PURIFICATION IN INTEGRAL YOGA

A Presentation Through the LaGrace Center, 6/14/2026

On Sunday June 14th, I gave a presentation on Purification in the Light of Sri Aurobindo , The Mother, and GurujiMa.

In the presentation, I used the following quotations as the basic structure, so I am copying them here in case you want to refer to them later.

Love and Blessings, dear ones,
Karun Das

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QUOTES ON PURIFICATION

** (Mother’s Agenda, February 18, 1961 p. 87)

Q. But is it necessary to descend to the same level as all these subconscious things? Can’t they be acted upon from above?

M. Act from above.... My child, I have been acting from above for more than thirty years! It changes nothing – or if it changes... it doesn’t transform.

Q. Then one must descend to that level?

M. Yes. By acting from above, one can keep these things under control, hold them in place, prevent them from taking any unpleasant initiatives, but that’s not.... To transform means to transform.

Even mastery can be achieved – it’s quite easy to do from above. But for the transformation one must descend, and that is terrible.... Otherwise, the subconscient will never be transformed, it will remain as it is.

One can even pose as a superman! (Mother laughs) But it remains like that (gesture in the air), it’s not the real thing. It’s not the new creation, it’s not the next step in terrestrial evolution.

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“In order for darkness to be released, it must be experienced consciously first. One cannot let go of what one does not know about.”

• GurujiMa

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462) At first whenever I fell back into sin, I used to weep and rage against myself and against God for having suffered it. Afterwards it was as much as I could dare to ask, “Why hast thou rolled me again in the mud, O my playfellow?” Then even that came to my mind to seem too bold and presumptuous; I could only get up in silence, look at him out of the corner of my eyes—and clean myself.

• Sri Aurobindo

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A veiled collaboration with the Night
Even in himself survived and hid from his view:
Still something in his earthly being kept
Its kinship with the Inconscient whence it came.

A shadowy unity with a vanished past
Treasured in an old-world frame was lurking there,
Secret, unnoted by the illumined mind,
And in subconscious whispers and in dream
Still murmured at the mind’s and spirit’s choice.

Its treacherous elements spread like slippery grains
Hoping the incoming Truth might stumble and fall,
And old ideal voices wandering moaned
And pleaded for a heavenly leniency
To the gracious imperfections of our earth
And the sweet weaknesses of our mortal state.

This now he willed to discover and exile,
The element in him betraying God.

All Nature’s recondite spaces were stripped bare,
All her dim crypts and corners searched with fire
Where refugee instincts and unshaped revolts
Could shelter find in darkness’ sanctuary
Against the white purity of heaven’s cleansing flame.

…

Then lest a human cry should spoil the Truth
He tore desire up from its bleeding roots
And offered to the gods the vacant place.

Thus could he bear the touch immaculate.

Sri Aurobindo, Savitri pp 317-318

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When you represent the possibility of a victory, you always have within you the thing contrary to this victory, which is your perpetual trouble.

Each one has his own difficulty. And I have given the example already once, I think. For instance, a being who must represent fearlessness, courage, you know, a capacity to hold on without giving way before all dangers and all fights, usually somewhere in his being he is a terrible coward, and he has to struggle against this almost constantly because this represents the victory he has to win in the world.

It is like a being who ought to be good, full of compassion and generosity; somewhere in his being he is sharp, sour and sometimes even bad; and he has to struggle against this in order to be the other thing. And so on. It goes into all the details. It’s like that.

And when you see a very black shadow somewhere, very black, something that’s truly painful, you know, you can be sure that you have in you the possibility of the corresponding light.

The Mother, Questions and Answers 12/21/1955

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THE PSYCHIC FIRE

I saw a fire in my heart and my offering falling into it like bits of paper. I heard someone say: “Offer everything into the fire!” But when obscurities and resistance arise, I feel a hesitation to offer them to the Mother. The thought comes: offer the best things to the Mother, not ugly things.

The fire is the purifying psychic fire. Offering to the psychic fire is not contrary to the worship of the Mother. To purify all in the psychic fire rather than throw the obscurities and resistance on the Mother is obviously the right way.

-Sri Aurobindo

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INTEGRAL PURITY

“Purity is perfect sincerity and one cannot have it unless the being is entirely consecrated to the Divine.”

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Mother, tell me how I can keep Your service holy and free from the slightest stain of human impurity.

By wanting it and always aspiring for it.

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Integral purity: the whole being is purified of the ego.

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Power of integral purity: the power to accept nothing but the divine influence.

• The Mother, CWM “Words of The Mother II

THE PROCESS OF PURIFICATION

Sweet Mother, here Sri Aurobindo says, “… the difficulty faced in the right spirit and conquered, one finds that an obstacle has disappeared.” What is the right spirit?

Ah, I was expecting this question. The right spirit means what he has explained in the following sentence: to keep one’s trust, to remain quiet—I think it is there a little farther off—wait patiently for the attack to pass, keep one’s trust. It is not there? Then it is in another passage. In any case the right spirit means not to lose courage, not to lose one’s faith, not to be impatient, not to be depressed; to remain very quiet and peaceful with as much aspiration as one can have, and not worry about what is happening. To have the certitude that this will pass and all will be well. This indeed is the best thing.

[CWM - ‘Questions and Answers 1955’, ‘12 January 1955’].

[There] is an experiment you can make if you are just a little conscious. There is something in you which you don’t want, something bad—for one reason or another you don’t want it, you want to pull it out—well, if you identify yourself ever so little with that thing, you feel the pain of the extraction; if, on the contrary, you identify yourself with the divine Force which comes to liberate you, you feel the joy of the divine Grace—and you experience the deep delight of the progress you have made.

And this is a sure sign for you, a sure indication of what you identify yourself with. If you are identified with the forces from below, you suffer; if you are identified with the forces from above, you are happy.

[CWM - ‘Questions and Answers 7 March 1956]

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If you get peace, then to clean the vital becomes easy. If you simply clean and clean and do nothing else, you go very slowly—for the vital gets dirty again and has to be cleaned a hundred times. The peace is something that is clean in itself—so to get it is a positive way of securing your object. To look for dirt only and clean is the negative way.

When the light and peace are full in the vital and physical consciousness, it is this that remains always as a basis for the right movement of the whole nature.

[Sri Aurobindo: Letters on Yoga]

DIVINE GRACE AND PROTECTION

“Abandon all dharmas and take refuge in Me Alone, I will deliver thee from all fear and evil, do not grieve.”

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