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Karma (Works) Fourth Period of Commentaries (1969 -1970) Karma (Works)
Self-development and spiritual aspiration enable one to master one’s karma. 25 November 1969 To learn is good. To become is better. 25 November 1969
206 – God leads man while man is misleading himself; the higher nature watches over the stumblings of his lower mortality; this is the tangle and contradiction out of which we have to escape into the self-unity to which alone is possible a clear knowledge and a faultless action.
The only safety in life, the only way to escape from the consequences of past errors, is an inner development leading to conscious union with the Divine Presence; the only effective guide, the Truth of our being and of all beings. 25 November 1969
207 – That thou shouldst have pity on creatures is well, but not well, if thou art a slave to thy pity. Be a slave to nothing except to God, not even to His most luminous angels.
For those who want to live according to Truth, the only way is to become conscious of the Divine Presence and to live exclusively according to Its Will. This is the only way to escape from evil and suffering, the only way to be always in peace, light and joy. 26 November 1969 Page – 277 208 – Beatitude is God’s aim for humanity; get this supreme good for thyself first that thou mayst distribute it entirely to thy fellow-beings.
209 – He who acquires for himself alone, acquires ill though he may call it heaven and virtue.
Man has a right to beatitude since that is what he was created for. But any egocentric movement is the very opposite of this beatitude; so that if you seek it for yourself alone, you repel it instead of attracting it. By self-forgetfulness, by self-giving, without asking anything in return, by merging, so to say, into this beatitude so that it may shine upon all, you find the inner peace and joy which never leave you. 29 November 1969 What is the difference between “self-forgetfulness” and “self-giving”?
Self-forgetfulness may simply be a passive state resulting from a total lack of egoism. Self-giving, which takes its full value when it is directed towards the Divine, is an active movement which includes love in its purest and highest form. A total self-giving to the Divine is the true purpose of existence. 30 November 1969
210 – In my ignorance I thought anger could be noble and vengeance grandiose; but now when I watch Achilles in his epic fury, I see a very fine baby in a very fine rage and I am pleased and amused.
211 – Power is noble, when it overtops anger; destruction Page - 278 is grandiose, but it loses caste when it proceeds from vengeance. Leave these things, for they belong to a lower humanity.
Anger and vengeance belong to a lower humanity, the humanity of yesterday and not of tomorrow. 1 December 1969
212 – Poets make much of death and external afflictions; but the only tragedies are the soul’s failures and the only epic man’s triumphant ascent towards godhead.
Usually man is not afflicted with the only thing truly tragic, the failure to find one’s soul and to live according to its law.¹ In truth, the only thing that is truly tragic is not to become conscious of one’s soul, the psychic being, and not to be entirely guided by it in one’s life. To die before having found one’s soul and lived according to its law, that is the true failure. And the true epic, the true glory is to find the Divine in oneself and to live according to His law. 3 December 1969
213 – The tragedies of the heart and the body are the weeping of children over their little griefs and their broken toys. Smile within thyself, but comfort the children; join also, if thou canst, in their play.
It is the narrowness of the human consciousness that makes tragedies out of events which for the Divine Consciousness are only movements in the general evolution. But even when one sees that, one can and must keep a profound sympathy for those who are still living in the throes of ignorance. 4 December 1969 ¹ This sentence was in English in the original. Page – 279 214 – “There is always something abnormal and eccentric about men of genius.” And why not ? For genius itself is an abnormal birth and out of man’s ordinary centre.
215 – Genius is Nature’s first attempt to liberate the imprisoned god out of her human mould; the mould has to suffer in the process. It is astonishing that the cracks are so few and unimportant.
Once a man becomes conscious of the Divine and unites with Him, he certainly becomes abnormal to ordinary eyes, for he no longer has the weaknesses that make up ordinary human nature. But fortunately for him, by the very fact of his inner realisation, he loses man’s habit of boasting and is thus able to avoid the ill will of others.
5 December 1969
216 – Nature sometimes gets into a fury with her own resistance, then she damages the brain in order to free the inspiration; for in this effort the equilibrium of the average material brain is her chief opponent. Pass over the madness of such and profit by their inspiration.
It is indeed wise to look at everything with the calm smile of perfect trust. For, with his present consciousness, man can hardly understand the aims of the Supreme Lord. 7 December 1969 Page – 280 217 – Who can bear Kali rushing into the system in her fierce force and burning godhead ? Only the man whom Krishna already possesses.
This is a charming and most expressive way of saying that only the conscious Divine Presence is capable of mastering and conquering all violence. 8 December 1969 218 – Hate not the oppressor, for, if he is strong, thy hate increases his force of resistance; if he is weak, thy hate was needless.
219 – Hatred is a sword of power, but its edge is always double. It is like the Kritya¹ of the ancient magicians which, if baulked of its prey, returned in fury to devour its sender.
220 – Love God in thy opponent, even while thou strikest him; so shall neither have hell for his portion.
221 – Men talk of enemies, but where are they? I only see wrestlers of one party or the other in the great arena of the universe.
All this is written to awaken mankind to the sense of its own unity. When one has become conscious of this Unity and when one sees the Divine in all beings, it is easy to feel as Sri Aurobindo recommends. 9 December 1969 ¹ Magic process Page – 281 222 – The saint and the angel are not the only divinities; admire also the Titan and the Giant.
223 – The old writings call the Titans the elder gods. So they still are; nor is any god entirely divine unless there is hidden in him also a Titan.
224 – If I cannot be Rama, then I would be Ravana; for he is the dark side of Vishnu.¹
This means that sweetness without strength and goodness without power are incomplete and cannot totally express the Divine. I could say in keeping with the kind of image used by Sri Aurobindo, that the charity and generosity of a converted Asura are infinitely more effective than those of an innocent angel. 11 December 1969 225 – Sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice always, but for the sake of God and humanity, not for the sake of sacrifice.
226 – Selfishness kills the soul; destroy it. But take care that your altruism does not kill the souls of others.
227 – Very usually, altruism is only the sublimest form of selfishness.
How can altruism kill the soul of others?
By helping others materially (altruism), if at the same time you want to impose your own viewpoint on them, you will kill their
¹ Rama was an avatar or incarnation of Vishnu; Ravana was a Titan (Asura), mortal enemy of Rama. Page – 282 soul, because moral and social rules can be no substitute for the inner law which each one must receive from his soul. 13 December 1969 228 – He who will not slay when God bids him, works in the world an incalculable havoc.
229 – Respect human life as long as you can; but respect more the life of humanity.
230 – Men slay out of uncontrollable anger, hatred or vengeance; they shall suffer the rebound now or hereafter; or they slay to serve a selfish end, coldly; God shall not pardon them. If thou slay, first let thy soul have known death for a reality and seen God in the smitten, the stroke and the striker.
In what kind of circumstances does God give the command to slay?
This is a question I cannot answer, because God has never asked me to slay. 14 December 1969
231 – Courage and love are the only indispensable virtues; even if all the others are eclipsed or fall asleep, these two will save the soul alive.
232 – Meanness and selfishness are the only sins that I find it difficult to pardon; yet they alone are almost universal. Therefore these also must not be hated in others, but in ourselves annihilated. Page – 283 233 – Nobleness and generosity are the soul’s ethereal firmament; without them, one looks at an insect in a dungeon.
234 – Let not thy virtues be such as men praise or reward, but such as make for thy perfection and God in thy nature demands of thee.
Could you give me your definitions of the following words?
1) Courage and love 2) Meanness and selfishness 3) Nobleness and generosity.
1)Courage is the total absence of fear in any form. 2) Love is self-giving without asking anything in return. 3) 3) Meanness is a weakness that calculates and demands from others the virtues one does not possess oneself. 4) 4) Selfishness is to put oneself at the centre of the universe and to want everything to exist for one’s own satisfaction. 5) Nobleness is to refuse all personal calculation. 6) 6) Generosity is to find one’s own satisfaction in the satisfaction of others. 15 December 1969 235 – Altruism, duty, family, country, humanity are the prisons of the soul when they are not its instruments.
236 – Our country is God the Mother; speak not evil of her unless thou canst do it with love and tenderness.
237 – Men are false to their country for their own Page – 284 profit; yet they go on thinking they have a right to turn in horror from the matricide.
How can “altruism, duty, family, country, humanity” become true instruments of the soul?
The soul belongs to the Divine, and owes obedience and service to the Divine alone. If the Divine commands it to work for family, country or humanity, then it is all right and it can do so without being imprisoned. If the command does not come from the Divine, to serve these things is only to obey social and moral conventions. 17 December 1969 238 – Break the moulds of the past, but keep safe its gains and its spirit, or else thou hast no future.
239 – Revolutions hew the past to pieces and cast it into a cauldron, but what has emerged is the old Aeson with a new visage.
240 – The world has had only half a dozen successful revolutions and most even of these were very like failures; yet it is by great and noble failures that humanity advances.
What does Sri Aurobindo mean by great and noble failures?
The greatness and nobleness of an event do not depend on material success, but on the feelings which inspire it and the goal which men have pursued. It is not success that confers greatness but the motive of action and the nobleness of the feelings which inspire it. 18 December 1969 Page – 285 |