He who has done even a little good to human beings, though he be the worst of sinners, is a accepted by God in the ranks of His lovers and servants. He shall look upon the face of the Eternal.
516. O fool of thy weakness, cover not God’s face from thyself by a veil of a we, approach Him not with a suppliant weakness. Look! Thou wilt see on His face not the solemnity of the king and Judge, but the smile of the Love.
517. Until thou canst learn to grapple with God as a wrestler with his comrade, thy soul’s strength shall always be hid from thee.
518. Sumbha first loved Kail with his heart and body, then was furious with her and fought her, at last prevailed against her, seized her thy hair and whirled her thrice round him in the heavens; the next moment he was slain by her. These are the Titan’s four strides to immortality and of them all the last is the longest and mightiest.
519. Kali is Krishna revealed as dreadful Power and wrathful Love. She slays with her furious blows the self in body, life and mind in order to liberate it as spirit eternal.
520. Our parents fell, in the deep Semitic apologue, because they tasted the fruit of the tree of good and evil. Had they taken at once of the tree of eternal life, they would have escaped the immediate consequence; but God’s purpose in humanity would have escaped the immediate consequence; but God’s purpose in humanity would have been defeated. His wrath is our eternal advantage.
521. If Hell were possible, it would be the shortest cut to the highest heaven. For verily God loveth.
522. God drives us out [of] every Eden that we may be forced to travel through the desert to diviner Paradise. If thou wonder why should that parched and fierce transit be necessary, then art thou be fooled by thy mind and hast not studied thy soul behind and its dim desires and secret raptures.
523. A healthy mind hates pain; for the desire of pain that men sometimes develop in their minds is morbid and contrary to Nature, But the soul cares not for mind and its sufferings any more than the iron-master for the pain of the ore in the furnace; it follows its own necessities and its own hunger.
524. Pity is sometimes a good substitute for love; but it is always no more than a substitute.
525. Self-pity is always born of self-love; but pity for others is not always born of love for its object. It is sometimes a self-regarding shrinking from the sight of pain; sometimes the rich man’s contemptuous dole to the pauper. Develop rather God’s divine compassion than human pity.
Excerpt from the book Essays Divine and Human by Sri Aurobindo