Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have written countless letters to aspirants

From: "SABDA eNews" mail@sabda.in CC: Subject: The Story of a Soul Date: Sat, 18 Apr 2009 17:02:50 +0530

Most people who decide to follow the path of integral yoga, who take up the task of transforming their natures, changing old habits of thought and feeling in order to live in a different consciousness, meet obstacles and difficulties along the way. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have written countless letters to aspirants to explain the nature and cause of such difficulties and to show the attitude to be taken to overcome them. In one of the new books introduced below, the second installment in the series entitled The Story of a Soul, Huta tells the story of her own struggles against the lower forces and the wonderful way in which the Mother helped her and cared for her during the worst of her vicissitudes. This extract from the book captures Huta’s dilemma and the Mother’s clear-eyed and compassionate assessment of the situation:

The Mother saw me on 2.3.56 in the Meditation Hall upstairs. After we had exchanged smiles and flowers, I said:
Mother, the union with the Divine is not easy, because I have been attacked relentlessly by the dark forces which put stumbling-stones every now and then in my way to prevent me from reaching my goal. They really make me nervous and sick. One moment I feel quite cheerful and the next as if the blackest depression descends upon me.Tears stung my eyelids when I finished telling her my woe, and with a deep sigh I laid my hands into hers. She looked at me with her penetrating gaze and went into a trance for a few seconds and explained:
There is nothing new in human nature. Sometimes it remains in the light and sometimes in the darkness. But truly I want something new in the life of human beings. Human nature is divided. So sometimes people believe in the adverse forces and sometimes in the Divine Forces. When they are trapped by the hostile forces they begin to think: “This thing is good and that one is bad, this person is good and that person is bad.” And so on. They live in likings and dislikings with various types of mortal desires and ego in them. In fact, they themselves create all lower and false things in their consciousness: no wonder they become miserable. As a matter of fact, it is nothing but putting a dense curtain between the Divine and their souls. So how can they realise anything new in their lives? But, if there is no barrier between the Divine and themselves, naturally the adverse forces do not like it, and constantly they try to drive them far away from the Divine and His Grace. ... You should pray intensely to the Lord: “O Lord, kindly work in my legs, in my hands—in my whole consciousness; if I walk, walk in me, if I eat, eat in me—whatever I do, be always with me.” Thus you are constantly protected by the Lord and His Grace.

To read this book, in the words of Nolini Kanta Gupta, “is to come closer to the Mother—into her arms”.
Other books in this issue include a reprint of K. D. Sethna's classic work of literary criticism, The Poetic Genius of Sri Aurobindo, available again after a long time, and Tapasya, a collection of spiritual paintings by Dhanavanti.

NEW PUBLICATIONS To order any book, click on the title, which will locate the book in our online catalogue. Next, add it to the shopping cart. You may then proceed to pay by credit card online.

ENGLISH
The Story of a Soul
Volume Two, 1956—Part One— HutaISBN: 978-81-87372-21-9Publisher: The Havyavahana Trust, PondicherryBinding: Soft CoverPages: 198Price: Rs 300
Huta's journey on the path of self-realisation is told here through a narrative that includes numerous letters and notes to her from the Mother, reports of her conversations with the Mother, extracts from her spiritual diaries, and quotations from the writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother that have a special relevance to her circumstances, experiences, and inner difficulties. When the first version of the book was read out to the Mother in October 1972, she commented, “This is the interesting story of how a being discovers the Divine Life.” The Story of a Soul runs from 1954 to 1973—this volume covers the first half of 1956.
The Poetic Genius of Sri Aurobindo
— Amal Kiran (K. D. Sethna) ISBN: 978-81-87916-07-9Publisher: Clear Ray Trust, PondicherryBinding: Soft CoverPages: 138Price: Rs 125
This book examines and evaluates Sri Aurobindo’s considerable poetic output in blank verse, his achievements in quantitative metre, a medium that had eluded English poets, and his creation of a new type of poetry that reached beyond the ranges of inspiration familiar to most poets to reveal new heights and intensities of mystical and spiritual _expression. Before it was first published in 1947 it had the distinction of having been read out to Sri Aurobindo, who professed his admiration for the substance and style of this literary criticism by Sethna. The book is available again after a long time.
ENGLISH/FRENCH
Tapasya
Hymns in colour— Dhanavanti Publisher: Auroville Press Publishers, AurovilleBinding: Soft CoverPages: 84Price: Rs 495
In this book of paintings, the artist presents her work along with the poems or lines of poetry which inspired them. The paintings depict her visions of inner worlds and experiences such as “Universal Transcendent” and “A Mystic Passion”, inspired by some lines from Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri, and “Illumination”, which envisions a passage from his short poem “The Island Sun”. Other paintings visually interpret her own poems or those of the English poet Frank Townshend. The text appears in both English and French.
HINDI
Mahabharat par Nibandh
— Sri Aurobindo ISBN: 978-81-7058-875-7Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department, PondicherryBinding: Soft CoverPages: 99Price: Rs 50
In this volume have been collected Sri Aurobindo's independent prose writings on the Mahabharata. (Writings on the Bhagavad Gita are not included.) The principal prose work is an essay written in Baroda entitled, "Notes on the Mahabharata", in which Sri Aurobindo put forward the idea that the original Mahabharata of Vyasa, consisting of some 24,000 verses, could be disengaged from later "enlargements, accretions and additions" by means of a detailed textual study.A few paragraphs on the Mahabharata from A Defence of Indian Culture have been included. These repesent Sri Aurobindo's later thinking on the epic.
Vichar aur Sutra ke Prasang main
— The Mother ISBN: 978-81-7058-885-6Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department, PondicherryBinding: Soft CoverPages: 425Price: Rs 195
Hindi translation of On Thoughts and Aphorisms
The Mother's commentaries on the aphorisms of Sri Aurobindo on works, knowledge, and devotion, explaining their meaning and showing among other things how Sri Aurobindo's apparent startling disregard for conventional morality is a means to emphasise how spiritual matters cannot be judged with the ethical mind.
BENGALI
Mayer chatrachayay bere otha
— Mother's Correspondence With Tara Jauhar ISBN: 978-81-900175-9-6Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Ashram - Delhi Branch Trust, New DelhiBinding: Soft CoverPages: 222Price: Rs 100
Bengali translation of Growing Up with the Mother
Tara Jauhar had the privilege of close proximity to the Mother for many years. This book is a collection of correspondence, messages, and conversations of the Mother with Tara, "showing how the Mother patiently and persistently helped and guided a young girl towards the discovery of her inner being and held out Her ever helping hand, nurtured her growth, and led her on to the path of spirituality".
Pratibha o Prakash
Kavyabhabanar Bikash : Ved theke Sri Aurobinde— Ranajit Sarkar Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Pathamandir, KolkataBinding: Hard CoverPages: 264Price: Rs 150
Ananta Alokdhara
Sri Aurobindo Rabindranath abong Anya Kaekjan— Saurendranath Basu Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Pathamandir, KolkataBinding: Hard CoverPages: 191Price: Rs 150
Chhelemeyeder Sange Bhalobasay O Anande
— Debabrata Majumdar ISBN: 978-81-7060-276-7Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Society, PondicherryBinding: Soft CoverPages: 171Price: Rs 60
GUJARATI
Suratma Sri Aravind
— Varnan: Hiranmayi Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Centre, SuratBinding: Soft CoverPages: 232Price: Rs 200
Gujarati translation of Sri Aurobindo in Surat
Published to commemorate the centenary of Sri Aurobindo’s 1907 visit to Surat for the All India Annual Convention of the then Indian National Congress, the book acquaints the reader with the major political players of the day and the issues of contention between the Moderates and the Nationalists. Using the words of Sri Aurobindo, convention participants, and observers, as well as facsimile copies of Indian newspaper reports, the author unfolds the dramatic events before and during the convention, when all efforts at compromise and reconciliation between the two groups failed, leading to the climactic moment when the convention dissolved in an uproar of charged emotions. Sri Aurobindo’s leadership in awakening the country to the demand for swaraj is the primary focus of this narrative retelling of the Surat Congress Convention.
TELUGU
Savitri: Swechchhanuvadam (Set of 2 Volumes)
— Sri Aravind Publisher: Sri Mataravinda Divya Jeevana Kendra, Sri AravindapuramBinding: Hard CoverPages: 1196Price: Rs 800
Sri Aravindula Velugulo Sabda Brahma
— K. S. Bhaskara Rao Publisher: K. S. Bhaskara Rao, TenaliBinding: Soft CoverPages: 30Price: Rs 25

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