<html>

<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
<title>V</title>
</head>

<body>

<div align="center">
	<table border="0" cellpadding="6" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="100%">
		<tr>
			<td><p align="center" style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0">
<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">V</font></p>
<p align="center" style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0">
&nbsp;</p>
<p align="center" style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0">
<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">THE GOLDEN RULE</font></p>
<p align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">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
common-place, 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.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">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.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">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</font>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0" align="center">
<font face="Times New Roman" size=2>Page- 35</font><hr align="justify">

			<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">your neighbour, not because he is your neighbour<b> 
</b>or<b> 
</b>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.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">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 Shakespeare 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;; for it is not a separative 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 is all one self, one soul
although they may appear different, as different I's.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">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 remarkable woman who had
true realisations 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</font><p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0" align="center">
<font face="Times New Roman" size=2>Page- 36</font><hr align="justify">

			<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">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;</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">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 realise this truth, you
can love every one equally, not merely love but be one
with all, because you are all and all are you. That universal Self, your own true Self you have to find, you have to
know, you have to become. That is the golden rule as the
ideal.                     </font>
			<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">How to attain, how to realise it?</font>

&nbsp;
&nbsp;

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0" align="center">
<font face="Times New Roman" size=2>Page- 37</font><hr align="justify">

			<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">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:</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&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 it 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: &quot;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;</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">Now if you follow this simple rule sincerely and persistently you will see the change miraculously happening<b> </b>in</font>
			<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0" align="center">
<font face="Times New Roman" size=2>Page- 38</font><hr align="justify">

			<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">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 colour, 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 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.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">This process has been beautifully described by Sri
Aurobindo in one<b> </b> of his poems. I conclude by reading
out those magnificent lines:</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">
&nbsp;<p align=center style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0">
<b>
<font face="Times New Roman" size="2">THE GOLDEN LIGHT</font><font size="2">
</font></b>
			<div align="center">
				<table border="0" cellpadding="6" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="100%">
					<tr>
						<td width="30%">&nbsp;</td>
						<td width="70%">
						<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; " align="left">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;Thy golden Light came down into my brain</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:20px; " align="left">
<font face="Times New Roman">And the grey rooms of mind sun-touched became</font><p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; " align="left">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;A bright reply to wisdom's occult plane,</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:15px; " align="left">
<font face="Times New Roman">A calm illumination and a flame.</font>

						</td>
					</tr>
				</table>
			</div>
			<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; " align="center">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font><font face="Times New Roman" size=2>Page- 39</font><hr align="justify">

			<div align="center">
				<table border="0" cellpadding="6" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="100%">
					<tr>
						<td width="30%">&nbsp;</td>
						<td width="70%">
						<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; " align="left">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;Thy golden Light came down into my throat,</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:15px; " align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">And all my speech is now a tune divine,
</font>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; " align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">A paean-song of thee my single note;</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:15px; " align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">My words are drunk with the Immortal's wine.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:15px; " align="justify">
&nbsp;<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; " align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">Thy golden Light came down into my heart</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:15px; " align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">Smiting my life with Thy eternity,</font><p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; " align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;Now has it grown a temple where Thou art</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; " align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">And all its passions point towards only Thee.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; " align="justify">
&nbsp;<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; " align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">Thy golden Light came down into my feet</font><p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; " align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;My earth is now thy playfield and thy seat.</font>
						</td>
					</tr>
				</table>
			</div>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0" align="center">
<font face="Times New Roman" size=2>Page- 40</font><hr align="justify">

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0" align="right">
<font face="Times New Roman"><b>&nbsp;</b></font><a href="-00_Contents"><span style="text-decoration: none; font-weight:700"><font size="2">HOME</font></span></a></td>
		</tr>
	</table>
</div>

</body></html>