The enclosed excerpt on Simplicity & Contentment has been taken from Mother Mirra’s book: Words of Long Ago (Volume 2) (Free Download).
– Mother Mirra, Aurobindo Ashram
Saint Francis was an apostle of the Good Life. He did not teach in order to earn money. His life was simple and his greatest joy was to instruct the people by his example and his preaching.
And he was content with whatever food he was given.
One day, as he and his companion, Brother Masseo, were passing through a town, Masseo went down one street while Francis took another. Masseo was tall and handsome, whereas the saint was short and plain-looking. People gave generously to Masseo, but Francis collected only very little.
When they met outside the gates of the town, they sat by a large stone on the bank of a clear stream that ran nearby, and put together the alms they had received.
“O Brother Masseo,” cried Saint Francis with a joyful face, “we are not worthy of so great a feast.”
“Indeed,” replied Masseo, “but what is there to call a feast in these few pieces of bread? We have no knife, no dishes, no cloth, no servant.”
“Is it not a feast,” replied the saint, “to have good bread on a good table when one is hungry, and fresh water from a limpid spring to drink when one is thirsty?”
This does not mean to say that poor people should always be resigned to their miserable fare. But in any case it shows how the contentment that comes from a noble life and the cheerfulness native to beautiful souls can make up for the absence of material possessions and outer riches.
“To a healthy soul the simple life offers more happiness than any other. In every age, the best and most energetic servitors of earth’s progress have known how to lead a quiet and frugal life, which keeps the body in good health and enables man to take a more active part in working for the common good.”
– Mother Mirra, Sri Aurobindo Ashram
A Simple Life Is More Desirable Than a Life of Extravagance, Vanity & Show – Mother Mirra (Aurobindo Ashram) conveys how a spiritually evolved person prefers a simple life to one of wealthy extravagance which only inflates the ego.
