Sri Aurobindo Ashram - Its Role, Responsibility and Future Destiny

FOREWORD

Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, has attracted the attention of innumerable minds - saints', philosophers', thinkers', leaders', pilgrims', visitors', tourists', commoners' - in varied ways. Quite a good deal has also been written on it and about it in meaningful perspectives.

And yet there arises now and then the necessity of turning to an intrinsic study of this Ashram which has a world-wide reputation for its uniqueness, particularly since it is clearly pronounced to be not simply a peace resort, though of course peace dwells here natively, but a place of concentrated endeavour for spiritual perfection in life, aiming not at liberation from phenomenal existence but at constant progression towards realisation and manifestation of the Spirit in the world, a New Vision, a New Future.

This necessity is not so much for projecting an image of the Ashram as for a proper reorientation of those who belong to the Ashram and those others who are closely associated with its multiple activities in pursuit of its objectives. It is the need of consciously reiterating to ourselves what is always important and yet what by easy familiarity we somehow miss to recognise the value of.

Here comes in response to this need and necessity a long sustained essay from Prof. Jugal Kishore Mukherjee, a sizeable monograph bearing the caption Sri Aurobindo Ashram: Its Role, Responsibility and Future Destiny, having in its development as many as twenty-one sections with sub-headings, commencing from "The Pioneers" and culminating in "The Ashram Marches Towards Its Glorious Destiny". There are details in it of the initial stages of the Ashram which has grown steadily and also phenomenally. But it is not meant to be only a narrative. It is much more a thematic presentation of the development of the Ashram, with its sustained purpose of preparing the human stuff for a new, a spiritual future. With every thought in the developing sections there are appropriate quotations from the writings of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo which enlighten and guide and inspire. Thus, the monograph has a double character: it is a document and an agenda, both in one.

Prof. Mukherjee speaks of the Ashram not only in terms of its great aim and the extraordinary privilege we have of the

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guidance received from the Mother and Sri Aurobindo, he also refers to the problems of human frailties due to man's ordinary nature, particularly the problems of the corporate life of the sadhaks in freedom from customary codes, venturing to enter into self-vigilance and inner discipline, the problems of transition from the socio-moral standards of conduct to spiritual self-rule. Consistently the author views such problems in the light of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and offers certain meaningful suggestions including the possible criteria for admission of individuals to the Ashram in the future. In all this one reads his firm commitment to the ideals set by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, his sober assessment of the present position of the Ashram, and his unshaking faith in the spiritual destiny of the Ashram.

While considering all things that present themselves in the proposed study of the Ashram, its raison d'être, its Yogic grounding, its past phases and present status and future prospects, its problems and its promises etc., etc., Prof Mukherjee draws frequently and abundantly from the writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. These excerpts, - often from The Life Divine, - carry their great value, variedly as enunciation, exhortation, guidance, instruction, help, caution, promise, and assurance. Sometimes a single quotation presents a whole thesis. For instance one reads on pages 51-52:

"An entirely new consciousness in many individuals transforming their whole being, transforming their mental, vital and physical nature-self, is needed for the new life to appear; only such a transformation of the general mind, life, body-nature can bring into being a new worthwhile collective existence." (The Life Divine, p. 1061)

All such quotations suitably knit by Prof. Mukherjee for bringing out the import of every idea related to the total study of the Ashram, impress on the mind the great truth that this Ashram is not merely an object or an institution of a common category of which the present monograph is supposed to be a brochure; nay, it is rather an extraordinary event to initiate a decisive movement in the future history of a new life on this earth, and the said monograph is an invitation to the study thereof.

After a brief retrospect of the Ashram's past in which the initial

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work of the Master and the Mother had the most powerful influence on the stalwarts of the Ashram whose memorable names have been recorded by Prof. Mukherjee, quite a large portion of the monograph deals with the present of the Ashram, commencing from section four, "Sri Aurobindo Ashram Today", running upto section nineteen, "The Task Ahead". This naturally is the study of the "Role" and "Responsibility" of the Ashram, preparing its "Destiny". Prof. Mukherjee has presented this study quite thoroughly, speaking to us about facts, principles, governing ideals, psycho-spiritual scrutiny, and bringing everything to the light of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

The section "The Task Ahead" is indeed very important. It offers a sincere invitation to the serious attention of all inmates of the Ashram, older ones, recent ones and even the would-be ones, and also equally the attention of its associates and admirers to become conscious of the importance of their willing collaboration in the Great Work with faithful adherence to the divine guidance given for all times by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Appropriate quotations from their writings given in the monograph are particularly helpful in focussing our attention on the task ahead.

The sustained study represented by the monograph culminates in an all-assuring optimism, "The Ashram Marches Towards Its Glorious Destiny". With full faith and confidence, Prof. Mukherjee convinces and assures us that the Ashram is destined to accomplish its great work of realising the Goal for which it was started. The most important truth in this connection is the one declared by Sri Aurobindo that the Divine Destiny of the Supramental Future is so decreed that nothing can withhold it, not even a complete failure of the present humanity. At the same time, there is no sure sign to show that the great venture that is the Sri Aurobindo Ashram is likely to fail in realising its cherished aim. This optimism, this implicit faith and confidence and the positive notes struck by the author in spite of some caution against what he calls "Danger Signals", remind one of the declaration divinely made by the Mother that this Ashram is the "Ashram of the Lord."

In the light of this single declaration, which is essentially all-potent, all-inspiring and all-assuring, this essay of Prof. Mukherjee, by the very "composition" of which he has himself "benefited a lot", entering into contemplative study of the

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"luminous writings of the Master and the Mother", may very well become a call to kindred souls, not only to their sacred commitment to the great Cause but, more significantly, to their unique privilege to collaborate in the "Work of works", and be blessed by the Grace.

Sri Aurobindo Ashram

29 June, 1997

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