December 26, 2012 – A Certain Number of Rules

To see the composition of the sun or the lines of Mars
is doubtless a great achievement;
but when thou hast the instrument that can show thee
a man’s soul as thou seest a picture,
then thou wilt smile at the wonders of physical
Science as the playthings of babies.

Sri Aurobindo

(Thoughts and Aphorisms 110)

A Certain Number of Rules

Morality is something altogether artificial and arbitrary, and in most cases, among the best, it checks the true spiritual effort by a sort of moral satisfaction that one is on the right path….

What really helps, until one has found the inner light, is to make for oneself a certain number of rules which naturally should not be too rigid and fixed, but yet should be precise enough to prevent one from going completely out of the right path or making irreparable mistakes – mistakes the consequences of which one suffers all one’s life.

To do that, it is good to set up a certain number of principles in oneself, which, however, should be for each one, in conformity with his own nature. If you adopt a social, collective rule, you immediately make yourself a slave to this social rule, and that prevents you almost radically from making any effort for transformation.

The Mother

The Great Adventure 28