August 31, 2011 – Work in the World

Pity may be reserved,
so long as thy soul makes distinctions. for the suffering animals;
but humanity deserves from thee something nobler;
it asks for love, for understanding, for comradeship,for the help of the equal & brother.

Sri Aurobindo

(Thoughts and Aphorisms 185)

Work in the World

I have seen persons who had no pretensions of doing yoga, who were simply filled with enthusiasm by the idea of terrestrial transformation and of the descent of the Divine into the world and who did their little bit of work with that enthusiasm in the heart, giving themselves wholly, without reserve, without any selfish idea of a personal salvation; these I have seen making magnificent progress, truly magnificent. And sometimes they are wonderful. I have seen sannyasis, I have seen people who live in monasteries, I have seen people who professed to be yogis, well, I would not exchange one of the others for a dozen such people….It is not by running away from the world that you will change it. It is by working there, modestly, humbly but with a fire in the heart, something that burns like an offering.

The Mother

The Great Adventure: Page 49