Selfless worker.

The prayer says: "I look for the conscious mind and I find it no more...." Normally one is conscious of oneself. Whatever one does or whenever one does something the conscious always remains behind, "I am here I am doing." and if the sense of "I am " is not there o e can do nothing. All action stops automatically if I do not see or feel that I am acting. But that is the nature of ordinary consciousness; In spiritual consciousness things are otherwise (A).
Spiritual consciousness means the consciousness in which the sense of "I am doing" or even "I Am" has disappeared, got dissolved. Truly, the work is done not by me, by the sense of "I-ness" but by Prakriti, Nature apparently by Lower Nature, secretly by Higher Nature. When the I disappears, the force that has been working continues to work, only the sense of "I" attached to it (in ignorance and by ignorance) is no longer there. Or the I has completely merged itself into the working force and is one with it. What is conscious is not the personality or the individual I but the Force of action.

a thinking puppet

“A thinking puppet is the mind of life: 
Its choice is the work of elemental strengths 
That know not their own birth and end and cause 
And glimpse not the immense intent they serve. 
In this nether life of man drab-hued and dull, 
Yet filled with poignant small ignoble things, 
The conscious Doll is pushed a hundred ways
And feels the push but not the hands that drive. 
For none can see the masked ironic troupe 
To whom our figure-selves are marionettes, 
Our deeds unwitting movements in their grasp, 
Our passionate strife an entertainment’s scene.” 
― Sri Aurobindo, Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol

“The vast universal suffering feel as thine:
Thou must bear the sorrow that thou claimst to heal;
The day-bringer must walk in darkest night.
He who would save the world must share its pain.
If he knows not grief, how shall he find grief’s cure?
If far he walks above mortality’s head,
How shall the mortal reach that too high path?
If one of theirs they see scale heaven’s peaks,
Men then can hope to learn that titan climb.
God must be born on earth and be as man
That man being human may grow even as God.
He who would save the world must be one with the world,
All suffering things contain in his heart’s space
And bear the grief and joy of all that lives.
His soul must be wider than the universe
And feel eternity as its very stuff,
Rejecting the moment’s personality
Know itself older than the birth of Time,
Creation an incident in its consciousness,
Arcturus and Belphegor grains of fire
Circling in a corner of its boundless self,
The world’s destruction a small transient storm
In the calm infinity it has become.
If thou wouldst a little loosen the vast chain,
Draw back from the world that the Idea has made,
Thy mind’s selection from the Infinite,
Thy senses’ gloss on the Infinitesimal’s dance,
Then shalt thou know how the great bondage came.
Banish all thought from thee and be God’s void.” 
― Sri Aurobindo

steps of the soul.

The human individual is a very complex being. he is composed of innumerable elements each one of which is an independent entity and has almost a personality. also the most contradictory elements are housed together. say if a particular quality or capacity is present the very opposite of it will also be present along with it enveloping it as if annulling it. Then there is depth as man lives on various planes at the same time. there is a scale of gradation in human consciousness; the higher one rises in the scale the greater are the no of elements or personalities one possesses. The higher one stands the richer the personality, because it lives not only on its own normal level but also on all that are below and which it has transcended. To understand this contradiction one must know that each one has a certain quality or capacity a particular achievement to be embodied, how best an this be achieved to reach its purest and most perfect. it is by setting an opposition to it. this enables to increase and strengthen the power. (By fighting against and over coming all that weakens and contradicts it.) The deficiencies in respect of a particular quality show you where you are to mend and reinforce and in what way to improve in order to make it perfectly perfect. It is the hammer that beats the weak and soft iron to transform it into hard steel. Thus the preliminary discord is useful and necessary to be utilised for higher harmony. This is the secret of self conflict in man. You are the weakest precisely in that element which is destined to be your greatest asset.
Each man has a mission to fulfil a role to play in the universe; a part he has been given to learn and take up in the cosmic purpose which he alone is capable of executing. this he has to learnand acquire through life experiences and life after life to gather out of them the skein of qualities and attributes and power and capacities for the pattern of life he has to weave. The inmost being the true personality the central consciousness of the evolving individual the psychic being the pure tiny spec of light lying far beyond. In grown up souls this psychic consciousness has an increased light. Increased in intensity, volume and richness.
It is the soul that builds and enriches the personality.

The Firt thing then is to find out what it is that one is meant to realise, what role to play the mission the capacity and quality yopu have to express. discover that and also the oppose which you have to conquer and manifest. yes recognize your soul and psychic being. you must be sincere and impartial. step out and critically examine your self from the outside. get a birds eye view to say. you must be a mirror that reflects the truth and does not judge.
yes there have been others who have trodden the same path and succeeded. they have by their conquest helped others towards their victory. follow the great follow the leader is the message large and bold.  

The third call.

He received his third call at 53 the year being 1532. His last day was as inspiring as his devotional absorption in his entire life. He was till the last year of his life a householder, living with his mother, wife and two children, demonstrating that an ascetic life was not essential in the religion of grace. according to him sanyasa was when one begins to feel the separation from God in the most acute form. It was also the time for one to give up the earthly body and gain full absorption in God. This state is brought out beautifully in his work Sannyasa Nirnaya. He had received a call twice already to end his earthly career, but he waited to complete a major part of his mission. but when he got a third call he sent for MahavendraPuri who had initiated him as a sannyasa and was also one who introduced him to the study of Bhagavata. He spent one week in seclusion in his house after which he left for Banaras. To his sons and devotees who went to meet him his last message was communicated on a stone for by then he had taken to observing silence. Three couplets written on stone the message was If you become divorced from God in any way, your body, mind etc., which really belong to time, will be devoured by time. This is my belief. God who is Krishna is not of this world, he is alone worthy of our service with all our body and mind soul and spirit. he alone grants every thing in this world and the next. After giving this message he dived into the holy Ganga and disappeared. in the presence of a host of spectators it is said that a brilliant flame arose from the very same spot where Vallabhacharya had dived.

.How to wait.

"If you know how to wait you gain time" Usually, when you are about to do a thing, the impluse is to rush towards it and rush it through; between the idea and the execution you do not want to leave any gap. You are in a haste to see the thing done. You do not care to pause and look about you, view and weigh the conditions and circumstances, think out the best way of working towards the goal. The result of the hustle is failure. You have to begin over again. You may even have to begin over and over again if you do not learn the lesson given. Evidently you lose time energy and your success. On the contrary what you have to do before you actually take up your work is not to jump at it but understand what it means and involves, have before your mind's eye a clear figure or pattern of the thing to be undertaken, not to go upon a vague and indefinite notion about it, - something that will take shape - that will take care of itself - as you proceed. You must have a clear conception of your work and also you must find out the exact ways and means, have at your elbow the best possible implements. It is only when you are fully armed with the necessary equipment that you can be sure of success without any waste of time or energy.
Then there is a time, a propitious time for everything. a thing cannot be done at any time, it has its own appointed hour; you cannot succeed even if you attempt a hundred times before that hour strikes. when the hour is ripe how easily the thing seems to get done! In what does this ripeness of time consist, what are the marks of the propitious hour?
It is when you are in complete possession of the right instruments and when the disposition of circumstances is such that they concur to help and execute and not mar and obstruct. Now how does one find out or recognise when such conditions are available? Not by your mind or external reasoning. You must have the intuition, an instictive perception of the situation. Always the indication is there in the very poise of your consciousness. that is to say, when it is filled with a great calm, trust and confidence, a luminous concentration. (A)

Aham and Puram

The Vaishnava philosophy speaks of the Supreme Lord as the only Purusha. All the others the jeevatma's irrespective of their sex are considered to possess the attributes of a female. This facilitates the smooth flow of madhura bhakti. the nayaka nayaki bhava of the Alvars was the first attempt to approach the Divine in a novel manner. Fraught with uncertainties, it is yet boldly attempted and triumphantly executed. The style of the alvars originated from the ancient aham poetry of the Tamils.
Tolkappiyam talks of two major divisions Aham and Puram. Aham refers to the inner or interior life of man. while Puram comprehends the outer life. there is allowance for tinai-mayakkam i.e. admix of both quiet frequently which can be seen in Tamil Sangham anthologies like Ahananooru, Purananooru, Kalithogai and Einkurunooru.
Nammalvar followed by Tirumangai alvar ushered in a new era in the cultural and spiritual life of the people of Tamil Nadu by making use of the existing Tamil aesthetics to sing of God. Lord Narayana took the place of the war hero and King described in Puram poetry. the love between mortals found in Aham poetry was subsumed into a love of the human for the Divine.
Tiruviruttam is a excellent example of nammalvar's use of Tamil Aham poetics. Aham has seven major categories: Kaikkilai, Kurinchi, Mullai, Palai, Marudam, Neytal and Peruntinal. In Tiruviruttamin Mullai has as its presiding deity Tirumal or Vishnu. the landscape is forest and pasture, the rainy season marks the interior progression, konrai blooms the flowing rivers give a keener outline to the poets meditative moods. The cowherds grazing cattle beneath the dark clouds envision Krishna. Nammalvar calls upon us to become the flame of aspiration symbolized by the heroine of Tiruviruttam the jivatma per say struggling to reach the Lord Paramathma.

mindfulness.

Living in the moment.
A complete surrender to the present can heal you empower you and bring forth happiness. this is called mindfulness, living in the moment. It is not a system, it is not even a doctrine nor a series of aphorisms but a series of long and short leaps of enquiry into the preparedness of knowing the being.