The Asuras

🍁 In what way does the divine Shakti act against the Asuras?

I don’t hear a thing!... Acts against the Asuras? Why do you want to know that?
It is interesting! (Laughter)

Perhaps to them also She gives what they want to have.... (Si- lence) And usually this hastens their end. There are Asuras and Asuras... that is to say... no, the Asuras are Asuras, but there are all those who have come out of them, and who are beings of an inferior kind.
An Asura is generally a conscious being and he knows he has an end. He knows that the attitude he has taken up in the universe is bound to destroy him after a certain time. Naturally, the time of an Asura is extremely long if we compare it with the lifetime of man. But still, he knows there is an end, because he has cut himself off from Eternity. And so he tries to realise his plan as totally as he can until the day of his complete defeat. And it is possible that if he is allowed to do it, the defeat will come sooner. It is perhaps for this reason that at the time great things are about to be accomplished — it is at this time that the adverse forces are most active, most violently active, and apparently the most fully successful. They seem to have a clear field: it is perhaps in order that things may be more rapidly finished.

🌸 The Mother ( Question and Answers, Volume-6, page no.240)

Live without Food

DISCIPLE: Is it possible to live without food?

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, it is, When I did my fast of about 23 days, while living in Chettiar's house, I very nearly solved the problem. I could walk eight hours a day as usual. I continued my mental work and Sadhana also as usual and I found that I was not in the least weak at the end of the fast. But the flesh began to grow less and I did not find a clue to replacing the very material part that was reduced in the body.
             When I broke the fast, then also I did not observe the usual rule of people who go on long fasts, of beginning with little food and so on. I began again with the same quantity as I used to take before.
              Gandhi's method of fasting seems to me to be the most unsuitable, ---of announcing beforehand and allowing all sorts of people to put in their counter-suggestions to him. I tried fasting once in jail, but that was when I used to sleep once in three nights. I lost ten pounds in weight. But I felt stronger at the end of ten days than I was before the fast. I could lift up a Wight, which I could not before.
               It was not for conquering sleep that I began the waking experiment, but because there was a pressure of Sadhana and I liked to do Sadhana rather than sleep.

EVENING TALKS WITH SRI AUROBINDO
RECORDED BY A. B. PURANI (page no. 482)

What do you want the Yoga for?

🌱 " What do you want the Yoga for? To get power? To attain to peace and calm? To serve humanity?

“None of these motives is sufficient to show that you are meant for the Path.”

Questions and Answers 1929 (7 April)

The main trouble is that you think with words, but these words are empty of meaning; most of the time they are mere words — you talk of the Divine, you talk of the Supreme, you talk of Yoga, you say many things, but does all that correspond in your head to something concrete, to a thought, a feeling, a clear idea, an experience? Or are they simply words?

It is said that Yoga is the “final goal of life”, but what do you expect from this final goal? Some say it means to know oneself; that is the personal and individual aspect. If it is pushed a little farther it means to be conscious of the truth of one’s being: why are you born and what should you do? And if it is pushed still farther, you may become conscious of your relations with other human beings; and a little farther yet, you may ask what is the role, the aim of humanity in the world? And yet again, what is the condition of the earth from the psychological standpoint? What is the universe, what is its goal, its role? In this way, you move from stage to stage and finally you see the problem in its totality. You must see the thing, the experience behind the words. Here we speak of Yoga but elsewhere one would speak differently; some would say, “I am seeking my raison d’eˆtre”, and so on. Those who have a religious bent will say, “I want to find the divine Presence.” There are fifty ways of saying the thing but it is the thing which is important; you must feel it in your head, in your heart, everywhere. It must be concrete, living, otherwise you cannot advance. You must come out of words and  get into action — get into the experience, get into life.

  🌸 The Mother ( Question and Answers, Volume-4, page no.64)

Flowers

🌺 Do flowers retain the force always, even when they decay?

Decay? No, my child; when they dry up, yes. Decayed flowers are just nothing. A decomposition takes place, so the thing dis- appears. Perhaps it brings energy to the soil, that’s quite possible; but still, when it decays it is good only to make manure to grow other flowers. But if it dries up, it is preserved, it can remain for quite a long time.

Those small packets which I give on Kali Puja day are made to be preserved for one year. For a year they keep their force intact and I renew them every year to make sure that... I know that there isn’t one in ten among you who makes a proper use of it... but still, I give it on the off-chance for those who know how to use it. It is prepared to keep the force for one year. And when I give the new one, you can dispose of the other. Usually it has fallen to dust. Not always.... But these little packets keep their charge of force exactly for one year.

Sweet Mother, what should we do with the flowers which you give us every day?

Flowers? You ought to keep them as long as they are fresh, and when they are no longer so, you must collect them and give them to the gardener (any gardener you know), so that he can put them in the earth to produce other flowers. Yes, one must give back to the earth what it has given us, for otherwise it will become poor.

🌸 The Mother ( Question and Answers, Volume-6, page no.230-231)

Without the Divine there would be no sadhana

🌸 How is the Divine the Sadhana?

Because it is the Divine who does the sadhana in the being. Without the Divine there would be no sadhana. Only, you know nothing about it... you think — you are under the illusion — that it is you. And precisely, so long as you are under this illusion, you must make an effort; but the truth is that it is the Divine who does the sadhana in you, and that without the Divine there would be no sadhana.

🌸 The Mother ( Question and Answers, Volume-6, page no.225)

OM - The EKAKSHARA BRAHMAN (एकाक्षर ब्रह्मन् )

OM - The EKAKSHARA BRAHMAN (एकाक्षर ब्रह्मन् )

Dear friends,
The sound OM (​ॐ) is the most powerful one among all other sounds. It is indeed the source of all. As per the spiritual tradition of Bharat everything in this creation is born out of OM - ओङ्कारप्रभवं सर्वं त्रैलोक्यं सचराचरम्...The Divine Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram says - "OM is the signature of the Lord." What a profound meaning!!! Nothing happens in this creation without HIS sanction, HIS signature, and that signature is OM (तस्य वाचकः प्रणवः - Patanjali Yogasutra, 1.25)...

By reciting OM we get connected with HIM in everything and being. Our consciousness opens to HIS consciousness, it widens and realises its vastness. In this state all division starts disappearing, we start becoming free from our many limitations and narrowness. This way we become free from all our problems. Therefore the Divine Mother further says - Chant OM all will go well. What an assurance!!! Indeed when we chant OM with all sincerity, devotion, intensity and purity in our aspiration, it works amazingly. This has been the experience of many sincere sadhaks. We can write and read hundreds of books about OM, about the effect of its chanting etc., but if we put it into practice in our day to life it's much more meaningful. let's remember the supreme words of the Mother: A single drop of practice is better than oceans of theories.

The  sound OM has to be chanted as one unit of sound. One should not break it into into its various components and chant it as a u m...Let's remember it's एकाक्षर, one single sound (ओमित्येकाक्षरं ब्रह्म...गिरामस्म्येकमक्षरम्...Gita​).  The tradition says, one must chant OM in the beginning and at the end of a Mantra. The Manusmrit (2.74) says:
ब्रह्मणः प्रणवं कुर्यादादावन्ते च सर्वदा |
स्रवत्यनोङ्कृतं पूर्वं परस्ताच्च ​विशीर्यते ||
One should chant OM in the beginning and end of a Mantra. Or else it's meaningless, one does not gain much from his recitation.

Why while chanting Mantra alone, it must be done while doing everything in life, when we sit for our food, when we start any work, when we go to bed, when we get up in the morning, when we start any work let's start it with the chanting of OM. And once it is over let's end it with the chanting of OM.

तस्मादोमित्युदाहृत्य यज्ञदानतपः क्रियाः |
प्रवर्तन्ते विधानोक्ताः सततं ब्रह्मवादिनाम् || (Gita, 17.24)
With the recitation of OM the acts of yajna, giving and tapas are commenced by the wise ones.

If you are part of a thing

"God is your own Mother. Enforce your demand. If you are part of a thing, you feel its attraction. Because of the element of the Divine Mother in me I feel attracted to Her. A true Saiva has some characteristics of Siva; he has in him some of the elements of Siva. He who is a true Vaishnava is endowed with some of the elements of Narayana."

-The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

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Face your difficulties and obstacles with a smile

Another remarkable sign of the conversion of your vital,
owing to Agni’s influence, is that you face your difficulties and
obstacles with a smile. You do not sit any more in sackcloth
and ashes, lamenting over your mistakes and feeling utterly
crestfallen because you are not at the moment quite up to the
mark. You simply chase away depression with a smile. A hundred
mistakes do not matter to you: with a smile you recognise that you have erred and with a smile you resolve not to repeat
the folly in the future. All depression and gloom is created by
the hostile forces who are never so pleased as when throwing
on you a melancholy mood. Humility is indeed one thing and
depression quite another, the former a divine movement and the
latter a very crude expression of the dark forces. Therefore, face
your troubles joyously, oppose with invariable cheerfulness the
obstacles that beset the road to transformation. The best means
of routing the enemy is to laugh in his face! Youmay grapple and
tussle for days and he may still show an undiminished vigour;
but just once laugh at him and lo! he takes to his heels. A laugh
of self-confidence and of faith in the Divine is themost shattering
strength possible—it disrupts the enemy’s front, spreads havoc
in his ranks and carries you triumphantly onwards.-THE MOTHER.