Shiva

A face on the cold dire mountain peaks
          Grand and still;its lines wild and austere
Match with the unmeasured snowy streaks
          Cutting heaves, implacable and sheer.


Above it, a mountain of matted hair
          Aeon-coiled on that deathless and lone head
In its solitude huge of lifeless air
          Round, above illimitably spread.


A moon-ray on the forehead, blue and pale,
          Stretched afar its finger of still light
Illumining emptiness. Stern and male
          Mask of peace indifferent in might!


But out from some Infinite born now came
          Over giant snows and the still face
A quiver and colour of crimson flame,
         Fire-point in immensities of space.


Light-spear-tips revealed the mighty shape,
         Tore the secret veil of the heart's hold;
In that diamond heart the fires undrape,
          Living core, a brazier of gold.


This was the closed mute and burning source
          Whence were formed the worlds and their star-dance;
Life sprang a self-rapt  inconscient Force
           Love, a blazing seed, from that flame-trance.



                                                                                   - Sri Aurobindo

Plasticity

         
          What is "plasticity"?

That which can easily change its form is "plastic". Figuratively, it is suppleness, a capacity of adaptation to circumstances and necessities. When I ask you to be plastic, in relation to the Divine, I mean not ideas and fixed principles. I knew a man who declared: "I am wholly consecrated to the Divine, I am ready to do whatever He tells me to do; but I am not at all worried, for I know that He would never tell me to kill anybody!" I answered, "How do you know that?" He was indignant. This is want of plasticity.

         If one is plastic in all circumstances, isn't it a weakness?

But you are not asked to be plastic to the will of others! Nobody asked you to be plastic in relation to others. You are asked to be plastic to the divine Will - which is not quite the same thing! And that requires a great strength because the very first thing that will happen to you is to be exposed to the will of almost everyone around you. If you have a family, you will see the attitude of the family! The more plastic you are to the divine Will, the more opposition you will meet from the will of others who are not accustomed to be in contact with that will.
      If everybody expressed the divine Will, there would be no conflict any longer, anywhere, all would be in harmony. That is what one tries to do, but it is not very easy......
      There are four conditions for knowing the divine Will
              The first essential condition: an absolute sincerity.
              Second: to overcome desires and preferences.
              Third: to silence the mind and listen.
              Fourth: to obey immediately when you receive the order
If you persist, you will perceive the divine Will more and more clearly. But even before you know what it is, you can make an offering of your own will and you will see that all circumstances will be so arranged as to make you do the right thing. But you must not be like the person I knew who used to say, "I always see the divine Will in others." That can land you anywhere, there is nothing more dangerous, for if you think you can see the divine Will in others, you are sure to do their will, not the divine Will. There too we can say that not one among many, many human beings acts in accordance with the divine Will.
     You know the story of the irritable elephant, its mahout, and the man who would not make way for the elephant. Standing in the middle of the road, the man said to the mahout "The divine Will is in me and the divine Will want me not to move. The driver, a man of some wit answered, "But the divine Will in the elephant wants you to move!"
                                                                              
                                                                                - The Mother
                                                                                             ( Stories told by the Mother - 2)

Glimpses from Savitri

Book III: The Book of the Divine Mother                                   Pg. 312
Canto II: The Adoration of the Divine Mother

Even while he stood on being's naked edge
And all the passion and seeking of his soul
Faced their extinction in some featureless Vast,
The Presence he yearned for suddenly drew close.
Across the silence of the ultimate Calm, 
Out of a marvelous Transcendence' core,
A body of wonder and translucency
As if a sweet mystic summary of her self
Escaping into the original Bliss
Had come enlarged out of eternity,
Someone came infinite and absolute.
A being of wisdom, power and delight,
Even as a mother draws her child to her arms,
Took to her breast Nature and world and soul.
Abolishing the signless emptiness,
Breaking the vacancy and voiceless hush,
Piercing the limitless Unknowable,
Into the liberty of the motionless depths
A beautiful and felicitous lustre stole.
The Power, the Light, the Bliss no word can speak
Imaged itself in a surprising beam
And built a golden passage to his heart
Touching through him all longing and sentient things.
A moment's sweetness of the All-Beautiful
Cancelled the vanity of the cosmic whirl.
A Nature throbbing with a Heart divine
Was felt in the unconscious universe; 
It made the breath a happy mystery.
A love that bore the cross of pain with joy
Eudaemonised the sorrow of the world,
Made happy the weight of long unending Time,
The secret caught of God's felicity
Affirming in life a sudden ecstasy
It held the spirit to its miraculous course;
Carrying immortal values to the hours
It justified the labour of the suns.
For one was there supreme behind the God.
A Mother Might brooded upon the world;
A Consciousness revealed its marvellous front
Transcending all that is, denying none:
Imperishable above our fallen heads
He felt a rapturous and unstumbling Force.
The undying Truth appeared, the enduring Power
Of all that here is made and then destroyed,
The Mother of all godheads and all strengths
Who, mediatrix, binds earth to the Supreme.


                                                                             - Sri Aurobindo

Segments from "The Mother"

          To walk through life armoured against all fear, peril and disaster, only two things are needed, two that go always together - the Grace of the Divine Mother and on your side an inner state made up of faith, sincerity and surrender. Let your faith be pure, candid and perfect. An egoistic faith in the mental and vital being tainted by ambition, pride, vanity, mental arrogance, vital self-will, personal demand, desire for the petty satisfactions of the lower nature is a low and smoke-obscured flame that cannot burn upwards to heaven. Regard your life as given to you only for the divine work and to help in the divine manifestation. Desire nothing but the purity, force, light, wideness, calm, Ananda of he divine consciousness and its insistence to transform and  perfect your mind, life and body. Ask for nothing but the divine, spiritual and supramental Truth, its realisation on earth and in you and in all who are called and chosen and the conditions needed for its creation and its victory over all opposing forces.

       Let your sincerity and surrender be genuine and entire. When you give yourself, give completely, without demand, without condition, without reservation so that all in you shall belong to the Divine Mother and nothing be left to the ego or given to any other power.

       The more complete your faith, sincerity and surrender, the more will grace and protection be with you. And when the grace and protection of the Divine Mother are with you, what is there that can touch you or whom need you fear? A little of it even will carry you through all difficulties, obstacles and dangers; surrounded by its full presence you can go securely on your way because it is hers, careless of all menace, unaffected by any hostility however powerful, whether from this world or from worlds invisible. Its touch can turn difficulties into opportunities, failure into success and weakness into unfaltering strength. For the grace of the Divine Mother is the sanction of the Supreme and now or tomorrow its affect is sure, a thing decreed, inevitable and irresistible. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                - Sri Aurobindo