Selections from The Mother’s “Prayers and Meditations” - Be Instruments of the Divine, Part 1 of 2

In today’s program, we will get to know a saint who, as she stated, belonged “to no nation, no civilization, no society, no race, but to the Divine.” We will learn through her writings how to be good instruments of the Divine. Mirra Alfassa, who became known as The Mother, or SriMa, was born in 1878 in Paris, France. Based on her inner experience and guidance by a Saint she later recognized as Sri Aurobindo, she travelled to India in 1914, where she met him for the first time. The Mother also developed an extensive series of spiritual writings. These highlight a goal of ultimate union with the Divine, along with becoming master of ourselves and our destiny. Shining through all of her work is the Mother’s love and devotion to God. Though she left her body in 1973, the 17 volumes of collected works of the Mother forever serve as a shining guidance and inspiration for spiritual seekers. The following passages come from the Mother’s first spiritual diary volume, “Prayers and Meditations.” “Last night I had the experience of the effectivity of confident surrender to Thy guidance; when it is needful that something should be known, one knows it, and the more passive the mind to Thy illumination, the clearer and the more adequate is its expression. I listened to Thee as Thou spoke in me, and I would have liked to write down what Thou said so that the formula in all its precision might not be lost,—for now I should not be able to repeat what was said.” “It is Thou who art the doer in each thing and each being, and he who is near enough to Thee to see Thee in all actions without exception, will know how to transform each act into a benediction. To abide always in Thee is the one thing that matters, always and ever more and more in Thee, beyond illusions and the deceptions of the senses, not drawing back from action, refusing it, rejecting it — a struggle useless and pernicious — but living Thee alone in the act whatever it may be, ever and always Thee; then the illusion is dispelled, the falsehoods of the senses vanish, the bond of consequences is broken, all is transformed into a manifestation of the glory of Thy Eternal Presence. So let it be. Amen.”