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The Hour of God
by Sri Aurobindo
(around 1918)
There are moments when the Spirit moves among men and the breath of the
Lord is abroad upon the waters of our being; there are others when it retires
and men are left to act in the strength or the weakness of their own egoism.
The first are the periods when even a little effort produces great results
and changes destiny; the second are spaces of time when much labour goes
to the making of a little result. It is true that the latter may prepare
the former, may be the little smoke of sacrifice going up to heaven which
calls down the rain of God's bounty.
Unhappy is the man or the nation which, when the divine moment arrives,
is found sleeping or unprepared to use it, because the lamp has not been
kept trimmed for the welcome and the ears are sealed to the call. But thrice
woe to them who are strong and ready, yet waste the force or misuse the
moment; for them is irreparable loss or a great destruction.
In the hour of God cleanse thy soul of all self-deceit and hypocrisy and
vain self-flattering that thou mayst look straight into thy spirit and hear
that which summons it. All insincerity of nature, once thy defence against
the eye of the Master and the light of the ideal, becomes now a gap in thy
armour and invites the blow. Even if thou conquer for the moment, it is
the worse for thee, for the blow shall come afterwards and cast thee down
in the midst of thy triumph. But being pure cast aside all fear; for the
hour is often terrible, a fire and a whirlwind and a tempest, a treading
of the winepress of the wrath of God; but he who can stand up in it on the
truth of his purpose is he who shall stand; even though he fall, he shall
rise again; even though he seem to pass on the wings of the wind, he shall
return. Nor let worldly prudence whisper too closely in thy ear; for it
is the hour of the unexpected, the incalculable, the immeasurable. Mete
not the power of the Breath by thy petty instruments, but trust and go forward.
But most keep thy soul clear, even if for a while, of the clamour of the
ego. Then shall a fire march before thee in the night and the storm be thy
helper and thy flag shall wave on the highest height of the greatness that
was to be conquered.
Sri Aurobindo
(in "The Hour of God", Section One)
Note: An incomplete text was published as an Ashram "darshan message"
in August 1954.
in "The Hour of God and Other Writings"
SABCL, Volume 17
(also pages 3-4 of the booklet edition)
published by Sri
Aurobindo Ashram - Pondicherry
diffusion by SABDA
On this Webpage of the Website
of the Sri Aurobindo Society you can HEAR
THE MOTHER reading that text (Real Audio).
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