For our Sādhanā series this month, we begin with a Mother’s prayer dated 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 and 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 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 due. In silence let me contemplate and understand this supreme ignorance and dispel it for ever. Chase the shadow from my heart, and let Thy light reign in it, its uncontested sovereign.
(CWM, Vol. 1, pp. 126-127)
Here is another beautiful artistic creation by the group ‘Art Studio-12 Qualities‘. Last month we had featured their creation on Sincerity.
As we watch this film in silence and meditate with the words of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo, we may enter a place of quietude and calm where some of those pesky knots of the ego might begin to loosen their grip, ever so gently, even if only for a few moments. But one more step would have been taken toward progress, one more rekindling of the fire within. Come, let us join in this collective aspiration for cultivating true humility!
May this be our offering into the yajñá for a true rebirth of the Indian soul, a rebirth in which not only the Mind but the entire Life begins to experience the touch of the Spirit.
Art Studio "12 Qualities" is a group of volunteers from all over the world together creating a new approach to values, knowledge and conscious living. They describe their goal in these words: "Our main goal is to create new Art, new expressions of beauty and power of our true Self that dwells within us. In our works we aspire towards future realizations of a new Dawn and new Birth of Higher Consciousness on earth. We seek to create consciously new educational films, books, documentaries and other forms of Art revealing our deeper thoughts, feelings, emotions and aspirations for a higher and truer Life." To know more about them and their work, click HERE.
ALSO SEE:
Sādhanā – August 2021
Sādhanā – July 2021
Sādhanā – June 2021
~ Cover image: Beloo Mehra
