Page 5 - All India Magazine Jul-2025
P. 5

Not self-effacement but self-fulfilment
            But the true essence of sacrifice is not self-immolation, it is self-giving;
        its object not self-effacement, but self-fulfilment; its method not self-morti-
        fication, but a greater life, not self-mutilation, but a transformation of our
        natural human parts into divine members, not self-torture, but a passage
        from a lesser satisfaction to a greater Ananda. There is only one thing pain-
        ful in the beginning to a raw or turbid part of the surface nature; it is the
        indispensable discipline demanded, the denial necessary for the merging of
        the incomplete ego. But for that there can be a speedy and enormous compen-
        sation in the discovery of a real greater or ultimate completeness in others, in
        all things, in the cosmic oneness, in the freedom of the transcendent Self and
        Spirit, in the rapture of the touch of the Divine. Our sacrifice is not a giving
        without any return or any fruitful acceptance from the other side; it is an
        interchange between the embodied soul and conscious Nature in us and the
        eternal Spirit. For even though no return is demanded, yet there is the knowl-
        edge deep within us that a marvellous return is inevitable. The soul knows
        that it does not give itself to God in vain; claiming nothing, it yet receives the
        infinite riches of the divine Power and Presence.
        CWSA 23: 109                                                         Sri Aurobindo


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