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WRITINGS BY THE MOTHER
© Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust

Duty towards the Divine and Others

Duty towards the Divine is far more sacred than any social or family duty; it is all the more sacred because within the human collectivity it is almost wholly ignored or misunderstood.

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One who has given himself to the Divine has no longer any other duty than to make that consecration more and more perfect. The world and those who live in it have always wanted to put human--social and family--duty before duty to the Divine, which they have stigmatised as egoism. How indeed could they judge otherwise, they who have no experience of the reality of the Divine? But for the divine regard their opinion has no value, their will has no force. These are movements of ignorance, nothing more. You should not attempt to convince; above all, you should not let yourself be touched or shaken. You must shut yourself carefully within your ivory tower of consecration and await from the Divine alone help, protection, guidance and approbation. To be condemned by the whole world is nothing to him who knows that he has the approval of the Divine and his support.

Besides, has not mankind proved its utter incompetence in the organisation of its own existence? Governments succeed governments, regimes follow regimes, centuries pass after centuries, but human misery remains lamentably the same. It will always be so, as long as man remains what he is, blind and ignorant, closed to all spiritual reality. A transformation, an illumination of the human consciousness alone can bring about a real amelioration in the condition of humanity. Thus even from the standpoint of human life, it follows logically that the first duty of man is to seek and possess the divine consciousness.

13 June 1937

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"We would be completely under Thy influence to the exclusion of every other."(note1)

Each force or power has an influence on other forces and powers and this reaction is reciprocal. To escape this constant and general confusion or influence, there is only one way, to concentrate exclusively on the Divine Consciousness and to open oneself only to the Divine Consciousness.

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There can be no true integral surrender to the Divine if any human relations and their habits and attachments are still maintained. All relations must be turned upward and directed to the Divine alone and transformed into means for the union and surrender.

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Vital relations are always dangerous.

A complete, absolute consecration of the vital to the Divine is the only solution.

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You preferred human friendship to divine friendship, but human friendship is unsteady and now you feel cut off from both. Not that the Divine has withdrawn his friendship from you--never does he withdraw it--but you have got into a state of vital incapacity for enjoying it.

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What should we do to remain always in contact with the Divine, so that no person or event can draw us away from this contact?

Aspiration. Sincerity.

1972

Note 1: Prayers and Meditations, Cent. Vol. 1, p. 377.