299. Avoid vain disputing; but exchange views freely. If dispute thou must, learn from thy adversary; for even from a fool, if thou listen not with the ear and the reasoning mind but the soul's light, thou canst gather much wisdom.

        300. Turn all things to honey; this is the law of divine living.

        301. Private dispute should always be avoided; but shrink not from the public battle; yet even there appropriate the strength of thy adversary.

        302. When thou hearest an opinion that displeases thee, study and find out the truth in it.

If you sincerely want to live according to the Truth, you must know that you can learn from everything and that you have the possibility of making progress at every moment. A great stupidity can often reveal a great light to you, if you know how to see it.

24 January 1970
- The Mother

303. The mediaeval ascetics hated women and thought they were created by God for the temptation of monks. One may be allowed to think more nobly both of God and of woman.

        304. If a woman has tempted thee, is it her fault or thine? Be not a fool and a self-deceiver.

        305. There are two ways of avoiding the snare of woman; one is to shun all women and the other to love all beings.

What should be the ideal of a modern woman in ordinary life?

In ordinary life, women can have all the ideas they like, it is not very important. (Later, Mother added, For women, in ordinary life, the ideal is good health and harmony.)

From the spiritual point of view, men and women are equal in their capacity to realise the Divine. Each one must do so in his (or her) own way and according to his (or her) own possibilities.

25 January 1970
- The Mother

306. Asceticism is no doubt very healing, a cave very peaceful and the hill-tops wonderfully pleasant; nevertheless do thou act in the world as God intended thee.

Sri Aurobindo shows us that one can be an ascetic by preference and not out of abnegation; and so he makes us understand that to be a servant of the Lord and to act only according to His will is a far higher state than any personal choice, no matter how saintly it may seem.

26 January 1970
- The Mother

307. Three times God laughed at Shankara, first, when he returned to burn the corpse of his mother, again, when he commented on the Isha Upanishad and the third time when he stormed about India preaching inaction.

The Lord laughed when this man, who thought himself so wise, complied with conventions, wrote useless words and gave an example of overactivity in order to preach inaction.

27 January 1970
- The Mother

308. Men labour only after success and if they are fortunate enough to fail, it is because the wisdom and force of Nature overbear their intellectual cleverness. God alone knows when and how to blunder wisely and fail effectively.

        309. Distrust the man who has never failed and suffered; follow not his fortunes, fight not under his banner.

        310. There are two who are unfit for greatness and freedom, the man who has never been a slave to another and the nation that has never been under the yoke of foreigners.

Certain essential qualities can only develop through suffering and difficulties. Men run away from them in their ignorance, but the Supreme Lord imposes them on those He has chosen to represent Him on earth in order to hasten their development—for he is the Supreme Wisdom.

28 January 1970
- The Mother

311. Fix not the time and the way in which the ideal shall be fulfilled. Work and leave time and way to God all-knowing.

        312. Work as if the ideal had to be fulfilled swiftly and in thy lifetime; persevere as if thou knewest it not to be unless purchased by a thousand years yet of labour. That which thou darest not expect till the fifth millennium, may bloom out with tomorrow's dawning and that which thou hopest and lustest after now, may have been fixed for thee in thy hundredth advent.

This is exactly the attitude we should all have towards transformation: as much energy and ardour as if we were certain of achieving it in our present life, as much patience and endurance as if we needed centuries to realise it.

29 January 1970
- The Mother

313.Each man of us has a million lives yet to fulfil upon earth. Why then this haste and clamour and impatience?

        314. Stride swiftly, for the goal is far; rest not unduly, for thy Master is waiting for thee at the end of thy journey.

Here again, as always, Sri Aurobindo sees every aspect of the question and while preaching calm and patience to the restless, he rouses and preaches energy to the indolent. In the union of opposites lies true wisdom and total effectiveness.

30 January 1970
- The Mother

315. I am weary of the childish impatience which cries and blasphemes and denies the ideal because the Golden Mountains cannot be reached in our little day or in a few momentary centuries.

        316. Fix thy soul without desire upon the end and insist on it by the divine force within thee; then shall the end itself create its means, nay, it shall become its own means. For the end is Brahman and already accomplished; see it always as Brahman, see it always in thy soul as already accomplished.

Certainly, we all carry in our souls the divine end of the eternal journey, and our personal incapacity is the only thing that prevents us from being immediately aware of it.

Total and unconditional surrender to the Supreme Lord (Brahman) is the sole and wonderful way to cure this incapacity.

1 February 1970
- The Mother