July 11, 2018 – No attachment to material things

A journey under wings of brooding Force.

First came the kingdom of the morning star:

A twilight beauty trembled under its spear

And the throb of promise of a wider Life.

Then slowly rose a great and doubting sun

And in its light she made of self a world.

A spirit was there that sought for its own deep self,

Yet was content with fragments pushed in front

And parts of living that belied the whole

But, pieced together, might one day be true.

Yet something seemed to be achieved at last.

Sri Aurobindo

Savitri, Book II, Canto VI, page 175

No attachment to material things

Sweet Mother, here it is said that one should have no attachment for material things; then, when you give us something, if we lose it and feel sad, it can be called attachment?

It is better not to lose it. (Laughter) But in fact the thing ought to be only… It is not the thing itself to which one must be attached. It is to open oneself to what is within, what I put into the thing I give, this indeed is much more important. And, of course, there can always be an accident but it is certain that if one gives to a thing its inner symbolical or spiritual value, there is much less chance of losing it; it creates a kind of relation because of which there is not much chance of losing it. It remains close to you.

I have the feeling, when someone loses something I have given him, that he was just in contact with the outer form, the shell, and not with what I had put inside, otherwise he would not have lost it; I have the feeling that there is a lack of deeper perception. Perhaps one was very attached to the outer form, but not very open to what was behind.

The Mother

Questions and Answers 1955, CWM Vol 7, page 49