Page 6 - All India Magazine Jan-2025

worked out in a certain seclusion the truth of his spirit. He lived in
a broad freedom from the stricter social bonds; but if he so willed,
gathering the young around him or receiving the inquirer and
seeker, he could leave his knowledge to the new rising generation
as an educator or a spiritual teacher. In the last stage of life he was
free to throw off every remaining tie and to wander over the world
in an extreme spiritual detachment from all the forms of social
life, satisfying only the barest necessities, communing with the
universal spirit, making his soul ready for eternity. This circle was
not obligatory on all. The great majority never went beyond the
two first stages; many passed away in the v1naprastha or forest
stage. Only the rare few made the last extreme venture and took
the life of the wandering recluse. But this profoundly conceived
cycle gave a scheme which kept the full course of the human spirit
in its view; it could be taken advantage of by all according to their
actual growth and in its fullness by those who were sufficiently
developed in their present birth to complete the circle.
CWSA 20: 174-76 Sri Aurobindo

From birth to death, life is a dangerous thing.
The brave pass through it without care for the risks.
The prudent take precautions.

The cowardly are afraid of everything.
But ultimately, what happens to each one is only
what the Supreme Will has decided.
*

Some of the living are already half-dead. Many of the
dead are very much alive.
CWM 15: 118 The Mother

6 All India Magazine, January 2025