While Sri Aurobindo was in jail, Swami Vivekananda appeared before Him, gave Him the Gita and showed Him the Supermind. He did not tell Him how to reach the Supermind. It took Sri Aurobindo ten years to discover it. Like Buddha and Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo refused to accept moksha for himself while all the other souls languished in the darkness of the earth. One should reach Supermind and bring it down so that it would transform the earth - abolish Ignorance, suffering, evil and death. Sri Aurobindo said that if twelve or a hundred yogis reached the Supermind, it would descend on earth.

Generosity in man rises to benevolence. It ennobles the human heart. Its opposite meanness is described as asking another man to do what one cannot do. Generosity is to give the other man what he by his best efforts cannot reach. To do so by exerting yourself to the utmost is desirable. Its cultured expression emerges when it is given to the other man before he asks for it. In another sense, Vanity is its opposite. We do not come across pure generosity or pure vanity. We meet with generous vanity or vain generosity. Timon of Athens was too generous.

She was a retarded village girl of 25. She was brought in as a housemaid by her aunt who was a cook. This is not a girl whom anyone would employ at home in any capacity. After much resistance from so many sides, this maid was permitted for the sake of the aunt, the cook. The girl was slow, very slow. She would take three times longer than anyone else to sweep a room or wash clothes or utensils. She was completely harmless. She excelled in a few items of work such as making coffee. She made delicious coffee, but she was impossible in any other work.

Idealists become so because an Idea arises in their minds and possesses them. The only lasting ideal is the Spiritual ideal, an ideal that emerges in man from the Spirit in him. Most ideals are social. The generation that is in their 70s or 80s is sorry that people are becoming unidealistic. Surely there is a large element of truth in it. It is easy to forget that our children and grandchildren are following the ideals of their times, their society, as we, who are in our old age, followed the ideals of our time.

Society is a collective unit, as man is a gregarious animal. Man does not live alone, though he can. Men live in groups and move in groups. So, the group has an authority over the individual. It is a physical authority. Either the individual obeys the collective or he will be liquidated. Before the physical man moves to the mind, there is an intermediate level. It is of the nerves. It is called vital level. With the first progress in civilisation, man gives up his murder, but compulsion continues. The collective continues to compel the individual to conform.

The Britisher came to India for spices and established an Empire. This is not a century when powerful nations can look for colonies. Nixon befriended Communist China because he wanted to open the Chinese market to USA. Business looks for market. In pursuit of it they will go anywhere. The studies of Mackenzie have more information about the market potential of India than any government department. Recently the chairman of Unilever said that India will soon be on the MOVE, as she has developed self-confidence.

A homeless person in USA had a ten year old son. His wife left him and took the son who was very fond of the father. Driving in an old car, he lived on pick-pocketing. He was once put in prison. His advocate had him on bail for a short while. His name was Bernie. When his car got stuck somewhere, a plane crashed just at that place. Bernie, though homeless and a pilferer, had a warm human heart. The escape door in the plane could not be opened from inside. There was a hue and cry from the passengers inside. Bernie opened the door with great difficulty and let most of the passengers out.

Man lives because he has self-confidence. There are times in our lives when one cannot rely on anything or anyone. That is the hour one is naked before his God.  It happens because of circumstances or because of human unreliability. Either way, Man is his own utter self. One is frightened to think of such a possibility in his life. It is a moment of despair. Mother says that moment is the very best moment for man to call Her. Calls of such nature are instantly answered and more fully than one can bring himself to believe.

To shift oneself from the old ways of life to new ways of Spirit, one needs to have the maximum effort. At its highest pitch, it reverses into the ways of higher life. In World War II, England was fighting Hitler with a few hundred bombers, while Germany had a few thousand. Normally, at such a point, one gives up. The Americans who came to help England were no better in the supply of bombers. A time came in one of the divisions when all of the pilots were overworked. Their Colonel Keith sympathized with them and refused to push them further.

Birth is the first mystery of life while death is the second mystery, says Sri Aurobindo. What does not explain itself to us is a mystery. Sri Aurobindo says that for any act to come to pass, two things are necessary. The first thing is the consent of Jivatma and the second is the consent of Paramatma. Sri Aurobindo often in answer to questions about someone's death has said that one cannot die without his willing it. He may have consciously - in the surface mind - desired to live, but his subliminal would have opted to go.