Page 36 - All India Magazine Oct-2026

The Demand of Mahalakshmi

“Harmony and beauty of the mind and soul, harmony and beau-
ty of the thoughts and feelings, harmony and beauty in every
outward act and movement, harmony and beauty of the life and
surroundings, this is the demand of Mahalakshmi....Where love
and beauty are not or are reluctant to be born, she does not
come.”
— Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, p. 31

When the surroundings, circumstances, atmosphere, the way
of living and above all the inner attitude are altogether of a
low kind, vulgar, gross, egoistic, sordid, love is reluctant to
come, that is, it always hesitates to manifest itself and gener-
ally does not stay long. A home of beauty must be given for
Beauty to stay. I am not speaking of external things — real
house, real furniture and all that — am speaking of an inner at-
titude, of something within which is beautiful, noble, harmo-
nious, unselfish. There Love has a chance to come and stay.
But when, as soon as it tries to manifest, it is immediately
mixed with such low and ugly things, it does not remain, it
goes away. This is what Sri Aurobindo says: it is “reluctant to
be born” — it could be said that it immediately regrets being
born. Men always complain that love does not stay with them
but it is entirely their fault. They give this love such a sordid life,
mixed with a heap of horrors and such vulgarity, things so base,
so selfish, so dirty, that the poor thing cannot stay. If they don’t
succeed in killing it altogether, they make it utterly sick. So the
only thing it can do is to take flight. People always complain
that love is impermanent and passing. To tell the truth, they

All India Magazine, October 2026
36