Sri Aurobindo Center
of Los Angeles


The Quest
November 2020

Theme: Surrender II

The notable events in November were the solemn observance of Mother's Mahasamadhi on the 17th, and the celebration of the Nov 24^th Siddhi Day.  The Center also participated in a joint virtual celebration of the 24^th organized by seven or more Centers nationally. This was a unique and refreshing experience in a quiet and concentrated atmosphere permeated with joy.  One was reminded of what She once stated to a disciple:   "It may take fifty years, it may take a hundred years, and you may doubt about my being there; I may be there or not, but these children of mine will be there to carry out my work".

Siddhi Day Observance at Sri Aurobindo Center Los Angeles 
November 24, 2020

Introduction  

The Mother said Surrender is the decision to hand over the responsibilities of one’s life to the Divine. This decision, though sounds simple, is one of the most difficult steps of the sadhana. Seekers will have questions about their capacity and levels of surrender. Complete surrender is not achieved in a day, one inches through the grand stairs of the surrender progressing in bits. If one feels despondent looking at his un-surrendered parts or attitude, it will be relevant to refer to the Mother’s prayer of 2nd Nov 1912. She opens us to the experience of Prayers and Meditations with this piece where She says that though Her whole being is consecrated to the Divine, yet She finds it hard to carry out this consecration in detail. Finally, one must be alert about the shades of surrender, it should not be confused with inert passivity, a tamasic approach yielding to the influences of desires and adverse forces. One has to surrender to the higher influences, and till it is perfected with time, personal effort is required to grow towards the light. As the light grows, the darkness recedes – the secret is to persist and not to give up.
 
If the tempest of life is distracting and overwhelming at times, then let these words in Savitri, “A vast surrender was his only strength”, be the guide-star. True surrender enlarges a seeker, it strengthens him, aiding him to become what he cannot be on his own. Considering the importance of Surrender in the path of Integral Yoga and for spiritual life, we continue to cover the topic in November too. Hope we all will find something valuable from the treasure mined from the works of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother.

 
The Mother, CWM Volume 3, Page 126.

All are invited to join us for the following virtual events taking place via Zoom video and teleconferencing calls.

Savitri Reading - Thursdays, 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm Pacific Time
Essays on the Gita - Saturdays, 4:30 pm- 6:00 pm Pacific Time

The Practice                                                             Home

If you can’t as yet remember the Divine all the time you are working, it does not greatly matter. To remember and dedicate at the beginning and give thanks at the end ought to be enough for the present. Or at the most to remember too when there is a pause. … When people remember all the time during work (it can be done), it is usually with the back of their minds or else there is created gradually a faculty of double thought or else a double consciousness— one in front that works, and one within that witnesses and remembers. … Aspiration and will of consecration calling down a greater Force to do the work is a method which brings great results, even if in some it takes a long time about it. That is a great secret of sadhana, to know how to get things done by the Power behind or above instead of doing all by the mind’s effort.
 
Sri Aurobindo, CWSA Volume 29, Page 214.
 

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Sadhak: How to persuade the recalcitrant parts of our nature to surrender?
 
The Mother: Try to make them understand, as one does with a child who does not understand, by all kinds of means: pictures, explanations, symbols. Make them understand the necessity of union and harmony with the other parts of the being; reason with them, try to make them conscious of their acts and the consequences of these. Above all, be very patient; do not tire of repeating the same things.

Sadhak: In this work, can the mind be of help?

The Mother: Yes, if a part of the mind is fully enlightened, if it is surrendered to the psychic light and has a sense of the truth, the mind can be of great help, it can explain things in the true way.
 
8 March 1951
CWM Volume 4, Page 182.
 

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Three typical modes of total self-giving to the Divine:                       
         
1. To prostrate oneself at His feet, giving up all pride in perfect humility.

2. To unfold one’s being before Him, open one’s whole body from head to foot, as one opens a book, exposing one’s centres so as to make all their movements visible in a complete sincerity that allows nothing to remain hidden.

3. To nestle in His arms, to merge in Him in a loving and absolute trust.

These movements may be accompanied by three formulas or any one of them according to the case:

1. Let Thy Will be done and not mine.
2. As Thou willest, as Thou willest.
3. I am Thine for eternity.

Generally, when these movements are done in the true way, they are followed by a perfect identification, a dissolution of the ego, giving rise to a sublime felicity.
 
The Mother, CWM Volume 14, Page 102.
 

From Prayers & Meditations                                 Home

….. In any case, I do not struggle; and like a child in its mother’s arms, like a fervent disciple at the feet of his master, I trust myself to Thee and surrender to Thy guidance, sure of Thy victory.
 
January 4, 1914
The Mother, CWM Volume 1, Page 46.

 

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WHEN physical conditions are a little difficult and some discomfort follows, if one knows how to surrender completely before Thy will, caring little for life or death, health or illness, the integral being enters immediately into harmony with Thy law of love and life, and all physical indisposition ceases giving place to a calm well-being, deep and peaceful.
 
March 17, 1914
The Mother, CWM Volume 1, Page 101.

Detailed surrender means the surrender of all the details of life, even the smallest and the most insignificant in appearance. And this means to remember the Divine in all circumstances; whatever we think, feel or do, we must do it for Him as a way of coming close to Him, to be more and more what He wants us to be, capable of manifesting His will in perfect sincerity and purity, to be the instruments of His Love.
 
The Mother, CWM Volume 14, Page 108
 

Because the least detail of life and action, each movement of thought, even of sensation, of feeling, which is normally of little importance, becomes different the moment you look at it asking yourself, “Did I think this as an offering to the Divine, did I feel this as an offering to the Divine?...” If you recall this every moment of your life, the attitude becomes quite different from what it was before. It becomes very wide; it is a chain of innumerable little things each having its own place, whilst formerly you used to let them go by without being aware of them. That widens the field of consciousness. If you take a half hour of your life and think of it, putting to yourself this question: “Is it a consecration to the Divine?” you will see that the small things become a big thing and you will have the impression that life becomes rich and luminous.”
 
22 February 1951
The Mother, CWM Volume 4, Page 133.
 

Examples of the Artist                                                   Home

Sadhak: You have said: “If you surrender you have to give up effort, but that does not mean that you have to abandon also all willed action.”

But if one wants to do something, it means personal effort, doesn’t it? What then is the will?
 
The Mother: There is a difference between the will and this feeling of tension, effort, of counting only on oneself, having recourse to oneself alone which personal effort means; this kind of tension, of something very acute and at times very painful; you count only on yourself and you have the feeling that if you do not make an effort every minute, all will be lost. That is personal effort.

But the will is something altogether different. It is the capacity to concentrate on everything one does, do it as best one can and not stop doing it unless one receives a very precise intimation that it is finished. It is difficult to explain it to you. But suppose, for example, through a concurrence of circumstances, a work comes into your hands. Take an artist who has in one way or another got an inspiration and resolved to paint a picture. He knows very well that if he has no inspiration and is not sustained by forces other than his own, he will do nothing much. It will look more like a daub than a painting. He knows this. But it has been settled, the painting is to be done; there may be many reasons for that, but the painting has to be done. Then if he had the passive attitude, well, he would place his palette, his colours, his brushes, his canvas and then sit down in front of it and say to the Divine: “Now you are going to paint.” But the Divine does not do things this way. The painter himself must take up everything and arrange everything, concentrate on his subject, find the forms, the colours that will express it and put his whole will for a more and more perfect execution. His will must be there all the time. But he has to keep the sense that he must be open to the inspiration, he will not forget that in spite of all his knowledge of the technique, in spite of the care he takes to arrange, organise and prepare his colours, his forms, his design, in spite of all that, if he has no inspiration, it will be one picture among a million others and it will not be very interesting. He does not forget. He attempts, he tries to see, to feel what he wants his painting to express and in what way it should be expressed. He has his colours, he has his brushes, he has his model, he has made his sketch which he will enlarge and make into a picture, he calls his inspiration. There are even some who manage to have a clear, precise vision of what is to be done. But then, day after day, hour after hour, they have this will to work, to study, to do with care all that must be done until they reproduce as perfectly as they can the first inspiration.... That person has worked for the Divine, in communion with Him, but not in a passive way, not with a passive surrender; it is with an active surrender, a dynamic will. The result generally is something very good. Well, the example of the painter is interesting, because a painter who is truly an artist is able to see what he is going to do, he is able to connect himself to the divine Power that is beyond all expression and inspires all expression. For the poet, the writer, it is the same thing and for all people who do something, it is the same.
 
13th May 1953
The Mother, CWM Volume 5, Page 46.