352.-356.

352 – Boast not thy riches, neither seek men’s praise for thy poverty and self-denial; both these things are the coarse or the fine food of egoism.

353 – Altruism is good forman, but less good when it is a form of supreme self-indulgence and lives by pampering the selfishness of others.

354 – By altruism thou canst save thy soul, but see that thou save it not by indulging in his perdition thy brother.

355 – Self-denial is a mighty instrument for purification; it is not an end in itself nor a final law of living. Not to mortify thyself but to satisfy God in the world must be thy object.

356 – It is easy to distinguish the evil worked by sin and vice, but the trained eye sees also the evil done by self-righteous or self-regarding virtue.

Step by step and from every angle, Sri Aurobindo shows us how the Truth is above and beyond all contraries and opposites, beyond divisions—in a radiant and total Unity.

25 February 1970