Mother, Pondicherry

[Guest guest]

" The greatest discovery of my generation is that men can alter their lives by

altering their attitudes of mind " . ... " the right attitude not only has the

power to turn every circumstance to advantage but can change the very

circumstance itself. For instance, when a man comes to kill you, if you remain

in the ordinary consciousness and gets frightened out of your wits, he will most

probably succeed in doing what he came for; if you rise a little higher and

though full of fear call for the divine help, he may just miss you, doing you a

slight injury; if, however, you have the right attitude and the full

consciousness of the divine presence everywhere around you, he will not be able

to lift even a finger against you ... " " There is a moment when one becomes

sufficiently conscious to realise that things in themselves are truly neither

good nor bad: they are this only in relation to us; their effect on us depends

absolutely upon the attitude we have towards them. The same thing, identically

the same, if we take it as a gift of God, as a divine grace, as the result of

the full Harmony, helps us to become more conscious, stronger, more true, while

if we take it -- exactly the very same circumstance -- as a blow from fate, as a

bad force wanting to affect us, this constricts us, weighs us down and takes

away from us all consciousness and strength and harmony " .