Sri Aurobindo's diary of his yogic practice between 1909 and 1927.
Sri Aurobindo's diary of his yogic practice between 1909 and 1927. This two-volume record of sadhana contains fairly regular entries between 1912 and 1920 and a few entries in 1909, 1911 and 1927. It also contains related materials Sri Aurobindo wrote about his practice of yoga during this period, including descriptions of the seven 'chatusthayas' (groups of four elements), which are the basis of the yoga of the 'Record'.
Developed forms to show sufficient stability. Siddhis of power today. Samadhi from tomorrow. Fulfilled1
The siddhis of power have to be made more powerful and give more rapid and accurate results; the rupadrishti in all its parts to conquer the obstruction finally. The defect of anima has to be minimised. Samadhi to develop rapidly. Ananda to begin to be stable. Fulfilled.
The physical akash is still rebellious to the lipi, rupa & other drishtis & to all the siddhis which at all depend on the annam. It only gives normally the minimum results and has to be subjected to pressure of the will in order to give all the results attained. Today, it must be made to give up this habit of inductility due to inertia. Today, Ananda stable, intense & constant; Samadhi increased in range & richness; defect of anima (stiffness, in lower limbs especially) disregarded & convinced of its own impotence; siddhis of power to increase in frequency of accurate success; rupa & other drishtis to gain upon the akasha. Fulfilled
Tomorrow the direct government will be continuous. Tonight there will be the Ananda of the actual embrace of the daughters of delight. Fulfilled (last in sukshma)
Ananda intensified. Utthapana increased. Adhogati beaten down. Health to emerge
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"Cn R.K" [Communication from Ramakrishna]
Make complete sannyasa of Karma Make complete sannyasa of thought Make complete sannyasa of feeling— This is my last utterance.
Standing orders.
From Me. B.A.2
To believe everything, but put it in its place
To will everything, but only await the event & see where it has stumbled
To see everything, but force no drishti.
Date repeated in MS. -Ed.
The manomaya activity has to be cleared out before the final step is taken. Today the vijnana will recommence in the afternoon and all the siddhis with it.
Positive Ananda in all things has to be made habitual. From today it will be made complete and extended to the body, but attacks will continue to be made on it. The same with the removal of the manomaya.
From tonight no covering is to be used for the body. *From tomorrow walking in the sun will be steadily practised. This will finish the suddhi, mukti & bhukti.
Hunger & thirst are now only survivals, not imperative; they can be removed by the use of the will instead of by eating. Fulfilled except the prediction marked *
Then the siddhi. Today the shanti has been disturbed and the shakti, because Mahakali had to draw back. From today this will be prevented or, if it comes, resisted & expelled. From tomorrow the third chatusthaya will begin to be absolutely final even in the siddhis of power, but not perfect till the end of the month. From today
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the physical siddhi will begin to be effective in all its parts. From today the fifth chatusthaya will begin to move towards general progressiveness even in karma & kama. Fulfilled
Today the siddhi is being reconstituted with a surer basis for the shuddhi & mukti, founded this time in dasyam & shamanvita karma & not in dasyam & shama. Sortilege अनाश्रितः कर्मफलं कार्यं कर्म करोति यः । स सन्न्यासी च योगी च न निरग्निर्न चाक्रियः ।। There was still an oscillation between imperfect tejasic action and karmahin udasinata. This has now been expelled by associating the Mahakali bhava with the karma.
The second chatusthay is imperfectly founded in sraddha; the third yet insecure, deficient in sani; the fourth not yet established; the fifth only incipient. The next movement of the siddhi will be to bring "sani" into the third chatusthaya; to establish the fourth; to develop the fifth.
The tejas is the chief obstacle to the fulfilment in permanence and completeness of the vijnana-siddhi. The confused remnants of the tejas are being progressively expelled, & the trikaldrishti, jnana and prakamya vyapti are growing—steadily & methodically, but without enthusiasm or any positive ananda,—in precision, correctness & range. This misplacement of circumstance, due to the tejasic attempt in the manas tattwa to fix things instead of seeing them as they are, is diminishing in insistence & effect. In the body tamas, not tejas is the chief enemy, as the nature of the annamaya is tamasic, just as the nature of the manomaya is tejasic.
Anandasiddhi has been reconstituted, the shuddhi & mukti & bhukti with the samata, but the perfection of the second chatusthaya is still to seek. The reason is that although there is sraddha now in the Yoga and in God, there is not sufficient sraddha in the Lilamaya Purusha, & therefore none in the increasing rapidity of the siddhi or in the inevitable and perfect fulfilment of the Adesha.
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The Script is now liberated from imperfection.
The trikaldrishti is only imperfect from confusion of details & broken relics of the old tejasic overhaste accompanied by suggestions from phantasms of the dead devatas.
The shakti-prayog suffers only by the prematureness of the Mahakali kshiprakarita.
The samadhi is only obscured by the imperfect dharanashakti of the material mind.
The defect of anima is prolonged by the tamas in the body.
These imperfections have to be eliminated.
The physical siddhi is yet subject to relapse & temporary dislocation.
The subjective foundations of the Adeshasiddhi are now complete, but not yet perfect in solidity, power & range. Its instruments are still imperfectly organised & insufficiently effective in application.
Samata siddhi, sraddha, virya, shakti, are perfect except for the defective spot in the Sraddha through which the asiddhi can still enter.
A period of resistance & denial, ending in revolt, is over now (4.30 pm) & the dasyam emerges from it perfected. The dasyam being perfected, the internal ananda will become stable, subject only to depression by the imperfect sraddha, & the tejas permanently reestablish itself. Knowledge & Power will follow as the result of consistent tejas & saundaryam as the result of physical ananda. The whole will be summed up in Bhoga & Amritam.
The demand that Krishna should gratify the Nature, has disappeared in the last crisis & it was the only demand left,—the demand for satya & siddhi. The literary work is now being done, faultlessly in manner, faultlessly in substance, almost without fault in style.
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This perfection must be extended by the involved method to all other parts of the karma.
The dasyam and internal ahaituka ananda being now permanently assured, the tejas has to be made equally firm and continuous. For this purpose the sraddha has to be perfectly restored and this must first be done in the trikaldrishti, aishwarya & ishita. These must be made infallible. At present the perception of possibilities interferes with the perception of actualities which would otherwise be perfect. The aishwaryaprayoga is now free of false tejas & the only obstacle is the sluggishness of the Akasha. From today both trikaldrishti & shakti will become infallible, although there will be returns & survivals for a time of error & failure.
Yesterday the [infallibility]3 predicted commenced, but it works in a small field, with difficulty & subject to a certain groping uncertainty & confusion in handling its materials. It is contradicted from time to time, but reestablishes itself. The tejas has been added to ananda & dasyam, but when it seeks to act with speed & vigour, confusion is the result, except in the sahitya where only a slight tendency to defect is apparent as the result of rapid & unreflecting inspiration. Today the trikaldrishti & shakti will embrace definitely a larger field,—as it has already begun to do, but not yet with a triumphant infallibility; the lipi, drishti & samadhi will resume a steady progress and the physical siddhi once more move forward. The sahitya proceeds perfectly, although not always compassing an entirely flawless expression at the first thought. Rodogune, in its final form is completed & only needs a slight revision correcting an inconsiderable number of expressions. Today the Isha Upanishad will be resumed & steadily pursued till it is completed in a perfect form. Farther rewriting will be unnecessary.
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The fulfilment of yesterday's predictions is not apparent. A contrary result & a return of udasinata, sattwatamasic, with strong asraddha, was the actual occurrence. There was a renewed activity of lipi, an emergence of the complete crude rupa in an instance or two & a first sign of bolder & more spontaneous lipi; the resumption of primary utthapana on a small scale & some tendency to physical siddhi; but the adverse results predominated, & both trikaldrishti & shakti were hopelessly inefficient—Promise of equipment unfulfilled.
There is an attack en masse of the Asiddhi in the Akasha on the whole totality of the siddhi. It has now been expelled from the immediate vicinity of the system, but fights from a distance and prevents the easy & pleasurable action of the siddhi. It is necessary to observe the following rules.
1) Pay no attention to outside voices, but only to the knowledge from above, the script, the vani, the prakamya-vyapti.
2) Keep firm hold on desirelessness & ananda; admit the tejas.
3) Yield on no point whatever; reject tamas whenever it comes
4) Accept the supreme Vani which will now once more become active.
None of these four directions have been fulfilled. There is an attempt to adhere to them, but it is combated always by the experience of asiddhi. The establishment of intellectual infallibility which seemed assured at one time by the fulfilment of the intellectual perceptions & the right placing, accompanied with definite proofs, of that which was misplaced has been followed by a strong disillusionment which challenges the whole foundation of the theory as a self-delusion. While the existence of a perfectly accurate trikaldrishti, perceiving truth past, present & future even to exact time, place & circumstance has been put beyond all dispute, the fact
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that what seems to be precisely the same movement brings error & failure, clouds the whole issue & is being dwelt on in order to break down sraddha. For where is the use of trikaldrishti & aishwarya when one can never be certain whether a perception is trikaldrishti or false intuition, the perception of an actuality or a possibility, the perception of that which will be or the perception of something that someone else thinks of doing or looks at as a possibility, or whether an expense of will will bring a favourable or perverse result? The doubt comes to be one of God's guidance & the reality of the Adesha. The science of Yoga is justified, but the idea of the personal mission seems to be convicted of essential falsity. Meanwhile the particular siddhis established maintain themselves ordinarily, but do not progress. Only the sahitya proceeds smoothly & seems to develop in security.
The sahitya still improves in sustained quality under the stress of rapidity, but the physical brain cannot yet respond to an unlimited call upon its vital energy. In all else there is still the adverse force. Swapna in samadhi is improving & last night there was a long & clear swapna marred only by the confusion of the recording mind which mixed itself up with what it saw & produced a few incongruities.
The directions of the [16ᵗʰ]4 are more nearly observed, than before, but not yet perfectly. Dasyam is perfect, but not yet ananda because of the depression of asraddha. Shakti acts as a force which produces an effect & sometimes prevails, but cannot prevail at once, perfectly or even usually. Trikaldrishti is irregular, although there are signs of its improving.
Directions.
1) Passivity has to be maintained; no attempt must be made to know, to judge, to act, to will or to move the body by self-action,—nor has any attempt to be made to check or alter any knowledge, judgment & action, will or motion that comes of itself; so with all parts of the siddhi.
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2) It will be found that then the siddhi will advance towards perfection of its own unaided motion.
3) Whatever happens, that seems to be adverse, must be accepted as a means towards success & fruition.
The trikaldrishti, appearing at first false, is now on the way to be justified. It is only in the exact order of circumstances, time & place that there is real error. The rest is only a misplacement of prakamya & vyapti of intention & tendency in place of trikaldrishti. The Shakti is effective, but under the same limitations more heavily stressed. In both these respects the next three days will see a great change, but especially in the first & in lipi & rupa. Afterwards samadhi & shakti will develop into greatness.
The roga will begin finally to disappear after another three days. The sign will be the final establishment of Ananda, followed by utthapana & the breaking down of the obstacle to the saundaryam.
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[The predictions that follow, which overlap in date with the preceding entries, were written on a page of the notebook separated from those entries by several blanks, and upside down in relation to them.]
A regular forward movement to begin from today. Fulfilled.
The letter to be received today in spite of difficulties. Fulfilled.
The rain to disperse early,—though not today. Breaks during the day—A larger break next day—Dispersal 21ˢᵗ, but continuance of showers. All foreseen correctly in detail.
N & P to keep their places. Fulfilled during time contemplated, but N's change gazetted.
Money to come within this fortnight from R. Fulfilled, but only half the sum expected.
Peace in the Balkans. —not fulfilled. Fulfilled afterwards.
A & I [Austria & Italy?] to insist successfully on their points—signs of fulfilment
Letter to be written today. Fulfilled
Lipi. "Break", fulfilled
Lipi "Greeks & Servians together will dispose of the last efforts of Turkey in Macedonia" apparently fulfilled. (Several days ago)
Money from S in a day or two. not fulfilled.
Perceptions about Turkish defeat at Monastir, which were contrary to the telegrams, precisely fulfilled (see telegrams of 27ᵗʰ)
Approximate time of return of D [dog] who had escaped, foreseen. (although improbable)
Approximate time of N. [Nolini] S. [Saurin] B. [Bijoy] & M's [Moni's] return & the order of their coming, all erroneous, but this confusion had been predicted in the lipi.
Pratijna becomes more & more satyapratijna.
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Rupa begins to organise itself with lipi as predicted
Trikaldrishti hampered by tejas & tamas in the speculative intellectual perception
Everywhere in Europe the subjective fulfilment of the Will is evident, in the action of the Triple Alliance, the restored morale of the Turks, the stronger resistance in Macedonia, at Adrianople, the offensive at Chataldja, the course of events in England. But the material results are not attained.
In India there is, as yet, no substantial result.
Against roga there is often immediate temporary success, but the disease returns after being apparently cleared out. In other cases there is no success or only a struggle.
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