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'.
Feb 6ᵗʰ
1) Felt the sweet taste of the amrita in the throat and noticed the struggle ibidem of the impure rasa causing nausea with the amrita.
2) Physical, tivra, ananda—brief but definite.
3) All the physical anandas together, ahaituka, negative vaidyuta strongest, going to the head to base chidghana.
Feb 14ᵗʰ
4) Example of pure raudrananda without discomfort from the strong bite of an ant. Cf experience in jail & the scorpion bite.
5) Sweetness of amrita much stronger, denser and more frequent and continuous, the mixture of phlegm less frequent.
1) Sukshma Shabda. Gautama—about K.E.—formerly a beau of the eighteenth century.
2) Writing (not on paper). Prophesy that the trouble in the digestion would almost immediately pass away, by replacement of tejasic by akashic action. A few minutes subsequently it was fulfilled
3) As I was walking outside the house, a large flower (fallen from the tree in the garden and ragged) was thrown to me from the direction of the opposite corner of the front. It traversed, as far as I could see, a distance of some five yards,—flew at the level of my head and fell almost beside me. There was no person near; the servant was out, having gone to the bazaar; of the four boys, three were lying down in their rooms, another shut up in his at the other end of the house. The gate was bolted & no one could enter, or, if he did, escape in a second. There was no bird in the air, and the flower was not dropped, or thrown to a slight distance as a bird might throw it but flew horizontally for some yards. The
Page 38
only defect in this proof was that I did not see the starting of the flower in its course, but only noticed it in the air at the distance of some yards from me. This is the first clear instance, the others being merely pushes to the table & doors which were far from conclusive..—It appears that the flower is not of our tree, as it is deep red and a simul flower. The nearest tree of the kind is in a house in the street behind this house. It cannot have been thrown from there as it would have to cross 2 roofs and describe a high curve in the air descending not horizontally but by a high parabola.
4) Statement in sukshmashabda that the worst of Saurin's illness was past justified by fact.
5) All statements about the Yoga daily justified. Too frequent for a record to be kept.
Feb 9ṭḥ
1) While doing tratak on the physical sun, I saw clearly with sthuladrishti the sun of the pranamay jagat and felt its warmth on my body.
1) Sthapatya on windowframe, of (a) a head, half Rakshasa, half animal with the Pisacha & Pramatha bhavas, one tusk (ekadanti), over the eyes sealed in meditation, is written "God".
(b) another, half Rakshasa, half-Asura, with a headdress half Egyptian half Semitic, of an intellectual and formidable type; over the eyes half-open on the world, is written "God". I take it that in the former type God fulfils Himself, with the eyes of the soul blind; in the latter with the eyes half open; the first is without jnanam, the second with ardhajnanam.
2) A group of young Bengalis walking on a road, only the last clearly seen, two children sitting on a hillock at the side. All remarkable for beauty of figure and grace. Chitra tejas, in a fragment of the lining of a bird's nest on the floor. Vision of future India
3) An elephant, initial crude condition on wall, ill-kept and spiritless; the same, feebly lifting its trunk to order. Symbol of the Indian people at the present moment. Seen at Chandannagar often, of
Page 39
the past, charging furiously with lashing trunk. Also of the future, ibidem, controlled by a tender, disciplined and waiting for the order of movement.
4) A beautiful butterfly (dark colours) emerged for a moment from the jagrat chittakash into the sthula—chhayayukta.
5) In the akash, head and bust of Assyrian Pallas Athene helmeted over the sun chhayamay Athene and tejoghana sun.
Jan 30ṭḥ
6) 2 small birds on a branch, on the wall, chhaya. Seen sometime afterwards in life on the tree in the next garden.
7) A Ghose—a future signature on a cheque in a very different writing from my present handwriting.
8) A short nib—tejas in the akash. Revelation that I should have to write followed by the necessity of writing (a cheque) though I had no intention of writing today. It was written with a fountainpen, while usually I write with an ordinary pen and a long thin nib.
9) A scene of the future. An Occidental port with ships, men walking in Indian dress. Sarvatragati.
10) Mountains in the sea. Scene of one of the swargabhumis. Sarvatragati.
11) A Madrasi house, tiled floor bare with an armchair.
January 31ṣṭ
12) Chitra of my grandmother on the wall.
13) A pattern of many colours, (particoloured squares), varnamaya.
14) Sthapatya, tejas, in the leaves of a tree in the next garden, of R, in cap and gown.
Prophecy.
15) A. J. Balfour, head and bust only, chitra on wall, ill. The chitra seen in December in the sand showed a more advanced state of illness.
16) A god in heaven, vyaghracharma, not worn,—seated. Samadhi
17) A dog, descending the stairs to the terrace, not familiar. Samadhi
Page 40
18) A bundle of carbon papers for typewriting, put down, not folded, but partly turned down. Samadhi.
19) Chhaya in Akash of Kali armed, followed by Chhaya of Kalki on horseback.
For Feb 4ᵗʰ & 5ᵗʰ see other book.1
Feb 6ṭḥ.
20) Chhayamay of Sister Nivedita.
21) Tejomays of a collar of pearls and two others of Jogini standing and asleep.
22) Varnamay of a dog—brownish yellow—All in the 1ˢᵗ stage of the perfect condition and in samadhi.
Feb 9ᵗʰ.
23) Nalini, with big whiskers, an ochre-coloured coat and military belt, in a very martial attitude. Prophecy of distant future.
Sv. [Svapna] Samadhi
24) Small flags & hint of horses in great number in a State procession. Prophecy of the distant future: Sv Samadhi.
25) Men riding with news, great excitement and alarm. (Bengal). Sv. Sam.
26) Stag at rest. Symb. Trikaldrishti of the present. After tratak.
27) Bull at rest. Jyoti. Symbolical trikaldrishti of the present.
28) Very clear chhaya (initial stage) of a butterfly flying across the corner of the room
29) Jalabindus round about the sun, also a network of the peculiar lines (ringlike curves) indicating the presence of jalam. The sun seen green again instead of blue or blue with a green tendency as yesterday.
30) The face of a watch—chhaya & chhayaghan—pointing to 10.30, 8.25 and 7.20
Page 41
31) After tratak on sun A nib, with a bell behind it (jyoti & varna), indicative of the removal of the remaining obstacles to perfect writing. (This process to begin today). The three times indicated in the subsequent2 drishti of the watch seem to indicate times in this process on three successive days
32) Behind the last a naked woman bending over it. Symbolic.
33) My eldest brother in a past state of health & vigour, chhayamay in Samadhi. Indication that he will not recover that health or live long.
Feb 16ᵗʰ
34) An anchor (in samadhi) indicating that the dhairyam is now perfect.
35) R. [Ramchandra] broom in hand, ½ v. Prophecy.
36) The Rakshasi returning after sarvatragati.
37) The plant Yogini eats in flower.
Feb 17ᵗʰ
38) Myself as a baby of 1 or 2—seen in Samadhi.
39) A baby of the future. —do.
40) The dog Yogini or one just like it licking the mouth of a[n] upright soda water bottle.
Feb 9ᵗʰ
1) Aishwaryam on ant to give up its object and go back, done after a short persistence in the forward movement.
2) Ishita and aishwaryam for lessening of Saurin's diarrhoea, fulfilled as soon as made.
3) Aishwaryam for rapid restoration of health and strength, repeated and fulfilled on the 10ṭḥ
Feb 10ṭḥ
4) Aishwaryam for M [Moni] to awake. Immediate success.
Page 42
5) Aishwaryam for him to get up and give the tea. Succeeded after a slight resistance, lasting five to ten minutes.
6) Aishwaryam for the thought to begin (not begun in spite of struggle for many days). Begun.
7) Aishwaryam for the dog to shake off its heavy tamas and manifest the new soul. Rapidly successful, but the tamas still struggles to remain & the old bhava in the face and body persists. A renewed Aishwaryam on the 11ṭḥ produces an immediate effect, the dog doing what it had never done before.
Feb 11ᵗʰ
8) Aishwaryam of restored health & strength to S.[Saurin] succeeds, even the time coming correct.
9) Aishwaryam of particular drishti. Succeeded
10) Aishwaryam of particular forms of siddhi. Partly succeeded.
11) Aishwaryam to stay nausea while eating. Immediately successful.
12) Aishwaryam to clear the stomach of disturbance and heaviness by working of akash. Successful.
Feb 13ᵗʰ or 14ᵗʰ
13) Ishitasiddhi for the dog to eat bread which it had always refused. Suddenly it began eating with relish after first refusing.
14) Ishita to refrain from large piece of bread given, but eat others. Persistently refrained even when it was broken into small pieces, except when induced to think it was not the same.
N.B. Previously many ishitas had succeeded, but were not noted down especially with regard to vyapti of yogic states or realisations into others or to people coming or not coming.
15) Aishwaryam of S's regularity in the afternoon, immediately fulfilled.
Same aishwaryam fulfilled in half an hour.
Page 43
Feb 18
The same aishwaryam fulfilled under adverse circumstances (they sat down to cards at 4) within quarter of an hour.
from 28ṭḥ January.
1) I saw the time by the watch in the sitting room to be 2-40, ideally cognized the time by my watch to be 2-43. Verified, exact to the minute
2) A little later after a chase of the opposite house-dog, having lost the intellectual idea of the time, I ideally cognised it to be just 2.50. Verified, exact to the second
3) All rooms being closed, I ideally perceived that all were asleep. Verified immediately afterwards by no one moving when the servant repeatedly banged for admission at the door.
4) Sortilege with cards. First, I took out cards making a sum of 21 (Jack, nine and ace) and dividing by three got seven-o-clock; then for the minutes, took out queen, ten and nine, making 31, and dividing by three got 10⅓. The cognition then gave the already prophesied ejection of the internal opposition to higher thought as the subject of the sortilege. I took it, by intellectual habit and inference, as meaning 7.10 pm. The incident actually occurred at ten minutes to seven.
5) Figure 3 in drishti. Interpreted as Rs 3 worth of books to be purchased. Subsequently (Feb 2ᵈ) selected a number of 6 a[nna]s books without calculating the price; found that it amounted to Rs 3.
6) Two people applied to see me at the door, not seen by me. Cognition that they were detectives. I heard immediately afterwards that they had asked for "[The Indian] Sociologist" and "Liberator".
7) I had a cognition formerly that the man calling himself Ram Rao Yogi was a detective—independent of all inference. Learned on Feb 1 of a police report in which he is mentioned as watching the trains and taken for some time by the others as a Bande Mataram man.
8) Confirmation by B. [Bijoy] of my cognition of the new change of soul in the dog.
Page 44
9) Cognition by prakamya of improvements in Saurin's health, without seeing him, justified by fact.
10) A man came calling outside. Immediate cognition by prakamya on seeing him and revelation acting in confirmation of each other that he was a detective. It turned out to be Ram Rao Yogi, the detective from Maharashtra side.
11) Trikaldrishti that Sri [Srinivasachari] etc would not come this evening. Confirmed.
12) Trikaldrishti that tomorrow S. [Saurin] will be restored to health. Already recovering it. Fully confirmed.3
13) Sukshma shabda of the dog under the table attended with strong prakamya of its presence and motion there. An image of the past.
Feb 11ṭḥ
14) Confirmation of former cognition that M. [Moni] although apparently unconcerned, had really a touch in the prana about his brother's death.—confirmed by his statement about dreams & weeping.
15) Cognition by prakamya trikaldrishti of evacuation in the afternoon. Confirmed
Feb 13th
16) Vyapti from Saurin of the idea of making the tea. Immediately after I heard him talk of it, & a minute after he came and made it.
Feb 14ṭḥ
17) Memory by inspiration. The passages of Kalidasa written out & translated by me a year and a half ago, not since read or remembered, were again read two or three times in the morning without particular attention to the words except to one or two lines. Later on memory began to restore the whole thing, not by effort to remember, for that hampered it, but by inspiration. Lines
Page 45
came, framework or substance of thoughts were suggested, gaps filled up. Finally, the whole of the first passage with the mistake of दहति for ज्वलति, the whole of the second with no error, the last two lines of the third and two words with an error of the first line, and part of the second line in the fourth were remembered.
18) Cognition in reference to image of the watch that the final epic inspiration would begin from the time indicated, 10.30, fully confirmed by fact.
Feb 15ᵗʰ
19) Cognition that the third time indicated in the watch4 7.20 would be fulfilled today by the final inspiration of the dramatic faculty, confirmed by fact.
20) Cognition from a drishti of the face of a watch, hands at 1.28 or 1.29 that at this time just after meals there would be a fresh advance in the siddhi. Finally, after some false speculation in other directions than the siddhi, the general poetical inspiration was fixed on. Fulfilled, since it began at 1.28 and was definite at 1.29.
Feb 16ṭḥ
21) Cognition in reference to the image of the watch that the power of translation would begin today at the time indicated, 8.25; exactly fulfilled.
22) Cognition in the early afternoon of [? ] accompanied by the recurring image of a revolver.
Feb 17ṭḥ
23) The boy from the hotel brought a dish and was told by Bhedi meaning to use the dish to come at 3. He remained, not understanding Hindi. While I was expecting somebody to come & send him off, vyapti came that Bhedi had changed his mind and would return the dish. A minute or two afterwards the dish was brought and given to the boy.
Page 46
Home
Sri Aurobindo
Books
Share your feedback. Help us improve. Or ask a question.