2 great Alchemists establish their Bottom Line

Hi,

Here’s a great quote about one’s “Alchemical Bottom Line” being to use Spirit to fundamentally transform Matter and Life, rather than to create spiritual fireworks or other sideshows that don’t decisively and finally address the real Spirit/Matter issue, whatever their short-term benefits may be:

Sri Aurobindo had put me in charge of the outer work because he wanted to withdraw in concentration in order to hasten the manifestation of the supramental Counsciouness, and he had announced to the few people who were there [in 1926] that he was entrusting to me the work of helping and guiding them, that I would remain in contact with him as a matter of course, and that through me he would do the work. Suddenly, immediately, things took a certain shape: a very brilliant creation was worked out in extraordinary detail, with marvellous experiences, contacts with divine beings, and all kinds of manifestations which are considered miraculous. Experiences followed upon experiences, and, well, things were unfolding altogether brilliantly and, I must say, in an extremely interesting way.

One day, I went as usual to relate to Sri Aurobindo what had been happening. We had come to something really very interesting, and perhaps I showed a little enthusiasm in my account of what had taken place. Then Sri Aurobindo looked at me and said: “Yes, this is a creation of the Overmind. It is very interesting, very well done. You will cause miracles which will make you famous throughout the world, you will be able to turn the course of events on Earth upside down. In brief”—and then he smiled and said: “It will be a GREAT success. But it is a creation of the Overmind. And it is not success that we want, we want to establish the Supermind upon Earth. One must know how to renounce immediate success in order to create the new world, the supramental world in its integrality.”

With my inner consciousness I understood at once: a few hours later the creation didn’t exist any more, and from that moment we started anew on other foundations.

–Mirra Alfassa (Questions and Answers, 1957-1958; quoted from The Mother: The Story of her Life, by Georges Van Vrekhem))