... oneness; the consciousness of Multiplicity. avyavahā ryam — the incommunicable. Bhagwan — the Lord, God. Bhrighu Varuni —a Vedic sage. Page 405 bhakti — love for the Divine; devotion to the Divine. Brahman — the Absolute; the Supreme Being; the One besides whom there is nothing else existent. brahmarandhra — (in yoga) the opening at... supporting the play of Prakriti (Nature); a Consciousness behind that is the lord, witness, enjoyer, upholder and source of sanction for Nature's works; the Purusha represents the true being on whatever plane it manifests — physical, vital, mental, psychic. Purushottama — the supreme divine Person; the Supreme Being who is superior both to the mutable Being and the Immutable. the... Consciousness-Force the Gita —short form of Bhagavad Gita, "the Song of the Blessed Lord", being the spiritual teachings of Sri Krishna to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra; it occurs as an episode in the Mahabharata. Gnosis — a supreme totally self-aware and all-aware Intelligence; the Divine Gnosis is the Supermind. Gradations between Mind and Supermind —higher ranges ...
... They are the sages who received the strong divine vision, nṛcakṣasaḥ , the Truth-vision by which they were able to find the Cows hidden by the Panis and to pass beyond the bounds of the Rodasi, the mental and physical consciousness, to the Superconscient, the Vast Truth and the Bliss (R.V. I.36.7, IV.1.13-18, IV.2.15-18 etc.). Soma is the Gandharva, the Lord of the hosts of delight, and guards the... of the godhead which is the condition of the divine delight. In other words it is the Lord of the Ananda who gives us the splendours of the Truth and the plenitudes of the Vast by which we attain to Immortality. The fathers who discovered the Truth, received his creative knowledge, his Maya, and by that ideal and ideative consciousness of the supreme Divinity they formed an image of Him in man,... the supreme and wonderful One he keeps the births of the gods; Lord of the inner setting, by the inner setting he seizes the enemy. Those who are utterly perfected in works taste the enjoyment of his honey-sweetness. हविर्हविष्मो महि सद्म दैव्यं नभो वसानः परि यास्यध्वरम् । राजा पवित्ररथो वाजमारुहः सहस्त्रभृष्टिर्जयसि श्रवो बृहत् ॥५॥ 5) O Thou in whom is the food, thou art that divine food ...
... of equal acceptance by the soul. The soul accepts all things as the play of the all-Blissful Lord, the Will of the supreme self and Ishwara. It accepts action also & the results of action, without being attached to them. But, though not attached, it must learn to take delight in all things even as the Lord takes delight in them. The first delight is that of the Sakshi or Witness, who looking upon... the forms and activities of my Self. Moreover, this Self is again the Lord of the Cosmos, the Purushottama, the divine Vishnu, Shiva or Krishna, of whom every individual soul is a conscious centre, aware of its unity with Him in being and also of its difference in the universe; and the manifestation is a Lila or play of the Lord who is in His being all delight; the play, too, therefore, is not only... delight. It is the dualities born of ego-sense in the heart, mind & body which creates grief and pain. We have to unite ourselves with this Self, Lord & One & with all things in Him, viewing them as our self, in order to get rid of pain & enjoy the divine Ananda. But, first, it is necessary that we should accept without revolt the Lila equally in all its details & happenings. This comes by Nati. Titiksha ...
... the Divine Mother, even though he realised the ultimate truths of the Vedânta, Vaishnavism, Christianity, Islam etc. He realises, as Totapuri, the stalwart Vedântin, was made to realise, that the Brahman and His śakti are one, and that it is the brama ś akti or mahāmāya that is the sovereign power, the supreme Creatrix and the sole redeemer of creatures in the world. The Divine as the Divine śakti... type. Sakhya is the love between two friends, the Divine and the human soul, of which Arjuna, Uddhava, Sudâmâ etc. are the recognised models. Vātsalya is the love of the mother for her child. In this form of bhakti God is loved as one's own child, who is dearer than life itself. Yashoda, the mother of of Sri Krishna, is regarded as the supreme example of this kind of love. But the crowning perfection... the sâdhaka turns to this integral Divine, this Purusottama or Parameśwara , he meets in Him at first the Parameśwarī , the Ādyaśakti, as constituting His Consciousness-Force, and representing at once His still, unthinkable transcendence and His infinite, creative dynamism. The Divine appears to him as the Divine Mother, the supreme Purusa as the supreme Nature or parā prakrti. He understands ...
... becomes indeed the Knower, Brahman itself. (25) Great is the Name of the Gods5 who are born upon the Non 1 Children of the sun. 2 Children of the Violent One, the Lord of Might. 3 The Lord of Mind or the Divine Mind. 4 Who has thus the immediate vision of all these gods. 5 Great indeed are the Gods. Page 33 Being; that become one limb of the Pillar, thus said... darkness slipped from him, He turns round from Evil, all Lights are in Him; threefold³ are they in the Lord of Creation. (41) He knows the golden reed lying in the waters. He is the secret Lord of Creation. (42) Two young maids, of different hue, weave assiduously a 1 Divine Delight. 2 Has lost taste. 3 Sat-Chit-Ananda, body-life-mind. Page 36 six-pronged... and outward, the two wings of the Cosmic Bird flying through eternity and infinity. To mark the progress of Time or in Time, cycles of duration (months, half months, seasons etc.) are also noted here as limbs of this Supreme total Reality. To this double movement there is to be added a third movement: if the double movement means Page 28 thesis and antithesis, there is a movement ...
... यज्ञस्य । The word यज्ञ is of supreme importance in the Veda. In the ceremonial interpretation यज्ञ is always understood as sacrifice and no other conception admitted. The Veda cannot be understood as the source of all Indian spirituality and divine knowledge, if this materialistic interpretation is accepted. In reality यज्ञ is the name of the supreme Lord Vishnu himself; it also means धर्म or... sahaituka sat; Agni of the sahaituka tapas etc. This is only an indication. Page 471 The various characteristics and energies of the gods are best developed by an examination of the Veda itself. The gods strive to function perfectly for the Lord or Yajna, the Isha, Master of the adhara or sevenfold medium of manifestation; the Titans or Daityas, equally divine, try to upset this perfect functioning... doubt will naturally arise, how Vishnu, the supreme Lord, can be the Upendra of the Vedas. The answer is that, whatever energy is of supreme importance at a particular stage of the evolution, is taken up by Vishnu-Virat as his especial care.We have seen that the Ananda is now highest in the developed evolution. Vishnu is therefore now preeminently the Lord of the Ananda and when he comes down into the ...
... laboured at my chaotic being, he forms (in it) according to their desire its supreme desirable state." The last verse describes the labour of Agni hastening through mortal desire to the supreme delight; this verse gives the transformation, the attainment. रंसु. Sayana takes as locative plural, in the pleasant things, ie ghee, etc; this seems to me forced & improbable. I believe रंसु must be taken as... me to be used in two different senses, first, colour, appearance, (lit. surface from वृ to cover), secondly, as here, the supreme world or heaven, whether from वृ to cover, spread as in वरुण (sea or ether) or from वृ to choose, as in वार. In the latter case it means "the supreme desirable state" or "desirable world". उशिग्भ्यो न, as to them desiring = according to their desire, and the sense will be... the divine into the human; he shines illumining with it our dark states of ignorance and for the sacrificer who makes him his envoy to the gods, he bridges the gulf and turns this light of obscurity into Page 606 the very divine discernment even here in this mortal body (दमे).He also turns, as we see in the next verse, the mortal satisfaction & pleasure (प्रिय, प्रयः) into the divine delight ...
... Yoga can include indeed a full experience of the other worlds, the plane of the supreme Spirit and the other planes in between and their possible effects upon our life and material world; but it will be quite possible to insist only on the realisation of the supreme Being or Ishwara even in one aspect, Shiva, Krishna as Lord of the world and Master of ourselves and our works or else the universal Sac... very near to the surface. 25 February 1932 If seeing the Divine depended on the developed occult faculty, how do you explain people's seeing Ram, Krishna, Shiva, etc. in you at Darshan?—I mean by people who have apparently no such faculty. We've heard about Krishna presenting himself before small boys, taking them to school, etc.—fables? With many people the faculty of this kind of occult... and afterwards to proceed from them to the integral results if one accepted the ideal of the divine life and this material world conquered by the Spirit. It is this view and experience of things and of the truth of existence that enabled me to write The Life Divine and Savitri . The realisation of the Supreme, the Ishwara, is certainly the essential thing; but to approach him with love and devotion ...
... influence and did something supreme in their own sphere. "But also the higher divine consciousness of the Purushottama may itself descend into the humanity and that of the Jiva disappear into it. This is said by his contemporaries to have happened in the occasional transfigurations of Chaitanya when he who in his normal consciousness was only the lover and devotee of the Lord and rejected all deification... himself and spoke and acted as the Lord. His contemporaries saw in him an Avatar of Krishna, a manifestation of the Divine Love. Shankara and Vivekananda were certainly Vibhutis; they cannot be reckoned as more, though as Vibhutis they were great. It was not my intention to question in any degree Chaitanya's position as an Avatar of Krishna and the Divine Love. That character Page 374... deification, became in these abnormal moments the Lord himself and so spoke and acted, with all the out flooding light and love and power of the divine Presence." Being : The psychic being by which he means the Purusha in the heart which supports by its presence the action of the mind, life and body. It is the conscious form of the soul. "The psychic part of us," he writes in a letter ...
... acted as the Lord. His contemporaries saw in him an Avatar of Krishna, a manifestation of the Divine Love. Shankara and Vivekananda were certainly Vibhutis; they cannot be reckoned as more, though as Vibhutis they were very great. SRI AUROBINDO Dilip, It was not my intention to question in any degree Chaitanya's position as an Avatar of Krishna and the Divine Love. That character... occasional transfigurations of Chaitanya when he who in his normal consciousness was only the lover and devotee of the Lord and rejected all deification, became in these abnormal moments the Lord himself and so spoke and acted, with all the out flooding light and love and power of the divine Presence." ( Essays on the Gita, Vol. I, "THE PROCESS OF AVATARHOOD") Page 193 ... any comparison as between these two great spiritual personalities; both exercised an extraordinary influence and did some- thing supreme in their own sphere. 2-2-1950 SRI AUROBINDO "But also the higher divine consciousness of the Purushottama may itself descend into the humanity and that of the Jiva disappear into it. This is said by his cont ...
... spacious light on him who affirms thee art not diminished in thy spaces, O thou whose perfect birth etc. Page 304 SUKTA 80 (1) She follows the shining path of light and by the Truth is vast, for she has supreme hold of the Truth; wide is the splendour of her ruddy form. Towards Dawns divine as she comes to them bearing in her that luminous world, souls of the knowledge raise the adoration... us in our battle, O God-Mind, advance our chariot by the power of thy many-thoughted goddess; may we hold in thought in our heavens, O lord of luminous strength, the inspired knowledge that is the supreme good, may our mind realise in its heavens the word of divine affirmation. SUKTA 36 (1) May the God-Mind come to us, he who awakes in us to knowledge of our treasures to give of the giving of... He increases in his secure having and he conquers in his getting, for him the human path and the divine meet in one and both are conquered. He becomes dear to the Lord of the Light, dear to the Lord of the Flame who presses out the Wine and gives it to the Puissant. SUKTA 38 (1) O Puissant, O lord of thy hundred workings, vast is thy felicity, wide-diffused are its riches; O universal doer of ...
... Krishna, the Lord descended into the world-play from the divine Ananda; his flute is the music of the call which seeks to transform the lower ignorant play of mortal life and bring into it and establish in its place the lila of his divine Ananda. It was the psychic being in you that heard the call and followed after it. Page 156 It is, I suppose, the image of Sri Krishna as Lord of the divine... Hanuman is a symbol of Shakti and devotion. Narada Narada stands for the expression of the Divine Love and Knowledge. Mahakali and Kali Mahakali and Kali are not the same, Kali is a lesser form. Mahakali in the higher planes appears usually with the golden colour. These—Kali, Shyama, etc.—are ordinary forms seen through the vital; the real Mahakali form whose origin is in the Overmind... ParvatiShankara. Narayana, Vishnu, Brahma, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ananta Narayana is usually taken as a name of Vishnu—to the Vaishnavas he is the Supreme as Shiva is to the Shaivas. Both are Page 155 cosmic Personalities of the Divine and both like Brahma have their original plane in the Overmind, although they take different forms to the human consciousness in the mental, vital and ...
... material body may be turned into little volcanoes if the Divine Flame is roused there in the intensive process of aspiration. Earthly beings as we are, Agni, the earthly Godhead is the Deity we adore, he is the Lord of the Home, grhapati. He is the foremost of the gods and he goes in front of us purohita, Agni's flame rises towards Surya, the supreme Light, but first he must prepare the passage, burn... concentrate at one point within itself and find or found there the Fire, the dynamic Divine Will in its most concrete reality – the body's self and soul: the yajamana, the human figure of the Divine here invoking, calling forth the godhead who leads the sacrificial journey through all the worlds and domains to the Supreme Heights. We have said that fire is a denser and intenser force than light: while... that has to do the main or final work. For the light from above is mostly mental or mentalised, the very supreme Light does not descend easily, is not readily available: indeed it is ready and available only at the call of the fire below. Agni is therefore named 'hota,' one who calls the Divine down here below. It is the God here below that can call down the God above. Page 326 But ...
... made the painting. And lo! she liked it. When we were doing Book Three, The Book of the Divine Mother , in one of the paintings we had to show the Divine Mother in Aswapathy's heart. Here I cannot possibly forget the Mother's sense of humour, for I love it. She said: Now look! If we show the Supreme Mother's face in his heart, then surely people will think that Aswapathy had fallen in love... everything became all right. For picture two of Book Two, Canto 7 of Savitri the Mother saw the vision of the Lord. She drew a sketch and underneath she wrote: Falsehood is the sorrow of the Lord. The Mother explained to me fully how to paint the picture. I did the painting of the Lord's Face. I copied her handwriting underneath the painting according to her wish, and sent it to her. She wrote... mouth through her coloured sketch. She sometimes made coloured sketches with crayons. I thought that the mouth meant a real mouth, so I did the sketch of a wide open mouth with teeth and tongue, etc. Along with other sketches, I sent this sketch to the Mother for her approval. Unhappily, the Mother did not approve the sketch of the mouth. She wrote: It is better to drop the fourth one as it ...
... emerging out of inconscience and waking to a conscious life, an ardent prayer rises in us for more light, more consciousness, "O Supreme Lord of the universe, we implore Thee, give us the strength and the beauty, the harmonious perfection needed to be Thy divine instruments upon earth." It is almost a proclamation. After the demonstration they are going to say it. It appears they are going... culture in all the countries, and the country where it is most advanced and how to use the body as it is, etc. Well, it was the ideal of the Olympics. Now they have jumped beyond; that was the past, now they want transformation. Yes, people in their mind and their vital asked to become divine; well, it is all the old story of spirituality, reiterated for centuries. No, now it is the body . It is... and put them under heavy bombardment in the name of the Lord. It is very amusing! Something is translated in words (it is without words, but there something is translated in words) and then there are conversations among the cells ( Mother laughs ): "Imbecile that you Page 100 are! Why do you have fear? Don't you see it is the Lord himself who is doing this to transform you?" And the other: ...
... Intelligence, Power, Peace, Beauty, Forgive- ness, Kindness, etc., but the most primal and puissant, the most graceful and rapturous aspect of love—one wonders why —has been left unmentioned. Love is the first, highest and completest expression of the divine Truth in the world, and the supreme Force that can lead the world back to the Divine. It includes all the other aspects and principles and is... aspiration was fulfilled beyond measure : the divine Love prepared her whole being, part by part, hour by hour, till it became a pure flame of psychic love quivering in the embrace of the sempiternal fire of the Love Divine. "My love for Thee, O Lord, it is Thyself, and yet my love bows down religiously before Thee ” Once she became the divine Love, the real work of her life began. Love... herself be moved by the divine Will, which is one with divine Love. And yet something in her outer personality, something sweetly human—this plastic and receptive human element is indispensable to her work—had the modesty to find itself "poorly equipped" for such a tremendous task, and she asked the Divine with the utter candour and simplicity of a child, "Thou plungest me, O Lord, into the most opaque ...
... ined aspects: Self, Soul and God the Lord. As Self it remains in the background of the process of self-manifestation of the Reality; as Soul it is the Conscious Being who sanctions the creative adventure of the Consciousness-Force, and as the Lord it controls the process of the self-manifestation of the Reality. The true being in man is a portion of the supreme Reality and is called the soul or psychic... disciplines and not by speculative thinking. What then is yoga? Normally, practices such as physical postures, breath control, meditation, repeating a name of God or of a word or group of words, a mantra, etc. are understood as yoga. But these are particular disciplines and not the essence of yoga. According to Sri Aurobindo, yoga has the same relation with the inner nature and being of man as the natural... the universe and their corresponding levels in human beings, even the more well-known terms have different significances from those they ordinarily have. Consciousness, Spirit, Self, Soul, Mind, Life, etc. mean very different things from what they are taken to mean by the general reader and in other spiritual literature. Of these terms Spirit has some affinity with the Christian notion of God. But the ...
... may be turned into little volcanoes if the Divine Flame is roused there in the intensive process of aspiration. Earthly beings as we are, Agni, the earthly Godhead is the Deity we adore, he is the Lord of the Home, g ṛ hapati. He is the foremost of the gods and he goes in front of us (purohita), Agni's flame rises towards Surya, the supreme Light, but first he must prepare the passage... concentrate at one point within itself and find or found there the Fire, the dynamic Divine Will in its most concrete reality — the body's self and soul: the yajam ā na, the human figure of the Divine here invoking, calling forth the godhead who leads the sacrificial journey through all the worlds and domains to the Supreme Heights. We have said that fire is a denser and intenser force than... that has to do the main or final work. For the light from above is mostly mental or mentalised, the very supreme Light does not descend easily, is not readily available: indeed it is ready and available only at the call of the fire below. Agni is therefore named 'hota', one who calls the Divine down here below. It is the God here below that can call down the God above. Page 29 ...
... The rishi then prays that the वातीकारः, mass of winds of which Rudra is lord and which in the tempest of their course blow away all calamity, such as pestilence etc, may come with him. 4) In the fourth verse he salutes the God. Rudra is the Supreme Ishwara, Creator of the World, He is the dreadful, wrathful and destroying Lord, swift to slay and punish. भाम is passionate Page 292 anger... peacock-feathered, as he hurled. दिव उग्रो अवारुक्षत्प्रत्यष्ठाद् भूम्यामधि । जनासः पश्यतेमं नीलग्रीवं विलोहितम् ॥२॥ 2) Fierce he came down from the sky, he stood facing me on the earth as its lord,—the people behold a mass of strength, azure-throated, scarlet-hued. एष एत्यवीरहा रुद्रो जलासभेषजाः । यतेऽक्षेममनीनशद् वातीकारोऽप्येतु ते ॥३॥ 3) This that cometh is he that destroyeth evil,... शिवा शरव्या या तव तया नो मृड जीवसे ॥७॥ 7) That thy arrow which is the kindliest of all and thy bow which is well-omened and that thy quiver which beareth blessing, by that thou livest for us, O lord of slaughter. या ते रुद्र शिवा तनूरघोरा पापकाशिनी । तया नस्तन्वा शन्तमया गिरिश त्वाभिचाकशत् ॥८॥ 8) That thy body, O Terrible One, which is fair and full of kindness and destroyeth sin, not thy ...
... n from life to life with the mind, vital and body as its instruments until all is ready for the union with the Divine. Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - I: The Psychic Being Let the earth, the entire world and the heavens be enlightened by the brilliant supreme light of Lord Sun and inspire our intellect. Rigveda Sri Aurobindo Heaven's fire is lit in the breast of the... manifest and out of their working something has to develop. On the other planes (the mental, vital etc;) there is not the evolution — there each acts separately according to its own law. Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - I: Descent and Transformation The psychic is the soul or spark of the Divine Fire supporting the individual evolution on the earth and the psychic being is the soul-consciousness... The Mother, Words of Long Ago: Sincerity It is the unconsciousness of creation that constitutes the Falsehood of the Creation. As soon as the creation will become conscious again of being the Lord, the Falsehood will cease. The Mother, On Thoughts and Aphorisms: Aphorism - 109 Sri Aurobindo describes about the Sphinx in Savitri Book 3, Canto 4: On his long way through Time ...
... exclusively for the Divine. So, you feel above the surrounding human reactions-not only above them but protected from them by the wall of the Divine's Grace. Once you have no more desires, no more attachments, once you have given up all necessity of receiving a reward from human beings, whoever they are-knowing that the only reward that is worth getting is the one that comes from the Supreme and that never... I disapprove totally of violence. Each act of violence is a step back on the path leading to the goal to which we aspire. The Divine is everywhere and always supremely conscious. Nothing must ever be done that cannot be done before the Divine. * When I say that the wise should govern the world, I am not taking a political point of View but a spiritual one. ... revolts and all that. . . . ( Silence ) A message was asked from me for the whole of India. I have given it. ( Mother hands the text to the disciple .) Supreme Lord, Eternal Truth Let us obey Thee alone and line according to Truth. It is a terrible onrush of Falsehood. It was as though the whole world, everyone were lying, even the most unexpected ...
... take the trouble. Source The Lord Plays with All This But when one has the positive experience of the one and only existence of the Supreme and that all is only the Supreme playing to Himself, instead of being something disquieting or unpleasant or troubling, it is on the contrary a sort of total security. The one reality is the Supreme. And all this is a game He plays to Himself... world." And everything else remains quite as concrete and real—it does not become hazy! It is just as concrete, just as real, but... but it becomes divine, because... because it is the Divine. It is the Divine who plays. Source Allow the Lord to Do Everything Now, when I start looking like this ( Mother closes her eyes ), two things are there at the same time: this smile, this joy, this... that—I am sure, because I observed it in myself for a very long time, because of the subconscious formation of childhood, environment, education, etc. You must be able to press into this body the consciousness of Oneness, the absolute exclusive Oneness of the Divine—exclusive in the sense that nothing exists except in this Oneness, even the things we find most repulsive... But it is Him. There is nothing ...
... jagati; in detail it is a multitude of single objects, forces, ideas, sensations etc, all in their nature motion of this moving universe, jagat, the apparently motionless stone no less than the ever circling & rotating earth. In this motion, in the objects, forces, sensations created by it He dwells who is its Lord. APPENDIX [3] [ Written in the top margin of two pages of the manuscript. Point... the swiftness of eagles. For whom are we envying, whose goods are we coveting? Ourselves, our own goods. If we realise divine unity, we can enjoy them as perfectly in another's experience as in our own. Moreover, being divine in power ourselves we can get them whenever our supreme self wills without anyone else in the world being the poorer for our gain. There must be no demand, no coveting. Not when... we must come to enjoy all His movement, since He is here as the Lord of his own movement. For this reason the word Ish has been selected as the fundamental relation of God to ourselves & the world—the master of all our existence to whom we renounce, the Lord who for his purposes has made & governs the world—for in this relation of "Lord" he is inseparable from His movement. It is a relation that depends ...
... type Flaming golden yellow—Vijnana Notes, c. 1914 - VI Objects of Yoga To put it in a word, the object of Yoga is God or the Divine or the Supreme whatever our conception of these things may be. There are minor objects of Yoga which are merely parts or separate aspects of the general object. We are composed of being, consciousness, energy and delight represented to us as life, knowledge... , inertia, melancholy, pessimism, timidity, etc. Grey—despondency and dullness Red—activity; or if a deep angry colour, anger; or if scarlet, lust; if rose, love. White—purity, strength, etc. Green—beneficency, unselfishness, readiness to serve without respect to one's own desire or ambition. Dull green—bad qualities of prana, jealousy etc. Blue—Spirituality more of the Bhakti type... ordinary man thinks he desires, he feels and so on. But what we are to do is to separate ourselves from desire, feeling etc. Whenever desire comes, we must realise that we are not desiring but only realise it as the coming and going of Desire. So also with the feeling, thinking etc. For instance, when [a] certain anguish comes, an ordinary man thinks and feels that he is lost and so on. He weeps bitterly ...
... Impersonal Brahman? K says, "Yes, because they are identified with the Supreme and the Supreme is static and dynamic at the same time." I answered—maybe—especially when Krishna is supposed to have contained the whole universe in his mouth or when he says that whoever takes the name of the Divine, or offers a flower, etc., comes to his feet. Then why is it said again that he is an Overmind god?... to do with it. Besides it is not the Divine Rule on earth that I am after, but the supramental rule. This however has nothing to do with any supramental or Divine Rule on earth. It is only a general question of the response of the Divine and to the Divine. Why should you stupefy me? Good Lord! Have you forgotten how Arjuna was stupefied, horrified, flabbergasted by seeing the Vishwarup 153 of... vividness—not as a mental impression but as a concrete contact with the Divine Presence or the Force? I have no objection to your being the Supreme, only it stupefies one to think of you as such! But there was no question about my being the Supreme; the question was whether there was one Divine Mother or 20,000 Divine Mothers. At the same time I don't see why it should stupefy one (you?), in ...
... fostered and impelled – as though herself possessing no autonomy of her own – by the ever-victorious golden glance gleaming from the divine lotus-eyes of our Lord. We bow, we bow to the resplendent Light of the Master, the Light that has assumed the supreme form of a woman, the Light that liberates the imprisoned power of humanity from the bonds of weakness and ignorance and fashions it... born the Vast, the Wide-ruling, the Over-Lord. Even as He is born, He transcends all, He is behind the earthly world and He is in front. [5] Through the Supreme Being the Gods make the offering and accomplish the sacrifice. The Spring is its first primal offering, Summer is its fuel and Autumn the final giving. [6] The Supreme Being took birth in the forefront, He is... her brilliant ornaments on her body, she is the sole origin of the Universe, constantly sought by the highest scriptures. "The Yogi must dissolve all the five causes into the supreme Shiva, who is beyond Time and Space etc., into the Void that Page 154 is nothing else but Consciousness, and is not dependent on anything. He must fix and finally settle himself into ...
... recovering the consciousness of unity in the Lord, unity in himself, unity with all existence. 3 This done, life and works can and should be accepted in their fullness; for the manifestation of the Lord in life and works is the law of our being and the object of our world-existence. THE QUIESCENCE AND THE MOVEMENT 4) What then of the Quiescence of the Supreme Being and how is persistence in the Movement... play of the Will and Knowledge and Delight of the Lord in His world-existence. We shall then be delivered from egoism and desire and the sense of separate existence and therefore from all grief and delusion and shrinking; for all grief is born of the shrinking of the ego from the contacts of existence, its sense of fear, weakness, want, dislike, etc.; and this is born from the delusion of separate... deformation of the divine Ananda or delight of being from which the Page 85 world is born; by extirpation of ego and desire Ananda again becomes the conscious principle of existence. This substitution is the essence of the change from life in death to life in immortality. The enjoyment of the infinite delight of existence free from ego, founded on oneness of all in the Lord, is what is meant ...
... is, therefore, the purest and most disinterested, and supremely capable of bringing down the transforming light of divine Love upon earth. It is this psychic love that the sâdhaka of the Integral Yoga has to develop in himself and infuse into all parts of his being, so that his whole being may become a single flame of love rising towards the Divine. What Sri Aurobindo calls the sun-lit path is the path... be our vital-emotional being turning towards the Divine. Our love is then characterised by some strength and intensity of the emotions. But these emotions are usually turbid, excited, disquieting, and often depressing. They are mixed with the desires and demands of our unpurified nature, and manifest the common symptoms ofabhimdn,¹ revolt etc., when those desires and demands are not satisfied... and the revelation of God's Light and Love upon earth. For a perfect illustration of this psychic love and its will and aspiration to divine service, we can only refer to some of the Mother's Prayers: "For the plenitude of Thy Light we invoke Thee, O Lord! Awaken is us the power to express Thee." "All is mute in the being as in a desert crypt; but in the heart of the shadow, in ...
... personifications or rather personalities of the Light and the Voice and the Flame, but in their inner aspect powers of the Truth who second the gods in their battles. But even as divine seers, even as sons of Heaven and heroes of the Lord, these sages represent aspiring humanity. True, they are originally the sons of the gods, devaputrāḥ , children of Agni, forms of the manifoldly born Brihaspati, and in their... godheads, Page 189 aditayaḥ, ādityāso . Mitra and Varuna, we must remember, are powers of Surya Savitri, the Lord of the Light and the Truth. And the third verse runs, "May the Angirases who hasten through to the goal move in their travelling to the bliss of the divine Savitri; and that (bliss) may our great Father, he of the sacrifice, and all the gods becoming of one mind accept in heart... Bull, the lord of these herds, gopatiḥ . The Rishi continues to describe the Thought. It is "the thought that when it is being expressed, remains wakeful in the knowledge," does not lend itself to the slumber of the Panis, ya jāgṛvir vidathe śasyamānā ; "that which is born of thee (or, for thee), O Indra, of that take knowledge." This is a constant formula in the Veda. The god, the divine, has to ...
... became the object of development as in modern times it is the nation that is the objective. However, the highest, the transcendent objective is the Supreme Lord or the Divine. The Divine is the real, the supreme self of all, therefore the real, the supreme objective. So the Gita says, "abandon all laws, remember me alone." All laws are harmonised in God. If you follow Him, He takes charge of you, makes... ideals, injure and rob and enslave other countries. Again, if you consider God as your self and love Him as your self, then too it would be the same thing. For love means supreme vision: if I am a yogi, full of love for the Divine, if I am a man of action acting desirelessly, then I shall be able to possess a power, a knowledge or joy beyond the reach of the common man. And finally, if I consider the... a development: it started with a small objective in view, then through comparatively greater ones it realised the highest transcendent reality. Finally it is now entering its goal, the supreme status of the Divine. There was an age when mankind was solely preoccupied with the body; the cultivation of the body was the law of the age. That was the way to Good in that age even if it meant depreciating ...
... of the spiritual mind, Ananda being according to the Upanishads the supreme plane of experience. But this is a logical conclusion which cannot be accepted wholly—one must pass through the supermind to arrive to the highest Ananda and in the supermind there is a unification and harmonisation of all the divine Powers (Knowledge, etc. as well as Love and Ananda). Different sadhanas emphasise one aspect... his position in other respects, learning, external sanctity etc. etc., can easily follow after Krishna and reach him; that seems to me the sense of the symbol of the Gopis. There are many other significances, of course—that is only one among the many. Page 493 Radha is the personification of the absolute love for the Divine, total and integral in all parts of the being from the highest... Impersonal or on the contrary the impersonal disappear into the absolute reality of the supreme and divine Person; the impersonal in that view is only an attribute or power of the personal Divine. But at the summit of spiritual experience passing beyond mind one begins to feel the fusion of all these things into one. Consciousness, Existence, Ananda return to their indivisible unity, Sachchidananda. ...
... like Brahman; I am neither for nor against, neither approve nor condemn. 26.4.55 1956-09-19 There we are, Lord, it is those very people to whom you have shown most love who make you responsible for their difficulties. My Lord, Thou hast given me tonight this supreme knowledge: We are living only because such is Thy will. We shall die only if it be Thy will. Thou hadst decided to... deeper and truer conception which culminates in the perfect conception of needs in accordance with the supreme wisdom, until we realise that the Divine alone knows what our true needs are and rely upon Him for everything. November 19, 1954 1955-04-26 The Avatar The supreme Divine manifested in an earthly form—generally a human form—for a definite purpose. They have a disastrous... outside noise, aspire for the Divine's help; open integrally to it when it comes and surrender to its action, and it will effectively bring about your transformation. D.'s belief: The Divine (as manifested in me) is all irony and deceit. It thinks only of playing tricks. When it laughs it mocks; when it says to do something it makes this very thing impossible to do etc. I was told that our boys ...
... There are also a number of Upapurānas, such as Narasimha, Nandi, Bhārgava, etc. Purānas have been composed to explain the meanings of Vedas for common masses of people so as to evoke in them sensitivity in their being towards the Divine knowledge and to inspire in them devotion for the Supreme Reality. Purānas describe the creation of universe, development of universe, and the dissolution... perfection. In the course of this development, there are also important concepts of svadharma and svakarma. And in the culminating chapter of the Gita, we find Lord Krishna asking Arjuna to renounce all Dharmas and to surrender to the Supreme Divine. This vast and complex teaching of the Gita seems to be inherent in the teaching of the Veda, which is also the original synthesis of Karma, Jnāna and... be the most valuable book on Lord Krishna, and it is looked upon as an unparalleled composition on the theme of Shri Krishna and devotion to Shri Krishna. Purānas are also related to several other deities and great Rishis of the past. An important contribution of the Purāna is related to the concept of avatāra and the description of various avataras of the Supreme Divine. Purāna literature is very ...
... immense destructions of Nature, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, cyclones, floods, etc., or the violent human destructions, wars, revolutions, revolts, I find the power of Kali, who is working in the earth-atmosphere to hasten the progress of transformation. All that is not only divine in essence but also divine in realisation is by its very nature above these destructions and cannot be touched... and action in all fields of activity—intellectual, psychological and material. Mahasaraswati's mission is to awaken the world to the need of perfection; but perfection itself belongs to the Supreme Lord alone; no one else can even know what it is. Ma, please help me to have a clear representation of the four aspects of the Mother as described by Sri Aurobindo in his book The Mother . In... private ends. It is evidently the working of the Kali force that has lit and is directing this fire in you. There is nothing wrong in its action; it is not an anger personal to you but the wrath of a divine power and it must be allowed to act; in fact, I think you could not stop it from burning in you even if you wanted to stop it. This man has drawn it on himself and there is nothing wrong in what is ...
... in me in speech the Intelligence as it were finding perfectly in knowledge the hidden place of the Cow of Light. दविबर्हा. Sy. द्वयोः स्थानयोः परिवृढः. तुविष्मान्. Sy. बहुधनः—तुविः, तवस्, तविषी etc have all one meaning, strength, force. 4) प्र तानग्निर्बभसत्तिग्मजंभ- स्तपिष्ठेन शोचिषा यः सुराधाः । प्र ये मिनंति वरुणस्य धाम प्रिया मित्रस्य चेततो ध्रुवाणि ॥ Them may he sharp-tusked (or... in delight, who awaken in consciousness to the glad & enduring seats of Varuna, of Mitra, & then seek to limit them. प्र मिनंति. Sy. प्रकर्षेण हिंसंति. मि like मा (cf मन् & also मु in murus, muh etc) means literally to confine, comprehend, limit, diminish, measure, embrace, contain, hold. It may also mean to injure. 5) अभ्रातरो न योषणो व्यंतः पतिरिपो न जनयो दुरेवाः । पापासः संतो अनृता असत्या... यह्वो अग्निः ॥ Confine not (or blame not) the god who in his self-fixity has given to me, to a mortal this felicity, seizer of things immortal & wise in knowledge he has given it to my ripeness—the lord of universal strength, the mighty & mastering Agni. Sy. मा निंदत । स्तुतेत्यर्थः! पाकाय—परिपक्वज्ञानाय. गृत्सो. Sy. मेधाविनामैतत्. Page 666 3) साम द्विबर्हा महि तिग्मभृष्टिः सहस्ररेता ...
... Prayers and Meditations : 'Glory to You, O Lord, all-triumphant Supreme' etc. (it's a long prayer). It came back suddenly, and as it came back spontaneously, I kept it. Moreover, when Sri Aurobindo read this prayer in Prayers and Meditations , he told me it was very strong. So I added this phrase as a kind of tail to my japa. But 'Glory to You, O Lord' isn't my spontaneous mantra—it came spontaneously... the Divine Mother's aspect of love, the perfection of manifested love, which must come before this supreme Love (which is beyond the Manifestation and the Nonmanifestation) can be expressed—the supreme Love referred to in Savitri when the Supreme sends Savitri to the earth: For ever love, O beautiful slave of God! ( XI.I.702 ) It's to prepare the earth to receive the Supreme's manifestation... thousands and thousands of years of spiritual aspiration—there is in it the entire aspiration of men towards the Supreme. And the power is automatically there, because the experience is there. It's the same with my mantra. When I wanted to translate the end of my mantra, "Glory to You, O Lord," into Sanskrit, I asked for Nolini's help. He brought his Sanskrit translation, and when he read it to me, I ...
... and more constant, uninterrupted sensation that the sole support is—the Supreme Lord. There's only He, only He. And that's inside, in the body. At the same time, a very precise perception.... You know, once (years ago) I was asked, "What is purity?" I answered, "Purity is to be exclusively under the influence of the Supreme Lord and to Page 185 receive nothing but from him." Then, a year... short time, of when, how, what and all that—"It's as You will." Constantly, in every cell, every activity, every moment: "What You will, Lord." All the time. Like that. No question. Only, there is an observation, a very clear perception of the fact that this supreme Will is what enables things to carry on as they do. So the conclusion is easy to draw: as long as He wills it, it will be like that;... period when there was nothing, neither on one side nor on the other; and then, slowly, slowly, there has now come the perception that the LEAST thing is enough, and that it's only the SUPREME Will (not even higher: the supreme Will) that is preventing dissolution. It exclusively depends on That. And as you say, this presence is maintained to the extent it's useful and indispensable for a certain aspect ...
... outside noise, aspire for the Divine's help; open integrally to it when it comes and surrender to its action, and it will effectively bring about your transformation. D.'s belief: The Divine (as manifested in me) is all irony and deceit. It thinks only of playing tricks. When it laughs it mocks; when it says to do something it makes this very thing impossible to do etc. I was told that our boys... of its needs which a child has must be replaced progressively by a wider, deeper and truer conception which culminates in the perfect conception of needs in accordance with the supreme wisdom, until we realise that the Divine alone knows what our true needs are and rely upon Him for everything. 19 November 1954 ... To my child of today and always in remembrance of our new meeting. A prayer for August 15, 1950 Lord, Give me the strength of a total and perfect sincerity that I may be worthy of Thy Realisation. Lord, give us the strength to live integrally the ideal we proclaim. The Lord has said: The hour is come and all the obstacles will be surmounted. I am only realising what he has conceived ...
... Angiras win the wealth of illuminations and powers of the Truth concealed behind the lower life and its crookednesses; Atharvan forms in their strength the Path and Surya the Lord of Light is then born as the guardian of the divine Law and the Yama-power; Ushanas drives the herded illuminations of our thought up that path of the Truth to the Bliss which Surya possesses; so is born from the law of the... the Aryan seers. The Gods are born from Aditi in the supreme Truth of things, the Dasyus or Danavas from Diti in the nether darkness; they are the Lords of Light and the Lords of Night fronting each other across the triple world of earth, heaven and mid-air, body, mind and the connecting breath of life. Sarama in X.108 descends from the supreme realm, parākāt ; she has to cross the waters of the Rasā... invincible is he and complete are his felicities, he releases for us (separates from the darkness) the supreme knowledge-vision of the luminous cows, gavāṁ ketaṁ param āvarjate naḥ . I fly to the unassailable giver of riches like a bird to its beloved nest, bowing down to Indra with the supreme words of light, to him to whom his affirmers must call in their journey. He comes with all his armies and ...
... superb sounds and colours are created in the mountains. On the highest mountains there is the Supreme: the highest mountains stand as witnesses of Great Reality. Indeed, Roerich considers the Himalayas as the very abode, the tabernacle itself – the sanctum sanctorum – of the Spirit, the Light Divine. Many of Roerich's paintings have mountain ranges, especially snow-bound mountain ranges,... symbols and allegories is hieratic, that is to say, the subject-matter refers to objects and events connected with saints and legends, shrines and enchanted places, hidden treasures, spirits and angels, etc. etc.; thirdly, the manner or style of execution is what we may term pantomimic, in other words, concrete, graphic, dramatic, even melodramatic. He has a special predilection for geometrical patterns the... look behind and beyond, for the secret mechanism, the hidden agency that really drives things. Poets and artists are the vanguards of the age to come, prophets and pioneers preparing the way for the Lord. Roerich discovered and elaborated his own technique to reveal that which is secret, express that which is not expressed or expressible. First of all, he is symbolical and allegorical: secondly ...
... its command for action and demand on their delight. They are his common wives, common friends—not discordant or incompatible. He is not divine & lord & pure in mind, fallen or struggling in body, but in both supreme, great & holy. Protect, O Agni, cries Viswamitra, these thy two wives & friends in our human totality. 11) उरौ महाननिबाधे ववर्ध आपो अग्निं यशसः सं हि पूर्वीः । ऋतस्य योनावशयद्दमूना... mother, छिदिः axe and cutting etc etc. So कविः the seer or the knowledge. क्रतुः. That which does, the force, or in the mind, the mind-force or will, or the mind which possesses the force or will. "Mind" here gives the most obvious sense, but I think, in spite of this apparent probability, it is the will or strength in a man which is supposed to be purified by the divine force entering Page 616... Page 612 Viswamitra has offered the supreme sacrifice of the Ananda to the gods; he prays that as a result the power of divine speech by which men chant the Vedic knowledge in these inspired poems may grow in him; for it is so that men have always prevailed (ishuh) to sing the Veda in the past. They have given the activities of their being to the divine & infinite Force of God as its fuel, they ...
... listen to its voice. We obey its inspirations. The Divine is the sovereign master of this universe. He is the Unique Reality, Light of light and Life of life. He is supreme Love and saviour of the world. O Lord, it is imperative that ignorance be conquered, that the illusion of our life be dissipated, that this painful universe emerge out of its frightful nightmare and awake at Page... violents. Des que tout effort, c'est-a-dire celui qui vient de l'orgueil, de la volonte, de l'ambition, de l'egoi'sme, etc. disparait d'une manifestation, elle devient tres simple parce que la Paix, la Serenite, l'flgalite, la Lumiere, etc. apparaissent ou la Mere Divine se manifeste. La simplicite de la manifestation est comparable a celle d'une fleur qui s'epanouit et qui manifeste sa... on trouve le bonheur supreme, la joie sans melange, la paix immuable. On respire l'infini, on echappe au temps et a l'espace. 17/20 bien Ignorance, the painful school of ordinary existence, made entirely of struggles and sufferings, is the companion of Page 47 men, because they have turned their back on the Divine. But, with Him one finds supreme happiness, unalloyed ...
... Exactly. They believe in a divine realization, but the divine realization isn't terrestrial, it's somewhere else, in a celestial world, that is, immaterial. And that is their great obstacle. Of course, in matters of faith (I don't mean for a very precise and very clear scientific mind), but in matters of faith, there is so far no clear proof that the Lord wants to realize Himself here; except... that higher plane], "The Lord is everywhere—even in hell the Lord is there." And then it caused such a violent reaction in him that, pfft! he vanished. I found it very striking.... I don't know the dogma, but it seems that in hell, according to the Catholics, what's worse than suffering, the fire and all that, is the absence of the Lord. It seems it's a dogma that the Lord is absent from hell; and... environment in which everything has to be learned: reactions, adaptations, etc. On the contrary, in the routine of a life that has nothing particularly exciting, it strongly feels (I mean, if it has goodwill and an aspiration for progress), it strongly feels its inadequacies and desires, its reactions, repulsions, attractions, etc. When one doesn't have that intense will to progress, it feels imprisoned ...
... vision the Supreme Vision must be known. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, but I haven't yet become the Supermind and no one knows whether the Supermind will descend. 4 NIRODBARAN: How is that? You have already said it is bound to descend. SRI AUROBINDO (laughing) : But I didn't fix a date - whether it will be tomorrow or not. NIRODBARAN: The Mother seems to have said that the Divine Descent will... because they look at the physical graph of things. Only the Supreme Vision can't be changed. NIRODBARAN: What is the Supreme Vision? SRI AUROBINDO: Nobody knows. NIRODBARAN: Not nobody; you must know, and as you said just now the New World Order is bound to come, that must be the Supreme Vision? PURANI: But at present before the Supreme has a chance there are many others who are already busy... couldn't quite follow Krishnaprem when he said that this war is not a real war. His words are: "It is the troubled wake of a ship that has passed, the trail of a snail, the dead ash of a forest fire," etc. SRI AUROBINDO: He means the psychic past as he makes clear afterwards. All Karma that has been done in the past has passed into the inner worlds. What is here now is only the result of it. It is ...
... how that difference could persist in the new physical state once it had shed its false side. And then, for ... I don't know, certainly two hours, there was a concrete Presence of what I call "the Supreme Lord" (but we can call it by any name, it doesn't matter: Truth, Consciousness, whatever we like—the words don't matter, it's something beyond all that). A concrete presence, there, like this ( Mother... didn't change.... It's because THE STATE DIDN'T LAST LONG ENOUGH. It lasted for only about two hours (give or take a little); afterwards, back came the everyday routine, everyone with their problems, etc. ( Mother makes the familiar gesture of the "truckload" being dumped ). But I am not accusing anything of having made the state go away: it went away because this ( body ) isn't yet capable of holding... my Page 20 death ( Mother laughs ) and to give the government the right to intervene. Keep me carefully sheltered from all injuries 2 that may come from outside—infection, poisoning, etc.—and have UNTIRING patience: it may last days, perhaps weeks, perhaps even longer, and you will have to wait patiently for me to come naturally out of that state once the work of transformation is a ...
... their stature and greatness, which they wore so lightly and simply, or perhaps we forgot their greatness because they were so close to us, just as I forgot the Lord's greatness being so close to Him. Pavitra-da was entirely dedicated to the Divine. Mother said that, from the very beginning, he followed the path without the slightest vacillation, without turning either to the right or to the left; he followed... result. Then the Mother told him to be prepared. He kept his uniform ready. The boat was to arrive at a certain date, but either by a miracle or by some fortuitous chance, the 23 When the Divine or the Supreme Reality manifests itself into the lower world of Ignorance, it reveals its four principal aspects: 1) Wisdom and Knowledge (Maheshwari), 2) Power, Force, Violence and Destruction (Mahakali)... Whenever She had need of him, She used to call "Pavitra, Pavitra!" and he used to come running: "M è re, M è re." 20 She dropped in whenever She liked, to give him some work, to tell him something, etc. When She went to the balcony for the morning Darsban, she had to pass through his room, and at times Pavitra-da would be sleeping. And She used to hold his hands and say, "Wake up, Pavitra." His service ...
... thee not nor mortals, O lord of the hill of being; thou by thy shining might masterest with thy being all births and the gods possess not thee. (10) They all together (with one impulse) have formed Indra as the Strong Purusha who overcomes all armies and gave him Page 318 being that he might rule, supreme by his might of action and [ ] 7 in the supreme, full too of fierce intensity... may he in fullest strength by the words of our thought act in the sacrifice and as lord of the lightning set all things in us on the good path towards the felicity. (14) Do thou, O Indra, know these cities that by thy force, O strong one of the flashing force, thou mayst destroy them; for in fear of thee, lord of the thunderflash, tremble all the worlds and heaven shakes and the earth. (15)... energy that overcomes the shock of the hosts. (11) For thou, O master of substance, O lord of the hundred willings, hast become to us our father and become to us our mother; now ’tis the bliss of thee that we seek. (12) To thee in thy plenty, O master of force to whom many call, I turn my speech, O lord of the hundred strengths of Will; do thou give to us a perfect energy. Page 320 ...
... all that is disinterested and spiritual, and if they come to power, they would be capable of anything in their hate. For all these world events, I always leave it to the Divine vision and wisdom, and I say to the Supreme: 'Lord, may Thy Will be done.' I hope to hear from you soon. My love is with you. Signed : Mother Page 311 × ... love, I pray that he will succeed in what he wants to do during these 45 days of meditation. This is really what I was counting on. For what occurred here, I can say only one thing: when the Supreme Lord wants to save someone, He clothes his will in every appearance necessary. As for the emptiness you feel (which perhaps is already better): to those who complained of this sensation of inner emptiness... explained to him that a mantra had come to you which you were repeating between 5 and 6 in particular, and I told him about this culminating point where you wanted to express your gratitude, enthusiasm, etc., and about the French mantra. After explaining, I gave him your French and Sanskrit texts. He felt and understood very well what you wanted. His first reaction after reading it was to say, 'Great ...
... influence, rejected and there can be an exclusive living in the Divine Truth. 3 January 1943 Page 176 1947 This is not a prayer, but an encouragement. Here is the encouragement and a comment upon it: "At the very moment when everything seems to go from bad to worse, it is then that we must make a supreme act of faith and know that the Grace will never fail us." The... aspiration and everything is arranged to gain the most prompt, the quickest realisation—so there is nothing to fear. Fear comes with insincerity. If you want a comfortable life, agreeable circumstances, etc., you are putting conditions and restrictions, and then you can fear. But it has no business in the sadhana! 26 May 1967 1970 The world is preparing for a big change. Will you help... Additional comments on New Year Messages may be found in CWM, Volume 12 in the section on the New Age Association . 1943 The hour has come when a choice has to be made, radical and definitive. Lord, give us the strength to reject falsehood and emerge in Thy truth, pure and worthy of Thy victory. This is no question of general theory; it belongs to the actuality of things. The Asura is the force ...
... that he is entirely for the Divine? Completely surrendered and without reserve? Is there one? …Not yet. I wait. We will see when it shall be done. Let us wait. We will see, we will see the day when the Supreme Lord will manifest Himself here below ( indicating Herself ). Mother, You have that patience; but we would like that it is done quickly. All depends on the Lord, it is He who has patience... — that’s all. But, Mother, You are the Supreme Lord, then You know all this. Me, I am the Manifestation, the World, the Universe, the Lord, All — it is the same thing. There is no difference. These are only different forms. In fact, it is the Lord Himself… ( indicating Herself ). But He has not yet manifested here ( indicating the body ); the Supreme must manifest Himself here in His totality... effective; but the vibrations — it is the direct energy of the Supreme. It is this that comes directly from the Supreme. It possesses the same force when it enters into the individual and there is no loss in the process and one becomes conscious, the body retains that vibration. But the visions, etc. are the transcriptions of the Supreme force, they are clumsy and are not direct and do not have the ...
... with the full and complete emergence of the Supermind or the supreme Truth-consciousness out of its involution in the inconscience Page 103 that a change of earth life is not only possible but inevitable for then the basis of the ignorance will have completely disappeared and the supreme Truth consciousness or the Divine gnosis as Sri Aurobindo calls it will work unhampered in the... and political problems of our times as are now to be found in various book forms, The Human Cycle, The Ideal of Human Unity, War and Self-determination etc. His other major works on philosophy, yoga, culture, art and literature such as the Life Divine, Essays on the Gita, Synthesis of Yoga, Foundations of Indian Culture, Future Poetry, Savitri, Collected Poems and other classic works in drama, criticisms... presence if we are to look life straight in the face and not evade its hurdles and difficulties by a mere superficial tinkering on the surface. Everything in this world is to be covered with the Lord, says the Upanishad and renunciation is recommended as the best means of enjoyment of all the world's riches and pleasures. If peace and happiness be the goal of human life along with knowledge and ...
... sowing them in sand." Rama, the divine hero, shot an arrow into the deep waters and the shaft gave a fiery pain to the ocean, and all the fish were full of fear. Then the spirit of the ocean took the form of a Brahmin who knelt before the Lord with a golden dish full of jewels as an offering. The Ocean clasped the lotus-feet of Rama and said: "Great Lord, forgive my sin. I am like my kin of... of the air, the earth and the fire. They are heavy and slow and so accustomed to power that they do not answer the call of a Lord like you. No Page 251 hero before you has ever made me obey his will. In you I see my master. Do what seems good to you." Lord Rama smiled: "Tell me," he said, "how my army may cross over your realm of waves and storms." "My waters," said the sea, "will... made his strength felt on land. And while he has rid himself of the animals that are harmful to him, he has kept and bred the animals that are useful to him: the ox, the horse, the sheep, the elephant, etc. But all this is the conquest of things by his hands and by his tools and weapons. And hands and tools and weapons are the servants of his thought. Page 252 Man conquers by knowledge ...
... the body had the experience. Something had happened that I will not tell you and it had the true reaction; it had not the old reaction, it had the true reaction—it smiled, with the Smile of the supreme Lord—it smiled. That was there for a whole day and a half. And it was this difficulty which enabled the body to make the last progress, enabled it to live in this Consciousness: if all had been harmonious... doing every day: projecting the divine Consciousness upon people. But it came back... (how can one say it?) on the borders; that is to say, instead of being within, I began to perceive it, when you asked me. But that feeling is no longer there—there was nothing but that any more! That alone was there, and everything, everything has changed—appearance, meaning, etc. That must be the supramental... is to say, by separating them (it is that which has been seized Page 198 by someone who said that creation is separation): for example, night and day, black and white, good and evil, etc., etc.—all that, but it is our explanation. The whole of it, all together is a perfect unity, immutable and... indissoluble. Creation means separation of all that constitutes this unity—one might call it ...
... creative energy of which the physical world and other worlds which are behind it are expressions. Tantra aims at enabling the individual soul to unite with the supreme creative energy, the Supreme Mother, who is also in her depth one with the supreme Lord, Shiva or the highest Purusha. The Tantric Yoga, as it rises from state to state, manifests not only aṣṭa siddhis but increases and manifests higher... Page 24 sacrificing oneself and effecting progressively more and more total surrender to the Supreme Mother, who is experienced as power of Grace that uplifts the seeker into the realms of ananda, of knowledge, of the Supreme Being. (d) Yogic Experiences in Karma Yoga Yoga of divine works or karma yoga, to which we can now turn our attention, is focussed on conative faculties... and divine necessity of the particular manifestation, whether it appear to our human standards harmonious and perfect or crude and unfinished or even false and evil."10 Indeed, as one ascends in the path of sacrifice, one need more and more imperatively the knowledge of the will that issues from the Supreme. This enhances the pressure of karma yoga towards the knowledge of the Divine Will ...
... nature the divine waters move to the ranging-field of the gods & they measure not nor limit the activities of Indra. Do ye to the Rivers offering—an offering full of the mind’s richness. पाथः or move into the path. (4) They whom the Lord of Illumination by his rays extended and for whom Indra clove out their abundant movement,— may those Rivers establish for us that which has the supreme good. And... for us that which has the supreme good, be all together in us for our continued being & may the masters of substance utterly give force to us. And do ye protect us always by states of happy being. Hymn 49 (1) Eldest of the ocean they go amidst this water purifying all, not resting in any, they whom Indra with the lightning, the Male, [clove out]—may those divine waters keep me here in my... (with the divine illumination & the gods of the infinite Being & the lords of Substance & the lords of Puissance). अंगिरस् here evidently a class of gods. (5) May Dadhikra in us work out a way of going that he may follow the path of the Truth. May the Divine Might (or host) hear us, even Agni,—may all They hear, the vast Gods illimitable. Hymn 45 (1) May Savitri the divine arrive, perfect ...
... honey, the delight that is the food of the soul. Sukrttama madhuno bhaksam asata. "Soma manifests here as the offering, the divine food, the wine of delight and immortality, havih and as the Deva, lord of that divine offering (havismah), above as the vast and divine seat, the superconscient bliss and truth, brhat, from which the wine descends to us. As the wine of delight he flows about and... on the two concluding verses runs: "Soma is the Gandharva, the Lord of the hosts of delight, and guards the true seat of the Deva, the level or plane of the Ananda; gandharva ittha padam asya raksati. He is the Supreme, standing out from all other beings and over them, other than they and wonderful, adbhutah, and as the supreme and transcendent, present in the worlds but exceeding them, he protects... krsna, hiranyaya, in the Veda it is symbolic; colour, varna, has always denoted quality, temperament, etc., in the language of the Mystics. The dappled Bull is the Deva in the variety of his manifestation, many-hued. Soma is that first supreme dappled Bull, generator of the world of the becoming, for from the Ananda, from the all-blissful One they all proceed; delight is the parent of the variety ...
... diary: O my Lord, my sweet Master, for the accomplishment of Thy work I have sunk down into the unfathomable depths of Matter, I have touched with my finger the horror of the falsehood and the inconscience, I have reached the seat of oblivion and a supreme obscurity. But in my heart was the Remembrance, from my heart there leaped the call which could arrive to Thee: "Lord, Lord, everywhere Thy... Knowledge, the Bliss, the Love, the Peace that flow from the Divine Grace. 17 With the sanction of Grace, one has everything; without it, one can have nothing. There is a soul here below, and there is the Supreme Grace above. One has only to aspire aright, reject the false, and make complete surrender, ātmasamarp an a Divine Grace will do the rest. From the poise of this centre of... says Sethna, it was a matter of balancing an orange on one's head; and the Mother herself did this surprisingly well: It was a revelatory spectacle, showing how one whom we considered the Supreme Divine incarnate could come down to a funny game like this ... whenever I recollect the sight I think of... the second stanza of Sri Aurobindo's Rose of God .... A figuration of Maheshwari, the Goddess ...
... "whites". I thought Mother would understand. And it is our ideal to imitate you, or at least to try to imitate you in everything! Great Lord! What an h! I could not do worse myself. When you said yesterday, "I am simply busy trying to get out of the mind" etc., etc., I sighed, "What a happy ignorance! Will it be folly to get wise?" Tot mind, sir. I have gone out of my mind long ago. I wrote "mud'... knowledge which surpasses all other knowledge which means knowledge of the Divine. In that case, psychics or otherwise who realise the Divine, will have the same width, vastness of knowledge. Certainly, there is nothing to prevent it. By the higher knowledge, I understand, you mean spiritual knowledge about Almon, Brahman, etc. But can one deal with the problems of ordinary life with mastery by this... had a queer dream last night: I was bowing with love and devotion before a dark-complexioned gentleman, and he with equal affection raised me up and said, "You will require 18 years (Good Lord!!) to realise the Divine, out of which 12 years will pass away in just knocking about and playing.' Heart-rending prophecy! But who is this old gentleman, and what does his prophecy amount to—please? The old ...
... emerging out of inconscience and waking up to a conscious life, an ardent prayer rises in us for more light, more consciousness: "O Supreme Lord of the Universe, we implore Thee, give us the strength and the beauty, the harmonious perfection needed to be Thy divine instruments upon earth." It's almost a proclamation. There. So we'll put it into French. They will say it after their ... those which know catch hold of them and give them a good bombardment of the Lord, it's very funny! There is something that renders into words (it's wordless, but something in there renders into words), and so there are conversations between the cells ( Mother laughs ): "You fool, why are you afraid? Don't you see it's the Lord doing this to transform you?" Then the other: "Ah! ..." And then it falls... some mischance, the mind intervenes, starts watching or judging, then everything stops and everything falls back into the old habit. ( long silence ) Basically, it's the vital ego, mental ego, etc., it's all of that which was—poff!—taken away. It was a radical operation. So now there is a sort of suppleness and plasticity. And all this is learning (it's very much in touch with everything ...
... for supremacy, that is to say, for full manifestation of his force in that fullness in which he is always the leader of the divine war, king & greatest (ज्येष्ठ) of the battling gods. Therefore is the appellation सुक्ततो placed at the end in order to explain ज्यैष्ठाय. The Lord of Mental Force is a very mighty god; therefore, when he appears in his fullness, it is always his force that takes the lead... (अभि in our direction); do thou, Indra, lord of mental force, in the strength of the mantra, govern our bodies and when the blow comes in our direction ward it off or enable us to ward it off (यवया, causal).” The reference seems to me to be to that power of the mental force in which the Indian Yogin has always believed, the power which, substituting a divine mental action for the passive, helpless... here the representative of a great mental world of which pure mentality is the primary condition. There is too a vast world or organised state of luminous being governed by divine Truth and worlds yet beyond in which the three supreme principles of the immortal life govern severally & unitedly their cosmic harmonies. The psychological practice of the Vedic seers was founded upon this reading of human ...
... man and the creation out of this Inconscience. It is I who am responsible. What I wish, the Lord also wishes. I am the Supreme in the Unmanifest. But in the creation the Supreme acts only through me, exists only by me and wills nothing but what I will. There is no distinction to be made. But for men, the Supreme is Someone beyond everything, in His transcendence, who cannot be attained, He who is above... if it is the Supreme who has chosen or it is I who have chosen. I prefer to say, it is the Supreme instead of me. You know, it is like this: in the terrestrial evolution, man, who is emerging out of the inconscience and ignorance, is guided by the Supreme. And the Supreme, in order to manifest His reign upon earth, labours to uplift the human consciousness so as to establish the Divine Consciousness;... is no longer necessary. It is over, once and for all, …oh! in such a fine act, such a charming gesture! It is only to the Lord that we send our adoration and gratitude. The Supreme alone and nothing else! That chapter is over, the reign of the cosmic gods. Now only the Supreme exists for us. Nothing else. And then there was another meeting earlier, that was a long time back. It was when I used to ...
... lower narure into the ineffable silence and peace of the Supreme. But the aim of integral yoga is not liberation alone. It is the complete transformation of the lower nature, even of the body. It is not an escape into God's ocean of Sat-chit-ananda, but the very divinization of matter itself. 131Master of simplicity; another name for Lord Shiva. 132As Nirod-da clarifies in the next talk... gopis at milkmaids of Brindavan were all in love with Lord Krishna the cowherd, Page 86 etc. So passersby were attracted by the kirtans. One of these passersby - a very ordinary man of the village - came and sat there; he began to take in with rapt attention the music, the devotional dance, etc. Then, you know, there were various devotional attitudes and sentiments expressed through... Radha and other gopis, 127 etc., 123Bhima was one of the five Pandava brothers in the epic Mahabharata. He was a brave warrior and physically a very strong man. Here Nirod-da is comparing Pranab to Bhima because Ptanab was also physically very strong. 124Mace-bearer. 125Mace. 126Spinning metal disc with serrated edge: the mighty weapon or Lord Krishna. 127 The gopis ...
... found it ‘a dangerously hollow word,’ associated with a supra-earthly tyrant. Therefore she, like Sri Aurobindo, usually called the supreme Being ‘the Divine’ (le Divin) instead of ‘God*. Or she named the Unnamable simply ‘That’, or ‘the Lord’, or ‘the Supreme,’ etc., ‘because anyhow one has to use a word,’ for otherwise one cannot talk. Brahman, says the Vedanta, exists in itself outside and... Consciousness and Light became the Lord of Darkness; the Being of Bliss and Love became the Lord of Suffering; the Being of Truth became the Lord of Falsehood; the Being of Life became the Lord of Death. This is how, because of them, the world became as we know it. When the Great Mother saw the damage her four children had done, she turned towards the Supreme and beseeched him for a means to reverse... now have arrived at the point where evolution has reached the threshold of a supramental, divine world. The realization of this divine world will not happen at the blink of an eye, but the foundations have been laid. And after this there will occur many other and higher developments on Earth, till the Supreme will fully become himself again. But by then ignorance, darkness, death, suffering and falsehood ...
... in your life as a sacrifice to the Lord. III) Realisation of the higher Divine Shakti doing all the works. (a) Living with the constant idea that it is the Shakti which does the work. (b) Feeling of the Divine Shakti descending from above the mind and moving the whole being. 1921 Sri Aurobindo (Punamchand's letter to Sri Aurobindo) My Lord, After I left Pondicherry, November... creating an impediment strong enough to prevent the experiences from settling into permanent states consciousness. You must have faith in the power of the Supreme that giving you these glimpses, if you want the supreme help and guidance To get to the Divine Consciousness which will shape itself into a Div Life must be the central idea of this sadhana. Please keep writing as often as you can, intimating... other works in view, as for example, agriculture and silk weaving etc., but owing to want of capital we cannot begin at the present. Thus cultural and economic causes have produced great strain. Dixit is weakened physically and mentally owing to anxiety of finance, strain of internal discord, physical drain due to sexual excess etc. Dixit's wife with two children cannot undergo the hardships entailed ...
... soul's choice. After death, once separated from his physical being, from his vital and mental beings, how is the soul conscious of being, of existing? The soul is a spark of the Supreme Divine; I do not see how the Lord has need of a body in order to be conscious of his being. ... have received a few questions from grown-up students (not small children, but grown-ups) on the subject of "death", of the conditions of death, why there are so many accidents at the present moment, etc. I have already answered two persons. Naturally, the answers were on the mental level, but with an attempt to go beyond. It is this kind of mental logic which wants, yes, things to be deduced from ...
... the completion of the work; in the result, he has become a willing tool in whom the Lord of that energy has manifested himself: Not desire, not attachment must drive him, but a Will that stirs in a divine peace, a Knowledge that moves from the transcendent Light, a glad Impulse that is a force from the supreme Ananda. 12 In Jnanayoga, the ratiocinative and discriminating intellect... fixed and unfailing aspiration that calls from below and a supreme Grace from above that answers. The call from below, the steady aspiration, the constant striving, the total surrender to the Lord within, the slow ascent of consciousness, all are meant to invite an answering response from above or the sanction and Grace of the Supreme. And between the call and the sanction there is only the... of human emotions and human relationships and their elevation to a one-pointed and blissful condition of participation in divine love, the Bhaktiyogin emancipates himself from the turbulent vicissitudes of everyday existence and becomes a sharer in the divine līlā of the Lord who is the all-beautiful, the all-loving, the all-blissful: The God-lover is the universal lover and he embraces ...
... active dynamis of the Lord who controls and enjoys the manifestation of His own being. 1 It is a universal energy present in every atom and particle of the universe and active in every stirring and current of the constant flux and interchange which constitutes the world. But just as mind is only an inferior movement of the supreme Conscious-Being and above mind there is a divine and infinite principle... consist or the highest, divine energy act, any more than the supreme knowledge can think in the terms of ignorant, groping, limited and divided mind. As the movements of mind are merely representations in the terms of the duality and the ignorance, reflections of a supreme consciousness and knowledge, so the movements of this life-force can only be similar representations of a supreme energy expressing a... Brahman does not breathe with the breath, does not live by this Life-force and its dual terms of birth and death. What then is this Life of our life? It is the supreme Energy 3 which is nothing but the infinite force in action of the supreme conscious Being in His own illumined self. The Self-existent is luminously aware of Himself and full of His own delight; and that self-awareness is a timeless ...
... Reality or the supreme Knowledge or Truth has, therefore, been the dominant spiritual note for many a century, and claimed the absolute loyalty of some of the rarest men in the world. But even the liberation of the individual soul or the realization of the immutable Eternal, or the bliss of the divine embrace in the depths of the being may seem to some to be a falling short, and not the supreme fulfilment... all the infinity of the Unknowable comes to take precise form for being projected into the multitudinous manifestation, This centre is the seat of supreme love and perfect consciousness, of pure and total knowledge. Establish there, O Lord, those who can, who must and who will serve Thee truly, so that Thy work may be done, the bridge may be definitively established and Thy forces may spread... the omniscient Lord; But who has lifted up the veil of light And who has seen the body of the King?... To free the self is but a radiant pace; Here to fulfil Himself was God's desire.”¹ The goal towards which the Mother would have us advance is just this fulfilling of God in the world. So, when she speaks of the integral union with the Divine, she means a union ...
... invoke or contact the Supreme; namo, I bow to the Supreme in total surrender; bhagavate, may I be made, as the Supreme is, divine. The third principle was sincerity. ‘In fact, as long as the ego is there, one cannot say that a being is perfectly sincere,’ the Mother said, ‘even though it is striving to become sincere. One must pass beyond the ego, give oneself up totally to the divine Will, surrender... Triomphateur suprême! 99 [Glory to Thee, Lord, supreme Triumpher!] [silence] ‘Now, to work. ‘Patience, endurance, perfect equality, and an absolute faith. [silence] ‘What I am saying is nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing but words if I compare it to the experience. ‘And our consciousness is the same, absolutely the same as that of the Lord. There was no difference, no difference... the Supreme … Everything is a matter of changing the habit. The entire automatic habit of millennia has to be changed into a conscious action directly guided by the supreme Consciousness.’ 30 Yes, it is clear that a supramental body, as described a few pages earlier, must function in a manner different from the human body we are so familiar with and which gives us so much trouble. A divine body ...
... the origin as well as the end (of all). You are the Divine Dwarf (the younger brother of Indra) as also the exterminator of the demon Madhu. (16) "You are the creator of Indra (in the form of Prajāpati, a creator of beings), the Supreme Ruler, Lord Visnu (who has a lotus sprung from His navel), who puts an end to all in combat. Eminent divine sages pronounce you to be fit to afford protection... You are Lord Nārāyana (Himself), the glorious god who wields the discus (Sudarsana). You are the (divine) Boar with a single tusk, the conqueror of your bygone as well as future enemies. (13) You are the imperishable Brahma (the Absolute), the Truth abiding at the beginning, in the middle, as well as Page 241 at the end (of the universe), 0 scion of Raghu! You are the supreme Law operating... Sage Visrava who was the king of Yaksas) and Yama (the god of retribution) along with the Pitrs (the eternal manes) as also the thousand eyed Indra (the lord of gods), and, along with Varuna (the lord of divine waters), the glorious three-eyed Lord Siva (the great god) who bears the image of a bull on his banner, Brahma, the creator of the entire universe, the foremost of the knowers of Brahman (the ...
... first sight I knew for the Lord of my being and my God, receive my offering.... What Thou wilt of me, that I shall be. Whether Thou choosest for me life or death, happiness or Page 171 sorrow, pleasure or suffering, all that comes to me from Thee will be welcome. Each one of Thy gifts will be always for me a gift divine bringing with it the supreme Felicity." (Words of the... if eve r it is found that one's love for the Divine is standing in the way of one's love for say, A or B or C, etc., one will rather give up the Di vine without much sorrow than the other objects of love. Third Stage: Here the sadhaka' s love for the Divine has been made sovereign: it dominate s all other loves. The Divine has come to occupy the first rung in the priority list. In other... genuine God-lover can be known is that his thoughts and feelings always turn towards the Divine almost as a constant preoccupation. Not a single moment passes for such a sadhaka when he does not remember the Divine. The Bhāgavata speaks to us about the following prayer of Kunti addressed to the Divine: "O Lord, just as the river Page 167 Ganga flows always towards the ocean carrying ...
... They said to Nanda Mahārāja, "O king of the cowherds, your life is glorious because you have been greatly favored by the Supreme Lord, who has given you such a wonderful son. O sinless Nanda, from today onwards, all of us men and women of Vraja will take shelter of the Supreme Lord, the lotus-eyed Śrī Krsna, for our protection. It is our great fortune that the water of the Yamunā, which is worshiped... chariot, exclaiming; "Here is the foot-dust of my Lord! Here is the foot-dust of my Lord!" and began to roll in that holy dust. 27. What happened thus to Akrūra in the course of his conveying the message of Kamsa, namely, the attainment of that divine state of devotional inebriation at the very sight of the Lord's holy emblems, or the hearing of his divine names to the utter effacement of all insincerity... the Lord in her heart in the form she had pictured him therein from what she had heard of him and, in the process, abandoned her body, which is but a product of Karma. 35. The worshipful Lord then distributed that cooked rice of four kinds brought by the wives of the Brāhmanas among his cowherd friends and he too partook of it. 36. Thus, the Lord who had taken a human body for his divine play ...
... place there as the swoon of being into which the ecstasy of divine love casts the soul. To enter into it is the supreme step of the ladder of Yogic practice in Rajayoga and Hathayoga. What then is the nature of Samadhi or the utility of its trance in an integral Yoga? It is evident that where our objective includes the possession of the Divine in life, a state of cessation of life cannot be the last ... ever deeper vision and identification, for access to the Divine, the supreme Self, the transcendent Truth, both in its principles and powers and manifestations and in its highest original Being. Or it can by an absorbed inner joy and emotion, as in a sealed and secluded chamber of the soul, prepare itself for the delight of union with the divine Beloved, the Master of all bliss, rapture and Ananda. ... es on the waking state subsequent to the cessation of the trance. To arrive at full possession of the powers of the dream-state, it is necessary first to exclude the attack of the sights, sounds etc. of the outer world upon the physical organs. It is quite possible indeed to be aware in the dream-trance of the outer physical world through the subtle senses which belong to the subtle body; one may ...
... so they distort and disfigure the Divine Presence. That is why the yoga of the body-cells is indispensable. 25 February 1967 "The Dawn that does not pass away" 3 —what spiritual state does this marvellous dawn represent? Perpetual renewal. 6 March 1967 Page 359 This is how I understand the Purusha: The Lord is the Supreme Purusha, the Purushottama. ... than the vibrations of good. 26 June 1968 Can one say that total sincerity and the abolition of the ego are closely interdependent? Only the Supreme Lord is perfectly sincere. And when the ego is abolished, only the Supreme Lord exists. 28 June 1968 In spiritual life, even to sit down is to fall back. This is so true that one could rightly say: even while sleeping one... all and everything should once more become consciously divine. 14 October 1968 One would like to have the fundamental realisation that the Divine is all and everything. For that one must identify oneself with the Supreme Divine. Once one is identified, when one turns towards the creation, one sees and knows that the Divine alone exists both in the Essence and in the manifestation ...
... the Lord, the Master-Soul, the governing Transcendent and All, He who constitutes and controls the action of the gods on the different planes of our being. Since it constitutes them, all our workings can be no more than psychical and physical results and representations of something essential proper to its supreme creative outlook, our sense a shadow of the divine Sense, our sight of the divine Sight... Sight, our hearing of the divine Hearing. Nor is that divine Sight and Hearing limited to things physical, but extend themselves to all forms and operations of conscious being. The supreme Consciousness does not depend on what we call sight and hearing for its own essential seeing and audition. It operates by a supreme Sense, creative and comprehensive, of which our physical and psychical sight and... physical organs in the terrestrial evolution. Mind, subconscious in all Matter and evolving in Matter, has developed these physical organs in order to apply its inherent capacities of sight, hearing, etc. on the physical plane by physical means for a physical life; but they are inherent capacities and not dependent on the circumstance of terrestrial evolution and they can be employed without the use ...
... identity. The first intuition which is at work is the intuition of the One, the Purusha. The formula : "I am He"— So'ham is the first formula. I am He, the Urilimited, the Infinite, the Divine, the Supreme, the Lord, or the Cosmic Consciousness. "Then: Thou art That:" — Tattvamasi. So, not only, 'I am He', but that which I cognize outside myself as 'thou' is also That. And the third is, "All this... possesses the All in consciousness, one does not run after things. That is what the Isha Upanishad says: "Then all this becomes fit habitation for the Lord." When one realizes that whatever movement of the cosmic energy takes place is a movement of that supreme, all-governing, Infinite Power, one will not try to possess somebody else's wealth because it is one's own wealth really speaking. When he rises... suffering, pain, ignorance, selfishness, death, etc. but they forget that at least several hundred people have risen above this consciousness and declared that this is not the final experience possible to human beings; that there is another line of experience possible to man; that it is possible to rise to a universal consciousness, to a divine consciousness, and remain alive and bring something ...
... has what may be described as his line of spiritual descent and also ascent, for into each individual consciousness has come down from the supreme Maha Shakti an individual divine being, a particular godhead following a particular line of manifestation of divine power, Vibhuti. To bear inwardly the touch of this divinity and found it securely within oneself, to concentrate on it and become one with... deities, sometimes separately, sometimes even in apparent opposition to other Godheads of the same Existence.’ 11 ‘The Gods … are in origin and essence permanent Emanations of the Divine put forth from the Supreme by the Transcendent Mother,’ writes Sri Aurobindo in a letter. 12 In his correspondence with Nirodbaran he clarifies this: ‘Men can build forms [of the Gods] which [the Gods] will accept... in the vital, the brilliant period of the Ashram,’ Sri Aurobindo would say. ‘People were having brilliant experiences, big push, energy, etc. If our yoga had taken that line, we could have ended by establishing a great religion, bringing about a big creation, etc., but our real work is different, so we had to come down into the physical. And working on the physical is like digging the ground; the physical ...
... the flame or uplifting movement of the Will that lifts the Soma etc from the mind upward to the divine Superconscient with a motion of rapture—the rapturous will movement, not, I think, the joy-giving will. The rapture comes from the state of सौमनस, clear of the Rakshasas etc, which Agni's priesthood, the conduct of the Yoga by the divine Will, brings to man. ... सोमानां पालकं. Rather, lord of the Somas as he is of the गिरः, not in the sense that Soma is of the wine or Brihaspati is master of the ब्रह्माणि, because to him all speech and all outpourings of the intoxicating wine go as rivers to their sea, as herds to the bull, as women to their lord, अजोषा वृषभं पतिं. चकृम. Possibly = we have prepared; ie the Soma is ready for the divine guest. Utterly burn... in सुनयः, सुप्रयोगः, सुपथ् etc. Even when सुवीर्यं occurs entirely by itself as in I.94.2, Sayana renders it as शोभनवीर्योपेतं धनं; yet nothing is commoner in the Veda than the idea of strength and the prayer for strength. Here the vast and luminous energy is the pranic force made a vastness by the vastness of the Truth-will, ऋतं बृहत् and full of the light of the supreme knowledge, ऋतं ज्योतिः. ...
... the earth itself, in the sense of evolution of Matter to Life and Mind, etc. This simultaneous movement from below and above is essential. In this manner Satyavan now represents the mental consciousness of man. He is the son of Dyumatsena and "Dyumatsena is Lord of the Shining Hosts, father of Satyavan. He is the Divine Mind here fallen blind, losing its celestial kingdom of vision." He is... direct Descent of the Divine Consciousness became imminent and so was there a descent of the Divine Consciousness in the form of Love. And it is this first descent of Divine Love who is "the first universal Avatar who, gradually, has assumed more and more conscious bodies and finally manifested in a kind of recognised line of Beings who have descended directly from the Supreme to perfect this work... this earth. Savitri is that fullness of incarnation of Divine Love in the form of Divine Grace and Shakti who came to manifest the Supramental Light in its entirety. A full manifestation of Divine Love alone can bring to creation its final consummation, when "the entire universe becomes the total Avatar of the Supreme." 19 And the prerequisite for this final consummation of the earth ...
... darkness. From that he goes forth as the first and supreme force and is born to the Bull or the Lord by the action of the seven powers of the Bliss, the seven Beloved. "He went forward by illumined knowledge as the first force, in the seat of the Truth, in the lair of the Bull, desirable, young, full in body, shining wide; the seven Beloved bore him to the Lord." The Rishi then comes to the achievement... children; the Ruddy One is the divine Dawn and the herd or rays are her dawning illuminations. The first name of the Mother with her thrice seven supreme seats, that which the dawns or mental illuminations know and move towards, must be the name or deity of the supreme Deva, who is infinite being and infinite consciousness and infinite bliss, and the seats are the three divine worlds, called earlier in... Immortality of the supreme and divine status, to the first name of the all-creating infinite Mother, to her thrice seven supreme degrees of this ascending existence, to the highest levels of the eternal hill ( sānu, adri ). This immortality is the beatitude enjoyed by the gods of which Vamadeva has already spoken as the thing which Agni has to accomplish by the sacrifice, the supreme bliss with its ...
... of the Divine over the forces of darkness —over Ignorance, Falsehood and Death. This is the great work we are called upon to undertake and achieve. What is the means, the sovereign means by which this Victory will be won ? It is Love, the highest and mightiest Force of the Supreme. In her Prayer of the 23rd July, 1914, the Mother invokes the Divine to achieve this Victory :— "O Lord, Thou... must we forget that our 'I’ has no reality outside Thee. "O my sweet Master, my divine Lord, tear out from my heart this illusion that Thy servant may become pure and faithful, and faithfully and integrally bring back to Thee all That is Thy due, In silence let me contemplate and understand this supreme ignorance and dispel it for ever. Chase the shadow from my heart and let Thy light reign... our nature, we depend not upon our e own strength and power, but upon the Grace and Force of the Divine. That is why in the first line of the Prayer quoted above, the Mother addresses the Divine as the Lord "who triumphest, over every obstacle.” In fact and in actual experience, it is the Divine who does the sadhana (Yoga) in him who has surrendered to Him in all sincerity; and it is He who ...
... The chief meaning of this kind of activity is just to solve the difficulties they speak of—inertia, shyness, laziness, etc., etc. And it is just for that I asked you to do it four times a year. The students are not here to have an easy life but to prepare themselves for the Divine Life. How can they expect to get ready if they shun an effort, remain lazy and "tamasic"? 30 October 1967 ... Above all words, above all thoughts, in the luminous silence of an aspiring faith give yourself totally, unreservedly, absolutely Page 309 to the Supreme Lord of all existences and He will make of you what He wants you to be. With love and blessings. 22 Eighteenth Seminar: 23 November 1969 Here is the subject. The salvation of the world lies in union and harmony. How do... transformation and divinisation of physical life instead of escape from it. 2) Why is faith so supremely important in yoga? Because we are aiming at something quite new that has never been done before. 3) What is its determining power due to? Your faith puts you under the protection of the Supreme who is all-powerful. 26 April 1969 Sixth Annual Conference: 17 August 1969 Above ...
... important part of Indian conception of the Divine and it has been brought into prominence by Gita, which points out the evolutionary significance of the phenomenon of Avatarhood. The Divine is not some absentee land-lord away from life, it can take up human nature and a human form. Some religions, like Christianity, accept one and only one incarnation of the Divine. They practically limit the Omnipotence... up his egoistic initiation of action then an impersonal and even a Divine Will can be discovered and obeyed. This great truth is crucial because it has a direct bearing on the goal of life, the highest fulfilment of man on earth. The difficulty is that of discovering the Divine Will; for men have so many ideas, ideals, values etc. in life by which they seek to govern, partially through their conduct... related to outer ceremonials of the sacrifice which was their mystic symbol of man's communication with the divine powers that surround him outwardly as well as inwardly. The difference in the language of the Veda and that of the Upanishads is marked: where we have Agni, Indra, Aditi, Surya etc. in the Veda, in the latter we have Jnana, Satya, Brahma, Prakriti, Atma, but still as Sri Aurobindo has pointed ...
... of the Lord, Page 93 my consciousness does not turn inwards. No longer do I close my eyes or ears, nor do I mortify my body; with eyes open and a smile on my lips, I behold the beautiful form of the Lord everywhere. In the centre of all forms stands the Formless, yet ineffable is the beauty of the "Form". 1 To realise the universal beauty and also to see the Supreme as the... offers to the Divine and which the Supreme does not reject. There is a thirst in the human heart for perfection unattained. Not only is it present in the human heart but even in the insignificant moth there is an attraction for the light of the stars and even the dark night holds in her heart the immortal hope for the Dawn; from the world of sorrows the human being feels devotion for the Divine. ... from these fields for aesthetic enjoyment. Now and then, some sparks from some unknown higher regions have illumined his experience with a light that can be called divine. The acceptance of the phenomenon of inspiration, intuition etc. as exceptional, points to the mystic origin of such light. But if man is a growing and evolving being and if ascent to higher plane than mind is the goal of ...
... performing penance and meditating on lord Siva. 53. Remaining for a short while in the place where Siva had performed penance for sixty thousand years, Parvati thought like this: 54. Does not the Supreme lord know me observing these ritualistic activities now? Wherefore am I not followed by him though engaged in penance? 55. In the Sastras and the Vedas, lord Siva is always sung in praise by... beings in and around her hermitage became free from animosity due to her power. 68. Lions and cows prone to the passions of love, hatred, etc., ceased to harass one another, thanks to her greatness. 69. 0 excellent sage, creatures like cats, mice, etc., who are born enemies to one another did not exhibit any bad characteristics there. 70. 0 excellent sage, trees bore fruits, grasses grew... by the sages as the bestower of welfare, omniscient, all-pervading and all-seer. 56. The lord is the bestower of all riches, the moulder of fine emotions, the bestower of the desires of devotees and the remover of their distress. 57. If I am devoted to the bull-bannered lord, discarding all desires, may He be pleased with me. 58. If the mantra of the Narada Tantra, consisting of five ...
... identify himself with the Divinity. Is this charge against Japa true? It depends on the way in which the japa is done. If rightly done, the mantra is a means of opening to the light and knowledge etc. from above and it ceases as soon as that is done. It is very good news that you got rid of the attack and it was the japa that helped you to do it. This and past experience also shows that if... of consciousness the double Name may have a special effect. 29 August 1936 I find no harm if I repeat the name of Sri Krishna, whose very Page 826 being has taken the form of our Lord Sri Aurobindo and his Parashakti, the Mother. There is no harm in that; it is not incompatible or inconsistent with this Yoga. Traditional Mantra Japa In the Upanishads (Mandukya chiefly)... to the sight and feeling of the One Consciousness in all material things, in the inner being and in the supraphysical worlds, in the causal plane above now superconscient to us and, finally, the supreme liberated transcendence above all cosmic existence. The last is usually the main preoccupation with those who use the mantra. In this Yoga there is no fixed mantra, no stress is laid on mantras ...
... or plan, The world creates itself invincibly; For its body is the body of the Lord And in its heart stands Virât, King of kings." 3 We now propose to enter the forbidden land, for we are daring to speak about the vision of the Supreme Form of the supreme Divine. But does the Divine have any form? Is he not arupa or "formless" as the monistic Vedantin would affirm? ... there not be a supreme Form of the supreme Divine? A human eye, it is well understod, cannot ever hope to vision this Form but is there not a divine Eye, divya caksu, to which this supreme Form may reveal itself? Our next section will be devoted to the discusssion of this point. Vision of the Supreme Form A very difficult question confronts us: Whether the Divine has an original... y throw some light on the question of whether the Supreme possesses a Supreme Form of his own and, if yes, whether this Form can at all be the object of any sight whatsoever. On Form and Sight The very first point we have to carefully note is that "not only are the properties of form, the most obvious such as colour, light, etc., merely operations of Force, but form itself is only ...
... could no longer find my words), I seemed suddenly to have left this negative phenomenon and entered into the positive experience: the experience of BEING the Supreme Lord, the experience that nothing exists but the Supreme Lord—all is the Supreme Lord, there is nothing else. And at that moment, the feeling of this infinite power that has no limit, that nothing can limit, was so overwhelming that all the... instantly. There have often been people whose outer form broke because the Force was too strong; well, I clearly see that it is being dosed out. After all, this is exclusively the concern of the Supreme Lord, I don't bother about it—it's not my concern and I don't bother about it—He makes the necessary adjustments. Thus it comes progressively, little by little, so that no fundamental disequilibrium... notice anything, but some actually saw me. The next morning, for example, someone who works at the theater told me that she had had a splendid vision of me in which I had spoken to her, blessed her, etc. This was her way of receiving the work I had done. And this kind of thing is happening more and more, in that my action is awakening the consciousness in others more and more strongly. Naturally ...
... Yoga can include indeed a full experience of the other worlds, the plane of the supreme Spirit and the other planes in between and their possible effects upon our life and material world; but it will be quite possible to insist only on the realisation of the supreme Being or Ishwara even in one aspect, Shiva, Krishna as Lord of the world and Master of ourselves and our works or else the universal Sac... Perhaps you are of the opinion of Ramana Maharshi, "The Divine is here, how can he descend from anywhere?" The Divine may be here, but if he has covered here his Light with darkness of Ignorance and his Ananda with suffering, that, I should think, makes a big difference to the plane and, even if one enters into that sealed Light etc., it makes a difference to the Consciousness but very little... and afterwards to proceed from them to the integral results if one accepted the ideal of the divine life and this material world conquered by the Spirit. It is this view and experience of things and of the truth of existence that enabled me to write The Life Divine and Savitri . The realisation of the Supreme, the Ishwara, is certainly the essential thing; but to approach him with love and devotion ...
... that appear so "evil," so "reprehensible" and "unacceptable" to the puritan mind would become movements of joy and freedom in a totally divine life. And then nothing would stop us from knowing, understanding, feeling and living this wonderful Laughter of the Supreme who takes infinite delight in watching Himself live infinitely. This delight, this wonderful Laughter which dissolves all shadows, all... : a ritual drawing used to "capture" forces. × Showing flowers, landscapes, symbolic photographs, etc. ... exact, exact opposite of what I feel now: no matter what happens—something wrong in the body, something wrong with people, something wrong in circumstances—instantly, the first movement: "O my sweet Lord, my Beloved!" And I laugh! And Page 31 then all is well. I did this the other day (it's spontaneous and instantaneous, it isn't thought out or willed or planned—none of it—it just happens) ...
... of the Lord's absolute protection. The systems of Sankhya and Yoga and Vedanta, the ideal of Works as Sacrifice to the gods and to the supreme Divine, the determinism of Nature, the concepts of svabhāva and svadharma, the purpose of Avatarhood, the poise needed for the Divine Worker, the three Gunas and the two Natures and the three Purushas (Kshara, Akshara and Purushottama), the divine Vibhutis... assures us of the help of his purifying flame.... Indra is with us for the perfection of the illumination in our knowledge; and the divine Soma has transformed us in his infinite, sovereign, marvellous love, bringer of the supreme beatitudes.... And Thou, O Lord, who art all this made one and much more, O sovereign Master, extreme limit of our thought, who standest for us at the threshold... with divine ornaments of beauty, robed in heavenly raiment of deity, lovely with garlands of divine flowers, fragrant with divine perfumes. Such is the light of this body of God as if a thousand suns had risen at once in heaven. The whole world multitudinously divided and yet unified is visible in the body of the God of Gods. Arjuna sees him, God magnificent and beautiful and terrible, the Lord of souls ...
... ble, but there is nothing of the short cut about it. Karma is a much simpler road—provided one's mind is not fixed on the karma to the exclusion of the Divine. The aim must be the Divine and the work can only be a means. The use of poetry etc. is to keep one in contact with one's inner being and that helps to prepare for the direct contact with the inmost, but one must not stop with that, one must... either by meditation, dedicated work Page 209 or bhakti for the Divine. In our Yoga, which seeks not only a static peace or absorption but a dynamic spiritual action, work is indispensable. As for the Supramental Truth, that is a different matter; it depends only on the descent of the Divine and the action of the Supreme Force and is not bound by any method or rule. There are very few... for their own sake, then it is no longer the Yogic spirit. That is why I have sometimes to say that our business is to be Yogis, not merely poets, painters etc. Love, bhakti, surrender, the psychic opening are the only short cut to the Divine—or can be; for if the love and bhakti are too vital, then there is likely to be a seesaw between ecstatic expectation and viraha, abhimāna , despair, which ...
... regarded as the greatest sin. How to explain this? 1) For the Supreme there is no sin. 2) For the devotee there is no greater sin than to be far from the Lord. 3) At the time when the Ramayana was conceived and written, the knowledge revealed by Sri Aurobindo that the earth will be transformed into a divine world and an abode of the Supreme was not known or accepted. If you consider these three... important thing in life". Will it give them a chance to think seriously? I wonder. Yes, try—it is very much needed. Money seems to have become the Supreme Lord these days. Truth is receding in the background; as for Love it is quite out of sight! I mean Divine Love, because what human beings call love is a very good friend of money. Blessings. 13 June 1964 Page 237 Mother, ... of finance comes up, and giving out more dal, oil, spices, etc. comes in that category. It is not so much a question of finance but of rationing, it seems (scarcity of grains, etc.). But I propose that we should simply do what is right and fair, without thinking too much of the future, leaving it (the future) to the care of the Divine's Grace. With love and blessings. 1964 Mother ...
... Titans must be the most lovable sons of the Divine! What Sri Aurobindo writes here is a paradox to awaken sleepy minds. But we must understand all the irony in these sayings, and especially the intention behind his words. Moreover, cowards or not, I see no need for us to worship the gods, great or small. Our adoration ought to go only to the Supreme Lord, who is one in all things and all beings.... other? Ananda belongs to the Supreme Lord. Ecstasy belongs to the perfected yogi. Joy belongs to the desireless man. Pleasure is within the reach of all living beings, but with its inevitable accompaniment of suffering. 27 May 1964 Sweet Mother, Your answers last week were very succinct. Isn't a perfected yogi identified with the Supreme Lord? Isn't a desireless man a sincere... Sweet Mother, What do You mean by "an ignorant goodwill and an indolent energy"? (1) Goodwill means wanting to do good always. The only true "good" is the will of the Supreme Lord. Do you know what the Lord's will is, always, at every moment and in all circumstances? No, so you are ignorant of what "good" is—therefore: ignorant goodwill. Page 283 (2) The very nature of energy ...
... effective,—while in the mind self-awareness is not effective. We may ask : what is the Supermind, and the reply in the light of previous exposition is : "Nature of the Divine Being in action is the Supermind." So Supermind is the Lord, it is the Creator. It appears to us as an operation of the Truth-Consciousness in which an ordering self-knowledge seems to be at work,—a world of matter, a vetgetable... Sri Aurobindo's Life Divine Lecture IX Chap. 14. The Supermind as Creator Chap. 15. The Supreme Truth-Consciousness We are in the 14th chapter and I would like to compress, if possible, the 14th and the 15th together. We have worked up to what might be called self-possession of the One on one side : the Infinite is, of course, the... problem. That is the Divine's working. But the world is not divine. To man's consciousness and to his perception the world is not divine though the Divine is supporting it from behind. That is the whole problem. There are people who say the divine is working everywhere and the world is being supported by the Divine, so everything is all right. It is all right when one gets into the Divine consciousness; ...
... for that purpose, because I remember very well that when the war—the First World War—started and I offered my body up in sacrifice to the Lord so that the war would not be in vain, every part of my body, one after another ( Mother touches her legs, her arms etc. ), or sometimes the same part several times over, represented a battlefield: I could see it, I could feel it, I LIVED it. Every time it was... as he was here, mon petit, all the thirty years I spent with him working, NOT ONCE did I have to make an effort for a transformation. Simply, whenever there was a difficulty, I repeated, My Lord, my Lord, my Lord... I just thought of him—hop! it went away. Physical pain: he annulled it. You know, some things that were hampering the body, some old habits that had come back, I only had to tell him: off... there was a beginning of willed, conscious cellular gathering, and that's certainly why in ancient Egypt, where occultism was very developed. exceptional beings such as the pharaohs, the high priests, etc., were mummified, so as to preserve the form as long as possible. Even here in India, generally they were petrified (in the Himalayas there were petrifactive springs). There was a reason. 3 And ...
... all that I do is nothing but what you want me to do. Encourage only what leads quickly to the Lord and serves His divine purpose. The Examiners The integral yoga consists of an uninterrupted series of examinations that one has to undergo without any previous warning, thus obliging you to be constantly on the alert and attentive. Three groups of examiners set us these tests. They appear... aspiration; 2) progressive dissolution of the ego. The Divine help is assured to those who set to work sincerely. What is the best method to find the Divine who is in each of us and in all things? Aspiration. Silence. Concentration in the solar plexus region. 2 Page 41 If need be, a prayer addressed to the Divine: I belong to You and I want to know You so that all... permission. Inform when you are ready to come. It is only then that the permission can be given. 8) In my daily life, I become dejected and fall a prey in the hands of the lower forces (anger, lust, etc.) I humbly request the Mother for help and protection. Detachment. 9) My wife is devoted to Goddess Ambaji. Her heart opens to Her, but she cannot get rid of the worldly attachments. Please help ...
... have in भुरण्युः etc & suppose it to be equivalent to भूमि, अवनि, but especially applied to the रोदसी, heaven & earth, mind & body. ऋतं Sy. takes = सत्यभूतं त्वाम्. This is possible in grammar but not in sense. ॠतमाशुषाणाः must have the same significance as in v. 16 where it is certainly "the Truth" gained by breaking the hill & freeing the cows of knowledge. 15) Now may we supreme & with the seven... full-bodied and bright of hue. ऋष्व. Sy. gives two renderings, दर्शनीय and महत्, neither of which am I able to accept. ऋ means to go, move, ऋष् to reach, attain as probably in ऋषि or simply to go, flow etc as in ऋष्, ऋष्य an antelope. Its other sense is to pierce, injure, hurt, burn, shine as in ऋष्, ऋष्टिः a sword or lance, ऋषु fire, brand, sunbeam. ऋष्व may mean therefore either speedy, swift, or warlike... valiant or like ऋषि and ऋषु wise. In all probability ऋष्व as applied to Indra & Agni means swift on their journey, or swiftly attaining the Vedic goal, with a covert sense of knowledge as in ऋषि, ऋतं etc, or simply "swift in their action". Page 644 ऋजुमुष्कान्. Sy. takes ऋजु = प्रसाधक & मुष्क = मांसल. We must await a better interpretation. 3) अत्या वृधस्नू रोहिता घृतस्नू ऋतस्य मन्ये ...
... powerful than the vibrations of good. 26.6.1968 Can one say that total sincerity and the abolition of ego are closely interdependent? Only the Supreme Lord is perfectly sincere. And when the ego is abolished, only the Supreme Lord exists. 28.6.1968 I can see that in spiritual life, even to sit down is to fall back. But most often I sit down without knowing it! This is... all and everything should once more become consciously divine. 14.10.1968 One would like to have the fundamental realisation that the Divine is all and everything. For that one must identify oneself with the Supreme Divine. Once one is identified, when one turns towards the creation, one sees and knows that the Divine alone exists both in the Essence and in the manifestation... one never forgets any more and the feeling of the Divine Presence is constant. "A last high world was seen where all worlds meet; In its sunmmit gleam where Night is not nor Sleep, The light began of the Trinity supreme. " 1 Is the "Trinity supreme" Sachchidananda? 15.11.1968 By Krishna's Grace, Arjuna realised the cosmic Divine and Virat in the twinkling of an eye. What a good ...
... often happens too that some Power or Powers undivine in their nature present themselves as the Supreme Lord or as the Divine Mother and claim the being's service and surrender. If these things are accepted, there will be an extremely disastrous consequence. If indeed there is the assent of the sadhak to the Divine working alone and the submission or surrender to that guidance, then all can go smoothly.... element in the evolution, (2) the realisation of the cosmic Self which is one in all, (3) the realisation of the supreme Divine from which both individual and cosmos have come and of the individual being (Jivatma) as an eternal portion of the Divine. Foundations of the Sadhana What you are experiencing is the true foundation of the spiritual life and realisation. It has three elements—first, the love... thought, life and action in constant union with the Mother and in her Presence. 2) The descent of the Peace, Power, Light etc. of the Higher Consciousness through the head and heart into the whole being, occupying the very cells of the body. 3) The perception of the One and Divine infinitely everywhere, the Mother everywhere and living in that infinite consciousness. Four Bases of Realisation ...
... Behind all the destructions—the big destructions of Nature—earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, cyclones, floods, etc., or the human destructions—wars, revolutions, riots—there is always Kali's power and upon earth Kali works for the hastening of the terrestrial progress. Whatever is Divine not only in its essence but also in its realisation is above these destructions and cannot be touched by them... was driven by... the eternal Driver. It was supreme Bliss, you know. Until suddenly, outside the car (I don't know how), two papers were thrown on the road, and one of the papers was a letter (it was an envelope that had come by mail, there were stamps on it), and the other was something written; and with a lightness (the car was still moving), quite a divine lightness, Sri Aurobindo leaps out of the... old Playground Talk of March 12, 1951 , in which Mother said that man's two chief occupations are forgetting and keeping himself amused. ) Now I would say many things.... For instance, when the Lord draws nearest to men to establish a conscious relationship with them, it is then that, in their folly, men do the most foolish things. Page 46 It's true, absolutely true. It is when ...
... They have come with a mutual pact. I cannot conceive of any Indian woman doing in the 323 Leela is the Divine Creation of the Cosmos. The Lord creates out of Joy, Bliss, so it is His play. Page 287 material plane what Mother is doing with Her superb and supreme powers of organisation. The West is master in the material field, and India, at the present, is weaker in that... splendour, eyes turned to Lord Vishnu, with his consort, Lakshmi, seated on a golden throne in their majesty and grandeur. There was a solemn hush in the Assembly, as if they were waiting for some momentous event or for some important announcement. Narada, the divine sage, was sitting there, and he stood up and began singing a hymn of praise to the Lord, and then prayed, "Lord, the suffering earth... 322 I used to wonder, friends, while reading Prayers and Meditations, at the similarity of the ideas of Mother and Sri Aurobindo about yoga, transformation of nature, the subconscience, etc. There is so much parallelism in Mother's practising the yoga of the Gita in Paris! The two were widely separated by space, custom, culture, and yet they had the same spiritual destiny. 321 ...
... (Ibid., p. 677) "All indeed has to be changed, not ugliness accepted but divine beauty, not imperfection taken as our resting-place but perfection striven after, the supreme good made the universal aim and not evil. But what we do has to be done with a spiritual under-standing and knowledge, and it is a divine good, beauty, perfection, pleasure that has to be followed after, not the human standards... repute and ill-repute, good fortune and evil fortune . For in all happenings we shall see the will of the Master of all works and results and a step in the evolving expression of the Divine... . 'Thus supremely balanced we shall continue steadily on our way meeting all things with an equal calm...' (The Synthesis of Yoga, pp. 211-13) But surely one cannot reach in a short time this elevated... sequence of cause and effect follows somewhat the pattern indicated below: The sadhaka' s 'ego', being basically separative in nature, makes him forget that he is in reality one with the supreme Divine. His self-oblivion brings about an acute sense of impotence and limitation. And wherever there is limitation, there cannot but arise a deep sense of lacking and dissatisfaction. This feeling of ...
... The Spirit’s truths take form as living Gods And each can build a world in its own right. 2 — Savitri ‘The Gods … are in origin and essence permanent Emanations of the Divine put forth from the Supreme by the Transcendent Mother,’ 3 writes Sri Aurobindo. ‘Men can build forms [of the Gods] which they will accept, but these forms too are inspired into men’s mind from the planes to which... role’ played by Krishna in his sadhana, which he had worked out ‘with the help of Krishna and the Divine Shakti.’ ‘I always saw [Krishna] near Sri Aurobindo,’ said the Mother. We remember that Krishna was one of the Ten Avatars, more specifically, the Avatar of the Overmind. ‘It was a descent of the Supreme … who consented to participate in the new manifestation,’ said the Mother, and she added: ‘For... Consciousness down into the vital. ‘[It was] the brilliant period of the Ashram. People were having brilliant experiences, big push, energy, etc. If our Yoga had taken that line, we could have ended by establishing a great religion, bringing about a great creation, etc., but our real work is different, so we had to come down into the physical. And working on the physical is like digging the ground; the ...
... knowledge, master the vital movements, change the character, influence men and things, control the conditions and functionings of the body, work as a concrete dynamic Force on other forces, modify events, etc. etc., we would not speak of it as we do. Moreover, it is not only in its results but in its movements that the Force is tangible and concrete. When I speak of feeling Force or Power, I do not mean simply... alluring voice, 0 blissful godhead, cannot seize and snare. I sacrifice not earth to happier worlds." One is reminded of the great Prahlad's prayer to the Lord in the Bhagavat (7.9.44): Often, 0 Lord, the solitaries in a silence live apart Aspiring only to perfect their own salvation's marvel art, Oblivious to the anarchy of life, unmindful... Yoga that if one wanted the Divine, the Divine himself would take up the purifying of the heart and develop the sadhana and give the necessary experiences. I meant to say that it can and does happen in that way if one has trust and confidence in the Divine and the genuine will to surrender. For such a taking up involves one's putting oneself in the hands of the Divine rather than relying on one's ...
... not only a few supreme ones, and secondly that while he speaks of himself as the Divine, in one passage he describes himself as a Vibhuti, vṛṣṇīnāṁ vāsudevaḥ . We may therefore fairly assume that in many lives he manifested as the Vibhuti veiling the fuller Divine Consciousness. If we admit that the object of Avatarhood is to lead the evolution, this is quite reasonable, the Divine appearing as Avatar... means he was not an Incarnation, not the Divine, but somebody else who claimed to be the Divine—i.e. he was a god who somehow thought he was God. I suppose very few recognised him [ Krishna ] as an Avatar; certainly it was not at all a general recognition. Among the few those nearest him do not seem to have counted—it was less prominent people like Vidura etc. Page 499 Those who... coming and a new Satya Yuga coming is a very familiar one and there have been many who have upheld it. Rama as an Avatar I have no intention of entering into a supreme defence of Rama—I only entered into the points about Bali etc. because these are usually employed nowadays to belittle him as a great personality on the usual level. But from the point of view of Avatarhood I would no more think ...
... Omnipresent Reality it is its manifestation. The question who is responsible for the world-ignorance, for suffering etc. is indirectly answered : the Omnipresent Reality is the cause of ignorance, pain etc. Page 37 This can be called true Monism. Brahman is the Lord, it is base, it is the material of creation. Existence, consciousness and bliss—Satchidananda—is the description... physics, etc., have achieved many things that were at one time considered impossible. And Sri Aurobindo writes in his epic, Savitri, "The high gods look on men and watch and choose, Today's impossible for the future base." So fundamentally there is nothing that should be considered impossible, I mean the programme that he lays down for man in books like The Life Divine. ... The Omnipresent Reality is the foundation of the Life Divine. Sri Aurobindo says : "An omnipresent Reality is the Brahman, not an omnipresent cause of persistent illusion. If it is asserted like the old Vedanta that 'Self alone exists' then one must equally accept: "All is the Self." i.e., a Divine Self exists and all is that Divine Self. How did this Self manifest or create this universe ...
... girls and thus to talk of seeking the Divine is quite apt on this occasion. How to get more and more in touch with the Supreme Indweller is the whole business of Sadhana. If you ask me what is the simplest way, I shall quote to you three words of the Mother — "Remember and offer." Wherever you are, whatever you do, you can always think of the Divine, and you can always make an offering... the psychic being — which she called "the Divine incarnate deep within" — when she was questioned how we should show the reality of the Ashram life to visitors who are expected in thousands on the Birth Centenary of Sri Aurobindo next year. She said we should live that reality — and the way to live it is to commune with the psychic being. All else, talking, etc., is useless, she added. ... full view of the court Duryodhana's henchman started pulling at her sari. Draupadi did not know to whom to turn. She thought of Sri Krishna the Avatar and appealed to him in her mind. She cried out: "O Lord of the highest heaven, come to my help!" There was no response. The poor girl became more desperate. She sent out again a cry: "O Master of the three worlds, help me!" No reply still — and more and ...
... with the divine Being. Therefore in the first three stages use has to be made of some mental means or support by which the mind, accustomed to run about from object to object, shall fix on one alone, and that one must be something which represents the idea of the Divine. It is usually a name or a form or a mantra by which the thought can be fixed in the sole knowledge or adoration of the Lord. By this... themselves and used only when they come, or when the Divine within moves us to use them; or else, even though thus naturally developing and acting, they may be rejected in a single-minded devotion to the one supreme goal of the Yoga. Secondly, there are fuller, greater powers belonging to the supramental planes which are the very powers of the Divine in his spiritual and supramentally ideative being.... the established system under two heads, five yamas and five niyamas . The first are rules of moral self-control in conduct such as truth-speaking, abstinence from injury or killing, from theft etc.; but in reality these must be regarded as merely certain main indications of the general need of moral self-control and purity. Yama is, more largely, any self-discipline by which the rajasic egoism ...
... the Divine, such should be the decisive action. The rest would follow, for now the Divine would take up the responsibility. Krishna tells Arjuna in effect: This then is the supreme movement, this complete surrender of your whole self and nature, this abandonment of all dharmas to the Divine who is your highest Self, this absolute aspiration of all your members to the supreme spiritual... nature...This is the supreme way because it is the highest secret and mystery and yet an inner movement progressively realisable by all. 52 The three movements of the Aurobindonian yoga, as given in The Mother, are Aspiration, Rejection, Surrender. The Isha Upanishad, as interpreted by Sri Aurobindo, lays stress on the right Knowledge of the Lord and total submission (or surrender)... Works (Karma Yoga), the Yoga of Knowledge (Jnana Yoga) and the Yoga of Love or Devotion (Bhakti Yoga). There are other yogas too like Raja, Hatha, and Tantra, etc. These are really so many 'paths' leading to God or the Life Divine. Aurobindo took these and other ideas from the older yogas and evolved a dynamic and truly multiform yoga of his own, which he called Integral or Purna ...
... way? "A: Yes, there is an influence. "Q: Is it possible that the desires, doubts, etc. of one person can pass on to another? "A: Anything can pass from one to another. It is happening all the time throughout the world." Who has a question? Sweet Mother, why doesn't one receive the Divine as one receives other things? What do you understand by "other things"? The question... all the circumstances in such a way that everything that prevents you from belonging solely to the Divine will be removed from your path, inevitably. Then when all is removed, you begin to howl and complain; but later, if you are sincere and look at yourself straight in the eye... you have said to the Lord, you have said, "I want only You." He will remain close to you, all the rest will go away. This... know, it is a will, a supreme goodwill which arranges all things around you, and even when you complain and protest instead of accepting, it is exactly at such moments that it acts most effectively. I have written a short sentence which will appear in the Bulletin , the next Bulletin . It goes something like this (I don't remember the words exactly now): If you say to the Divine with conviction, "I ...
... ss is the basis of the Adwaita philosophy. Page 401 But where in all this is there any room for religion, for the spirit of man, for any idea of God? Who is the Lord, Isha, Maheshwar, Vishnu, Rudra, Indra, the Lord of the Illusion, the Ruler, the Mighty One of which all the Upanishads speak? Who is this triple Prajna-Hiranyagarbha-Virat? Who is this twofold Purusha-Prakriti, God & Nature... are the statements of the Upanishads and the Gita and the experiences of Yoga when the Jivatman or individual Self is in direct communion with the Paramatman or Supreme Universal Self and aware therefore of its real relations to Him. The supreme experience of Yoga is undoubtedly the state of complete identification in Sacchidananda in which the Jivatman becomes purely self-existent, self-aware and self-joyous... Eternal Universal Will, but contains and in a figurative sense is it as its condition, continent, material cause and informing force. Tasminnapo mātariśvā dadhāti . It is in this infinitely motionless etc. Page 406 Book III: Brahman in the Individual Self Chapter I We have now ascertained in some detail the nature of the Vedantic Cosmogony and have some idea of the relations of Brahman ...
... serious disaster. So the sane advice that should guide you in your sadhana-life is that you should follow the path of the Divine in a rather moderate way with permissible compromises to soften the impact. Otherwise, an undue suppression may undermine all your future. Etc., etc." Readers should not think that the imaginary fears we have detailed above are mere creations of our poetic fancy... life; we do not forget to offer flowers before the Images; and, of course, an attentive reading of books on spirituality forms a significant part of our daily life; etc." But these are not sure signs of one's loving, the Divine. Most often these apparently sacred operations hide behind themselves a pronounced form of self-love. This statement may seem to be rather startling and unbelievable... the arduous Path of the Integral Yoga. But this is not possible if the sadhaka has not the faith and courage to trust himself into the hands of the Lord of all things and the Friend of all creatures and plunge into the ocean of divine Providence without hesitation, reserve, fear or scruple. Yes, 'without hesitation, reserve, fear or scruple'; but it is impossible to fulfil this condition ...
... done your puja." I said: "Yes, my Lord; it was a puja such as I had never dreamed of." "Well, well," he said. A Dream and its interpretation In the old days the Mother did not leave the Ashram compound. She would sit for meditation in an upper-storey room. There were about twelve or thirteen of us including Bijoy Nag, Roti Nag, Rajani, Monibabu, Upen, etc.— with whom the Mother would sit in... These words from the Lord made me uneasy. "No," I hurried to add, "he isn't quite angry, he just says…" "No, you do as you are doing," the Lord said. Since the Lord put it like that, I stayed on a little longer before going away. On the other hand, X was quite angry. Barinda [Barindra Kumar Ghose, Sri Aurobindo's youngest brother] and he wanted to know what had happened. "The Lord asks me to stay on... darshan I said, "Lord, for the last few days I have been filled with such a sense of peace and delight. The whole of Pondicherry has a festive air, one of incense and perfume everywhere. Why is it like this, Lord?" Smiling, he said: "You are able to feel this?" "Not only I but all the sadhaks are able to feel this great wave of peace and delight. We are dancing with inner joy. Why, O Lord?" "Wait ...
... of the Divine Mother who supports the cosmos. It is She, the Power of the Supreme, supporting the cosmos, who bestows on him the boon that saves mankind from the stark imprisonment of Ignorance and subjection to Death. Being a manifested power of the Truth-Consciousness, Savitri not only liberates man but creates suitable conditions here on earth for the embodiment of the Light Supreme. She shows... Hence mind can give us only a partial view of the Infinite. In any supreme vision of Reality the two, Eternity and Time, are not only reconciled but also become organic and indivisible. Thus, in Savitri, we have the proposition: That the eyes of the Timeless might look out from Time And world manifest the unveiled Divine. 2 The seer tells us that it is Life that "has lured the... Savitri is a big work containing the intense directness, vastness and comprehensiveness of the Vedas and the Upanishads. The Vedas and the Upanishads speak of the One, the Divine, the Supreme Ineffable. It is that which finds expression in a myriad forms in the cosmic dance. Savitri also opens us to the realm of the External. But it is not merely a reproduction of the experience ...
... dge of a supreme truth-consciousness. Sri Aurobindo uses the "shall" with more authenticity. The Lore of Death used directive verbs as a gesture of offering some comfortable alternatives to tempt Savitri, which she refuses with an unshaken faith in man's liberation. Thus we have directives like Forget, Accept, Take, Suffer, Depart, Separate, Chastise, Obey, Close not. Call not, etc. The dialogue... context, it is quite significant. This feminine force, or the force of the World-Mother, is directly empowered by the Supreme. The initiated reader of Sri Aurobindo's literature instantly remembers the word in The Mother : "The Grace of the Divine Mother is the sanction of the Supreme." 4 That is why Gokak sees in Savitri a doctrine which incarnates as imagination. 5 This is not wholly true... the forest verge in the canto Satyavan. It is a very deliberate description, which images the spiritual nature of Satyavan; even the particularised aspects like "wish", "brow", "limbs", "open face", etc., are not quite expressive to all readers. The line "A tablet of young wisdom was his brow" must be received in the proper light. A person's brow is quite often indicative of his wisdom. Freedom's ...
... these things—outer knowledge, beauty of expression, thought-power, etc., don't matter since they don't lead us to the Divine. But you have said we are children of an intellectual age. Should we not follow in the footsteps of the Master? Essentially Ramakrishna was right. The literature etc. belongs to the instrumentation of the Divine Life—It is of importance only if one accepts that aim and even so... is not new. Yes, in the "Gita" it is there, to be sure, but has it been done through timber-cutting, bread-kneading, cooking, etc., etc.? There is nothing new in that either. It has always been a rule of Karmayoga that one must be ready to do any work for the Divine or with the spiritual consciousness. Janakas, Arjunas might, but not Nirods or Rama Shyama! 19 Why not Rama Shyama?... and the self or Purusha watching or witness but free; one feels all one's works taken from one and done by the universal or the supreme Mother or by the Divine Power controlling and acting from behind the heart. By constant reference of all one's will and works to the Divine, love and adoration grow, the psychic being comes forward. By the reference to the Power above one can come to feel it above and ...
... īś a, and become lord of its nature, īsvara. The Life Divine, pp. 348-49 What is meant by Prakriti or Nature is the outer or executive side of the Shakti or Conscious Force which forms and moves the worlds. This outer side appears here to be mechanical, a play of the forces, Gunas, etc. Behind it is the living Consciousness and Force of the Divine, the divine Shakti. The Prakriti... largeness of a divine, immortal and spiritual Power. Our consciousness becomes no longer that of this limited and struggling mental and vital creature, but an infinite, divine and spiritual consciousness. And our will and action too are no longer that of this bounded personality and its ego, but a divine and spiritual will and action, the will and power of the Universal, the Supreme, the All-Self... Immutable and by Maya the power the Self has of imposing on itself the cosmic illusion, or by the Self the Divine Being and by Maya the nature of conscious-being and the conscious-force by which the Divine embodies himself in soul-forms and forms of things. Others spoke of Ishwara and Shakti, the Lord and His force, His cosmic power. The analytic philosophy of the Sankhyas affirmed their eternal duality ...
... 1939: Will be the year of purification. O Lord, all those who take part in the divine work implore Thee that by Page 422 a supreme purification they may be liberated from the domination of the ego. 2 Then, in the middle of the 'phoney' war, on New Year's day 1940: A year of silence and expectation ... Let us find, O Lord, our entire support in Thy Grace alone. 3 ... Mother's heart and soul: The world is fighting for its spiritual life menaced by the rush of hostile and undivine forces. Lord, we aspire to be Thy valiant warriors so that Thy glory may manifest upon the earth. No ambiguity here! It was a war between the divine and the Asuric forces, and the Allied front was God's front, and the place of the Mother's warrior-children was with the Allies... of Hitler. VIII The Mother's New Year prayer for 1943 was tempered on the anvil of the Moment, and was a call for commitment to the Divine Cause: The hour has come when a choice has to be made, radical and definitive. Lord, give us the strength to reject falsehood and emerge in Thy truth, pure and worthy of Thy victory. 18 On the other hand, the spasmodic movement ...
... Life Divine , XVIII.627 I would like to keep that one for February 21. ( silence ) I'm thinking of what he says there, those "unfound roots".... What is that root, that unfound root? Root of what? The root that hasn't been found. The root of all the evil, the Ignorance, everything: "As long as there is this soil with the unfound roots in it and this nourishing air ...," etc. ... Sri Aurobindo in Calcutta. You know that the government of Bengal decided 1 to erect a statue of Sri Aurobindo in place of Lord Curzon's—the very man who had sought the division of Bengal, and Sri Aurobindo had tried to stop him. Sri Aurobindo would take the place of Lord Curzon, across from the "Victoria Memorial." It's at the entrance to Calcutta. That's what they decided in principle. Then the... hours it was truly, oh, completely upset, ill with the horror of those possibilities. 5 And then it was able to offer all that to the Divine and say, really say consciously: "Your Will." But there was that kind of incapacity we have to know truly the Divine Will—especially concerning the future, tomorrow, what's going to happen right at this minute—it was dreadful. How we know nothing, how utterly ...
... head that you give so much importance to outer reminders of the Divine?" One point I should like to emphasise. Whenever anything goes wrong with your health, don't neglect it. Ask a doctor to see you as soon as possible. The prayer you have sent me for August 15 is excellent and should be everybody's prayer: O Supreme Lord Sri Aurobindo! O Unique and Unsurpassable Mother! Pranam... plane close to the physical at times so that your disability is carried over and a plane more inward where your soul takes charge and its powerful draw towards the Lord is independently active, taking you irresistibly into the aura of the Divine Presence. On that inward plane you are not a defective body with a struggling soul but a sheer soul with its own subtle responsive body free of all embarrassments... drowse. Facing a glory-burst before a final fading away I am apt to experience a vivid summons from the Supreme to feel intensely His presence and then pursue it gradually into a recess of the inmost self while still carrying in my eyes a clinging worship of Sri Aurobindo's resplendence and the Divine Mother's radiance. Please excuse this prolonged discourse on my own mysticism in relation to the ...
... own, His image in the human measure cast T hat to his divine measure we may rise;" "A mutual debt binds man to the Supreme; His nature we must put on as he put ours; We are sons of God and must be even as he: His human portion, we must grow divine." It is for working this great miracle that the Supreme has accepted Ignorance and limitation in an infinitesimal particle... Perfection in life on earth ? This great achievement, the achievement of Divine Perfection out of terms which are the very opposite of any perfection is the wager which the Supreme seems to have taken with Himself when he accepted Ignorance and descended into the Inconscient. It is the Supreme alone who can accomplish that miracle,—to the mind an impossibility, to the Omniscience and Omnipotence a legitimate... accept such an answer, for, it seeks conviction; to the mind the fact of the Divine becoming Page 273 Mr. So and so, or, a helpless child seems quite illogical. So let us see the problem from another angle. Let us find out if man is really ignorant and if so how far. Leave aside exceptions like Lord Buddha and Jesus Christ, Sri Krishna or Sri Aurobindo. The average human being ...
... declared affirming the transformation and deathlessness of his body by the power of what he calls 'Arut Perum Joti,' the infinite or vast Grace-Light of the Divine. He also made the forecast and promise around the year 1870, that the supreme Divine would come soon to the earth for establishing his direct rule of Grace-Light (which the Swami also called as the Truth-Light) when a new race of people would... yogi [Swami Ramalingam] of this region, who lived around 1850, had experiences, which he described in a poem and appear rather connected.... Experiences of the transformation of the skeleton, bones, etc. It's a Tamilian who sent me this letter, asking me to put the question to you. All right. "The Mother may throw light on the nature and extent of the transformation the Swami had in the last... came here in 1914 and left from here in 1915, I think—from '16 to '20 I was in Japan, but I came in '14 and I think I left in 1915), from that time on, there were all those experiences [ kundalini , etc.], in France and in Japan. ( Mother goes into a contemplation ) But, Mother, what I'd like to understand, it's that since you withdrew to this room [in 1962] for the body's transformation, you've ...
... that "we may be born into the Divine Consciousness". 3 Further, when the Mother's advice was sought by sadhaks as to how best they should exemplify the reality of the Ashram, she said: "Live it. Live this reality. All the rest - talking, etc. - is of no use." And, if they were to "live it", the sadhaks should commune with the psychic being deep within, the incarnate Divine, through "an intense aspiration... 800 There comes a moment when life becomes intolerable without the Divine Presence. Therefore, give yourself entirely to the Divine and you will emerge into the Light. In silence lies the greatest receptivity. And in an immobile silence the vastest action is done. Let us learn to be silent so that the Lord may make use of us. 9 Finally, on practical problems too the Mother had... ess was open to the Divine, things might still go wrong. Generally speaking, however, thought was something that had a whirling motion, while consciousness opened upward. For the Mother, in all things, the attitude of surrender to the Supreme ("What Thou wiliest!") had become the only course. Her old motivations and spring-boards of action had now crumbled down, and the Divine was her sole refuge. ...
... express the Supreme Existence. It is the Buddhists' way of expressing the Supreme they contact. In reality it is nothing but an aspect of the Supreme. What is called the Indeterminate is not really indeterminate. It can be called so because it is not limited or confined to any one determination, not because it is incapable of any determination. That is what I have tried to show in The Life Divine . PURANI:... Yes, and the Personal Assistant is throwing stones at him in an attempt to dislodge him. NIRODBARAN: We thought this promotion of his was a divine but he is having plenty of thorns. SRI AUROBINDO: Divine gifts are like that. SATYENDRA: It may divine gift because whatever desires he may still have will be driven out by it. Tomorrow, by the way, is 13th, the day of catastrophes. SRI AUROBINDO:... PURANI: In fact, it is the source of infinite determination. How is Non-Being related to the Supermind, etc., of the affirmative way? SRI AUROBINDO: Both are gates to the Absolute. Non-Being is an aspect of the Absolute. When you enter the Absolute you can't describe it. PURANI: Jayantilal's friend was asking if the inner mind, inner vital and physical are psychic in their nature. SRI AUROBINDO: ...
... speed to my soul-thoughts, O lord of the bright horses; hold firm the delight in the Soma-juice." Page 86 The Rishi next passes to the Vishwadevas, all the gods or the all-gods. It has been disputed whether these Vishwadevas form a class by themselves or are simply the gods in their generality. I take it that the phrase means the universal collectivity of the divine powers; for this sense seems... between the three main interests of the human soul. Thought and its final victorious illuminations. Action and its last supreme all-achieving puissances, enjoyment and its highest spiritual ecstasies. The Soma-wine symbolises the replacing of our ordinary sense-enjoyment by the divine Ananda. That substitution is brought about by divinising our thought-action, and as it progresses it helps in its turn... have already indicated the philological method which I follow. Sayana himself finds it impossible to attribute always the sense of protection to the words derived from the root av, avas, ūti, ūma, etc. which are so common in the hymns, and is obliged to give to the same word in different passages the most diverse and unconnected Page 87 significances. Similarly, while it is easy to attribute ...
... The Mother had explained in one of our previous talks what this mantra meant for her. She had said, "These three words, for me they mean: Om — I implore the Supreme Lord namo — pranam (obéissance) to him bhagavaté — make me ’divine’. This is the translation... it has, for me, the power to make everything calm." 17 Page 162 ... Director. The message was: "Sri Aurobindo is an emanation of the Supreme who came on earth to announce the manifestation of a new race and a new world: the Supramental. Let us prepare for it in sincerity and eagerness." A sadhak asked Arabinda about the phrase "an emanation of the Lord", "Was not Sri Aurobindo the Lord himself?" Arabinda referred the sadhak to me and I took his question... question to the Mother. She replied, "There is no essential difference, but the Lord is all and Sri Aurobindo is a part but conscious of the Supreme of whom he is an emanation." "Then, is he not all?" I queried. "Voyons,” she replied, a bit testily, "the Lord is every- where. Is Sri Aurobindo everywhere? He has a body by which he is confined to a place, but his consciousness is everywhere." 14 ...
... down the divine peace," wrote the Mother. "Because no illness can resist the Peace of the Lord, and even to remember and to try will give you some relief." Later, in December when Huta felt apparently overwhelmed by a sense of fatality induced by horoscopes and astrology, the Mother wrote with persuasive force: Won't you let the Lord be stronger than the horoscope? For the supreme Lord there is... a time for prayer or meditation. This body lives constantly night and day, even when apparently it is busy with something else, in an invocation to the Supreme Lord, asking Him to manifest His supreme Truth in this world of falsehood, and His supreme Love in this world of disharmony. So at any time when you feel like praying, you can do so and your prayer is sure to join mine. 26 On 27 May 1963... aspiration and the purity and intensity of the effort would be the answering response from the Divine Mother. But when the hour of the Divine draws near The Mighty Mother shall take birth in Time And God be born into the human clay In forms made ready by your human lives. Then shall the Truth supreme be given to men: ... 14 The Mother's New Year message for 1963 recalled also another ...
... ever deeper vision and identification, for access to the Divine, the supreme Self, the transcendent Truth, both in its principles and powers and manifestations and in its highest original Being. Or it can by an absorbed inner joy and emotion, as in a sealed and secluded chamber of the soul, prepare itself for the delight of union with the divine Beloved, the Master of all bliss, rapture and Ananda... or inferior state of existence. Samadhi is not so all-important in the Yoga of devotion, but it still has its place there as the swoon of being into which the ecstasy of divine love casts the soul. To enter into it is the supreme step of the ladder of Yogic practice in Rajayoga and Hathayoga. The Synthesis of Yoga, p. 498 Page 216 Samadhi in the Gita The sign of... who is still in the separative ego. A reflected static realisation of Sachchidananda is possible on any of the cosmic planes, but the full entering into it, the entire union with the Supreme Divine dynamic as well as static, comes with the transcendence. Letters on Yoga, pp. 1157-58 There are in the cosmic consciousness two sides — one the contact with and perception of the ...
... means of knowing what he was about. Of course, we could sometimes overhear or he would himself tell us about the topics, how far he had come, if something new he had added, etc. Purani and Satyendra were interested in The Life Divine , and the former would try to fish for some information regarding it. Sometimes Fate or Chance or even necessity helped us in knowing what the Master was doing. Srinivasa... were fixed. The years that followed brought him closer and closer to us at first, then took him farther away at the end. The interlude will have as its theme the divine event that had unrolled during the twelve years of our stay with the supreme Actor. I shall begin with his external life. × A Mohammedan disciple. ... elaborate and complicated affair that had it been left in our hands, it would have ended in confusion, particularly because it had to be done in the bedroom. Hot and cold water, basins, soap, powder, etc., etc., had to be kept ready. What a ceremony really, this washing was! No wonder ladies go in for bob or shingle. Formerly, Sri Aurobindo, it seems, used to wash his long hair every night, but I am sure ...
... had given it, etc., etc. All these incidents were our little pranks played among ourselves and between us and the Master. I shall not protest if anyone calls me too credulous and finds these as nothing but sentimental outpourings of bhaktas. These instances do illustrate why I call Champaklal a real bhakta and have looked upon his service as having the true spirit. No wonder that the Lord, during his... supported the Lord for months, must have felt! Somebody rightly appreciated the value of the touch when he said that Champaklal's shoulders should be wrapped in gold! Each one of us had his chance, as we called it; whatever we had inwardly aspired for had its proper response and he who received it could alone testify to the truth of the phenomenon, ye yatha mam prapadyante. 1 This is the divine play between... the Lord, that was all he wanted. That was his lifelong aspiration, it appeared, and it was fulfilled. He was called Dadaji by us and given his due respect. During the early days of the accident, in the tranquil atmosphere of the room, we would hear some sudden sobbing trying in vain to control itself. It was our doctor who had been moved to sorrow by the "painful condition" of his beloved Lord! Or ...
... l Evolution; Integral Yoga and Other Paths; Religion, Morality, Idealism and Yoga; Reason, Science and Yoga; Planes and Parts of the Being; The Divine and the Hostile Powers; The Purpose of Avatarhood; Rebirth; Fate and Free-Will; Karma and Heredity; etc. Volume 23 — Letters on Yoga, PARTS Two AND THREE. Part Two: The Object of Integral Yoga; Synthetic Method and the Integral Yoga; Basic... ip with the Divine, the path of Yoga, elements of Yoga, difficulties, human relationships, work, parts of the being. Volume 15 — Words of the Mother. Short written statements, and conversations, about Yoga and life: The Gods, religion, war, wealth, government, progress, transformation and the Supramental, illness and health, messages for the new year, for darshan days, etc, and other subjects... Bhagavad Gita, Kalidasa; The Century of Life (The Nitishataka of Bhartrihari); etc. From Bengali: Songs of Bidyapati; Bande Mataram (Hymn to the Mother); thirteen chapters from Anandamath (Bankim Chandra Chatterji's novel); etc. From Tamil: opening of The Kural, etc. From Greek and Latin: opening of the Odyssey, etc. Volume 9 — The Future Poetry AND LETTERS ON POETRY, LITERATURE AND ...
... explained. "It means: 'We choose the Supreme Light of the divine Sun; we aspire that it may impel our minds.' "The Sun is the symbol of the divine Light that is coming down and Gayatri gives expression to the aspiration asking that divine Light to come down and give impulsion to all the activities of the mind. "In this Yoga also, we want to bring down that divine Sun to govern not only the mind... join themselves to the Dasyus and are leagued against him in supreme battle to prevent his free and utter passing on." The Vedic deities are "names, powers, personalities of the universal Godhead and they represent each some essential puissance of the Divine Being. . . . Children of Light, Sons of the Infinite, they call man to a divine companionship and alliance; they attract and uplift him to... the Gayatri," observes Sri Aurobindo, "was for thousands of years repeated by every Brahmin in his daily meditation; and we 1. A translation: "O Lord, who pervades the earth, the intermediate world and the world of light, we meditate on the supreme light of the illumining Sun-god, that he may impel our mind." To my father's queries Sri Aurobindo gave the definitions of the following planes ...
... starting-points in some happy sense of divine Presence within your heart. Along these threads this sense sends out feelers towards the divine Presence around and above - the Mother's Love enfolding you, Sri Aurobindo's Light uplifting you. The act of typing Page 37 need be no distraction from the soul's aspiration towards the archetype, the supreme model of each part of us, waiting in... heart remains clean of egoistic desires and one's mind holds first things first - namely, remembrance of the Divine. Further, if one is not physically very smart in arranging things, one should have in mental Page 35 sight the spot where one has dumped one's papers, etc. I remember the Mother once telling us of Sri Aurobindo's habits. Unlike her, he was not a paragon of tidiness... Mother's sweet grace. She can never be far Page 41 and both she and the Lord hold you always in their arms. Try to be conscious of this fact and don't allow your heart to be vexed, your mind to be clouded, no matter how many outward "ills" (as Hamlet would say) "the flesh is heir to." The Divine Presence has been established in your life: you have only to grow aware of it all the time ...
... consciousness and force of the Supreme Mother. Could you please make it clear to me? The Mother is the consciousness and force of the Divine—or, it may be said, she is the Divine in its consciousness-force. The Ishwara as Lord of the Cosmos does come out of the Mother who takes her place beside him as the cosmic Shakti—the cosmic Ishwara is one aspect of the Divine. The experience therefore is correct... on the Divine in the beginning. He goes by his own effort. Even as he makes his own effort, many subtle beings, the power of the Divine, etc. must be helping the sadhak. Is not this kind of tapasya and self-dependence a form of the Divine Power's help? Page 109 It has been clearly stated in The Mother that personal effort is necessary so long as the transference to the Divine Power cannot... necessity of a complete ignorance in order to get the supreme experience and speak too of the Divine Darkness—they mean the shedding of all mental knowledge, making a blank of the mind and engulfing it in the Unmanifest,—the param avyaktam . All this is the mind's way of approaching the Supreme—for beyond the avyakta, tamasaḥ parastāt , is the Supreme, the Purushottama of the Gita, the Para Purusha of ...
... hardly any relation to the present and the actual. But Yama did answer and unveil the mystery and impart the supreme secret knowledge—the knowledge of the Transcendent Brahman: it is out of the transcendent reality that the immanent deity takes his birth. Hence the Divine Fire, the Lord of creation and the Inner Master— sarvabhutantaratma, antaryami— is called brahmajam, born of the Brahman. Yama... adherence and which go by the name of partisanship, sectarianism, fanaticism etc., are a deformation in the ignorance on the physico-vital plane of the secret loyalty to one's source and origin. Of course, the pattern or law is not so simple and rigid, but it gives a token or typal pattern. For it must not be forgotten that the supreme source or the original is one and indivisible and in the highest integration... are bodies or individual forms (adhar). And on the supreme height there is only one God without a second. In between there are gradations of types and sub-types whose number and function vary according to the aspect of consciousness that reveals itself. IX. NACHIKETAS THREE BOONS The three boons asked for by Nachiketas from Yama, Lord of Death, and granted to him have been interpreted ...
... hardly any relation to the present and the actual. But Yama did answer and unveil the mystery and impart the supreme secret knowledge-the knowledge of the Transcendent Brahman: it is out of the transcendent reality that the immanent deity takes his birth. Hence the Divine Fire, the Lord of creation and the Inner Master – sarvabhūltāntarātmā, antaryāmī – is called brahmajam, born of the Brahman... adherence and which go "by the "name of partisanship, sectarianism, fanaticism etc., a;e a deformation in the ignorance on the physico-vital plane of the secret loyalty to one's source and origin. Of course, the pattern or law is not so simple and rigid, but it gives a token or typal pattern. For it must not be forgotten that the supreme source or the original is one and indivisible and in the highest integration... bodies or individual forms (adhar). And on the supreme height there is only one God without a second. In between there are gradations of types and sub-types whose number and function vary according to the aspect of consciousness that reveals itself. IX. NACHIKETAS' THREE BOONS The three boons asked for by Nachiketas from Yama, Lord of Death, and granted to him have been interpreted ...
... it is worth knowing that the only goal the Divine aims at in the life of men is to bring them to a state of perfect Union with the Supreme Reality through a progressive growth of their consciousness, also to radically change all their instruments of manifestation such as the mind, the heart and the body and finally to divinely transform them so that a divine life can be established upon earth itself... unnumbered bodies and births; In its unshaken grasp it keeps for us safe The one inevitable supreme result No will can take away and no doom change, The crown of conscious Immortality, The godhead promised to our struggling souls... One who has shaped this world is ever its lord: Our errors are his steps upon the way; He works through the fierce vicissitudes of our... highly intermingled complexity which makes it impossible to foresee and foretell what exactly is going to happen to a person at any given moment of his life. (5) Traditional View: The supreme Divine who is the sole Governor of this world is at the same time All-Wise and All-Just. No injustice can ever enter into any of his providences. It should therefore be an axiomatic truth that a morally ...
... thing I can speak of with certainty on this subject, is my own experience. According to my experience, the soul is divine, an eternal portion of the Supreme Divine, and therefore it cannot be limited or bound by any law whatever, except its own. These souls are emanated by the Lord to do His work in the world, and each one comes on earth with a particular purpose, for a particular work, and with a... giving an example of what one should be that you can help them most effectively. And the Divine Grace is always there, marvellously effective for all those who are sincere. 28 December 1971 Give us faith in a glorious future and the capacity to realise it. 30 December 1971 Lord, Supreme Truth, We aspire to know You and to serve You. Page 370 Help us to become Your... ignorant goodwill that thinks it is serving us but only debases us. Purify our consciousness of all ignorance, so that we may serve You in the Truth. 12 February 1972 I have asked the Supreme Lord to help you to find Him, and I am ready to give you a moment every day to help you to make this discovery. All I ask is that you try to remain silent during the time we are concentrating together ...
... for it is small in bulk, — is entirely occupied with her passion for the divine Being. It is said that she went through a symbolic marriage with Sri Ranganatha, Vishnu in his temple at Srirangam, and disappeared into the image of her Lord. This tradition probably conceals some actual fact, for Andal's marriage with the Lord is still celebrated annually with considerable pomp and ceremony. Sri... by the Vision of Divine Love. 1. Seated, she caresses Earth and cries, "This Earth is Vishnu's"; Salutes the sky and bids us "behold the Heaven He ruleth"; Or standing with tear-filled eyes cries aloud, "O sea hued Lord!" All helpless am I, my friends; my child He has rendered mad. 2. Or joining her hands she fancies "The Sea where my Lord reposes!" ... ecstatic love. When he stopped dancing he sat on Vishnu's simhasana in a majestic mood, while his devotees stood around him in great reverence, and then Sri Chaitanya revealed His identity as the Supreme Lord. We give below an extract from the Chaitanya Bhagavata: Sri Chaitanya said: " I am Krsna, I am Rama, and I am Nārāyana. I am Matsya, I am Kurma, I am Varāha and Vāmana. I am Buddha ...
... cabbage, potatoes, etc. once a day, at midday? [We had started preparing soup and boiled vegetables, in the Dispensary for patients]. "(2) M for a very long time has a cold which is refusing to go — he is still coughing; it has almost become chronic, I fear. It would be better to interfere and make him get rid of it. I would like you to see to it, even if he says it is nothing, etc." A was an Englishman... the Mother wrote: T complains of becoming more and more weak and lifeless (?). She says her stomach refuses to work, her blood has become very poor, her heart is weak, her liver is out of order, etc., etc. She wishes to have her blood examined, her liver X-rayed, her urine analysed.... Myself: Is it necessary to examine her blood? Mother: She believes it very necessary as she is convinced, "She... ordinary sight! Here ends the story of my active medical sadhana; for, I was called up to attend upon Sri Aurobindo when he met with an accident in 1958. ILLNESSES Truth is supreme harmony and supreme delight. All disorder, all suffering is falsehood. Thus it can be said that illnesses are the falsehoods of the body, and consequently doctors are soldiers of the great and noble army fighting ...
... got the vision of the Lord, my consciousness does not turn inwards. No longer do I close my eyes or ears, nor do I mortify my body. With eyes open and a smile on my lips, I behold the beautiful form of the Lord everywhere. In the centre of all forms stands the Formless, yet ineffable is the beauty of the "Form".6 To realise the universal beauty and also to see the Supreme as the All-Beautiful through... offers to the Divine and which the supreme does not reject. There is a thirst in the human heart for perfection unattained. Not only is it present in the human heart but even in the insignificant moth there is an attraction for the light of the stars and even the dark night holds in her heart the immortal hope for the Dawn. From the world of sorrows the man feels devotion for the Divine. Here there... In ancient times religion encouraged the experience of beauty as an aspect of the Divine. There were puritanical religions like Protestant Christianity and some philosophical schools that condemned beauty, or encouraged renunciation as indispensable to spirituality. But in India the Upanishad speaks of the Supreme as "Raso vai Sah", "He is of the nature of the sap of Delight." Sri Aurobindo explains ...
... is Maharloka or Mahi Dyaus, the great heavens (pure Buddhi or Vijnana, the ideal world). The Pranava in its three essentialities rules over the three supreme worlds, the Satyaloka (divine being), Tapoloka (divine Awareness & Force), Anandaloka (divine Bliss) of the Puranas, which constitute Amritam, immortality or the true kingdom of heaven of the Vedic religion. These are the Vedic sapta dhamani &... as a servant of an inferior faculty, reason as we call it, which led the Rishi Mahachamasya to include mahas among the vyahritis. But vijnana itself is an integral part of the supreme movement, it is divine thought in divine being,—therefore not a vyahriti. The Veda uses to express this pure Truth &ideal knowledge another word, equivalent in meaning to mahat,—the word brihat and couples with it two... of the sun or of pestilence—in Homer indeed Haelios (Saurya) & not Apollo is the Sun God—but the divine master of prophecy and poetry; Athene has lost any naturalistic significance she may ever have had and is a pure moral force, the goddess of strong intelligence, force guided by brain; Ares is the lord of battles, not a storm wind; Artemis, if she is the Moon, is also goddess of the free hunting life ...
... mati, dhī, buddhi and others, as also of the powers of will (samkalpa, kratu, etc.), as also of feelings of various intensities. This psychological knowledge was expanded by the cultivation of inner or subliminal states of consciousness, resulting in the knowledge which is evident in the descriptions of Vayu and Maruts etc. and of the workings of Indra and other gods such as Agni. It can also be seen... experiences and realisations. 5. Both the Vedas and the Upanishads have discovered a Supreme Object of Knowledge, and all the yogins, sages and rishis, whose experiences and realizations have been recorded in the Vedas and the Upanishads have repeatedly confirmed the nature and the status of the knowledge of that Supreme Object. That Object has been described as the One, which can be expressed in various... aspects, all the necessary elements of this great practice, this profound psychological self-training and spiritual aspiration are set forth in these great Scriptures, channels of supreme knowledge and indicators of a supreme discipline. Truth is its home; and this Truth is not merely intellectual verity, — for that is not the sense of the word in the Vedic writings, — but man's ultimate human state of ...
... his master: "Now bring me all that I want and all that you promised." Henceforth he virtually became lord of all things, he was taken to all kinds of worlds, offered all kinds of powers and all enjoyments, the asta-siddhi of our Indian yoga – levitation, gravitation, telekinesis – anima, laghima etc. – were within his grasp. Even then at times a great dissatisfaction rose within him as Page 398... Always there is a struggle between the two, the inner being, your true divine being is always trying to express itself through the lower and outward limbs, impress itself upon them but normally with very little result. These outer limbs are more obedient to the world forces of ignorance and falsehood, their lord is the anti-Divine, ¹ These lines of Marlowe are often quoted by Sri Aurobindo as an... do not quite belong to the outside world apart from you, they are within you, at least their foothold is within you. In fact man is a twofold being, one half of him belongs to the Divine, the other half to the un-Divine. His nature is a twofold string, the two inextricably intertwined, there is a luminous ray and there is its shadwow, the shadow makes the light unstable, flickering, at times even ...
... to all things and happenings. Shakti force, energy; the divine or cosmic Energy. Shanti peace, spiritual calm proceeding from inner harmony. Shuddhi purification, purity. Siddhi Yogic perfection. Sraddha faith in the Lord and his Shakti, the final element of the sakticatustaya. Sukha ... rhythmic stream; It fills my members with a might divine: I have drunk the Infinite like a giant's wine. Time is my drama or my pageant dream. Now are my illumined cells joy's flaming scheme And changed my thrilled and branching nerves to fine Channels of rapture opal and hyaline For the influx of the Unknown and the Supreme. I am no more a vassal of the flesh, ... to get the Truth in it from the psychic or above. What is above the mental consciousness is the superconscient, which has also several grades leading up to the supramental consciousness and supreme integral Divine. It is the Truth acting from the psychic and descending from the superconscient which will more and more harmonise the action of the different parts of our being, though the perfect harmony ...
... Ishwara or as something one in essence with him, yet different, but this difference like the essential oneness is eternal—and there are also other ideas of the Jivatman and its relation to the Divine or Supreme. So this pure "I", if that is how it is to be described, presents itself differently, in different aspects, one may say, to different people. The Overmind presents the truth of things in all sorts... of figuratively by the Gita as "an eternal portion of the Divine"—but the word fragmentation (used by you) is too strong, it could be applicable to the forms, but not to the spirit in them. Moreover the multiple Divine is an eternal reality antecedent to the creation here. An elaborate description of the Jivatma would be: "the multiple Divine manifested here as the individualised self or spirit of the... knows himself as universal and transcendent no less than individual and feels the Divine to be his origin, the truth of his being, the master of his nature, the very stuff of his existence. He is plunged in the Divine and one with the Eternal for ever, aware of his own expression and instrumental dynamism which is the Divine's, dependent in love and delight, with adoration, on That with which yet through ...
... sing of the Divine, what more splendid means can there be of spreading devotion in the hearts of others; that too is a work for the Divine. Lastly Prithwi Singh told Umichand categorically (in spite of his telling P. that it was not true) that Mother didn’t like singing in the Ashram premises and consented because otherwise Dilip made trouble. He argued and Umichand retorted, etc. I won’t... activities and powers that can be made instruments of the sadhana and the divine work, such as art, music, poetry, etc. Yoga can be done without the rejection of life, without killing or impairing the life-joy and the vital force. I will be praying all the time to you and Mother for the tireless grace you have both shed on me and I really want (believe me) to make some return by personal... be strange if the part he has in your sadhana could be considered objectionable. Sectarianism is a matter of dogma, ritual, etc., not of spiritual experience; the concentration on Krishna is a self-offering to the ishta-deva. If you reach Krishna you reach the Divine; if you can give yourself to him, you give yourself to me. Your inability to identify may be because you are laying too much ...
... bath etc. All are eager to go up to the Master for his Darshan. As the time passes there is a tide in the flood of rising emotion. It is "Darshan" – we see him everyday, but today it is "Darshan" ! To-day each sees him individually, one after another. In the midst of these multiple activities the consciousness gets concentrated. To-day is "Darshan" – not of human being but of some Supreme Divinity... Divinity. To-day is the rare chance of seeing the Divine. There he sits – in the royal chair in the verandah-royal and majestic. In the very posture there is divine self-confidence. In the heart of the Supreme Master, the great Yogin – a sea of emotions is heaving – is it a flood that mounts from or a flood that is coming down on humanity Page 302 Those alone who have experienced... before Darshan. As one actually stance in front all curiosity, all pride, all thoughts, all questions all resolutions are swept away in some terrific divine Niagara. Thou embodiment of love Supreme ! what transparency ! In the heart of the Supreme Master also an ocean of emotion is heaving. The heart melts and falls at his feet without knowing, it surrenders itself ! where is here a place for speech ...
... days) it was "bleed and douche", then "drug and diet", now it is "serum and injection". Praise the Lord! not for the illnesses, but for the doctors. However each of these formulas has a part truth behind it—with its advantages and disadvantages. As all religions and philosophies point to the Supreme but each in a different direction, so all medical fashions are ways to health—though they don't always... sciences. There are plenty of allopathic doctors who consider homeopathy, Nature-Cure, Ayurveda and everything else that is not orthodox "medical science" to be quackery. Why should not homeopaths etc. return the compliment? I have put down a few comments to throw cold water on all this blazing hot allopathism. But all these furious disputes seem to me now of little use. I have seen the working... forces behind; as they act, the outer means succeed or fail—if one can make the process a right channel for the right force, then the process gets its full utility—that is all. Tumour, syphilis etc. are specialities, but what I have found in my psycho-physical experience is that most disorders of the body are connected, though they go by families,—but there is also connection between the families ...
... devotion for the Lord. Sri Krishna playing the flute, playing with the Gopis, the cowgirls of Brindavan... all out of utter devotion. [Reading out the whole poem again:] I paused beside the cabin door and saw the King of Kings at play, Tumbled upon the grass I spied the little heavenly runaway. 55The universal, cosmic aspect of the Divine. The Divine has three aspects... asking for my help in the illness he was suffering from. I said, "I am not a doctor now, how can I help you? Go to some other doctor, I have forgotten all my medical knowledge, I have no medicines, etc. etc." "No, no," he insisted; some people are very insistent, they stick on very badly. "Very well then," I said and took up the case. I saw that his case wasn't very serious. The fever was only 99 degrees... the individual. Vishwaroopa or the cosmic aspect of the Lord is the vision that Sri Krishna bestowed on Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita. 56The members of the religious movement or group in Hinduism that worships Sri Krishna as an avatar of Vishnu. It is a devotional path. 57Devotion or bhakti is the adoration of the heart for the Lord - in this case, for Sri Krishna. Page 32 ...
... surmise in the subconscious nature a marvellous artist to whom all we have seen with the physical eye is present at once; and as clay in the hands of a divine potter, and it is such Page 114 swift creation too that it rivals the works of the Lord. " He further adds, " The common psychological explanation is not acceptable, because we know that forms can appear in the brain which were transferred... Vijnanamaya, the supramental; 5. Anandamaya, the level of bliss. There is mention of the plane of Truth as full of golden Light and also of the Supreme whose omnipotence rules the universe. There is an insistence on the dynamic aspect of the Divine. There are speculations, based on personal experience about the states of Consciousness after death. The main aim was the attainment of Truth which... "understanding", "truth", "right" etc. It expresses its vision in symbolic language which is a puzzle to the modern mind. The use of terms bearing psychological significance shows that the Vedic age was far from primitive. For example, words such as Dhi, Manas, Buddha. Chetana, Ritam, Satyam, Kavi, Manishi, Medhavi, Vipra, Vipaschit, Daksha, Chitti, Mati, Achitti etc., cannot be used by people who were ...
... psychic being, and their seat is in the secret heart of man. (1) But what about the Divine who, it is said in the Gita and the Upanishads, dwells as the Lord in the hearts of men? (2) Is it the psychic entity that is meant here or the Immanent Divine? Can the psychic entity be called the Individual Divine? (3) Is it only the psychic being that evolves and the psychic entity from behind... As soon as you start feeling bad, you should try to repeat this: "Lord, give me the strength to think only of You." With my love and blessings. 25 March 1969 My dear child, There is nothing to forgive, you have done nothing wrong. When I received your last letter, I transmitted your prayer to the Supreme Lord so that the Truth may manifest without obstruction. Be peaceful and... In our "Synthesis of Yoga" class the question of the psychic being has come up. In the "Life Divine" chapter entitled "The Double Soul in Man", Sri Aurobindo speaks first of the psychic entity which "is the Witness Page 333 and Control, the hidden Guide, the Daemon of Socrates" etc. Then he speaks of this entity taking form in us as the psychic Person, by which He evidently means ...
... , reading thoughts, clairaudience, contacts with disembodied beings etc., Gurudev wrote to Dadaji that she should not be frightened and should not reject them as they may be of help later on. Through Sri Aurobindo's constant guidance and encouragement, both Dadaji and his daughter disciple flowered out attaining their supreme goal. Their evolution was manyfaceted. The Integral Yoga embraces the... by so understanding it that one can understand it truly, enter in its past or in its future or put in their place the spiritual men of the past and the present or relate the different ideals, stages, etc. thrown up in the spiritual evolution of the human being." This was not just a mere theory or philosophy: through detailed instructions this was concretized. To illustrate, the master teaches the... expressions. Dilip Kumar has on many occasions given me the joy of discovering my own thoughts." Page 12 In the Mahabharata, Arjuna was the recipient and became the channel through whom the Lord poured out the essence of Upanishadic wisdom of Sanatan Dharma in the form of the Bhagavad Gita. The modern-day intellectuals and seekers will find a close parallel in these volumes of Sri Aurobindo's ...
... their visible personality. Sri Aurobindo as the ‘masculine’ Purusha or Ishwara [Lord] kept himself in the background and worked from there, while the Mother as the ‘feminine’ Prakriti , Shakti or Creatrix converted his spiritual acquisitions into practical facts of change and growth. But they always were one divine Consciousness and therefore acted on a plane far above, behind and within the physically... radiant body of the Godhead. ‘The black dragon of the Inconscience sustains with its vast wings and its back of darkness the whole structure of the material universe.’ 2 ( The Life Divine ) Nevertheless, the Supreme is also present in that utter Inconscience and in the Subconscient, for nothing can exist outside of him. ‘The Inconscient is the sleep of the Superconscient,’ wrote Sri Aurobindo in... only medium that can bring to an end their manifested existence is the divine White Light, by which they are dissolved into their Origin. This White Light is the light of the Mother. ‘There is only one Force in the world that can destroy them categorically, without any hope of return, and this is a force belonging to the supreme creative Power. It is a force from beyond the supramental world and therefore ...
... here. [ Underlining "your future work": ] Good Lord, man! don't make such dismal prophecies. As I have said, it is an American magnification of my past work, nothing to do with my future work at all. And the Yoga they follow is the "Sound-Yoga". What is this new business again? He says, "... a current of sound was the first activity of the Supreme Being at the beginning of creation..." 190 ... e is 102˚. He feels "wretched". I've prescribed some fever mixture. If the fever continues, I suppose there must be mixture He's begging for the Mother's Mercy, Compassion, Grace, Force, etc., etc. Is it coming? Is he receiving it? A simple pharyngitis running its course of 4-5 days. Venkatraman's illness is that? However simple not surprising he should be wretched. Then the... R is willing to take him up. How is it that my patients go on lingering and lingering even with a trifling thing? Some don't receive Force, others repent it, others receiving have no effect, etc., etc., and I have to quarrel with you for a dose? Whereas R has it in a flood simply for the asking or even without. R cures cancer in 10 days, goitre in 2 weeks and diabetes in 7 days. Hallo! 10 days ...
... prayed and prayed to our Lord, asking Him to pour His Grace upon you and to make you conscious of the Divine Light and Soul in you, to give you the supreme realisation of His Presence. Let all the clouds disperse, all the attachments disappear, all the obstacles vanish, so that you can enjoy fully the peace and the joy of being here, so close to me, in the Divine's abode. Page 70 ... Here are two questions that do not call for a reply: What have you done for the Divine to make so many demands? What have you done to the Divine to receive so many blows? What have you given to the Lord or done for Him, that you ask me to do something for you? I do only the Lord's work. Where you are mistaken is to believe that I am cheated―this is impossible because... . and what could be done in a few hours, a few months or a few years takes centuries to be accomplished. After establishing a conscious contact with each person present, I merge with the Supreme Lord and then my body is nothing but a channel through which He pours out upon all His Light, His Consciousness and His Joy, to each one according to his capacity. I take the greatest care to ...
... not only a few supreme ones, and secondly that while he speaks of himself as the Divine, in one passage he describes himself as a Vibhuti, vrishninam vasudevah . We may therefore fairly assume that in many lives he manifested as the Vibhuti veiling the fuller Divine Consciousness. If we admit that the object of Avatarhood is to lead the evolution, this is quite reasonable, the Divine appearing as Avatar... Beings who have descended directly from the Supreme to perfect this work of preparing the universe so that, through a conscious progression, it may become ready to receive and manifest the supramental Light in its entirety.” 24 In other words, the divine figure which the Mother saw at the base of the material universe was a personification of the divine Love making the upward climb possible, and... said ‘Follow my path, the way I have discovered for you through my own efforts and example. … I have opened the way, now you with the Divine help can follow it.‘” What kind of way or path did he mean? It was “… the path I opened, as Christ, Krishna, Buddha, Chaitanya, etc., opened theirs.” 39 “My experience is the centre and condition of all the rest,” by which he meant the supramental realization ...
... (M C W, Vol. 7, p. 191) Eighth condition — To be aware of the Divine's Will, the sadhaka should resolve to act always under one sole motive, that of the impulsion coming from the divine Shakti. No other motive such as desire, self-interest, fear, fellow-feeling, emotional adhesion, preferential ideas, etc., should be allowed to set him into activity. It is quite possible... should keep his personal will always offered to the Divine so that the supreme Consciousness can rectify its orientation as and when it deviates from the right path. (ix)Now about the attitude that has to be maintained. The sadhaka should do all that he has to do only for the joy of doing the right thing as an offering to the Divine. No other motive should be allowed to intrude there.... Yoga, Cent. Ed., p. 197) If any sadhaka can carry out in practice what Sri Aurobindo advises as to do in the above passage, he will not fail to discover a divine standard of action which will be at the same time the supreme spiritual law of his own true inner nature, svabhāva and svadharma, for the godhead in him is moving towards its own concealed perfection. This standard, free and ...
... cally speaking, what is exactly meant by this surrender to the Divine?" The answer may be given in Sri Aurobindo' s formulation: "Surrender means to consecrate everything in oneself to the Divine, to offer all one is and has, not to insist on one's ideas. Page 84 desires, habits, etc., but to allow the divine Truth to replace them by its knowledge, will and action everywhere... and confidence comes the necessity of a unified will. "My life should be wholly governed by the Divine's Will and not in any way by my personal ego-shaped fancy. I shall not allow any alien influence to intrude into the field of my consciousness; there, the divine Influence alone will reign supreme." — Such a strong and unified resolution on the part of the sadhaka and, what is more important, its... in detail three or four of these beneficial attitudes. On the top of the list comes the virtue of genuine humility. Every sadhaka should be able to address the Divine in the following way and affirm in all sincerity: "O Lord, without Thee I am nothing, I know nothing, and I can do nothing." This sort of humble feeling of self-insufficiency is very helpful for the openness of consciousness. ...
... being, an everlasting being of the Supreme, a power and portion of the transcendent Shakti.¹ Here too, in this movement by which the soul divests itself gradually of the obscure robe of the ego, there is a Page 158 progress by marked stages. For not only the fruit of works belongs to the Lord alone, but our works also must be his; he is the true Lord of our action no less than of our... are not his at all, but are coming through him from the Supreme Existence. He must be always aware of a Force, a Presence, a Will that acts through his individual nature. But there is in taking this turn the danger that he may confuse his own disguised or sublimated ego or an inferior power with the Lord and substitute its demands for the supreme dictates. He may fall into a common ambush of this lower... quality of light and good and, afterwards, he must persuade that again to offer itself so that all three may be transformed by a higher Power into their divine equivalents, supreme repose and calm, divine illumination and bliss, the eternal divine dynamis, Tapas. The first part of this discipline and change can be firmly done in principle by the will of the mental being in us; but its full execution ...
... death or failure for me. The Divine in the body is not subject to death or failure? yet all those claimed to be Avatars have died—some by violence, some by cancer, some of indigestion etc., etc. You yourself say that they were all failures. How do you reconcile these self-contradictory arguments? You say, "A physical and mental body is prepared fit for the divine incarnation by a pure or great... omniscience and omnipotence, but of reaching the essential divine consciousness with all its spiritual consequences, peace, light, equality, strength, Ananda etc., etc. If you say that that cannot be done, you deny all possibility of spiritual perfection, transformation or any true Yoga. All that anyone can do is to lie helpless and wait for the divine Omnipotence to do something or other. The whole spiritual... Good Lord! You said most emphatically that they were all failures and that is why the Divine had to come back again and again—to "atone for his failures". If your argument is that the life, actions, struggles of the Avatar (e.g. Rama's, Krishna's) are unreal because the Divine is there and knows it is all a Maya, in man also there is a self, a spirit that is immortal, untouched, divine; you can ...
... NIRODBARAN: Yes, the hair will grow itself. There will be a change in every cell. PURANI: You will be all golden, I suppose. SRI AUROBINDO: As they say in the Upanishad, the Supreme Being with the golden beard, etc. When Sri Aurobindo was lying down, Nirodbaran read to him a letter from Tagore to Sahana on mystic poetry. NIRODBARAN: Tagore says: "Mostly we see that those whose spiritual... age-old way is there in it? In Gujarat, Kalelkar and Gandhi also say the same thing—that poetry must be for the masses. Kalelkar says that even the Ramayana was written for them. SRI AUROBINDO: Good Lord! PURANI: Yes, Kalelkar explains that Valmiki used to go from cottage to cottage reciting the Ramayana and that when the epic was finished the Rishis presented him with a Kamandalu (water pot), a... a (God the Poor). NIRODBARAN: Vivekananda did perhaps see Narayana in the Daridra. SRI AUROBINDO: But ordinarily, in the man drawing water from the well, people hardly have the vision of the Divine at work: they see only the peasant. PURANI: Kalelkar says that substance is more important than form in art. He gives the analogy of the vessel and the food in it, and emphasises that the food is ...
... comparison. That Pulsation was the origin of the Manifestation. And Nonmanifestation is blissful Immobility—it's more than that, but it's essentially that: blissful Immobility. It's the supreme and supremely divine essence of rest. And both [Manifestation and Nonmanifestation] are together, and they come from That. I have a very strong feeling that it's only That, only with That that things can... everything—of everything that becomes perceptible to us through the Manifestation; because it is everything that in our consciousness gets divided into various possibilities, like truth, love, life, power, etc. (but all that is nothing, of course, it's dust in comparison). And it's everything together; not the union of different things: it's EVERYTHING—everything, and it is absolutely Page 55 ONE... while, all the problems from outside come back, that is to say, all the vibratory difficulties of the world are allowed to reach it again in order to be taken up and transformed in the Light of the Lord. And the whole problem crops up again. You know, problems of illness, problems of possession (vital and mental possession), problems of egos that refuse to yield (and this results in circumstances ...
... energy of which the physical world and other worlds which are behind it are expressions. Tantra aims. at enabling the individual soul to unite with the supreme creative energy, the Supreme Mother, who is also in her depth one with the supreme Lord, Shiva or the highest Purusha. The Tantric Yoga, as it rises from state to state, manifests not only aṣṭa siddhis but increases and manifests higher... that issues from the Supreme, the pressure of Karma yoga towards the divine knowledge increases to such a degree that one bursts into a vision, even of time-vision and of the divine action at a given epoch of time. One such vision has been described in the Bhagavad Gita in one of its most powerful poetic passages, in his Essays on the Gita, Sri Aurobindo describes the Supreme form of the world spirit... stands at a lower level than the state in which equality arises through resignation or surrender of the will to the Supreme. William James quotes a passage from the Imitation of Christ to describe their special fervour and intensity which are inherent in the attitude of surrender: "Lord, thou knowest what is best; let this or that be according as thou wilt. Give what thou wilt, so much as thou wilt ...
... Prophet of God. Go forth and preach in the name of thy Lord. Your God is merciful." A voice was heard - the voice of the Lord - addressed to the Prophet. It was recorded and became the text of the holy Koran. The Koran is not a literary work of Mohammed; it is a direct revelation of the Lord. When Mohammed was convinced of his divine mission, his earliest efforts were directed towards persuading... inner spiritual life. It is that while the Supreme or the Divine can be approached through a universal consciousness and by piercing through all inner and outer Nature, That or He can be met by each individual soul in itself, in its own spiritual part, because there is something in it that is intimately one or at least intimately related with the one divine Existence. These three things put together... approach to the Eternal and Infinite. Another important point of the Hindu religion is that one may approach the Supreme through any of the different names and forms, with knowledge or in ignorance; for through them and beyond them we can proceed at last to the supreme experience. To the Indian religious mentality, these names and forms are not merely symbols; they are world-realities. For ...
... aspiration towards the Divine—the true experience and change will come in the quietude of the mind from within and from above. It is also a mistake to take quietude for callousness. If you are no longer disturbed by what people say or do, then that is a great progress. If you have no abhiman against the Mother, that also is surely very desirable. Abhiman, disturbance etc. may be signs of life... comes. Remain firm and the cloud will pass and the true consciousness reassert itself with more firmness and vigour. Not to allow the mind to bubble up with all sorts of ideas and feelings etc. but to remain quiet and learn to think and feel only what is true and right. 2 Page 29 × The correspondent... tor Manager. But that is what happens when you take this kind of self-seeing posture. You stick to your intellectual-ethical version of the inner self-vision? Dry? policeman? criminal? Great Lord! If it were that, it would cease to be self-vision at all—for in the true self-vision there is no policemanship and no criminaldom at all. All that belongs to the intellectual-ethical virtue-and-sin ...
... for them by the gods, the cows and horses of which Indra is the lord and giver and indeed himself the Cow and Horse, are not physical cattle, if these elements of the wealth sought by the sacrifice are symbols of a spiritual riches, so also must be its other elements which are always associated with them, sons, men, gold, treasure, etc. If the Cow of which the ghṛta is the yield is not a physical... the creative Word. If Agni is the supreme Angiras, the flame from whom the Angirases are born, Brihaspati is the one Angiras with the seven mouths, the seven rays of the illuminative thought and the seven words which express it, of whom these seers are the powers of utterance. It is the complete thought of the Truth, the seven-headed, which wins the fourth or divine world for man by winning for him... Angirases are at once the divine seers who assist in the cosmic and human workings of the gods and their earthly representatives, the ancient fathers who first found the wisdom of which the Vedic hymns are a chant and memory and renewal in experience. The seven divine Angirases are sons or powers of Agni, powers of the Seer-Will, the flame of divine Force instinct with divine knowledge which is kindled ...
... present, I identify myself with the Supreme Lord... dissolve myself completely in Him. Then my body, completely passive, is... a channel through which the Lord passes His forces freely and pours upon all His Light, His Consciousness and His Joy, according to each one's receptivity.' - Oct 22 Writes to Andre, 'Hitler is a choice instrument for these anti-divine forces which want violence, upheaval... one could die, the vibration is so different.' And so her consciousness goes on repeating its mantra like a background... a point of contact: 'OM NAMO BHAGAVATE - I implore the Supreme Lord... Obeisance to Him... Make me divine.' - May 20 Her body is confined to the bed. Her food is reduced to a semi-liquid diet of about 20 to 25 ounces daily. - Aug 15 Gives her last Darshan from the Terrace... presence.' Later finds the old man was a personification of the 'Man of Sorrows' or the Lord of Suffering - one of 'the four original Divine emanations that went wrong' and were responsible for the Asuric deformations in the present creation. He gave her all his knowledge before dissolving himself into the Divine. 1892 Attends a wedding in a Jewish temple in Paris. Feeling uplifted by the music ...
... In Greece, already at the time of Homer, the gods had developed deep moral and psychological functions. Zeus, very similar in some aspects to the Vedic god Indra, Lord of the sky and Illumined Intelligence, was Lord of wind, rain and storms, and of thunder The Thunderer became one of his most _____________ * Pantheon: n., the gods of people, especially the officially recognized... (deities). Page 14 A Greek bronze of Zeus bearing a thunderbolt familiar epithets, and the thunderbolt, 7 symbolic of his supreme creative power, was his main attribute. He had united in himself all the attributes of the supreme divinity. He was "The Father of all”, head and source of the moral order of the world, the mighty ruler of gods and men. He was omnipotent, saw and... one of the heroes in the Iliad. It is primarily a superb adventure story and, contrary to the Iliad which remains in the real world, it includes many elements of folklore (giants, monsters, sorceress; etc.). 4. Monotheism: Doctrine or belief that there is but one God. There are various forms of monotheism; one conceives of God as the ruler of the world while another sees in God the creator as well ...
... ion. The Master-Soul had developed a faculty of direct knowledge, which is above reason and imagination, "the faculty which in Ramakrishna, the supreme outcome of the race, dispensed with education and commanded any knowledge he desired easily and divinely." When the full knowledge dawns all experiences are embraced in oneself. "That is what Ramakrishna taught by His life and Sadhana," said Sri... mastered all that the Vedantist could teach him, and had entered Nirvikalpa samadhi. One by one Ramakrishna mastered all the different lines of Hindu spirituality: Tantrism, Vaishnavism, Buddhism, etc. His teacher of Tantrism was a Bhairavi, a Brahmin lady. Not only did Ramakrishna master the intricacies of various lines of Hindu spirituality, but he experienced also the essence of Islam and Christianity... and wife installed the Shalagram and worshipped it regularly with great devotion. The fruit of their devotion was not long in coming. Khudiram had gone to Gaya on a pilgrimage. Again he had a dream. Lord Gadadhar 2 was seated on a jewelled throne, in his radiant form. Looking at Khudiram, He said smilingly, "I shall descend in your house as your son." And, Chandromani, in her village, had exactly the ...
... the sense of the Lord of Knowledge and that Swar, the solar world beyond heaven and earth, is the world of the divine Truth and Bliss, in a word, that Light in the Veda is the symbol of knowledge, of the illumination of the divine Truth. We now begin to have reason for concluding that the Flame, which is only another aspect of Light, is the Vedic symbol for the Force of the divine consciousness, of... must be the Power ( indra , the Puissant, 7 the powerful lord) of the divine Mind born in man and there increasing by the Word and the Soma to his full divinity. This growth continues by the winning and growth of the Light, till Indra reveals himself fully as the lord of all the luminous herds which he sees by the "eye of the sun", the divine Mind master of all the illuminations of knowledge. Indra... lowing with desire to his call. As powers of Agni these Rishis are like him kavikratu ; they possess the divine Light, they act by it with the divine force; they are not only Rishis, but heroes of the Vedic war, divas putrāso asurasya vīrāḥ (III.53.7), sons of heaven, heroes of the Mighty Lord, they are, as described in VI.75.9, "the Fathers who dwell in the sweetness (the world of bliss), who establish ...
... taking it anywhere as पूजनीय. विभ्वं. S. "lord". But विभु in R.V. means certainly "widely becoming" or "wide in being" or "pervading, abundant, opulent". I find no passage in which it must mean lord, the later classical sense. विभ्व must bear the same sense as विभु. Tr. Lo, here has been set by the Ordainers the priest of the offering, the supreme, the most mighty in sacrifice, one to be adored... the fire of a Will doing the works of its own inherent and innate knowledge. He is the seer, कविः, the supreme mover of thought, प्रथमो मनोता, the mover too of speech and the Word, उपवक्ता जनानां, the power in the heart that works, हृदिस्पृशं क्रतुं, the impeller of action and movement, the divine guide of man in the act of sacrifice. He is the priest of the sacrifice, Hotri, he who calls and brings... मर्त्येषु. This flame is spoken of as the supreme or first power. The godward will leads all the other godward powers; its presence is the beginning of the movement to the Truth and Immortality and the head too of the march. It is the greatest power in the conduct of the mystic discipline, यजिष्ठ, the most mighty for sacrifice. Man's sacrifice is a pilgrimage and the divine Will its leader; therefore it is ...
... symbolic myths of the Vedic cycle. Satyavan is the soul carrying the divine truth of being within itself but descended into the grip of death and ignorance; Savitri is the Divine Word, daughter of the Sun, goddess of the supreme Truth who comes down and is born to save; Aswapati, the Lord of the Horse, her human father, is the Lord of Tapasya, the concentrated energy of spiritual endeavour that helps... from his outward activities. One day he said: 'All that I see in this room, these walls, these tables, the books, etc. and yourself, Dr. Manilal, I see as the Divine. No, it is not an imaginary vision, it is a concrete realisation.' All Sri Aurobindo's actions welled from the Divine Consciousness that he embodied: they were yukta karma — that is all one can say except to add that impersonality was... Aurobindo has said that the Supreme is both personal and impersonal at the same time. His own life is a luminous example of this truth and has given us a small insight into the working of the Divine in the world. As soon as Sri Aurobindo had recovered sufficiently he gave his attention to a proposal which had come from the Arya Publishing House, Calcutta, to publish The Life Divine which had come out ...
... was intensely concentrated, asking the Lord, 'Well, I made You a vow to do this, I had said, "Even if it's necessary to descend into hell, I will descend into hell to do it...." Now tell me, what must I do?...'The Power was plainly there: suddenly everything in me became still; the whole external being was completely immobilized and I had a vision of the Supreme... more beautiful Page 406 ... reader is assumed to already know of Sri Aurobindo's historical existence and the content of the Vedas and the Upanishads, plus I don't know how many other notions of rite, truth, divinity, wisdom, etc., etc.... In my view, and the solution is going to appear cruel to you, for you certainly value these twenty-one pages [on the Secret of the Veda], they should purely and simply be deleted, for everything... than that of the Gita. A vision of the Supreme. 8 And this vision literally gathered me into its arms; it turned towards the West, towards India, and offered me—and there at the other end I saw Sri Aurobindo. It was... I felt it physically. I saw, saw—my eyes were closed but I saw (twice I have had this vision of the Supreme—once here, much later—but this was the first time)... ineffable. It was ...
... cows, breaking Vala by the divine word, brahmaṇā , concealing the darkness and making Swar visible. The first result is the breaking open by force of the well which has the rock for its face and whose streams are of the honey, madhu , the Soma sweetness, aśmāsyam avataṁ madhudhāram . This well of honey covered by the rock must be the Ananda or divine beatitude of the supreme threefold world of bliss... of the Rik who place perfectly their thought, svādhībhir ṛkvabhiḥ (VI.32.2); they are the sons of heaven, heroes of the Mighty Lord who speak the truth and think the straightness and therefore they are able to hold the seat of illumined knowledge, to mentalise the supreme abode of the sacrifice, ṛtaṁ śaṁsanta ṛju dīdhyānā, divas putrāso asurasya vīrāḥ; vipraṁ padam aṅgiraso dadhānā, yajñasya dhāma... seven-faced or seven-mouthed Angiras, born in many forms, saptāsyas tuvijātaḥ , nine-rayed, ten-rayed. The seven mouths are the seven Angirases who repeat the divine word ( brahma ) which comes from the seat of the Truth, Swar, and of which he is the lord ( brahmaṇaspatiḥ ). Each also corresponds to Page 181 one of the seven rays of Brihaspati; therefore they are the seven seers, sapta viprāḥ ...
... things, to keeping the sadhaks tolerably contented, etc. etc. etc. One-tenth and in the Mothers case not even that, can alone go to the real work; it is not enough. It is not surprising either that you should feel it difficult to get on in all this. But then why not push these things away from you and keep a clear field in you for the Divine. That, if everybody, or even a sufficient number could... in which illusion is only a small surface phenomenon with an immense Divine Reality behind it and a supreme Divine Reality above it and an intense Divine Reality in the heart of every thing that had seemed at first only a cinematic shape or shadow. And this was no reimprisonment in the senses, no diminution or fall from supreme experience, it came rather as a constant heightening and widening of the... things spiritual or divine or bring openings or progressions in the sadhana or are supports on the way. Experiences of a symbolic character, visions, contacts of one kind or another with the Divine or with the workings of Page 37 higher Truth, things like the waking of the Kundalini, the opening of the chakras, messages, intuitions, openings of the inner powers, etc. The one thing that ...
... infinite Consciousness, mother Aditi, and her sons, the divine powers of the supreme Deva or Lord. This was the meaning of Vedic immortality. There are also references in the second hymn of the fourth Mandala to the seven divine seers, who are the divine Angirasas and the human fathers. Riks 12 to 15 describe the seven Rishis as the supreme ordainers of the world-sacrifice, and put forth the idea... just as he becomes the Heaven and Earth and the other gods; or, Page 63 as it is otherwise put, man begets or creates or forms the divine birth in his own being. As Rik 15 says: 'Now as the seven seers of Dawn, the Mother, the supreme disposers [of sacrifice, which in psychological terms means self-consecration, the discipline by which the separative sense of egoism is destroyed],... treasures. Later literature mentions sixty-four Kalas, which a cultured lady was expected to master. These included the art of cooking, skill in the use of body ointments and paints for the teeth, etc., music, dancing, painting, garland-making, floor decoration, preparation of the bed, proper use and care of dress and ornaments, sewing, elementary carpentry, repair of household tools and articles ...
... terms. The supreme knowledge lacks which could dissipate the veil and integrate the inner and the outer, and the supreme power which could transform the instrumental being into a flawless vehicle of the Vast. A seeker of the transcendent Light does not bother whether or not Life has an inherent right to possess and be possessed by that Light and express it in its own, but divinely transmuted... explored, expanded, purified and Page 285 transfigured by Yoga and, married to the supreme Light, become its blissful manifesting medium upon earth, is what the Mother teaches in the present Prayer. The union with the supreme Reality, which will illumine and transform life and make it divinely creative, cannot be achieved, the Mother insists, without "action of every kind and of every instant”... the Supreme, who is at once the All and the Beyond-All. In this union, trance is not indispensable; in fact, it is ultimately dispensed with, the whole consciousness enjoying an abysmal silence in the midst of the most stupendous action. Acting, thinking, feeling, sleeping—in all states of being and all modes of its operation—one abides in a perfect union and identification with the Divine. As the ...
... personality of Adolf Hitler got its strength and inspiration from an asuric power, the Lord of Falsehood who calls himself Lord of the Nations. It was at the inspiration of this occult personality that the Second World War took place, to counteract the avataric Work that would lead to the appearance of a divinized species on Earth. Even those who were aware of the interventions of Sri Aurobindo and... “The skies are full of hymns of Victory. “The Truth alone exists, it alone shall be manifested. Forward! Forward! “ Gloire à Toi, Seigneur, Triomphateur suprême ! …” Glory to Thee, o Lord, supreme Triumpher! (This was one of the Mother’s mantric formulas which we find already in her Prayers and Meditations .) The evocation of this episode, of the extended Yogic battle on the verge of... for these attacks on my life. Up till now I am alive because the Lord wanted me to be alive, otherwise I would have gone long ago. “I am no more in my body. I have left it to the Lord to take care of it, to decide if it is to have the Supramental or not. I know and I have said also that now is the last fight. … This is the Lord’s decision. I am not even asking what he has decided. If the body is ...
... our birth-right and we must take possession of it, cost whatever it may. We depend not on ourselves, but on the Supreme Divine Shakti, the Mother! We must dare all and achieve the highest. I fully share your admiration for De Chardin. Whereas Paul Tillich, Northrop, Sorokin, Allport etc. have been striving to catch a glimpse of the new Light on the mental plane, this intrepid scientist has shot... loves only the Divine and the Divine Mother. It lies in the arms of the Mother, and whatever is its destiny, it is the Mother who fulfils it. The Mother carries it to its ultimate perfection and manifests the Divine through it in the material world. She is the sole redeemer and the supreme Force of transformation. Sri Aurobindo says "The Mother is the consciousness and force of the Divine—or, it may be... as a supreme mystery, and not dwelt upon it. It doesn't speak of the supramental realisation which is the apex of our present endeavour. It doesn't envisage any integral tranformation, including the transformation of the physical. It holds up the ideal of living in the Divine, but not of manifesting the Page 34 Divine in the material world. It has no collective divine fulfilment ...
... in seclusion long enough, etc., etc., etc.—activism philosophy, vous comprenez? I wrote back—a quoi bon, en un mot [what is the use, in a word]. Strange that, is it not? When I am disappointed in Yoga I pout at the Divine but when I am called to return to the un Divine I staunchly and unflinchingly refuse! Inscrutable are the ways of the supramental, what? But, good Lord, that is not the Suprame... passing beyond life but at a descent of the divine consciousness into life. Its aim is double —two movements fusing themselves into one—an ascending into divine consciousness and a transformation of earth life by the divine consciousness coming down here. All the old Yogas put the emphasis on going to Nirvana or to heaven, Vaikuntha, Goloka, Brahmaloka, etc. for good and so getting rid of rebirth. My... with the Divine in his forms and powers, it can be the opening of a communion with the Divine—of the hearing of the Voice that guides, of the Presence as well as the Image in the heart, of many other things that bring what man seeks through religion or Yoga. Further, vision is of value because it is often a first key to inner planes of one's own being (as distinguished from worlds, etc.) and of ...
... with his "guide" and receive from him :inspirations which he carried out later very faithfully. This being which Hitler took for the Supreme was quite plainly an Asura, one who is called the "Lord of Falsehood" in occultism, but who proclaimed himself the "Lord of the Nations" .... Generally he used to appear to Hitler wearing a silver cuirass and helmet; a kind of flame came out of his head... science. When the orthopaedic surgeon came from Madras to examine Sri Aurobindo, the Mother "put many intricate questions to him on various possibilities, the prognosis, lines of treatment, etc., etc., and the specialist wondered with admiration at her possession of so much technical knowledge." 18 When in late February 1939 the splints were removed and Sri Aurobindo's thigh looked ... 'flower-work' in this state of trance .... Hundreds of roses daily came to her as an offering from our gardens. She would spread all of them on trays, pick and choose them according to size, colour, etc., trim and arrange them in different vases, aided by a sadhika. This would continue till the early hours of morning.... 27 It was extraordinary that her hands could work with such mechanical ...
... inherent. And this Yoga can only arrive at its success by devoting, by consecrating, by giving up the whole self to the Divine, "to Me", says Krishna; for the Liberator is within us, but it is not our mind, nor our intelligence, nor our personal will,—they are only instruments. It is the Lord in whom, as we are told in the end, we have utterly to take refuge. And for that we must at first make him the object... Upanishads state the ascending order of our subjective powers. "Supreme, they say," beyond their objects "are the senses, supreme over the senses the mind, supreme over the mind the intelligent will: that which is supreme over the intelligent will, is he,"—is the conscious self, the Purusha. Therefore, says the Gita, it is this Purusha, this supreme cause of our subjective life which we have to understand... It is possible, paraṁ dṛṣṭvā , by the vision of the supreme,— param , the Soul, the Purusha,—and by living in the Yoga, in union or oneness of the whole subjective being with that, through the Yoga of the intelligence; for the one Soul is calm, satisfied in its own delight, and that delight free from duality can take, once we see this supreme thing in us and fix the mind and will on that, the place ...
... sections, there are intermediate zones, four intermediate zones: one for public services, post office, etc.; one zone for transport, railway station and possibly an aerodrome, one zone for food—that one would be near the lake and would include dairies, hen-houses, orchards, cultivated lands, etc.; it would spread and include the Lake Estate: what they wanted to do separately would be done within the... to the architecture of each country —it should be like a document of information. Then, depending on the money they wish to spend, they could also have accommodation for students, conference-rooms, etc., a cuisine of the country, a restaurant of the country—they could have all kinds of developments. Then the industrial section. Already many people, including the Government of Madras—the Madras... auditorium with a concert-hall and a grand organ, the best of its kind today. It seems they are making wonderful things. I want a grand organ. There will also be a stage with wings—a rotating stage, etc., the best of its kind. So, a magnificent auditorium, there. There will be a library, there will be a museum with all sorts of exhibitions—not inside the auditorium: in addition to it there will be a ...
... paradoxical gesture, says: "Refuse to have any teacher, learn at no one's feet. Never forget this teaching of mine when I am not there for you to learn it from." Behind the guru in India stands the Supreme Lord or the World-Mother. Under Krishnamurti's persuasion we have to forget the call of Krishna Himself through the Gita: "You that have come into this transient and unhappy world, love and worship... not surely be with the life-giving bliss-bestowing Lord known to so many who bear witness to Him. His visions seem to have been more in the nature of torture than of enlightenment. Or maybe he simply lacked love. Yet many people loved and revered him. As to the Mahabharata, I am most interested in Sri Aurobindo's description of Vyasa as a supremely masculine writer. Certainly Valmiki has more flowers... of the soul's sweetness and light, all gestures of humility before the Superhuman, all ego-surpassing by means of submission to the "One who has shaped the world" and "is still its Lord", surrender to the Incarnate Divine, the Ishwara-Shakti manifested in the flesh. Apparently what Krishnamurti did was to set aside the Theosophical Society: actually it was an individualistic drive towards the demolition ...
... 1937, "For those who wish to serve the Divine", she had made the last three sentences a mantra. And naturally, she made me read the meditation Mother copied out for Appa, that of 28 December 1928. Among the lines of Mother’s prayers she most liked to repeat were the closing lines of Mother’s prayer of 23 October 1937: Glory to Thee, O Lord, Supreme Master of all realisation. Give us a faith... alternate in the being or are even simultaneously conscious, the felicity is complete, for then, O Lord, Thy plenitude is realised. O divine Master, Thou hast granted to me the infinitude of divine contemplation, the perfect calm of Thy Eternity, and through an identification with our divine Mother, the All-Realiser, Thou has permitted me to participate in her sovereign power to be conscious... flower-designs (usually Sweetness of thoughts turned towards the Divine ) to be embroidered. From these pieces were made window-curtains, table-cloths, piano covers etc. for Mother’s and Sri Aurobindo’s rooms. It was a work that demanded, as well as promoted, a quiet mind and body, thus providing ample scope to concentrate on the Divine. Perhaps that is why most sadhikas did some embroidery in their ...
... sections, there are intermediate zones, four intermediate zones: one for public services, post office, etc.; one zone for transport, railway station and possibly an aerodrome; one zone for food―that one would be near the lake and would include dairies, poultry farms, orchards, cultivated lands, etc.; it would spread and include the Lake Estate: what they wanted to do separately would be within the framework... deal about it, inwardly―on the organisation, the food, etc. We are going to make experiments. Some things are really interesting; first of all, for example, I would like each country to have its pavilion, and in the pavilion there will be the cooking of that country―that is, the Japanese will be able to eat Japanese food if they want to, etc. But in the town itself there will be food for both vegetarians... put something else. I agreed with the Russians to put "perfect Consciousness", but it is an approximation.... And That―which cannot be named and cannot be defined―is the supreme Power. It is the Power that one finds. And the supreme Power is only an aspect: the aspect that concerns creation. 3 10 April 1968 Apropos Auroville: on money and government. The conflict about money is what might ...
... evedam sarvam karma tapo brahma paramritam." "It is the divine Soul that is all this, even all action and all active force and Brahman & the supreme immortality." We have to realise the Self everywhere, but we have also to remember always in all our being, to feel always in every fibre of our existence that this Self is Brahman & the Lord. In the realisation of Atman by itself there is this danger... we demand. He who is Lord & Master, does not struggle & demand; he does not need even to command; for Prakriti knows His will & hastens to obey it. If we would live divinely, we must realise the Lord in ourselves, we must have sadharmya with Him & be as He. What the Lord wills for His lila in this habitation, Prakriti will bring; what Prakriti brings for our lila, is what the Lord wills. That which struggles... in mind & matter to conceal, is the Lord, the Purusha. He is that One, Eternal & Immutable; it is He that is the centre of knowledge & eternal control. He is Ish, the Lord. The relation between the world & its Lord on which the Rishi bids us fix as the one on whose constant & established realisation we can best found the thoughts & activities of the Life Divine, is the relation of the Inhabitant & ...
... symbolic myths of the Vedic cycle. Satyavan is the soul carrying the divine truth of being within itself but descended into the grip of death and ignorance; Savitri is the Divine Word, daughter of the Sun, goddess of the supreme Truth who comes down and is bom to save; Aswapati, the Lord of the Horse, her human farther, is the Lord of Tapasya, the concentrated energy of spiritual endeavour that helps... helps us to rise from the mortal to the immortal planes; Dyumatsena, Lord of the Shining Hosts, father of Satyavan, is the Divine Mind here fallen blind, losing its celestial kingdom of vision, and through that loss its kingdom of glory. Still this is not a mere allegory, the characters are not personified qualities, but incarnations or emanations of living and conscious Forces with whom we can... Satyavan whom Savitri marries is the symbol of the soul descended into the Kingdom of Death; and Savitri, who is, as you know, the Goddess of Divine Light and Knowledge, comes down to redeem Satyavan from Death's grasp. Asvapati, the father of Savitri, is the Lord of Energy. Dyumatsena is 'one who has the shining hosts.' It is all inner movement, nothing much as regards outward action. The poem [ Savitri ...
... a considerable spiritual utility. But, naturally, it is not supreme – the supreme thing is the realisation, the contact, the union with the Divine, bhakti, change of nature, etc. Page 122 I have been working hard. Last night till nearly 2 a.m. I am working at a spiritual novel (voicing my spiritual experience, etc.). I want to do sadhana more consciously through service and... then that one can feel clearly the Force at work, the divine Presence, the direct communion. * October 2, 1944 What is there to comment on foolishness? It is a universal human failing. Your remark about Krishna was not so much foolish as desperately illogical. If Krishna was always and by nature cold and distant (Lord, what a discovery – Krishna of all people!), how could... arrangements for taking Stalingrad: the result was that he has been kicked out almost entirely from old Russia. And in China, he said, Japan was going to crush China in three months, etc., etc. It doesn’t look like it; but perhaps they have confidential information? Of course I argued abortively and got annoyed in the end. I thought then that it was his views and analysis ...
... because his "unfinished curve" in the past life has finished it in this. Hail, Rishi, all-knower! Tell us all about our past lives. Now, if the soul instead of sleeping has to aspire etc. to call down its Lord the Grace, where do you see that aspiration in me? If you build my spiritual castle on those one or two minutes' brief visitations of Ananda, and that too once or twice only, excluding the... can spare for you just now. There are three main possibilities for the sadhak— 1) To wait on the Grace and rely on the Divine. 2) To do everything himself like the full Adwaitin and the Buddhist. 3) To take the middle path, go forward by aspiration and rejection etc. helped by the Force. The first, it appears, is too easy for you to do it, the second is too difficult for you to do, the third... sluggish one. X has on the one hand your love, affection, letters, etc., on the other his sufferings, paroxysms of despair, depression, etc. His paroxysms of despair were not caused originally by the Yoga but by disappointments of the vital,—this one's behaviour, that one's refusal to be under his influence, ingratitude etc. These things had nothing to do with Yoga. But the devil once admitted ...
... symbolic myths of the Vedic cycle. Satyavan is the soul carrying the divine truth of being within itself but descended into the grip of death and ignorance; Savitri is the Divine Word daughter of the Sun, goddess of the supreme Truth who comes down and is born to save; Aswapati, the Lord of the Horse, her human father, is the Lord of Tapasya, the concentrated energy of spiritual endeavour that helps... helps us to rise from the mortal to the immortal planes; Dyumatsena. Lord of the Shining Hosts, father of Satyavan, is the Divine Mind here fallen blind, losing its celestial kingdom of vision, and through that loss its kingdom of glory. Still this is not a mere allegory, the characters are not personified qualities, but incarnations or emanations of living and conscious Forces with whom we can enter... Satyavan whom Savitri marries is the symbol of the soul descended into the Kingdom of Death; and Savitri, who is, as you know, the Goddess of Divine Light and Knowledge, comes down to redeem Satyavan from Death's grasp. Asvapati, the father of Savitri, is the Lord of Energy. Dyumatsena is 'one who has the shining hosts.' It is all inner movement, nothing much as regards outward Page 104 ...
... watching the imminent end of its life? I cannot say. Bhakti is a divine acquisition, a thing of wonder; it cannot have its birth without divine grace. When the heart is aroused from sleep by the all-ruling grace, one sees that greatness; it is so delightful to the sight; then only one's life, possessed of the knowledge of the Lord's universal state and His transcendent state, will know how to live... that I knew little English. Day after day I would tell him fluently and unwaveringly my home-story, etc., trying to make the details as vivid and elaborate as possible. I knew no halt. In his presence my heart would flow out like an undammed flood either out of deep love for him or inspired by his supreme grace. It cast aside all human measures of what ought to be said and what ought not to be said. Today... old age, etc., etc. In addition, he said finally, one could drive away all English "Feringhees" from India. Mention of these miracles, however, gave rise in me to other thoughts, other hopes. By Yoga my family's poverty would disappear; Page 36 we would no more feel the pinch of hunger; I could score high marks in the examination; I might procure a good job, etc. At the ...
... and then the sense of superiority disappears completely. True wisdom comes only when the ego disappears, and the ego disappears only when you are ready to abandon yourself completely to the supreme Lord without any personal motive and without any expectation of profit—when you do it because you cannot do otherwise. The Mother On Thoughts and Aphorisms: Aphorism - 6 There is a part of... will etc. that are part of his intelligence. The vital has to be carefully distinguished from mind, even though it has a mind element transfused into it; the vital is the Life nature made up of desires, sensations, feelings, passions, energies of action, will of desire, reactions of the desire soul in man and of all that play of possessive and other related instincts, anger, fear, greed, lust etc. that... of here, there is no longer higher and lower; there is only a play of forces in which each thing has its place and its importance. And if there is a hierarchy it is a hierarchy of surrender to the Supreme. It is not a hierarchy of superiority with regard to what is below. And with human understanding, human reason, human knowledge, one is unable to discern this hierarchy. Only the awakened soul can ...
... would show where new lines or passages have been added, or where one line slightly changed becomes an overhead line, or how another line after various changes comes back to its original version, etc., etc. I was chosen as a scribe probably because I didn't have all these gifts, so that I could, like a passive instrument, jot down faithfully whatever was dictated while Amal would have raised doubts... you all are. You speak of silence, consciousness, overmental, supramental, etc. as if they were so many electric buttons you have only to press and there you are. It may be one day, but meanwhile I have to discover everything about the working of all possible modes of electricity, all the laws, possibilities, perils, etc., construct roads of connection and communication, make the whole far-wiring... mud, the world-misery to breathe the sovereign plenitude and enter the supreme Ananda. He crossed all these realms, went through the consequences, suffered and endured physically what one cannot imagine. Nobody till today has suffered like Him; He accepted suffering to transform suffering into the joy of union with the Supreme.... "It is the spiritual path, it is Yoga, Tapasya, Sadhana, everything ...
... would show where new lines or passages have been added, or where one line slightly changed becomes an overhead line, or how another line after various changes comes back to its original version, etc., etc. I was chosen as a scribe probably because I didn't have all these gifts, so that I could like a passive instrument jot down faithfully whatever was dictated, while Amal would have raised doubts... you all are! You speak of silence, consciousness, overmental, supramental, etc., as if they were so many electric buttons you have only to press and there you are. It may be one day, but meanwhile I have to discover everything about the working of all possible modes of electricity, all the laws, possibilities, perils, etc., construct modes of connection and communication, make the whole far-wiring... misery in order to breath the sovereign Plenitude and enter into the supreme Ananda. He has crossed all these kingdoms, accepted all the consequences, suffered and endured physically what none can imagine. None up till now has suffered like him. He has accepted the suffering to transform it into the joy of union with the Supreme." 18 NlRODBARAN 18 Ibid, pp. 44-49. There are slight ...
... certain Tantric sadhanas, the effort after a complete physical Siddhi by certain schools of Yoga, etc. etc. I have alluded to these things Page 154 myself and have put forth the view that the spiritual past of the race has been a preparation of Nature not merely for attaining to the Divine beyond the world, but also for the very step forward which the evolution of the earth-consciousness... by deep samadhi (सुषुप्ति). Prajna and Ishwara were for them Lord of the suṣupti . 20 November 1933 Is it possible for another being to take birth in a human being's কারণ দেহ [kāraṇa deha] and see everything from that standpoint? The কারণ দেহ may be simply a form answering to the higher consciousness (overmental, intuitive etc.) and I suppose a being could be there working in that consciousness... or human and not divine. When the psychic being can by sadhana become dominant and freely use its instruments, then the impulse towards the Divine becomes complete and the transformation of mind, vital and body, not merely their liberation becomes possible. The Self or Atman being free and superior to birth and death, the experience of the Jivatman and its unity with the supreme or universal Self ...
... upon Earth …’ 55 ‘I remember very well that when the war – the First World War – started and I offered my body in sacrifice to the Lord so that the war would not be in vain, every part of my body, one after another [Mother touches her legs, her arms, etc.], or sometimes the same part several times over, represented a battlefield: I could see it, I could feel it, I lived it. Every time it was... merge into Thee in an immense love … I have become the purifying fire of Thy love.’ The entry of 13 September begins: ‘With fervour I salute Thee, O divine Mother, and in deep affection I identify myself with Thee. United with our divine Mother I turn, O Lord, towards Thee and bow to Thee in mute adoration and in an ardent aspiration I identify myself with Thee.’ And on the next day she writes: ‘There... burning with an ardent fire of purification in honour of Thee, O Lord, divine Master, sovereign Will, so that this Will may meet with no farther obstacle in the way of its realization.’ This extraordinary series of spiritual statements can leave no doubt concerning the fact of Mirra’s identification with the Great Mother. ‘O divine and adorable Mother, with Thy help what is there that is impossible ...
... very first basis in forming the Ashram: that the work done here be an offering to the Divine. Instead of letting oneself go in the stream of one's nature, of one's mood, one must constantly keep in mind this kind of feeling that one is a representative of the Supreme Knowledge, the Supreme Truth, the Supreme Law, and that one must apply it in the most honest, the most sincere way one can.... 4... others. In all education, of course, the truth that was to be driven home was that every child had in the psychic spark in him, the Divine Presence itself. As she said on 15 January 1951: If you organise everything - your feelings, your thoughts, your impulses, etc. - around the psychic centre which is the inner light, you will see that all inner disorder will change into a luminous order. 2 ... n, to the divine Consciousness, asking for its transformation. 15 In this segment of her discourse, the Mother makes Yoga a truly fascinating adventure - a sort of sleuthing for hidden laggards and miscreants, locating them in their deceptive hideouts, confronting them, apprehending and correcting and transforming them, - or, if all else fails, seizing and offering them to the Lord for the infallible ...
... thin air - a soft sweet rosy light of love pervades me. But am I so unfortunate as not to know that my Aurobindo is also the Lord of all - and the Supreme transcending all ? No, I certainly know him to be all this, but my direct perception, my intimate contact is of the Lord of my heart. If he leads me to realise his other aspects, I shall realise them. When on the 5th of December last, at early dawn... others, we have seen instances, too, where a sadhak, gone astray, was recklessly proceeding to dig his own grave, while the Master was trying persistently to save him. The Lord of the sinful, the Lord of the destitute, the Lord of the weak, has ever been like this! When in 1890 I came to Calcutta for my studies, I used to hear a great deal about Aurobindo Ghose. Whatever we heard astonished... lecture in imitation of Shakespeare) addressing, you know, the famous piece which goes something like: "Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,/ Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow ...?" 215 etc. Or I feel like sending an 213Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 11:1: 704. 214A well-known joke from Amrita-da, 215William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Macbeth, Act V, Scene III, lines 40-41 ...
... worlds with the power of his aesthesis. In his own way a supreme lord of language, Sri Aurobindo summons the rhythmic word to his aid, charges it with semantic 'electricity', and out of it builds the Reality he has seen, experienced and realised. The great poet is thus not only the lord of language but also the lord of rhythm and the lord of architecture. The rhythmic unit in Savitri is the blank... as a profound symbol, perhaps "a symbol of what can never be symbolised", 171 yet as a hint, a promise, of humanity drawing near to the Divine, and bringing the Divine to our midst. What is presented as a logical or dialectical possibility in The Life Divine and as being realisable in practice in The Synthesis ofYoga is now projected in Savitri as an experienced actuality, vivid and inspiring... diamonds, bird, flowers, fruits, cow, ass, horse, milk, mountain, elephant, lion the a ś wattha, goat, bull, frog, fish, lotus, swan, peacock, flute, conch, pearl, the cross, the cakra, bow, etc., all have symbolic meanings. 144 And it is also the nature of mystic Page 336 poetry to resort to multiple symbols, linked imagery and mixed metaphors. Above all, as in ...
... Philosophical Review, Vol. LXVII, April, 1958. 35.Cf. also Bhavabhūti's Uttara Rama Caritam, 6.30, where Kusa, on Lava's query, points out, "What grief has not the Lord of the Raghus suffered in separation from the queen Sītā!" etc. 36.Cf. C.R. Devadhar (ed.), Raghuvamśa of Kālidāsa, MLBD, Delhi, 2005, XV, Note 81, p.688. 37.Soren Kierkegaard, The Present Age, translated by Alexander... proceeds, is in subject a legend of the gods, the ancient subject of a strife of Gods and Titans, the solution prepared here by a union of the supreme God and the Goddess, but in treatment it is a description of Nature and the human life of India raised to a divine magnitude on the sacred mountain and in the homes of the high deities. His three dramas move around the passion of love, but with the same... and a divine elegance and not excluding a fine excess that is not excessive, an utmost possible refined opulence of aesthetic value. More perfectly than any other he realizes the artistic combination of a harmonious economy of expression, not a word, syllable, sound in superfluity, and a total sense of wise and lavish opulence that was the aim of the earlier classical poets. None so divinely skilful ...
... of the Divine.” And then the prayer: “Supreme Lord, Perfect Consciousness, You alone know truly what we are, what we can do, what progress we must make to be capable and worthy of serving You as we would. Make us conscious of our possibilities, but also of our difficulties, so that we may overcome them in order to serve You faithfully.” And then this, the conclusion: “The supreme happiness... of the body, and the more the body is conscious, the more it is capable of receiving the divine forces that are at work to transform it and give birth to the new race. 15 December 1971 * * * Give us faith in a glorious future and the capacity to realise it. 30 December 1971 * * * Lord, Supreme Truth, We aspire to know You and to serve You. Help us to become children worthy of... rigorous and enlightened discipline on oneself that one can be free from the discipline of others. The supreme discipline is integral surrender to the Divine and to allow nothing else either in one’s feelings or one’s activities. Nothing should be omitted from this surrender. It is the supreme rigorous discipline. 17 February 1972 * * * Sweet Mother, Yesterday You wrote on discipline ...
... him and even giving a racket, shoes, etc. Kalyan-da played some football too. There was a friendly match between the Ashram Veterans Team and the J.S.A.S.A. Team to mark the opening of our Football Field (Sportsground) in 1952. The Mother “kicked off” the match. Nolinida, Tejenda, Anilda (Jhumur’s father), Udaisingh, Vishwanathda (Drawing Office), Kalyan-da, etc. were of the Veteran’s Team. On the... On one of these outings when I asked why the Ashram could not have a banana plantation of its own, he offered to buy some land and put me up as in-charge, with all the amenities like scooter, house, etc. He would have done it immediately had I said “Yes”. But I did not, as I was already working at the Swimming Pool. I told him I wouldn’t mind taking up the job, if he could relieve me of the job I was... bow down next to the Master would not be such an ordeal. Then he turned to look straight into the eyes of the Master, with a mixed feeling of joy and reverence he placed his head on the feet of the Lord, beautiful and soft they were and his whole face sank into the very softness. Then a hand of great weight pressed his head deeper still into that softness. Lingering there for a while, a short while ...
... of 25 September 1914: The Lord has willed and Thou dost execute: A new Light shall break upon the earth. A new world shall be born, And the things that were promised shall be fulfilled. 13 Page 617 A little later, when some of the sadhaks met her upstairs, she took back the message and made a few alterations before returning it: Lord, Thou hast willed, and I execute:... This innate truth of oneness is "a divine action and a divine fact", but whether one is aware of it or not depends on one's consciousness. But the fact exists, whether you are conscious of it or not. For evolution, she concluded, may be regarded as the mutual sacrifice of the Divine and Matter, ...at the very heart of the inconscient there is the divine Consciousness, you aspire, and necessarily... says, "It is not you who aspire, it is the Divine, it is not you who make progress, it is the Divine, it is not you who Page 614 are conscious, it is the Divine" - these are not mere words, it is a fact. » And it is simply your ignorance and your unconsciousness which prevent you from realising it. 7 To cut oneself off from the divine consciousness is verily to become quite u ...
... surrounded by it or Page 102 clothed by it. The Lord himself is present on the Ocean in various forms, Prajna, Hiranyagarbha & Virat, or Vishnu, Brahma and Maheshwara. This is what the Puranas represent as Vishnu on the Serpent of Time & Space in the Causal Ocean & Brahma growing out of the lotus in his navel etc. This is the Lord, the King & Ruler. We must therefore realise all things in... . From this standpoint the Sruti goes on then to describe the Lord. He is kavi , the great seer & poet in the true sense of the word poet; the kavi is he who divines things luminously & distinctly by sheer intuition and whose divinations become, by their own overflow, creations. Paramatman as SatBrahma-Hiranyagarbha has this divine quality of poethood,—which men call the power of creation and... conditions through which it passes, of which life in this world is one; we say इहलोक or मर्त्यलोक, परलोक or स्वर्गलोक, ब्रह्मलोक, गोलोक etc, but we do not say पशुलोक, पक्षिलोक, कीटलोक. If we say आसुर लोक we can mean nothing but the regions of Asuric gloom as opposed to the divine लोकs,, Brahmalok, Golok, Swarga. This is the ordinary meaning when we speak of going to a world after death, and we must not take ...
... is a series of affirmations that envision the cosmic powers of the Divine Mother as Lalita, the Beautiful Mother. She is vimarśarūpini, an explanation of the inexplicable brilliance of the Supreme. She is the Word that explains, since Vak is vimarśa. The Divine Mother is Vak. She is the true knowledge which explains the Supreme in the right way. That is why Kalidasa compared Parvati to the Word... understand the mystic diction of Sri Aurobindo, as Aswapati prepares to enter the realms of the Unknowable, the summit where the Divine Mother resides as an Empress, Sri Mata Sri Maharajni: The Sri Chakra which is the abode of the Supreme Goddess, the Divine Mother, is the residence as well of all her emanations, powers and personalities. Each one of them is distinct, has a definite function... teaches us to draw the divine Shakti to us so she can transform us. The Integral Yoga brings the two poles of reality—Brahman and Shakti, Purusha and Prakriti—together. It does not countenance the mere formulaic mechanics of Tantra nor does it favour the Vedantic rejection of Shakti as a power of illusion that one must overcome. Here Purusha or the Conscious Soul is the Lord while Prakriti the Nature ...
... examples of perfectly organised societies. The difference is that in the lower kingdom there is no individuality except perhaps functional individualisations of the groups into workers and fighters etc. In the case of man his collective life is seen to be evolutionary, starting from small units and tending to create ever larger aggregates. It is important to note that the first unit of collective... constitution but the objects it gives rise to are innumerable and infinitely various. Page 56 In the same way. Energy is one, yet there are many forms of it, like heat, light, electricity, etc. Life is one but there are so many types of it and each type further deploys itself in innumerable forms. Mind, as an instrument of knowledge is one, yet each mind is separate and has so many different... collective life organised as the nation has two gods, ( 1 ) Life and (2) Practical Reason organised under the name of Science. But life is much more intensely individualistic, for family,. society etc. are only a means for greater satisfaction of th& individual vital being. Society, or any collective unit, however large, is only the larger ego for the individual. The relation of the vital being ...
... features recur (journeys, expositions, forecasts), and certain words—tenebrous, golden, nude, plan, lone, Page 448 bright, moon, sun, dark, soul, spirit, self, space, depth, etc. tend to occur again and again. The use of words is not imaginative enough, the rhythm chosen (namely the iambic pentameter) is used with insufficient elasticity, and there are individual word-combinations... , 'thought-food', 'sleet-drift', 'world-kindergarten', 'sea-heart', 'sun-laugh', 'soul-nature and mind-sense', 'star-field space', 'dense-maned monsoon', 'flower-mouth', 'Sun-word', 'heaven-bliss', etc. Even as the Anglo-Saxon poet had somehow to convey in the most vivid or picturesque way possible his ideas and feelings about the sea and the heroic exploits of Beowulf, Sri Aurobindo too had somehow... extinguishes, he is no more. A storm that is brewing subsides, and the waters are absolutely calm; the sky and the stars are reflected in the water. The sky thinks that the reflection is an illusion; the Lord therefore tells him: "Thou foolish sky, know that thou art thyself, with all thy stars, no less an illusion than is that other sky below. The sole reality of all is yonder little lamp, that floats midway ...
... have glimpsed: to wit, the love divine that flowers in him through Heaven's magic touch — the love about which he wrote to me in a letter, in 1934: "It is only divine love which can bear the burden I have Page 271 to bear, that all have to bear who have sacrificed everything else to the one aim of uplifting earth out of its darkness towards the Divine." It is this love — not... friend, 0 voice incarnate, free, Of India's soul!.... When I behold thy face, 'mid bondage, pain and wrong And black indignities, I hear the soul's great song Of rapture unconfined....." etc. Page 268 high brow scholar enlarged on his greatness as a master of English prose and verse; but nobody except Barindra Kumar Ghosh and Motilal Roy spoke about the Seer who sang of Man's... heart for ever mute. Nearer and nearer now the music — draws; Life shudders with a strange felicity; All Nature is a wide enamoured pause : Hoping her Lord to touch, to clasp, to be. So I have often wondered whether we can ever possibly win even a clue to what he aspired to achieve through his breath-taking sadhana of Supramental extending ...
... sacrifices as also the fruit of sacrifices. Again, he is the Supreme Controller of (all) activities that are found in all living beings. (24) No individual celebrating the Lord (through the foregoing encomium) who is in distress, in difficulties, in a great forest as well as in times of peril comes to grief, a scion of Raghu! (25) Worship the Lord of the universe, the adored of (all) gods, with a concentrated... killed the giants, my lord!" (16) Duly circumambulating that chariot (as a mark of respect) and saluting it, as requested (by Mātali), Śrī Rāma then ascended the chariot, illumining (all) the (three) worlds by his splendour. (17) Then ensued, a wonderful and thrilling duel, between the mighty armed Śrī Rāma and the rākshasa, Rāvana. (18) That scion of Raghu, who was supremely skilled in the use... dissipated. Feeling greatly delighted, he retained the hymn in his memory. (28) Sipping water thrice (with the name of the Lord on his lips) and getting purified (in this way), looking intently on (the orb of) the sun and repeating this prayer, the valiant one experienced supreme felicity. Seizing hold of his bow (afterwards) and fixing his eyes on Rāvana, the hero (who felt delighted in mind) advanced ...
... have friendships, enmities, family feelings etc. etc.—these are vital things. I think you are under the impression that an Avatar must be a saint or a Yogi. Page 473 One can be the head of a spiritual organisation or the Messiah of a religion or an Avatar without in this life reaching the Supermind and beyond. Human Judgments of the Divine It is true that it is impossible for the... Page 485 acted as the Lord. His contemporaries saw in him an Avatar of Krishna, a manifestation of the divine love. Shankara and Vivekananda were certainly Vibhutis; they cannot be reckoned as more, though as Vibhutis they were very great. It was not my intention to question in any degree Chaitanya's position as an Avatar of Krishna and the divine love. That character of the manifestation... the arrangement of the omnipresent Divine in Nature, then I can understand and accept it. As for the Divine and human, that also is a mind-made difficulty. The Divine is there in the human, and the human fulfilling and exceeding its highest aspirations and tendencies becomes the Divine. That is what your silly X could not understand—that when the Divine descends, he takes upon himself the ...
... from Here to the Beyond. But the other, the integral, perfection aims at "a liberation and a perfection of his [man's] divine nature". As to how this aim of integral or divine perfection is to be achieved, Sri Aurobindo says: These three elements, a union with the supreme Divine, unity with the universal Self, and a supramental life action from this transcendent origin and through this universality... the Lord for the accomplishment of His work upon earth. And for that each individual soul is a helper and a collaborator, but each human ego is a limitation and an obstacle. 2 The reason, the intellect, was the helper, but now it is a bar; the ego was a helper once, but the ego is now a bar. 3 We needs must exceed the intellect, transcend the ego, if we are truly to serve the Divine. 4 ... but action receiving its authority and initiation from the Supreme. In other words, Sri Aurobindo came to get a movement going - a movement in evolution, yet a movement so radical that it was really a revolution - and get us all involved in this movement from division to union, from corruption to incorruption, from the human to the divine. The rest of the book consists of the Mother's statements ...
... and for all and impose as a rule. Truth is infinite like the supreme Lord himself and it manifests at every moment in those who are sincere and attentive.’ 3 And she wrote to their own disciples: ‘I repeat that in connection with Sri Aurobindo it is impossible to talk of a teaching or even of a revelation: his is a direct Action by the Lord, and thereon no religion can be founded … Spiritual life can... one can do all sorts of things with it, send it out as a stream of force, erect a circle or wall of consciousness around oneself, direct an idea so that it shall enter somebody’s head in America, etc., etc.’ 16 As the yogis of all ages have said, one can learn how to manipulate consciousness. Sri Aurobindo has in the course of many years tested out all these possibilities ‘more scrupulously than... sometimes telling them an experience of his own. ‘When the peace of God descends on you, when the Divine Presence is there within you, when the Ananda rushes on you like a sea, when you are driven like a leaf before the wind by the breath of the Divine Force, when Love flowers out from you on all creation, when Divine Knowledge floods you with a Light which illumines and transforms in a moment all that was ...
... insisting on it, repeating the demand, making use of this person or that person, this device or that device, getting the mind to support it with reasons, representing it as a need that must be satisfied etc. etc. till the desire is satisfied. All that is the evidence of a will in action. When you have to use the will for the sadhana, you have not the Page 14 same persistence, the... surface also has assimilated peace. Or perhaps peace is settled everywhere and always there, but knowledge comes and goes, or strength comes and goes. Or all these are there but Ananda comes and goes, etc. etc. If they stop early, it means that all has been done that could be done and nothing more is possible; the later and more advanced developments of the sadhana are not possible, - if they were... self-giving and dependence and keep nothing for the ego and its desires. Sincerity means to accept the Divine influence only and not that of lower forces. When one learns to leave things to the Divine, isn't He bound to answer all our real needs? The Divine is not bound to do that, He can give or not give; whether He gives or does not give makes no difference to the one ...
... taken the Upanishads and the Gita as practical guidance in his yoga. “The supreme and final word of the Gita for the Yogin is that he should leave all conventional formulas of belief and action, all fixed and external rules of conduct, all constructions of the outward surface Nature, Dharmas, and take refuge in the Divine alone,” he will write in The Synthesis of Yoga . 3 “A partial realization... [the Asura of Falsehood behind Hitler] had made a mess of the world, and the whole affair would have been postponed for centuries. That had to be stopped first of all: that action of the Lord of Nations – the Lord of Falsehood.” 13 We find this confirmed in one of Sri Aurobindo’s letters written in those days: “Now in these times of world-crisis when I have to be on guard and concentrated all the... much that it is on the verge of breaking its own bounds. Also, the world is becoming more united on account of the discoveries of modern science – the aeroplane, the railways, the wireless telegraph, etc. Such a union is the condition for the highest Truth coming down and it is also our difficulty. “Secondly, there is an attempt all over the world towards breaking the veil between the outer and the ...
... and Bliss. 51 Rajangam's is a briefer version: He has conquered Life. He has conquered Death. He has conquered All. Krishna the Lord has descended! 52 And Jaya Devi records: I was told: "Mahashakti, the Supreme Consciousness-Force, has descended into Sri Aurobindo." I could myself see light and glory bursting out of his body. Next day when I was carrying... from France to see Sri Aurobindo, and had recognised in him her Krishna, the Lord of her being and her God. Five years later she had returned, this time from Japan and bringing her friend Dorothy with her, and her feeling for Sri Aurobindo had only deepened if that was possible; and he was now more than ever the Divine Master of her Yoga. Thus the most significant result of her second coming, and... knows for certain on which particular date at what auspicious moment, the word "Mother" was uttered by the lips of Sri Aurobindo. But that was a divine moment in unrecorded time, a moment of destiny in the history of man and earth; for it was at this supreme moment that the Mother was established on this material earth, in the external consciousness of man. 48 XIII From the beginning of ...
... Consciousness, mother Aditi, and her sons, the divine powers of the supreme Deva or Lord. This was the meaning of Vedic immortality. Page 53 There are also references in the second hymn of the fourth Mandala to the seven divine seers, who are the divine Angirasas and the human fathers. Riks 12 to 15 describe the seven Rishis as the supreme ordainers of the world-sacrifice, and put forth... into that which they mean, just as he becomes the Heaven and Earth and the other gods; or, as it is otherwise put, man begets or creates or forms the divine birth in his own being. As Rik 15 says: "Now as the seven seers of Dawn, the Mother, the supreme disposers [of sacrifice, which in psychological terms means self- consecration, the discipline by which the separative sense of egoism is destroyed]... treasures. Later literature mentions sixty-four Kalas, which a cultured lady was expected to master. These included the art of cooking, skill in the use of body ointments and paints for the teeth, etc., music, dancing, painting, garland-making, floor decoration, preparation of the bed, proper use and care of dress and ornaments, sewing, elementary carpentry, repair of household tools and articles ...
... the part he has in yours could be considered objectionable. Page 205 'Sectarianism' is a matter of dogma, ritual etc. not of spiritual experience; the concentration on Krishna is a self-offering to the Ishta Deva. If you reach Krishna you reach the Divine; if you can give yourself to Him you can give yourself to me. In any case it does not very much matter. We have accepted your loyalty... entering the way has to get over similar impediments. It took me four years of inner striving to find a real way, even though the Divine help was with me all the time, and even then it seemed to come by an accident; and it took me ten years more of intense Yoga under a supreme inner guidance to trace it out and that was because I had my past and the world's past to assimilate and overpass before I could... not the Divine but the Devil that had got hold of me. Does not all that justify my phrase 'it seemed to come to me like an accident?' But my meaning is that the ways of the Divine are not like that of humans or in accord with our pat terns so that it is impossible to judge them or to lay down for him what he shall or shall not do, for the Divine knows better than we do. If we admit the Divine at all ...
... heart and its gestures may themselves be a mode of the Divine - they may be like a part longing for the whole. The inmost heart in each of us is the core of earth-existence, the pure psyche which, as I recently wrote to a friend, Sri Aurobindo has characterised as sweetness that is at the same time light, an emanation or delegate of the Supreme Ananda and Truth in the midst of the evolutionary grope... to you: it is part of the general human condition. What you have to do is to let the spells of calm outnumber those of agitation. Don't harbour too many regrets when "things like anger, resentment, etc." crop up in you. These are difficult moods to manage - people who have lived in the Ashram for years are not free from their occasional visits. The right course is always to reject the sense that you... ourselves sincerely to live in and from the soul which the ancient Upanishad has described: "The being within us that is no bigger than the thumb of a man is like a blazing fire without smoke; he is lord of his past and of his future; he alone is today and he alone shall be tomorrow." I hope I haven't lectured out of turn. To do so is the danger always besetting fellows like me who are professional ...
... after the Divine and its aspiration towards the higher life. The soul aspires for union with the Divine. Poetry, literature, music, etc., do they have then any place in that aspiration? Still the Divine gives these things. They are first in life a preparation of the consciousness—but when one does Yoga, they can become a part of the sadhana if done for the Divine and by the Divine Force. But... and make life more substantial and concrete. I am really beginning to doubt if things like divine Love, Knowledge, etc. can be brought down in me! In the old days long before you came plenty of things were brought down—including the love. Hardly one could bear it and even then only in a small measure. Is it any better now, I wonder? it does not look like it. That is why I want the supermind first... absolutely necessary for bringing down Love, Knowledge, etc.,—but don't you think purity is also required? And if peace and purity are to be established, a complete opening of the inner being is essential, and the bringing forward of the psychic. This will naturally take years—so we have to go on starving for Love and Knowledge and other things divine. That is logical and orthodox; but the supramental ...
... ‘Every morning, at the balcony, after establishing a conscious contact with each of those who are present, I identify myself with the Supreme Lord and merge myself completely in Him. Then my body, completely passive, is nothing but a channel through which the Lord passes freely His forces and pours on all His Light, His Consciousness and His Joy, according to each one’s receptivity.’ 69 And to... being to turn towards the Divine Truth as the sunflower to the sun.’ 12 The psychic being is ‘the true evolving individual in our nature.’ It is our central, true being that has taken the plunge into Matter for the joy of participating in the evolution and, in a supreme ecstasy of discovery, to become the divinity that it has been and will be in all eternity. Around the ‘divine spark’ the psychic being... Prayers and Meditations, which she noted down rarely at that time. ‘O my Lord, my sweet Master, for the accomplishment of Thy work I have sunk down into the unfathomable depths of Matter,’ it went. ‘I have touched with my finger the horror of the falsehood and the inconscience, I have reached the seat of oblivion and a supreme obscurity … I know we are unworthy, I know the world is not ready. But I ...
... its perfection above our lower nature of mind, life and body and is also involved, latent, within it. Sri Aurobindo's task was, by bringing about the descent of this Truth-Consciousness of the supreme divine Nature into one individual, himself, to prepare for its general manifestation in this apparently undivine lower nature. The ultimate result of this manifestation would be the transformation... necessary."² 15 December 1950 "Our Lord has sacrificed himself totally for us . ... He was not compelled to leave his body; he chose to do so for reasons so sublime that they are beyond the reach of human mentality . . . . And when one cannot understand, the only thing to do is to keep a respectful silence."³ 26 December 1950 "Lord, we are upon earth to accomplish Thy work... Nearly all newcomers were assigned some work in one or another of the services that were developing: the dining room, the atelier (workshop), the building service, the furniture service, the godowns etc. Sadhana through this work as well as through meditation and bhakti was intensely pursued under the direct supervision of the Mother, who had behind her the silent support of Sri Aurobindo. More ...
... . Page 794 The only direction was towards the Divine, and this direction was upward, downward, inward, outward - it was everywhere! On 22 May, referring to the great opportunity to make extraordinary progress she remarked that she herself was content to make herself physically very small, and leave the rest to the Supreme Lord. She wished her atmosphere to be but an "altogether limpid... experience of the Supreme Truth or of the Divine, not only through the traditional mystic means, but more particularly through life itself in the spirit of Karma Yoga. 13 The Divine was in no distant inaccessible sphere but here, here. Writing on 3 July, the Mother declared: The Divine is not far. He is in ourselves, deep inside and above the feelings and the thoughts. With the Divine is peace and... invoking the Divine, for it was the Divine immanent in the world that was preparing for the "big change". The breath of the Lord was abroad upon the waters of our being, - there was a stir and exhilaration in the air and the new, the superman consciousness that had been abroad for a year was seeking more and more centres for its vigorous functioning. Will mankind let slip that moment of divine opportunity ...
... himself wrote about them later. He talks of how the “thousand petalled lotus Centre above the head opened due to the Grace of the Divine Mother. So too the Brahma-randram. He experienced being transported to many regions of Golden Light, into the presence of the Supreme Lord, full of peace and Ananda. These are a few bits and pieces gathered and patched together by belated promptings from within me... was an old two storied building in a lane near Ambabhikshu garden (our cycle repair department is situated in that lane). Gangadhar had to live on the 1st floor. He had to come down for his ablutions, etc. The stairs were steep and his legs were not as strong as they were a few years before. So, the going up was on all fours. For the coming down his seat too had to participate. He progressed (downwards)... came and went, but he held them all with the same and utmost respect (many of them half his age). Were he late, he apologised to them. He said that the one sitting there (in the head’s chair) was the Divine Mother Herself — not just a representative. Gangadhar was a man with hardly any needs, let alone wants. He had whittled them down to the minimum. He never asked for anything extra, or even complained ...
... of her life in India: see conversation of January 27 . ) Then I've written something else.... They wanted to prepare a sort of brochure on Auroville to distribute to the press, the government, etc., on the 28th, 1 and before that, there is in Delhi in two or three days a conference of all nations ("all nations" is an exaggeration, but anyway they say "all nations"). Z is going there, and she... human body, you know—tremendous! And it goes through [the body] like that. I've had a few times that experience with people: you know that when they come, I always want to give them a "bath of the Lord," as I call it, but some respond and "pull"; and at such times (it has happened once or twice), all the cells seem to swell, like something growing very, very big, huge like this, and there is such... others are terrified! They get up and run away . And there are those who are struck with awe , as they say in English—they get dazed. I've noticed that several times. I simply used to think, "The Lord is doing his action"—but it's not that! It's... it's that there really is something changing in the body. But now it has become clear, conscious, and the body... I just have to stop my activities ...
... Sun", it is the supreme Light which is other and greater than all outer light; the great formula of the Upanishad, "He am I", corresponds to That One, tad ekam , of the Rig Vedic verse; the "standing together of the ten hundreds" (the rays of the Sun, says Sayana, and that is evidently the meaning) is reproduced in the prayer to the Sun "to marshal and mass his rays" so that the supreme form may be seen... seen. The Sun in both the passages, as constantly in the Veda and frequently in the Upanishad, is the Godhead of the supreme Truth and Knowledge and his rays are the light emanating from that supreme Truth and Knowledge. It is clear from this instance—and there are others—that the seer of the Upanishad had a truer sense of the meaning of the ancient Veda than the mediaeval ritualistic commentator with... much vaunted, haloed and apotheosized Veda. There can be no doubt that in the beginning there was a worship of the Powers of the physical world, the Sun, Moon, Heaven and Earth, Wind, Rain and Storm etc., the Sacred Rivers and a Page 4 number of Gods who presided over the workings of Nature. That was the general aspect of the ancient worship in Greece, Rome, India and among other ancient ...
... immense destructions of Nature, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, cyclones, floods, etc., or the violent human destructions, wars, revolutions, revolts, I find the power of Kali, who is working in the earth-atmosphere to hasten the progress of transformation. All that is not only divine in essence but also divine in realisation is by its very nature above these destructions and cannot be touched... was a fight between the Divine and the Asuric forces: The nether forces can never divert or deflect the Divine Decree. That alone is carried out and fulfilled. And in His Will is our peace. ... Through all contraries and adversities, through all that are broken and torn, through all that pass and disappear grows slowly and emerges irrevocably that which the Supreme wills towards the final... personal transformation very difficult, and even seemingly interminable! As she wrote to Huta on 28 July 1964, But the whole world is One and interdependent and this creates a situation that the Supreme Lord alone can alter. 4 II The New Year message for 1965 was the all-sufficing declaration: "Salute to the Advent of the Truth." Something of an amplifiction is provided by the Mother's ...
... whose Face is like an immaculate lotus in full bloom; who is adored by the kings and leaders of the gods; and whose Divine Nature has been hymned in the inspired words of the Vedas - may He, my Lord, the Master of the worlds, reveal Himself to my vision.” "A Hymn to the Supreme Lord of the Universe" by Sri Chaitanya In the second year of his stay at Baroda, i.e. in 1894, Sri Aurobindo... Chandra Bose, the greatest Indian scientist 79, etc. etc., - an unbroken line of outstanding personalities who enriched every sphere of Indian life. We have not mentioned the more recent names, some of which are equally illustrious in their respective fields of thought and activity. All this proves that the Shakti of the nation was well at work, the divine fiat had gone forth, and a great future of i... the time, and Sri Aurobindo twenty- nine. The marriage was celebrated according to Hindu rites, and the function was attended by the great scientist, Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, Lord Sinha, barrister Byomkesh Chakravarty etc. As Sri Aurobindo had been to England, the question of expiation was raised by the orthodox section of the community, but Sri Aurobindo refused to do any expiation, even as his ...
... days) it was 'bleed and douche' — then 'drug and diet' - now it is 'serum and injection'. Praise the Lord! not for the illnesses, but for the doctors. However, each of these formulas has a part truth behind it - with its advantages and disadvantages. As all religions and philosophies point to the Supreme but each in a different direction, so all medical fashions are ways to health - though they don't... about his patients of the day: the nature of their ailments, signs and symptoms shown, possible diagnoses, any complications feared, medicines prescribed or any other curative procedures suggested, etc., etc. Sri Aurobindo used to peruse these reports prepared by NB and send back to the doctor next morning his 'Medical Notebook'. This Notebook invariably contained Sri Aurobindo's own suggestions or his... Becharlal. (After a few days) Dr. NB: Dr. B asked me to shift over to the Dispensary today itself, but I refused, waiting for your full instructions about the furniture, table lamp, management work, etc. Sri Aurobindo: I think there is everything needed over there, table lamp and all. You had better go and see. If so, you will need to take only your personal things. ... You can move in whenever ...
... in everyday life the husband is literally the god, the lord of the married woman, whom she does not address by his name but calls him ‘the Lord of my house’, and whom she worships with ceremonial pujas just like the statues of the gods in the house. A second reason for lower respect shown to the Mother-force is the comparison with the Supreme, generally considered as masculine: she is his force... declare her an Avatar: ‘The Mother is the consciousness and force of the Supreme.’ 15 ‘The Mother was inwardly above the human even in childhood … It is so that you should regard her as the Divine Shakti … She is that in the body, but in her whole consciousness she is also identified with all the other aspects of the Divine.’ 16 When some of his beautiful letters about the Mother had been collected... She the Truth, She the Supreme’ (17.11.63). And the Mother once wrote their names as ‘MOTHERSRIAUROBINDO’ to demonstrate their essential unity. The indivisible unity of the Divine, his manifesting Power and his manifestation are not only of theoretical importance, there are also very important practical consequences. One of these is that the soul, as part of the sexless Divine, is sexless too. In human ...
... them a lot of good. So you can continue showing them. 12 This prayer, Mother? Yes, if you type this out on a piece of paper: "We want to be true servitors of the Divine." And then the prayer: "Supreme Lord, Perfect Consciousness, You alone truly know what we are, what we can do, the progress we must make in order to become capable and worthy of serving You as we want to do. Make... rigorous and enlightened discipline on oneself that one can be free from the discipline of others. The supreme discipline is integral surrender to the Divine and to allow nothing else either in one's feelings or in one's activities. Nothing should ever be omitted from this surrender—that is the supreme and most rigorous discipline. 17 February 1972 Sweet Mother, Yesterday You wrote on discipline... our capacities, but also of our difficulties, so that we may be able to surmount them and serve You faithfully." Page 379 And then this—the conclusion: "The supreme happiness is to be true servitors of the Divine." There are people whom it helps. Did you show them your notebook? I don't show this [meditation] notebook to everyone. I type out the questions on education from the ...
... together with Sri Aurobindo. And there is no end to the labour there …’ ‘O my Lord, my sweet Master, for the accomplishment of Thy work I have sunk down in the unfathomable depths of Matter, I have touched with my finger the horror and the falsehood and the inconscience, I have reached the seat of oblivion and a supreme obscurity,’ 2 she wrote in one of her last Prayers and Meditations. With an... Individual, she embodies the power of these two vaster ways of her existence, makes them living and near to us and mediates between the human personality and the divine Nature.’ 8 The Mother as Maheshwari is the personification of the supreme power and wisdom, as Mahalakshmi of harmony and beauty, as Mahakali of the combative force which destroys with Love in order to build up what is greater, and... sayings by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother analogous with the following: ‘The Mother and I have to give nine-tenths of our energy, to smoothing down things, to keep the Sadhaks tolerably contented, etc. etc. etc. One-tenth and in the Mother’s case not even that can go to the real work; it is not enough.’ 53 However, quotations of this kind would present a wrong picture of the Ashram members as well as ...
... tale, one of the many symbolic myths of the Vedic cycle. Satyavan is the soul carrying the divine truth of being within itself but descended into the grip of death and ignorance; Savitri is the Divine Word, daughter of the Sun, goddess of the Supreme Truth who comes down and is bom to save; Aswapati, the Lord of the Horse, her human father, is 26 Words of the Mother, CWM, Vol. 13, p... this stubbornness of the inconscient Supreme is the presence of Death. The manifesting Supreme thus encounters the obstacle of the antagonist Supreme. The narration of this growing divinity is what we have in Sri Aurobindo's Savitri which indeed is the Epic of the Divine Creation itself. It is the story of the birth and victorious accomplishment of the supreme Goddess in this world of our ignorant... 28 CWM, Vol. 13, p. 64. 29 Georges Van Vrekhem, op.cit., p. 278. the Lord of Tapasya, the concentrated energy of spiritual endeavour that helps us to rise from the mortal to the immortal planes; Dyumatsena, the lord of the Shining Hosts, father of Satyavan, is the Divine Mind here fallen blind, losing its celestial kingdom of vision, and through that loss its kingdom ...
... manoeuvre they would, again, try to cut off the withdrawing French forces and the British Expeditionary Force. The Blitzkrieg would then be over in less than no time, and Hitler would reign as the supreme lord and master of the greatest part of Europe and maybe of the world. However, ‘That evening [of 24 May] four Panzer divisions were stopped at the Aa Canal. The tank crews were astounded. No fire... is being written. And in the same correspondence Sri Aurobindo speaks about ‘the Path I have opened, as Christ, Krishna, Buddha, Chaitanya, etc., opened theirs.’ 17 The task of the Avatar cannot be executed by ordinary earthly beings; that is why the Divine has to come to do the job Himself. Such a mission would be meaningless if the Avatar, to show the way or the Path did not take upon himself... play a central role in it. The word ‘avatar’ means ‘descent’ in Sanskrit. ‘It is a coming down of the Divine below the line which divides the divine from the human world or status.’ 11 In other words, the Avatar is an embodiment of the Divine in a materialized living form, a direct divine incarnation on earth. It becomes clear at once that the avatar concept is actually well-known in the West ...
... all by standards proper to a mere intellectual and abstract poetry which makes "reason and taste" the supreme arbiters, aims at a harmonised poetic-intellectual balanced expression of the sense, elegance in language, a sober and subtle use of imaginative decoration, a restrained emotive element etc. The attempt at mystic spiritual poetry of the kind I am at demands above all a spiritual objectivity... within it. But it need not have been so except for the overriding Will of the Supreme which meant that the possibility of Per version by inconscience and ignorance should be manifested in order to be eliminated though being given their chance, since all possibility has to manifest somewhere. Once it is eliminated the Divine Manifestation in Matter will be greater than it otherwise could be because it... section title ["The Yoga of the Lord of the Horse"] may mystify somewhat. No. The name is Aswapati, Lord of the Horse, and it will be explained elsewhere. I don't want to be allegorical, only mystic and allusive. 10 November 1936 I suppose the name of the section finished yesterday is "Aswapati, Lord of the Horse" and not, as originally conceived, "The Yoga of the Lord of the Horse"? No. The ...
... the way of the battling vital, the way of the imprisoned and suffering physical nature....There are conditions that have been laid down by a Supreme Will, there are many tangled knots that have to be loosened and cannot be cut abruptly asunder.... The Divine Consciousness and Force are there and do at each moment the thing that is needed in the conditions of the .lab our, take always the step that... the common postulates of Indian philosophy: the five material elements, the five tanmātrās, the three guṇas of nature and their intricate interaction, the infinity and immortality of the self etc. There is no vital difference of opinion in regard to these basic truths and realities of existence, because they are truths of Page 214 universal experience, and admit of no doubt and... inscrutable way of swift and radical purification, the sâdhaka's will in tune with the Mother's. The detached, witnessing poise of the purusa tends to merge into that of the bkoktā (enjoyer) and īśwara (Lord) of nature, as the union with the Mother progresses. A whirlwind process of purification follows the transfer of the charge of the Yoga into the hands of the Mother—a process which the human mind can ...
... absolutely the same as the Lord's. There was no difference, no difference at all.... We are That, we are That, we are That. (silence) Later on, I will explain it more clearly. The instrument is not yet ready. It is only the beginning. _____________________________ ¹Here Mother begins speaking French. ²Glory to You, Lord, Triumphant One supreme. Page 145 ... for that purpose, because I remember very well that when the war—the First World War—started and I offered my body up in sacrifice to the Lord so that the war would not be in vain, every part of my body, one after another (Mother touches her legs, her arms etc.), or sometimes the same part several times over, represented a battlefield: I could see it, I could feel it, I LIVED it. Every time it was... though WITHOUT LEAVING THIS STATE, without leaving this state which remained conscious ALL the time, this supreme Consciousness began to reactivate the different centres: first here (Mother points to the centre above the head and then touches the crown of the head, the forehead, throat, chest, etc.) then there, there, there. At each there was a pause while this new realization organised everything. ...
... is teaching you to have an absolute faith and confidence in the Divine Grace, because when they will be complete and perfect, all sorrow and all anxiety will depart from you. I can read in your heart and see in your mind—the attitude, gossips and suggestions from anybody can have no effect on my decisions. My only Guide is the Lord, and my only aim is the Truth. With love and blessings. 25... is enclosed regarding his wife. He hopes to receive a token of Thy Grace to take for her. Let her purify the outer being, and abolish the ego, by a complete and perfect consecration to the Supreme Divine, and the obstacle will be removed. Page 400 The adverse forces are allowed to act only in order to compel us to make ourselves pure and receptive enough for the descent and the union... anybody. Only the Divine will be for you if you are for the Divine." In a flash a whole pathway was lighted for him and the strength given to tread it. Are they not words of our Mother? These words are exactly the message I sent you yesterday evening after I felt you had received my card, as an explanation of what was written. Put your trust in the Divine alone. The Divine will never fail ...
... intermediate contacts.... That is, the relationship with all the intermediary states of being: the gods, etc., heavens, illuminations, revelations and all sorts of music. The supreme Lord alone can satisfy me. And then, there was suddenly such a clear vision that the supremely perfect alone can give this body plenitude. I found that interesting. It's the beginning of something. It started... primal cellular substance freed of its old ghosts, and we will make discoveries that no animal could have made, because it feels perfectly at ease in its cage. Our evil was the hiding place of our supreme good. The Agent of Mutation Mother’s discoveries spread out over many years, they started long before ’68, but it was not before the last higher remnants of the Mind were swept away that her... and its present form ... it was difficult; and when I tried and a deeper consciousness tried to manifest, it used to cause fainting. I mean that the union, the fusion, the identification with the Supreme Presence [or the Power, the “other thing,” the great Current] without that, WITHOUT THIS PHYSICAL MIND, by annulling it, caused fainting 4 . Which means that the physical Mind was a kind of link ...
... X, an advanced sadhak, one 3 inches ahead of Y, should stumble, tumble or fumble while Y, 3 inches behind X, still plods heavily and steadily on, etc. etc. Why, sir, the very idea in X that he is an advanced sadhak (like the Pharisee, "I thank thee, O Lord, that I am not as other unadvanced disciples",) would be enough to make him fumble, stumble and tumble. So no more of that, sir, no more of that... is to preserve oneself by a supreme knowledge and strength that refuses submission even to God if some part of His being should draw one down the path of darkness; and to correct this world-movement at its very source. I am not aware of any state of supreme knowledge in which the separative ego or the individual becomes greater in knowledge and will than the Divine or can by his own separate power... not keep their promise as they wanted to lord it over others. 2 The Mother was not speaking of any Asuras called into the As ram and imposed on some human being there who was to bear the burden of his transformation. She was speaking of certain Page 654 Lords of the Vital who had taken birth in earthly bodies and tried to prepare the Divine Descent, but each imagining that he alone ...
... self-knowledge has fixed in the very birth of the form, at the very starting-point of the force. It is seated within everything as the Lord in the heart of all existences, – he who turns them on as an engine by the power of his Maya; it is within them and embraces them as the divine Seer who variously disposed and ordained objects, each rightly according to the thing that it is, from years sempiternal. “Each... come down, as the case may be, and fit themselves together. The idea that you are shaping the thoughts or fitting them together is an egoistic delusion … “Thoughts, ideas, happy inventions etc., etc., are always wandering about (in thought waves or otherwise) seeking a mind that may embody them. One mind takes, looks, rejects – another takes, looks, accepts. Two different minds catch the same... is a stuff of mind in each man and the incoming thought uses that for shaping itself or translating itself (transcribing we usually call it), but the stuff is finer or coarser, stronger or weaker etc., etc., in one mind than in another. Also there is a mind-energy actual or potential in each which differs and this mind-energy in its recipience of the thought can be luminous or obscure, sattwic, rajasic ...
... life". Will it give them a chance to think seriously? I wonder. Yes, try it is very much needed. Money seems to have become the Supreme Lord these days. Truth is receding in the background; as for Love it is quite out of sight! I mean Divine Love, because what human beings call love is a very good friend of money. Blessings. 13 June 1964 * Page 58 ... doing his Yoga. Moreover, every difficulty and every difficult student should be an opportunity for him to find a divine solution to the problem. 5 August 1963 * If the children, even very small, are taught to put things in order, classify objects by kind, etc. etc., they like it very much and learn very well. There is a wonderful opportunity to .give them good lessons of arrangement... discipline, self-control, consecration, psychological understanding, infectious enthusiasm, to awaken in the student the part which is asleep: the will to know, the need for progress, self-control etc. Just as we organise the school in such a way as to be able to discover and help outstanding students, in the same way, the responsibility for classes should be given to outstanding teachers. ...
... January 1937 Hirendranath Dutt, theosophist and philosopher, in one of his articles on Rāslīlā , asks why mystics and yogis use so much the imagery of passion, wine etc. in their description of experiences of Divine Love. Then he quotes Underhill to say "... it [human love] most certainly does offer upon lower levels a strangely exact parallel to the sequence of states in which man's spiritual... mystic life." I don't agree—unless it is a sadhana of the vital plane which then naturally expresses the vital being = love-excitement, love-quarrels, viraha , 75 revolt, despair, rupture etc., etc., frequent surrenders, unions, partings. Dutt has said that according to the Ancients, pleasure of the sex-act is something akin to the Ananda of Brahman. Why? In answer to this, Ouspenski, a... authority. Has she been made to wait or neglected?... I find that patients here, especially ladies, want to be served quickly—5 minutes at the most! They can't wait, they must go, they have work, etc., etc. Important people, you see—necessary for the world action, লোকসংগ্রহায় চ, 77 can't be kept waiting. A seems much reduced and has become a pucca hypochondriac. We have decided to keep him ...
... which he writes: "Our Abu Hussain this month at the Capitol was a tremendous success and I believe we can say without exaggeration that we were able to revolutionise Bombay audiences...” etc. etc. O Lord of Bombast, thou hast perched on poets' tongue! Not only that, he actually philosophizes: "Life is a mirror which returns smile for smile, frown for frown.” Does it, indeed! Why then did Sri... concealment from the Divine, or oneself, or the Guru, a straight look at one's nature and one's movements, a straight will to make them straight. It does not so much matter if it takes time; one must be prepared to make it one's whole life- task to seek the Divine. Purifying the heart means after all a pretty considerable achievement and it is no use getting despondent, despairful, etc., because one finds... I have always said that since your soul wants the Divine truly, you are sure to reach Him. There is only one logic in spiritual things—when a demand is there for the Divine, a sincere call, it is bound one day to have its fulfilment. It is only if there is a strong insincerity somewhere, a hankering after something else—power, ambition, etc.— Page 87 which counterbalances the ...
... Once the "supreme discovery" of the indwelling Divine has been made, once the missing link with the Divine source has been restored, once one has apprehended the unity of spirit and matter in the universe, then all ills and rages must be annulled, and a radiant new light and joy must manifest itself. The essay concludes with words that carry a vast power of conviction, prophecy and divine assurance:... in what we can become through effort, we have no faith in the integral and profound transformation which will be the work of our true self, of the eternal, the divine who is in all beings, if we surrender like children to its supremely luminous and far-seeing guidance. 19 Secondly, even as we have to play the role of censor in respect of what we complacently look upon as our "own" thoughts... this kind of emotion - indeed so deep, so intense - that the world manifests the Divine, that there is something behind the world which is the Divine. So I find that devotion without gratitude is quite incomplete, gratitude must come with devotion. 17 The love and adoration of the Divine - and the Divine behind things, beings and actions - must also induce the feeling of pure joy and ...
... it's not the solution. From your personal point of view, you were quite right. Yes, but then I wonder if it isn't egoistic? No, my child! Sri Aurobindo used to tell me, "The Divine is the supreme egoist!" (Mother laughs and everyone laughs) Page 230 ... chapter from his book On the Way to Superman hood, the disciple quoted the following passage from one of Sri Aurobindo's letters:] "...I don't believe in advertisement except for books, etc., and in propaganda except for politics and patent medicines. But for serious work it is a poison. It means either a stunt or a boom — and stunts and booms exhaust the thing they carry on their crest... cleared up only when Aurovilians turn directly to Mother, and hence I wish they would go directly to the Source instead of going to an intermediary." Then I added amicably that I could nevertheless... etc. You did well. He has an idea of how to make the Matrimandir, and others have another idea, but then [the architect] is going to arrive soon - I would like to wait for [the architect] ...
... and I painted them so it wouldn't show! This is to tell you the state I was in—poor as a turkey. So one day, in a shop window, I saw a very pretty petticoat much in fashion then, with lace, ribbons, etc. (It was the fashion in those days to have long skirts which trailed on the floor, and I didn't have a petticoat which could go with such things—I didn't care, it didn't matter to me in the least, but... this experience, and at the same time respond with the most amiable of smiles to the most idiotic questions! And then, it always ends in the same way, by a canticle to the action of the grace: 'O, Lord! You are truly marvelous! All the experiences I have needed to pass through You have given to me, all the things I needed to do to make this body ready You have made me do, and always with the feeling... almost require some gigantic instrument), a tiny, obscure point in an im-men-sity of Light, and that little point was the body. At the same time—it was absolutely simultaneous—I saw the Presence of the Supreme as a very, very, very, VERY immense Being, within which was 'I' in an attitude of ... ('I' was only a sensation, you see), an attitude ... ( gesture of surrender ) like this. There were no limits, ...
... November 24, 1931 O My Lord, my sweet Master, for the accomplishment of Thy work I have sunk down into the unfathomable depths of Matter, I have touched with my finger the horror of the falsehood and the inconscience, I have reached the seat of oblivion and a supreme obscurity. But in my heart was the Remembrance, from my heart there leaped the call which could arrive to Thee: “Lord, Lord, everywhere Thy... you are bound to receive shocks and hard blows too so long as you indulge in such false ideas as “my taking sides” with one or another etc. This is completely wrong and baseless and you must get rid of this way of thinking altogether if you wish to be close to the Divine. With my love and blessings. Sahana, I am very glad to hear of this new opening and fine experience. Always when one faces... can decide my life or my death, my happiness or my sorrow, my pleasure or my pain, whatever you do with me, whatever comes to me from you will lead me to Divine Rapture.’” What can I say about my inner feeling when I received from her this supreme boon! What did she reveal to me through this prayer of Radha, what tone of complete surrender did she make me hear? This was my constant thought. Her every ...
... the whole roll. You take out the piece and say, "Well, so much is for this purpose, so much for another purpose, etc." So, the roll is measured out. Now, this is one sense in which we have to look at the process that must have, or seems to have, taken place. A formative power of the Supreme has created the world which is his measured out cosmos, or measured out Self-expression; therefore, it is not unreal... with the indivisible force that is All, and individual nature has to reproduce the nature of the original creative Divine Delight, the nature of the Satchidananda, which is perfect. Then it is always the same delight, of oneness in all; it is harmony realized by the realization of the Supreme, Satchidananda. That might give us the resolution of this problem. Delight is the problem and Delight is... universal delight is flowing all the time. It is possible to taste the sap that all things have. The Upanishad says in one of its great epigrammatic utterancs "He, the Supreme, is Rasa, the essence of delight". The ultimate truth of the Supreme is the essentiality of delight. We don't receive it because we look to the manner in which it flows, and not to the essence. We look at the outer form of it ...
... There is the Supreme beyond description, who manifests himself as Sat, Chit, Ananda; in this Sat is the universal individuality of beings. Then comes the Supermind with its four Maha Shaktis, great powers. On the Supermind unity is the governing principle. ? Then comes the world of the Gods, below the Supermind and behind the manifestation. The Gods of Hindu culture – Shiva, Vishnu etc. – are names... with the Puranic Devatas. Disciple : Can we take the Vedic gods ? Aurobindo : I was not even thinking of the Vedic gods. These smaller gods and Asuras are not the powers of the Supreme, the Divine; they are powers of the soul and formations on Nature-plane of universal vital. Disciple : Is not the "heaven" in which man's soul is supposed to enjoy after death different from this... things which he is not compelled to do by need ; e.g. overeating lust etc. Sri Aurobindo : There are no such universal laws of nature. If you ask people who have lived a long life you will find one saying that he lives long because he has kept to what you would call the laws of nature, that he is not smoking or taking wine etc. While another will say that he has been able to live long because he ...
... chain of Karma, for the purposes of the Divine Will in us; for that is what the Greater Self in us is, he is the Lord of her works and unaffected by the troubled stress of her reactions. The soul ignorant in Nature, on the contrary, is enslaved by that ignorance to her modes, because it is identified there, not felicitously with its true self, not with the Divine who is seated above her, but stupidly... workings. To break this knot, no longer to make the ego the centre and beneficiary of our works, but to derive all from and refer all to the divine Supersoul is the way to become superior to all the restless trouble of Nature's modes. For it is to live in the supreme consciousness, of which the ego-mind is a degradation, and to act in an equal and unified Will and Force and not in the unequal play of the... Eastern spiritual viewpoint, is now coming close to the ideas of the East. However, psycho-spiritual concepts like mastery, meditation, disidentification, peace, spontaneity, living in the here and now, etc., which have been recently emerging in Western psychological thought, have a much deeper connotation in the East. This is due to the fact that in the East such concepts are founded on a system of ps ...
... sincere, honest, truthful, faithful, virtuous, good, successful, valid and their cognates. Clearly these nominal or adjectival forms of satya are value-impregnated. It is also name of Visnu the supreme lord. Siva means the God who in whom all things lie. It connotes auspicious, propitious, gracious, favourable, benign, kind, benevolent, friendly, dear, happy and fortunate. In the Hindu pantheon... Value-theorists are still debating whether values are subjective, objective, relational, absolute, or relative, etc. whether value judgments are descriptive, emotive, or prescriptive etc., whether or not there is any primary value, and if there is, which value is primary and which is secondary, etc., etc. Unless these debates are settled—and there does not seem to be a chance of their being settled in the near... maker-financier, Page 46 and so on and so forth. Among the material sources are included not only the building, library, laboratory, playground, finance, etc. but also such paltry items as chalk and duster and blackboard, etc. It is very likely that all the items, which should be there to make the infrastructure complete in every respect may not be there because it is not possible to arrange ...
... Soul, the line A being no bigger than the thumb of man, [p. 526] is a translation from the Katha Upanishad where the inmost soul of man, divine in essence, governing his many lives and evolving through the ages into the Supreme Spirit's infinity, is spoken of in these terms. In the long passage (pp. 598-99) beginning – But now the half-opened lotus bud of her heart... . [p. 341] And the meaning of the name is indirectly conveyed to us at the conclusion of the same Canto: The Lord of Life resumed his mighty rounds In the scant field of the ambiguous globe. [p. 348] "Aswapathy" literally stands for "The Lord of the Horse". But in the old Vedic symbolism the Horse represents the Life Force. Page 114 The true Sanskrit... stress system and the foot measure." About the symbolism Sri Aurobindo wrote: "The Bird of Fire is the living vehicle of the gold fire of the Divine Light and the white fire of the Divine Tapas and the crimson fire of Divine Love - and everything else of the Divine Consciousness." Here we may quote some lines from Savitri, Book I, Canto 2, together with Sri Aurobindo's remarks in reference to ...
... This circumstance throws a considerable light on the true nature of pain. Sortilege. RV I. 93 अग्निषोमविमं सु मे शुणुतं वृषणा हवं । प्रति सूक्तानि हर्यतं भवतं दाशुषे मयः ।। O Agni (lord of divine Tapas) and Soma (lord of Ananda), hear perfectly my call, take joy in the things perfectly expressed in me, become Ananda to the giver (of the sacrifice of action). This expresses the next necessity of the... momentary cinematographic glimpse on a more extended scale, eg a street and its movements etc. Page 366 29 December 1913 The Shakti is busy extending the subjective & pranic ananda in objective touches which are still discomfortable, eg heat in the entrails, nausea, tejas effective of discharge of purisha etc and purging out all tendencies to return of asantosha in ill-effect. Increasing premananda... distant present in addition to errors of placement in patra, desha, kala etc is now being fully displayed & worked out without disturbing the sraddha of Yogatattwa & Yogasiddhi. 11 January 1914 The vishayadrishtis are beginning slowly to regularise themselves. The one or two clear symbol shabdas (watch, flute, horn etc) are now coming more often & quite unmistakably sukshma. The rupa, apart from ...
... too that some Power or Powers undivine in their nature present themselves as the Supreme Lord or as the Page 38 Divine Mother and claim the being's service and surrender. If these things are accepted, there will be an extremely disastrous consequence. If indeed there is the assent of the Sadhak to the Divine working alone and the submission or surrender to that guidance, then all can go... there is not the surrender. Surrender means to consecrate everything in oneself to the Divine, to offer all one is and has, not to insist on one's ideas, desires, habits, etc., but to allow the divine Truth to replace them by its knowledge, will and action everywhere. * Always keep in touch with the Divine Force. The best thing for you is to do that simply and allow it to do its own Page... consecration of all the being and calling down into the body and the most material nature the supreme Ananda. * Purity is to accept no other influence but only the influence of the Divine, Faithfulness is to admit and to manifest no other movements but only the movements prompted and guided by the Divine. * Sincerity means to lift all the movements of the being to the level of the ...
... our side. MYSELF: Some people, I think, declared at that time that you had conquered sleep, food, disease, etc. Was there any truth in that statement? SRI AUROBINDO: I am not aware of this gorgeous proclamation. What was said was that the Divine (Krishna or the Divine Presence or whatever you like) had come down into the material. It was also proclaimed that I was retiring - obviously... From the record the following excerpts are the most relevant:¹ The Supreme is beyond description. That manifests as Sat-Chit-Ananda (Existence-Consciousness-Bliss). This is triune, but it also forms three worlds. In the world of Sat, the beings are not separately individualised but have a divine universality. There Consciousness-force and Ananda are held back and subordinated... white light is her own characteristic power, that of the Divine Consciousness in its essence."² Not only is a fusion of Sri Krishna and Sri Aurobindo indicated but also the Mother's presence is shown to be in it. Elsewhere Sri Aurobindo, speaking of the various modes of Krishna's being, first mentions the many-sided supreme reality that is Krishna of the Gita and then describes him ...
... upon earth with a "soul", a divine spark, growing through them wider and brighter by means of various experiences undergone by assuming diverse personalities across the ages; (2) a process of realising our existence on plane after plane beyond the earth, a higher and still higher self of our own in superhuman regions culminating in the world of a supreme "Surya", a divine Sun of Knowledge and Bliss... in the article (brandy, etc.) he was also obeying a higher law - the law of total love and self-surrender. (4) The correspondent himself: There is no suggestion that he should give up vegetarianism. Vegetarianism may well be contributing to his sadhana if it leads him towards reverence for and harmony with all created things and so to greater realisation of the Divine." (23.11.1992)... wrongness so that no disparity with the left leg may be left. Don't feel anxious about me. I am well taken care of and I both eat and sleep normally. And at the Samadhi I shall appeal to our Lord and the Divine Mother to help my deeply cherished friend. (23.10.1992) As regards a photo of you which I have requested, it is all right if you have shunned being snapped for several years ...
... spiritual community: 'Then about Motilal's group. What Motilal got from me is the first foundation, the base of my yoga — surrender, equality etc. He has been working on these things; the work is not complete.... I have spoken in my English writings of the "divine life". Nolini has translated this as devajivana. The community of those who want the deva-jivana is the deva-sangha. Motilal has begun... occasion carried its significance to all in the divine dynamism of the silence, in its unearthly dignity and grandeur and in the utter beauty of its every little act. The deep impress of divinity which everyone got was for him a priceless treasure. 'Sri Aurobindo and the Mother went inside. Immediately Datta was inspired. In that silence she spoke: "The Lord has descended into the physical today."' ... meditation and blessings many had distinct experiences. When all was over they felt as if they had awakened from a divine dream. Then they felt the grandeur, the poetry and the absolute beauty of the occasion. It was not as if a handful of disciples were receiving blessings from their Supreme Master and the Mother in one little corner of the earth. The significance of the occasion was far greater than ...
... through and beyond all sorrow and evil. Whatever difficulties and perplexities arise, be sure of this that I am leading thee to a complete divine life in the universal and an immortal existence in the transcendent Spirit." 99 Eckhart conveys this supreme secret of the Gita in a form more accessible to the modern mind. How to transform the unconsciousness of the mind into the consciousness... spiritual transformation, not a mere illumining modification of our nature, is to be done at all, we must call in the Divine Shakti 100 to effect that miraculous work in the individual; for she alone has the needed force, decisive, all-wise and illimitable. 101 Commenting on the supreme secret of the Gita, Sri Aurobindo writes: For a time comes in spiritual development when we become aware... by the Divine Power. Thus, Sri Aurobindo speaks of two somewhat overlapping periods, movements, or stages in yoga. In the first, which is one of the process of surrender, the individual prepares oneself for the reception of the divine action. In this first movement of preparation through personal effort, a continual rejection of all that interferes with and falsifies the divine action is called ...
... which I call the Divine—perhaps Sri Aurobindo called it the Supramental, I don't know; it's something like that, which is tomorrow's realization (I don't know how to name it); so when everything is thoroughly upset and I feel really awful, then “That” consents to intervene. The transition isn't pleasant, that's all. Along with sharp pains, and ... impossible to take any food, etc. etc. Evidently someone... either), but ... it gives a bizarre impression of life. One moment, the impression that you don’t depend on anything, that you are an expression (how could I put it? [Mother smiled] an expression of the Lord, and that you depend on nothing; the next minute, that you are nothing at all, merely a sort of semiconscious movement in the middle of a general semi-consciousness—very unpleasant. It’s like that,... cell of her body was fully conscious, there was no “other side” of forgetting, nowhere to escape from that. Can we understand?… It’s so horrible that it ... I am tempted to say, pray for me. 17 Lord…. At the same time, a disciple who had a remarkable power of vision saw this, which I noted down: “Mother was going down and down, sinking into the earth, then She was as if completely enveloped ...
... in the clouds, together with them, to meet the Lord in the air. So we shall stay with the Lord for ever. With such thoughts as these you should comfort one another." The new truth emerging from the passage is in the words: "We can tell you this from the Lord's own teaching." They connote that what Paul taught is the very message of his divine Master Jesus. Directly they refer to the statement... ly on our argument because of the phrase: "the day of the Lord." The final universal Resurrection is in view in connection with the condemned man: hence the saving of his spirit on that occasion should imply the passage of this spirit from the soul-body, which the kingdom of God excludes, to the spirit-body which is the ultimate and supreme gift to the devoted Christian by the "life-giving spirit"... n as our background, we may take up 1 Thessalonians 5:23 as the starting-point for our study. The words - "for the coming of our Lord" - show Paul, as often elsewhere, haunted by the idea of the Parousia which would transfigure the Christian, inducting him into a divine existence. But, as 1 Corinthians 15:44, 50 makes it explicit, what exists before the transfiguration is the soul-body, the animated ...
... : It means : "We choose the Supreme Light of the divine Sun; we aspire that it may impel our minds." The Sun is the symbol of the divine Light that is coming down and Gayatri gives expression to the aspiration asking that divine Light to come down and give impulsion to all the activities of the mind. In this Yoga, also, we want to bring down that divine Sun to govern not only the mind but... Aurobindo : They are also in the hands of the Shakti – the divine Power. She knows what fruit to give and what not. When that kind of desirelessness is established you have to go on offering all your actions as a sacrifice to God. You must realise that it is the Shakti that does the work in yourself and She offers the same as a sacrifice to the Lord. The more desirelessness in the action, the purer the... mind when one tries to combine things that rationally cannot be put together such as purity, swaraj, politics, religion etc. with Khadi! Nobody objects to Khadi being used on its own merits. Page 57 Why not use it as such ? Why put music, religion, swaraj etc. into it ? Disciple : In the days of Khilafat-agitation they used to say : "Swaraj is Khilafat" (meaning thereby ...
... immortals, the divine and delightful name; who shall give us back for our higher being in the vastness so that I may see my Father and see my Mother? (2) Of Agni first of the Immortals let us meditate the divine and delightful name; he shall give us back for our higher being in the vastness and I shall see my Father and see my Mother. (3) O God creator, around thee, the master of things supreme, we desire... outpourings. (4) When thou comest not to them, O Indra, thy voices laugh up to thee, seeking unfulfilled satisfaction to their lover and lord. (5) Excite entirely,O Indra, that manifold highest ecstasy below,—that Is of thee which is universal being and supreme. (6) Us too in that, O Indra, wholly excite to bliss; make us full of strong ecstasy and victorious strength, O thou brilliant in steadfast... it is to uphold Daksha [ ], enjoy the yajna by the truth. (7) For the rich in substance the lord of substance laden-handed in the sacrifice propitiateth the god in the yajnas. (8) May the lord of substance give to us the riches of which ’tis told; for these we desire in the gods. (9) The lord of substance would drink, make the offering and stand forward, be ye subject to the laws of truth ...
... Gita through an Indian who had come to Europe. He had told her, "Read it with THAT knowledge- with the knowledge that Lord Krishna represents the immanent God, the God within you." She not only studied the Gita, but within a month, she attained to the realization of the immanent Supreme. Soon thereafter, she went to Tiemcen in Algeria to work with Max Theon and his wife Madame Theon. Theon was well... Prakamya. Vyapti is the siddhi by means of which thoughts, feelings, etc. or others or any kind of knowledge of things outside oneself are felt coming to the mind from those things or persons. This is the power of receptive Vyapti. There is also a power of communicative Vyapti, when one can send or put one's own thought, feeling, etc. into someone else. Prakamya is the siddhi when one looks mentally... physical power. In the physical it shows itself by abnormal strength which is not muscular and may be even developed into the power of increasing the size (Mahinia) and weight of the body (Garima), etc. Laghima is a similar power of lightness that results in the freedom from all pressure or weighing down in the mental, pranic or physical being. Laghima is the basis ofutthapana or levitation. That ...
... obliged to go down. But my love remains with you with all its intensity. And in the intensity of this love, I have prayed and prayed to our Lord asking Him to pour His Grace upon you and to make you consciousness of the Divine Light and Soul in you, to give you the supreme realisation of His Presence. With all my heart I kiss you, mon enfant cheri The Mother My dearest little child, No, no, you... to you. The inner life is always possible if there is present in the nature however much covered over by other things, a divine possibility through which the soul can manifest itself and build up its own true form in mind and life, — a portion of the Divine. In you this divine possibility exists in a marked and exceptional degree. There is in you an inner being of spontaneous light, intuitive vision... dreams — in the first one she was facing an ocean, but all the front was hidden by shadows and black rocks. She was considering these shadows and rocks and reckoning them for what they were (difficulties etc.) when suddenly the sun rose marvellous and dazzling — The light was so intense that all shadows and rocks were swallowed up by it. In the second I had given her a lot of dirty clothes to wash; they ...
... asking the Lord, "Well, I made You a vow to do this, I had said, ‘Even if it’s necessary to descend into hell, I will descend into hell to do it.Now tell me, what must I do?... ” The Power was plainly there; suddenly everything in me became still; the whole external being was completely immobilized and I had a vision of the Supreme ... more beautiful than that of the Gita. A vision of the Supreme. And this... “What! You’re attached to smoking, you, a yogi?” etc. Whereupon Sri Aurobindo replied, What! You're attached to non-smoking?.. . There we have it in a nutshell, quite simply. There is something radical to change. When our ultimate truths have collapsed and our hands have let drop their smoking or non-smoking, violence or non-violence, divine or non-divine, we will silently begin to breathe a light air... Mother or The Divine Materialism - I 17: Japan Once again, She crossed the old postern with its liana of “Faithfulness," but this time it was to leave. It was February 22, 1915. She would come back only five years later. Solitude, a harsh solitude ... flung headlong into a hell of darkness! 1 The outward reason was Richards mobilization, but who ...
... individual milieu to the Straight Consciousness, the Exact Consciousness, the Truth-Consciousness, which we may call the Divine or the Lord or whatever we wish—the important thing is to taste it. Indeed, it can be tasted: It was as if I was plunged in a bath of the Supreme's Love.... [For the body it is a bath, it is not a sentiment.] And it's a kind of homogenous vibratory mass, immobile, yet... But once you come out of it, it is different. Once you come out of it, it is divine. It is the Divine. And everything remains just as concrete and just as real—it doesn't become misty. It's just as concrete, just as real, but... it becomes divine, because... because it is the Divine. Its the Divine playing... 30 See, that Lord, how many things He possesses: He plays with all that—He plays, He plays at... which She called the Straight Vibration or the Vibration of Supreme Love, or... another way of being of life. At any level whatsoever, there is always a goal. We here speak of the "supramental realization" as the goal. Just recently, though, I don't know what happened, but something seemed to take hold of me... with this perception of the Supreme who is everything, everywhere, who does everything—what ...
... the mantras necessary for the propitiation and manifestation of the gods. And the Brahmanas provide all the details connected with the ceremonies, sacrificial rites, etc. The Upanishads are the repository of the knowledge of the supreme Being divested of ceremonies and allegories. The Samhitas have laid stress on the forms of religious culture, while the Upanishads on the spirit of it. In a way, the... etam purusam... ("I know this Purusha, Supreme, of the Light of the Sun, beyond the darkness.") We all know that this is a famous utterance of the Upanishad. But do we know that it is a mere ocho of the Vedic mantra udvayam tamasaspari... (1.50.10) ("We have seen the supreme Light beyond the darkness, we have attained the God amongst the gods, the Sun, the Supreme Light.")? Or, hdra manasa...3 "in the... expressed differently by the men of knowledge) or, tat Visno param padam...diviva cakuratatam (That is the supreme Status of Vishnu, as if an Eye wide open in the heavens) or, Brhaspatih prathamam jayama mano jyotisah parame Vyoman (Brihaspati being born first as a great Light in the supreme Heaven)-the meanings of these words are by no means obscure or ambiguous. The meanings as well as the ideas ...
... certain relations are required to be fulfilled, proportion, harmony, etc. Otherwise the form is not beautiful. Sri Aurobindo : Well, that is not the whole of beauty. Neither is it the most essential element. You can say "That is how beauty expresses itself". But it is not the essence of beauty – lines, proportions etc. are there only as its supports, especially in the beauty of forms, not... not so much in other kinds of beauty. There is, for instance, beauty of emotion – of thought – of force – of Ananda etc. By observing the rules about line, proportion, rhythm, harmony etc, a man does not become an artist. Every time a new creator comes into the field of art he brings something which to others appears perhaps out of proportion. Then a time comes when people begin to see and discover... but are beautiful and some spiritual men are not beautiful. Disciple : What is meant by saying that the Supreme is the True, the Good and the Beautiful '' satyam-śivam-sundaram”? Sri Aurobindo : That is a different thing. The "True" can be the mental form of the Supreme Truth, the "Good" has a relation to morality. Whereas ''Beauty" is different with different men, there is no one ...
... of fluidity between the two which makes it difficult. It is only this great Faith, totally immobile, luminous, constant, immutable – the Faith in the real existence of the supreme Lord, in the sole real existence of the Supreme – which enables everything to continue to be the same in appearance.’ 19 The Mother’s experiences not only took her into realms which are being discovered by present-day... taking at the moment, from the physical body to the being in the physical body, to the Mother in the sadhana, to the Universal Mother in any of her aspects or emanations, to the very Supreme identified with ‘the Lord.’ × And the psychic being, but, strange to say, the Mother will become conscious of... too saw the immensity of the gap between their animal-human way of existing and the divine way. ‘The difference becomes more and more painful,’ said the Mother. As soon as the attention of her body was not focused on the Divine, did not take its support on the Divine, it became very miserable. To forget the Divine one minute became a ‘catastrophe.’ The old way of being conscious was now comparable ...
... in which illusion10 is only a small surface phenomenon with an immense Divine Reality behind it and a supreme Divine Reality above it and an intense Divine Reality in the heart of everything that had seemed at first only a cinematic shape or shadow. And this was no reimprisonment in the senses, no diminution or fall from supreme experience, it came rather as a constant heightening and widening of the... transform by the descent of the supramental Light the physical life into the Page 14 life divine. Not merely the liberation of the Spirit, but also the liberation of Nature, the transmutation, radical and complete, of the Aparā Prakriti into the Parā Prakriti, of the lower Nature into the Supreme and supramental Nature, this has been the aim and also the achievement of Sri Aurobindo's Yoga... the supramental Consciousness into our entire being and nature.'22 This would also mean a complete synthesis of divine knowledge, divine love and divine action, leading to an integral perfection of all the members, parts and planes of being the divine supermind in the divine body, a temporal sign of the spirit's victory here over Death and Matter. It is impossible to describe or even to ...
... woollen fabrics, hosiery, shoes etc. began to be manufactured and marketed on an ever-widening scale. The textile mills of Gujarat came forward with remarkable promptness and generosity to help Bengal in respect of textile goods, and it contributed to a substantial increase and expansion of their own business into the bargain. All this was the laudable fruit of Lord Curzon's malicious policy. Swadeshi... spirit, all other freedom is at his command; for the Free is the Lord who cannot be bound. When he is liberated from delusion, he perceives the divine equality of the world which fulfils itself through love and justice, and this perception transfuses itself into the law of government and society. When he has perceived this divine equality, he is brother to the whole world, and in whatever position... like the spread of theosophy within a short space of time, the appreciation of the Vedanta in America, the indirect and incipient dominance of India on the philosophy and thought of the West etc. But the supreme sign is the sudden resurgence of India, which has surpassed all expectation. Indians are rising to conquer their place of the Guru of the world and inaugurate a new age.... "How true ...
... open access to the supreme liberation and the highest dwelling in the Eternal. Man and woman find their equal 183 (1966), 319-320. Page 128 right before God; for the divine Spirit is no respecter of persons or of social distinctions and restrictions: all can go straight to him without intermediary or shackling condition. "If" says the divine Teacher, "even a man... much anxious difficulty towards the Eternal; but when the soul gives up its ego and its work to the Divine, God himself comes to us and takes up our burden. To the ignorant he brings the light of the divine knowledge, to the feeble the power of the divine will, and to the sinner the liberation of the divine purity, to the suffering the infinite spiritual joy and Ananda. Their weakness and the stumblings... don't believe, the fact that you love Page 130 me is enough. This is what divine love is. A true love. If we can love the Divine in this way well, forgetting our ego, that itself is a big achievement. Mother also said in one context, "I show my Divine form only to those who love me" - Divine form, mind you. Sri Krishna said to Arjuna after the world vision: "I've shown these ...
... and 3 would be on personal possession. The only real way to cure desire is self-giving to the Divine and accepting what He gives you as the only things necessary. But that's already very advanced. In the beginning you said that the Aurovilians had come "to escape all moral conventions, etc., but that it wasn't to give free reign to license... Yes, that's it. (Mother writes:) ... human consciousness which should lead man towards his superior realization." Then, "programme"... (Mother laughs) PROGRAMME Research through experience of the Supreme Truth. A life divine but NO RELIGIONS. That's good. Page 33 Oh, very good!... It's the "religious” there that bothers me. Then we'll take it out! Because, in fact you say... sense of a "life essentially preoccupied with the discovery of or search for the Divine." There aren't any words in French, and it's not "spiritual". Divine? We have to find a word—we can put this: "Auroville is for those who want to live a divine life..." Yes, "a life essentially divine,” yes. "Divine” is wide, Sweet Mother. (silence) Is it finished?... There was so ...
... Light. The pleasure attached to it is a degradation and not a true form of the divine Ananda. The true divine Ananda in the physical has a different quality and movement and substance; self-existent in its essence, its manifestation is dependent only on an inner union with the Divine. You have spoken of Divine Love; but Divine Love, when it touches the physical, does not awaken the gross lower vital p... presence of a sinister farce invented by goodness knows what divine masochist. If God exists, he must be a little less foolish than that, and we are entitled to think that this material evolution has a divine sense and that it is the field of a divine manifestation in Matter. Our spiritual discipline must therefore aim at gaining this divine man or perhaps that other, still unknown being who will emerge... Of course you don't like to have scenes, so you don't say anything. You simply abstain from going there. But it's been going on for a long time, more than a year. Without mentioning names, A., G., etc. [Western disciples]. Again, it's the non-Indian disciples who go there. 6 Yes! That's what this Italian said to me, and he added, "That Canadian and his so-called 'girl,' what does it all mean ...
... of other facilities such as cardiogram, blood examination, etc. In short he said that he had no objection to any other doctor being called in. Things drifted along. One day Pranab told me that the condition had slightly improved and we should keep quiet. But the improvement was illusory. Symptoms of difficulty in breathing, swallowing, etc., were now noticeable. A few days later, when Champaklal... attendants. I did not know what to do next. Meanwhile the Mother’s condition was none too happy. My mind kept harping on the bad effect of Coramine. My only recourse in such a predicament was to pray to the Lord and I prayed fervently, not knowing, of course, what effect the prayer would produce and particularly in what manner. At the same time I remained alert in order to seize any available opportunity for... among Page 118 patients from a very ordinary class of people and almost every week one of them going to the other world, amidst the loud lamentations of relatives, Nishikanta remained supremely detached and preserved his native wit and humour. One day, however, something went wrong and all on a sudden his urine stopped flowing. The surgeon wanted to remove his enlarged prostate but he refused ...
... of the mental, vital etc. on their own planes so that one may get a better new birth? I am not aware of any "development" of the mental etc. in their planes; the development takes place on earth. The mental and other planes are not evolutionary. The one who dies here is assisted in his passage to the psychic world and helped in his future evolution towards the Divine. 14 December 1936 ... spiritual self-giving and surrender to the Divine, abandoning ego and desire even in the midst of action or of any kind of work or all kinds of work demanded from us by the Divine. If it were not so, there would not have been great spiritual men like Janaka or Vidura in India and even there would have been no Krishna or else Krishna would have been not the Lord of Brindavan and Mathura and Dwarka or a... what would be the nature of the perfection of the body. I indicated clearly that only by Yoga could there come a supreme and total perfection of all the instruments of the Spirit and the ascent of the whole being to the highest level and a divine life on earth and the assumption of a divine body. I made it clear that by human and physical means such as sports only a limited and precarious human perfection ...
... with a smile, "Your lamp lights up three streets, Lord." "So I should be darkened?" he asked smiling. In truth, I do not think that any Japanese aeroplane flew over Pondicherry. I was very much amused at the sight of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo taking this human precaution against any possible threat. But that is their way. Because they are Divine and possess a great occult power, one would suppose... where we were wrong. His physical nearness made us realise, with an extraordinary lucidity, what terrible inhuman forces were trying to overcast the world with an abysmal darkness from which a supreme Divine Power alone could save it. For all the war-news we had to depend on the daily newspapers, since members of the Ashram were not supposed to have radios. Somebody in the town began to supply us... better?" She replied, "Oh, no! Then there would have been no hope for the world. It is by our coup de maître that they were on opposite sides. This is divine diplomacy. It is very successful." (Laughter) But the world does not know that a Supreme Force had worked for its deliverance. "A Power worked, but none knew whence it came." (Savitri) It will be interesting to note here how the Mother ...
... (standing up swiftly) My Lord, I'll go. Triumphant music bursts forth at her words. She walks out immediately. Gaia ( ecstatic, rapt ) Lord, Lord, what sacrifice sublime is this!... Divinity to take the mortal's load, And all earth's weight of sorrow, passion, pain... - 0 Earth, rejoice! Upon thy soil shall tread Those feet divine whose touch can sanctify Life's foulest... mires. My Lord, I know Now Earth is safe, and that thy promise stands. Page 40 Forgive that I could doubt, and give me leave.( She bows ) Zeus Go, Gaia, blessed for ever are you now. ( Gaia goes out .) Athene and Aphrodite stand rapt, thrilled, speechless. Marvellous music fills all space, and a hymn of praise arises. Immortal Love, O Love Divine, Compassion... bending low, emerges from the tunnel. She draws a long breath, sits down on a low rock, leaning against the tunnel wall, and relaxes. She looks extremely tired. Page 65 Demeter Lord, Lord. What terrible suffocation, ah! Such narrow, cramping alleys, filthy, blind, Such fetid poisonous air! Ah, now at last One can take breath again. Hylon (in hiding place) What ...
... pack of enemies assailing me, friends deserting us—it's going very, very badly. Then yesterday evening, while I was walking for japa and all these 'good tidings' were arriving, I said to the Lord, 'Listen, Lord, you have Indra to help the good people—I beseech you, send him to me; he has some work to do!'( Mother laughs ) Then my walk became so amusing! I was watching them come in as I walked—Indra... unless we base ourselves EXCLUSIVELY on the teaching of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and they are behind us giving support.' And J. said, 'No, no! We are not sectarian! We accept all ideas, all theories, etc.' I replied, and as it happens, I said that Z was right, though with one corrective: he had been saying that people had to recognize us as Page 108 their guru. 'No,' I said, 'it's absolutely... × '... What Sri Aurobindo represents is not a teaching, not even a revelation, it is an ACTION direct from the Supreme.' See conversation of February 18, 1961 × Gaillardia. ...
... in different situations and enhance their spirit. The supreme example of Vasudeva, which was so dear to Sri Aurobindo's heart, shows what a great opportunity this mortal life is. His supreme teaching to make the best of it while attending to one's duty but never yearning for results is a pilgrim's light. The exposition in The Life Divine teaches us the central core of the meaning of life — ... angels of God ascending and descending from it. Yahweh, the Lord God, through this sign showed him that from him a great nation would be bom, and all those who acknowledge Him as their God would ascend and descend, and His kingdom will be established amidst the people that he had chosen. Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga expounded in The Life Divine is like Jacob's ladder that envisages ascending and... manifest the unveiled Divine. 6 This is the most important mission in Savitri: A quest for the Divine within mortality. The timeless must look with the eyes of time and not vice versa; the Divine must be made incarnate, must be made manifest in the flesh, to experience Him in one's own mortal body. Life must return to Satyavan in order to experience the Divine; the life must be brought ...
... “God,” his supreme God, who was the Lord of the Nations … It was a being that appeared to him in a silver armour, with a silver helmet and a golden aigrette. It was magnificent. And [it appeared] in a light so dazzling that the eyes could hardly see and bear that blaze. It was on such occasions that [Hitler] had his fits … That being is the “Lord of the Nations.” And it is not even the Lord of the Nations... surprised to detect in those words as it were the shadow of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s vision of the divinization of the world which is to result in a divine superman. Hitler could hardly have invented all that by himself. The inspiration could only have been distilled into his mind by his ‘God,’ the Lord of Falsehood, even if it was partly communicated or taught to him through intermediaries like Eckart... Asuras and their underlings, and that the anti-divine powers still rule the world. To convert or eliminate the Asuras and make the descent of a divine world on Earth possible was the mission of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. It was also what the Second World War was about. The reader may recall how in the Beginning the Universal Mother turned towards ‘the Lord’ and prayed that he should redeem what had ...
... the élan divine, — dimensions and truths that were never Homer's; he creates a new kind of poetry that too as well couldn't be Homer's. Homer's is a world of Helen — a human passion; Sri Aurobindo's of Savitri -— a divine passion; and yet as creative geniuses both are supreme. Sri Aurobindo put Homer along with Valmiki and Shakespeare in the first row of the world's supreme poets. ... of the world's great poems, if only for its own fuller grasp. Valmiki, the first bom of poets, author of the Sanskrit epic the Ramayana, is the supreme singer; Veda-Vyasa coming after him, the author of the Mahabharata, is the supreme poet-thinker. Anyone versed in Sanskrit would sing the Ramayana in poetic transport and ease, carrying the listeners along with him, but when one turns to... Theology or Church, a force in history rather limited in its implications to Christianity alone; Savitri is a cosmic involvement. The supernatural — Hell, Purgatory, Heaven, the Devils, the Angels, etc. — of the Commedia is a belief or allegory; in Savitri it is a real experience of the psychic strata both in the Mind and the Cosmos. What for Dante are sin and vice, accepted as coetemal with ...
... Dickens's Martin Chuzxlewit. Page 311 basket] more easily than the admirers can be thrown out of the window. 69 (51)NB: Surely the soul instead of sleeping has to aspire etc. to call down its Lord the Grace. Where do you see that aspiration in me? If you build my spiritual castle on those one or two minutes' brief visitations of Ananda and that too once or twice only, excluding the... try. Hammer, hammer, hammer! Only the being in question is a little - shall we say, solid? 50 (12)NB: And why should you stupefy me? Good Lord! Have you forgottten how Arjuna was stupefied, horrified, flabbergasted by seeing the Vishwarup [the supreme or universal Form] of Krishna whom he had thought of as his friend, guru, playmate? Could I for a moment play all these pranks on you if I saw your... Is he vulnerable to the viruses, Page 303 bacilli, microbes, etc.? Sri Aurobindo: And why on earth should you expect the Divine to feed himself on germs and bacilli and poisons of all kinds? Singular theology yours! 27 (9)NB: But whatever miracle might happen, I don't see any chance for my caravan! Sri Aurobindo: Too many dogs of depression bark? NB: Too many dogs ...
... lower vital desire-complex, the doubt thrown upon the generosity of the Divine, the demand for compensation for losses, something like striking a bargain with the Divine, a quid pro quo pact, are all unmistakable. Latterly, there has been a combination of circumstances (Sahana's 1 turning inwards, Chadwick's emigration, etc.) which have rather suddenly increased the deprivation of its former outlets;... has done this or not done that, she has said this or not said that, she has had this or that thought about me or feeling towards me, she is displeased with me, unfair to me, partial to others, etc. etc. etc.; next, discouragement, wounded feelings, jealousy, despondency, revolt or any other kindred vital downfall or upheaval; result, the impulse to withdraw from the Mother, not to give her flowers... three places where the rhythm stumbles. "On those that irrevocably late"—"that" which clashes in sound with late, should be changed to "who"; and "0 Lord, shower thy grace" is not rhythmic at all—it should be, "0 Lord, shower down thy grace". Again "0 Lord, rain pity" though not unrhythmic and otherwise (emotionally) effective, breaks the movement which is sustained throughout the rest of the poem. Here ...
... concentrate on parts to the exclusion of the rest. But, says the Divine Mother to the Mother, "This intellectual faculty which makes man vain and leads him into error., is the very faculty which can also, once enlightened and purified, lead him further, higher than the universal Nature, to the direct and conscious communion with the Lord of us all. He who is beyond all manifestation. This dividing i... he could only propitiate them. Based on this feeling, there developed a half-mysterious, half- superstitious cult of sacraments and sacrifices out of which later on branched off magic, thaumaturgy, etc. At this stage of evolution, there was no distinct conception of morality; individual and social life automatically adjusted themselves to the varying demands of circumstances and environment. There... spiritual aspiration...Religion has been an impulse to the worst things and the best; if the fiercest wars have been waged, and the most hideous persecutions carried on in its name, it has stimulated too supreme heroism and self-sacrifice in its cause. Along with philosophy it marks the limit the human mind has reached in its highest activities.”¹ The main work of religion is to awaken the inner being ...
... food, bath, etc. All are eager to go to the Master, for his Darshan. As the time passes there is a tide in the sea of rising emotion. It is 'Darshan' – we see him everyday, but to-day it is 'Darshan'! To-day each sees him individually, one after another. In the midst of these multiple activities the consciousness gets concentrated. To-day is 'Darshan' – not of a human being but of some Supreme Divinity... am at present fighting the difficulties on the physical plane," in other words, the forces of disease etc. 20 June. At the request of the Bombay Chronicle , Sri Aurobindo sent a message on the death of C. R. Das, which was published in their issue of 22 June: "Chittaranjan's death is a supreme loss. Consummately endowed with political intelligence, constructive imagination, magnetism, a driving... Divinity. To-day is the rare chance of seeing the Divine. "There he sits – in the royal chair in the verandah – royal and majestic. In the very posture there is divine self-confidence. In the heart of the Supreme Master, the great Yogin – a sea of emotion is heaving – is it a flood that mounts or a flood that is coming down on humanity? Those alone who have experienced it can know something of its divinity ...
... sadhak—(1) To wait on the Grace and rely on the Divine. (2) To do everything himself like the full Adwaitin and the Buddhist. (3) To take the middle path, go forward by aspiration and rejection etc. helped by the Force. Everything should be for the sake of the Divine, this [ aspiration for the Divine's Presence ] also. As for leaving the result to the Divine, it depends on what you mean by the phrase... avoidable. You are right again about the imaginary obstacles. Good Lord! what mountains of them you have piled up on the way—a regular Abyssinia. It is why we always express depreciation of mental constructions and vital formations—because they are the defence works mind and vital throw up against their capture by the Divine. However the first thing is to become conscious of all that as you have... Integral Yoga The Path of the Integral Yoga The Divine Response Letters on Yoga - II Chapter I The Divine Grace and Guidance The Divine Grace The Divine Will works in all things—it may work out anything whatever. The Divine Grace comes in to help and save. If you would know what is the Divine Grace, it is necessary first to realise that it ...
... She would not allow the divine Light in her to be quenched nor would she consent to cancel her commerce with eternity. She felt in her not only the presence of the divine Light but also the drive of the evolutionary force from the Page 149 earth consciousness towards the Supreme. She felt and knew that she had come to do a work, to give a message and the divine Fire that had entered... rising from world to world, from peaks of mind to the peaks of the spirit till he reaches the supreme Divine and by his unfailing aspiration invokes the Divine to descend into himself so as to create divine life on earth. But this cannot be so long as human soul is tied like an animal with the triple cord of mental, vital and physical ignorance to the sacrificial post in the vast cosmic sacrifice to... the vast background which compelled her birth. Aswapathy's character as a seeker of the Divine and as an adept of the great spiritual and mystic realisation of the past gives us a wonderful picture of man's growth from mental consciousness through various intermediate stages to the Supreme Divine Mother Consciousness. "The Yoga of the Soul's Release" is the subject of this Canto ...
... those yogas do not intend a divine creation here on Earth but try, without exception, to escape as soon as possible from the hell on Earth. Sri Aurobindo’s new method was unbelievably simple and at the same time very daring. If that new something was so new, if it was the intention of the Supreme and his manifesting power to embody in evolution something superhuman, a divine species succeeding the existing... active Brahman, the Supreme Godhead] for many hours. Since then, egoism is dead for all in me except the Annamaya Atma, — the physical self which awaits one farther realisation before it is entirely liberated from occasional visitings or external touches of the old separated existence.’ 43 Sri Aurobindo was at that moment a fully realized Yogi, completely at one with the Divine, except for certain... that is the embodiment of an eternal, divine soul. It is the evolution of this divine soul which causes and supports the material evolution from the deepest Inertia back to its divine Origin. As before man there has been a whole gradation of evolutionary steps, so after him there will be still more steps, for at present he does not come close to incarnating the divine potential contained in his soul. The ...
... of consciousness. The Divine Being, getting embodied in words on the very plane of the Divine Himself: that is the Mantra. It is the Word from the Overmind, the Supermind’s delegate that has been the governing Power of the universe so far.’ 49 The supreme and generally known mantra is OM, rendered in Sanskrit by a single graceful glyph. The Mother called OM ‘the Lord’s signature.’ 50 ‘With... Integral Yoga is the total SURRENDER of oneself to the Divine. One finds the surrender on each and every page of the Agenda: ‘Ce que Tu veux, ce que Tu veux’ (what You want, what You want — ‘You’ again being here the confidential form of addressing the Divine as the most intimate part of ourselves). ‘Day and night without interruption: “As You want it, Lord, as You want it.”’ 19 This, in all her difficulties... establish a new Order which of necessity has to come into conflict with the existing Order. It is precisely through the person of the Avatar that the Divine changes the structure of things established in a previous stage of the evolution against the former Order, etc., all the way back to the Beginning. The laws of Matter do not allow for the laws of Life, they are incompatible with them, and yet Life has colonized ...
... instruments into joyous and capable collaborators in the Supreme's manifestation upon earth. Hence we propose to devote three successive chapters to a succinct delineation of the sadhana-procedure concerning the mental, the vital and the physical parts of our complex being. First with the Mind. Arjuna in the Bhagavad-Gita piteously complained to Lord Krishna about the intractable difficulties faced... fraction of it, and then seeks by all means to project it as the whole of the truth, thus leading to the blocking of the sadhaka' s forward movement towards the discovery of the genuine Truth; (vi) etc. Now all these and allied difficulties presented by Mind arise out of a basic trait of its nature. If the sadhaka would like to turn his mind from being an enemy as at present to a friend in sadhana... confusedly how to reconcile the pairs of apparently 'irreconcilable' opposite truths; such as, personal effort and the action of Grace; free-will and determinism; law and miracles; causality and finalism; etc. (4)Mind is by nature exclusive in its tendency. It fails to hold all the facets of a truth in the bosom of a harmonised synthesis. Hence its intolerant declaration: "Both cannot be true at the ...
... of mind and its interests, for thought and knowledge, develop into the thinker, the philosopher and scientist and, as a supreme 12. The Life Divine, p. 968. 13.Sri Aurobindo, The Supramental Manifestation upon Earth (1952 ed.), p. 74. 14. The Life Divine, p. 849. Page 232 defiance to the reign of Matter, awake in himself to the hidden Godhead, become the... high-names as adaptability, homoeostasis, feed-back reactions, etc. But this sort of 'explanation' does not go very far. For it explains, if at all, only the phenomenal 'how' and never the intrinsic 'why'. Now we can very well imagine what wonderful results will be achieved in the overt frontal plane of life, when the divine 32.J.A.V. Butler, op. cit., p. 24. 33. Ibid., ... translation (Eight Upanishads, p. 247). Page 226 supreme importance in the total scheme of our spiritual achievement. For "the body is not only the necessary outer instrument of the physical part of action, but for the purposes of this life a base or pedestal also for all inner action." 2 So a full play of divine life demands as its essential prerequisite a totally transformed ...
... spiritual self-giving and surrender to the Divine, abandoning ego and desire even in the midst of action or of any kind of work or all kinds of work demanded from us by the Divine. If it were not so, there would not have been great spiritual men like Janaka or Vidura in India and even there would have been no Krishna or else Krishna would have been not the Lord of Brindavan and Mathura and Dwarka or a... of Karmayoga—remembering the Supreme in all his actions from the smallest to the greatest, doing them with a quiet mind and without ego-sense or attachment and offering them to Him as a sacrifice. He may also try or aspire to feel the presence of the Divine Shakti behind the world and its forces, distinguish between the lower nature of the Ignorance and the higher divine nature whose character is absolute... possible. That is the most important thing to get over—ego, anger, personal dislikes, self-regarding sensitiveness etc. Work is not only for work's sake, but as a field of sadhana, for getting rid of the lower personality and its reactions and acquiring a full surrender to the Divine. As for the work itself it must be done according to the organisation arranged or sanctioned by the Mother. You must ...
... back of my mind. In conclusion I asked him if he would be so kind as to write from memory what he had said hereanent reminding him about what he had written in his Life Divine with regard to "grief, pain, suffering, error" etc . ... . . . [Sri Aurobindo replied:] "As for doubts, I don't think mere doubts can bring any gain; mental questioning can bring gains if it is in pursuit of truth... secure a particular result at some point in the world. Just as there are waves of unseen physical forces (cosmic waves etc.) or currents of electricity, so there are mind- Page 312 waves, thought-currents, waves of emotion – for example, anger, sorrow etc. – which go out and affect others without their knowing whence they come or that they come at all, they only feel... to grant it on a hint from you." Mr. Russell could not have pressed Aurobindo's case to Lord Kimberley in a more emphatic way. He says: "The candidate seems to me a remarkably Page 345 deserving man, and I can quite believe that poverty was the cause of his failures to appear." But Lord Kimberley's mind was already made up. He says: "I am sorry that I cannot take a c ...
... the clothing of words? Does conceptual thought represent the supreme process of knowledge? Is there any possibility of knowledge without concepts? What is the relation between logic and reality? Does ineffability imply at the same time unknowabi-lity? And is the avowal of ineffability synonymous with vague and confused awareness? etc., etc. 30. Maurice Mehauden, op. cit., p. 96. 31. Taittiriya... indeed very much limited and that, unless one proceeds farther than its farthest reach, one cannot expect to have the realisation of the Supreme! In our innocence we could not understand at that time 3. The 'Mother' refers to the Supreme addressed as the Divine Mother. Page 140 that out of sheer love for us the Thakur was attempting the impossible!" 4 (Italics ours.) ... Word, he is referring to some supreme form of Speech, the v ā k brahma of Indian esoteric schools. In the words of Sri Aurobindo, "the Supermind using the Word is the creative Logos" 93 . And it is because of this all-determining power of the primal Speech (v ā k) that the 'Creator of the Worlds' (praj ā pati) has been designated in the Rig-Veda as the 'Lord of Speech, the ordainer of ...
... Spiritual Life (1911-1928) Autobiographical Notes To and about V. Tirupati [1] Pondicherry. February 21st 1926. Tirupati, my child- Our Divine Lord sends you the following message: 1 Page 306 Your letters have been received and read with pleasure. Haradhan came back yesterday morning bringing the two last ones and also the news... You cannot mean that you have become the Supreme Being, for you cannot be God or the Iswara. If it is in the ordinary (Vedantic) sense, then everyone is myself, since every Jiva is a portion of the One. You may perhaps have become conscious for a time of this unity; but that consciousness is not sufficient by itself to transform you or to make you divine. 4) You begin to imagine that you can do... food, money, sexual impulses etc. You have been adopting the moral and ascetic attitude which is entirely wrong and cannot help you to master these powers of the nature. For food, it is a need of the body and you must use it to keep the body fit and strong. You must replace attachment by the ananda of food. If you have this ananda and the right sense of the taste, etc. and of the right use of food ...
... comparatively minor nature. SABCL: The Life Divine, Vols. 18, 19 48 . LIFE — LITERATURE — YOGA Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, 1952 Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged, 1967 Letters written during the 1930's and 1940's. Reprinted from Mother India . In SABCL most letters on poetry, literature, etc. are included in Section VI of Volume 26. ... Evolution; Integral Yoga and Other Paths; Religion, Morality, Idealism and Yoga; Reason, Science and Yoga; Planes and Parts of the Being; The Divine and the Hostile Powers; The Purpose of Avatarhood; Rebirth; Fate and Free-Will, Karma and Heredity, etc. Volume 23 Letters on Yoga , PARTS Two AND THREE. Part Two: The Object of Integral Yoga; Synthetic Method and the Integral... Gita , Kalidasa; The Century of Life (the Nitishataka of Bhartrihari) ; etc. From Bengali: Songs of Bidyapati; Bande Mataram (Hymn to the Mother); thirteen chapters from Anandamath (Bankim Chandra Chatterji's novel); etc. From Tamil: 'opening of The Kural, etc. From Greek and Latin: opening of the Odyssey, etc. Page 413 Volume 9 The Future ...
... horrible death. The day was March 26 of A.D. 922. The last words Mansoor uttered before he breathed his last were: "O Supreme Lord, you have made me know what other people do not know: accept my infinite gratitude for this act of Grace. You have revealed to me all the divine mysteries which are sealed to others. Please forgive those servitors of yours who are assembled here to kill me. Have compassion... Christ. When he was taken out of the town by a howling mob and was being cruelly put to death by repeated hits with stones, he first prayed to the Divine, "O Lord, take my spirit," and then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Lord, for my death do not lay the sin against them." And with these words he fell asleep. (New Testament, "Acts of the Apostles", VII. 54-60) ... unknown uncertain one?" In appearance, this argument seems to be plausible, even convincing. But a deeper probe shows that the truth of the matter is different. For the Divine is conducting his world-play in such a supremely wise and ordered way that, from the point of view of the advancement of the consciousness of an individual, "All life is fixed in an ascending scale And adamantine ...
... motion in the eternal immobility, the oneness of the Brahman without attributes and the Lord of the universe with attributes, the inadequacy of Knowledge alone or of Ignorance alone for attaining Immortality, Immortality ob- Page 385 tained by simultaneous worship of Knowledge and Ignorance, the supreme liberation and realisation gained not by the constant cycle of birth, not by the ... instead through the heart's fervour or a mystic inward spiritualisation",4 yet in the whole move- 3. The Life Divine , Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1993, pp. 861- 62. 4. Ibid ., p. 861. Page 380 ment it is indispensable. "If the supreme truth is a spiritual Reality, then the intellect of man needs to know what is the nature of that original Truth and the principle... of his logic. "The logician thinks he has ensured himself against error when he has made a classification of particular fallacies; but he forgets the supreme and general fallacy, the fallacy of thinking that logic 23. The Life Divine , 1993, pp. 2-3. Page 395 can, as a rule, prove anything but particular and partial propositions dealing with a fragmentary and ...
... in Chaitanya. But for that work it would never have done if he had Page 323 always been in the Krishna consciousness; he would have been the Lord to whom all gave bhakti, but not the supreme example of the divine ecstatic bhakta. But still the occasional manifestation showed who he was and at the same time evidenced the mystic law of the Immanence, Voila — for Chaitanya.... be that Avatarhood does not depend upon these questions at all, but has another basis, meaning and purpose. * * * I have no intention of entering into a supreme defence of Rama — I only entered into the points about Bali etc. because these are usually employed nowadays to belittle him as a great personality on the usual level. But from the point of view of Avatarhood I would no more think... set towards going, for I Preferring that sweet service of my lord, Following my husband's feet, surely shall grow All purified by my exceeding love. 0 thou great heart and pure, what joy is there But thy nearness? To me my husband is Heaven and God. 0 even when I am dead A bliss to me will be my lord's embrace. Yea, thou who know'st, wilt thou, forgetful grown ...
... any earthly fire. For all that is bright is but the shadow of his brightness and by his shining all this shineth." The Supreme Divine hidden in the human and realisable by looking inward is declared in the master-mantra: Tat twam asi - "thou art That". In the depth of us is the Divine as our own soul developing its potentialities through a series of lives. The Upanishad speaks of it: "The Purusha who... Holy is the Lord God Almighty*. I admit my own profound suspicion of what (perhaps only superficially) resembles the Superman thought of Nietzsche, and the evolutionism of Darwin is also antipathetic to me. But there I admit that I am probably understanding in Western terms what Sri Aurobindo in- Page 74 tended in a very different sense - as the 'evolution' of the divine principle... Christian Church (although of course I regard the Lord Jesus as a Master, and especially the Master of my own civilization) I find that I am after all very Western in the sense in which David Jones (our Page 71 great Catholic artist) called Christianity a very 'incarna-tional' religion, stemming of course from the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus in human form. We have indeed wonderful ...
... is that of the individual spirit or the supreme Existence. It is possible also that the Greek phren, mind, phronis, etc may have derived from this root brih (the aspirate being thrown back on the initial consonant),& may have conveyed originally the same association of ideas. But are we justified in supposing that this use of Brahma in the sense of soul dates back to the Rigveda? May it not have originated... to the principle of mind which has always been supposed in India to be in its material element made of tejas or pure light.We may conclude, therefore, that in Indra, master of Swarga, we have the divine lord of mental force & power. It is as this mental power that he comes sutávatah upa brahmáni vághatah, to the soul-movements of the chanter of the sacred song, of the holder of the nectar-wine. He is... but still making some attempt at sense. On Page 149 another hypothesis, we may suppose Indra to be one of the gods of light or day slaying Vritra the lord of night & darkness, and also a god of lightning slaying Vritra the lord of the drought. Stated generally, these hypotheses seem plausible enough; systematically stated & supported by Comparative Mythology and some Puranic details their ...
... Bangalore, Orissa where it is sung before starting the classes. Page 51 Here are the two songs written by Dada in English: Pledge Renewed Standing at Thy Altar, Oh our Lord Supreme, We renew our pledge to Labour for Thy Scheme. Bringing Golden Light down, From The High Abode, We shall change the word to Suit The Holy Mode. Give us... battle between the divine and the undivine forces. The divine forces are trying to establish the divine kingdom on the earth and the undivine forces are doing everything to try and block that from happening. Personally I very deeply feel that all our elders who are leaving us one after the other were all of them very able generals and brave soldiers in this great divine battle. Like courageous... unity in our collective life. All the qualities you mention in your speech which favour better unity, such as love, understanding, fellow-feeling, comradeship, compassion, tolerance, patience, etc., are psychic qualities, and how can they come from people who have an ordinary consciousness? I feel that what we need badly in the Ashram at the present hour is a truly good leader. We do not ...
... my mother, 0 jewel among men, save our esteemed father as well from remorse today. (30) I implore you with my head bent low: (pray) take pity on me as well as on all your kinsfolk (even) as Lord Śiva (the Supreme Deity) does on (all) created beings. (31) Else if, setting aside my request, you proceed from this place to a forest alone, I too shall depart with you." (32) (Even) while being propitiated... father Daśaratha, the lord of the earth has reached heaven on account of his performing all auspicious acts desirable, and performing many sacrifices involving heavy sacrificial fees. (34) Having propitiated the Yajnapurusa by performing different types of sacrifices, enjoying worldly pleasures Page 136 in plenty and having lived a long and virtuous life the lord of the earth has gone to... kill us (both). (17) An ensign bearing the device of a Kovidāra tree with a white trunk really shines prominently over there on a chariot standing where that gigantic tree rich in flowers and fruits etc., is clearly visible. (18) Mounting swift horses as they would, these horsemen are heading towards this spot. Mounting elephants these riders on elephants (too) appear highly rejoiced (while marching ...
... improve its method. Formerly, it was a crude, scholastic and superficial systematisation of man's ignorance of himself. The surface psychological functionings, will, mind, senses, reason, conscience, etc., were arranged in a dry and sterile classification; their real nature and relation to each other were not fathomed nor any use made of them which went beyond the limited action Nature had found sufficient... these depths, it is obliged to repeat in other language what had already been written nearly three thousand years ago? We find the same idea of this inner control repeated in the Gita; for it is the Lord who "sits in the hearts of all creatures and turns all creatures mounted on an engine by his Maya." At times the Upanishad seems to describe this Self as the "mental being leader of the life and the... the real reality of his being, must necessarily seek to enter into it, to become conscious in it, to make there his centre instead of dwelling on the surface, to win and apply its diviner law and supreme nature and capacity, to make himself one with it so that he shall become the Real instead of the Apparent Man. And the sole debate that remains is whether this great conquest can be achieved and enjoyed ...
... heroic prince, I wish happily to see lotus ponds teeming with swans and waterfowls and abounding in lotuses. Remaining devoted to you I shall daily bathe in them and, full of supreme joy, sport with you, in this way, 0 large eyed lord! Spending with you (say) thousands of years or even a hundred thousand years I shall never experience any sorrow. Heaven too will not be acceptable to me otherwise. Even if... hell. Knowing thus my supreme love for you proceed to the forest with me, 0 Rāma ! (18) If you decidedly do not take me to the forest, even though I am not the least afraid (or going there), I shall drink poison this very day but would on no account submit to the will of enemies. (19) Surely as a result of grief I am not going to live after being abandoned by you, 0 lord! It is therefore better... approaching Vasistha (the preceptor of the Ikswāku s), the prince, who was now assured of his sojourn in the forest, took (all) the excellent arms etc. (32) Laksmana (son of Sumitrā), a tiger among princes, showed to Śrī Rāma all these excellent and divine weapons, that were decorated with garlands. (33) To Laksmana who had come back, Śrī Rāma , who had (fully) brought his mind under control, lovingly ...
... other bundles there even if this one is at the top for the moment. 18 (3)NB: People say that I have no respect for you because I write anything and everything [to you]. "Sri Aurobindo is the Lord Supreme and with Him he plays all these pranks!" Page 359 Sri Aurobindo: And I return the compliment - I mean reply without restraint, decorum or the right grave rhythm.... 19 (4) NB's... Obviously if N becomes a supramental, everybody can!" 48 (7)"Good Lord! you are not part of the world." 49 "Good Lord! what a Falstaff of a fountain-pen!" 30 (8)"O Lord God! again despair!" 51 (9)"Glorious! You must begin glittering at once..." 52 (10)"Gracious heavens! you are really a poet." 53 (11)"Lord God in omnibus!" 34 (12)"By Jove, yes!" 55 (13)"Great... am persuading Page 356 my eye, but it is still red and sulky and reproachful. Revolted, what? Thinks too much is imposed on it and no attention paid to its needs, desires, preferences etc. Will have to reason with it for a day or two longer. 6 (6) Walking with giddiness: NB: S seems to be all right. We can let him walk about a little. P asks me if his giddiness was due to ...
... resolution in this matter, you may be sure that the Divine Grace will not fail you. 6.10.31 Sri Aurobindo 12 August 1932 To Lord Sri Aurobindo, Pondicherry. Dated 12th August 1932 My Divine Father , Please let me know how can a disciple make the best use of his Guru, the spiritual guide, for his spiritual advancement and the Divine Light or Knowledge. I am. Your son ...... the higher is the object of self-surrender—the surrender of your small narrow personal being and its activities to the higher and vaster Divine being and the Divine activities. By this surrender one will cease to act from one's personal motives, impulses, desires, etc. as one is at present doing. By the progressively increasing self-surrender the action of the higher consciousness will gradually begin... sin, of aparadha , etc. 2) To cure this illness of the mind will be difficult and is likely to take a long time, because these suggestions have become fixed ideas which he is unable to resist. Even if the being is driven away, something in Natwarlal's mind finds delight in the play or workings of the being and that is likely to bring it back again. 3) There is a supreme power that can cure ...
... ss undergoes a profound peace and there is an invocation of the Divine who is above the mental level together with the Divine who is deep within and the Divine who is universally around - but in as much as this Divine is figured as the Supreme Mother one with the Supreme Lord we get again a strong Tantric stress except that the Divine Mother works from above downward and not from below upward to open... that section in my bad American translation of the Mahabharata where the last phase of the kali-yuga is described, I wonder if that is not where we are. Would that Kalki, the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus, etc., be at hand. But 'what rough beast/Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?'. Yet how wonderful this world is, how rich, 'O brave new world that has such people in it'. I have known so many wonderful... Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten. What gives further suggestiveness to the choice is that Mountbatten picked out August 15 because two years earlier that date had seen the end of World War II with the surrender of Japan to him, the war which Sri Aurobindo had singled out as a crucial confrontation between forces controlled from behind the scene by preternatural anti-divine beings and those ...
... have reference to such questions as whether it is permissible to put new wine in old bottles, to call old things by new names, to disregard associations etc. If I say I believe in a personal God, a lot of fools will suppose I mean someone like the Lord God Jehovah on His throne, and if I say I don't believe, others will suppose that I believe in abstraction — a sort of 'Space, Time and Deity' kind of... strange if the part he has in yours could be considered objectionable. 'Sectarianism' is a matter of dogma, ritual etc., not of spiritual experience; Page 331 the concentration on Krishna is a self-offering to the Ishta Deva. If you reach Krishna you reach the Divine; if you can give yourself to Him you can give yourself to me. In any case it does not very much matter. We have accepted... "We speak here also of Krishna's Light, Krishna's Light in the mind, Krishna's Light in the vital, etc. But it is a special Light — in the mind it brings clarity, freedom from obscurity, mental error and perversion; in the vital it clears all perilous stuff and where it is there is a pure and divine happiness and gladness. "But why limit oneself, insist on one thing alone and shut out every other ...
... will march in a hypnotised trance to battle performing manoeuvres according to silent orders from the machine, etc. etc. So your suppositions are not unlikely. One of the reasons why many Americans want Yoga is that it may make them successful in all they undertake, professors, businessmen etc. 29 April 1935 Contemporary Detective Stories The detective stories of today are much better than those... of poetry and his thought has poetic vision. That is what I meant when I said it was poetry. 3 January 1937 How do you find Plato's ideas about philosophy, about Nature, existence of the soul, etc.? I don't know what are his ideas about philosophy or Nature. He believes in the soul and immortality and that is of course true. 4 January 1937 Aristotle I tried to read Aristotle but... Sri Aurobindo's secretary ] can refer him to the Bases of Yoga , but also say that it is best to prepare oneself first. Usually it does not come except after a long discipline of self-purification etc.—it can be called down, but that is not always safe, if the outer nature is not yet ready. 6 March 1938 Sigmund Freud You had once written that things rejected from the conscious parts go down ...
... watching the imminent end of its life? I cannot say. Bhakti is a divine acquisition, a thing of wonder; it cannot have its birth without divine grace. When the heart is aroused from sleep by the all-ruling grace, one sees that greatness; it is so delightful to the sight; then only one's life, possessed of the knowledge of the Lord's universal state and His transcendent state, will know how to live... I knew little English. Day after day I would tell him fluently and unwaveringly my home-story, etc., trying to make the details as vivid and elaborate as possible. I knew no halt. In his presence my heart would flow out like an undammed flood either out of deep love for him or inspired by his supreme grace. It cast aside all human measures of what ought to be said and what ought not to be said... disease, conquer old age, etc., etc. In addition, he said finally, one could drive away all English "Ferin-ghees" from India. Mention of these miracles, however, gave rise in me to other thoughts, other hopes. By Yoga my family's poverty would disappear; we would no more feel the pinch of hunger; I could score high marks in the examination; I might procure a good job, etc. At the close of the ...
... thy eternal shore... ... But thy impregnable silence bears With calm, their passionate moans." Sri Aurobindo: Good Lord! don't moan like that. NB: "Brilliance breaking the night-shell Like laughter-peels of a ringing bell." Sri Aurobindo: Lord, sir! A bell is not an orange. 42 (10) NB: "They are at thy touch reborn Into new shapes and thoughts; And my... (unless you are in parental labour of a new kind of iambic pentametre) the rhythm writhes Page 209 in agony under the twists you gave it. 17 (2)NB: What about the thought, sequence, etc.? Please show the defects with your opinion and criticism. Is it a metaphysical or philosophic poem? Sri Aurobindo: God knows! But the matter is that the metre of some of your lines is enough to... NB: What's Bedlamic, please? Never heard of him, I'm sure! Sri Aurobindo: Bedlam is or was the principal lunatic asylum in England. You have never heard the expression "Bedlam let loose" etc.? Bedlamic syntax - rollickingly mad syntax. NB: Is this fellow Hopkins or Hopkinsise? Whoever he may be, I am for new stuff, so I keep your "woven-incense". Sri Aurobindo: Hopkinsese is the ...
... but... On quite a practical level, we had conceived the possibility of all types of food according to everyone's tastes or needs (for example, vegetarian cooking, non-vegetarian cooking, diet cooking, etc.), and those who want to get food from there must do something in exchange—work, or... It's hard to organize in practice, on a quite practical level.... You see, we had planned a lot of lands around... this [body] consciousness is already conscious of a world... that would no longer be subject to the same laws. The cells are quite, absolutely convinced that... (I'll put it in the simplest way) the Lord is all-powerful, you understand? Only, what they're not convinced of is whether He WANTS ( laughing ) it to be this way or that, that is to say, whether He wants the transformation to be done in an... Page 121 No, I don't think so. What? I don't think so. Because, otherwise, it would really need centuries and centuries and centuries. Yes. But centuries, that's nothing for the Supreme. Yes, of course. For him, it's... But still, the world has reached such an acute state of suffering and pain that... Yes. The time has come for ONE body to change itself sufficiently ...
... great Personalities of the Divine Mother, but they were more difficult to bring down and have not stood out in front with so much prominence in the evolution of the Earth-spirit. There are among them presences indispensable for the supramental realization – most of all one who is her Personality of that mysterious and powerful ecstasy and Ananda which flows from a supreme divine Love, the Ananda that alone... ce it is one of the three supreme attributes of the Divine, and therefore one of the aspects or personalities of the Great Mother. Someone in the audience asked what that Personality was and when it would manifest. The Mother had expected the question and she had her answer ready. ‘She has come, bringing with her a splendour of power and love, an intensity of divine joy unknown to the Earth up... could you?’ 3 Freedom at Midnight True spirituality is not to renounce life, but to make life perfect with a Divine Perfection. This is what India must show to the world now. 4 – The Mother India became independent at midnight on 15 August 1947. Lord Mountbatten had been responsible for the choice of the date, thus putting into motion at breakneck speed a sequence of highly ...
... beautiful Surrender rose, and waiting to give it to me. As soon as I stood up, She continued with a gentle smile: Mother - I am not talking to you about that Divine who dwells in the seventh heaven! I am talking about that Supreme Lord who dwells in your being. Within you - here, here! (The Mother placed Her hand on my chest to show me) Try and establish a connection with Him. He is there! He... music? Mother - Awaken the aspiration. Pray to the Divine for aspiration. I - (touching the Mother's feet) My sweet Mother, I do not know what the Divine is. For me He lives in the seventh heaven. I can't even think of praying to Him. I just know You. I know that Sri Aurobindo is divine. You are everything to me. You are my Divine. I, therefore, bow at Your feet and pray that You help me... afternoon and at night, with the singing classes in the Music section. Kireet-bhai made all the arrangements to equip the Music section with the necessary instruments, - harmoniums, tablas, tanpuras, etc. - and storage spaces to keep them properly. Thanks to his focused attention and help, the Music section took shape quite fast. Within a few months or at the most a year, the singing classrooms, the ...
... others? It does not look right or good.' The gentleman felt embarrassed. Then the students sang together a song written and composed by Dada: Pledge Renewed (Standing at Thy altar 0 our Lord Supreme...) Dada went on looking at them with warm, loving eyes. He listened to their singing. Then he called one of their teachers and told her: 'At two or three places their pronunciation is... asking anybody any questions or anything he Page 108 would take a stick and give all three of them a good drubbing. He was not interested in knowing what had happened, whose fault it was, etc. He would just enter the house and freely wield his stick. After some time another scene. The four brothers would hug one another and cry and wail "Oh, dear, oh, dear brother!" The eldest,... defeat us! (When Dada was very young in Berhampore, a 'kabuliwala' used to come to hawk walnuts, almonds, bedana (a prized Page 114 variety of pomegranate), asafoetida, kohl, etc. Recalling this childhood memory, Dada made up this rhyme on that gentle 'kabuliwala'.) Kabuli Rhyme Whole walnuts crisp and dry Groundnuts roasted you must try Sour ...
... still hear Mother's words: Seeing the world as it is and as it irreparably seems to have to remain, the human intellect has decreed that this universe had to be a mistake of God.... But the Supreme Lord replies that the comedy is not completely over, and He adds: Wait for the last act. What is that last act, that last recess of Mother's forest? That last path of the earth?² _______... I could say it to you.' It was the VISION. (Mother remains concentrated for a long time) One could say it like this (for the facility of expression, I will say: the 'Supreme' and the 'creation'). In the Supreme, there is a unity which contains all the possibilities perfectly united, without differentiation. The creation, is, so to say, the projection of all that constitutes that unity,... opposites, that is to say by separating (this is what was understood by him who has said that the creation was the separation), by separating: for example, day and night, white and black, evil and good, etc. (All that, it's our explanation). All that, all that taken together, is a perfect unity, immutable and... indissoluble. The creation, it is the separation of all which 'constitutes' that unity—one could ...
... there is a further shade in it beyond the religious approach which reads God's Will even in unpleasant events. This further shade is a direct recognition of the Divine's open or hidden hand everywhere by the soul's awakened intimacy with its Supreme Source. There is not only faith and a sweet resignation, convinced that an Ultimate Goodness is at the core of things and that all shall be well at the end... work and the The Life Divine. Both the books have been planned on a cyclopean scale. Savitri has a mould equally massive and multiform as The Life Divine. The latter deals with every aspect of spiritual philosophy in prolific detail and is comprehensively illustrative of what Shelley has termed "a mind grown bright, gazing at many truths". In Savitri as in The Life Divine, "length", as Sri Aurobindo... selection did not denote that either Doraiswamy or Amal was more deeply devoted to the Mother than the rest of those present: Nolini, Amrita, Pavitra, Dyuman, Champaklal, Lalita, Tajdar, Chinmayi, Dara, etc. It simply denoted that Doraiswamy and I turned inwardly to the Mother most frequently for help because we found ourselves more often than the rest in need of it, being unable to manage our affairs ...
... siddhi of the foundation, after which the divine action can manifest. Samadhi — Brihat & satyam in swapnasamadhi. Firm & frequent combination of speech, form & action. Taste repeated, also tivrananda. Long stability is not yet active. There is a quickening in antardarshi & very perfect crude figures as well as the beginning of quadrupeds etc; but there is not yet freedom; nor is there... of the ideal. Siddhi in vijnana, physical ananda etc is felt to be certain & probable in saundarya but not certain. The faith in Kriti is still insistent on proof in the actuality. Arogya — Jala 3 times. 21 July 1914 V सं पृच्छसे समराणः शुभानैर्वोचेस्तत्रो हरिवो यत्ते अस्मे— Script— That is the active effective side of the Divine Mind must be made manifest in the mental activities... gods etc, emerging momentarily out of a brilliant chaos of unformed figures. A farther sign that the earthy obstacle is about to give way. Raudra in swapna samadhi Script The affirmation of the Ishwara means the affirmation of an omniscient & omnipotent Mind & Power. It includes, therefore, these three affirmations— (1) The fulfilment of the Kriti involving the use of a divine power ...
... clambers on a stair of storms". He does not rely on the Divine's help. He wants to grab everything, he wants to make "his own estate of the earth's air and light". He wants to dominate over all. He inflicts suffering on himself and on others. He resorts to hurry, riot, excess, hate and violence in order to be equal to the Divine. And the Divine to him is only Power. He feels his own strength by pain... grief and pain?" Is God who created the world, cruel? or is there some antidivine power that thwarts the work of God? How did this duality, these pairs of opposites,—pleasure and pain.; good and evil etc.,—gain first entry into human life? The animals though inferior to men have a frank simplicity and are not subject to this kind of suffering. But man has lost the instinct, has twisted his being and... them Page 290 of the lotus-heart of love" which "sleeps veiled by apparent things". One day that love will bloom "in the garden of the Spouse", "when she is seized by her discovered lord." Even as he was singing Savitri arrived and "her radiant tread glimmered across the floor". She was not the same Savitri now, she was changed by the halo of Love like "One carrying the ...
... was working but the Divine Consciousness through the Overmind instrument. If the supreme Supermind intervened the result would be immediate success of the Divine Will without any chance for intervening possibilities. Even the Overmind is a powerful force and when it acts in a complex of forces it is strong enough to mould events, it can drive the course of events to the divinely intended direction... Answers Q : Isn't it only the will (grace) of the Lord and Mother that chooses ? A : No, there are two parts of sadhana,—spiritual effort. The yogic life in Sri Aurobindo's path is divided into two parts : the personal effort and the Divine Grace. Personal effort is to be done by the individual and not by the Divine; aspiration, rejection and surrender are within the field of... never looked at the world as people do but when anybody met him he found him a perfect gentleman, very nice, very polite. They never could know that they had met a person who lived in the Divine, in the supreme Reality. Some might find it, in fact, many felt, who had never believed in God. Yes, but he never said anything. And the most surprising part of it is that in 1918 when I was in Pondicherry ...
... instruments of Yoga-Siddhi, Sri Aurobindo says in The Synthesis of Yoga: The supreme Shastra of the integral Yoga is the eternal Veda secret in the heart of every thinking and living being .... As the supreme Shastra of the integral Yoga is the eternal Veda secret in the heart of every man, so its supreme Guide and Teacher is the inner Page 14 Guide, the World-Teacher, jagad-guru... evening hoping to be shown some unknown region and taken for a jaunt in the vital or mental world: I showed him how to go out of the body, how to get back into it, how to keep the consciousness, etc., I showed him many places telling him "There you must take this precaution, here you must do such and such a thing." And this continued for a long time.39 There was a Danish painter who saw Mirra... be, not necessarily of a static but also of a dynamic kind, and then all that Mirra wanted would be capable of accomplishment. And so, even though Mirra profited by reading and pondering on the Lord's Song, she wouldn't wholly accept the current elucidations and interpretations, but held her own counsel. A work of revealed scripture was doubtless a pearl beyond price, but more precious still ...
... return to correct some of his errors - the Poetic Genius, Who is the eternal all-protecting Divine Humanity. 59 Blake also terms it in the same poem again using the designation "human" in an archetypal sense - the Human Imagination, Which is the Divine Body of the Lord Jesus, blessed forever 60 - Jesus whom in this very poem he Miltonically calls "the image of the Invisible... cast out from Heaven was the spirit of rationality which had revolted against the many-sided fullness of Divine Being. In that fullness there is room for the Energy that to Blake is Eternal Delight and for the Exuberance that to him is Beauty. This fullness is "the Poetic Genius, which is the Lord", 58 or - as he puts it in his long prophetic poem Milton (1804-1808) where he makes the older poet return... hour Friendliest to sleep and silence, he resolv'd With all his legions to dislodge, and leave Unworshipp'd, unobey'd, the Throne supreme... 91 What are "the trees of life", among which flow "living streams", except bits of divine forests? No doubt, there is no straight association here of this suggestion of forests with Satan's resolve at midnight, but the presence of those ...
... as bad as they would be under Hitler. The ways of the Lord would still be open—to keep them open is what matters. Let us stick to the real, the central fact, the need to remove the peril of black servitude and revived barbarism threatening India and the world.... P.S. Ours is a Sadhana which involves not only devotion or union with the Divine or a perception of Him in all things and beings but also... in particular to the Allies.) If the nations or the governments who are blindly the instruments of the divine forces were perfectly pure and divine in their processes and forms of action as well as in the inspiration they receive so ignorantly they would be invincible, because the divine forces themselves are invincible. It is the mixture in the outward expression that gives to the Asura the right... whether Page 239 through chariots and bows and arrows or tanks and cars and American bombs and planes, in either case ghoram karma [a dreadful work, Gita, 3.1] As for violence etc. the old command rings out for us once again after many ages: "Mayaivaite nihatah purvam eva nimittamatram bhava Savyasacin" [By me and none other already they are slain, become only the occasion ...
... mother [who gives shape to him in his manifestation – Isis, Mary]; And it is he who is my father and my lord. It is he who is my force [because I am his force, Shakti]; I am in the process of becoming [the complete Divine is growing up in the Manifestation], Yet I have borne a Man as lord [the cosmic Purusha, the archetype of what humanity is to become]. The Mother herself gave us a... all that was low and animal-like below and preceding the human condition. One reads from the pen of several authors that “the Mother was so human.” M.P. Pandit for instance wrote: “She was supremely divine but equally extremely human.” This is a misconception of the Mother which interprets her perceptible actions and her gracious relations with people according to the human ways. Indeed, she had... (who was a cosmologist calling himself an “exobiologist”); the effects of drugs and medicines; carbon dioxide intoxication or oxygen starvation; or a flood of endorphins released by the dying brain. Etc. Obviously, this flood of experiences exceeds the boundaries of physical science, which by now at least should be used to the astonishing and apparently impossible in its own backyard. Only the science ...
... action are the same In the deep breast of God's supreme delight." It would not be necessary then to strive for peace and bliss for they would be self-existent and action would be "...A ripple in the Infinite And birth a gesture of Eternity." In that state of the divine Existence where human contraries are reconciled in a supreme self-existent harmony, it would be possible for the... ''long monotone", "And made new things that soon were like the old. The mind here was cheated with the idea of change and it became busy with invention, production, interchange, economic progress, etc. This kind of progress never led to any real perfection and therefore whatever it achieved was always relative. One scheme was followed by another scheme, ideas were brief-lived and even when a declaration... After some time, with a keener gaze, Aswapathy saw that there was a capital but no State. It was a city "Founded upon a soil that knew not Light. Page 198 "There Ego was lord upon his peacock seat And falsehood sat by him, his mate and queen". These two, falsehood and ego, usurped the place of truth and God. Everything here was founded upon force "And licence ...
... pronounced Chumly. Once the well-known journalist Horatio Bottomley went to interview Lord Cholmondeley. Not being intimate with aristocratic nomenclature he asked the butler whether Lord Chol-mon-de-ley would be good enough to given him a few minutes. The butler politely but with a superior air said: "I shall ask Lord Chumly about it. What name shall I give him as yours, Sir?" Horatio Bottomley handed... head into luxuriant growth? Old men into gods of eternal youth? Sri Aurobindo: Why not seven tails with an eighth on the head - everybody different colours, blue, magenta, indigo, green, scarlet, etc.; hair luxuriant but vermilion and flying erect skywards; other details to match? Amen. NB: My disgust is becoming more and more acute as regards poetry. I suppose the slightly lit-up channel has... with a heavenly feast through his sustained correspondence with these disciples. Sri Aurobindo's relationship with these three disciples was so sweet and so informal! He had never any weakness for lording it over the weak whom he actually invited to "discuss things" familiarly with him.' Sri Aurobindo approached them "not only with the power of a Guru's wisdom but with the sweet persuasiveness ...
... than two years before his departure. I reacted violently, I concentrated all my power to prevent him from going, and it made him suffer greatly, because He WANTED to go, He had decided—“He": the Supreme Lord had decided that He would go. 7 Why? How many times since then have I asked myself that question? “I am ready, I’ll go, 8 and She had her son come, made arrangements. “No, it can’t be you... not know how the descent I am labouring for is to fulfil itself In fact, the Mother and I have to give nine-tenths of our energy to smoothing down things, to keeping the Sadhaks tolerably contented etc.... One-tenth and in the Mother’s case not even that can go to the real work; it is not enough. 15 This "real work” never done, constantly obstructed by their Lilliputian stupidities. This was in... 1945)—and finally a fifth time, in October, 1950, two months before He left—after the correspondence and the other things had again sneaked through the doors (the disciples’ literary articles, poems, etc.). This time, He would categorically say: I am finding no time for my real work.... Take up SAVITRI, I want to finish it soon, 19 to the great amazement of His secretary, who had never seen Sri ...
... rocanā (cf. 1,102,8; 2,27,9; 4,53,5, etc.) and Indra's lordship of them would give a triple aspect to his role as the Bull. Swar and the Dawns being linked, he as the triple Bull could bring about the three dawns of which the Rigveda speaks in 3,17,3 and 8,41,3. Thus to see him as the begetter of Tryaruna, lord of the triple dawn, is quite fitting. Master of a divine plane with three realms of light,... mortals, O asura." Griffith's translation 404 is: "Thou over all, O Varuṇa, art Sovran, be they Gods, Asura! or be they mortals." Evidently, being an Asura involves rulership: one is lord and master, one wields supreme power. The same implication Hale arrives at from the phrase tắ hí devắnām ásurā - "these asuras of the gods" applied to Varuṇa jointly with Mitra in 7,65,2. Griffith 405 has "Asuras... As far as we can pierce the somewhat baffling language, it is Indra himself who is now seen as the supreme Sky-deity, Dyaus. In fact, the preceding verse - 2 -has the same turn of phrase at the start and is openly about Indra, under the name Śakra, "the Mighty": "Sing hymns of praise to Śakra, Lord of power and might; laud thou and magnify Indra who heareth thee, / Who with his daring might, a Bull ...
... beauty its most splendid passion of luminous form and the consciousness that receives it a supreme height and depth of ecstasy. 214 This is how millions of idea-forces have divided our world: communism, individualism; nonviolence, warmongering; epicureanism, asceticism, etc. Each is one part of the divine Truth, each a single ray of God. There is no such thing as absolute error, but only divisions... one in which illusion is only a small surface phenomenon with an immense Divine Reality behind it and a supreme Divine Reality above it and an intense Divine Reality in the heart of everything that had seemed at first only a cinematic shape or shadow. And this was no reimprisonment in the senses, no diminution or fall from supreme experience, it came rather as a constant heightening and widening of the... thrust into the supreme Light, without trance, without loss of individuality, without cosmic dissolution, and with his eyes wide open: He broke into another Space and Time. 242 Night, Evil, Death are masks. The supreme Opposition awakens the supreme Intensity, and the analogous becomes Itself – there is only One, tad ekam . The Solar World, the supreme, supramental, divine consciousness, ...
... (sāksāt darśan) of the Lord of my Heart; had entertained the immense hope of knowing the preserver of the World, the Supreme Person (Purushottama) as friend and master. But due to the pull of a thousand worldly desires, attachment towards numerous activities, the deep darkness of ignorance, I did not succeed in that effort. At long last the most merciful all-good Lord (Shiva Had) destroyed... history, his successor Minto was called upon to face the music. As Sir Pratap Singh, a titled dignitary of the time, put it with charming naïveté, "Lord Curzon has strewn Lord Minto's bed with thorns, and he must lie on them." 1 "Sedition" was divined here - there - everywhere, and prosecution after prosecution was launched. Disaffection - of course! Which normal person in India could possibly... hermitage, and his soul moved unhorizoned with angel-wings and glimpsed the Lord in everything. There is a sovereign sense of bareness in the shorter poem, an there is a like sovereign suggestion of richness and magnificence in the second - but both partake of the Bliss of Brahman in the infinite manifestations of the Divine play. Sri Aurobindo has safely come through the devouring coils of adverse ...
... of any account to him. Would they that have aspired for freedom be satisfied with anything less? Would they that have tasted divine nectar be content with sipping wine? Freedom was the golden bough, it had to be grown by sacrificing - if need be - everything else. Yet the Lord too should view human effort with kindness; without His grace all mere human exertion could not lead us anywhere. ... bullocks. The minute details on the mud walls of cottages attracted her and she would stride through puddles and dung-heaps to take a look. The weavers, potters, metal workers, wood carvers, jewellers, etc. called her the Mother of Handicrafts. She was highly esteemed in the crafts world. She fought for equal rights for women. She wanted women to be free and independent. At the age of 23, she secured for... narration too were of a high order, but he seemed generally to prefer to immortalise moods, emotions, waves of passion and gleams of memory to chronicling laboriously events or linked actions. He was a lord of language too; he both liberated Tamil from the shackles that Punditry had forced upon it and rode the emancipated language as a master horseman, bringing the best out of it. What the living tradition ...
... indispensable and irreplaceable role. Seen from a distance, all this is a sort of dismal fairy tale, The Lord of the Rings but on a cosmic scale. To our experience, however, it is a raw, painful reality of which all our limitations and miseries are the outcome. Through it all, we carry the Divine in us, whom we are in essence; but our consciousness is veiled and our forces totally inadequate. Yesterday... Truth is coming down, it throws up the hostile vital world on the surface, and you see all sorts of abnormal vital manifestations, such as an increase in the number of persons who go mad, earthquakes, etc.’ We have already been reflecting on this. The vital beings perform their frenetic dance in an orgy of violence and stupefaction, in a hellish roar from batteries of loudspeakers with a power of thousands... work of the modern Avatar and at the beginning of its manifest elaboration in the imminent millennium. The tone is biblical. ‘There are moments when the Spirit moves among men and the breath of the Lord is abroad upon the waters of our being, there are others when it retires and men are left to act in the strength or the weakness of their own egoism. The first are periods when even a little effort ...
... of the Divine in the world, a thousand times more intense, sweet and desirable. The vision of the Light and the vision of the Lord in the form of Page 35 Jagannath are both of them indications that he has the capacity for Yoga experience and that there is a call of the Divine on his inner being. But capacity is not enough; there must be also the will to seek after the Divine and courage... only if there is a strong insincerity somewhere, a hankering after something else—power, ambition, etc.—which counterbalances the inner call that the logic is no longer applicable. Supramental realisation is another matter: I am speaking now of the realisation of the Divine, of the contact with the Divine, through whatever lever, heart or mind, or both. In your case it is likely to come through the heart... The Light is the light of the Divine Consciousness. The aim of this Yoga is first to come into contact with this consciousness and then to live in its light and allow the light to transform the whole nature, so that the being may live in union with the Divine and the nature become a field for the action of the Divine Knowledge, the Divine Power and the Divine Ananda. He can succeed in that only ...
... when you are flooded with Light, it is the flood of the Divine Himself that is around you. Of course, the Divine is something much more; many other things besides, and in them all a Presence, a Being, a Divine Person; for the Divine is Krishna, is Shiva, is the Supreme Mother. But through the Ananda you can perceive the ā nandamaya [all-blissful] Krishna; for the Ananda is the subtle body and being... of the play of the Divine Lila [play]. It is this attitude that gives the greatest calm, peace, samat ā [equanimity] in face of the riddle of the cosmic workings. It is not meant that action and movement are not accepted but they are accepted as the Divine Working which is leading to ends which the mind may not always see at once, but the soul divines through all the supreme purpose and the hidden... Priya [beloved] and nāth [lord] would not do. On the other hand antaryāmi [inner guide] and prabhu [master] could remain; Shankara himself would not have avoided these two words, I believe. Not love exactly, but bhakti is permissible even for the Mayavadi at a certain stage before he has become too impersonal, too identified with the Paramātma [the Supreme Soul] for any duality to exist ...
... like J. C. Bose, Lord Sinha, etc. but none from Sri Aurobindo's paternal or maternal side. His maternal relations were of Brahmo society. Mrinalini, at 14, was married like Sati to Shiva, but had no idea about it. Her entire married life of 18 years was Page 3 practically passed alone. Her husband was plunged in political work, later in deep meditation on the Supreme in the far South... hardly spare much time to give her company. He wrote in 1907 to her at Deoghar, "Here I do not have a moment to spare. I am in charge of writing for 'Bande Mataram', I am in charge of the Congress work", etc. Then again: "This is a time of great anxiety for me. If at this time you get restless, it can only increase my worry and anxiety. But if you write encouraging and comforting letters, that will give... that day arrived and Shiva sent her the call saying, "My tapasya is fulfilled, I have attained Siddhi. 1 Come, be a help in my vast work." Then in great joy and hope she prepared herself to meet her Lord. But destiny willed otherwise. At that very time, her life's thread was snapped. This in short is the tragic saga of Mrinalini's life. Let us go back and trace the chequered course of her earthly ...
... phenomena of two categories.37 Then Hardy turns to the views of Lord Brain. In his book, Mind, Perception and Science, Lord Brain answers the question: "What have you to say about [Gilbert] Ryle's view? Hasn't he finally demolished 'the ghost in the machine' and with it many other functions you evidently attribute to the mind?" Lord Brain says: "It would take too long to discuss all the views which... l selection" means in the simplest terms: If a population of animals should change their habits (no doubt often on account of changes in their surroundings such as food supply, breeding sites, etc., but also Page 321 sometimes due to their exploratory curiosity discovering new ways of life, such as new sources of food or new methods of exploitation) then, sooner or later, variations... observation and imagination, since if he is right about these I must be wrong and, incidentally, his approach to these topics will illustrate what I believe to be the fundamental defect of his book."38 Lord Brain goes on to demolish, on neurophysiological grounds, Ryle's argument. Hardy continues: "Sir John Eccles, one of our leading physiologists of brain action, in his Waynfleete Lectures at Oxford ...
... “When That comes, when the Lord is there, there is not one person in a thousand who is not terrified. And not in their mind, not in their thought: in their substance [in the cells of their body]: Suppose then, just suppose that it happens, that a certain being [she herself, for instance] becomes the condensation and expression, a formula of the supreme Power, of the supreme Light: just imagine what would... holding the soul to earthly nature and preventing its ascent either to spiritual fulfilment in the Supreme or to the dissolution of its individual beings in the Supreme … If a total transformation of the being is our aim, a transformation of the body must be an indispensable part of it; without that no full divine life on earth is possible.” 36 But there remains that huge gap to be bridged between the... all along it was the peak realisation, “the giant point”, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother had been working towards, is proven by a categorical text of hers, a direct address to the Divine, noted down in her handwriting: “My Lord, what Thou has wanted me to do I have done. The gates of the Supramental have been thrown open and the Supramental Consciousness, Light and Force are flooding the earth. “But ...
... every duality must be renounced, the whole world seen and unseen must be recognised as one supreme expression of concealed Wisdom, Power and Bliss, and the entire being given up, as an engine is passive in the hands of the driver, for the divine Love, Might and perfect Intelligence to do its work and fulfil its divine Lila. Ahaṅkāra must be blotted out in order that we may have, as God intends us ultimately... conventions and arrangements of perception, the perspective in God's creative Art,—but by cit , the divine awareness in his transcendent being. ईशा वास्यमिदं सर्वं यत् किञ्च जगत्यां जगत् । "All this world and every object in this world of Prakriti has been created as a habitation for the Lord." Nor is it enough to see him in all things and beings, sarvabhūteṣu ; you must see him in all... human being. It is not personal Ananda, but the bringing down of the divine Ananda—Christ's kingdom of heaven, our Satyayuga—upon the earth. Of mokṣa we have no personal need; for the soul is nityamukta and bondage is an illusion. We play at being bound, we are not really bound. We can be free when God wills; for he, our supreme Self, is the master of the game, and without his grace and permission ...
... also Sri Aurobindo as the seer and realiser of the Supermind. the archetypal Truth-Consciousness which is both the primal Creator and the ultimate Transformer of earthly existence, a supreme status and dynamism of the Divine with which none of the past religions or philosophical or poetic visionaries had concretely come in contact. Sri Aurobindo did not live in cloudland; he was realist enough to know... Ghose's myself, I can't trust anyone else in England to do that task. Kapila's Lexicon of Sanskrit basic terms I shall merely, with infinite respect, describe. But these terms - Brahman, Purusha, Atman, etc. etc. - we of the West will have to learn if we wish to think about that universe to which they relate, Blake himself lacked such a vocabulary, but after all what a magnificent mythology he forged from... the Italian musician fits so well the picture of the kind of social milieu from which Shakespeare would have been likely to choose a mistress - not, certainly, the courtesans and bawds. And a young lord could also have been charmed by her gifted playing. Of course I'm not an authority but I favour Emilia Lanier rather than your 'Anastasia' who seems rather a featureless young lady. But who knows? ...
... or manifestation or contact. I shall accept no meaning which is inconsistent with this fundamental significance. Moreover the tendency of the old commentators to make all possible words, vaja, ritam etc mean sacrifice or food, must be rejected,—although a justification in etymology might always be made out for the effort. Vaja means substance in being, substance, plenty, strength, solidity, steadfastness... illumination, the rushing & impetuous ecstasy produced by the Soma wine. It is then that men know the ultimate perceptions of mind, the highest realisations that can be given by the intellect when Indra, lord of mental force & power, is full of the ecstasy of the immortalising juice. This clear & easy sense being fixed for these two verses, we can return to the first & discover its connection with what follows... come again to Bala & the Titans & the meaning of these divine battles,—viryani yani chakara prathamani vajri. All the passages I have quoted proceed from the hymns of Madhuchchhanda son of Viswamitra, the opening eleven hymns of the Rigveda. This seer is one of the deepest & profoundest of the spirits chosen as vessels & channels of the divine knowledge of the Veda, one of those who least loses the ...
... the Being The Divine and the Hostile Powers The Purpose of Avatarhood Rebirth Fate and Free-Will, Karma and Heredity, etc. The second, third and fourth parts consist of letters concerned more directly with sadhana and there is no aspect of Integral Yoga which Sri Aurobindo has left uncovered. These letters form a perfect supplement to his major works such as The Life Divine and The Synthesis... Besides, Sri Aurobindo said that at the time of the darshans there were special descents of spiritual Force, Light, Peace, etc. which could help the disciples in their sadhana if they were receptive. Many indeed had unusual experiences and some would have the vision of divine manifestations emanating from Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Also, for a visitor, a darshan could in a few moments of silent... possible for the soul of man to unite with the Divine because the soul — the psychic being, as Sri Aurobindo calls it — is a portion of the Divine and it is through this union that man can gain true Knowledge, 'knowledge by identity', in Sri Aurobindo's words Ordinarily, i.e. in our ordinary state of consciousness, we are unaware of our psychic being or of the Divine Consciousness and live in a state of ignorance ...
... who do not know much about him. Well, he is our distinguished, (Amal covers his ears — laughter) renowned, celebrated Amal Kiran, poet, critic, philosopher, journalist, historian, etc., etc., whom, I am sure, you have seen hopping about with his stick in the Ashram (laughter) most conspicuously, and whom I have the privilege to count as a cherished friend. He can talk Relativity with... hang over and you become a Hindu!" (laughter) I immediately did the conversion ceremony and went into the temple. Nobody stopped the newly made Hindu. I walked right in, saw the image of Jagannath — Lord of the World. He looked pretty frightening. I stood there and watched all the rituals going on. I visited also the place nearby where Chaitanya was supposed to have stood daily at the same spot so long... There I found Sri Aurobindo saying that it is not easy for us to remain perched on the heights for long. He writes that "a dull gravitation drags us down." Then he adds: This too the Supreme Diplomat can use: He makes our fall a means for greater rise. Confucius's prose statement was static: he indicated only a recurrence of falling and rising. Sri Aurobindo's ...
... else in the One Divine it would be able to materially develop its essential divine nature. K.D. Sethna wrote in his diary: ‘I wonder when the world will realize that [on 29 February 1956] the greatest event in history took place.’ 15 The Mother announced the Event in the Bulletin of April 1956. There she published the following four lines under the heading ‘29 February’: Lord, Thou hast willed... l, i.e. divine Consciousness down on Earth, to insert it into the earthly evolution and thus make the decisive evolutionary step possible by which one day a divinized species will be present on Earth in a material body. It was now certain that the Kingdom of God would be established upon Earth. The supramental Consciousness is the Unity-Consciousness, the Truth-Consciousness, the Divine Consciousness... the Earth. There have been all kinds of predictions by all kinds of prophets. It has been said: “There will be a new heaven and a new earth; a new race will be born; the world will be transformed.” Etc. Prophets have spoken about this in all the traditions.’ The child: ‘You have said, “They are fulfilled.”’ – The Mother: ‘Yes, and?’ – The child: ‘Where is the new race?’ – The Mother: ‘The new race ...
... your being consented to it, wanted and needed it as a self-fulfillment of the nature and the soul wanted it as a means of service to the Divine; the rest was due to the pressure of the Divine force and my pressure. As for the distaste, the lack of interest, etc. all this is temporary and belongs only to a part of you. In so far as it comes from a kind of vairagya, it may have helped you in overcoming... spiritual self-giving and surrender to the Divine, abandoning ego and desire even in the midst of action or of any kind of work or all kinds of work demanded from us by the Divine. If it were not so, there would not have been great spiritual men like Janaka or Vidura in India and even there would have been no Krishna or else Krishna would have been not the Lord of Brindavan and Mathura and Dwarka or... nature with the Supreme]. The full yoga, Purna Yoga, means a fourfold path, a Yoga of Knowledge for the mind, a Yoga of Bhakti for the heart, a Yoga of Works for the will and a Yoga of Perfection for the whole nature. But ordinarily, if one can follow whole-heartedly any one of these lines, one arrives at the result of all the four. For instance, by bhakti one becomes close to the Divine, becomes intensely ...
... that line. September 1, 1938 Guru, no, I don't suggest that significance doesn't matter. On the other hand, I said it is more probably because of the significance of the line than rhythm etc. that you call it magnificent. "Magnifies" was used jokingly, of course. As I don't yet understand much of longs, shorts, narrows and thicks of your prosody, I laid the beauty of the line at the door... an awakening Of thy eternal Beauty ring on ring." Guru, I smack my lips today in satisfaction, because I find the poem damn fine! Though there are a few anomalies, e.g. heavenly, ring on ring, etc. What do you say? Umph! Smack away but I smack also with my hand of correction. However the first stanza is O.K. and the last stanza the same when relieved of reveried and heavenly and unwrapped... remain—sun on snow but a non-melting sun. September 14, 1938 "The fathomless beauty on the soul's blue rim Wakes with a heaven-stirring cry And mirrors on the heart's horizon glass..." Lord Christ! what a yell for beauty to emit! Besides the correlation waking with a cry and mirroring is not very convincing. For heaven's sake do something about this. What is a horizon glass? cousin ...
... Aurobindo has more than once castigated the ‘cherished torpor and weakness’ in his country 6 and its omnipresent tamas, i.e., the inertia, the corporeal and mental immovability, lack of effort, etc. So did the Mother too, and she said that, had she been born in India, she would have shattered all its calcified and no longer meaningful habits and traditions, but that, being a French subject, she... devoid of vigour. The problems are many and colossal: population explosion, poverty, corruption, political chaos, the caste system, religious division, blind solipsism of the individual and the group, etc. Despite the country’s apparently unpromising present situation, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother — they who saw — have predicted a golden future for it. If they were right, this will be one of the wonders... 15 If the leaders of the Congress had listened to Sri Aurobindo in 1942, the division of India would most probably never have happened. In March of that year Sir Stafford Cripps, the British Lord Privy Seal and as such a member of Churchill’s war cabinet, came to India to offer the country ‘dominion status’ in what is known as ‘the Cripps-offer’. This meant ‘the creation of a new Indian union ...
... another is expressly hymned as one with all the other gods. Agni contains all other divine powers within himself, the Maruts are described as all the gods, one deity is addressed by the names of others as well as his own, or, most commonly, he is given as Lord and King of the universe attributes only appropriate to the Supreme Deity. Ah, but that cannot mean, ought not to mean, must not mean, the worship... the European scholars say it is, and then we have to put it away among the relics of the past as an antique record of semi-barbarous worship; or else it is indeed Veda, a book of divine knowledge, and then it becomes of supreme importance to us to know and to hear its message. Dayananda's view is quite clear, its foundation inexpugnable. The Vedic hymns are chanted to the One Deity under many names... foods that anything strong and substantial is indigestible to it. Moreover people in India are accustomed only to second-hand thoughts,—the old familiar ideas of the six philosophies, Patanjali etc., etc. Any new presentation of life and thought and Yoga upsets their expectations and is unintelligible to them. The thought of the Arya demands close thinking from the reader; it does not spare him ...
... d by a sense of crisis. A channel for the Divine's work, he will always be master of himself yet wholly free from the taint of egoism. The whole system of financial incentives, the desire for position, status and so-called "security", the scramble for power, the itch for "beggaring one's neighbour", the ambition to achieve personal "magnificence" and lord it over others, all these stupidities of the... One of them. Jay Smith, as given this account of his making a bee-line to the Ashram: What brought me here? The sovereign Call of the Divine through the Master's writings. As I read in the New York Public Library his supremely evocative words, "the Word" sounded in the depths of me. His replies to others' questions spoke straight to my heart, a fresh and compelling Revelation..... Mother shared with others her great "Dream" of the Life Divine being actually lived upon the earth: There should be somewhere on earth a place which no nation could claim as its own, where all human beings of good will who have a sincere aspiration could live freely as citizens of the world and obey one single authority, that of the supreme truth; a place of peace, concord and harmony where all ...
... passing beyond life but at a descent of the divine consciousness into life. Its aim is double - two movements fusing themselves into one - an ascending into the divine consciousness and a transformation of earth-life by the divine consciousness coming down here. All the old Yogas put the emphasis on going to Nirvana or to heaven, Vai-kuntha, Goloka, Brahmaloka etc. for good and so getting rid of rebirth... because the Divine is not only the Self of selves but also the Lord and Mother and Playmate and, from age to age, the Avatar, but even while relating man to the Divine under all these aspects Sri Aurobindo, in tune with his own spirituality as well as that of the whole Indian past, never denies the Gita's vision of the human soul as being in its last reality a portion of the Divine and knowing... received from him a vast peace and a constant flow of the inner heart towards the Divine - to me who have been most humbly, most gratefully, most intimately, most rapturously an Aurobindonian he is nothing short of the Avatar of Avatars and the culmination of the Divine's manifold self-revelation in the world, one in whose supreme light all past religions and spiritualities lay bare the heart of their meaning ...
... non-despiser is the Divine: such an idea would be absolutely meaningless and in the last degree feeble. Any yogi could have that equality or somebody much less than a yogi. The idea is that, being omnipotent, omniscient, infinite, supreme, the Divine does not seem to disdain to descend even into the lowest forms, the obscurest figures of Nature and animate them with the Divine Presence: that shows... notable because of the associations of the word "Vedantin". The traditional Vedantin who merges in the infinite silent Self of selves has no call for prayer: prayer can be directed only to some supreme Lord and Lover. Here the usual pressing towards the "hidden door of Knowledge" is mixed with a response to "the eternal Will" and a cry unto Love to outpour and unto Strength to fulfil itself. We may... finding of the Soul, the line A being no bigger than the thumb of man, is a translation from the Katha Upanishad where the inmost soul of man, divine in essence, governing his many lives and evolving through the ages into the Supreme Spirit's infinity, is spoken of in these terms. In the long passage (pp. 598-99) beginning— But now the half-opened lotus bud of her heart ...
... the same way must matter be guided by another intelligent power. He, therefore, who relies on the material cause only as clay, etc., cannot rightly maintain, that he possess the primordial cause; but no objection meets him who, besides it (the clay), relies on the potter, etc., as well. For when this is assumed there is no contradiction, and at the same time the scripture, which teaches an intelligent... overthrows it, when it says: 4 'How should the Existent come from the non-Existent?' and because it does not admit a producer of the Brahman, when it is said: 'Cause is He, Master of the Sense's Lord, He has no Lord, and no Progenitor.' 5 For ether and wind on the contrary an origin is shown, but there is none such for the Brahman, that is the difference. And because it is seen how, from modifications... modifications, yet other modifications arise, he might conclude that the ether also sprang into being from the Brahman, as if from a mere modification. The present sūtra 'But (there is) no origin" etc., serves to remove this doubt; its meaning is: but one must not think that the Brahman, whose essence is Being (sad-ātmaka), could have originated from anything else; why? 'owing to impossibility ...
... can fulfil this promise." (14 June 1914) What do You mean by "that which"? The force, the power, the consciousness, the knowledge, the love, etc., etc. 7 April 1936 Page 181 "But the religious being turns to Thee, O Lord, in a great aspiration of love, and implores Thy help." (24 June 1914) What do You mean by "the religious being"? The being which has religious... ) What an ugly picture you have sent me! The men are sinister brutes, the cruellest of all living creatures. 12 April 1933 The Divine is the true supreme goal of our life. We must fulfil the divine will. But who is the Divine, and what is the divine will? These are things one cannot speak about; they have to be discovered through personal experience. 13 April 1933 I have faith... 1914) What is the meaning of this passage? Wisdom lies in wanting what the Divine wants, not in deciding for yourself. 13 December 1933 "O divine Force, supreme Illuminator, hearken to our prayer, move not away from us, do not withdraw, help us to fight." (8 July 1914) Does the Divine ever move away or withdraw from us? No, it is we who withdraw from him. 11 July ...
... serve as a preface to what I shall read." And then perhaps I thought this was the reply so that I might say that I have heard the Voice of the Lord. Whether this was the right explanation or not, it made me happy, and it makes you happy too. I believe that the Lord came, visited me and gave some food to distribute to you so that you may be happy. So in conclusion, I am happy, you are happy and the world... arteries and consequently I could count quite easily the beating of my pulse. Still more strange was my power to look inside my thorax and abdomen and see clearly my internal organs - heart, lungs, liver, etc. I had only to concentrate for a little while to be able to do this. Sri Aurobindo knew of this queer faculty of mine, but never encouraged me in any way. One day, in ordinary conversation, I said to... Babu came to invite you. You are to dine with him this evening and spend the night in his house. It appears that Mrs. Ghose has come down to Calcutta expressly for the purpose of congratulating her lord on his acquittal." Aurobindo said merely, "I see." That was very typical of Him. Then my wife started, "There is nothing to see. Please get ready quickly and put on the clothes ...
... simply to take up the ready formation and manifest the Divine. Disciple : But what affords the material for the physical or the vital bodies ? Sri Aurobindo : What do you mean by "what affords" ? It is already there in Nature, as there is electricity, gas etc. Disciple : What is Nature ? Sri Aurobindo : The Universal Divine has projected the Universe and there is Universal Nature... Shiva ? Sri Aurobindo : No. The Indian trinity refers to cosmic powers which preside over certain movements in the universe Brahma-creative etc. "Son" in the Christian Trinity means perhaps the "Divine in man". "Holy Ghost" symbolises the "Divine Consciousness". 3-10-1926 Sri Aurobindo : True humility is when you are ready to admit your own defects for which, again, you need not... birth at all. It is as good as asking : why was the world created ? Or you can ask : why are you and I here even though we are divine, —and, in a sense, perfect ? We can only say that the soul assumes birth in order to manifest divine perfection, to manifest the Divine in life. That is all we can say. Disciple : One part of the question was about the machinery of rebirth, if I may put it ...
... to the Divine to carry one safely through the dark periods. The Divine is always ready to pick you up whenever you fall. A certain passage in the Mother’s Prayers and Meditations has been the chief support of my yoga. It begins, “O Divine and adorable Mother, what is there that cannot be overcome with Thy Help?” There is also the passage, “Thou hast promised to lead us all to our supreme destiny... not to do, becoming discouraged, etc. Did this happen in your sadhana? How to guard against this happening and what to do if and when it comes? Straying from the path and doing what one knows not to do are real obstacles in yoga. Becoming discouraged now and again is a very common phase but one can get over this condition by appealing again and again to the Divine for help. In any kind of difficulty... Mother felt that external help for the growth of the Ashram would come imminently from America, but she said there would be a sort of tantalizing connection. I remember her saying that Ganesh, the Lord of Wealth, would always help her but often in a wayward way. There were times when the Ashram was almost desperately in need of money. The Mother had to sell her own saris to obtain the needed relief ...
... ignorance; she is Mahalakshmi, the goddess of the supreme love and delight, and her gifts are the spirit’s grace and the charm and beauty of the Ananda and protection and every divine and human blessing; she is Mahasaraswati, the goddess of divine skill and of the works of the Spirit, and hers is the yoga that is skill in works and the utilities of divine knowledge and the self-application of the spirit... in a resplendent, divinized body. Not only had many expected to see Sri Aurobindo and the Mother in a divinized body, they had also expected that they themselves would become immortal and share in their divine glory. K.D. Sethna, for instance, writes: ‘Psychologically, one of the most central facts of the early days [of the Ashram] was the conviction that complete divinization of the physical being... the Spirit and of all perfections and siddhis. She is Maheshwari, goddess of the supreme knowledge, and brings to us her vision for all kinds and widenesses of truth, her rectitude of the spiritual will, the calm and passion of her supramental largeness, her felicity of illumination; she is Mahakali, goddess of the supreme strength, and with her are all mights and spiritual force and severest austerity ...
... of rising into the Divine Nature from the lower nature. What that higher Nature is you will understand afterwards. You have to become fit for it. You can now see your lower nature; especially the vital play Page 126 of Kama (lust) and Krodha (anger) etc – is essentially the Dharma – the functioning – of the animal man. You have to rise into the Divine Nature by rejecting... But in the Gita the instruments of action remain human throughout (the Buddhi etc.). It does not speak of the intuitive consciousness. In our ancient works there is no conception about the evolutionary nature of the world, or rather, they do not have the vision of humanity as an evolutionary expression of the Divine in which new levels of consciousness gradually Page 118 open... psychic being? Sri Aurobindo : It may be. I think the psychic being was meant by the phrase, “ Iśvarah sarvabhūtānām hr ,ddeśe ” the Lord seated in the heart of creatures" Disciple : Is not the psychic being the direct portion of the Divine here? If so, is it the same as the Jiva? Sri Aurobindo : The Jiva is something more than the psychic being. The psychic being is behind ...
... Love is the first, highest and completest expression of the divine Truth in the world and the supreme Force that can lead the world back to the Divine. It includes all the other aspects and principles and is the eternal fount of the most ineffable ecstasy and sweetness that flow out of the union of the human with the Divine. And it is this love that is literally incarnate in the Mother -... poems, and The Life Divine and The Synthesis of Yoga. He wrote authoritatively on the Yoga of the other and on the life of Sri Aurobindo. In his essay on "The Brazier of Love", Rishabhchand wondered why the Chandi (or Devi Mahatmyam), while it invokes the. Divine Mother in her different aspects of Consciousness, Intelligence, Power, Peace, Beauty, Forgiveness, Kindness, etc., doesn't refer... on 19 August, which lasted over forty-five minutes, Ganapati Muni recognised in the Mother the goddess Sakambari, an exalted manifestation of the Supreme Shakti and himself as Ganapati who "was at her service to be utilised as her instrument for Divine Work". While Nayana was expatiating on Sakambari, the Mother went into a trance, and Nayana, who was closely observant, perceived "bright light emerging ...
... all there will come the power to prolong life at will..., but this one is a state of consciousness which is being established; it is a kind of relation, a constant and established contact with the supreme Lord; it abolishes the sense of wear and tear and replaces it by an extraordinary flexibility, an extraordinary plasticity. But the state of spontaneous immortality is not possible—at least for the... ready it would have naturally led to the transformation of Her most external being. Before She left Her body the Mother told us that She had already lived for a while in a new subtle body (sexless, etc.). Whether it was a supramental body or a body in transition She did not clarify, but since its origin was not human it might as well have been the supramental. She had also told us that mostly among... must carefully distinguish them. They are: first, the establishment of a divine life on earth and, second, personal divinisation. Evidently, if one individual got divinised, it would not mean 1 Mother India, December 5,1953, "A 'Call' from Pondicherry", p. 187. 2 Ibid. Page 54 that a divine life had been terrestrially established. Unless a certain group undergoes ...
... surface, and you see all sorts of abnormal vital manifestations, such as an increase in the number of persons who go mad, earthquakes, etc. Also, the world is becoming more UNITED on account of the discoveries of modern science—the airplane, the railways, the telegraph, etc. Such a union is the condition for the highest Truth coming down and it is also our difficulty [indeed!]. Fourthly, the rise of persons... layer of unconsciousness and separation. It has separated itself from everything—like the Swiss cuckoo in its clock. That evening She told them: It is the Divine in unconsciousness that aspires for the Divine in consciousness. Without the Divine, there would be no aspiration, and without the consciousness concealed in unconsciousness, it would be impossible to change unconsciousness to consciousness... produced by the body's cells: It is ALL the same Force! she exclaimed The Power is mixed with different states: mental, vital, or even the purely material state, in which case it becomes electricity—the Lord as electrical vibrations! And She laughed. It's their material notation of the Fact. 15 There you are! We have still not really understood anything about the Fact, for the electric or atomic or ...
... can include indeed a full experience of the other worlds, the plane of the Supreme Spirit and the other planes in between and their possible effects upon our life and the material world; but it will be quite possible to insist only on the realisation of the Supreme Being or Ishwara even in one aspect, Shiva, Krishna as Lord of the world and Master of ourselves and our works or else the Universal S... and afterwards to proceed from them to the integral results if one accepted the ideal of the divine life and this material world conquered by the Spirit. It is this view and experience of things and of the truth of existence that enabled me to write The Life Divine and Savitri. The realisation of the Supreme, the Ishwara, is certainly the essential thing; but to approach Him with love and devotion and... the mind, so he unhesitatingly lifted the time-old ascetic ban on the body which he did not equate with a pitiful mass of flesh and bone but rather as a divine gift which could, in the last analysis, he wrote, "become a revealing vessel of a supreme beauty and bliss — casting the beauty of the light of the spirit, suffusing and radiating from it as a lamp reflects and diffuses the luminosity of its ...
... it wants integral union, must realise its unity with the Divine in the manifestation, as with the Transcendent. Besides, to say that the soul has become finally absorbed in the Absolute is only a way of speaking. Is this liberation final ? I am far from granting this. The Absolute has an aspect which knows itself, loves itself, etc. through us as intermediaries. And that is the reason of the... came when I had to give up my ideals, as all the rest, to the Lord of Yoga. But it is possible a time may come when once again I could work at it. Indeed, in Yoga, one must give up everything, all ideals even as all desires. A moment comes when what is true in the being, what is not mental but deeper, and which must be used by the Divine,—the moment comes when this is awakened. This happens when... general trend, ethical, moral, but not spiritual? There is something erroneous there of which I cannot find the cause, but which has made me stand aside from the movement (missionary, sectarian, etc., etc.). These are very important questions for me. There are as a matter of fact two very different questions. Their true answers are not of a mental order, but can be understood only through ...
... great. I appeal to you in the name of those women who are offering up their lives to this modern god of gold, and I appeal to you in the name of those little children, the living and the unborn," etc., etc. 77 Page 54 Prof. Irving M. Copi observes apropos of the above defence argument of Clarence Darrow: "Is Thomas Kidd guilty as charged? Darrow's appeal was sufficiendy moving to make... when it signifies the milder expression 'to ask for'; (iii) 'manipuler'; etc. 30. Humour of the 'logic' of mispronunciation: Example 1: There are some odd people who pronounce the English vowels in a slightly aspirate way. Thus they pronounce 'e' as 'he', 'o' as 'ho', 'n' as 'hen', 'encroach' as 'hencroach', etc. "A Japanese Consul visited the British Consul without an appointment... the comic quality of the expression. We have thus various linguistic expressions such as, (i) a man of humour; (ii) a humorous man; (iii) humorous writing; (iv) to appreciate the humour of a remark; etc. But how has the word 'humour' come into the language? What is its etymological significance? Has this significance evolved with the passage of time? In its Latin origin 'humour' signified ...
... 18 "One single drop of Thy divine love can transform this suffering into an ocean of delight! "Oh! Let all tears be wiped away, all suffering relieved, all anguish dispelled, and let a calm serenity dwell in every heart. "I am sad, have pity on me. "O Thou who relievest all suffering and dispersest all ignorance, O Thou the supreme healer, have pity on me. "Break this... profoundly. 9 December 1932 If you try to hide something from the Divine, you are sure to fall flat on your nose, plop! like that... 10 December 1932 Page 27 Joy lies in having absolute trust in the Divine. 2 January 1933 Why, when you get into trouble, do you no longer ask for the help of the Divine Grace? Yet you know from experience that the result is unfailing and... we who are too sincerely seeking for the Truth expression to be easily understood by ordinary people. It is this seeking which gives the impression of hesitation, uncertainty, unsuccessful attempts, etc. 10 August 1932 Page 22 "Grant that we may effectuate Thy Victory" 8 if the time has come... but it is for You to answer, O Sweet Mother. It is by the concentration of our ...
... knowledge, for the play of the Lord with His creations; for the ego is there that it may finally convert itself into a free centre of the divine work and the divine play. That consciousness too he has sufficient love, joy and knowledge to accept; he is puissant enough to effect that conversion. To embrace individuality after transcending it is the last and divine sacrifice. The perfect Arhat is... come 27. Prayers and Meditations — The Mother. Page 379 when darkness shall be transformed into light, when Thy reign shall be, indeed, established upon earth. "O Lord, Divine Builder of this marvel, my heart over- flows with joy and gratitude when I think of it, and my hope is boundless. "My adoration surpasses all words and my reverence is silent." 28 On... for certain on which particular date, at what auspicious moment, the word 'Mother' was uttered by the lips of Sri Aurobindo. But that was a divine moment in unrecorded history, a crucial moment in the destiny of man and earth; for it was at this supreme moment that the Mother was installed in the external consciousness of man on this material earth. "Let me now end this story with a last ...
... Disciple : It will depend upon the object with which one gives the fruit etc. Disciple : It will be ahaituk fruit. Disciple . : Yes, ahaituka offering with an eye to Ahaituki krpa ! ( Laughter ) Disciple (to Sri Aurobindo ) : But then, is there nothing like patit-pāvan – the Divine purifying the fallen and the low ? Sri Aurobindo : That is sentimentalism... philosophy, metaphysics etc. 26-9-1926 Disciple : How can a man get things done for him by the Higher Power unless the Higher Power becomes known to him or is, at least, partly realised ? Sri Aurobindo : If it is known by the mind, then, like all mental realisations, it gets mixed up. Mind divides, infers, conceives and then lays down mental standard for the Divine. It dictates to... I do not know the exact meaning, but I believe it is what may be called "grace". Something from the Divine descending in man. Sri Aurobindo : But grace is also a part of divine wisdom. You do not mean to say that divine grace is due to a chance caprice of God ! It is there because the divine knows its purpose. Disciple : Ahaituki bhakti and, krpa means .that .there is no purpose ...
... queenly and indescribably sweet and we could feel that she was The Mother of whom the Master has spoken in his book. The Master was grand, Shiva and Krishna in one, the supreme Purusha whom the Mother has acclaimed as the Lord whose presence would transform our Night into Day. In the afternoon, the Mother would distribute garlands (which we had offered to her in the morning). Sometimes she distributed... vampire. And it was true, for a few moments of association with this person used to make me feel dejected and tired. But there were people with whom the Mother encouraged me to mix with, Dr. N., S. etc. The Mother was also very definite about books and journals. I remember she forbade me from reading 'Life' magazine which was, she said, definitely ugly. Once she examined cursorily my palm. She... origin than my growing, unsteady, adolescent mind could even conceive. The fact, however, came back to me with great impact that she was not only the divine mother, she was my physical mother as well. There was a blending of the human and the divine, which far transcended the human relation of a mother for her offspring or a spiritual relation of a guru with the disciple. A black curtain was drawn ...
... called a godhead. Godheads are figures of manifestation of one Supreme Divine that is above even higher Nature. This Supreme Divine also manifests itself into multiple individualities by means of the higher Nature. Each of these individualities is called "Jiva." Each Jiva is the individual being of the Page 47 Supreme Divine, capable of witnessing, controlling, sanctioning and lordship over... Reality, the supreme impersonal Person. But in this step the knowledge Page 41 is not subordinated, only raised, vitalised and fulfilled, and still the sacrifice of Works continues. The double path becomes the triple path of knowledge, works and devotion. And, at the end, the goal is accomplished, and the goal is union with the divine Being and oneness with the supreme divine Nature." ... result appropriate to the Bhakti Yoga, Yoga of Divine Love. "When these three results are synthesised, we can realise the significance of the great pronouncement of the Gita which Krishna declares to Arjuna towards the close of his teaching, namely, to abandon all our standards of right and wrong and to give ourself entirely to the Supreme Divine who will manifest His perfection of Will through ...
... It means: "We choose the Supreme Light of the Divine Sun; we aspire that it may impel our minds." The Sun is the symbol of the divine Light that is coming down and Gayatri gives expression to the aspiration, asking that divine Light to come down and give impulsion to all the activities of the mind. In this Yoga also, we want to bring down that divine Sun to govern, not only the... Swaraj Party during the next two years made a deep impression on Lord Birkenhead, the India Secretary, who thought highly of Chittaranjan's patriotism as well as statesmanship. A rapprochement between Britain and India seemed imminent, but Chittaranjan's sudden death on 16 June 1925 put an abrupt end to those hopes. It was "a supreme loss", said Sri Aurobindo in his obituary tribute; "consummately... organisation and the inner attitude of consecration to the Master and Lord of Yoga gave a new form * The Mother has said: "Not to take care of material things which one uses is a sign of inconscience and ignorance.... You must take care of it, not because you are attached t» it, but because it manifests something of the Divine Consciousness." Page 541 and trembling vitality and ...
... how many copies of the prospectus we should send to you. If the review succeeds, if, that is to say, we get in India 850 regular subscribers, and 250 in France etc. we shall be able to meet the expenses of the establishment, translation-staff etc. and yet have enough for each of the editors to live on with their various kinds of families, say Rs 100 a month for each. In that case the money-question will... spiced foods that anything strong and substantial is indigestible to it. Moreover people in India are accustomed only to second-hand thoughts,—the old familiar ideas of the six philosophies, Patanjali etc. etc. Any new presentation of life and thought and Yoga upsets their expectations and is unintelligible to them. The thought of the Arya demands close thinking from the reader; it does not spare him the... I think their fangs have been drawn. I may possibly send you the facts of the case for publication in the Nayak or any other paper, but I am not yet certain. I shall write to you about sadhana etc. another time. Kali Page 176 [2] [August 1912 or after] Dear M P.S. has sent to his brother an address for sending Yogini Chakras. He says it is approved by you. Now we want ...
... Light And discovered a wonder-world of Truth and Delight. The Lord Himself welcomed you and the Mother with Her Smile of Grace You dwell now for ever in Their Eternal Love and Divine Embrace. You prostrated yourself at Their Lotus Feet with a joyous surrender Then went to sleep in Her Divine Lap awaiting the Golden Calendar. One day They will return in Their... Kolkata, and though it was for a very brief period on both the occasions. He was so loving and caring, friendly in nature, and would tell us stories of the good old past days relating to the Ashram, etc. which just seemed to us as fairy tales. We now miss him very much, and especially on our next visit to the Ashram sometime next year. I pray to the Almighty that may his soul rest in Peace. ... a worthy son of a worthy father. We convey our sincerest sympathy to you and your Page 131 family in this great bereavement. We are sure the Grace and protection of the Mother and the Lord Sri Aurobindo are constantly with the departed soul, our Abhay Singh Nahar, till he reaches the Goal, and even thereafter. May the blessings and Protection of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo be with ...
... it was that. 2 That ... the Divine, the Lord, the Supreme, the Supramental, whatever—the next stage of evolution, the next consciousness. But it is that. The Obvious Fact. Personally, I call it “Supreme Consciousness” because I don’t want to say “God".... It's full of... the very word is full of deception. It’s not that way, it’s: We ARE—We ARE the Divine who has forgotten Himself. And our... Mother, the “Vital” represents the range of consciousness and the centers of consciousness below the Mind, between the throat and the sex, that is, the whole domain of the emotions, feelings, passions, etc ... that constitute the various expressions of the Life Energy. × Jouveau-Dubreuil. ... Mother or The Divine Materialism - I 18: The Physical Plunge It was April 24, 1920. I felt Sri Aurobindo’s atmosphere, felt it materially, ten miles from the shore—ten nautical miles, not kilometers! It was very sudden, very concrete, a pure and luminous atmosphere, light, so light that it lifts you up. 1 Once again She crossed the old postern ...
... Nothing in the svabhava or karma can be understood properly without the understanding of the jiva. And since the source of the jiva is the higher nature and Supreme Lord, mysteries of existence are those of higher nature and of the Supreme Lord. "We saw above that our shraddha, properly traced to its source, will take us to the jiva. But this process is aided by the fact that the jiva stands, not... Veda as the hamsa, or which is known in the Upanishad and the Gita as the jiva is one of the multiple centres of the consciousness of the Supreme Lord expressed through the higher nature. The Gita speaks of jiva as a portion of Page 176 the Supreme, as the amsha of the Purushottama. It is also described as the manifold centre of the higher nature, para prakritir jivabhuta. Like the... practise the law of Karma Yoga and arrive at a point where there remains no outer law, but only one inner law, the law of sacrifice of the Supreme Divine into the activities of Nature and the law of sacrifice of activities of Nature offering themselves to the Supreme Divine. "This and much more I learned from Brahmadevji about the law of sacrifice, which also contributed to the development of equilibrium ...
... turned his attention to the place-seekers an title-hunters who weakened the Nationalist case. "A Hymn to the Supreme Bu is supposedly the Mantra of these people, who raise their hands in abject prayer the Supreme Bull and beat their breasts and scream the while: Hail, sempiternal Lord! Be bounteous still To give us only titles and posts, and if sedition Hath gathered aught of... the idea is God's deputy, and life and death, victory and defeat, joy and suffering have become its servants and cannot help ministering to its divine purpose. Was nationalism no more than a counsel of despair, the illegitimate issue of Lord Curzon, helped to birth by the skilful midwifery of Sir Bampfylde Fuller (Lieutenant-Governor of East Bengal)? No, a thousand times no: Long... but I could not come.. I had to go where the Lord led me.... I had gone for His work. The state of my mind, at present, has totally changed; more than that I would not reveal in Page 234 this letter. Come here, then I will tell you... Henceforward I am no longer my own master; I will have to go like a puppet, wherever the Divine takes me; I shall have to carry out like a puppet ...
... a genuine Christian as well as an authentic modernist - how to keep Jesus as "Our Lord" even while leaping to the call of science's divine-seeming cosmos? In order not to look worshipfully at this World in spite of thrilling to its wonderfulness, Teilhard seeks to combine a Personal Creator God with a Divine Universal Presence in the creation. To do so he has to oppose a common practice of... evolutionist", 44 but lit up in its depths by the onward attraction of a supreme "pole" at the same time personal and universal, an Omega Point pulling towards a future in which a super-organic super-conscious unification will take place on earth of a mankind converging upon a "Soul of the world" 45 that is both a Divine Centre and a Divine Milieu, a God who is, as Rideau 46 tells us in a phrase from Teilhard... profundities. A point necessary to stress here in order to de-Christianise "Our Lord" in the ultimate view with a glance backward as well as forward from Jesus, is that the Cosmic Christ a la Teilhard is inconceivable not only if the cosmos lacks an "evolutionary structure" leading at the end to a supreme centre of convergence such as Christianity does not organically imply: he is "inconceivable" ...
... remarkable talents amounting to genius in certain fields of scholarship (Blake-research and Yeats-study) and in the composition of poems like Invocation, To My Mountain, Envoi, A Strange Evening, A Kiss, etc. - the first two superb in every way. Vague sarcasms hardly befit you: give me something to bite on. Taking up one of your poems, shall give you an example of what I mean - a close step-by-step... 'eyes', 'limbs', 'grasp', 'arms', 'whirlwind circuit', 'Form', 'embrace' give a concrete impression, and the verb-turns 'enveloped', 'penetrated', 'taken', 'haled and coerced', 'shuddered', 'torn out', etc. can hardly be regarded as a play of abstractions. Some of the other targets of your disapproval in Sri Aurobindo's passage - 'violent ecstasy', 'sweetness dire' - or locutions picked out elsewhere... than European writers do. The danger of this when one is writing poetry is that there is a tendency to use or rather overuse great words like 'immensity', 'omnipotence', 'inexhaustible', 'limitless', etc. By the very nature of the ideas which inspire you, you are led to use words of that nature because of a kinship with the infinity of the spirit. But in the art of verse if one uses these words overmuch ...
... who was in the Baroda Army, and took lessons from him in the use of fire-arms etc. Later, Madhavrao was sent to Europe for further military training. Sri Aurobindo helped Madhavrao meet the expenses from his own resources. Among Barin's varied interests was spiritualism — experiments with planchette, table-tapping, etc. Sri Aurobindo would join him on some evenings and came across some startling... Calcutta Jatin arranged a meeting between Sri Aurobindo and Barrister P. Mitter who had started an organisation of young men for revolutionary work under the guise of youth clubs for physical exercises etc. Mitter readily joined hands with Sri Aurobindo who administered the revolutionary oath to him and Hemchandra: holding a sword and the Gita in their hands, they vowed to strive to secure at any cost... Bangabasi College, a close friend of Bhupal Chandra, and it was Girish Babu who negotiated the marriage. The wedding was attended by many distinguished persons of Calcutta, like Jagdish Chandra Bose, Lord Sinha and others. Sri Aurobindo had insisted on the marriage ceremony being performed according to the Hindu rites. And this raised a problem. He was told that he would have to go through prayaschitta ...
... seekings of thought into identity with a supreme Light, the rapture of the saint made one by love in the pure heart with the transcendent and universal Love, the will of the Karmayogin raised above egoistic desire and passion into the impersonality of the divine and universal Will, these things on which India has set the highest value and which have been the supreme endeavour of her greatest spirits, are... Western Europe which produced the first really important medieval satire. The Renaissance enlarged the armoury of the satirist: its representatives were Erasmus, Ulrich Page 372 von Hutten, etc. Sir Thomas Moore, although himself not a satirist, became the inspirer of much subsequent satire through his idea of an imaginary commonwealth, Utopia. We have already talked about Cervantes who came... of the prosecuting Magistrate who decided the case. "Mr. Asanuddin Ahmed is a very distinguished man. The greatest and the most successful achievement of his life was to be a fellow-collegian of Lord Curzon. But he has other sufficiently respectable if less gorgeous claims to distinction. Arithmetic, logic, English and Law are his chief fortes. His mastery over figures is so great that arithmetic ...
... challenged the Supreme Lord. The Asura said, 'I am as great as Thou!' The reply was, 'I wish you would become greater than I, then there will be no more Asura.' " 1. The persecution of the Bahais in Iran continues unabated to this day, in the form of denial of employment to Bahais in the government and of education to their children, confiscation of their properties, etc. —a calculated... gently, saying, 'But all this is given to us by Our Lord, so why don't you take it!'. . . I found him charming, he was charming. Whenever he looked at the paintings he would pat Morisset on the shoulder and tell him (Morisset was an unbeliever), 'Say whatever you like' (with the accent of southern France), 'Say whatever you like, but you know Our Lord, otherwise you could never have painted like that... Dr S.R. Rao, began in 1979 off- and onshore explorations which have revealed that Dwaraka was indeed a major port specialising in overseas trade, metal, shell and other crafts, defence architecture, etc., and served as a gateway to the Indian subcontinent. This discovery may well one day mean to the Mahabharata Page 26 renowned international universities, where students came from ...
... his earlier drafts and publications of the Baroda period, Sri Aurobindo spelt Indian proper names in their Bengali way of pronunciation: Yudhishthere, Arjoon, Cowshalya, Dussaruth, Himaloy, Menoca, etc., but I have usually given the current spelling so as not to cause undue puzzlement to the readers. Page 72 also came out in the same year. It is clear, however, that many of these renderings... Nullus", "Altruism Oceanic", "The Immutable Courage", "The Script of Fate", "Flowers from a Hidden Root", "The Flame of the Soul", "The Rain-lark to the Cloud", "Mountain Moloy", "The Might of Works", etc. Not being narrative poetry, each piece stands on its own, has its own inner logic, and its own structural organisation. This is working in miniature, and Sri Aurobindo seems to have got into the spirit... meaning shows itself even without the explicit prose comment prefixed to them. The Gopis are quite obviously the god-intoxicated who have left everything - abandoned all dharmas - to meet their Lord and Lover and God; and when they experience a sense of desolation - the dark night of the soul - they needs must cry in anguish: But Shyama, dost thou recollect not, That we have left all ...
... flower, could mean much, for flowers are verily the Divine's symbolic emanations of beauty and goodness and truth. Flowers in the Ashram have names of their own - not the names they are known by in the outside world, but Yogic names ('Psychological Perfection', 'Supreme descended on Earth', 'Divine Solicitude', 'Sincerity', 'Spiritual Healing', etc.) that insinuate their soul's power, their potentiality... work out the Divine Will, more truly, to be worked upon by the Divine Will so that we may be its instruments for the progressive incorporation of the Supreme and the establishment of His reign upon earth. 61 Sri Aurobindo, then, had always been forging ahead, the field of his action - first political, presently spiritual - had been broadening and growing ever new dimensions. At the ... they afraid of divine retribution, their "fate in the scales of God"? Indeed 'No", they answer: "We mock at God, we have silenced the mutter of priests at his altar. Our leader is master of Fate, medium of her mysteries. We have made the mind a cypher, we have strangled Thought with a cord; Dead now are pity and honour, strength only is Nature's lord. We ...
... Approved to come in group. There is a long letter from Shraddhalu—doubts, ignorance, hierarchy in Auroville, clash of egos etc. Mother's reply, "The Divine is everywhere and in everything, and we are created to discover the Divine and to unite with the Divine for his manifestation Blessings." 18.9.72 Mother disposed of letters. Page 223 One person has failed... orally, Page 111 "You should grow in consciousness. You should feel that you are working for the Divine, living for the Divine. You should want the Divine alone. You should not be affected by the opinion of others. You should try to know and do only what the Lord wants you to do. Don't think of pleasing others. If you try to please one, some others will be displeased.... not different, integrated etc. * * * Mother said that in Auroville she did not want number but quality. Twelve good men would be better than hundreds of stupid persons. Auroville is not for comfort but for the servants of the Divine. People in Auroville should not shirk hard work. They should not think of escaping from the outer control until the divine control is there. * ...
... ) and the content ( artha ). Form is that which embodies the vision, the poetic truth. Kalidasa compares the union (sahitya, togetherness) of the form and content with the union of Shiva, the supreme Lord, and Parvati, the Mother Nature. 150 Shiva is the soul, Parvati the body. Without the soul the body is meaningless, without the body the soul is unmanifest: "...form only exists as a manifestation... the vision ( darśana ) becomes expression ( varṇana ) then there is poetry. Valmiki, Vyasa and Kalidasa are supreme poets of their respective ages because they have found, each in his own way, the perfect expression for those powers. When Sri Aurobindo speaks of the three powers supremely expressed by the three poets his remark should not be taken to mean that each power is exclusive to one poet... and a deep sense of kinship with another poet. It changes one's whole poetic personality. 8 Many great authors have 3 Poets— Horace, Rajasekhara, Du Belley, Boileau, Pope, Wordsworth, Eliot, etc.—who have developed an ars poetica, have themselves, in the first place, applied their precepts. 4 Kuntaka, Vakroktijivita, UI.2. 5 Ulrich Weisstein, Comparative Literature and Literary ...
... But it’s a very small beginning, she continued . One would have the impression of having touched the supreme Secret only if the physical were transformed. According to the experience (the tiny experience in details), that’s how the transformation should occur. 17 It was towards this supreme Secret that Mother was being slowly led, “in details.” It was in 1968, a 23rd of November. But... [And Mother laughed like a very amused little girl] and to give the government the right to intervene. Keep me carefully sheltered from all injuries that may come from outside—infection, poisoning, etc.—and have untiring patience: it may last days, perhaps weeks, perhaps even longer, and you will have to wait patiently for me to come naturally out of that state once the work of transformation is a... so then you say, “Ah, it’ll be the end.” Then the cells aspire, there is a sort of central consciousness in the body which aspires intensely, with as complete a surrender as it can make: “Your Will, Lord, Your Will, Your Will ” Then there is a kind of ... not something thunderous, not a dazzling flash of light, but a sort of well, the impression is of a DENSIFICATION of that current of disorganization; ...
... ambitionless content. The active force, ananda etc established for a short period, have failed to hold their own. The tejasic ideas of a joyous progress & of siddhi within a given time have once more proved to be falsehoods. On the other hand the theory of the Yoga has been proved. The perfectibility of the human being, trikaldrishti, Power, the play of the Divine Force in the individual, the existence... the crowning touch was given yesterday and the direction will operate perfectly from today) 4) Accept the supreme Vani which will now once more become active. (Note. This vani had three forms, speech attended with or formulated in script; speech substituted for thought; speech of supreme command. The first is eliminated; the second is passing into thought; the third alone will remain.) 19 November... flying clouds & temporary spells. For some days there have been continual proofs of vyapti prakamya. eg the presence of an Austrian warship at Durazzo, the rumour of the Austrian consul being killed, etc. Yesterday there came in the mind the positive idea that Turkey had asked to be included in the Balkan Confederacy; today the same is given (in yesterday's evening paper reaching here this morning), ...
... indeed a full experience of the other worlds, the plane of the Supreme Spirit and the other planes in between and their possible effects upon our life and material world; but it will be quite possible to insist only on the realisation of the Supreme Being or Ishwara even in one aspect, Page 230 Shiva, Krishna as Lord of the world and Master of ourselves and our works or else the... would be the nature of the perfection of the body. I indicated clearly that only by Yoga could there come a supreme and total perfection of all the instruments of the Spirit and the ascent of the whole being to the highest level and a divine life on earth and the assumption of a divine body. I made it clear that by human and physical means such as sports only a limited and precarious human perfection... afterwards to proceed from them to the integral results if one accepted the ideal of the divine life and this material world conquered by the Spirit. It is this view and experience of things and of the truth of existence that enabled me to write the Life Divine and Savitri. The realisation of the Supreme, the Ishwara, is certainly the essential thing; but to approach Him with love and devotion ...
... discussion would require a separate volume. In the first place a certain concession may be made but within very narrow & guarded limits to the need for local colour; a few names of trees, flowers, birds etc. may be transliterated into English, but only when they do not look hopelessly outlandish in that form or else have a liquid or haunting beauty of sound; a similar indulgence may be yet more freely permitted... within that the intellectual man governing the others and again within that the delight of the spirit in its reasoning existence & within that delight like the moon within its halo the Spirit who is Lord of all these, the sitter in the chariot & the master of its driving, so in metre there is the quantitative or accentual arrangement which is its body, & within that body conditioning & conditioned by... winds are noising sweetly, the Tripour-conquest is being sung by the glued-together Kinnaries; if thy thunder should be in the glens like the sound on a drum the material of the concert of the Beast-Lord is to be complete there, eh?" My own translation runs Of Tripour slain in lovely dances joined And linkèd troops the Oreads of the hill Are singing and inspired with rushing wind Sweet ...
... thanked “the Lord” for the care with which he dosed the progress of the transformation, adapting it to her body’s capacities. The supramental substance “is not the substance we know at present”, she said, and if the Supermind in its full power appeared suddenly on the earth “everybody would disappear.” 20 – “Sri Aurobindo has said … that if the divine Consciousness, the divine Power, the divine Love, the... said the Mother, “the rare individuals who were ready for the necessary effort to prepare the transformation and to draw the new forces, to try to make Matter adapt, to seek the means of expression, etc. These are ready for the yoga of Sri Aurobindo. They are very few in number. There are even those who have the sense of sacrifice and are ready for a hard, difficult life if it would lead or contribute... evident throughout his work, specifically in writings like The Renaissance of India, The Secret of the Veda, Essays on the Gita, Writings in Bengali, articles from Bande Mataram and the Karmayogin, etc. The Mother said that India was “the country of her soul”. About Asia, Sri Aurobindo wrote: “We have then to return to the pursuit of the ancient secret which man, as a race, has seen only obscurely ...
... dreams nor to see uplifting visions alone, but rather to pass from dream to supreme exertion, and from Vision to definitive Realisation. Hadn't the time come for him to shake off the clinging dust of the frustrating present and boldly take a leap into the Future? He listened with his stilled soul, he waited for the divine command. The Mother of Radiances was dawning on the horizon, the unpredictable... satisfying the spiritual being or in advancing the growth of spirituality in the race: Spirituality is a single word expressive of three lines of human aspiration towards divine knowledge, divine love and joy, divine strength, and that will be the highest and most perfect Art which, while satisfying the physical requirements of the aesthetic sense, the laws of formal beauty, the emotional... than marginal relevance to the "work" Sri Aurobindo had to do. In its first issue, the Karmayogin, described itself as "a weekly Review of National Religion, Literature, Science, Philosophy, etc."; among the contributors would be "Srijut Aurobindo Ghose and others"; the cover illustration was of the Chariot, with Arjuna and Sri Krishna seated in it; and one of the three mottos of the journal ...
... brings up "a point visible to Eusebius but forgotten since. The place which is repeatedly spelled Armathaim in the LXX (1 Samuel 1:1 etc.) is the home of Elkanah ('God has possessed'), father of the divinely-promised (and the pious populace would believe, divinely-begotten) prophet of the Kingdom, Samuel. Armathaim/Ramathaim was the birth-place, residence, and burial-place of Samuel, therefore the... pronouncement 54 in this connection is worth heeding: "Within the Bible are historical writings of varying degrees of accuracy, poems epic and lyrical, sermons, letters, parables, fiction, etc. As the Constitution on Divine Revelation of Vatican II insisted (Dei Verbum, iii.12), anyone who wishes to discover the intention of the biblical writers must pay attention to such 'literary forms.' Each style of... little he knew of Jesus the Galilean rabbi or even of what is recorded in the Gospels about him... Paul is interested in the exalted Lord..." The difference, however, between the Valentinians and Paul is that the former took the historical Jesus to be just a vehicle for a Divine Being who entered him at his baptism by John and left him during the crucifixion, whereas to Paul Jesus was himself the pre-existent ...
... go on telling them every time I get a chance (they all say they have come to Auroville in order to "be free"), so I answer them: one can only be free if one is united with the Supreme Lord; to be united with the Supreme Lord one must no longer have any desires! Oh, it's obvious that all that (desires) was necessary, but... you can't stay there forever. (silence) April 9, 1969... In Auroville too, I'm forever telling them two things (Mother makes a gesture of hammering): "For those who want to be free, there is only one freedom: to be united with the Supreme; and to unite with the Supreme there must no longer be any desires!" So they're like this (Mother sits with her mouth wide open). Very Page 110 amusing! Then I put the same thing here: (the... February 8, 1969 AM X-53-56,60 With regard to illnesses, yesterday [the architect] asked me some questions so he could answer people, and he asked me if it was necessary to organize, etc. And so it came, but in such an imperative way; I answered him that organization is discipline in action, and that discipline is absolutely indispensable to life; I said the entire functioning of the ...
... ... but beyond the impersonal Divine there is the Divine who is the Person himself; and we must go through the Impersonal to reach the Supreme Divine who is beyond. 8 The view of God as the Supreme Divine, who is beyond the personal and the impersonal, resonated with my deepest intuitions. Eckhart speaks of God primarily as an impersonal Divine and, like Sri Aurobindo and the Mother... for the sake of the Divine? Is the Divine the supreme fact of your life, so much so that it is simply impossible for you to do without it? Do you feel your very raison d'etre is the Divine and without it there is no meaning in your existence? If so, then only can it be said that you have a call for the Path. That is the first thing necessary—aspiration for the Divine. 16 Whereas desires... found in Sri Aurobindo's yoga. Most probably, the reason why the Mother's Prayers and Meditations made a special appeal to me was that the book speaks of the Divine as not only an impersonal Reality—as conceived in Theosophy— but also as the Lord of the universe and Master of one's being, with whom one can establish a relationship through prayer, devotion, self-offering, and self-consecration. 7 ...
... the whole earth calling? What is a tree calling? Joy, love, the supreme... the supreme "thing" that is. Well, that's what the mantra is. It's: "I salute the Supreme Lord... or Supreme Joy or Supreme Beauty. That which fills my lungs. That which fills me, which fills the earth, which makes it grow – I salute the Supreme Lord." Towarnicki: That's the translation of the mantra? Yes.... our intellect, whereas... That's a translation of our intellect. But this is the vibration, the sound, that needs to be DRIVEN into the body. Towarnicki: It literally means "Supreme Lord"? Supreme Lord. "Lord" is still... our Western translation. It's the "Bhagavate." "Bhagavate" is... (laughing) – is what? What can one say? It's the breath of everything. But the TRUE breath... it's atoms, it's the galaxies – it's... everything that is. Towarnicki: So one could say "the Supreme Being" or "the Being"? "The Being." Yes. That's it. Yes, "I salute the Supreme Being." Towarnicki: And even "Satprem" is... Indeed! Not a Supreme (as Mother says), not a Supreme out of reach! He is here! He is here! Towarnicki: Precisely. It beats in our chest. It's ...
... himself said that the highest state for the human community at its peak would be "divine anarchism," and not, phew! mental authoritarianism. But Page 60 this higher anarchism or supreme individualism could not exist except on one basis: the disappearance of the selfish little individual into the divine Person who is at the centre — and is everybody's Person. There, we are perfectly... and they will do as they did with Laffont: threatening letters to the American publisher, spectre of a lawsuit, etc..., which will discourage any American publisher. We will not find a man like Laffont anywhere, ready to resist all blackmail. (...) Same instructions for the Divine Materialism in English, which will follow very quickly. ...... That's it. We smile and progress step by step... hammer him until he understands that the adverse forces are the Lord who wants us to progress and break through our little walls — or break our foot, if we refuse to toe the line. And all those stories of "magic" too, it is also the Lord kneading us and giving us just the right dose for us to acquire the consciousness of the Lord. If we were perfectly pure, perfectly that , we would be without ...
... importuned again: "Tagore's Golden Book will be incomplete without Sri Aurobindo's tribute. Even a message of two lines or a couplet coming from him will be looked upon as a boon of his Grace" .— etc. But Sri Aurobindo's Grace was not like Caesar's, amenable to flattery. "I take Pramatha Choudhuri's remark — that Tagore's Golden Book will be incomplete without my contribution — as a c... your assertion that the Force is more easily potent to produce spiritual than mental (literary) results. It seems to me the other way round. In my own case, the first time I started Yoga, pranayam etc., I laboured five hours a day for a long time and concentrated and struggled for five years without the least spiritual result, (when spiritual experiences did come, they were as unaccountable and automatic... wrote in English (in April, 1934) was a literal translation of a Bengali poem of mine: The sorrow of Autumn woos the absent Spring; Chill winter hushes the cuckoo's vibrant grove; To the Lord of vernal sweetness now I sing: "Let streams of friendship swell to seas of love." In his own handwriting he wrote on the margin: "That is all right but the second line though metrically ...
... spiritual. When it plunges into the black craters of the subconscient, it releases from it the spiritual light and the sevenfold streams of the Divine Energy and cleaning itself of the stains of the subconscient, it prepares its flight towards the supreme Divine (The Mother). It is a very beautiful poem.” Mānassarovar: “It is certainly very powerful and beautiful. By O.P. I presume you mean Overhead... wrote to him reminding him that poetry was not a substitute for sadhana and it can be “an accompaniment only”. How? Sri Aurobindo explains to Nishikanto: If there is a feeling (of devotion, surrender etc.), it can express and confirm it; if there is an experience, it can express or strengthen the force of the experience. As reading of books like the Upanishads or Gita or singing of devotional songs can... The following excerpts reveal how Nishikanto’s health was discussed in the talks Sri Aurobindo used to have with his attendants: Nirodbaran: Nishikanto is having his old trouble—pain, vomiting, etc. Sri Aurobindo: Has he been eating anything? Nirodbaran: I don’t think so. No resources. Sri Aurobindo: No resources? Nirodbaran: No pocket money, but he took some sweets which people had ...
... which she conceals from us, but is ready, when rightly approved, to reveal." And so on. Also I asked A.E.'s permission to publish my translations of some of his lovely poems like Warning, Krisna etc. I enclosed also a poem on silence written by a friend, a poem which I could not sincerely sympathise with; I wrote that I held all! wordy eloquence about silence somewhat suspect. He sent... spiritual more than European writers do. The danger of this when writing poetry is that there is a tendency to use or rather overuse great words like 'immensity', 'omnipotence,' 'inexhaustible, ''limitless' etc. By the very nature of the ideas which inspire you, you are led to use words of that nature because of a kinship with the infinity of the spirit. But in the art of verse if one uses these words overmuch... Sanskrit embodies a philosophy. There is no word in English embodying the same idea. There are many words in Sanskrit charged with meanings which have no counterpart in English: Dhyani, Sushupti, Turiya, etc., and I am sure the languages which the Hindus speak today must be richer in words fitted for spiritual expression than English, in which there are few luminous words that can be used when there is a ...
... . something... which I call the divine — perhaps what Sri Aurobindo called the supramental — and which is tomorrow's realization (I don't know what to call it). So when everything is really disorganized, when everything is going wrong, “that” consents to intervene. The transition isn't pleasant. Along with sharp pains, and ... impossible to eat anything, etc., etc. Obviously someone had to do it.... creatures of the good Lord, which, we must admit, live in perfect harmony with their milieu despite their total ignorance of higher mathematics. That mysterious “something” we bathe in is gradually revealed, to the explorer of the descent into the body, as a kind of marvel, a rather stupefying marvel in which all the laws, codes and sequences prove to be only laws, codes and the ... etc., of our own instruments... to give this substance a new principle of cohesion which would no longer be based on mortal habit but on a divine habit. Instead of winding death, the cell had to wind eternal life. Therefore Mother started repeating a mantra, her mantra, the one that for her evoked supreme love which is supreme life. You begin by repeating the mantra, or the vibration, with your head or your mental memory, and little ...
... meeting.... For me, it is that simple. We have repeated it together so often. It is full of Her (for me). It can be translated in a very simple way: I bow to You, Supreme Lord. That’s it. I bow to You. Supreme Lord. Supreme Lord. That is all. With love Satprem May 16, 1977 I go furtively into Sri Aurobindo’s room and rest my forehead on the arm of his chair. May 19, 1977... some huts (in Auroville), etc ... I could literally hear the voice behind this letter, and some obscure force is obviously active there, awaiting an opportunity. ......... Mother puts me on real tough test. It seems that we are surrounded with obstacles at every step and on every side. This is a sure sign of the Divine Work but still ... I do not have a divine body yet! rather a grumbling... Here, Barun says to everyone: “Satprem has given me everything, the book on Mother is mine.” So, they must work hard on Laffont in order to demolish our contract. Oh, Lord, Lord, Lord, may this Mud disappear! Lord, Lord, Lord Satprem February 15, 1977 (Letter to Micheline) Here, if the situation is really “unraveled” at Laffont s and the publication is ensured without any hindrance ...
... affords no ground. It gives us a choice between the archaic sense of "disturbance, much ado, noise" or the common one which may be summed up as: "a ring, or a series of rings, winding rope, wire, pipe, etc." Perhaps a snake which can turn itself into a ring or a series of rings can be said, with the ordinary meaning in mind, to shuffle off its mortal coil. But it beats me how creatures with shapes like... but emphasised name "Dis" in which the same sound occurs. There is a momentary suspense at the line's end where the name stands, but the syntactical form presses us onward to a revelation of what the Lord of the Underworld did with Proserpin. And this revelation's surprise is rendered at the same time an inevitability by a certain play of repeated sounds. The preparation of the inevitability is in the... disaster and of a snatching away from sight, hints that prepare us for, as it were, the continuous unfoldment of the disaster's effect and the drawn-out movement of empty earth wide search. But the supreme artistry comes in the deep and universal feeling evoked by those twelve closing words themselves: ... whích/ cóst Cé/res áll/ thát páin/ To séek/ hér thróugh/ the wórld. Spondees and ...
... outlook is the realization, sometimes overwhelming, of a lack of proportion between the greatness of the realities involved in the world's forward progress (physical, biological, intellectual, social, etc.) and the pettiness and narrowness, the makeshift nature, of the philosophico-dogmatic solution which we claim to have built up as a permanent bulwark for the universe. We're trying to put the ocean... worship of a cosmic Divinity, is hit off with precision by Teilhard in one of 18. Ibid., pp. 116-17. Page 174 Rideau's citations: 19 "In practice, if not in theory, our Lord has been too exclusively presented to our contemporaries in the form of a complement promised to their personality - a complement that is moral, extrinsic, particularist, and individual. They have... personalized universe whose domination personalizes me". 19 He does not hesitate to declare like the pantheist: "The world around me becomes divine" 20 - but he adds that in "pan-Christism" the individual is super-personalized and does not dissolve in the divine All. Looking at his religious discovery he 21 tells us: "I have never for the last twenty-five years ceased to marvel at the infinite pos ...
... speak, from the inner consciousness, of the divine world? If the last, then perhaps, in spite of the dictum, his example at least is rather in my favour. "I do not know why you drag in humanitarianism, X's activism, philanthropical service, etc. None of these are part of my Yoga or in harmony with my works, so they do not touch me. I never thought that the Congress politics or feeding the poor... the Divine and receiving disciples — was that not action, not work? Did Ramakrishna become a half-full jar after being a full one or was he never full? Did he get far away from God and so begin work? Or had he reached a condition in which he was bound neither to rajasic work and mental prattling nor to inactivity and silence, but could do, from the divine realisation, the divine works and speak... so understanding it that one can understand it truly, either in its past or in its future or put in their place the spiritual men of the past and the present or relate the different ideals, stages, etc. thrown up in the spiritual evolution of the human being," But as he knew to his cost what human nature was and how liable to be heading for disaster in its cussed moods, he always tried to efface ...
... the deathless trees The blossom lapses never to the ground But lives for ever garrulous with bees All honey-drunk—nor yet its sweets resign. For ever in their girdling companies. etc. 7 And when he comes to describe the sole mourner in that town of delight eternal & passion unsated, this is how he describes her. 8 How human, how touching, how common it all is; while we... Here there is another abrupt break with nothing to link this paragraph to what follows.—Ed. × The "etc." indicates that Sri Aurobindo intended to quote more from his now-lost translation of The Cloud Messenger. —Ed. × ... it has a fierier & keener edge and it is felt to be the disguise of a deep and mighty love. The passion of that love leaps out in the bitter irony of her self-accusal Not yours the guilt, my lord. I am in fault Who force my hated and unwelcome face Upon you. and again when in the very height of her legitimate resentment she has the sure consciousness of her after-repentance. ...
... being? What is its relation to the Supreme? The soul and the psychic being are not exactly the same thing, although their essence is the same. The soul is the divine spark that dwells at the centre of each being; it is identical with its Divine Origin; it is the divine in man. The psychic being is formed progressively around this divine centre, the soul, in the course... is a portion of the Supreme - the jiva is the Supreme in individual form. And since there is only one Supreme, there is only one jiva, but with millions of individual forms. This jiva begins as a divine spark - immutable, eternal and infinite too (infinite in possibility rather than dimension). And through all the incarnations, whatever has received and responded to the divine Influence progressively... help you to fashion a pleasant life for yourself, to earn money, have children who will be the pride of the family, etc., well, the psychic will not help you. But it will create for you all the circumstances necessary to awaken something in you so that the need of union with the Divine may be born in your consciousness. At times you have made fine plans, and if they had succeeded, you would have been ...
... it? JAAFAR The girl takes up the lute. HAROUN Now if she play and sing divinely, Jaafar, You shall be hanged alone for your offence, If badly, all you four shall swing together. JAAFAR I hope she will play vilely. HAROUN Wherefore, Jaafar? JAAFAR I ever loved good company, my lord, And would not tread my final road alone. HAROUN No, when thou goest that road... lost? Beggars are happier, are they not, my lord? NUREDDENE Much happier, Anice. ANICE Let us be beggars, then. Oh, we shall wander blissfully about In careless rags. And I shall take my lute And buy you honey-crusts with my sweet voice. For is not my voice sweet, my master? NUREDDENE Sweet As Gabriel's when he sings before the Lord And Heaven listens. ANICE We shall... this young lady to thee, my son? Page 125 NUREDDENE She is my slave-girl. IBRAHIM Ah, ah! thy slave-girl? Ah, ah! a slave-girl! ah! ANICE Drink, my lord. NUREDDENE ( drinking ) By the Lord, but I am sleepy. I will even rest my head in thy sweet lap for a moment. He lies down. IBRAHIM Allah! Allah! What, he sleeps? ANICE Fast. That is the trick he ...
... Sri Aurobindo's name is linked is invaluable to us, an article of supreme faith and devotion. But they are not all. The real thing is their Consciousness. If we can be aware of that Consciousness and keep ourselves always in touch with it, then that is all. Otherwise all the bowing at the Samadhi and all the reading of Life Divine or Savitri are totally futile. (57) I first came... consciousness. Then she told me: "You know what I saw? I saw something like a festival, a lot of people had assembled. An elephant was standing in their midst, decorated with flowers, red powder, cloth, etc. You were standing on one side. Then Mother Kali came and asked you to mount the elephant. But you politely refused. So she ordered you a little more firmly but you declined once again. She went on ... and we would have fun. And so accordingly, I got the scenario ready. It would include the Ashram children's studies, sports, dance, singing, acting, drawing, picnics, prayers and samadhipranam, etc. After completing the entire shooting I sat down with my assistant Vishwajit to do the editing. Then I asked Vishwanath-da to select some nice music and he Page 231 chose a wonderful ...
... perfect matter, perfect life, perfect mind, brought about by a supreme dynamic principle. This principle is hinted in ancient Indian scriptures of spiritual realisation in various terms. The Vedas invoke it as Satyam Ritam Brihat - the True, the Right, the Vast. The Upanishads chant of it as the ever-blissful omniscient and omnipotent Lord locked in superconscious sleep, Prajna; or else as the Self... embodiment of the Divine Being: sthula sharira, the gross body of vitalised and mentalised matter that is the surface o reality - sukshma sharira, the subtle body of matter, life and mind as they are in reality's depths - karana sharira, the causal Page 304 body of the original and ideal materiality, vitality and mentality that are on reality's heights as modes of the supreme creative... there is too the ultra-mental divine principle. The involution from which earth-evolution starts must be holding this divine principle no less than subtle matter, subtle life and subtle mind. The three latter Page 305 principles have to a certain extent been established in all humanity with the aid of pressure from the planes where they are dominant. The divine principle is known by nothing ...
... there are the famous "knots" in the Mahabharata, the recurrence of lines so compressed in thought and speech (although the normal style of the poem is of a crystal clearness,) that even the divine scribe Ganesha, lord of wisdom and learning who wrote the poem to Vyasa's dictation, had to stop and cudgel his brains for minutes to find out their significance,—thus giving the poet a chance to breathe and... Hugo's " mouchoir ". But in poetry of a mystic (occult or spiritual) kind this does not count. The aim is to bring up a vivid suggestion of the thing seen and some significance of the form, movement, etc. through which one can get at the life behind and its meaning; a familiar adjective here can serve its purpose very well as a touch in the picture and there are occasions when no other could be as true... without substance (substance of idea, suggestion, feeling) are hardly poetry at all, even if they make good verse. But that is no ground for belittling beauty or excellence of form or ignoring its supreme importance for poetic perfection. Poetry is after all an art and a poet ought to be an artist of word and rhythm, even though, necessarily, like other artists, he must also be something more than that ...
... these can be seen in the Induprakash series even now after so many years. Sri Aurobindo's circle of friends at Baroda included Madhavrao and Khaserao Jadhav, K.G. Deshpande, Fadke, Mangesh Kolasker, etc. Mr. Fadke took a photograph of Dinendra Kumar Roy and Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo once recounted an anecdote of those days: "I remember that a young Sannyasi with long nails came to Baroda... Krishna Kumar Mitra at 6, College Square. Basanti Devi writes: "Auro Dada used to arrive with two or three trunks. We always thought they would contain costly suits and other luxury items like scents, etc. When he opened them I used to look and wonder. What is this? A few ordinary clothes and all the rest books and nothing but books! Does Auro Dada like to read all these? We all want to chat and enjoy... 1900 or 1901. The work at Calcutta was begun at 106, Upper Circular Road. Jatin, Barin and Abinash Bhattacharya were the workers. Jatin used to work among the educated classes – pleaders, doctors, etc. – and Barin and Abinash among college students. Wherever they found an open ground they tried to organise young men there, and to teach them lathi-play, fencing and even riding. Having worked together ...
... doing the Sadhana in the mind, then outer activities like the Arya and writing, etc., can go on. But when I came down to the Vital, I stopped all that.’ 14 Another consequence was a perceptible physical change in Mirra as well as in Sri Aurobindo. As the Mother said: ‘After consciously identifying itself with the Divine, the entire being even in its external parts – Mental, Vital and Physical – undergoes... For cats ! Later on I learnt that they were not really cats but something more. You would be interested to know that at times Sri Aurobindo also made fish ready for these “cats,” removing the bones etc.’ 49 Nolini reminisces in amazement: ‘The style in which these cats were treated was something extraordinary. The arrangements made for their food were quite a festive affair; it was for them... sensed this, of course, but at first he refused to give in and became even more demonic than before. He knew perfectly well who Mirra was, but he demanded that she would not take Sri Aurobindo as her ‘Lord,’ that she would take himself instead. His outbursts of frustration and anger became so violent that at times he threw the furniture through the window or took Mirra by the throat, strangling her. She ...
... Gupta,to tell him to undo those revisions. But who would care for him at that stage? Here is the Mother's “very clear position about Savitri not being altered, tampered with, used in our human ways, etc”. But it is a great pity Amal Kiran who was always too sure of himself never understood it. She had told him not to alter even a comma in Savitri , and she was categorical about it; but he did—only... gone…and from that moment we started anew on other bases. [CWM, Vol. 9, pp. 147-48] The Mother quietly went to her room and dissolved that whole formation. She didn’t argue with Sri Aurobindo! “But, Lord… !” She simply went away and dissolved it. The matter was over for her, then and there itself. The rest was not her concern, it was the concern of Sri Aurobindo. What surrender! And what confidence... errors But this does not mean that there are no “errors” in the first edition of Savitri, errors which need to be corrected. One may call these as routine errors but then the “errors of the Divine are also Divine”,—tells me an American friend of mine. Surely, a simple devout soul will immediately accept it, will live by such a consoling idea or thought or perception. But there are also “errors of the ...
... conference held in Pabna, East Bengal, in February 1908 (Sri Aurobindo, Bande Mataram , pp. 871 - 76, 902, 918 [where Sri Aurobindo specifically mentions "the compromise arrived at at Pabna"], 919, etc.; Bande Mataram , weekly edition, 16 February 1908, pp. 12 - 17; 25 February 1908, pp. 8 - 9). 62 Benares Lahore ... could not of course write openly about revolutionary matters. He developed a code in which "tantra" meant revolutionary activities, and things connected with tantra ( yogini chakras , tantric books, etc.) referred to revolutionary implements like guns (see Arun Chandra Dutt, ed., Light to Superlight [Calcutta: Prabartak Publishers, 1972], pp. 27 - 30). The code sometimes got rather complicated (see... 1937 helps explain why. Wondering whether he should send a copy of "The Teaching and the Asram of Sri Aurobindo" to someone, Sethna noted that the passage about there being "no public institution" etc. "was written in this downright way when that anti-Asram movement [of 1934] was in full career in Pondy". The Mother agreed and said that Sethna need not send the pamphlet. What Sri Aurobindo said in ...
... age of the Upanishads was an age of scientific study and specialization, and there developed mathematics, grammar, philology, astrology, logic, law, and philosophies such as those of Nyaya, Mimansa, etc. Page 100 class who were given to meditation. Sanskrit was supplanted and superseded as a medium of instruction in the Buddhist schools by the vernacular dialects. Some of the great... teachings; so when they heard of the forthcoming visit of the Buddha, they thought it could be a good occasion to clarify their confusion as the Buddha already had a very high reputation in the area. "Lord, we are very confused, so many ascetics and Brahmins are visiting us; they teach different truths, each one pretends that his own truth is the only one. They all strongly condemn the other paths. Tell... deepest psychological theories or the most profound practices of meditation to the more advanced disciples. Up to his last day (he was then 81 years old), he taught, and his death was his last and supreme teaching on the impermanence of the human form. We present here three short stories that illustrate some aspects of the Buddha's method of teaching. In the first story, the Buddha's teaching ...
... the Allāhābād Pillar Inscription, the overthrower, uprooter or paramount lord of many kings: Samudragupta, son of the dynasty-founder Chandragupta I. Mankad has also shown Samudragupta as fitting very satisfactorily into the chronological sequence conjured up by the Purānas ' list of the kings - Vindhyasakti, Pravīra, etc. - soon after the Āndhras and before Viśvasphurti. And, to confirm and crown... writes: "Soma manifests here as the offering, the divine food, the wine of delight and immortality, havi, and as the Deva, lord of that divine offering (havismah)....hz flows about and enters into this great march of the sacrifice which is the progress of man from the physical to the superconscient. He enters into it and encompasses it wearing the cloud of the heavenly ether, nabhas y the... speak of Soma as their king while common folk acknowledge an earthly monarch. The same book (XI.4.3.9) applies to Soma the epithet Rāja-pati, "lord of kings". All this goes to suggest that Soma in ancient Indian tradition was the primeval as well as the supreme king from the religious standpoint. But the true religious analogue of Dionysus need not be exclusively what the Greeks had in view, and ...
... terrorists: "It was all Barin's work.... I was never in direct contact with the movement, nor with the young men and didn't know them. Only in jail I came in contact with them, especially Nolini, Bejoy, etc." [Nirodbaran, Talks with Sri Aurobindo, Part II (1971), pp. 244-45] Page 298 children, unless she set aflame their darkened souls, there could be no hope of the country's regeneration... physical, intellectual and moral life into bondage. ... It is only through repression and suffering that this Maya can be dispelled and the bitter fruit of Partition of Bengal administered by Lord Curzon dispelled the illusion. We looked up and saw that the brilliant bird sitting above was none else but ourselves, our real and actual self. Thus we found Swaraj within ourselves and saw that... and devotion, force of austerity, power of chastity and true knowledge.... Mother Durga! Slay the enemy within, then root out all obstacles outside. May the noble heroic mighty Indian race, supreme in love and unity, truth and strength, arts and letters, force and knowledge, ever dwell in its holy woodlands, its fertile fields, under its sky-scraping hills, along the banks of its pure-streaming ...
... Bhatta-charya's observation: 3 "Indra and Prajāpati the two outstanding divine figures of the Vedic and the Brāhmanic age respectively." In the light of it we cannot help noting Kangle's rendering 4 of the Arthaśāstra'?, sloka: "Salutation to Kaśyapa, the Lord of creation, and to the god (of rain) always. May the divine Sita prosper in my seeds and my grains." The last phrase justifies Kangle's... him." Along with the growing legend of the divine son of Vāsudeva, there seems to have been a lingering legend of a devilish spirit of the same name who could team with the likes of Śambara such as Karhsa. So we should be in an age prior to the epoch when Krishna was a recognisable divine being with a substantial following, even if he was not yet a supreme Avatar r The epoch of Megasthenes would appear... or woman submissive as well as for increasing sexual vigour, etc. Similarly, Kautilya has given an adhikarana of the same name in which he has described various mantras and recipes for producing illusive appearances, spreading disease and killing people on a mass scale, remaining without food for days together, making others sleep, etc. The attitude of both these masters is completely amoral; both ...
... सि ॥ "Ah my lord! Ah my king! Ah my husband! why hast thou forsaken me? Alas, I am slain, I am undone; I am afraid in the lonely forest. Surely, O King, thou wert good & truthful; how then having sworn to me so, hast thou abandoned me in my sleep & fled? Long enough hast thou carried this jest of thine, O lion of men; I am frightened, O unconquerable; show thyself, my lord & prince. I see thee... note the repetition वेत्ति—अहं वेद्मि शुको वेत्ति सञ्जयो वेत्ति वा न वा. Following the genius of the Sanscrit language we are led to suppose the repetition was intended to recall अष्टौ श्लोकसहश्राणि etc. with each name; otherwise the repetition has no raison d'être; it is otiose & inept. But if we understand it thus, the conclusion is irresistible that each knew a different 8800, or the writer would... thee! I see thee! Thou art seen, lord of the Nishadhas, covering thyself there with the bushes; why dost thou not speak to me? Cruel king! that thou dost not come to me thus terrified here & wailing and comfort me! It is not for myself I grieve nor for aught else; it is for thee I weep thinking what will become of thee left all alone. How wilt thou fare under some tree at evening hungry & thirsty & weary ...
... that intensifies the impulses that are swift and straight and frank. A love that strengthens. Divine Love. Years before, Mother had related to us an ancient Chaldean legend. "Long ago, very long ago, in the arid country which is now Arabia, a divine being had incarnated upon earth to awaken there the supreme love. As one would expect, the Incarnation was persecuted by men, misunderstood, suspected... (or something similar), to supplement her income. This goes back some fifty or sixty years. Well, she was very simple and uncomplicated, she had set up her business and was selling her chickens, eggs, etc., spending the money personally and running the whole business." When, one day, a plaguy tax collector got it into his head to make Mathilde pay taxes —not only on the current eggs but on all the eggs... little sister Mirra. He was eighteen when he entered the Ecole Polytechnique, the prestigious Parisian high-technology seat of learning which churns out the cream of French engineers, administrators, etc. Coming out, Matteo was posted to the Martinique, an overseas department of France. Martinique is an island off the Windward group, in the West Indies. A street there still bears his name. ...
... a prince of Mādra (with its capital at modern Sialkot), is also called lord of the Vāhlīkas (Mahābhārata, Ādi CXIII, 4425-40; LXVII, 2642) and his sister Mādri is called Vāhlīki also (Adi, CXXV, 4886). The other people of this name appear to have been connected with the Daradas (Dards of Dardistān) (Bhisma, CXVII, 5484, etc.). Thus one Bāhlīka was situated in the plains of the Punjāb, alongside... styled Nārāya-navataka, by a Bhagavata performer of the Aśvamedha sacrifice, in honour of Sarikarshana and Vāsudeva who are called Bhāgavat, anihata (unconquered or respected), and sarvesvara (supreme lord)... 1. Ibid., p. 451, with fn. 1. 2. Ibid., 482, with fn. 2. 3. Ibid., p. 432. 4. Ibid. 5. Ibid., p. 435. 6. Ibid. Page 396 "These epigraphs... the cult of Vaisnavism." Here is the only inscription in which we have what Puri terms the trivenī of Vaishnavism. Also, as we know from Sircar, both Sahkarshana and Vāsudeva are called "supreme lord" in it. There is no question of either of them being merely the equal of Indra and other gods as in the Nanaghat inscription which, as Sircar 1 elsewhere says, "begins with an adoration to the ...
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