THE MOTHER

 

SRI AUROBINDO

 

PART THREE

  PRAYERS AND MEDITATIONS

 

This collection of the Mother's Prayers and Meditations Priéres et Méditations is not complete.  It contains only those that were translated by Sri Aurobindo from , the original French.


November 2, 1912

 

Although my whole being is in theory consecrated to Thee, O Sublime Master, who art the life, the light and the love in all things, I still find it hard to carry out this consecration in detail.  It has taken me several weeks to learn that the reason for this written meditation, its justification, lies in the very fact of addressing it daily to Thee.  In this way I shall put into material shape each day a little of the conversation I have so often with Thee;  I shall make my confession to Thee as well as it may be;  not because I think I can tell Thee anything — for Thou art Thyself everything, but our artificial and exterior way of seeing and understanding is, if it may be so said, foreign to Thee, opposed to Thy nature.  Still by turning towards Thee, by immersing myself in Thy light at the moment when I consider these things, little by little I shall see them more like what they really are, — until the day when, having made myself one in identity with Thee, I shall no more have anything to say to Thee, for then I shall be Thou.

 

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This is the goal that I would reach;  towards this victory all my efforts will tend more and more.  I aspire for the day when I can no longer say  "I", for I shall be Thou.

 

How many times a day, still, I act without my action being consecrated to Thee;  I at once become aware of it by an indefinable uneasiness which is translated in the sensibility of  my body by a pang in my heart.  I then make my action objective to myself and it seems to me ridiculous, childish or blameworthy;  I deplore it, for a moment I am sad, until I dive into Thee and, there losing myself with a child's confidence, await from Thee the inspiration and strength needed to set right the error in me and around me, — two things that are one;  for I have now a constant and precise perception of the universal unity determining an absolute interdependence of all actions.

 

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November 3, 1912

 

Let Thy Light be in me like a Fire that makes all alive;  let Thy divine Love penetrate me.  I aspire with all my being for Thy reign as sovereign and master of my mind and heart and body;  let them be Thy docile instruments and Thy faithful servitors.

 

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November 19, 1912

 

I said yesterday to that young Englishman who is seeking for Thee with so sincere a desire, that I had definitively found Thee, that the Union was constant.  Such is indeed the state of which I am conscious.  All my thoughts go towards Thee, all my acts are consecrated to Thee;  Thy Presence is for me an absolute, immutable, invariable fact, and Thy Peace dwells constantly in my heart.  Yet I know that this state of union is poor and precarious compared with that which it will become possible for me to realise tomorrow, and I am as yet far, no doubt very far, from that identification in which I shall totally lose the notion of the "I", of that  "I", which I still use in order to express myself, but which is each time a constraint, like a term unfit to express the thought that is seeking for expression.  It seems to me indispensable for human communication, but all depends on what this  "I"  manifests;  and how many times already, when I pronounce it, it is Thou who speakest in me, for I have lost the sense of separativity.

But all this is still in embryo and will continue to grow towards perfection.  What an appeasing assurance there is in this serene confidence in Thy All-Might !

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Thou art all, everywhere, and in all, and this body which acts is Thy own body, just as is the visible universe in its entirety;  it is Thou who breathest, thinkest, and lovest in this substance which, being Thyself, desires to be Thy willing servant.

 

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November 26, 1912

 

What a hymn of thanksgiving should I not be raising at each moment unto Thee !  Everywhere and in everything around me Thou revealest Thyself and in me Thy Will and Consciousness express themselves always more and more clearly even to the point of my having almost entirely lost the gross illusion of  "me" and  "mine".  If a few shadows, a few flaws can be seen in the great Light which manifests Thee, how shall they bear for long the marvellous brightness of Thy resplendent Love ?  This morning, the consciousness that I had of the way Thou art fashioning this being which was  "I"  can be roughly represented by a great diamond cut with regular geometrical facets, a diamond in its cohesion, firmness, pure limpidity, transparency, but a brilliant and radiant flame in its intense ever-progressive life.  But it was something more, something better than all that, for nearly all sensation inner and outer was exceeded and that image only presented itself to my mind as I returned to conscious contact with the outer world.

It is Thou that makest the experience fertile, Thou who renderest life progressive, Thou who compellest the darkness to vanish in an instant before the Light, Thou who givest to Love

 

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all its power, Thou who everywhere raisest up matter in this ardent and wonderful aspiration, in this sublime thirst for Eternity.

Thou everywhere and always;  nothing but Thou in the essence and in the manifestation.

O Shadow and Illusion, dissolve !  O Suffering, fade and disappear !  Lord Supreme, art Thou not there !

 

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November 28, 1912

 

The outer life, the activity of each day and each instant, is it not the indispensable complement of our hours of meditation and contemplation ?  And is not the proportion of time given to each the exact image of the proportion which exists between the amount of effort to be made for the preparation and realisation ?  For meditation, contemplation, Union is the result obtained — the flower that blooms;  the daily activity is the anvil on which all the elements must pass and repass in order to be purified, refined, made supple and ripe for the illumination which contemplation gives to them.  All these elements must be thus passed one after the other through the crucible before outer activity becomes needless for the integral development.  Then is this activity turned into the means to manifest Thee so as to awaken the other centres of consciousness to the same dual work of the forge and the illumination.  Therefore are pride and satisfaction with oneself the worst of all obstacles.  Very modestly we must take advantage of all the minute opportunities offered to knead and purify some of the innumerable elements, to make them supple, to make them impersonal, to teach them forgetfulness of self and abnegation and devotion and kindness and gentleness;  and when all these modes of being have become habitual to

 

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them, then are they ready to participate in the Contemplation, and to identify themselves with Thee in the supreme Concentration.  That is why it seems to me that the work must be long and slow even for the best and that striking conversions cannot be integral.  They change the orientation of the being, they put it definitively on the straight path;  but truly to attain the goal none can escape the need of innumerable experiences of every kind and every instant.

....O Supreme Master who shinest in my being and each thing, let Thy Light be manifest and the reign of Thy Peace come for all.

 

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December 2, 1912

 

So long as one element of the being, one movement of the thought is still subjected to outside influences, not solely under Thine, it cannot be said that the true Union is realised;  there is still the horrible mixture without order and light, — for that element, that movement is a world, a world of disorder and darkness, as is the entire earth in the material world, as is the material world in the entire universe.

 

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December 3, 1912

 

Last night I had the experience of the effectivity of confident surrender to Thy guidance;   when it is needful that something should be known, one knows it, and the more passive the mind to Thy illumination, the clearer and the more adequate is its expression.

I listened to Thee as Thou spokest in me, and I would have liked to write down what Thou saidst so that the formula in all its precision might not be lost — for now I should not be able to repeat what was said.  Then I thought that this care for conservation was again an insulting lack of
confidence towards Thee, for Thou canst make of me all that I need to be, and in the measure in which my attitude allows Thee to act on me and in me, Thy omnipotence has no limits.  To know that at each instant what must be surely is, as perfectly as is possible, for all those who know how to see Thee in everything and everywhere !  No more fear, no more uneasiness, no more anguish;  nothing but a perfect Serenity, an absolute Confidence, a supreme unwavering Peace.

 

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December 5, 1912

 

In Peace and Silence the Eternal manifests;  allow nothing to disturb you and the Eternal will manifest;  have perfect equality in face of all and the Eternal will be there .... Yes, we should not put too much intensity, too much effort into our seeking for Thee;  the effort and intensity become a veil in front of Thee;  we must not desire to see Thee, for that is still a mental agitation which obscures Thy Eternal Presence;  it is in the most complete Peace, Serenity and Equality that all is Thou even as Thou art all, and the least vibration in this perfectly pure and calm atmosphere is an obstacle to Thy manifestation.  No haste, no inquietude, no tension, Thou, nothing but Thou, without any analysis or any objectivising, and Thou art there without a possible doubt, for all becomes a Holy Peace and a Sacred Silence.

And that is better than all the meditations in the world.

 

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December 7, 1912

 

Like a flame that burns in silence, like a perfume that rises straight upward without wavering, my love goes to Thee;  and like the child who does not reason and has no care, I trust myself to Thee that Thy Will may be done, that Thy Light may manifest, Thy Peace radiate, Thy Love cover the world. When Thou willest I shall be in Thee, Thyself, and there shall be no more any distinction;  I await that blessed hour without impatience of any kind, letting myself flow irresistibly toward it as a peaceful stream flows toward the boundless ocean.

Thy Peace is in me, and in that Peace I see Thee alone present in everything, with the calm of Eternity.

 

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December 10, 1912

 

O Supreme Master, Eternal Teacher, it has been once more granted me to verify the unequalled effectivity of a full confidence in Thy leading.  Thy Light was manifested through my mouth yesterday and it met no resistance in me;  the instrument was willing, supple, keen of edge.

It is Thou who art the doer in each thing and each being, and he who is near enough to Thee to see Thee in all actions without exception, will know how to transform each act into a benediction.

To abide always in Thee is the one thing that matters, always and ever more and more in Thee, beyond illusions and the deceptions of the senses, not drawing back from action, refusing it, rejecting it — a struggle useless and pernicious — but living Thee alone in the act whatever it may be, ever and always Thee;  then the illusion is dispelled, the falsehoods of the senses vanish, the bond of consequences is broken, all is transformed into a manifestation of the glory of Thy Eternal Presence.

 

So let it be.  Amen.

 

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  December 11, 1912

 

I await, without haste, without inquietude, the tearing of another veil, the Union made more complete.  I know that the veil is formed of a whole mass of small imperfections, of attachments without number .... How shall all these disappear ?  Slowly, as the result of countless small efforts and a vigilance not faltering even for a moment, or suddenly, through a great illumination of Thy All-Puissant Love ?  I know not, I do not even put to myself the question;  I wait, keeping watch as best as I can, in the certitude that nothing exists save Thy Will, that Thou alone art the doer and I am the instrument;  and when the instrument is ready for a completer manifestation, the manifestation will quite naturally take place.

Already there is heard from behind the veil the wordless symphony of gladness that reveals Thy sublime Presence.

 

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February 5, 1913

Thy voice is heard as a melodious chant in the stillness of my heart, and is translated in my head by words which are inadequate and yet replete with Thee.  And these words are addressed to the Earth and say to her: — Poor sorrowful Earth, remember that I am present in you and lose not hope;  each effort, each grief, each joy and each pang, each call of thy heart, each aspiration of thy soul, each renewal of thy seasons, all, all without exception, what seems to thee sorrowful and what seems to thee joyous, what seems to thee ugly and what seems to thee beautiful, all infallibly lead thee towards me, who am endless Peace, shadowless Light, perfect Harmony, Certitude, Rest and Supreme Blessedness.

Hearken, O Earth, to the sublime voice that arises

 

Hearken and take new courage !

 

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February 8, 1913

 

O Lord, Thou art my refuge and my blessing, my strength, my health, my hope, and my courage.  Thou art supreme Peace, unalloyed Joy, perfect Serenity.  My whole being prostrates before Thee in a gratitude beyond measure and a ceaseless worship;  and that worship goes up from my heart and my mind towards Thee like the pure smoke of incense of the perfumes of India.

Let me be Thy herald among men, so that all who are ready may taste the beatitude that Thou grantest me in Thy infinite Mercy, and let Thy Peace reign upon earth.

 

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February 10, 1913

My being goes up to Thee in thanksgiving, not because Thou usest this weak and imperfect body to manifest Thyself, but because Thou dost maniftst Thyself, and that is the Splendour of splendours, the Joy of joys, the Marvel of marvels.  All who seek Thee with ardour should understand that Thou art there whenever there is need of Thee;  and if they could have the Supreme faith to give up seeking Thee, but rather to await Thee, at each moment putting themselves integrally at Thy service, Thou woulds be there whenever there was need of Thee;  and is there not always need of Thee with us, whatever may be the different, and often unexpected, forms of Thy manifestation ?
 

Let Thy glory be proclaimed, 

And sanctify life;

Let it transform men's hearts, 

And Thy Peace it on earth.

 

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February 12, 1913

 

As soon as all effort disappears from a manifestation, it becomes very simple, with the simplicity of a flower opening, manifesting its beauty and spreading its fragrance without clamour or vehement gesture.  And in this simplicity lies the greatest power, the power which is least mixed and least gives rise to harmful reactions.  The power of the vital should be mistrusted, it is a tempter on the path of the work, and there is always a risk of falling into its trap, for it gives you the taste of immediate results;  and, in our first eagerness to do the work well, we let ourselves be carried away to make use of this power.  But very soon it deflects all our action from the right course and introduces a seed of illusion and death into what we do.

 

Simplicity, simplicity !  How sweet is the purity of Thy Presence ! ...

 

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March 13, 1913

 

.... Let the pure perfume of sanctification burn always, rising higher and higher, and straighter and straighter, like the ceaseless prayer of the integral being, desiring to unite with Thee so as to manifest Thee.

 

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May 11, 1913

 

As soon as I have no longer any material responsibilities, all thoughts about these things flee far away from me, and I am solely and entirely occupied with Thee and Thy service.  Then, in that perfect peace and serenity, I unite my will to Thine, and in that integral silence I listen to Thy truth and hear its expression.  It is by becoming conscious of Thy Will and identifying ours with Thine that there is found the secret of true liberty and all-puissance, the secret of the regeneration of  forces and the transfiguration of the being.

 

To be constantly and integrally at one with Thee is to have the assurance that we shall overcome every obstacle and triumph over all difficulties, both within and without.

 

O Lord, Lord, a boundless joy fills my heart, songs of gladness surge through my head in marvellous waves, and in the full confidence of Thy certain triumph I find a sovereign Peace and an invincible Power.  Thou fillest my being, Thou animatest it, Thou settest in motion its hidden springs, Thou illuminest its understanding, Thou intensifiest its life, Thou increasest tenfold its love;  and I no longer know whether the universe is I or I the

 

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universe, whether Thou art in me or I in Thee;  Thou alone art and all  is Thou;  and the streams of Thy infiuite grace fill and overflow the world.

Sing O lands, sing O peoples, sing O men, 

The Divine Harmony is there.

 

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June 18, 1913

 

To turn towards Thee, unite with Thee, live in Thee and for Thee, is supreme happiness, unmixed joy, immutable peace;  it is to breathe infinity, to soar in eternity, no longer feel one's limits, escape from time and space.  Why do men flee from these boons as though they fear them ?  What a strange thing is ignorance, that source of all suffering !  How miserable that obscurity which keeps men away from the very thing which would bring them happiness and subjects them to this painful school of ordinary existence fashioned entirely from struggle and suffering !

 

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July 21, 1913

 

....Yet what patience is needed !  How imperceptible the stages of progress ! ... 

 

          Oh! how I call Thee from the very depths of my heart, True Light, Sublime Love, Divine Master who art the source of our light and of our living, our guide and our protector, the Soul of our soul and the Life of our life, the Reason of our being, the supreme Knowledge, the immutable Peace !

 

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November 28, 1913

 

Mother Divine, grant that today may bring to us a completer consecration to Thy Will, a more integral gift of ourselves to Thy work, a more total forgetfulness of self, a greater illumination, a purer love.  Grant that in a communion growing ever deeper, more constant and entire, we may be united always more and more closely to Thee and become Thy servitors worthy of Thee.  Remove from us all egoism, root out all petty vanity, greed and obscurity.  May we be all ablaze with Thy divine Love;  make us Thy torches in the world.

 

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January 24, 1914

 

O Thou who art the sole reality of our being, O sublime Master of love, Redeemer of life, let me have no longer any other consciousness than of Thee at every instant and in each being.  When I do not live solely with Thy life, I agonise, I sink slowly towards extinction;  for Thou art my only reason for existence, my one goal, my single support.  I am like a timid bird not yet sure of its wings and hesitating to take its flight;  let me soar to reach definitive identity with Thee.

 

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February 1, 1914

 

I turn towards Thee who art everywhere and within all and outside all, intimate essence of all and remote from all, centre of condensation for all energies, creator of conscious individualities:  I turn towards Thee and salute Thee, O liberator of the worlds, and, identified with Thy divine love, I contemplate the earth and its creatures, this mass of substance put into forms perpetually destroyed and renewed, this swarming mass of aggregates which are dissolved as soon as constituted, of beings who imagine that they are conscient and permanent individualities and who are as ephemeral as a breath, always alike or almost the same, in their diversity, repeating indefinitely the same desires, the same tendencies, the same appetites, the same ignorant errors.

 

But from time to time Thy sublime light shines in a being and radiates through him over the world, and then a little wisdom, a little knowledge, a little disinterested faith, heroism and compassion penetrates men's hearts, transforms their minds and sets free a few elements from that sorrowful and implacable wheel of existence to which their blind ignorance subjects them.

 

But how much greater a splendour than all that have gone

 

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before, how marvellous a glory and light would be needed to draw these beings out of the horrible aberration in which they are plunged by the life of cities and so-called civilisations !  What a formidable and, at the same time, divinely sweet puissance would be needed to turn aside all these wills from the bitter struggle for their selfish, mean and foolish satisfactions, to snatch them from this vortex which hides death behind its treacherous glitter, and turn them towards Thy conquering harmony !
 

O Lord, eternal Master, enlighten us, guide Our steps, show us the way towards the realisation of Thy law, towards the accomplishment of Thy work.
 

I adore Thee in silence and listen to Thee in a religious concentration.

 

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February 14,1914

Peace, peace upon all the earth !
 

May all escape from the ordinary consciousness and be delivered from the attachment for material things;  may they awake to the knowledge of Thy divine presence, unite themselves with Thy supreme consciousness and taste the plenitude of peace that springs from it.
 

Lord, Thou art the sovereign Master of our being.  Thy law is our law, and with all our strength we aspire to identify our consciousness with Thy eternal consciousness, that we may accomplish Thy sublime work in each thing and at every moment.
 

Lord, deliver us from all care for contingencies, deliver us from the ordinary outlook on things.  Grant that we may henceforth see only with Thy eyes and act only by Thy will.  Transform us into living torches of Thy divine love.
 

With reverence, with devotion, in a joyful consecration of

 

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my whole being I give myself, O Lord, to the fulfilment of Thy law.

             Peace, peace upon all the earth !

 

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February 15, 1914

 

O Thou, sole Reality, Light of our light and Life of our life, Love supreme, Saviour of the world, grant that more and more I may be perfectly awakened to the awareness of Thy constant presence.  Let all my acts conform to Thy law;  let there be no difference between my will and Thine. Extricate me from the illusory consciousness of my mind, from its world of fantasies;  let me identify my consciousness with the Absolute Consciousness, for that art Thou.
 

Give me constancy in the will to attain the end, give me firmness and energy and the courage which shakes off all torpor and lassitude.

 

Give me the peace of perfect disinterestedness, the peace that makes Thy presence felt and Thy intervention effective, the peace that is ever victorious over all bad will and every obscurity.

 

Grant, I implore Thee, that all in my being may be identified with Thee.  May I be nothing else any more than a flame of love utterly awakened to a supreme realisation of Thee.

 

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March 7, 1914

 

On board the Kaga Maru

 

This morning my prayer rises to Thee, always with the same aspiration:  to live Thy love, to radiate Thy love, with such potency and effectiveness that all may feel fortified, regenerated and illumined by our contact.  To have power to heal life, to relieve suffering, to generate peace and calm confidence, to efface anguish and replace it by the sense of the one true happiness, the happiness that is founded in Thee and never fades ....
 

O Lord, O marvellous Friend, O all-powerful Master, penetrate all our being, transfigure it till Thou alone livest in us and through us.

 

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March 8, 1914

 

In front of this calm sunrise which turned all within me into silence and peace, at the moment when I grew conscious of Thee and Thou alone wast living in me, O Lord, it seemed to me that I adopted all the inhabitants of this ship, and enveloped them in an equal love, and that so in each one of them something of Thy consciousness would awake.  Not often had I felt so strongly Thy divine power, and Thy invincible light, and once again total was my confidence and unmixed my joyful surrender.

O Thou who relievest all suffering and dispersest all ignorance, O Thou the supreme healer, be constantly present on this boat in the heart of those whom it shelters that once again Thy glory may be manifested !

 

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March 9, 1914

 

Those who live for Thee and in Thee may change their physical surroundings, their habits, climate,  "milieu", but everywhere they find the same atmosphere;  they carry that atmosphere in themselves, in their thought constantly fixed on Thee.  Everywhere they feel at home, for everywhere they are in Thy house.  No longer do they marvel at the novelty, unexpectedness, picturesqueness of things and countries;  for them, it is Thy presence that is manifest in all and Thy unchangeable splen dour, which never leaves them, is apparent in the least grain of sand.  The whole earth chants Thy praises;  in spite of the obscurity, misery, ignorance, through it all, it is still the glory of Thy love which we perceive and with which we can commune ceaselessly everywhere.

O Lord, my sweet Master, all this I constantly experience on this boat which seems to me a marvellous abode of peace, a temple sailing in Thy honour over the waves of the subconscient passivity which we have to conquer and awaken to the consciousness of Thy divine Presence.

 

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Blessed was the day when I came to know Thee, O Ineffable Eternity.

Blessed among all days be that day when the earth at last awakened shall know Thee and shall live only for Thee.

 

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March 25, 1914

 

Silent and unseen as always, but all-powerful, Thy action has made itself felt and, in these souls that seemed to be so closed a perception of Thy divine light is awake.  I knew well that none could invoke Thy presence in vain and if in the sincerity of our hearts we commune with Thee through no matter what organism, body or human collectivity, this organism in spite of its ignorance finds its unconsciousness wholly transformed.  But when in one or several elements there is the conscious transformation, when the flame that smoulders under the ashes leaps out suddenly illumining all the being, then with joy we salute Thy sovereign action, testify once more to Thy invincible puissance and can hope that a new possibility of true happiness has been added to the others in mankind.
 

O Lord, an ardent thanksgiving mounts from me towards Thee expressing the gratitude of this sorrowing humanity which Thou illuminest, transformest and glorifiest and givest to it the peace of Knowledge.

 

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April 10, 1914

 

Suddenly the veil was rent, the horizon was disclosed and before the clear vision my whole being threw itself at Thy feet in a great outburst of gratitude.  Yet in spite of this deep and integral joy all was calm, all was peaceful with the peace of eternity.

 

I seem to have no more limits;  there is no longer the perception of the body, no sensations, no feelings, no thoughts a clear, pure, tranquil immensity penetrated with love and light, filled with an unspeakable beatitude is all that is there and that alone seems now to be myself, and this  "myself"  is so little the former  "I", selfish and limited, that I cannot tell if it is I or Thou, O Lord, sublime Master of our destinies.
 

It is as though all were energy, courage, force, will, infinite sweetness, incomparable compassion ....
 

Even more forcibly than during these last days the past is dead and as though buried under the rays of a new life.  The last glance that I have just thrown backward as I read a few pages of this book definitely convinced me of this death, and lightened of

 

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a great weight I present myself before Thee, O my divine Master, with all the simplicity, all the nudity of a child .... And still the one only thing I perceive is that calm and pure immensity ....
 

Lord, Thou hast answered my prayer, Thou hast granted me what I have asked from Thee;  the  "I"  has disappeared, there is only a docile instrument put at Thy service, a centre of concentration and manifestation of Thy infinite and eternal rays;  Thou hast taken my life and made it Thine;  Thou hast taken my will and hast united it to Thine;  Thou hast taken my love and identified it with Thine;  Thou hast taken my thought and replaced it by Thy absolute consciousness.
 

The body, marvelling, bows its forehead in the dust in mute and submissive adoration.
 

And nothing else exists but Thou alone in the splendour of Thy immutable peace.

 

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April 17, 1914

 

O Lord, O almighty Master, sole Reality, grant that no error, no obscurity, no fatal ignorance may creep into my heart and my thought.
 

In action, the personality is the inevitable and indispensable intermediary of Thy will and Thy forces.
 

The stronger, the more complex, powerful, individualised and conscious is the personality, the more powerfully and usefully can the instrument serve. But, by reason of the very character of personality, it easily tends to be drawn into the fatal illusion of its separate existence an become little by little a screen between Thee and that on which Thou willest to act.  Not at the beginning, in the manifestation, but in the transmission of the return;  that is to say, instead of being, as a faithful servant, an intermediary who brings back to Thee exactly what is Thy due the forces sent forth in reply to Thy action, there is a tendency in the personality to want to keep for itself a part of the forces, with this idea:  "It is I who have done this or that, I who am thanked .... " Pernicious illusion, obscure falsehood, now are you discovered and unmasked.  That is the maleficent canker

 

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corroding the fruit of the action, falsifying all its results.

 

O Lord, O my sweet Master, sole Reality, dispel this feeling of the  "I".  I have now understood that so long as there will be a manifested universe, the  "I"  will remain necessary for Thy manifestation;  to dissolve, or even to diminish or weaken the  "I", is to deprive Thee of the means of manifestation, in whole or part.  But what must be radically and definitively suppressed is the illusory thought, the illusory feeling, the illusory sensation of the separate  "I".  At no moment, in no circumstances must we forget that our  "I"  has no reality outside Thee.
 

O my sweet Master, my divine Lord, tear out from my heart this illusion so that Thy servant may become pure and faithful and faithfully and integrally bring back to Thee all that is Thy dueIn silence let me contemplate and understand this supreme ignorance and dispel it for everChase the shadow from my heart, and let Thy light reign in it, its uncontested sovereign.

 

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May 12, 1914 

 

More and more it seems to me that we are in one of those periods of activity in which the fruit of past efforts becomes apparent, ― a period in which we act according to Thy law in the measure in which it is the sovereign controller of our being, with- out having even the leisure to become conscious of the law.

 

This morning passing by a rapid experience from depth to depth, I was able, once again, as always, to identify my consciousness with Thine and to live no longer in aught but Thee; indeed, it was Thou alone that was living, but immediately Thy will pulled my consciousness towards the exterior, towards the work to be done, and Thou saidst to me,  "Be the instrument of which I have need".  And is not this the last renunciation, to renounce identification with Thee, to renounce the sweet and pure joy of no longer distinguishing between Thee and me, the joy of knowing at each moment, not only with the intellect but by an integral experience, that Thou art the unique Reality and that all the rest is but appearance and illusionThat the exterior being should be the docile instrument which does not even need to be conscious of the will which moves it, is not doubtful;  but why must I be almost entirely identified with the instrument and why

 

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should not the  "I"  be entirely merged in Thee and live Thy full and absolute consciousness ?
 

I ask, but I am not anxious about it.  I know that all is according to Thy will, and with a pure adoration I trust myself joyously to Thy will.  I shall be what Thou wouldst have me be, O Lord, conscient or inconscient, a simple instrument as is the body or a supreme knowledge as art Thou.  O the sweet and peaceful joy when one can say  "All is good"  and feel Thee at work in the world through all the elements which lend themselves to that transmission.
 

Thou art the sovereign Master of all, Thou art the Inaccessible, the Unknowable, the eternal and sublime Reality.
 

O marvellous Unity, I disappear in Thee.

 

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