Mother's Chronicles - Book Six

36

A Spiritual Adventure

"I regard the spiritual history of India" wrote Sri Aurobindo in a letter (18 August 1935), "as a constant development of a divine purpose, not a book that is closed, the lines of which have to be constantly repeated. Even the Upanishad and the Gita were not final though everything may be there in seed. In this development the recent spiritual history of India is a very important stage." Decades earlier, in an article in the Karmayogin (26 March 1910), Sri Aurobindo had given three names—Rama-krishna Paramahansa, Swami Vivekananda, and Bijoy Goswami —as examples. They had then indicated to him "the lines from which the future spiritual development had most directly to proceed, not staying but passing on."

Among them, as we had occasion to see, it was in the life of Ramakrishna Paramahansa¹ that the message of Hinduism was summed up. But was the message understood? "The work that was begun at Dakshineshwar is far from finished, it is not even understood," penned Sri Aurobindo in the same article of 1910. By then it had become clear to him that it was he who had to carry on the unfinished work from where it was left off. Gradually it would be revealed to him that he had not only to

¹ See Mother's Chronicles, Book Five, ch. 62.

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complete the work of spiritual development but pass on to something beyond.

Sri Aurobindo received three messages from Sri Rama-krishna.

From his notes:

"The guidance from above seems now to be free from the necessity of any longer managing & giving rein to the forces of Anritam.¹ Its final emergence from the action of the Mechanician, the Yantri, mending & testing His machine & self-revelation as that of the God of Truth & Love, began definitely to be worked out from 18^th October, when the third & last message from Sri Ramakrishna was received. The first message was in Baroda, the 'Arabindo, mandir karo, mandir karo,'² & the parable of the snake Pravriti devouring herself. The second was given in Shanker Chetti's house soon after the arrival in Pondicherry, & the words are lost, but it was a direction to form the higher being in the lower self coupled with a promise to speak once more when the sadhan was nearing its close. This is the third message (18 Oct 1912).

" 'Make complete sannyasa of Karma.

" 'Make complete sannyasa of thought.

" 'Make complete sannyasa of feeling.

" 'This is my last utterance.' "

Hinduism has layers and layers of truth. In Sri Aurobindo's words, "I can say what to my view is the truth behind Hinduism, a truth contained in the very nature (not superficially seen of course) of human existence, something which is not the

¹ Anritam: falsehood.

¹ "Arabindo, build the temple, build the temple."

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monopoly of Hinduism but of which Hindu spirituality is the noblest expression." But its Truth of truths was not yet revealed. I dare say, not even fully explored. Sri Aurobindo was going to do it systematically.

The severe scientist of Yoga that he was, Sri Aurobindo was going to put each and every experience of his to repeated tests, till he could reproduce it in minutest detail, before he would accept the truth of anything. He always based himself on his own experiences, never on a blind adherence to traditions which he considered to be the greatest obstacle to truth. The spiritual realities he experienced were too concrete for him to deny whatever paradoxes they may present to the ordinary intelligence.

His systematic exploration led him to a method making it possible for others to follow. He however said (5 October 1935) that "the detail or method of the later stages of the Yoga which go into little known or untrodden regions, I have not

made public____" Anyway he called the method 'Integral Yoga,'

"and that means that it takes up the essence and many processes of the old Yogas—its newness is in its aim, standpoint and the totality of its method." His Yoga, he said, "aims at the integrality of the Divine in this world and not only beyond it and at a supramental realisation." Elsewhere, he elucidated the point saying that his Yoga was a Yoga of transformation of the being, not "a Yoga of the attainment of the inner Self or the Divine, though that attainment is its basis without which no transformation is possible." As we know, he put forth the view that "the spiritual past of the race has been a preparation of Nature not merely for attaining the Divine beyond the world, but also for the very step forward which the evolution of the earth-consciousness

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has still to make." He said that he was "putting forward a thing to be achieved that has not yet been achieved, not yet clearly visualised, even though it is one natural but still secret outcome of all the past spiritual endeavour." He was proposing a spiritual evolutionary process—aeons compressed into decades.

Sri Aurobindo did not expect much from the materialist: "From materialism least of all, however philanthropic or patriotic, can our future salvation be expected." He was also rather wary of the cogent reason of the rationalist. "Cleverness has replaced wisdom and men are more concerned to be original in minutiae than to secure their hold upon large and permanent truths." But he was quick to point out that rationalism was necessary to balance the error of the ascetics "who would make of God's world a mistake and of its Maker an Almighty blunderer or an inscrutable eccentric or an indefinable Something inhabiting a chaos or a mirage." Because most of the mystical ascetics in order "to honour the Maker, slight and denounce His works." But Sri Aurobindo was not satisfied with seeking only the essentiality of Brahman, his seeking included Brahman's manifestation. So he was to put aside these various partial truths and pass onward.

Pass onward to discover the unchanging, undying Truth. He was going to give that Truth "new forms and beauty, grandeur, truth and effectiveness." He was to place the eternal Truth— the Veda—in its native light before humanity. "I believe that Veda to be the foundation of the Sanatan Dharma;¹ I believe it to be the concealed divinity within Hinduism,—but a veil has to be drawn aside, a curtain has to be lifted. I believe it to be

¹ The Eternal Dharma or Law of Truth.

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knowable and discoverable. I believe the future of India and the world to depend on its discovery and on its application, not to the renunciation of life, but to life in the world and among men."

Mind you, Sri Aurobindo's Yoga was not going to be solely a supracosmic achievement for the sake of the individual, for an individual achievement of divine realization, "but something to be gained for the earth-consciousness here."

And yes, "the future of India and the world," nay the very existence of the Earth depended upon the work to be done by Sri Aurobindo. A prodigious task. A whole lot was at stake.

Following the Command Sri Aurobindo came to Pondicherry.

There his yogic experiences multiplied, intensified. He had left behind his novitiate days.

As we know, a Yogi has to learn to handle an intense and exceptional use of powers. Now, our universe is full of powers or forces. An apprentice Yogi has, first of all, to learn to distinguish between them, as some are beneficial while others are nasty. It is not so very easy to tell them apart because the nasties are very clever at assuming the mask of a saint or a moralist.¹ But the Highest Truth is neither saintly nor moralistic. It is the Greatest Good. The Yogi's next step is to learn the uses of the powers,

' Sri Aurobindo went so far as to say that there are Asuric forces that can imitate the calm of the Supermind. "Do you think," he asked a disciple bitingly, "that the Asura is a fool? Sometimes, Tapasya is his chief weapon____

Doing good to humanity is one of the favourite weapons of the Asura. Of course, he seeks to do it in his own way. The Asuric Maya can take up any garb: even the pursuit of an ideal or sacrifice for some principle!" {Evening Talks, 15 September 1925) Reminds us of the 'humanitarian bombs' on Kosovo, doesn't it?

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and finally their applications. It needs a long practice and deft handling. Sri Aurobindo repeatedly asserted that Yoga is a process quite scientific in its principle, that is, capable of being verified, provided one accepts its conditions—as a scientist accepts the conditions of the laboratory where he is experimenting.

Sri Aurobindo who was always methodical handled his Yogic methods quite scientifically. He did not form his methods out of the blue, but upon a knowledge developed and confirmed by regular experiment, practical analysis ... and constant result. "True knowledge cannot do without experience, as true science can't do without experiment," he said. True science is a continuous quest and exploration.

"One of the most fundamental requisites for the search of the Truth," Sri Aurobindo explained to his disciples in 1926, "is a critical reason, almost a cynical mind which tears off the mask and refuses to accept current ideas, thoughts and opinions. It is a kind of solvent. Man must have the courage to see the Truth as it is without any deception about it."

Even if other men did not have the courage, Sri Aurobindo had it. He had watched all ideals, principles and truths and had seen how far each ideal could be realized. But these did not satisfy him. It was the Highest Truth that he was seeking. "I seek a text and a Shastra" he said clearly, "that is not subject to interpolation, modification and replacement, that moth and white ant cannot destroy, that the earth cannot bury nor Time mutilate."

A fairy tale.

"Our Yoga is not a retreading of old walks, but a spiritual adventure."

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