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The Golden Rule</h3>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><b><i><span
style='font-family:"Arial Narrow"'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>TODAY I shall speak to you
of the golden rule. When we were children we were taught, specially at school,
at home too, certain golden rules. If you observe these rules you become good,
good boys and good girls, you are loved and appreciated by all. These rules are
simple and very commonplace; you know them all and must have tried them. For
example such things as &quot;speak the truth, do not tell a lie, obey your parents,
respect your teachers, do not hurt anybody&quot; etc., etc. That was the basis
on which one was to build one's character, mould one's nature, prepare for a
pure stainless noble life.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:.1in;line-height:150%;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>They are
good, these rules, so far as they go: but to say the truth, they do not go very
far. They do not touch you intimately. They enter, as it is said, your head
through one ear and pass out through the other. They do not quicken your heart
and involve your soul. You follow if you are very earnest one rule or another
for a few days and then you forget.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>The
other day I spoke to you of Yajnavalkya; he gave a better rule that was nearer
to the golden rule. What he said in effect was that instead of following these
outward rules or formulas you must leave them aside, go within yourself and
find your self. Yajnavalkya said: you love your <span lang=EN-GB
style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>neighbour</span>, not because he is your
neighbour or brother, but because you find yourself in him. Find the Self, that
is the golden rule. Find the Self that is in you, you will find that very Self in
your neighbour, in all.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Here
however you must take care not to confuse yourself with your Self. When it is
said that you find your Self it is not your personal self that you find in
another as if you grasp it as your own, exclusively your own possession. This
Self is not the ego, it is beyond ego, it is not the kind of self-hood that
Shake<![if !supportEmptyParas]><![endif]>speare <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:150%;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 58</span></p><hr>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0;text-align:justify;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-bottom:0'>depicts in King Richard where the King, deprived of everything, left all alone
in the whole world, exclaims: &quot;Richard loves Richard; that is, I am
I&quot;¹, for it is not a <span lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>separative</span>
I-ness; the other I's are dissolved as well as the one I that I am, and all
become one person or self. It<b> </b>is all one self, one soul although they
may appear different, as different I's. </p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:
.25in;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none; margin-bottom:0'>Here I will tell you a story narrated to our children.
There used to be every evening a meeting where seekers and enquirers after the
spiritual life assembled and conversed or meditated on the subject. There used
also to come to that meeting a remark able woman who had true <span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>realisations</span> and was ready to
help others on the path. Once the talk turned on souls and their re-birth and
she was telling how after the death of the body souls pass out into another
world, and when the time comes each one returns to the earth and takes a human
body. Now there was one in the audience who felt a little puzzled about this
matter of birth and wanted clarification. She put a question: (it was a she):
&quot;You say that souls come down and take birth, that is to say, assume a
human body. But people are increasing in number upon earth, every year the
human population becoming larger and larger. Now the question is: the
additional number of people born every year, where were they before? Were they
there all along since the creation, waiting? Do they appear gradually as time
passes and bide their hour?&quot; We in the modern age may suggest an analogy.
Is it like the stars or galaxies that are gradually coming into our ken,
phenomenally distant stars whose lights are taking time to reach the present
day earth? The questioner asked: &quot;Is there a fixed number of souls, can
they be counted?&quot; The speaker answered, &quot;Yes, they are limited and
they can be counted.&quot; With great curiosity and eagerness the questioner
asked: &quot;How many? how many?&quot; Quietly the one who was speaking
extended her hand and put out one single index finger, and said: &quot;Only
one.&quot;</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>So,
that is the truth. All these many bodies, many persons you see, it is only
appearance, there is only one Soul and every one is that. If you <span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>realise</span> this truth, you can
love everyone equally, not merely love but be one with all, because you are all
and all are you. That universal Self, your own true Self</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt'>¹ Shakespeare: <i>Richard
the Third, </i>Act V, Scene 3.<![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:150%;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 59<o:p></o:p></span></p>


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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>you have to find, you have
to know, you have to become. That is the golden rule as the ideal.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>How
to attain, how to realise it? The Mother in this matter has given us a golden
rule, a truly golden rule and very simple. Generally we are confused as to our
duty – what to do, what not to do, how to do, how not to do. The Mother says to
her children: &quot;Do not do what you will hesitate to do or be ashamed of
doing in my presence. Do not say anything which you will hesitate to say or be
ashamed of saying in my presence. Do not think even what you will find awkward
to think in my presence&quot; Well, try this way and you will find what a
golden rule and a simple rule it is. Sri Aurobindo confirmed and said the same
thing. He says, – you all know the well-known phrase – &quot;Always behave as
if the Mother was looking at you; because she is, indeed, always present.&quot;
You need not imagine that she is there; for she is actually always there
whether you imagine or not; you do not know, for you are blind but she is
always there, seeing you, observing you, guiding you, protecting you. She not
only sees what you do, but even what you feel inside you, even your. most
secret thoughts. A child asked the Mother in his simplicity: “How do you know,
Mother, what we do, what we think, what we feel, how do you know it?&quot; The
Mother smiled and answered, &quot;My child, because you are within me, within
my embrace always. Therefore I know. I know what is happening in me, isn't it?
That is why I see what is happening in you. You are not outside me, you are
part of myself, I am you.&quot;</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:12.2pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Now
if you follow this simple rule sincerely and persistently you will see the
change miraculously happening in you, you will become the golden child of the
golden Mother. You will find your thoughts, your words, your feelings, your
impulses putting on a new <span lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>colour</span>,
even your body will take a new glow of health and beauty. Normally our brain is
made of mud, our thoughts are unclean – we have wrong thoughts, dark thoughts,
our tongue also is made of mud or clay, we speak wrong things, impure things,
our heart too is made of the same substance, giving out wrong feelings and
unclean feelings; lower down in our nature in the vital region our impulses are
also wrong and muddy and unclean, finally, the body is mud itself, it is made
of diseases and weaknesses and incapacities. We are, as<![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:150%;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 60<o:p></o:p></span></p>


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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>it were, a container
containing this ugly and unclean mixture. What we have to do is to pour into it
the golden liquid, molten gold that will wash away all that impurity and filth,
clean the vessel and fill it with its own radiant substance, the molten gold
which is the Mother's presence.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>This
process has been beautifully described by Sri Aurobindo in one of his poems. I
conclude by reading out those magnificent lines:</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:
10.8pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>THE
GOLDEN LIGHT ¹</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:10.8pt;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:2.75in;text-indent:-1.0in;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Thy
golden Light came down into my brain</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:2.75in;text-align:justify;text-indent:
-1.0in;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:.15in;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span style='mso-tab-count:1'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>And
the grey <span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;</span>rooms of mind sun-touched
became</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:2.75in;text-indent:-1.0in;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>A
bright reply to Wisdom's occult plane,</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:2.75in;text-align:justify;text-indent:
-1.0in;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:.15in;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span style='mso-tab-count:1'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>A
calm illumination and a flame.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:2.75in;text-align:justify;text-indent:
-1.0in;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:.15in;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:2.75in;text-indent:-1.0in;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Thy
golden Light came down into my throat,</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:2.75in;text-align:justify;text-indent:
-1.0in;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:.15in;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span style='mso-tab-count:1'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>And
all my speech is now a tune divine,</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:2.75in;text-indent:-1.0in;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>A
paean-song of thee my single note;</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:2.75in;text-align:justify;text-indent:
-1.0in;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:.15in;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span style='mso-tab-count:1'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>My
words are drunk with the Immortal's wine.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:2.75in;text-align:justify;text-indent:
-1.0in;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:.15in;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:2.75in;text-indent:-1.0in;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Thy
golden Light came down into my heart</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:2.75in;text-align:justify;text-indent:
-1.0in;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:10.55pt;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span style='mso-tab-count:1'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Smiting
my life with Thy eternity;</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:2.75in;text-indent:-1.0in;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Now
has it grown a temple where Thou art</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:2.75in;text-align:justify;text-indent:
-1.0in;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:10.55pt;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span style='mso-tab-count:1'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>And
all its passions point towards only Thee.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:2.75in;text-align:justify;text-indent:
-1.0in;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:10.55pt;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:2.75in;text-align:justify;text-indent:
-1.0in;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Thy golden Light came down into my feet:</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:2.75in;text-align:justify;text-indent:
-1.0in;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>My earth is now thy playfield and thy seat.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt'>¹ <i>Collected Poems, </i>Sri Aurobindo Birth
Centenary Library, Vol. 5, p. 134.<![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:150%;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 61<![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p>


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