some particular activity, will also be our collaborators, for such is Thy Will.

    Our Divine Mother is with us and has promised us identification with the supreme and total consciousness – from the unfathomable depths to the most external world of the senses. And in all these domains Agni assures us of the help of his purifying flame, destroying all obstacles, kindling the energies, stimulating the will, so that the realisation may be hastened. Indra is with us for the perfection of the illumination in our knowledge; and the divine Soma has transformed us in his infinite, sovereign, marvellous love, bringer of the supreme beatitudes….    

     O divine and sweet Mother, I bow to Thee with a rapt, ineffable tenderness, and with infinite trust.

    O splendid Agni, Thou who art so living within me, I call Thee, I invoke Thee that Thou mayst be more living still, that Thy brazier may become more immense, Thy flames higher and more powerful, that

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the entire being may now be only an ardent burning, a purifying pyre.

    O Indra, I venerate and admire Thee, I implore Thee that Thou mayst unite with me, that Thou mayst definitively break down all the barriers of thought, that Thou mayst bestow upon me the divine knowledge.

    *O Thou, Sublime Love, to whom I gave never any other name, but who art so wholly the very substance of my being, Thou whom I feel vibrant and alive in the least of my atoms even as in the infinite universe and beyond, Thou who breathest in every breath, movest in the heart of all activities, art radiant through all that is of good will and hidden behind all sufferings, Thou for whom I cherish a cult without limit which grows ever more intense, permit that I may with more and more reason feel that I am Thyself wholly.

    And Thou, O Lord, who art all this made one and much more, O sovereign Master, extreme limit of our thought, who standest for us at the threshold of the Unknown, make rise from that Unthinkable some new splendour, some possibility of a loftier and more integral realisation, that Thy work may be accomplished and the universe take one step farther towards the sublime Identity, the supreme Manifestation.

    And now my pen falls mute and I adore Thee in silence.* 

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