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Fourth letter in "The Mother"
(Money)
by Sri Aurobindo
Money is a sign of universal force, and this force in its manifestation
on earth works on the vital and physical planes and is indispensable to
the fullness of outer life.
In its origin and its true action it belongs to the Divine. But like other
powers of the Divine it is delegated here and in the ignorance of the
lower Nature can be usurped for the uses of the ego or held by Asuric
influences and perverted to their purpose.
This is indeed one of the three forces - power, wealth, sex - that have
the strongest attraction for the human ego and the Asura and are most
generally misheld and misused by those who retain them.
The seekers or keepers of wealth are more often possessed rather than
its possessors; few escape entirely a distorting influence stamped on
it by its long seizure and perversion by the Asura.
For this reason most spiritual disciplines insist on complete self-control,
detachment and renunciation of all bondage to wealth and of all personal
and egoistic desire for its possession. Some even put a ban on money and
riches and proclaim poverty and bareness of life as the only spiritual
condition.
But this is an error; it leaves the power in the hands of the hostile
forces. To reconquer it for the Divine to whom it belongs and use it
divinely for the divine life is the supramental way for the Sadhaka.
You must neither turn with an ascetic shrinking from the money power,
the means it gives and the object it brings, nor cherish a rajasic attachment
to them or a spirit of enslaving self-indulgence in their gratifications.
Regard wealth simply as a power to be won back for the Mother and placed
at her service.
All wealth belongs to the Divine and those who hold it as trustees, not
possessors. It is with them today, tomorrow it may be elsewhere. All depends
on the way they discharge their trust while it is with them, in what spirit,
with what consciousness in their use of it, to what purpose.
In your personal use of money look on all you have or get or bring as
the Mother's.
Make no demand but accept what you receive from her and use it for the
purposes for which it is given to you.
Be entirely selfless, entirely scrupulous, exact, careful in detail, a
good trustee; always consider that it is her possessions and not your
own that you are handling.
On the other hand, what you receive for her, lay religiously before her;
turn nothing to your own or anybody else's purpose.
Do not look up to men because of their riches or allow yourself to be
impressed by the show, the power of influence.
When you ask for the Mother, you must feel that it is she who is demanding
through you a very little of what belongs to her and the man from whom
you ask will be judged by his response.
If you are free from money-taint but without any ascetic withdrawal,
you will have greater power to command the money for the divine work.
Equality of mind, absence of demand and the full dedication of all you
possess and receive and all your power of acquisition to the Divine Shakti
and her work are the signs of this freedom.
Any perturbation of mind with regard to money and its use, any claim,
any grudging is a sure index of some imperfection or bondage.
The ideal Sadhaka in this kind is one who if required to live poorly can
so live and no sense of want will affect him or interfere with the full
inner play of the divine consciousness, and if he is required to live
richly, can so live and never for a moment fall into desire or attachment
to his wealth or to the things that he uses or servitude to self-indulgence
or a weak bondage to the habits that the possession of riches creates.
The divine Will is all for him and the divine Ananda.
In the supramental creation the money force have to be restored to the
Divine Power and used for a true and beautiful and harmonious equipment
and ordering of a new divinised vital and physical existence in whatever
way the Divine Mother herself decides in her creative vision.
But first it must be conquered back for her and those will be the
strongest for the conquest who are in this part of their nature strong
and large and free from ego and surrendered without any claim or withholding
or hesitation, pure and powerful channels for the supreme Puissance.
Sri Aurobindo
Mira
(The original letter has both signatures)
In SABCL, volume 25, "The Mother and Letters
on the Mother" (pages 11-14)
The Mother has commented that text
on July 28, 1954
in CMW, vol. 6, "Questions and Answers - 1954",
pages 249-265
published by Sri
Aurobindo Ashram - Pondicherry
diffusion by SABDA
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