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February 1, I914
I TURN towards Thee who art everywhere and within ail and outside ail, intimate essence of all and remote from ail, centre of condensation for ail energies, creator of conscious individualities: 1 turn towards Thee and salute Thee, O liberator of the worlds, and, identified with Thy divine love, I contemplate the earth and its creatures, this mass of substance put into forms perpetually destroyed and renewed, this swarming mass of aggregates which are dissolved as soon as constituted, of beings who imagine that they are conscient and permanent individualities and who are as ephemeral as a breath, always alike or almost the same, in their diversity, repeating indefinitely the same desires, the same tendencies, the same appetites, the same ignorant errors. But from time to tune Thy sublime light shines in» a being and radiates through him over the world, and then a little wisdom, a little knowledge, a little disinterested faith, heroism and compassion penetrates men’s hearts, transforms their minds and sets free a few elements from that sorrowful and implacable wheel of existence to which their blind ignorance subjects them. But how much greater a splendour than ail that have gone before, how marvellous a glory and light would be needed to draw these beings out of the horrible aberration in which they are plunged by the life of cities and so-called civilisations! What a formidable Page – 47 and, at the same rime, divinely sweet puissance would be needed to turn aside ail these wills from the bitter, struggle for their selfish, mean and foolish satisfactions, to snatch them from this vortex which hides death behind its treacherous glitter, and turn them towards Thy conquering harmony! O Lord, eternal Master, enlighten us, guide our steps, show us the way towards the realisation of Thy: law, towards the accomplishment of Thy work. 1 adore Thee in silence and listen to Thee in a. religious concentration.
O LORD, 1 would be a love so living that it can fill every solitude and assuage every sorrow. O Lord, 1 cry to Thee: make me a burning brazier which consumes ail suffering and transforms it into a glad light pouring its rays into the hearts of all !… Grant my prayer: Transform me into a brazier of pure love and limitless compassion.
WHAT can be said except the same identical aspiration : the law of divine love, the purest Page -48 expression of what we can conceive of Thee, must realise itself more and more upon the earth and triumph over all ignorant egoism; we must become more and more perfectly the faithful servants of that power of love and light, live in it and by it; it must be that alone which lives and acts in us. O Lord, become the sovereign Master of our lives and dispel ail the darknesses which can still prevent us from seeing and constantly communing with Thee. Liberate us from ail ignorance, liberate us from ourselves that we may open wide the doors of Thy glorious manifestation.
FOR him who is integrally united with Thee, and therefore constantly conscious of what most perfectly expresses Thee in act under given circumstances, no external rule is necessary. The principles of life are in sum nothing but makeshifts meant to diminish in the measure of the possible the ignorance of those who do not yet know Thee, and to remedy, as well as one can, the moments of blindness and obscurity .of those who have only an intermittent contact with Thee. To make rules for oneself and to make them as general, that is to say, as supple as possible, is good, but on condition that they are considered as no more Page – 49 than artificial lights which should be employed only when the full and natural light of the communion with Thee is lacking. Moreover, a constant revision of these rules is imperative; for they can only be the expression of a present knowledge and must necessarily gain by every increase, every improvement of knowledge. That is why when meditating on the attitude which one should have towards ail who approach us, so as not only to abstain from doing them any harm, but above ail to strive to do them the greatest good possible—and that means to help them best in making the supreme discovery, the discovery of Thee in them —it seemed to me that no rule was vast and supple enough to adapt itself to Thy law, the sole true way was to be always in communion with Thee, so that any solution might be perfectly adapted to the infinite diversity of circumstances.
O LORD, sweet Master of love, Thou makest us emerge out of darkness that we may awake to consciousness, who deliverest us from suffering to make us commune in Thy eternal peace, every morning my aspiration rises ardently towards Thee and 1 implore that my being integrally awakened to the knowledge of Thee, may live only by Thee, in Thee Page – 50 and for Thee, I implore that more and more perfectly identified with Thee, I may become nothing else than Thou manifested in word and act; I implore that all those who approach us, all those who are connected with us, may awaken to the full knowledge of Thy divine presence. Thy sovereign law, and let themselves be definitively transformed by it; I implore that all men on earth may feel, inspite of their harsh suffering and in it, the sublime consolation dawn of Thy light and Thy love and the marvellous relief of Thy peace; I implore that all substance more and more penetrated with Thy sovereign forces may less and less oppose to Thee the resistance of blind ignorance, and that triumphing over all obscurity. Thou mayst transfigure definitively, integrally, this world of struggle and anguish into a world of harmony and peace. So that Thy law may be accomplished.
February 9, 1914
WHATEVER may be the names they give Thee, O Lord, the elite of humanity athirst for an absolute, ardently seek Thee. Even those who seem to move farthest away from Thee, even those who are solely occupied with themselves, are they not seeking an absolute in sensation, an absolute of satisfaction, and inspite of its vanity, that seeking also can one Page – 51 day lead towards Thee, Thou art too much in the; centre, in the heart of everything for even the worst egoisms themselves not to be transformed by The& into aspirations… The only thing which must be feared and shunned is the inertia of inconscience, of blind and heavy ignorance. That state is quite at the nethermost of the infinite ladder which leads to Thee, And all Thy effort consists in drawing the substance from this first obscurity so as to make it be born into consciousness. Passion itself is preferable to inconscience. We must therefore constantly march to the conquest of this universal bedrock of inconscience, and making our organism the instrument, transform. it little by little into luminous consciousness. Oh! Lord, sweet Master of love. Thou whom I see so living, so conscious in all, I adore Thee with a limitless devotion.
WITH peace in the heart and light in the mind, we feel Thee, O Lord, so living in us that we await events with serenity, knowing that Thy way is everywhere since we carry it in our being, and that in all circumstances we can be heralds of Thy word and servant of Thy work. With a calm and pure devotion we salute Thee and we recognise Thee as the only reality of our being. Page – 52 February 11, 1914
AS soon as we rise above the perception of contingencies, as soon as we identify our consciousness with Thy supreme consciousness, as soon as we thus enter into that consciousness which I cannot define otherwise than as absolute Knowledge, how all problems regarding what we should or should not do or concerning all the resolutions to be taken, appear easy, a little childish. The only thing important from the standpoint of the eternal work, is to become conscious of Thee, to be identified with Thee and to maintain constantly this conscious identification. But in what concerns the best use to be made of our physical organism. Thy mode of manifestation upon earth, it is enough, when Thou alone art conscious in us, to turn our regard towards this body to know indisputably what is the tiling it can do best, what is the activity which will employ most completely all its energies. And without attaching any great importance to this activity, to this quite relative utilisation, we can take, without any difficulty, without any inner discussion, the decisions which, to the outer consciousness, appear most daring, most hazardous. How all is simple to him who sees things from the height of Thy eternity! I salute Thee, O Lord, with a glad and confident devotion. May the peace of Thy divine love be on all beings! Page – 53
WHEN conscious with Thy supreme consciousness, we consider all terrestrial circumstances we perceive all their relativity and we say, "Doing this or that has after all no great importance, yet such and such a way of action will be the best utilisation of such and such a faculty or temperament. All actions whatever they may be, even the most contradictory in appearance, can be the expression of Thy law in the measure in which they are imbued with the consciousness of that law, which is not a law of practical application capable of being translated into principles or rules in the ordinary human consciousness, but which is a law of attitude, of a constant and general consciousness, something which is not at all expressed by formulas but which is lived." But as soon as we fall back into the ordinary consciousness, nothing should any longer be treated lightly, with indifference, the smallest circumstances, the smallest acts have a great importance and should be seriously considered; for we should at every moment strive to do that which will facilitate the identification of our consciousness with the eternal consciousness, and carefully avoid all that can be an obstacle to this identification. It is then that the rules of conduct having at their base a perfect personal disinterestedness should assume all their value. Page – 54 With peace in the heart, light in the mind, hope of certitude in all my being, I salute Thee, O Lord, divine Master of eternal love. Thou art our reason of existence and our goal.
February 13, 1914
IN the silence of an intense concentration I would unite my consciousness with Thy absolute consciousness, I would identify myself with Thee, O sovereign Lord of our being, divine Master of love, so that Thy law may become perceptible to us and clear and we may live only by it and for it. How all is beautiful, great, simple and calm in the hours when my thought takes its flight towards Thee and unites with Thee! And from the day when it will be possible for us to maintain constantly this supreme clairvoyance, how we shall march in life with steps at once aerial and assured, above all obstacles and without any hesitation. For, I know by experience, all doubt, all hesitation ceases from the very moment in which we are conscious of Thy law, and if we clearly perceive the extreme relativity of all human action, we know at the same time, with exactitude and precision, what is, in relation to out body, to our means of acting, the action that is the least relative…and the obstacles as if by enchantment but very really disappear. All our efforts, O Lord, Page – 55 will henceforth tend more and more constantly towards the realisation of this marvellous state. May the peace of Thy certitude awaken in all hearts!
PEACE, peace upon all the earth! May all escape from the ordinary consciousness and be delivered from the attachment for material things; may they awake to the knowledge of Thy divine presence, unite themselves with Thy supreme consciousness and taste the plenitude of peace that springs from it. Lord, Thou art the sovereign Master of our being. Thy law is our law, and with all our strength we aspire to identify our consciousness with Thy eternal consciousness, that we may accomplish Thy sublime work in each thing and at every moment. Lord, deliver us from all care for contingencies, deliver us from the ordinary outlook on things. Grant that we may henceforth see only with Thy eyes and act only by Thy will. Transform us into living torches of Thy divine love. With reverence, with devotion, in a joyful consecration of my whole being, I give myself, O Lord, to the fulfilment of Thy law. Peace, peace upon all the earth! Page – 56
O THOU, sole Reality, Light of our light and Life of our life. Love supreme. Saviour of the world, grant that more and more I may be perfectly awakened to the awareness of Thy constant presence. Let all my acts conform to Thy law; let there be no difference between my will and thine. Extricate me from the illusory consciousness of my mind, from its world of phantasies; let me identify my consciousness with the Absolute Consciousness, for that art Thou. Give me constancy in the will to attain the end, give me firmness and energy and the courage which shakes off all torpor and lassitude. Give me the peace of perfect disinterestedness, the peace that makes Thy presence felt and Thy intervention effective, the peace that is ever victorious over all bad will and every obscurity. Grant, I implore Thee, that all in my being may be identified with Thee and may I be nothing else than a flaming torch of love, one utterly awakened to Thy supreme action of love.
February 16, 1914
O SUPREME, sole Reality, true Consciousness, permanent Unity, sovereign repose of perfect light, with what intensity I aspire to be no Page – 57 more conscious of anything else than Thee, to be no more anything else than Thou. This incessant whirl of unreal personalities, this multiplicity, this complexity, this excessive inextricable confusion of conflicting thoughts, struggling tendencies, battling desires, appears to me more and more woeful. We must emerge out of this sea in fury, land on the serenity of Thy peaceful shore. Give me the energy of an indefatigable swimmer. I would conquer Thee, whatever may be the efforts necessary for that…O Lord, ignorance must be overthrown, illusion dispelled, and this sorrowful world must come out of its frightful nightmare, end its terrible dream, to awake at last to the consciousness of Thy sole Reality. O immutable Peace, deliver men from ignorance, may Thy full and pure Light reign everywhere!
O LORD, how ardently my aspiration rises towards Thee: give us the full consciousness of Thy law, the constant perception of Thy will, so that our decision may be Thy decision and our life may be solely consecrated to Thy service and as perfect an expression as possible of Thy inspiration. Page – 58 O Lord, dispel all darkness, all blindness, and may every one possess the calm certitude which is brought by Thy divine illumination!
February 19, 1914
O LORD, be always present in my thought! Not that I ask it of Thee, for I know that Thy Presence is constant and sovereign, I know that all that we see and all that escapes our sight is only what it is because of Thy marvellous intervention, because of Thy divine law of love; but I say and I say it again, I implore, in order to avoid forgetfulness and negligence. O! To become Thy living love so completely as to transfigure and illumine everything; so completely as to generate in all peace and benevolent satisfaction. O! To become Thy divine love clairvoyant and pure! O! To be that everywhere and always.
THE only thing important, the only thing that counts, is to will more and more to be identified with Thee, to unite our consciousness with Thy absolute consciousness, to be more and more a peaceful, Page – 59 calm, disinterested, strong servitor of Thy sovereign law. Thy will of love. O Lord, give me that peace of perfect disinterested- ness, that peace which makes Thy Presence effective, Thy intervention efficacious, that peace which is ever victorious over all bad wills, over all darknesses. O Lord, very humbly, I pray in order that I may be equal to the height of my task, that nothing in me, conscious or not, may betray Thee by neglecting to serve Thy sacred mission. In a silent devotion, I salute Thee.
EACH day, each moment, must be an occasion for a new and completer consecration; and not one of those enthusiastic and trepidant consecrations, overactive, full of the illusion of the work, but a profound and silent consecration which need not be apparent, but which penetrates and transfigures every action. Our mind, solitary and at peace, must rest always in Thee, and from this pure summit it must have the exact perception of realities, of the sole and eternal Reality, behind unstable and fugitive appearances. O Lord, my heart is purified from trouble and anguish; it is firm and calm, and it sees Thee in everything; and whatever the outer actions, whatever the Page – 60 circumstances the future has in store for us, I know that Thou alone livest, that Thou alone art real in Thy immutable permanence, and it is in Thee that we live. May there be peace upon all the earth.
WHEN I was a child—about the age of thirteen and for about a year—every night as soon as I was in bed, it seemed to me that I came out of my body and rose straight up above the house, then above the town, very high. I saw myself then clad in a magnificent golden robe, longer than myself, and as I rose, that robe lengthened, spreading in a circle around m& to form, as it were, an immense roof over the town. Then I would see coming out from all sides men, women, children, old men, sick men, unhappy men; They gathered under the outspread robe, imploring help, recounting their miseries, their sufferings, their pains. In reply, the robe, supple and living, stretched out to them individually, and as soon as they touched it, they were consoled or healed, and entered back into their body happier and stronger than they had ever been before coming out of it. Nothing appeared to me more beautiful, nothing made me more happy, and all the activities of the day seemed to me dull and colourless, without real life, in comparison with this Page – 61 activity of the night which was for me the true life Often as I thus rose, I would see on my left an old man, silent and immobile, who looked at me with a benevolent affection and encouraged me by his presence. This old man, dressed in a long robe of sombre violet, was the personification—I knew later—of him who is called the Man of Sorrows. Now the profound experience, the almost ineffable reality is translated in my brain by other notions which I can define thus: Many a time during the day and in the night it seems to me that I,—that is to say, my consciousness is wholly concentrated in my heart, which is no longer an organ, not even a feeling, but the divine Love, impersonal, eternal; being this Love, I feel myself living in the centre of everything Upon the whole earth, and at the same time it seems to me that I am stretching out immense, infinite arms and enveloping with a limitless tenderness all beings clasped, grouped, nestled upon my breast vaster than the universe… Words are poor and clumsy, O divine Master, and mental translations are always childish…But my aspiration for Thee is constant, and, to tell the truth, it is very often Thyself and Thou alone who livest in this body, an imperfect means of Thy manifestation. May all beings be happy in the peace of Thy illumination! Page – 62 February 23, 1914
GRANT, O Lord, that we may be more and more conscious of Thy law; that is to say " one " with it in order to facilitate its manifestation in every thing. O Lord, grant that I may become master of my vagrant thoughts, that living in Thee, I may perceive life only through Thee, and that the illusion of the reality of Matter may come to an end, to be replaced. by a perception conforming more to Thy eternal reality. Let me live constantly in Thy divine Love, so that it may be that which lives in me and by me. Grant that I may be a useful and clairvoyant collaboratrix and that all in me may promote the plenitude of Thy manifestation. I know all my imperfections, my difficulties, my weaknesses, I feel where I am ignorant, but I put all my trust in Thee and I bow down before Thee with a silent devotion.
February 25-26, 1914
ONE who would serve Thee worthily should not be attached to anything, not even to the activities which enable him to commune more consciously with Thee… But if, in consequence of a mass of Page – 63 circumstances, material things take a greater place in life than usual, we must know how not to let ourselves be absorbed by them, to keep in the depth of the heart the clear vision of Thy presence, and live constantly in that serene peace which nothing can trouble. O, to do everything seeing Thee alone everywhere, and thus to soar above the accomplished act, without any claim which holds us prisoners to the earth, coming to burden the flight. O Lord, grant that the offering I make of my being may be integral and effective. With a respectful and loving devotion, I bow down before Thee, O ineffable Essence, inconceivable Reality, without the name.
O LORD, I foretaste the infinite happiness which is the share of those whose life is wholly consecrated to Thee. And this does not depend upon outer- circumstances, but upon the state of the being and its more or less of illumination. A perfect consecration to Thy law cannot but bring about modifications in the mass of circumstances, but it is not they that allow and express this perfect consecration. I mean to say that it is not in given circumstances, always the same for all, that Thy law is manifested; Page – 64 far every one this manifestation is different according to his temperament, that is to say, according to the mission which is for the time being assigned to him. in the physical life. But what is invariable and general, is the happy peace the luminous and immutable serenity of all those who are solely consecrated to Thee, who have no longer in them any darkness, any ignorance, any egoistic attachment, any bad will. O, may all awake to this divine peace. Page – 65 |