All Life Is Yoga: Times of Transition E-Book

Sri Aurobindo

• Herausgeber: Sri Aurobindo Digital Edition
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 72

Beschreibung

The Mother cautioned us in 1971 that ‘We are at one of these “Hours of God”, when the old bases get shaken, and there is a great confusion; but it is a wonderful oppor­tunity for those who want to leap forward, the possibility of progress is exceptional.’ Indeed these are turbulent times or times of transition so to say. Since the Supramental Manifesta­tion in 1956 humanity is being increasingly moulded under the pressure of the New Consciousness. The pressure is increasing in an exponential manner and compelling humanity to change its ways into a diviner way of life. New aspirations are stirring the mind of the race and new hopes stealing through the human night. But the Night has not yet vanished. Like the mythical dragon it lashes its tail before passing away. The old world still resists and the New is yet in its infancy slipping slowly but surely through the unseen gaps in our consciousness. This issue focuses on some lines of change initiated and being carried to their fulfillment by the tapasya of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

Leseprobe

Omsriaurobindomira

All

Life

Is

Yoga

“All life is Yoga.” – Sri Aurobindo

Times of Transition

Sri Aurobindo | The Mother

SRI AUROBINDODIGITAL EDITION

SRI AUROBINDO BHAVANBERCHTESGADENER LAND

www.sriaurobindo.center

PublisherAURO MEDIAVerlag und FachbuchhandelWilfried SchuhGermany

www.auro.media

eBook Design

SRI AUROBINDO DIGITAL EDITIONGermany, Berchtesgaden

ALL LIFE IS YOGATimes of TransitionSelections from the Works ofSri Aurobindo and the MotherFirst edition 2022ISBN 978-3-96387-100-9

© Photos and selections of the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother:Sri Aurobindo Ashram TrustPuducherry, India

Flower on the cover:Viscum album. White.Spiritual significance and explanation given by the Mother:Sign of the SpiritThe Spirit says, “I am here”.

Publisher’s Note

This is one in a series of some e-books created by SRI AUROBINDO DIGITAL EDITION and published by AURO MEDIA under the title All Life Is Yoga. Our effort is to bring together, from Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, simple passages with a practical orientation on specific subjects, so that everyone may feel free to choose a book according to his inner need. The topics cover the whole field of human activity, because true spirituality is not the rejection of life but the art of perfecting life.

While the passages from Sri Aurobindo are in the original English, most of the passages from the Mother (selections from her talks and writings) are translations from the original French. We must also bear in mind that the excerpts have been taken out of their original context and that a compilation, in its very nature, is likely to have a personal and subjective approach. A sincere attempt, however, has been made to be faithful to the vision of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. These excerpts are by no means exhaustive.

Bringing out a compilation from the writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, which have a profound depth and wideness unique, is a difficult task. The compiler’s subjective tilt and preferences generally result in highlighting some aspects of the issues concerned while the rest is by no means less significant. Also without contexts of the excerpts the passages reproduced may not fully convey the idea – or may be misunderstood or may reduce a comprehensive truth into what could appear like a fixed principle.

The reader may keep in mind this inherent limitation of compilations; compilations are however helpful in providing an introduction to the subject in a handy format. They also give the readers a direct and practical feel of some of the profound issues and sometimes a mantric appeal, musing on which can change one’s entire attitude to them.

The excerpts from the writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother carry titles and captions chosen by the editor, highlighting the theme of the excerpts and, whenever possible, borrowing a phrase from the text itself. The sources of the excerpts are given at the end of each issue.

We hope these compilations will inspire the readers to go to the complete works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and will help them to mould their lives and their environments towards an ever greater perfection.

“True spirituality is not to renounce life, but to make life perfect with a Divine Perfection.” – The Mother

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Contents

Title PageCopyrightPublisher’s NoteQuotationsTIMES OF TRANSITION1. The Hour of God2. Seeds of a New World3. Winds of Change4. Flowering of the New Creation5. Harvesting the Future6. A New EarthAPPENDIXReferences

Guide

CoverTable of ContentsStart Reading

Wherever thou seest a great end, be sure of a great beginning. Where a monstrous and painful destruction appals thy mind, console it with the certainty of a large and great creation. God is there not only in the still small voice, but in the fire and in the whirlwind.

The greater the destruction, the freer the chances of creation; but the destruction is often long, slow and oppressive, the creation tardy in its coming or interrupted in its triumph. The night returns again and again and the day lingers or seems even to have been a false dawning. Despair not therefore, but watch and work.…

Wherefore God hammers so fiercely at his world, tramples and kneads it like dough, casts it so often into the blood-bath and the red hell-heat of the furnace? Because humanity in the mass is still a hard, crude and vile ore which will not otherwise be smelted and shaped: as is his material, so is his method. Let it help to transmute itself into nobler and purer metal, his ways with it will be gentler and sweeter, much loftier and fairer its uses.

– Sri Aurobindo

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It is neither sacrifice nor renunciation nor weakness which can bring the victory. It is only Delight, a delight which is strength, endurance, supreme courage. The delight brought by the supramental force. It is much more difficult than giving everything up and running away, it demands an infinitely greater heroism – but that is the only way to conquer.

– The Mother

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TIMES OF TRANSITION

Chapter 1

The Hour of God

Words of Sri Aurobindo

There are moments when the Spirit moves among men and the breath of the Lord is abroad upon the waters of our being; there are others when it retires and men are left to act in the strength or the weakness of their own egoism. The first are periods when even a little effort produces great results and changes destiny; the second are spaces of time when much labour goes to the making of a little result. It is true that the latter may prepare the former, may be the little smoke of sacrifice going up to heaven which calls down the rain of God’s bounty. Unhappy is the man or the nation which, when the divine moment arrives, is found sleeping or unprepared to use it, because the lamp has not been kept trimmed for the welcome and the ears are sealed to the call. But thrice woe to them who are strong and ready, yet waste the force or misuse the moment; for them is irreparable loss or a great destruction.

In the hour of God cleanse thy soul of all self-deceit and hypocrisy and vain self-flattering that thou mayst look straight into thy spirit and hear that which summons it. All insincerity of nature, once thy defence against the eye of the Master and the light of the ideal, becomes now a gap in thy armour and invites the blow. Even if thou conquer for the moment, it is the worse for thee, for the blow shall come afterwards and cast thee down in the midst of thy triumph. But being pure cast aside all fear; for the hour is often terrible, a fire and a whirlwind and a tempest, a treading of the winepress of the wrath of God; but he who can stand up in it on the truth of his purpose is he who shall stand; even though he fall, he shall rise again, even though he seem to pass on the wings of the wind, he shall return. Nor let worldly prudence whisper too closely in thy ear; for it is the hour of the unexpected, the incalculable, the immeasurable. Mete not the power of the Breath by thy petty instruments, but trust and go forward.

But most keep thy soul clear, even if for a while, of the clamour of the ego. Then shall a fire march before thee in the night and the storm be thy helper and thy flag shall wave on the highest height of the greatness that was to be conquered.

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Birth-pangs of a New World

Words of Sri Aurobindo

So much depends on Time and God’s immediate purpose that it is more important to seek out His purpose than to attach ourselves to our own nostrums. The Kala Purusha, Zeitgeist and Death Spirit, has risen to his dreadful work – lokakshayakritpravriddhas