Volume 2

1) Sri Aurobindo

Next Wednesday, the 15th,¹ is the anniversary of Sri Aurobindo's birth. Seventy-three summers of his life have now receded into a still vivid and recent past. The Ideal he stands for, the Truth he sees for himself and for us, the meaning of his life for man—these have been expounded by competent writers in magazine articles and separate volumes in English and many of the languages of India. The bulk of Sri Aurobindo's own writings towers, like their quality, high above the sum total of all the works of all the authors on his teachings. Nevertheless, an article on Sri Aurobindo for this occasion may not be superfluous; for do we not continue to read over and over again the same Gita or the same Saptashati? Do we keep down for good the Ramayana when we finish one reading? Or, do we not long to see oftener men and things we love or admire and adore? There are certain themes on which one can dwell long or any number of times, and still the pleasure is not exhausted, nor the benefit measured out. And Sri Aurobindo is a sublime theme.

For over thirty-five years—not a short period, considering the span of life ordinarily allotted to man—he has lived in seclusion in Pondicherry. People wonder and ask, are curious to know more about him, about incidents in his life than about what he lives for. Authors in many languages have written his biography. Some of them are more scholarly than others; some give more interesting details, while others are content with giving a chronological account drawing pointed attention to his political activity and literary productions. These are certainly useful and their value cannot be underrated—especially in the absence of a biography from the pen of Sri Aurobindo himself which remains a pious hope for the present. For even the best of the books on his life could not fill up the gaps especially in the earlier years or give an authentic account of his reactions to many notable incidents of his life in England or at Baroda. Notwithstanding the disadvantage, with the materials available, we can certainly form for ourselves a picture of the arresting magnificence that is characteristic of every facet of his personality; a clear distinctness attaches itself to every stage and walk of his life.

From the chronicles of his life so far published, we gather enough that throws light on the unique achievements of Sri Aurobindo in the field of thought and action, as a poet and patriot, thinker and linguist. But there is one remarkable fact which we can clearly see about him from the very beginning. His life gives the lie direct to the common belief that parentage and environment could largely account for the greatness and stature of the human personality. Were the surroundings in England favourable for a spark of patriotism in an Indian boy trained and kept under influences alien, if not opposed, to the soul, spirit and interest of India? Yet the feeling for his mother country was a fire in his breast even when he was fourteen. Was it ever his idea to become a man of power and wealth and influence and live what is called a respectable life? Why did he fail to appear for the Riding Test for the Indian Civil Service examination which he had passed in the open competition? Was it his own decision? Was he aware even then of India's call for his services? To hazard an answer to these questions is rather bold for any of us. But this can be stated with certainty. He was aware or had received intimations during his stay in England to the effect that he was out of the ordinary run of mankind, born with certain unusual capacities, and could achieve something of momentous importance to his country.

Quiet and reserved, he is not loud about the unusual experiences, dreams or visions or anything phenomenal that come upon and concern him most, but watches and awaits for their meanings to unfold themselves. He is superbly rational to the core and therefore does not dismiss them as nonsense in the fashionable manner of boastful scepticism. All throughout from his boyhood, there has been something in him—shall we say over him also—that guards and guides him from within or without towards the ultimate goal for which he has taken birth. On his return from England, his very first step on the Apollo Bunder is greeted with a vast Calm that descends on him and continues to surround him for many months. Later, when he is in danger of a carriage accident, a vision of the Godhead surges up within him, masters and controls the situation and wards off the harm. He walks on the ridge of a hill in Kashmir, suddenly the realisation of the Void Infinite forces itself upon him. Again on another occasion, on the banks of the Narmada, the living presence of Kali in the temple fills him with an amazing majesty. Long after, even when he meets the Maharashtrian Yogi for instruction, he carries out his word and empties his mind of all thoughts, stills the minutest ripple and discovers the silence of the mind in three days. Is this ordinary human effort or human success? It is the same Power that has throughout guided and guarded him that achieves the desired result—in the high altitudes he has seen and been that Power. Always it is the same guidance, the same Guardian Spirit, that does the miracle.

Whatever successes and realisations he has since had, they are the outflowering of the Spirit that he has been all along, even before he took to regular Yoga. Nor are they meant for his personal ends, for he has none whatsoever as such except the Ideal he embodies, the Truth he sees and lives for us. His sole aim is to actualise a sublime truth that represents God's intention in humanity. For though this earth is a world of matter and life, man is neither a vegetable nor an animal, he is a thinking being, a spirit, a person not yet full and complete, not an accomplished true image of his Maker, which he is intended to become. The ignorance, the many-sided imperfection and weakness of the human being have been just a stage, a necessary evil, and however universal and permanent they may seem, they are still temporary, bound to disappear and be displaced by the strength and luminous peace of a Higher Conciousness that has started to come down at this hour of the age, by a special Grace of intervention to help in the labour of Mother Earth. For it is her technique of tardy evolution at its top that man seizes, accelerates and represents in his consciousness aspiring towards the higher heights of the Spirit, making way for the Godhead to come down and fulfil His purpose.

The ignorance with its issues, sorrow and suffering and death, the workings of the dark forces the earth is riddled with, are local, temporary and insular in the oceanic being of the Eternal Sat-Chit-Ananda that is the Infinite Being. Therefore, the rise to a higher consciousness and change into a new and harmonious order of life for man are inevitable as day following dawn. This is not to say that Sri Aurobindo means that mankind will be changed into Divinity tomorrow. All that is meant is this: once there is an opening in the dam that prevents the flow of the waters of Life spiritual and divine, there is the inundation that is canalised fit to irrigate the arable fields of consciousness in human units. Once this takes place in a few centres, even in one being, the object is achieved, the rest is just a question of time.

"Is this possible? Are you quite sure?” one may ask. Sri Aurobindo's answer is the answer of Stephenson, “Solvitur ambulando” (your difficulty is solved, by its moving); for these were the words of Stephenson in reply to those who argued by strict scientific logic that his engine on rails could not and should not move. Therefore, whatever is achieved in this direction is an achievement for human progress; for without a spiritual basis, no real psychological change in man can take place; without a radical change in the human psychology, no amount of external order and law imposed by the State or any organised might can bring about the millennium. It is for men at the helm of affairs in different parts of the globe at least to recognise as a first step the necessity of a psychological change, and this will be helpful to clear the general atmosphere of atavistic forces that are the antithesis of whatever is spiritual, godward and progressive in human existence.

India, with all her weaknesses and medieval obscurantism still lingering in the name of Religion, is still best suited for this work of God to start with; for spiritually and culturally, she has had a glorious past which is still awake in her in some form, in some measure, keeping her heart yet sound. Is she not destined for a still more glorious future when she could with her recovered spirituality accept the Divine message of the hour and bring about a true change not only in the individual and collective lives of her sons but upon the rest of the world?

Political freedom is inevitable for India;² economic emancipation is sure to accompany or follow; as a consequence she is sure to grow strong. But what is the next step? What will a strong India do? Is she to repeat what all strong nations have done and are doing? No, she shall not—let us hope, will not. India, with a true and renewed spirituality, is an asset for mankind and the hope of the future.

2) Sadhana of the Supermind

It is not seldom that one is faced with questions raised by well-meaning people interested in Sri Aurobindo's teachings.

What is it that Sri Aurobindo's Yoga aims at? What is it that is new about it in its means or ends? If it is a fact that the highest Truth or God is One, then are there not various ways of finding Him? What is it that the Integral Yoga seeks to achieve which cannot be got at by any of the well-known lines of spiritual discipline handed down to us by saints and seers from times immemorial? Has not in our own age, in recent times, the prophet of Dakshineshwar lived and taught the sublime truth that all yogas and all forms of religious worship are but different roads leading to the same goal? How is it that so much stress is laid on the synthesis of diverse paths, of the various yogas while each of them has for its ultimate aim the realisation of the Higher Truth, the Self or the Divine Being? Is not a single path sufficient, when fully pursued, to lead to the ultimate Truth?

And then, there is the path of knowledge, leading to the Vedantic Truth of the Absolute Brahman. Have not hundreds of saints borne testimony to the Upanishadic statements of the Adwaitic Truth of Brahman, One-without-a-second, so ably restated and established in the system of Acharya Sankara? Have not the Alwars, devotee-saints, borne evidence in their lives to the rich realisations of the Godhead through devotion and surrender, that Sri Ramanuja in later times found and concluded to be the best and sole means of reaching the goal? Where in all the world can we find a life of unsurpassed love and devotion as revealed in the life of Lord Gouranga? As for control over the material body and its functionings and even for prolonging the human life to an abnormal period, the Rasa Siddhas, the Tantriks are adepts; and the Shaiva and Shakta Siddhas of South India are well-known for combining in their yogic disciplines knowledge and devotion and using the device of medicinal drugs as a temporary measure for the upkeep of the bodily machine until it becomes fit to realise the supreme purpose of life.

If these questions and others of the kind were to emanate from sheer curiosity in a scoffing spirit, an attempt to answer them would be futile and may be given up as irrelevant. But there are spiritual aspirants attracted to Sri Aurobindo's teachings with genuine interest in the Yoga, who may not lack in ardour, but have no leisure or equipment for a study and assimilation of his published works. Misconceptions or doubts may and do cross them in regard to the aims and means of the line of Yoga that Sri Aurobindo has adopted and admitted us to follow. We shall, therefore, present a few of the fundamentals of the teachings here in order that they may be of some help to the enquiring aspirant to resolve such of the questions and doubts as may come upon him bringing with them a certain force or semblance of conviction; for certain doubts are hard to dissolve as they are at every turn reinforced by environmental influences and nurtured by current and customary notions that afford them their bases.

Now, Sri Aurobindo, like the great teachers before him in India, is first a Yogin; next comes his philosophy giving an account of the ultimate truths envisaged by yogic vision. The metaphysical basis of his system is secure, because it is related at every turn to experiences of spiritual life, to truths that are verified and verifiable by yogic knowledge. His philosophy is not the outcome of speculative groping nor does he battle in the clouds for the sake of dialectics, though there is no dearth of dialectics in the bulky volumes of his prolific writings. Indeed, as long as reason is the highest instrument nearest to the human Spirit, one cannot minimise the theoretical value of metaphysical expositions of the truths that are aimed at for realisation through yogic disciplines.

We shall presently mention some of the basic principles that have direct bearing on the aims of this Yoga. Sri Aurobindo starts with the Vedantic position that Brahman, Sat-Chit-Ananda, is One-without-a-second. But his is an Adwaita that comprehends all worlds, all beings, all forms of existence as derivations, manifestations of the All-powerful, All-conscious Supreme Existence, Brahman. It is the One Absolute beyond and above the worlds. It is He again that is the All, the One that is the Many. Thus Brahman is the Infinite which is all-inclusive, manifests in its omnipotent infinitude any number of finite worlds and beings, their source, support, their very substance, yet remains the Inexhaustible above all manifestation, absolved of all relatives, all conditions. The Infinite is a positive existent Something full of and transcending all qualities and creations, and not a negative Nothing from which or against which creation has sprung into existence. Thus Brahman is at once the Absolute beyond, the Universal everywhere, the Individual within. He is at once the Personal and the Impersonal, sakala and nishkala.

That creation has proceeded from above downwards, urdhvamulam, culminating in the Earth is an ancient truth. There are in the downward course of manifestation many creations, formations of various grades of Being, of different states of Consciousness with their corresponding fields of activity, called planes of which ours is the last, the Earth-plane. The Earth-Being has within it involved all the Higher powers of the Divine Being, the powers of the intermediary planes i.e., the principles and graded powers of Consciousness through which Creation has proceeded downwards from the original creative—what we call the Supramental—plane to our own. It has been the labour and problem of Earth, ever since her formation as a definite unit began, to evolve the higher powers involved in her and to develop more and more into something nearer and nearer the creative Godhead. This evolutionary urge in the earth-consciousness may be called in human terms a kind of aspiration calling upon the Godhead's higher powers to get down into her so that she may, by the downward instilling of the higher principles with their increasingly powerful and conscious forces in response to her call, be able to release and manifest her potentialities through the units of her differentiated being. Thus, there is a double movement in the creative process by which higher principles of cosmic existence get down to the lowest plane, the material world—an evolutionary urge from the earth-consiousness below, and a responding involutionary higher Force of Consciousness from above.

The first distinct step in the earth's evolution is the development of life in Matter as a result of the descent of Life into the world of Matter from the Life-world which is the one above next to the Earth. The next stage is the descent of the Mind into the living Matter, enabling the living Matter to evolve mind and establish it as an organ and part of an organised unit in the earth-life and earth-consciousness. In man, the offspring of Manu, the Divine Thinker, she has developed the evolved and established the principle of Mind to a very high degree with all its powers seeking to outreach itself and to meet and bring down into it what is still above it. It is obvious that the course of evolution in the earth's nature has not completed its round and mind is not its last term, its destination. The evolutionary urge cannot rest satisfied until it meets through the Call the divine creative principle of Super-mind and gets it established in the Earth through her developed human units. Also, the creative principle took the form of an involutionary response reaching down to the world of Matter, answering to its needs for the release of its potentials, of the higher principles involved in it, of the latent forces preparing and waiting for the organisation of the higher powers and consciousness of the supramental principle, the next step—a crucial, inevitable step—ordained in the onward march of this Evolution.

The above succinct account will suffice to show that Sri Aurobindo obviously holds that when the Supermind gets down into the earth-consciousness, it gets organised in the highly evolved human unit which is the most developed mental being on earth. Such a supramental being on earth does not discard the lower principle of Mind embodied in living Matter, even as in the past stages of evolution the newly evolved Mind did not throw away life and body, in which it made its appearance, but tried to use them, however imperfectly it may have done it, and to translate their functionings and movements into its own terms. The spiritual being of the supramental type will similarly use the mind, life and body, not imperfectly or in ignorance as the mind has done, but in a masterly way which is the way of the Divine Creator presiding over this cosmic manifestation of which our own world is the lowest rung.

Therefore, the evolution of Supermind in man is, strictly speaking, a devolution of the Divine principle of the original creative Supermind. It means an organised supramental consciousness here which takes a spiritual, supramental divine view of the individual and the existence around, and in its own supreme way, the way of the Truth-Force and Truth-Consciousness, orders and harmonises the functionings of the lower instruments, of mind, life and body and transforms their very substance and reorganises them for the indispensable adjustment needed for the fulfilment of the Divine purpose in human life on earth.

Now this is the aim of Sri Aurobindo's Yoga; it is an aim which is inescapable for any evolutionary being on earth. It is an aim in which is implicit the displacement of the human ego by the Divine Individual and the corresponding conversion of consciousness with its supreme Force establishing divine elements of the supramental creative world in the human being, in those human parts and instruments which are their disfigured and perverted earthly counterparts. It therefore means a divine perfection of man in all the parts of his being which is the immediate next fruit of the evolutionary labour. It is then the present imperfect creation with its perverse formations made into a perfect Divine creation which it is intended to become, but which it has not been as yet, because of the very conditions of the evolutionary process worked out in Time.

We have stated that every decisive step in the upward march of evolution is effected by means of a double movement. Double movement of what? Effected by whom? It is the Divine Being who presides over this creation, this evolutionary manifestation, who by an intervening Grace, whenever a crucial step is to be taken, helps the lower creation to move more and more towards the Lights of the higher grades of existence, emerging as it does from the inert and dark and half-lit rungs of the evolutionary ladder. It is the Grace that responds to the Call from below; the evolutionary urge is the Aspiration that leads the movement of Ascent. It is the devolutionary response of the Divine Grace that intervenes that is the movement of Descent. Thus the original creative Force of the Divine Being takes on the double movement of the Yoga Force of which really the First and Final Sadhaka is the Divine Lord himself.

Surely, the Earth does not receive the Supermind into her body of inert matter, nor into her life in the vegetable kingdom, nor into her crude mind in the lower or higher animal, man. She receives it in her best developed part, in the most highly evolved element which is the aspiring Soul in humankind. Here too, it is not all the units of the kind that are at first ready and fit to receive and hold the higher spiritual principle of Supermind in its descent into the evolutionary earth-nature. The choice therefore falls upon that human unit who is most ready and born for it, in whom the fire of Aspiration flames up from Earth to Heaven solely for the Divine Descent to the exclusion of everything else, and who therefore lays bare absolutely open without reserve all the parts of his being surrendered to the Will and Power of the descending Supermind, that it may get itself established as the ruling divine principle of human life on earth. From such a one flow, like light from the sun, the Influence, the Light and Power of the established Supermind transmitted to those who in the heights of their being are prepared or born competent to receive them. Well has it been said that the dawn breaks upon the peaks when the valleys are still dark in the night and it is they that receive the last rays of the setting sun.

From what has been stated it would be clear that in this great endeavour that Sri Aurobindo has taken upon himself to pursue, it is the quality of the achievement that matters first, and the extension of it, the quantity, naturally follows it in course.

Now that we have stated the aims and means of this Yoga, it would be better to leave the careful reader to judge if in the light of the position taken up in this Yoga, the doubts mentioned earlier in the beginning are not dissolved and set at rest. We may well ask if an attempt of this kind has ever been made at all in the past history of the human race; it is doubtful even if such a conception was harboured by any group of humanity in any age. It is true that an attempt at human perfection was made by the Tantric Siddhas with their synthetic view of human life, but it was done with the object of personal self-fulfilment—even the perfect control of the material body was aimed at to subserve that end. This Yoga we call new at least for one reason. We have to distinguish it from other disciplines and aims of Yoga some of which, though not always in their details and forms, but surely in spirit and result, enter into the framework of the Supramental Sadhana. For, when it is taught here that the Supreme Peace is absolutely essential without which nothing stable can be achieved, a simple mind can easily leap forward exclaiming, “This is not new, this is in the Vedanta, it is the Nirvana that the Buddha taught; it is after all the Peace of the Absolute that Shankara preached. " If it is instructed here that surrender is a fundamental principle of the Sadhana, someone immediately jumps up to say, “This is not new, Sri Krishna taught it. The great Ramanuja has written so much upon it.”

In the same way every element that enters into the Sadhana here can be taken up for discussion to prove, as if to please oneself, that it is not new. But one must remember that the greatness and importance of this yogic discipline does not lie in its newness. But what if out of the previously existing materials a new construction is put up? What then is new on earth if it is not in its formation and purposefulness?

This is the supramental Yoga—supramental because it is a Yoga of the Supermind for earth worked out by the Supramental Divine. It is sometimes called the Integral Yoga because an integral, not a partial, realisation by the human being in all his parts is the spontaneous outcome of the Supramental founding itself in human life. It is, in its results as well as its workings, synthetic in character, applies itself to the human synthesis, and so in this sense may be called a Synthetic Yoga. Lastly and immediate to us, it is the Yoga of Sri Aurobindo, because he is the seer of this Truth, the path-finder of this Sadhana, opening out the divine possibilities of human life here, unveiling the evolutionary necessity of the human being for transformation into the terms of a Spiritual and Divine manifestation in terrestrial existence.

"He rises to the good with Titan wings
     And this the reason of his high unease,
     Because he came from the infinities
To build immortally with mortal things;

"The body with increasing soul to fill
     Extend Heaven's claim upon the toiling earth
     And climb from death to a diviner birth
Grasped and supported by immortal Will."

Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems: In the Moonlight

3) The Divine Mother and the Human Personality

The bulk of Sri Aurobindo's writings is large; the books and articles on his teachings written by competent hands are many. From these the salient features of the system of thought as related to the line of Yoga followed here would be clear to the careful student, to the genuine mind having a practical interest in the teachings, to the aspirant already marching along the path. Broadly, the aim is known—the spiritual evolution, the supramental transformation of the human being in terms of the Divine; the means are known—the aspiring human soul ascending to meet the Divine Grace and accepting and allowing it the passage for establishing in terrestrial existence all that it carries with it; the One who gives the Yoga is known—the supramental Divine, the Guru who guides the Sadhana in order that He may manifestly found His habitation of the earth-plane, in the human Spirit.

But, still, questions arise; what is the position of the Shakti, the Divine Mother, in regard to the Lord, Ishwara, who presides over this creation, this evolutionary existence? What precisely is Her place in the Sadhana which progresses in the measure of the surrender effected in the human Sadhak? To whom is the surrender to be made? To Ishwara or to Ishwari? What is the place of the personality of the human being that makes the surrender and what its destiny?

Let us make clear to ourselves what we mean by Shakti or the Divine Mother in the light of Sri Aurobindo's teachings.

The Supreme Truth, Param Satyam, is One, Absolute, Self-Existence, Self-Consciousness, Self-Delight. It is not merely It, the Unmanifest; it is He, the Purusha, the Lord Ishwara and not He alone, is also She, the Shakti, Ishwari. Both the Lord and the Shakti are the same Supreme Truth, but form a biune presentation of the Divine Being in the urge for self-manifestation. In His Omnipotence with His eye turned towards Creation, He sees and finds His Manifestation in Her; whatever is manifested is His self-expression in Her; therefore to Him All is She. She, the Ishwari on Her side, holds in Her immensity the Creative Spirit, the Lord in His expressive poise and in Her All-Conscious Power, She is filled with His Being; therefore to Her All is He. Thus is there a mutuality in their relation which recognises their absolute identity in the Supreme, while in the Creation and for it One is the complement to the Other. She holds and manifests Something of Him. With a stress on His expressive ray His gaze is held in Her and All to Him is His own manifestation worked out by Her; She manifests, He is manifested. Without Her there is no manifestation, without Him She has no existence. If to Him All is She, if to Her All is He, to the awakened human soul He is She and She is He.

Immediate to the Lord above, She is in immediate charge of all creation, all manifestation here, and therefore of the Sadhana in which the Yoga Force of the Supreme comes down with the transforming power and light for the new birth which is the birth of the Divine in the human being. With the sanction of the Supreme Lord when She takes the downward course for a plunge into this triple world of Matter, Life and Mind for the uplift and change and higher spiritual evolution of man, it is She who leads the movement and the Lord follows Her in the various stages and steps She decides upon and takes for the purpose,—for the establishment of an active divine principle, what we call the supramental life in terrestrial existence.

It is a mistaken notion to entertain that the Lord is passive and static and the Shakti alone is active. There is indeed an aspect of absolute Calm, the ineffable Silence; but that is at the back of the Creation, more truly, above it, and that is the supreme station, paramdhama, the native Home of the Shakti and not only, of Her Lord. For there is the supreme Consciousness, reservoir of all knowledge and wisdom, strength and force. From there both Shakti and Shakta act and move towards the Manifestation, cause and create cosmos out of chaos, work out the Cosmic problem, share the toil and the fruits of the labour, though the Mother leads and He follows. To both of them, then, it is essential that the surrender is made; because it means the unreserved offering to Her and to Him through Her the entire ādhāra, the vessel of the human system in order that She may, unobstructed by human reserves, prepare, purify, empty, refill it with the Divine substance, and so set it that the Supramental may become the ruling principle of our life on earth.

This is how the Mother stands in relation to the Lord on one side and on the other to this creation of which we are a part. She is the Para Shakti with all Her supremacy spoken of in the Tantra; He is the Parama Purusha with all his aspects and above them, seen and affirmed by the seers of the earlier Vedanta. The essentials, the positive sides of the Vedanta as well as of the Tantra find their rightful place in Sri Aurobindo's system which is on that account not eclectic, but is just an intellectual presentation of connected ultimate truths and facts of spiritual vision and experience.

Now that we have briefly stated the position of the Divine Shakti in regard to the Lord and seen how it is that it is the hand of the Mother that is at work at every step in the Sadhana of the Supramental Yoga, we shall turn to the question of the human personality, and see what it is intended to become as the Mother's Sadhana progresses in the Sadhak. Personality is an expression of the Soul-force, output of the soul in Nature; the soul is a spark of the Divine in this evolutionary existence developing in birth after birth a new personality, gaining in experience, widening in scope, enlarging its power of receiving and returning that it may grow more and more in likeness to the Effulgent Spirit from which it has come down here with a set purpose. When, at the end of each birth, the vesture is shed and the outer shred of personality is resolved into its elements in the cosmos, the soul retains in its subtler being the essence of the personality developed during life. The soul progresses in this way from birth to birth, growing in capacity for right response to the Universe, for right adaptation to the environing conditions, for right relation to the All and the Divine. In the course of its evolution through rebirth it is meant to develop its expressive force of personality to such a degree that it can live and act as a true reflection, a closer representative, a real portion, and still more, a living centre of the Glory that is the Divine.

For such a consummation there must be achieved in the soul a fuller entry and some clear manifestation of the four cosmic Powers—Wisdom, Strength, Harmony, Work—which are the principles forming the bases of the four types of personality in the human kind. The wisdom of ancient India saw these four powers of the creative Godhead manifest in four types of human beings, and called them the Brahmana, the Kshatriya, the Vaishya and the Shudra typifying ‘knowledge and wisdom, strength and will to enforce what is seen in the wisdom, production and adaptability and interchange and mutuality, application of skill to the things of life and service and sacrifice.' The spiritual and psychological truth of these types later on ceased to dominate, and more and more stress was laid on the shell and not the kernel, till at last the four orders became hereditary and fixed by birth and outward form. If we pause and look dispassionately, we will find that this principle of the four types is not far from the psychological truth of our nature. Though each type may be dominated by its characteristic qualities, it is not so exclusively cut out as not to include others in it in some measure. In fact no type can be perfect even in its own field if it does not take in something of the others as well. We can see this in life even as it is; for our life is ‘at once a seeking of truth and knowledge, a struggle and fight for will with ourselves and the forces around, a constant production and adaptation, application of skill to works and service and sacrifice.’ What are these if not rudiments, however imperfect and crude and insignificant they may be, of a perfected personality that is yet to be? Do they not in this world of ignorant and half-lit human life correspond to those cosmic verities of the Godhead who has sown these seeds of personality to be perfected on earth through the evolutionary labour accepting more and more of the energies and qualities and forces of the cosmic Powers of the Spirit above?

But how is this accomplished—this perfection of the human personality in which all the four types become living parts adjusted in proper proportions? Here, no one however great, can achieve even a modicum of perfection without the aid of the higher Powers, the powers of the Divine Mother. It is here that She is to come and comes to do the work with Her four outstanding Powers answering to the four typical needs of the human soul moving towards perfection. A conscious, willing, unreserved surrender is the one essential condition for the unobstructed working of these Powers of the Mother. We may note in passing that surrender is not sacrifice, not immolation; it is offering—an offering in which the entire being is exposed to the light of the Mother, gets stripped of all that is egoistic and dark and undivine, purified and transformed into the mould in which a divine perfection of the human personality becomes possible. We must also avoid the misconception of these Powers of the Mother as indistinct or interchangeable forces of the universe. They are embodied Beings, conscious portions of the Divine Mother with the cosmic field for their activities. Her Personalities with their individual characteristics which are revealed to us in the words of Sri Aurobindo on. The Mother. These are the four great Names—Maheshwari, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi, Mahasaraswati—and they bestow on those who are open to them their respective riches of knowledge and wisdom, strength and will, beauty and harmony, and perfection. They confer their blessings on those who are ready to come out of their narrow grooves for the breath of a freer and vaster existence, to rise to the heights above the low-lying tracts of week-kneed spirit and faltering will, to disentangle themselves from the web of ugly notions and confused ideas and beliefs and petty strifes, and discords, to shake off inertia and self-sufficiency and indolence.

This is the way the human personality is perfected and transformed for the ultimate purpose; this is the way that surrender to the Supramental Divine as well as to the Divine Mother proves essential and effective; this, then, is the way that the Mother guides the Sadhana by letting drop some ray of Her manifold Personality for the execution, in all its varied aspects, of the Great Work.

Here we close. We bow in adoration to Her whose seat and symbol is the White Lotus, shvetapadmasana, to Her whose splendour is robed in the White Light that has the semblance of autumn's moon, ghananta-vilasat-shitamshu-tulyaprabha, to Her whose infinite patience with us and persistent endeavour vouchsafe to us the vision of the coming Dawn and Horizons of Hope. In adoration to Her who is of the Four the youngest, the nearest to the Earth and therefore, if we will, closest to us, we kneel down—to Mahasaraswati.

4) Sri Aurobindo’s System: A Brief Survey

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In our land, on a holy day once a year, we bow to the Sun, burn incense and place a lamp as part of the religious rite. That is worship and no one thinks of it as an attempt to make clearer to our vision the effulgent solar splendour which is the source of all light. We bow to the luminous teachings of Sri Aurobindo, concentrate on the main theme of his expositions, find our expressions of it as an offering, this too is part of our worship and not the impossible attempt—that will be grotesque enough—to make clearer the clearest, what is stated in unequivocal terms, and still more, what is authentic and source and support of all our lights on subject.

Let us, then, focus our attention on the Yoga and the philosophic principles underlying it and put in a nutshell the result of our attempt. To do this is to take a bird's-eye view of al] the connected questions that matter for the purpose, find their right place in the scheme and thus to appreciate their value for the seekings of the human heart, for the higher teachings of the human mind, for the age-long journeyings of the human soul. Presently we shall proceed with the question of questions, the aim of aims—a question in which all questions converge, an aim in which merge all our aims.

What, then, is the aim towards which we move and what is the main question that is taken up, discussed and answered in this teaching? What is the canon by reference to which the system propounded here can be accepted as valid? Then, what are the features that distinguish it from others? What, again, are the means of realising this end and what is it that makes for competency to undertake this endeavour?

In this system, we accept the material basis of our actual being as a truth, though only a primary and lesser truth of existence; for there are greater as well as lesser truths corresponding to the greater and lesser grades in the ordered movement of the Cosmic manifestation. We recognise the estimable methods of modern Science in the field of Matter and value the knowledge it has brought us. Though we can thus fix the just claims and values of Physical Science, we find its legitimate bounds transgressed when a philosophy is founded upon its conclusions holding that Matter is the sole existence. Again it is nothing short of an aggressive ignorance to base psychology upon physiology and the scrutiny of the brain and the nervous system. It is a grievous error to attempt a study of the Soul and the Mind with the idea that the Ultimate truth of existence is Matter and all phenomena of the subtler and inner existence can be explained by means of data and material available in the world of Matter and external objects. It is unfortunate if modern Science and Philosophy based upon its conclusions persist in an ignorance which refuses to examine what we may call supraphysical truths and denies what it refuses to see.

Nevertheless, we can benefit by the very rigorous method of Science, as Sri Aurobindo puts it, and adhere to it, though not to its physical instrumentation, scrutinising, experimenting, holding nothing as established which cannot be scrupulously and universally verified, and can arrive at supra-physical certitudes. For scientific reasoning has laid out lines of investigation with intellectual courage and rectitude from which it was bound to escape by the widening of the very frame of knowledge it has itself constructed.

Let us then state at the outset what we consider to be the value of a philosophical system and the criterion by which we can test the validity of its conclusion. For it is the philosophy and practice of a divine life for man that is the theme of the teachings of Sri Aurobindo, and philosophy with him, as with the great teachers of ancient India, is an attempt by the reason at an intellectual translation of ultimate truths that are arrived at by a deeper and higher consciousness of man. But a speculative philosophy as a system of thought has little use for us if it is just a metaphysical structure built by the mind in its attempt to arrive at the basic principles of existence. If it does not correspond to facts knowable or known to us, if its concepts cannot be verified by us as facts of experience, then the best of systems is just ‘a flower of reason,’ if not a cobweb of mental constructions in the world of ideas that are divorced from facts and are not valid for acceptance as truths that can be lived. It is for this reason that we attach great importance to those philosophies which are founded upon truths lived—as most of the Indian systems are—and verifiable by those who are competent to take the necessary steps for the task. Also, for this reason we attach less importance to those systems—as are generally the Western systems—which though they may appeal to reason, and in a way satisfy it in the realm of ideas, may have no correspondences in the world of facts, or even those that are based upon some kind of institutional knowledge, if they are ineffective for realisation in life, for assimilation into the body of Truth-knowledge that can be lived.

Sri Aurobindo's philosophy is one that faces the problem of the human being in its relation to the Cosmic existence and to that which transcends it and is the source of both. It is a system that offers solutions capable of verification by some means, by some faculty, which is inherent in man, which may not be active or well-developed in all, but which can be awakened in those who are under the necessity of outreaching themselves, of going beyond what they are at present in their thought and feeling and actual existence. The solution offered is practical and therefore valid; that is because the philosophy itself is not a result of speculative groping against a background of certain hypotheses, but is systematised out of material and data available to a higher consciousness, to a larger vision of truth, to a deeper experience of the fundamental Truth of existence. Poet and patriot, Sri Aurobindo was never before a philosopher, nor did he try to become one. But when, as a result of certain lines of Yoga he investigated and followed in practice, a higher consciousness dawned on him and larger vistas of true Knowledge opened, the scholar found it easy to build a system of thought corresponding to the truth-visions which at the same time corroborated the spiritual wisdom of all ages and countries, though it was well-ordered and systematised in ancient India.

In this teaching, then, we start with the affirmation of the ancient truth that all creation is a manifestation of Something that is eternal, infinite, the One that is expressed in the triple formula of Sat-Chit-Ananda—Existence which is at once Consciousness and Delight. Indivisible, it becomes, by the inherent Force of the Consciousness, graded in its being in the process of the manifestation, conditioned in the states of Consciousness, divided and covert in varying degrees of the Bliss that is inalienable from the essential unity of Existence. Again, we accept and recognise the truth that all manifestation, whatever its volume or quality, put together does not exhaust the Infinite, the One and the Eternal; outside of It there is nothing existent or conceivable, but within It all manifestation takes place, bringing into bold relief the infinitude of the Infinite, the immensity of the Vast, the opulence and plenitude and sameness of One that is Many.

We start with the position that this creation of which we are a part, is imperfect, progressive, not yet what it is intended to become; for this manifestation is not a chance appearance in the form of the universe, somehow come out of the Supreme Conscious Existence or against it, but it is a creation that has meaning, a willed movement with a purpose, a process working for a perfection in which the Infinite discovers itself under the conditions of the finite. Here on earth man also with all his imperfections is progressive, his appearance has a meaning, it is purposive. If to our understanding there is anywhere retrogression, it is not the rule, but the exception; or, even then it has a set purpose, an aim at a rapid progress with a redoubled force of endeavour. The urge for progress is universal in character; it is difficult, if not impossible, for man to refuse to undergo the drive of a cosmic impulsion to move onward and grow into something higher than what he is at present.

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To understand the nature of the goal towards which the journey of the human being is directed, it is necessary to bear in mind the principle underlying the process of creation—a principle upon which hinges all the other principles of human progress towards a higher, freer and larger existence. This creation is not a sudden jump from Brahman, Sachchidananda, but a graded manifestation of it by the working out of a dynamic principle, by a Force in the Supreme Consciousness, by an incalculable Power of the Supreme Spirit which we may call the Creative urge native to the Omnipotent Self-Being. Thus there are many steps in the order of creation, proceeding from the higher realms of the Absolute, of the Supra-cosmic Divine Existence through various stages to the comparatively lower regions of the world of Mind, Life and Matter. Here on earth where Matter is the predominant principle and seems to be the sole existence, and where life appears in matter, it looks as if life were an exception to the general rule of inanimate existence; and where mind appears in living matter, there too it is an equally good exception, for it seems to share the fate of life that disappears as a bubble in the oceanic immensity of Matter.

But man is not a mere mind in living matter, but a spirit, a soul encased in mind, with a life and body for whatever use he chooses to make of them during his appearance on earth.

Is he free to choose? Where is freedom of choice to make? Is not this free choice a chimera, in the face of obvious facts that stare at us at every turn pointing to the laws that determine our physical existence, our life-movements and our very mental activities? True, there is no real freedom when you are just a living matter and your mind and its movements are absorbed in the world of material and external life. But beyond the mind and supporting it from above as well as from behind there is the Spirit which is not bound to the laws of these lower forms of existence, which is really free, to which you belong, which indeed you are at the core of your being, at the summit of your existence. The Spirit is eternally free, its Will is free, in fact there is One Free-Will which has created conditions of manifestation to which all creatures are subject. So then, lower down in the physical, vital and mental grades of the individual or Cosmic scale of existence—for the individual is part and product of the Universal being—everything is conditioned, obeys the laws that are determined; but higher and higher this determinism loosens and loses its rigidity gradually merges into the Free-Will of the Spirit. It is certainly true that man has no real free-will here, but still he is impelled by a sense of freedom to choose at every step. This sense of free-will is really a reflection, a representation of the Spirit's Free-Will high on, that has determined the conditions here under which man has to work out his possibilities and grow from a life of Necessity to a supreme Liberty of the Spirit. Free-Will here may be a delusion, but not the actual sense of it; for it is this sense of freedom to do or not to do a thing, to make a choice one way or the other that is the fulcrum, the device by which Nature helps the human being to progress towards the destined goal. In other words, even when there is no real free-will here, the practical sense of freedom forms part of the very determinism to which man is subject and this leaves a field of choice, scope for progress, which means that he is impelled to move towards a higher level, more and more towards that status of the Supreme Spirit in whose Free-Will and fullness of Knowledge the purpose of conditioned existence in the manifestation is justified and fulfilled.

Therefore we can choose our line of progress in the spiritual life, fix our aim, find the means and follow the path we have adopted; for there is not a single line of spiritual life, there are many ways of progressing towards the Ideal. The Ultimate Truth is many-faceted, global, presenting many aspects and varied in the expression of its potentialities of Consciousness and Force and Delight, Knowledge and Will and Joy of Self-Existence. If you look at the world as an evil that has somehow come to be or that has been persistently recurring across eternity or as some appearance that has no substance but name and form, or as an illusion brought about by an inexplicable distorting influence at work in the observing consciousness, then, the best and certainly the right way is to shun it and turn away from it in thought and action and seek refuge in the Truth beyond or, to discover It in yourself when that is possible, but always to take care to be more and more exclusively absorbed in it and not to fall into the snare of the world-evil, or the world-illusion.

But if you accept that this creation is a manifestation of the Divine Being, that it is not an evil in itself but has a meaning and that it unfolds itself to the human consciousness as man in his upward march develops the capacity to look at it as it is and not as it appears to his surface intelligence, then, there is a way to overcome what is now evil in the world and accept it and realise the Divine in it, in you and in others and thereby fulfil the supreme purpose of life and not renounce it as an illusion, a snare or an unnameable evil in itself.

Accepting this position as we do, we realise that what we call usually as ourselves is a composite of material elements constituting the physical body which is a portion and product of the physical universe, with life and its activities as well as mind moving round the ego-centric individual existence. Just as the gross body derives its existence from the physical universe, so also individual life in the body belongs to the world of Life and is a canalised unit flowing from it; the same is true of the individual mind also as that is but a portion of the universal Mind. If, then, we look at our bodily existence along with the activities of life and mind in this larger manner it will be easy to find that we wrongly identify ourselves with what are not ourselves but what really are part and parcel of universal Matter, universal Life and universal Mind. This wrong feeling and thought and outlook and the activities based upon them are due to the formation of ego which has been a necessary evil in the course of evolution of the individual spirit; and this can either be dissolved as all formations in the Ignorance are, or can be purified, transformed, sublimated to the Spirit, to the true Individual; for real individuality does not require the perpetual presence of the ego which really deforms the true expressions of the Individual. In fact, individuality is a facet of the Universal Being and as such the individual who has outgrown the necessity of ego for formation and expression of his true individuality universalises himself even on the lower levels, realises his mind to be one with the Universal Mind, his life to be one with the Universal Life, even his body to be a concentrated expression of the physical essence in the universe of Matter. This is perfectly possible when, in the place of the ego-centric and amorphous formation of the individual soul, the Divine Individual has manifestly founded His lodging and habitation with all the glory inherent in His Knowledge and Light, radiating rays of Strength and rapturous joy of life and Self-delight in individual existence.

This then is the justification of surrender, that you are offering to the Divine what really belongs to Him and you do this not by renouncing what does not belong to you, but by renouncing the ego,—that by which you claim what was not, cannot be yours. All that you renounce is ignorance and the ego and with it all the assets of egoistic clingings, petty desires, wrong and darkened movements of life, distorted vision of mind and narrow outlook. What you gain in return is the Divine in the place of the ego, a divine Strength and Will for the expression and harmonisation of the Universal forces at the disposal of the Divine Individual, a Divine Consciousness and Knowledge that comprehends the Cosmos as a manifestation of your own Supreme Substance, as an embodiment of your own Ultimate Truth and sees and realises that other beings are your own other selves, and that what you call yourself on the surface is one centre, one face, one aspect, one presentation of your own Supreme Being in His manifestation of the Inexhaustible Eternal Presence.

And when you are no longer the little egoistic being with its bounded existence, but taken up, transmuted into your Divine being, it is then that the Divine Individual in you takes charge of the entire being and its activities; what were once your personal movements and dealings in the world-existence assume a cosmic character and it is the Gods, the cosmic Powers, who bring about that change and directly without hindrance enter upon their functionings unobstructed by the forces of Ignorance and thus serve the Divine in you.

Now it will be clear that whatever path one may follow to realise the spiritual Ideal of one's conception, to achieve the end as we have envisaged it here, the direct means does not lie in the human hand, since the problem with us assumes a character quite different from the usual way in which man turns towards God and lives a godly life. Since it is the Divine in His omnipotence that has created this world and along with it what we called our problem, it is for the Divine to give us the solution too. Certainly He gives us the means, works out our salvation, that is to say, liberates us from the prison-house of a narrow existence in the Ignorance and carries us safe across the Darkness to the sunlit realm of the Supreme Truth in all its magnificance. Thus He may fill our being with His Light, with His Knowledge, with His Power, with His Delight of Being and all this for the fulfilment of a Cosmic Purpose to which our own freedom and winning back our right in the Truth-Consciousness is incidental, nay, inevitable. He can take up any part in us that is more developed than the rest, or take up some or all at once and show us the way in His own way and not necessarily in the way we choose. But whatever the means be that the Divine uses to build the inner life, to initiate the human being into the mysteries of the Cosmic manifestation, to unfold the Great Plan and the Supreme Purpose, there is ordinarily a preliminary condition to be present on the human side. That is usually a readiness to give up the human for the Divine, which appears as a flaming force of aspiration for the Most High, or a firm will to unite with the Divine Will and the Divine Consciousness, or a life devoted exclusively to the Divine in a spirit of surrender. Through the instrumentation of any or some or all of these at once, though that is rare, the Divine assumes direct control of the Sadhana for the achievement of His purpose in human existence.

5) Jivanmukta and the Superman

[Reply to a letter.]

It is necessary, at the outset, to state in precise terms what we mean by Jivanmukta or the supramental man. For when we grasp the fundamentals of the two ideals, the difference between them will not be difficult to see; also, there will be no room for underestimate of the one or overstatement of the other.

A statement is made in the letter that a being “akin to an animal can by dint of its own exertions obtain the mind of man and move about in the world like a human being. Similar is the case of a man becoming a Jivanmukta”. “In Superman the race is evolved into a higher species to receive the supramental light and lead a Divine life...By the descent of the Supermind an urge is created to form a higher species....”

The analogy in regard to Jivanmukta is not apt. Neither can an animal akin to man get endowed with a human mind, nor can a man akin to an animal by his personal effort become a Jivanmukta. Again, it is necessary to be cautious in using certain expressions of Sri Aurobindo in regard to the supramental man. When we speak of the supramental type, greater caution is necessary for a true grasp of the basic principles of the Yoga that Sri Aurobindo adopts for the realisation of the Truth of the Superman as envisaged by him. And it is absolutely essential to note that the terms he uses have special significances and their connotations could be easily missed by any one who is not familiar with the fundamentals of his teachings. Superman, Supermind, Descent, Divine life, Transformation, even the word Aspiration, each one of these—and many more are there—has a definite meaning and does not convey the same sense as is intended in common parlance or by others following a different teaching.

Let us first state how Jivanmukti is not a simple and easy matter or an attainment that can be won by personal exertion alone. Nor is it possible for any one who is not sufficiently developed to make his approach to this endeavour. We shall look at the question of Jivanmukti in its practical aspect, and leave aside the various points of view from which it is looked at by the dialectical Vedantin. For there are certain schools of Vedantic thought which do not admit of the fact that Mukti is possible at all for man while on earth, though Truth-consciousness of a sort, they admit, is possible for one to arrive at in the embodied existence on earth. We shall, therefore, avoid these and other controversial views and look at this state as described in the authentic utterances of saints and seers which are supported by the Scriptures such as the Upanishads or the Gita. We shall proceed on the basis that Jivanmukti is the state of one's liberation from the bonds of ignorance while breathing on earth. We recognise the fact that it is the supreme possible condition of the embodied soul in which wisdom reigns and dispels doubts, and action is no bondage. It is a state of consciousness liberated from Nature's control in which the soul sees all existence as the One in which it is centred and realises its own identity with it. The Gita's description of the state of Brahmic consciousness and of the life of one who has attained it, in the II chapter and elsewhere, notably in the V chapter, gives us a clear idea of what it means by liberation. When it uses the term Sada Mukta, always liberated, and couples it with its reference to Samadhi as an effortless normal state of consciousness of the true sage, the fact is affirmed beyond doubt that the Brahmic realisation and Jivanmukti are not two different things. We may add that ‘realisation’ refers to the spiritual and psychological being of man while ‘Jivanmukti’ points to the living embodiment of the same. Various descriptions of Mukti are given in the scriptures. Though they are apparently different, they will be found to be not contradictory at all, but are so mentioned viewing the state of a Jivanmukta in various aspects. In one of the earliest Upanishads we find it stated that one who has realised Brahman does not feel that he is in the body, much less look upon himself as the body, just as a serpent does not look upon its cast-off slough as itself. Bodiless, he is still the Spirit in the embodied life. Obviously, this is spoken of Jivanmukta in relation to the bodily existence. There are other statements made of one who has realised the Brahman, as related to his psycho-physical set-up in life. When they speak of the unfastening of the knots of ignorance in the deeper and radical parts of the being, especially the knot of the ego in the heart, hridaya granthi, the statement is made at once in terms of the psycho-physical and spiritual elements of the being. In the later Upanishads we find quite often a general description of the life of Jivanmukta in his relation to the world-environment. All these statements are true in their proper perspective. But what we are concerned with here is the central realisation of the liberated man, the Jivanmukta. All these true realisations of those who live liberated from the imprisoning round of ego-bound mental and vital activities are essentially one, because Brahman, the ultimate Reality, is one and the same everywhere. But the points of initial contact and the lines of approach differ widely with the temperament and competence of the individual. Consequently, their expressions and methods are variously formulated, so much so that we find them laying stress on one element to the exclusion of others. Thus we find diverse types of Jivanmuktas. If the type is of an excessively metaphysical bent or the intensity of the realisation has grown out of an abnormal disgust for the environment or if the type is chosen for stressing the static and immobile aspect of Brahman or if that is the mood and occasion, then we may very well expect to hear that all is the One Brahman, the Atman alone is real, eternally free; there is none really bound, therefore there is none to be really freed. There is, in fact, an oft-quoted verse which represents this view. “There is no bondage, no birth, none is bound, none freed, no sadhaka, there is none to desire liberation, none is liberated; this is the highest truth.” But there is elsewhere in some Vedantic treatises a fine description also of a Jivanmukta which agrees with that given in the Gita and the authentic utterances of other saints. But if he is of a different type, say devotional, he sees Brahman as the Divine Being in all and embraces Him in love and delight; if of a dynamic turn, he moves about yoked to the Divine in will and works. Or he can be a soul chosen for a special manifestation, in which case, he may not have a particular personal inclination to follow a path to reach the goal of Brahmic Realisation; but the revelation is thrust upon him, suddenly as it were, and thus freed alive from the bodily and mental bondage, he does not get entangled in the meshes of ignorance, nor yields to the lure of diversity. He is well aware of the divergent ways, divisions and separative movements to which others living in ignorance are subjected. His own life on earth is guided by the Supreme Lord of all, by the Supreme Self of all selves. He is one with the All-controlling, free, eternal Consciousness; he is an open secret, an effulgent centre for the manifestation of the Supreme Reality, God or the Self.

We have instanced these types to draw pointed attention to the fact that while the experience of unity and the realisation of Brahman or God, the Omnipresent One, may be common to all Jivanmuktas, their behaviour in life, their thoughts and language and the formulations of method, and if they happen to be thinkers, their constructions of philosophical systems, vary very largely and quite often. But whatever may be the presentation of their ideals, they are fundamentally based on realisations of no mean order, and at their best they are the highest possible for man while he still lives on earth. Is such an attainment possible for a man akin to an animal? The teachings of all great men give an emphatic reply in the negative. That it is possible only for a highly developed soul is affirmed in the Gita when it proclaims in its characteristic way that out of a thousand who make the attempt, hardly more than one succeeds. We may note also what Sri Krishna says: “At the close of a series of births, the man of knowledge takes refuge in me.” Nor is such an exalted state reached by any one through personal exertion alone. However straightforward, enlightened and one-pointed may be the efforts made by the seeker, the ultimate result is not worked out by the ego-bound mentality of the man—the fruit of all the human labours in the line comes from outside the personal range. It is always the Guru's guidance or God's grace that ensures success, the siddhi, the realisation of the ideal aimed at. The Grace, the guiding Light, may accompany the endeavours of the Sadhaka from the very beginning quite openly in some cases, but covertly in many instances until the hour of consummation arrives, when the Jivanmukta sees that it is the hand of the Guide, the Grace of God, that was all along preparing the soul for reaching the goal. All teachings, either of the ancient scriptures or of master mystics of later times, go to show that personal exertion, though usually a necessary condition for preparing the human being for spiritual realisation, cannot bear fruit without the finishing touch for consummation favoured by the Higher Power which may act through a human Guru or may be directly through the Divine Grace itself.

This much we have had to state by way of caution in order to avoid an understatement of the status of a Jivanmukta in spiritual life. Before we proceed to consider the question of the supramental man, we shall state this much: the attainment of Jivanmukti is not an easy matter. It is not possible through personal effort alone. It is the highest achievement so far made possible for man. There are many types of Jivanmukti, even as there are many types of men. They may be all centred in the basic unity of Pure Existence or Divine World-Existence, still the tendency and outlook often vary. One may took on the world with indifference and be inclined to a negative attitude; another may take a positive view with a sense and feeling of equality spread around in the environs, allowing the realisation of the Brahmic presence in the All to take an active turn. Similar variations in the expressions of the soul and nature of such realised beings can be gathered from authoritative utterances and lives of men in the past or present.

But when we turn from the ideal of Jivanmukti to the question of “Superman” as envisaged in this teaching, a new vista opens before us, the problem of personal liberation makes way for that of man's place and value in the Cosmic scheme, a world-outlook absorbs or takes the place of the ego-centric attitude to life. The main question is not how to get out of the cycle of birth and death, samsara, to get liberated from the bonds of ignorance and to realise the supreme Truth here in embodied life, though this too finds its place in the solution of the problem as we envisage it. The problem concerns the Earth-existence, the Earth-life, the Earth-spirit or the Earth-consciousness and therefore is related to man also inasmuch as he is a product, part and parcel of the Earth-consciousness, Earth-life, Earth-matter, in short, of all that the Earth-being is. We can present in a few lines, without entering into the metaphysical aspect of the whole question, the position of this creation of which the earth is indeed a part, but a part which is of immediate importance to us for the obvious reason that we come out of and are in it. We proceed on the Vedantic basis that All is Brahman, the One Eternal Sat-chit-ananda which is omnipresent. Whatever the process of creation be or the condition antecedent to it, we do not find anything here as ever-blissful, perfect, full of knowledge. But Brahman does not exclude this existence which is pierced through with darkness and ignorance and struggle and suffering. And this state of affairs in the Earth-life cannot be co-existent with Brahman, the All-existence, and for all time; for the latter is Sat-chit-ananda and Eternity. We take it then that this state of our existence is not what this creation is intended to become ultimately; it is still in the making, imperfect because the intended goal is not yet arrived at. The suffering and darkness on earth are temporary and local in the immensity of the oceanic existence which is the Divine. We look upon man as this Earth's product at its highest, and the Earth-Spirit itself is the Creative Spirit plunged into the creation with all its potentialities latent and locked in its womb for gradual release in time and in suitable forms under earth-conditions. This opening up of the imprisoned forces of life and light from the body of the Earth-enclosure, this outflowering of the organic elements that constitute the living and the thinking creature from the inorganic matter of the living Earth, is effected by an urge within the Earth-spirit itself on one side, and on the other by a pressure of the powers of light and life from the plenary home of the creative Godhead presiding over the creation. This gradual release is generally called evolution and that is effected by the double movement of a descent of Knowledge and Power from above and outside of the Earth and of what we call an ascent from within upwards of the Earth-consciousness. This ascent is an urge, or more correctly, a resultant movement of the urge.

What is the character of the urge? What also is the meaning of the Descent? In our view of the Earth-existence, it is the Godhead of the Cosmos, it must be noted, that sends down force-currents of strength and life and rays of light that are absorbed by the Earth-spirit in her inconscient body of matter, in the sub-conscient frame of her life, in the self-conscious soul of her Spirit. And because this Earth-spirit is something of the Divine that has entered into the Earth with all its potentials, there is an incessant urge within the Earth to bring out what are latent in it—to evolve the unearthy elements involved in it, retaining always the earth-base and earth-form with necessary changes in the formations of the evolutionary being out of herself. She has evolved life in the plant, and mind in man and has produced suitable physical forms for their sustenance. Mind is not the last term of her growth, hence the urge to evolve a still higher principle. She can succeed only when she receives greater and definite help from the Godhead, the Divine above, in the form of a substantial intervention, bringing pressure upon the Earth-consciousness to give way for the peace, power, light and the rest that are the characteristic accompaniments of the higher Divine principle that is to be organised in Earth-life. This higher principle is immediately and directly divine in its nature and functioning; it is spiritual, higher than the mind which is the highest principle that has been so far organised for functioning on earth. We may state, then, that all the evolutionary labour of the Earth-spirit is directed towards the manifestation of this Divine principle, called the Supermind, on earth. But the success of the effort, the consummation, is brought about by the helping hand of the Divine above, by what we call the descent of the delegated central light and strength of the Divine to answer to the Earth's call.

We can now see that the evolutionary urge and the ascending movement of the Earth-consciousness do not and cannot take place in the inert matter or subconscious life of the earth, but can only do so in her most highly evolved units of life and mind, centres of self-conscious existence, what we call the human being. In man therefore this urge and call for the Higher Light takes the form of aspiration—say a consuming passion—and the Divine above descends in response to the cry and call from below.

Now that we have briefly dealt with the meaning of “the Divine descent and the urge,” the implications will be clear especially with reference to the sadhana and the status of a Jivanmukta in this scheme. The sadhana proceeds on the basis that there is a Divine Being guiding from above and supporting from below the spiritual evolution on earth; it is in the nature of things that at this highly advanced stage of evolution of the human mind the superior Divine principle of supermind can be established. Man has to make way for its entry and sway so that the Divine can change and rearrange the parts of his being in such a way that he can be a centre of the higher consciousness and live the life of the Spirit. The double movement of the sadhana—referred to in the letter as ‘urge and descent’—is distinctive and special to this path which consists in the aspiration and call from the human being and response of the Divine Grace and the Divine descent. Every urge for God is not this aspiration and every gracious response from the Divine is not this descent. There is a parallel double movement of ascent and descent (arohana and avarohana) in the Tantric Yoga which should not be confounded with this one, for the simple reason that the aims and methods and the Truth envisaged are different. Here primarily the problem is related to the Earth-consciousness and not the ego-centric individual, though he has an important part to take in its evolution. The solution is in the hands of the Divine who has sanctioned the formation of this existence and, in a sense, created the problem thereof. Therefore in working out the solution which is the establishment of a supreme Divine principle of knowledge and strength and action on Earth, the choice naturally falls on man as he is at the crest of the Earth-consciousness in the evolutionary march. But the actual work of the sadhana is prompted and carried out by the Divine, by his Power, the Shakti, while the human being is the instrument chosen to receive, hold and transmit to those around this Divine gift.

From this it would be clear that this sadhana can be given only by the Supramental Divine in and through the special human vehicle moulded by himself for His manifestation on Earth, accepting at first the limitations and conditions of earth-life in order to change it ultimately. It cannot be taken and done by any one who is not open to or does not prepare himself to accept the Truth about the progressive self-unfoldment of the Divine in the human being. It is not necessary to speak of the result expected of the workings of the sadhana of this Yoga force, Transformation—this one word connotes all the changes and right orderings of the various elements that constitute our individual being. Here again this change must not be confounded with the change that takes place in some of the traditional Yoga-sadhanas that have been in vogue in our country for ages. For the aim here is not to achieve a certain spiritual fulfilment, or develop and acquire powers, siddhis, or to discipline the material body and keep it so much under control that it might become immune to disease and decay, though these also come of their own accord, find their true place as the sadhana progresses. As for Jivanmukti, the realisation is of course indispensable and must be there before the final transformation is possible at all. But transformation is a progressive process, and does not wait for the supreme realisation, whether it is a realisation of the deepest Self within us, or the Self beyond and above or the Self or Brahman everywhere. The realisation, let us call it mukti, release or liberation of consciousness from the bonds of ignorance can come earlier in some cases, but the work of transformation continues until the finished product of the supramental type by the direct descent of the Divine crowns the evolutionary labour with success.

This much for the present. What has been stated, necessarily in brief here, is sufficient to throw light on the significance of the terms employed in this teaching—especially Descent, Transformation, Aspiration—corresponding to the “urge” mentioned in the letter, the advent of a higher, the supramental type which is referred to as “evolving into a higher species.” Then, the question of contrast of Jivanmukti with the supramental siddhi does not arise. For the former has its place and value in this Yogic endeavour, and this has been already stated. Before closing, it is necessary to draw attention to one central fact. This sadhana aims at the heights, yet proceeds from the depths; there is a wide vision of men and things and the world-existence as the strides of the sadhana take the Sadhaka to larger and larger spheres; even before he has progressed far in the path, vaster vistas open before him; many elements of other Yogas enter into the framework of this Yogic construction. This sadhana proceeds by a comprehensive survey, takes into fuller account the value and place of the ego-freed soul, i.e., the soul of the embodied being in release, mukti, and effects the liberation of the consciousness from the control of the lower nature at some suitable step of the Yogic ladder according to the nature and needs and readiness of the disciple.

6) Integral Yoga and Physical Immortality

[Reply to a letter.]

The question is raised if the achievement of physical immortality comes within the purview of the Integral Yoga. It may be supposed that the qualifying word employed to distinguish the Yoga should suffice to point to the direction of the answer. But let us first make certain what is meant by physical immortality. Does it mean as is remarked here “a perfectly healthy state of the body and nothing else”? If it were to signify only that, then there are a hundred means within the easy reach of many who have no particular partiality for Yoga and can yet seek this “perfect health” whatever it may mean. Elixirs abound in plenty; there are herbs, there are tonics whose health-giving properties are considerable and are so believed and known from times immemorial. There is thus no need to have recourse to Yoga, at any rate to a spiritual Yoga, to achieve this end; perhaps, Hatha Yoga is the last word so far for building up a strong physique that can store up and reinforce vitality in abundance.

It is obvious that that is not the import of ‘Immortality’ in the context. It means much more than sound health or a longer span of life. When the text of the Upanishad to which reference is made in the letter says, “For him there is no disease, no old age, no death”, it certainly means what it says and it is wrong to take it as hyperbole or rhetorical. The ancients had the intuition that once the Yogin is freed from the meshes of Ignorance and Falsehood and is reborn into the Truth and Knowledge, his being pulsates with the vibrations of the higher consciousness and his body can become one with the Flame of Yoga and resist the forces of decay, decrepitude and death.

It may be asked if it is implied that a Yoga-Siddha lives in the same body for ever. That is not what immortality means even when it is applied to the material body. It means a conquest of, not mere control over, the forces that bring about mortality through the agency of disease and age that are the emissaries of death. Conquest of mortality cannot and does not mean a helpless encasement of the soul for centuries in the same physical body scarcely distinguishable from the Egyptian mummy. The possibility apart, what use can there be for a soul, a perfected soul, to cling to the same vesture for eternity?

Is it then the immortality of the soul, the self in the embodied being that is aimed at? That would be meaningless. For the soul, jiva, in the sense of Spirit in the embodied being, is immortal, even as the Divine, the Atman of All Existence, is. It is deathless; it dies not when the body dies. If then immortality refers neither to the body physical nor to the spiritual being that is the soul which is immortal by right, what does it mean, to what does it apply?

The question of immortality concerns the whole man, not merely his soul, the spiritual being, that is embodied in him though that is the most important, because it is the central, part in the totality of his being; nor does it apply only to the material body which is gross and openly exposed to the attacks of forces that bring about disease and death. It applies also to those intermediate and connecting links of life and mind, in between Spirit and Matter, represented in man by the embodied spirit and the material body. Here comes in the Integral Yoga. Its attempt is directed towards the integration of the whole being of man in all its component parts which are the warring elements in the system of the human field. This integration is necessary because that is the right and only cure for the ills of disintegration caused by the disharmony working havoc in the various members of what must be a harmonic unit, a well-organised human system. From this it would follow that mortality is the ultimate result of disharmony in the different elements that constitute the human system and that it is not an inalienable property of matter, but is the result wrought by universal forces which operate on the physical sheath; but the gross body after all is just one part, though the basic part, taking the place of a pedestal in the world of Matter, on which the whole human structure is built. It is necessary, then, to note that before the forces of illness that are the messengers of mortality become tangible experience of the body, they were already active, using mostly the life-forces and to some extent the thought-forces as well to yield the result of the disharmonising influences to be borne by the physical sheath of the human soul.

How to combat these forces is the question. The Integral Yoga proceeds on the basis that there is a higher realm of Truth, Light, Power, Consciousness, above this mortal plane, while the latter is riddled with falsehood, suffused with darkness, subject to a many sided incapacity and ignorance. Something of that higher region can, through Yoga, be invoked to come down and set right the disorder and found here in the human being the rule of the Higher Consciousness and the Supreme Power. This is the sole and ultimate remedy for all human ills. A fairly good health of body, a large capacity of life, a wide mind, an awakened soul are all certainly favourable conditions for the Yoga Force to act on the human being. But ideal conditions to start the Sadhana are usually rare. But once it is started, whichever part is more developed than the rest receives the benefit more as a matter of course. But a good start, the true beginning, is possible only when the soul, the spiritual something that is at the core, which is central and radical in the human being, is awakened to the call of the higher life and soars high for the Light and Power of the Divine Being above the mortal mind and body and life.

The awakening of the soul is of course the cumulative effect of previous efforts in this life or other lives. But usually it comes at the touch of the Supreme Guide, by the Divine Grace directly or through the human representative of the Divine. Spiritual in essence, one in spirit with the Divine deep within itself, the soul can rise to the higher altitudes and come in direct contact with the Divine Splendour above; it can also receive the Divine in itself, in the heart, which is not the same as the emotional mind, but the secret chamber within for the Divine communion. The soul that can rise to the higher consciousness, to the plane of the Immortal Light, rises also above the mortal ignorance and falsehood, and can live independent of the mental coverings of all kinds that are charged with sensational impressions and thinkings, independent of the vital sheaths that are pierced through with desires and passions and other forces of darkness, independent also of the outermost sheath that is the gross body of the elements. The soul thus shakes off these coils of mortality that dominate the life of man, and lives in the Divine, in the higher consciousness, while the body may still continue to be subject to the forces of disorder that engulf the life and mind and penetrate into the very cells of the physical mechanism. The soul indeed wins immortality for itself, of which it is truly said in the Scripture which is cited in the letter, ‘one who is fit for embodiment in the higher worlds of His creations.'

But the aim of the Integral Yoga is not this immortality, though this great realisation constitutes a firm basis for its fruition. The immortality of the soul has to extend and apply itself to the members—mind, life, body—that have formed into and shaped the embodiment of the Spirit here on earth. Once this embodied spirit, the soul, emerges from the darkness and mortality below into the Light and Immortality above, it lives in conscious union with the Divine, and in the higher consciousness realises the unity of existence, the Divine behind all that exists, lives and thinks. And in this realisation, the Power and Light that flow from the Higher Consciousness come down into the mind, widening and universalising it so that it may reflect the Truth, the Immortal Spirit; to the life-sheath that links the mind to the body, enlarging and strengthening it so that it may cast off the dross of narrow and petty clingings to mortal existence; to the material body, making it strong and supple and in a way subtly luminous so that it may throw out the elemental forces of inertia and darkness.

The aim, then, of the Yoga is achieved when the soul that is in constant contact with the Divine turns with the vision, the Grace of the Divine High above, to the mortal instrument of thinking life in the body, calling upon the powers of the Immortal, the True Light, the True Knowledge, to take charge of the whole system so that all the parts may be put in right working order, harmony displacing disharmony, a natural effortless health unseating the forces of illness, an integrated finished product becoming a true and fit vessel and instrument and centre for God's immortal life on Earth.

This in terms of the Integral Yoga, is what is meant by Immortality in the physical sense also. It is an all-round immortality that is meant by the term. Integral Immortality is the aim of Integral Yoga. This Immortality is not accomplished until all the forces that are the causes of disintegration and death are not merely combated and controlled, but conquered. For Death comes not only through illness caused by the disorderly behaviour of vital desires and bodily life, not only through aging which is the work of time, but also through the workings of the hidden forces that bring about what we call accidents. To combat and conquer the last, demands the free unobstructed workings of the Higher Consciousness from the Plane of the Immortal. The other immediate causes of death may be combated and only controlled and therefore their effects postponed by a judicious handling of life, by mechanical devices and breath-control as are done in Hatha Yoga, or by some other means, including the aid of occult powers to some extent. The Integral Yoga resorts to the use of occult powers in its process to ward off many an evil including physical illnesses of many kinds that beset the path. But that is not the same as the working of the powers of Immortality which is possible only when the Higher Consciousness finds easy access to the lower plane. But Yoga cannot and does not wait mutely, because its force is dynamic, for the soul's hour of Divine realisation in order to proceed logically from above and bring down the Higher Light and Knowledge to the mind, strength and dynamic to the life, roundedness and lightness and harmony of all the parts to the physique. Therefore without set rules which can apply on all occasions to all Sadhakas, the Yoga proceeds with its work and deals with each as the occasion demands.

It must be noted that when immortality becomes an accomplished fact, it means that the soul with all the elements of its embodiment lives for ever in the Divine, in the Truth-consciousness, in the Immortal Light, one with the Divine Will and Knowledge. The Integral Yogin is free to live and move, and have or leave the particular embodiment at will, but is not bound or compelled to leave it by the forces that are now conquered but which were the causes of mortality.

This is just a sketch—more cannot be attempted here—of the broad lines of Yoga in its application to the question of immortality. The significance of ‘physical immortality’, then, is this that it is not a separate achievement of physical perfection, siddhi, but forms part of the integral immortality to which the Yoga applies itself. The aim is not to keep the body alive and intact for geological ages, but to make it fit to express the Divine intention in this creation. The material body therefore has to receive and assimilate the Divine substance of immortality, Amrita, from above and so change itself that it can hold the supreme life-force and become a living point of intimate contact for the Divine in His terrestrial manifestation.

The Yoga is of course called Integral Yoga, and there are other terms used to indicate the character, aim or means of the Yoga. But it is the substance that matters and there is not much in names. Yet there is very much in one name; and an humble worshipper at the shrine of this Yoga, I prefer to call it the Yoga of Sri Aurobindo, for his is the perception of this truth, his is the discovery of the way to realise it, his is the kindly light that leads. The road may be long, but the longest distance starts with a single step. The faithful pilgrim who is steadfast and treads the path knows no failure, for even failures are bricks in the edifice of success. Every step taken forward is a gain. Every one may not meet with a fuller measure of success; still the ground covered is a precious acquisition. Never indeed does one come to grief who does the good, and that is auspicious:

Na hi kalyanakrit kashcit durgatim tata gacchati.

7) The Mystic Quartette and the Human Synthesis

Two learned men are engaged in disputing each other's statements. Vandi, the court bard, starts the debate: “The number One is important, for ‘One is the Fire that is aflame, kindled everywhere; One is the Sun that illumines the all; One is Indra, the valiant King of Gods; One is Yama, Lord of the departed Fathers.'”

The opponent, a boy, retorts: “Why not Two? Two is important. Two are the eternal companions Indra and Agni; ‘Two are the Ashwins, the Divine healers; Two are the Male and Female principles—Man and Woman.'”

Vandi: “No, Three is important. ‘Three are the worlds, Three are the Lights, Three are the sacrificial libations...’”

The boy: “Why not Four? Four is important. ‘Fourfold is the Brahmin's station in life, Fourfold is the typal order of human kind, and Fourfold...’”

And the debate continues, each side stressing the importance of the successive number in the same manner and tone until Thirteen is reached and the boy has the final word. In the Vanaparva of the great Epic the story is narrated; the debate is conducted in King Janaka's court where the boy Ashtavakra comes to settle accounts with the bard who, it is said, had wronged his father by casting him into prison, the aquatic abode of Varuna, as a consequence of his defeat in a debate on a former occasion; but that was long ago when the boy had just a pre-natal existence. When Ashtavakra is born and grows into a boy, he comes to learn the sad history of his house and the fate of his father; he makes up his mind to pay back the bard in his own coin, wins by many lengths in the wordy warfare, redeems his father, returns victorious—so runs the story. We need not follow the account further, nor enter into details; but the curious manner of the debate as well as the matter debated upon is significant, and in the first instance and on the surface it appears that the disputants are agreed to oppose each other irrespective of the merits of their statements. Or, we may draw the moral that there is no finality in any debate without an agreed understanding on both the sides to adhere to a common standard of reference. Or, more than anything else, it is the significance of the numbers debated upon in the contest that should arrest our attention in that they are symbols of divisions and groupings that throw up suggestions which are of interest to us. These numbers, as in the debate mentioned above, refer to certain principles of classification based upon theological studies; but always they are a necessity for the understanding of distinctions or groups and types of men and things in Nature, of the Powers and systems of world-existence constituted in the Cosmic order and are quite indispensable for an intelligent approach to truths of mystical and spiritual import.

We propose to make a brief study of the true significance of an important quartette in the light of Sri Aurobindo's writings on subjects that have bearing on Human Synthesis. Let us at the outset state forthwtih the position we take up in regard to numbers in general. For it is well known that in the occult teachings of some of the ancient peoples, notably the Kabalists, numbers occupy an important place; they are symbols of occult truths, significators, pointers to objects of mundane existence or truths of secret knowledge; and in some of the modern revivals of Occultism they are, it is held, potentials which carry with them a power to influence the course of events in the lives of individuals or their groups. Among the uses made of them one is a device by which attempts are made at predictions purporting to forewarn and give guidance, resembling to some extent the highsounding name of the Horary branch of Indian Astrology. But it does not form part of our purpose to evaluate in the light of spiritual and more abiding verities these practices and beliefs and discuss the principles underlying them. Let us then leave them at that and before proceeding with the subject have a clear conception of what we mean by numbers or countings which we start with One. A number, any figure is indeed an abstract unit; but at the same time we use it as a symbol signifying the property of division and order attached to things in the objective world or order of thoughts and distinct ideas in the subjective existence. For knowledge of ourselves and others and of the surroundings implies knowledge of distinction and difference in kind and quality or degree and quantity; in fact, it is the finites, the limitations and measures that characterise all creation. The very purpose of the normal human mind seems to be the understanding of distinctions and limitations; for the mind is so constituted and functions that even when a definite whole, a substantial entity confronts it, it surveys and scrutinises it in its several aspects, takes it piecemeal, patches up into a whole conceptually what is apparently a single and definite whole.

This is what we call the analytical bent, a fundamental feature of the active human mind even while it aims at a synthesis. Even though conceptual thought engrossed in analysis may not always correspond to demonstrable truths or facts of common experience as is quite often the case in the realm of metaphysics and may be mere idea in the void, still it is wrong to think that all mental analysis is simply conceptual without correspondence in the realm of Reality, in the objective existence or in the spheres of metaphysical knowledge. We can take a concrete illustration from Nature. The tree is there; as a whole it makes its appearance; it is born whole, grows whole, reaches its fulness whole with root and branch, fruit and foliage. We can look at it in several aspects and deal with them as we may—stem and bark and marrow, fruit and flower or seed and root. But we know at the same time that all these are parts of the same whole tree but do not one by one total up and form into what we call the tree, the one whole which is essentially present in each of the many parts or in a sense as many parts. Now, in the example, it is absurd to think of the one tree in the many parts as numerically one. The truth of the matter is that the tree is the same in all its parts which are distinct from one another, yet not different from the tree which is essentially one. This analogy will be helpful for a correct understanding of the statement of the mystics all over the world that Existence is One, ekam sat. It is the same as the One-without-a-second of the Upanishads, ekam eva advitiyam. It is necessary to take note of the emphasis on One, eva, along with the adjunct Secondless. If whatever exists, known or unknown to us, is the One, then the One is not only present and immanent in the All we know, but is present or manifest as the All and exceeds the All of our conception, i.e., it transcends. This then is the essential character of the Sole Reality that it is One, but presents a threefold aspect for our mental comprehension which again implies a certain division in the analytical mind involving the concept of distinction. Here again the threefold distinction in the Presence of the One Reality as the Transcendent, as the Manifest, and as the Immanent is not purely subjective but corresponds to the Truth in the very nature of the Real. The same may be said of the triune principle of Existence-Consciousness-Delight, Sat-Chit-Ananda, which is the One absolute beyond the All, the One manifest as the All and the One immanent within the each and the All.

While it is a necessity to lay stress on the essential oneness when the mind is absorbed in differences and the divided existence, it is undoubtedly an error to minimise or totally deny the value of the differences or by a mental analysis reduce them to a formal appearance alone and trace it conceptually to their essence, the sole Existence whose formations they are. The differences in the manifestation carry with them by right of their purposive projection or emanation of the One their own values and their recognition is sine qua non for a correct appreciation of the Human Synthesis as envisaged in this Teaching. If the Brahman is Sat-Chit-Ananda and One, and the Cosmos, the continent of all the divisions and varieties is its manifestation and not a freak in the void, then there is an intention in the whole movement, in other words, this pre-supposes a conscious purpose. Nor is the Manifold a denial of the sole Existence; on the other hand, it is a certain measure, a manifest fragment of the Immense Existence and its infinite possibilities which are always implicit in the infinitude of that One. Therefore in creation every object or creature appearing separate and whole carries with it many aspects, contains many parts which are distinct from one another though not different and separate from the object or creature to which they belong. This is pre-eminently true in the case of man with whom we are concerned; for the higher the scale in creation, the more the parts developed and the larger the existence of the individual. Being a product of the Cosmic Being, man contains within him the rudiments of all the fundamental elements that constitute the Cosmos. Ordinarily when we speak of the attainment of the highest purpose of man in the best religious sense of the term, we take it to mean the realisation of God by His Grace or by our awakening to a higher or inner Consciousness of the Divine or the Self. This means we are thinking of man as a human soul, rightly so, but overlook the vehicle or vehicles of the soul. For these are the embodiments, gross or subtle, in which the human spirit finds its own manifestation. As has been already pointed out, the affirmation of the essential spirit—here the human soul—is achieved by negativing or ignoring the parts and therefore nullifying their values. In such a view the only purpose of these embodiments and instruments or vehicles is the soul's realisation of the Self or the Divine and there is no more use for them or nothing more possible for realisation in them. But the truth about man in this our view is not so simple, nor is it nothing but a spiritual spark discovering its source in God or supreme Spirit or Self. Man has many parts in him, some are rudimentary, some developed, but all of them have a right to find their proper place in the state of the soul's higher achievement. The Vedic Rishis often speak of portions, bhaga, which are the shares of the Gods offered by man who receives in the various members of his being the gifts of the Gods bestowed upon him in return for his offerings in the sacrificial worship. It is the vision of the Vedic mystics and therefore their doctrine that the Gods are Cosmic Powers of the supreme Godhead who in their respective spheres function in the Universe as Nature-powers as well as in the inner existence as psychological and spiritual forces at work in the human being. And man is not the soul alone but includes the powers of the soul, the mind in its various gradations, the life-powers in all spheres of their action, the material body by no means to be excluded from the Divine scheme of human existence. The Rishis uphold the claim of every part of the human being to receive its share of the gifts of the Gods because every part is offered to them as rightly belonging to the universal Powers of the Godhead and the physical body is always taken into account. In the Rig Veda we find the Rishis hymning quite openly at times the longings of their hearts, as does Gotama Rahugana, “The Auspicious let us hear with our ears; the Auspicious let us see with our eyes; Oh Objects of our worship! with firm limbs and bodies let us laud you and enjoy the term of life allotted by the Gods.” The aim of all sacrifice, the goal of all the journeying of the soul, the highest aspiration of the Rishi is certainly the One supreme Truth, Tad Ekam, but the Rishis always attach very great importance to the realisation of the Godhead in the various parts of the being and some hymns speak rather enigmatically of making four out of one bowl.

The hymns addressed to the Ribhus in the Rig Veda are interesting and reveal the mystic character of the division of the drinking bowl. Here we get a clear indication of the importance that the Vedic Rishis attached to the various members of the human being, entitled and intended to hold their shares of the joy and peace and whatever else the advent and birth of the Gods in man brings. A word about the true character of the Ribhus and their functionings may be not only not out of place here but absolutely essential; for that would clarify our conceptions of the Vedic method of looking upon the human being in his endeavour towards uplifting himself and taking his place for his part in the workings of the Cosmic Powers of the Divine Being who presides over and directs the upward march of man. The Ribhus, it is said, are Solar powers, i.e., the powers of the Supreme Truth symbolised by the Sun. Originally they were human beings; by their tapas, by their work and knowledge they attained to the status of the Gods and help them in their work of human uplift, thereby assisting man to reach the realm of the Gods which they themselves did by power of knowledge and perfection in their works.

In other words, they are powers of the Light descended into Matter and are born there as human faculties; they are also children of Sudhanva, the solid field of Matter typified as the rock of which the Waters of Life and the Rays of Light are delivered. The aspiring soul of man in his ascent develops the higher faculties and attains to the illumination and holds the energy of the Light from which the Ribhus were born. Thus they were human beings born of the full capacities of Matter and became divinised themselves. They made their original descent into the human faculties for the divinising and uplift of man. The Ribhus are many and as a class they are of three groups whose names indicate their distinctive function and nature, though the trinity is often spoken of by the general term Ribhu. The eldest is Ribhu who is the knower and skilful shaper; Vibhu or Vibhva the next, gives pervasiveness to the workings of his elder; Vaja, the youngest, provides the plenitude and substance by which the work of immortality can reach its perfection. The Ribhus are the Artisans of Immortality, their functionings are summarily mentioned in about a dozen hymns in the various Mandalas of the Rig Veda. We shall mention only one of them for our purpose here and consider its significance for the Synthesis of Man we are concerned with. Among other formations undertaken by these formateurs of Immortality which they are said to effect by the power of mind, there is one which is of supreme importance to us. They form the brilliant Horses of Indra, carve the Car of the Ashwins, fashion the Cow that yields sweet milk, bring youth to the Universal Parents—all these are presented obviously in symbolic imagery. We must remember that the Ribhus are called by man to the sacrifice in order that they may fashion for him the things of Immortality even as they did for themselves. One notable working of theirs is that they make four out of one single Bowl which Tvashtri, the original framer of things, had given man. This is a bowl in which the Gods drink the Soma, the pourings of nectar. What exactly is the meaning of this bowl? Why should it be made into four? The physical body and the physical consciousness is the bowl in which the delight of existence is offered to the Gods. The Ribhus, powers of luminous knowledge, in the words of Sri Aurobindo, ‘take it up as renewed and perfected by Tvashtri's later workings and build up in him from the material of the four planes three other bodies, vital, mental and the causal or ideal body. Because they have made the fourfold cup of bliss and enabled him thereby to live on the plane of Truth-consciousness, they are able to establish in the perfected human being the thrice seven ecstasies of the supreme existence poured into the mind, vitality and body. The Ribhus have power to support and contain all these floods of delight of being in the human consciousness; and they are able to divide it in the perfection of their works among the manifested Gods, to each God his sacrificial share. For such perfect division is the whole condition of the effective sacrifice, the perfect work.'

The Vedic Rishis perceived Man as a whole and the truth about him according to them is that he is a being containing in himself, in the physical body and physical consciousness, other elements of perfection, bodies of other kinds and their correspondences in consciousness of a different order. Therefore his perfection means the separate individuation of the other parts rightly ordered and taking their share as different portions and bodies and instruments of the soul in its gains, in the knowledge and power and beatitude, in the final consummation in the Godhead. What are these elements in man as he normally is? In the Vedic imagery four bowls are produced out of one because the material for the other bowls was already involved in the one, and by the skill and knowledge and power of the Higher Powers their formations were effected by those artisans of Immortality who carry with them the substance and plenitude, Vāja, necessary to build up the other three. As has been already stated, these three belong to the vital, mental and causal or ideal spheres proper. In man they are rudimentary, confused, mixed up, some are fairly ripe, some are totally unregenerate, while others are completely latent. Broadly, we speak of the three planes or parts excluding the physical which forms the pedestal from here for the progressive human being to stand on. The little from the universal Life and the universal Mind, and the spiritual spark called the soul, are all practically, for the most part, absorbed in the material body and the outer consciousness in the physical so much that ordinarily it is difficult to think that the life and mind and spirit could have a separate existence at all apart from the gross world-existence man finds himself in. Herein lies indeed the apparent justification of Materialistic Philosophies. But Yogic knowledge affirms, as the Vedic seers saw and knew the art, that this division and separation of the parts—life, mind, spirit—as distinct entities are not only possible but absolutely essential for the perfect fulfilment of the human being in his progressive approaches to the Godhead. But how to bring out as distinct bodies these involved elements of life and mind and spirit is the question. By the help of the Higher Powers, by the subtler forces pressing down upon the being here, the unorganised elements are organised, the involved are evolved, the dormant are awakened. But it must not be supposed that when the vital, mental and causal bodies are well-formed and separated they are unrelated to and absolutely separable from one another or from the soul. It must be borne in mind that the central and radical part is the soul of which they are different embodiments on different planes, and their co-ordination in the soul implies the right ordering of their relations and functionings. In fact they are a group of four to use the Vedic term, chaturvayam, which is the same as chaturvyuham in the words of Sayana which means a quartette in classical Sanskrit. Literally the term means four-branched which is suggestive of the truth that the four, though different, belong to the same tree, the same being. The Vedic conception and process of building up the Immortality in man is first to discover the different parts which at first appear to be a single whole, since they are heaped up pell-mell in a confounded condition, and then separate them and treat them to the higher light and life of the formative powers of the Gods and then rearrange them in the proper order for their correct functionings and service of the Spirit. In modern language we may say that this is the Yogic synthesis that the Vedic mystics attempted and practised in their life and taught their initiate disciples.

The division of four as applied to the drinking bowl, chamasa, in the Ribhu hymns is not a solitary instance in the Vedic hymnal. The four divisions are mentioned quite often whenever principles related to planes of being that concern the inner life of man are referred to. It is not that there are only four planes and four principles which are of greater importance than others; there are other principles of division and their corresponding truths; three and seven are frequent and have their importance in their contexts. But the four planes immediately concern us as has been shown in the fourfold division of the single cup of the human embodiment consecrated to the Gods for their possession and enjoyment. Though very often we come across groups of four in the Rig Veda which may not always all of them refer to the same truth, there are at least one or two of them which undoubtedly come under the same category of division as the one pertaining to the levels or planes of being. We may mention the reference of the Vedic hymns, notably the Rik of Dirghatamas, to the Word or Vak as having four steps, pada, or planes of which the fourth or the last stage is the human speech. Or we may take the term chatushpad which is quite frequently employed to denote the four-stepped existence. Though in the grosser and most outward interpretation to which Sayana is wedded it means the four-footed creature, quadruped, it also means according to the scholiast himself, at least in some places, part or portion, bhaga. Thus these four steps or planes or their worlds form into a group which are of universal significance that the sadhaka of the Vedic Yoga could not miss. They are in the parlance of a later age, in the Upanishads, referred to as vyahritis. We find it mentioned in the Taittiriya that the first of the three vyahritis, bhuh refers to this world of physical existence, bhuvah to the region of the mid-air, swar to the yonder world and that there is a fourth called mahas which is the Vast Heaven, Brihat Dyauh of the Rig Veda. It is interesting to note that the fourth vyahriti is made known to us by a Rishi whose name means that he is a child of the great drinking bowl, Mahachamasyah pravedayate. Whether or not there was a Rishi by the name of Mahachamasa is not known to us as no such name of a Rishi occurs in the Rig Veda, though Chamasa, the name of a Rishi, is found in the Bhagavata Purana. But the mention of the name Chamasa in connection with the four planes reminds us of the fourfold bowl prepared by the Ribhus. Before we take leave of this quartette signifying the Vedic process of synthetizing the human being in accordance with the subtle workings and laws of the Divine Powers of the Cosmic Godhead, it is necessary to lay stress on one aspect of the character of the Ribhus. The fulfilment of the human being by the evolution of his hidden parts into a divine existence is brought about by the effective workings of the Ribhus, by the help they offer in regulating the proper division of the human parts shaping the Immortality for their acceptance and possession by the Divine Powers in the great ascent. As Sri Aurobindo points out in a different connection, even as the Vedic Rishis—Kutsa, Kanava, Gotama, Atri, Kakshivan—had become ‘types of certain spiritual victories which tend to be constantly repeated in the experience of humanity’, even so, we may say that the Ribhus represent the divinised human types who have attained to the condition of Godhead and from their position help men to attain to the status which they themselves have earned by the power of knowledge and perfection in their works. Such is the mystic secret of the Human Synthesis of which the accomplishment is the purpose of the Divine Powers that control and direct the journey of the human soul towards the Destination and also which man on his part is impelled to work out with the means at his disposal until a point is reached when he grows conscious of the higher powers who set his feet firm on his march towards the Godward goal.

There is another quartette of the Vedic mystics which is, relatively speaking, less mystical and easier to understand since the profound truth it signifies, though forgotten, has left its shadow on the group-mind of later ages down to our own. It is based on the four steps or aspects of the creative movement of the Cosmic Spirit, For there is ‘a Wisdom in the supreme consciousness of the Divine that conceives the order and principles of things; there is the Power that sanctions and upholds it; then there is the Harmony that effects the proper arrangement of its parts and the Work that executes the direction given by the rest. These Cosmic Principles are in their origins, character and functionings Divine and are ever present in the very body of the creative Spirit. We can indeed view them as the Divine as knowledge, the Divine as power, the Divine as production, enjoyment and mutuality, the Divine as service, obedience and work’. For this answers to the four Cosmic principles in the creation of the four types of man from the body of the Cosmic Spirit. Whatever be the earlier use or later misuse of the chaturvarnya, miscalled the four castes, which is really the four orders or types signified by colours, varna, if we look straight into the hymn which mentions the verse that has formed the basis of the later varnas or jatis, we could not miss its original significance for us in regard to the synthesis of man as a spirit holding in himself many parts or elements; some of these are unregenerate, imprisoned, lying in chaos, waiting for their development and release and harmony among themselves, thus answering to the purpose of the Cosmic Godhead in him, in his individual or collective being. The fourfold principle is presented to us in the symbolic imagery of the Universal Spirit, Virat-purusha, who produces from his body, from his various limbs, four orders or types of men. Let us first have a clear idea of the purport of the Rik (RV. X. 90.12) in which it is stated “His head was the Brahmana; of His arms Rajanya (Kshatriya) was made; then His thighs were the Vaishya; of His feet was born the Shudra.” Note that all the four orders of men are organically connected with one another in the Purusha and are born out of the limbs of the same Universal Spirit. The distinguishing feature of these orders is indicated by the parts of the body—the head indicating knowledge, arms strength, thighs (strong parts of the body) production and support, feet service. We must bear in mind that it is by the sacrifice of the Purusha or the Cosmic Godhead that man is born and therefore these principles figured by the limbs of that Purusha are embodied in human types. We may note in passing that it was a later interpretation by modern scholars that originally the four varnas were based upon the principle of division of labour. Though it may be that the system of Chaturvarnya proved to be an effective device to ensure the solidarity of the social structure, it was not at any rate so understood by the Vedic seers. Nor can we fancy that people of those early times assembled together and divided the whole community into four sections on the basis of their qualities and aptitude for profession. Even if that were possible, who was to decide and determine the qualities especially of any individual? The truth is that the profession natural to one is determined by the quality and capacity of the soul concerned and this evidently depends upon the peculiar mould of the soul's nature, what we may call the soul-type. But we need not further concern ourselves with this aspect of the question which has had a long history beginning with early ages having played a great part in the life of the whole society for its solidarity and later for its disintegration. Let us then return to the soul-type signified by the term Varna, colour. Whatever be the principle that is dominant in a type, it is not absolute and alone but is dependent on the rest of the principles to make for the perfect type in which it is the dominant factor. Broadly, we have taken four types of soul based on the Cosmic principles already referred to as governing the human creation. Let us call them briefly as the knowledge type or culture type, the power type, the productive or harmony type, the service type. But none of these types can be perfect even in its own field if it does not bring something of the qualities of other types. The man of knowledge and culture cannot serve his ultimate purpose, which is also the Divine purpose in him, if he cannot have the courage and strength of his conviction, ‘the will to open new provinces of thought—the Kshatriya element; his knowledge will be imperfect if he is not endowed with the adaptive skill to work out its truths for life and practice—the Vaishya element; and lastly he cannot make the entire consecration of his knowledge if he does not have the spirit of service to those around him, to humanity, to the Divine in man. The same is true with the other predominant types, for even the man of labour and service must bring into his work knowledge and honour and aspiration; for only so can he rise by an opening mind and a well-understood usefulness to the higher dharmas; otherwise he remains a helpless drudge and slave of society.' This is the Human Synthesis that Sri Aurobindo presents to us if only for the reason that the very nature of our life is such that it is at every moment subject to the influence of these four principles at work. ‘For our life is at once an enquiry after truth and knowledge, a struggle and battle of our will with ourselves and surrounding forces, a constant production, adaptation, application of skill to the material of life and a sacrifice and service.'

This synthesis, then, lies in the accomplishment of the fourfold personality in man as a finished type answering to the needs of life on one side and at the same time responding to the call of the higher powers of the Cosmos that work for man outreaching and expanding his normal bounds for his self-evolution into a more and more spiritual and divine existence. It may be asked: how can man develop in himself a complex personality of four different types? The answer is there in the very nature of his being, for the elements for development are present in his very constitution since they are the workings of the four Cosmic principles of which we have spoken earlier. In this world of ignorance and half-lit human existence they are present as rudiments, imperfect, apparently insignificant, of a perfect being in the making, a fourfold personality that is yet to be. In fact, it is the Cosmic verities of the Godhead that have been sown as the seeds in the human soil to grow into a complete and four-sided personality that corresponds of course to its Divine counterpart, the Ideal type.

We may state that it is the evolutionary urge in man getting more and more pronounced that is the sure indication symptomatic of the progress towards the realisation of such an ideal. But however great man may be, the real perfection cannot be accomplished by human means alone, although a severe training of the various parts treated to some sort of Yogic discipline may go a long way towards the fulfilment of the purpose. But the perfection, even a modicum of the real perfection, the building of the fourfold personal type in the individual human being, cannot be achieved without the actual and direct undertaking of the task by the higher Powers, the corresponding four Powers of the Cosmic Godhead. We may recall what has been earlier stated with reference to the Ribhus and the fourfold drinking bowl. For those Powers of the Sun of Truth, those divinised human beings, the Ribhus, from their divine place in the higher rungs of the Cosmic ladder and in their incline towards the rise of man for fulfilment, divide into, rather bring out of one, four cups prepared for use by the Gods and when they accomplish their work as artisans of immortality for man, the Gods come and accept the gift; they come including the four great Kings of the Vedic pantheon, Varuna, Mitra, Aryaman and Bhaga. And these are the great Powers, of the purity and vastness of Truth-consciousness, its law of light, love and harmony, its power and aspiration, its pure and happy enjoyment of things. These great Gods of a forgotten age brought with them their characteristic powers to the Vedic mystic as the fruit of his sacrifice.

Here we may note that these are the very capacities and qualities that are the constituent elements of the perfected type of personality that the human spirit in its godward ascent and perfection is urged to evolve and build. But the actual construction can be effected by the Powers of the Divine alone which, in terms of the Universal Matrix and in the language of a living Faith, are the four great Powers of the Divine Shakti. Using the language' of the Seer of this truth, we shall name them presenting their characteristics: Maheswari, goddess of supreme knowledge, brings to us her vision of all kinds and widenesses of Truth, felicity of illumination; Mahakali, goddess of the supreme strength, brings with her all mights and spiritual force; Mahalakshmi, the goddess of supreme love and harmony, brings to us her characteristic charm and beauty and Spirit's grace; Mahasaraswati, the goddess of divine skill and of the works of Spirit, brings to perfection all the work of the rest. Thus it is these Divine Powers that fulfil the Cosmic purpose at work in terrestrial existence and build up the type, the ideal type, of the fourfold personality which is the synthesis perceived and propounded by Sri Aurobindo. He is the Seer of the possibility of such a synthesis, the Seer also of the means to be employed in the accomplishment of the Colossus which involves a two-sided effort, of which the human part is the aspiration and training for the purpose, while the Divine from above responds to and fulfils its part of the work.

This is our account of the quartette that we chose to consider. There are other sets of four frequently occurring in the Rig Veda, as well as in the later systems of religious and spiritual thought; but all of them are not based on identical truths or principles of classification, though a few of them are found to be on parallel lines, and may correspond to one another as has been pointed out in the case of the four steps of the Word, the four planes, the four Vyahritis. This quartette of the Cosmic principles is significant with reference to the synthesis of the human Spirit as a soul and social entity. The classification of these four principles is not arbitrary or a child of sheer speculative thought, but is based on the truth in the very nature and soul of things; it is an act of recognition of the different main elements that constitute the whole being of man. The stress laid on the significance of this quartette is thoroughly valid in the context of the Creative Spirit producing his living image in the fourfold type of the human Soul.

8) New Lights

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Poetic creations may be legion; yet they cannot exhaust the materials for Poetry. Nature is as immense as her Lord and his world-poems do not exhaust her resources for further creations. This is a truth that is specially applicable to the creative genius who deploys his energy for the reorientation of the Spirit of man for a fuller and freer life, for effecting a change in his stuff and setup, for the shift of his centre of knowledge and power and action to an eminence.

We shall make a brief note of the cardinal principles of Sri Aurobindo's teachings and think out their value in that they shed new lights on the main problem of man's life on earth, and incidentally on some of the concepts in ancient teachings. The fundamentals of this system differ in some essentials from those of others in more than one way; they constitute a fresh approach to the problem of man and his place in the universe. The system is indeed new in its conception, new in its manner of envisaging and attacking the problem, new also in the ultimate result towards which it sets out with a full eye to the practical value at every step taken in the course of the endeavour.

It is a trite saying that there is nothing new under the sun. For, either it caters to the cynical indolence and stresses the atavistic incline in the group-mind, or at best it is, when genuine, a self-pleasing ventilation of the belief in the unalterable value of the past and adherence to it in the close preserves of whatever is fixed and stable in it from the very beginning. Nevertheless it is an illusion that the past continues the same without change; for it becomes the dead body or ghost of itself if it is not renewed and re-lived in new forms under changing conditions in the march of Time. Renewal of forms is a necessity for the past if it is to live in the present. While the past is a tremendous source of strength for conserving and fixing the norms and standards of the race, it is also a repertory of immense potentialities for the creation of new forms; it provides the material for moulding renewed ideals, for fashioning proper instruments for progress without which the springs dry up, life ceases to flow, decay sets in. ‘Nothing absolutely new’ is true in the sense that every creation is effected from previously existing material and that no formation can be devised from nothing. But once the creative spirit handles the old material, it so shapes it as to fit new conditions, casts it into a fresh mould to answer to the needs of the present and call of the future. The result is a new creation with a definite purpose fulfilling the wants of the evershifting, active present to meet the future that incessantly beacons it. The old material persists indeed; but the process adopted, the use made of it and the ideal re-fashioned, change the very structure in such a way that in its resuscitation we find that the approaches to it are quite different, the forms are fresh, and the ultimate meaning becomes clearer and nearer to the thought-vision revealed as something within the range of living experience. Such a creation then is certainly new for all practical purposes. If that is not, what else is new?

What are the bases on which such a system is built? What are the materials out of which the structure is erected and shaped into a living whole providing a working faith in the truths that constitute the door-ways of the edifice?

The materials employed for the many-sided system of thought in Sri Aurobindo's teachings are huge, varied, multidimensional. They are huge because they cover the whole field of human thought and culture in general with special stress on the sources and deeper strata of man's knowledge of himself and the world around him; varied because they embrace a vast domain of finished products of thought-patterns of the West and the East, of ancient and modern times; multi-dimensional because the world-view they take is not confined to the field of sense-data; they sound deeper into the sources of perceptual knowledge of the Physical world and take an inner view of them without denying at the same time the basis and value of the external knowledge; they rise to a level higher than that of the sense-mind and of the most developed reasoning intelligence that takes its stand on it, and from there take a larger world-view in which the position of man and his appearance in the Cosmic arena are exposed to the light of a still higher Knowledge derived from a comprehending Wisdom. In such a complex fabric of thought-system different view-points fall to their just positions. The essentials in all cultures receive their due treatment. The marked values of different lines of cultural development are underlined; in short, the diverse forms of thought and culture of the Spirit are recognised for their worth for a fuller and richer realisation that man is capable of in the scheme of this world-existence.

This system, then, represents to a remarkable degree the substance of all that is noteworthy in the development of the human spirit and thought for millenniums. It starts with man as a spiritual being on earth, studies him in his radical and original aspect and relation to the ultimate Reality. It takes a survey of his being in all the elements that constitute his terrestrial existence and discovers—in order to restore—his proper relation and rights to the mastery of the component parts of his being. It aims at activising the achievement in the human being for an extended application of the same to his fellow-beings around, to his group, to his kind at large. As a sequel, or even as an accompanying phase of the systematic progress, the movement of the Spirit in man takes unfaltering steps in its rapid strides and realises and extracts the value of all well-ordered human institutions in its own terms, and discards or changes those that cannot stand its scrutiny and are of no avail or value to it. In short, it ultimately gives a value to human polity itself, transforms it so that it can be estimated in enduring terms of the Spirit. Needless to say that this is not a philosophical system built on speculative bases though it has a philosophy formulated, presentable for intellectual grasp. It is a system built on the foundations of the cumulative results of realisations in the realm of the spirit for ages. At every turn and step in its progress, it has reference to truths that can be verified by competent minds that take to the venture, enter the field and follow the road that leads to the high Destiny that awaits the pilgrim. It is essentially an art, an art of the spirit that applies itself to thought, life and general behaviour in the individual with all its bearings on the environments—in one word, it is Yoga, much more than Sankhya which is the philosophy-aspect that explains the process and educates the mind for acceptance of this truth in order to work out its possibilities under earth-conditions. Sankhya, in its extended sense, is Thought that enumerates and formulates the principles woven into the texture of the Theory of Existence and of Knoweldge. Yoga is the art of living in conscious union with the truths envisaged and realised in the planned progress of the endeavour. Both of them together represent the twin aspect—theory and practice—of the system of this Teaching.

It is evident then that it is the Art, the actual work undertaken for the purpose that matters most while the theory giving explanations of the principles and process has value to the extent of its being helpful to open the mind to receive the light that is the soul of the art of Yoga.

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What is the character of this Light, is it just a metaphor? Whence does it proceed? How does it execute the art, employ the Yoga-force for achieving the end in view? This is a light that illumines the path and works out the process of Yoga. It is the light that uses for its purpose the fruits of the spiritual realisations of man in the past in their essentials. It is a light that is creative of higher forms of the human material and sets out from the supreme Abode from which creation of the world proceeds. This Light is an effulgent Power, not a figure or a symbol alone, but much more than a figure of knowledge and a symbol of strengths To understand the character and purpose of this Light is to grasp the central thought of the whole teaching. Let us then dwell a little on the first principles which form the sheet-anchor of this study. It is a Vedantic dictum that consciousness, chit, is fundamental to being, to all existence, sat. If this is postulated by the Vedantic thinkers of later times, it is an axiomatic truth with the mystics and sages of the Upanishads. And this is unreservedly accepted here also as the basis to proceed upon. It is necessary to bear in mind what we mean by consciousness. Obviously it is something aware of itself; it is, in man, a self-evident awareness which challenges analysis, and is of course subjective, though it is not limited to his subjective being. That is because it is infinite and One, not simple and unitary alone; there is an inherent power in it which is immense and deployed in multiple forms of consciousness. We may call it manifestation of the Many from the One. We can perceive this twofold distinction in the consciousness in our own psychology. One aspect of it is the apprehending consciousness which consists in the awareness ‘I am’, and another in the comprehending consciousness which lies in the perception and the concept based upon it that ‘All is'. Thus the essential One, the unity of all existence, is the basic consciousness on which is founded the manifold development of itself. The diverse forms it assumes are worked out by the Power that is ever implicit in the comprehending movement of the Force in the infinitude of the Sole Being. This diversity of forms in the Manifestation is released in degrees and kind, in quality and bulk, so much so that we find apparent absence of sentience in matter—what we call inanimate objects—a certain breath of life, a sigh of submerged consciousness in the plant, and a clear sign of emergent consciousness in the rising grades of animal life reaching its acme in man. But everywhere consciousness is present, only its manifestation differs in range because the instruments of expression differ in form and quality and kind.

A point must be noted here and that is of the utmost importance for us when we deal with Creation. It is this that once we accept that Consciousness is omnipresent and infinite, we have accepted that it is not confined to the boundaries of the three-dimensional space. Apart from its reserve as the Unmanifest, it comprehends in its infinitude an essential extension in which it pours out of its inherent force vast masses of energy that go to build the worlds. And this extension is in its roots an expansive mood and aspect of the Divine Spirit and shall not be confounded with the physical space in which we perceive this stellar universe; it is multi-dimensional and has many directions, more than we are accustomed to imagine. And this fact is to be borne in mind when we are instructed that Creation proceeds from above. This is a cardinal principle that must be grasped before one can understand this Yogic system with its philosophy-adjunct. And when we say ‘above' it may be asked ‘above what?’ Where is this ‘above?’ Surely there cannot be ‘above and below’ for Consciousness, as it is infinite and everywhere. Nor can it be an ‘above’ absolutely beyond any particular creation in the physical universe, because the latter itself is a creation, also because there is no absolutely fixed direction anywhere as all bodies are in constant motion. Nor can we dismiss the’ above’ as just a figure to signify the sublime character of the sole Source of all creation. For it is a statement of the mystics all the world over; it has been so perceived by the seers of all times. In India we find it repeatedly mentioned in the Vedas; the Atharva Veda contains a short section of verses in which the Abode of the Supreme Being from which creation proceeds is named with great significance. It is an irony that the term it employs to denote the Supreme Source and mainstay of all creation has come to mean in later Sanskrit ‘leavings of food,’ ucchishta. In the Vedic text it is used in the sense of ‘The Residual above’ ut-shishta. Obviously it is so termed because any number of creations cannot diminish the infinitude of the Supreme Being that for ever remains above the creation which descends from it. When the supreme Force, Shakti, of the Infinite Being above deploys certain energies for the creation of the worlds, He remains still inexhaustible and rests there forming the foundation above, upari budhna, for the creation in its downward course. References to the Supreme Truth as the oceanic Being above, upari samudra, are quite common in the Rig Veda; but in the Atharva Veda (Book XI) we find a graphic account in a less symbolic imagery.

Still the question remains unanswered—above what? There is no difficulty now in finding the answer. For, while there is no question of directions in regard to the Infinite Consciousness in itself as there is nothing inside or outside of it, every manifestation in it, thrown into creation out of it, has a boundary which means that it is endowed with the property of direction as related to similar objects of creation as well as to the source and support of its own being in the All-existence. Besides, this source and foundation of created existence cannot be an ‘Absolute above' because it is related to Creation. But it is constantly above the perceiving consciousness in the embodied being, whether the embodiment is individual or universal and cosmic in formation. Therefore the question of direction is related to and concerns most the created being that perceives and feels that its foundation is above. It is a fact of mystic vision and knowledge which is much more real in its sphere than the reality of ourselves and our common experience in the physical existence. Nor can we say that there is nothing permanently above the embodied being, in spatial terms of the experiencing consciousness on the ground of an invalid reason that the perception is purely subjective. For it must be noted that all perceptions are subjective, and all knowledge of the objective existence is subjective, nay, all the objective existence itself is a manifestation worked out by the Force-currents emanating from the Infinite Consciousness and abides in it; and in this sense the objective existence itself rests in the subjective and apprehending aspect of the Consciousness in the unalterable infinitude of Being. We must remember in this context that creation starts initially from other dimensions of space in the higher altitudes of Being, proceeds through various grades in the descending order before arriving at a state in which we perceive its material aspect in the physical space. But there are many creations, many Universes. Let us, then, confine ourselves to our creation, to the Cosmos of which our Earth is a part occupying the lowest rung. We say ‘lowest rung’, because there are many levels above, and at the summit is the Godhead, the Creative Spirit who supports the Cosmic system from above and there is the Foundation of this created existence. It is necessary to stress this fact in order to remove a possible wrong notion that the Earth is a sudden drop from above and that there is a hiatus between the Earth here and the Supreme Source above. These grades in the cosmic existence are really various levels and states of Consciousness with their corresponding fields for active participation in the cosmic scheme, which we call the planes of being. It is not necessary for our purpose here to discuss the question of these planes. Suffice it to say that the Cosmic system itself is an embodiment of the Divine Spirit, the Creative Godhead, presiding over it above and entering into it in a supporting column erect, with the higher end at the summit and the lower end here on the Earth-plane. This vertical column of support is termed Skambha’ in the Rig Veda in many places and in the Atharva Veda (Book X) there are two long hymns devoted to it wherein we find many passages describing the Godhead as Skambha, the source, support and substance of all that exists, the world, gods and men and other beings here or elsewhere in the Cosmic Manifestation. ‘It is the Skambha that upholds dadhara...it is the Skambha that enters into and possesses all this Universe, idam vishwam bhuvanam a-vivesha', says the Veda. This again confirms the fact earlier noted that creation proceeds from above; and the Skambha is the Cosmic Pillar, the Spinal column of the Cosmic Being, represented in the microcosmic creation, in the evolution of the human body, by the backbone, the axial pole which gives it its erect posture.

Now we come to the question of the Supreme Light to which we made earlier reference as the Light that works out the process of Yoga for the creation of higher forms of the self-conscious human material. That the creation of higher forms results through the process of evolution for which the earth is the field needs no special mention. For we proceed on the basis that Evolution here is essentially of a spiritual nature, while the physical evolution is an accompaniment for working out suitable organisms to hold, express and radiate rays of the evolving Spirit. In all crucial stages of evolution when a higher principle is to be evolved however intense may be the evolutionary urge in the Earth-Spirit, whatever intrinsic merit the evolutionary Force may have, the higher principle that waits for manifestation waits mutely until a Power from the plenary home of that principle comes down and lifts it up from its submerged wakefulness. This is how Life has entered Matter and Mind has got into living matter changing it for the expression of Spirit through thinking life. The next higher principle is one far above the Mind and therefore far above the Ignorance, is self-luminous, intimately spiritual, directly Divine in its domain, in knowledge, strength and force of movement and action. It is a Light. It is this principle, technically called Supermind, which connotes much more than what it literally denotes, that is to be established here at the crucial stage in the march of the evolving spirit progressing from the mental to the higher step. To speak of establishing the Supermind above the mental being in man is the same thing as to say that it is to be organised in man for its functioning normally just as mind has been organised for functioning in man in the course of evolution. Now, how can this be done without the intervention of the Supramental Being, the Divine at the summit whose own principle for knowledge and action is to be fixed here on Earth? It is a special Grace that at first sets in motion the delegated powers to prepare the field for the Divine intervention, for the Descent of His Light to take direct charge of the Yoga Force at work. It is this Light, then, which is the Soul and Master of this Yoga. It is not a figure of speech or an imaginary symbol, but a sublime conscious body of Light that emanates and comes down from the supreme abode to uplift the Earth-consciousness and divinise it in the human being. It makes the best possible use of the materials that have accumulated through the evolutionary labour in man for ages. It is ever watchful and active over the end to be achieved here on Earth.

(3)

What is the end to be achieved? It is, of course, the coming down of the Supramental Light to the Earth-consciousness and establishing itself as the supreme principle of all knowledge and life and action in man. When it descends, it organises itself as the supremest all-ruling element in the human being. It is only then that it takes direct charge of the work to be done in and through the human system. But even before the arrival of the hour, much work has to be and is done for preparing the human instrument by its own Yoga-force which is a special Power of the supramental Godhead, an instrument for the purification of the being, and making it fit to receive and hold the infiltrations of the forces of strength and knowledge and peace into the system. It is a special Yoga-force because it is not a force generated by human effort as in the well-known lines of Sadhana in which control of the senses, regulation of life-breath and mental disciplines play the dominant role. This Yoga-force is active in its own right, though the human instrument can and has to contribute to its effectiveness by submitting to its work, by making an exclusive call upon it, by an all-round willing consent to its workings. There is one important process here which cannot be initiated and carried to a successful result by any kind of human effort, by any sort of meditation or concentration. It is the yogic process of separation first and then re-adjustment of the various parts of the being. The import of this separation is far-reaching and therefore it is necessary to draw pointed attention to its implications in the light of this Philosophy upon Yogic truths.

It is a universal teaching of the mystics everywhere, though in India it is predominant, that the Realisation of God and the Unity of all existence, whether it is Brahmic Realisation or Self-realisation, is the ultimate goal of all religious aspirants or spiritual seekers of Truth. Even when the fact is recognised that All is Brahman, it is treated as a means for the Realisation before it comes, or as an experience and true vision that accompanies or follows it. Nothing more is thought of, no attempt seems to have been made at probing into the secrets of the world as a Brahmic manifestation from the spiritual view-point, much less into the meaning and divine possibilities of human life on earth. Here a fundamental difference between this Teaching and all the others is quite clear and definite. It lays stress on the necessity of God-realisation not for the soul alone in man, but for all the component parts of the constituted being. This is because it proceeds on the basis that Creation is manifestation of the Divine Being and is real. The fact that a particular manifestation, a world or an object does not endure for all time does not detract from the reality of the manifestation. It may be transient; appear and disappear in space and time, in one word, subject to change. But the change is real; the world is real, the birth and death of the world also are real. It is a manifestation of the Real, related to it in Reality, in space and time also. As a corollary to this truth there is recognition of an intention in the Manifestation. In other words there is a purpose, because there is an Intelligent Will behind and above the birth of the Cosmos. The truth is pre-eminently applicable to our terrestrial existence. Here man is not a soul alone, he is embodied in matter which holds in it wakeful and half-wakeful elements of the cosmic principles that govern the hierarchy of planes that start from above and gradually lapse here. What are these elements which have got mixed up pell-mell, unrecognisable in their distinct nature and function in the human being? They are, broadly speaking, the substantial principles of the Life plane, Mental plane, and of still higher planes above the Mind that are nearer and nearer the self-luminous Spirit, Purusha, in his pristine purity. In the human being all these are lodged, while only a few are partly manifest, awakened and organised and the rest of the subtle principles which govern the spiritual planes above the Mind are submerged here, lie, unawakened, inchoate and mute. Even in those parts which are highly evolved for the functions of life and mind, there are no well-ordered functionings proper to the principles of the higher planes that are to dominate them. There is confusion, encroaching of the powers of one part on the rest, a degradation and misuse of the higher powers of the refined elements for the purposes of the lower ones, or an usurpation of the higher functionings by the lower powers for an illegitimate, crude self-satisfaction ignoring the rights and proper roles of the other parts of the being. Hence the prime necessity of separating the constituent parts of the being and rearranging them for proper adjustment in consonance with the laws of the Spirit, in accord with the demands of a higher Power for establishing its sovereignty in the functionings of the whole human system. This separation of the parts before their reordering for a proper set-up in the new scheme to take effect is not an act that can be mentally done by the adoption of any Sadhana. It cannot be done by any individual with the human means at his disposal. For it is part of a creative labour which is the function of the universal forces at the disposal of the Cosmic Powers in the higher planes of our being. Even though it is an act of separation of various elements that have become a confused mass of undistinguishable material, a fresh formation of each separated part is to be effected; that means an individuation, a creation, a separate life and being for each of the elements which in their renewed existence become constituent parts of the whole being. Can such a work be thought of or undertaken by a human being? It is truly the task of the creative Powers that build the world working out cosmos out of chaos. Indeed in certain lines of Yoga Sadhana, man gains control to a certain extent over his body, his life, his mind, what is called self-control, but that is not a radical formation; it is not a new creation of every part endowed with an individual existence, so much so that the human being can have a life-body or a mind-body just as it has a material body. It can have all these bodies separately yet linked to the same soul that uses them as instruments of expression and world-experience. One cannot afford to miss the meaning and value of the separation and restoring of the crowded elements to their respective places giving them individual existence. When the part is separated and organised by the Yoga-force into a well-formed vehicle, it can receive its full share of the powers of the Plane to which it belongs and can have free movement in that plane and return with the needed strength and knowledge of that plane to the Earth-consciousness; it can thus enrich the strength-content and knowledge and general capacity of the human vessel to receive the Supreme Light, the Supermind, with all that is necessary here for its rule—the spiritual calm and Divine Peace, the power to retain and radiate, and other powers that are its inalienable property.

This then is a salient feature of this Teaching: it recognises the reality of Manifestation, of diverse forms and divisions and their significances which are derived from the One Indivisible Reality that gives them their values. It is opposed to all those lines of thought that lead to the negation of values or sermonise upon what they conceive to be the chimerical character of values for the supposed reason that they do not endure for ever or in another state of consciousness or elsewhere in another world-existence or non-cosmic existence which is the Absolute. It avoids the untenable position of looking at values obtaining under given conditions as non-existent or fanciful because they are not the same under different conditions or for all time and everywhere. Values change and are always relative, but there is something permanent behind the ceaseless change which sustains the change of values. It is perfectly true that in an unconditioned existence or in a state of absolute solitude somewhere in the infinitude of Being and Consciousness, values cannot be thought of, nor can the world-being itself be. Therefore absence of values in a non-cosmic existence—it need not be chaotic—is no argument to deny them in a Cosmic existence. The position and value of man on earth cannot be judged from a super-solar world. Each has a value in its place.

This is the position taken up in this Yoga; consequently the Realisation of the Divine within us and everywhere as the essential unity of the world and all beings is basic and necessary; at the same time, all the constituent parts of the being receive their due shares of the Yoga conferred upon them by the Divine Grace and take their part in the building of the supramental life in the human being.

From what has been stated so far, it will be clear that this Yoga is not a spiritual discipline which is eclectic in character, though to a superficial mind it may appear so, because some aspects of the well-known Yogas, their essentials, are used in the process by the Force at work. But chiefly and substantially, it is a distinct Yoga-force which is the instrument of the Divine employed for preparing the ground for the advent of the Divine Light of Supermind to be installed in the human temple. Therefore in the truest sense of the word, it is not a Yoga practised by man for Divine Realisation here, or for personal salvation, but it is the Yoga of the Divine worked out by the Divine and for the Divine while the human vessel, when that is a chosen or accepted centre, allows itself to be divinised in all the parts that constitute its existence and therefore yields itself in its ego-centre to the supersession by the God-centre, i.e. the human ‘I’ passes, the Divine ‘I’ takes its place.

But it may be supposed that the work of the Supramental Divine consists in making the human realise the Divine Being and transform the nature suited to the functionings of the supramental organ in the human organism. This is true as far as it goes, and is indispensable; but the work does not and cannot stop there. For man is not a solitary creature; if that were so, the problem would be less complex and the solution less difficult. He lives and moves and has his being in the group to which he belongs. He receives the impacts of the group-life and group-mind every moment and reacts to them. There is an incessant commerce subtle and gross, mental and vital, also we may add, psychic and spiritual. How can he hope to escape the influence of his kind? How can he sustain himself without the feeders from the world around? Of course, he can close his whole being, as if dead to the world, and enter into trance for communion with the Divine or pass away into a rarefied state of consciousness. In that case the Supermind has nothing left to work and there is no Supramental Yoga.

Now the question may be put: if man is active and re-active in the transaction that takes place between himself and the world, is the Divine alone when it comes, to remain inactive, self-collected, static as the man in trance? Obviously not. The ancients had a clear perception of the truth. The Divine Truth, Satyam, as the Vedic Rishis saw, is not a static Reality of the Metaphysician, but it is active, it constantly radiates its powers to feed and sustain the worlds; it has its own way and works in its own right, Rita. Though Satya and Rita both are frequently used as synonyms of Truth, in many places there is distinction meant between the two terms. If Satya is the Truth, the way of the workings of that Truth is Rita, Right. Hence the triple formula of the Atharva text, quoted by Sri Aurobindo, the Truth, the Right, the Vast, Sayam, Ritam, Brihat. It is the way of the workings of the Truth that is the Right, that is the Law which in a later language is Dharma. In other words, it is the way the Divine Will works that is the Right, the true Law. The Rishi prays for a knowledge of the Law of Truth, Satya-dharmaya. We may note in passing that in the long march of centuries of India's history, two concepts which owe their origin to the Rig Vedic seers have played a dominant part since the Upanishadic times in the personal and social life of her people. They are the Satya and the Rita of the early seers which are, in their remodelled form, Brahman and Dharma. When the sages, as Yaska says, had a knowledge of Dharma because they realised it, sakshat-krita-dharmanah, it is undoubtedly the Law of the Truth that is meant and not the Shastra Books of Manu or Yajna-valkya, though these are supposed to represent the true laws in consonance with the workings of the Truth-Will of the Divine. Because the early seers of Dharma saw that the Truth-law can operate in life as an inner and spiritual Law as well as a rule of personal conduct, they applied the principle of Dharma as the way of the Divine Will to all life, personal and public, and extended the same to the government of the group-life represented by the State, rajya dharma. Thus the Dharma became a ruling principle of all life, whose nature is really hidden in the secret heart, dharmasya tatwam nihitam guhayam, but which is to be understood by each one by looking into himself within. This was the idea of Dharma that the ancients had when they called upon man to look for it within, and added that to a particular course of action there was necessary ‘the assent of the heart’, hridaya abhyanujnana, a phrase used by Manu even when he was codifying the laws for ethical conduct.

Therefore the true Dharma is the Law of the Truth, Satyadharma; it is the way that the Divine Will works in each, ritasya panthah. The Supramental Being will do its work in its own Divine way; that is the Right, the Law. Active, its law cannot but affect the environment, once it is established here; it will spread out its power and light to others who are immediate and more ready to receive it and get changed into the terms of its Being, its Life, its Knowledge. It will and has to apply itself to the individual life at first of course, but in the process it takes into account the conditions obtaining in the group-life and introduces changes in its own way that the true Dharma can ultimately become a spontaneous outflowering of the Spirit in man. Nothing essential in any branch of Life and thought is excluded from its purview—indeed it does extend itself to change definitively the character of the polity of the human race.

This Yoga, then, is comprehensive and in a comprehensive sweep takes a view of the social possibilities of man in the supramental life, spiritualises the ethical ideals, removes the dross of untenable standards of ego-centric human conduct, transmutes into pure gold of the Spirit whatever stuff of the ethical element remains, and stands the test in the blazing fire of the supra-ethical Divine. It has values for the sciences and arts, for literature and poetry, for all creative expressions, for the results as well as the means of the exercise of the human faculties taught, trained, and transformed into a divine way of dealings in terrestrial life.

9) Para Prakritir Jivabhuta: A Criticism Examined

[Vide Modern Review, August 1942, page 177.]

Sri Aurobindo's Essays on the Gita contain an early adumbration of the philosophy which is so magnificently expounded in The Life Divine. But the Essays were not written in the traditional spirit of orthodox exponents of systems, to win support for their teachings by proving their conformity to the accepted authorities. He saw that his own realisations bore testimony to the truths embodied in the teachings of the Gita and expounded it in the light of his wisdom for the benefit of those who are prepared to go from the letter of the scripture to the spirit beyond it. His unique contribution to the understanding of the Gita lies in his interpretation of the Purushottama doctrine—the three Purushas and the two Prakrtis. A pregnant phrase in the Gita is “para prakrtir jivabhuta” which Sri Aurobindo explains as meaning “the Para Prakrti has become the Jiva”. Objection is taken to this interpretation and it has been argued with a certain amount of plausibility that the compound jivabhuta according to the canons of Grammar cannot mean “become the Jiva”, and to express this latter meaning we need the compound jivibhuta and that is why Acharya Shankara has rightly taken it to mean “Jiva Itself”. To persons not conversant with Sanskrit grammar, this argument presented with a show of learning may become a stumbling-block to the acceptance of Sri Aurobindo's interpretation, but a careful study of the relevant rules of Grammar will show convincingly that not only does Sri Aurobindo's interpretation do no violence to the language, but that in the context it is the right interpretation, the only interpretation possible. We are not concerned here to examine the general philosophic position of Shankara or to expound that of Sri Aurobindo, nor even to show that the latter conforms to the spirit of the teachings of the Upanishads and the Gita. We confine ourselves to this one point in Grammar and show that far from twisting the text to fit it to his own system, Sri Aurobindo explains the phrase naturally and in strict accordance with the precepts of grammar.

It has been urged that jivabhuta means jiva itself (the same as jiva) and that it can never mean what has become the jiva, and that for the latter sense the expression must be jivibhuta. We shall presently see that the latter compound should not be used in all cases of “becoming” and it can be used only under certain conditions, and where such conditions are not present we have to use the first compound to convey the sense of “becoming” and that Acharya Shankara himself and others following him have done so.

Let us then study the import of the taddhita affix, cvi, by which compounds like jivibhuta are formed, and understand where it could be used and where it should not, so that we can show that bhu in the sense of “become” can be and is used even when it is not preceded by cvi. The Sutra is “kr-bhv' asti-yoge sampadyakartari cvih". “Abhuta-tad-bizave” is the Vartika on this Sutra of Panini, V. 4.50. The Vartika is very important, so important that the Kasika reads it in the Sutra itself. “When the word expresses the new state attained by the agent and the verbs kr, bhu, and as are joined to it, the affix cvi comes after that word.” The case of a thing arriving at a state of being what it was not is called “abhutatad bhava". That is to say, when something has become that which it was not previously, this affix cvi is added to the stem. Let us pause here and note the implication of the Vartika. The cvi affix is added only when the agent completely changes and arrives at the modified state, “yatra prakrti-svarupam eva vikararupatam apadyamanam vivaksyate”. Thus when we say “patah sukli bhavati” the cloth has become white, we mean that the whole cloth has become white. If we mean a partial whitening, we have to say so expressly ‘ekadesena’ Panini, V. 4.52 gives optionally the affix sati as a substitute for cvi to convey the sense of total change. Cvi by itself is used to convey the sense of total change. This will be obvious from Bhattoji's vrtti on Panini sutras, V. 4—50, 52, 53 in his Kaumudi.

Therefore, wherever the affix cvi does not apply, we use simply bhuta and form the compound “sup supa” (noun joined to a noun) in the sense of “become”, for the root bhu means “to be” as well as “to become” as we shall see presently. Here the Gita rightly avoids the cvi as it does not mean that the Supreme Nature in its totality has become the Jiva. Sri Aurobindo has made it abundantly clear in the Essays that this Supreme Nature is not identical with the jiva in the sense “that there is nothing else or that it is only nature of becoming and not at all of being; that could not be the supreme Nature of the Spirit... Even in time it is something more."

Now that we have shown why bhuta without a cvi is used in the sense of becoming, we shall proceed to point out that Acharya Shankara and others following him have interpreted the compounds ending in bhuta as in Brahmabhuta, Jivabhuta in the sense of becoming or attaining the state of Brahman, assuming the form of Jiva, as the case may be. Shankarananda is considered to be the most famous among the Advaitic commentators on the Gita. He says—jivabhutah “nama-rupa-vyakaranaya ksetrajnatam gatah pramata bhutva tisthati” (the eternal portion, sanatana amsa, having attained or assumed the condition of ksetrajna, the Knower of the field, for the purpose of manifesting or developing Name and Form, has become the cogniser). Note that gatah and bhutva connote respectively the senses of attaining a state and becoming. This Advaitin is no mean authority. Is he wrong in having rendered in this way mamaiva amsah sanatano jivabhutah? In unmistakable terms he has taken the compound to mean that the eternal portion of the Supreme has attained the state of ksetrajna and has become the Cogniser (of course phenomenally, to meet the requirements of the doctrine of Maya). Again, Shankara himself in his commentary on this verse is confronted with the question of the Partless, niramsa, having a part, amsa. He explains amsa jivabhuta (portion as jiva) to mean that the jiva is formed (apparently or illusorily) as a portion of Myself! (sa ca jivo mad-amsatvena kalpitah). These two instances are enough to show how jivabhuta is construed by Shankara and another of the same school. Shankara himself earlier in the commentary rightly takes amsa as the uddesya and jiva as the vidheya; that means that amsa or portion is the subject and jivatva or the state of jiva is predicated of it. He could have straightly said amsah jivatvena kalpitah. For the purpose of his philosophy he makes the jiva appear as formed into the amsa of the Supreme. Be it as it may, what matters is that the act of forming or attaining or becoming is implicit in these renderings of jivabhuta and Shankarananda quoted above makes it quite explicit.

Let us take another example of a compound ending in bhuta and show from Shankara's commentary on the Gita that becoming or attaining is implicit in the sense of the compound: “brahma-bhutah” Ch. XVIII. 54. Shankara says “brahma praptah”; that is—one who has attained the Brahman. He does not say that it is the same as Brahman or Brahman itself, as the critic holds. According to the critic, the compound here must be rendered as ‘the same as Brahman’, ‘Brahman itself’, but Shankara holds differently. Why does he use the verb pra-ap in explaining brahma-bhuta as brahma praptah? Here it is necessary to consider the Sanskrit verbs that are commonly used to denote ‘becoming’ Panini uses the verb sam-pad as in sampadya-kartari V. 4.50, abhivi dhau sampada V. 4.53. The act of attaining the state of something or somebody is the meaning of the verb; and because the sampatti is the same as prapti (attainment), Shankara has rendered brahma-bhutah into brahma praptah (one who has attained the state of Brahman). Here he has rightly taken the verb bhu to mean ‘to become’, ‘sampad’; only he has used the transitive verb pra-ap.

Bhu is often used in the sense of becoming; forms derived from it are often so used. We shall again quote Shankara from his commentary on the Gita, Ch. XIII. 30. Brahma sampadyate, brahmaiva bhavati (‘he attains Brahman’ means ‘he becomes Brahman’). The Tikakara Anandagiri gives a note on this, ‘brahmasampattir nama purnatvena abhivyakti-hetoh sarvasya atma-satkrtatvat ca, brahmaiveti'—brahmasampatti means “becoming Brahman or being Brahman itself, because of the manifestation in fullness and of all being the Self”. Again Ch. XVIII. 54—“brahma-bhuyayakalpate”—brahma-bhavanaya samartho bhavati. On this Anandagiri says, brahmano bhavanam, anusandhana-paripaka-paryantam saksat karanam'. (Calm continuous search or enquiry ripens into realisation—this is called attaining the state of Brahman or becoming Brahman).

Thus it will be seen that the verbs bhu and sam-pad are used in the sense of becoming. We have given instances mainly from the Gita and its Advaitic commentators. But if we turn to the Upanishads, we can better appreciate the phrases of the Gita, bhutabhavana, bhutabhavodhavakara, madbhava-bhavita, brahmabhuya, brahmabhuta, jivabhuta, etc. The Advaitin Nilakantha, the commentator on the. Mahabharata, in explaining the verse XV. 7. quotes the Taittiriya Upanishad II (Tat srstva tadeva-nupravisat...satyam abhavat) to show that it is Brahman that has become everything, abhavat. The conception of becoming is essential, indispensable for a proper understanding of the Gita and the Upanishads. The root bhu served the purpose of the ancient seers and thinkers to denote becoming or manifestation which was also their conception—or, shall we say, perception -- of the truth of Creation. We may note, for instance, that bhava means birth which is manifestation and does not mean existence for which the root as is used,—sat, existence. But this distinction is not always made in common usage. Nevertheless, we cannot afford to ignore the radical significance of these words in the ancient texts. And it is because the commentators were aware of the sense of becoming attached to bhu that they have rendered the term jivabhuta in the way that we have shown from their writings.

Thus far we have made mention of the Advaitic commentaries on the Gita and cited instances of the usage of bhuta in the sense of ‘attained the state of’ or ‘become’. It is superfluous to multiply citations from the vast field of Sanskrit literature in general; nevertheless, it would be profitable to go straight to the source-books on Sanskrit grammar and consult standard authorities on the point at issue. When we do so and examine passages that are relevant for our enquiry, we find that the great grammarians have settled the question and decisively put a final seal on the derivative significance of bhuta at the end of compounds such as pramana-bhuta, jiva-bhuta, etc. In the Mahabhashya, the monumental gloss of Patanjali on Panini's sutras, we meet with the phrase pramana-bhuta acaryah under the Vriddhi-samjnasutra. Kaiyata's note on it reads, “pramanyam prapta ityartha”, meaning “the acarya who has attained (the position of) authority”. He further elucidates the phrase pramana-bhuta by deriving bhuta from bhu praptau, a root of the tenth conjugation. Here arises a doubt; if bhu is taken as a tenth conjugational root and the past participle to is suffixed to it, the result would be bhavita and not bhuta. But it is cleared thus: there is a group of fifty roots including the root bhu praptau in the tenth conjugation which optionally drop the tenth conjugational sign nic (aya) (A dhrsad va; vibhasitanickah); so much so that the third person present singular is bhavayate or bhavate and the past part is bhavita, or bhuta, which means prapta, as Kaiyata has explained. Commenting on this passage of Kaiyata, Nagesha in his Uddyota explains the necessity of deriving bhuta from bhu of the tenth conj. which means ‘to attain’ or ‘to obtain’. He says that as bhu of the Ist conj., means ‘to be’ or ‘to be born’, there will have to be cvi before it, thereby conveying the sense of a total change of the agent—which in the example is acarya—into the thing denoted by the word (pramana) preceding bhuta. In that case it would be pramanibhuta. As that is not the sense meant to be conveyed, that is to say, as what is meant is not that the acarya has completely changed into pramana, we avoid the cvi and mean by the phrase pramana-bhuta acaryah ‘the acarya, who has modally become the authority', pramanam acaryah prakarantarena bhutah.’

This is interesting and precisely applicable to the case of ‘para prakrtir jivabhuta'. By adapting Nagesha's language, we may say, ‘para prakrtir jivabhuta' means ‘jivah para prakrtih prakaran-tarena bhuta', the Supreme Nature has modally attained the state of Jiva. Again, it would be instructive to note what the Chaya, Vaidyanatha's annotation on Nagesha, says in this connection. It puts the pertinent question: “if pramana-bhuta means the same as pramana, then pramanam alone would do; why should there be bhuta added to it?” The answer is that pramanabhuta is not the same as pramana; it means pramanabhavita which is the same as pramanyam prapta. From the forgoing brief discussion it would be clear that pramanam is not the same as pramanibhuta or pramanabhuta; these three expressions differ in their significances and are not interchangeable. ³

Now let us take the present case of para prakrtir jivabhuta. If it be meant that the Supreme Nature is the same as Jiva or the Jiva itself, then the expression would be `para prakrtir jivah'; if it were intended to convey the sense that para prakrti, the Supreme Nature has completely changed and become in its totality the Jiva, then para prakrtir jivibhuta would be the phrasing; but when it is not meant that the Supreme Nature has absolutely changed into and therefore in that sense become the Jiva or that it is itself the Jiva or the same as Jiva, but meant that the Supreme Nature is the Jiva in some way or mode, prakara, to use the word of the grammarian quoted already, or in some aspect or part, amsa, as the Gita reminds us, then the correct expression is none other than the one that we have discussed, para prakrtir jivabhuta.

And this is precisely the construction put upon the phrase in Sri Aurobindo's exposition of the Gita: for in unequivocal terms he has reiterated the idea that the Supreme Nature is the nature of the One Supreme Spirit which is higher than its manifestation as Jiva, that it is not in its essence the Jiva, jivatmika, but it is jivabhuta, has formulated itself as Jiva providing a spiritual basis for the manifold becoming in the Cosmos. Tested and thus dissolved, the difficulty of grammar that ushered in the objection turns helpful, leaving us to appreciate better the interpretation of the great phrase rich with profound thought—an interpretation which, as has been shown, is in perfect accord with the usage and strictly conforms to the canons of Sanskrit grammar.

1) The Fifteenth of August

The 15th of August—once more this great day arrives. It is indeed a greater day than many among the present generation may imagine. The advent of Independence after many a century to a country of continental dimensions is easily a world-event and naturally cherished by her people in spite of the fissure in the unity of India paid for the price of freedom. Whether the cleavage in the geographical unit involving wounds on the cultural, social and economic integer of India can be only patched up or thoroughly healed in course of time naturally or miraculously even as the foreign yoke dropped recently, is a matter that need not concern us here. Nevertheless, the independence won so far is precious and indispensable for the realisation of India's possibilities from now on and in the future that is coming upon us. And the 15th of August is a greater day in a larger sense because it is the day of the advent to this earth of one who foresaw and foretold the advent of the Nation's freedom years ago, and worked for it all along in his own godly way and whose life's mission includes the uplift of Indian Nationalism to a higher level in which the light of its fuller significance can shine and have its full play and sway for the benefit of the world's peoples.

Yes, it was Sri Aurobindo who received God's message with the gradual unfoldment of its meaning for the Indian nation and spoke it out openly under inspiration. For it was a command and an inspiration that moved him to speak from the Silence, the Supreme Silence in which he was stationed afresh, and this speech which is a Voice of the Silence he made even before the Alipore trial, and therefore before the famous Uttarpara speech. “...God is there, and it is his Mission, and he has something for us to do. He has a work for his great and ancient nation. Therefore, he has been born again to do it, therefore he is revealing himself in you not that you may be like other nations, not that you may rise merely by human strength to trample underfoot the weaker peoples, but because something must come out from you which is to save the whole world.”

Some people think whatever he may have done for Nationalism and India's awakening to her strength in the past, he has cut off from public life and taken to Yoga and whatever he may be doing in his seclusion, however precious may be the ideals he formulates, all that has little practical value for the millions, classes as well as masses, except to the chosen few—be it many hundreds, and that is a drop in the ocean of humanity peopling this continent. But this is a superficial thought and is bound to fade once the nature of his mission on earth is understood and the results or something of the results of the great work he is engaged in is recognised, seen or felt and realised even though by a limited few in the initial stages of the success.

When we look at Sri Aurobindo's life as a whole—leaving aside for the present the mystical inexpressible divine secret of his inner and larger life—in the actual and outer life on the earth, and begin with the date of his birth, it is not difficult to find that the 15th of August is not a mere coincidence on which the two advents have occurred—the Indian independence and the birth of Sri Aurobindo. The truth is that the latter precedes and embraces or is closely linked with the former.

When we consider his speeches and messages, not only during the Swadeshi days, but even on other occasions, and his references to his early life in England as a boy of 14 and his war messages in recent years, two things strike us: one is that there has been a continuous thread of the idea of national independence for India, and the other is a deep and assured consistency, a harmony which may not be quite apparent to the outward looking superficial mind but quite intelligible to the thoughtful and straightforward intelligence.

True, he did cut off from public life for a definite work, for a larger and higher mission. But that never meant that the Indian Nationalism of which he was the great teacher and its true significance for the world were banished from his purview. It is not necessary here to draw the reader's attention to his manysided activities on a colossal scale in the field of thought, literature and poetry. And even though his outward political action had to continue for a few years only, yet it changed the face of Indian politics and was a powerful factor contributing to the successive movements of fight for the nation's freedom.

How then can we explain his abandoning of the patriot's role for the life of the Yoga and where is the connection between the two, if it is a fact that there has been all along a consistency and harmony in the various aspects of his life? We can very well understand that such a question arises when people think of Yoga as something extraneous, otherworldly and a means for the liberation of the soul. But with Sri Aurobindo the problem is the problem of man, and the solution is the special Yoga for which he has found the way and prepared the road, a Yoga which embraces all life and elevates and changes it, in order to restore it to its rightful place in a higher order, in a God-ordained scheme of human existence. It is childish to think that the problem of man can be postponed to a future when nationalism grows strong and firm and well-protected, and the country's independence finds itself assured to be far out of peril. It is something like waiting for the waves of the rough seas to be stilled and remain calm for the sea-bathers. Under modern conditions, no human group in any part of the globe can be immune from the impacts of other groups from the rest of the world.

Whether man is a political animal of Aristotle or the economic animal of Karl Marx, or a combination of both, the problem of man will ever remain unsolved until it is realised that man is not a mere material body composed of calcium and magnesium minerals and salts. Man is that also, of course; but he is something else and essentially different and more. Political freedom and freedom from economic serfdom for the people of any country are certainly favourable external conditions for a real solution of the problem of man, but they are not the solution itself and cannot resolve the tangle of many knots with which human existence is riddled.

To understand the character of the solution a close knowledge of the intricacies of the problem is a pre-requisite. Everywhere the crux of the problem is either missed, evaded or misunderstood. The struggle for existence is there everywhere; it is agrarian here, industrial there; it is for political power and military superiority or for a combination of any or many of these, all under the guise of an aim for the betterment of the people's living in the various parts of the world. It is the story everywhere that has been repeated across the ages with suitable variations according to the circumstances of the times. The situation is bound to continue as long as men have to live by an unhealthy competition everywhere, whether as individuals or as a nation. If living by real co-operation in the place of an unholy rivalry and competitive fighting is to be achieved at all, it can be done only by the establishment of a true harmony among the diverse and discordant interests within man and the extension of such a harmony to social life in the environment. How can this be achieved? It can be done by a change in the human consciousness which sees that man is a spirit in his depths and heights, superior to nature, to life and mind and body. This is the initial change that is aimed at and the rest follows or accompanies the first results.

This conversion of the human consciousness with the concomitant changes that affect and influence the environments and the society has had to confront the cynical doubts or agnostic remnants—though almost negligible now, still alive to some extent—of scientific materialism of the 19th century Europe; and these have, indeed, adverse effect upon the out-flowering of the soul of man in the individual and collective life.

Sri Aurobindo is handling this problem of man. His solution aims at a direct change in the core of the human consciousness. This is no Utopia. Before 1945, men would not have believed in the tremendous and world-devastating potentialities of the atom. But the scientists who were working at the laboratory for well-nigh three decades knew something of the atomic secret and anticipated results, though not exactly as they saw later, but something akin to them. Similarly, the Yogin knows what lies behind the material existence, he knows the Life-force as it is in its native country of the vital world, he knows the Powers and intelligences of the mind-world, and the lines of manifestation of forces that work against human well-being; he knows also the forces that are favourable and help the human mind to find its source in the cosmic mind and cosmic consciousness; also, he knows the forces that are helpful for man's progress on earth towards the realm of the Supreme Spirit. And all this intimate knowledge he uses for the achievement of the object he has in view.

Sri Aurobindo assures us that the change in the human consciousness, to begin with, is not only possible, it is actual and inevitable. He proclaims this is what he has done for many years now, after forty years of arduous tapasya. God's ways are inscrutable. Whoever could have dreamt the full significance of God's message he delivered on January 19, 1908, at Bombay?

The work has started and proceeds first here in this hoary land; God has chosen this country to receive his message and put it into practice so that it may in a spontaneous action spread and expand and get into work first in the receptacles that are ready and eventually cover a wider area of the globe. Change, radical change in the consciousness of man is the real solution in the face of which other problems begin to dissolve. This is the true significance and distinguishing feature of Indian Nationalism and Indian culture that God has ordained to be of lasting benefit to mankind.

2) Spiritual Achievement: Ancients and Ourselves

In asking me to write for the jayanti Issue, ‘Synergist’ of Mother India suggests that I may take up the question of spiritual achievements of the ancients with special reference to the ideal of Supermind as conceived and described in the writings of Sri Aurobindo. He is prompted, I understand, to make the choice for me from discussions and doubts expressed in some quarters in regard to the statement of Sri Aurobindo that the Vedic sages did not arrive at the Supermind for Earth or did not make the attempt at all. In taking up this subject let me at the outset state that there is nothing of importance left unsaid or obscure by the Master which we can think of and put in writing here. Besides, basing themselves on the authority of his statements, well-known writers have followed in his footsteps and discoursed upon the nature of the Supermind and the preliminary, the preparatory work that is done and is yet to be done for its advent. I propose, therefore, to contribute to this subject, not anything new or different from what has been stated by others, but something that may interest the discriminating mind to know and find for itself the basis or bases of Sri Aurobindo's statement in regard to the Supermind; and in doing so it is necessary to state at the very beginning what the term connotes and what it does not. We shall also take into account the ancient achievements in the realm of the Spirit and their conceptual imagery, where anna, prana, manas, Matter, Life and Mind etc. are spoken of in the Upanishads and in the later Vedantic texts.

Now, first about the Supermind. It is a term coined and used by Sri Aurobindo in a definite sense to denote a principle which governs the fourth term, vyahriti, in the hierarchy of the sevenfold plane of being. It is a principle, not a mere principle, but a plane and a world—a plane of Knowledge and Truth in which the Many and the One are harmonised naturally, a spontaneous manifold unity in which Knowledge and Power are inalienable, or the one is the figure of another. This Supermind which is of a Divine world and plane above the Ignorance, above the triple world of matter, life and mind, is a world of Light and Truth. Something essential in it could be brought down and made a part, a central part of the human being and consciousness, and as a result man can be changed into the terms of the Divine descending with the Supermind, his body and life and mind transfigured into the superior spiritual and divine counterparts in the Truth-Consciousness whose plenary home is the Sun-World. And the Sun is the symbol used by the ancients to connote this Supreme Light of the Truth. Such an advent of the supernal Light for Earth is not only possible, but is inevitable, says Sri Aurobindo and he has elaborated upon this theme in hundreds of letters in addition to the volumes of his well-known writings on the subject. Now let us quote his very words in this connection from the Riddle of this World (P. 2): “The Vedic Rishis never attained to the Supermind for the earth or perhaps did not even make the attempt. They tried to rise individually to the supramental plane, but they did not bring it down and make it a permanent part of the earth-consciousness.” The last part of the sentence requires elucidation for a fuller grasp by the reader who is not quite familiar with the central thought of this teaching. We shall come to that later on; here we may first dispose of the question of the basis of the statement quoted above. A disciple, an intelligent follower of Sri Aurobindo does not raise the question because he has no doubt whatever in this regard. For when words fall from the Master, he knows and is convinced that Sri Aurobindo never utters words from sheer speculation concerning matters of the Spirit. When he sees a truth, he primarily bases his utterance on that perception and secondarily adduces reasons where necessary for the enlightenment of the enquiring mind. When a hunter enters a forest his observing eye detects the kinds of denizens, tiger, bear, deer, lion or porcupine that inhabit it by the footprints they leave and other marks they throw on the surrounding wild vegetation. A man, when he is in a wood, can easily discover if human feet have trodden the earth there and if he finds marks of human habitation or finds a trodden track, he can follow where it leads and discern the parting of the ways, if any, or can still walk alone until the path ends abruptly or meets with obstruction from an impenetrable block of wood or rock and then find that the wild country is not passable and no man has ever walked it. The same can be said of the Yogin, especially of the path-finder of the Integral Yoga. For a set purpose when he shuts the doors of the senses and withdraws the outgoing mind and gets above it, in order to rise above to the higher levels of being, he does so to discover the hidden truths in the higher consciousness and lays hold on the clues, wherever possible, that may lead to the higher heights, studies the actualities of the situation, discerns the achievements of the past, ponders over and decides upon the possibilities of the present endeavour. Rising from heights to heights, as did the Vedic seer of yore, plateau upon plateau, from peak to peak, he sees much that is yet to be done and achieved, but has not been ventured so far by any before him. He finds no sign, no pointer, no evidence in the vast country of the highest levels of the pure and luminous mind or still above in what is called the Overmind, to show the track, if any, trodden before, that freely leads to the Sun-World, the world of Truth-Consciousness, much less does he find any trace of return passage that leads step by step down from the Supramental World of Solar Light to the world of mind, life and matter.

This actual seeing, this direct perception of what has taken place, of what has not taken place before, is the basis of the statement that the Vedic sages did not arrive at the Supermind for the earth. This is convincing enough so far as the disciple and a faithful follower of Sri Aurobindo is concerned. But for others this may not be enough, they may require other proofs based on grounds of reason. Well, here we shall confine ourselves to the Hymns of the Rig Veda, as it is the Vedic sages that first concern us most. Let us then have a clear idea of the spiritual goal the Vedic seer set before himself and strove after; and this we can gather directly from the Hymns. As a matter of serious concern we leave aside the exoteric religion and ritualistic meaning of the Riks as has come down to us through the Brahmanas and some popular beliefs, and look to the true significance of the Yajna, the inner sacrifice and call it for our purpose here the Vedic Yoga. The Rishi's goal is to arrive at the Sun of Truth, the World of the Supernal Light. The means he adopts and the process of the Yoga and arrival at the goal may be stated summarily in a few sentences so that we may later cite instances from the Hymns to substantiate our view of what the sages strove for. The Sadhak of the Vedic Yoga by tapasya, discipline, qualified himself for initiation into worship of Agni, the youngest of the Gods who carries the offerings of the Sadhak to the other Powers of the Godhead, the Gods of whom Indra is the chief. He is the Divine Will, the Immortal; when born in man the mortal, he manifests himself as the flaming force that mounts higher and higher burning and devouring on the way all that opposes the onward march, lights up the darkened passages and lightens the burden of the worshipper since he takes upon himself the lead to arrive at the realm of the Gods and bring them down also to crown the worshipper's worship with success. Once he is born in man and accepts his mission, there is no halt, he brooks no opposition, and in his advance he assumes, or is reborn or transforms himself into, other Personalities of the Godhead and functions accordingly. Or he retains his Personality and in conjunction with the other Higher Powers achieves the object of the worshipper, the offering of the Soma, the delight of all his experiences to Indra, the Divine Mind, the Lord of the luminous pure Mind, Swar. When he accepts and is pleased, drunk with delight he gets stronger and stronger in man, dissipates all darkness, breaks forth the clouds of Vritra, the Asura who obstructs and covers, and releases the Waters, streams of Conscious Energy from the rock, the hill of material existence, or pours down the Rain from the Immortal's world of heaven, the Rain of Consciousness-Force that descends from above. As a result he effects the release of the Cows—the Rays of the Sun and lastly the Sun, the Sun of Truth-Consciousness, Truth-Light is won for the worshipper, the Sadhak of the Vedic Yoga. This in sum is the process of the Vedic Yoga which aims at the winning of the Immortal Truth for the Sadhak. The beginning is made when Agni, the Divine Will, the Immortal in the mortal is kindled and fully awakened and grows into a flame increasing in volume and strength by the progressive surrendering of the Vedic Yogin himself and whatever is his to the Godhead; and when the process advances something of the Cosmic Powers of the Godhead is manifested in the Yogin enabling him to prepare for the great consummation which is the Revelation of the Sun of Truth which he beholds forever, sada pasyanti surayah, or which he arrives at and prays for to live in.

In all this nowhere do we find that the Rishi prays for the advent of the Sun of Truth for the benefit and transformation of man in his kind. But he always prays for the favour of the Immortal Powers while he lives on earth, and for life in the world of Immortals hereafter. There are prayers quite plain to show that the ultimate goal set before the Vedic seers is to get established in the Immortal world of undying Light where the Sun of Truth shines for ever. We may refer the reader to a hymn in the ninth Book of the Rig Veda, the last hymn but one where the Rishi describes and prays for arriving at the Sun-world where he may get settled in the Immortal. Riks 7 to 11 are an apt and typical illustration of the longings of the Vedic seer:

“Settle me in that Immortal world that never decays nor dies, wherein the Light of Heaven, the Sun-world is set and the Lustre shines for ever....” (7)

“Make me immortal in that realm where the brilliant Vivaswan's son reigns, where flow the Waters, the mighty streams (of Conscious Energy)....” (8)

“Make me immortal in that realm where the luminous worlds are full of lustres...” (9)

“Make me immortal in that world where are found fulfilled all eager wishes and strong longings, where is found the Domain of the Sun...” (10)

“Make me immortal in that realm where are all joys and raptures, where are all delights and contentments...” (11)

These are a few relevant passages chosen from the last five Riks of the hymn, a full translation being found not necessary for our purpose here. From this, we can have an idea of the supreme aim of the Vedic Rishis which is to arrive at the Sun-world, symbolic (not the physical sun) of the Truth-Consciousness, the Eternal Light and joy undecaying, which in our parlance is the Supermind. This much as regards the Vedic goal. Even in the means adopted for this achievement there are indications in the Hymns that the Rishi aims at this goal. As stated earlier, the means adopted is first the kindling of the Agni, the awakening of the Immortal Flame, the Divine Will, and feeding it by self-offering to grow and lead towards the Godhead, the Sun of Truth which is his own home. In a hymn addressed to the All-Gods, visve devah, the Rishi proclaims that he has yoked his soul to the Pole, the Leader within,—here Sayana explains he is the indwelling Godhead, ‘antaryami devah' like a steed to the shaft of a car and bears it i.e. that which bears us and gives us succour. He adds, that he does not seek for release, nor would he retrace and turn back. For the Leader within knows the path and is sure to lead him straight. Here is an English translation of the Rik (V. 46. 1):

“I have yoked myself well-knowing, like a steed to the Pole. I bear that which bears us and gives succour. I seek no release, nor do I turn back. May he who knows the path, the Leader, lead me straight.”

Here again, one finds that the Vedic seer offers himself to the Indweller, that he may lead in the path of the Sacrifice, Yajna, the goal of which is, indeed, the Sun-World. Instances can be multiplied to show that the common conception of the Vedic sages, and their Ideal was to win for themselves the World of the Solar Light of Truth and Immortality in the Beyond, tamasas parastat. They did not aim at, or even seem to have conceived the idea of bringing down something of the Solar Splendour here on earth and for earth. They had realisations of the Cosmic Gods and the Godhead, and that qualified them for getting established, on departure from earth, in that Immortal World of the Solar Effulgence. It is not that they were unaware of, and insensitive to the sufferings of fellow-beings groping in the dark, but they did not think of or seek the remedy for the countless ills of the darkened earth to be found in the descent of the Truth-Consciousness from the Solar world. On the other hand, they thought of it and prayed for a common thought, common feeling, common goal, which would pave the way for an increasing harmony that would make for lesser misery and increasing happiness among fellow beings. The hymn 191 in the tenth Book of the Rig Veda is clear on this point. Sri Aurobindo had obviously this hymn in mind when he wrote in the Ideal of Human Unity these lines: “For that essentially must be the aim of the religion of humanity, as it must be the earthly aim of all human religion, love, mutual recognition of human brotherhood, a living sense of human oneness and practice of human oneness in thought, feeling and life, the ideal which was expressed first some thousands of years ago in the ancient Vedic hymn and must always remain the highest injunction of the Spirit within us to human life upon earth.”

Now, we can very well say that the Vedic sages did not conceive of a cure for the human ills to be found in the Truth-Consciousness getting established in man on earth, and therefore the question of an attempt to that effect does not arise. Sri Aurobindo himself says ‘perhaps (they) did not even make the attempt.’ And this can also mean, according to some, perhaps they made the attempt and did not succeed. This is quite possible; only we do not find instances in the Rig Veda that would enable us to hold that here was an attempt made, but it did not succeed. There is another alternative and that is perhaps the well-established idea in the minds of the Vedic sages that it was an impossible proposition to think of viz. to bring down the Truth-Consciousness so as to make it part of the earth-consciousness and because of this idea of impossibility naturally settled in their minds, there was no attempt, not to speak of the means, not even a proper conception of the question at all. The absence of a tradition to this effect is a factor that must be taken into account to appreciate the authentic words of the Master in this behalf. Indeed, well-equipped they were with their high achievements in the Godward spheres for such a high endeavour and could have made an attempt. The failure to make the attempt, or the failure to succeed in the attempt if it had been made at all which is a gratuitous conjecture, has had its consequences on the trend of philosophic thought of India in later times.

Let us now turn to the Upanishads: on the same page in the Riddle, the Master has stated: “Even there are verses in the Upanishad in which it is hinted that it is impossible to pass through the gates of the Sun (the symbol of the Supermind) and yet retain an earthly body.” “Through the gates of the Sun they pass there where is the immortal Being whose self of Spirit wastes not nor perishes”, says the Mundaka Upanishad. There are passages in the Maitri Upanishad to this effect, and this idea is there in some of the Yoga Upanishads also. Apart from this, the Upanishads, the major ones, could very well have made mention of the ideal of the Vedic sages if that Ideal were to bring down the Solar Truth for the earth; but they proclaim the ideal of Brahma-loka, the supremest World of Light Immortal which is the same as the Sun-world of Supermind as the ideal to be achieved. And that is a world from which there is no return. Salokya, equal status, and sayujya, conscious union form the goal of the endeavours of these ancient sages. Knowledge of Atman, realisation of Brahman as the All while man lives on earth is the goal here and on departure one goes forth to the worlds above the highest of which is the Supreme abode, called variously Brahma-loka, the Sun-world etc.; or one realises the Atman in the depths, and is absorbed, laya, in which case the question of departure does not arise. And this last kind of liberation which is absorption, laya, is supported by some of the major Upanishads notably the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, in some of its sections. Barring this, the Upanishads—we confine ourselves to the ten major ones—speak of the soul arriving at the Supreme world from which there is no return. As for the body, it is taken for granted that it does not escape from the grasp of death. We can state in a few lines what the Upanishads say about this body and the soul's departure and non-return from the world of Supermind.

The Isha Upanishad which takes a comprehensive view of Creation and its Lord, the apparently irreconcilable opposites, such as Enjoyment and Renunciation, Knowledge and Ignorance, Birth and Death etc. says: “Of this body ashes are the end.” The Kena says: “If here thou hast known Him, then thou hast lived truly. If thou hast not known Him in this mortal life, then great is the perdition.” Here it is taken for granted that the body perishes some day, and the soul departs, there is nothing further for the body to achieve, when the soul has known here. The Katha Upanishad says “If before the body drops down one has been able to apprehend (It) here, then is one fit for embodiment in the worlds (that are his creations).”In the Prashna Upanishad the sages approach Pippalada, the teacher, for that Knowledge by which they can be taken across the other shore of Ignorance. And in the answer to the first of the six questions, we find that the Sun-world is the source of all forces and is the Immortal, free from danger. It is the Supreme resort from which there is no return. Again in the Mundaka Upanishad (III. 2.6): “The strivers after Truth, they who have made certain of the nature of things by knowledge that is the end of the Veda and are purified in their being by Yoga of renunciation, in their time of ultimate end become absolute and immortal and they are released into the worlds of the Eternal.” (Sri Aurobindo's translation) The last passage in the Mandukya puts in brief the ideal it sets before the seeker “The Om without part is the transcendental state of supreme Bliss, void of phenomenal existence and duality. This Om is Atman. He who knows this enters the Atman.” And the Aitareya says that Vamadeva, having got over this world by means of Brahman as awareness, prajnana, and got all objects of his desires in the regions of Heaven, became immortal. The Taittiriya which of all the Upanishads best affords, like the Isha in some respects, a broad basis for the Yoga and Philosophy of the Supermind, teaches that the Knower of Brahman attains to the Supreme and, indeed, it reveals the truth about the gradations, levels and aspects of the Brahman, and the coverings, rather sheaths, of the Purusha which have great bearing upon the practical aspect. For that leads to the realisation of the separate elements severally that sheathe the being, the Purusha with the corresponding layers of consciousness or on the various levels of being. We shall return to this part of the teachings of the Taittiriya when we come to consider the difference between the spiritual achievement of the ancients in regard to Vijnana and the present endeavour to achieve the realisation of the Supermind for earth. One more among the major Upanishads is the Chhandogya and its last word is that the soul arriving at the Brahmaloka which is the same as the abode of the Supreme, the Sun-world in the symbolic sense,—what we call the Supermind,—does not return, na ca punar avartate. And this is also the phrase which forms the last aphorism of the Brahma Sutras. This has become a well-known and oft-quoted line to support the idea that there is no rebirth for one who has attained the Brahman. But neither in the Prashna Upanishad nor in the Chhandogya where the same phrase occurs is there any express statement about the rebirth though it can be so interpreted. Straightly and clearly the idea is expressed that when one reaches that world of Immortality, from there he returns not. Now from what has been stated regarding the ideal of the sages in the Upanishads, it can be easily gathered that the goal aimed at was not anything nearer to the line of Sri Aurobindo's approach to the Supermind, but it was the Knowledge of Brahman, the realisation of the Self, Atman. And they seek the support of the Hymns of the Rig Veda for their conclusions quite often. They nowhere seem to hint that the idea of bringing down the Truth-consciousness was there in the minds of the Vedic seers, nor do themselves state anything to indicate that they had thought even of a remote possibility of such an endeavour, not to speak of the inevitability of such an advent of the Supermind.

Now an important distinction must be made when we speak of the spiritual achievement of the ancients. The sages of the Upanishads have tried to recover something of the Vedic wisdom and from their own experiences and intuitions, they have spoken of two lines of realisation of the Truth, and both are valid in their own ways. The one realisation is related mainly and solely to the Atman, the Self of selves or Brahman that is the All. In the Consciousness of the Atman, or Brahman, the soul may be gradually absorbed and merged without any relation whatever to the world or plane in which it lives and gets the realisation. In other words, this line of realisation is essentially one that is indifferent to or does not admit of being related to the Cosmic manifestation. Another line is that in which the soul's progress is related at every turn to the existence of the world-order in the Cosmos. Obviously, it is to this latter kind we refer when we speak of the achievement of the ancients. From this point of view, the ancient achievements, whether of the Vedic seers or Upanishadic sages, or the later Vedantic Yogin, or those who followed the successful path of devotion and love, or the path of the Karma Yoga, were all essentially for individual attainment; even when the realisation, whether it is God-realisation or Self-knowledge, was dynamic and could be easily related to the Cosmic manifestation, and may have, as a matter of course, influenced the environment of the experiencing soul either on the path of knowledge or devotion or any other line, it was chiefly meant for and related to the individual concerned, and not for anything else, even remotely resembling the ideal of Supermind for earth. For it was taken for granted that this world is meant to be given up, and it is jada, eternally damned, the field of incurable ignorance, naturally wedded to Evil, or it is a false appearance, Maya. All have sailed and even now those who profess the religions of different sects sail in the same boat. None has had this conception—the idea itself that it can be changed and made the manifest dwelling place of the Divine. Now we have come to the closing part of the theme that there has been neither conception of anything similar to the Supramental ideal, any notable endeavour in the past for which there is textual evidence, nor even the feeble testimony of tradition that the Truth-Light can come down for earth.

Now about the term Supermind used by Sri Aurobindo: in the hierarchy of planes it is Mahas, the fourth term vyahrti, above the triple world of our being—matter, life and mind in the ignorance. As a Truth-principle, it is called Vijnana, a term used in the Taittiriya Upanishad, and it has a definite connotation in the parlance of Sri Aurobindo's Yoga and philosophy. Vijnana, ordinarily in classical Sanskrit, at any rate in the Buddhist and post-Buddhist Sanskrit literature and philosophical work;, means Buddhi, intellect. Even when the term is used in the Taittiriya Upanishad pundits and scholars take it to denote only Buddhi. But the term Vijnana following the Manomaya Purusha, mental being, in the ancient scripture connotes that which is subtler and higher than the mental. Sri Aurobindo's discerning eye has seen the distinction in sense attached to these terms, Prajnana, Vijnana, Sanjnana and others, and he has used the Vijnana in the sense of supermind of his description, especially because it is above the mind, and the Manomaya in the Upanishad includes the Buddhi also, just as the English word mind includes intellect. Now let us have some idea of the Upanishad's mention of the Vijnana in the context. We know that it is a great dictum of the Upanishad that all this is Brahman, not merely in a general way, as the Chhan-dogya puts it, but in every detail, as the Svetasvatara Upanishad proclaims:”Thou art man and woman, boy and girl; old and worn thou walkest bent over a staff; thou art the blue bird and the green and the scarlet-eyed....”But this refers obviously to the world that we see around us. But there are other principles of existence, other elements not visible to the outward senses and mind, other worlds behind and above this world of Matter which is not the Sole Reality that is Brahman. The Taittiriya Upanishad says, all Matter, annam, is Brahman, then subtler and higher is Life, prana, that is Brahman; then Mind, manas, which is still higher and subtler is Brahman, and above it is vijnana (the Supermind) that is Brahman and last is Delight, ananda, that is at last to be realised as Brahman. Now instead of making a general statement which is true and beneficial in so far as it goes that all whatever is, is Brahman, the Upanishad makes a broad classification of the principles of Cosmic existence and calls upon the seeker to realise the Brahman in every part of the being, in all elements severally that make up the being, in the Universe or the individual and teaches the way of fulfilment. We can now see how this Upanishad gives a broad basis for the Yoga which does not stop with the radical or basic realisation of the Ideal God, Brahman or Self, but proceeds to realise Him in every aspect of the World-Being, and since He is the All, even while not manifest as such, He could manifest himself in the mind, in the life, in the body of matter, and need not stop with manifesting himself in the Soul of man.

One word more about the difference in the conception of Vijnana between the Yogin of the Vedanta and ourselves. When they speak of the five sheaths, kosa, matter anna, life prana, mind manas, vijnana and ananda, each successive sheath is concealed in and covered by the preceding one until one reaches the last ananda which is not a sheath, though loosely termed so, but the Purusha himself, one gets more and more absorbed within, and gains in intensity and depths of the spiritual being which is the centre and inmost part of the being, the heart, the seat of the divine being or Self. At the same time, one gets more and more narrow in the intense depths and endeavours to establish himself in the core of his being which is indeed laudable and indispensable for any serious and genuine Yoga not to talk of the Supramental. But if we grasp the spirit of the Upanishad and its elucidation by Sri Aurobindo, our conception and image of the sheaths which are true and necessary indeed for inward development, give place to a larger vision of things developing a cosmic breadth of view in which are open vast vistas before us, the world of Matter, itself infinite in spatial extension,—note this in Brahman, the world of Life behind and above it making its presence and activity felt upon it, the world of Mind overtopping the world of Life informing it and, through it, now the living Matter, and still above, far above, the world of Vijnana, the Supermind about which it is not necessary to say anything here.

The mental perception and thought-vision one gains in pondering over the statements of Sri Aurobindo on the planes and worlds of matter, life and mind, not to speak of the higher and still higher ranges over the mind—the overmind, the supermind are so overpowering that the ego-bound personality is humbled and dwindles into a nothingness lost in the impersonality of a global infinitude, or in the infinite variety of the One in the manifold Existence, in the Immensity of Being itself. This, then, is the difference between our conception of the various elements, matter, life and mind etc. that make up the individual and that of the Vedantin's fivefold sheath of the being.

One more point, small but important, we promised to consider in the opening paragraphs. That is the question of Supermind for the earth. What exactly is meant by the expression ‘for the earth’ must be clearly grasped for a fuller appreciation of the supramental descent. We know that the evolution of the supermind on earth is brought about by the descent of the supermind, something substantial of the splendour in its plenary home above. Then, when it so descends, it does come down in the earth-consciousness, and is to become part of it, the central and dominant part.

This is what we mean by the supermind for earth, and as I had occasion to say elsewhere, the Earth does not welcome and lodge the supermind in her dark and dense body of inert matter, annam, nor into her life, prana, in the vegetable kingdom, nor in her crude mind in the lower or higher animal, man. She receives it in her best developed part, in the most highly evolved element which is the aspiring soul in the human kind. Here too it is not that all individuals of the kind that are at first prepared and suited to receive, accept and hold the higher spiritual principle of supermind in its descent into the evolutionary earth-nature. The choice, therefore, falls upon that human vessel which is most ready and born for it, the being, in whom the flame of Aspiration mounts up from Earth to Heaven solely for the Divine descent to the exclusion of everything else. For it is he who can and does lay bare absolutely open without reserve all the elements of his being surrendered to the Will and Power of the descending Light of the Truth-Consciousness, that it may establish itself as the ruling Divine principle of human life on earth. From such a one, flow like light from the sun, the influence, the light and power of the now settled Supermind transmitted to those who in the heights of their being are prepared or born competent to receive them. Well has it been said that the dawn breaks upon the peaks when the valleys are still dark in the night.

We have come to the end. What has been stated will go far to clear the doubts that may linger in the earnest mind about the past achievements and the present endeavour in the realm of the Spirit. The achievements of the ancients, especially of the Vedic mystics, are nothing short of marvels. But to say this is not the same as to admit that nothing more was left to be done by posterity. There are indeed certain types of men representing the forces of atavism at its worst who would and do go so far as to say that all that was to be discovered and taught is to be found in the Vedanta, the Gita, the Upanishads and nothing new can be found, said or propounded that could be of substantial benefit to man in the field of the Spirit, Religion, Philosophy. But, then, theirs is the logic of Caliph Omar who, the historians tell us, gave orders for destroying the famous Alexandria Library on this ground: “If the writings of the Greeks agree with the Book of God, they are superfluous, therefore useless and need not be preserved; if they disagree, they are pernicious and ought to be destroyed.”

Therefore it is only for the seeker, for the expanding intelligence, not for the narrow mind that moves in the dark and trodden groove that hardly admits of a single ray of light passing into it from the vast world around, that this question as discussed here can be of some use and interest.

3) Is it Eclecticism? - A Reply

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Readers of The Advent are aware that some time ago there appeared in it serially the Tattwaprabha, ‘Lights on the Fundamentals’ which was later published in book-form in 1950. While it has received a good welcome from the Press and individuals even from distant quarters outside Madras, recently my attention was drawn to a solitary instance of bitter and hostile criticism⁴ laden with extravagant injustice meted out to the work by a light-hearted mind tarring it as a ‘pointless disservice’. This is so, notwithstanding the Prefatory Note which shows that this treatise was included in the list of works that can be considered as ‘service’! Now the object of my writing is not to answer the charges in detail and show that the critic is wrong. A contemptuous silence would have been the only right reply had he not used certain terms and thrown ideas which slyly, if not ambiguously, extend the attack using this small treatise as a jumping board on the System of Philosophy and Yoga to which I have thoroughly given myself these thirty years and more. The writer is clever and acts the admirer who appreciates The Life Divine, ostensibly in order to condemn this book in comparison, but really for a show-off of his learning and catholicity and use whatever information he may have obtained from reading these and similar books for self-gratification, appreciation, and also to sermonise on the probable unsoundness of ‘Emergent Evolution’ and his proficiency in the field of ‘alternate theories’. He is a connoisseur of the art of mnemonic verse composition and refers to Shankara, for comparison, and he has himself or mouths the opinions, ideas, preferences, prejudices and the rest current among Pundits of this school and that. He 'fabricates’ a title to this treatise as a ‘fabrication’ of Eclecticism and all dogma. He finds no theological tradition to support the statements made in the book, i.e. about the system expounded.

It is about this eclecticism and theory and dogma and the alleged absence of theological tradition that I propose to write here, not necessarily to convince the critic of his error but to make the position clear to those who are interested in getting a correct idea and true appreciation of what I have done on the basis of Sri Aurobindo's Teachings.

First about this system: it must be understood at the outset, as I have stated elsewhere, that Sri Aurobindo never wrote anything in the traditional spirit of orthodox exponents of systems, to win support for his teachings by proving their conformity to the accepted authorities. He saw that his own realisations bore testimony to the truths embodied in the teachings of the Gita, the Upanishads and last, by no means least, the Rig Veda. Hence he wrote on all these into the details of which I need not enter here. And when he began to build his philosophical system, to write serially The Life Divine in the Arya, at bottom it was his realisation that gave him the strength but the materials for building the system were undoubtedly provided by the Vedantic scriptures, the Upanishads and the Gita. While later on, in revising the series for publication in two Volumes, he took into account the increasing volume of modern thought that flowed from the West, judged it in proper light and assimilated it into his system. Thus at the base, as he himself has stated, it is Vedantic; at the apex it is his distinct contribution. It is certainly not borrowed from the West—in spite of the term Evolution which in his sense of the term is soul's evolution which is not foreign to ancient Indian thought e.g. Patanjali's jatyantara parinamah, only it is there Nature's, here it is soul's. But the further development, and the logical sequel to the evolving soul in man, he envisaged as the one above the mental level. Here too the Upanishad has given him the clue, the hint.

It must be noted that a system is not built out of a previous non-existence; the system-builder does not start with a nil, tabula rasa, does not evolve a system out of his brain, he takes up the materials that are already there—in this instance the material has come down from the Vedic Age down to modern times—tests them, chooses and selects the substantial element, rejects the outworn forms, develops the latent suggestions, gives the system in a finished form, maintaining the structure intact, but supple not rigid so that it can accommodate, if it is comprehensive enough, fresh ideas and details of experiences and truths discovered to fit in with the system and fall into their place in right adjustment.

Here is no theory hatched by brooding in the brain, groping and guessing. He is in line with the ancients—the seers and sages and thinkers—whose tradition he appreciates and admits to be praiseworthy,—the tradition that a philosophy which is not based upon some experience of the fundamental Truth has no value and indeed Indian thought in the religio-philosophical systems abhors speculation and fanciful ingenuity. And Sri Aurobindo has pointed out that in the thinking age which followed the early Vedic and Vedantic Teachings, “when the great and integral truth of the Upanishads was broken into divergent schools of thought, even in giving so much prominence to the intellectual side, the systems do not depart from the constant need of the Indian temperament; it works out from spiritual experience through the exact and laborious inspection and introspection of the intellect—the intellectual method and form whose real substance is not intellectual but a result of a profound intelligence working on the stuff of the sight and spiritual experience.” Therefore if it has been able to make its conclusions articles of faith, it does so on the basis of experience by any one who will take the necessary means and apply the only possible test. You can call them dogmas; but they are not founded upon flimsy grounds of fancy, on the sands of conjecture, but on the firm and unshaky rock of experience. After all, what is a theory meant to be? If it can serve the purpose for which it is meant, any theory is good enough to hold on. ‘A theory may be one-sided or wrong, yet it may be useful and extremely practical as science has amply shown. A theory in philosophy is nothing else than a support for the mind, a practical device to help it to deal with its object, a staff to uphold it and make it walk more confidently and get along with its difficult journey.'

Now it must be borne in mind that the bulk of metaphysical thinking in the West differs fundamentally from the philosophical systems of India. They are hypotheses—theories and dogmas also—and conclusions which are not the result of the Reason working on the stuff of their own experiences and realisations or of others before them as in India beginning from the hoary ages of the Veda and Vedanta and coming down to modern times. However, certain bold thinkers in the West dissatisfied with the philosophies began to choose what they considered to be the best in each of the systems known to them and presented it as a whole, a workable hypothesis. They call it Eclecticism.

A word about the origin and movement of Eclecticism is necessary here to show how ludicrous and inapplicable it is to the Fundamentals of Sri Aurobindo's System, itself or even as it is briefly presented in the treatise animadverted upon. In the last century the term ‘eclectic’ “came to be applied to a number of French philosophers who differed considerably from one another. Of these the earliest were Pierre Paul Royer-Collard who was a follower of Thomas Reid in the main, and Maine de Biran; but the name is more appropriately given to the school of which Victor Cousin, Barthelemy St. Hilaire and a few others were distinguished members. But Victor Cousin whose views carried weight freely adopted what pleased him in the doctrines of Maine de Biran, Royer-Collard and others,” of Kant, Schelling and Hegel, and also of the ancient philosophies, expressly maintained that the eclectic is the only method now open to the philosopher. He was of the view that the philosopher's function resolves itself into critical selection and nothing more. ‘Each system,’ he asserted, ‘is not false, but incomplete, and in reuniting all incomplete systems we should have a complete philosophy, adequate to the totality of consciousness.’” This is the latest position of Eclecticism on the Continent. But the eclectic spirit began. to manifest itself in the early centuries of the Christian era “when the longing to arrive at the one explanation of all things, which had inspired the older Greek philosophers flagged and the belief that any such explanation was attinable began to fail. Men came to adopt from all systems the doctrine which best pleased them. Panaetius is one of the earliest instances of the modification of stoicism by the eclectic spirit. The same spirit was manifest among the Peripatetics. Philosophy was a secondary pursuit in Rome; naturally, therefore, the Roman thinkers for the most part were eclectic.” A striking illustration is Cicero who borrowed from Stoicism, Peripatetism and the Scepticism of the Middle Academy. “The eclectics of modern philosophy are too numerous to name; Italian philosophers form a large proportion. Among the German Eclectics Wolf and his followers are mentioned and to some extent Schelling.” Thus the peregrinations of the speculative mind caught in the circuit of the Eclectical spirit move on ceaselessly without a halt in spite of the fact that it has deservedly acquired a contemptuous significance partly because many eclectics are intellectual trimmers, sceptics or dilettanti. Also, Eclecticism is the result of a combination of principles of different and hostile theories, and must naturally end in an incoherent patchwork. “There can be no logical combination” remarks a writer on the subject whom I have quoted above in parts, “of elements from Christian ethics, with its divine sanction, and purely intuitional or evolutionary ethical theories, where the sanction is essentially different in quality.” Whatever may be its value among the thinkers in the West, it is admitted on all hands that it is a system of thought made up of views borrowed from various other systems.⁵

This much is enough about the eclectic system to mark out the difference in the basic approach to the ultimate problem in Philosophy between the West and ages-old India; and the latter's line of tackling the ultimate problem has been already indicated in explaining the position of Sri Aurobindo's philosophy in its relation to modern thought as well as to the Wisdom of the mystics and sages of a dateless past. Nowadays, we hear occasionally the aggrieved moanings of patriot purists to the effect that Sri Aurobindo includes in his system many things which are not Indian, but which are either modern, or alien to the Indian philosophical systems. Here it must be stated Sri Aurobindo does not build his system on this ground or that, nor is it claimed for his system that it is partly Indian and partly modern or western, but it is a whole in itself both in theory and practice. For practice, his own personal testimony is the basis; for theory, his own intellectual adequacy is responsible for unearthing the forgotten truths and secrets buried alive in the Vedic texts primarily, and sifting the right and precious materials from other general scriptures of India. The spirit of his intellectual approach is that of the ancient seers and sages and thinkers of this land; this does not bind him to the orthodox notions of what an Indian system ought to be. From the beginning the West has had no opportunity of getting a glimpse into the basis, the direct perception or revelation that is fundamental to his system as to the earlier systems of Indian Philosophy. And as such, the West cannot be accused of or credited with claiming that Sri Aurobindo's system is modern and so western. All that has been done is that he has presented the whole problem and the solution in a language that the modern West can understand, appreciate, accept and even adopt in practice though with hesitancy due to difference in temperament and training, but which the representative section of decadent and fossilised India—not the renascent, rising and arisen India—in the purity of its ignorance, in its zeal to cling to forms and shells and rags could afford to call derisively modern, partly at least un-Indian or by any other name, not certainly eclectic. When all is said the fact remains, the Teaching is not for the West or East as such, or Indian orthodoxy or unorthodoxy. It is for Man wherever he be born, here, there or anywhere. When the light enters into dark chambers, its value is realised directly and not judged by referring to the whence of it. Nor do we think of Newton's Gravity as English Gravity, nor when we get oxygen tubes, we say this is American oxygen or German oxygen. But enough of examples. In this spirit, Sri Aurobindo's teaching is given to the world. Though it is not the exclusive monopoly of any country, it being Indian in its birth and substance and base, India has a better chance of benefitting by it in spite of any section that may act as the brake in the rear van representing the atavistic forces in the movement of advanced thought and evolving Spirit.

Now I come to the critic's irrelevant remarks about the unsoundness of the theory of ‘Emergent Evolution’. I did not use the term, it has a technical significance implying that it is distinct from ‘Creative Evolution’. In the light of what I have stated about the theories and their use in general, I need not concern myself with the ‘alternate theories’ with which the critic professes to be conversant. The book takes the place of Pancikarana and similar prakarana treatises where the fundamental principles alone are stated, elucidated and dialectical warfare has no place. Reasonings and arguments in support of the system and demolishing other theories in order to establish itself have value and a place elsewhere, as in some of the Vartika texts to which the critic alludes. In the scheme of such works as these in simple and lucid, almost self-explanatory lines, dialectics is grotesque and out of place.

On the point of this treatise being painted black as ‘eclectic’ I have to say this much: this treatise undertakes to show that the Creation by the Word, the Seven Principles of Existence, the Seven Worlds and Planes and the Ladder of Existence are fundamental to Sri Aurobindo's system, and that these Principles are based upon truths arrived at by the ancients and are founded upon the spiritual and mystic experience of the Vedic seers, the sages and thinkers of the earlier Vedanta, and later popularised to a certain extent by the Puranas in their usual gross fashion. For this purpose reconciliation was effected between the sevenfold Principle of the Rig Veda and the Purana on the one hand, and the fivefold Principle of some of the Upanishads and at the same time was explained the triple formula of Sat-chit-ananda as answering to the Uncreate Higher-half, parardha, of the sevenfold existence. The treatise in the opening verses assumed as incontrovertible the fact of the Creation of the world of objects, artha, by the Word, sabda, as an essential truth of the Vedic and Tantric (agamic) lines of thought. In all this I followed in the footsteps of Sri Aurobindo whine references to these texts are scattered over a number of works including The Life Divine. Any one who has had a ‘glimpse of the Life Divine’ could find that the mottos selected for the chapters in The Life Divine are taken from the sacred texts of ancient India—the Rig Veda, the Upanishads, the Gita and occasionally from the Puranas and even from some of the celebrated- treatises of latter day Acharyas. The chapters on the Order of the Worlds, those on the Sevenfold Existence and one or two other chapters have for their mottos verses from the Rig Veda, lines from the Mundaka and other Upanishads, which all put in a nutshell the substance of these chapters. And sheer common sense—not loud learning—is enough to show that these are not given in an eclectic spirit, but in a large all-embracing spirit which incidentally throws light on the wisdom of the ancients whose origins are revealed in the Rig Veda; and it is essentially—not always in details and imagery and occult means used by the mystics—preserved in the profound texts of the Upanishads and later in the Tantras, but eventually gets more and more covered and veiled in the Puranas where encrustation reaches its acme of obscuration. One who does not know or care to know that the pristine source of Indian Theological traditions is to be found in the Vedas, at least can be partly traced to the Vedas and later to the Agamas, will certainly be at a loss to appreciate the fact that some Puranic texts can be directly traced to the Rig Veda, even so the Upanishads, and the occult truths embedded in the Tantras of the Shaiva, Shakta and Vaishnava.

The critic thinks that the imagery of the Ladder of Existence has nothing to do with any Indian Theology. But the imagery is not my invention. Sri Aurobindo discovered it, but the real Seer-poet who used the figure is a Rig Vedic Seer, thousands of years ago, who says that the seers climbed Indra like a ladder. And in the same opening hymns of the first Book it is further amplified by the statement that the sages journeyed upwards from ‘plateau to plateau’ or from ‘peak to peak’. The ascent by steps, sopana aroha, used in the Purana and the Tantra can be plainly traced to the Truth-vision of Seer Madhucchandas.

This much I have stated on the legitimate assumption that there may be on the critic's part a genuine misunderstanding or un-understanding of the nature of Indian Theologies of any persuasion and its relation to Sri Aurobindo's system.

Before closing, it must be stated that this review is no criticism of a genuine critic, it is a wordy pugilism of an objectionable sort, of an irresponsible brood. If hostile criticism can have any sound value, it must be criticism, it must recognise and state the claim of the book, not necessarily to accept it, and in exposing any weakness it must observe certain modes of etiquette, must make at least an effort at measure, sanity, justice. Here is the prefactory Note which mentions that years ago the Master after keeping the Mss. for some time with him gave his word of approval and blessings for appending it to the ‘Four Powers of the Mother’ (in Sanskrit), but the verdict of the critic ignores this fact and audaciously passes the unreasoning and malafide sentence of the removal of this book from the list of works dedicated to the service of the Master and his Teachings. At the close of the book, it is clearly stated that this treatise is arc-like, and compared to a tanvi, which simile is explained, in order to show that these seventy verses in a compact mould would be sufficient to give an adequate idea of the whole system. The dry-as-dust intellectual formalism and dialectical battle were purposely avoided, as that would be incongruous and out of place in the scheme of the work and defeat its purpose, which like the slender figure of the fair sex, is to be pleasing and attractive to the reader. Notwithstanding statements to this effect, the critic ignoring or seeming to ignore the point of view of the author of the work, goes on delivering a deathblow to a caricatured effigy of the substance of the book and utters the final word—the ultimate mantra for its last journey to the delectation of his own self at least and to the pleasure of those who engaged him to undertake this task. It must be added that it is the sureness of fire-eating instinct that impels him in this scornful temper to a callous temerity of judgment on things which he cannot approach with sympathy of mind and intellectual and spiritual straightforwardness. It is this that has succeeded in pulling down to the common passion-level whatever higher faculties of mind, and general learning and culture he may have developed or acquired—and this is quite manifest in his pronouncement that this book is a’ pointless disservice' made with an air of obviousness in a rude, censorious and inimical tone.

There is an element of irony here. The Journal that has given quarter to this attack gave a very welcome review to this very work when it appeared in print some ten years ago. But times have changed. It is a goodluck of all concerned that learned minds of a crude type were not serviceable as reviewers to the Journal at that time.

One word more. The only unprejudiced statement of fact which this reviewer makes as a tribute at the altar of untarnished truth is that the author is an accredited disciple of Sri Aurobindo. Here also I suspect that the ‘accredited’ is meant to bring into bold relief his own performance and thus to enhance his value to those who are responsible for his envenomed pen which in a single page has covered a multitude of sins of commission and omission by the author. When I find that the critic is not an ignoramus, but a learned mind though unfortunately given to pugilistic habits, I am reminded of Dr. Johnson saying, ‘Why Sir, a man who talks nonsense so well must know that he is talking nonsense.’

4) Is it Eclecticism?

(2)

Under the caption “Sri Kapali Sastry on Sri Aurobindo,” a reply to my article “Is it Eclecticism?” that appeared in the Advent of last August is given by the same critic Sri S. S. Raghavachar in The Vedanta Kesari (January). The writer makes a serious attempt to maintain the position he first took up, amplifies his criticism and in his reconsideration of whatever flowed from his pen he has tried to remove the ‘ambiguity’ I had referred to by stating that his critical remarks proceed from his dissatisfaction with the work of the disciple and not with the Magnum Opus of the Master himself. I welcome this concession contained in the last part of the sentence, as The Life Divine is an admirable production which even the worst opponents of Sri Aurobindo's teachings dare not dispose of lightly even when they could not or would not appreciate it in toto. But this does not mean that the critic accepts the teachings of Sri Aurobindo, the Yoga, the Path, the Goal of mankind, and other kindred matters on which he has written many volumes which put together are all very much larger in bulk than that of the Magnum Opus. His admiration for The Life Divine is not in question, but he has stated it because he wants it to be known that he does not find fault with that work and nothing more. If he has dissatisfaction with the disciple's work, he has his own reasons which he has stated in categorical terms. To mention them and to give adequate answers would require as much space as, if not more than double the space, taken up for writing the ‘booklet’ that has so much offended his (critic's) philosophical sobriety as to unsettle his equable poise in the ‘fabrication’ of the Daniel's judgment. If I refrain from taking notice of his posers, I have reasons which I shall presently state. I shall later on deal with some of his statements regarding the Master's philosophy and the many schools of philosophy in the West or in India.

The first and foremost reason for my viewing the criticism as not meriting refutation is this: I have stated in the book animadverted upon as well as in my article in the Advent the exact nature and purpose of the work viz. to explain throwing light on the Fundamental Concepts of Sri Aurobindo's Teachings. The title of the- ‘booklet’ itself must make it evident to any one who is not unwilling to see. Now to extend the connotation of the title to a title that would suit the convenience of the critic to attack viz. ‘Introduction to the Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo' is unfair, baseless; and that even after my explaining the position to insist that somehow the folly was mine, at any rate I should or must fall into the error of the critic's choice, is invincible prejudice; if not, what else?

Again, the critic himself states “It is too slender to be taken as furnishing an adequate introduction to the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo.” For this reason also, Lights on the Fundamentals is not the same as an adequate introduction to, the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo. There is another important point that the critic has thoroughly missed. He seems to assume that this ‘booklet’ purports to be a summary or resume of The Life Divine which is not the case. Nowhere have I stated in the book itself or later in my article that it is an introduction to Sri Aurobindo's philosophy as presented in The Life Divine. I took care to explain ‘darsanebhyah’ in the plural (p. 90). On the previous page it will be found that this work is extract from the teachings of Sri Aurobindo’ (p. 89). By that I meant other works also including the Secret of the Veda. If I did not mention the authority from Sri Aurobindo's works for every statement I made it was not necessary as mine is the responsibility for whatever I stated. This is because I had a system formed long ago in my mind that could be based on the traditional wisdom of the ancient mystics from the Rig Vedic times traversing the scriptures of an earlier age, followed by the Upanishads and Agamas of the different sects and Puranas down to our own times. The formation of such a system in my mind was facilitated by Sri Aurobindo's references to the Vedic, Vedantic and Tantric teachings in the various contexts of the subjects he was dealing with. Since the short treatise was intended to expound the central concepts, it was considered advisable to publish it as an appendix to The Four Powers of the Mother, translated by me into Sanskrit verse. As The Mother was mainly intended for Sadhaks and the matter was what related to Sadhana, a clear idea of the fundamental concepts of the Master's teachings being found in the booklet, the Master approved my idea of printing it as an appendix. This fact I had already mentioned. At least now, I hope the critic will see the correctness of my view and his initial error which led him to supplement the title by adding his words to explain what he considers I should have meant. Questionable is the journalistic ethics for a reveiwer to indulge in such luxuries. Ancient standard was fairly high and scrupulously maintained by shastraic writers. Old Kumarila demurs to such steps, saying, yavad vacanam vacanikam, ‘the meaning actually expressed must be conveyed’ and nothing is needed to supplement it.

I might as well stop here having pointed out the erroneous basis of the critic's contention as well as what he calls the main charge that I have not dealt with Sadhana. What I have stated is enough to show that he goes to a wrong shop, knocks and knocks at the wrong door and not finding what he wants quarrels and raises a hue and cry instead of blaming himself for want of circumspection before undertaking the unedifying job.

But I proceed to make some observations on some of his statements about the ‘eclectic patches,' ‘Western philosophers’ and a few others. What I write here is not quite adequate but is sufficient to point to the direction of my views on the curious and mistaken notions of the critic in respect of some of these topics. Before proceeding I must first dispose of a simple question which shall not be left in suspense. I recognise as genuine the critic's admission that he is not dissatisfied with the Philosophy of The Life Divine. I assume therefore that he recognises the synthetic harmony therein as an outstanding fact and that only in my miniature reproduction of it (i.e. Life Divine, according to him which I have explained in my denial) it turns out to be an untenable combination of “eclectic patches”. Well, it is something to know that he has nothing to say against The Life Divine, though he does not expressly state that he accepts the position of man and the goal before him as portrayed in The Life Divine; he has conceded so far, and that indeed serves his purpose of tearing to pieces my ‘eclectic patches’ over which he has very much to quarrel. But one can very easily see that the eclectic bugbear of the critic threatens the teachings of Sri Aurobindo as a whole and as represented in the’ booklet' in question. For whatever scriptural authority was referred to by me, whether Veda or Agama, Upanishad or Purana, has been based upon the Master's explicit and lucid statement to the same effect. I stress this fact because the critic strikes at the root of the case I have presented, as an easy step to show that there is no theological tradition to support the Seven Worlds etc. I shall presently show how the critic has fallen into the error of what seems to him as eclectic. Let me first quote Sri Aurobindo in regard to the world-order: in the Doctrine of the Mystics prefaced to the translation of the Hymns of the Atris, he says: “We have the same Cosmic gradation as in the Puranas but they are differently grouped,—seven worlds in principle, five in practice, three in their general groupings” (Arya, Vol. II, p. 100). I need not quote in detail the descriptive statements made about them and the intricate world-system of the Vedic mystics which takes a gros-shape in a simplified form in the Puranas, and has received adequate treatment at the hands of Sri Aurobindo there, as also elsewhere. But the critic would divine “eclectic patches” of the Vedic, Upanishadic and Puranic patterns in the harmonising of the sevenfold, fivefold and threefold principles and groupings and if the terms used are explained, as for instance, vijnana, or janaloka, with an eagle's eye he would pounce upon it tearing it to pieces labelling them as fanciful interpretations without any basis in what he would call Theological Tradition’. I realise and readily concede that the critic writes from genuine conviction and long-held strong views on the matter of theological conceptions that are in vogue in certain quarters, but not universal. But I hold that these views have an erroneous basis and the conviction is one born of equally erroneous notions.

In India the Veda is admitted on all hands to be the fountainhead of all spiritual Wisdom; and the other scriptures, Upanishads, Tantra or Purana are not unconnected departures from it, but are ‘in their essential build and character transmutations and extensions of the original vision and first spiritual experience.’ What Sri Aurobindo writes on the real character of these ancient texts stresses the fact that “the Veda gave us the first types and figures as seen and formed by an imaged spiritual intuition and psychological and religious experience. The Veda became to the later scholastic and ritualistic idea of Indian priests and pundits nothing better than a book of mythology and sacrificial ceremonies.” This is so in the face of the fact that all the scriptural texts, Upanishads and others proclaim the Vedas as the supreme authority held in great reverence and even Puranas themselves acclaim in portions that they are enlargings, upabrhmanam, upon the Vedic truths.

Once we grasp this fact about the character of these different lines of development of sacred literature in India we no longer accept the idea that they are all unconnected departures from the original source in the Vedic texts.

If therefore the seven worlds of the Puranas are traced to the seven Cosmic principles of the Vedic mystics, we are giving a factual interpretation on the authority of the Vedic and Puranic texts themselves. The same applies to certain references I made to the Taittiriya text which also continues the Vedic tradition and uses a language that is in accord with that of its age. Only when we treat these texts as totally unconnected deviations, the ‘patches’ has room to rear its head. One important fact that must be borne in mind in this context is that the names used in the Purana signifying the nature of the worlds to which they apply are suggestive and are our main clues to unveil the secret; for instance, when the Puranas say that Narayana reposes on Ananta I would presume that Ananta is the Infinite Prakriti on which he rests, and if a learned critic for the sake of criticism questions me as to the propriety of giving that fanciful meaning while according to his theological and puranic tradition Ananta is Sesha, serpent, the thousand-headed hydra and nothing more, I have no answer but a pitiful look at the stalwart. In the same way jana in janaloka suggests birth or creation which proceeds from Ananda according to the plain texts of the Upanishad.

Now I shall pass on to another interesting argument of the critic against the idea that Tapas is the creative force, or conscious force and that it leads to anthropomorphism. I stand aghast, my readers would laugh out in disgust. I need not quote him in full, nor is it worth an answer on his terms, I can very well imagine he is not a scoffer of the scriptures, but here he uses whatever argument he can summon to his convenience for demolishing my statements. The pity of it is that he forgets for the time being that the Vedas proclaim that by Tapas, He, Prajapati, created, satapo’ tapyata. The idea occurs frequently in the Brahmanas and the Upanishads. Sri Aurobindo expounds the principle of Tapas-force as exclusive concentration, in his Magnum Opus over which the critic has no quarrel. In my Rig Bhashya Bhumika, (published last year), I explained the term occurring in the second verse which I reproduce here as it contains a short but straight answer, as if in anticipation of the criticism. The Supreme “wears the sound-form for body and creates the universe by exhalation and lives with tapas for his life-breath.” On this my note runs as follows (I give only the relevant lines): “As the Creator he assumes the form of the primordial Sound, nada, the creative Logos; this Sabda is his body; his life-breath is Tapas which is Consciousness as Force. To show that the Tapas (as explained) is inherent in him an anthropomorphic figure is pressed into service on the strength of scriptural authority, that he exhales and the worlds are created. Creation is the natural, effortless outcome of that poise of the Lord, Prabhu.”

Sublime ideas, truths that transcend the senses and the reason founded on sense-data have always been expressed in images and figures and symbols from immemorial times, not only in the ancient scriptures of this land, but by Mystics all over the world. Only the ‘rationalist’ raises an ineffective objection against the use of image etc. But the one solid reply that can be given to it is Sri Aurobindo's answer (Vide his Letters, First Series) to Leonard Woolf's criticism of Mysticism where in the concluding passages he says that there is no deceitful cunning in using metaphors and symbols as in the simile of focus which is surely not intended as an argument but as a suggestive image.

In modern times thinkers of first rank, even when their system is not labelled spiritual philosophy, have had recourse to figures and images to carry home their conceptions or subtle perceptions, if you like. An appreciative critic of Bergson remarks: “He is occasionally obscure by the squandered wealth of his imagery, his analogies and his illustrations; he has an almost semitic passion for metaphor.” Thus, though Sri Aurobindo employs figures and images in illustrative terms to explain what is meant by Tapas and Ananda, he has taken care to deliberate upon them in the language of metaphysical reasoning in his Magnum Opus, and for the sake of a clear grasp of the terms he has described that “Tapas is the energising conscious power of Cosmic being by which the world is created, maintained and governed; it includes all concepts of force, will, energy, power, everything dynamic and dynamising. Ananda is the essential nature of bliss of the cosmic consciousness and in activity, its delight of self-creation and self-experience.”

Now I shall proceed to an important aspect of the critic's reasoning in caricaturing as untenable eclectic patches what we consider as a synthetic harmony. I have already mentioned the nature of the Upanishads, Tantra, etc. that are subsequent to and continuation of the teachings of the Vedic Wisdom in spite of their variations in form; and they all branch out from the spirit of the original Scripture. If I find in the Vakyapadiya of Bhartrihari something about the Logos I recognise that it has its basis in the Rig Veda, in the nitya yak, the Eternal Word, of Rishi Virupa in the 8th Mandala, or another line from the Valakhilya hymns of the Rig Veda, vageva visva bhuvananijajne, leaps to my mind and if my listener has ears he will have no difficulty in admitting the truth that the Logos of Bhartrihari is of Vedic origin. Or I turn to the Upanishads. I recognise the Logos in the Pranava, Akshara, Omkara, Udgitha variously described and explained therein, or when I look into the Pancharatra, Shakti Tantra or Shaiva Agma, I recognise the same Logos in the primal nada, adya spanda. The primordial throb which is the same with slight difference in name—but more expressive of the significance as the nitya vak, of the Rig Veda or Udgitha of the Chhandogya, or Omkara of the Mandukya; well, in the same manner, I can show that the so many ‘isms,’ vadas, that hang loosely in the learned mind of the critic as patches without fusing are mostly in their essentials directly traceable to the Upanishads. I carefully omit the Veda here as it is not in Vogue for purposes of theological and spiritual discussions, but simply kept in the lumber room though with great respect in theory. But let me state that these vadas have for their support the Shruti texts each in its own way for its purpose. But I do not undertake to quote the relevant texts here on which these Acharyas and their vadas depend. This much I say here that if I find spiritual monism or parinama vada or any other, I recognise them as rising from the sacred texts. And if any critic comes forward and preaches to me learnedly that what I say is taken from the spiritual monism of Shankara, I have no option but to laugh and pity my preacher just as any one would if he is told that the Gayatri is taught in the Chhandogya. That the Chhandogya refers to Gayatri is a fact, but originally it is in the Rig Veda of which the learned preacher is obviously ignorant. Similarly there is a passage in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad tat kena kam pasyet. When.I read it I find that the Shruti refers to an unalloyed Monistic Reality that could be experienced; if I say so my critic would say this is the “ism” of Shankara.

Now that I have finished with the eclectic worm, I should like to bring home the exact nature of this ‘eclectic’ stuff by the illustration of a picture in which various colours and curves figure within the framework on the canvas and any one with eyes on his head could see that it is a picture drawn on a canvas and that the substance and the materials used can be recognised, including the wooden or metallic frame. But a mind which is not inclined to appreciate a co-ordinated whole can very well say that the green colour is borrowed from the parrot of that garden, the azure from the half-clouded sky, the curve is copied from the distant landscape, the material for frame from the forest etc. In cases of such judgment which resolves a harmonious synthesis into intruding patches, the superior arbiter is a developed conscience and rectitude of the scrutinising eye; more is a matter of opinion of competent minds that count. Again, I am speaking of a tree in its entirety—root and branch, fruit and foliage and stem, but my critical friend's mind, riddled as it is with patches of my system, considers each part separately and thinks this is timber in its raw state, that is bark useful for therapy, those are flowers for decoration and so on with the result that their parts, usefulness or different uses cannot be co-ordinated and so are incongruous elements. Let me quote a passage from Sri Raghavachar in this connection which burns to ashes all the fancied ‘patches’ that are supposed to make up the whole. “One finds in Sastry's work the emergent evolution of S. Alexander, the intuitionism of Bergson, the spiritual monism of Shankaia, the Realism of Ramanuja and Madhava, the Brahma Parinamavada of Bhaskara and Kashmir Saivism, the Logos of Bhartrihari, the Sakti concept of Tantra and the ‘Lord’ of popular Theism.” Well, Sri Raghavachar could go on with many more ‘isms,’ for all is grist that comes to his mill and he is too learned, certainly. But the fact must be told that Sastry was singularly unaware of these systems, except perhaps a superficial idea and second-hand information obtained from later writers who knew or from cheap literature; and it was his fortunate ignorance of these ‘isms’ in their original and pristine purity that enabled him to study and understand the scriptures in their true set-up while he was hardly out of his teens nearly half-a-century ago, and later led him to appreciate and follow Sri Aurobindo on the one hand and on the other hand equipped him for an upright appraisal of the ‘isms’ of the West (of the East also), not their downright condemnation as is alleged.

The critic is emphatic, even extravagant, in the use of his sharp tongue when he fancies error in others and is generous in his righteous indignation at my basic remark about western metaphysics in general. His comments and stretchings and strictures as is quite often the case with him, are offensive and beside the mark. The actual line I used is this: “The bulk of metaphysical thinking in the West differs fundamentally from the philosophical systems in India.” This is the beginning of the passage that has offended his sense of fairplay and justice to western philosophers and he quotes the names of James, Bergson, Kant, Plato etc. Well, it is amazing how he fails to see that I did not mean or say that the West has not progressed and is not slowly or rapidly giving up materialistic thought realising the limitations of Reason. The names he mentions are, certainly worthy names. James was the son of a Swedenborgian mystic and himself contributed a deal to psychology and of all his works the Variety of Religious Experience was an eye-opener to the scientist who till then would not believe in the phenomena of a non-material existence which is in some way connected with the physical world. Bergson was rightly styled the ‘David destined to slay the Goliath of Materialism’ and his Creative Evolution is the first masterpiece of the Century. Much more can be said here. But what do all these prove? Can all this be an answer to the question ‘Is there a philosophic tradition in the West as is assumed in this land that a philosophic system is an attempt at intellectual presentation of supra-intellectual truths, perceived or experienced by the system:builder?’ The critic is loud that mine is a definite error; but he must know I am in good company.

A word about Reason. It has an important place, and is the highest instrument the human mind is endowed with, but it has its limitations. When I was speaking of Sri Aurobindo's system building, I did accord a radical place for experience, for Realisation and added that certain articles of faith, become theories or dogmas, but I did not mean or say that they shall not or can not be put in terms appealing to Reason. Otherwise there would have been no raison d'etre for The Life Divine. I did not undertake to establish the system or reason out the position and in that connection I spoke of what I may call the starting assumptions or dogmas.

I agree that ‘there is clearly a need for a criterion to eliminate pseudo-realisation.’ Here Reason can take an important part, but how far it can be trusted to solve the difficulty depends upon so many factors some of which pertain to the office and guidance and limitations of Reason itself.

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Introduction - Biographical background

I) Extracts from the letters of Sastriar

The line of my sadhana precludes me from adopting any one as my disciple or child.

8 November 1930

The five months' stay at Ananda Asrama⁷ is a remarkable period in my spiritual life, even as it is to you an eventful period chosen to make steady your sadhana and to transform those that are nearest and dearest to you and to get them initiated into a Higher life by employing a variety of means—by a mild push or a helpful blow, by a fascinating experience or an impressive feat or by some trivial trick of the Divine. The whole thing was a Drama. Everyone did his or her part. Everybody had both spiritual and material benefit of it in some form or other. I did my humble part and had a large share of the benefit. Our bonds have taken a definite spiritual shape. Let us proceed onward and distance does not separate us. Pleasure has a spiritual value for me, and thought of you has proved a pleasure to me. You can always rely on me for anything I am worth.

21 September 1931

Don't you know that I am deeply interested in your dreams at least for the simple reason that it was in a dream that I, like yourself, got the initiation long ago?

25 October 1931

My sadhana is all right. It is encouraging: certain new vistas are open. It is something like wrenching the heaven by force. I can't write all these things.

4 April 1932

My immediate aim is within grasp. This is the result of the daily gains for the last one month. In the steamer on our way to Calcutta a new movement started. It took a definite and powerful stand in or more correctly over me on the 18th July. And since then I perceive the direction I move along.

It is enough—without entering into the details—if I tell you what this immediate aim is in general terms. It is to make normal what I get, feel or perceive on occasions or in exalted moods, in meditation alone or with others. Now this requires a temporary seclusion. For this purpose I intend to stay alone for some twenty days, otherwise the light is diffused, the power spilt.

An absolute or permanent seclusion is unthinkable; for the aim is not self-absorption, but a Self-expression in life. I have been favoured with a mind, trained for years, to keep vigil and not to fall into stupor. I believe a three weeks' strenuous discipline will keep the mind in balance which is not easily disturbed by the rush, at times a violent rush of the higher powers. Till now I have avoided fuss in the house. But I can do so no longer. I shall remain unknown for a time.

9 August 1932

After his (Sri Aurobindo's) seclusion this is the first Darshan when there was a full satisfied understanding and mutual recognition. It had a great significance to me, which you will know from the following:

There was pause after a tremendous uprush and downpour of experience; such halts occurred many a time. Doubts of all sorts crossed me. But I got up. I laughed at the passing clouds; said to myself,’ Can you doubt or deny the sun in heaven because the clouds screen your view? ‘Can you doubt or deny the daylight because night intervenes between dawn and day? Can you deny the presence of air because a strong wind does not always blow?’

Then I happened to see part of a communication from Sri Aurobindo to some one, (not intended for publishing). This acted as an electric lift—it gave me literally the lift—and the decisive step came to be taken. I give below that Mantra, for it was a creative word, full of significance to me. Perhaps it may be instructive to you too. I write the substance of it and use the language of Sri Aurobindo from memory and omit what has not stuck to me:

“The Divine...is not a theory, it is a constant experience, concrete, more concrete than anything in the world of Matter...When the Peace of God descends upon you, when the Divine Presence is there in you, when the Ananda rushes on you like a sea, when Love flowers out from you on all creation, when the Divine Knowledge floods you with a light that illumines and transforms in a moment all that was dark, sorrowful and obscure, When all that is forms part of the one Divine Reality, when it is all around you, felt at once by the spiritual contact, by the inner vision, by the illumined and seeing thought, by the vital sensation, by the very physical sense; when everywhere you see, hear and touch the Divine, then you cannot doubt or deny..."

27 September 1932

I am happily a confirmed believer in Destiny. Only I am prompted to work it out, without allowing it to take me unawares. The course of events is well set by a Higher Intelligence. But each event seems to come as a result of our effort or of the absence of effort. Yet effort is indispensable; this is a subtle device to give us an opportunity to learn to commit less mistakes than in the past, to purify and strengthen and raise our being to a higher level. By higher level, I mean this. Our experience in daily life must teach us the simple truth that at the close of each day we find ourselves surviving all the bitter events of the day. We hope and are baffled, we are cheerful and are depressed, we grieve and rejoice, we love and hate, we strive and struggle, and succeed and fail—and all these vital moods and emotional passions arc left behind, we move, on to the morrow. While every event is a link in the chain of events which can never be altered, our own conditions do not form part of these events—this is the secret. We can keep ourselves attuned to the events, if we can learn to see that we can not only rise to the events and even rise above them, that is to say, to take part in the ordering of the events themselves—but this very few can do. For those that are able to order the course of events must be not merely in tune with the Cosmic Will, but must be in intimate contact with the Cosmic Divine Intelligence and Will. If we recognise the value and limitation of our efforts, —whether we act or will or feel and think,—and maintain a lifted view of the course of events, it gives us a useful and corrective attitude in practice, and it may,—at first on occasions and then frequently, afterwards continuously and permanently,—give us an intense faith in the result of the action, of the step we are prompted to take. Such an intense faith itself is an indication of the Divine Will. It may even be said that the Divine Will expresses itself as an intense faith in the heart of the worker: sraddhamayo'yam purusah, yo yacchraddhah sa eva sah (Gita).

Such an attitude gives a greater caution, a higher level of normal understanding and buoyancy and power for push towards the immediate step either in the outer life or towards a higher ideal. And it pleases the Divine so much, so says the great Master. For this too is surrender, an active one, not a ‘tamasic’ surrender which leads to depression and incurs perhaps the displeasure of the Mother of the Universe who is given to be so vigilant and active in governing Her creation and attending to the nurturing of Her children.

But personally, I have no objective in the outer life, not only for the present, but even for the future. Whatever outward life I have to lead is entirely in the hands of a Gracious Power to whom this life belongs. What outward wordly Ideal can I have even for a passing moment? For to get above the consciousness in the body `as frequently as possible is becoming a necessity, and such a condition makes its own demands. The springs of life have to be left for another use.

The current period has been a clear revolution. At one time, even disorders threatened...to me this life is not new; but the new line is thoroughly new. I was proceeding along the path of knowledge; but here I find it is a feeble light of a still higher and all-encompassing way of the Mother. Of course it is the path of ‘Love'. But it is not of the traditional kind. It is quite the reverse of the traditional conception of Bhakti Marga.

Formerly the element of devotion was there in my sadhana. But the ‘Love’ I speak of is different. I should write at least four or five pages to state what it is so far as I am related to it. It will be right to say that this Love is not even human emotion that strains and stretches towards the Divine. It is an independent universal power of the Divine Mather which seeks and seeks for embodiment on Earth. Some other time, if you are so minded to have, I hope to write at length on this matter.

This period has been marked by prayers filling the system. One such prayer has been moving me for some time past. I did not intend it as prayer at all. In meditation, certain sounds packed with ideas, above the thinking mind, arranged themselves some ten days ago. I could not catch all, and so I filled up the blanks afterward. I write it down here, not necessarily for your use, but in order to give you an idea of what my attitude and feeling in general are composed of, as a result of the immediate past. Perhaps it may touch that part in you which irresistibly drew me to you for the first time.

Mother, Divine Mother!

May we be awakened to Thy all-encompassing Love,
The love that enlightens our knowings,
The love that vivifies our livings to
    possess and be possessed by the
    glorious riches of Thy boundless
    energy cast in the cosmic mould
    of Mind, and Life and Matter.
The Love that concretises in our fragile
    frames of feeling, thinking and
    living matter the pure perfect and
    subtle strength and substance of
Thy ineffable Presence.
The Love that founds in us the intense
    raptures of the Delight of existence,
    measured in Thy measureless extension,
    marked in Thy eternal duration,
    and consummated as a point in the
    long line of Thy Truth and a perfected
    portion of Thyself.

22 October 1932.

I am spending, one hour, three or four days in a week to hit upon certain definite rules to be applied in horoscopy and astrology in general.

12 April 1933

Some two months back a new light was thrown upon certain aspects of astrology. It was a world of vision—new to me—stimulating and effectively helping the little capacity in me to interpret the language of the stars. It was at this period that my right eye was affected—blinded by too much play of light. The eye has since recovered its normal functioning and there is the required readjustment. Never was there any apprehension about it. That astrology can be made useful ‘for business in life’ is a belief (verified by personal experience) that I have long held, though I would not encourage others to rely upon astrology, as it is not one of the ‘exact sciences’. It is only an intuitive knowledge that can look into the significance of the planetary symbols and the ancients who were the authors of horoscopy etc. were intuitive seekers all over the world—Egyptians, Chaldeans, Akkadians, Chinese. But in India the study was more detailed and elaborate and complicated.

So it was natural for me to have desired to have with me the horoscopes of those (like you) in whom I am so closely and heartily interested. I would not have cared to sound astrology at all now, had it not been forced upon me on the way in my rising in the scale of levels of being and grades of degrees of Consciousness and its uninterrupted manifestations of various colours and forms and symbols of Power.

In Yoga no knowledge is tabooed, only an egoistic use of it i.e., a misuse of it by the ego-consciousness is forbidden. However little it be, when such knowledge comes it is accepted and kept as a gain for its use by the Divine Mother.

30 April 1933

My heart is made the temple for the Mother of the Universe. Nobody knows my humility, I assure you vanity is alien to my type. Secretly I have wept and wept and prayed for light and Love. When some drop got into me a few years back, some of you perhaps were impressed, some thought I was a wonderful man. All along I knew, it was not you that came to me for medical help, it was not I that decided to answer your need. I knew, what was moving me and you, unknown to us in the external; I trust to it, and therefore placed absolute confidence in your psychic directness.

9 May 1933

It so happened (unusual) that, was with the Mother alone in Her room for half-an-hour, meditating, conversing, losing myself in Love and Delight, seeking not to enjoy but ‘seeking to be enjoyed’ by the Divine. This last phrase sums up the turn of my being.

20 May 1933

The real solution must come from the core of one's being. As the aspiration grows, when one is able to light up a flame of Love for the Divine or the Absolute Truth, these problems present a different aspect, other difficulties make their appearance and one finds then that the only cure for all these ills, doubts, etc. is to make constant and intensify the zeal which is not an occasional desire for godly life or a tepid wish for spiritual realisation. As one progresses in his aspiration, he gets a clearer and clearer view of the ideal towards which he is drawn and moving and to which he can and shall refer all his thoughts, feelings and actions in order to harmonise and make them fit expressions of the Truth sought—God or Mother, or the Absolute or Self or Something Impersonal. All these I state from personal experience, I have had my share in the worship of doubts and difficulties, I did not choose them, and no one chooses his own difficulties. As things are, one has to face them; I have faced them, I am facing them; old difficulties have disappeared, new ones crop up, they will go, others may take their place, some of these are bound to recur and persist. But there is one redeeming feature—and that is a boon to me—and that is carrying me through. It is a happy confidence in the guidance, that these are incident to the path which everyone moving or wishing to move godwards must tread; some faith in myself that I am born to achieve something through the Divine Grace that would be pleasing to the Divine for which and which alone I should live; a certain conviction that even if my life's chapter is closed suddenly and unforeseen, I have landed into the right port and that what I have seen and experienced in this life is much more than I have deserved, much more than I have ever conceived of and aspired for.

But enough of this. Let me tell you that my optimism increases and is increasingly justified. I speak about myself so that you may take it that there are struggles in Yoga also, not merely in wordly life. But there is a difference, while in the former the struggle gives you strength and makes you a hero, in the latter it shatters the nerves through endless suffering.

I am steady, more steady than before in the sadhana; moments of depression are rare, but still there. This does not mean that there is no ‘ebb and flow’, the way is long and tedious; but since one does not walk alone in this Yoga, since one learns, in his own time, to feel the presence, the accompanying light of the Mother's Grace on the path, no anxiety or fear of failure is possible... What is wanted is strength. She alone can give it, and that She certainly does, as we grow, or She Herself hastens up our growth.

5 June 1933

Believe me that my faith and devotion are not ideal and complete. Still, the very name ‘Mother' has done me a lot which it would be impossible for many births to achieve. Every week is opening fresh vistas. I have known of no Yoga which lifts in a trice the human creature from the mire to the higher altitudes of the Divine Mother.

I have only one thought—and that is the ‘Mother’.

27 July 1933

The ‘source of strength’ in me is a Presence, ouite distinct from the outer personality and that is the Mother who in Her individual being and in the very physical body harbours the Divine souls and cosmic godheads, incorporates the cosmic consciousness, carries with Her the Supreme Eternal Divine, and allows to flow from Her the Peace that passeth all understanding, the Power that builds the Cosmos, the light that is the source of all knowledge and the soul of all things, and the Ananda that is the rasa, the very essence of all existences. My uninterrupted stay here⁸ for nearly seven months (this is the longest stay I have made here or anywhere, next to this my Ananda Ashram's stay is the longest, it was five months) has given me a new confidence and fearlessness previously unknown to me, and a closeness of feeling towards the Mother and the wonderful ways of Her workings...

The whole body must be made up of the ‘heart’ and become heart itself, then alone She can fill the body with Her presence constantly; every atom, every cell of the body is intended to become Her Abode. With her Divine solicitude which acts best when the being surrenders, with Her blessings for the transformation which becomes easy when one offers his prana, his vital part at the altar of the Mother, with Her gracious blessings (showered upon my aged mother at home) which I am asked to convey to her personally when I reach home; I am returning today, to return in a month or two; the human creature in me feels constantly, and frequently is aware of Her grip, of Her conscious guidance, of Her transmuting Love in silence.

4 September 1933

You speak of my ‘divine seclusion’, I speak of the difficulties that pursue one on the path until he is able to take his stand at least on the borderland of the higher regions of the Divine. Something shows itself clearly and unmistakably and then withdraws and waits allowing time for the preparation of the untouched or unwrought parts of the being. Despair is out of question.

27 November1933

When the faith becomes clear and one gets a vivid sense at least that he is not alone in the struggle and that he is at every step guided and helped by the Divine, then all restlessness drops into silence, then all struggle begins to cease.

This is the truth, so far as I have been able to conceive it in mind and realise it in life, though my success in the experiencing of this truth is at every stage limited by the receptive and responsive capacity of my being.

22 April 1934

You speak of ‘incarnations’ and ‘Superman’. These are very interesting subjects; but I am afraid I cannot write about them now, though they have been highly fascinating subjects throughout my life.

28 May1934

Sri Aurobindo's compassion is an ocean and my best Love is a drop…

16 October 1934

I saw the Mother yesterday and received Her blessings with special assurances of Her help and guidance as a living token of Her gracious influence and constant presence in those that are accepted by Her and have learnt to put trust in Her with a happy confidence.

The Mother has favoured me with some inner happiness and also something good corresponding to it in the environment and general atmosphere. This is much more than what the human creature under ordinary circumstances can hope for.

Let us grow ‘less undeserving’.

4 September 1935

The strength of the decision and the decision itself are not mine, you know. Only, I have a co-operating will.

12 January 1937

At the same time you must note that all along, an uncompromising idealism has characterised my outlook which may not be always called charitable in the accepted sense of the word and which may be considered rightly or wrongly ‘severe’ by some on occasions.

7 March 1937

The moment a slight depression sets in and vital enthusiasm is badly affected, some opening in the ‘nervous envelope’ invites forces of ill-health...

If we remember the truth about the causes of ill-health, we could at least prevent more than half the causes that contribute to ill-health. Besides, if we make up our mind to see to it that our life belongs to something greater and higher and larger than ourselves, to something of which it is a small part, a little surface of an oceanic Being, a living and conscious and responsible instrument, we can find it also easy to see to it that our life does not fall a prey to the forces in the form of domestic worries of various sorts.

...At a time, years ago when I could not think of help from any human source in the way that would have given me relief or solved my problems, I learnt to get over depressions by sheer mental will greatly helped by the idea: “Attachments belong to body and life but life is superior to material sheath and the attractions that enslave it; mind is still superior to life, as it is an instrument of knowledge and can guide life; again mind itself is less than myself, my soul which is superior to it; my soul, as I understand it, is powerless, knows little. If there is a God, a higher being who could give light and power to it, then this soul can control and conquer these lower instruments. Even if there is no God coming to give help, still the soul with the will in the mind can be made to dominate life and its movements."

18 June 1939

...The specific type of Higher life which...I have accepted...having finally embraced it after long and tortuous journeyings leading and landing me here through reflection, deliberation and conviction.

15 March 1940

I believe if there is any modernity in my writings it is still in the garb of the old.

22 May 1942

In the Mother's messages⁹ the first dated is the 7th. The date is remarkable. Because that evening an irresistible push broke my silence and called ‘Kumar' for ‘Interview’¹⁰ even though I had no mind to speak a word to him on this subject. That the Mother later when she saw me, recognised and appreciated this my condition is a matter of gratification and joy to M.; while it certainly keeps me contented, it has given me a larger scope to strengthen my gratitude and expand it in all spheres of my life.

December 1950

After a long time, turmoil, and trouble, I have learnt that one can easily wait any length of time only when he finds in him and with him somewhere the Quiet, Calm or the Peace which means absence of restlessness. - Surely this must be possible for anyone who is serious about Yoga, especially when one has received the Influence and the Touch. A mere reflection of the best moments will bring back the calm which is the cure for restlessness and not outside news as help. Of course a spoken or written word from a trust-worthy source could be of help; even then, the effectiveness depends on the inner condition. Everything from outside can serve a good turn when we learn by practice to live out from within and rely on That (He or She) within, in the central depths.

6 February 1951

II) From Tusarakoti

[Journal maintained by the Editor]

Mere occult powers without a spiritual basis cannot take one far, they do not go long enough. If mere Tantra Sastra were enough, things would have shaped quite differently with me. Even before I met Nayana,¹¹ I knew and had practised these austerities with considerable success. And it is the reserve power of Vak that has been stored up in me clue to prolonged Mantra-upasana in these early years that still works what you might call ‘miracles’. At any moment when I call Sri Aurobindo or the Mother, the response is immediate. The surcharged Vak power goes forth instantaneously and the call is effective. Times without number when you were unwell I have called Them (Sri Aurobindo or Mother), and have seen the response effective in you.

22 June 1951

I am a Tantric through and through—to my marrow. I was a Tantric. If I have not written on the subject as much as on the Veda and the Upanishads it is simply because the subject is not very much connected with the Teaching here.

I know the Tantra Sadhana in a very familiar way and can utilise my knowledge of the World-Power in an effective manner.

July 1951

I never fail to invoke my ista devata. Vivekananda speaks of Kali worship of his for secular purposes. For me, whatever the purpose—secular or spiritual, to wait upon the ista devata is a rule. Even when going to the Mother I do it.

23 August 1950

III) From Notes

Sastriar started Sanskrit at the age of five and in his eighth year his father placed the Ramayana in his hands. He did the Veda-adhyayana, studied the Kavyas and Vyakarana, all under his father from whom he also received instructions in religious worships, including Mantra Sadhana. Some time after his father's demise, Sastriar came in contact with Sri Vasishtha Ganapati Muni. From that date his earlier equipment began to grow in intensity and in volume by wide reading. It was from him that he learnt to follow many lines of Sastraic thought as well as investigation into the meaning of the hymns of the Rig Veda. Though as a boy he used to write verses without much effort it was only after coming under the influence of the Guru his poetic taste developed and he could compose verses with ease. But his interest in life took him in other directions of thought. In 1931, at the instance of his Guru, he wrote the Sat-Darsana Bhasya in Sanskrit and later some Commentaries¹² on some of his (Guru's) works.

Sastriar was never an inmate of the Ashram at Tiruvannamalai, though he sat under the feet of the Maharshi, by frequent visits to his abode on the hills and later also when he came down, but not so frequently then. But he has not been connected with the Ashram as it was not formed at that time.

12 July 1948

IV) My First Meeting with Sri Aurobindo - as related to the Editor

It was April 1917. I had received an invitation in Madras to deliver a lecture in connection with the Shankara Jayanti celebrations at Pondicherry. There was some hesitation on my part in accepting the invitation, for the organisers of the function were known to be a rather very orthodox set of gentlemen and though my way of life conformed to the usual standards of orthodoxy, I had my own doubts whether my opinions and views which ran counter to the rigidly conservative outlook would be palatable to my hosts. But they pressed their invitation. There was another and a more intimate factor which decided my choice. I had long wanted to see Sri Aurobindo. Here was an opportunity too good to be missed particularly since, as I fondly imagined then, the police would not bother one who goes on such a pious mission as to narticipate in a religious function like the Shankara Jayanti. Events, however, turned out to be otherwise; police attentions were not wanting, but that is a different story.

I had first heard of Sri Aurobindo under peculiar circumstances. In 1907, Bepin Pal had come down to Madras on his lecture tour and the city was all agog over his thunders on the Marina. Being caught up in the general whirlpool of the raging new spirit, I could not help attending those lectures. And it was after one of these that a friend, who was a college student then and later retired as the Principal of a local college, took me aside and said: “This Pal is a loud speaker; inspired, he orates, true, but he is not the chief leader. There is another man behind the scenes, working at the desk, giving directions. His name is Aurobindo Ghose—a saintly man, a Shakti-Upasaka.” I got interested and when in the course of a year another friend returned from Nagpur where he attended a lecture by Sri Aurobindo (after the Surat Congress on his way from Bombay to Calcutta), I lost no time in getting as much information as possible from him. He was all admiration and respect while describing the leader. “He does not have a loud voice. But when he started speaking slowly in distinctive tones, we all felt a kind of rhythm creeping over the vast concourse and when the lecture was over, we woke up as if from an enchantment,” he said. It is outside the scope of this brief narration to trace the course of my further acquaintance with Sri Aurobindo's activities and writings—first political and then the epoch-making Arya.

So then, I decided to take the trip with this main object of visiting Sri Aurobindo. On arrival at Pondicherry, I called at Poet Bharati's. He was then living in Ishwaran Dharmaraja Kovil Street and when I was announced, his little- daughter led me up to the first floor where I found him singing:

‘இந்த ஜன்மத்தில் ஜயமுண்டு பயமில்லை மனமே’

‘Victory in this life is certain
    O Mind, fear there is none.'

Then after a pause he made enquiries of one or two friends in Madras. I had met Bharati before in Mylapore; the last I saw him was a little before 1907. But what a change! Circumstances had conspired to wreck the physique and the handsome and spirited face of the inspired poet, the national poet of Tamilnad; he was shrunken, pale and setting. Suddenly he burst out;

‘குகனே, பரமன் மகனே, குகையில் வளரும் கனலே!'

‘In the secret cave, 0 growing Flame,
Son of the Supreme...’

I knew Bharati had some knowledge of Sanskrit which he had studied at Kashi but not that he had acquaintance with the Vedas deep enough to give expression to such an essentially Vedic conception as the growing Flame in the heart of man. Besides, the poet identifies Agni as Guha, Kumara, son of the Supreme

When I asked him how he caught the idea, he gave an interesting explanation in the course of which he said:

"Yes, I have studied 200 hymns (I do not quite recollect whether he said hymns or Riks) under Aurobindo Ghose."

It was from Bharati himself that I learnt he got the inspiration and general knowledge of the Vedic gods and hymns from Sri Aurobindo. Later he translated into Tamil some of the Vedic hymns to Agni.

So the talk switched on to A.G. (as he used to be known in those days).

“Where is he living?” I asked.

“There,” he pointed out in the direction of the European quarters.

“I want to see him."

“But now-a-days he is very much disinclined to see people. I myself do not meet him often as I used to do before. Anyway I shall ascertain."

“Please mention that I have come on a pilgrimage to him,” I pressed, as if on impulse. Indeed the pilgrimage had commenced somewhere and that long ago.

Bharati wrote out a brief note in Tamil—a characteristically humorous one—to Nagaswami who was attending on Sri Aurobindo at that time, and signed himself as Shakti-Kumar, and he sent me with an escort to the house where Sri Aurobindo lived.

It was 3 p.m. when we arrived there. Nagaswami was obliging. He took the note, went up to A.G. and was back within a couple of minutes. “He will see you at 6 p.m. today,” he said.

Dilemma of dilemmas! The hour for which I had looked forward with so much eagerness had arrived. But the timing was embarassing. For precisely at 6 the meeting was also scheduled to commence at which the lecture was to be delivered. Neither of these could be missed. And yet both could not be fulfilled at the same time. “Was it the proverbial sattva-pariksa?” I wondered. I thought for a while and sent word to the organisers of the function that the meeting could commence a little later than at the fixed hour.

At six, I was escorted up the stairs of the house of Sri Aurobindo. It is now known as the Guest House—which name it acquired after Sri Aurobindo shifted to another building now in the main Ashram block. As I went up the stairs and reached the threshold, there stretched in front of me a long hall with a simple table and two chairs at the centre. At the farther end was a room on the threshold of which stood Sri Aurobindo. Like a moving statue—such was his impersonal bearing—he advanced towards the table as I proceeded from my end and we both met at the centre. Like Rama, the Aryan model of courtesy and nobility held up by Valmiki, Sri Aurobindo spoke first, purva-bhasi. I had carried with me a lemon fruit as a humble expression of my esteem for him and after he sat down, I placed it on the table in his front and said: sudinam asid adya (a happy day today).

Sri Aurobindo leaned over to the youngster who was still there and seemed to ask him if I knew English. He was assured I knew and with what smattering of the language I had, we commenced the conversation. It would be an omission if I fail to.tell here what happened the moment I stood face to face with Sri Aurobindo at the table.

The age is past when matters of this kind had to be kept to oneself and concealed from others for fear of scoffings from rationalists and sceptics. Man has come to realise that there are more things on earth and in heaven than are written in books and discovered in laboratories. Well, as soon I saw him, even from a distance, there was set in motion, all of a sudden, a rapid vibratory movement in my body from head to foot. There was a continuous thrill and throb. I seemed to stand on the top of a dynamo working at top speed and it was as powerful as it was new. It lasted for nearly four to five minutes. It did not really stop at all. In fact it continued ever since for long and every time I went to see him later, or for his Darshan after his retirement, the phenomenon tended to repeat itself.

A spiritual personality continually pours out spiritual emanations from within and it would seem that when any one with some secret affinity or even a point of contact somewhere in the being comes within the ambience of these vibrations, there is an attempt by something subtle in us to imbibe as much of these sustaining and strength-giving radiations as possible. But the physique not being so supple cannot support this occult commerce for long; it lacks the necessary nerve-force to keep up the flow and the physical palpitating movement is the result. Of course, I find this explanation now. All that I knew at that time and could not help knowing was that I was in the presence of an unusually mighty personality. Was it the sun-flower turned to the sun, or was it the filings in a tremulous dance before a block of magnet or was he the mystic spider, ever watchful, taking his prey alive to preserve it within his web biding his hour?

I had three important questions to ask, two of them are not of moment here. The question of the country's future was naturally uppermost in my mind and I was eager to know what Sri Aurobindo thought of it. I wanted to have a word of hope, if that was possible, from this statesman and prophet, from this rare gift of God to the nation, in regard to the prospects before the country and asked:

“What are the immediate possibilities of India?”

“Why possibility? It is a certainty,” he returned with emphasis.

The Hindu-Muslim problem was lurking in the minds of thinking politicians who were few; in spite of Tilak and the Lucknow Pact the fear was there. “We have to bargain and purchase patriotism from them,” I put in. He agreed it was a serious hurdle but hoped that reform movements would come on and influence the progressive sections of the communities. “A larger Hinduism could find a solution and it is a necessity,” he added thoughtfully.

It was seven o'clock now, the hour to which the lecture was postponed arrived and I rose to take leave. To a question of mine, while parting, he said: “You can come here tomorrow, but by this time."

Did I part the same person who came at six o'clock? Apparently I did. But not for long. For, something had happened to me of which I was not fully mindful nor did I imagine the full significance of what took place in my first meeting with Sri Aurobindo.

Something had been set going which carried me on its wings—this is more than a figure of speech—shuttling me from and back to him with an irresistible intensity till at last I came back to him six years later (1923), in a different role this time, as a seeker seeking the feet of the Teacher, and exclaimed marvelling at the change in his appearance:

“What other proof is required, Sire! Then your complexion was dark-brown, now it is fair; today the hue is a golden hue. Here is the concrete proof of the Yoga that is yours.”

August 1949.

V) Siddhanjana - How it came to be written

Every people have their Scripture, a Book of Wisdom. The Hebrews have the Old Testament, the Christians their Bible, the Mohammedans the Quoran, the old Persians and the modern Parsis the Zend Avesta. To the ancient inhabitants and their descendants of this country the Book of Knowledge is without doubt the Veda. In the unbroken tradition of these peoples, for over five millenniums, it is the Veda that has been always given a prominent place as the Supreme Word to which all that man does or says has to conform. The Veda is regarded as Revelation vouchsafed to the forefathers, the guardians of human race, in order to guide and steer the Wheel of Creation on the rightful course.

Yet if we consider the verdict of modern scholarship of the western kind or even follow the line of indigenous learning, the Rig Veda which is the kernel of the Vedic literature is nothing more than a collection of prayer songs addressed to Nature-Powers, hymns of a primitive people to the gods of their ritual. This is a paradox that calls for an answer.

The paradox however resolves itself if we look a little deeper into the Vedic tradition which speaks of a threefold mode of understanding the hymns of the Veda. There is first the interpretation as related to ritual, karma; there is the naturalistic interpretation; and then there is the spiritual meaning. There is also, we may add, what is called the historical interpretation. Though in the heyday of the Rig Vedic culture all these modes of interpretation may have had currency, it is quite understandable how in the course of time the grosser and more external way of understanding and approaching the hymns came to hold sway eclipsing the others.

There were undoubtedly attempts to arrest this development and there are on record efforts like those of Acharya Ananda Tirtha to resuscitate the spiritual tradition. In our own times Swami Dayananda was the first to renew the attempt and this he did basing himself on the derivative significance of the words used in the hymns. True, these efforts never wholly succeeded in restoring the esoteric interpretation to a level on par with the ritualistic which has all but engulfed the whole of the Veda; but they did serve a purpose: they kept alive the dim flicker of the spiritual significance of the scripture.

It was given to Sri Aurobindo, however, now nearly four decades ago, to perceive the deities of the Vedic hymns face to face, find in a succession of hymns the chart of an inner life which closely corresponded with the path that was being hewn within his own being in the course of his austere Yogic discipline, tapascarya. He delved deeper into the hymns and found clues to unravel their inner meaning and came out with a confident announcement that there is a Secret in the Veda and gave a reasoned exposition, necessarily on broad lines, of his discovery. He proceeded to apply the new-found clues, the clues of symbolism, to a number of Select Hymns from various Mandalas of the Rig Veda and showed how these Riks, ostensibly ritualistic in character were also pregnant with another and richer sense. The hymns have undoubtedly an external sense commonly known; but they have also an esoteric meaning and value and it is this fact that is at the bottom of the tradition that invests the Veda with the authority of a Revealed Scripture. This in brief is the purport of the studies initiated by Sri Aurobindo.

Whether these clues of symbolism, albeit based on linguistic research, could yield results in a systematic manner, whether the results thus arrived at could stand the test of the scholar's scrutiny and whether there was any support to these findings in the vast mass of the country's literature that grew round and flowed from the Vedas, were questions that naturally arose in the minds of earnest students and demanded a satisfying answer in the form of a regular exposition of the Hymns as done by earlier commentators. And it is precisely this desideratum that has been sought to be met by Siddhanjana, the Bhasya of Sri T. V. Kapali Sastriar on the first Astaka of the Rig Veda.

Before we proceed to give a brief survey of this work, it is pertinent to say how it came to be undertaken. To quote the words of the author himself in his Foreword:

“In the nineties of the last century when, according to the family custom, I was being taught the chanting of the Veda—Sama Gana with Rik texts —, I had a vague idea, a strong belief characteristic of old style orthodoxy that Veda means Veda-Purusha, it is God as Veda, eternal, the sound-body of God. Beyond this I did not think and could not. When a few years later, I grew in knowledge of Sanskrit, just enough to read and understand the simple and lucid commentary of Sayana, I was curious to know at least the meaning of those Riks which I had already got by heart.”

“When I turned to the pages of Sayana Bhashya, I did not find any difficulty in understanding the word-for-word meaning given therein, but in some places I vaguely thought there was something more than what was written there, but I was not able to go further, what little I could sense was that it was dark to me and the darkness was visible; in effect my eyes could not see.”

“A few years afterwards, it was the late Vasishtha Ganapati Muni—Kavyakantha Ganapati Sastri whom we adored and addressed as Nayana, beloved father—who in a way first opened my eyes. It was he who since 1907-1908 took me as his own and guided me in many branches of Sanskrit study and laid in me the foundations for spiritual life which in later years grew to claim me in its entirety. It was in 1910 that he favoured me with instructions regarding the deities of the Rig Veda and the depth of thought in the Vedic hymns."

“But from 1914, ever since the Arya began to appear, I have closely followed Sri Aurobindo's approach to the study of the Rig Veda and whole-heartedly, with sufficient reasons, accepted it."

The author, however, had no definite plan to write a Bhashya of this kind. Some ten years ago, he was approached on behalf of a well-known Vedic Editor to give word-to-word meaning in Sanskrit for the Hymns of the Rig Veda for being rendered in Hindi later. He thought it could be done, but thought also that it would not be acceptable to scholars in the absence of necessary explanations, grammatical notes, justification for departure where necessary from old commentaries or modern opinion.

To quote again the author: “So I placed the matter before Sri Aurobindo with my submission that I would undertake the task only if he would be pleased to go through what I write. This he graciously agreed to do and added that I could write the commentary keeping close to his line of interpretation and using the clues he has provided to unveil the symbolic imagery for arriving at the inner meaning that is the secret of the Veda."

Thus did the author begin, in his sixtieth year, this most important work of his. There were interruptions; there were mounting difficulties from every side. Of assistance from other hands, usual in undertakings of this kind, to find out and give references, to note down and copy out,—he had none. His lean library was not of any considerable help. He drew almost entirely on his phenomenal memory and things were checked up only during the proof-stage. He had to attend to the proofs and other printing details—a factor which acted as a heavy drain on much of his time and energy.

In between there were demands on his pen, for translations into Tamil or Telugu, articles in English on diverse subjects, not to speak of his favourite Sanskrit Muse which would brook no delay. Due to this preoccupation with the Bhashya he was obliged to decline to contribute to the History of Philosophy in compilation under the direction of the Ministry of Education of the Union Government. He wrote fast and as in all other writings of his, the first draft was also the last.

All these years that I have been privileged to be with him—years which incidentally coincide with the period of his literary productions—I have never seen him making anything beyond a few verbal alterations in the draft. I remember how at one time he dictated to me on the typewriter continuous and packed matter running into nearly 90 pages (crown octavo) without the aid of notes worth the mention. In spite of all impediments and discouraging circumstances, he was comforted and impelled to proceed with the work by the sole factor that Sri Aurobindo took keen interest in the work, to the point of making suggestions and asking for explanations. Even during a period when Sri Aurobindo had completely stopped attending to any kind of literary work, he made an exception in the case of Rig Bhashya—a singular gesture of his interest and appreciation.

And then there were difficulties arising from the nature of the work itself. If I have known the author completing as many as ten to fifteen Riks in a few hours, I have also seen him waiting for hours together, to get at the right clue to explain a single Rik or a phrase. When I asked him why it was so difficult for an intellectual like him to think it out, he replied (and repeated it on many other occasions) that it was always possible to give intellectual explanations for anything but, unless they satisfied his inner being, unless he felt from within with an unshakable certitude that this is what the Rishis meant he could not put it down. A filial loyalty to the Rishis whose hymns he has fathomed and a strong sense of responsibility to the future generations,—these have been the two governing considerations constantly before him. Wherever he has not felt convinced that what he has said is the explanation and yet had to say it, he has frankly stated so in the Bhashya. Occasionally he has plainly said that he could obtain no clues.

Whatever may be said of this work by critics, today or tomorrow, they will not—one can be sure—charge it with glossing over difficult portions or by-passing inconvenient corners. Each page of the Bhashya bears witness to the sincerity, circumspection and loyalty to the bequest of the Vedic Rishis on the part of the author. No wonder, open-minded scholars and Pandits have been whole-hearted in their acclaim of this work. As Vidwan Sri Gunti Somayajulu observes, in giving his opinion on the thesis contained in the Bhumika, the author “puts the tradition behind him into his writing...the introduction brings out the traditional methods of interpretation, has adapted the learned commentaries of the past, traverses through the conclusions arrived at by the intensive studies of Western critics and finally establishes the result of the mystic work of Yogi Sri Aurobindo.” Or, to quote Dr. C. Kunhan Raja: “That part...where various Rig Vedic words are taken up as illustration of the esoteric meaning of the words and where the exposition of the true nature of the Deities is given shows complete mastery of the methods of research, a keen power of analysis and a full grasp of the fundamentals. It is comprehensive, thorough and precise...The publication when completed will be the most important contribution to Vedic interpretation.”

The work begins with a comprehensive Introduction, Bhumika, the opening verses of which take a bird’s-eye-view of the historical developments in the Vedic field down to the line of symbolic interpretation laid out by Sri Aurobindo. An examination of the objections to this line by the exponents of the current mode of Vedic learning is followed by an exhaustive statement of the principles of this interpretation along with corroborative evidence and support marshalled from the Vedic Rishis themselves, from Yaska and other succeeding authorities. The deities of the Rig Veda, their nature and functions also come in for elucidation in this Bhumika which a learned critic, scholar and administrator has described as ‘a very scholarly thesis and comparable to the well-known introduction of Rig Veda by Sayanacharya for its lucidity, cogency and originality.’

The text itself is given in the usual order—the Samhita, the Pada (with accents marked) and the Commentary... ‘The meaning of each word is carefully weighed, good reasons are given to show why the order of words in the Mantras adopted by him is proper and each Rik is shown to yield a consistent meaning.’ Wherever there have been important departures from the generally accepted understanding of the hymns (mostly based on Sayana), the author has explained his stand in lucid and easy Sanskrit and cited authorities in support.

He has taken pains to excavate, as it were, the origins of many of the Puranic legends in these ancient Vedic hymns and brought out their true significance and original stature. Thus for instance, the story of the Trivikrama Avatara is given a fully rational explanation. There is again the legend of Shunashepa which has given rise to so much confusion and error regarding the alleged institution of human sacrifice in the old Aryan society. The real significance of the Shunashepa narrative, the nature of the threefold bondage signified by the three knots and the profound meaning of the Purusha Medha, which is the holocaust of the Cosmic Purusha in reverse, these and other precious gems of knowledge which have been so long covered under the debris of myth and legend, are resurrected and presented with a rationale that makes things so self-evident and leaves one wondering how so much misunderstanding and superstition could at all manage to gather round?

Similarly there is the story of Dadhichi—a story whose many versions contradict each other, apart from the impossible elements inherent in each. The author has condensed the labours of his exhaustive research into this subject within a couple of pages and expounded the doctrine of Madhu Vidya with an immediacy of appeal that could not be missed. Or, the story of Trita Aptya in the Well. The full significance of Yajna, the ceremony of sacrifice which had a meaning all its own in the inner life of the Vedic mystic, the order in which the yogin called upon the various gods to help him on the upward path, the several kinds of gifts which each god could bestow, the alternations of day and night, the several breaks of Dawn—these are some of the topics that come to be dealt with in the course of this Commentary which, for the first time, gives a connected and coherent picture of the Aryan ascent to the Sun of Truth, as recorded in the Hymns of the Rig Veda.

The value of this publication is enhanced by the addition of a conspectus at the end which gives a list of noteworthy points dealt with page-wise, so that any one with a working knowledge of Sanskrit can find out the distinctive features of the Bhashya without labour. There is the usual list of the Rishi, metre, the Deity of Suktas and also an Index to facilitate reference.

24 November 1951

—M.P.P.

1) Preparation

Right Attitude—Aspiration—Faith

So it is not only not wrong to aspire for a higher life, but it can be easily wrong not to strengthen that aspiration which springs from one's nature, from the core of one's being especially as when one finds, as you do (your experience means that) visible signs of an uncommon Light and Truth. These experiences are fingerprints of the guiding hand of the Divine Mother in Her all-engrossing love and mercy for those who call upon Her for help and guidance, for Peace, for Power, to reveal and manifest Herself in the living material body for Her own Divine purpose, for deliverance and final beatitude or for any or many of these and many more of the measureless riches of Her Divine Being.

What you saw is genuine, not fanciful or false. It is inadvisable and difficult too to write explaining your vision of lights and colours within the short compass of a letter.

Since you are a student and cannot take up yoga in a regular fashion, the best thing for you to do is to note carefully your experiences whenever you get them and not to be depressed when you do not get any and wait, till the time comes or when the education is finished, to know the significance of such experiences and to come under the direct influence of the Divine Master, of the Divine Mother.

Meanwhile since all your aspiration is summed up in the prayer¹³ stick to it, ponder over it, assimilate its spirit, mould your normal attitude in consonance with the spirit of that Prayer. The Mother is sure to help your growth in her own way, in response to your daily prayer, that you may one day in your life find that all along it was She who was Herself growing in you, rather than helping your growth.

27 June 1934

Give me constancy in the will to attain the end, give me firmness and energy and the courage which shakes off all torpor and lassitude.

Give me the peace of perfect disinterestedness, the peace that makes Thy presence felt and Thy intervention effective, the peace that is ever victorious over all bad will and every obscurity.

Grant, I implore Thee, that all in my being may be identified with Thee. May I be nothing else any more than a flame of love utterly awakened to a supreme realisation of Thee.” (The Mother, Prayers and Meditations: February 15, 1914.)

Right Attitude

If you conduct yourself properly, and feel and think and do in such a way as to fit in with your aspiration and devotion, your namaskars will reach the Mother unobstructed and more effectively than any mention I may make on your behalf.

9 May 1937

“Remember us” the Mother said to you. That is the one panacea for all your real and imaginary ills.

27 May 1937

Never say to yourself ‘I am weak’.
That is cursing one's self.

25 July 1933

Have a happy confidence that you would succeed; that is the right attitude in all endeavours; a happy confidence in your capacity including a controlled, unfading enthusiasm, a conquering fervour, without excitement.

4 September 1936

Talking of yourself, you say ‘ignoble’ and all that. Surely sin, weakness, defects—all these are there for the X'ian missionary. Ours is a different goal, so is the line chosen for us different. You say you have to be carried and is that any reason for dejection? On the other hand, you must be proud that you are meant to be carried. The happiest condition is to feel that you are carried. You have had unmistakable experiences and powerful hints to justify your claim for `being carried'. Really such an upward turn is not possible for an ‘ignoble spirit’.

Allotted time and place have their uses and are necessary for all time for some and for some time for all, but they are not indispensable for every one. Besides, how can you subject the Divine to accommodate to your routine? Remember you are not paying a debt to the Divine; you are simply to allow the Divine to take possession of yourself and all that is yours—and this is not a post-mortem affair.

And so, self-conservation is the central idea of this spiritual life of our conception. What is required is to maintain a high poise of mind while engaged in life's activities; for the Divine must be allowed to manifest in our life and its activities as well as in quiet meditation or prayer.

22 January 1931

Such a feeling (that you ‘have not played your part properly’,) is not likely to be helpful, at any rate, in your case. It may be good for some people or under certain conditions, especially when it finds a place in the initial steps of the ladder of aspiration for Godliness, for God's Light, for God's Life, for God's Love. Even then its value is uncertain, as it may often lead to dejection, to underestimation of one's worth and true capacity, to a forgetfulness of positive assurances (of a promised or promising future) that one might have felt or knowingly received through experiences of a sort—dreams, visions, presentiments, unexpected (providential) succour in times of need, or occurrences throwing light on the unmistakable signs of a Guiding Power educating our understanding into the mysteries of the Invisible...

But if it is a general feeling in special regard to Godly life, it may be true; but then it can be true only relatively, very relatively true. The whole world of sadhaks cannot but have some such feeling—since human nature is imperfect and the world's condition, as it is, is not favourable for God's life to manifest in man...

Whatever thoughts, feelings or doubts may cross the mind on occasions, the time is bound to come when one gets the strong feeling, if not knowledge, and could say, ‘yes, this is the thing, this is the line towards which I have been moving though without knowing it.'

29 May 1934

Help yourself first, make the most of the help that comes to you and when you can, without any harm or sense of it to yourself, you can of course give help to others—say, a kind act, a good thought, or a word of truth when agreeable.

14 October 1936

We are not here to forgive others. But we are here to learn to think and feel and so act that others may not have to forgive us. If we accept this principle in life, then the light of self-criticismis sure to grow in us; and we can't get out of the grip of a divine and vital sincerity which alone is enough to withstand the forces of obstruction in the path of progress towards Truth, Love or God.

2 November 1932

No, it is not necessary that you should weigh every word before it is spoken; it will then be strained, unnatural, awkward and artificial. But it does not mean that you must allow yourself to be a victim to the impulse of the moment uttering words that might hurt others—good, bad, indifferent, truth or falsehood.

The habit of right thinking and a strong sense of right and wrong generally help a reflective mind to keep itself above passion and use the right word at the right moment without the necessity of ‘weighing every word’ before it is uttered. Such an ideal is not realised in a day, but still it is possible and you can aim at it even from now as a high aspirant that you assuredly are, and can find a reasonable measure of success. It does not matter if one meets with initial failures, for success will be eventual.

Again, it is no part of Hypocracy's mission to have calm reflection and self-control to a degree, natural or acquired by training and discipline and habit. It is a strength worth aspiring for by which one can keep the line of speech and the wording calm and quiet and uninsistent so as to avoid hurting others as far as possible and to contribute one's mite to the general smooth-running that is desired, and not allow one's self-righteousness to sink in suppressed passion or float in the bubble of temper, leading in the end to weakness and despair.

Aspire then, for this noble strength and true courage. I trust you will get the needed help.

5 October 1936

It is not too difficult for you to perceive the change coming upon your inner stuff. I shall hold my tongue in trembling reverence before my Supreme Mother and try to see the work of Her Supreme Grace in Silence. Yes, have peace and be happy; thus alone can you be watchful and grow in consciousness. They say one must get introspection; yes, let us add that one must also have retrospection and circumspection. Let us be unworried: it is in Peace and Silence, watchfulness is possible... Help when needed will come to you from behind or above through the intuitive mind as intuitive suggestion and discrimination to begin with, and also through enlightened impulse in active life.

15 November 1930

But there is a purpose in my referring to these traits (simplicity, enthusiasm, wisdom). Undoubtedly it should please you, but that is incidental. The main object is to awaken in you a higher sense of your guardianship over these qualities, for they have a great spiritual and enduring value, in fact they are god-given virtues trying to find fuller expression in you, and you have to guard them, allow them to grow and bear fruit. For simplicity is an expression of sincerity which is the fulcrum of the soul manifesting in nature, enthusiasm is the “vital push” which is the power of the spirit within, while wisdom is the light of the soul which is a portion of the Divine Himself.

14 June 1938

The meaning of events is to test the inner attitude and strength and bring out the best in us to respond to the stimuli from the environment. This general truth, you know, has a special application in the life of a sadhak. When you say that there is still need for the use of the ‘formula’, I am sure you are taking it that there is still necessity for the adverse conditions or forces to present themselves in order that the inner strength may assert itself and face them—once faced they are of course conquered.

20 January 1937

We are not normally aware of such truer closeness, because of the habitual, pressing preoccupations arid fleeting vital interests or of the outward mind getting helpless to get into and live in the deeper recesses of our being.

6 November 1938

When one gets positive realisations and experiences in the inner life, they will gradually displace these complaints. These lingerings in the natural parts do not reflect upon the faith or devotion of a sadhak.

4 December 1938

When the inner being gains control of the recalcitrant parts, the chimerical pleasure will become obvious and stupid, pretensions to the ignorance of the fundamentals of spiritual life will not be necessary, self-discipline will not be felt as a rigour, but will be a natural expression of the life lived within.

25 April 1938

...to remind you of a simple truth that is universally applicable in a general way, but is operative in a special sense in the case of those that have turned to the Light. And that truth is that the future is a closed book to the outer mind and the frontal human personality...but is a perfectly open book to the inner Intelligence, to the larger self that works from behind and overtops the little frontal being...and uses and guides the human material for a definite purpose, to a fixed goal. This is a faith that is not a mere mental belief, but a dynamic conviction, you may call it an intuitive conviction that is bound to come to any one in the line of God-ward progress.

1 November 1934

1) Try to masticate Isa (Upanishad). Read it every day a few pages. This will widen the intellect and illuminate the mind.

2) The spirit of surrender: if it is to grow and be dynamic, constant remembrance of the ideal involving aspiration to realise it here and now is necessary (aspiration does not mean restless desire; it is a calm, steady mounting up).

3) Passive attitude (relaxation) to the Divine Grace's descent upon you which you would come to feel in the form of a pressing Peace, or a flowing Power, or a flashing or dazzling Light, within (or without) your body, according to your needs best known to the ‘Grace’ Herself.

(No. 3 in meditation. Nos. 1 & 2 to be practised in normal and active life.)

Try to be always peaceful and happy, all obstructions to the flowing of the Grace will be automatically removed. To your mental satisfaction I wrote these things. But you know I don't attach much importance to instructions. It is the ‘Influence' that matters; it will manifest in its own manner and time.

...The line of my sadhana precludes me from adopting any one as my disciple or child... Call upon the Power which is already at work in you, which you know by pressure and feeling, to flow into the whole body; receive it peacefully and retain it in the body with presence of mind even while you do household work.

8 November 1930

Aspiration

What you write about ‘surrender’ is all right. If one can maintain utsaha, till the right time comes, he is really blessed. But to maintain the utsaha is a terrible job. That has been my experience. Whatever the path one is chosen for, a constant aspiration is the only positive cure for the frequent depressions common to all life in the world. And aspiration is essentially a flaming force of the Divine Will in man. It is the Vedic Agni which has to be (awakened) kindled. Here again the high gods have to be allowed to seek for their youngest brother (Agni) in us. How then, are they (the gods) to be allowed to discover the Agni, the flaming force of the Divine Will in us?

Each one has to find a solution, a path for himself. Or pray, cry, call upon any god, the One God, the Mother or any one from whom you have felt the succour to come,—pray and cry and pray, the response is bound to come. Let the aspiration grow more steady and still more sincere, and let faith get strengthened, then we can think of other things.

30 April 1933

You pray for the ‘light and love that flow from Pondy’. Such prayers are never known to have received no response. When the outer man learns to light a flame of steady aspiration for the Divine, he easily learns to hear the ‘call’; for it is a ‘call’ that touches and prepares and awakens the human soul to the need for the Divine through many means, through many instruments. This ‘call’ is a standing order from the Divine. The aspiring soul soon awakens and responds to it, If you and I are not such souls awakened to this Divine need or opened to this Divine Truth, then who else are they?...

Go onwards, light up the fire; maintain a steady aspiration while waiting in patience for the result, for the response from the Divine.

Once you feel sure about the importance of the personal element in this Yoga, then you can take it that the time for your accepting the Mother has come.

16 August 1933

Whatever Ideal you have fixed in mind, aspire for it; then you will find as you go up and up that your conception changes, doubts change, difficulties vary, and the Ideal itself is presented to you in its true form by the One Teacher who is there within yourself.

Be always up and raise your head. Time is there to unfold the hidden truth. What is needed is vigilance.

27 November 1933

Let her turn more and more inwards and she is sure to get what she needs, whether it is peace or strength or courage.

If she cannot at will go inwards, let her call the Mother.

She is bound to get the response.

6 September 1935

Faith

A strong faith in itself is an indication, a reflection in the soul of the Divine Will in the direction in which the results are worked out.

2 March 1938

1) Love of the Divine or Faith in the Divine has nothing to do whatsoever with the wordly benefits the Divine may or may not confer upon us.

2) Through successes and joys as well as failures and miseries, the Divine helps and guides the devoted soul—not through successes and joys only.

3) The Divine gives its help not always in the way we dictate to the Divine.

4) The Divine is more wise than the human child and knows what is ultimately best for the child.

5) Absence of belief (in practice) in No. 4 is also absence of faith in the Divine to that extent.

3 December 1936

Prayer

Stotra is prayer; and prayer is one effective form given to the will and aspiration turned towards God. Necessarily therefore the effectiveness of a prayer in particular forms (Renuka or Saptasati) depends upon the faith that one has in the form he uses and much more upon his devotion to the deity that is addressed.

I have nothing more to say on this subject; you can use anything that attracts you. All I can say is that Renuka Stotra is certainly powerful in its own way and I have liked it for personal reasons. Saptasati is famous and its votaries are legion. You can use all these if you like. But I wonder why you allow your mind to become a victim of doubts in regard to these forms of Prayer. I hope you will decide and do what will be satisfying to your heart.

27 October 1934

Atmosphere

One word about ‘Atmosphere’. Yes, (that) atmosphere is spiritual, you are right. Do you know why or how? I can't tell you why. But you can know how it is spiritual. Because some one or some few in the house are inwardly open to spiritual influence and it manifests itself in the (outer) surroundings. So, ‘atmosphere' is something essentially internal, occult, psychic and spiritual. It is not primarily physical or anything outer. That is why a spiritual man carrying his personal atmosphere about him can establish himself anywhere and make that place a centre of spiritual force which place can be helpful to those who are spiritually open and not to all.

So, even when a physical place is said to be a centre of spiritual atmosphere it is not essentially physical (oxygen, nitrogen and watery vapour); but it is psychical, useful only to him who cares for it.

But a spiritual aspirant shall not always depend on outer atmosphere. He must manage to establish his own personal (spiritual) atmosphere, wherever he goes.

16 October 1934

Progress

But one thing is certain... Once the upward march begins, it continues until its charge is taken by the Divine. No earthly power can resist the progressive movement once commenced.

18 September 1931

2) Experiences

Flight of Time

It is a healthy sign that you sense the flight of time—months pass, as weeks and days do, like hours with great rapidity. That shows, there is no dullness, no tedium, no tamas allowed to be effective before the illumined faith in you, through which the supreme Influence to which you are open has its way, does its work, and carries the day in spite of the protests of mind and body clinging still to the old rut in part.

July 1938

Meditation

Of the many experiences (you have had) felt in the body (out of the ordinary, in your words) there is one which could be made part of a constant experience in meditation. It is the feeling that you have become very very small. I do not enlarge upon its significance here: if you simply direct your attention to the stomach when you are in that state, you can vitally feel the result, and learn for yourself something of the way of the Power at work. When you sit and begin your meditation, it takes some time for your wandering mind to settle itself or keep itself aloof, to allow your being to feel the presence of the movement from top to bottom. Then when the calm is settled on the body, you can just reflect this past experience of yours, or sink from above downwards to the heart, to the bottom or simply stand behind and call upon the Calm and Strength above to pour down into you, allow the flow without interruption; if you cannot do so, simply keep quiet and watch and remember this idea; it is enough.

There must be a tense atmosphere for you to get this particular experience. You can get it by all of you, four or five, sitting together in prayer for half an hour during nights...

I have never come across a perfect man. Your complaint of weakness is a sign of aspiring strength. But we cannot afford to spend time and life's energy over it; we have simply to call upon the Higher Force to deal with the thing. Of course it requires a longer preparation. It comes at the right time. Until then a persevering zeal is necessary, and not a kind of dullness or patience indifferent to the Ideal. To keep the fire burning is our part. The work and process are Hers.

3 March 1932

The heaviness on the eyelids is common. It is not sleep. It is kind of self-forgetfulness that attends a successful initial attempt at the withdrawal of the consciousness inwards. If there is fear or anything disquieting, then it has to be avoided. Otherwise, even sleep in this condition is good.

16 March 1933

Your experiences in meditation must, of course, ‘strengthen the faith'. But the special significance of these visions is the expansion of the personal consciousness into a wider realm.

11 February 1937

Vacant Mind

To get at the vacant mind is the same as to get at the akasa, etherial space, by climbing and reaching the heights of a mountain.

It means that the illusion of the distance space as sky causes the ignorant human mind to make the attempt to find it, while in fact the vacant space is everywhere whatever direction one turns to.

When the analogy is applied to the vacant mind, one can realise that there is an indefinable vacant space in and behind the mind. This seeming vacancy makes it possible to distinguish one thought from another. If one can seize the intervening space between one thought and another by a persistent vigilance, that is one way to succeed in the effort by repeated practice. Or, to know and feel and seize the vacancy behind the mind, behind the thought-movement, and fall back upon it every time a thought crosses the mind, is perhaps more helpful and less difficult with many people.

Really speaking, this first view of vacancy is the negative side of the erect canvas of mind on which thoughts are drawn and move about. But positively, it is a substantial poise of the being to which the vacant mind sooner or later turns or must turn to find its true basis. The positive side of the seeming vacancy of mind is characterised by a Silence which is the antithesis of the noisy mind; it is immobile, the obverse side of the mobile thought-movement, it is peaceful, breathing the spirit of Cosmic harmony, quite the reverse of the chaos in the surface agitation of the rigmarole of mind made up of thought, sensations and feelings.

The disadvantage of the vacant mind even when one succeeds in the attempt is that something is ever watchful and ready to occupy the vacancy. If that something happens to be some idea or image or feeling, rising from one's own desires and passions, supported too gladly by their original home of the dark forces, say the vital world, then the whole tapasya and its fruit becomes a welcome prey to the adverse forces and beings. To avert such an eventuality, something positive behind the aspiration for the ‘vacant mind’ must be ready to fill the emptiness. ‘The pure flame in the heart, the aspiration towards the highest step must be constant.'

Visions

I may reiterate that a very short time for prayer on getting up from bed and when going to it is sufficient to you for the present. Whatever light, form or image you see, you must watch and observe and keep it as a possible gain without getting overjoyed or excited and wait till the time comes when in your gradual growth, as one of the results of your daily prayer, you can get the knowledge of the value and significance and full meaning of the visions and other experiences you get and may continue to get in different kinds or with varying intensity. In no case are you to dismiss them summarily as ‘allurements’ because you find it so printed in some book.

18 July 1934

Dreams

Some dreams are true, because one gets into the dreamland with a truth-consciousness and gets back to the waking consciousness state without much mixture of untruths, without the dream experience getting much distorted.

Some are not true, because one gets into a state of sleep and dreams things or happenings which are gross reproductions of his own personal feelings and prejudices and preferences partly known to him in the waking state, or totally unknown to him, but lying latent in his being—imprisoned as it were in the material and vital parts of the being for an opportunity for the free play in dreams, when man has no conscious control.

There are other factors that determine the character of dreams. When one grows in experience he can and must be able to separate the grain from the chaff. But this must necessarily take time. I think you can apply to particular dreams what I have stated in general terms in the above few lines and need not always attach great importance to any and every dream. You understand!

24 October 1934

In dreams and visions, if one develops the habit of retaining his consciousness, he is already on the way to overcoming obstacles and positive obstructions of the hostile forces covering the inner being (i.e. the psychic being, the soul) in darkness and allurements leading it away from its direct communion with the Divine. The most important element in a dream or a vision is its educative value to the developing consciousness of the aspirant. That does not mean there is no other meaning attached to it. Let me explain your vision for instance, so that it may derive as a powerful suggestion and stimulant to you to maintain the right attitude towards dreams etc. and to pursue the subtle lines of introspective or intuitive thought that fetch us the key to interpretation of every experience. Each one has got to evolve a system, a very subtle mechanism of inner knowledge best fitted and peculiar to his individuality. Others shall not and cannot completely explain one's personal experiences...

Communion with the Divine is the immediate and not remote Ideal, is the foundation upon which the superstructure of a grand spiritual life with fuller and richer details of supraphysicarexperiences can be constructed. And this communion whether with the Divine or with its Powers and Personalities on the higher planes or on the earth plane here is possible in a clear and growing consciousness at once filled with calm and blown up as it were by an aspiring flame. Therefore it can bear repetition to state that consciousness is the most important factor. It will grow as calm settles upon the entire being including the physical body. Until then Faith (which is a Divine influence) acts as its effective substitute:

sraddhamayo'yam purusah yo yacchraddhah sa eva sah.

28 November 1930

The feeling (and after-effect) on the day following, reveals the welcome or unwelcome character of a dream.

13 May 1936

3) Difficulties

Depression

Depression may seem to come from many causes. But really when the being is disposed to get depressed, any thought, feeling, event, person or thing can serve the purpose of a cause. Depression is chill and dark opposed to the fire and enthusiasm that radiate from the light of the soul. To give up the habit of getting depressed for any reason or no reason is an achievement that one must aspire for. If one aspires for it he is bound to succeed in it. The extent of depression is the measure of one being a ‘closed box’ for the time being. So, whatever your weakness be, you must be on your guard to keep a buoyant spirit that is the certain cure for the habit of depression.

18 March 1938

Hostile Attacks

Your letter is frank in what it says regarding ‘sincerity’ which you say you lack. But the very fact that there is something in you very conscious of this fact shows that you are not utterly ‘insincere’ i.e. that there is some very sincere part in you which recognises the error and weakness to which some part in you—mind you, not the whole being in you—succumbs. Also such attacks, whatever they be are not constant, they come and go. The rest of the time is at your disposal to make proper use of

Now you can understand wherein lies the remedy. That is to say, rely on your soul which is not attacked, cultivate the habit of remembering the Mother, the Guru, the Divine and refer to the same every act and serious thought or feeling. In the beginning you may have a vague feeling of the soul, or the presence, or the help. Gradually as your memory becomes constant the attacks lose their vigour and frequency by the presence of the force and help which you can feel, or at least infer from the result...

Of course at the moment of the attack you cannot think of the Mother etc. for if there is the remembrance, the attack itself would not take place. But these things will go as your sincerity gets strong in calling for help.

2 September 1952

There are generally two ways of tackling an attack of this kind.

One is that the Master sends some force to the person attacked to help him or her to repel the attack. The other is, He takes upon himself the whole work and concentrates and repels the attack.

The choice of the way is made by reference to the character of the attack and the condition of the attacked, but always to the highest good of the soul which is identical with the Divine purpose...

The faith that A. has is enough. Just remind her daily, that is enough. Your faith is more important; when you are calm and call on the Mother and wait to see observing what goes on within you from above you, the whole movement in and about you cannot fall flat upon the atmosphere—at any rate in your house. That is a very good condition for the Mother's help to be easily effective.

27 March 1935

Grief, anger, fear—any one or any combination of them dries up the springs of the nerve-force and a certain fit results. The suppression of sex-instincts in the fair sex creates physically a favourable ground; menses at irregular periods or menstrual disorders in general, are accompanying conditions in such cases. But even when all the causes combine and are present, hysteria never appears if two conditions are satisfied. The one is outer and the other is inner, of course. If there is sufficient presence of mind, that gives the balance and keeps the nerves intact, one avoids the attack. If the nervous being is weak and the outer conditions in the atmosphere are not all that is desirable, then easily a favourable ground is created. In the case of one having a hysteric tendency, the atmosphere is more important than the inner condition of the helpless being, for the cure has to come from outside....

Whenever a wrong influence is thrown into the general atmosphere and you are open to it and breathe it without knowing what it is, you become helpless. That is why I always insist upon consciousness. If any one in the atmosphere has something of this, and is calm and not agitated, these dark forces are automatically dispelled. You simply go near...and keep to the Quiet and watch yourself for a couple of minutes and then slowly approach the patient and call...by name, very very slowly near the ear, you can see the result instantaneously.

14 April 1932

All the same, it is to teach courage to the faithful soul in its unteachable parts, to put to test the strength and faith in us that such disturbing forces try their hands. Every event in daily life has a meaning to the watchful soul; and he alone chooses a Higher life who is already chosen for it.

25 April 1932

To condole is not to console. To say is not to do. It is giving stone for the starving. Therefore there must be something substantial and positive to fill the whole being, so that melancholy might be ejected automatically from the system. To be a great mother is not merely to be good and sweet, but also to be heroic and powerful when moments require.

13 April 1932

With certitude I put in writing without much lecturing upon it, as I know that you are familiar with the spirit of that idea. It is an impulsion lit with a surrounding pale blue glow that is responsible for this expression:

“Stick to the post, like a soldier, cling to the Feet like a devotee, or seize hold of something known to you or within you or behind you—be it an idea, a Word, a feeling, or a centre, any centre you sense or feel within the body or above it or the whole body as the centre and a vessel."

The surrounding and watching Presence ceases to be passive after a time, then the Deity directs. Till the Event, constancy on the human side is a needed instrumentation for your Guardian God.

16 December 1946

Remember

“Remember us” is the Mantra for you. It means that you are expected to refer inwardly to Them every problem or plan of thought, feeling and action in order that you may get the right guidance in the hour of need. What more do you need?

Silence is your stronghold, it is only from there you can be victorious over these forces which are trying your strength to prove your sincerity and capacity to be on the side of the Right, the Good, the True which to you is the Mother's Name and Feet...

The Mother said “Remember us” always. I add ‘solve your difficulties by refering inwardly to Her and praying for right guidance.'

13 July 1937

Remember the Presence is always there; whatever clouds that may come or seem to come are bound to pass, lost to sight.

19 November 1937

You say that you ‘are not in the carriage’ and could ‘not keep quiet’. You seem to miss, for the moment, another sentence of the Mother: once you accept the Divine and the Divine has said ‘Yes’, the rest is only a question of the ripe hour.

It seems to me that the difficulty is not that one is not in the carriage, but that he forgets, does not know, or ignores that he is already in the carriage. As for ‘not keeping quiet’, attempts and activities are not incompatible with the quietude of our conception—you know this.

21 June 1937

Contacts

It is not at all a question of right or wrong, good or bad in the conventional and moral sense of the term. The question that has to be decided is whether a particular condition in which you find yourself can be kept under your control. That is to say you must know if you can control the effects of a particular company on your body and mind. You must learn to know and recognise the value of a particular influence and accept it if it is a strengthening influence, and of course reject it mercilessly if it is a weakening influence. If the rejection necessitates a change in the course of your outward conduct, it has to be effected, but mildly, gradually, therefore imperceptibly but with a firm will within aided by the strength that comes from Prayer.

24 March 1936

Resistance in the body

Drawbacks every one has and no one can say that he or she has no drawbacks. But when it is said that there is a ‘strong resistance in the body’, I understand it to mean that the material body, because of its density and dullness and its very materiality, exercises its inherent right to resist the entrance into it of the Force of Light which will make it impossible for the body to contract illness.

Personal drawbacks and merits and general habits may help or hinder the work of the Yoga-Force, but resistance in the body is not brought about by the personal drawbacks of any one, as that is a universal characteristic of physical nature.

12 September 1936

4) Sleep—Health—Medicine

Sleep—Dreams

Those who do more physical work are naturally rewarded with good rest in sleep. Those who have mental worries even though they may give work for the material frame, deprive themselves of the benefit of mental quiet even in sleep.

However much one may be interested in an affair, usually accompanied by joy or grief or other passion, some excitement, it must be possible for him, at any rate for you, to deal with things in the waking state with a background of equanimity in some measure to begin with.

Physical exercise, carefree mind and prayer before going to bed form the main means for you to get rest in sleep, with less of dreams.

12 November 1936

The somewhat necessary delays from me, a short silence for a few weeks (what you call no letters from me) must not be made and shall not be a prop for fanciful fears or doubts as regards your inner strength and faith and devotion and push towards the Ideal which has attraction for you—attraction that is accompanied by unmistakable signs of genuine interest and central sincerity on your part, and also by visible manifestations of a living and Conscious Presence gesturing responses immediately or after a while to your needs, to your prayer, to your call in meditation upon God or upon the Divine Mother.

Before sleep, you must learn to put faith in the body with a will in it and say (in prayer or meditation): During sleep there shall be no bad dream, no wastage of sexual substance, no pollution or weakening of the body that is to be the strong and consecrated temple of the Pure Soul, the Blissful Spirit, of the Almighty Father, of the Divine Mother.

It may take some time, but slowly you can succeed if you persist in the attempt.

28 August 1934

When such things come upon you, treat them as passing clouds and call for help, call the Mother from the heart. By habit, you can grow in capacity to be so conscious of your ideal even in sleep that the disturbing and alluring dreams may gradually cease to rear their heads. Think of this before going to bed and pray that it may in the long run become the temple of the Mother, the dwelling house of the Supreme Divine.

9 January 1935

If you can follow what I say, such dreams will slowly cease to come, much less worry you.

(1) Take regular physical exercise—without overdoing.

(2) Go to bed early, and rise early. Don't give room for superfluous sleep in the early hours of the morning which is sheer habit and not a necessity.

(3) Do not go to sleep when you are very tired; wait till you feel refreshed for going to sleep.

(4) Of course then, prayer before entering into the state of rest, relaxation, sleep—entrusting the body, mind and soul to the benign care of the Divine Mother.

15 July 1936

I sent up your letter containing your complaints, with a note of explanation. I just received in reply the words of Sri Aurobindo which I am copying hereunder. No comment from me is necessary. What more is necessary when Sri Aurobindo has chosen to take notice of you and written so many words of masculine strength?

These are the words:

“He must get rid of fear if he wants to do yoga. These dreams are often only formations in the Vital soul—one has only to reject them.

For the wet dreams the first thing is to be quite free from sexual thoughts and feelings in waking consciousness and next to put a will in the subconscient every night for the dreams or emissions not to occur. Both these take time to be effective. Meanwhile to be nervous about the dreams is not good, for it helps to create a bad effect—one should be quiet about them and have the idea —will that they can have no effect in the body."

7 September 1937

Health

Health is essential for worldy life, equally, if not more, for a Godly life of our conception. May you have it in plenty is my prayer to the Divine Mother.

16 September 1935

Be strong in every sense; once strength is there, light and joy when they come can be held.

5 July 1936

Medicine

I wrote to you about the necessity of taking a tonic because the physical substance has to be maintained at any cost as that is the support of life in the world or of this spiritual life; and one cannot afford to ignore the ordinary means of supporting the material body especially when it is at such a distance from the Centre and cannot be expected to respond to the many-sided functioning of the Force. Besides even here, occasionally, one finds instances of a good tonic being advised.

3 November 1936

Try to habituate your system to relax in a sitting posture, and you can be watchful over the course of long and deep breathing and also retaining the life-force in that part where you feel the pain due to what you call ‘dyspepsia’. I know this is difficult perhaps. But you simply bear in mind what I say, keep quiet for a few minutes, as often as possible in the midst of your work. The power from above is sure to tackle with the affected part.

23 February 1932

You ask me if it is not possible to do away with medicines altogether for the cure of bodily ills. Yes, possible, not only possible, but absolutely necessary to overcome in the long run the conditions under which illnesses are invited and necessitate medical help. Even ordinary Yoga succeeds to a great extent in keeping the body immune from most diseases, teaching it to rely more and more on its force and to avoid the body's dependence on medicine for its ailments. Is it necessary then to speak of the enormous potentialities and actualities of this Yoga-force to which daily and hourly our experience testifies—the Yoga Force that flows from a Divine Grace and Love that is ensouled and embodied in One ‘whom we adore as the Mother’?

In the light of this, your question cannot arise; but as long as the necessity exists that one has still to breathe the atmosphere of worldly thoughts and feelings and attachments, material means have to be resorted to as a concession in some measure to be gradually substituted by the higher means, the supreme Force, which is the Force of the Mother.

But Rome was not built in a day.

July 1938

1) Three Forms of Mahalakshmi

To

Bhagavan Sri Aurobindo and to the Divine Mother I offer my Pranam and with it myself in entirety, on this my 50th birthday.

One or two points, I pray, may be elucidated:

Medhasi devi viditakhila-sastrasara
Durgasi durgabhavasagaranaurasanga,
Srih kaitabharihrdayaikakrtadhivasa
Gauri tvameva sasimaulikrtapratistha.

This is a verse from Chandi that came to me spontaneously a minute or two after the Mother began to give me meditation. Of the three forms of Mahalakshmi that appeared in the meditation in response (as was explained to me by the Mother) to my invocation, the first, the Mother said, was the original (Overmental) form of Mahalakshmi, and the second was the traditional one. Of the third, the Mother left partly unsaid. The form was a three-faced one with something like a cap-crown on. Is there any tradition in India or outside of a three-faced form of Mahalakshmi? In any case, what is its significance and the meaning of the same goddess-personality—Mahalakshmi—of the Mother appearing in three successive forms, visible of course to the Mother? Has it any personal significance to me? I hope the year augurs well for me and I may be enabled to have the sheer joy of self-giving.

Grant, I implore Thee, my Lord, I implore Thee, Mother, that I may sooner realise the consciousness of surrender to the Divine, very personally in every sense of the term to the Master and to the Mother.

3 September 1936

At Thy Feet,
Kapali

Sri Aurobindo's Reply

The Mother told you all that she saw about the last form—it disappeared almost immediately. The first form was the true one, that which she wears on the Overmind Plane which is the home of the greater Gods—as soon as it touched your mind, it took the traditional form which is the one with which your mind is familiar. The third shape must be a symbolic one (not traditional)—it would seem to be a correspondent one on the Shakti side to the Trimurti, indicating the unity in difference of three powers in the Cosmic Consciousness—in it is the same manifestation in different forms,—the Overmind Power, the traditional Lakshmi and the One Power in the Mother here.

Sri Aurobindo, The Mother with Letters on The Mother: Mahalakshmi

2) The Psychic

(1)

The Mother said in part:

One can reach the Psychic through the physical, vital or mental. The psychic in us is a being and a consciousness; but there is also a psychic world in the Universe. It is in space and time, though in an inner space and time of its own; but it is not in the Ignorance as Mind, Life and Matter are. It is a wide, luminous world, organised by the Divine—a world of deeper vibration (of Consciousness).

By occult training one can enter the Psychic world and explore it as one does a country.

The beings of the Psychic world have to incarnate, they do not go up from there.

I submit a few points for elucidation.

1) Though the Psychic world is in the Universe belonging to the Manifestation as it does and the beings there are products of evolution, its position is not in the vertical line of Cosmic expression, anywhere in the rising tiers of Matter, Life, Mind and the higher reaches. Can our mind then not comprehend its position (teleological) in the scheme of this created existence?

2) Those that arrive at the Psychic world for rest, return here to take their part in the evolution, while those few who have their consciousness liberated from the Ignorance go straight up; these two roads seem to correspond to the Devayana and Pitryana of the old Indian teaching. Do they not?

3) Though they may take rest in a kind of sleep or trance, the beings of the Psychic world are not static. Then, is there interaction among them? Do any of them turn an active eye upon this world of Matter directly or through the vital or mental, throwing their influence on or even contacting those on earth with whom they have some subtle affinity just as the beings of the vital and mental worlds do?

4) Can a being of the Psychic world get fused into the soul of a human being here, avoiding the assumption of a separate material body?

5) Does a soul continue to take up a body of the same sex?

6) The soul returning here for rebirth enters, possesses, or takes charge of a material body prepared for it by Nature. When does it actually do so, at what stage and in what manner does the soul affect the parents and get itself housed in the garbha, in the bija and ksetra?

No recorded scripture seems to give a satisfactory account of the soul's rebirth, The Chandogya, on the face of it, is fantastic when it speaks of the Pancagni Vidya.

With Pranams,
Kapali

9 July 1937

Sri Aurobindo's Reply

1) The psychic stands behind mind, life and body, supporting them; so also the psychic world is not one world in the scale like the mental, vital or physical worlds, but stands behind all these and it is there that the souls evolving here retire for the time between life and life. If the psychic were only one principle in the rising order of body, life and mind on a par with the others and placed somewhere in the scale on the same footing as the others it could not be the soul of all the rest, the Divine element making the evolution of the others possible and using them as instruments for a growth through cosmic experience towards the Divine. So also the psychic world cannot be one among the other worlds to which the evolutionary being goes for supraphysical experience, it is a plane where it retires into itself for rest, for a spiritual assimilation of what it has experienced and for a replunging into its own fundamental consciousness and psychic nature.

2) Go where? If the few who go out of the Ignorance mean those who enter into Nirvana, then there is no question of their going straight up anywhere. Nirvana or Moksha is a liberated condition of the being, not a world—it is a withdrawal from the worlds and the manifestation. The analogy of the Pitriyana and Devayana can hardly be mentioned in this connection.

3) The condition of the souls that retire to the psychic worldis entirely static; each withdraws into himself and is not interacting with the others. When they come out of their trance, they are ready to go down into a new life, but meanwhile they do not act upon the earth-life. There are other beings, guardians of the psychic world, but they are concerned only with the psychic world itself and the return of the souls to reincarnation, not with earth matters.

4) No. What happens sometimes is that a very advanced psychic being sometimes sends down an emanation which resides in a human body and prepares it until it is ready for the psychic being itself to enter into the life. This happens when some special work has to be done and the human vehicle prepared—such a descent produces a remarkable change of a sudden character in the personality and the nature.

5) Usually, it follows continuously the same line. If there are shiftings of sex, it is as a rule a matter of parts of the personality which are not central.

6) No rule can be laid, for these circumstances vary with the individual. Some psychic beings get into relation with the birth-environment and the parents from the time of inception and determine the preparation of the personality and future in the embryo, others join only at the time of delivery, others even later on in the life and in these cases it is some emanation of the psychic being which upholds the life. It should be noted that the conditions of the future birth are determined fundamentally not during the period of stay in the psychic world, but at the time of death—the psychic being then choosing what it should work out in the next terrestrial appearance and the conditions arrange themselves accordingly. Note that the idea of rebirth and the circumstances of the new life as a reward or punishment for punya or papa is a crude human idea of “Justice” which is quite unphilosophical and unspiritual and distorts the true intention of life. Life here is an evolution and the soul grows by experience, working out by it this or that in the nature and, if there is suffering, it is for the purpose of that working out, not as a judgment inflicted by God or Cosmic Law on the errors or stumblings which are inevitable in the Ignorance.

9 July 1937

Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - I: Rebirth

(2)

Pranams to Sri Aurobindo

Pranams to the Mother

Sri Aurobindo's letter has clarified my thought in regard to the questions dealt with in it and put fresh strength into me which made itself felt last evening, especially so in the morning meditation today—even before I read the letter.

An explanation is due from me regarding one of the questions in which I made reference to Devayana and Pitriyana. For the sake of brevity I said that the few who have their consciousness liberated from the Ignorance ‘go straight up’; for precision I could have added ‘to the higher worlds above the ‘Mind-plane’. But when I said ‘they go straight up’ I had not in mind the Nirvana of the Buddha or of Shankara or even the Brahma-nirvana of the Gita. I had the idea that one's consciousness must be liberated from the Ignorance of the triple lower Nature to make him eligible for entry into the worlds of the Devas; in other words, it is a kind of Jivanmukti that makes one competent to tread the lit path (arcir-marga) leading to the Swar. The other path leads to the world of the Fathers to which most souls wend their way after going through the dark passage (dhuma-marga).

Iha cedasakad boddhum prak sarirasya visrasah
tatah sargesu lokesu sariratvaya kalpate.

Is this not a liberation, a mukti?

I shall drop the analogy, but when I wrote yesterday the correspondence was striking and I thought of asking about it. Even then, I did not mean to say that the ancients had the same conception of their two yanas as when we speak of the world of Gods and the Psychic world—this apart from the distinguishing features of Sri Aurobindo's yoga and philosophy, such as the meaning of Rebirth, Spiritual evolution, Cosmic Purpose, the character of the many-sided Ignorance etc.

My explanation is perhaps correct, perhaps not correct; I have simply submitted the working of my mind.

With Pranams,
Kapali

10 July 1937

Sri Aurobindo's Reply

It is quite probable that the sloka refers to a going up into higher worlds of felicity and light and this can be called a liberation or release. In later times the idea grew strong that from all these higher worlds return is inevitable and it is only release from all cosmic existence that gives mukti. The Vedic Rishis seem to have looked to an ascent into a divine luminous world or state above the falsehood and ignorance. In the Upanishad the sun is the symbol of the supramental Truth and it is said that those who pass into it may return but those who pass through the gates of the Sun itself do not; possibly this meant that an ascent into the supermind itself above the golden lid of overmind was the definitive liberation. The Veda speaks of the Truth hidden by a Truth where the Sun looses his horses from his car and there all the myrial rays are drawn together into One and that was considered the goal. The Isha Upanishad also speaks of the golden lid hiding the face of the Truth by removing which the Law of the Truth is seen and the highest knowledge in which the One Purusha is known (so'hamasmi) is described as the kalyanatama form of the Sun. All this seems to refer to the supramental states of which the Sun is the symbol.

11 July 1937

Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II: The Veda and the Upanishads

(3)

Pranams to Sri Aurobindo

Pranams to the Mother

Last week my brief reference to Devayana apparently at the cost of precision side-tracked the issue, but got me the authentic words about liberation as understood by the Vedic seers, the sages of the Upanishads and the Vedantins of later time.

But my question remains. I think it is permissible, has Sri Aurobindo's approval, to use the word Jivanmukta in the sense of one living on earth liberated in consciousness from Nature's hold on it, experiencing the essential unity of Existence, the Self or the Divine.

1) (A) Does a Jivanmukta ‘go straight up’ (without turning to the psychic world) to those of the higher worlds to which the dynamic side, the nature-part in him was open during his life on earth?

(B) If he does, does he or can he prepare from there to go still further up to Being beyond the higher worlds, to the Supermind or still above without the possibility of return?

(C) In case he returns from a Divine necessity, does he take rest in the psychic world before re-incarnation?

2) In the answer to one of my questions it was stated ‘An advanced psychic being...sends an emanation to support the life...until it is ready for the psychic being itself to enter it... Such a descent produces remarkable change, sudden etc.'

(A) What is an advanced being? One who has developed many personalities? If so, do they always live with their central being in the psychic world? Or retaining the thread with their central being in the psychic world these personalities move about in those higher planes whose elements have composed them or are predominant in them?

(B) Descent is associated in our minds with something coming down from above. When it is applied to a psychic being, as is quoted above, is it meant that it calls down one of its personalities from above at the time of entering the life which it was supporting with an emanation of its own until then?

3) Can a psychic being from its world send two or more emanations at a time to support two or more human lives here? Or can two or more human beings have a common central being in the psychic world?

4) It was said that the guardians of the Psychic world are concerned with the return of the souls to reincarnation. Are these functionaries human souls become elegible for the office or are they denizens of the psychic world occupying that position at the Will of the Presiding Presence of the Divine whom we adore as the Mother?

With Pranams
Kapali

17 July 1937

Sri Aurobindo's Reply

It is difficult to give a positive answer to these questions because no general rule can be laid down applicable to all. The mind makes rigid rules or one rigid rule, but the Manifestation is in reality very plastic and various and many-sided. My answers therefore must not be taken as exhaustive of the subject or complete.

1) (A) He can go wherever his aim was fixed, to a state of Nirvana or one of the divine worlds and stay there or remain, wherever he may go, in contact with the earth movement and return to it if his will is to help that movement.

(B) This is doubtful. If originally he is not a being of the evolution but of some higher world, he could go back to that world—if he wants to go higher, it is logical that he should return to the field of evolution so long as he has not evolved the consciousness proper to that higher plane. The orthodox idea that even the gods have to come to earth if they want salvation may be applied to this ascension also. If he is originally an evolutionary being (Ramakrishna's distinction of the Jivakoti and Ishwarakoti may be extended to this also) he must proceed by the evolutionary path to either the negative withdrawal through Nirvana or some positive divine fulfilment in the increasing manifestation of Sachchidananda.

As to the impossibility of return, that is a knotty question. A divine being can always return—as Ramakrishna said, the Ishwarakoti can at will ascend or descend the stair between Birth and Immortality. For the rest, it is probable that they may rest a relative infinity of time, saswatih samah, if that is the will in them, but a return cannot be barred out unless they have reached their highest possible status.

(C) No. That is part of the evolutionary line only, not obligatory for divine returns.

2) (A) No. An advanced psychic being means one who has arrived at the soul's freedom and is immersed in the Divine—immersed does not mean abolished. Such a being does not sleep in the psychic world, but may remain in his state of blissful immersion or come back for some purpose.

(B) The word “descend” has various meanings according to the context—I used it here in the sense of the psychic being ‘coming down’ into the human consciousness and body ready for it; it might have come down at birth or before, or it comes down later—that is all. I do not quite understand what are these personalities from above—it is the psychic being itself that takes up a body.

3) No, there is only one psychic being for each human being, but the Beings of the higher planes e.g. the Gods of the Overmind can manifest in more than one human body at a time by sending different emanations into different bodies. These would be called Vibhutis of these Devatas.

4) These are not human souls nor is this an office to which they are appointed nor are they functionaries—these are beings of the psychic plane pursuing their own natural activity in that plane. My word guardian was simply a phrase meant to indicate by an image or metaphor the nature of their action.

20 July 1937

Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - I: Rebirth

3) Conversion of Consciousness

(1)

Mother Divine,

To Sri Aurobindo and the Mother I offer my most humble and loving Pranams today, the beginning of another year for me.

The Mother's words this noon have put fresh strength into me, taking me a step forward to the goal of Her choice.

I pray for the further elucidation of the “conversion of consciousness” to which the Mother referred as distinct from the “transformation of physical nature”; the latter takes a longer time, as for “the conversion of consciousness, it is there”—She said, pointing to me.

Here, is it meant by implication that all those who have gathered round Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have “this conversion of consciousness”—perhaps in varying degrees? (1)

Can it be further explained in terms of the psychic being and its relation to the instrumental (nature) being? (2)

Or can it be said that whoever has some aspiration for the Light or Truth or God vaguely, has some sort of conversion of consciousness, for the reason that he has come to the Ashram and lives here? (3)

With Pranams,
At Thy feet
Thine,
Kapali

3 September 1937

Sri Aurobindo's Reply

(1)

(1) No. Those who come here have an aspiration and a possibility; something in their psychic being pushes and if they follow it, they will arrive; but that is not conversion. Conversion is a definite turning of the being away from lower things towards the Divine.

(2) It is certainly the psychic being turning the nature definitively Godwards, but the transformation has still to be worked out in the nature.

(3) No. Aspiration can lead hereafter to conversion; but aspiration is not conversion.

Mother spoke of three different things:—conversion, the turning of the soul decisively towards the Divine,—inner realisation of the Divine,—transformation of the nature. The first two can happen swiftly and suddenly and once for all, the third always takes time and cannot be done at one stroke, in a moment. One may become aware of a rapid change in this or that detail of the transformation, but even this is the rapid result of a long working.

Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Himself and the Ashram: Conversion, Realisation and Transformation

(2)

Mother,

The other day explanation was given of the three different things of which the Mother spoke—(1) Conversion of consciousness, (2) inner realisation of the Divine, (3) transformation of the nature.

May I be enlightened on a few questions connected with the same?

1) Is the first the same as inner consecration or anything more?

2) Does the second inevitably lead to the psychic being coming to the front?

3) Does the psychic being come to the front without an inner realisation of the Divine?

4) Does the inner realisation of the sublime carry with it a normal sense, if not consciousness, of the One, in all that one sees or does?

5) Is not the second indispensable for the success or even progress of the third?

With Pranams,
Kapali

6 September 1937

Sri Aurobindo’s Reply

(2)

1. “Consecration is a process by which one trains the consciousness to give itself to the Divine.” “But conversion is a spontaneous movement of the consciousness, a turning of it away from external things towards the Divine. It comes usually as the result of a touch from within and above. Self-consecration may help to open one to the touch or the touch may come of itself. But conversion may also come as the culmination of a long process of aspiration and tapasya. There is no fixed rule in these things.

Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II: Consecration and Offering

2. If the psychic being comes to the front, then conversion becomes easy or may come instantaneously or the conversion may bring the psychic being to the front. Here again there is no rule.”

Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II: Aspiration

3. It may be either way. There is a touch and the realisation comes and the psychic takes its proper place as the result; or the psychic may come to the front and prepare the nature for the realisation.

Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - III: The Emergence or Coming Forward of the Psychic

4. It depends on the nature of the realisation which may be different in different persons.

5. Transformation is something progressive, but certainly there must be realisation before the complete transformation is possible.

Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - III: Conditions of Transformation

Is Progress an Illusion?

[Notes given to the editor.]

The question is easy to put, the answer is easier. For an answer in the affirmative is as possible as one in the negative. And in fact any question can be argued in either way and can be so established by human logic. But logical conclusions are not always satisfying, do not always answer to human needs material and moral or intellectual, aesthetic and spiritual.

Still logic is indispensable; its chief function is to guard against error. But the moment the intellectual arrogance of man makes it a discoverer of truth i.e. makes it do duty for something subtler than itself, some superior or more refined faculty, call it intuition if you like, it transgresses its limits, we make misuse of it.

Let us first make clear the meaning of the terms we employ when we speak of ‘Progress as an illusion’.

Is progress a reality or not? If we change the form of the question, the answer we get may be nearer the truth. For the concept here is more positive. Reality is something that is always positive. Illusion as opposed to reality is a negative term.

With all the illusions, imperfections, negations and defects, man himself is something very very positive, every part of his being is occupied not with what is not, but something that is: take the senses, take the mind. Even when the mind is given to fancies you call it as given to erroneous thought movement not in harmony with what is possible or certain. Someone said, and rightly said, that ‘Absolute nothing is unthinkable'.

Illusions have a value. They vary in degree, e.g. a child's view of the world; our own outlook. Man is in an all-round flux. He is not something that is stationary, static. Man is a developing proposition. Change seems to be the order everywhere in Nature.

The urge for getting at what seems a better and happier life, mind or spirit is incessant and is an unmistakable sign of a universal hunger, call it a cosmic impulsion to move forward to a higher or different order by which man can gather up his dissipated energy, bring into harmony the many sides of his personality so that such a music in his own being, a rhythm and well-ordered measure in his many-sided activities may be in tune with the universal or cosmic being.

After all, what is the meaning of this impelling force within us—and also compulsion without? If it is not happiness (freedom etc.) what else can it be? And what is it that we call happiness, if it is not at once a result and expression of a living from the depths with all the parts brought to a harmonious play adjusting itself to the needs and dictates of the cosmic being?

Progress as an illusion may be a logical fact from the point of view of an ultra-mundane or supracosmic or transcendental inconceivable—Absolute—Truth of the philosopher.

Progress is felt concrete by the spirit which uses the logical mind.

Note the difference between a philosophical concept that is lodged in the logical mind and a concrete experience shared by the general mind, life and the very soul of man.

Man is not merely logic, he is greater than his mind and much more than its logic.

Rationalism

[Notes given to the editor.]

Rationalism as a religion of the modern world—has it been so far a success or a failure? Is it Russellean rationalism?

It all depends upon what we mean precisely by the term Rationalism. If you mean by that that Reason is the ultimate authority in the sphere of religion or spiritual life and that it is the foundation of certainty in knowledge, then the age of this ‘ism’ has almost gone so far as eminent thinkers and pioneers of thought are concerned, and perhaps has survived and is surviving in the uncreative and barren soil of a very limited circle of what is called the fashionable society of narrow-minded people. But if you mean by ‘rational’ to be sensible in giving a reasoned exposition of uncommon subjects say like those coming under the category of religions and extraordinary and ultra-human experiences, then certainly it is laudable and remains a necessity, even for those who lead a genuine religious life and not only for an efficient handling of human problems in worldly life.

If you believe in the principle of evolution, then you can see that the rational man has had at some stage of the Earth's evolution an infra-rational stage; these infra-rational brute elements, animal instincts, though not always dominant, are to be found in the rational man, as a heritage of the past. Similarly when the rational being in the course of evolution gets at a suprarational state, the ‘rational’ element can as well remain, only as subordinate to the ‘supra-rational’ (which is certainly not irrational) even as the infra-rational is retained now, by the rational being, subordinating it to the possible extent to moral force and mental control.

(What are passions, anger, lust etc. if not infra-rational native to the animal?)

24 February 1935

Approach of Science

It is very desirable that you get well posted with information about the method and means employed by the human mind in the West in its struggling and hesitating approach to occult subjects from the standpoint of modern sciences. W. James's Variety of Religious Experiences is a bold attempt to dissipate the superstitions of the scientist that there could not be and should not be anything beyond the purview of the materialistic mind. I read it thirty years ago when I was badly need of such a work.

20 April 1938

Darwin and Buddha

It is true that the scientist's theory of existence differs from and is often opposed to the teachings of a spiritual man or of a religious reformer, of a yogin. The reason is plain, for the view of existence taken by the scientist is different from that of the man of spiritual experience; and this difference is bound to be there as long as the scientist relies upon the data of the senses for his conclusions and the spiritual man's view-point proceeds from the experienced heights and depths of being. If Darwin's theory and Buddha's teachings are far apart from each other as London and Tokyo, the reason is obvious that the great naturalist's God was Nature, this magnificent material existence of which we become aware through the senses; while to the great teacher of renunciation, the Truth, the Ideal was Nirvana, a state of being,—(a state of non-being, perhaps)—which overlooks all existence and therefore transcends the ephemeral flow of thought and things.

1933

Complexity of the Human Being

The human being is made up of many parts, as it were, and it is not a simple but a very complex existence; our common experience justifies us to hold that it is so. First, there is the body, then there is the life-force without which no activity is possible, again there is the mind—the thought and other faculties of the mind; and there are other parts of our being which are not ordinarily developed in all men. Yet they are there, though in an embryonic or nebulous condition. Occult science, Yogic know-ledge would call them by various names,—Psychic Being, the inner being or the soul, the subconscious self, the subliminal soul and so on. Thus we can see that man is a complex being, and has many parts in and of him known and unknown to him. Even the known parts are divided and heterogeneous, warring elements. The body does not obey the mind, life does not obey the mind, life and mind do not cooperate, and there is no harmony among the various elements and man is really divided in his being, and this disharmony is the root-cause of all trouble, of all defects and weaknesses, mental, moral or spiritual.

To bring about harmony therefore should be the aim of our endeavour.

1933

The One and the Many

God, the One, the Infinite, Sat-Chit-Ananda—is One Being and Consciousness. All—the Universe, the Cosmos—has come into existence from this One Infinite. The One has given birth to the Many. In each one of the Many, the One from which it has come is hidden. That is to say, the One has got into everything that has come out of it; in other words, we may say that the One lies latent or hidden in each one of the Many; the One is involved in every one of Many, as they say. When a tree bears fruit, the fruit contains the seed of the tree i.e. all the essential elements of the tree, so much so, that the seed sown, growing into a tree, releases all the latent elements in it, that is to say, manifesting gradually in its various stages of growth all the elements of the tree from which it took its birth in the beginning and into which growing it returns. In other words, the seed brings out, evolves, as they say, first the sprout, then step by step, leaves and stem and branches and flowers and fruits containing the seed.

Choice of Sadhana

One may or may not have the need for a particular Sadhana, though one may have a very great regard for the ruling Spirit of that Sadhana. This is a matter of soul. Each one has an Ishwara in him who must be allowed to guide it aright.

25 March 1933

Sri Krishna or the Divine Mother

You can continue your meditations on Sri Krishna who is your istam and makes you happy. When you advance along the line you will be able to appreciate the significance of the Guru’s advice in regard to the necessity of the worship of the Divine Mother.

The ‘arduous way’ you mention in your letter lies not in one’s meditation on Sri Krishna but in the unbearable burden one carries on his shoulders instead of keeping it to the trust of Sri Krishna and offering one’s self at his feet. If one does this, as the devotion develops into love, Sri Krishna himself will show the way to worship the Mother even as he did when he asked Arjuna to worship the Mother, Yogamaya, just before entering the battlefield. One is not guilty when he is sincere and realises his present incapacity to follow the Guru’s advice fully and remains in the expectation that he will get it in due time by the Grace of the istam.

6 November 1950

Dakshineshwar Kali

Dakshineshwar Kali stands on the prostrate figure of Shiva: it is not any asura as we were wrongly informed. The symbol of Shiva is the unmanifest, still, motionless, Infinite God; from him issues, springs forth the Shakti (Power), Light and divine glory, the mother of the Manifest Universe (supported by the Unmanifest God).

9 July 1932

Vibhutis

Authentic answers can be given only by the author of the statements¹⁴ about these Vibhutis. But to have a certain mental satisfaction, we can form an idea of these, helped by information scattered in Letters and other writings of Sri Aurobindo.¹⁵

Of course the two aspects therein mentioned represent the principle of bifurcation which is at the back of all creation which works out by the law of polarity.

Question: Distinction between the Mother's Vibhutis and Ishwara's Vibhutis.

Answer: The distinction corresponds to that between Mother and Ishwara.

Q: Is there difference in the states of consciousness of the two classes of Vibhutis?

A: So long as they belong to the same plane of Being havingthe same field for the activity of their consciousness, there cannot be any difference in the states, though there can be difference in the quality of their activity and in the manifestation of the truth or quality they embody—even in the original status of their being.

Q: Is it that all males are Ishwara's Vibhutis and all females are Mother's Vibhutis?

A: Mother's Vibhutis are always female and Ishwara's are always male.

Q: Could it be that some females are Ishwara's Vibhutis and some males are Mother's?

A: Usually no; we must bear in mind that when we speak of sex, we refer to the embodiment, not to the soul, which has no sex. And embodiment is a natural composition in the manifested existence. The soul continues the same line of manifestation which implies the sex element.

Appearance of forms in Japa

The appearance of any holy or auspicious form is good and welcome. Whatever is associated in our mind with holiness, whoever indicates, represents or reveals Godliness is Guru or God Himself. Therefore the seeing of the holy forms while doing Japa is good and none should think of it as wrong.

It is enough if you have a mental picture of Matangi as described in the sloka of syamaladandakam manikyavina. It is not necessary that you should concentrate on that form. It is enough if you remember that this Matangi of which you ask is the female counterpart of Ganapati of an order to which I make reference in my next.

The Devatas and their Invocation

Q: What are the names of the Devatas who can confer (1) health of mind and body, and (2) material and spiritual wealth? What are the methods by which one can invoke these Devatas?

A: In speaking of the Gods a distinction must be drawn between the Vedic and Tantric. The former have become out of use for all practical purposes, though there may be and are a few exceptions; on the other hand the Tantric Gods are popular and here also there are divisions in the cult. In each cult (Shaiva, Vaishnava and Shakta) there are many Gods each of whom is supposed to give all that one needs according to the Tantric books. But in practice a special feature is prominent in each God. Now to come to the practical step: it is the best course to allow the Guru to choose the Mantra (and therefore the Devata) for the initiate, the sadhaka. The Guru must be a Mantra-siddha. When there is the heart's yearning, not a tepid or fretful wish, the Guru is sure to be found or will come of his own accord. How to do the Japa is to be learnt from the Guru. This is the background against which the answers given below to the three questions are to be understood.

(1) Health of mind and body: In the Tantra, for Health, Surya is the Devata prominently mentioned for arogya¹⁶ though he is a Vedic God. He can be taken for health of mind also, though with no special importance.

(2) Wealth—Mahalaksmi. For Spiritual wealth, Sri Vidya—Tripura Sundari.

(3) In a general way we can say that the best way to invoke the higher Powers is to repeat the Mantra with a knowledge of its significance and feeling of devotion felt in the heart and the heart's cry in the form of the Mantra must rise up, that is to say, the name or Mantra must ring in the heart and from there the cry of the soul must go up to the God worshipped.

It must be noted that every major God can give all that one needs. To contact the Higher Powers is the important thing. If the Guru is strong and puts the Influence, this is achieved easier even if the Initiate is weak. If the Initate is strong and relies on his devotion and faith, even with a feeble help from the Guru he can succeed.

5 October 1950

Om

Om is certainly regarded as the greatest Mantra and all that is stated in the question.

It is so regarded in the Vedas as well as Upanishads.

It can be practised as a japa by any one interested in it, and its meaning can be understood from the Mandukya Upanishad; but usually it is effective when received from a competent Guru who transmits the power and the real significance of the Mantra to the initiate in the measure of the latter's capacity to receive, to begin with.

There is something in the sound and arrangement of the syllables of the Mantra which are woven into its very texture which cannot be rendered in any other tongue. With this provision the general meaning of the Mantra is to be grasped.

Bhadram

Bhadram in the Veda is a very significant term; it means kalyanam, auspicious. Now to the meaning: To the Auspicious direct our mind (O Agni).

Importance is attached to it perhaps for the reason suggested in the next question. But we cannot say there is an importance attached to it which is not due to other mantras.

The special peculiarity lies in the fact that the prayer is at once short and pregnant with a meaning which is the attainment of the supreme, Bhadram. Nothing less, also nothing more, though one can read into it many things.

Certainly it is a special invocation to Agni who guards against all ills.

The very question anticipates the answer but it is always wise to discipline oneself and fix a time or any number of times and when the thing becomes habitual and deep so much so one cannot think of himself without feeling it and thinking it. This is the same as to say that one can do it at any time of the day etc.

If what is meant by Santi Path is the way that leads to withdrawal from life, nivrtti, then it overtly starts from the Upanishads. But an inward withdrawal is absolutely essential and without santi or peace no yoga, either in the path of the Veda or of the Upanishad is possible. In the Vedas santi, peace, a happy peace is one of the objects prayed for by the seers. But, they may have had their temporary periods of withdrawal from life for the purpose. But that was known to be the firm basis upon which they built the structure of their yoga.

August 1950

Cetomukha

Q: In the Mandukya Upanishad there is the description of the Atma as being fourfold. Verse 5 relating to the third part runs:

susuptasthana ekibhutah prajnanaghana evanandamayo hyanandabhuk cetomukhah prajnastrtiyah padah.

What is the meaning of cetomukhah?

A: The straight reading of cetomukhah in the context seems to be this:

Let us not translate cetah into Mind; it represents the intelligent principle or the principle of Knowledge. Mukha is mouth or facet, it means figuratively dvara, door or passage. The compound is an attribute to prajnah. It means, then, that the Purusha of the third state, susuptasthana, is one who has cetas for the passage, dvaram, towards the dream-state and other states of consciousness. This explanation can fit in with Shankara’s so far, without entering the question of reality or unreality of the world of objects in the dream-state or waking states of consciousness. It can fit in with Sri Aurobindo’s system also in this way. The other states of consciousness are in a seed-state in this third and so this susupta consciousness is the causal which has the cetah for its face, turned to the other states.

14 September 1948

Vedic Gods and the Upanishads

Q: On page 45, Lights on the Veda, you adopt the symbolism of Agni, Vayu and Aditya for Hota, Adhvaryu and Udgata respectively; but the symbolism recommended by Yajnavalkya in the Upanishads is somewhat slightly different. Can you reconcile these two views?

A: It is not a symbolism that I adopt. It is one that is given in the other Brahmana texts which I have quoted in the original Sanskrit. Only Yajnavalkya has not cared to reconcile his explanation with the other texts either in Brahmanas or Upanishads. I think no reconciliation is necessary because the purpose is different. He has to lay stress more upon the adhyatmika as indeed all Upanishads do than on the true character and functionings of the Vedic Gods. This perhaps may explain the position.

Q: What is the meaning of the phrase ‘yadidam antariksam anarambanam iva' ([Br. Up. III.1.6](https://upanishads.org.in/upanishads/12/3/1/6))? It is well known that the sky is without an approach, why is it stated here ‘iva', what is its special significance here?

A: Anarambanam iva. ra in the earlier language is in the place of our la. It is analambanam iva. It means akasa seems to be without support. Obviously it means that too has a support i.e. Brahman.

Q: Indrah suparno bhutva vayave prayacchat etc. ([Brh. Up. III. 3.2.](https://upanishads.org.in/upanishads/12/3/3/2)) What is the meaning of Indra and Vayu here? Here Indra is usually translated as Fire. What is your interpretation of this passage?

A: The Vedic Gods, when they are referred to in the Upanishads, are not exactly what they are in the Vedas. It is doubtful if Indra is meant to be Agni and so commented upon by the Acharyas. Granting it is so done—I have not got all the commentaries by the Acharyas before me just now—we may say it is quite plausible because agnih sarva-devatah—Fire has within him all the Gods or he himself is all the Gods. This is repeatedly affirmed in all the Vedic texts.

Q: Why are the gods said to be immortal? Surely they do not have physical immortality; for they too have to die sometime.

A: The Gods are immortals because they belong to the Immortal world. It will lead to utter confusion if we do not recognise the difference between the Gods of the Vedas and those of the Puranas. Even in the Upanishads the Vedic Gods are treated differently. This has been stated in more than one place in the Lights on the Upanishads.

You may refer to the chapter on Vaisvanara Vidya (in Lights on Upanishads).

Symbolisms

Q: You have stated (p. 74 Lights on the Veda) that the triangle, square, cross represent certain inner truths. What do the symbols represent? It is also stated in the previous paragraph that the vehicles, vahanas, colours of devas represent certain states. Can you illustrate them with references and descriptions given in the Rig Veda of Agni, Indra, Vayu, Varuna and Aditya? Garuda, Risabha, Swan, are respectively the vahanas of Vishnu, Siva and Brahma. Do they represent the Veda, the turbulent mind, and the calm mind?

A: The meaning of these symbolisms, really speaking, becomes clear to one whose vision-centre opens and turns upon them. A certain mental idea about them has little value. Of course they are used in worship according to the instructions received by the initiate, besides they are interpreted in different ways by different schools of occult thought. For instance, Circle represents a wider and larger world. A Triangle—it depends upon the position—generally represents, according to some, creation. Cross represents transformation and so on. But the real thing in all these things is, when the sadhaka perceives them in the inner vision either the significance dawns on him or follows the vision or corresponds to the experience that he is to get or has already got. In some cases the symbols may be just devices for worship which may not correspond to truths that pertain to the planes to which the world of symbols belongs. And it is not of much use to make an attempt to reconcile the symbols mentioned in Puranas and the Tantra with those we come across in the Upanishads, much less with those of the Vedas. The Veda, turbulent mind, calm mind—that is the explanation given usually. But the Eagle, the Bull, the Swan these signify something different in the Veda.

Omens

Omens are always intriguing and intimately bound up with the ground-feelings and beliefs. They are usually helped to actualise themselves by the beliefs deep-seated in the environment and the persons concerned. The religious ceremony to avert the apprehended evil can be effective if done with faith and without fear—at any rate at the time of performance. After all, the omens are not the causes. These apprehensions and fears can be counteracted in time and you have the counteracting Force which always answers to the call.

7 March 1951

Sraddha

The Sraddha ceremony has been performed since the Vedic times, but we do not know how exactly it was performed in the beginning. The Smritis (Dharma Sastras) alone are the authority in vogue. The Vedic Mantras used for the purpose vary according to the various Shakhas and Sutras. But they can be recognised amidst the crowding of the Puranic passages (Gods also) that one finds commonly used by the Purohits. But some Puranas (notably Garuda Purana) speak of the departed souls, and sraddhas. Here one finds method in madness. There are some sound principles underlying these ceremonies.

6 January 1951

You wish to know how long the vital part of a being (after death) may be considered to be bound to the vital world. This depends upon the development of the being while on earth. In some cases without lingering in the vital world, it may reach its destination without caring for any help from any human being on earth. That is why in the case of real Sannyasins the sraddha is not allowed to be performed; instead aradhana is done.

In some cases the soul can easily be in the vital world for some years but not indefinitely. Here again the period varies. Since we cannot be sure of the condition of those departed, the ancients, in order to be on the safe side, prescribed a rule according to which the sraddhas are performed annually. Nov it is almost a sentimental affair and a social convention.

No sraddha can be effective if the performer has no faith in it, even in the early years when the departed may be nearer the earth plane and could be in a position to receive the help through genuine sraddha.

The idea of putting an end to this sraddha business was a brilliant one and the ancients chose a holy centre like Prayag or Gaya where once for all the final sraddha could be performed. The idea seems to be such a place is a recognised centre of spiritual force where the performer could effectively perform the ceremony which is an outer form for conveying the final help to the departed and thus absolve himself from the obligations believed to be expected of him by the latter.

Prayer: Its Meaning

Has prayer ‘by one who has not realised' no meaning?
Does it ‘only strengthen the I-ness'?

These are two parts of the first of the two questions you would like me to answer.

Prayer is chiefly meant for one who has not realised and it is full of meaning. It has meaning for one who has realised also. For the realisation can be such that the realised soul can enter into and maintain its relation with the ultimate Reality—call it the Full, the Universal, the Divine I. The very fact that one prays implies confession of limitations as also recognition of the fact that there is something higher which one could approach with true humility for help and guidance.

This leads to the second part of the question. For the ego, what you call I-ness, is not strengthened by prayer; on the other hand it gains in humility, the very act of prayer cures it of its pettiness and when the prayer is intense and sincere, this I-ness certainly drops, but there is the great and eternal I behind and above that remains and rules. Truly has it been said’ The I of each and the great universal I are one’.¹⁷

21 March 1948

Prayer: Correct Attitude

I

The proper form, and spirit as well, of your prayer must be ‘Today I have to do this, I pray, give me the right guidance.' It is the attitude that matters most in all prayer; one need not even utter so many words if the will or the aspiration to be guided by the Divine in all activities be well-shaped by frequent remembrance leading to constant active memory of the Divine.

Therefore, for one who is engaged in activities the attitude must be one which is at once proper and practical. One must have full interest in the work that is undertaken; an absorbing interest with its eventual thoroughness is necessary even in yoga and not only for purposes of worldly life. The English expression, disinterested action, is misleading and even a caricature of the Gita's sublime injunction—‘Do work, yoked to Me (yukta)’.

The attitude then, is not to call upon the Divine and demand ‘Make me pass’, for in making such a demand you lower your status of being yoked to Her and feel a stranger to Her Grace and way of guiding those who have come to Her. Nor is the attitude to be ‘Thy wish will be fulfilled’, as you put it, because such an attitude fits in where resignation reigns supreme and all is passive, and cannot be proper or true when one is called upon to act with full interest in a thorough manner for a particular end in view.

The attitude that actuates the prayer in the formula I have chosen for you in answer to your query will be, I think, clear to you now. It is an attitude in which desires are not hidden and therefore self-deception is not encouraged or allowed; the whole being is exposed to the light of the Mother which purifies and sublimates whatever is to be retained and merits a permanent place in Her Will and view, removing whatever there is of dross and not worthy of retention in us. There is no necessity of calling upon Her to do as She wills, for Her Will compared with the collective willings of all men put together wins by a hundred lengths, and does not require a special prayer from us. Besides, ‘Thy will be done'—this attitude, superb as it is, may prove injurious in some cases as it may lodge a lurking suspicion of a defeatist mentality quite overtly.

In the attitude I urge, you will find that you are called upon to do the task with a happy confidence that you are not alone in your work, that you are to be entrenched in the faith—which is a potent substitute of consciousness until that dawns—that you are yoked to the Influence of the Light, of the Mother whose gracious guidance you can always receive especially in times of need and that what you call your will and work and efforts are but secondary, yet an indispensable instrumentation of Her Will.

You will remember the expression Yogah karmasu kausalam.

P.S.

Srat is a vedic word meaning truth, and dha to hold: sraddha is an untranslatable word. Faith is a feeble English equivalent. Faith is the innate power, sakti, by which truth is held, srat satyam anaya dhiyate. Later Sanskrit grammarians derive it differently. But the derivation I give can be better appreciated in the light of sraddhamayoyam...sah. It is not a mere belief, it is a power of the soul by which the Spirit achieves its ends by using the intelligence and energy in the instrumental nature.

18 October 1940

II

There is an. air of pessimism that your letter breathes. If you want to meet with success in your efforts, this is the first thing that must be driven out. I suspect that the prayer-formula I chose for you has not gone deep into you in all its significance. What I have said is not the same as the Gita’s disinterested action; I want you to be very much interested in action, to be ‘examination- minded ’ as you say. But I add that you must have the faith and feel (though not fully conscious in the beginning) that you are not alone in your work and that there is something else deep within you, as well as close to you and outside you and superior to you in strength and knowledge and effective action to which you can have access for right guidance at the right moment. The Gita, well understood, gives intellectual clarity, so far as the yukta, ‘yoked’—aspect goes, but my appeal to you aims at vital absorption of a dynamic principle; the former can remain a theory with millions of men, the latter has an untold practical importance for the chosen few.

25 October 1940

Prayer and Vicarious Suffering

One can always ask for help, it is true that the Divine intervenes, but the intervention may not always be of the kind we want or expect, but will always be in such a way that it is in consonance with the Truth, furthering the progress of the sadhana, to our substantial and ultimate good. Of course such an intervention, implying mercy as it does, minimises the material and moral deficiencies, if they prevail in the environments and obstruct our path and progress of the Spirit and Truth in us.

But when we pray for others who are not concerned with our prayer, or are indifferent to its object, we are really inviting suffering upon ourselves. In the absence of repentance, the Christian confession, or a strong will, or a superb faith on the part of those on whose behalf we pray, what happens is that the vicarious suffering remains barren and a revolt on the other side may result.

Vicarious suffering is a recognised fact of spiritual life, it is fruitful under certain conditions, such as, a co-operating will, or a healthy robust faith, or a recognition of one's weakness and of the existence of a stronger power that could remove it, or a true moving repentance which is the underlying principle of the Catholic Confession.

But there is no vicarious repentance or vicarious confession.

21 June 1937

Physical Nature

The Physical Mind is that part of the mind which is concerned with physical things only—it depends on the senses, sees only objects, external actions, draws its idea from the data given by external things, knows no other truth.

The Physical Consciousness: the state of Consciousness which has for its field of action the physical or the material, gross existence of our waking state is physical consciousness. There are many planes of being and states of consciousness above ours—the vital, mental etc.

The Vital Mind: that is a part of the nature whose function is not to think and reason, but to plan or imagine or dream what can be done.

Physical body: this is obvious—composition of Nature constituting the elements made active by the life-force and used for thinking, acting, feeling by the mind and the soul or spirit.

Desire to be Loved

No, it is not a crime; the desire to be loved and admired is no crime; it is natural and is indeed the parent generating the motive force for ambition which also is no crime, but is natural for those in whom there is the fire, the will of the spirit within to express itself and dominate wherever possible.

But then, know also that failure like success is no crime, but natural. In brief the key is here. There is a necessity to grow enough and go ahead in order to be above and command the conditions that determine the success and failure in a particular sphere. Ambition or desire to be loved and admired are petty, and at times powerful stimulants that speed up the growth. But they are not indispensable in all cases. They are useful devices.

Again, also note that desire to be loved or admired is not the same as being lovable or admirable. One can be or become lovable or admirable not from desire but desert to be loved and admired.

Desire is not the same as desert, thought the former may initiate the strivings for the latter.

11 December 1936

The delusion that one is loved is preferable to the canker of hatred that may develop eating into the vitals of its entertainer.

6 August 1936

Attraction, Sentiment, Love

Let us look up to the Silence in which knowledge of the past may embrace knowledge of the future that concerns us—and that living in the present.

Meanwhile it is but correct and useful to hold that the present is a projection of a link in the chain of a lived past moving towards a prearranged great future which we are called upon to meet here and work out.

But sentiments, emotional attitude, feelings of love, affection, are all results of a deeper cause and attraction and, however much they may appear on the surface alloyed with vital motives, have a deeper origin and value in the subtle scheme of a more permanent existence.

Once this is recognised, everything becomes natural, explicable, and nothing looks extraordinary.

The question of your ‘desert’ or mine does not arise at all.

9 September 1938

The mere matter-of-fact mind cannot appreciate or understand this ‘deep sentiment’, because it is not a mental principle or a vital wave, though it may, for manifestation, use the mould of a vital motive or a mental idea, for the attraction of souls predestined to meet.

Things are preordained, so are events.

9 September 1936

Though it is true that none of us would like to express his love and esteem for the other in person, human heart—when it is sincere and devout—finds in pouring itself out great compensation for the physical sense of separation from the object it is attached to.

15 November 1930

Yes, ‘good’ and ‘love’ are different words obviously and connote different ideas, excite different feelings, evoke different sentiments,—though they both, we learn on good authority, fuse into each other as we rise in consciousness higher into planes of existence that are above our normal human understanding and life.

11 March 1937

It was Gautama Buddha who first illustrated distinterested love as the love of the true mother for her child. To give birth to a single noble child is possible only for a noble soul.

5 June 1933

Promises

Remember also that a promise is an intention, honestly meant and carefully expressed at a particular time under certain conditions. If the conditions change and the intention is modified (even if out of recognition) the promise is automatically resolved into a sound record of past history, “nothing else, also nothing more”. There is a class of cheap promises (given without forethought) which can be ignored without liability to moral solvency. Such a dictum may seem to you to put a premium on dishonesty, not at all. That is why a wise man does not indulge in cheap promises.

5 January 1938

Sin

As for sin and animal life; this is the old story. Sin is nothing but weakness; it is a big falsehood and a huge joke, a cruel joke, of the Puranas. No man, even the worst scoundrel among us goes back to animal state.

Every soul is a portion of God; certain souls choose low births for certain experiences; to call them punishments for past wickedness given by God is a childish notion and a religious dogma, taught by the priestcraft and blindly accepted by the unthinking society; this is monstrous and stupid. The sin idea is a canker, I repeat, a colossal sham. M. must learn to be more cheerful, let him not brood. God never punishes.

August 1933

Morality and Duty

The problem is one that has perplexed man ever since he developed what is called moral consciousness. Perhaps if a brief answer is given, it will be too difficult for you for the present to comprehend. A long letter of ten pages may go in the direction of convincing you. But I suggest that it is much better for one to discover an answer for himself; this is possible as one grows not merely in age, but in consciousness, wisdom, general capacity improved by experience and observation.

I may state this much as food for thought:

(1) Morality is relative; there is no absolute rule.

(2) Morality is not spirituality.

(3) Morality is a necessity which drops of its own accord when the spiritual urge or consciousness makes its way into one's being.

Read the Gospel of the Gita (On Dharma), Pages 32-35, also the ‘Objections and the appeal’, Pages 7-13.¹⁸

You may have read it before. But read it now; and think over and try to apply the principle to the problem. Perhaps you may then be able to appreciate the full import of the questions that you discuss in your letter. If need be, I shall try to give answers in the form in which you would like to have them for your questions. But first try and see if you yourself cannot answer your question. Remember also:

Responsibilities go with rights.

Interests are often hidden in duties.

Again I may state this also that the answer to your question must necessarily vary with individuals; there is no stereotyped moral rule for all men, under all conditions, at all times.

3 July 1935

Human Will and Desire

Q: Is it wrong to curb desires by will?

A: Curbing postpones the evil, puts a premium on its recurrence perhaps with added strength. That does not mean one may indulge in it. The little will of man cannot successfully control desires, much less conquer them. But if the will becomes with the higher Will, then the problem is rightly tackled. The higher Will either removes these desires if they are not in consonance with the laws of the supreme Truth in action or it fulfils them if that be the necessity of the higher Law. In any case their character is changed and they are not so many hurdles on the way, but are purified and changed to become true expressions of the Truth-Will, the divine Will, the Divine in the becoming.

Here also, I may add, the human will can be trained to harmonise with the prayer. For prayer itself gives a definite form to the will in addition to the response it brings from the higher Truth and Will to act upon and through the human will changed, developed and enlightened.

I note from your letter that you are familiar with the teachings of Sri Aurobindo, particularly the Gita and his Letters. It is then hardly necessary to point out that the question of human psychology and the I-ness is not so simple as stated in the letter. What you have described is a partial truth, it is partial and exclusive, does not comprehend and take into account the variety of temperaments and types of souls and their possibilities that bespeak the global character of the Truth in the Manifestation.

Once this is borne in mind there will be no room left for any confusion.

21 March 1948

Marriage and Spiritual Life

Marriage is not always a curse. It may be helpful in some cases, where the devotee has already dedicated his life to the Divine. Married life gives experiences which have a chastening effect on the aspiring soul or the partner in life, if similarly devoted, though this is difficult to get, and can hasten the Godward progress of the devotee which the partner also could share.

In any case, fear and worry must be avoided; ardent Faith and assured confidence in oneself are indispensable.

6 January 1950

Common Sense

But, of course, common sense is not a common commodity, it is something that is woven into the very texture of certain minds grown and growing robust by proper contacts, favourable opportunities and healthy environments.

7 March 1937

Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm is the fulcrum of action in the case of many men and women. If that is chilled even a little, the activity itself stops.

10 May 1948

Failures

Remember that life is never a series of successes and joys alone; even failures and miseries have their uses in God's scheme.

30 November 1936

Gales

No gale stays on, it moves, passes on at an incredible rate of speed. All the same, it does its mischief, leaves its impress; but we survive, that is luck as they say.

9 December 1941

Terrible Truth

That anything can happen at any time is a terrible truth in this world.

27 December 1933

On Mudrarakshasa

What V. writes about Mudrarakshasa is good, quite all right as far as it goes; I do not think that there is omission of any serious points to be stressed that would go to show that this drama does riot conforin to the normal model. In marshalling the facts in support of the proposition that is discussed, there are one or two statements which may be open to controversy if they are made without qualification, with an assertiveness that can be assumed only in the case of self-evident, accepted truths. I am referring to these two statements:-

1) The heroic sentiment which is the chief sentiment of the play is not reinforced by other subordinate sentiments.

2) It has a peculiar code of ethics.

Let us take the first of these and see if it is really so. That the heroic sentiment is the chief sentiment is admitted, but this is technically so, and the commentators and Pundits have treated it as Virarasapradhana Nataka. At the same time one cannot escape the sentiment of marvel that is evoked at every turn in the unravelling of the plot. In fact the sentiment of adbhuta appeals so much and effectively that the chief sentiment of heroism is substantially subordinated to the plot of marvel, though according to the technique of dramaturgy the main rasa of Mudrarakshsa is heroism. To be brief and carry home this truth, I shall give the example of Uttararamacarita. Every one is overpowered by karuna here and the author himself extols karuna in the famous line “Eko rasah karuna eva nimitta-bhedat”; still according to the rules of dramatic art in India, Pundits of the technique have argued and convinced themselves that the chief sentiment in this Bhavabhuti's most famous drama is Love—vipralambha srngara—sentiment of love in separation.

Therefore if we remember the so-called subordinate sentiment of marvel in the plot, we can also explain why the plot is given preference over the suggestion of the so-called chief sentiment of heroism.

I do not know if on account of an alleged absence of subordinate rasa to reinforce the chief one, this drama is underrated at all in India. For aught I know, indigenous scholarship has treasured it with the same esteem as it has done the Naisadha among the Panca-kavyas.

Nor is it underrated for the low state of public morality disclosed in the plot. Indeed, there is “the peculiar code of ethics”—this expression is used to denote the questionable means employed in the proceedings—deception, impersonation, forgery, murder and a host of devilish schemings. The game of diplomacy has been throughout the ages an art of which suppression of truth and suggestion of falsehood—clever lying—form the soulful features. End justifying the means seems to have been the background of these proceedings in statecraft. Ancient authorities on Politics—Chanakya himself is a great authority—do not disclose a better level of morality to be displayed in practical politics. Nor is this a feature peculiar to India of Chanakya and Rakshasa as characterised by Visakhadatta. In whatever direction the world may have progressed since early times, it has done very little in the direction of high morality governing the principles of statecraft especially in regard to foreign relations or dealing with potential or actual enemies. In spite of humanism and high idealism dominating the culture of a great people, whether in ancient or modern times, in the east or in the west, if the state could not avoid secrecy, espionage and the rest of questionable morals, the root cause is to be found in the intrinsic weakness of human nature, in the imperfections of man manifested in the modes of his individual as well as aggregate living. The Evil comes from Adam.

Therefore the peculiar code of ethics was not peculiar to India of Chanakya's days. Nor could the low state of political morality be asserted to have influenced men of letters in India to deprecate the merits of this drama.

Let me then close my remarks on two of the obiter dicta of V. in his pointed reference to the salient features of Mudraraksasa as a Nataka not conforming to the normal model. The absence of feminine interest and the tough stanzas with the reasons thereof and the other points he mentions can very well go to show that this play is not of the ordinary variety. But to say that it is ‘underrated' for the absence of subordinate sentiments as well as for the’ peculiar code of political ethics’ is rather hard to swallow, as I have shown above. Before dropping the subject let me quote the line of the commentator of Mudraraksasa referring to the sentiment of marvel in the plot of the drama.

“Vidhanam vacaste'dbhuta-rasa-mayam natakavaram."

As for Mrcchakatika, it is not a far cry from Mudraraksasa so far as the fame for plot is concerned. I do not know if a candidate can answer a poser or that the examiner is not at all right in having framed a particular question. I state this because V. says that he does not at all agree with, the statement that the Mrcchakatika offers a challenge to all canons of orthodoxy. And he is emphatic when he is asked to justify the statement by the examiner. In the case of Mudraraksasa even though I do not admit that it is underrated in India, at any rate, not in the circle of Pundits, I would assume that it is not properly appreciated for various reasons—absence of feminine interest, stanzas being unsuitable for stage—and that V. has pointed, even though I may not commit myself to assertive statements which may be controverted as I have shown. Therefore it is necessary that we must assume that the question is correct and the statement therein is justifiable. Now let us see what is unorthodox about Mrcchakatika. Yes, to begin with, the title itself does not conform to the rules of dramaturgy as V. has rightly shown. The cohabitation of a Brahman with a Sudra is prohibited in the Kaliyuga, though it is recognised by Manu. The hero and the heroine are a challenge not only to orthodox sentiment, but to the rules of orthodox treatises on dramaturgy. Particular dialects are assigned to particular classes of dramatis personae in the Sastras and this rule is honoured in its breach. There are about 20 characters and more who speak Prakrit dialects, but they do not speak the particular dialect used by the classes to which they belong. This can be illustrated by a reference to the commentary under the dialects used by the several characters in the play.

This is what I have suggested for the present without going through the details with the eye of investigation, handicapped, as I am by a total innocence of Prakrit language and grammar.

Before closing this letter I may make a remark as to why this drama is a challenge to orthodox rules. No long explanation is necessary if we remember that this is a work twenty centuries old, and long before the rules were systematised in the form in which we find them in the extant works on dramaturgy. It is this fact that explains the so-called unorthodox challenge to accepted canons on the subject.

18 September 1940

Supernatural Element in Kalidasa and Bhavabhuti

I do not have the texts before me as I am typing these lines in answer to your question mainly about the supernatural element in the two of the most famous dramas in the Sanskrit classical literature. Nor is it necessary for my present purpose to have them before me, as I do not propose—I am not asked either—to illustrate fully and exhaustively the points of contrast or comparison between Kalidasa and Bhavabhuti as we find them in Sakuntalam and Uttararamacaritam. Your contention seems to be that the supernatural intervenes much more in Sakuntalam than in Uttararamacaritam in which there is only one instance you seem to find, and that too in the closing portions where the drama of the Devas is enacted.

I am afraid you cannot let off Bhavabhuti so easily, holding as you seem to do, that he is comparatively innocent in so far as he is not enamoured of the device of supernatural element introduced in the denouement of his plot. I shall come to that later on and show how what you call the ascetic dramatist could not be acquitted of the charge of resorting to the supernatural, as he did according to you only once unlike Kalidasa in his Sakuntalam where you find obvious recourses to the supernatural.

One thing I must state at the outset. That is to draw your attention to the difference between the method of answering a poser in an examination to win the approval of the examiner, and the way of making a profound study of the subject, taking a larger view to get the right perspective for a proper evaluation of Sanskrit classics as related to the age and society whose product it is, whose aims and ideals in their various aspects of life, as well as general trends of thought and belief, and cultural status are mirrored therein. In this respect I should like to recommend a close study of the extracts from Sri Aurobindo's writings which I have arranged to send typed to you today.

Let me, then, confine myself to the subject of supernatural element you refer to in your letter, meaning it, indeed, in the ordinarily understood sense of the word, though it is true that some of the so-called supernaturals are not really impossible, though less frequent but possible under rare conditions and therefore natural in their own way. Here I may add in parenthesis that the phenomenon of double personality known to Psychologists is an instance which goes to disprove our ordinary beliefs and disbeliefs in the possibles and the impossibles—and this apart from the question of occult truths and psychic phenomena with which the Psychic Research society of America has familiarised us through its reports of extraordinary occurrences. Now let us turn to the subject.

I assume and accept as supernatural the course of Durvasa with its cure, namely, the hero’s loss of memory regained by the sight of the lost ring. You have omitted to mention the instance of Sanumati, the celestial damsel who appears (VI act) invisible, watching the movements of Dushyanta in the interest of Sakuntala, the daughter of the famous Apasara, Menaka, and hearing the soliloquies of the hero in his repentance for having discarded Sakuntala. As for Dushyanta’s journey to heaven and returning with the celestial charioteer Matali, it is too patent a legendary element to be called supernatural.

Then look at the performance of Bhavabhuti in his most famous play. You cite only one instance for the supernatural element—the drama of the Gods in the closing portions. How can we ignore the wailings of the hero (III act) in the Dandaka forests? For, there appears Sita who was dead long ago after delivering the twins; she comes and by her physical touch rescues Rama from the fit of swoon he had fallen into. And there are other, perhaps minor, instances of the extraordinary—the sylvan goddess (Vanadevata) speaks and acts on the stage. Note also that Bhavabhuti has introduced the supernatural in the Malatimadhava also.

Therefore one has to admit that both Kalidasa and Bhavabhuti have used the device of introducing the supernatural, and we cannot accuse Kalidasa alone of having a predilection for the supernatural. But we must bear in mind that both are capable of conceiving a plot without recourse to the supernatural. Kalidasa has done so in the Malavika; Bhavabhuti has done so in Mahaviracarita except where the mythological element in the plot needed a resort to the supernatural. Besides, both before and after Kalidasa and Bhavabhuti there have been dramatists who have not drawn upon the supernatural—Sudraka in Mrcchakatika, Visakhadatta in Mudrarakshasa, Bhasa in some of his plays are instances to the point.

And so if Kalidasa has resorted to the supernatural in Vikramorvasiyam and Sakuntalam, and Bhavabhuti in Uttararamacaritam—I shall leave aside Malatimadhavam for the present, as the plot there is purely the creation of the playwright's fancy—it is because of the nature of the themes they have chosen. Let me illustrate my point in brief. Dushyanta, father of the far-famed Bharata of the Lunar race, is sufficiently ancient to have a free passage to the celestial world, even as his compeer of still more ancient times, Dasaratha of the Solar race, had free access to Indra's abode to render him service in times of need, so much so that he had a chariot which moved in ten directions—eight directions, diks, and the remaining two being upward and downward. You will see then that when a plot is taken from a Puranic story, just as Kalidasa has done from Mahabharata and Bhavabhuti from Ramayana, the so-called supernatural element becomes at once intelligible, natural to the Puranas; and, in such cases one may say that the mythological becomes logical, the supernatural natural.

I suppose that this sketchy remark from me is sufficient for your purpose so far as your main question is concerned.

By the way, I do not seriously object to your calling Kalidasa a courtier as it is used in the sense that he received royal patronage most deservedly, and not in the vulgarised sense that he attended the court for courting the favour of his patron and subserving his personality to the imperious whims of a king. But I do not follow your characterising Bhavabhuti as ascetic; the zeal for contrast to make it look sharper than it really is, may perhaps account for this. Certainly, there is a vein of moral and religious idealism more marked in him than in Kalidasa in whom we find a living breath of consummate beauty and an unsurpassed delicacy in the handling of the love theme where he is a superb master excelling all that went before him and came after him. But Bhavabhuti cannot be said to be of an ascetic temperament because of the spirit of idealism that his personality breathes into his productions. There is a large humanism in his creations, a larger breath of life and vigour of style and diction par excellence that give the lie direct to the legend of ascetical partiality in Bhavabhuti. Moreover, we must bear in mind that ancient Indian scholarship of the indigenous type recognised the classical grandeur of Uttararamacarita in comparison with Sakuntalam in the famous line “Uttare Rama-carite Bhavabhutir visisyate".

1) Preparation

The main thing is to feel the drive of the need in the soul and earnestly set out on the inward path. The choice of the Teaching comes only next, depending on the temperament and intellectual mould of the aspirant.

11 March 1949

To make a true beginning in spiritual life, learn to separate yourself, your being, the purusha from the movement of the prakriti, the universal Nature. As long as you identify yourself with its movements you are bound up with it. But when you begin to stand aloof, it becomes possible to get a poise above the operations of the prakriti and set the inner being free to come into its own.

18 October 1950

Each one carries a world of his own with him. His thoughts, his movements, his world. God stands on high, on a tower as it were, gazing down at millions of human beings moving about below. They give an appearance of so many small ants crawling round. Each is full to his brim with his own things. God who carries his Plenty to give, finds none or few to receive. It is only if we care to unburden ourselves of our thoughts and prepossessions that there will be room to receive and contain what God is ready, indeed, waiting to shower. So it is always a first rule in sadhana to empty oneself

It is never too late to take up spiritual life and succeed in it. Neither age nor infirmity matters. What is important is a sustained effort, abhyasa.

2 November 1949

In spiritual life it is the earnestness that is of greatest importance. People, no doubt, begin with a considerable earnestness; they must maintain it and strive to increase it.

Learn to be open to a higher Calm, a Silence; that can be effected either by a strong aspiration or by the Grace of the Guru. Once you begin to feel the Calm settling into you—no matter for howsoever short a time—the way is found. To call for that Calm, to give it room to settle into yourself—in the mind, in the nerves, in the body, by cultivating a habit of sitting for longer and longer periods, is the next step. By this means a continuing relation between the Higher Power and the system is established. And though in the beginning it is the seeker who has to strive and hold the Calm etc. as things progress, it is the Calm itself that begins to take hold him and carry him forth as it were. Ways are opened as if from nowhere and the seeker is put on the Royal Road. This Calm, this Silence is, so to say, one end of the Divine Being. If that end is firmly established in one the rest of the Divine is certain to pour in the vessel. With.one end firmly caught, it is a matter of course before the other End’ is rendered accessible.¹⁹

A certain mental and moral elevation, some samskar, is indispensable for safe and sure progress in spiritual life. That is why the ancients attached so much importance to yama and niyama. Reflection on the moral and mental level cannot be attained all at once, hence the need to start with at least some elevation. Without it, one either stops after a few steps or goes astray.

30 September 1948

Order, neatness, harmony—this discipline is necessary. That shall be sadhana for you now. This external purification is enough; you do not need inner purification. Most people do not need it.

21 January 1951

Be in a constant state of receptivity, That is best done by aspiring for and achieving a settled calm within and around yourself.

6 March 1949

God is within, God is without, God is above. But first you must realise Him within before seeking to realise Him elsewhere.

17 March 1951

To have an ideal is meaningless unless effort is made to mould one's life according to it.

17 January 1950

2) Right Attitude—Openness

Right Attitude

Do not concentrate upon and pray for the removal of your defects, bad qualities; pray for the rise and growth of good qualities. Positive gains will displace negative elements which will simply drop off.

28 December 1948

It is more towards acquiring real strength than on the exercise of it that our effort must be directed.

18 September 1948

Amidst all the currents and cross currents, agitations and excitements keep firm to the central principle that is to govern your life. Do not compromise on that; stick to it whatever the jerks and pulls.

10 January 1949

Do not be carried away by every movement that comes by; watch it from aside and then decide instead of allowing it to sweep you away in its flood.

5 March 1951

Whatever the surroundings, ‘Mind your business’ is an ideal motto for the seeker. Have an eye fixed constantly on the inner progress; clear the being of every dross and make room for the Light to enter and live and spread.

1 October 1948

When you tend to worry yourself over the welfare of others and kindred matters, even after taking to spiritual life, it is better to ask yourself: would not things go on if I were to die today? Surely they will. Then let me treat these things as such and concentrate on the life I have chosen.

13 February 1949

To keep one's promise, to act up to the given word is not merely Moral. It touches the spiritual being also. Not to keep to the word weakens the tongue-power, vak, and diminishes man's inner stature.

6 March 1949

The sincerity with which you approach determines the results. This is the law of the subtle workings of Nature.

9 April 1951

Few start the spiritual life with complete sincerity. But as they progress, as the stress of the original mixed motives lessens, the modicum of sincerity gets a chance to grow and spread itself gradually.

The question one ought to ask oneself is not ‘Do people respect me, do they think of me as great?’ But ‘Do I deserve what people are charitable enough to grant me?' If one has genuine stuff in him, he cares little whether it is recognised or not. It is there all the same and he is conscious of it.

25 December 1948

The one aim of the seeker must be to achieve a constant jyotirlila, play of Light, within. The Saktilila may follow afterward. He does not worry whether this play of Power is there or not once the uninterrupted reign of the Light is aglow within. Concentrate towards this end and do all that helps this Jnanodaya, Dawn of Knowledge.

9 December 1948

Not to force but allow things to grow naturally is the safest and most fruitful rule in spiritual life.

12 December 1948

To learn to wait is an essential part of yoga. It is in waiting that the usual restlessness dies down and the being gets ready to open to a higher calm and peace.

The patience of God is infinite. He watches and watches the whirl of millions rushing about, each individual trying to outreach the other and waits calmly for the most developed soul to turn to Him when ready.

28 May 1949

To try to coerce the Divine is foolish. Do your part and wait upon the Grace in utter humility and surrender. There is a story of a boy who was somehow left behind in the temple of Kali at night. Nobody should be allowed to remain in the sanctum of Kali; the reason, it would seem, is that there is a sport going on with the Deva Kanyas and no mortal should be present there. Now the father of the boy came near the prakara and entreated the Devi to somehow let out the boy. He was asked by Her to return home quietly and told that the boy was and would return safe. But he was not content. He continued to entreat and importune. The Devi got exasperated and with a loud ‘take it’ cut asunder the body of the boy into two and threw it over the wall to the poor parent. The moral of the story is evident. The Divine knows what is good for the devotee and it is not for him to tell the Divine what to grant and when.

25 March 1950

To ask of God, constantly, gifts—spiritual or material—is beggarly mentality which repels the approach of the Lord. He is ever awake, watchful with hosts of gods ready to serve, ready to pour his untold riches in you if only you would consent to let them enter into you. The ego is the main bar. Surrender of the ego and of all that you imagine yourself to be, to the Almighty, throws open all the doors of your being. The inrush of the riches is spontaneous. Within, the Occupant spreads Himself more and more nearer the surface and emerges as the rightful monarch to whom all the gods of the universe pay homage. Rightly does the Upanishad say:

madhye vamanamasinam sarve devah upasate.

30 October 1948

It is useless to try to anticipate, intelligently or otherwise, what is behind the veil in matters such as the Ashram, its future etc. Each one must increase his own inner concentration, wait upon the Divinity, adoringly if one can, and who knows, the Eye that sees may be awakened or the next step revealed by God Himself.

28 July 1949

Even material objects must be handled with care and consideration. For they too have, as Sri Aurobindo says, a consciousness of their own. They respond to our way of handling them. You handle a thing with care and feeling, it absorbs something of your own consciousness, becomes alive with a part of your own life as it were and in some cases refuses to belong to another. If such a thing is, say, stolen from you, you will find it coming back to you sooner or later.

Treat things, even material objects, as a trust placed in your hand by the Divine and then you will learn to handle them with the care they deserve.

20 February 1950

Do not be preoccupied with the past. Leave it behind, the Maharshi used to say. Look to the future. The past is to be drawn upon only for the lessons it may have. Otherwise it is best to let it pass.

5 March 1951

Keep the scholar in you under check.

Be more conscious of the Great Name and Teaching you are to represent. Success is sure.

18 March 1951

Do not trust the head; rely on the heart. Treat the matter of the brain to the Light of the Name or Person at work in you.

18 March 1951

There is an intelligence in the heart, there is an intelligence in the mind which keeps on feeling you are doing wrong even though the vital may be convicing in its exultant joy that what you do is the right thing.

20 April 1950

Openness

Keep your soul to the front. You should constantly endeavour to keep the soul clear of all the envelopings, whether mental or vital, and feel it in the front. Persist in the attempt and you are sure to succeed.

5 March 1951

How to be open to the Divine?

To love is to be open. That is the ideal way. It may not be possible for all. For such, the way is faith and aspiration. Faith in the Guru, faith in the yoga, faith in oneself—this threefold faith and aspiration in the heart create the opening.

31 December 1949

Love is the one sure means of keeping open to the Divine.

23 March 1950

Fidelity to the Divine means exclusive opening to the divine influence. You have to be open to that alone. In your dealings with the world also, remember that everything has a divine element in it and you have to see that alone and put yourself en rapport with that.

19 March 1950

3) Effort

Sadhana should be natural. There should be such an utter surrender, giving up of oneself that the downpour from above or the outflow from within should be incessant. Of the two, the latter is more lasting and concrete in its results. It means a greater degree of personal effort and that implies a vigilance and endeavour on the part of the sadhak without which things stagnate.

12 February 1951

Cultivate assiduously the habit of referring to the guiding Centre within before doing anything. In the beginning you may find no light within but only the darkness of the mind; gradually, however, you will become conscious of a steady unfoldment, a gentle movement within that stirs to guide. By persistent reference, it grows and becomes automatic in operation. To this end, the habit of faithfulness to truth in all one's movements is very useful. For the system gets acclimatised to movements towards and in the truth and movements of untruth find no support, no room in the person and the guidance from within can reach out without interference or mixture of untruth. Of course it takes time but if persisted in as a discipline, the fruit is sure. Seven to eight times out of ten, the guidance turns out to be the right one. If it fails to be so in the remaining cases it is because in the present state of things, the time-consciousness cannot be complete.

The location of the point of reference—whether it is to be in the heart or at the back of the mind—depends on the nature and temperament of the individual.

18 February 1949

To keep up one's promise, to stick to the word once given is a virtue of great value in spiritual life. Thereby, speech gets in the long run a self-effectuating power, what is called vak-siddhi. If words of such persons do not come true on occasions, it is to be accounted for some weakness in some part of him that gave room to a wrong movement and expression of it.

Not to keep one's word implies weak will; and in spiritual life ‘weak will’ means the worst i.e. such a man cannot be relied upon for anything.

16 January 1949

Stick to the truth and you will be able to stand any amount of cross-examination.

26 March 1950

If our movements are trained to proceed from a consciousness to which Truth and Right are natural, even the mind receives only the right and the true thoughts.

26 November 1948

Each one is full of his own ideas and standards. It is from such a mind he judges others, commends or condemns. Even those who speak of their ‘open mind’ have their own mental cobwebs and standards. To judge others it is necessary to get rid of these, to get out of one's mental frame. It is particularly difficult for those whose mental being is definitely formed and taken shape. From that point of view those who have no mental personality to speak of are in a better position. It is only from an opening into the spiritual wideness that release can be got from this prison of mind.

“Extricate from the illusory consciousness of the mind, from its world of fantasies...”reads the Mother's Prayer.

15 December 1949

When you are confronted with a situation, it will not do to be simply equal to it; you must rise above it, deal with it standing higher.

13 November 1950

Amidst all the excitement and hurry do not lose rectitude. Have a centre of reference and do not do anything without looking into it.

20 April 1950

When thoughts or movements try to overwhelm you, step back, draw behind and you will find yourself standing above them.

10 June 1948

If one carries the right atmosphere things get miraculously favourable to oneself. This can be most observed in travel.

19 February 1950

The characteristic approach to Shiva is through Tapas; to Vishnu it is through Bhakti.

8 October 1948

4) Meditation

If one cultivates the habit of meditating in a concentrated manner even for ten minutes before going to bed, the response begins to continue throughout the night whatever the dreams etc., on the surface layer. And in the morning on getting up, one finds the same movement continuing. A fresh sitting at that time is necessary to stabilise and increase what has been received.

26 October 1949

The morning time is the most precious for meditation. But to make the best use of it it is necessary that before you retire at night you must be quiet, aspire for and get a measure of serenity, calm and go to bed in the consciousness that you have delivered yourself into the hands of the Power that is at work in you. In sleep in spite of the dreams etc., which cover mainly the surface layer of the consciousness, the Power goes on working in the depths and you will wake up with a feeling of repose, quiet and cheerfulness. That gives the proper setting for a conscious and fruitful meditation. When you sit for meditation if sleep threatens to overpower you, you must be vigilant. There is a particular point at which if the sleep is rejected by vigilance, or by physical means, it goes away and does not bother you further.

By steady practice a natural mode of concentration gets formed during these periods of meditation.

25 April 1949

An hour of quiet, deep, concentrated meditation should be enough for a day provided there is a conscious endeavour during the rest of the time to educate the feelings, attitude and activities in the mould and rhythm that is demanded of a yogin. The attitude of the God-seeker should be active not merely during the meditation, but all the time, influencing and directing one's activities.

It is not advisable to sit for meditation for long hours at a stretch—at any rate in the beginning. Thoughts begin to crowd in after some time and if allowed to continue, a habit gets formed. That is why brief snatches of undisturbed meditation are better. In between these periods of meditation, an attitude that is most consonant with an aspiration and seeking for God-life must be cultivated and made increasingly living. In the long run there ceases to be any real difference between periods of meditation and non-meditation; each prepares for the other and both fuse into one uninterrupted line of sadhana.

14 October 1949

It happens, frequently, during meditation that just when a deeper movement is about to begin there is a strong tendency to lapse into sleep. If one manages somehow to get over that movement, the gain is striking; the movement increases; the spread of the light is wider.

August 1951

If the fire of aspiration is burning, sleep will not creep in during meditation. Try to ignite that flame before which everything else pales and falls from you.

Feel the calm and Peace within and stick to it; that will lead and land you there which you cannot even anticipate.

18 January 1951

When you meditate and try to plunge deep into the heart, you may get sleep. But the sleep is not the usual kind of sleep. When you come out of that sleep some passage has been worked out which will help you in getting deeper next time. Each time you go a level deeper.

21 September 1950

During meditation, particularly in the mornings, when there is a downward rush of Power from the higher altitudes into the being, at times the inflow of the Force strikes certain centres e.g. the vital, and one feels a tremendous increase in the vital energy, a thousandfold capacity etc. But such things have their own reactions later unless carefully handled.

27 April 1949

Q: When one sits for meditation at times the tendency to go in is strong, at other times to expand upwards. Should the stronger tendency be allowed to prevail or should one force what one wants?

A: Whichever is the stronger tendency and is more natural at the moment must be given free scope. Only one must be vigilant. For when the tendency is to go within or deep, the mind tends to sink into the subconscient. When one expands upwards, the mind gets busy with waves of surface thoughts. Of course the vigilance is neccssary up to a certain stage when the push inwards or the pull upwards is so strong that the mind is simply swept away in the movement.

11 December 1949

Meditation is no end. It is after all a means. Your immediate aim must be a radical change of outlook, conversion of consciousness. Everything should proceed from a changed centre, a centre bathed in the surging waves of the antah samudra, inner ocean.

21 October 1948

5) Experiences

When Rishi Atri hymns that when Agni is born, he is born as Varuna, he gives expression to a deep truth of spiritual life. For when the fire of aspiration, the Divine Will (Agni) is manifested in man, there is an effortless, simultaneous realisation of Vastness (Varuna is the god of Vastness)—the habitual littlenesses and narrownesses are left behind. His consciousness spreads out, it expands to embrace the Divine in its vast extension. Varuna is followed by Mitra (God of Love, Harmony). There is a feeling of love, sympathy flowing out to all, to the whole creation. Repulsion, fear, hatred, all these melt away at this rise of Love and identification with the rest.

11 June 1951

You speak of calm as ‘coming’ from somewhere. That is calm, of course, but it is a mental calm. There is a greater calm within ourselves, deeper, the spiritual calm which calls down the other calm. The spiritual calm is always there within, firm, immovable and serene. The supramental calm is still greater. When that is there even material elements can be rendered motionless and the calm imposed on them.

23 February 1949

Peace is not in the mind only. It is everywhere, it is within you and around you. If you learn to relax and yield to it, the Peace will envelop you all over.

18 April 1949

The Yoga-Shakti is of course working in the sadhaka, whether he is aware of it always or not. But if he is conscious of it and takes steps to be more and more conscious of its workings, that helps the Shakti and accelerates the process.

9 September 1949

When you progress in sadhana and the higher consciousness begins to act, the mind ceases to function as mind. Its substance is there of course, but not its activity. It simply falls mute.

21 September 1950

Ideas are dynamic. Unless the mind is truncated as it were from the rest of the being, when thoughts get formulated in the mind for expression there is some response from the vital; and after a time the vital gets habituated to respond rhythmically to the workings of the mind and the increasing harmony thus established results in the deeper part, what is called Psyche in our Yoga, coming forward, finding the field ready for its reign.

17 December 1948

The psychic being—the true centre of love—is the apex holding together as it were the two ends of the vital and the mental. It does not stand behind either. We may say, the vital from below and the mental from above have their meeting point in the psychic. When the psychic centre is active, it uplifts and pushes the vital in purified action; it warms and guides the mind in its activity.

30 September 1950

A balancing of the vital and the mental parts is a sign of the development of the psychic element.

26 April 1949

Intuition, telepathy, all these are on par with ‘the ability to walk on water’ in the Ramakrishna story, from the viewpoint of real spiritual life. They are at best expressions of capacity, that is about all.

5 October 1948

Looked at purely from a physical point of view i.e. if we look at the solar system alone as the centre and scene of creation, then, creation had a beginning at some point of time—millions of years ago—(when atoms started coalescing) and naturally, at some point of time in future (again millions or billions of years hence) it must have an end. Physical formations have a beginning and an end. In this context, the question of transformation etc. loses its urgency and even its meaning. But if we look at the whole thing as a movement of consciousness, then it assumes a new complexion altogether. The physical, the vital systems of worlds and all the other systems are different formulations of the One Consciousness-Energy. Consciousness is the Truth. It is because of this we say that all knowledge is at bottom subjective. For it is Consciousness as the Universal Mind that comprehends all knowledge and our mind, which is really a part of the Universal Mind, takes out as knowledge what is comprehended already in the larger term of the Consciousness.

Hence the fundamental importance attached to the change of consciousness in spiritual life. The higher the consciousness operative and normalised in man, the larger is his vision, loftier his stature and vaster his range. It is true, however, that as one arrives at a particular stage in the workings of the higher consciousness and gets identified with the consciousness itself on its purified and subtler levels, one begins to lose all interest in the body. For him this body appears as good as another and his interest in the retention and possibly transformation of the present body flags. The interest has to come again in a different manner.

28 December 1948

If you persistently knock at His Doors, He is sure to open them. Compared to that Event, experiences and realisations like wideness etc. are fireworks. But they are necessary to train the physical mind. Otherwise it would go mad under' the impact of the Revelation.

17 September 1948

Is it possible for man to continue to be his old self even after inner illumination? Does an inner realisation have an effect on the outer being or not? Can one continue to live out his petty likes and meannesses even if there is a radical touch of the illumination within?

The Gita of course says that even in the case of a Jnanin, life continues to be lived in accord with the settled nature. But it does not mean that there can be no transmuting change in one's outer life consequent on illumination. When there is a spiritual realisation or illumination within, the rest of the being is undoubtedly lifted up and a spiritual consciousness does settle upon it. What does not change is the mould of expression that is originally determined for each soul. For instance, one may be noble and generous—giving away everything spontaneously; the other may be acquisitive, sparing in gifts. These broad lines may continue to be the same. But the way and details or expression of a realised man certainly bear a different stamp—a spiritual stamp—about them. The Maharshi once told me how he was by nature physically combative and challenging in his earlier days. But after the realisation, things changed and his response to men and the world were no longer the same; they were quite different; a kind of in-different attitude had taken hold.

Once there is a radical spiritual realisation within, it cannot fail to have repercussions in the outer being. Man's outlook changes; at the very least an awareness of the equality of beings comes to the front.

8 September 1949

The visitor who wanted to show his feats last evening at the playground but walked away in a huff (apparently because he was ‘found out’) really lost courage. When persons with such powers come into the presence of the Divine or someone in a higher consciousness, the powers leave the man and get away or at least they begin to crumble. The man feels helpless and loses heart.

10 June 1951

(Someone had this vision: A beautiful peacock with feathers outspread; then a golden bird and then a pure white horse.)

This is a rare vision; it is very good. It is not a vision of the mind but a soul-vision, what is called in the parlance of this yoga, psychic vision. It can be looked at in two ways and both hold good.

The peacock is Victory; the Golden bird is a spiritual Being coming down from Truth-Consciousness to help her; the White Horse is the purified life-energy.

It can also be looked at this way: the peacock represents victory in sadhana; the Golden Bird is Sri Aurobindo's help coming down to lift her up; and the White Horse is the Mother's Force.

Some part of her entered the subtle planes, the world of symbols and saw happenings as related to her own being in symbols.

A very happy vision.

26 June 1951

Experiences do not really matter much in spiritual life. It is consciousness, not experience, that matters most. Even good experiences fail to leave a good effect if the person lives in a false or egoistic consciousness; they rather make him more swell-headed and leave him worse than before.

7 March1951

Samadhi by itself is no realisation. It is a part of the sadhana. One can make capital use of it for the realisation that is the aim of sadhana.

27-4-1949

It is more towards acquiring real strength than on the exercise of it that our effort must be directed.

18 September 1948

6) Difficulties

When sadhana is being worked out in the sadhaka by the higher Power, there is, at intervals, what can be called a shaking off of dust. The sadhaka should be careful at such times not to be upset and not to get identified with the dust. He should quietly keep to his own depths in the confidence that the Power at work will do what is to be done.

13 October 1949

In your activities maintain a certain aloofness from the work you are engaged in. If that is done, you will cease to be affected by the contacts of men and things inevitable in every-day life. They just pass by on the surface, leaving you secure in your own poise.

24 April 1949

The radical Realisation or even the conversion of consciousness always takes place in a trice. Of course it is preceded by a long period of preparation, known or unknown to the surface being. A readiness is indispensable even in the more external parts of the being e.g. in the mind, in the vital. Particularly the vital; for in most it is the vital being or part of it that is at the root of all disequilibrium and is responsible for the unsteadiness of the mind. The mind itself can be brought round easily; but it is the vital volcano under it that unhinges it and sends it swirling.

17 October 1950

Depressions

When you are depressed due to any happenings, withdraw from company, sit quietly, breathe deep and invoke the Peace to settle into you. Sooner or later a rhythm will get established in you and by constant practice you can feel it at will. The Peace must be felt in the very cells of the body; then will the circumstances cease to overpower your spirits.

9 April 1949

One is apt to feel at times in sadhana that it is the same movement that goes on and get depressed as there are no signs of progress beyond the monotonous repetition. In fact it is not a useless repetition. It is purposive; the results are seen much later. It is like breaking a hard substance with hammer-blows. Each hammer blow looks like every other. Yet, each carries forward the consequence of the earlier and the cumulative effect is that the hardness yields at the end.

16 March 1950

As long as one does not stand above the activities of Nature depression is inevitable. Depression is a state of being less than normal. If the aspiration is active flaming, there can be no despondency or depression. A falling off—in any part of the being—from a certain poise which is natural or normal to oneself is what is known as depression.

It is indispensable to learn to separate yourself from the workings of the Prakriti—the universal Nature through the instruments of mind, life and body,—and station yourself on a higher level in a settled poise. That way lies secure freedom from the reactions and reflexes of the operations of Nature.

When the Mother speaks of the slaying of the Devil of dejection and despondency etc. what is meant is this: so long only those who had attained a certain definite stature in the inner life could stand unaffected by these ills. Hereafter, any one with the necessary aspiration will find it easier and more possible to overcome despondency etc. without having to wait till the growth of the soul has reached a sufficiently high water-level.

25 October 1950

Gloom and depression are robbers who steal what you have been given or have earned in the course of the sadhana.

2 February 1950

Doubt

As a rule Doubt and Kama (lust) steal into man without his active knowledge. He becomes aware of them when they have settled themselves deep enough to render any effort at dislodging them anything but easy.

9 December 1949

Even a small serpent must be destroyed with a big stick. No quarter must be allowed, no chances taken; once a weakness is seen steps must be taken to root it out immediately.

31 August 1949

Doubts about the Divine pursue as long as you are in the mental groove. Once you are earnest about your purpose they wither away.

17 May 1951

There is no end to the doubts of the mind. Nobody can help to stop them. In such cases the problem is really not of the mind but of the soul. When thoughts of this kind are crowding, one forgets the presence of the soul. You should recognise it as the problem of the soul and then if you look for help, it is sure to come and be effective.

26 February 1951

The mind cannot understand. It will doubt even after understanding what it could. Let the mind simply drop and let the calm take its place. In the absence of support from you, thoughts lose their force and ebb away. In the settling calm, right ideas, right movements get their chance to come into you.

7 January 1951

Illness

If you have a strong nervous envelope around, it would automatically resist and throw back the forces of illness. You can build it up consciously, by living habitually in a happy and cheerful atmosphere, cheerful thoughts and movements, and what is more important, by keeping away from depression, unhappiness and anxiety. These are agents of illness and death. Despondency is particularly so. Of course meditation, opening of oneself to the Higher Power in sadhana, helps to strengthen the protecting envelope enormously.

A trained eye which looks from a little behind the physical eye can effortlessly see this envelope, called aura by some, etheric double by others. It is of various colours—white, dark, murky etc. It is this which we carry with us and which attracts the first attention of the Guru—say the Mother. Even before one is physically in Her front, this aura is felt by Her. But even if it is dark, if there is a spark within, She allows the man a chance to develop the spark and helps him.

28 December 1949

The one sure remedy to avoid disturbed nights and restlessness on getting up in the mornings is to pray for peace before going to bed. One must not take the bed before a minimum composure and calm is felt in the being. So also when one is fatigued physically, one should rest and wait till the fatigue is gone, before sleeping.

13 April 1949

Itching

It happens at times, when there is resistance in oneself, that one gets itching after going to the Mother or to any Centre of outpouring spiritual Power. Something in the person resists the touch of the Force and itching follows.

23 October 1951

Fall

At times some very promising seekers come to a dead stop in their inner progress and it is pathetic to see them degenerate. The truth, is, the soul has reached its possibilities in its present embodiment; the outer frame responds no more to the increasing demands of the soul. The soul can resume its onward journey only in another life.

25 December 1948

The most potent cause for spiritual falls is man's Ego. But after all, what is man? What is it that belongs to him? Things have been there before him and will continue to be there after him. Only he claims, he arrogates to himself things which do not belong to him at all and says, ‘this is mine’, ‘that is mine’. The very body which he calls his own belongs to the various elements in the Universe (and even the ego-self with which he identifies his personality is a reflection—a powerful reflection—of the deeper seated entity, the true soul). If the seeker feels and maintains the attitude, ‘Lord, thou art everything, I am just a bubble whose very existence depends on thy pleasure’, that would be more in consonance with facts as they are.

25 December 1948

To speak to others in wonder of the realisations that come to one is a sure means of stepping into a spiritual catastrophe, vismayah siddhi-nasanah. The attention of the hostile forces is drawn to oneself; these forces may be universal or those individualised in men around.

30 October 1948

Way to Avoid Struggle

Once you take to spiritual life, you must treat the past life with all its griefs and joys, as a thing of the past. Develop a new outlook, turn the mind away from things connected with or leading to suffering and misery. The system must be trained to refuse automatically to give room to unhappy movements.

6 January 1949

However much one may get clouded with wrong movements and forces in the world, if he has, at least once, received a touch or come into contact with a spiritual Centre, one may say he is sure to rise up awakened to the call of the Soul.

25 December 1948

If you learn to put yourself in the consciousness of the Divine, you have no need to struggle. Your thoughts, ideas reach out effortlessly and fructify ultimately because it is the Shakti that effects the things and you are identified with it.

10 April 1950

When you begin to smile on your difficulties then surely you have begun to progress in yoga.

18 April 1950

7) Guru—Grace—Fulfilment

Guru

That personal effort, purusakara, alone cannot achieve success in sadhana (spiritual life) is a truth that has been voiced since the Vedic times. In the Vedas, it is the Gods who are invoked to work out the path. This continues till the advent of Buddha. Even Buddha, when he said everything could be reduced to a Zero and propounded what amounted to practical Nihilism, put his own Influence in the disciple which helped him through in the sadhana. If in the Vedic ages it was the Gods whose help was felt and proclaimed as indispensable, later it was the Guru, the Guru's grace that was looked up to as the supreme Help. Shankaracharya has hymned the greatness of the Grace of his Guru Govindapada in all his works; it shows the importance he attached to the Influence emanating from the Guru. To this day Indian tradition has continued to recognise the indispensability of the Influence from outside the range of oneself, whether it is from the Guru or the Jagadguru.

18 February 1948

The Guru can effortlessly spot his potential disciple in a multitude the moment he sees him. Saint Nammalwar once said that the Divine Grace finds the recipient with the natural ease and certainty of a cow recognising her calf among hundreds of cattle.

18 September 1948

When the Guru puts his influence or helps any one, it is as it were an emanation from him (as the Mother says) that goes and touches the recepient. It is about or within him and if he is conscious he can be aware of its workings. It (the emanation) goes 9n with its work and guides him at each step. When the Master wishes to know anything of the person, the particular emanation reports to its centre.

26 February 1949

The Guru, if he is wise, does not decide all things for the disciple. He sees to it that the disciple gets the correct guidance from within; he helps him to come to correct decisions by inner means.

25 April 1951

Mantra

With regard to the Mantra there are three things to be noted:

(1) The Guru who communicates the Mantra must have the power to put its influence in the disciple.

(2) The Mantra itself is no mere composition. It is a power; the words or letters are just its clothing.

(3) The disciple must have the capacity to receive the influence.

However, even if the Guru lacks in sufficient competence for the task, if the Mantra is forceful enough it will do its work in the disciple by its own power—Shakti.

Or even if the disciple be not ready enough to take full advantage, the influence of the Guru will effect the necessary upliftment in him so as to meet the demands of the situation.

But if the Mantra lacks power, nothing could be expected. Also little can be effected by a Mantra from the pages of a book (when not communicated from a competent Guru).

The effectiveness of the protective Grace of the Guru depends upon two factors: (1) sankalpa of the Guru and (2) maintenance of a living contact with the Guru by the disciple.

23 September 1948

In the spiritual ether distance does not really count. That illusion is only in the physical.

28 October 1948

In some cases, physical distance can be a help instead of a hindrance (as commonly supposed) for the effective working of the Guru's Grace. For, in physical proximity the mind, the physical envelope may interfere between the Guru and the soul in need of help.

28 December 1948

If one who has taken to spiritual life maintains a spiritually healthy condition and poise, those that have faith in him or look to him for help are automatically benefited. The extent of the good they reap depends upon their longing or faith in him. The important thing is that he should not cling to them or be always worrying about them; that is attachment; it blocks spiritual progress and in consequence those for whom he is anxious are the losers. They can gain nothing from such an imperfect yogin. It is also necessary that they must have faith or strong affection for him; merely a pull from his side is not effective in the long run.

7 October 1949

To benefit fully from the Guru there are certain conditions to be fulfilled.

First surrender the ego and then all your life from within to the Guru. Do not keep behind any special burdens to be shouldered by yourself. This done, take care to enter completely in the boat of the Master's journey; take care also to see that you are always inside the boat and never outside of it. Movements contrary to the principle of the Guru draw away from the tethering of safety, and one cannot be over-cautious. You can usually feel and know, by observing the workings within, where you stand —within or without.

29 October 1948

If one is securely seated in the Boat of the life of the Guru, movements in the inner life of the Guru cannot fail to evoke corresponding vibrations or impress identical lines in the sadhana of the disciple.

31 October 1948

Swami X, from what we know of him, clearly appears to have received a touch of the Divine Consciousness.

Y does not seem to have had any such thing. Still, if people who worshipped or had faith in him got benefited, it is due to the Divine in the individual worshipped. It always happens that even if the person, who is looked upon as Guru, happens to lack the necessary competence spiritually, the Divine in him responds to the devotee. Of course if the devotee is thinking of the deficiencies of the Guru, there can be no response to his prayers in any manner.

9 December 1948

One's faith in his Guru is something solid; it is not made piecemeal. It is compact. Once a dent is allowed to be made (by forces using doubt, disbelief etc.) an opening has been effected in the structure and it is just a question of time before the whole thing crumbles down.

4 September 1949

It is a misfortune for a devotee or an aspirant if any critical slant is allowed to tarnish his reverent attitude or devotion to the Guru.

18 October 1949

One must be careful not to evoke unfavourable reactions from Mahapurushas. For, the moment anything painful on your account reaches, say the Guru, an automatic series of vibrations is set going from him. Distance does not count. The vibrations reach where you are and their results are relentlessly worked out. The question may be asked what if a false report reaches the Guru and on receipt of it the unfavourable reactions follow. Well, if the report in question is not true, the deeper consciousness in the Guru or the Mahapurusha rejects it spontaneously, for that consciousness is one with the higher Truth-consciousness and its rejection of untruth is instant and automatic. Whatever may be the vibrations of the frontal personality, if they lack the support from the deeper consciousness, the vibrations are feeble and do not cause much harm.

It is the same process that operates when you are helped or cured of illness by a thought, prayer, will in the Guru. A vibration or rather a series of vibrations go to the higher or deeper layers of the Consciousness which pervades all and so reach the sufferer or the artin and help.

17 February 1949

When one is already under a spiritual influence, it is wrong to come into contact with another figure leading or professing to lead spiritual life. For the possibility of clash of forces or influences is very real. Even if the other figure is a ‘pseudo’ it is so; it is even more dangerous. Because behind every ‘pseudo’ there are malign forces operating and they are always bent on mischief.

22 September 1950

Generally help extended from any Centre (viz. Guru) cannot be fully effective if the recipient has sympathy for any one who is hostile or ill-disposed to that Source of Help.

23 September 1948

Grace

The Divine Will is active in all. It is the desires, passions and their movements that act as smoke covering the flame. The Flame cannot grow and shine until the coverings of smoke are removed.

The Divine Grace and help are there like the Sun. If you seek to dry yourself and your wet garments it will not do to shut up yourself in the shaded rooms; you have to come out of the shade, stand in the sun freely and in no time you get the desired result. Similarly you must not tarry any more in the shades or corners of tamasic darkness if you mean to let the Sun of Grace enter into you and dry up all the damp left by the erstwhile surroundings.

1 October 1948

The final and crucial touch, which brings about the radical change of consciousness and gives the release, can only come from the Divine, the Sarvesvara. The touch may come through the Guru; it may communicate itself from within or come upon the seeker through a totally unexpected source in the world around. Till that touch, which gives the switch-over as it were, arrives, all that the seeker does or finds done in him is only a preparation, paripaka, which is indispensable to acquire the necessary competence for receiving the illumining touch of Grace.

January 1949

Fulfilment

It has been said, and with truth, that a sustained and earnest spiritual seeking is bound to win the unmistakable touch of the Ishwara at the end of the third year at the latest. This period is certainly brief when compared to the importance of the object achieved. If after an endeavour of three years one can feel the sure touch of the Divine, it is an irony that even a hundred years of dealing with men and things cannot bring an unmistakable appreciation of the world and the men within it.

9 March 1949

Decisive changes in spiritual life are invariably effected and worked out by movements which are not one's own. It is an avesa, a movement which possesses you from head to toe and makes you do this or that. The analogy of anger may help illustrate the point. When motivated by anger man is simply carried away and does things which one would not suppose him to be normally capable of Similarly when there is this movement of the higher, the seeker does things helplessly as it were and undergoes consequent changes which leave a permanent mark on his being. Meditation, prayer—all these are simply preparations to open oneself to this avesa which comes from outside the range of personal effort and works out results inconceivable to the human striving.

29 March 1949

Trnikrta brahmapurandaranam kim durlabham sankarakinkaranam.²⁰

The Lord gives what the seeker asks for. To the Bhakta he gives joy in plenty; to the Jnanin who pours out in offering his knowledge, the Lord gives more knowledge, more light; to the Karmin, the doer of action for Him, He gives enlightened power; to each what he expects and in the form he expects. But to that rare type of seeker who seeks nothing for himself but only prays, ‘For Thee, my Lord, is my being ready. Do receive me, let me be entirely Thine', the Lord gives Himself, in receiving his surrender the Lord surrenders Himself and fills the being of the devotee with Himself.

1 April 1949

The problem of immortality of the body is not immediate. Death is a necessity as long as our consciousness is subject to the normal workings of the triple nature. The question assumes a different hue when our consciousness is liberated. The consciousness is said to be liberated when it has freed itself from the meshes of the triple bonds of nature viz. physical, vital and mental and stands above their domain, freed and large. In that condition the consciousness does not feel itself limited to this particular case of the body. It extends and covers all the rest; all others it feels as its own other selves. Instead of the body holding the self within it the feeling then is of the Self holding this body within itself; the body becomes just a movement in the life of the soul. Death cannot touch it in the way it normally does. The body is held, continued to be held or cast off according to the needs of the spirit which has chosen the embodiment for its manifestation.

Even in such cases, danger from accidents is quite formidable. For the forces of accident are being operated upon from levels higher than the vital worlds and unless they who set these forces of accident in action are conquered, accidents can and do harm the body.

The svacchanda-mrtyu we hear spoken of in the Mahabharata etc. is not a legend. It is a fact, a living fact in the case of Siddhas.

26 April 1949

Part 2: Section II: On Sri Aurobindo and the Mother

The actual descent and establishment of the Supramental Light first into his physical body for its dissemination on Earth—that has been the fixed aim of Sri Aurobindo. Not until that is accomplished will he consider his work completed.

But what he has already achieved, what has been brought down so far, that itself is a very great thing. He has established the Ideal. He, has given a definite turn to mankind.

France has given facilities by way of undisturbed asylum to Sri Aurobindo. Except for brief periods in between and the period immediately preceding this one, he has had the necessary facilities for his work.

9 October 1948

Not to force but to allow things to grow naturally is the safest and the most fruitful rule in spiritual life. This is to be invariably observed in Sri Aurobindo's and Mother's way of dealing with men. Where pressure is applied and things forced in a particular way, the consequences turn out to be ruinous, sooner or later.

16 December 1948

When Sri Aurobindo speaks, he knows that his words are released for the whole world. And he talks only when he is moved to do so, from within i.e. from above.

20 December 1948

Why does the Mother respond in one way to some and in quite a different way to others, why she appears to take no notice, as it were, of those who cannot be said to lack in devotion and aspiration and why she seems to dote on those who are, to say the least, unspiritual in their activities?

This is not a doubt arising from your mind. Such things are thick in the air at present and try to get into one and all. ‘Mind your own self’ is an excellent motto and if one holds to that attitude, these doubts will not arise. However, intellectual explanations are possible. For that, one must view the Mother's workings as a whole.

Since November 1938, the plan of the work has surely changed. The stress shifted to activity with the commencement of Sri Aurobindo's undertaking to revise the Life Divine for publication. “Let the ultimate Descent come in its own time; in the meantime let the outer activity and organisation proceed”— this seems to have been the line taken and with the full support of Sri Aurobindo. The Mother is in that Rush, identified with it yet above it—and does every moment what she feels impelled to do. She does not think of the next moment or the next step.

In this rush, her responses to men and things arc much what they evoke. There are some in whom the seed has been securely planted by her and it is steadily growing into plant; on them she may not spend more time or glance. There are some who are there, not necessarily for spiritual life, but to serve some part of her work; and her responses vary with the nature of their demands, the importance of the functions they are to carry out and with the need of the individuals and the work. Her concern is mainly with the work she means to do. How far it will succeed it is for the future to show. The human mind can say that the whole thing is an experiment and there are both the possibilities of great success or big failure. Whatever that is, to aspirants, they have everything to gain. Each step is a gain.

21 February 1948

(The next day, 22-12-1948, a copy of the Mother's Message for 1949 came to be seen. It read: “Lord, on the eve of the new year I asked Thee what I must say. Thou hast made me see two extreme and opposite possibilities and given me the command to keep silent.")

The one outstanding feature of Sri Aurobindo's Yoga and Philosophy is the convincing recognition of the distinct individuations of the various powers, Gods and personalities of the Supreme. The nature, the functions, the aims of each of the Devatas and Shaktis arc clearly marked out and experienced as such in the Sadhana. Even if they all can be ultimately reduced to their One Source, they arc separate and distinct from each other with workings peculiar to each, just as light and electricity are different in their workings and uses in spit c of their common oneness in essence, in the mass of one Energy.

28 December 1948

Is it not true that it is Sri Aurobindo's personal magnetism that holds together all the 700 persons in the Ashram? And what will be there to hold them here afterwards?

In a way, it is true to say that Sri Aurobindo's personality, operates in the way described. But he represents also an Impersonal Truth which is not confined to the seven hundred you see around. It will spread, as it is spreading, and will influence human life for ages. Christ's work and influence did not cease with his body's end: nor did Buddha's. The lives of millions have been and are being shaped under the influence of the Force or Power initiated into action by those mighty personalities. Not to turn to spiritual leaders: what about Stephenson or Marconi? They made their original contributions to human progress and passed away. But their work did not cease. It continues to blossom in myriad forms.

2 January 1949

Sri Aurobindo has always emphasised the importance of calm, quiet and a settled poise in a higher consciousness for a seeker. They should be first acquired. Occult powers, occult workings can only be accepted as gains on the way; but they are not in themselves spiritual. In many cases, what happens is that certain centres are opened up in the disciple (by the Guru or by the effort of the disciple himself) even before he has attained the necessary equilibrium in a higher consciousness and the result tends to be risky. For, there are so many forces and beings on the planes who seek to seize the man (and exploit him for their own purpose) through the openings effected in him. He does not know how to utilise the opened centres properly and thus becomes a prey to the forces and workings of malevolent powers.

9 January 1949

It is a wise rule to make especially in spiritual life, not to judge the actions of persons admittedly superior to and higher in attainments than oneself by standards of one's own. If one cannot follow, cannot understand them, to keep silent with a neutral attitude is the right course. One shall not seek to impose his own preferences and judgments on the Teacher.

6 January 1949

Individual perfection is not possible as long as there is imperfection in the universal. For, the environmental influences do operate to the detriment (as they do the other way) of the person. What is stored up in the subconscient is not a man's own making or his own things, as the psycho-analysts wrongly think. Many of these things have just floated in and settled down from the environments. Hence Sri Aurobindo's endeavour to strike the universal imperfection at its root by means of the supramental power and light.

7 February 1949

The tragedy of some persons (with capacity) here is that all that Sri Aurobindo and Mother have poured into them has been absorbed by the lower vital for its own aggrandisement.

10 February 1949

When I think of Sri Aurobindo as God, he reminds me of Shiva: he is Shiva with a Himalayan grandeur. When I think of him as a Poet, he is Vyasa—the same cosmic vision and breadth, the same lofty style is there in both.

3 May 1949

Speaking to me in 1923, Sri Aurobindo said that in these matters distance does not count essentially. Whatever the physical distance, help can be extended and reached to the disciple in Sadhana. It is only later on, during the advanced stages that physical proximity to the Guru becomes necessary. Close supervision and help become necessary in physical disturbances etc., which are likely at that stage.

25 May 1949

Instances there have been and there are of lives lived in a deep spiritual consciousness. There are again those like certain types of Tantriks, who have cultivated the occult Iife. Mostly both of these have tended to be apart from each other. The former have not cared for occult phenomena and the latter have not had a sufficiently spiritual background. It is only Sri Aurobindo who has reconciled both spiritual life and the occult truths and powers in a satisfying manner.

26 October 1949

What appears to be a small matter to us may be looked upon as an important matter by the Mother. And what we regard as important may be treated as trifling by her. That is because her standpoint, her look at things and her way of doing things proceeds on a different basis from our own. She is activated by certain higher movements which may not be comprehended by us. This must be understood, so that even when one cannot follow her doings, it is possible to maintain a correct attitude becoming a disciple of hers.

18 October 1949

It is a standing miracle by itself how the Mother at 72 puts in so much of continuous work, physical and other, exposes herself so much to chill and wind and that too every day. That is possible for her because she draws from the universal store of Vital Energy. Any one who is open to her can also be open to it. Not in this sphere alone but in others as well.

Only the ego-blinded intelligence could refuse to recognise this miracle; when ego overcomes a man, lie is undone.

17 January 1950

When you go to the Mother, that part of her comes to the front which you evoke. The general air one carries about oneself at the time evokes a corresponding response from her.

16 March 1950

Reactions of great persons are often governed by what others carry with them.

3 April 1950

It may be the right attitude to say and feel: ‘I have accepted the Mother; I accept all that she does.’ But what is more important is the fact that Sri Aurobindo has accepted her as the Divine Mother and entrusted the work to her. There may be room for error in our judgement, but none whatever in his. So it is: ‘He has accepted her. What are we to question and doubt?’

18 April 1950

It is not profitable to indulge in speculation regarding future plans of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. In certain things the Mother herself may not care to know precisely what the next step is going to be. In some others she has long-range plans of which she may not speak to others. A United Humanity with India playing the dominant and determining role, India being under the effective direction of a supreme spiritual centre—this is a necessary part of the Aim. Even if Sri Aurobindo achieves the supramental realisation for Earth today, it will take time before things are worked out fully in the material world.

On our part, each one of us must ask how he has fitted himself to be in the frame and taken the necessary steps to transcend the present limitations with which he is beset and to grow into the higher and larger regions of the spirit.

21 September 1950

Love is the easiest gate to enter into deep relation with the Divine. When you approach the Guru, even if there is a mental shrinking or dislike anywhere in you, the meeting is vitiated. The response is correspondingly halted. Some time back when it was reported to the Mother that X complained there was some reservation in her smile, she replied that there must have been some reservation in his pranam also.

30 September 1950

That Sri Aurobindo and the Mother are brought together for the work in which they are engaged has a special significance in the scheme of Providence. The Mother, coming as she does from the West, represents Activity and Dynamism which distinguish it; Sri Aurobindo stands for the ancient Vedantic truth of the Static, Immobile Purusha supporting all manifestation—the most peculiar conception of the East.

7 November 1950

Sri Aurobindo has definitely opened the gates of the Vast above. One can now experience it without effort.

When you go to the Mother, you must be receptive. And to be fully receptive the two easiest and at the same time indispensable conditions arc: (1) wideness in the being: you must not limit or cabin yourself within the confines or formulations of your little mind. There must be an openness. a spread-out beyond the circle of the physical mind, a concrete feeling that you are wider than the physical frame. That opens the way to the embrace of the Vast. (2) There must be within the heart love for the Mother. Not Bhakti of the impersonal type to the divinity, but love for the particular manifestation in her person. Love is the easiest means of being open.

11 December 1950

If you carry the right atmosphere, a flaming aspiration, a heart full of love, when you go to Mother, that strengthens her in you. That is what is meant when it is said that stuti is the food of the gods. If every one approaches the Mother thus, what indeed could not be achieved?

4 January 1951

It is so difficult to express philosophy in poetry. Sri Aurobindo has achieved the marvel in Savitri. No human mind could do it. He has simply allowed the Afflatus to express itself in word and image.

As the Mother said, the Truths he held aloft in his Teachings will stand for ever. Even when withdrawing from the body, he left to the Earth a physical frame in which the Light had entered and was perceptible.

7 January 1951

After leaving the physical body, it is possible to continue in the subtle body and influence and shape men and events. (Even while living in the physical body it is quite possible to go out of it in the subtle body and function; so also it is possible to function mainly through the mind.) The person thus departed and yet living in this sense can be conscious of activities, feelings etc., in the sphere in which he is interested. He can maintain the same interest in a broad way and also, in a sense, function as of old. But if he decides to return to the earth-field in a physical body, it is altogether a different matter. It will no longer be the old personality, though the object in view may be the same. The personality will be quite a new one—just as Krishna was a different personality from Rama even though ultimately both may be the Avatars of the same Divine Person.

3 February 1951

It is irrational to speak of youngsters getting ‘spoiled’ here and still more stupid to adversely comment on the Mother's ways. After all, what is the standard by which her actions are to be judged? Standards of Hindu Religion, or Islam or Catholic Church? Whose demands is she to meet? Why not recognise the plain truth that if people get spoiled it is by their own weakness and not due to any special incentive provided by the sanctified place here?

1 September 1951

Will this—Sri Aurobindo's teaching and Yoga—turn out to be one more movement like Theosophy? Can it become a world religion?

Not a world religion. But the future thought of humanity will be in this mould, because it has to be so. Already, a few minds in every country have been touched, that is enough to begin with. In the course of a generation or so, it will have spread in a definitive manner. And if the proposed university is set working on the expected lines, it is sure to make an impact on the way of living of the entire world. There is no doubt about it.

9 July 1951

The Mother must be approached as herself, not as this aspect or that aspect mentioned in books. She is the living symbol of the Supreme Shakti. Even taken as a human being, she is a direct instrument of that Supreme. She has the consciousness and Power which place her in the highest rung.

When you speak of the Mahakali or Maheshwari aspect of her, make no mistake of looking upon these aspects as so many limbs. Behind each aspect is the whole of the Mother.

Under suitable conditions even the physical eye can see the column of light above her, overhead; and this is different from the aura—snow-white in colour—which emanates from her person. This aura of hers I have not only seen pretty constantly but have shown to a few novices who desired to see it in those days, many years ago.

7 October 1951

There is a world of difference between occultism and occult knowledge and power based on spiritual consciousness. The Mother has specialised in the occult field; she is a Master of it. But hers is a spiritual consciousness and therein lies the difference between the occultists and her. She has been using her knowledge and power in the occult for the work of this organisation—the Ashram. And Sri Aurobindo, though his own field was other, gave her full freedom to build things in this her way.

If a pressure is put on anyone and there is no opening, it results in injury. And that the Mother never does. That is a mark of her spiritual consciousness.

23 October 1951

The Mother does all these things in an inspired action. She does not at all think of any end.

1 September 1951

I have many ideas about the future shaping of the Ashram, but I do not express them unless I am absolutely certain. Three things, however, I can say:

The Ashram and Samadhi will be a Centre for all time to come.

The descent of the Supramental and consequent transformation: it is not possible to say when it will take place.

Even as a human being, Mother is an extraordinary personality with capacities far beyond normal comprehension. I see it every day. Unfailingly She responds, to the very detail, to what you take with you.

16 August 1951

Yes, Sri Aurobindo's Force is greater than that of Karma and of planets, capable of turning a weakling into a giant.

2 September 1936

Sri Aurobindo is the greatest intellect on earth today.

28 January 1949

1956 will be a very important year in his life.²¹

8 October 1948

1) Human Psychology

One who lacks happiness within finds no happiness without. He feels dissatisfied with everything. The most common characteristic of such persons who have no antah sukha is fault-finding and tyrannising over others.

16 October 1948

Those who talk most loudly of their own defects and deprecate themselves are usually the most self-conceited.

9 February I949

Those that fear most are—by reaction—the most cruel.

1 February 1949

Fear ultimately develops into hatred. Fear gives rise to a suppressed anger which later hardens into hatred.

31 October 1948

Fear, anxiety, apprehension—these are very common features of every day life in the world.

7 March 1951

Every one finds, here or elsewhere, what he wants. He sees what he seeks to see—good or bad. Other things do not catch his eye.

29 March 1951

To receive, to treat and to send off people with consideration and politeness is a quality natural to the great.

30 March 1949

In all matters—spiritual and temporal—when any one asks for help or favour, it is graceless, even ignoble, to make him feel that a favour is being done to him. It fills the needy heart with spontaneous feelings of happiness and gratitude if the benefactor disarms him, makes him feel that, after, all what he asks for is nothing much and that the joy of giving on the part of the donor is much more than the joy or contentment of the other.

1 April 1949

It is a fact of psychology that one, who confers favours or obliges another, usually feels like going on bestowing more and more favours. So does an offerer of love, of devotion or of whatever is dear to oneself; he feels an increasing push to offer more and yet more.

28 June 1949

To trust people, to note only the good side of others, is a sign of laksmi-kala, receptivity to forces of happiness and prosperity. Cynicism, distrust and other allied qualities indicate the opposite opening.

17 May 1949

A constant critical attitude to others is usually a sign of unfitness for spiritual life, where the building up of one's inner perfection is the first occupation.

29 October 1948

Is it not better that the eyes are riveted on oneself than that they are always directed on those around?

12 December 1948

There are men who would not tolerate from others even a fraction of what they themselves constantly inflict on those around. It is akin to simian psychology. The monkey delights in playing pranks on others but it violently resents even a casual stone-throw at it.

12 September 1948

It is a healthy principle to make it a point to notice only the good things in the person whose lot is cast with ours. His weaknesses may be remembered after he is gone, so that one does not suffer any pull nor exert any towards the departed.

16 October 1948

Before we criticise others for their ‘bad qualities', it is necessary to look at ourselves and see if none of these qualities are not seen in ourselves at some time or other. The fact is all these ‘qualities’—good and bad—are part of the universal Nature and when these waves come over, they victimise whoever is open to them at the moment. They manifest themselves through them. These ‘defects’ etc. do not specially belong to any particular individual.

18 October 1950

Shared with others, joy gets doubled and grief halved.

11 December 1948

Man is the meeting-point, the juncture of the animal and the Divine.

25 January 1949

There is no man who does not feel that he is special in some way, that he has certain things in him which none else has. This feeling may be loudly expressive in some, cleverly concealed in others; all the same it is there in most. Deep behind this feeling is the truth of a basic nature, i.e. the truth of the Atman. It is the breath of the Atman who is always great that is felt on the surface in this form. And each one representing as he does, in the core of his being, a special facet of the Person in manifestation, is in a sense right in being conscious—though not always in the rightway—of his speciality.

18 October 1950

Each one wants to show himself to be superior to others: people strive in a hectic manner to establish their special distinction. Really, there is no need for this struggle. For, each is a distinct facet, a representation, a presentation of the Universal which itself is an emanation from the Transcendent. Each being is a special ray, meant to show a special capacity. In this sense no one can fill another's place; each is endowed with a distinctness which is denied to others. But it is not fully or equally formed, so as to be easily felt or recognised, in all. Till that is so, men struggle to compete. Once you recognise that you are in fact a special radiation of God and that the others are your other selves, other habitats, the competition and discord are bound to disappear.

17 February 1948

Gratitude is a psychic feeling. Rarely one in a hundred is capable of it. What passes for it in life is usually a pretense of it—something of what has been humourously described as ‘an expression of a lively expectation of greater favours to come’.

19 April 1949

Very often one's thought-movements are contradictory to each other. That is why the will lacks the strength to effectuate itself.

13 April 1949

Imagination is not an unmixed curse. It may be so with day-dreamers. But this capacity to visualise things, to mentally formulate them, can be effectively utilised for practical purposes in occult life.

25 May 1949

To offer bribes is tantamount to taking them. For, to corrupt another for one's own selfish ends is as sinful and unspiritual, if not more, as corrupting oneself. To pollute oneself is one thing, to pollute another for one's selfish purpose is another and much more despicable.

12 May 1949

Those who circulate an opinion coming from others usually share that opinion.

6 March 1949

One who is truly and entirely subjective can hold the whole objective world in his embrace.

19 December 1948

Attachment kills true love.

15 February 1950

To move freely with little minds is to invite their insolent disdain.

12 October 1948

Capacity gives satisfaction or contentment, trpti, not pride, to a healthy mind.

10 September 1948

Self-examination requires courage.

1 February 1950

One without thought has no cares.
One without desires has no grief.

24 September 1949

2) Ego—Hostiles

Ego

The ego is but a temporary formation necessary in the course of the Cosmic labour. Once its utility for the centralisation of the various elements of the being is served, it is a mere scaffolding which is to be cast away.

7 January 1951

What is called individuality is largely a euphimism for ego. The formation arid growth of the ego are inevitable in the development of consciousness. Only, the wise man knows how to keep it in bounds.

11 October 1949

What is the nature of the ego after all? It is a bubble thrown up by the consciousness that pervades the deeper parts of one's being. And as a bubble it bursts once its true nature is realised by the mind in the vital, which is ever obesssed with its own importance.

27 November 1948

If one has too much ego, he generally receives enough puncturing blows from the surroundings and finds his level. Where that has not been possible, the Divine Himself sends the necessary correctives.

August 1948

Nirahankara, absence of ego, is indispensable; often you think you have no ego left. Remember, wherever there is a stress on your part, there lurks the ego.

1 October 1948

There are egos and egos. The social ego, that is to say, the ego of social status, authority etc. is the most easily patent and therefore the easiest to eradicate. The intellectual ego is subtler and it requires a great effort to shed it. But the spiritual ego is the most difficult to spot, for it does not allow itself to be seized; and also it is the most difficult to remove. It is the most dangerous ego leading to a precipitous fall.

25 November 1948

There is no uprightness where there is egoistic pride.

10 April 1950

Ego and desire are the main roots of all suffering in the world. Man is obsessed with his own importance, his own self and cannot bear the other egos. He busies himself with the affairs of others, solely with a view to satisfying himself of their relative inferiority and his own superiority.

16 February 1951

Falsehood

Asurapriyam anrtam tadrupatvat tadaharatvat ca asuranam.

Falsehood is dear to the Asuras. For falsehood is the food and sustenance for them; that is their form and by it they live and increase. They and their kind are naturally attracted where there is falsehood; the divine whose svarupa (form) is truth is equally naturally repelled from where falsehood is lodged and prospers.

Falsehood is no Maya. It is a positive something which puts out concrete results and in a sense Maya itself is one result of it.

19 February 1949

Hostiles

Behind every adverse condition there is a world of hostile forces. Man may appear to be a small limited being; but through every opening in him, through pores as it were, the cosmic forces of good and evil act in and through him.

29 April 1950

Vague and nebulous ideas get shape when we think them out; if we proceed further and speak out these thoughts, they get a strong body as it were. Some ideas, fears, apprehensive thought-movements etc. are best left as they are. If we give them thought-form they get embodied, get life and would even travel right up to the object of apprehension, hover round the person and create an atmosphere where they could actualise themselves.

1 June 1949

3) Mind—Knowledge

Spiritual experience and knowledge from books are totally different things. Sri Ramakrishna used to say that though it is recorded in almanacs when rain is going to pour and in what quantities, however much one might press the pages of the almanac one cannot squeeze out of it a single drop of water. Similar is the case of book-knowledge and inner experience.

15 February 1950

Philosophies are there because man, being a thinking animal, cannot but think, cannot but intellectualise. But philosophy as such plays no essential part in spiritual life. If one has the central sincerity, feels the pressing necessity to live the inner life and drive towards its consummation, any teaching will do for him. He won't wait to weigh the pros and cons of each system of philosophy before plunging into the life of the spirit. It is the personality and power of the Guru that decides the choice of the disciple for the particular way. The aspirant finds his being attracted and attached to the Guru, not so much by virtue of his teaching as by his personal force of magnetism. Philosophy comes in only afterwards and that too for those who are intellectually developed—unlike those whose main forte is the emotional part and hence have little pull towards intellectual presentations of Truth as perceived—these, whose mind is well sharpened intellectually, find further support (to the choice of the soul) and enlightenment from the philosophical aspect of the Teaching. All told, the role of philosophy in spiritual life is very secondary. The nature of the need in the aspiring soul is the decisive factor.

Philosophy unless backed up with realisation in actual life carries little conviction. That is why philosophies of western thinkers like Kant, Bergson, have failed to influence the lives of men in a practical sense. It has not been so in the case of Acharyas like Shankara or Madhya. One felt that here was one who was speaking from the heights of personal experience. Their appeal was irresistible; it was a spell.

11 March 1949

Most of our brain activity is the working of the vital mind i.e., desires, sensations etc. as working on the mental level. Even among thinkers or philosophers it is only a few who have the real thought-mind working through the brain; the rest have some preference, some definite choice or line of ideas and the brain works correspondingly.

28 December 1948

What we call ‘mind’ is really the threshold of the Mind. The Mind is many-layered, many-chambered. From the surface mind, the threshold, lie openings to the chambers below, chambers above, chambers in the interior. Thus what we are conscious of as our mind is in fact a very small part of the external mind. When men say, particularly when young people contend that they ‘know their mind’, it is really amusing. Swept as these youngsters are by forces of passion, desire and impulses, what indeed could they know of what passes in the whole of their mind? It is for this reason that youngsters are asked to look up to elders for guidance and counsel. For, the latter by sheer experience and age stand better fitted to gauge men and things; they are more conscious of the limitations of the human mind, the extent to which men are liable to be influenced by things beyond the usual mind etc.

23 June 1949

Our normal conception of Space is not the only one that is real. It may be so to the state of consciousness in which we are awake. In other states of living or consciousness Space as we conceive it does not exist. For instance, in dreams, we see whole towns and cities within our little rooms. Here we glimpse the possibility of feeling and acting in space in quite another way than ours if only we could shift our centre to a deeper and different consciousness.

25 May 1949

One cannot easily get a correct and full view of the course that the Divine Work takes. It is like a potter working on, say, an idol of Ganapati. Now he moulds this part, now that; hands, legs, ears—all lie scattered about; if you look at his work at this stage, you are bewildered, you find things ugly, silly and even meaningless. But the potter knows what he has in mind, how all these diverse bits are to be fitted into a whole of beauty and harmony: The Divine Architect, likewise, knows what he is building up. All loose ends and apparently waste bits will be picked up in time and formed into a specimen of Perfection. Then will all admire, then will all understand the process that led to the outcome.

23 September 1948

Bhakti and Yukti (mental intelligence) are of course both necessary. But where yukti might fail, bhakti never does. My own preference between Jnana and Bhakti has always been for the former; yet Jnana is bound to find its culmination in Bhakti, Love. Jnanino mam prapadyante.

13 November 1950

4) Destiny—Soul—Birth

Destiny

Men think and move according to the pull of a predestined end.

12 December 1948

Each one is led relentlessly towards his Destiny. All that others about him do or fail to do for him is part of the working out of that destiny.

12 April 1949

What is foreseen in astrology is only that part of the Destiny—or rather the manifested part of it—which comes in the human ken. It is read by means of the relevant signs. But there is much beyond our gaze that is at work and its working may confirm or overrule the working of the manifested destiny.

It is indolence to believe that Destiny does everything and therefore there is no need to exert oneself. One must grow to be conscious of the Destiny of one's soul. To harmonise the higher part i.e. reason and the inner part i.e. the heart, and to exert oneself to the best of his lights is the assured means for that growth. For, after all, the higher destiny is the decree of the Higher Will and to the extent one grows spiritually and learns to harmonise his own will with the Higher Will, one shapes one's own destiny.

5 March 1949

Really speaking there is one universal Destiny at work and what we call our destiny is just that part of the universal Destiny which refers to us individually.

5 March 1949

Is there a conflict between the destinies on different planes? Does the destiny on the highest level effectuate itself through even apparently opposite destinies on the other levels?

The destiny of each plane is different from the rest. The destiny or determinism of the highest plane is the last word, but that is known only from the result. If it were known beforehand, it would no more be referred to as destiny. The destiny of each plane is independent of the destiny of every other plane, as the planes are differently and separately constituted, have their own laws which are independent.

Of course we can say so—that even the workings of contrary destinies serve the ultimate Destiny—it is a sort of delusive satisfaction which under the mask of this specious theory of destiny, robs or tries to rob life of its incentive for effort.

It is not a question of obedience on the part of the lower planes to fulfil the highest destiny. Each one has autonomy. One can take it so, but the satisfaction is not vital but chimerically mental.

6 March 1949

Man carries the burden—a part of it at any rate—of the world, because he is part of the world, he appropriates to himself what properly belongs to the Universal and consequently he has to pay the debt. He shares its joys and cannot escape its responsibilities. As long as he belongs to the world, he has to carry its burden; the moment he is aware of something in him which does not so belong, he ceases to carry the burden.

9 March 1949

Soul—Birth

Man's activities are found to proceed, ultimately, from the soul; yet the soul transcends them. Similarly the Real actuates and carries out all movement, all action; yet It transcends all.

9 March 1949

Are the movements (even perverse) of the desire soul to be taken as necessary workings out of the choice of the deeper soul?

The choice of the deeper soul is not known to the soul that works involved in the triple nature; the desire soul is allowed to suffer and enjoy and yield the result to the deeper being till the time the bubble is pricked.

6 March 1949

Though there are so many planes in the cosmic tier of existence, all of them cannot be said to be active or born in each individual. Most are hardly aware of any but the physical and till one consciously lives and participates in the life of a particular plane of the being, that plane is not yet born in him.

5 March 1949

Each birth is a venture for the soul. The soul is the deepest entity of which the psychic being is a personality put forward in evolution. This psychic being is the link between the innermost soul and the triple existence. The light cast by the soul on the triple existence is reflected on the three levels viz., mental, vital and physical, as the respective soul-purushas (the vital soul is the desire-soul).

Now the soul takes birth with a view to achieving and perfecting an embodiment for the Divine. It aims at progress so that the Divine may find in it a proper vehicle for its manifestation. The soul chooses, at each time of the birth or rather at the time of the death of the previous embodiment, its Destiny. But this Destiny is to be worked out on the physical plane through the desire-soul. For the destiny is not the same on all levels. Destiny on the highest plane or the deepest layer of the spirit is necessarily different from destiny on the next level and so on.

4 March 1949

We come across many instances of persons who were brilliant in their childhood gradually deteriorating with age till they dwindled to an average standard. That is because, as Sri Aurobindo says, in early infancy the soul that has taken birth has a freer expression. Its capacities and development find an unhindered outlet. With growth, however, the environmental influences and training circumscribe the soul's expression and a different orientation is given to the child's development with the result that the spontaneous outplay of the soul's faculties is checked, crabbed. All the same, education and environment influence the expression of the soul only up to a point; sooner or later the inner being asserts itself and lives the life it has chosen for itself before its birth here.

12 February 1949

The progress of the soul can be likened to the life of the bird. Just as a bird builds and rests in a nest now on one tree and after some time on another, the soul finds habitation in one body today, another body another time. When it goes to the next, the life and events of the previous habitation are left behind.

18 November 1948

5) Health—Old Age

Health

The hours of sleep one needs depends upon the kind of one's activity during the waking hours. As a rule people who do intellectual work find less sleep sufficient than those who put in more of physical work. It is also a question of habit and adjustment of the bodily needs.

10 September 1948

Paralysis is very usually the result of a direct attack by hostile beings on the nervous being.

The prime target of these hostiles is always the soul of man; they are happiest when they can capture it, devour it. When they fail to do so, they turn to the body.

30 September 1948

Surgical operations leave a certain permanent disablement in the body which thus becomes less responsive to the workings of the Divine Force. At times the body may not respond at all.

12 December 1948

Old Age

There is a special design of Providence in letting men live long. As a rule men who die young die submerged in attachments and bonds. In the case of those who live longer, as age advances, lessons of life sink deep, the futility of the normal ego-led life is realised more and more and the bonds of attachment begin to snap. There is a popular belief that if a serpent lives for a thousand years it develops a new body and goes straight to heaven in its new form. Something akin to this may be said to happen—at any rate, an opportunity for that is given to the long-living. The inner being feels itself more and more separate from the outer encasement as the pasas that bound it to the world snap and the subtle body grows in strength and stature. (Very few old people have real attachments and meshes). The soul develops its own vehicle which stands apart and aloof from the physical body.

13 May 1949

It is not always good to predict the life-span of people, particularly old people. If the predicted end happens to be a long way off, the person tends to go leisurely and waste his time. if it is to come about early, the person develops a dread of it which makes a hell of his Iife.

7 October 1949

When a wicked man dies, people are apt to feel relieved and elated. The truth however is that there is really nothing to feel happy about; on the other hand one must regret the happening. For the longer such a person lives, the greater the chances of his correcting himself; the chances are also more of defeating the Evil force that actuates ‘wicked’ persons; the Force can be weakened at the least, and at the best eliminated, if not changed.

13 April 1949

6) Historical and Political

Vedas

Regarding the Vedas, some say that Ritual alone is the true meaning of it; some hold that the non-ritual interpretation alone is correct. In the Rig Veda Bhashya²² it is shown that the Ritual can be a means for reaching the deeper truths embedded in the Veda.

24 April 1949

The way of the Vedic sages does not seem to be through meditation. The constantly hymned interchange between men and Gods was founded on a transmission (not transfer) from father to the son, from the Guru to the disciple, of the power, the faculty to vision and to contact God. The Rik refers to the friendship, sakhya, that has come down for ages from forefathers; here naturally friendship, contact, includes the means to contact as well.

Meditation as a means may have been part of the preparation to equip oneself to receive the power from the Elders. Meditation came to acquire more importance only in later Upanishadic times as is evidenced in many passages.

18 August 1949

The Vedic Rishis lived in communion with the Gods; not figuratively but actually. The Mantras are records of their life with the Gods. None who has not had these experiences in life could write that way. It is a sin to touch these sacred documents if one does not understand or has no faith in this basis for the reverence in which they have been held from times immemorial. But anyone, be he a Christian, a Harijan or a Muslim, is competent to study the Veda if he has this faith in the sacred character of the Mantras and the sublime status of the Rishis. Not otherwise.

The Rishis were not merely great men. They were the Gods themselves who had taken human birth for the uplift of mankind. Such indeed were Vasishitha, Vishwamitra and the like.

4 October 1948

Upanishads

The conception of the universe as a gradation of planes was first popularised by the Theosophists and Sri Aurobindo accepted it. In the Upanishads the conception is globular, concentric. But in the Vedas the vision is vertical (not horizontal).

24 April 1949

There is a good deal of confusion and absence of historical perspective in those who speak of the Vedic and Upanishadic sages looking upon the world as Maya. The concept of Maya—illusion—appeared prominently only at the time of Buddha and was later reaffirmed and given a firm standing by Shankara. There was no trace of it in the Upanishadic age which was prior to the Buddhist period by at least a thousand years and much less in the Vedic epoch which must have ended centuries earlier than the inception of the Upanishadic revival.

16 November 1949

The Gods

One cannot expect guidance from an impersonal Divinity. That can only come from the personal God. It is a canalised centre of Divinity that can give a pointed response to your prayers and fulfil them.

Shiva-Shakti is much more than a symbol; it is an active principle of all manifested Existence. And if symbolic, then a living symbol in the life of a yogin.

8 January 1949

Sri Krishna

Krishna was conscious of his divinity from his very childhood; yet he kept up full interest in the doings about him. Usually one loses interest in these things when one is in that Status; but he maintained it.

5 October 1949

Sri Krishna's is a solitary instance in history where it was possible to retain constantly the God-consciousness and yet participate fully, wholeheartedly, in the affairs of the nation, social and political. Normally what happens is that the higher consciousness evolved in one suffers a relative eclipse, recedes somewhat behind, when thrown in the vortex of currents and cross-currents of public life.

20 April 1949

Ramakrishna

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was a nityamukta Purusha. He came for a purpose. That all religions are one, they all lead to the One Truth, is the Idea that was broadcast all over the world by him through Vivekananda.

10 June 1949

Hindu Religion

The one great distinction between Hindu religion and the other religions like Christianity, Islam, etc. is that while they say God is one, the Hindu religion affirms that He is one and many also. The many is as important and real as the one; that has been a fundamental tenet whatever the Vedantins may say in their attempt to reduce the gods to one God. From the Vedas to the Puranas, to the present day, this truth which was perceived by the Seers—Rishis who had the vision—lives with an unmistakable emphasis. The Gods are a fact.

19 January 1949

Political

It is doubtful if in India, the feeling of common nationality and adherence to it is developed well enough to withstand the pull of regional allegiances.

13 February 1948

For centuries India has not known political unity, though there has been a cultural unity. Her freedom, the manner of her getting it is a miracle not wrought by human hand; the World War II had hastened its advent.

Our social structure served admirably well in the past under those limited and different conditions. Now it has to be radically altered, though some of its essential good elements could be preserved with profit.

27 December 1948

Gandhi

The great contribution of Gandhi to Indian history is that by his incessant activities over 30 years he created a situation in the country whereby the British found it difficult to continue as rulers. The World War (II) contributed effectively to the dissolution of the empire in India. The question whether the Freedom would not have been fuller and happier when it dawned had not Gandhi appeared on the scene is quite a different one. The fact stands that he had the largest following and wielded great influence and moral authority over men infinitely greater and taller than him in many respects.

17 September 1948

Communism

It looks as if the monster of Communism is preparing to swallow the globe. But a breach in its line is likely after the death of Stalin—which may be any day. A change of policy is sure to ensure resulting in a diminished vigour, if not a total suspension, for the international programme.

8 March 1949

The U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. represent the two battling forces of capitalism and communism. They are to find their synthesis in India.

21 January 1949

India and the British

India stands to gain without any real loss in any manner by continuing to be a member of the British Commonwealth.

25 January 1949

It is a striking commentary on the type of the British race that even at the heyday of their material prosperity, they did not care to develop their finer side of life. Theirs was the way of aggrandisement of the vital and the physical. What a contrast India at her best offers? With plenty of riches, plentitude of peoples and lands, India developed to the highest her cultural and spiritual life side by side with the life of material enjoyments.

10 February 1949

The facet of the globe will undergo substantial changes within five years. India will occupy a pivotal position in the affairs of nations.

8 June 1949

7) Miscellaneous

Yogis

One can be a Raja Yogi without any serious belief in God. But the results of the workings of this Yoga can be utilised for a spiritual life.

26 February 1949

The use of opiates releases individual propensities from the bounds imposed on them by training or.by will. The cittavrtti natural to one is given a free scope; if it is of a higher kind, naturally the freedom thus given enables it to luxuriate with some benefit. But if the cittavrtti is of the ordinary animal type, the man goes down as a consequence of the free rein given to such propensities.

26 April 1949

It is possible for some yogins, especially the Hatha Yogins, to preserve their body for years, even aeons, by going into the lina samadhi. Whether it has a spiritual significance or not is a different matter. But when the yogin returns to his normal consciousness on waking, he finds his limbs not amenable to control on account of disuse. In the last century, when the railway tracks were being laid and the earth was dug in certain places, it was reported some bodies were found buried which were alive. The buried were ‘revived’ after slight application of butter etc. on the head. They were said to have been in that condition for fifty years more.

12 November 1948

Usually saints and realised souls are buried in samadhi (not burnt) after death because their body, during its life-time, had become a centre for radiating Divine vibrations; it had absorbed so much and if kept in samadhi, the Divine influence would continue to emanate from it. Besides, the existence of this physical centre attracts the departed Soul to preside over that hallowed spot and exercise its influence. The sacred atmosphere of such a place is reinforced by the devotion, faith and prayer of all those that throng to the place on pilgrimage. It becomes a Kshetra, a place fit for doing tapas due to its spiritual atmosphere.

12 November 1948

Temples

Most of the temples have some being or other from the other planes presiding over them. Some beings are of a good type, some low, what are called ksudra devatas. Each of course grants the wishes of the devotees, but in the latter case, after a series of wish-fulfilments a fall is sure. The being that presides over the local Ganapati Pillayar temple (in Pondicherry), for instance, is a good one.

27 April 1949

Luck

Mere brilliance is not enough. There is a certain element of luck that plays an important part.

19 February 1950

Woman—Marriage

Usually the culture and level of the inner personality of a man undergoes a change when he is married. It changes and adjusts itself so as to meet the personality of the wife. Women have as a rule a greater vital capacity and their pull succeeds in bringing down the husband to their level. If the husband maintains an aloofness, he cannot be so influenced; but usually there is the strong bond of attachment and sympathy and it operates to the disadvantage of the husband. In rare cases where the wife is more progressed, the husband gains in the interchange.

A woman can all by herself mar the destiny of a man. A low type can demean her partner to an unimaginable extent and ruin him spiritually.

9 April 1949

Omens

Omens are always intriguing and intricately bound up with the collective beliefs and feelings. They are usually helped to actualise themselves by the group feelings in the environment and force of suggestion and belief in the individual. Religious ceremonies meant to ward off apprehended evils can be made effective in the measure of the faith with which they are performed. At least during the performance, fear must be rejected; the counter-acting forces must be invoked.

17 March 1951

A life without aim or an ideal is no life at all.

29 October 1948

To say that the world is a Lila is one step nearer to saying that the world is Maya.

24 December 1948

1) Style

Force of ideas creates its own language.

22 December 1948

Correct thinking inevitably leads to correct expression.

27 November 1948

Unless there is a settled thought-mould in a man he can really have no style.

9 January 1952

Conviction lends life to one's words or writing.

21 October 1948

Unless there is sincerity behind the writing, it is hound to fall flat whatever the flourish in style.

1 October 1948

It is only those who habitually move in the realm of higher ideas and carry them lightly by virtue of their own stuff that can hand them out in easy style. Otherwise thoughts are expressed in a different style which is a faithful reflection of the author's difficulty in grappling with the ideas. It is like a strong man used to carry heavy weights; he unloads them lightly, without panting, without making loud noise; a weaker man or a person unused to carry such weights comes heaving with breath and drops down the load with a bang—breaking it at times. Of course even the latter can by patient practice develop the art of the former.

22 July 1949

When you write, each line must be addressed to the reader. Each sentence must be an appeal to his mind.

22 July 1949

Creative minds are above all rule of style and diction. Their thought creates its own expression; it is not built up or cultivated.

8 September 1949

2) Creative effort

There is really no division between critical effort and creative effort. Every true creator before expressing or fixing into form whatever he is moved to by inspiration, exercises the best critical faculty in him to determine what is genuinely inspired and what is mixed and then only completes his effort. The critic in him has to keep peace with the creator.

October 1950

Arrangement of thoughts mentally, revision and rerevision of the same in mind helps to increase the memory power. Fresh ideas pour in during each such exercise.

22 December 1948

The test of successful writing is this: does it leave at least one new idea in the mind of the reader and set him thinking? Does he feel elevated, the better for having read it?

24 October 1948

A writing is successful to the extent the author succeeds in keeping himself in the background and makes the subject-matter completely occupy the mind of the reader. It reflects on the taste of the author when he projects his own personality on the mind of the reader at the cost of the subject.

16 December 1948

3) Poetry

The compositions of a first-rate poet are distinguished by these marks:

(1) the melody, the meaning and the words haunt the reader even after a single reading.

(2) they (words) lend themselves easily for effortless memorising.

25 December 1948

To retain and bring out the full force of a verse the poet has to recite it in the very rhythm in which he received its expression originally. Otherwise the power diminishes. But if it is others who recite, it does not matter much what rhythm they set up.

November 1948

A poem or verse without bandha, compactness, of structure is as disgusting to the ear as a loose-limbed body to the eye.

23 March 1949

In recitation, if attention is given to sound alone by the reciter, the sound-vibrations impinge upon the hearer and leave the sound-effect. That is about all. But if the person who recites is conscious of the meaning of what he recites, then the words are charged with thought-power and the thought contained in the words hovers round the hearer, gets into him if he is open; so much so that even people who do not know the language of the composition exclaim: ‘I seem to understand the meaning.' When both the sound-effect and thought-charge are combined, the recitation is superb and most fruitful. This is most so in the case of Mantras.

19 December 1948

One cannot hope to acquire mastery over a language unless he commits to memory a large number (say a couple of thousand) verses in its Iiterature. A master of a language has perforce to know the history of every word in that language.

Sanskrit is the easiest language to read and write.

17 September 1948

In writings, personal notes must be as short and as relevant as possible.

1 February 1950

It is bad taste for an author to show off his learning. Except in works of research, it is generally advisable to desist from too many allusions and other devices to parade one's knowledge.

26-10-1949

When you talk let your words be such as could be written down on paper.

February 1952

Usually when people read anything and say something about it, it is more their reaction than enlightened judgement.

9 January 1952

Kalidasa was specially born for the work he has left behind. He was a Sarasvata Vibhuti.

18 September 1948

The Mother will carry on the Master’s Work — An Interview

(Sunday Times, December 17, 1950)

With the passing of Sri Aurobindo, everyone sees a big question mark hanging over the Ashram. What is the future of the Ashram? What about the sadhana that was being pursued there? Who will take the place of Sri Aurobindo in guiding, aiding and nourishing the sadhaks moving on the evolutionary track of spiritual unfoldment?

These are some of the questions that are being asked by people interested in and antagonistic to the Ashram. As I roved about the streets of this quiet-looking seaside town, I heard a number of people indulging in a lot of wishful thinking, each according to his own mental slant.

Who could make a pronouncement on the future of the Ashram? Who could, on the strength of experiences of the past and on the confidence of a pre-vision of the future, clear the doubts and answer the questions raised?

I approached Sri T. V. Kapali Sastriar. With his erudition matched only by his single-minded pursuit of the sadhana and his devotion to the Master amply borne out by his monumental works interpreting the yoga and philosophy of Sri Aurobindo, he, I thought, is one of the few outstanding disciples, who could speak to answer questions and clear doubts.

And in the sun-down setting still suffused with the golden hues of the dawn and in the sombre atmosphere still splendorous with the Light of the Master, it was a job to draw him out. To trouble him was indeed cruel. But to allow him his silence was an encouragement to all kinds of wishful thinking.

So I pursued him and asked: “With the passing of Sri Aurobindo what will be the future of the Ashram, of the sadhana..."

I was checked before I could complete the sentence. “Passing, passing,” said Sri Sastriar twitching his brow. “Who passed away and where?” Not certainly Sri Aurobindo. The Master of Integral Yoga is here, as intensely and as concretely as ever. May be, he is not in the body in which he was. This is not said in the conventional jargon that the spirit abides even when the body perishes. Many spirits may be alive like that.

“But when I say that Sri Aurobindo is here, I mean it in as concrete and as contactable a sense as possible. Yes, those that have been looking up to him for guidance and aid in yoga have not felt him gone, have not found themselves orphaned, have not felt a void, though, of course, the physical pangs of separation are there. So why speak of the passing of Sri Aurobindo and riddle your minds with questions and doubts about the future of the Ashram and of the sadhana initiated by the Master. The Ashram will go on as before and so also the sadhana and those that have surrendered themselves to its pursuit wholeheartedly and without reserve."

“But,” I interposed, “Sri Aurobindo the unseen might provide the guidance and the aid needed in the sadhana.” Who can physically fill his place, providing the physical touch and the dynamis for the direction of affairs? The Mother was till now the Chief Executive of the Ashram. Can she provide that inspiration which Sri Aurobindo provided till now and command that amount of loyalty and devotion that he did?"

Sri Sastriar sat still and in silence for a long while. Then he said: “A fundamental mistake is committed by most people, who try to evaluate the position of the Mother. They start by thinking and saying that the Mother is different and far removed from the Master.”

“The Master and the Mother are not different and separate. The Mother is a part of Sri Aurobindo's being. She is the manifested, dynamic part of his soul. And any one who has totally dedicated himself to the sadhana of Sri Aurobindo would have known that it is the Mother who has been acting not only as the executive head of the Ashram but also as the unfailing and ever-watchful guide, drawing all the power and light from Sri Aurobindo and passing them on to hundreds of sadhaks in hundreds of ways, all according to each one's needs. That the help that is being provided by her is adequate and growing with the growing needs of the sadhaks is a matter of openly avowable experience."

“Did Sri Aurobindo,” I cut in, “recognise her as such and tell you that she was a part of his being and that she was working out his mission according to his pattern? Do you know it yourself?"

“Yes,” he said with a glow in his eyes and an emphasis in his words. “I know it and Sri Aurobindo indicated to me who and what the Mother is.”

“Way back in 1927, when I had known and met Sri Aurobindo but had not known much about the Mother and when I had occasion to write to him about her, he had a manuscript copy of the Four Powers of the Mother sent to me which was later on incorporated in the book, The Mother, and provided me with a glimpse into the powers and personality of the Mother. I had an instant and spontaneous faith in his words and that faith was increasingly verified by experience.

“From that time I have known and seen and felt the many-facetted personality of the Mother in action. It is impossible to know Sri Aurobindo without knowing the Mother. It is impossible to get the grace and guidance of the Master without a fervid devotion to the Mother. Sri Aurobindo has not gone anywhere. He is more intensely and concretely present in the Mother. So why these doubts regarding the future of the Ashram and of the sadhana?”

Saying this, Sri Sastriar handed me the following gem-cut poem, deep in meaning, fervid in adoration and faithful in interpreting the Master's vision of the Mother composed a few days before the November Darshan for a function in the Ashram school. Sri Sastriar added that this was the first time when, without any knowledge of the coming event, he had composed a poem in adoration of the Mother alone, though generally there used to be a mention of the name of Sri Aurobindo in verses composed for such functions. “Was the guiding will of the Master at work to indicate that the Mother was in the near future to become the sole physical manifestation of his being,” asked Sri Sastriar and added “Perhaps”.

This is the poem:

सर्वसंगभूपतेरनन्तभागकल्पना।-
    कल्पचञ्चरेष्वपि जागरूकचिन्तना।
आदिशक्तिरीक्षितेन बिभ्रती जगत्त्रयं
    जीवभावलासिनीह सेयमम्बिका मिरा । १ ।।

1) She—who from the King of All Creation takes and forms countless portions and know.) the process, whose Thought is wakeful in the mobile and the immobile, who is the Primal Force, Shakti holding the three worlds in her gaze, She here as a separate Soul shines, Mother Mira.

मातृश्री तंऊ गता प्रभा दिवाकोकसां प्रभुः।
    आर्तिजालकालनाय पालनाय भूजुषाम्।
शीततापलोकिनीकः सहायहासभारितः।
    तापशान्तिसाधिका विराजते मिरार्द्धिका।। २।।

2)The Splendour that gave birth to the Sons of Heaven accepted the human body to give succour to the sons of earth and end the lot of miseries. By the glances, cool and ever cool with; smiles of glow for mate, She dries out distress and chases gloom. Resplendent in glory the Mother Mira!

भग्यजन्मधारिणां बाल्यधर्मधारिणी।
    युक्तलोकसाधनाय युक्तस्वध्वाधारिणी।।
साधनाय नव्यवेदशिक्षासिद्धार्थिनाम्।
    उत्सवसभाभामा विराजते मिरार्द्धिका।। ३।।

3) For the increase and growth of happy (new) births, She upholds youth's nature and law for ever. For the worship of those who are yoked (to the Divine), suitable form She wears. For the practice and success of those who seek to learn the new physique's sculpture, She keeps aloft the new Knowledge at play. Resplendent in glory the Mother Mira!

—Kumar