Reminiscences

II

THE SITUATION OF TODAY

11-2-1965

It is not of today, nor of yesterday, but also of the day before yesterday and the day before and the day before. The story is as old as human consciousness itself. Whether it will be the same tomorrow remains to be seen.

It is the fate of all spiritual endeavour to raise in its wake a contrary movement that declares and demands its negation. The Buddha says: surrounded as we are by enemies, let us not be inimical to them. The Christ, as we all know, when being led with a crown of thorns on his head and the cross on his back, heaved a sigh and prayed to the Lord to pardon all those who did not know what they were doing. In the early centuries of the Christian era when Rome sought to spread her gospel of Christendom and extend its frontiers, the vandals rose up against it and from their barbarian soil of Germania swept through the countries like a hurricane, laying waste everything before them till they reached the Holy City itself, pillaging and ravaging it, desecrating the basilica, —leaving their name as an immortal legacy to mankind for deeds of theirs. And centuries later, the little maid of Orleans, Jeanne d'Arc, was burnt alive, because she said that she saw the angels and heard their voices and conversed with God. And Mohammad—whose glory today rings reverberant in all the four corners of the globe—in his day was tracked from place to place like a hunted animal. Since then the situation seems to have worsened, not improved; for even as late as the enlightened nineteenth century, towards its end, we find a poignant picture, by the great dramatist Ibsen, of the social crisis of today, how the people, the masses, are not capable of recognizing their own secular good—not to speak of any higher spiritual welfare—and one who does or tries to do a really good turn to them is dubbed "An Enemy of the People"

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Today the opposition is infinitely greater. The call now to humanity is for an infinitely greater change—an inner change in the consciousness and an outer change in life and material existence. Also the change is to be a radical change, that is to say, from the very root, not merely a superficial reform. The aim is not to leave the world as it is or just a little better in some way, if possible; but to remould it in the very substance and constitution of the Spirit. And the ultimate goal of earthly life is not the Divine's crucified body, but the perfected glorious body.

Naturally the old habits, the millennial forces, the ignorant and obscure movements of instinct and tradition cannot suffer such an upsetting. Earthly creatures, wherever they are, cannot bear the light that descends to illumine the earth. Its impact is too strong: the beings that abide in cool shades or cosy darkness struggle and wriggle, they fear to be dissolved ; they desire no change. But the decree has gone forth. And earth moves...towards the Light.

Sri Aurobindo founded the Ashram to give a form to the descending light, to make of man an angel, not leaving him to remain an animal or half animal as he now is.

The Mother's dream from her childhood was to find a place upon earth where men would be free, happy, wise, pure, one in love, above want, dwelling in the plenitude of prosperity, both inner and outer. She was building up, she is building up a structure in that direction, naturally under the restrictions and conditions of prevailing circumstances, seeking to open them out for the play of a higher order of consciousness, a superior status of being, a luminous mode of life.

Opposition from the stagnant order, opposition from domains that do not want man to be free from his past and present and become a being of the future, is inevitable in the nature of things. Opposition is also meant to be a test and a training for perfection. Through troubles, tribulations, through whatever accidents and incidents that happen, we move unfailingly to the Divine Fulfilment.Trials and tribulations are not new to the Ashram.

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From the first day Sri Aurobindo planted the seed here more than half a century ago, it has been buffeted by bad weather. He was advised to quit, offered a cozy retreat in the Himalayas by the Imperial British. The French regime offered him an equally agreeable resort, a peaceful haven on the Mediterranean coast of Africa. And even among well-wishers here, some were eager to take him out for a joy ride to...an unknown destination. But Sri Aurobindo had made his choice. This is the holy spot, this is the seat for his sadhana and siddhi—Pithasthan. The Mother has not abjured his choice, she continues.

Even so the Buddha had taken his seat under the Bo-tree and declared: I am here and I do not move. Let my body dry up, I sit firm and go through, to the end.

The passage to heaven, Sri Aurobindo says, lies through hell. Here is his warning and beckoning:

Here must the traveller of the upward way—

For daring Hell's kingdoms winds the heavenly route—

Pause or pass slowly through the perilous space,

A prayer upon his lips and the great Name.

⁂

Where the red Wolf waits by the fordless stream

And Death's black eagles scream to the precipice...

The nether forces can never divert or deflect the Divine Decree. That alone is carried out and fulfilled. And in His Will is our peace.

When a mountain surges up, lifts its peak high in the heaven, an opposite movement is generated that seeks to drag it down and bring it to the original level ground—the result being formidable glaciers and cataracts and landslides hurtling down. But through these accidents and incidents—they are no more than that—the mountain remains firm, the living structure that is to be there abides in its integrality and greatness, although the accidents look

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like a tearing and a mauling of its body.

Through all contraries and adversities, through all things that are broken and torn, through all that pass and disappear grows slowly and emerges irrevocably that which the Supreme wills towards the final consummation. And one day we all shall see

Built is the golden tower, the flame child born.

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