Sri Aurobindo's letters between 1927 and 1950 on his life, his path of yoga and the practice of yoga in his ashram.
Sri Aurobindo : corresp.
Sri Aurobindo's letters between 1927 and 1950 on his life, his path of yoga and the practice of yoga in his ashram. In these letters, Sri Aurobindo writes about his life as a student in England, a teacher in Baroda, a political leader in Bengal, and a writer and yogi in Pondicherry. He also comments on his formative spiritual experiences and the development of his yoga. In the latter part of the volume, he discusses the life and discipline followed in his ashram and offers advice to the disciples living and working in it. Sri Aurobindo wrote these letters between 1927 and 1950 - most of them in the 1930s.
THEME/S
Ever since I came here this time I have been experiencing a very intense atmosphere, a very strong pressure, similar in intensity and depth to what I felt in 1926 (months of October to December). It appears to me that the Supermind is about to descend a second time. Is this an entirely wrong feeling on my part or there is some truth in it, if not the full truth?
There is some truth in it—but the descent in 1926 was rather of the Overmind, not of the Supermind proper.
21 August 1935
Today I shall request you to "stand and deliver" on a different subject. What is exactly the significance of the 24th of November? Different people have different ideas about it. Some say that the Avatar of the Supramental plane descended in you.
Rubbish! whose imagination was that?
Others say that you were through and through overmentalised.
Well, it is not quite the truth, but nearer to the mark.
I myself understood that on that day you achieved the Super mind.
There was never any mention of that from our side.
If you did not achieve the Supermind at that time, how is it possible for you to talk about it or know anything about it?
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Well, I'm hanged. You can't know anything about a thing before you have "achieved" it?
Because I have seen it and am in contact with it, O logical baby that you are! But achieving it is another business.
But didn't you say that some things were getting supramentalised in parts?
Getting supramentalised is one thing and the achieved supramental is another.
You have unnerved a lot of people by that statement that you haven't achieved the supermind.
Good Lord! And what do these people think I meant when I was saying persistently that I was trying to get the supermind down into the material? If I had achieved it on Nov. 24. 1926, it would have been there already for the last nine years, isn't it?
X seems to have declared on that day that you had conquered sleep, food, disease and death. On what authority did she proclaim it then?
I am not aware of this gorgeous proclamation. What was said was that the Divine (Krishna or the Divine Presence or whatever you like) had come down into the material. It was also pro claimed that I was retiring—obviously to work things out. If all that was achieved on the 24th [November] 1926, what on earth remained to work out, and if the Supramental was there, for what blazing purpose did I need to retire? Besides are these things achieved in a single day? If X said anything like that she must have been in a prophetic mood and seen the future in the present!
I have stood, but I have not delivered. I had time for standing a moment, but none for a delivery—however pregnant my mind or my overmind may be. But really what a logic! One must become thoroughly supramental first (achieve supermind) and then only one can begin to know something about supermind?
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Well! However if I have time one day, I will deliver—for evidently with such ideas about, an éclaircissement is highly advisable.
29 August 1935
What exactly is the significance of the 24th November? Overmental, supramental realisation or what? You say it was some thing like the descent of Krishna in the material. Some say the descent was in you but you are not matter, are you? Not very clear.
Why not? Why can't I be matter? or represent it at least? At least you will admit that I have got some matter in me and you will hardly deny that the matter in me is connected or even continuous (in spite of the quantum theory) with matter in general? Well, if Krishna or the Overmind or something equivalent descended into my matter with an inevitable extension into connected general Matter, what is the lack of clarity in the statement of a descent into the material?
15 September 1935
Some say November 24th is a day of victory. By that some mean that the Supermind (supramental consciousness) descended into the physical consciousness of Sri Aurobindo. Others say it was the coming down of Krishna into the physical consciousness. If it was the descent of Krishna, does that mean the descent of the supramental light?
Krishna is not the supramental light. The descent of Krishna would mean the descent of the Overmind Godhead preparing, though not itself actually bringing, the descent of Supermind and Ananda. Krishna is the Anandamaya, he supports the evolution through the Overmind leading it towards his Ananda.
I believe that on the 24th November Sri Aurobindo realised that the Mother is the Divine Consciousness and the Force.
No. I knew that long before.
2 November 1935
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I knew that Krishna is not the Supermind. But because some say it was the descent of the supramental light and some say it was the descent of Krishna, I asked you to make it clear to me. What I wanted to know was whether the 24th November was the descent of the supramental light or of Krishna's light. Why are we observing the 24th as a special day?
It was the descent of Krishna into the physical.
I do not know the significance of the 24th November 1926; some say it is the immortality day while others say it was the descent of Krishna's personality.
It has nothing to do with immortality. It is the descent of Krishna.
13 November 1935
[A disciple of Sri Aurobindo's wrote an article on the significance of the realisation of 24 November 1926, in which he quoted the following passage from The Life Divine:]
In order that the involved principles of Overmind and Supermind should emerge from their veiled secrecy, the being and powers of the superconscience must descend into us and uplift us and formulate themselves in our being and powers; this descent is a sine qua non of the transition and transformation.1
[The disciple concluded:] This is referred to in the Vedas as the birth of the gods in men, devānāṁ janimāni; Sri Aurobindo regards it as indispensable for supramental realisation on earth. It was this that occurred on the 24th November, 1926, and it is only then that Sri Aurobindo started his Ashram, being sure that with the cooperation of the gods the supermind can descend upon earth.
What happened on the 24th November prepared the possibility of this descent and on that day he retired into seclusion and entered into deep and powerful meditation.
20 November 1950
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