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WRITINGS BY THE MOTHER
© Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust

To get out of the ego

19 May 1954

What attitude should one take to get out of the ego?

Attitude? It is rather a will, isn't it? You must will it.... What should one do, are you asking that?

The surest means is to give oneself to the Divine; not to try to draw the Divine to oneself but try to give oneself to the Divine. Then you are compelled at least to come out a little from yourself to begin with. Usually, you know, when people think of the Divine, the first thing they do is to "pull" as much as they can into themselves. And then, generally, they receive nothing at all. They tell you, "Ah! I called, I prayed and I did not have the answer. I had no answer, nothing came." But then, if you ask, "Did you offer yourself?"--"No, I pulled."--"Ah, yes, that is why it did not come!" It is not that it did not come, it is that when you pull you remain so shut up in your ego, as I told you just now, that it raises a wall between what is to be received and yourself. You put yourself in prison and then you are astonished that in your prison you feel nothing.

Prison, and still more, with no windows on the street.

Throw yourself out (Mother opens her hands), give yourself without holding back anything, simply for the joy of giving [old p. 138]yourself. Then there's a chance that you may feel something.