Message of the day - New Year Messages by The Mother

1933 

Let the birth of the new year be the new birth of our consciousness.

Leaving the past far behind us, let us run towards a luminous future.

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1934

Lord, the year is dying and our gratitude bows down to Thee.

Lord, the year is reborn, our prayer rises up to Thee.

Let it be for us also the dawn of a new life.

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1935

We surrender to Thee this evening all that is artificial and false, all that pretends and imitates. Let it disappear with the year that is at an end. May only what is perfectly true, sincere, straight and pure subsist in the year that is beginning.

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1936

O Lord! Grant that this year may be the year of Thy Victory.We aspire for a perfect faithfulness which would make us worthy of it.

“At the very moment when everything seems to go from bad to worse, it is then that we must make a supreme act of faith and know that the Grace will never fail us.”

I mean, act according to our inner conviction regardless of all consequences and keep our faith unshaken in spite of the apparent so-called proofs to the contrary.

Surely, all this comes to teach us to have a quiet faith that what is truly needed we shall have and that, for the rest, we must not bother.

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In the final analysis everything really depends on the Divine Grace and we should look at the future with confidence and serenity, progressing at the same time as quickly as we can.

-The Mother

Message of the Day: He is our only help

Remember always the Divine and all you do will be an expression of the Divine Presence. In activity and in silence, in taking and in giving, always the glad remembrance of Thee.  All our thoughts, all our sentiments will move towards the Divine as a river towards the sea. Let all thoughts, all feelings, all actions, all hopes be turned towards the Divine and concentrated on Him. He is our only help and our only safety.   Yes, my child, it is quite true that the Divine is the sole refuge— with Him is absolute safety. - Words of the Mother

Message of the Day: Where does desire come from? ஆசை எங்கிருந்து எழுகிறது ?

Where does desire come from? The Buddha said that it comes from ignorance. It is more or less that. It is something in the being which fancies that it needs something else in order to be satisfied. And the proof that it is ignorance is that when one has satisfied it, one no longer cares for it, at least ninety-nine and a half times out of a hundred.   (நம்மில் இருக்கும் ஏதோ ஒரு எண்ணத்தை திருப்தி செய்வதற்காக எழும் எண்ணமே ஆசை. ) I believe, right at its origin it is an obscure need for growth,   as in the lowest forms of life love is changed into the need to swallow, absorb, become joined with another thing. This is the most primitive form of love in the lowest forms of life, it is to take and absorb. Well,the need to take is desire.So perhaps if we went back far enough into the last depths of the inconscience, we could say that the origin of desire is love. It is love in its obscurest and most unconscious form. It is a need to become joined with something, an attraction, a need to take, you see.   Take for instance... you see something which is—which seems to you or is—very beautiful,very harmonious,very pleasant; if you have the true consciousness, you experience this joy of seeing, of being in a conscious contact with something very beautiful, very harmonious, and then that’s all. It stops there. You have the joy of it—that such a thing exists, you see. And this is quite common among artists who have a sense of beauty. For example, an artist may see a beautiful creature and have the joy of observing the beauty,grace,harmony of movement and all that, and that’s all.It stops there.He is perfectly happy,perfectly satisfied, because he has seen something beautiful. An ordinary consciousness, altogether ordinary, dull like all ordinary consciousness—as soon as it sees something beautiful, whether it be an object or a person, hop! “I want it!” It is deplorable, you know. And into the bargain it doesn’t even have the joy of the beauty, because it has the anguish of desire. It misses that and has nothing in exchange, because there is nothing pleasant in desiring anything. It only puts you in an unpleasant state, that’s all.  The Buddha has said that there is a greater joy in overcoming a desire than in satisfying it. It is an experience everybody can have and one that is truly very interesting, very interesting.   There is a kind of inner communion with the psychic being which takes place when one willingly gives up a desire, and because of this one feels a much greater joy than if he had satisfied his desire. Besides, most usually, almost without exception, when one satisfies a desire it always leaves a kind of bitter taste somewhere.  There is not one satisfied desire which does not give a kind of bitterness; as when one has eaten too sugary a sweet it fills your mouth with bitterness. It is like that.You must try sincerely. Naturally you must not pretend to give up desire and keep it in a corner, because then one becomes very unhappy. You must do it sincerely. (ஆசைகளை விட்டுவிட்டோம் என்று எண்ணிக் கொண்டு, மனதில் அதற்கு ஓர் இடத்தை அளிக்காதீர்கள். அது உங்களுக்கு மகிழ்ச்சியை தராது. ஆசையை விடுவது என்பதனை உண்மையாகச் செய்ய வேண்டும்.)

Message of the Day - How to get rid of unpleasent thoughts?

Mother, at times unpleasant thoughts come and disturb us. How can we get rid of them? There are several methods. Generally—but it depends on people —generally,the easiest way is to think of something else.That is, to concentrate one’s attention upon something that has nothing to do with that thought, has no connection with that thought, like reading or some work—generally something creative,some creative work. For instance, those who write, while they are writing (let us take simply a novelist), while he is writing, all other thoughts are gone, for he is concentrated on what he is doing. When he finishes writing, if he has no control, the other thoughts will return. But precisely when a thought assails you, one can try to do some creative work; for example, the scientist could do some research work, a special study to discover something, something that is very absorbing; that is the easiest way. Naturally, those who have begun to control their thought can make a movement of rejection, push aside the thought as one would a physical object. But that is more difficult and asks for a much greater mastery. If one can manage it, it is more active, in the sense that if you reject that movement, that thought, if you chase it off effectively and constantly or almost repeatedly, finally it does not come any more. But in the other case, it can always return. That makes two methods. The third means is to be able to bring down a sufficiently great light from above which will be the “denial” in the deeper sense;that is,if the thought which comes is something dark (and especially if it comes from the subconscient or inconscient and is sustained by instinct), if one can bring down from above the light of a true knowledge, a higher power, and put that light upon the thought, one can manage to dissolve it or enlighten or transform it—this is the supreme method. This is still a little more difficult. But it can be done,and if one does it ,one is cured —not only does the thought not come back but the very cause is removed. The first step is to think of something else (but in this way, you know, it will be indefinitely repeated); the second is tofight;and the third is to transform.When one has reached the third step, not only is one cured but one has made a permanent progress.

                       

Message of the Day : It is He, the perfect spirit who fills all

THE UNIVERSE: MANIFESTATION OF THE DIVINE Do not forget even for a moment that all this has been created by Him out of Himself.  Not only is He present in everything, but also He is everything. The differences are only in expression and manifestation. If you forget this you lose everything.   It is He, the perfect spirit who fills all. The perfect spirit fills all. It is He who fills all. Who is He? The perfect spirit. It is He, the perfect spirit who fills all.   It is the Lord who sets all in motion from the depths of the being; it is His will that directs, His force that acts.  At the service of the Divine we are; it is the Divine who decides, ordains and puts in motion,directs and accomplishes the action.

                       

Message of the Day - How can one have the guidance from the Divine, according to one’s need?

Q: Sweet Mother, if one needs something, like a mother’s affection or some help, how can one feel it in the Divine, according to one’s need?   If, for example, one wants to know something or one needs guidance, or something else, how can one have it from the Divine, according to one’s need? The Mother's Answer : By asking the Divine for it. If you do not ask Him, how can you have it? If you turn to the Divine and have full trust and ask Him, you will get what you need—not necessarily what you imagine you need; but the true thing you need, you will get. But you must ask Him for it. You must make the experiment sincerely; you must not endeavour to get it by all sorts of external means and then expect the Divine to give it to you, without even having asked Him.     Indeed, when you want somebody to give you something, you ask him for it, don’t you? And why do you expect the Divine to give it to you without your having asked Him for it? In the ordinary consciousness the movement is just the opposite.  You assume something, saying, “I need this, I need this relationship, I need this affection, I need this knowledge, etc. Well, the Divine ought to give it to me, otherwise He is not the Divine.” That is to say, you reverse the problem completely.  First of all, you say, “I need.” Do you know whether you truly need it or whether it is only an impression you have or a desire or quite an ignorant movement? First point: you know nothing about it.  Second point: it is precisely your own will you want to impose upon the Divine, telling Him, “I need this.” And then you don’t even ask Him for it: “Give it to me.” You say, “I need it. Therefore,since I need it, it must come to me,quite naturally, spontaneously; it’s the Divine’s job to give me all that I need.”

                       

Message of the Day - Without Him nothing exists

Quotes from Words of the Mother When I say, “If you are sincere, you are sure of victory”, I mean true sincerity: to be constantly the true flame that burns like an offering.  That intense joy of existing only by the Divine and for the Divine and feeling that without Him nothing exists, that life has no longer any meaning, nothing has any purpose, nothing has any value, nothing has any interest, unless it is this call, this aspiration, this opening to the supreme Truth, to all that we call the Divine (because you must use some word or other), the only reason for the existence of the universe. Remove that and everything disappears.

                       

Message of the Day - Quotes from Words of the Mother

Quotes from Words of the Mother If you want peace upon earth, first establish peace in your heart. If you want union in the world, first unify the different parts of your own being. If you abolish in yourself the things that are wrong in the world, the world will no longer be wrong. We are definitely not living at a time when men have been left to their own means. The Divine has sent down His consciousness to enlighten them. All who are able to do so, should profit by this. Truth will conquer in spite of the turmoil. Even within the confusion, there is the seed of the Divine order. Unity does not come from any exterior disposition, but by becoming conscious of the eternal Oneness.

                       

Message of the Day - Integral Yoga

From Question and Answers: Sri Mother Says: " An integral yoga is one which comprises all the parts of the being and all the activities of the being.  But the activities of one being are not as powerful as the activities of another;and the integrality of one being is not as total as the integrality of another. You don’t understand?  If all your being, as it is, participates in the yoga, it becomes for you an integral yoga. But your participation may be very poor and mediocre compared with that of someone else, and the number of elements of consciousness which you contain may be very small compared with the elements of consciousness contained in another person. And yet your yoga is integral for you, that is, it is done in all the parts and all the activities of your being.

                       

Message of the Day - The Divine is indeed what you expect of Him.

From Words of the Mother: " In reality, the Divine gives to each individual exactly what he expects of Him." If you believe that the Divine is far away and cruel, He will be far away and cruel, because it will be necessary for your ultimate good that you feel the wrath of God; He will be Kali for the worshippers of Kali and Beatitude for the Bhakta. And He will be the All-knowledge of the seeker of Knowledge, the transcendent Impersonal of the illusionist; He will be atheist with the atheist and the love of the lover. He will be brotherly and close, a friend always faithful, always ready to succour, for those who feel Him as the inner guide of each movement, at every moment. And if you believe that He can wipe away everything, He will wipe away all your faults, all your errors, tirelessly, and at every moment you can feel His infinite Grace. The Divine is indeed what you expect of Him in your deepest aspiration.

                       
- From Thoughts and Aphorisms by Sri Aurobindo

Message of the Day - Divine Command

From Sri Aurobindo's Thoughts and Aphorisms : "When thou hast the command, care only to fulfil it. The rest is God’s will and arrangement which men call chance and luck and fortune." The Mother’s commentaries on this quote by Sri Aurobindo: It is obviously in the silence of the mind that it is possible to perceive the Divine Command. The true way of knowing is above words and thoughts. When this phenomenon occurs, it becomes very clear, because one knows the Divine Command first, and the words to describe it come later.

                       
- From Thoughts and Aphorisms by Sri Aurobindo

Message of the Day - Uttarpara Speech of Sri Aurobindo - The final part

To magnify the religion means to magnify the country. I have shown you that I am everywhere and in all men and in all things, that I am in this movement and I am not only working in those who are striving for the country but I am working also in those who oppose them and stand in their path.I am working in everybody and what ever men may think or do they can do nothing but help on my purpose. They also are doing my work; they are not my enemies but my instruments. In all your actions you are moving forward without knowing which way you move. You mean to do one thing and you do another. You aim at a result and your efforts sub serve one that is different or contrary.  It is Shakti that has gone forth and entered into the people. Since long ago I have been preparing this uprising and now the time has come and it is I who will lead it to its fulfilment.” This then is what I have to say to you. The name of your society is “Society for the Protection of Religion”. Well, the protection of the religion, the protection and upraising before the world of the Hindu religion, that is the work before us.   But what is the Hindu religion? What is this religion which we call Sanatana, eternal? It is the Hindu religion only because the Hindu nation has kept it, because in this peninsula it grew up in the seclusion of the sea and the Himalayas, because in this sacred and ancient land it was given as a charge to the Aryan race to preserve through the ages. But it is not circumscribed by the confines of a single country, it does not belong peculiarly and for ever to a bounded part of the world. That which we call the Hindu religion is really the eternal religion, because it is the universal religion which embraces all others.   If a religion is not universal, it cannot be eternal. A narrow religion, a sectarian religion, an exclusive religion can live only for a limited time and a limited purpose. This is the one religion that can triumph over materialism by including and anticipating the discoveries of science and the speculations of philosophy. It is the one religion which impresses on mankind the closeness of God to us and embraces in its compass all the possible means by which man can approach God. It is the one religion which insists every moment on the truth which all religions acknowledge, that He is in all men and all things and that in Him we move and have   our being. It is the one religion which enables us not only to understand and believe this truth but to realise it with every part of our being. It is the one religion which shows the world what the world is, that it is the lila of Vasudeva. It is the one religion which shows us how we can best play our part in that lila, its subtlest laws and its noblest rules. It is the one religion which does not separate life in any smallest detail from religion, which knows what immortality is and has utterly removed from us the reality of death.  This is the word that has been put into my mouth to speak to you today. What I intended to speak has been put away from me, and beyond what is given to me I have nothing to say. It is only the word that is put into me that I can speak to you. That word is now finished.  I spoke once before with this force in me and I said then that this movement is not a political movement and that nationalism is not politics but a religion,a creed,a faith. I say it again today, but I put it in another way. I say no longer that nationalism is a creed, a religion, a faith; I say that it is the Sanatana Dharma which for us is nationalism. This Hindu nation was born with the Sanatana Dharma, with it it moves and with it it grows. When the Sanatana Dharma declines, then the nation declines, and if the Sanatana Dharma were capable of perishing, with the Sanatana Dharma it would perish. The Sanatana Dharma, that is nationalism. This is the message that I have to speak to you. The End   Delivered at Uttarpara, Bengal, on 30 May 1909. Text published in the Bengalee, an English-language newspaper of Calcutta,on1June; thoroughly revised by Sri Aurobindo and republished in the Karmayogin on 19 and 26 June.

                       
-KARMAYOGIN , Sri Aurobindo

Message of the day - Uttarpara Speech - 5

Then a thing happened suddenly and in a moment I was hurried away to the seclusion of a solitary cell. What happened to me during that period I am not impelled to say, but only this that day after day, He showed me His wonders and made me realise the utter truth of the Hindu religion. I had had many doubts before. I was brought up in England amongst foreign ideas and an atmosphere entirely foreign.  About many things in Hinduism I had once been inclined to believe that it was all imagination; that there was much of dream in it, much that was delusion and maya. But now day after day I realised in the mind, I realised in the heart, I realised in the body the truths of the Hindu religion. They became living experiences to me, and things were opened to me which no material science could explain.  When I first approached Him, it was not entirely in the spirit of the Bhakta, it was not entirely in the spirit of the Jnani. I came to Him long ago in Baroda some years before the Swadeshi began and I was drawn into the public field. When I approached God at that time, I hardly had a living faith in Him. The agnostic was in me, the atheist was in me, the sceptic was in me and I was not absolutely sure that there was a God at all. I did not feel His presence. Yet something drew me to the truth of the Vedas, the truth of the Gita, the truth of the Hindu religion. I felt there must be amighty truth somewhere in this Yoga, a mighty truth in this religion based on the Vedanta. So when I turned to the Yoga and resolved to practise it and find out if my idea was right, I did it in this spirit and with this prayer to Him,“If Thou art,then Thou know est my heart.Thou knowest that I do not ask for Mukti, I do not ask for anything which others ask for. I ask only for strength to up lift this nation, I ask only to be allowed to live and work for this people whom I love and to whom I pray that I may devote my life.”Is trovelong for the realisation of Yoga and atlast to some extent I had it,but in what I most desired, I was not satisfied.  Then in the seclusion of the jail, of the solitary cell I asked for it again. I said, “Give me Thy adesh. I do not know what work to do or how to do it. Give me a message.” In the communion of Yoga two messages came.  The first message said, “I have given you a work and it is to help to uplift this nation. Before long the time will come when you will have to go out of jail;for it is not my will that this time either you should be convicted or that you should pass the time as others have to do, in suffering for their country. I have called you to work, and that is the adesh for which you have asked. I give you the adesh to go forth and do my work.”  The second message came and it said, “Something has been shown to you in this year of seclusion, something about which you had your doubts and it is the truth of the Hindu religion. It is this religion that I am raising up before the world, it is this that I have perfected and developed through the rishis, saints and avatars, and now it is going forth to do my work among the nations. I am raising up this nation to send forth my word. This is the Sanatana Dharma, this is the eternal religion which you did not really know before, but which I have now revealed to you. The agnostic and the sceptic in you have been answered, for I have given you proofs within and without you, physical and subjective, which have satisfied you.   When you go forth, speak to your nation always this word that it is for the Sanatana Dharma that they arise,it is for the world and not for themselves that they arise. I am giving them freedom for the service of the world. When therefore it is said that India shall rise, it is the Sanatana Dharma that shall rise. When it is said that India shall be great,it is the Sanatana Dharma that shall be great.When it is said that India shall expand and extend herself,it is the Sanatana Dharma that shall expand and extend itself over the world. It is for the dharma and by the dharma that India exists.  To be continued........

                       
-KARMAYOGIN , Sri Aurobindo

Message of the Day - Uttarpara Speech - 4

When the case opened in the lower court and we were brought before the Magistrate I was followed by the same insight. He said to me,“When you were cast into jail, did not your heart fail and did you not cry out to me, where is Thy protection? Look now at the Magistrate, look now at the Prosecuting Counsel.” I looked and it was not the Magistrate whom I saw, it was Vasudeva, it was Narayana who was sitting there on the bench. I looked at the Prosecuting Counsel and it was not the Counsel for the prosecution that I saw; it was Srikrishna who sat there, it was my Lover and Friend who sat there and smiled. “Now do you fear?” He said, “I am in all men and I overrule their actions and their words. My protection is still with you and you shall not fear. This case which is brought against you, leave it in my hands. It is not for you. It was not for the trial that I brought you here but for something else. The case itself is only a means for my work and nothing more.”Afterwards when the trial opened in the Sessions Court, I began to write many instructions for my Counsel as to what was false in the evidence against me and on what points the witnesses might be cross examined. Then something happened which I had not expected. The arrangements which had been made for my defence were suddenly changed and another Counsel stood there to defend me.  He came unexpectedly,—a friend of mine, but I did not know he was coming. You have all heard the name of the man who put away from him all other thoughts and abandoned all his practice, who sat up half the night day after day for months and broke his health to save me,—Srijut Chittaranjan Das.  When I saw him, I was satisfied, but I still thought it necessary to write instructions. Then all that was put from me and I had the message from within, “This is the man who will save you from the snares put around your feet. Put aside those papers. It is not you who will instruct him. I will instruct him.” From that time I did not of myself speak a word to my Counsel about the case or give a single instruction and if ever I was asked a question, I always found that my answer did not help the case. I had left it to him and he took it entirely into his hands, with what result you know.  I knew all along what He meant for me, for I heard it again and again, always I listened to the voice within: “I am guiding, therefore fear not. Turn to your own work for which I have brought you to jail and when you come out, remember never to fear, never to hesitate. Remember that it is I who am doing this, not you nor any other. Therefore whatever clouds may come, whatever dangers and sufferings, whatever difficulties, whatever impossibilities, there is nothing impossible, nothing difficult. I am in the nation and its uprising and I am Vasudeva, I am Narayana, and what I will, shall be, not what others will. What I choose to bring about, no human power can stay.”  Meanwhile He had brought me out of solitude and placed me among those who had been accused along with me. You have spoken much today of myself-sacrifice and devotion to my country.I have heard that kind of speech ever since I cameout of jail, but I hear it with embarrassment, with something of pain. For I know my weakness, I am a prey to my own faults and back slidings. I was not blind to them before and when they all rose up against me in seclusion, I felt them utterly. I knew then that I the man was a mass of weakness, a faulty and imperfect instrument, strong only when a higher strength entered into me. Then I found myself among these young men and in many of them I discovered a mighty courage, a power of self-effacement in comparison with which I was simply nothing. I saw one or two who were not only superior to me in force and character,— very many were that,—but in the promise of that intellectual ability on which I prided myself. He said to me, “This is the young generation, the new and mighty nation that is arising at my command.  They are greater than yourself. What have you to fear? If you stood aside or slept, the work would still be done. If you were cast aside tomorrow, here are the young men who will take up your work and do it more mightily than you have ever done. You have only got some strength from me to speak a word to this nation which will help to raise it.” This was the next thing He told me. To be continued........

                       
-KARMAYOGIN , Sri Aurobindo

Message of the Day - Uttarpara Speech of Bhagavan Sri Aurobindo - 3

When I was arrested and hurried to the Lal Bazar hajat I was shaken in faith for a while, for I could not look into the heart of His intention. Therefore I faltered for a moment and cried out in my heart to Him, “What is this that has happened to me? I believed that I had a mission to work for the people of my country and until that work was done, I should have Thy protection. Why then am I here and on such a charge?” A day passed and a second day and a third, when a voice came to me from within, “Wait and see.” Then I grew calm and waited. I was taken from Lal Bazar to Alipore and was placed for one month in a solitary cell apart from men. There I waited day and night for the voice of God within me, to know what He had to say to me,to learn what I had to do.In this seclusion the earliest realisation, the first lesson came to me. I remembered then that a month or more before my arrest, a call had come to me to put aside all activity, to go into seclusion and to look into myself, so that I might enter into closer communion with Him. I was weak and could not accept the call.  My work was very dear to me and in the pride of my heart I thought that unless I was there, it would suffer or even fail and cease;therefore I would not leave it. It seemed to me that He spoke to me again and said,“The bonds you had not strength to break, I have broken for you, because it is not my will nor was it ever my intention that that should continue. I have another thing for you to do and it is for that I have brought you here, to teach you what you could not learn for yourself and to train you for my work.” Then He placed the Gita in my hands. His strength entered into me and I was able to do the sadhan of the Gita. I was not only to understand intellectually but to realise what Srikrishna demanded of Arjuna and what He demands of those who aspire to do His work, to be free from repulsion and desire, to do work for Him without the demand for fruit, to renounce self-will and become a passive and faithful instrument in His hands, to have an equal heart for high and low, friend and opponent, success and failure, yet not to do His work negligently.  I realised what the Hindu religion meant. We speak often of the Hindu religion, of the Sanatana Dharma, but few of us really know what that religion is. Other religions are preponderatingly religions of faith and profession, but the Sanatana Dharma is life itself; it is a thing that has not so much to be believed as lived. This is the dharma that for the salvation of humanity was cherished in the seclusion of this peninsula from of old. It is to give this religion that India is rising. She does not rise as other countries do, for self or when she is strong, to trample on the weak. She is rising to shed the eternal light entrusted to her over the world. India has always existed for humanity and not for herself and it is for humanity and not for herself that she must be great. Therefore this was the next thing He pointed out to me, —He made me realise the central truth of the Hindu religion. He turned the hearts of my jailers to me and they spoke to the Englishman in charge of the jail, “He is suffering in his confinement; let him at least walk outside his cell for half an hour in the morning and in the evening.” So it was arranged, and it was while I was walking that His strength again entered into me. I looked at the jail that secluded me from men and it was no longer by its high walls that I was imprisoned;no,it wasVasudevawho surrounded me. I walked under the branches of the tree in front of my cell, but it was not the tree, I knew it was Vasudeva, it was Srikrishna whom I saw standing there and holding over me His shade. I looked at the bars of my cell, the very grating that did duty for a door and again I saw Vasudeva. It was Narayana who was guarding and standing sentry over me. Or I lay on the coarse blankets that were given me for a couch and felt the arms of Srikrishna around me, the arms of my Friend and Lover. This was the first use of the deeper vision He gave me. I looked at the prisoners in the jail, the thieves, the murderers, the swindlers, and as I looked at them I saw Vasudeva, it was Narayana whom I found in these darkened souls and misused bodies.   Amongst these thieves and dacoits there were many who put me to shame by their sympathy,their kindness,the humanity triumphant over such adverse circumstances. One I saw among them especially who seemed to me a saint, a peasant of my nation who did not know how to read and write, an alleged dacoit sentenced to ten years’ rigorous imprisonment, one of those whom we look down upon in our Pharisaical pride of class as chhotalok. Once more He spoke to me and said,“Be hold the people among whom I have sent you to do a little of my work. This is the nature of the nation I am raising up and the reason why I raise them.” To be continued........

                       
-KARMAYOGIN , Sri Aurobindo

Message of the Day - Sri Aurobindo's Uttarpara Speech - 2

A hush had fallen on the country and men seemed be wildered; for instead of God’s bright heaven full of the vision of the future that had been before us, there seemed to be overhead a leaden sky from which human thunders and lightnings rained.  No man seemed to know which way to move, and from all sides came the question, “What shall we do next? What is there that we can do?” I too did not know which way to move, I too did not know what was next to be done.  But one thing I knew, that as it was the Almighty Power of God which had raised that cry, that hope, so it was the same power which had sent down that silence. He who was in the shouting and the movement was also in the pause and the hush. He has sent it upon us, so that the nation might draw back for a moment and look into itself and know His will.  I have not been disheartened by that silence, because I had been made familiar with silence in my prison and because I knew it was in the pause and the hush that I had myself learned this lesson through the long year of my detention. When Bipin Chandra Pal came out of jail, he came with a message, and it was an inspired message. I remember the speech he made here.It was a speech not so much political as religious in its bearing and intention. He spoke of his realisation in jail, of God within us all, of the Lord within the nation, and in his subsequent speeches also he spoke of a greater than ordinary force in the movement and a greater than ordinary purpose before it.  Now I also meet you again, I also come out of jail,and again it is you of Uttarpara who are the first to welcome me, not at a political meeting but at a meeting of a society for the protection of our religion. That message which Bipin Chandra Pal received in Buxar jail, God gave to me in Alipore. That knowledge He gave to me day after day during my twelve months of imprisonment and it is that which He has commanded me to speak to you now that I have come out. I knew I would come out.  The year of detention was meant only for a year of seclusion and of training. How could anyone hold me in jail longer than was necessary for God’s purpose?He had given me a word to speak and a work to do, and until that word was spoken I knew that no human power could hush me, until that work was done no human power could stop God’s instrument, however weak that instrument might be or however small. Now that I have come out, even in these few minutes, a word has been suggested to me which I had no wish to speak. The thing I had in my mind He has thrown from it and what I speak is under an impulse and a compulsion. To be continued........

                       
-KARMAYOGIN , Sri Aurobindo