WRITINGS BY THE MOTHER
© Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust

Sweet Mother,

Sri Aurobindo has said somewhere that if we surrender to the Divine Grace, it will do everything for us. Then what is the value of tapasya?

If you want to know what Sri Aurobindo has said on a given subject, you must at least read all he has written on that subject. You will then see that he seems to have said the most contradictory things. But when one has read everything and understood [new p. 310]a little, one sees that all the contradictions complement one another and are organised and unified in an integral synthesis.

Here is another quotation by Sri Aurobindo which will show you that your question is an ignorant one. There are many others which you could read to advantage and which will make your intelligence more supple: [old p. 312]

"If there is not a complete surrender, then it is not possible to adopt the baby cat attitude,--it becomes mere tamasic passivity calling itself surrender. If a complete surrender is not possible in the beginning, it follows that personal effort is necessary." [Note: Letters on Yoga, Cent. Vol. 23, pp. 593-94.]

16 December 1964

Collected Works of The Mother, First Edition, Volume 16, p. 311