Page 16 - All India Magazine Jun-2025

good for everybody at every stage any more than living a re-
tired life is good for everybody or at every stage. The disadvan-
tage of a free jolly outward social life without restrictions is
that one becomes entirely or mostly externalised and that all
sorts of vital interchanges are part of it which can hamper the
inner growth or the total self-consecration to the Divine. The
disadvantage of too complete a retirement is that it makes the
person one-sided and shut up in himself, subjective, without
the stabilising contact with earth and consequently with the
danger of morbidity and self-delusion. A middle path with the
rule of living more and more within, standing back from out-
ward things but not throwing them aside, looking at them with
a new consciousness, a new view and acting on them from this
inner consciousness is the best way. But there is need for some
at some stages to minimise outward contacts without abolish-
ing them during part of the process of this shifting of the con-
sciousness. No absolute rule can be laid down in this matter.
CWSA 32: 137-38

The effort demanded
The effort demanded of the sadhak is that of aspiration,
rejection and surrender. If these three are done the rest is to
come of itself by the Grace of the Mother and the working of
her force in you. But of the three the most important is sur-
render of which the first necessary form is trust and confidence
and patience in difficulty. There is no rule that trust and confi-
dence can only remain if aspiration is there. On the contrary,
when even aspiration is not there because of the pressure of
inertia, trust and confidence and patience can remain. If trust
and patience fail when aspiration is quiescent, that would
mean that the sadhak is relying solely on his own effort — it
would mean, "Oh, my aspiration has failed, so there is no hope
for me. My aspiration fails, so what can Mother do?" On the

16 All India Magazine, June 2025