Man is moral. To him the good man must be rewarded, the evil man must be destroyed. Life is wider than morality. It is amoral. Man's view is mystic. Life's vision spreads over the universe. Very often Life wantonly does things that Man abhors.  Sri Aurobindo says that life works through good as well as evil. A parent gives greater, apparently unjust attention to a refractory child, much to the annoyance of the well-behaved child. To the parent what is important is the refractory child should become a normal child.

A Management consultant is speaking this idea. Perhaps he has published a book with this title. It is directly counter to our traditional wisdom. I agree with the wisdom of the ages and what this title says. Let me explain how both are true. Sri Aurobindo says that each truth has its opposite which is also true. What is the truth in each statement? A space shuttle was launched and was scheduled to land in a particular place and at a particular time. It did land in the earmarked place and at the expected minute. How does that happen?

Simplicity is the unostentatious quiet strength of inner poise that is indifferent to outer appearance. Luxury is focused attention on the external appearance of splendour in utter disregard of inner content. That which ineffectually seeks the non-existent inner strength, is incapable of any worthwhile external appearance, and violently refuses what it has not, is Austerity, Vrata.  Mother says austerity is for the child soul. A man was selected for the post of an MLA with bright chances of success. On the morning of polling he was missing.

I was attending a student meeting conducted outside a god forsaken house, as those were dangerous days to talk of freedom. At the age of 18 or 19 the heart longs for intense affection. Someone of my age standing close to me came near and asked who I was. I briefly replied. As both of us were students of the university, he asked why I should not shift my house next to his. My heart jumped in joy as someone unknown till that moment could shower that physical affection.

Youth is energetic, age is wilting; youth looks forward, age is one foot in the grave; youth is overflowing, age is shrinking; youth is shiny, age is dull; youth exudes hope, age is in despair; youth can support others, age needs the support of others. This is true in life, not in Spirit. In Spirit, if age misses many attributes of youth, it has acquired several other attributes. Hence the being always has undiminished possibilities, which means at no time is there a loss for the embodied being. This is a philosophy that will strike many as strange.

Grace is God choosing to act on his own, for his own reasons, unknowable by human reason. Man too is God in his depths. Sri Aurobindo says that Jivatma is Paramatma against the traditional belief that Jivatma has no innate reality and has to dissolve in Paramatma. God, in his infinite wisdom, knows MAN is Himself and fully honours the freedom of choice of the Individual who chooses to act on his own. Often we ask why God did not save me, why did he let me down. It is so because in our depths we are GOD with the fullest freedom of Brahman.

A German husband was mean and perverse. Also he was tyrannical. He fell ill and no cure was in sight. The wife was a devotee and was fully devoted to him in spite of what he was to her. Man or woman is social. Better men are moral and ethical. The desire to do GOOD takes possession of such souls at times of crises. Especially when a rival or enemy is in inextricable trouble, it is a sight to see such good persons straining every nerve to go all out to help the undeserving scoundrel of a man. Still the urge is insurmountable.

People are self-centred. Some have extraordinary Good Will. Those who act on good will witness what they do expand in the lives of the recipient. Mother says every will in Man is ill will. Good will is rare. A man with a 5th class general qualification had become a Tamil Pandit. His management took a kindly interest in him. He was very poor, as in those days of prewar his salary was Rs. 25/-. How could he afford to pay the exam fee of Rs.

Mother says the greatest of victories are not announced by beat of drum. The Mother and Sri Aurobindo came into the world to announce the Hour of God, the Advent of the Supramental Being. But their activities were legion. They rarely spoke of them. The subtle world is invisible but it is exactly like our human world. The subtle world is NOT Spiritual. The occult world too is invisible, but it is of a different order, as the dealer of a product is different from the manufacturer.

Work is done well or not. Its result is in proportion to the efficiency. When it is not done well, there will be no result. Whatever the work, it requires an energy, interest, skill, attention, concentration, experience and perfection. If all of them are there, the work gives good results. If it is food it tastes good. If it is a wedding function, it ends with a note of all round satisfaction. When a tailor makes a pair of shorts in the above description, the customer finds it fits well.