The Mother
In part one, chapter one of the book ‘The Mother’, its
author, the famous revolutionary turned philosopher,
Sri
Aurobindo does some plain speaking regarding human aim of
reaching out to the Supreme Grace. He says that there are
two powers that jointly can help in this endeavour of man.
The Supreme Grace would defeat its own laws if it yields to
the demands of Falsehood. Light and Truth are the sole
conditions under which the highest Force can descend to
handle physical Nature and destroy its difficulties. But in
order that this could happen there must be a total and
sincere
surrender without any reservations. If only a part
of the being surrenders, the Divine Grace will stay away.
The temple must be thoroughly cleaned for installing the
living Presence there. The surrender must be total.
Truth and Falsehood, light and darkness, surrender and
selfishness cannot be allowed to dwell together in the
house of the Divine. The surrender is voluntary. The
Supreme does not impose it. A self-made surrender is the
real surrender of a living being. Otherwise it will be a
mechanical surrender and will carry no meaning. Only those
who are capable of a glad and strong submission will pass
through the ordeal of human tragedies to attain the Supreme
victory and great transformation.
In part two of Chapter one, the author says that a tamasic
surrender, since it originates from tamasa i.e., darkness,
refuses to take the trouble of fulfilling the conditions
laid down by God and instead demand of Him to do everything
on man’s behalf. This is a deception and does not lead to
freedom and perfection. The personal efforts required are
the trine culmination of aspiration, rejection and
surrender.
The aspiration is the driving force, the will, the heart’s
seeking and the assent of the vital being to open and
pulverize physical consciousness and nature.
The rejection of the desires, selfishness, pride, lust,
greed, jealousy, envy and hostility to Truth will cause joy
to pour from a higher plane into a calm and consecrated
vital being.
Surrender of oneself is the proportion with which the
Divine Shakti (Energy) does the Sadhana (meditation) on
behalf of the person and showers him with all the
favourable ingredients. But personal efforts cannot be done
away with until the surrender and consecration are pure and
complete from start to finish.