Page 48 - NAMAH-Jan-2024

Namah Vol. 31, Issue 4, 15th January 2024

going to take care of myself, nurture, foster always speak of those who do yoga, I do not
myself within, and then I am going to offer speak about ordinary life), for those who do yoga,
myself to this world and that is how I love. to depend upon someone else is like wanting
Now, in relationships, I am not seeking like to transform that person into a representative
a beggar, but just a presence, willing to offer of the Divine Force; now you may be sure
love, presence and whatever may be the need there is not one in a hundred millions who can
of the hour. carry the weight: he will break immediately. So
never take the attitude of hoping for support,
My fulfilment does not depend on the outer, help, comfort from anyone except the Divine.
it comes from within me, and hence I don’t That is absolute; I have never, not once, met
continue to torture myself or the other in a anyone who tried to cling to something to find
claim of love. I now don’t want to possess, for a support there (someone doing yoga or who
the simple reason that I know I cannot. All has been put into touch with yoga) and who
finite beings are just in appearance finite and was not deceived – it breaks, it stops, one loses
limited, but in actuality they too are infinite one’s support. Then one says, ‘Life is difficult’
beings, and hence cannot be possessed. With – it is not difficult but one must know what
this understanding, I also see that whenever one is doing. Never seek a support elsewhere
there is a grasping in me, a craving in me than in the Divine. Never seek satisfaction
to possess or to control the other person in elsewhere than in the Divine. Never seek the
the name of love, it is just the falsehood of satisfaction of your needs in anyone else except
the ego-consciousness, operating always the Divine – never, for anything at all. All your
from a sense of lack, and then I have the needs can be satisfied only by the Divine. All
courage to step back from it. I do not give the your weaknesses can be borne and healed only
sanction to these harmful dictates of the ego by the Divine. He alone is capable of giving
consciousness. This sense of lack is not me, you what you need in everything, always, and
and hence I need not listen to the dictates. if you try to find any satisfaction or support or
help or joy or… heaven knows what, in anyone
And in that understanding and growth, I else, you will always fall on your nose one day,
begin to be one drop of begging less when so and that always hurts, sometimes even hurts
much is already there. I promise myself that very much (3).”
I am always going to be my own best friend,
and in doing that I always live in abundance, References
rather than in lack, and find solace in myself
than in outer appearances. Now I can begin 1. Sri Aurobindo. The Complete Works of Sri
to truly love. To truly want the benefit of the Aurobindo, Volume 23-24. Pondicherry: Sri
other I love, to truly want the highest and Aurobindo Ashram Trust; 1999, p.569-70.
best for the other I love. I love now for the
joy of loving, and not for what I get in return. 2. Ibid., p 656.
I love because I simply cannot do anything,
but love. 3. The Mother. The Collected Works of the Mother,
Volume. 4. Cent ed. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo
“From the minute you start doing yoga (I Ashram Trust; 1972, 2003, p. 390.

48