Ned, Thank you for bringing this speech to our notice. I did not read this speech before. I liked certian parts of the speech which emphasizes the importance of nature and the role it plays in finding oneself. But I also had one question about a certain part of the speech which I would ask Debashish how that was possible. DB says:"Thus Nature will continue to run in us, even if we find the freedom of the Self. Of course, Sri Aurobindo also tells us that Purusha has power over Prakriti. It is not just the witness, sakshi, but the giver of sanction, anumanta. But this sanction does not transform or change the quality of the nature, it either allows it to run its course or to cease from action. This is why developing the quiet mind servss such an important first step. Not only does it give us access to the presence of the Purusha, it can also become the beginning for a reorganization of the Prakriti. Nature, prakriti in us in its intrinsic form is unregenerate, it hasn’t been organized, it hasn’t been set into any kind of perfection. This is a very important part of this yoga – to perfect the nature, to transform the nature. That takes a very long time, but in the meantime one can begin by bringing certain elements into it, bringing calm into it, establishing a quiet mind, making it receptive to a higher prakriti, to the Mother’s Force rather than to the lower prakriti, the force of Nature, and then trying to draw on that constantly, in different actions and activities of the life." I liked this above section of the speech becuase it tells us that nature is not transformed. It can either be stopped or used for whatever purposes but it is not transformed to a diviner and purer nature. It can be frustrating and painstaking job to change our nature but the difficulty can be eased by surrendering to the Mother and let her transform the nature. Mother is the higher nature only She can change our lower nature. DB:"So though we may say that it is the jivatman which projects its emanations or representations as a Purusha into the jiva, it cannot do this without the power of concentration, tapas of the Prakriti." This single sentence also makes us realise that even the detachment needs the power of prakriti for the reversal of conciousness from dispersed state to a concentrated or withness state. In the Gospel of Ramakrishna the Master says that when one really really feels that it is only the nature that does the work all the time then one is absolutely liberated from ego. It is when one feels all the time that it is nature that does all the work and not me or this kind of meditation can also be helpful for the sacrifice of the lower nature to the divine above. DB says: "But his teacher asked him to go up to the podium and allow the speech to be delivered through him and this is just what happened - he witnessed himself giving the speech, though he had no will to give it". Here I feel that Sri Aurobindo willed it otherwise there is no way nature can work without the will of purusha. But it must have been a passive will. Overall this is an excellent speech. Very nice.