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"A power dwelt in her soul too great for earth, A bliss lived in her heart too large for heaven; Light too intense for thought and love too boundless For earth’s emotions lit her skies of mind And spread through her deep and happy seas of soul." Savitri - The Return to Earth ALL LIFE IS YOGA(sarva (ananta) jivanam nitya-yogamastu ) “One must accept infirmity and even accept looking like an imbecile, one must accept everything, and there is not one person in fifty millions who has the courage to do it (Sri Aurobindo told me I was the only one!…[laughing] It may be so!). Many have also gone off elsewhere, into other, more or less subtle worlds— you see, there are millions of ways to escape, but only one way to stay: that is to have courage and endurance, to accept all the appearances of infirmity, powerlessness, ignorance—the appearances of the very negation of truth. But if one does not accept that, nothing will ever change. As for those who want to go on being great, luminous, strong, powerful and so on and so forth, well, let them stay where they are, they cannot do anything for earth.” The Mother The Mother's Agenda-25.09.1965 The Mother's above Subconscient transformation experience hints that if one very rarest of the rare Soul has the Supreme force of Vijnana at his disposal, then he can adventure into the dark Inconscient and Subconscient Sheaths to face and confront all infirmity, powerlessness and negations and Divinise them. This immense transformative work appears outwardly as a vain and thankless job and to do such inner action, one must have the Spirit of long and hard Sacrifice. If one man becomes a channel of descent of the Supreme energy, then the whole of humanity will benefit by a leap in Consciousness. The Savitri book has a message to the aimless and issueless circling human race to be conscious of the issue and aim of Savitri within , who must accumulate Soul Force in each birth, by concentration on the single issue, “This was the day when Satyavan must die.” (Savitri-10) This dark foreknowledge helped her Soul to a new attempt to confront and wrestle endlessly with Death, Fate, the riddle of human birth and the shadow of negative energies until the last breath, and to trace a path to divinise the clay and 'Plants heaven’s delight in the heart’s passionate mire.' (Savitri-354) Her Soul’s issue is to change the human destiny through Yogic discipline, initially by the movement of ascending and descending Consciousness and finally to reach an apex Consciousness of world destiny where all is won by the dynamization of Static Witness Supreme Self, Para-prakriti, or all is lost for man by non-dynamization of Static Witness Supreme Self, Paramatma . She insists on dynamising the apex Bliss Consciousness in all the ten planes or worlds, including this external world. The most difficult task for a Sadhak is the extreme accumulation of the ‘Spirit’s bare and absolute potencies’ (Savitri-57) to become mightier than all the forces of the material and vital world and wrestles with Matter to meet and confront victoriously dark Subconscient forces of naked Hell, compel active dynamic unification of cosmic Nature and tearing of desire from its bleeding Inconscient root is identified as ‘last and mightiest transformation’ (Savitri-318) which culminates in Divinisation of mundane surface Nature. Then he emerges as Universalised individual Soul Centre with a liberated immobile Soul and transformed mobile Nature. "Whoever is too great must lonely live. Adored he walks in mighty solitude; Vain is his labour to create his kind, His only comrade is the Strength within." Savitri-368 "The great are strongest when they stand alone." Savitri-460 When a high Soul takes birth on earth, it becomes difficult for him to find equal Souls who can help him accomplish his Divine Mission of fourfold Divine union or as the Mother confirms, "Only, the whole thing is that the time must have come, there must be only That left – all the rest spoils, whatever it is, even the highest, purest, noblest, most beautiful and marvelous things: all that spoils. Only That. ” (The Mother's Agenda/ March 26, 1966) Till the arrival of the 'predestined face', he must live alone with his Psychic Being and must be isolated from any inferior human association. Or he 'will be identified with the Divine and with others only through the divine consciousness and not through the mental nature.' (CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-211) The desperate effort made to create, nurture and build an equal Soul or Spiritual Successor, lokasangraha, is identified here as a waste of time and vain effort. Before arriving at any higher Universal life, time and space must be utilised exclusively to the preliminary work of 'psychicisation and spiritualisation of the being and nature...' (CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-290) through purification, liberation and perfection of intelligence and will (buddhi yoga ). Savitri further proposes a Sadhaka to accept the Psychic Being or the Soul within the heart centre as the one and only best friend, guide and fosterer, not limited to this birth but extending over infinite All Life. Savitri is a representative symbol of Incarnation and a few Instruments and Emanations, always extending subtle physical presence very close to the earth’s atmosphere, ready to waste all Infinity of time, with the single mission of divinising life. The above verse recognises them as '‘the sun-eyed children of a marvellous dawn" (Savitri-343) or 'Omnipotent's flaming pioneers.' (Savitri-343) However small the number, they may be; they must not squander time and energy to 'widely spread the mission' (CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-290) but rather devote time to Psychicise and Spiritualise being and nature. Thus, they accumulate and universalise Spiritual energy and canalise this invisible Universal and Transcendent Force to earth and men. They learn the lesson to depend on descending overhead Spiritual energy rather than on collective force. The Mother defined her universal world action in the following terms: “In the night, I am always given a state of human consciousness to put right, one after another—there are millions of them. And there are always all the images and events that illustrate that particular state of consciousness. At times, it is very hard going: I wake up tired, as after a long period of work.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-5/p-170-71 “All the mornings are difficult...for instance, all the vibrations from sick people, all those problems of life come from everywhere. And for those three hours, there is tension, struggle, acute seeking for what should be done or for the attitude to be taken...It is that time I have tested the power of mantra. ..I repeat my mantra automatically, without stopping; and every time the difficulty increases, a kind of Power comes into those words and acts on Matter...It saves the situation at critical moments...it restores order.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-5/p-225 This work of harmonising the world discord on a large scale is restated in the Mother’s language, “That union between the two, between the subtle physical and the material physical, is taking place all the time—day and night...there is an attempt to substitute one for the other.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-11/p-151 “A million wounds gape in his (Avatar’s ) secret heart... The sorrow of all living things shall come And knock at his (Avatar’s ) doors and live within his house;” Savitri-446 "For about sixty years I have been constantly looking after people who are said to be "dying" – constantly." The Mother The Mother's Agenda-April 28, 1965 (Savitri said) "Are there not still a million fights to wage?" Savitri-687 This large-scale subtle-physical world action executed by an Avatar (a special manifestation of the Supreme Lord, Parameswara ) can be repeated on a relatively small scale by Her instruments and Emanations (one centre of the multiple Divine or creation of universal Mother) by accepting life as a field of constant enlargement and growing Spiritual Influence through overhead descent of Divine Will, Wisdom and Love. "Only a slow advance the earth can bear.” (Savitri-244) In the long run, humanity will be prepared to divinise themselves by going beyond the slavery of lower Nature and learning the lesson of ceaseless sacrificial Divine Action and Wisdom. All the Divine opulence will be given to them by opening themselves towards the Supreme Self and dynamisation of Sachchidananda Consciousness in external life and action. OM TAT SAT DOWNLOAD THIS WEBPAGE IN PDF FORMAT: ABOUT SRI MATRINIKETAN ASHRAM “Earthly realisations easily take on a great importance in our eyes, for they are proportionate to our external being with this limited form which makes us men. But what is an earthly realisation beside Thee, before Thee? However perfect, complete, divine it may be, it is nothing but an indiscernible moment in Thy eternity ; and the results obtained by it, however powerful and marvellous they may be, are nothing but an imperceptible atom in the infinite march to Thee. This is what Thy workers must never forget , otherwise they will become unfit to serve Thee.” The Mother Prayers And Meditations-July-17/1914 READ MORE >> SRI MATRI DHYANA MANDIR "All must be done for the Divine; all must be directed towards the Divine. Nothing must be attempted for ourselves as a separate existence; nothing done for others, whether neighbours, friends, family, country or mankind or other creatures merely because they are connected with our personal life and thought and sentiment or because the ego takes a preferential interest in their welfare. In this way of doing and seeing all works and all life become only a daily dynamic worship and service of the Divine in the unbounded temple of his own vast cosmic existence. Life becomes more and more the sacrifice of the eternal in the individual constantly self-offered to the eternal Transcendence." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-113 READ MORE >> TATTVAMASI “Then there were the few —the rare individuals— who are ready to make the necessary effort to prepare themselves for the transformation and to attract the new forces , try to adapt matter, seek the means of expression and so forth. Those are ready for Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga . They are very few . There are even those who have the sense of sacrifice and are ready have a hard and difficult life, as long as it leads them or helps them towards this future transformation. But they should not, they should in no way try to influence others and make them share their own effort : that would be quite unjust – not only unjust, but extremely clumsy because it would alter the universal – or at least terrestrial – rhythm and movement, and instead of helping, it would cause conflicts and result in chaos.” The Mother The Mother's Agenda/27th November, 1965 READ MORE >> “If by solitude you mean not seeing people any more than is indispensable and not speaking with them unless it is absolutely necessary, then we are agreed .” The Mother TMCW-17/More answers from the Mother/p-100 “Moreover, he who wants to do “ intensive sadhana ” must be able to isolate himself from his surroundings and, if necessary, to sit in deep meditation even on a battlefield in the midst of the roaring guns.” The Mother TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-47, Our Mantra of collective Divine living is "Accept everything, but cling to nothing."¹ For that is a necessary condition of harmonising and organising the Subconscient of the whole earth² with the recognition of the fact that 'For in everything he seeks truth, in everything right, in everything height and freedom'² ⁰ and 'in the unseen providence of things our greatest difficulties are our best opportunities.'¹⁴ Its inspiring Psychic and Spiritual motive is 'To arrive by the shortest way at the largest development'¹³ and this 'perfect assurance of a rapid progress'¹ ⁵ is ensured by complete possession of equality, samata ; for perfect equality gives the fitness²³ to pursue the Yoga of Self-perfection. Its mission is primarily the invisible inner action of movement of Psychic and Spiritual Consciousness , of which this Ashram, website and Sri Matri Dhyana Mandir are secondary outer manifestations of Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga respectively . By this exercise, we partly fulfill the instruction issued in Sri Aurobindo’s principal Teachings, The Synthesis of Yoga, that a Sadhaka of integral Yoga must be accountable ³ for his Sadhana to the Self, the World and the Divine. He must have an account of Karma Yoga through the manifestation of nine inner kingdoms and one outer kingdom, an account of Jnana Yoga through the manifestation of mundane and Supreme Wisdom; 'for while it embraces the knowledge received from the past, it seeks to organise it anew for the present and the future,'¹ ⁹ an account of Bhakti Yoga through the manifestation of Divine Love, Beauty, and Delight, and an account of the Yoga of Self-perfection through the transformation of Nature. He must have a full account⁴ of the inner and outer evolution of Earth's Spiritual history , its rise and fall of Consciousness and all the 'limited revelations of modern knowledge and seeking.'⁴ Savitri book defines the life of an ordinary Soul as 'A swimmer lost between two leaping seas'¹⁶ of Light and life of a Spiritualised and Supramentalised Psychic Soul as 'Our life is entrenched between two rivers of Light,'¹⁷ or ''Heaven’s leaning down to embrace from all sides earth.'¹ ⁸ Those who are beneficiaries of a brief touch of Supramental Energy, now active on earth's atmosphere, can act, think and love far beyond the limitations of the human mind and in this new manifestation, they will feel a considerable difference in earth's atmosphere in the sense that a Force is felt all around, permeating, warming and fulfilling the body, life and mind. This is a life filled with another fresh Energy whose inrush is felt from within, above, around and below the feet. The quality of an individual and an institution is measured by the degree of Truth, Purity and Knowledge they have worked out from a Transcendent Source. An individual (or an institution) is weighed by the accumulation of the quantum of overhead Divine Will, Divine Wisdom and Divine Love, that has descended to his purified vessel and that he will carry as accumulated Soul Force in successive births. The most conscious individual personalit y prepares himself to become a channel through which an incalculable amount of Divine Force, Love, Delight, Wisdom and Beauty rushes into the earth’s atmosphere. Thus, his Divine action is related to the enrichment and doing good of all creatures, sarvabhuta hiteratah, ¹² harmonisation of world problems and upliftment of the earth's obscure Fate. His Divine Wisdom is 'A lightning from the heights that think and plan,'⁵ 'Saw the unseen and thought the unthinkable, Opened the enormous doors of the unknown,'⁶ 'The Eternal’s truth shall mould his thoughts and acts, The Eternal’s truth shall be his light and guide.'⁷ His all-embracing, intimate universal Divine Love 'comes sea-like down to fill the image of our transience,'⁸ 'stilled all weeping with its hand of joy,'⁹ 'led things evil towards their secret good,'⁹ 'turned racked falsehood into happy truth,'⁹ and 'A constant touch of sweetness linked all hearts.'⁹ The business of night and death fails when a Lover 'Gathers the whole world into his single breast.' ² ¹ His transcendent Divine Love is a stranger to all human relations¹⁰ and this Divine Love labours in the depths of dark Inconscient and exults on the heights of Sachchidananda plane and shall remake¹¹ and rebuild this naked hardest material world. His Inconscient Self Divine Love can awaken the greatest Divine energy, which is identified as 'A bliss is born that can remake our life.' ²² Thus, the task of the nameless integral Sadhak is partly foreseen and executed in this birth in secrecy and silence. (References: 1: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-718, 2: The Mother's Agenda-26.07.1960, 3: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-631, 4: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-10, 5: Savitri-336, 6: Savitri-359, 7: Savitri-707, 8: Savitri-171, 9: Savitri-291, 10: Savitri-657, 11: Savitri-592,12: The Gita-5.25, 12.4, 13: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-613, 14: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-11, 15: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-724, 16: Savitri-700, 17: Savitri-531. 18: Savitri-716, 19: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-56, 20: CWSA-13/Essays in Philosophy and Yoga/p-443, 21: Savitri-632-633, 22: Savitri-397-398, 23: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-702, )

"Only the pure in soul can walk in light." Savitri 448 The Questions Raised by Death God “Two things are needed. First, nothing in your being, no part of your being, should wish to die. That doesn’t often happen. You always have, somewhere in you, a defeatist: something tired or disgusted, which has had enough, something lazy or which doesn’t want to fight and says, ‘Ah, well, let it be over, so much the better.’ That’s enough – you’re dead. But it’s a fact: if nothing, absolutely nothing in you consents to die, you will not die. For someone to die, there is always a second, if a hundredth part of a second, when he consents. If there isn’t that second of consent, he will not die. But who is certain he doesn’t have within himself, somewhere, a tiny bit of a defeatist which just yields and says, ‘Oh well’? ... (Secondly) Hence the need to unify oneself. Whatever the path we may follow, the subject we may study, we always reach the same result. The most important thing for an individual is to unify himself around his divine center ; that way he becomes a real individual, master of himself and of his destiny. Otherwise, he is a plaything of the forces, which toss him about like a cork in a stream. He goes where he doesn’t want to, is made to do what he doesn’t want to, and finally he gets lost in a hole without any way to stop himself doing so. But if you are consciously organised, unified around the divine center, governed and led by it, you are the master of your destiny. It’s worth trying.... At any rate, I find it’s better to be the master rather than the slave.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda/September 7, 1968, “God knows, never, not one minute in my life, even when things were the darkest, the blackest, the most negative, the most painful, not once did the thought come, ‘I would like to die.’” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-5/p-288, Questions raised by Death God, a temporary Instrument of the Divine in Ignorance: The Triple Task Before the Sadhak of Integral Yoga Before conquering Death from without, which is an issue left for the last Avatar and of all life, a Sadhak is given the triple task of conquering Death from within (1) by universalisation of Consciousness, (2) by illumining the Subconscient and Inconscient dark and twilight planes and (3) by change of Nature through activation of 'Yoga of Self-perfection' and Sachchidananda Consciousness. One may note that before the universalisation of Consciousness, a Sadhak has to undergo a long movement of Consciousness between the Psychic and Spiritual planes. The First Task of Conquering Death by Universalisation of Consciousness: This experience will be followed by static Viswarupa Darshana as witnessed by the Arjuna of the Gita (Chapter-10) and dynamic Viswarupa Darshana as witnessed by the Death God in Savitri, Book-10, Canto-4. A Sadhak of Integral Yoga will not remain indifferent to the many people (Satyavan is the symbol of the Soul of man) who are dying every day and every minute, but activates his ceaseless movement in universalised Consciousness to harmonise and change the destiny of the race. "A Mother-wisdom works in Nature’s breast To pour delight on the heart of toil and want And press perfection on life’s stumbling powers, Impose heaven-sentience on the obscure abyss And make dumb Matter conscious of its God. Although our fallen minds forget to climb, Although our human stuff resists or breaks, She keeps her will that hopes to divinise clay; Failure cannot repress, defeat o’erthrow; Time cannot weary her nor the Void subdue, The ages have not made her passion less; No victory she admits of Death or Fate ." Savitri-353-354 “In the enormous emptiness of thy mind Thou shalt see the Eternal’s body in the world, Know him in every voice heard by thy soul, In the world’s contacts meet his single touch; All things shall fold thee into his embrace. Conquer thy heart’s throbs, let thy heart beat in God: Thy nature shall be the engine of his works, Thy voice shall house the mightiness of his Word: Then shalt thou harbour my force and conquer Death. ” Savitri-476 The Second Task of illumining the Subconscient and Inconscient planes: Savitri, without dying, in cataleptic trance, followed Death and Satyavan’s Soul in the Inconscient Night and she was determined to follow them in those adverse darkest planes and was even determined to pursue Satyavan’s Soul wherever Death would lead. Death was unable to understand the mystery of Savitri’s survival in the unborn void and escape from his death-net-trap. A golden fire came in and burned Night’s heart of Inconscient Sheath; her dusky mindlessness grew conscious and began to dream, feel and think. By its influence, the Intolerant Darkness grew pale and drew apart till only a few black remnants stained that golden ray. "To live, to love are signs of infinite things, Love is a glory from eternity’s spheres. Abased, disfigured, mocked by baser mights That steal his name and shape and ecstasy, He is still the godhead by which all can change. A mystery wakes in our inconscient stuff, A bliss is born that can remake our life." Savitri-397 "He (Narad) sang the Inconscient and its secret self, (Discovery of Inconscient Self) Its power omnipotent knowing not what it does, All-shaping without will or thought or sense, Its blind unerring occult mystery, And darkness yearning towards the eternal Light, And Love that broods within the dim abyss And waits the answer of the human heart, And death that climbs to immortality." Savitri-416 "Love’s golden wings have power to fan thy void: The eyes of love gaze starlike through death’s night, The feet of love tread naked hardest worlds. He labours in the depths, exults on the heights; He shall remake thy universe, O Death. ” Savitri-592 “O Death, I have triumphed over thee within ; I quiver no more with the assault of grief; A mighty calmness seated deep within Has occupied my body and my sense: It takes the world’s grief and transmutes to strength, It makes the world’s joy one with the joy of God. My love eternal sits throned on God’s calm; For Love must soar beyond the very heavens And find its secret sense ineffable; It must change its human ways to ways divine, Yet keep its sovereignty of earthly bliss.” Savitri-633 The Third Task of Permanent Descent of Sachchidananda Consciousness: Satyavan’s return to earth, his home which is given back once again to live, signifies permanent descent of Sachchidananda Consciousness to earth consciousness which is the result of Savitri’s permanent ascent of Soul to Sachchidananda state; here symbolically represented as Everlasting Day, which now houses the promise of greater dawn and light. “I climb not to thy everlasting Day, Even as I have shunned thy eternal Night. To me who turn not from thy terrestrial Way, Give back the other self (Satyavan) my nature asks.” Savitri-685 "His living cosmic spirit shall enring, Annulling the decree of death and pain, Erasing the formulas of the Ignorance, With the deep meaning of beauty and life’s hid sense, The being ready for immortality, " Savitri-706 “Even there shall come as a high crown of all The end of Death, the death of Ignorance. But first high Truth must set her feet on earth And man aspire to the Eternal’s light And all his members feel the Spirit’s touch And all his life obey an inner Force. This too shall be; for a new life shall come, A body of the Superconscient’s truth, A native field of Supernature’s mights: It shall make earth’s nescient ground Truth’s colony, Make even the Ignorance a transparent robe Through which shall shine the brilliant limbs of Truth And Truth shall be a sun on Nature’s head And Truth shall be the guide of Nature’s steps And Truth shall gaze out of her nether deeps.” Savitri-708 "The frontiers of the Ignorance shall recede, More and more souls shall enter into light, Minds lit, inspired, the occult summoner hear And lives blaze with a sudden inner flame And hearts grow enamoured of divine delight And human wills tune to the divine will, These separate selves the Spirit’s oneness feel, These senses of heavenly sense grow capable, The flesh and nerves of a strange ethereal joy And mortal bodies of immortality. " Savitri-710 Death God will exist for him as there are gulfs between multiple planes of intermediate Consciousness. His task in this birth is to bridge as many gulfs as possible through the movement of vertical Consciousness or through a four-fold union with the Divine. When all the gulfs are bridged, then there will be a free flow of the highest energy to the Lowest planes and that is the hour of closure to physical immortality. This is a task for him left in All Life to attain. Triple personalities of Death God: We find in Death God, the reconciliation of three-fold personalities, that of mundane perfection, of moderate Spirituality and of Later Vedantic Spirituality. These three demonstrate their escapist trend towards life and submission to death which is either accepted as Spirit’s recoil from Matter or accepted as passage to the supreme abode of Param Dham . The double doors of escape are ‘Death of his body Matter’s gate to peace’ (Savitri-635) and ‘Death of his soul his last felicity.’ (Savitri-635) In Savitri, we find the personality of an ancient Vedantic Seer. To become an ancient Vedantist , one has to realise the dynamic aspect of Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Being. He can confront Death and change his individual, collective and human destiny. Perfect Mundane Personility of Death God: If one feels comfortable leading the existing life without the aid of the Divine, he is identified as a mundane. (Death said) “They have traced a journey that foresees no goal. Aimless man toils in an uncertain world, Lulled by inconstant pauses of his pain, Scourged like a beast by the infinite desire, Bound to the chariot of the dreadful gods.” Savitri-587 (Death said) “But Mind, a glorious traveller in the sky, Walks lamely on the earth with footsteps slow; Hardly he can mould the life’s rebellious stuff, Hardly can he hold the galloping hooves of sense:” Savitri-615 “This is the world in which thou mov’st, astray In the tangled pathways of the human mind, In the issueless circling of thy human life, Searching for thy soul and thinking God is here. But where is room for soul or place for God In the brute immensity of a machine?” Savitri-618 (Human love is) “A sweet secretion from the erotic glands Flattering and torturing the burning nerves, Love is a honey and poison in the breast Drunk by it as the nectar of the gods.” Saviti-618-19 “The souls of men have wandered from the Light And the great Mother turns away her face. The eyes of the creatrix Bliss are closed And sorrow’s touch has found her in her dreams.” Savitri-628 “How shalt thou bring the Everlasting here? There is no house for him in hurrying Time. Vainly thou seekst in Matter’s world an aim; No aim is there, only a will to be.” Savitri-644 The Moderate Spiritual Personality of Death God: If one is satisfied with the partial union with the Divine and the boon or opulence received through that partial union, then he is identified as a Moderate. (Death said) “In the Alone there is no room for love.” Savitri-608 (Death said) “If Satyavan had lived, love would have died; But Satyavan is dead and love shall live A little while in thy sad breast, until His face and body fade on memory’s wall Where other bodies, other faces come.” Savitri-610, (Death said) “And thou, go back alone to thy frail world:” Savitri-612 (Death’s Soul slaying message to moderate humanity) “Accept the brief light that falls upon thy days; Take what thou canst of Life’s permitted joy; Submitting to the ordeal of fate’s scourge Suffer what thou must of toil and grief and care.” Savitri-620 Death said to Para-prakriti Savitri: “What knowst thou of earth’s rich and changing life Who thinkst that one man dead all joy must cease? Hope not to be unhappy till the end: For grief dies soon in the tired human heart; Soon other guests (human admirers) the empty chambers fill.” Savitri-637 Death said to Para-prakriti Savitri: “Return and try thy soul! Soon shalt thou find appeased that other men (human admirers) On lavish earth have beauty, strength and truth, And when thou hast half forgotten, one of these Shall wind himself around thy heart that needs Some human answering heart against thy breast; For who, being mortal, can dwell glad alone? Then Satyavan shall glide into the past, (Satyavan is the symbol of Paramatma) A gentle memory pushed away from thee By new love and thy children’s tender hands, Till thou shalt wonder if thou lov’dst at all. Such is the life earth’s travail has conceived, A constant stream that never is the same.” Savitri-637-638, “This truth I know that Satyavan is dead And even thy sweetness cannot lure him back. No magic Truth can bring the dead to life, No power of earth cancel the thing once done, No joy of the heart can last surviving death, No bliss persuade the past to live again. But Life alone can solace the mute Void And fill with thought the emptiness of Time. Leave then thy dead, O Savitri, and live.” Savitri-655-656 Later Vedantic Spiritual Personality of Death God: If one searches for the Divine exclusively by renouncing life, then he is identified as a later Vedantist or ascetic. “I think Sri Aurobindo deliberately made this Death very vulgar to discourage all the Illusionists and Nirvanists.”²⁰ The Mother Death further proposed Savitri to deliver Satyavan from earthly bondage, not to call him to the treacheries of earth, but rather permit him to live in the silence, felicity and vast tranquil peace of Nirvana . (Death said) “If thou desirest immortality, Be then alone sufficient to thy soul: Live in thyself; forget the man thou lov’st. My last grand death shall rescue thee from life; Then shalt thou rise into thy unmoved source.” Savitri-594 (Death said) “Earth only is there and not some heavenly source. If heavens there are they are veiled in their own light, If a Truth eternal somewhere reigns unknown, It burns in a tremendous void of God; For truth shines far from the falsehoods of the world; How can the heavens come down to unhappy earth Or the eternal lodge in drifting time?” Savitri-609 (Death said) “The Avatars have lived and died in vain, Vain was the sage’s thought, the prophet’s voice; In vain is seen the shining upward Way. Earth lies unchanged beneath the circling sun; She loves her fall and no omnipotence Her mortal imperfections can erase, Force on man’s crooked ignorance Heaven’s straight line Or colonise a world of death with gods.” Savitri-609-610 (Death said) “Heaven’s hour adjourned flees into bodiless Time. Death saves thee from this and saves Satyavan: He now is safe, delivered from himself; He travels to silence and felicity. Call him not back to the treacheries of earth And the poor petty life of animal Man. In my vast tranquil spaces let him sleep” Savitri-611 (Death said) “Renounce, forgetting joy and hope and tears, Thy passionate nature in the bosom profound Of a happy Nothingness and worldless Calm, Delivered into my mysterious rest.” Savitri-612 (Death said) “How canst thou force to wed two eternal foes? Irreconcilable in their embrace They cancel the glory of their pure extremes: An unhappy wedlock maims their stunted force. How shall thy will make one the true and false? Where Matter is all, there Spirit is a dream: If all are the Spirit, Matter is a lie, And who was the liar who forged the universe? The Real with the unreal cannot mate. He who would turn to God, must leave the world; He who would live in the Spirit, must give up life; He who has met the Self, renounces self. The voyagers of the million routes of mind Who have travelled through Existence to its end, Sages exploring the world-ocean’s vasts, Have found extinction the sole harbour safe. Two only are the doors of man’s escape, Death of his body Matter’s gate to peace, Death of his soul his last felicity. In me all take refuge, for I, Death, am God.” Savitri-635 “In vain his heart lifts up its yearning prayer, Peopling with brilliant Gods the formless Void; Then disappointed to the Void he turns And in its happy nothingness asks release, The calm Nirvana of his dream of self: The Word in silence ends, in Nought the name.” Savitri-644 “If God there is he cares not for the world; All things he sees with calm indifferent gaze, He has doomed all hearts to sorrow and desire, He has bound all life with his implacable laws; He answers not the ignorant voice of prayer. Eternal while the ages toil beneath, Unmoved, untouched by aught that he has made, He sees as minute details mid the stars The animal’s agony and the fate of man: Immeasurably wise, he exceeds thy thought; His solitary joy needs not thy love. His truth in human thinking cannot dwell: If thou desirest Truth, then still thy mind For ever, slain by the dumb unseen Light.” Savitri-646 “If heavens there are whose gates are shut to grief, There seek the joy thou couldst not find on earth; Or in the imperishable hemisphere Where Light is native and Delight is king And Spirit is the deathless ground of things, Choose thy high station, child of Eternity. If thou art Spirit and Nature is thy robe, Cast off thy garb and be thy naked self Immutable in its undying truth, Alone for ever in the mute Alone. Turn then to God, for him leave all behind; Forgetting love, forgetting Satyavan , Annul thyself in his immobile peace. O soul, drown in his still beatitude. For thou must die to thyself to reach God’s height:” Savitri-647 Ancient Vedantic Spiritual Personality of Savitri: In ancient Vedanta , the Matter and Spirit are given equal importance and thus Matter and Spirit are reconciled through dynamic Divine union. (Savitri said) “Out of thy shadow give me back again Into earth’s flowering spaces Satyavan In the sweet transiency of human limbs To do with him my spirit’s burning will. I will bear with him the ancient Mother’s load, I will follow with him earth’s path that leads to God. Else shall the eternal spaces open to me, While round us strange horizons far recede, Travelling together the immense unknown. For I who have trod with him the tracts of Time, Can meet behind his steps whatever night Or unimaginable stupendous dawn Breaks on our spirits in the untrod Beyond. Wherever thou leadst his soul I shall pursue.” Savitri-590 (Savitri said) “A curse is laid on the pure joy of life: Delight, God’s sweetest sign and Beauty’s twin, Dreaded by aspiring saint and austere sage, Is shunned, a dangerous and ambiguous cheat, A specious trick of an infernal Power It tempts the soul to its self-hurt and fall.” Savitri-629 “Give me back Satyavan, my only lord. Thy thoughts are vacant to my soul that feels The deep eternal truth in transient things.” Savitri-637 “I am not bound by thought or sense or shape; I live in the glory of the Infinite, I am near to the Nameless and Unknowable, The Ineffable is now my household mate. But standing on Eternity’s luminous brink I have discovered that the world was He; I have met Spirit with spirit, Self with self, But I have loved too the body of my God. I have pursued him in his earthly form. A lonely freedom cannot satisfy A heart that has grown one with every heart: I am a deputy of the aspiring world, My spirit’s liberty I ask for all.” Savitri-649 Sri Aurobindo was able to accommodate His (and also The Mother’s) all life’s comprehensive high Spiritual Visions and experiences in symbolic characters of incarnations, emanations and instruments, depicted from the legendry epic Mahabharata where Savitri, the descending Godhead, Avatara, the all Mother, the Mother of all Time, knew her fiery Self and her Being’s aim of pursuing the Soul of earth, symbolised as Satyavan in his earthly form in each birth and in all life. She glimpsed the glory for which she had chosen earth and its atmosphere for gradual and subsequently constant, intense, comprehensive and instantaneous total descent of Divine attributes of Truth-Light, Power, Wisdom and Delight. She keeps her will alive to drive human Souls and fills in their brute elements, the endless hope to Divinise clay and confronts the riddle of Birth, inevitable Death, grooves of iron Law and fixed Fate in them with the sheer power of her unchanging Soul force manifested as Divine Love. She has chosen the Souls who have long suffered on this harsh globe, for the field of her sacrifice and action and she is even ready to walk and waste all infinity with wounded feet to accomplish her seemingly impossible task of transforming earth’s shadow, twilight and grey inhibitions. Satyavan , a mere woodsman, raised his consciousness to the status of the ascending integral Godhead, Avatara, by the Power of consecration and loss of ego and was destined to fulfil Savitri’s mighty Mission of bridging the gulf between Heaven, Earth and Hell. He was also the Eternal Consciousness, a unique rare treasure loaned by Gods, who accompanied Savitri from the beginning of the creation as first ‘man and woman’⁵ or first dual Incarnation and the Supreme had promised to grant physical immortality in all life when the first Avatara’s ‘heart dared death and suffered life.’⁶ He continued his life in many successive births and bodies as ‘twin souls born from one undying fire’⁵ of this mortal existence to endure in his human heart a million wounds representing the delegate Soul of earth. Through his long suffering in human form the God’s debt is paid. His Godhead status does not prevent him from living ‘in one house with the primal beast’¹⁷ in the forest, colloquies with the Djinn and Asuras of the Subconscient world; thus in the Divine’s single plan he reveals solidarity with antagonist powers; ‘high meets the low’¹⁷ or ‘God’s summits look back on the mute Abyss;’¹⁷ accepts to be small and human on earth. While tracing the path of immortality he signed salvation’s testament with his blood and broke into the dangerous and dark Inconscient’s depth and if he were to meet the Spiritual fall in the form of death while attempting to break the wheel¹⁴ of earth’s doom and before bridging the gulf between Heaven and Earth in order to balance the dark account of mortal Ignorance then this would be a great loss for humanity. Or an Avatara , as a delegate Soul of Heaven lent to earth must live a brief period in human history in order to trace and build a passage in intermediate ranges consciousness so that a large section of humanity will be able to bridge the gulf between Heaven and Earth and reconcile Spirit with Matter with less effort. This work is further accelerated if Divine Love becomes active in Earth’s atmosphere through the action and interfusion of dual Avatara. His Divine work on earth of invasion of a series of Light and Love is treated unfinished and half done till all the evils are slain or transformed in their Inconscient home. In Savitri and Satyavan, Soul and Nature had realised equal Divine Presences and merged themselves in oneness of wide harmony and balance. They had treasured the rich relation of their brief human birth through a subtle link of union or clasp of two eternities through many successive births and bodies of un-beginning past and felt the call of Spirit’s unending future joy; even they knew their Selves older than the birth of time. A vast intention of love’s unseen Presence has drawn these dual incarnating Powers closer in this life and their love asks to wait endlessly as if they have all eternity ahead for their self-fulfilment. Together they have disdained from the God’s everlasting Night of Inconscient world and turned away from His everlasting Day of Sachchidananda plane and returned to earth to wage a million wars against the universal dark rebel forces attached to present unstable existence, to bear the earth Mother’s ancient adversary and to accomplish their double task of raising the world to God’s deathless Light, a permanent ascent of Divine Consciousness and bringing down Divine Shakti to earth and men, a permanent descent of Divine Consciousness. Death God, the dire universal impersonal dark Force, here personified as godhead of the Inconscient world, Yama , who as the intolerant dark instrument of the Divine, Yantra , guards and obeys the Divine’s fixed immutable law of Nature which is a part and derivation of His dynamic Super nature and his hunger through world spreading death-net-trap can devour all those who are unable to open towards the Spirit’s changeable Supernature and endless Truth. He was oblivious of his temporary instrumental action in Ignorance and considered himself as Omnipotent Supreme Power without the Spiritual experience of Divine Identity and Oneness. He was aware of static Divine union of Saints and Avataras and the Ananda and the Freedom gained through this union were not enough to dismantle death from outer existence. For him, man’s identity was diminished as ‘the naked two-legged worm’² and he was not aware of the Divine’s mighty whole, total vision and swift evolutionary change in Knowledge through dynamic Divine union for His unfinished world existence and was aware only of the incomplete task given to him during the passage of man’s tardy evolution in Ignorance within the boundary of three gunas . He, like cosmic Gods, has the immeasurable heart of silence, knowledge of past, present and future, trikaladristi and limited power of offering boons to the wounded mortals and in his understanding of existence, the soul-saving truth is thoroughly distorted and his soul-slaying words have denied contact with the Spirit and Divine. Savitri’s Mind and Soul’s clarity delivered Death God partly from the limitation of gospel of human love and twilight thought in which falsehood is ‘mingled with sad strains of truth’¹⁹ and he became powerless before her greater God status and a superior incarnating Divine Mother Power. The future vision of Savitri promises that when she will enter Spiritual experience of everlasting Day, this formidable shape of Death and his pessimistic harsh philosophy will be changed into the beauty of suns and a sum of all sweetness will gather into his limbs. His grand fort of darkness, huge Inconscient’s grasp and sad destroying might will be abolished forever, his vague infinity filling the universe with dangerous breath will be transformed and he will emerge as a wonderful God. Now the Spiritual significance and utility of Death is identified as a passage in the Soul’s unending journey of all life in order to ‘force the soul of man to struggle for Light’⁹ and a ‘whip to his yearning for eternal bliss.’⁹ The nobility of Divine instrumentation of untransformed Death is still hidden from humanity as he abruptly ends the parable of the charm of life. This greatness will be revealed to man when he is aware of the Divine’s comprehensive plan extending over all life, confirming that death is a Spirit’s opportunity to begin a greater life. Twenty-three Questions raised by Death God followed by Savitri's Reply: 1: Death said: “Thy passionate influence and relax, O slave Of Nature, changing tool of changeless Law, Who vainly writh’st rebellion to my yoke, Thy elemental grasp; weep and forget. Entomb thy passion in its living grave. Leave now the once-loved spirit’s abandoned robe: Pass lonely back to thy vain life on earth.” Savitri-575 Answer attempted: “Ever he comes to us across the years Bearing a new sweet face that is the old. His bliss laughs to us or it calls concealed Like a far-heard unseen entrancing flute From moonlit branches in the throbbing woods, Tempting our angry search and passionate pain. Disguised the Lover seeks and draws our souls. He named himself for me, grew Satyavan. For we were man and woman from the first, The twin souls born from one undying fire. Did he not dawn on me in other stars? How has he through the thickets of the world Pursued me like a lion in the night And come upon me suddenly in the ways And seized me with his glorious golden leap! Unsatisfied he yearned for me through time, Sometimes with wrath and sometimes with sweet peace Desiring me since first the world began. He rose like a wild wave out of the floods And dragged me helpless into seas of bliss. Out of my curtained past his arms arrive; They have touched me like the soft persuading wind, They have plucked me like a glad and trembling flower, And clasped me happily burned in ruthless flame. I too have found him charmed in lovely forms And run delighted to his distant voice And pressed to him past many dreadful bars. If there is a yet happier greater god, Let him first wear the face of Satyavan And let his soul be one with him I love; So let him seek me that I may desire. For only one heart beats within my breast And one god sits there throned. Advance, O Death, Beyond the phantom beauty of this world; For of its citizens I am not one. I cherish God the Fire, not God the Dream.” Savitri-613-14 2: Death said: “Wilt thou for ever keep thy passionate hold, Thyself a creature doomed like him to pass, Denying his soul death’s calm and silent rest? Relax thy grasp; this body is earth’s and thine, His spirit now belongs to a greater power. Woman, thy husband suffers.” Savitri-575 Answer attempted: “Savitri… Drew back her heart’s force that clasped his body still Where from her lap renounced on the smooth grass Softly it lay, as often before in sleep When from their couch she rose in the white dawn Called by her daily tasks: now too, as if called, She rose and stood gathered in lonely strength, Like one who drops his mantle for a race And waits the signal, motionlessly swift. She knew not to what course: her spirit above On the crypt-summit of her secret form Like one left sentinel on a mountain crest, A fiery-footed splendour puissant-winged, Watched flaming-silent, with her voiceless soul Like a still sail upon a windless sea.” (Savitri-575) 3: Death said: “Hast thou beheld thy source, O transient heart, And known from what the dream thou art was made? In this stark sincerity of nude emptiness Hopest thou still always to last and love?” Savitri-586 Answer attempted: “The Woman answered not. Her spirit refused The voice of Night that knew and Death that thought. In her beginningless infinity Through her soul’s reaches unconfined she gazed; She saw the undying fountains of her life, She knew herself eternal without birth.” (Savitri-586) 4: Death said: “What shall the ancient goddess give to thee Who helps thy heart beat?” Savitri-586 “Aimless man toils in an uncertain world, Lulled by inconstant pauses of his pain, Scourged like a beast by the infinite desire, Bound to the chariot of the dreadful gods. But if thou still canst hope and still wouldst love, Return to thy body’s shell, thy tie to earth, And with thy heart’s little remnants try to live. Hope not to win back to thee Satyavan. Yet since thy strength deserves no trivial crown, Gifts I can give to soothe thy wounded life. (Four boons offered by Death God.) The pacts which transient beings make with fate, And the wayside sweetness earth-bound hearts would pluck, These if thy will accepts make freely thine. Choose a life’s hopes for thy deceiving prize.” Savitri-587-588 Answer attempted: “First I demand whatever Satyavan, My husband, waking in the forest’s charm Out of his long pure childhood’s lonely dreams, Desired and had not for his beautiful life. Give, if thou must, or, if thou canst, refuse.” Savitri-589 Dyumatsena, the self-exiled King of Shalwa , father of Satyavan, is the Divine’s Conscious instrument, Yantra , here fallen blind, limiting his capacity to three gunas and walks lamely on this dangerous world with slow evolutionary mental footsteps. Through this Spiritual fall he has lost the celestial inner kingdom of seven immortal Selves and through that loss its kingdom of outer glory and opulence. Due to this adverse fate, he now sojourns a wiser life in the solemn rustle of the wood and his yearning towards All meets two solitudes (1) that of outcast from the empire of the outer light symbolically represented as crutch upon which his faltering-limb supports and he helplessly stumbles in the rushing speed of hasty Time and (2) lost to the comradeship of five galloping hooves of sense that of sound, touch, sight, taste and smell symbolically represented as his sightless blind identity. This double doom of his father compelled Satyavan to live in the high peopled loneliness of the Spirit which called the Divine Mother to enter his earthly life in human form and finally helped his long pure childhood’s lonely dream to restore King Dyumatsena’s steady royal walk in high dynamic outer Kingdom and a deeper visionary eye of Divine Wisdom. Restoration of outer Kingdom was also the outcome of his revival of the inner Kingdom through sadhana in double seclusion. 5: Death said: (First boon offered by Death God) “Indulgent to the dreams my touch shall break, I yield to his blind father’s longing heart Kingdom and power and friends and greatness lost And royal trappings for his peaceful age, The pallid pomps of man’s declining days, The silvered decadent glories of life’s fall. To one who wiser grew by adverse Fate, Goods I restore the deluded soul prefers To impersonal nothingness’s bare sublime. The sensuous solace of the light I give To eyes which could have found a larger realm, A deeper vision in their fathomless night. For that this man desired and asked in vain While still he lived on earth and cherished hope. Back from the grandeur of my perilous realms Go, mortal, to thy small permitted sphere! Hasten swift-footed, lest to slay thy life The great laws thou hast violated, moved, Open at last on thee their marble eyes.” Savitri-589 6: Death said: “Hast thou god-wings or feet that tread my stars, Frail creature with the courage that aspires, Forgetting thy bounds of thought, thy mortal role?” Savitri-590 Answer attempted: “Who is this God imagined by thy night, Contemptuously creating worlds disdained, Who made for vanity the brilliant stars? Not he who has reared his temple in my thoughts And made his sacred floor my human heart. My God is will and triumphs in his paths, My God is love and sweetly suffers all. To him I have offered hope for sacrifice And gave my longings as a sacrament. Who shall prohibit or hedge in his course, The wonderful, the charioteer, the swift? A traveller of the million roads of life, His steps familiar with the lights of heaven Tread without pain the sword-paved courts of hell; There he descends to edge eternal joy. Love’s golden wings have power to fan thy void: The eyes of love gaze starlike through death’s night, The feet of love tread naked hardest worlds. He labours in the depths, exults on the heights; He shall remake thy universe, O Death.” Savitri-591-92 7: Death said: “What is thy hope? to what dost thou aspire? This is thy body’s sweetest lure of bliss, Assailed by pain, a frail precarious form, To please for a few years thy faltering sense With honey of physical longings and the heart’s fire And, a vain oneness seeking, to embrace The brilliant idol of a fugitive hour. And thou, what art thou, soul, thou glorious dream Of brief emotions made and glittering thoughts, A thin dance of fireflies speeding through the night, A sparkling ferment in life’s sunlit mire? Wilt thou claim immortality, O heart, Crying against the eternal witnesses That thou (Savitri) and he (Satyavan) are endless powers and last?” Savitri-592 Answer attempted: “O Death, who reasonest, I reason not, Reason that scans and breaks, but cannot build Or builds in vain because she doubts her work. I am, I love, I see, I act, I will.” Savitri-594, 8: Death said: “But if there were a Being witnessing all, How should he help thy passionate desire?” Savitri-593 Answer attempted: “When I have loved for ever, I shall know. Love in me knows the truth all changings mask. I know that knowledge is a vast embrace: I know that every being is myself, In every heart is hidden the myriad One. I know the calm Transcendent bears the world, The veiled Inhabitant, the silent Lord: I feel his secret act, his intimate fire; I hear the murmur of the cosmic Voice. I know my coming was a wave from God. For all his suns were conscient in my birth, And one who loves in us came veiled by death. Then was man born among the monstrous stars Dowered with a mind and heart to conquer thee.” Savitri-594 9: Death said: “How can the heavens come down to unhappy earth Or the eternal lodge in drifting time? How shall the Ideal tread earth’s dolorous soil Where life is only a labour and a hope, A child of Matter and by Matter fed, A fire flaming low in Nature’s grate, A wave that breaks upon a shore in Time, A journey’s toilsome trudge with death for goal? The Avataras have lived and died in vain, Vain was the sage’s thought, the prophet’s voice; In vain is seen the shining upward Way… O traveller in the chariot of the Sun, High priestess in thy holy fancy’s shrine Who with a magic ritual in earth’s house Worshippest ideal and eternal love, What is this love thy thought has deified, This sacred legend and immortal myth?... If Satyavan had lived, love would have died; But Satyavan is dead and love shall live A little while in thy sad breast, until His face and body fade on memory’s wall Where other bodies, other faces come… Love cannot live by heavenly food alone, Only on sap of earth can it survive. For thy passion was a sensual want refined, A hunger of the body and the heart; Thy want can tire and cease or turn elsewhere. Or love may meet a dire and pitiless end By bitter treason, or wrath with cruel wounds Separate, or thy unsatisfied will to others Depart when first love’s joy lies stripped and slain: A dull indifference replaces fire Or an endearing habit imitates love: An outward and uneasy union lasts Or the routine of a life’s compromise: Where once the seed of oneness had been cast Into a semblance of spiritual ground By a divine adventure of heavenly powers Two strive, constant associates without joy, Two egos straining in a single leash, Two minds divided by their jarring thoughts, Two spirits disjoined, for ever separate. Thus is the ideal falsified in man’s world; Trivial or sombre, disillusion comes, Life’s harsh reality stares at the soul: Heaven’s hour adjourned flees into bodiless Time. Death saves thee from this and saves Satyavan: He now is safe, delivered from himself; He travels to silence and felicity. Call him not back to the treacheries of earth And the poor petty life of animal Man. In my vast tranquil spaces let him sleep In harmony with the mighty hush of death Where love lies slumbering on the breast of peace. And thou, go back alone to thy frail world: Chastise thy heart with knowledge, unhood to see,” Savitri-609-10-11-12 Answer attempted: “My love is not a hunger of the heart, My love is not a craving of the flesh; It came to me from God, to God returns.” Savitri-612 “‘Love is not sexual intercourse. Love is not vital attraction and interchange. Love is not heart’s hunger for affection. Love is a mighty vibration coming straight from the One. And only the very pure and very strong are capable of receiving and manifesting it." Then an explanation on what I mean by “pure,” the very pure and very strong. ‘To be pure is to be open only to the Supreme’s influence, and to no other.’ Far more difficult than what people consider purity to be! Which is something quite artificial and false.” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda /4/319-20, 10: Death said: “But where is room for soul or place for God In the brute immensity of a machine?... (human love is ) A sweet secretion from the erotic glands Flattering and torturing the burning nerves,.... Earth’s human wisdom is no great-browed power, And love no gleaming angel from the skies; If they aspire beyond earth’s dullard air, Arriving sunwards with frail waxen wings, How high could reach that forced unnatural flight?... But not on earth can divine wisdom reign And not on earth can divine love be found; Heaven-born, only in heaven can they live; Or else there too perhaps they are shining dreams. Nay, is not all thou art and doest a dream?... How shall the Ideal’s unsubstantial hues Be painted stiff on earth’s vermilion blur, A dream within a dream come doubly true? How shall the will-o’-the-wisp become a star?” Savitri-618-19 Answer attempted: “All our earth starts from mud and ends in sky, And Love that was once an animal’s desire, Then a sweet madness in the rapturous heart, An ardent comradeship in the happy mind, Becomes a wide spiritual yearning’s space. A lonely soul passions for the Alone, The heart that loved man thrills to the love of God, A body is his chamber and his shrine. Then is our being rescued from separateness; All is itself, all is new-felt in God: A Lover leaning from his cloister’s door Gathers the whole world into his single breast. Then shall the business fail of Night and Death: When unity is won, when strife is lost And all is known and all is clasped by Love Who would turn back to ignorance and pain?” Savitri-632-33 11: Death said: “Thus wilt thou hire the glorious charlatan, Mind, To weave from his Ideal’s gossamer air A fine raiment for thy body’s nude desires And thy heart’s clutching greedy passion clothe?” Savitri-634 Answer attempted: “O Death, I have triumphed over thee within; I quiver no more with the assault of grief; A mighty calmness seated deep within Has occupied my body and my sense: It takes the world’s grief and transmutes to strength, It makes the world’s joy one with the joy of God. My love eternal sits throned on God’s calm; For Love must soar beyond the very heavens And find its secret sense ineffable; It must change its human ways to ways divine, Yet keep its sovereignty of earthly bliss. O Death, not for my heart’s sweet poignancy Nor for my happy body’s bliss alone I have claimed from thee the living Satyavan, But for his work and mine, our sacred charge. Our lives are God’s messengers beneath the stars; To dwell under death’s shadow they have come Tempting God’s light to earth for the ignorant race, His love to fill the hollow in men’s hearts, His bliss to heal the unhappiness of the world. For I, the woman, am the force of God, He the Eternal’s delegate soul in man. My will is greater than thy law, O Death; My love is stronger than the bonds of Fate: Our love is the heavenly seal of the Supreme. I guard that seal against thy rending hands. Love must not cease to live upon the earth; For Love is the bright link twixt earth and heaven, Love is the far Transcendent’s angel here; Love is man’s lien on the Absolute.” Savitri-633 12: Death said: “For how in the soiled heart of man could dwell The immaculate grandeur of thy dream-built God, Or who can see a face and form divine In the naked two-legged worm thou callest man?” Savitri-634 Answer attempted: “Yes, I am human. Yet shall man by me, Since in humanity waits his hour the God, Trample thee down to reach the immortal heights, Transcending grief and pain and fate and death. Yes, my humanity is a mask of God: He dwells in me, the mover of my acts, Turning the great wheel of his cosmic work. I am the living body of his light, I am the thinking instrument of his power, I incarnate Wisdom in an earthly breast, I am his conquering and unslayable will. The formless Spirit drew in me its shape; In me are the Nameless and the secret Name.” Savitri-634 13: Death said: “O priestess in Imagination’s house, Persuade first Nature’s fixed immutable laws And make the impossible thy daily work. How canst thou force to wed two eternal foes? Irreconcilable in their embrace They cancel the glory of their pure extremes: An unhappy wedlock maims their stunted force. How shall thy will make one the true and false? Where Matter is all, there Spirit is a dream: If all are the Spirit, Matter is a lie, And who was the liar who forged the universe?” Savitri-635 Answer attempted: “My heart is wiser than the Reason’s thoughts, My heart is stronger than thy bonds, O Death. It sees and feels the one Heart beat in all, It feels the high Transcendent’s sunlike hands, It sees the cosmic Spirit at its work; In the dim Night it lies alone with God. My heart’s strength can carry the grief of the universe And never falter from its luminous track, Its white tremendous orbit through God’s peace. It can drink up the sea of All-Delight And never lose the white spiritual touch, The calm that broods in the deep Infinite.” Savitri-635-36 14: Death said: “He said, “Art thou indeed so strong, O heart, O soul, so free? And canst thou gather then Bright pleasure from my wayside flowering boughs, Yet falter not from thy hard journey’s goal, Meet the world’s dangerous touch and never fall? Show me thy strength and freedom from my laws.” Savitri-636 Answer attempted: “But Savitri answered, “Surely I shall find Among the green and whispering woods of Life Close-bosomed pleasures, only mine since his, Or mine for him, because our joys are one. And if I linger, Time is ours and God’s, And if I fall, is not his hand near mine? All is a single plan; each wayside act Deepens the soul’s response, brings nearer the goal.” Savitri-636 15: Death said: (Second boon offered by Death God) “I give to thee, saved from death and poignant fate Whatever once the living Satyavan Desired in his heart for Savitri. Bright noons I give thee and unwounded dawns, Daughters of thy own shape in heart and mind, Fair hero sons and sweetness undisturbed Of union with thy husband dear and true. And thou shalt harvest in thy joyful house Felicity of thy surrounded eves. Love shall bind by thee many gathered hearts. The opposite sweetness in thy days shall meet Of tender service to thy life’s desired And loving empire over all thy loved, Two poles of bliss made one, O Savitri. Return, O child, to thy forsaken earth.” Savitri-636-37 Answer attempted: “But Savitri replied, “Thy gifts resist. Earth cannot flower if lonely I return.” Savitri-637 16: Death said: “What knowst thou of earth’s rich and changing life Who thinkst that one man dead all joy must cease? Hope not to be unhappy till the end: For grief dies soon in the tired human heart; Soon other guests the empty chambers fill. A transient painting on a holiday’s floor Traced for a moment’s beauty love was made. Or if a voyager on the eternal trail, Its objects fluent change in its embrace Like waves to a swimmer upon infinite seas.”” Savitri-637 Answer attempted: But Savitri replied to the vague god, “Give me back Satyavan, my only lord. Thy thoughts are vacant to my soul that feels The deep eternal truth in transient things.” Savitri-637 17: Death said: “Return and try thy soul! Soon shalt thou find appeased that other men On lavish earth have beauty, strength and truth, And when thou hast half forgotten, one of these Shall wind himself around thy heart that needs Some human answering heart against thy breast; For who, being mortal, can dwell glad alone? Then Satyavan shall glide into the past, A gentle memory pushed away from thee By new love and thy children’s tender hands, Till thou shalt wonder if thou lov’dst at all. Such is the life earth’s travail has conceived, A constant stream that never is the same.” Savitri-637-638 Answer attempted: “All our earth starts from mud and ends in sky, And Love that was once an animal’s desire, Then a sweet madness in the rapturous heart, An ardent comradeship in the happy mind, Becomes a wide spiritual yearning’s space. A lonely soul passions for the Alone “ Savitri-632 Its complementary line: “The soul that can live alone with itself meets God;” Savitri-460 “In the dim Night it (Savitri’s heart) lies alone with God.” Savitri-635 “The ideal sadhaka should be able to say in the Biblical phrase, “My zeal for the Lord has eaten me up.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-58 “One thing only I can tell you that whatever the sincerity, simplicity and purity of the relation between two human beings, it shuts them off more or less from the direct divine force and help and limits their strength, light and power only to the sum of their potentialities.” The Mother TMCW/Vol-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-120 18: Death said: “Hope not to call God down into his life. How shalt thou bring the Everlasting here? There is no house for him in hurrying Time. Vainly thou seekst in Matter’s world an aim; No aim is there, only a will to be… The aimless journey that can never pause, The waking toil, the incoherent sleep, Song, shouts and weeping, wisdom and idle words, The laughter of men, the irony of the gods? Where leads the march, whither the pilgrimage? Who keeps the map of the route or planned each stage?... Think not to plant on earth the living Truth Or make of Matter’s world the home of God; Truth comes not there but only the thought of Truth, God is not there but only the name of God. If Self there is it is bodiless and unborn; It is no one and it is possessed by none. On what shalt thou then build thy happy world? Cast off thy life and mind, then art thou Self, An all-seeing omnipresence stark, alone… How shall the mighty Mother her calm delight Keep fragrant in this narrow fragile vase, Or lodge her sweet unbroken ecstasy In hearts which earthly sorrow can assail And bodies careless Death can slay at will? Dream not to change the world that God has planned, Strive not to alter his eternal law.” Savitri-644-45-46-47 (The third boon offered by Death God) “If heavens there are whose gates are shut to grief, There seek the joy thou couldst not find on earth; Or in the imperishable hemisphere Where Light is native and Delight is king And Spirit is the deathless ground of things, Choose thy high station, child of Eternity. If thou art Spirit and Nature is thy robe, Cast off thy garb and be thy naked self Immutable in its undying truth, Alone for ever in the mute Alone. Turn then to God, for him leave all behind; Forgetting love, forgetting Satyavan, Annul thyself in his immobile peace. O soul, drown in his still beatitude. For thou must die to thyself to reach God’s height: I, Death, am the gate of immortality.” Savitri-647 Answer attempted: “Offer, O King, thy boons to tired spirits And hearts that could not bear the wounds of Time, Let those who were tied to body and to mind, Tear off those bonds and flee into white calm Crying for a refuge from the play of God. Surely thy boons are great since thou art He! But how shall I seek rest in endless peace Who house the mighty Mother’s violent force, Her vision turned to read the enigmaed world, Her will tempered in the blaze of Wisdom’s sun And the flaming silence of her heart of love?” Savitri-647-48 19: Death said: “Why should the noble and immortal will Stoop to the petty works of transient earth, Freedom forgotten and the Eternal’s path?” Savitri-652 Answer attempted: “I trample on thy law with living feet; For to arise in freedom I was born. If I am mighty let my force be unveiled Equal companion of the dateless powers, Or else let my frustrated soul sink down Unworthy of Godhead in the original sleep. I claim from Time my will’s eternity, God from his moments.” Savitri-652 She answered, “Straight I trample on the road The strong hand hewed for me which planned our paths. I run where his sweet dreadful voice commands And I am driven by the reins of God. Why drew he wide his scheme of mighty worlds Or filled infinity with his passionate breath? Or wherefore did he build my mortal form And sow in me his bright and proud desires, If not to achieve, to flower in me, to love, Carving his human image richly shaped In thoughts and largenesses and golden powers? Far Heaven can wait our coming in its calm. Easy the heavens were to build for God. Earth was his difficult matter, earth the glory Gave of the problem and the race and strife. There are the ominous masks, the terrible powers; There it is greatness to create the gods. Is not the spirit immortal and absolved Always, delivered from the grasp of Time? Why came it down into the mortal’s Space? A charge he gave to his high spirit in man And wrote a hidden decree on Nature’s tops. Freedom is this with ever seated soul, Large in life’s limits, strong in Matter’s knots, Building great stuff of action from the worlds To make fine wisdom from coarse, scattered strands And love and beauty out of war and night, The wager wonderful, the game divine.” Savitri-652-653 20: Death said: “Or is this the high use of strength and thought, To struggle with the bonds of death and time And spend the labour that might earn the gods And battle and bear agony of wounds To grasp the trivial joys that earth can guard In her small treasure-chest of passing things? Child, hast thou trodden the gods beneath thy feet Only to win poor shreds of earthly life For him thou lov’st cancelling the grand release, Keeping from early rapture of the heavens His soul the lenient deities have called? Are thy arms sweeter than the courts of God? ” Savitri-652 Answer attempted: “What liberty has the soul which feels not free Unless stripped bare and cannot kiss the bonds The Lover winds around his playmate’s limbs, Choosing his tyranny, crushed in his embrace? To seize him better with her boundless heart She accepts the limiting circle of his arms, Bows full of bliss beneath his mastering hands And laughs in his rich constraints, most bound, most free. This is my answer to thy lures, O Death.” Savitri-653 21: Death said: “A Light above which none but thou hast seen, Thou claimst the first fruits of Truth’s victory. But what is Truth and who can find her form Amid the specious images of sense, Amid the crowding guesses of the mind And the dark ambiguities of a world Peopled with the incertitudes of Thought? For where is Truth and when was her footfall heard Amid the endless clamour of Time’s mart And which is her voice amid the thousand cries That cross the listening brain and cheat the soul?” Savitri-654 Answer attempted: “How sayst thou Truth can never light the human mind And Bliss can never invade the mortal’s heart Or God descend into the world he made? If in the meaningless Void creation rose, If from a bodiless Force Matter was born, If Life could climb in the unconscious tree, Its green delight break into emerald leaves And its laughter of beauty blossom in the flower, If sense could wake in tissue, nerve and cell And Thought seize the grey matter of the brain, And soul peep from its secrecy through the flesh, How shall the nameless Light not leap on men, And unknown powers emerge from Nature’s sleep? Even now hints of a luminous Truth like stars Arise in the mind-mooned splendour of Ignorance; Even now the deathless Lover’s touch we feel: If the chamber’s door is even a little ajar, What then can hinder God from stealing in Or who forbid his kiss on the sleeping soul?” Savitri-648-49 22: Death said: “Or is Truth aught but a high starry name Or a vague and splendid word by which man’s thought Sanctions and consecrates his nature’s choice, The heart’s wish donning knowledge as its robe, The cherished idea elect among the elect, Thought’s favourite mid the children of half-light Who high-voiced crowd the playgrounds of the mind Or people its dormitories in infant sleep?” Savitri-654 Answer attempted: “But who can show to thee Truth’s glorious face? Our human words can only shadow her. To thought she is an unthinkable rapture of light, To speech a marvel inexpressible. O Death, if thou couldst touch the Truth supreme Thou wouldst grow suddenly wise and cease to be. If our souls could see and love and clasp God’s Truth, Its infinite radiance would seize our hearts, Our being in God’s image be remade And earthly life become the life divine.” Savitri-663 (Fourth Boon offered by Death God.) 23: Death said: “If Truth supreme transcends her shadow here Severed by Knowledge and the climbing vasts, What bridge can cross the gulf that she has left Between her and the dream-world she has made? Or who could hope to bring her down to men And persuade to tread the harsh globe with wounded feet Leaving her unapproachable glory and bliss, Wasting her splendour on pale earthly air? Is thine that strength, O beauty of mortal limbs, O soul who flutterest to escape my net? Who then art thou hiding in human guise? Thy voice carries the sound of infinity, Knowledge is with thee, Truth speaks through thy words; The light of things beyond shines in thy eyes. But where is thy strength to conquer Time and Death? Hast thou God’s force to build heaven’s values here? … O human claimant to immortality, Reveal thy power, lay bare thy spirit’s force, Then will I give back to thee Satyavan. (fourth and last boon) Or if the Mighty Mother is with thee, Show me her face that I may worship her; Let deathless eyes look into the eyes of Death, An imperishable Force touching brute things Transform earth’s death into immortal life. Then can thy dead return to thee and live.” Savitri-663-664 Answer attempted: “A mighty transformation came on her. A halo of the indwelling Deity, The Immortal’s lustre that had lit her face And tented its radiance in her body’s house, Overflowing made the air a luminous sea. In a flaming moment of apocalypse The Incarnation thrust aside its veil. A little figure in infinity Yet stood and seemed the Eternal’s very house, As if the world’s centre was her very soul And all wide space was but its outer robe. A curve of the calm hauteur of far heaven Descending into earth’s humility, Her forehead’s span vaulted the Omniscient’s gaze, Her eyes were two stars that watched the universe. The Power that from her being’s summit reigned, The Presence chambered in lotus secrecy, Came down and held the centre in her brow Where the mind’s Lord in his control-room sits; There throned on concentration’s native seat He opens that third mysterious eye in man, The Unseen’s eye that looks at the unseen, When Light with a golden ecstasy fills his brain And the Eternal’s wisdom drives his choice And eternal Will seizes the mortal’s will. It stirred in the lotus of her throat of song, And in her speech throbbed the immortal Word, Her life sounded with the steps of the world-soul Moving in harmony with the cosmic Thought. As glides God’s sun into the mystic cave Where hides his light from the pursuing gods, It glided into the lotus of her heart And woke in it the Force that alters Fate. It poured into her navel’s lotus depth, Lodged in the little life-nature’s narrow home, On the body’s longings grew heaven-rapture’s flower And made desire a pure celestial flame, Broke into the cave where coiled World-Energy sleeps And smote the thousand-hooded serpent Force That blazing towered and clasped the World-Self above, Joined Matter’s dumbness to the Spirit’s hush And filled earth’s acts with the Spirit’s silent power. Thus changed she waited for the Word to speak. Eternity looked into the eyes of Death And Darkness saw God’s living Reality.” Savitri-664-665 (Here, Savitri became dynamic Viswarupa of the Divine Mother and revealed it to the Death God.) "The Two opposed each other face to face. His being like a huge fort of darkness towered; Around it her light grew, an ocean’s siege. Awhile the Shade survived defying heaven: Assailing in front, oppressing from above, A concrete mass of conscious power, he bore The tyranny of her divine desire. A pressure of intolerable force Weighed on his unbowed head and stubborn breast; Light like a burning tongue licked up his thoughts, Light was a luminous torture in his heart, Light coursed, a splendid agony, through his nerves; His darkness muttered perishing in her blaze. Her mastering Word commanded every limb And left no room for his enormous will That seemed pushed out into some helpless space And could no more re-enter but left him void. He called to Night but she fell shuddering back, He called to Hell but sullenly it retired: He turned to the Inconscient for support, From which he was born, his vast sustaining self; It drew him back towards boundless vacancy As if by himself to swallow up himself: He called to his strength, but it refused his call. His body was eaten by light, his spirit devoured." Savitri-667 Recapitulation: The Death God indirectly proposes six-fold renunciations in order to live alone with the Divine and to arrive at the secret of immortality. Those who (1) have personal will in place of Souls’ aim,³³ (2) superstition or twilight thought,³⁴ (3) speak lies or soul slaying truth,³⁵ (4) ‘quarrel between the individual and society or disastrous struggle between one community and another,’³⁶ (5) indulgence in human association and love,³⁷ and (6) practice of fixed law and slow evolution of Religion,⁵⁸ invites death unconsciously and they are prone to fall in the world spreading death net trap which divides life. The three gunas of sattwa, rajas tamas, which dwarf human life are identified as the parents of the above six elements. Those who do not renounce above six elements lead a mixed life without Divine protection and those who renounce them are identified in Savitri’s language, ‘Only were safe who kept God in their hearts.’⁶⁸ Death God also suggests⁵³ that reconciliation of (1) momentary action born out of personal will and (3) words born out of three modes of Nature can slay the Psychic Being or those who indulge in (3) loose talk and (1) loose desire driven sex action meet death and suffering in a thousand ways. He also reconciles⁵⁵ (1) personal will with (5) human love as a condition of human death. 1: Personal Will and Divine Will: Most human beings’ actual status is that they neither know their Soul nor their aim and their whole life are ‘issueless circles.’³³ They are ‘ardent slave’⁵⁴ of their ‘sensuous will.’ That is a strong justification of Death reigning over earth life. In the quest for immortality, the will to become something is transformed into the aim of deep central faith which ‘see only the Divine and seek only after the Divine’²⁷ and ‘The life that wins its aim asks greater aims.’⁶⁰ (Savitri said) "My will is greater than thy law, O Death; My love is stronger than the bonds of Fate:" Savitri-633 (Savitri said) "I claim from Time my will’s eternity, God from his moments....” Savitri-652 2: Twilight Thought and its complete Illumination: Mind’s twilight thought is enlarged, upraised and enlightened by Spiritualisation of intellect through the descent of Divine Force. Spiritualised Intellect can act as an efficient subordinate of Psychic and Spiritual Being. To ‘convert our twilit or obscure physical mentality into the plenary supramental illumination… this is offered to us as… the goal of Nature in her terrestrial evolution.’⁶⁷ All Spiritual experiences are verifiable, whereas all superstitions are symbols of twilight thought and not verifiable. (Savitri said) “Why dost thou vainly strive with me, O Death, A mind delivered from all twilight thoughts,” Savitri-638 3: Soul Slaying Truth and Soul Saving Truth: Soul slaying truth can be transformed into Soul saving truth, and one learns the lesson to constantly open towards overhead Truth and constantly reject the Subconscient and world Falsehood invading the untransformed Nature. In higher consciousness, these double efforts become natural and spontaneous. The tamasic mind, rajasic mind and sattwic mind are identified as three inconscient negations, three inner enemies and are symbols of Soul slaying truth. Man must overcome this hidden enemy through ceaseless inner war and without this confrontation or without silencing or pacifying this mind, he will lose his higher Spiritual destiny. (Savitri said) “O Death, thou speakest truth but truth that slays, I answer to thee with the Truth that saves.” Savitri-621, 4: Discord due to Quarrel and Harmony due to unity Consciousness: If attachment to mutable personality is the cause of our discord and quarrel with others, then the emergence of Cosmic Consciousness ‘would assure a harmonious diversity in oneness.’³⁶ In that Impersonal oneness, no such discord, quarrel, ‘and ignorance and vain and noisy effort exist.’³⁶ (Death said) “Two strive, constant associates without joy, Two egos straining in a single leash, Two minds divided by their jarring thoughts, Two spirits disjoined, for ever separate. Thus is the ideal falsified in man’s world; Trivial or sombre, disillusion comes, Life’s harsh reality stares at the soul: Heaven’s hour adjourned flees into bodiless Time. Death saves thee from this and saves Satyavan:” Savitri-611 5: Human Love and Divine Love: The limited and narrow human love is either transformed into boundless Divine Love or one must learn the lesson to open towards overhead Divine Love by rejecting transient human love and association. Integral Yoga forbids a seeker of Truth to increase human admirers³⁷ around him which later becomes the cause of his separative identity, Spiritual fall, ruin and death. There is a subtle physical love which bridges the gulf between human and Divine Love. That is identified as the special and the most unnoticed secret of Savitri book and to densify and universalise the subtle physical relation is identified as a process towards the attainment of long life and physical immortality. Nature of subtle physical love: “Thus we draw near to the All-Wonderful Following his rapture in things as sign and guide; Beauty is his footprint showing us where he has passed, Love is his heart-beats’ rhythm in mortal breasts, Happiness the smile on his adorable face.” Savitri-112 “In the communion of two meeting minds (subtle mental union) Thought looked at thought and had no need of speech; Emotion clasped emotion in two hearts, (subtle vital union) They felt each other’s thrill in the flesh and nerves (subtle physical union) Or melted each in each and grew immense (Spiritual union) As when two houses burn and fire joins fire:” (Psychic union) Savitri-186 6: Religion and Spirituality: A fixed set of knowledge on Self, World and God is identified as slow evolution of Religion and it can be transformed into swift Spiritual evolution by constantly renewing, renovating⁵⁸ them by fresh inflow of Spirit’s touch or by endless unfolding of Spiritual Being. “A slowly changing order binds our will. This is our doom until our souls are free.” Savitri-154, (Death’s Soul slaying message to moderate humanity) “Accept the brief light that falls upon thy days; Take what thou canst of Life’s permitted joy; Submitting to the ordeal of fate’s scourge Suffer what thou must of toil and grief and care.” Savitri-620 Then, after handling the above six deficiencies rightly, one Sadhaka (or Savitri within) can confront Time and Death in order to ‘win or lose the godlike game.’⁵⁷ OM TAT SAT References: References are from the Manuscript 'The Divine Bliss' on pages 12 to 16 and pages 28 to 30 Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: “Divine Love. It’s the only thing. Sri Aurobindo has explained it in Savitri. Only when Divine Love has manifested in all its purity will everything yield, will it all yield – it will then be done. It’s the only thing that can do it. It will be the great Victory. (silence) On a small scale, in very small details, I feel that of all the forces, this is the strongest. And it’s the only one with a power over hostile wills. Only ... for the world to change, it must manifest here in all its fullness. We have to be up to it ... Sri Aurobindo had also written to the effect, ‘If Divine Love were to manifest now in all its fullness and totality, not a single material organism would but burst.’ So we must learn to widen, widen, widen not only the inner consciousness (that is relatively easy – at least feasible), but even this conglomeration of cells. And I’ve experienced this: you have to be able to widen this sort of crystallization if you want to be able to hold this Force. I know. Two or three times, upstairs (in Mother’s room), I felt the body about to burst. Actually, I was on the verge of saying, ‘burst and be done with.’ But Sri Aurobindo always intervened – all three times he intervened in an entirely tangible, living and concrete way ... and he arranged everything so that I was forced to wait.” The Mother The Mother's Agenda/November 12, 1960

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the old slavery to falsehood, wants to take birth. In all countries there are people who know it, at least feel it. To them we call: “Will you collaborate?” The Mother TMCW-15/Words of the Mother-III/p-62 “For those who are eager to get rid of falsehood, here is a way: Do not try to please yourself, do not try either to please others. Try only to please the Lord…Because He alone is the Truth. Each and every one of us, human beings in our physical body, is a coat of falsehood put on the Lord and hiding Him…As He alone is true to Himself, it is on Him that we must concentrate and not on the coats of falsehood.” The Mother TMCW/15/Words of the Mother-III/80, TMCW/14/Words of the Mother-II/196, “A decisive choice has to be made between lending the body to nature’s ends in obedience to her demand to perpetuate the race as it is, and preparing this very body to become a step towards the creation of a new race. The two cannot go together; at every minute you have to decide whether you wish to remain within the manhood of yesterday or belong to the supermanhood of tomorrow .” The Mother TMCW/Vol-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-127, TMCW/Vol-12/On Education/p-54-55 Those who are deeply dissatisfied with life as it is, those who have gone through and overcome the extreme adversity of life, those who have gone ‘through a period of brutal handling before it can be ready to get away more sincerely from slavery to activity,’ 'those who face even the hardest conditions of life,' out of them some have ‘intensest aspiration’ and a life of hard sacrifice; they are considered fit to lead a higher Spiritual life in a Divine Centre; others are satisfied with easy and comfortable normal human existence. It 'is a dullness, a tamas, a lack of aspiration, a miserable laxity, an I-don’t-care attitude' that 'hinders people from consecrating themselves to an inner realisation.' (Refer The Mother’s Agenda - September 16, 1964, The Mother's Centenary Works-8/Questions and Answers-1956/160-161)

From Puri to Pondicherry (Lord Sri Balabhadra, Mother Sri Subhadra and Lord Sri Jagannatha are the fundamental symbolic truth representation of the triple name of the Divine, identified as Sat (Existence), Chit (Consciousness) and Ananda (Bliss) respectively, who have extended towards the manifestation of mind, life and body through Their fourth name Vijnana or the Supermind.) “The sadhaka of integral Yoga will not be satisfied until he has included all other names and forms of Deity in his own conception, seen his own Ishta Devata in others…” (Ishta means desired, cherished, or preferred, and Devata means godhead or divinity. It refers to the specific form of God or deity with whom an individual feels the strongest spiritual connection and devotion.) "His Yoga may be governed for a long time by one Scripture or by several successively, — if it is in the line of the great Hindu tradition, by the Gita , for example, the Upanishads, the Veda ..." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-66, 55 “A touch that needs not hands to feel, to clasp, Were there the native means of consciousness And heightened the intimacy of soul with soul. ” Savitri-325 “It (Overmind) moves events by its bare and silent will, Acts at a distance without hands or feet .” Savitri-85 “No feet that move, no hands to take his gifts :” Savitri-609 "At last the soul turns to eternal things, In every shrine it cries for the clasp of God. " Savitri-631 From Puri to Pondicherry (There exists an eternal and profound relation between Lord Sri Jagannatha, the Ishta Devata , and Lord Sri Aurobindo, the Guru, in whom the earlier Divine manifestation finds a wider extension and fuller Spiritual expression. This paper is an attempt to trace the inner continuity between the Purushottama Consciousness and the Supramental Consciousness, and to reinterpret the Bhagavad Gita in the light of Integral Yoga. For the complete Divine manifestation revealed through Integral Yoga has its secret origin in the Spiritual truth already concealed within the former. The highest mystery — rahasyam uttamam — which stands at the summit of both the Gita and Integral Yoga, is essentially one in essence and truth. Yet in the Gita this supreme secret is only indicated, veiled in suggestion and preserved as an unexpressed mystery of the Supreme Divine; whereas in Integral Yoga, this same truth has been more fully unveiled, consciously developed, and thoroughly worked out in life and Spiritual experience. This work began as a brief one-page note written in defence of our understanding of the Gita . Gradually, that small seed expanded into the present paper, 'From Puri to Pondicherry, ' and later grew further into the form of the e-book, THE BHAGAVAD GITA AND INTEGRAL YOGA . We preserve this paper as a living memory of a long Spiritual journey — from my (S.A. Maa Krishna) birthplace, Puri, sanctified by Lord Sri Jagannatha , to Pondicherry , the land of hard askesis, consecration, and the Supramental vision of Sri Aurobindo.) “Sri Aurobindo said that what He came to bring was already indicated in the Gita .”¹ The Mother “Sri Krishna has shown me the true meaning of the Vedas , not only so, but he has shown me a new Science of Philology showing the process and origins of human speech so that a new Nirukta can be formed and the new interpretation of the Veda based upon it. He has also shown me the meaning of all in the Upanishads that is not understood either by Indians or Europeans . I have therefore to re-explain the whole Vedanta and Ved a in such a way that it will be seen how all religion arises out of it and is one everywhere. In this way it will be proved that India is centre of the religious life of the world and its destined saviour through Sanatana Dharma .”² Sri Aurobindo The Gita informs us that the all pervading Brahman, Vasudeva is endless in His self extension in the universe, nastyonto vistarasya me, ³ and the highest power of Supreme manifestation is only a very partial revelation of the Infinite; even the whole universe is preoccupied by only one degree of His greatness, illumined by one ray of His splendour and it will still remain the perennial Source of ‘birth of all that shall come into the being’⁴. The Gita lays maximum stress on the development of the supracosmic faculties, which will preoccupy man with his real business of becoming God, Brahmabhutah⁵ ; secondly it stresses on His universal existence in which all moves and acts and through this He extends His faculty of universal Divine action, sarvabhuta hite ratah⁶ ; thirdly, it emphasizes on the acceptance of Godhead as the Divine inhabitant in the human body, manusim tanumasritam⁷ ; and finally it insists on the Divine manifestation, madbhava⁸ , in all things through intervention of four fold soul force, chaturvarnyam maya srustam⁹ , four-fold Divine Shaktis , chatvaro manovastatha¹⁰ , sevenfold knowledge, maharsaya saptapurbe¹⁰ , and finally of suffusion of Para Prakriti of Purushottama Consciousness into the manifested nature. The stages through which the Gita has developed its preliminary teachings are that firstly, it spoke of destruction of desire and attachment and conquest of senses by stilling the mind; secondly of equality and peace gained through the rejection of the lower nature; thirdly of passionless, impersonal and sacrificial action and recognition of the Supreme as the doer of all work; fourthly of inner renunciation of desire and ego preferable to the outer renunciation of life and action; fifthly, the doctrine of Avatara and the Divine birth through the Divine action. The Gita’s higher teachings are that of Divine work by rising above the gunas; secondly, besides its earlier declaration that Knowledge is greater than Works, Bhakti is considered as the greatest element in Yoga; thirdly the effective relation between Works, Knowledge and Divine Love are synthesized for the attainment of Supreme realisation; fourthly, the vision of Universal Purusha , which ‘can be seen, known, entered into only by that Bhakti which regards, adores and loves Me alone in all things’¹¹; fifthly, the inter-relation between the multiple Soul, Kshara , immutable Self, Akshara, and the Supreme Self, Purushottama who is the Master of Works, Knowledge and Love; sixthly, Sraddha, the ever growing faith in the Divine, as important aid for manifestation of Para Prakriti and subsequent transformation of Nature. The most secret teaching of the Gita is the Knowledge of the whole Godhead, samagram mam ⁴⁵, which can be gained by four gradations of exclusive knowledge attended with five gradations of all-inclusive knowledge, by knowing which will leave nothing yet to be known. This concept of whole Godhead is also explored in Mandukya Upanishad in terms of four successive position of the Brahman, that of Waking Self or Vaiswanara, which constitute this entire external universe, an infinitesimal portion of the Self, akangsena sthito jagat, ⁶⁴ Dream Self or Taijas, Hiranyagarva , the subtle body, sukhma sarira , which holds the external universe; Sleep Self or Prajna, Susupti, causal body which holds both waking self and dream Self and the (Supreme) Self, Turiya, which holds all these selves and are its origin. In the Gita , the constitution of apara prakriti, lower nature or kshetra , atma jnana, the knowledge of the individual Soul or kshara purusha, Brahma nirvana or Akshara purusha and the final cessation of birth in Param dhama have been fully developed and given their largest amplitude of power and significance. The other necessary complementary truth, the Divinisation of Nature ‘has been left in a certain obscurity of a lesser relative light’¹²; it has been hinted constantly in myriad terms of Vasudevah sarvamiti ¹³, the Godhead is all that is the universe and all that is in the universe, Prakritm mamikam ¹⁴, into My Divine nature, Prakritim me param ¹⁵, My supreme nature, Prakritim swam ¹⁶, My own nature, Prakritir jiva-bhuta ¹⁵, Divine Nature which has become the jiva , Madbhavam agatah ⁸, have arrived at My nature of being, daivi prakriti ¹⁷, Divine nature and Param bhavam¹⁸ , Supreme nature or the ultimate becoming, sadharmyam agatah¹⁹ , those who have become of like nature and law of being with the Divine; but these terminology were nowhere explained entirely. These are left as clues for the greatest Spiritual developments, which can be resolved fully through the ascending and descending advance of Spiritual experience. In the Gita, the antinomy between the Impersonal Self and the human personality and the antinomy between the Self and Nature are reconciled. After developing the theory of the Personal and Impersonal Divine, the Divine Teacher sets out to remove the source of these two difficulties. The resolution of these two antinomies and certain obscurity about the Self are cleared in that which exceeds it; it is the manifestation of the Integral Divine, the Purushottam a, who contains the Impersonal Self, the human personality, Self and Nature. Thus, the Gita can get rid of exclusions and separative divisions and fuse them together in the Integral Divine. Integral Yoga begins with the methods of Vedanta: “It has been said recently by a great voice that all we need of spiritual truth for the spiritual life is to be found in the Gita. It would be to encourage the superstition of the book to take too literally that utterance. The truth of the spirit is infinite and cannot be circumscribed in that manner. Still it may be said that most of the main clues are there and that after all the later developments of spiritual experience and discovery we can still return to it for a large inspiration and guidance.”²⁰ Sri Aurobindo “It is not a fact that the Gita gives the whole base of the Sri Aurobindo’s message; for the Gita seems to admit the cessation of birth in the world as the ultimate aim or at least the ultimate culmination of Yoga; it does not bring forward the idea of spiritual evolution of the idea of higher planes and the Supramental Truth-Consciousness and bringing down of that consciousness as the means of complete transformation of earthly life.”²¹ Sri Aurobindo “Our Yoga is not identical with the Yoga of the Gita’s Yoga. In our Yoga we begin with the idea, the will, the aspiration of the complete surrender; but at the same time we have to reject the lower nature, deliver our consciousness from it, deliver the self involved in the lower nature by the self rising to freedom in the higher nature...”²⁵ (the simultaneous effort of triple aspiration, bhajante mam drudhabrattah ²², triple rejection, ahamkaram balam darpam kamam krodham parigraham ²³, and triple surrender, mam ekam saranam braja ²⁴, of our volitional, emotional and intellectual part are demanded in Integral Yoga. Again, this is followed by triple faith, sraddha , and triple sincerity, nistha, which constitute our ascent of the mind, the consent of the will and the heart’s delight.) Sri Aurobindo Integral Yoga begins with the method of Vedanta, where the Soul is an all-important instrument, utilised to activate the higher spiritual Shakti by turning the triple key of Knowledge, Works and Love and direct that Shakti towards the transformation of the whole nature. The Kshara Purusha , multiple soul, the Akshara Purusha , the impersonal Spirit and the Uttama Purusha, who holds both kshara and akshara and is beyond them, are the triple Divine states of the Gita. In Integral Yoga, these triple Divine states have been identified as Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Consciousness. The first object of Integral Yoga is the liberation and enjoyment of the union with the Divine of the individual human soul or he must sit firm in Yoga, wholly given up to Me, yukta asita matparah ²⁶; the second object is the free enjoyment of cosmic unity of the Divine or man’s possible joy of Divine union in the many sided world-action, sa yuktah krtsnakarmakrit ²⁷; the third object is the liberation and Divinization of nature, Sva Prakriti and intense union and enjoyment through fusion of Supreme Purusha and Supreme Prakriti; the fourth object is the utilization of transformed individuality towards the transformation of human collectivity, sarvabhuta hite ratah .⁶ The Supreme Word, Paramam vacah of The Gita and Integral Yoga: “Abandon all lower dharmas , laws of mind, life and body and take refuge in Me alone, My highest Dharma. I will deliver thee from all sin and evil of apara prakriti , do not grieve.” The Gita-18.66 “The Mother’s power and not any human endeavour and tapasya can alone rend the lid and tear the covering and shape the vessel and bring down into this world of obscurity and falsehood and death and suffering Truth and Light and Life divine and the immortal’s Ananda .”²⁸ Sri Aurobindo “If there is a yet happier greater god, Let him first wear the face of Satyavan And let his soul be one with him I love; So let him seek me that I may desire.” Savitri-614 Like the Supreme secret, rahasyam uttamam , the Supreme Word, Paramam vacah of the Gita and Integral Yoga are almost the same, which is the highest mystery of absolute surrender to the Divine Guide, Purushottama . In Integral Yoga, Purushottama is revealed as Para Prakriti , the Supreme Mother, the Supramental Mahashakti, carrying within Herself the Akshara and Kshara ; in regards to Akshara She is the Para Shakti of fourfold Divine Power, holding the Immutable Purusha in Her self; in regard to Kshara, She is the Para prakriti of fourfold soul force, mobile cosmic energy manifesting all beings and becoming, holding the mutable Purusha within Her. In Integral Yoga, the Vedanta or the Gita and Tantra are synthesised; the former draws back from world nature and leans on the Ishwara aspect of the Divine for supreme realisation; whereas the latter possesses and dominates the world nature and leans on the Ishwari aspect of the Divine for supreme realisation. The Supreme Perfection, Param Siddhi of The Gita and Integral Yoga: “The blessed Lord said: I will again declare the supreme Knowledge, the highest of all knowings, which, having known, all the sages have gone hence to the supreme perfection, Param Siddhi .” The Gita-14.1 “To seize the absolute in shapes that pass, To fix the eternal’s touch in time-made things, This is the law of all perfection here.” Savitri-108 “A last high world was seen where all worlds meet; In its summit gleam where Night is not nor Sleep, The light began of the Trinity supreme. All there discovered what it seeks for here.” Savitri-89 In the Isha Upanishad, it is pointed out that Ignorance leads man towards darkness and that exclusive Knowledge leads man towards greater darkness and fall. Both of these problems are resolved in the comprehensive Knowledge of Purushottama . Khara Purusha’s entry in to Ignorance helps the building of the Psychic sheath; Akhara Purusha’s entry in to exclusive Knowledge helps the building the Spiritual sheath and Uttama Purusha’s entry into comprehensive Knowledge, supreme Knowledge, Param jnana helps in the formation of the Supramental sheath. Integral Yoga demands uniform, well-built, tenfold sheaths around tenfold Selves (which will be discussed later) for its supreme perfection, param siddhim . Four gradations of Exclusive Knowledge: “From food creatures come into being, from rain is the birth of food, from sacrifice comes into being the rain, sacrifice is born of work; work is known to be born of Divine Will, the Brahman, Brahman is born of Chit Shakti ; therefore is the all-pervading Brahman established in the sacrifice.” The Gita-3.14,15 “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, the Akshara Purusha .” The Gita-3.42 “The Yogin is greater than the doers of askesis, greater than the men of knowledge, greater than the men of works; become then the Yogin, O Arjuna .” The Gita-6.46 “Better indeed is knowledge than practice; than knowledge, meditation is better; than meditation, renunciation of the fruit of action; on renunciation follows peace.” The Gita-12.12 “Neither by the study of the Vedas and sacrifices, nor by gifts or ceremonial rites or severe austerities, this form of My universal vision can be seen…it can be seen, known, entered into only by that Bhakti which regards, adores and loves Me alone in all things.” The Gita-11.48,54 The capacity to retain comprehensive Knowledge in fragments is identified as exclusive knowledge. But by the retention of exclusive as well as all-inclusive knowledge of the Divine comes the joy and one becomes aware of His exclusive and all-inclusive Ananda . The successive stages of exclusive concentration and final entry into all-inclusive Ananda and Knowledge are:- firstly, the constant practice and non-attachment are powerful tools in regulating and silencing the mind; secondly, better than this Abhyasa and Bairagya ²⁹ are the Yoga of Intelligence, where intelligence is united with Akshara Purusha, Buddhi Yukto ,³⁰ in order to cast away the bondage of work, the successful and luminous turning of the thought to the Truth behind things; thirdly, this buddhi Yoga too is excelled by dhyana yog a, a silent complete concentration on the Truth behind things through cessation of mental action, resolutely practiced until the bliss of Akshara Purusha is attained; fourthly, more powerful than dhyana Yoga is the giving up of the fruit of one’s work; one becomes a Yogi and preserves automatically an inner peace and calm which is a perfect and secure foundation of true life; fifthly, the great Yogi, living in the truth, renouncing all actions of the lower mind, must do all outward works of life only for My sake, madartham api karmani ;³¹ sixthly, the greater Yogi, who is still unable to keep personal consciousness fixed steadily in the Akshara Purusha and Uttama Purusha ; there are nights of long exile from Light, there are moments of revolt, doubt and failure rising from subconscient planes; then by constant practice of union and repetition of supreme consciousness, the highest spirit is established in the nature; seventhly, the greatest Yogi, yoginam api sarvesam ³², is he who in perfect union lives in Me, mayi nivasisyasi ³³, at every moment, in every action, with all integrality of nature, ‘for Me has love, ekabhaktih ³⁴ and faith’; ‘repose all thy mind and all thy understanding in Me’³³; he is lifted up, bathed in the supernal blaze of the divine love and will and knowledge. From this last experience, the all-inclusive Knowledge and Ananda resume action. Throughout the Gita, Sri Krishna asked Arjuna to become a Yogi, tasmat yogi bhavarjuna³⁵ , because by becoming a Yogi , he can be a fit instrument in resolving the terrible work, ghore karmani ³⁶, of battle and massacre, for upholding the highest dharma of the race. Integral Yoga, though it stands on this foundation, yet there is a marked departure in pursuing its objective. To quote The Mother’s word, “It is very easy to be a saint! Oh, even to be a sage is very easy. I feel I was born with it (janma karma cha me divyam ⁶⁵-- My birth as well as My work are both Divine)—it is spontaneous and natural for me… but Supramental transformation is another thing altogether, oh!… No one has ever followed that path; Sri Aurobindo was the first, and He left before telling us what he was doing, I am literally carving out a trail through the virgin forest—worse than a virgin forest…I am given the awareness of how huge this thing is one drop at a time…so I won’t be crushed. It has reached a point where all Spiritual life, all those people and races that have tried since the beginning of the earth, all that seems like nothing, like child’s play in comparison. And it is a work without glory: you have no results, no experiences filling you with ecstasy or joy—none of that, it is a hideous labour.”³⁷ 1: Apara Jnana or Separative egoistic Apara Prakriti and sevenfold Ignorance “The pancha bhutas , mind (with its ten sense organs), reason, ego, this is my eight-fold divided Nature.” The Gita-7.4 “The indiscriminate unmanifest Energy; the five elemental state of matter; the ten senses and the one (mind), intelligence and ego; the five objects of senses. (This is the constitution of Kshetra, Field)” The Gita-13.6 “The seven original Seers and also the four Manus are My mental becomings; from them are all these living creatures in the world." The Gita-10.6 In the Gita , the narrow exclusive doctrine of the Sankhya, Patanjali’s Yoga and a part of the Veda and the Vedanta have been widened, corrected and completed by the development of the theory of three Purushas and double Prakritis of which the lower form is the maya of three gunas, Apara Prakriti and the higher is the divine nature, Para Prakriti. The Gita contents itself to restate the whole working of lower Prakriti, field, kshetra, in line with Sankhya thinkers. This kshetra is the product of twenty-four cosmic principles. They are five bhutas : ether, air, fire, water and earth, five tanmatras, that of sound, touch, sight, taste and smell; five karmendriya, five jnanendriya, unmanifest energy; manas, buddhi and ahankara. This lower nature, also known as apara prakriti, is constituted of three gunas or essential modes; sattwa , the seed of intelligence, conserves the working of energy; rajas, the seed of force and action, creates the working of energy; tamas, the seed of inertia and non-intelligence, dissolves what sattwa conserves and rajas creates. When the three gunas are in equilibrium, the Soul, Kshara Purusha is liberated and contact with Akshara Purusha is established but when the equilibrium is disturbed, then there is the ceaseless creation, conservation and dissolution, unrolling the phenomena of cosmos. In Integral Yoga, it is not the physical body alone which is the field, kshetra, but all too that the body supports, the tenfold body or sheath of Nature or Koshas t hat of Inconscient sheath, Subconscient sheath, Physical sheath, Vital sheath, Psychic sheath, Lower mental sheath, Higher mental or Spiritual sheath, Universal sheath, Supramental sheath and Bliss sheath; these may be regarded as totality of the field, kshetram . The lower sheaths are inconscient, subconscient, physical, vital and lower mental and these are constituted of twenty-four tattwas and are subject to three gunas of apara prakrti, bounded by ego, desire and suffering. In each successive birth, the formation of higher sheaths or Para prakriti are perfected, transformed, solidified and harmonised and with their steady influence the lower sheaths are purified, transformed and perfected. The three Purusha of the Gita are the knower of Kshetra, Kshetrajna. In integral Yoga, the Purushas or the Selves or the Knower of Kshetras a re also tenfold and they reside in each Kshetra or knower of Kshetra holds each Kshetra. The Divine is at once the Inconscient Self, Subconscient Self, True Physical, True Vital, Truth Mind, Psychic Self, Spiritual Self, Universal Self, Supramental Self and Bliss Self. The successful interaction or movements between these ten-fold kshetras and kshetrajnas are the secret behind Divine Life. Ignorance is the product of Apara Prakrti , bewildered by the three gunas one cannot become the knower of the whole, krtsnabinna ³⁸. The secret nature and the full extent of the Ignorance are systematised into sevenfold Ignorance. Firstly, we are ignorant of the Purushottama Consciousness, who is the origin, source of all creation and the ‘deluded minds despise Me lodged in the human body because they know not My supreme nature of being’⁷. This knowledge of the Absolute as the seed of all things, bijam mam sarvabhutanam³⁹ , is the beginning of emergence from the Original Ignorance . Secondly, we are ignorant of spaceless, timeless, immobile and Immutable self, Akshara Purusha, and with the establishment of firm standing in the Brahman, Brahmi sthiti ⁴⁰, one emerges out from Cosmic Ignorance . Thirdly, we are ignorant of our universal Self, our infinite unity with all Being and Becoming. ‘Here, today, behold the whole world, with all that is moving and unmoving, unified in My body, O Gudakesha, and whatever else thou willest to see.’⁴¹ With the revelation of Vasudeva sarvamiti, Cosmic Consciousness, one emerges out of Egoistic Ignorance. Fourthly, we are ignorant of our Psychic being or Kshara Purusha , we are aware of this little life in the small span of time and ignorant of eternal becoming in Time. ‘Many are My lives that are past, and thine also, O Arjuna ; all of them I know, but thou knowest not…’⁴² ‘I know all past and all present and future existences, O Arjuna’ .⁴³ The Kshara Purusha, the soul in man is unborn, ancient, semipiternal, not slain with the slaying of the body; weapons cannot cleave it, nor the fire burn, nor do the water drench it, nor the wind dry, eternally stable and all pervading. With these experiences, one emerges from the Temporal Ignorance. Fifthly, within this temporal becoming we are ignorant of our large and complex; tenfold Selves or three Purushas; we take this surface mind, life and body as our whole existence. We emerge out of this Psychological Ignorance when we become aware of the tenfold Selves (particularly true physical, true vital and true mental being) and their workings in our surface nature. Sixthly, we are ignorant of the true relation between the tenfold selves and the tenfold Sheaths and the interference of higher sheaths on our lower sheaths. ‘It is the knowledge at once of the Field, Kshetra and its Knower, Kshetrajna, which is the real illumination and only wisdom.’⁴⁴ With activation of Subconscient and Inconscient Selves, and their possession of adjacent lower sheaths, we emerge out of our Constitutional Ignorance . As a result of all this ignorance, we fail to govern, enjoy and know life and the world truly. With the emergence of true harmony, wisdom, love and beauty, we become many-sided Divine workers, krtsnakarmakrt ,²⁷ and come out lastly from the yoke of Practical Ignorance. It is by knowing Him integrally, samagram mam ⁴⁵, as the Brahman is both mobile and immobile, One and the Many, Knowledge and Ignorance; thus the Soul is easily liberated from the yoke of lower Nature, darkness of Ignorance, andham tamam prabisanti ,⁶⁹ greater darkness of exclusive Knowledge, tato bhuyaiba tamah vidyam ⁶⁹ and the door of ascension of consciousness wide opens. 2: Guhya Jnana of Atman or secret knowledge of Kshara Purusha and Para prakriti of the fourfold soul force: “But know my Divine Nature, Para prakriti, different from this apara prakriti, O mighty-armed, the Para prakriti which uphelds this world has become the individual soul, Jiva. ” The Gita-7.5 “The eternal portion of Me has become the Jiva in the world of living creatures and cultivates the subjective powers of Prakriti, mind and five senses.” The Gita-15.7 “By the (true inner) self thou shouldst deliver the (surface desire) self, thou shouldst not depress and cast down the (surface desire) self (whether by self indulgence or suppression); for the (true inner) self is the friend of the (surface desire) self and (surface desire) self is the enemy (if it is not in contact with the true inner self). To the man is his (true inner) self a friend in whom the (surface desire) self has been conquered by the (true inner) self, but to him who is not in possession of his (true inner) self, the (surface desire) self is as if an enemy and it acts as an enemy.” The Gita-6.5,6 “I created the fourfold order according to the divisions of quality and active function. Know Me (Kshara Purusha ) for the doer of this fourfold law of human workings who am (Akshara Purusha) yet the imperishable non-doer.” The Gita-4.13 “The works of Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras are divided according to the qualities, gunas, born of their own inner divine nature of the soul, svabhava .” The Gita-18.41 The inner soul in man, Kshara Purusha, is a partial manifestation of the Divine, mamaivamsah ⁴⁶, who is itself mutable, Kshara, everlasting, sanatanah , the Lord, Ishwara ⁶⁶, the luminous inhabitant in the human body, manusim tanumasritam, ⁷ and simultaneously the giver of sanction, anumant a⁴⁷ of all the action of the three gunas within the boundary of Ignorance, missioned to lead man in Ignorance towards the light of Divine consciousness. Its operation in the ignorance is different from Akshara and Uttama Purusha , though it has manifold deep relations with them. The Kshara Purusha , associating itself with the works of Prakriti, seems to be the doer of all works, karta , whereas Akshara Purusha , dissociating itself from all the workings of the gunas is the inactive non-doer, akarta and witness. In Purushottama , these two states, the action of the Soul and its mutability and the status of the immutability of the Soul actually coexist. The Purushottama puts forth his own active nature, svam prakrtim , manifest in the Jiva and works out its own innate Divine nature, svabhava, in addition to its egoistic action, bewildered by the three gunas . Initially, the Gita has identified the double Soul in man (verse-6.5, 6); one that of the surface desire soul carrying in its nature the apparent nature of lower instincts, emotions, the mental seeking for power, knowledge and happiness and the other behind it that of the true soul, the Psychic being, a pure power of light, love, joy and beauty. The desire soul’s wrong approach and reception towards life deforms the pure joy into pleasure, pain and indifference. True soul is the imperishable, evolves in us from birth to birth and is untouched by death, decay and corruption. It is actually the Psychic sheath that grows from birth to birth by entering the essence of all experience of the Psychic self in the Ignorance. A mastery of senses, the ability to do without all that they hanker after, is the initial condition of the true soul life. The para prakriti of the Gita has been extensively developed in Integral Yoga in terms of its two exclusive and five all-inclusive aspects. It has been made clear that the para prakriti is the real source of all cosmic existence and lower nature or apara prakriti is only its derivation and dark shadow. The Jiva’s action in ignorance of Apara prakriti i s subjected to three gunas and it puts on Divine nature when the soul rises beyond all ignorant limitations. The pure soul force which is other than the mind-force, life-force, force of intelligence can flow into the moulds of intellectual, ethical, aesthetic, dynamic, vital and physical mind, puts its influence of an initial transcendence, impersonality, pure fire of spirit of something beyond the gunas of normal nature and evolves the highest spiritual perfection. The fourfold active human personality, chaturvarnyam9, are fourfold pure soul forces of Kshara Purusha , born of their own inner Spiritual nature, svabhava, manifested as brahmana, representing power of knowledge, kshatriya , representing power of strength, vaishya, representing mutuality and active and productive relation and interchange and shudra representing power for works and labour and service; these four soul powers are derived from four exclusive aspect of Para prakriti of Akshara Purusha, revealed as four Manus, chatvaro manavosthata ¹⁰, of Wisdom, Power, Harmony and Perfection. These four Overmental Shaktis are derived from Purushottama Consciousness and are responsible for the transformation of mind, life and body and when Their action on earth are harmonised to a greater extent, then the Mother’s Para Shakti of Supramental order can interfere. The ideal character and Soul power of Brahmana are all ideas, knowledge and incoming truth more open to Psychic Light, harmony, universal unity and love of the indwelling Spirit; subdues the lower members to their greater Psychic law; a temperament full of patience, endurance, long suffering, self control, affinity towards concentration and meditation which dominates and quiets the passions and desire-will and a growth of impersonalized and universalized personality. The perfection of Brahmana comes when one is capable of opening to all kinds of revelation, inspiration, intuition, discrimination, synthesis; grasps all knowledge with delight, a spiritual enthusiasm, ecstasy; full spiritual force, illumination and purity, brahma tejas, brahma-varcas. The ideal character and Soul power of Kshatriya are development of strength, energy, courage, leadership, lordship, protection, rule, victory in every kind of battle, a creative and formative action, truth, purity of love, helpfulness to men, high self confidence, sacrifice of lower to higher self and resistance to injustice and oppression, spirit of conquest into the fields of intuitive knowledge and spiritual experience. The perfection of Kshatriya soul force are infinite dynamic courage to which no opposing force can deter the aspiration imposed by the spirit; a high nobility of soul and will be unaffected by any littleness or baseness and moving with certain greatness of spiritual victory; a spirit never depressed from the faith and confidence in the power that works in the being and the process of virginization of the whole nature must continue in order to become the purest vessel and enjoy the self rule, svarajya and mastery of one’s environment and circumstances, samrajya. The ideal character and soul power of Vaisya are the instinct of life to produce, exchange, skill, kausala, possess, enjoy, contrive, put things in order and balance, work out to the best advantage the active relations of existence, skillful devising intelligence, commercial, technical, scientific and utilitarian mind, bent upon efficient exploitation of the world or its surroundings, practical philanthropy, skillful in economy, which recognises the great law of interchange and amasses in order to throw out in large return, a power of giving and ample creative liberality, active opulence luxurious of the prolific Ananda of existence. The perfection of Vaisya soul force are a great taking into oneself from all beings and a free giving out of oneself to all, a divine commerce and a large enjoyment of mutual delight of life, the full manifestation of Divine love, ananda, beauty and harmony in material things. The ideal character and soul power of Shudra are dignity, toil and capacity of labour and service for maintenance of his existence and gratification of his primary need of food, cloth, shelter, education and health; the power of service to others, to obey and follow whatever great influence and needful discipline, a love which asks for no return; desire to give our life, soul, work and wealth to the Divine and as a result the power of complete self-surrender. The perfection of Shudra soul force are universal love that lavishes itself without demand of return, many-sided universal action guided by Divine Will, the absolute self-surrender of the whole being to the Master of our being. The greater perfection can come when one widens one self to include all these four powers. These powers initially work in an ill-formed confusion, but he is able to harmonise the function of all these four Soul forces in birth after birth and proceeds towards total development of his inner and outer existence. Our life is at once a quest towards various Divine faculties, a struggle and battle of our desire-will to tune with the Divine will and struggle to harmonise the surroundings, a constant production and application of skill to material life and sacrifice and service. The recognition of these four powers and their free workings in our nature are important means of our Integral development. 3: Guhyatara Jnana of Brahmanirvana or more secret knowledge of Akshara Purusha and the action of Para prakriti through fourfold Divine Shaktis: “There are two Purushas in this world, the immutable Akshara Purusha and the mutable Khara Purusha; Kshara Purusha is all these existences, the high-seated Consciousness of the Brahmic status, Kutastha is called the Akshara Purusha . But other than these two is that highest spirit called the Uttama Purusha , who enters the three worlds and upbears them…” The Gita-15.16,17 “He who has the inner happiness and the inner ease and repose and the inner light, that Yogin becomes the Brahman and reaches self-extinction in the Brahman, brahmanirvanam.” The Gita-5.24 “When the mind is thoroughly quieted, then there comes upon the Yogin stainless, passionless, the highest bliss that has become the Brahman . Thus freed from stain of passion and putting himself constantly into Yoga, the Yogin easily and happily enjoys the touch of the Brahman which is an exceeding Bliss.” The Gita-6-27, 28 Other than the Kshara Purusha, there is another Spirit, whose centre is located just above the head, is eternal, undivided and not even seemingly divided by the division of things, inactive and silent witness of all action, the immobile in the mobile, the immutable in the mutable, the imperishable in the perishable and the One. We become aware of this Akshara Purusha in proportion as we draw back our outward moving mind and phenomenal existence. It is not the highest secret of the Gita , ‘but the first necessity’, after which one can ascend to the state of Purushottama. Brahma nirvana is the union with immutable self and it is the highest realisation of Jnana Yoga, Vedantic and Sankhya teachings. The conditions of attaining Brahma Nirvana are firstly, mind is established in equality through practice of titikha , endurance, udasinata , indifference and nati, submission to the will of God; titikha is to bear in the body the velocity of desire, wrath, passion, cold and heat, pleasure and pain (verse-5.23); udasinata is equal in soul to friend and enemy and neutral and indifferent also to sinner and saint (verse-6.9); nati state is that living in God one neither rejoices on obtaining what is pleasant, nor sorrows on obtaining what is unpleasant (verse-5.20); secondly, the soul is no longer attached to the enjoyments born of touches of outward things; thirdly, ‘by worshipping the feet of the Guru , questioning and by service, thou shalt see all existences first without exception in the Akshara Purusha, then in Me, Uttama Purusha ’⁴⁸; fourthly, the knot of doubt is cut asunder and sraddha , faith in the Divine and His Shakti is developed; fifthly, food, sleep, action are to be made balanced and moderate; sixthly, renounce the residue of all desires born of the desire-will and master the senses by mind as mind is supreme over the senses, then mind is fixed in buddhi as supreme above mind is intelligent will and buddhi is fixed in the Immutable Self as supreme over buddhi is Akshara Purusha ; seventhly, the mind is kept calm and free from fear and the vow of celibacy, Brahmachraya observed and the vision drawn in and fixed between eyebrows, the controlled mentality is thus turned to the Brahman . When the mind is thoroughly quieted, the Yogin enjoys the touch of Brahman, which is an exceeding Bliss. The experience Brahma Nirvana serves three purposes: firstly, it helps to enter deep samadhi away from all world-consciousness; secondly, it is a preparatory movement towards cessation of birth in Parmam dhama ; thirdly, there are hierarchies of Consciousness in Spiritual planes and Spiritual forces from these planes can be directed towards apara prakriti, for the transformation of nature. In the Gita , the third possibility was not explored; whereas in Integral Yoga, the second possibility is directed towards the realisation of the third because the transformation of whole nature and cessation of birth are incompatible with each other. In Integral Yoga, the soul liberated and established in Brahma Nirvana continues its work of complete transformation of earth through repeated rebirth in order to fulfil the Divine action in the world, sarvabhuta hiteratah⁶ . The other specialised part of the Gita’s teaching of cessation of birth in supreme abode of Param Dhama is replaced with the manifestation of the same Purushotttama Consciousness here on earth, in the body, ihaiva .⁴⁹ With the purification of chitta, manas, buddhi and ahamkara , one becomes aware of higher planes of illimitable Consciousness, an infinite ocean of ananda , power and energy. These ascending higher planes are systemised as higher Mind, illumined Mind, intuitive Mind, Overmind and mind of Light. The Divine Mahashakti from these planes can pour into apara prakriti, which constitutes twenty-four tattvas and three gunas and can bring constitutional change there. The four Mother powers from these planes are the action of Para Prakriti of Akshara Purusha; She is Maheswari, the goddess of supreme knowledge, supreme truth, spiritual will and calm passion of Supramental largeness; She is Mahakali , goddess of supreme strength, severest austerity of tapas , swiftness to battle and victory against the powers of lower nature; She is Mahalakshmi , the goddess of supreme love, delight, beauty and harmony; She is Mahasaraswati , the goddess of divine skill of works and perfection. In Integral Yoga, when the Brahmanirvana or the Passive Brahma n state is established in the individual Consciousness, through practice of four Spiritual disciplines that of Jnana Yoga, Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Yoga of self-Perfection respectively, then the constant pouring in of four aspects of the Mother powers becomes practicable and they build the mental, vital and physical sheaths for perfection of the field, kshetra . 4: Guhyatama Jnana of Paramam dhama or the most secret knowledge of cessation of birth or Moksa: “And in the Gita He (Sri Krishna) speaks of this human world as a transient and sorrowful affair and, in spite of His gospel of divine action, seems almost to admit that to leave it is after all the best solution.”⁵⁰ Sri Aurobindo “Having come to Me, these great souls come not again to birth, this transient and painful condition of our mortal being; they reach the highest perfection.” The Gita-8.15 “There we find the timeless being which is not illumined by sun, moon or fire; having gone thither they return not; that is the highest eternal status of My Being.” The Gita-15.6 “He who knoweth thus in its right principles my divine birth and my divine work, when he abandons his body, comes not to rebirth, he comes to Me, O Arjuna. ” The Gita-4.9 “Arjuna said: Thou art the Supreme Brahman , the supreme Abode, param dhama, the supreme Purity, the one Permanent, the divine-Purusha , the original Godhead, the Unborn, the all-pervading Lord.” The Gita-10.12 “He is called the unmanifest immutable, Him they speak of as the supreme Soul and status, and those who attain to Him return not; that is my supreme place of being, param dhama .” The Gita-8,21 Moksha may be considered as a deeper state of Brahma Nirvana ; here the whole active Consciousness of Brahma nirvana is renounced along with the renunciation of separative ego and our being is dissolved in the highest Brahman . This is a special means of the Gita of the last movement of the soul and a strong aid to overcome the outward-going mind and find a passage of final departure through mystic brahmarandhra above the head. For attainment of this final rest in Purushottama C onsciousness in His supreme abode, Param dhama, the necessary conditions are; firstly, the Soul must have moulded towards that ideal his whole inner and outer life to the extent that remembrance of the Divine being becomes no longer an intermittent condition of mind, but the natural condition of all activities; secondly, the Soul must be one with Him each moment growing inwardly during physical life; thirdly, he must be faithful to his aspiration and will and a union with God in bhakti during the critical moment of physical death; fourthly, the life force entirely drawn up and set between the brows in the seat of mystic vision, the intelligence concentrated in the utterance of sacred syllable OM and its conceptive thought in the remembrance of the Supreme Godhead, he who goes forth, abandoning the body, he attains the highest status. The Gita repeatedly described this creation as a transient and unhappy world, anityam asukham,⁶⁷ dukhalayam asaswatam ,⁶⁸ and even the escape to the highest heaven is also subjected to rebirth and the return of the soul to His supreme abode of Param dhama is recognised as the immediate practicable solution. In Integral Yoga the lure of individual escape into param dhama , is replaced with the necessity of repeated rebirth in order to accelerate universal evolution and work towards the redemption of the whole race, and by that alone true individual redemption of soul and nature is practicable here on earth, ihaiva, and the param dhama of Purushottama Consciousness is realised no longer up above but here in this manifested creation. The exclusive siddhi , to which the Gita devoted its whole concentration in the form of conquest of the self, Jitatmanah , Brahma Nirvana and Moksha , are necessary steps in the ascending series, yet it has also the departure into the universal aspect of Godhead and comprehensive solutions were initiated. The universal action of the Divine can be accepted as important transition in Integral Yoga which are represented in the following lines: sarvabhutahite ratah ⁶ busied with and delighting in the good of all creatures, Iswarah sarvabhutanam hrddeserjuna tisthati⁵¹ , the Lord, O Arjuna , is seated in the heart of all beings, sarvalokamahesvaram suhrdam sarvabhutanam⁵² , the Lord of all worlds who is the friend of all creatures, sarvagatam yajne pratisthitam⁵³ , all-pervading, is established in sacrifice, sarvatha vartamano’pi sa yogi mayi vartate ⁵⁴, in all possible poise of nature, in all possible human condition, in all possible world action without any fall from his oneness and constant communion with the divine, that Yogin lives and acts in Me. The universalised individual Consciousness is recognised as an important means of multiple Divine action on earth and a passage to the Supramental world. Five gradations of All-inclusive Para Prakriti: - “24th November, 1926 was the descent of Krishna into the Physical. Krishna is not the Supramental Light. The descent of Krishna would mean the descent of the Overmind Godhead preparing, though not itself actually, the descent of Supermind and Ananda. Krishna is the Anandamaya; he supports the evolution through the Overmind leading it towards the Ananda.”⁵⁰ Sri Aurobindo ‘The Gita at its cryptic close may seem by its silence to stop short of that solution for which we are seeking; it pauses at the borders of highest spiritual mind and does not cross them into the splendours of the Supramental Light.”⁵⁵ Sri Aurobindo “The Blessed Lord said: Hear, O Partha , how by practising Yoga with a mind attached to Me and with Me as asraya thou shalt know Me integrally, samagram mam , without any remainder of doubt. I will speak to thee without omission or remainder the exclusive knowledge, Jnanam, attended with all-inclusive knowledge, Vijnanam, by knowing which there shall be no other thing here left to be known.” The Gita-7.1,2 “Among the thousands of men one here and there strives after perfection, siddhi, and of those who strive and attain to perfection one here and there knows Me Integrally (Integral Yogi), in all principles of my existence.” The Gita-7.3 “The Blessed Lord said: What I am going to tell thee, the uncarping, is the most secret thing of all, the exclusive knowledge, Jnanam followed by all-inclusive knowledge, Vijnanam, by knowing which thou shalt be released from evil. The Gita-9.1 “He who undeluded thus has knowledge of Me as the Purushottama , adores Me with the whole knowledge in every way of nature, sarvavit sarvabhavena. ” The Gita-15.19 “This same ancient and original Yoga has been today declared to thee by Me, for thou art My devotee and My friend; this is the highest secret, rahasyam uttamam. ” The Gita-4.3 The four exclusive quests are related to the ascension of consciousness, whereas the five all-inclusive Superminds are related with the descent of Supreme consciousness. But there are certain Supramental experiences in which ‘a consciously felt descent is not indispensable’⁵⁶ and there are still unknown higher sources of Supramental where ‘actual feeling of a descent is not there.’⁵⁶ The similar experience is also observed in The Mother’s experience of ‘Divine Love’ on the night of 12-13th April, 1962. Since in the Gita, the particular experience of the descent of Divine consciousness to Apara prakriti is not explored, so in our concentration, we can rest satisfied with that Supramental action without having an actual feeling of the descent. Here, the concept will be that since the presence of Sachchidananda is everywhere, so ‘if the inner doors are flung sufficiently open, the light from the sanctuary can suffuse the nearest and farthest chambers of the outer being.’⁵⁶ The highest secret, rahasyam uttamam , is the Supramental revealed as Purushottama, the integral Divine, who is Nameless, Formless, all-embracing and all-exceeding Sachchidananda and is capable of assuming all Name and Form. In the Supramental, all things find their secret truth and their perfect reconciliation and the sense of individual identity is lost in the sole ecstasy of the Divine Beloved. The five gradations of Supermind represent the action of the same Purushottama Consciousness in varying intensity, while capturing all the worlds, sarvaloka. The literal meaning of Sadharmyam, Sva Prakriti, Madbhava and Param Bhava are same that of becoming the nature of the Divine, but here in this essay, they have been used for different gradations of Divine Nature. Supramental manifestation is the promise of tomorrow and the record of the latest Spiritual developments, but we can return to the Gita for large inspiration, necessary guidance and support. 1: Guhya Vijnana of Supermind and corresponding transformation, Sadharmyam: “It is like the message of the Gita as Sri Aurobindo explained it: not overmental, but supramental. It is Oneness, the experience of Oneness.”¹ The Mother “(Sri Aurobindo’s spiritual Experience at Alipore jail) is supramental. Yes, the supramental experience. He called it Narayana because he was Indian.”¹ The Mother “Very rare is the great soul who knows that all things are Brahman, Vasudevah Sarvamiti .” The Gita-7.19 “The man whose self is in Yoga, sees the Brahman in all things and all things in the Brahman , he is equal visioned everywhere.” The Gita-6.29 “He who sees Brahman everywhere and sees all in Brahman, to him Brahman does not get lost, nor does he get lost to the Brahman. ” The Gita-6.30 “The Blessed Lord said: I will again declare the supreme Knowledge, the highest of all knowings, which having known, all the sages have gone hence to the highest perfection. Having taken refuge in this knowledge and become of like nature and law of being with Me, sadharmyam agatah …” The Gita-14.1,2 The secret formula of Supermind was first discovered by Sri Aurobindo at Alipore jail during His spiritual experience of Vasudevah sarvamiti, the cosmic Consciousness, whereas the same was revealed to Sri Krishna during His evolving relation entrenched between the intoxicating sweetness of the Divine beloved Sri Radha and all-embracing ecstasy of His manifestation, the Gopis. Sri Aurobindo’s discovery of the Supramental attained further momentum, strength and concrete form with the Mother’s arrival. Sri Aurobindo was interested in inverting the gained Supramental power towards earth nature as He was destined to carry evolution ahead through the transformation of earth. Sri Krishna’s avatara role was directed to liberate the, the then humanity from the tyranny of asuras , evolve the svadharma and svabhava of the Spiritual law of the race and descend supreme Ananda to the earth represented through the Gopis . He corrected, completed and perfected the earlier available Spiritual disciplines and reconciled their opposition and developed the most profound theory of karma Yoga for people of all time and all ages, which will serve as a base for Supramental realisation. His contact with the Supramental was neither systemised nor streamlined and left it as a Supreme mystery which can neither be expressed in words but to be lived, sabdabrahmativartate ⁵⁷, nor heard through illumined seers, srotavyasya srutasya cha ⁵⁸. But the work He initiated on earth will advance and will be completed through Supramental manifestation, and His support to carry this action is an important leverage for Sri Aurobindo’s action as the latter contains within Himself all the Powers and Presence of the past Avataras. Sri Aurobindo developed, systemised, and perfected the secrets hinted in the Gita, the Upanishads, the Vedas and the Tantras and universalised their exclusive quests and multiplied the acceleration of present evolution through His entry into Integral concentration. The direct Divine touch of profound intensity received by the then Gopis in their relation with Sri Krishna and the more profound, subtle physical Divine contact received by the Mother’s children through their direct relation with the Divine Mother are the preliminary Supramental experience intended to transform the individual and collective or universal mind, life and body. The former relation left a permanent memory of Divine touch in the mind of the race, smrti, which can activate and repeat in the numberless souls of the same Divine intensity till the supreme Ananda is established; whereas the latter relation is a step ahead in learning the lesson of subtle physical Divine touch to permeate into the physical sheath and bring an opportunity of physical transformation of the race. 2: Guhyatara Vijnana of Supermind and corresponding Supramental transformation of Sva Prakriti: “There are two worlds adjacent to this material world, superconscient and subconscient; the superconscient world has already been described at length: hear from Me, O Partha, the subconscient, asuric world.” The Gita-16.6 “Out of compassion for them, I, lodged in their self, lift the blazing lamp of knowledge and destroy the darkness which is born out of the subconscient Ignorance.” The Gita-10.11 “Leaning—pressing down upon My own Nature, Sva Prakriti, I create all this multitude of existence, all helplessly subject to the control of Nature.” The Gita-9.8 Like Sri Aurobindo , The Mother had the experience of Supermind up above in the Supramental sheath and down below in the Inconscient sheath during Her Spiritual training at Tlemcen , before Her actual contact with Sri Aurobindo . So the frightful battle of Subconscient sheath resumed again and attained momentum with Sri Aurobindo during Their systematic joint work of Supramental descent to the mind domain first, then to vital, physical and Subconscient sheaths respectively. The Veda described this domain as darkness hidden by darkness, an ocean without mental consciousness. All possible difficulties in the subconscient rose up en mass; it is a domain hopelessly weak, dull, enslaved to everything. One has to fight against all those dark lower forces, irrational habits, chronic illnesses, aggressive ill will, that are unwilling to change, all that dominates the world. It unfolds night after night, an unimaginable quantity of subconscient impressions recorded and stored, heaped one on the top of other, piling up helplessly. These difficulties had hounded Sri Aurobindo ferociously and the Mother had to face the same problems in a relentless fashion. When The Mother and Sri Aurobindo descended together from plane to plane and reached the subconscient, They discovered that it was no longer individual subconscient but it was terrestrial. There are three ways in which the Subconscient problems can be handled. First, one is to act from above through intervention of Divine force; by this exercise one can keep these problems under control, hold them in place and prevent them from any unpleasant events and even mastery over these forces can be gained but nothing is transformed through this exercise; secondly, one has to enter into the Subconscient plane along with the Divine force; this is done by rising to summit of Consciousness through progressive ascent that one unites with the Supermind, then one can redescend with Supramental consciousness to Subconscient plane and can experience permanent transformation of nature; thirdly to experience the same Divine force in the Subconscient plane through invasion of Divine force from Inconscient Self and Subconscient Self; with the experience of union with Supermind through ascension of consciousness, one discovers a presence of Supermind in the heart of Inconscient during the process of descent and with the activation of Supermind in the Inconscient Self and Subconscient Self, one experiences direct invasion of Supramental to Subconscient plane and experiences the permanent transformation of nature. Entry into Subconscient plane is a terrible battle against the forces of darkness and in the Mother’s language, “I am given the awareness of how huge this thing (descent of Divine Force) is one drop at a time…so I won’t be crushed,”³⁷ and this Subconscient transformation could be done ‘only in deep meditation…and not in any other time, in activity or even in concentration.’⁶³ 3: Guhyatamam Vijnana of the most secret Supermind and corresponding Supramental Transformation, Madbhava : “If thou art one in heart and consciousness with Me (Purushottama ) at all times, then by My grace thou shalt pass safe through all difficult and perilous passages of Inconscient sheath;…” The Gita-18.58 “Threefold are the doors of hell (of Inconscient world)…—desire, wrath and greed:…by following the own higher good (of Supramental descent), he arrives at the highest soul status and is liberated from these triple doors of darkness.” The Gita-16.21-22 “Delivered from the Inconscient problems of sense attachment, fear and wrath, full of Me, take refuge in Me, many purified by the austerity of knowledge arrived at My Nature, Mad bhavam agatah. ” The Gita-4.10 The Mother’s experience of the first Supramental manifestation on 29th February, 1956, marked an important transition in a universal event. It was not a complete descent; a part of the Supramental Light and Force and Consciousness rushed down upon earth in an uninterrupted flow and was immediately absorbed and swallowed by the Inconscient sheath. This experience indicates that the earth’s darkest zone has the greatest thirst towards the highest Divine. While transformation work continued in the Subconscient sheath, the higher intensities of Supramental force resumed action due to more identification with the Supreme, in the still nethermost incredible dark dregs of mud of the Inconscient Sheath. So it has become clear that it is impossible to manifest the Divine integrally without everything below being offered to the Supreme Light and one cannot go to the very bottom of Inconscient unless one goes to the very heights of Supermind. The present Inconscient is not as unconscious as the Inconscient at the beginning of creation. So the Supramental action in Inconscient will have two results: firstly, more and more inconscient problems will rise and enter subconscient planes for transformation; secondly, it will purify all those darkest realms in their own home and spread the supreme Light and supreme Vibrations. 4: Param Guhyatamam Vijnana or the supreme most secret Supermind concealed in the Inconscient and the corresponding Supramental Transformation of Param bhava : “At the very bottom of the Inconscient, most hard and rigid and narrow and stifling, I struck upon an almighty spring that cast up forthwith into a formless, limitless Vast, vibrating with the seeds of a new world.”⁵⁹ The Mother “I have entered into this form of (inconscient) earth and sustain by My might these multitudes…” The Gita-15.13 “In the egoism of their strength and power, in the violence of their wrath and arrogance they hate, despise and belittle the God concealed (in the inconscient cave)…” The Gita-16.18 “Those, whose mind are deluded by Inconscient Ignorance, despise Me lodged in the human body (The Lord seated in the Inconscient sheath) because they know not my supreme Nature, Param bhava, the Lord of all existence.” The Gita-9.11 “As the one sun illumines the entire earth, so the Lord concealed in the Field (which constitute our mind, life, body, subconscient and inconscient sheath) illumines the entire Field, O Bharata .” The Gita-13.34 The Mother has given the assurance that one can realize the Divine in the Inconscient as soon as one has found the Divine within. Because realization of the Divine within helps to ascent the consciousness to unite with the Supermind above. As soon as this union is achieved, one gets the passage of entry into Inconscient sheath and meets the Supermind concealed in the Inconscient Self. The Mother’s experience of 24-25 July, 1959, gave clearer details about its working, “for the first time the Supramental light entered directly into my body, without passing through the inner beings. It entered through the feet and it climbed up and up. And as it climbed, the fever also climbed because the body was not accustomed to this intensity. As all this light neared the head, I thought I would burst and that the experience would have to be stopped…”⁶⁰ The discovery of the Supramental in the Inconscient made another passage clear for the direct action of It on the body. Since this force is already dynamized on earth’s atmosphere, so contact with It can be restored by concentration below the feet centre. The experience of this kind can be repeated till the experience becomes constant and established. 5: Juxtaposition of Madbhava and Parambhava of Guhyatamam Vijnana: “When into all the doors in the body (nine doors, navadwara ) there comes a flooding of light…” The Gita-14.11 ‘The light of the sun that illumines all these worlds… that light is known as from Me.” The Gita-15.12 “Powerful and prolonged penetration of the Supramental forces into the body, it was pressing to enter, from everywhere, but everywhere at the same time… it was not a current flowing in, it was an atmosphere penetrating from everywhere. It lasted for at least four to five hours.”⁶¹ The Mother In Integral Yoga, all the ten Selves, or the Divine contained in all the ten sheaths, are dynamised, and all these Divine Selves act on the respective sheaths or higher sheaths on the lower sheaths or lower Selves on the higher sheaths; bring the required transformation and build each sheath to the extent of their full perfection. With the progress of this experience, one meets the Divine from all ends, capturing all the sheaths of the body and this experience can be repeated till It becomes constant and established. This is probably the normal state of the greatest Integral Yogi, yoginam api sarvesam, ³² and the highest secret, rahasyam uttamam ,⁶² manifested in normal human life. Recapitulation: In this Spiritual endeavour, the discovery of the Inconscient Self is identified as one of the last flaming bursts of Divinities and the most profound Spiritual experiences of the perfect rhythm of illumining Matter’s depth, ‘the grand solution’⁷⁰ in which the height of mortal effort ends and it is the waking of matter’s great Serpent Power ‘For large utilities in life’s little space’⁷¹ or opening of Inconscient Self is identified as a passage to ‘last and mightiest transformation’⁷² of desire from its bleeding root. The opening of the Inconscient Self will break the Inconscient sheath’s blind mute wall of Ignorance and each part of the Being and the surrounding sheath, or every limb and cell, receives the Divine Mother’s Delightful touch to remake our life and feel her helping hand in every circumstance. The discovery of the Subconscient Self through difficulty and pain is identified as another important achievement for dismantling and illumining an obscure sheath, whose 'priceless value could have saved the world.’⁷³ Silencing the mind, vital and body paves the passage clear towards the vast domain of subtle mental, subtle vital and subtle physical oceans and in its heart, there is a true mental being, true vital being, true physical being, and subsequently in this journey in the innermost domain, the Psychic sheath and Psychic being are unveiled. The Psychic being unveils the passage towards the discovery of still higher selves of Spiritual, Universal, Supramental and Bliss Self. Still, there are other sequences through which these Selves can be activated and dynamised. The discovery of the Supramental Self directs the Truth-Light to ‘strike earth’s massive roots of trance’⁷⁴ of the Subconscient and Inconscient oceans and wake their respective Selves. Thus, dynamisation of the ten Selves and the purification, transformation and perfection of the ten respective Sheaths are part of Savitri’s Individual, Universal and Transcendental Divine action. Then, one no longer depends on intervention from above for the transformation action of surface mind, life and body, but it will also take place more vigorously⁷⁵ from within the ten Selves and most vigorously⁷⁶ from below the feet by the opening of Subconscient and Inconscient Selves. OM TAT SAT References 1: The Mother's Agenda, October 6,1962, 2: SABCL-27/p-433-34, 3: The Gita-10.19, 4: The Gita-10.34, 5: The Gita-5.,24/6.27/18.54, 6: The Gita-12.3/5.25, 7: The Gita-9.11, 8: The Gita-4.10/10.6/13.18/14.19, 9: The Gita-4.13, 10: The Gita-10.6, 11: The Gita-11.54, 12: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-305, 13: The Gita-7.19, 14: The Gita-9.7, 15: The Gita-7.5, 16: The Gita-4.6/9.8, 17: The Gita-9.13, 18: The Gita-7.24/9.11, 19: The Gita-14.2, 20: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-562, 21: SABCL-26/On Himself/p-126, 22: The Gita-7.28, 23: The Gita-18.53, 24: The Gita-18.66, 25: SABCL-26/On Himself/p-126-127, 26: The Gita-2.61/6.14, 27: The Gita-4.18, 28: The Mother-62, 29: The Gita-6.35, 30: The Gita-2.50, 31: The Gita-12.10, 32: The Gita-6.47, 33: The Gita-12.8, 34: The Gita-7.17, 35: The Gita-6.46, 36: The Gita-3.1, 37: The Mother's Agenda, July 15, 1961, 38: The Gita-3.29, 39: The Gita-7.9, 40: The Gita-2.72, 41: The Gita-11.7, 42: The Gita-4.5, 43: The Gita-7.26, 44: The Gita-13.18, 45: The Gita-7.1, 46: The Gita-15.7, 47: The Gita-13.22, 48: The Gita-4.34,35, 49: The Gita-5.19, 50: SABCL-26/On Himself/p-119, 51: The Gita-18.61, 52: The Gita-5.29, 53: The Gita-3.15, 54: The Gita-6.31, 55: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-94, 56 : CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-933, 57: The Gita-6.44, 58: The Gita-2.52, 59: The Mother's Agenda, November 7, 1961, 60: The Mother's Agenda, October 6, 1959, 61: The Mother's Agenda, August 28, 1968, 62: The Gita-4.3, 63: The Mother's Agenda, December 11, 1963. 64: The Gita-10.42, 65: The Gita- 4.9, 66: The Gita-15.8, 67: The Gita-9.33, 68: The Gita-8.15, 69: Isha Upanishad-9, 70: Savitri-90, 71: Savitri-530, 72: Savitri-318, 73: Savitri-42, 74: Savitri-72, 75: “It proceeds by a personal effort to a conversion through a divine influence and possession; but this divine grace, if we may so call it, is not simply a mysterious flow or touch coming from above, but the all-pervading act of a divine presence which we come to know within as the power of the highest Self and Master of our being entering into the soul and so possessing it that we not only feel it close to us and pressing upon our mortal nature, but live in its law, know that law, possess it as the whole power of our spiritualised nature.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-621, 76: “In other respects the process will be identical, — a supramental inflow from above, the descent of a gnostic being into the nature, and an emergence of the concealed supramental force from below; the influx and the unveiling between them will remove what is left of the nature of the Ignorance. The rule of the Inconscient will disappear: for the Inconscience will be changed by the outburst of the greater secret Consciousness within it, the hidden Light, into what it always was in reality, a sea of the secret Superconscience. A first formation of a gnostic consciousness and nature will be the consequence.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-1003, Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: "OM Om, Supreme Lord, God of kindness and mercy, Om, Supreme Lord, God of love and compassion, Om, Supreme Lord, take possession of these cells, Om, Supreme Lord, take possession of this brain, Om, Supreme Lord, take possession of these nerves, Om, Supreme Lord, take possession of this mind, Om, Supreme Lord, take possession of this speech, Om, Supreme Lord, take possession of this action, Om, Supreme Lord, take possession of this body, Om, Supreme Lord, take possession of this heart, Om, Supreme Lord, take possession of this matter, Om, Supreme Lord, take possession of these atoms, Om, Supreme Lord, take possession of the subconscient, Om, Supreme Lord, take possession of the inconscient. Om namo bhagavateh Om, Supreme Lord, God of kindness and mercy Om, Supreme Lord, God of love and felicity Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Will Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Truth Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Purity Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Perfection Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Oneness Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Eternity Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Infinity Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Immortality Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Silence Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Peace Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Existence Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Consciousness Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Omnipotence Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Felicity Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Knowledge Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Omniscience Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Wisdom Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Equality Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Intensity Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Light Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Harmony Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Compassion Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Beauty Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Love Om, Supreme Lord, win Your Victory. Glory to You, Lord supreme conqueror..." The Mother The Mother's Agenda/Vol-1/Undated

Saturday Study Circle 23 May 2026 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 1:04:53 9 May 2026 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 33:09 25 April 2026 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 33:06 11 April 2026 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 1:07:35 28 March 2026 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 34:21 14 March 2026 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 31:45 16 May 2026 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 1:07:51 2 May 2026 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 36:01 18 April 2026 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 29:06 4 April 2026 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 33:11 21 March 2026 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 45:38 7 March 2026 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 28:53 3 Page 1 “For writing, even more than for speaking, if you aspire to remain in the best attitude for advancing swiftly towards the Divine, you should make it a strict rule to speak (and even more to write) only what is absolutely indispensable. It is a marvellous discipline if you follow it sincerely.” The Mother TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-207 “Sri Aurobindo was very, very conscious of this general confusion, and so he didn’t much like … he wanted absolutely no propaganda, but he also didn’t much like attempts to “explain things” to people and make them “understand,” because he very well knew how useless it is. He very, very often said it to me: no propaganda whatsoever, of course, and above all, above all, no attempt to make people understand: the maximum effect one can obtain is the effect of the Consciousness at work in the world (universal gesture), because in everyone it produces the utmost the person can do – the utmost of what he can understand, he understands through the influence of the pressure of the Consciousness . As soon as words intervene, the whole mind makes a mess of it.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-10/p-60, “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 and leave it lifeless and broken high and dry on shores of nowhere or it means a movement. A movement in the case of work like mine means the founding of a school or a sect or some damned nonsense. It means that hundreds and thousands of useless people join in and corrupt the work or reduce it to pompous farce from which the Truth that was coming down recedes into secrecy and silence. It is what has happened to the ‘religions’ and the reason of their failure.” Sri Aurobindo 02.10.1934, SABCL/26/p-375 “And the effort of transformation limited to a small number becomes something FAR MORE precious and FAR MORE powerful for the realisation. It is as if a choice had been made of those (few) who will be the pioneers of the new creation. And all those idea of “spreading” [the ideal], of “preparation” or churning Matter – childishness. It is human agitation.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda/27th November, 1965 (The above message hints that instead of propagating Their Teachings, those who put their concentration into living Their Teachings are instruments of Truth. Then that Influence will automatically spread over the earth. That is what we understand as self-expansion, which is an outcome of self-concentration.) " What is the true method for studying Sri Aurobindo’s works? (The Mother's reply) The true method is to read a little at a time, with concentration, keeping the mind as silent as possible, without actively trying to understand, but turned upwards, in silence, and aspiring for the light. Understanding will come little by little....And later, in one or two years, you will read the same thing again and then you will know that the first contact had been vague and incomplete, and that true understanding comes later, after having tried to put it into practice. " The Mother The Mother's Centenary Works/Vol-12/On Education/p-204 “Who can understand Sri Aurobindo? He is as vast as the universe and his teaching is infinite...The only way to come a little close to him is to love him sincerely and give oneself unreservedly to his work. Thus, each one does his best and contributes as much as he can to that transformation of the world which Sri Aurobindo has predicted.” The Mother TMCW-12/On Education/p-397, 2 December 196 " We sat together in sile nce for a few minutes, enjoying the company of our soul, and we witnessed the gates of Eternity opening wide before us.... It is in silence that the soul best expresses itself.... It is in the silence of complete identification with the Divine that true understanding is obtained... With words one can at times understand, but only in silence one knows ..... Silence: the condition of the being when it listens to the Divine. " The Mother The Mother's Centenary Works/Vol-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-143 “Not inexplicable certainly; it was the condition of silence of the mind to which he (Sri Aurobindo) had come by his meditation for 3 days with Lele in Baroda and which he kept for many months and indeed always thereafter, all activity proceeding on the surface; but at that time there was no activity on the surface. Lele told him to make namaskar to the audience and wait and speech would come to him from some other source than the mind. So in fact, the speech came, and ever since all speech, writing, thought and outward activity have so come to him from the same source above the brain-mi nd.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-36//Autobiographical Notes/p-111

The Main Formula of Integral Yoga: (All Life is Yoga) "We have all met in previous lives. Otherwise we would not have come together in this life. We are of one family and have worked through ages for the victory of the Divine and its manifestation upon earth." The Mother The Mother's Centenary Works/Vol-3/p-3, “To be perpetually reborn is the condition of a material immortality.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-5 “But that (life) CANNOT be extended as it is, for everything is constantly changing! And to be immortal, you have to follow this perpetual change ; otherwise, what will naturally happen is what now happens – one day you will die because you can no longer follow the change. But if you can follow it, then all this will fall from you! Understand that what will survive in you is something you don’t know very well, but it’s the only thing that can survive – and all the rest will keep falling off all the time ... Do you still want to be immortal?’ – Not one in ten said yes! ... Once you are able to make them feel the thing concretely, they tell you, ‘Oh no! Oh no! Since everything else is changing, the body might as well change too! What difference would it make!’ But what remains is THAT; THAT is what you must truly hold on to – but then you must BE THAT, not this whole agglomeration. What you now call ‘you’ is not THAT, it’s a whole collection of things...” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda/ November 15, 1960 The Main Formula of Integral Yoga (In this paper, The Synthesis of Yoga , the principal Shastra of integral Yoga, is compressed into ten formulas, out of which the last nine formulas have descended while pursuing the sadhana of the book, The Synthesis of Yoga. ) “Apart, living within, all lives she bore; Aloof, she carried in herself the world:” Savitri-8 “Inapt to fold its mighty wings of dream Her spirit refused to hug the common soil, Or, finding all life’s golden meanings robbed, Compound with earth, struck from the starry list, Or quench with black despair the God-given light.” Savitri-19 “Recall of the soul’s adventure into space, A traveller through the magic centuries And being’s labour in Matter’s universe,” Savitri-29 “Even through the tangled anarchy called Fate And through the bitterness of death and fall An outstretched Hand is felt upon our lives. It is near us in unnumbered bodies and births ; In its unslackening 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 When first man’s heart dared death and suffered life.” Savitri-59 “The Spirit, the innumerable One, He has left behind his lone eternity, He is an endless birth in endless Time , Her finite’s multitude in an infinite Space.” Savitri-66 “She meditates upon mighty words and looks On the unseen links that join the parted spheres.” (unseen links of all life) Savitri-85 “The Spirit’s greatness is our timeless source And it shall be our crown in endless Time. ” Savitri-110 “A subtle link of union joins all life . Thus all creation is a single chain:” Savitri-110 “Here was its early brief attempt to be, Its rapid end of momentary delight Whose stamp of failure haunts all ignorant life … Even when reason is born and soul takes form, In beast and reptile and in thinking man It lasts and is the fount of all their life. ” Savitri-140 “In war and clasp these life-wants joined the All-Life, Wrestlings of a divided unity Inflicting mutual grief and happiness In ignorance of the Self for ever one.” Savitri-145 “A little joy and knowledge satisfied This little being tied into a knot And hung on a bulge of its environment, A little curve cut off in measureless Space, A little span of life in all vast Time .” (this life's link with all life) Savitri-148-149 “Our being must move eternally through Time; Death helps us not, vain is the hope to cease; A secret Will compels us to endure…. Our souls are dragged as with a hidden leash, Carried from birth to birth, from world to world, Our acts prolong after the body’s fall The old perpetual journey without pause.” Savitri-197 “All life’s high visions are embodied there, Her wandering hopes achieved, her aureate combs Caught by the honey-eater’s darting tongue, Her burning guesses changed to ecstasied truths, Her mighty pantings stilled in deathless calm And liberated her immense desires.” Savitri-235 “All life to harmonise by thought’s control, She with the huge imbroglio struggles still; Ignorant of all but her own seeking mind To save the world from Ignorance she came.” Savitri-250 “He stood on a wide arc of summit Space Alone with an enormous Self of Mind Which held all life in a corner of its vasts.” Savitri-283 “A Panergy that harmonised all life Held now existence in its vast control; A portion of that majesty he was made.” Savitri-300 “There consciousness was a close and single weft; The far and near were one in spirit-space, The moments there were pregnant with all time .” Savitri-301 “Each was unique, but took all lives as his own, And, following out these tones of the Infinite, Recognised in himself the universe.” Savitri-323 “All life is fixed in an ascending scale” Savitri-342 “All her (Savitri’s) life’s turns led her to symbol doors Admitting to secret Powers that were her kin; Adept of truth, initiate of bliss, A mystic acolyte trained in Nature’s school, Aware of the marvel of created things She laid the secrecies of her heart’s deep muse Upon the altar of the Wonderful; Her hours were a ritual in a timeless fane; Her acts became gestures of sacrifice.” Savitri-360 “A forehead that wore the crown of all her (Savitri’s) past , (The Mother had the crown of twelve pearls over her head in subtle form.) Two eyes her constant and eternal stars, Comrade and sovereign eyes that claimed her soul, Lids known through many lives , large frames of love.” Savitri-396 “These bodies summed the drift of numberless births, And the spirit to the spirit was the same.” Savitri-399 “This earth is full of labour, packed with pain; Throes of an endless birth coerce her still; The centuries end, the ages vainly pass And yet the Godhead in her is not born.” Savitri-443-44 “Always the stature of her passion grew; Grief, fear became the food of mighty love. Increased by its torment it filled the whole world; It was all her life , became her whole earth and heaven.” Savitri-473 “And the heavy business of unnumbered lives” Savitri-479 “The Master and the Mother of all lives Watching the worlds their twin regard had made, And Krishna and Radha for ever entwined in bliss, The Adorer and Adored self-lost and one.” Savitri-525 “If God there is he cares not for the world; All things he sees with calm indifferent gaze, He has doomed all hearts to sorrow and desire, He has bound all life with his implacable laws; He answers not the ignorant voice of prayer.” Savitri-646 “Out of some sullen monstrous vast arisen, Out of an abysmal deep of grief and fear Imagined by some blind regardless self, A consciousness of being without its joy, Empty of thought, incapable of bliss, That felt life blank and nowhere found a soul, A voice to the dumb anguish of the heart Conveyed a stark sense of unspoken words; In her own depths she heard the unuttered thought That made unreal the world and all life meant.” Savitri-534 “So she beheld the many births of thought, If births can be of what eternal is; For the Eternal’s powers are like himself, Timeless in the Timeless, in Time ever born.” Savitri-541 “In the dire beauty of an immortal face Pitying arose, receiving all that lives For ever into its fathomless heart, refuge Of creatures from their anguish and world-pain.” Savitri-574 (Savitri said to Death God) "A traveller of the million roads of life , His steps familiar with the lights of heaven Tread without pain the sword-paved courts of hell; There he descends to edge eternal joy. Love’s golden wings have power to fan thy void: The eyes of love gaze starlike through death’s night, The feet of love tread naked hardest worlds. He labours in the depths, exults on the heights; He (Love) shall remake thy universe, O Death.” Savitri-592 (Death God said) “If God there is he cares not for the world; All things he sees with calm indifferent gaze, He has doomed all hearts to sorrow and desire, He has bound all life with his implacable laws; He answers not the ignorant voice of prayer.” Savitri-646 “Even in all that life and man have marred, A whisper of divinity still is heard, A breath is felt from the eternal spheres.” Savitri-612-613 “Above the wash and surge of Time and Space, Disengaging from the cosmic commonalty By which all life is kin in grief and joy, Delivered from the universal Law The sunlike single and transcendent spirit Can blaze its way through the mind’s barrier wall And burn alone in the eternal sky, Inhabitant of a wide and endless calm.” Savitri-691 “But first high Truth must set her feet on earth And man aspire to the Eternal’s light And all his members feel the Spirit’s touch And all his life obey an inner Force. This too shall be; for a new life shall come, A body of the Superconscient’s truth, A native field of Supernature’s mights: It shall make earth’s nescient ground Truth’s colony, Make even the Ignorance a transparent robe Through which shall shine the brilliant limbs of Truth And Truth shall be a sun on Nature’s head And Truth shall be the guide of Nature’s steps And Truth shall gaze out of her nether deeps.” Savitri-708 The earliest First Formula and the ultimate Last Formula of the Divine Life: ‘The earliest formula of Wisdom promises to be its last, --God, Light, (Bliss),¹⁶ Freedom, Immortality.’¹⁶ Sri Aurobindo “The Illimitable they measured with number’s rods And traced the last formula of limited things, In transparent systems bodied termless truths, The Timeless made accountable to Time And valued the incommensurable Supreme.” Savitri-273 “Therefore, O Arjuna, at all times of all life be in Yoga, tasmat sarvesu kalesu yoga-yukto bhavarjuna. ” The Gita-8.27 “O Arjuna, at all times of all life unite with Me by remembrance of Me and by doing action for Me, tasmat sarvesu kalesu mam anusmara yudhya cha. ” The Gita-8.7 The literal meaning of integral Yoga is the union with the total Consciousness of the Eternal. The written truth of integral Shastra had descended from above like traditional Shastra as formulas, Sutras and was further expanded and heightened through ascension and widening of Consciousness. All the (ten) formula of integral Yoga breaks through to uncover the integral Divine which includes integral Divine Law, integral Divine manifestation, integral Divine liberation, integral Divine transformation and integral Divine Perfection. The first formula or Maha Mantra of integral Yoga is ‘All life is Yoga ’ and the last formula of integral Yoga is complete possession of ‘God, Light, Bliss, Freedom and Immortality.’¹⁶ 1) ‘All life is Yoga,’⁵⁸ sarva (ananta) jivanam nitya-yogamastu or sampurnam jivanam yogamayam bhabet. All life is a secret unconscious and conscious Yoga of Nature intended to become progressively self-conscient, luminous and self-fulfilled. Life develops many initial hints of Divinity and change of nature by liberating them which must be enforced upon the whole of life and not merely on a part of this life. Where the effort of this whole of life can become the conscious Yoga of Nature and must extend over to All Life until the recovery of the complete and undivided Divine Life. All Life is defined as a subtle link of union that joins the succession of past, present and future lives and it is the right play of the Soul with all the possibilities of Nature for manifestation, self-expression, self-experience, self-knowledge and all-knowledge. ‘…the key to life’s hidden secret is the true relation of this Spirit with its own created existences.’⁹⁵ The true joy of life can be experienced by the profound union of the Self and Nature. And Yoga is a practical psychology and the central common principle of all Vedantic schools of Yoga is defined as the self-fulfilment of the Purusha, the Lord of Yoga, through the movement of His Energy, Consciousness or Prakriti. The central common principle of all Tantric schools is the self-fulfilment of Prakriti by her Purusha. In integral Yoga a relation between Purusha and Prakriti exists whose static union will lead towards Rest, Purification, Freedom and Liberation of Soul and whose dynamic union will lead towards divine Action, new Creation, Delight and change of Nature. Static union will establish the Ishwara in the heart as hinted in the Gita, “The Lord is stationed in the heart of all creatures”⁵⁷ or “the Lord as Self, abides in the heart of all beings”⁵⁷ and dynamic union will establish Ishwari in the heart as hinted in Savitri, ‘A face, a form (of the Divine Mother) came down into her heart’⁵⁴ or as hinted in the Gita, ‘Para-prakriti has become the Jiva in the heart,’ paraprakritir Jivabhuta . When both experiences reconcile, then the heart becomes the dwelling place of the ‘incarnate dual Godhead’⁵⁵ and this experience will repeat in the other nine occult centres. So those who lead a surface objective life, for them this whole life can be a field of practice of Yoga and those who live an inward subjective life and are established in their consciousness in waking-trance and non-waking trance can extend the experience of whole life into all-life. 2) All Yoga is a compression of one’s Evolution by all possible ways of union with the Divine or all Yoga is a swift and concentrated conscious evolution of Being. Sarvayogah abhibyaktimastu or yogasakalam abhibyakteh sankochanam. To become aware of the truth of our being and becoming is the object of all Yoga. Or all the revelatory aspects of the Divine must be caught in the wide nets of integral Yoga. All Yoga is in its nature an attempt and an arriving at unity with the Supreme Being, Supreme Consciousness and Supreme Ananda. Evolution is defined as the progressive self-manifestation of Nature in man or ‘a progressive self-manifestation of the Spirit in a material universe.’¹⁰² The Nature affects her aim of collective slow growth through evolution in Ignorance and the individual experiences rapid revolutionary change through Yoga or spiritual Evolution in knowledge; the former arrives at the Divine through concentration on her own manifestation whereas the latter goes beyond Nature to the Lord of Nature and beyond universe to the Transcendence. Natural evolution in ignorance is an uncertain growth by the pressure of environment, partly by groping education and an ill-lit purposeful effort, partially illumined and half-automatic use of opportunities with many blunders, lapses and relapses, veiling a secret divine intervention and guidance. In Yoga, we replace this confused crooked crab-motion by a rapid, conscious, concentrated and self-directed evolution which can compress the growth of many lives into a single birth. 3) All Evolution is the heightening of force of Consciousness until it passes from a mental, vital and physical instrumentation into the essence and power of the Spirit. Or All Evolution is the awakener of higher states of Consciousness. Sarva-abhibyakti cetayanti sumatinam astu or Sarva abhibyanjanam sumatinam chetakamastu. All evolution must move in stages through combination of three ascending gradations that of the evolution in Inconscient, a bodily life which the unassisted Nature might take centuries and millenniums or many hundreds of lives to form the basis of our existence; the evolution in Ignorance, a mental life into which we emerge and enlarge it into greater completeness and the evolution in Knowledge, the greatest rapidity and concentration of movement of divine existence. The essence and true nature of Consciousness are that it is a power to be aware of itself and its object and this power must be direct, self-fulfilled and complete. The destiny of the evolving Consciousness is to become aware of the Self and aware of all existence, which is the body of the greater Self. The practice of movement of Consciousness leads one to the discovery of inner Psychic and higher Spiritual possibility and elevates one to all-retaining Consciousness where past births and future births are contained, present and effective. Integral Yoga aspires for that central change of Consciousness which rests in the One and acts in the All. It is a growing direct Spiritual experience, vision, feeling of the Supreme and the cosmic existence, the Divine in itself and the Divine in all things. 4) All Consciousness¹⁰¹ is one, but in action, it involves in manifold concentrated Effort and spontaneous movement of Shakti to realise every possible line of Spiritual experience. Sarvachetana bahubidha abhyasam astu or chetana sakalam prakruteh bahubidha chesta . All Consciousness is the combination of Exclusive Consciousness, the action of surface mind and intellect, Essential Consciousness, the action in the subtle world, the Multiple Consciousness, the universal action and Supramental Consciousness, links highest with the lowest world and achieves indivisible whole. Personal effort is defined as the attempt of the egoistic mind to identify itself in a wrong and imperfect way with the workings of the divine Force. Ego turns into desire, wish and craving of the intellectual, emotional and volitional mind. As we gain clarity through purification, the turmoil of egoistic effort becomes calm self-knowledge and leads us to the source of growing light. 5) All Effort is the synthesis of all the wide and supple Methods, Sarvah abhyasah (avhyasa sakalam) vidhi-purbakam astu, pursued by the (1) comprehensive Spirituality of ancient Vedantic Seers who work out the relationship between Purusha-Prakriti, Ishwara-Shakti and Brahman-Maya by equal regard and reverence towards earth the Mother and heaven the Father, God and Man, Matter and Spirit, Ishwara and Ishwari, (2) exclusive Spirituality of later Vedantic ascetics, the exclusive worshipper of the Being, the Brahman, the Ishwara and (3) the synthetic Spirituality of Tantrics, the exclusive worshipper of the Energy, the Consciousness, the Mother, the Ishwari. The goal of all effort and all sacrifice is the full recognition of the inner Guide and the Master of the Yoga. 6) All the methods are the synthesis of (central truth of all) self-discipline, Sarva vidhi anusashanam astu or vidhi sakalam anusashana samnwitam bhabet. All Methods are the invention of evolutionary Nature through the synthesis of Indispensable ancient Vedantic/Vedic and Dispensable later Vedantic self-discipline of integral Yoga. Or all methods, grouped under the common name of Yoga, are special, indispensable Psycho-spiritual and dispensable Psycho-physical processes founded on the fixed truth of Nature. Indispensable methods are necessary to build the Spiritual foundation, and dispensable methods are necessary for Spiritual integration. The method of integral Yoga is a direct commerce between the human Purusha, the Psychic being, the Kshara in the individual body and the Divine Purusha , the Spiritual being, the Akshara who dwells in every body and yet transcends all form and name and the Supramental being, the Purushottama , the source of all being and existence through the triple Path of Works, of Love and of Knowledge. The method of integral Yoga is to put our whole conscious being into relation and contact with the Divine and direct Him to transform the entire lower nature into His Divine Nature. The Sadhaka will take as much care and thoroughness from the most insignificant action to the greatest action as a means of self-offering and lifts all into the Light and transforms all. For him, in the Yoga there is nothing too small to be used and nothing too great to be attempted. Due to the entire consecration, all the sadhana is done for him from above by an impersonal Force, so he has no business with ego and pride and he will live like a slave and disciple of the Master with full of gratitude for the Divine Master. 7) The practice of all self-discipline leads to continuous union with the Self, Sarvam anusashanam yunjita satatam atmana . Or all self-disciplines labour in their different ways to realise the one supreme experience. Integral Yoga is neither exclusive worship of the Shaktis, the Energy, the Consciousness, the Chit nor the exclusive worship of the Purusha, the Ishwara, the Being, the Sat, but to find a passive and an active relation between Them, the Purusha and Prakriti relation in ignorance, Avidya, Ishwara and Shakti relation in Spiritual plane, Vidya , and Brahman and Maya relation in Supramental plane, Vijnana resulting in Ananda. When the Prakriti, the Ishwari, the Maya, the Chit are self-absorbed in the conscious existence of the Purusha, the Ishwara, the Brahman, the Sat respectively, there is rest, the Nirvana, the realisation of Oneness. When the Purusha, the Ishwara, the Brahman, the Sat pour themselves out in the action of the Prakriti, the Ishwari, the Maya, the Chit respectively, then there is action, creation and Ananda in Ignorance, exclusive Knowledge, comprehensive Knowledge and supreme Knowledge respectively. 8) All Dispensable self-disciplines are termed as Psycho-physical methods, which means to pursue inner development with the help of outer aid, support, Sarva aniyatam anusashanam bahya abalmbana ashritam. Or all dispensable self-discipline is defined as the finding of the Self by confronting, seizing, conquering the difficulties of nature or agitating and exciting all Nature. It ensures that lower formulations can also be used for the highest Spiritual and Supramental perfection. These lower formulations are having following six disadvantages; firstly dependency on any physical, external and mechanical means can confine life within the limitation of exclusive concentration and subjection to Prakriti ; secondly, it may awake the Kundalini Shakti, which asks the attention of physical Guru and the necessity of pure and strong vessel; thirdly these exercises are separative movements which take place not in the true Self, not in the silence, but in the active Prakriti; fourthly these actions are continued in active mind, directly opposes the passive silence which is the condition of full disclosure of Spiritual and Supramental action; fifthly the exclusive quest of psycho-physical methods are born or invented out of the impatience of the later Vedantic saints and ascetics to possess the Divine exclusively and too much indulgence in it can create a gulf between the Creator and His Creation resulting in impatience and lastly, the aims of integral Yoga can be arrived at by these methods but there are other means, preferably higher Spiritual formulations, which are more subtle, essential, powerful and pliable. 9) All Indispensable self-disciplines are termed as Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental methods which mean to pursue inner development with the assistance of inner aid and without the support of any outer aid; where the higher formulations are used for transformation of lower faculties, Sarva niyatam anusashanam bahya abalmbana rahitam. Or all Indispensable self-discipline is defined as the finding of the Self by silencing or drawing back from the difficulties of all Nature. It ensures largest possible development in the shortest possible path. A Spiritual man needs nothing external for completeness of his existence and he lives one with all existence. Integral Yoga will use fully active or positive methods subordinated by passive or negative methods consistent with the totality of the aim of perfected universalised individual Power, Knowledge and Ananda ; it will combine passive method of equal endurance with active method of spontaneous possession of universal energy of oneness and ananda, passive method of impartial indifference with active method of high-seated impartial acceptance of life strong to transform all experience into greater values of equal spirit, passive method of calm resignation and submission with the active method of full surrender of its personal being to the Divine, passive purity of entire god content with complete silence of vibrant mental and soul concentration, passive state of profound absorbing quietude of impersonal peace with active purity of perfect joy of being and bliss of Divine action. It will combine the positive self-discipline of purity and concentration, which is identified as the right arm of integral Yoga with the negative practice of renunciation, which is identified as its left arm.⁵³ 10) All Dispensable self-disciplines are used to subordinate all indispensable self-disciplines, and their indispensability is felt after the Spiritual foundation is established on a secure basis.¹⁷ Sarva niyatam anusasanam adhinasta sarva aniyatam anusasanam. All mind or all Nature has the capacity to possess the All Divine partially, whereas the All Divine has the capacity to possess the all mind or all Nature entirely; so the latter must be pursued by pacifying the lower mind and the former must subordinate it by activating the all mind or turning the lower mind Godward. All mind consists of lower ranges of consciousness that of physical mind, vital mind, sensory mind, emotional mind and intellectual mind and higher ranges of Consciousness that of higher mind, illumined mind, intuitive mind and Overmind. 11) In integral Yoga the practice of ‘psycho-physical processes on a large scale’¹⁸ is the direct substitution of spiritual methods; ‘psycho-physical power of vision’¹⁹ is the substitute of ‘the spiritual sight, the pure sense, the Supramental samjnana ;’¹⁹ Spiritual vision is ‘something much more near, profound and comprehensive than mental vision;’⁵² ‘memory is a poverty-stricken substitute for an integral direct abiding consciousness of self;’²⁰ ego is only an outward false substitute²¹ of Psychic entity; ‘false soul of desire’⁶¹ is the substitute of true Psychic Being; individual ego is the ‘subjective substitute’²² of true self; communal ego is the substitute of ‘collective soul;’²³ ‘this voice of the soul is not what we call conscience — for that is only a mental and often conventional erring substitute;’⁶⁰ reason is a substitute of intuitive mind²⁴ or ‘a delegate or substitute of the Supermind;’²⁵ mental knowledge is the ‘substitute for the more real and integral knowledge;’²⁶ pseudo-intuition, which frequently visit man’s mind is the ‘adulterated article or false substitute’²⁷ of intellect; sense mind is the ‘dumb substitute for thought;’²⁸ sense organs are the substitute of ‘psychical hearing, touch, smell, taste’²⁹ which is again the substitute of ‘Supramental sense;’³⁰ all mind constructed laws and standards like law of truth, law of justice, law of love are the substitute of the liberty in the spirit or the law of the self;³¹ mental and vital association are the substitute of Psychic and Spiritual oneness; egoistic life is the substitute of Divine Life;³² mankind or community or state is the substitute of God;³³ mental law of good is substitute of spiritual change;³⁴ mental control is the substitute of ‘control of the spiritual Reality;’³⁵ falsehood is a ‘lurid substitute’³⁶ of truth; ‘the appreciations of our human mind and desire-soul’³⁷ is a substitute for the divine values; titiksa , the facing, enduring and conquest of all shocks of existence is the substitute for elimination of suffering;³⁸ equality is the substitute of Sachchidananda consciousness³⁸ which is All-Bliss; ‘there must be an ascent which substitutes the principle of knowledge;’³⁹ the soul of Matter, annamaya purusha , is the substitute of the conscious foundation of being;⁴⁰ intellectual logo ‘is only a partial representative and substitute for the greater supramental Logos;’⁴¹ the action of lower Prakriti is the dynamically substituted by ‘the action of the supreme and universal divine Shakti under the control of Ishwara ;’⁴² the egoistic state always subject to the ignorant and troubled action of the desire soul is substituted by ‘large and luminous static equality which quiets the reason, the emotional mind, the life mind and the physical nature;’⁴² prayer is the substitute of ‘the faith, the will, the aspiration;’⁴³ faith is the substitute of ‘knowledge and perfect experience;’⁴⁴ written truth or Shastra is the substitute of ‘eternal Veda secret in the heart of every thinking and living being;’⁴⁵ personal effort is the substitute of divine Will;⁴⁶ concentration is the substitute of ‘active oneness;’⁴⁷ psychological observation is the substitute of ‘Supramental cognition;’⁴⁷ passive silence is the substitute of ‘Supramental gnosis;’48 Modern Science is a ‘substitute for eternal mysteries;’⁷¹ Soul is the subordinate term of Divine Bliss; mind is taught to be the obedient subordinate of Supermind⁴⁹ and Ignorance and Mind are defined as grandmother and ‘barren mother’⁵⁰ respectively of their unreal child, this false world of mental Maya.⁹⁶ Supramental Maya , the power of Brahman and Shakti are grandmother and virgin mother of their real child, the true world which waits for its self-fulfilment. For a Sadhaka, until the higher Psychic and Spiritual faculties have evolved, he can rely on these substitutes as an aid to sadhana and wait patiently for the emergence of higher instrumentation. 12) Those who practice this Yoga must have an integral mental conception of the Divine from the very beginning of their Sadhana life that of (1) the Divine is in all things; (2) all things are within the Divine and (3) all things are made up of the stuff of the Divine and they must be wholly aware of the entire object of integral Yoga and opposition of all other Spiritual disciplines towards its practicality and final outcome. Any partial knowledge can fragment the Divine, the Law of Integral Yoga, the human collectivity, and His creation. And lastly, they must strive to attain fullness of Life and Being by perfecting the movement of ascending and descending Consciousness. One can arrive at the fullness of Consciousness only by intensifying and integrating the double movement of Consciousness. The vision of a Spiritually strong India rests on a few individuals who can attain the largest development, the widest and deepest movement of Consciousness in the shortest possible time. First, there will be the emergence of a few Spiritual men who will be able to reconcile Spirit and Matter partly, then there will be the emergence of Gnostic and Bliss Souls to make this reconciliation entire. And it is through acceptance and consecration of physical work of all types, sarvakarmani, ⁵⁶ not by rejecting action as defective, dosam, the highest Spirit must enter contact with the nether imperfect Matter and bring the possibility of Divine Life. That is the promise of the infallible Supramental action on earth through which Matter will reveal the Spirit’s image. Recapitulation: The First Formula: All Life is Yoga. (Maha Mantra) The Second Formula: All Yoga is a compression of one’s Evolution by all possible ways of union with the Divine. The Third Formula: All Evolution is the awakener of higher states of Consciousness. The Fourth formula: All Consciousness is one, but in action, it involves many-fold concentrated Effort and spontaneous movement of Shakti to realize every possible line of Spiritual experience. The Fifth Formula: All Effort is the synthesis of all the wide and supple Methods followed by (1) comprehensive Spirituality of ancient Vedantists, (2) exclusive Spirituality of later Vedantic ascetics, and (3) Synthetic Spirituality of Tantrics. The Sixth Formula: All the methods are the synthesis of the central Truth of all self-disciplines, followed by the traditional schools of Yoga. The Seventh Formula: The practice of all self-discipline leads to continuous union with the Self. The Eighth Formula : All Dispensable self-disciplines are termed Psycho-physical methods, which means pursuing inner development with the help of outer aid and support. The Ninth Formula: All Indispensable self-disciplines are termed as Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental methods, which means to pursue inner development without the support of any outer aid. The Tenth Formula: A ll Dispensable self-disciplines are used to subordinate all Indispensable self-disciplines, and its indispensability is felt after the Spiritual foundation is established on a secure basis. OM TAT SAT References: - 1: The Mother’s Agenda-9/107, 2: The Mother’s Agenda-3/274-275, 3: The Mother’s Agenda-8/172-175, 4: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/4, 5: SABCL-23/Letters on Yoga/584, 6: SABCL-23/Letters on Yoga/584, 7: CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II-p-99, 8: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/250, 9: The Gita-6.23, 10: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/700, 11: The Gita-18-66, 12: Savitri-200, 13: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/72 14: The Gita-17.3, 15: “In her deep and great love for her children she has consented to put on herself the cloak of this obscurity, condescended to bear the attacks and torturing influences of the powers of the Darkness and the Falsehood, borne to pass through the portals of the birth that is a death, taken upon herself the pangs and sorrows and sufferings of the creation, since it seemed that thus alone could it be lifted to the Light and Joy and Truth and eternal Life. This is the great sacrifice called sometimes the sacrifice of the Purusha, but much more deeply the holocaust of Prakriti, the sacrifice of the Divine Mother.” The Mother-37, 16: CWSA-21/The Life Divine-4, “In that case, the unconquerable impulse of man towards God, Light, Bliss, Freedom, Immortality presents itself in its right place in the chain as simply the imperative impulse by which Nature is seeking to evolve beyond Mind, and appears to be as natural, true and just as the impulse towards Life which she has planted in certain forms of Matter or the impulse towards Mind which she has planted in certain forms of Life.” CWSA-21/The Life Divine-5,6, 17: “In other words we must arrive at and use a psycho-physical knowledge with a spiritual foundation.” CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga-624, “The asanas are one means for control of the body, as is Pranayam for the life-forces, but neither is indispensable.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-439, 18: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/542, 19: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/869, 20: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/525, 21: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/542, 22: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/646, 23: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/1093, 24: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/315, 25: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/828, 26: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/827, 27: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/982, 28: Savitri-137, 29: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/875, 30: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/862-864, 31: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/1038, 32: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/59, 33: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/1102, 34: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/653, 35: CWSA-22/The Life Divine-1038, 36: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/153, 37: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/224, 38: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/117-118, 39: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/731, 40: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/821-22, 41: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/796, 42: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/784, 43: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/567-68, 44: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/37, 45: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/53, 46: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/59, 47: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/858, 48: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/861, 49: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/232, 50: CWSA-21/The Life Divine-512, 51: CWSA-22/The Life Divine-1038, 52: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/833-34, 53: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-326, 54: Savitri-528, 55: “The incarnate dual Power shall open God’s door, Eternal Supermind touch earthly Time.” Savitri-705, “When in your heart and thought you will make no difference between Sri Aurobindo and me, when to think of Sri Aurobindo will be to think of me and to think of me will mean to think of Sri Aurobindo inevitably, when to see one will mean inevitably to see the other, like one and the same Person, — then you will know that you begin to be open to the supramental force and consciousness.” The Mother/The Mother’s Centenary Works/13/32/4 March 1958 56: The Gita-3.30, 57: “The Lord is stationed in the heart of all existences, O Arjuna, and turns them all round and round, mounted on a machine by his Maya.” The Gita-18.61, “I, O Gudakesha, as the Self, which abides in the heart of all beings. I am the beginning, the middle and the end of all beings.” The Gita-10.21, 58: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-8, “All life , we have said, is a Yoga of Nature; here in this material world life is her reaching out from her first inconscience towards a return to union with the conscient Divine from whom she proceeded.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-559, “The characteristics of Life are (1) action and movement, a reaching out to absorb and assimilate what is external to the individual and (2) a principle of satisfaction or dissatisfaction in what it seizes upon or what comes to it, which is associated with the (3) all-pervading phenomenon of attraction and repulsion. These three things are everywhere in Nature because Life is everywhere in Nature.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-350, “The proper function of the life-energy is to do what it is bidden by the divine principle in us, to reach to and enjoy what is given to it by that indwelling Divine and not to desire at all.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-351, 59: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-85, 60: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-154, 61: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-175, 62: CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga-186, 63: “Pursuing all knowledge like a questing hound.” Savitri-39, 64:“How has he (Satyavan) through the thickets of the world Pursued me (Para-prakriti Savitri) like a lion in the night” Savitri-614, 65: The Gita-7.5, 66: “The Yoga of self-perfection is to make this double movement as absolute as possible… This complete detachment, impossible without an entire self-government, equality, calm, sama, samata, santi , is the surest step towards the purification of the buddhi. A calm, equal and detached mind can alone reflect the peace or base the action of the liberated spirit.” CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga-669, 67: “But whatever his aim, however exalted his aspiration, he has to begin from the law of his present imperfection, to take full account of it and see how it can be converted to the law of a possible perfection.” CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga-631, “This is in fact what the mass of men do; (1) a small minority trample down the life instinct and strain after an ascetic perfection; (2) most obey the gross will to live with such modifications and restraints as society imposes or the normal social man has been trained to impose on his own mind and actions (moderate perfection); (3) others set up a balance between ethical austerity and temperate indulgence of the desiring mental and vital self and see in this balance the golden mean of a sane mind and healthy human living. (4) But none of these ways gives the perfection which we are seeking, the divine government of the will in life.” CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga-658-59, “It is only by increasing that (self) control that he can move towards perfection, — and it is only by developing soul-power that he can reach it. Nature-power in him has to become more and more completely a conscious act of soul, a conscious expression of all the will and knowledge of spirit. Prakriti has to reveal itself as shakti of the Purusha.” CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga-631, “But while the possession of the being, consciousness, delight, power of the Self is the condition of perfection, —for it is only by knowing and possessing and living in the truth of itself that the soul can become free and perfect, — we hold that Nature is an eternal action and manifestation of the Spirit; Nature is not a devil’s trap, a set of misleading appearances created by desire, sense, life and mental will and intelligence, but these phenomena are hints and indications and behind all of them is a truth of Spirit which exceeds and uses them.” CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga-666-67, “We find that it progresses towards a greater completeness in proportion as we arrive at two kinds of perfection; first, a greater and greater detachment from the control of the lower suggestions; secondly, an increasing discovery of a self-existent Being, Light, Power and Ananda which surpasses and transforms the normal humanity… The Yoga of self-perfection is to make this double movement as absolute as possible.” CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga-668-69, 68: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-530, 69: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-95, 70: “She surrendered to the service of the soul” Savitri-87, 71: Savitri-286, 72: The Mother’s Agenda-August-7, 1965 (Addendum), 73: The Mother’s Centenary Works/13/353/February 1954, 74: The Mother’s Agenda/July21, 1962/Addendum, 75: “Even in India…And I am beginning to believe....That's what I observe when I am put in contact with the outside world, Europe…... But anyway, the Old World is an OLD world in the true sense of the word. India is much, much older, but more alive. Yet now it strikes me as so very rotten! They went rotten. You know what happens when a rotten apple is put next to a good one: England came and stayed much too long. It made things go quite rotten. Very, very rotten; it's difficult to heal. Otherwise, what's not rotten is truly good.” The Mother’s Agenda/July14, 1962, “And here, there's TOTAL corruption – total, to such a point that I'll give you an example. The government meddles in everything, you can't move a finger without its permission: you can't leave the country, you can't enter the country, you can't send money out, you can't open a shop, you can't ... nothing, nothing, nothing, not even plow your field without its permission. They meddle in everything, which in itself is pretty stupid. And then they make regulations – the more regulations you make, the more disobedience it creates, naturally… People no longer grow crops because it's too complicated and with all those taxes (they've scores of taxes to pay), it costs them much more than they can earn. And as there isn't enough food, there are naturally individuals who try and hoard as much as they can to sell it for as high a price as possible.” The Mother’s Agenda-August 14, 1964, “They're mad. No, the English made them thoroughly rotten. Those two hundred years of British rule left them completely rotten. Naturally, another effect is that some people have awakened, but they don't know anything; they know nothing either of administration or of government or anything – they've lost everything, and whatever they know is what they were taught by Britain, which means an absolutely corrupt business. So they don't know anything, they don't even know how to make a decision.” The Mother’s Agenda-August 12, 1967, “And the government is rotten. People whose very tactics and principle of action are falsehood: to deceive and deceive and deceive. And naturally, to deceive themselves.” The Mother’s Agenda-October 19, 1967 76: “Islam was a return towards sensation, beauty, harmony in the form, and the legitimization of sensations and joy in beauty. From a higher viewpoint, it wasn't quite of a superior quality, but from a vital viewpoint, it was extremely powerful, and that's what gave them so much power to spread, to appropriate, seize, dominate. But what they did is very beautiful – all their art is magnificent, magnificent! It was a flowering of beauty Then there were others – it all comes one after another. And every religion came as a stage in the development and the relationship with the Divine, to lead the consciousness towards a oneness which is a totality and not a removal from a whole reality so as to obtain another. The need for totality, completeness, is what caused those religions to come like that, one after another.” The Mother’s Agenda- August 12, 1967, “To adopt a religion because one is born in that religion or because the people one loves and trusts practise that religion or because when one goes to a particular place where others pray and worship, one feels helped in one’s own prayer and worship, is not the sign of a very strong nature; I should say it is rather the sign of a weakness or at any rate of a lack of originality.” The Mother/The Mother’s Centenary Works (second edition)/8/246, 77: “I had this experience very, very strongly. When I left here [Pondicherry in 1915], as I got farther away, I felt as if emptied of something, and once in the Mediterranean, I wasn't able to bear it any longer: I fell ill. And even in Japan, which outwardly is a marvelous country – marvelously beautiful and harmonious (it WAS, I don't know what it is nowadays), and outwardly it was a joy every minute, a breathtaking joy, so strong was the expression of beauty – yet I felt empty, empty, empty, I absolutely lacked ... (Mother opens her mouth as though suffocating) ... I lacked the important Thing. And I found it again only when I came back here (Pondicherry).” The Mother’s Agenda-6/265, 78: The Mother’s Agenda/7/265, 79: The Mother’s Agenda/10/148, 80: Savitri-401, 81: Savitri-424, 82: Savitri-262 83: “But only if India is ONE can she fulfill this role (of becoming the Guru of the World), for how can one who is herself divided lead others? Thus the division of India is the first Falsehood that must disappear, for it is the symbol of the earth’s division. As long as India is not one, the world cannot be one. India’s striving for unity is the symbolic drama of the world’s striving for unity.” Satprem/The Mother’s Agenda/May-15, 1971 Addendum, 84: “I (The Mother) tell those who govern (the country): “You leave free hands to the bandits and take insulting measures against the honest people. It will be like that so long as the country is not governed by the wisest people. The wisest people are those who can freely and correctly read the hearts and the minds of men.” It was in the form of a conversation. I (the Mother) tell those who govern (the country): "You leave free hands to the bandits and take insulting measures against the honest people.” So the reply (from the Government of India): "But how can we tell the bandits from the honest people until we see them at work?” I (The Mother) said: “Yes, it will always be like that, you will always commit the same sort of blunder ... until the country is governed by the wisest people." (The Government of India asked): "Ah, but how can one know if they are the wisest people?” (The Mother replied): “The wisest people are those who can freely and correctly read the hearts and the minds of men.”” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda/23rd June 1965 85: “But no one has yet dared to say: money is a force and belongs to nobody, but it must be used by the most disinterested and clear sighted person (or persons) in the country.” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda/January 31, 1970, “Money is not meant to generate money; money should generate an increase in production, an improvement in the conditions of life and a progress in human consciousness. This is its true use. What I call an improvement in consciousness, a progress in consciousness, is everything that education in all its forms can provide – not as it’s generally understood, but as we understand it here: education in art, education in ... from the education of the body, from the most material progress, to the spiritual education and progress through yoga; the whole spectrum, everything that leads humanity towards its future realization. Money should serve to augment that and to augment the material base for the earth’s progress, the best use of what the earth can give – its intelligent utilization, not the utilization that wastes and loses energies. The use that allows energies to be replenished.” The Mother’s Agenda-04.10.1958, “For in this ideal place, money would no longer be the sovereign lord; individual worth would have a far greater importance than that of material wealth and social position. There, work would not be for earning one's living, but the means to express oneself and develop one's capacities and possibilities, while at the same time being of service to the group as a whole, which would in turn provide for everyone's subsistence and field of action. In short, it would be a place where human relationships, ordinarily based almost exclusively on competition and strife, would be replaced by relationships of emulation in trying to do one's best, of collaboration and real brotherhood.” The Mother’s Agenda-18.01.1964 86: “And in any society we should have all four types (Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Shudra), — even, for an example, if we create a purely productive and commercial society such as modern times have attempted, or for that matter a Shudra society of labour, of the proletariate such as attracts the most modern mind and is now being attempted in one part of Europe and advocated in others.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita-523, “In street and house, in councils and in courts Beings he (King Aswapati) met who looked like living men And climbed in speech upon high wings of thought But harboured all that is subhuman, vile And lower than the lowest reptile’s crawl.” Savitri-215 “I (Mother of Might) break the ignorant pride of human mind And lead the thought to the wideness of the Truth; I rend man’s narrow and successful life And force his sorrowful eyes to gaze at the sun That he may die to earth and live in his soul.” Savitri-510, “The ascent to the divine Life is the human journey, the Work of works, the acceptable Sacrifice. This alone is man’s real business in the world and the justification of his existence, without which he would be only an insect crawling among other ephemeral insects on a speck of surface mud and water which has managed to form itself amid the appalling immensities of the physical universe.” CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-48, 87: “(The Divine is) the perfect Personality capable of all relations even to the most human, concrete and intimate; for he is friend, comrade, lover, playmate, guide, teacher, master, ministrant of knowledge or ministrant of joy, yet in all relations unbound, free and absolute. This too the divinised man becomes in the measure of his attainment...” CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita-141, 88: “August 15, 1947 is the birthday of free India… the old communal division into Hindus and Muslims seems now to have hardened into a permanent political division of the country. It is to be hoped that this settled fact will not be accepted as settled for ever or as anything more than a temporary expedient. For if it lasts, India may be seriously weakened, even crippled: civil strife may remain always possible, possible even a new invasion and foreign conquest. India’s internal development and prosperity may be impeded, her position among the nations weakened, her destiny impaired or even frustrated. This must not be; the partition must go… But by whatever means, in whatever way, the division must go; unity must and will be achieved, for it is necessary for the greatness of India’s future…” Sri Aurobindo/SABCL-26/On Himself/404, “I had the vision that India is the place where the fate of the earth will be decided.” The Mother/ The Mother’s Agenda/10/145-19.04.1969, 89: “Our earth is a fragment and a residue; Her power is packed with the stuff of greater worlds” Savitri-99, “A bliss is felt that never can wholly cease, A sudden mystery of secret Grace Flowers goldening our earth of red desire.” Savitri-278, “Arisen beneath a triple mystic heaven The seven immortal earths were seen, sublime:” Savitri-672, “In the collective gnostic life the integrating truth-sense, the concording unity of gnostic nature would carry all divergences in itself as its own opulence and turn a multitudinous thought, action, feeling into the unity of a luminous life-whole. This would be the evident principle, the inevitable result of the very character of the Truth-Consciousness and its dynamic realisation of the spiritual unity of all being.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine-1047, “The one rule of the gnostic life would be the self-expression of the Spirit, the will of the Divine Being; that will, that self-expression could manifest through extreme simplicity or through extreme complexity and opulence or in their natural balance, — for beauty and plenitude, a hidden sweetness and laughter in things, a sunshine and gladness of life are also powers and expressions of the Spirit. In all directions the Spirit within determining the law of the nature would determine the frame of the life and its detail and circumstance.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine-1104 90: “Heaven’s joys might have been earth’s if earth were pure.” Savitri-123, “The virgin forms through which the Formless shines,” Savitri-327, 91: “With Indians, it's very easy – they're heaven-blessed, these people, because it takes very little for them to be oriented in the right way. But there are two types of difficult religion, the Christian religion (especially in the form of Protestantism), and the Jewish religion.” The Mother’s Agenda- January 25, 1964, 92: “A dual Power at being’s occult poles Still acted, nameless and invisible: Her divine emptiness was their instrument.” Savitri-553 “He (Divine) dwells in me (Savitri), the mover of my acts, Turning the great wheel of his cosmic work. I am the living body of his light, I am the thinking instrument of his power, I incarnate Wisdom in an earthly breast, I am his conquering and unslayable will. The formless Spirit drew in me its shape; In me are the Nameless and the secret Name.” Savitri-634, “One man who earnestly pursues the Yoga is of more value than a thousand well-known men.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-35/Letters on Himself And The Ashram-691, 93: “The psychic and the spiritual opening with their experiences and consequences can lead away from life or to a Nirvana; but they are here being considered solely as steps in a transformation of the nature.” The Life Divine-943, 94: “Our sacrifice is not a giving without any return or any fruitful acceptance from the other side; it is an interchange between the embodied soul and conscious Nature in us and the eternal Spirit. For even though no return is demanded, yet there is the knowledge deep within us that a marvellous return is inevitable. The soul knows that it does not give itself to God in vain; claiming nothing, it yet receives the infinite riches of the divine Power and Presence.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-109, “If mankind only caught a glimpse of what infinite enjoyments, what perfect forces, what luminous reaches of spontaneous knowledge, what wide calms of our being lie waiting for us in the tracts which our animal evolution has not yet conquered, they would leave all and never rest till they had gained these treasures. But the way is narrow, the doors are hard to force, and fear, distrust and scepticism are there, sentinels of Nature, to forbid the turning away of our feet from her ordinary pastures.” Sri Aurobindo/TMCW-10/On Thoughts and Aphorisms/p-10-11 “Amid the welcome-hum of many bees Invade our honied kingdom of the woods; There let me lead thee into an opulent life.” Savitri-402, 95: CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga-115, 96: “The lower, present and deluding mental Maya has first to be embraced, then to be overcome; for it (Maya) is God’s play with division and darkness and limitation, desire and strife and suffering in which He subjects Himself to the Force that has come out of Himself and by her obscure suffers Himself to be obscured... Its literal meaning is cunning, fraud or illusion… an undivine Maya, that which creates false mental forms and appearances, -- and hence the later significance of this word which seems to have meant originally a formative power of knowledge, the true magic of the supreme Mage, the divine Magician, but was also for adverse formative power of a lower knowledge, the deceit, illusion and deluding magic of the Rakshasa.” The Life Divine-126, 109, 507, 97: CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV-676, 98: Kena Upanishada-1.4, CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-72, CWSA-21/The Life Divine-403, 99: CWSA-13/Essays in Philosophy and Yoga-10-11, 100: “As for spiritual knowledge, it consists of two elements, experience and a direct knowledge which is not mental but is of the nature of a light showing the deeper truth of things, a direct vision and perception of the Truth…The ordinary consciousness is not capable of receiving it as knowledge except in a fragmentary way because it belongs to a deeper consciousness within or a higher consciousness above the mind. The ordinary consciousness has therefore to open to the deeper and the higher consciousness. It has to receive the knowledge from within and above. It cannot do this if it does not open. There must, therefore, first necessarily be an opening, however small, before any direct knowledge can come. As the knowledge comes the opening also can widen and so admit a greater and greater direct knowledge and experience. In some, however, the opening comes first very wide and then the knowledge comes afterwards in a great stream, some light of the Truth and many experiences…If one has merely a mental idea about the Divine, that is not knowledge. It is with the experiences and the inner light of knowledge that the realisation of the Divine begins. As for example, one may have the mental idea of the Divine Peace but that is nothing, only a mental conception. It is only when one has the feeling of the Divine Peace descending from above or in oneself or surrounding one that one begins to know what it is. That is what is called experience. Afterwards one begins to have a direct vision in knowledge of what the Peace is and what is its place in regard to the Divine Realisation; that is direct knowledge.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-198-199, 101: ‘not merely a state withdrawn from the all consciousness of the outward, withdrawn even from all consciousness of the inward’ CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-321, “Mind, being an action of the Infinite, depieces as well as aggregates ad infinitum. It cuts up being into wholes, into ever smaller wholes, into atoms and those atoms into primal atoms, until it would, if it could, dissolve the primal atom into nothingness. But it cannot, because behind this dividing action is the saving knowledge of the supramental which knows every whole, every atom to be only a concentration of all-force, of all-consciousness, of all-being into phenomenal forms of itself. The dissolution of the aggregate into an infinite nothingness at which Mind seems to arrive, is to the Supermind only the return of the self-concentrating conscious-being out of its phenomenon into its infinite existence.” CWSA-21/The Life Divine-178, 102: CWSA-22/The Life Divine-734, 103: “I am beginning to understand why Sri Aurobindo always said it was woman (Mother caresses Sujata’s cheek with her finger) that could build a bridge between the two. I am beginning to understand. One day, I’ll explain. I am beginning to understand. Sri Aurobindo used to say: it is woman that can build a bridge between the old world and the supramental world. Now I understand.” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda-26.04.1972, 104: TMCW-13/Words of the Mother-I/82-83, 105: “All Yoga is in its nature an attempt and an arriving at unity with the Supreme, --unity with the being of the Supreme, unity with the consciousness of the Supreme, unity with the bliss of the Supreme,-- or, if we repudiate the idea of absolute unity, at least at some kind of union, even if it be only for the soul to live in one status and periphery of being with the Divine, salokya, or in a sort of indivisible proximity, samipya. This can only be gained by rising to a higher level and intensity of consciousness than our ordinary mentality possesses.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-528, “All Yoga proceeds in its method by three principles of practice; first, purification, that is to say, the removal of all aberrations, disorders, obstructions brought about by the mixed and irregular action of the energy of being in our physical, moral and mental system; secondly, concentration, that is to say, the bringing to its full intensity and the mastered and self-directed employment of that energy of being in us for a definite end; thirdly, liberation, that is to say, the release of our being from the narrow and painful knots of the individualized energy in a false and limited play, which at present are the law of our nature.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-530, “All Yoga is a turning of the human mind and human soul, not yet divine in realization, but feeling the divine impulse and attraction in it, towards that by which it finds its greater being.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-571 ¹²³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹¹⁰ DOWNLOAD THIS WEBPAGE IN PDF FORMAT: “For those who are eager to get rid of falsehood, here is a way: Do not try to please yourself, do not try either to please others. Try only to please the Lord…Because He alone is the Truth. Each and every one of us, human beings in our physical body, is a coat of falsehood put on the Lord and hiding Him…As He alone is true to Himself, it is on Him that we must concentrate and not on the coats of falsehood.” The Mother TMCW/15/Words of the Mother-III/80, TMCW/14/Words of the Mother-II/196 "I have tried many things, a great many, I have looked a great deal, and I see only one that’s absolute – only one that’s absolute and can bring the absolute result, it’s this (gesture turned Upward): the complete annulment of all that, leaving it all, "To You, Lord – You, You, to You." And it isn’t a being with a form, that’s not it; it isn’t a formless force, it’s ... It has nothing to do with thought, only with this: the contact. And the contact, an unmistakable contact, which nothing can imitate – nothing, nothing at all has the power to imitate it. And for every difficulty, every time, whatever it is, simply this: " Everything to You, Lord. Everything for You, to You. You alone can do it, You, You alone, You alone. You alone are the Truth; You alone are the Power. " And those words are nothing, they are only the very clumsy expression of something ... a stupendous Power. It’s only the incapacity, the clumsiness, the lack of faith we mix into it that takes away His power. The minute we are truly pure, that is, under His influence alone, there are no limits, no limits – nothing, nothing, there is nothing, no law of Nature that can resist, nothing, nothing. Only, the whole thing is that the time must have come, there must be only That left – all the rest spoils, whatever it is, even the highest, purest, noblest, most beautiful and marvelous things: all that spoils. Only That." The Mother The Mother's Agenda/ March 26, 1966

The New Research “Yoga is not a matter of theory or dogma, like philosophy or popular religion, but a matter of experience. Its experience is that of a conscient universal and supracosmic Being with whom it brings us into union, and this conscious experience of union with the Invisible, always renewable and verifiable, is as valid as our conscious experience of a physical world and of visible bodies with whose invisible minds we daily communicate.” SRI AUROBINDO CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-555 Emergence of Integral Personality Read More 1 The Agenda of Sri Matriniketan Ashram Research: The First Objective of Research: It will include in its scope the richly varied objective Material and subjective Spiritual experience, reconcile them in the beyond intellect Cosmic Self through the movement of vertical Consciousness and make the future opulent with all that is the best in the past and present. Thus the following promise is concentrated: "Content abide not with one conquered realm; Adventure all to make the whole world thine, To break into greater kingdoms turn thy force." Savitri-536 The Second Objective of Research: It will accumulate in itself all that is the most affirmative and the completest invisible energies and pour them out on the surrounding by an intense Aspiration, a Master Action and a King Idea so that one mighty Deed in the Occult plane can change the whole course of world events and external things. "A prayer, a master act, a king idea Can link man’s strength to a transcendent Force. Then miracle is made the common rule, One mighty deed can change the course of things; A lonely thought becomes omnipotent." Savitri-20 "Knows that one high step might enfranchise all" Savitri-371 The Third Objective of Research: The unending opulence of the Matter and Spirit cannot be exhausted by all the Saints, Seers and Scientists of all Time and the continuous uncovering and working out of Their unending secrets, endless truths and timeless mystery are the constant preoccupations of subjective Research. " He (Avatar) must call light into its dark abysms, Else never can Truth conquer Matter’s sleep And all earth look into the eyes of God. All things obscure his knowledge must relume, All things perverse his power must unknot: He must pass to the other shore of falsehood’s sea, He must enter the world’s dark to bring there light. The heart of evil must be bared to his eyes, He must learn its cosmic dark necessity, Its right and its dire roots in Nature’s soil." Savitri-450 The Fourth Objective of Research: It will strive to provide the utmost fulfillment and perfection of objective and subjective living by entry into Supraphysical experience which lies behind our gross physical, vital and mental living and humanity will be liberated from all subjection of life to the multiplication of new wants, exaggeration of ambitious activities and an aggressive expansion of the collective ego. Thus life can become 'a marvellous journey of the spirit.' (Savitri-301) " In the kingdom of the Spirit’s power and light, As if one who arrived out of infinity’s womb He came new-born, infant and limitless And grew in the wisdom of the timeless Child; He was a vast that soon became a Sun." Savitri-301 OM TAT SAT Read More 2 Serving Humanity: The Scope of helping humanity: “Patriotism, cosmopolitanism, service of society, collectivism, humanitarianism, the ideal or religion of humanity are admirable aids towards our escape from our primary condition of individual, family, social, national egoism into a secondary stage in which the individual realises, as far as it can be done on the intellectual, moral and emotional level, —on that level he cannot do it entirely in the right and perfect way, the way of the integral truth of his being, — the oneness of his existence with the existence of other beings. But the thought of the Gita reaches beyond to a tertiary condition of our developing self-consciousness towards which the secondary is only a partial stage of advance.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-136 The Necessity of Leadership: “The best, the individuals who are in advance of the general line and above the general level of the collectivity, are the natural leaders of mankind, for it is they who can point to the race both the way they must follow and the standard or ideal they have to keep to or to attain. But the divinised man is the Best in no ordinary sense of the word and his influence, his example must have a power which that of no ordinarily superior man can exercise.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-138 The Necessity of Spiritual Leadership: “This too the divinised man becomes in the measure of his attainment, impersonal in his personality, unbound by quality or action even when maintaining the most personal and intimate relations with men, unbound by any dharma even when following in appearance this or that dharma . Neither the dynamism of the kinetic man nor the actionless light of the ascetic or quietist, neither the vehement personality of the man of action nor the indifferent impersonality of the philosophic sage is the complete divine ideal. These are the two conflicting standards of the man of this world and the ascetic or the quietist philosopher, one immersed in the action of the Kshara, the other striving to dwell entirely in the peace of the Akshara; but the complete divine ideal proceeds from the nature of the Purushottama which transcends this conflict and reconciles all divine possibilities.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-141 The Necessity of Supramental Leadership: “The supramental man on the contrary will think more with the universal mind or even may rise above it, and his individuality will rather be a vessel of radiation and communication to which the universal thought and knowledge of the Spirit will converge than a centre. The mental man thinks and acts in a radius determined by the smallness or largeness of his mentality and of its experience. The range of the supramental man will be all the earth and all that lies behind it on other planes of existence. ..Ordinarily the supramental knowledge will be organised first and with the most ease in the processes of pure thought and knowledge, jnana , because here the human mind has already the upward tendency and is the most free. Next and with less ease it will be organised in the processes of applied thought and knowledge because there the mind of man is at once most active and most bound and wedded to its inferior methods. The last and most difficult conquest, because this is now to his mind a field of conjecture or a blank, will be the knowledge of the three times, trikaladrsti .” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-837, 839 The Permanent Help: “Someone had written to (the) Mother, “I want my money to be used exclusively to conquer the causes of our sufferings and misery.” (The) Mother had replied, “That is what we are working towards here, but not in the artificial way of the philanthropists, who only deal with the outward effects. We want to eliminate forever the CAUSE of suffering, by divinizing matter through integral transformation.” The Mother's Agenda/10th April-1968. The permanent help and panacea of all problems of existence is possible through a triple reversal of Consciousness and inner change of Nature. All of the issues of humanity can be resolved by the permanent elevation of individual and collective Consciousness through Integral Evolution and Supramental Influence initially dynamised through a few individuals (A few can climb to an unperishing sun, (Savitri-689)) and finally spreads to elevate the general Consciousness of the race (His gates to the world were swept with seas of light. (Savitri-236)). OM TAT SAT Read More 3 The Agenda of Integral Tantra Yoga : First Agenda: Integral Yoga begins with the method of Vedanta to arrive at the aims of Tantra . In the integral Yoga Psychical experience, especially of the kind associated with what is often called occultism and savours of the miraculous, should be altogether subordinated to Spiritual truth and wait upon that for its own interpretation, illumination and sanction. The Second Agenda: In Vedantic method the Spirit is all important means of arriving at the Shakti. In Tantric method the Shakti is the all important means of arriving at the Spirit. The Third Agenda: Integral Tantra Yoga of Knowledge, Dakshina Marga begins with the descent of fragments of Truth Supreme. Integral Tantra Yoga of Love, Vama Marga begins with the descent of fragments of Supreme Love. The Fourth Agenda: Integral Yoga is a combination of Vedantic Sacrifice ‘the Brahman is offered to the Brhaman by the Brhaman ’ (The Gita-3.24) or 'Living for me, by me, in me they shall live' (Savitri-699) and Vedic or Tantric Sacrifice ‘the Shakti is offered to the Shakti by the Shakti ’. OM TAT SAT Read More 4 The Root Formula of Integral Yoga : The Root Formula One: All the problems of existence can be resolved by the discovery of the Inconscient Self. “For the key is hid and by the Inconscient kept; The secret God beneath the threshold dwells.” Savitri-68 The Root Formula Two: Desire is identified as the 'Keyword' and root problem that takes shelter in the Inconscient sheath. “Then lest a human cry should spoil the Truth He tore desire up from its bleeding roots And offered to the gods the vacant place. Thus could he bear the touch immaculate. A last and mightiest transformation came. His soul was all in front like a great sea Flooding the mind and body with its waves; His being, spread to embrace the universe, United the within and the without To make of life a cosmic harmony, An empire of the immanent Divine.” Savitri-318 The Root Formula Three: Inconscient Self can be opened by massive Supramental Intervention. “This ever she meant since the first dawn of life, This constant will she covered with her sport, To evoke a Person in the impersonal Void, With the Truth-Light strike earth’s massive roots of trance, Wake a dumb self in the inconscient depths And raise a lost Power from its python sleep That the eyes of the Timeless might look out from Time And the world manifest the unveiled Divine.” Savitri-72-73, “As when a searchlight stabs the Night’s blind breast And dwellings and trees and figures of men appear As if revealed to an eye in Nothingness, All lurking things were torn out of their veils And held up in his vision’s sun-white blaze.” Savitri-151, The Root Formula Four: All the problems of existence can be resolved by the intervention of Divine Force from above the head and below the feet…. Or it can be also resolved by the intervention of dynamic Spirit from within the heart, below the feet, around the world and above the head. “Our life is entrenched between two rivers of Light , We have turned space into a gulf of peace And made the body a Capitol of bliss.” Savitri-531 “It (dynamic Spirit) is within, below, without, above.” Savitri-98 OM TAT SAT Read More 5 The Main Formula (Maha Mantra ) of Integral Yoga: The First Formula: All Life is Yoga. (Maha Mantra) The Second Formula: All Yoga is a compression of one’s Evolution by all possible ways of union with the Divine. The Third Formula: All Evolution is the awakener of higher states of Consciousness. The Fourth formula: All Consciousness is one but in action, it involves in many-fold concentrated Effort and spontaneous movement of Shakti to realize every possible line of Spiritual experience. The Fifth Formula: All Effort is the synthesis of all the wide and supple Methods. The Sixth Formula: All the method is the synthesis of central Truth of self-discipline. The Seventh Formula: The practice of all self-discipline leads to continuous union with the Self. The Eighth Formula: All Dispensable self-disciplines are termed as Psycho-physical methods, which mean to pursue inner development with the help of outer aid, support. The Ninth Formula: All Indispensable self-disciplines are termed as Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental methods which mean to pursue inner development without the support of any outer aid. The Tenth Formula: All Dispensable self-disciplines are used to subordinate all Indispensable self-disciplines, and its indispensability is felt after the Spiritual foundation is established on a secure basis. OM TAT SAT Read More 6 The Main Frame of Integral Yoga : The Three Basic Requisites: are of (1) unflinching patience, (2) absolute courage and (3) colossal faith. The Three Basic Inward Concentrations: are (1) of exclusive concentration of the one object worthy of pursuit, (2) contemplation and (3) silencing of mind. The Three Central secrets: are of entire consecration, constant inward remembrance of one central liberating knowledge and renounce all the inner support of central egoism. The Three Central Dynamic Processes: are that of development of true psychic being, sublimation of human into Divine Love and elevation of mental consciousness into spiritual and Supramental plane. The Three Central Methods: of Integral Yoga are that of gradually intensive and purposeful working of divine force, which subsequently compels all Nature to undergo a Divine change and the Divine Power uses all life as means of world transformation. The Three Central Vedantic Principles of Integral Yoga: are derived from the three Vedantic method of knowledge; it is either knowledge in the will working out through action or knowledge in the intellect through discernment or knowledge of the heart expressed in love and faith. The Three Central Vedic Principles of Integral Yoga: are the perfection of the body by the Psycho-physical method of Hathayoga ; the perfection of the mind and Psychic being by disciplining of mind through Rajayoga and the transformation of Nature by synthetic Yoga of Tantra . Integral Yoga does not propose the ceaseless practice of Psycho-physical Sciences of Hathayoga and Tantra and ceaseless practice of Psychic Science of Rajayoga , ‘but their methods can either altogether be dispensed with or used only for a preliminary or else a casual assistance.’ In integral Yoga the utility of Psycho-physical Science is felt after Spiritual foundation is established through Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga . The Three Central Inner Revolutions: are that of the abolition of desire, making life an instrument and the disappearance of ego. The Three Basic or Fundamental Realisations: are that of (1) experience of Timeless, Spaceless and Silent Brahman, (2) of dissolution of self and world in the Unknowable, --Moksha, Nirvana and (3) the Source of Being and its relation with Becoming which builds a strong foundation of integral Yoga. The Three Inner or Central Intuitions: These are indispensable for the perfection of Spiritual being acting directly on earth Nature; they are the awareness of witness Purusha, sakhi, who watches the action of Nature, to give them new directions, refinement and extension related with subtle and flexible creation, and an inner awareness of his Spiritual and Supramental being who are master of his Nature. Here Intuition is at once (1) witness, sakhi, (2) source of consent, anumanta , and (3) almighty Lord of the Nature, Maheswara. The Three Central Objects of Integral Yoga: The object of integral Yoga must be accepted wholly by those who follow it and they are the Divinity in one Self, total discovery of the Divinity in the world and total discovery of the dynamism of some transcendent Eternal. OM TAT SAT Read More 7 From Puri to Pondicherry : The Preliminary Teaching: The stages through which the Gita has developed its preliminary teachings are that firstly, it spoke of the destruction of desire and attachment and conquest of senses by stilling the mind; secondly of equality and peace; thirdly of passionless, impersonal and sacrificial action and recognition of the Supreme as the doer of all work; fourthly of inner renunciation of desire and ego preferable to the outer renunciation of life and action; fifthly, the doctrine of Avatara and the Divine birth. The Higher Teaching: The Gita’s higher teachings are that of Divine work by rising above the gunas ; secondly, besides its earlier declaration that Knowledge is greater than Works, Bhakti is considered the greatest element in Yoga; thirdly the relation between Works, Knowledge and Divine Love and their synthesis as means of supreme realisation; fourthly, the vision of Universal Purusha , which ‘can be seen, known, entered into only by that Bhakti which regards, adores and loves Me alone in all things’; fifthly, the inter-relation between the multiple Soul, Kshara , immutable Self, Akshara , and the Supreme Self, Purushottama who is the Master of Works, Knowledge and Love; sixthly, Sraddha , faith, as an important aid for the manifestation of Para Prakriti . The Highest Teaching: The most secret teaching of the Gita is the Knowledge of the whole Godhead, samagram mam, which can be gained by four gradations of exclusive knowledge attended with five gradations of all-inclusive knowledge, by knowing which will leave nothing yet to be known. The Highest Teaching hinted but not developed: It has been hinted constantly in myriad terms of Vasudevah sarvamiti , the Godhead is all that is the universe and all that is in the universe, Prakritm mamikam, into My Divine nature, Prakritim me param , My supreme nature, Prakritim swam, My own nature, Prakritir jiva-bhuta , Divine Nature which has become the jiva, Madbhavam agatah , have arrived at My nature of being, daivi prakriti, (The Gita-9.13) Divine nature and Param bhavam , Supreme nature or the ultimate becoming, sadharmyam agatah , those who have become of like nature and law of being with the Divine; but these terminologies were nowhere explained entirely. These are left as clues for the greatest Spiritual developments, which can be resolved fully through ascending advance of spiritual experience. OM TAT SAT Read More 8 The Seven Fold Self Ignorance : 1: Original Ignorance: Not knowing the origin, Source of our existence, the Supramental Self or extending ahead to Bliss Self. 2: Cosmic Ignorance: Not knowing the immobile and immutable Self, the Spiritual Self. 3: Egoistic Ignorance: Not knowing the Universal Self, the Cosmic Self. 4: Temporal Ignorance: Not knowing the Psychic Being. 5: Psychological Ignorance: Not knowing the subliminal Self which constitutes our true physical being, true vital being and true mental being. 6: Constitutional Ignorance: Not knowing the Subconscient Self, Inconscient Self and their influence on the waking Self. 7: Practical Ignorance: Not knowing the right relation of the surface physical, vital and mental Nature with the above ten Selves. To understand practical Ignorance we can concentrate on the following lines of Savitr i: "Our outward happenings have their seed within,” Savitri-52 “This earth is not alone our teacher and nurse; The powers of all the worlds have entrance here.” Savitri-153 “In a contrary balance to earth’s truth of things The gross weighs less, the subtle counts for more; On inner values hangs the outer plan.” Savitri-186 OM TAT SAT Read More 9 An Inspiration from Sri Aurobindo's Writings : 1: All of Sri Aurobindo’s writings from the early days of Baroda to the last days of Pondicherry are identified as the accumulation of overhead descended knowledge. 2: Out of them The Synthesis of Yoga, The Life Divine, The Mother and Savitri are identified as high-concentration approved writings or the best standard available to the race to pursue integral Yoga. 3: All his other writings are extremely helpful to those who are entirely conscious of the whole aim and the final Spiritual destination. They will be able to trace the sequential change of His world vision and world action with the growth and expansion of His Divine Consciousness. 4: The Mother confirmed, “Thus, Sri Aurobindo represented a totality of comprehension and knowledge and power; and every one of his books is at once a symbol and a representation. Every one of his books contains symbolically, potentially, what is in him. Therefore, if you concentrate on the book, you can, through the book, go back to the source . And even, by passing through the book, you will be able to receive much more than what is just in the book. ” TMCW-8/Questions and Answers-1956/p-163, A sincere entry into His Teachings (or Their Teachings) confirms a brief Supramental touch and this touch can be prolonged by the formation, development and densification of multiple subtle bodies. OM TAT SAT Read More 10 Sri Aurobindo's Hope on Woman : “I am beginning to understand why Sri Aurobindo always said it was woman that could build a bridge between the two. I am beginning to understand. One day, I will explain. I am beginning to understand. Sri Aurobindo used to say: it is woman that can build a bridge between the old world and the supramental world. Now I understand.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-26.04.1972 “After I knew that God was a woman, I learned some-thing from far-off about love; but it was only when I became a woman and served my Master and Paramour that I knew love utterly.” Sri Aurobindo TMCW-10/On Thoughts and Aphorisms/p-329 “God has so arranged life that the world is the soul’s husband; Krishna its divine paramour. We owe a debt of service to the world and are bound to it by a law, a compelling opinion, and a common experience of pain and pleasure, but our heart’s worship and our free and secret joy are for our Lover.” Sri Aurobindo TMCW-10/On Thoughts and Aphorisms/p-340 Sri Aurobindo had kept great hope on women, in building the future. Their main objective of life is not procreation, or enjoyment of life with men but to accumulate Spiritual energy. The ‘virgin bridals of the dawn’ (Savitri-401) are identified as the future of the Nation and they can keep their mind, life and body untouched and pure to enter union with the Divine in all the ten planes of Consciousness and realise the full delight and perfection of all those planes or ‘virgin who comest perfected by joy.’ (Savitri-424) They are also representative symbols of ‘citizens of that mother state.’ (Savitri-262) Thus Para-prakriti dominated Indian women can dream of the emergence of 'a virgin earth' or 'Heaven’s joys might have been earth’s if earth were pure.' Savitri-123) OM TAT SAT Read More The All Orissa Girls Meet 11 Questions Raised By the Death God in Savitri : Before conquering Death from without, which is an issue of all life, a Sadhak is given the triple task of conquering Death from within (1) by universalisation of Consciousness, (2) by illumining the Subconscient and Inconscient planes and (3) by change of Nature through activation of 'Yoga of Self-perfection' and Sachchidananda Consciousness: The First Task of Conquering Death by Universalisation of Consciousness: This experience will be followed by static Viswarupa Darshana as witnessed by the Arjuna of the Gita (Chapter-10) and dynamic Viswarupa Darshana as witnessed by Death God in Savitri , Book-10, Canto-4. "A Mother-wisdom works in Nature’s breast To pour delight on the heart of toil and want And press perfection on life’s stumbling powers, Impose heaven-sentience on the obscure abyss And make dumb Matter conscious of its God. Although our fallen minds forget to climb, Although our human stuff resists or breaks, She keeps her will that hopes to divinise clay; Failure cannot repress, defeat o’erthrow; Time cannot weary her nor the Void subdue, The ages have not made her passion less; No victory she admits of Death or Fate." Savitri-353-354 “In the enormous emptiness of thy mind Thou shalt see the Eternal’s body in the world, Know him in every voice heard by thy soul, In the world’s contacts meet his single touch; All things shall fold thee into his embrace. Conquer thy heart’s throbs, let thy heart beat in God: Thy nature shall be the engine of his works, Thy voice shall house the mightiness of his Word: Then shalt thou harbour my force and conquer Death .” Savitri-476 The Second Task of illumining the Subconscient and Inconscient planes: " He (Narad) sang the Inconscient and its secret self, (Discovery of Inconscient Self) Its power omnipotent knowing not what it does, All-shaping without will or thought or sense, Its blind unerring occult mystery, And darkness yearning towards the eternal Light, And Love that broods within the dim abyss And waits the answer of the human heart, And death that climbs to immortality." Savitri-416 “O Death , I have triumphed over thee within; I quiver no more with the assault of grief; A mighty calmness seated deep within Has occupied my body and my sense: It takes the world’s grief and transmutes to strength, It makes the world’s joy one with the joy of God. My love eternal sits throned on God’s calm; For Love must soar beyond the very heavens And find its secret sense ineffable; It must change its human ways to ways divine, Yet keep its sovereignty of earthly bliss.” Savitri-633 The Third Task of Permanent Descent of Sachchidananda Consciousness: " His living cosmic spirit shall enring, Annulling the decree of death and pain, Erasing the formulas of the Ignorance, With the deep meaning of beauty and life’s hid sense, The being ready for immortality," Savitri-706 “Even there shall come as a high crown of all The end of Death, the death of Ignorance. But first high Truth must set her feet on earth And man aspire to the Eternal’s light And all his members feel the Spirit’s touch And all his life obey an inner Force. This too shall be; for a new life shall come, A body of the Superconscient’s truth, A native field of Supernature’s mights: It shall make earth’s nescient ground Truth’s colony, Make even the Ignorance a transparent robe Through which shall shine the brilliant limbs of Truth And Truth shall be a sun on Nature’s head And Truth shall be the guide of Nature’s steps And Truth shall gaze out of her nether deeps.” Savitri-708 "The frontiers of the Ignorance shall recede, More and more souls shall enter into light, Minds lit, inspired, the occult summoner hear And lives blaze with a sudden inner flame And hearts grow enamoured of divine delight And human wills tune to the divine will, These separate selves the Spirit’s oneness feel, These senses of heavenly sense grow capable, The flesh and nerves of a strange ethereal joy And mortal bodies of immortality." Savitri-710 Death will exist for him as there are gulfs between multiple planes of intermediate Consciousness. His task in this birth is to bridge as many gulfs as possible through the movement of vertical Consciousness or through a four-fold union with the Divine. When all the gulfs are bridged, then there will be a free flow of the highest energy to the Lowest planes and that is the hour of closure to physical immortality. This is a task for him left in All Life to attain. OM TAT SAT Read More To discover new things in material life is the object of mental Research. Behind the material life there is a vast domain of subtle physical, subtle vital and subtle mental planes. To discover the truths of that world is the object of Spiritual Research. This discovery will be still extended to Psychic within, Spiritual, universal, Supramental and Bliss planes above the head and Subconscient and Inconscient planes below the feet. The Mother confirms that when our discovery of new wisdom is a ‘direct expression and creation of a light which is above us’ then ‘That is the only case in which one can say that the thought is our own.’ In this creation nothing is our own except what has descended to us through Divine Will, Divine Knowledge and Divine Love. We carry that wealth as Soul Force in succeeding births and bodies.(Refer: The Mother/TMCW-8/Questions and Answers-1956/p-345) “The work of achieving a continuity which permits one to go up and down (in Consciousness) and bring into the material what is above, is done inside the consciousness. He who is meant to do it, the Avatar, even if he were shut up in a prison and saw nobody and never moved out, still would he do the work, because it is a work in the consciousness, a work of connection between the Supermind and the material being. He does not need to be recognised, he need have no outward power in order to be able to establish this conscious connection. Once, however, the connection is made, it must have its effect in the outward world in the form of a new creation, beginning with a model town and ending with a perfect world.” The Mothe r The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol.3/p-179,

Auroprem's Savitri Study Editor's Note I offer this work, ‘Savitri understanding of Auroprem’ at the Lotus Feet of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo for Their Divine Manifestation, our Divine transformation and for Their sole satisfaction only. We have accepted Savitri as a book of pure Spiritual experience where knowledge on this terrestrial objective World, the Supraterrestrial world linking the Terrestrial with Supracosmic and Supracosmic Source are extensively explored. In this paper, an effort has been made to open towards the Lord’s limitless vision and higher Words from above and it may not be considered as the final verdict on the unfathomable Mysteries but as an initial preliminary approach of our building relation and contact with the Supreme. Here also many of the emotional feelings of Auroprem are taken into account because the Divine takes care of our Personal and Impersonal needs and He suffers through our limitations to lead us toward His Absolute state. I offer this paper again at Their Lotus Feet, to transform this initial approach as an occasion and field of constant renovation and restatement and with each revision we are able to overcome some errors related to our understanding of the book. These errors were observed while identifying the planes of Consciousness from which each line of Savitri has descended. I also issue this declaration that like Auroprem , I too am a beginner and learner in Savitri’s eternal unfolding of Truth and all our visions, observations, understandings and comments require change with our new revelation, realisation, elevation, sublimation and reversal of Consciousness. This manifestation is necessary for the purpose of learning and practice of sadhana and not meant for giving knowledge to others. We have taken this Savitri study as part of our Sadhana (1) to illumine those parts which are having direct Contact with the Divine and this Spiritual endeavour is subordinated by (2) intellectual action of partly understanding the mysteries and truths and hierarchies of Consciousness it has explored. In order to understand each line of Savitri , we have gathered together and taken the task of collecting the complementary lines from the same book and The Mother and Sri Aurobindo’s other writings published in the Centenary Edition and The Mother’s Agenda. We have narrated our understanding on them based on the limitation of our Spiritual experience. This exercise continued through decades and now we are going through its third revision. During each revision, we discover our error and limitation and particularly we have amended our stand related with planes of Consciousness from which each line of Savitri has descended. This exercise we understand as a means of tracing a path of own sadhana and a means of transcending our existing limitations through the movement of Consciousness. We have identified ten planes of Consciousness. They are in the following ascending order: 1: Inconscient Self and Inconscient Sheath 2: Subconscient Self and Subconscient Sheath 3: True Physical Being and Subtle Physical Sheath 4: True Vital Being and Subtle Vital Sheath 5: True Mental Being and Subtle Mental Sheath 6: Psychic Being and Psychic Sheath 7: Spiritual Being and Spiritual Sheath 8: Universal Being and Universal Sheath 9: Supramental Being and Supramental Sheath 10: Bliss Self and Bliss Sheath Our approach towards written truth is guided by The Mother And Sri Aurobindo’s following directives: 1: “Only those Scriptures, religions, philosophies which can be thus constantly renewed, relived, their stuff of permanent truth constantly reshaped and developed in the inner thought and spiritual experience of a developing humanity, continue to be of living importance to mankind. The rest remain as monuments of the past, but have no actual force or vital impulse for the future....The traditions of the past are very great in their own place, in the past, but I do not see why we should merely repeat them and not go farther. In the spiritual development of the consciousness upon earth the great past ought to be followed by a greater future…” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-5 CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-480 2: “…all truth and practice too strictly formulated becomes old and loses much, if not all, of its virtue; it must be constantly renovated by fresh streams of spirit revivifying the dead and dying vehicle and changing it, if it is to acquire a new life.” “For the sadhaka of the integral Yoga it is necessary to remember that no written Shastra, however great its authority or however large its spirit, can be more than a partial expression of the eternal Knowledge. He will use, but never bind himself even by the greatest Scripture. Where the Scripture is profound, wide, catholic, it may exercise upon him an influence for the highest good and of incalculable importance. It may be associated in his experience with his awakening to crowning verities and his realisation of the highest experiences.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23 The Synthesis of Yoga/p-5 CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-55 3: “In a sense, therefore, each man in this path has his own method of Yoga. Yet are there certain broad lines of working common to all which enable us to construct not indeed a routine system, but yet some kind of Shastra or scientific method of the synthetic Yoga....“So also one may say that the perfection of the integral Yoga will come when each man is able to follow his own path of Yoga , pursuing the development of his own nature in its upsurging towards that which transcends the nature. For freedom is the final law and the last consummation.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/THE SYNTHESIS OF YOGA/p-46-47 & 57 4: “An integral and synthetic Yoga needs especially not to be bound by any written or traditional Shastra; for while it embraces the knowledge received from the past, it seeks to organise it anew for the present and the future. (A Sadhak of integral Yoga is authorised) An absolute liberty of experience and of the restatement of knowledge in new terms and new combinations is the condition of its self-formation. Seeking to embrace all life in itself, it is in the position not of a pilgrim following the highroad to his destination, but, to that extent at least, of a path-finder hewing his way through a virgin forest.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/THE SYNTHESIS OF YOGA/p-56-57 5: “The ways have been built, the capacity to follow them has been developed, the goal or last height of the creation is manifest; all that is left is for each soul to reach individually the right stage and turn of its development, enter into the spiritual ways and pass by its own chosen path out of this inferior existence. But we have supposed that there is a farther intention, — not only a revelation of the Spirit, but a radical and integral transformation of Nature.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-22/THE LIFE DIVINE/p-922-923 6: “This depends a great deal on the degree of the sadhak’s development, you see. If he is developed and conscious enough to be in direct contact with the spiritual Force which is working behind the words, then the word is only an excuse. But if for him it must pass through his mental understanding in order to have its effect, then the word takes on a much greater importance. It depends on the degree of development… If one is capable of receiving directly, then one opens a book for instance, finds a sentence and has an illumination; because it was just the word one was waiting for in order to put himself into contact with the Force he needed to take the next step…Otherwise one must take a book, study it, read it sentence by sentence, word by word, and then reflect and then understand it and then assimilate it and then, later, very slowly, after the assimilation and understanding, it begins to have an effect on the character and one makes some progress…In one case it is a direct contact, you see, and just one sentence, one word... one reads a word, reads a sentence, and has an illumination. And then one receives all the Force that one needs. The other is the path of the learned man, the scholar, who is an intellectual being and needs to learn, reflect, assimilate, reason about all he has learnt, in order to make progress. It is long, it is laborious.” The Mother TMCW-7/Questions and Answers-1955/p-341-342, 7: “The importance of Savitri is immense. Its subject is universal. Its revelation is prophetic. The time spent in its atmosphere is not wasted. Take all the time necessary to see this exhibition. It will be a happy compensation for the feverish haste men put now in all they do.” The Mother TMCW-13/Words of the Mother-I/p-26 10 February 1967 8: “Every time I read Savitri , I feel as if I am reading it for the first time, really. It’s not that I understand differently, it’s that its completely new: I never read it before! It’s odd. Its at least the fourth time I read it. And truly there’s everything in it. All the things I’ve discovered lately were there. And I hadn’t seen it. It’s odd. The first time I read it was a revelation; it hung together perfectly well from beginning to end, and I felt I had understood (I did understand something). The second time I read it, I said to myself, “But this isn’t the same thing as what I read!...” It hung together, it made up a whole – and I understood something else. Then, recently when I read, at every passage I said to myself, “How new this is! And how the things I have found since are there!” Today again, that’s how it is, as if I read it for the first time! And it puts me into contact with the things I have just discovered. It’s a miraculous book! (The Mother laughs) We’ll continue in the same way.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-6th June-1970 9: “I am not doing it (Savitri translation) to show it to people or to have anyone read it, but to remain in Savitri's atmosphere, for I love that atmosphere. It will give me an hour of concentration, and I'll see if by chance. I have no gift for poetry, but I'll see if it comes! (It surely won't come from a mentality developed in this present existence there's no poetic gift!) So it's interesting, I'll see if anything comes. I am going to give it a try. I know that light. I am immediately plunged into it each time I read Savitri. It is a very, very beautiful light… So now I don't mind finishing The Synthesis (of Yoga). I was a little bothered because I have no other books by Sri Aurobindo to translate that can help me in my sadhana: there was only The Synthesis . As I said, it always came right on time, just when it was needed for a particular experience… All his other books that could help me are already translated. And with Savitri, the idea isn't to make a translation, but to SEE. To try something. To give me the daily experience of that contact. I had some magnificent experiences when I read it the first time (two years ago, I believe). Wonderful, wonderful experiences! And since then, each time I read those lines, the same thing happens – not the same experience, but I come in contact with the same realm.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-18.09.1962 10: “He (Sri Aurobindo ) has made the work easy for us. "SAVITRI" is his whole Yoga of transformation, and this yoga now comes for the first time to the earth consciousness. I think that man is not yet ready to receive it. It is too high and too vast for him. He cannot understand it, grasp it for it is not by the mind that one can understand "SAVITRI ". It needs spiritual experiences to understand and assimilate it. The more one advances on the path of Yoga the more one assimilates.” The Mother The Mother’s Talk to Mona Sarkar/ page-5-6 11: “(Then the Mother takes up the translation of “Savitri” and stops abruptly, as if she were following something with her eyes:) …As big as this, a sun, a sun scintillating with Sri Aurobindo’s light, when I write, between me and the notebook, and it moves about with the pen! It’s this big (a big orange), it’s Sri Aurobindo’s light, blue, that special blue, silver blue, scintillating, and it moves about every time I write in this notebook! (laughing) That’s why I have difficulty seeing: it moves about with the pen!” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-6/p-290 “(The Mother copies out in her thick white notebook a few lines from her translation of “Savitri.” ) … Near my pen, there is a small disk of Sri Aurobindo’s light, which sparkles and sparkles…. I see it more than my handwriting. It’s no bigger then this (two inches) and it shines, it shines brightly-blue light, of the silvery blue that was Sri Aurobindo’s blue. It shines and shines, and it moves along with my fingers. And when I speak, when I say things that “come,” there are two disks (I don’t know why). Not one, but two, and they are bigger (about four inches), one above the other. When I tell of an experience, for instance, or answer a question, there are two of them, slightly bigger. And when I concentrate on someone while calling the Lord then, generally, near the shoulder (gesture between the person’s head and shoulder), there is a great golden light, like that, which sparkles and sparkles, shines, and shines, very brightly, all the while. And when the light goes, the concentration goes. But just now, it was assuming, it was quite small like this, moving along with my pen. Now it’s finished, gone! (Mother laughs)” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-7/p-20 12: “And for Sri Aurobindo’s writings (not all), it is the same; there are certain things I had truly understood, in the sense that they were already understood far more deeply and truly than even an enlightened mentality understands them—they were already felt and lived—and now, they take on a completely different meaning. I read some of those sentences or ideas that are expressed in few words, three or four words, in which he does not say things fully: he simply seems to let them fall like drops of water; when I read them at the time (sometimes not long ago; sometimes only two or three years ago), I had an experience which are far deeper or vaster than that of intelligence, but now...a spark of Light suddenly appears in them, and I say, “Oh, but I had not seen that!” And it’s the whole understanding or CONTACT with things that I had never had before. It happened to me again just yesterday evening. And I said to myself, “But then...then there are in that certain things...we still have a long, long, long way to go to truly understand them.” Because that spark of Light is something very, very pure— very intense and very pure — and it contains an absolute. And since it contains that (I have not always felt it; I have felt other things, I have felt great light, I have felt a great power, I have felt something that already explained everything, but this is something else, it is something which is beyond), so I concluded (laughing), “Well, we still have a long way to go before we can understand Sri Aurobindo! ”” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-5/p-197-98, The complementary line related with the Mother’s above Spiritual experience: “As when before the eye that wakes in sleep Is opened the sombre binding of a book, Illumined letterings are seen which kept A golden blaze of thought inscribed within, A marvellous form responded to her gaze Whose sweetness justified life’s blindest pain; All Nature’s struggle was its easy price, The universe and its agony seemed worth while.” Savitri-679 This ‘Auroprem’s Savitri Study’ is still very far from the above-mentioned vision. Still, it aspires for a brief touch of all the multiple planes of Spiritual experiences. It has made an initial effort to live in Their untiring Divine influence, Divine company and Divine atmosphere which can substitute the tiring transitory human influence, human company and fragile human love. Savitri gives us this message that all aspiring man can ascend from mere man to the consciousness of ascending integral Godhead and this journey towards imperishable Light and lost lucent immensity, which can begin with the faint wealth of ecstasy and prayer, even when we lie embedded in ordinary earthly consciousness and fail to look into our Souls and culminates life that reposes in the Law of exceeding ecstasy. It has transcended the four kinds of exclusive Spiritual experiences followed by four-fold exclusive Ananda of traditional schools of Yoga and declares firmly that a joy becomes imperfect if it is not shared by all. (“Imperfect is the joy not shared by all.” Savitri-686, “Her light, her bliss he asked for earth and men.” Savitri-315) It has identified the power of human love and effort as vain to ‘break earth’s seal of ignorance and death’ (Savitri-315) and the all powerful Divine Love as ‘sealed book’ for developing Souls or the beginners of integral Yoga (“The doors of light are sealed to common mind” Savitri-689 and "To these high-peaked dominions sealed to our search,” Savitri-46 ) and does not rule out the transformation of human love into Divine Love through consecration and activation of higher instrumentation of the Spirit. (Our human "love has grown greater by that mighty touch” Savitri-719, "Our love is the heavenly seal of the Supreme." Savitri-633) The Power of Love has opened the door of swift Spiritual Evolution but has not yet intensified to conquer Death. Savitri drives Souls of strong to uncover that shadow-less Love to which Death and Fate will submit and is capable of bridging the gulf between the surface-physical life as we know it and the Supramental Ananda that will manifest. Before the manifestation of the Divine Love of Mahalakshmi, the Divine Power of Mahakali and the Divine Truth of Maheswari must be activated in the prepared human vessel. This swift Spiritual evolution of Mahakali can be activated by the reconciliation of Karma Yoga, representing Mahasaraswat i and Jnana Yoga , representing the Maheswari aspect of the Divine Mother. The Gita hints that by reconciliation of Karma and Jnana Yoga , entire purification of Nature, atma suddhaye (The Gita-5.11) is possible and a constant union with the Divine, nitya yukta , (The Gita-6.10, 7.17, 8.14, 9.14, 12.2) is practicable in the long run by transformation of lower Nature. This alone paves the passage clear for single-minded devotion, ekabhakti (The Gita-7.17) of Bhakti Yoga and the manifestation of the highest Divine Love of Sachchidananda Consciousness is practicable. The Permanent descent of Supreme Love from Sachchidananda Consciousness is the culmination of Savitri’s teaching and in the Mother’s experience, “Ultimately, nothing but omnipotence could convert the world, convince the world. The world isn't ready to experience supreme Love. Supreme Love eliminates all problems, even the problem of creation: there are no more problems, I know it since that experience [of April 13, 1962]. But the world isn't ready yet, it may take a few thousand years. Although it is beginning to be ready for the manifestation of supreme Power (which seems to indicate that this will manifest first). And this supreme Power would result from a CONSTANT identification…But this "constancy" isn't yet established: one is identified and then one isn't, is and then isn't, so things get delayed indefinitely. You wind up doing exactly what you tell others not to do – one foot here and one foot there! It just won't do.” (The Mother’s Agenda-04.07.1962) The Mother stresses that constant Divine union is linked to the difficult transformation of Nature; without this transformation, one can experience intermittent Divine union. The Mother stresses the constant penetration of the Divine Force into the material world, which is possible by building a passage in the intermediate planes of Consciousness. “To bring the Divine Love and Beauty and Ananda into the world is, indeed, the whole crown and essence of our Yoga. But it has always seemed to me impossible unless there comes as its support and foundation and guard the Divine Truth — what I call the Supramental — and its Divine Power. Otherwise, Love itself blinded by the confusions of this present consciousness may stumble in its human receptacles and, even otherwise may find itself unrecognised, rejected or rapidly degenerating and lost in the frailty of man’s inferior nature. But when it comes in the Divine Truth and Power, Divine Love descends first as something transcendent and universal and out of that transcendence and universality it applies itself to persons according to the Divine Truth and Will, creating a vaster, greater, purer personal love than any the human mind or heart can now imagine. It is when one has felt this descent that one can be really an instrument for the birth and action of the Divine Love in the world.” (CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-333) This personal Divine Love witnesses its acme when, after return from Death, Satyavan said to Savitri , "I have turned away from the celestials’ joy And heaven’s insufficient without thee." (Savitri-717) Before arriving at this ‘vaster, greater, purer personal' Supramental Love, one can experience the intermediate Psychic Love which is ‘Much sweeter seemed than any rapture known’ (Savitri-603) and its ‘momentary and escaping thrill’ (Savitri-603) cannot be recompensed by ‘Earth or all-conquering heaven.’ (Savitri-603) And also one can experience intermediate Spiritual love, which is ‘The Bliss that none can ever hope to taste.’ (Savitri-548) To recapitulate, this Auroprem’s Savitri study has emerged as a cradle of our hard Spiritual endeavour. We offer this study and practice to the Divine Mother and the Lord and pray Them to grant this temporary ladder without as a Soul-saving cradle of the long beginning of the Spiritual journey and help us to build a permanent scaffold within. With its help, the gulf between all the ten planes can be bridged and the highest Sachchidananda Consciousness can flow freely and abundantly into the Subconscient and Inconscient planes. Lastly, I offer this incomplete and unending exercise of ‘Auroprem’s Savitri Study’ at Their Lotus Feet with the conviction, "that true understanding comes later, after having tried to put it into practice." (The Mother's Centenary Works/Vol-12/On Education/p-204) Our motive for extensive study and practice of Their Teachings is to discover and trace out new Overhead Truth abundantly. OM TAT SAT At T heir Feet, S.A. Maa Krishna The Mother “....I am waiting—I am millions of years old and I am waiting (to complete the Divine task).” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-6/p-347, “Since the beginning of the earth, wherever and whenever there was the possibility of manifesting a ray of the Consciousness, I was there.” The Mother The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol-13/p-37, 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn Summary or A Brief Restatement: This Book-1, Canto-1 has much Spiritual importance as the content of the whole book is compressed in this single Canto. The Canto begins with the message from the beginning of this earth which is also ‘the hour before the Gods awake’ (Savitri-1) and ends with the message of the future earth when Satyavan will conquer physical death and this is also identified as the hour of 'a greater dawn.' (Savitri-724) The time spent from the beginning of creation to the end of creation, which is known as All Time, and the life spent through the subtle links of the union from the beginning of creation to the end of Divinised creation, known here as All Life. Satyavan, the symbol of the Supreme's Incarnation, is also a representative symbol of 'soul of man climbing to God' (Savitri-703) who searches only for Savitri , in each birth from the beginning of creation or 'Desiring me since first the world began.' (Savitri-614). Savitri, the symbol of purest Soul, who lives very close to earth's atmosphere always, either in the form of emanation or incarnation, has a single issue in each birth: 'This was the day when Satyavan must die.' She gathered and accumulated her Spiritual energy through all life and all Time which is symbolised here as ‘Twelve swift-winged months’ (Savitri-431) and ‘this day returning Satyavan must die.’ (Savitri-431) This accumulation of fourfold Soul-force and fourfold Spiritual Force in each birth is given utmost importance in the Yoga of Self-perfection, as hinted in Sri Aurobindo's principal Teaching, The Synthesis of Yoga . One may note that these accumulated Soul forces are not lost with the death of the body but accompany in successive births for the great purpose of Divine transformation and divinised life. The whole of Savitri is written from a plane of Cosmic and Transcendent Consciousness ("The calm delight that weds one soul to all," Savitri-6) where 'All grew a consecration and a rite' (Savitri-4) and all the ten subtle planes meet each other, linking earth and heaven. So this book gives us a lesson to learn 'the adventure of consciousness' (Savitri-2) and removes the gulf created between ten Selves and ten sheaths and the flow of persistent and slow dynamic Divine energy 'Persuaded the inert black quietude' (Savitri-3) to transform Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths. This Canto gives the bright foreknowledge of the advent of 'a marvellous birth' (Savitri-5) of the feminine Avatar, which is 'A Form from far beatitudes' (Savitri-4) of the Sachchidananda plane. Her Presence and Power are 'Too perfect to be held by death-bound hearts.' (Savitri-5) Her immortal work is 'to confront death on her road.' (Savitri-7) Even in the hour of grim meeting with death and fear, 'No cry broke from her lips, no call for aid;...Calm was her face and courage kept her mute.' (Savitri-8 ) 'Her spirit opened to the Spirit in all...The universal Mother's love was hers.' (Savitri-8) All the descriptions in this book are in symbolic language meant for undergoing inner Spiritual experiences. For a Sadhak of integral Yoga, Savitri and Satyavan live within his heart centre, and in each birth, he has to accumulate Soul Force for a confrontation with Ignorance, Falsehood, Suffering and Death. If we confine these symbols to literal and earthly meaning, it will be a Spiritual blunder that may culminate in 'the oblivion that succeeds the' (Savitri-3) Spiritual fall. The soul-saving non-escapist bare and absolute Truth revealed in Savitri (It recognises life initially as a field of manifestation in which there is a progressive evolution of the soul and the nature in Matter and finally the complete revelation of Sachchidananda in life.) is disturbing to the ordinary mind, liberated Souls, later Vedantists , Illusionists and Nirvanists . Hence, the Spiritual Message of Savitri is for strong and pure Souls who are destined to reconcile the Spirit and Matter of ancient Vedantic doctrine. The Savitri within or a Savitri Sadhak will not remain indifferent towards many Souls dying every day, and every moment, rather he will accumulate Spiritual energy in the spirit of confronting death in universalised Consciousness (in addition to a Psychic attitude of becoming a learner of the lesson of the unfolding of endless Truth and a Child in the hand of Divine Mother) as described here: " Although our fallen minds forget to climb, Although our human stuff resists or breaks, She keeps her will that hopes to divinise clay; Failure cannot repress, defeat o’erthrow; Time cannot weary her nor the Void subdue, The ages have not made her passion less; No victory she admits of Death or Fate. Always she drives the soul to new attempt; Always her magical infinitude Forces to aspire the inert brute elements; As one who has all infinity to waste, She scatters the seed of the Eternal’s strength On a half-animate and crumbling mould, Plants heaven’s delight in the heart’s passionate mire, Pours godhead’s seekings into a bare beast frame, Hides immortality in a mask of death." Savitri-354 A Sadhak's Consciousness will undulate between Universal and Transcendent Consciousness. When his Consciousness is in the Universal plane, he is intimately linked with world problems. When he moves to the Transcendent plane, he becomes a stranger to the world's problems, and the Transcendent energy will be aware of the Subconscient and Inconscient transformation, which is described as follows: (Savitri said to Death God) "A traveller of the million roads of life, His (Satyavan's) steps familiar with the lights of heaven Tread without pain the sword-paved courts of hell; There he descends to edge eternal joy. Love’s golden wings have power to fan thy void: The eyes of love gaze starlike through death’s night, The feet of love tread naked hardest worlds. He labours in the depths, exults on the heights; He shall remake thy universe, O Death.” Savitri-592 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “Immobile in herself, she gathered force. (Savitri utilised time and space exclusively for the accumulation of Spiritual energy.) This was the day when Satyavan must die.” Savitri-10 2 / Book 1, Canto 2 - The Issue Summary or A Brief Restatement: This Canto makes us aware of 'An absolute supernatural darkness' (Savitri-11) that visits the Soul of man while he moves toward God. This evil fate or doom is the child of the past negative energies and the accumulated Soul Force through sadhana, can travel back in time, and illumine the past obscurities and events. Thus, through each Divine intervention, the destiny is rewritten. Savitri is here the symbol of Spirit's Timeless dynamic Power, Paraprakriti, who 'Can lift the yoke imposed by birth in Time.' (Savitri-12) The issue is also, to exhaust 'An old account of suffering' (Savitri-13) and to arrest the wheels of earth’s "Doom this greatness rose.” (Savitri-19) Heaven protected Savitri’s virginity through her pure and dense subtle physical sheath which acted as a 'tranquil shield.' (Savitri-16) “To wrestle with the Shadow she had come” (Savitri-17) “Was her soul's issue thrown with Destiny's dice.” (Savitri-17) Soul and Nature are the dice players. Nature always meets life with Doom. To win the game in all life is the Soul’s issue which 'with her nude spirit measure the Infinite’s night.' (Savitri-13) In this play Soul has to accumulate extreme Spiritual force in the form of 'self's bare reality' (Savitri-14) or 'the superman casts its seed' (Savitri-19) to become mightier than all the material forces of the world and wrestles with them to compel its own transfiguration. This Canto also hints that Savitri had attained universalised Consciousness or 'The great World-Mother now in her arose.' (Savitri-21) This empowers her to open 'the door denied and closed' (Savitri-21) of dark Subconscient and Inconscient sheath and dislodges the past which acts as a block in her immortal journey. This activation of dynamic cosmic Consciousness 'reversed fate's cold dead turn' (Savitri-21) and bursts the bound nature of three Gunas of limited exclusive concentration and opens the door of triple time. Our task in sadhana is to make Death God's throne unsafe (Savitri-18) by undergoing Subconscient and Inconscient Transformation and to change this prison-house of the material world into the opulent kingdom, rajyam samruddham . (The Gita-11.33) OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: "Her will must cancel her body’s destiny. For only the unborn spirit’s timeless power Can lift the yoke imposed by birth in Time." Savitri-12 "The fixity of the cosmic sequences Fastened with hidden inevitable links She must disrupt, dislodge by her soul’s force Her past, a block on the Immortal’s road, Make a rased ground and shape anew her fate." Savitri-12 “Whether to bear with Ignorance and death Or hew the ways of Immortality, To win or lose the godlike game for man , Was her soul's issue thrown with Destiny's dice. But not to submit and suffer was she born; To lead, to deliver was her glorious part.” Savitri-17 “If once it (earth) met the intense original Flame, An answering touch might shatter all measures made And earth sink down with the weight of the Infinite.” Savitri-18 3 / Book 1, Canto 3 - The Yoga Of The Soul's Release A Brief Restatement: Now this Book-1, Canto-3 is the most important Canto for the beginners of integral Yoga. Here it hints how through King Aswapati’s movement of Psychic and Spiritual Consciousness, ten energy centres or ten Selves opened and their corresponding brief actions in the respective ten Sheaths, here known as ‘all Nature.’ It is understood that if one moves the Psychic and Spiritual Consciousness, then one develops the capacity to undergo brief Supramental and Brief Bliss Self experiences and by the pressure of these apex Selves, the Subconscient Self and Inconscient Self open. The opening of ten Selves and Their influence on ten sheaths: " A heavenlier function with a finer mode Lit with its grace man’s outward earthliness; The soul’s experience of its deeper sheaths No more slept drugged by Matter’s dominance." Savitri-27 Inconscient Self: "As a sculptor chisels a deity out of stone He slowly chipped off the dark envelope, Line of defence of Nature’s ignorance, The illusion and mystery of the Inconscient In whose black pall the Eternal (in the form of Inconscient Self) wraps his head That he may act unknown in cosmic Time.” Savitri-36 (the discovery of Inconscient Self) Subconscient Self: "A treasure was found of a supernal Day. In the deep subconscient glowed her jewel-lamp; Lifted, it showed the riches of the Cave Where, by the miser traffickers of sense Unused, guarded beneath Night’s dragon paws, In folds of velvet darkness they sleep Whose priceless value could have saved the world.” Savitri-42 (the discovery of Subconscient Self) True Physical Self: " Even his body’s subtle self within Could raise the earthly parts towards higher things And feel on it the breath of heavenlier air." Savitri-43 True Vital Self: " A deeper interpretation greatened Truth, A grand reversal of the Night and Day; All the world’s values changed heightening life’s aim ; A wiser word, a larger thought came in Than what the slow labour of human mind can bring, A secret sense awoke that could perceive A Presence and a Greatness everywhere." Savitri-42 True Mental Self: “Apart he lived in his mind’s solitude, A demigod shaping the lives of men: One soul’s ambition lifted up the race; A Power worked, but none knew whence it came." Savitri-44 Psychic Self: "His soul breaks out to join the Oversoul, His life is oceaned by that superlife." Savitri-24 Spiritual Self: " A beam of the Eternal smites his heart, His thought stretches into infinitude; All in him turns to spirit vastnesses." Savitri-23-24 “Always the power poured back like sudden rain, Or slowly in his breast a presence grew;” Savitri-35 Universal Self: " He has drunk from the breasts of the Mother of the worlds; A topless Supernature fills his frame: She adopts his spirit’s everlasting ground As the security of her changing world And shapes the figure of her unborn mights." Savitri-24 " A union of the Real with the unique, A gaze of the Alone from every face, The presence of the Eternal in the hours Widening the mortal mind’s half-look on things, Bridging the gap between man’s force and Fate Made whole the fragment-being we are here." Savitri-35-36 Supramental Self: “Inspired by silence and the closed eyes' sight (Supramental action of King Aswapati) His force could work with a new luminous art On the crude material from which all is made And the refusal of Inertia's mass And the grey front of the world's Ignorance And nescient Matter and the huge error of life." Savitri-36 “Hardly for a moment glimpsed viewless to Mind, (Brief Supramental experience.) As if a torch held by a power of God, The radiant world of the everlasting Truth Glimmered like a faint star bordering the night Above the golden Overmind’s shimmering ridge.” Savitri-41 Bliss Self: "A glory and a rapture and a charm, The All-Blissful sat unknown within the heart; (the King was not aware of the Bliss Mother coming down to live in the heart centre.) Earth’s pains were the ransom of its prisoned delight. A glad communion tinged the passing hours; The days were travellers on a destined road, The nights companions of his musing spirit." Savitri-43 This movement of Consciousness is complex in nature, and for our understanding purposes, we have simplified it. This is made on the basis of our study and understanding of ‘The Synthesis of Yoga’ book. First, by practising any of the triple Yoga, the Spiritual being opens and by the pressure of static Spirit or ascent of the Spirit, the universal Self, Supramental Self and Bliss Self open. By the pressure of dynamic Spirit, the Psychic being, and triple Selves of true Physical, true Vital and true Mental being open. By the pressure of the Supramental Self, the Subconscient and Inconscient Selves open. Thus, the movement of consciousness undulates between the Inconscient and Bliss plane. Through these movements, the ten Sheaths are purified, transformed, enlarged and perfected. The Gita hints at the movement of Consciousness from Kshara (Psychic) Purusha to Akshara (Spiritual) Purusha or from waking trance to non-waking trance, which substitutes the movements of consciousness between the three gunas. Then, after a long movement between the Psychic and Spiritual plane, one is considered fit to open the Supramental Self or Purshottama and Bliss Self, Paramatma . This triple movement of Consciousness hinted in the Gita is extensively developed in integral Yoga as movement between the ten Selves and their ten Sheaths. Now, in other Cantos, we will experience King Aswapati’s extensive movement in different planes of Consciousness, till King is established in Cosmic, Supramental and Bliss planes. For a higher Spiritual life, this Canto insists on calling down more and more silence, peace and calmness and to maintain equality in all circumstances and in all happenings. By maintaining these conditions, Consciousness can best experience its vertical movement by replacing the earlier circular and arrested movements of the three gunas . OM TAT SAT The Important Secret of this chapter: (Discovery of Spiritual Being and Universal Being) “Each action left the footprints of a god,” Savitri-23 “A spirit that is a flame of God abides, A fiery portion of the Wonderful, Artist of his own beauty and delight, Immortal in our mortal poverty.” Savitri-23 “As so he grew into his larger self,” Savitri-26 (Cosmic Self) “He neared the still consciousness sustaining all.” Savitri-32 “He comes unseen into our darker parts And, curtained by the darkness, does his work, A subtle and all-knowing guest and guide, Till they too feel the need and will to change. All here must learn to obey a higher law, Our body’s cells must hold the Immortal’s flame." Savitri-35 "At last was won a firm spiritual poise, A constant lodging in the Eternal's realm, A safety in the Silence and the Ray, A settlement in the Immutable. “ Savitri-36 (King Aswapati’s realisation of Spiritual Being, Akshara Purusha ) 4 / Book 1, Canto 4 - The Secret Knowledge A Brief Restatement: The King lived in the waking trance of Psychic being and non-waking trance of Spiritual being or "He travels on through waking and through sleep." (Savitri-72) Psychic being and Spiritual being have the capacity to call down brief Supramental energy and brief Bliss energy. This Canto also hints that by the brief action of Supramental energy, King's Subconscient Self and Inconscient Self opened or "With the Truth-Light strike earth’s massive roots of trance, Wake a dumb self in the inconscient depths." (Savitri-72) Here, the Secret Knowledge is divided into five parts. First part: This Canto hints that when we are unconscious and feel ourselves stagnant, there are parts of being that grow towards the Divine during that period. There is much hope here for the beginners of Yoga, which is identified as the first secret of Sadhana . “Even when we fail to look into our souls Or lie embedded in earthly consciousness, Still have we parts that grow towards the light, Yet are there luminous tracts and heavens serene And Eldorados of splendour and ecstasy And temples to the godhead none can see.” Savitri-46-47 When we live in darkness and our tamasic mind is the only lamp in that obscure field, there too, the Truth-Light enters like a thief and its charm and sweetness open many closed doors of our life. About this mystery we must be aware and open: "When darkness deepens strangling the earth’s breast And man’s corporeal mind is the only lamp, As a thief’s in the night shall be the covert tread Of one who steps unseen into his house. A Voice ill-heard shall speak, the soul obey, A Power into mind’s inner chamber steal, A charm and sweetness open life’s closed doors And beauty conquer the resisting world, The Truth-Light capture Nature by surprise, A stealth of God compel the heart to bliss And earth grow unexpectedly divine." Savitri-55 Its complementary lines are found in other Canto: (Savitri said after her Psychic being is Supramentalised.) “If the chamber’s door is even a little ajar, What then can hinder God from stealing in Or who forbid his kiss on the sleeping soul?” Savitri-649 (Divine said) “Even the many shall some answer make And bear the splendour of the Divine’s rush And his (Divine’s) impetuous (hasty) knock at unseen doors.” Savitri-709 When we live alone with ourselves, leaving our cherished guests outside, that is the condition of meeting the Divine and through the movement of Divine Consciousness, the gulfs between different subtle worlds are bridged. "In moments when the inner lamps are lit And the life’s cherished guests are left outside, Our spirit sits alone and speaks to its gulfs." Savitri-47 This first part of Secret Knowledge suggests that all men knowingly or unknowingly, consciously or unconsciously receive the Divine's touch but a few of them are capable of catching and holding the Divine flame and can lead a greater and higher Spiritual life. All can enter Supramental’s huge store for a very brief period with new creations, new inventions and new opulence at their disposal but none can stay in that world permanently. Only a few, who have a strong subtle and causal body can enter the Supramental world for a longer period and can descend into the Subconscient and Inconscient night for a longer period and experience conscious transformation. "A fire has come and touched men’s hearts and gone; A few have caught flame and risen to greater life." Savitri-7 "Only they knew what Mind could take and build Out of the secret Supermind’s huge store." Savitri-187 “There man can visit but there he cannot live.” Savitri-659 Second part: This Canto hints that for those who are aware of the above mystery, the Divine Chooses a few of them as His instrument and by the touch of His infinite Grace and Force, their frontal Nature is predominated by Silence, Stillness, Calm and Peace. "In the unfolding process of the Self Sometimes the inexpressible Mystery Elects a human vessel of descent. A breath comes down from a supernal air, A Presence is born, a guiding Light awakes, A stillness falls upon the instruments: Fixed, motionless like a marble monument, Stone-calm, the body is a pedestal Supporting a figure of eternal Peace.” Savitri-47 Third Part: Awareness of the Guardians of the Supramental world or World-Creators who oversee (1) Fate, (2) Chance, and (3) Divine Work through Divine Will. If we do this Yoga, then these invisible Guardians from the Supramental world will come down to help us, help in our ascent of the Soul, and give protection to our Sadhana life, they will help to change our destiny, transform chance into decreed Spiritual life and will expedite the Divine work, Divine Purification, transformation, and perfection. “A greater Personality sometimes Possesses us which yet we know is ours:” Savitri-47 “He (man) is ignorant of the meaning of his life, He is ignorant of his high and splendid fate. Only the Immortals on their deathless heights Dwelling beyond the walls of Time and Space, Masters of living, free from the bonds of Thought, Who are overseers of Fate and Chance and Will And experts of the theorem of world-need, Can see the Idea, the Might that change Time’s course, Come maned with light from undiscovered worlds, Hear, while the world toils on with its deep blind heart, The galloping hooves of the unforeseen event, Bearing the superhuman Rider, near And, impassive to earth’s din and startled cry, Return to the silence of the hills of God; As lightning leaps, as thunder sweeps, they pass And leave their mark on the trampled breast of Life.” Savitri-53-54 “Immaculate in self-knowledge and self-power, Calm they (Immortals) repose on the eternal Will. Only his (Divine Will) law they count and him obey; They have no goal to reach, no aim to serve. Implacable in their timeless purity, All barter or bribe of worship they refuse; Unmoved by cry of revolt and ignorant prayer They reckon not our virtue and our sin; They bend not to the voices that implore, They hold no traffic with error and its reign; They are guardians of the silence of the Truth, They are keepers of the immutable decree. A deep surrender is their source of might, A still identity their way to know, Motionless is their action like a sleep.” Savitri-57 Fourth part: The relation between the Creator and creation and the Creator’s blind love and care for the creation without seeing any of her defects, limitations and faults. This is also Prakriti Yajna, a Vedic Sacrifice, more powerful than Purusha Yajna, a Vedantic sacrifice. Prakriti Yajna is a very important sadhana for developed Souls. How the Creator is taking care of creation, and how He has made Himself a slave of her are most beautifully and most profoundly described by Sri Aurobindo , very rare in earth’s Spiritual history. This is identified as the fourth secret of Sadhana which culminates in discovering the relation of dual Avatara in our heart centre. We can practice this surrender literally as described in this Canto and will benefit most from this exercise. “As one too great for him he (Divine) worships her (Creation); He (Divine) adores her (Creation) as his regent of desire...” Savitri-62 “This whole wide world is only he and she.” Savitri-63 Fifth part: A seeker of truth is a world Adventurer and Voyager of multiple unknown oceans representing ten subtle bodies or sheaths and a Cosmologist exploring the obscure geography of three firm lands of surface life, mind and body. A Sadhaka must be a Kshatriya Soul force, having the courage 'to affront the far-off perilous main' (Savitri-70) and to fight outer and inner endless war and ready to bear inner and outer wounds that are slow to heal till he traces a path to the Supramental world with a new or transformed body and mind. Till this discovery, he carries Divine Mother's sealed orders and sails 'on Inconscient's fathomless sea.' (Savitri-71) In Ashram activity, most of the inmates are Shudra Soul force, they give service and hold Ashram living by practice of obedience but they recoil from any great unknown adventure. So the presence of a few more Kshatriya Soul Force is felt and with their help, the adventure of Consciousness can be expedited. "He is the adventurer and cosmologist Of a magic earth’s obscure geography." Savitri-69 “This is the sailor on the flow of Time, This is World-Matter’s slow discoverer, Who, launched into this small corporeal birth, Has learned his craft in tiny bays of self, But dares at last unplumbed infinitudes, A voyager upon eternity’s seas. In his world-adventure’s crude initial start Behold him ignorant of his godhead’s force, Timid initiate of its vast design. An expert captain of a fragile craft, A trafficker in small impermanent wares, At first he hugs the shore and shuns the breadths, Dares not to affront the far-off perilous main.” Savitri-69-70 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “The Spirit's bare and absolute potencies (Last perfection of integral Yoga.) Burn in the solitude of the thoughts of God.” Savitri-57 “With the Truth-Light strike earth's massive roots of trance, (Supramental light will strike the Inconscient sheath and penetrate into it.) Wake a dumb self in the inconscient depths (dumb self is the Inconscient Self) And raise a lost Power from its python sleep (lost Power is the Inconscient Self.) That the eyes of the Timeless might look out from Time And the world manifest the unveiled Divine.” Savitri-72-73 5/ Book 1, Canto 5 - The Yoga Of The Spirit's Freedom and Greatness A Brief Restatement : Here, the King’s adventure into Spiritual planes has been revealed and they are divided into seven parts. First part: The transition from ordinary life to Supramental life where ‘all (the knowledge of three times and Spiritual history of earth.) is for ever known’ (Savitri-74) and ‘all that the Gods have learned is there self known...And the secret code of the history of the world.’ (Savitri-74) The King Aswapati was able to build in Ignorance the steps of Light, saw the unshaped thought in soulless form, knew Matter pregnant with Spiritual sense, Mind dared the study of the Unknowable; Life was the gestation of the Golden Child, in the Void 'he saw throned the Omniscience supreme.' (Savitri-76) Second part: He entered the experience of Vedantic ascent to ‘unseen spiritual heights’ (Savitri-76) without any descending link and solution to the problem of the earth nature. The King was like 'The infant soul (Dvija) in its small nursery school' and his body is 'ilumined with the indwelling God.' (Savitri-76) The greatness of the eternal Spirit appeared but it could not transform Matter. This height of the Spirit repels the lowness of the earthly state and hurriedly glimpsed the imperfection of heavenly things. From cradle to grave he lives with little mental hope, faint rays of happiness, thrills of flesh, Love's broken reflexes of unity, wounded happiness, mutilated ecstasy and forfeited heavenly bliss. He realised partially the Psychic Being, above the limitation of Nature and Fate and realised partially the Spiritual being as 'the Knower beyond Time.' (Savitri-78) Third part: Then he experienced Vedantic ascent like a burning cone of fire and descent of Consciousness, making the cosmic murmur fall still and bear the silence of the Infinite. With the opening of King's Spiritual being, 'he lived immune from earthly hopes' and 'The Silence was his sole companion left.' (Savitri-79) A call he received from intangible height. His Spiritual being was open towards universal light and 'A golden influx flowed through heart and brain;' and A Divine force and current from eternal Seas of Bliss came down into his heart, brain and into his mortal limbs; made him aware of his dynamic occult Omnipotent Source and turned to his immense Spiritual Fate. He listens to the Spiritual being as a bodyless guide and travels back in time, living 'in the hush before the world was born.' (Savitri-80) Fourth part: King Aswapati's this particular experience is often compared with the Mother's experience of Divine Love in (April-13) 1962 and Supramental descent in (29th February) 1956. His being towered into pathless height to meet bare, pure and ruthless Divine Love. A strong Descent of Might, Flame, Beauty, and violent Ecstasy leaped down and enveloped him by penetrating into nerve, heart and brain with its stupendous limbs. By the touch of Divine Love, earth Nature’s obsolete laws were overpowered and the scripts of fixed destiny were abolished. (King's experience of Divine Love:) “A strong Descent leaped down. A Might, a Flame, A Beauty half-visible with deathless eyes, A violent Ecstasy, a Sweetness dire, Enveloped him with its stupendous limbs And penetrated nerve and heart and brain That thrilled and fainted with the epiphany:” (Bliss Self-experience.) Savitri-81 “By a Power more ruthless than Love, happier than Heaven, Taken sovereignly into eternal arms, Haled and coerced by a stark absolute bliss, In a whirlwind circuit of delight and force Hurried into unimaginable depths, Upborne into immeasurable heights, It was torn out from its mortality And underwent a new and bourneless change.” Savitri-81 (The Mother's experience of 13 April, 1962) "Everything was Personal, nothing was individual. This was going on and on and on and on.... The certitude that what is to be done is DONE. All the results of the Falsehood had disappeared: Death was an illusion, Sickness was an illusion, Ignorance was an illusion – something that had no reality, no existence.... Only Love, and Love, and Love, and Love – immense, formidable, stupendous, carrying everything." The Mother's Agenda-April-13, 1962 (King's experience of Supramental descent) "The great hammer-beats of a pent-up world-heart Burst open the narrow dams that keep us safe Against the forces of the universe. The soul and cosmos faced as equal powers. A boundless being in a measureless Time Invaded Nature with the infinite; He saw unpathed, unwalled, his titan scope." Savitri-83 The Mother's experience of Supramental descent on 29th February, 1956: "This evening the Divine Presence, concrete and material, was there present amongst you. I had a form of living gold, bigger than the universe, and I was facing a huge and massive golden door which separated the world from the Divine... As I looked at the door, I knew and willed, in a single movement of consciousness, that THE TIME HAS COME’, and lifting with both hands a mighty golden hammer I struck one blow, one single blow on the door and the door was shattered to pieces... Then the supramental Light and Force and Consciousness rushed down upon earth in an uninterrupted flow." The Mother's Agenda/February 29, 1956 " Even when I had that experience [the ‘first supramental manifestation’ of February 29, 1956], when the Lord said, ‘The time has come,’ well, it was not a complete descent; it was the descent of the Consciousness, the Light, and a part, an aspect of the Power. It was immediately absorbed and swallowed up by the world of Inconscience, and from that moment on it began to work in the atmosphere. But it was not THE thing that comes and gets permanently established; when that happens, we won’t need to speak of it – it will be obvious!... Although the experience of ‘56 was one more forward step, it’s not.... It’s not final." The Mother's Agenda/November 5, 1961 Fifth part: King Aswapati’s experience of Vedic sacrific e (occupied a large section of this Canto, signifying its importance for a developed Soul) resulted first the descent of Divine Mother Force projected here as almighty Occultist, who plunged from graded Law of Timeless Eternity into the Time. Then up a golden ladder carrying the Soul from birth to death, the beauty of the Matter’s shapes, life’s adventure and delight and glory of the multitudinous mind, he climbed back from Time into undying Timeless Self, tying with diamond threads the Spirit’s extremes. Here in this Vedic sacrifice or Prakriti Yajna , the higher Divine Consciousness dropped to lower consciousness and then the lower consciousness soared to higher Consciousness. "In this drop from consciousness to consciousness... In this soar from consciousness to consciousness" Savitri-89 (Example of Vedic sacrifice.) Sixth part: Then, during these double movements of consciousness, a last high world of Bliss sheath was seen where all the other nine worlds meet. In this summit Bliss world there was no Night and Sleep and the light of the Trinity supreme that of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss was visible. All that we seek here on earth are discovered there and freed the finite into boundlessness and rose into its own eternity. " A last high world was seen where all worlds meet; In its summit gleam where Night is not nor Sleep, The light began of the Trinity supreme. All there discovered what it seeks for here." Savitri-89 Seventh part: By the pressure of this high plane, the bottom Inconscient Sheath discovered its heart, the Divine All in the form of Inconscient Self. Thus all the ideas and feelings of Ignorance clutched to the body of the Truth. 'A grand solution ,' (Savitri-90) due this discovery of the Inconscient Self, closed the long impasse; the music and perfect rhythm were born in Matter’s silences and a reconciling wisdom was found which lifted the striving undertone of mind, the confused refrain of human hopes, inarticulate murmur of our lives, under ground of pain, soul’s faint scattered utterances, disjointed mutterings in sleep into sweet and happy Divine Call. " A grand solution closed the long impasse In which the heights of mortal effort end. A reconciling Wisdom looked on life; It took the striving undertones of mind And took the confused refrain of human hopes And made of them a sweet and happy call;" Savitri-90 Lastly, this Canto asks a Sadhaka to become the Voyager and Adventurer in Consciousness and to discover another Time and Space other than the experience of the divisible time and divisible space of the surface mind. And also it hints about Sadhaka's enjoyment of the Lord's double protection by opening towards 'dual eternity' (Savitri-82) of vast invasion of Divine Force above the head and below the feet and this exercise ultimately vanishes the enormous role of the dark Forces. (Savitri-82) " A voyager upon uncharted routes Fronting the viewless danger of the Unknown, Adventuring across enormous realms, He broke into another Space and Time." Savitri-91 OM TAT SAT 6/ Book 2, Canto 1 - The World Stair A Brief Restatement: This Book-2, Canto-1, hints King’s initial wandering (final established wandering observed in Book-2, Canto-14) in universalized (infinity Around) and Transcendent (Unknowable above) Consciousness whose movements stand as a precondition of exploring multiple planes of consciousness and of pursuing the Yoga of the Earth. During the movement of consciousness in these Cosmic and Transcendent planes, he could realise 'oneness of all things' and Space as 'a vast experiment of Soul.' Thus: "All could be seen that shuns the mortal eye, All could be known the mind has never grasped; All could be done no mortal will can dare. A limitless movement filled a limitless peace." Savitri-95 The need of impersonalized and universalized consciousness in our daily life ensure these six attributes: “(1) It releases his knowledge from the narrowness of personal mind, (2) his will from the clutch of personal desire, (3) his heart from the bondage of petty mutable emotions, (4) his life from its petty personal groove, (5) his soul from ego, and (6) it allows them to embrace calm, equality, wideness, universality, infinity.” (The Synthesis of Yoga/p-127) Thus, in this universal plane: "His universal Power at work display In plots of pain and dramas of delight The wonder and beauty of her will to be. All, even pain, was the soul’s pleasure here; Here all experience was a single plan, The thousandfold expression of the One." Savitri-95-96 This universalized consciousness drags King beyond the limitation of mortal eye, mental knowledge and personal will and he experiences limitless peace, the descent of immortal timeless Word, extreme purity, sovereign sweetness, violent overhead poetry, the terrible adventure of delight, unseen perfection, Truth’s secrecies, opulent beauty, dynamic Superconscient light, voiceless stillness, intangible aims, immortality’s call, calm and luminous intimacy within, many toned unities, many meeting worlds, ordered plan, unfathomed loneliness, mute and single strength, formless Stillness, white immobile Ray, eternal Silences and bare summit of created things. This Canto makes us aware of our objective of housing the Illimitable in the time-made body and to live ‘all Ocean’ symbolising the multiple worlds in 'a drop of water' symbolising our finite Self. Here again, the importance of the Psychic Being, Jivatma is recognised as the means of the largest Supramental action. The activation of Supramental energy in our external earthly life ensures three things. They are the inherent order of all things, great harmony and oneness with Self, World and Divine. Thus, in this journey of World Stair, Traveller in Time, Voyager of all oceans and adventurer of Consciousness, the King’s high-pitched attempt is extended to guarded powers of multiple worlds, deep beatitudes of multiple heavens and he called down to earth and men eternal Silences, formless Stillness and nameless Light. King Aswapati greatly inspires us to transform ‘this surface life’ to ‘inner all life’ extending over many births and bodies and to transform this material birth into 'deep adventure' (Savitri-99) and individual activity to world action. He makes us aware that the dynamic Spirit 'is within, below, without, above.' (Savitri-98) Or Spirit is within us as Psychic being, true physical Being, true vital Being and true mental Being, below the feet as Subconscient Self and Inconscient Self, without as Cosmic Self and above the head as Spiritual, Supramental and Bliss Self. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: "Our life is a holocaust of the Supreme. The great World-Mother by her sacrifice Has made her soul the body of our state; Accepting sorrow and unconsciousness Divinity’s lapse from its own splendours wove The many-patterned ground of all we are." Savitri-99 "A miracle of the Absolute was born; Infinity put on a finite soul, All ocean lived within a wandering drop A time-made body housed the Illimitable. To live this Mystery out our souls came here.” Savitri-101 7/ Book 2, Canto 2 - The Kingdom Of Subtle Matter A Brief restatement: This Book-2, Canto-2, represents a subtle physical world. It is an important Spiritual Science, hinted at in the Upanishad as dream Self, sukhma sharira . This world is very close to the material world, the meeting place of the Superconscient, Subconscient and universal world. This subtle physical has an important role in Supramental transformation action in which 'high and low worlds' (Savitri-105) are made one. All the happening and new manifestations in the material world have their source and immediate previous formation in this subtle matter. A purified and universalized subtle matter can act as a field of interpenetration of Superconscient and Subconscient energies and hence is the preparatory field of all new manifestations. A preliminary attempt is made to enter this vast, affirmative, plastic, immaterial kingdom and to become aware of this Annamaya Purusha , the Soul in the physical (“And Matter’s depths be illumined with a soul” (Savitri-268)) and Annamaya Kosha or the subtle physical sheath (The gross weighs less, the subtle counts for more;” (Savitri-186)) which are identified as an important base of unfolding of the mystery of the existence. The vision of this Canto is divided into four parts: First Part: The first part defines that subtle physical is our eternal substance extending over 'all life,' whose riches and opulence are not discovered and lost by ordinary earthly life or 'The riches unfound or still uncaught by our lives.' (Savitri-103) Ordinary man is also a 'swimmer lost between two leaping seas' (Savitri-700) of Superconscient and Inconscient Self. Subtle physical does not live by the transient enjoyments of the flesh and greatly supports the gross physical substance. This is a world of lovelier form where all things are beautiful, faultless and true. Its subtle eye is a door to celestial sense, subtle ear is sweet music, subtle touch is full of charm and transfiguring hue and the subtle heart draws a deeper breath of power. The Mighty breath of the Divine is intercepted and slowly inrushes as bright dews drip through a subtle physical sheath. This Canto proposes that the true physical being or annamaya Purusha can be utilised as a meeting ground of Spirit and Matter and it can also be uplifted as a meeting ground of the highest Supramental plane and the lowest Inconscient plane for transformation action. The subtle physical sheath is the first imperishable transparent robe surrounding the body. There are seven subtle bodies ("The seven immortal earths were seen, sublime:” Savitri-672). These seven immortal planes are the subtle body, the subtle life, the subtle mind, the Psychic Sheath, the Spiritual Sheath, the Universal Sheath, and the Supramental sheath. After death, one will go through rigorous training in the subtle bodies. That means those Sadhakas who go consciously to these planes in waking trance while alive, visit these seven worlds, receive training before taking a new birth. Others go up to cosmic Self and from there take rebirth as narrated in the inter-natal trance in Book-2, Canto14. A Subliminal personality is born and develops through each birth by the pressure of 'bright sheaths'. Subliminal personality directly and effectively distinguishes between what rises from within the subliminal sheath and what invades us from outside surrounding, from others or from universal Nature, and its prerogative is to exercise a control, a choice, a power of willed reception, spontaneous rejection of falsehood, selection of truth, a clear power of self-building and harmonisation which we do not generally possess or can operate very imperfectly in our constructed surface personality. The Subliminal personality acts from behind the surface, is vast, calm, equal, observing the surface perturbation with an immovable detachment or it may act on its agitation to pacify, quiet, enlarge and transform it. 'It is the immutable in their mutable forms.' (Savitri-106) The subliminal Self is the meeting-place of all the multiple worlds or planes of consciousness that emerges from below for evolution and descend from above for involution and the subliminal personality in us is aware and feels the necessity to explore all its ranges for the completeness and fulfilment of our human existence. It develops the faculty of a subtle sense of vision, hearing, touch, smell, and taste, which can replace the need for sense-bound outer physical consciousness and sense organs. It also changes our dealings with impersonal invisible cosmic forces, a whirl of unseen mind forces and life forces that surround our atmosphere and to a certain extent can forecast or see ahead, control and determine their further action. The task of the subtle physical is to transform common material things and by its influence, 'even earth's mud grows rich and warm with the skies' (Savitri-107) and this greater Consciousness 'guards deathless' (Savitri-106) flames in the perishing body. Out of the Spiritual fall of subtle Matter, that plunges lost in the inconscient base, the denser Matter is born. Second Part: In this part, gross Matter is identified as the Spiritual fall of the subtle Matter. This fallen world is the 'immortal godhead's perishable parts' (Savitri-107) in which the Soul is nurtured and must evolve the mind, life and body's giant energies. Earth recalls the memories of happiness before she was created. This brute half-conscious body becomes a means of evolution of Divine life and the mind must recover the lost Wisdom and this bound Spirit, annamaya Purusha, will one day emerge as Nature's King. Integral Yoga asks Kinghood from an Integral Karma Yogi in all the ten planes or subtle bodies including the emergence of true Physical Being. Third Part: Through a subtle physical sheath, a fragment of the Eternal is caught for heaven's design. Time made finite things can hold the Eternal's touch permanently. Thus, the hope for a greater life becomes alive in the narrowness and prison-house of our mortal state. The inert brute matter becomes a creative might by discovering a 'brilliant passage for the infallible Flame.' (Savitri-108) This inrush of Divine Power can lift the Inconscient's seal for a brief period and 'A joyful anguish trembles in our limbs.' (Savitri-108) Thus, earth can open to the Supreme for a brief period and her rarest creations are 'copies of heaven's art.' (Savitri-110) and all geniuses are born from an inconscient soil and their new creations are copied from the earth's art. (Savitri-109) When we climb above ourselves, we meet the inevitable descended overhead word, godlike action and 'figures of its formless ecstasy.' (Savitri-111) Here in this subtle world, 'the response to Truth is swift and sure' (Savitri-111) and 'love and sweetness are the law of life.' (Savitri-111) In this inner life, happiness and a smile are visible in the adorable face and beauty is his footprint where he has passed. 'Achieve perfection by the magic throb.' (Savitri-112) All we attempt through Soul activation in this imperfect world cannot go in vain. ("Attempt, not victory, was the charm of life." Savitri-249) Our Spirit must travel back to illumine the past obscurities of past births and the Spirit must travel forward to call down Timeless and Spaceless energies. If subtle physical becomes pure, one will go through following experience: " The Light now distant shall grow native here, The Strength that visits us our comrade power; The Ineffable shall find a secret voice, The Imperishable burn through Matter’s screen Making this mortal body godhead’s robe. The Spirit’s greatness is our timeless source And it shall be our crown in endless Time." Savitri-110 Fourth Part: This subtle physical world is identified as 'the House of Days' and 'material Paradise.' It exists without fear, grief, pain, defeat, fault, or failure and is 'Exempt from the ordeal and the test.' (Savitri-113) This subtle material world 'had no wings for wide and dangerous flight,' 'no peril of sky or of abyss,' 'no vistas and no mighty dreams, no yearning for her lost infinitudes.' (Savitri-115) The deficiency of this subtle physical world is that one feels so much satisfied here to such an extent that 'Our souls forget' (Savitri-113) to aspire to the highest Self. This Canto proposes that in order to build a Spiritual passage, the subtle physical is to be made pure, transparent and dense and must develop the constant aspiration to possess and hold the Highest Supramental plane. This work of harmonising the world discord on a large scale is restated in the Mother’s language, “That union between the two, between the subtle physical and the material physical, is taking place all the time—day and night (in the Mother's body)...there is an attempt to substitute one for the other ("What we are there and here on earth shall be" Savitri-110).” The Mother’s Agenda-11/151 There is a permanent abode of Sri Aurobindo in the subtle physical (The Mother’s Agenda/12th November 1960) and the Mother was spending every night with Sri Aurobindo in the subtle physical. (The Mother’s Agenda/ February 18, 1961) And the Mother confirmed that Sri Aurobindo was growing every day and the present Sri Aurobindo in the subtle physical exercises more Power than He was in His earthly body. (The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-13/P-326-328) From this, a Sadhaka learns how to relate himself to the Mother and Sri Aurobindo in the subtle physical, which is nearest to the gross physical. He will also discover Them in the other nine planes where They are firmly stationed. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “Intruder from the formless Infinite Daring to break into the Inconscient's reign, The spirit's leap towards body touches ground.” Savitri-105 “A Being woke and lived in the meaningless void, (Here Being is the Inconscient Self.) A world-wide Nescience strove towards life and thought, A Consciousness plucked out from mindless sleep.” Savitri-107 “To fix the eternal's touch in time-made things, This is the law of all perfection here.” Savitri-108 “A Splendour presses or a Power breaks through, Earth's great dull barrier is removed awhile, The inconscient seal is lifted from our eyes And we grow vessels of creative might.” Savitri-108 “Our souls forget to the Highest to aspire.” Savitri-113 Recapitulation: Human Love and Divine Love: Human love is a weak bond and Divine Love is a strong bond and the latter can fight against Death and Ignorance. The limited and narrow human love is either transformed into boundless Divine Love or one must learn the lesson to open towards overhead Divine Love by rejecting transient human love and association. There is a subtle physical love which bridges the gulf between human and Divine Love. Through Soul saving subtle physical Divine union, the bond of human love becomes strong and by activation of soul slaying three Gunas, the bond of human love becomes weak. This subtle physical love is identified as the special and the most unnoticed secret of Savitri book and to densify and universalise the subtle physical relation through Divine union is identified as a process towards the attainment of long life and physical immortality. Integral Yoga forbids a seeker of Truth to increase human admirers around him which later becomes the cause of his separative identity, Spiritual fall, ruin and death. Nature of subtle physical love: “Thus we draw near to the All-Wonderful Following his rapture in things as sign and guide; Beauty is his footprint showing us where he has passed, Love is his heart-beats’ rhythm in mortal breasts, Happiness the smile on his adorable face.” Savitri-112 8/ Book 2, Canto 3 - The Glory And Fall Of Life A Brief Restatement: In this Canto, the King ascends to the subtle vital plane from the subtle matter’s plane. From here, he could understand the dichotomy between this subtle vital as it is reflected in our plane (in a fallen state) compared to its original brightness, purity and beauty (higher Purer Vital world) from which life took birth. The Lord describes the beauty and grandeur of this (True) heavenly plane and contrasts it with its lower (fallen) vibration in our earth. He outlines how Life answered the desperate call of the Soul/Beings trapped in inert matter and longed for deliverance into other forms. The Life descended to our earth plane (from above) to remake earth in Her glorious image, swiftly stopped and maimed in her flow by the invasion of dark beings of inconscience. Since then, the vital on our existing plane (the subtle vital) thinks back to the glory of her original state but she is unable to reclaim it due to the King's brief Spiritual fall. This Savitri, Book-2, Canto-3, gives a vivid account of the glory and also the fall of life or the action of Para-prakriti or higher Nature on life or vital plane in five parts . First part: This accounts for King's entry into a 'wide obscure disputed fields' (Savitri-116) of untransformed subtle vital life where all was doubt, unsatisfied, unsure, toilsome, unsolved problems and 'uncertain of the ground he trod.' (Savitri-116) and life 'accepts disaster as a common risk.' (Savitri-116) Here 'every change prolonged the same unease,' 'in the new saw the face of old,' and 'the fierce lust that brings a dead fatigue.' (Savitri-118) The King further confirms that the existing life is born from a pure and bright Timeless and endless Bliss state of consciousness. During this fall, memories of 'A lost world rapture lingers in her eyes' and 'Beauty and happiness are her native right.' (Savitri-118) Here, life is destined to call down the highest Divine Mother Force to the nether darkest world or 'Aspiring to heaven she turns her steps towards hell.' (Savitri-118) Second part: Despite the sudden disclosure of grief, sorrow, fear and insecurity, King saw and discovered a happier state and kingdom of griefless life. This pure subtle vital plane is a new celestial vault, an archipelago of laughter and fire. This subtle vital plane is free from life's suffering, struggle, and grief, not affected by anger, gloom and hate and this visioned land is ever blissful in its timeless state. The godheads of the vital world live sure of their immortal gladness, content with their own beauty and 'Blissful for ever in their timeless right.' (Savitri-119) One can enter this subtle world through meditation, dreams and trance. Here he will meet rapturous landscapes, figures of the perfect kingdom and behind them leave a shining memories trail. This subtle vital plane appears unreal but more real than the gross life of false earth, happier than earthly joy and truer than things true. This gives the experience of eternal moments, 'Calm heavens of imperishable Light,' (Savitri-120) and an illumined continent of violent peace and griefless countries. Third part: The King was able to bridge the gulf that divides the subtle vital world (or dream-truth) from the gross vital world (or earth-fact), which is felt indispensable for purification, transformation, perfection and Divinisation of the surface vital plane. So the visions of the wonder-world became a reality with pure loveliness and bliss and life was fulfilled with the touch of supreme Delight. The King was able to invert the Spirit's apex Supramental consciousness towards life through an intermediate subtle vital plane and by this action, he controlled life's restless seas and obeyed a governing Wisdom. He felt the brief Presence and guidance of this inscrutable Supermind but could not trace its origin and Source. Life became the conscious slave of World-self; thus, she was able to limit the Illimitable, canalise the seas of omnipotence. Here, the King was able to know that 'Before darkness came and pain and grief were born.' (Savitri-122) In this part, we see that King was able to bridge the gulf between the Cosmic world and the subtle vital world. In this cosmic Consciousness, King experienced triple time as a ceaseless moving picture and met the whole surface world as the chaos of personality. Fourth part: In this part, King met his universalised subtle vital action and felt a deep need 'To take all beings (bright and dark) into his saviour arms,' (Savitri-123) and 'To force on them the happiness they refuse.' (Savitri-123) This part suggests that any isolated individual vital transformation of Nature is not practicable. So the Consciousness has to be universalised and transcendentalised. This urge for universal happiness suggests that a day will come when the most foolish will recognise and accept Supramental descent and change himself unknowingly or without notice. King felt the need of Divinised Sense and Heart, which was natural Delight's bright extreme and in that true vital state, 'Age never came, care never lined the face.' (Savitri-126) His life's closed doors were opened to 'things Supreme.' (Savitri-123) Here King Aswapati had the vision of transforming earth life through his experience: 'Heaven’s joys might have been earth’s if earth were pure.' (Savitri-123) He dreamed of a virgin earth, purer, fierer sense through activation of brief Supramental Divine Love or 'virgin sun' (Savitri-124) whose Presence is felt in the following verse: “Pure mystic voices in beatitude’s hush Appealed to Love’s immaculate sweetnesses, Calling his (Love’s) honeyed touch to thrill the worlds, His (Love’s) blissful hands to seize on Nature’s limbs, His (Love’s) sweet intolerant might of union To take all beings into his (Love’s) saviour arms, Drawing to his (Love’s) pity the rebel and the waif To force on them the happiness they refuse.” Savitri-123 In this universal plane, we also mark King's brief Supramental transformation action through luminous sacrifice in the following verse: "The grand Illuminate seized her gleaming limbs And filled them with the passion of his ray Till all her body was its transparent house And all her soul a counterpart of his soul. Apotheosised, transfigured by wisdom’s touch, Her days became a luminous sacrifice; An immortal moth in happy and endless fire, She burned in his sweet intolerable blaze." Savitri-125 Through the above experience, King experienced marriage with Eternity or 'A captive Life wedded her conqueror.' (Savitri-125) In the universalised Consciousness, the King met the guardians of the Supravital and subtle vital worlds as 'Immortal figures.' (Savitri-123) We also get the hint of 'nude god-children' (Savitri-126) who are perfect Supramental instruments to Divinise life and 'They steeped existence in their youth of soul.' (Savitri-127) Fifth part: In this part, the King, standing on the border of the Supramental world for a brief period, received the call of the Bliss world and saw that world but could not bridge the gulf between this world and the Bliss world. This gulf King will bridge after he is established in the Universal plane (Book-2, Canto-14) and the Supramental plane (Book-2. Canto-15). In Book-3, we find that the King is established in the Bliss Consciousness and calls down that dynamic Sachchidananda Consciousness or the Supreme Mother to the nether world. This Canto-3 of Book-2, not only reveals Life’s glory and fall but it prepares the the necessary ground of King's rigorous askesis to meet the Divine Mother in Bliss plane in Book-3. Before the Divine Mother or dynamic aspect of true vital being or 'gracious great-winged Angel' (Savitri-130) possesses life, 'A dark ambiguous Presence questioned all.' (Savitri-130 ) From this we understand that without Subconscient and Inconscient transformation, vital transformation or establishment of life in true vital plane is not practicable; for the root of evils are to be abolished from it Inconscient Source. This dark Power abolishes the Divine transformative action of the mighty true Vital being and the boon of Psychic happiness. Thus, life meets doom and Spiritual fall by the strong negative influence and influx of Inconscient energy, here identified as activation of the three gunas . From this Canto, we learn the lesson of how Para-Prakriti, or a hierarchy of dynamic Consciousness, can act stumblingly and steadily in life and experiences both rise and fall or glory and fall of life. This Canto also asks to develop the highest dynamic Consciousness which can meet the inert Inconscient’s law or "Inflicting consciousness on unconscious things," (Savitri-131) or “Inverting the spirit’s apex towards life," (Savitri-121). This also reminds us that the deficiency of forgetting the highest Self in the subtle physical world (in the previous Canto) is corrected in the subtle vital world. We can refer the Mother’s following important observation related with Her vital Being: “But you see, you see all the way I have come...And I was born with a consciously prepared body—Sri Aurobindo was aware of that, he said it immediately the first time he saw me: I was born free. That is, from the spiritual standpoint: without any desire. Without any desire and attachment. And mon petit, if there is the slightest desire and the slightest attachment, it is IMPOSSIBLE to do this work. A vital like a warrior, with an absolute self-control (the vital of this present incarnation was sexless—a warrior), an absolutely calm and imperturbable warrior—no desires, no attachments...Since my earliest childhood, I have done things which, to human consciousness, are “monstrous;” my mother went so far as to tell me that I was a real “monster,” because I had neither attachments nor desires. If I was asked, “Would you like to do this?” I answered, “I don’t care.” If people were nasty to me, or if people died or went away, it left me absolutely calm—and so: “You are a monster, you have no feelings.” And with that preparation... It is eighty-six years since I came here, mon petit! For thirty years I worked with Sri Aurobindo consciously, without letup, night and day ... We shouldn’t be in a hurry.” The Mother’s Agenda/28.03.1964 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “Inverting the spirit’s apex towards life, She (Mother Nature) spends the plastic liberties of the One To cast in acts the dreams of her caprice, His wisdom’s call steadies her careless feet, He props her dance upon a rigid base, His timeless still immutability Must standardise her creation’s miracle.” Savitri-121 “At her will the inscrutable Supermind leans down To guide her force that feels but cannot know, Its breath of power controls her restless seas (of the vital world.) And life obeys the governing Idea” Savitri-121 “She has canalised the seas of omnipotence;” Savitri-121(the descent of Divine force on large scale) “And still her doors are barred to things supreme” Savitri-123 “And high dependencies of her virgin sun,” Savitri-124 “The grand Illuminate seized her gleaming limbs And filled them with the passion of his ray Till all her body was its transparent house And all her soul a counterpart of his soul.” Savitri-125 “This world of bliss he (King Aswapati) saw and felt its call, But found no way to enter into its joy; Across the conscious gulf there was no bridge” Savitri-128 9/ Book 2, Canto 4 - The Kingdoms Of The Little Life A Brief Restatement: This Book 2 Canto-4 gives the message that after exhaustion of multiple material enjoyments of life, Spiritual life begins and we have to understand that “Physical life exhausts itself by too much giving and ruins itself by too much devouring..." (The Life Divine-216) We also get the hint that after the opening of the Spiritual being, "His gates to the world were swept with seas of light. ” (Savitri-236) and thus a higher life begins. "Insatiate seeker, he has all to learn: He has exhausted now life’s surface acts, His being’s hidden realms remain to explore. He becomes a mind, he becomes a spirit and self; In his fragile tenement he grows Nature’s lord. In him Matter wakes from its long obscure trance, In him earth feels the Godhead drawing near." Savitri-133 We also get the hint that after exhaustion of gross and subtle desires one can offer oneself completely to the Divine. This is the condition of complete union with the Divine and the King, after being established in Bliss Consciousness in Book-3, had the experience of complete union with the Supreme Mother or "Now other claims had hushed in him their cry: Only he (King) longed to draw her presence and power Into his heart and mind and breathing frame;" Savitri-316 This Canto speaks of triple creation, where the first creation is subconscious evolution, the second creation is the evolution of lower/little life and the third creation (not the last) is identified as ‘body’s early (evolution of) mind.’ (Savitri-146) The First Creation: Subconscious evolution is a faint and dim beginning of a crude child soul crying 'for toys of bliss.' (Savitri-136) In this stage 'a random shapeless energy drove towards form and took each whisp-fire for a guiding sun.' (Savitri-136) In this preliminary evolution of man, sense-pleasure and sense- pangs are caught and are found to be lost soon and their desire-driven will bring 'poor and sad results.' (Savitri-137) Life becomes an outcome of 'meaningless suffering and grey unease.' (Savitri-137) The King experienced in this Nature's twilit room, that Matter and Spirit 'embrace and strive and each know each' (Savitri-141) as eternal playmates. 'In Nature he saw the mighty Spirit concealed' and 'Watched the weak birth of a tremendous Force.' (Savitri-141) " It (All Nature) turns in us to finite loves and lusts, The will to conquer and have, to seize and keep, To enlarge life’s room and scope and pleasure’s range, To battle and overcome and make one’s own, The hope to mix one’s joy with others’ joy, A yearning to possess and be possessed, T o enjoy and be enjoyed, to feel, to live." Savitri-139-140 The Second Creation: In this kingdom, the dwarf animal self arose and the experiment began of a solitary brute in a human body without any life plan. This is a life exclusively for outward purposes, for the satisfaction of the body's wants and responds to outward touches without an aim. The body is unaware of annamaya Purusha within, mind is exclusively preoccupied with the objective world and thoughts are open to sense instincts of animal desire and 'To enjoy and to survive was all their care.' (Savitri-143) Not in this life, but in all life this dim being must learn by failure and grow in light and force, 'And rise to his higher destiny at last.' (Savitri-146) "It captured not the spirit in the form, It entered not the heart of what it saw; It looked not for the power behind the act, It studied not the hidden motive in things Nor strove to find the meaning of it all." Savitri-143 The Third Creation: This small thinking man (of the third creation) has no upward gaze, no inward look, no loftier aim, no deeper cause to live, satisfied awhile with 'dwarf lusts and brief desires,' (Savitri-149) interested to utilize truth and power only for outward use. His life is limited like an animal’s feeding space, and he opposes all adventures of the Unseen and Soul’s journey through unknown infinity. "It knew not the Immortal in its house; It had no greater deeper cause to live. In limits only it was powerful; Acute to capture truth for outward use, Its knowledge was the body’s instrument; Absorbed in the little works of its prison-house It turned around the same unchanging points In the same circle of interest and desire, But thought itself the master of its jail." Savitri-149-150 In Savitri, the slow evolution starts from the Subconscient plane from the beginning of the creation and when the earth will be ready for Divine life then the ‘last salvation’ is experienced which is identified as the total transformation of the earth’s Subconscient and Inconscient plane. In Savitri, the first Spiritual experience of the evolving man is identified as the discovery of Soul either Psychic or Spiritual Being and the last Siddhi of an integral Yogi is ‘Truth supreme.’ This is the transformation of universal Inconscient and there will be no longer any Ignorance, suffering, falsehood and death. This Yoga will continue through all life and all Time before which this present life is a very small fragment. This Canto also hints King’s opening of six or seven chakras known as Kundalini from below the feet as 'The first writhings of the cosmic serpent Force.' (Savitri-138) The Mother said, “The tantrics recognize seven chakras , I believe. Theon said he knew of more, specifically two below the body and three above (the head). That is my experience as well – I know of twelve chakras . And really, the contact with the Divine Consciousness is there (The Mother motions above the head), not here (at the top of the head). One must surge up above.” These twelve centres define the twelve Selves, twelve Sheaths or twelve subtle bodies to which one can consciously visit in a trance. In integral Yoga, the gulf created between lower life and the Supramental life is bridged by discovering the Subconscient Self and Inconscient Self as 'sleeping memories' that are 'Oblivious of their flame of happy truth.' (Savitri-139) "Impure, degraded though her motions are, Always a heaven-truth broods in life’s deeps; In her obscurest members burns that fire." Savitri-139 (fire of Subconscient Self) This Canto foresees the coming of ‘some tremendous dawn of God’ (Savitri-137} where King saw the purpose of Divine Work in Time and also in the aimlessness of lower life, a Divine work, magic will and Divine transformation was worked out. This Canto proposes to work out the 'adventure of the Unseen And the soul's tread through unknown infinities.' (Savitri-148) OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: "In the enigma of the darkened Vasts, In the passion and self-loss of the Infinite When all was plunged in the negating Void, Non-Being’s night could never have been saved If Being had not plunged into the dark Carrying with it its triple mystic cross . Invoking in world-time the timeless truth, Bliss changed to sorrow, knowledge made ignorant, God’s force turned into a child’s helplessness Can bring down heaven by their sacrifice." Savitri-140-141 “A difficult evolution from below Called a masked intervention from above Else this great, blind inconscient universe Could never have disclosed its hidden mind, Or even in blinkers worked in beast and man The Intelligence that devised the cosmic scheme.” Savitri-146-147 (Action of Supramental Intelligence) 10/ Book 2, Canto 5 - The Godheads Of The Little Life A Brief Restatement: First part: (page 151 to 154) This Book-2, Canto-5 gives us input regarding the lower vital beings/little deities (or tamasic and rajasic beings) that dominate largely our untransformed life and are the cause of all lust, anger, massacre, suicide, disorder, disease, accident, division, and disharmony in men These vital beings are identified as elfin, imps, goblin, faery and genni . They are 'Ignorant and dangerous wills but armed with power, Half-animal, half-god their mood, their shape.' (Savitri-152) They take shelter in our twilight untransformed nature and 'Wherever love and light and largeness lack.' (Savitri-153) In the event of disease of most difficult kind also is an attack of these dark world and they can be removed by occult means or Yogic power/Subconscient purification and transformation without the aid of any medicine. “The Mother used to say that when Sri Aurobindo cured some body, one often saw a subtle hand come with a current of blue force and seize, as it were, the vibration of illness or disorder between its fingertips.” (The Mother's Agenda/24th February-1962) "Its seed of joy they curse with sorrow’s fruit, Put out with error’s breath its scanty lights And turn its surface truths to falsehood’s ends, Its small emotions spur, its passions drive To the abyss or through the bog and mire: Or else with a goad of hard dry lusts they prick, While jogs on devious ways that nowhere lead Life’s cart finding no issue from ignorance. To sport with good and evil is their law; Luring to failure and meaningless success, All models they corrupt, all measures cheat, Make knowledge a poison, virtue a pattern dull And lead the endless cycles of desire Through semblances of sad or happy chance To an inescapable fatality." Savitri-152 In the evolution of Nature, they also like Asuras , demons, and Pisachas , wait for the hour of Divine transformation or 'Till they have learned their secret in their source, In the light of the Timeless and its spaceless home.' (Savitri-153) They make our evolution slow which binds life and invites doom. When our Soul attains freedom from lower life, then our Soul force travels back in time of this birth and past births and illumines the obscurities of nether untransformed life. "A slowly changing order binds our will. This is our doom until our souls are free. A mighty Hand then rolls mind’s firmaments back, Infinity takes up the finite’s acts And Nature steps into the eternal Light. Then only ends this dream of nether life." Savitri-154 The Second Part: (Page 154 to 160) This Canto also hints about the human love of sattwic mind which can give brief ‘Joy that forgot mortality for a while’ (Savitri-159) and its brief blaze can crumble vital passion into ashes. It can manifest beauty only for an hour and afterward feels tired. Divine Love can uplift the limitations of fragile human love and can lead man toward uninterrupted joy and immortality. "A fragile human love that could not last, Ego’s moth-wings to lift the seraph soul, Appeared, a surface glamour of brief date Extinguished by a scanty breath of Time; Joy that forgot mortality for a while Came, a rare visitor who left betimes, And made all things seem beautiful for an hour, Hopes that soon fade to drab realities And passions that crumble to ashes while they blaze Kindled the common earth with their brief flame." Savitri-159 The third Part: (Page 160 to 163) A perfect and integral Divine instrument is at once receiver of overhead Wisdom and Light of Integral Jnana Yoga , his own personal will is tuned and identified with the Divine Will of Integral Karma Yoga and his heart becomes the centre of the overflow of Divine Love, Delight and Beauty of Integral Bhakti Yoga . “Our instruments have not that greater light, Our will tunes not with the eternal Will, Our heart’s sight is too blind and passionate.” Savitri-161 The Fourth Part: (Page 163 to 167) This Canto hints that without vital transformation, the King can hold the Divine Presence for a brief period. If the tamasic, rajasic and sattwic mind are not purified sufficiently, then one experiences Divine Will, Divine Wisdom and Divine Ecstasy of Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga briefly. A Bliss that sleeps in the Inconscient and Subconscient Self do not open to give the experience of Oceans of Bliss. "A new life dawns, he looks out from vistas wide; The Spirit’s breath moves him but soon retires: His strength was not made to hold that puissant guest. All dulls down to convention and routine Or a fierce excitement brings him vivid joys:" Savitri-165 “His knowledge dwells in the house of Ignorance; His force nears not even once the Omnipotent, Rare are his visits of heavenly ecstasy. The bliss which sleeps in things and tries to wake, Breaks out in him in a small joy of life:” Savitri-165 The Fifth Part: (Page 167 to 172) This Canto hints at the transformation of lower Nature by 'Calling the powers of a bright hemisphere' through Vedantic Sacrifice and thus shedding the discredit of inferior life. A path is traced in the inner world which 'Make the abysm a road for Heaven's descent.' (Savitri-172) "There is a deeper seeing from within And, when we have left these small purlieus of mind, A greater vision meets us on the heights In the luminous wideness of the spirit’s gaze. At last there wakes in us a witness Soul That looks at truths unseen and scans the Unknown; Then all assumes a new and marvellous face: The world quivers with a God-light at its core, In Time’s deep heart high purposes move and live, Life’s borders crumble and join infinity." Savitri-168 "An Infant nursed on Nature’s covert breast, An Infant playing in the magic woods, Fluting to rapture by the spirit’s streams, Awaits the hour when we shall turn to his call." Savitri-169 In this study, we will explore the mysteries of demon gods, flickering ghosts of lower vital plane that largely dominate earthly existence who prefer to live in 'The vague Inconscient’s dark and measureless cave.' (Savitri-172) The King trod the soil of vital plane 'that failed beneath his feet' and 'His only sunlight was his spirit’s flame.' (Savitri-172) Our Psychic being is surrounded by ten layers of desire Souls of which this vital plane is one of them. So, in order to uncover the Psychic being one has to go beyond the lures of (1) the world of titans and asuras imitating the Divine, (2) the world of lower nature of forbidden sense enjoyment, (3) the world of vital mind surrounding the vital self, (4) the world of the physical mind surrounding the annamaya Purusha , (5) the world of schoolman mind, (6) the world of fixed mind, (7) the world of outer mind, (8) the mother of seven Sorrows, (9) the mother of (limited) Might and (10) the mother of (limited) Light respectively. About them, we are aware while concentrating on Savitri’s Yoga. “Even if there is much darkness — and this world is full of it and the physical nature of man also — yet a ray of the true Light can prevail eventually against a tenfold darkness . Believe that and cleave to (hold on to) it always.” (CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-102) To recapitulate, this Canto proposes a ‘mighty Hand’ that helps us to travel back in time to the past of this life and past births for illumination of Subconscient darkness and Divine transformation and also hints at the action of ‘golden Messengers’ (Savitri-170) who are responsible for carrying out the cellular transformation. This also hints (in successive Cantos) at our patient waiting for the ‘golden Hand that never came’ (Savitri-199) and locking up our protected life in Savitri’s ‘golden hands’ (Savitri-723). OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “The magic was chiselled of a conscious form; Its tranced vibrations rhythmed a quick response, And luminous stirrings prompted brain and nerve, Awoke in Matter spirit’s identity And in a body lit the miracle Of the heart’s love and the soul’s witness gaze.” Savitri-157-58 “Our seekings are short-lived experiments Made by a wordless and inscrutable Power Testing its issues from inconscient Night To meet its luminous self of Truth and Bliss.” Savitri-168 “In our body’s cells there sits a hidden Power (true physical Being) That sees the unseen and plans eternity, Our smallest parts have room for deepest needs; There too the golden Messengers can come:” Savitri-169-70 (Supramental beings can come.) “Each part in us desires its absolute.” Savitri-170 “And when that greater Self comes sea-like down To fill this image of our transience, All shall be captured by delight, transformed: In waves of undreamed ecstasy shall roll Our mind and life and sense and laugh in a light Other than this hard limited human day, The body’s tissues thrill apotheosised, Its cells sustain bright metamorphosis.” Savitri-171 11/ Book 2, Canto 6 - The Kingdoms And Godheads Of The Greater Life A Brief Restatement: This Book-2, Canto-6 gives us input regarding the action of higher vital beings, the action of higher Nature of Para-prakriti which can give us the Divine’s touch and not His embrace; in this plane twilight is not entirely abolished, hence its door is open to both Gods and Beings of higher planes and hostile agencies of Subconscient world; the greatness of this world is to seek Soul saving Truth tirelessly and create and manifest new forms. For him (King) this higher ‘Life was a search but finding (of the Absolute) never came.’ (Savitri-174) The First Part: (From Page 173 to175) This Canto gives a hint to learn the lesson to open towards the Divine’s constant touch or 'a touch of sure delight in unsure things' (Savitri-173) In this higher plane, life was a search but finding of the Supreme Truth never came. " The souls came there that vainly strive for birth, And spirits entrapped might wander through all time, Yet never find the truth by which they live. All ran like hopes that hunt a lurking chance; Nothing was solid, nothing felt complete: All was unsafe, miraculous and half-true. It seemed a realm of lives that had no base." Savitri-175 The Second Part: (From Page 175 to176) 'Some hue of the Absolute could fall on life,' (Savitri-176) or as Satyavan spoke to Savitri in the early period of his Sadhana, ‘I lived in the ray but faced not the sun.’ (Savitri-407) This Divine brief touch will help in the long run to open towards Divine's embrace or Supramental Sunlight. " In an outbreak of the might of secret Spirit, In Life and Matter’s answer of delight, Some face of deathless beauty could be caught That gave immortality to a moment’s joy, Some word that could incarnate highest Truth Leaped out from a chance tension of the soul, Some hue of the Absolute could fall on life, Some glory of knowledge and intuitive sight, Some passion of the rapturous heart of Love." Savitri-175-176 The Third Part: (From Page 176 to179) It speaks primarily of self-concentration through endless unfolding of Truth, utilizes subjective time as an endless pilgrimage and secondarily of self-expansion of working out timeless mysteries in Time and utilizes objective space for Divine creation and manifestation. " For by the form the Formless is brought close And all perfection fringes the Absolute. A child of heaven who never saw his home, Its impetus meets the eternal at a point: It can only near and touch, it cannot hold; It can only strain towards some bright extreme: Its greatness is to seek and to create." Savitri-179 The Fourth Part: (From Page 179 to181) We have to be aware of the Divine action of Paraprakriti in the midst of darkness. This Divine Shakti works even when we are most unconscious and feel our development deeply arrested. This Power working amid darkness is also identified as 'crucified God.' "Even nescient, null, her sleep creates a world. When most unseen, most mightily she works; Housed in the atom, buried in the clod, Her quick creative passion cannot cease. Inconscience is her long gigantic pause, Her cosmic swoon is a stupendous phase: Time-born, she hides her immortality; In death, her bed, she waits the hour to rise. Even with the Light denied that sent her forth And the hope dead she needed for her task, Even when her brightest stars are quenched in Night, Nourished by hardship and calamity And with pain for her body’s handmaid, masseuse, nurse, Her tortured invisible spirit continues still To toil though in darkness, to create though with pangs; She carries crucified God upon her breast." Savitri-179-180 The Fifth Part: (From Page 181 to183) The Divine Mother draws world-shunning and heaven-seeking liberated souls earthward to fill in their Nature and Soul with the equal Divine Presence. This Canto defines Jivatma's constant union with Para-prakriti and if their bond is strong then time cannot separate them. This union is further extended as the constant union of Paramatma with Paraprkriti in the heart centre. " Her eternal Lover is her action’s cause; For him she leaped forth from the unseen Vasts To move here in a stark unconscious world. Its acts are her commerce with her hidden Guest, His moods she takes for her heart’s passionate moulds; In beauty she treasures the sunlight of his smile." Savitri-181 "Although she is ever in him and he in her, As if unaware of the eternal tie, Her will is to shut God into her works And keep him as her cherished prisoner That never they may part again in Time." Savitri-181-182 In that higher plane, from every thought and feeling an action is born and every action is a symbol and means of descent of higher Divine Power and this universe is built by this descended truth and myth. ‘But what she needed most (of conscious emergence of full Sachchidananda in its own creation) she cannot build.’ (Savitri-183) From the truth of this intermediate world Religion and Modern Science and other creative forces of Mother Nature are born. "There every thought and feeling is an act, And every act a symbol and a sign, And every symbol hides a living power. A universe she builds from truths and myths, But what she needed most she cannot build; All shown is a figure or copy of the Truth, But the Real veils from her its mystic face. All else she finds, there lacks eternity; All is sought out, but missed the Infinite." Savitri-183 The Sixth Part: (From Page 183 to184) In this part, we find invisible beings of higher planes assist a Sadhaka in pursuing his Spiritual quest. They whisper to the ear and bring a flash of affirmative sunlight to the eye. "The beings of that world of greater life , Tenants of a larger air and freer space, Live not by the body or in outward things: A deeper living was their seat of self. In that intense domain of intimacy Objects dwell as companions of the soul; The body’s actions are a minor script, The surface rendering of a life within." Savitri-183 “In all who have risen to a greater Life , A voice of unborn things whispers to the ear, To their eyes visited by some high sunlight Aspiration shows the image of a crown: To work out a seed that she has thrown within, To achieve her power in them her creatures live.” Savitri-183-184 The Seventh Part: (From Page 184 to188) This part gives the message that with the opening of our Soul, destiny is rewritten and ordinary destiny is changed to Spiritual destiny. " As if thought-out eternal characters, Entire, not pulled as we by contrary tides, They follow the unseen leader in the heart, Their lives obey the inner nature’s law. There is kept grandeur’s store, the hero’s mould; The soul is the watchful builder of its fate; None is a spirit indifferent and inert; They choose their side, they see the god they adore." Savitri-184 The Eighth Part: (From Page 188 to191 ) This part reveals the King's unfolding of Spiritual Love and Wisdom. " In her covert lanes, bordering her chance field-paths And by her singing rivulets and calm lakes He found the glow of her golden fruits of bliss And the beauty of her flowers of dream and muse. As if a miracle of heart’s change by joy He watched in the alchemist radiance of her suns The crimson outburst of one secular flower On the tree-of-sacrifice of spiritual love." Savitri-190 "A comrade of Silence on her austere heights Accepted by her mighty loneliness, He stood with her on meditating peaks Where life and being are a sacrament Offered to the Reality beyond, And saw her loose into infinity Her hooded eagles of significance, Messengers of Thought to the Unknowable." Savitri-190-191 The Ninth Part: (From Page 191 to195) We find here the Para-prakriti's influence of Love, Beauty and Delight on individual Jivatma . " In her mazes of approach and of retreat To every side she draws him and repels, But drawn too near escapes from his embrace; All ways she leads him but no way is sure. Allured by the many-toned marvel of her chant, Attracted by the witchcraft of her moods And moved by her casual touch to joy and grief, He loses himself in her but wins her not. A fugitive paradise smiles at him from her eyes: He dreams of her beauty made for ever his, He dreams of his mastery her limbs shall bear, He dreams of the magic of her breasts of bliss." Savitri-193 The Tenth Part: (From Page 195 to 201) In this part, the King claimed 'a panacea for all Time’s ills' (Savitri-198) through the reconciliation of the highest Sachchidananda consciousness with the lowest Abyss. " A fire to call eternity into Time, Make body’s joy as vivid as the soul’s, Earth she would lift to neighbourhood with heaven, Labours life to equate with the Supreme And reconcile the Eternal and the Abyss." Savitri-196 This Canto proposes that the only business or 'heart's business' (Savitri-181) of a Sadhak is to call down Paramatma (Supreme Self) and Paraprakriti (Supreme Mother) to heart centre 'And keep him close to her breast in her world-cloak' (Savitri-181) ceaselessly. This will avoid the risk of escape from her arms and 'turn to his formless peace' (Savitri-181) of param Dham . King Aswapati's this Supramental union is also confirmed symbolically in Savitri's Yoga as 'Unwilling to loose his (Paramatma) body from her (Paraprakriti) breast.' (Savitri-471) OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “ “Our life’s repose is in the Infinite; It cannot end, its end is Life supreme. ” Savitri-197 “A sun of transfiguration still can shine And Night can bare its core of mystic light; (the experience of opening of Inconscient and Subconscient Self.) The self-cancelling, self-afflicting paradox Into a self-luminous mystery might change, The imbroglio into a joyful miracle. Then God could be visible here, here take a shape; (Supramental state.) Disclosed would be the spirit’s identity; Life would reveal her true immortal face.” Savitri-200-201 (Cellular transformation.) 12/ Book 2, Canto 7 - The Descent Into Night A Brief Restatement: This Descent into Night and 'falsity's endless net' (Savitri-210) of Book-2, Canto-7, is forbidden in traditional Spirituality and King Aswapati entered this prohibited dark world with the hope of finding ‘wide world failure’s cause (Savitri-202)’ and ‘panacea for all Time’s ill;' (Savitri-198) for key of world problem is hidden in the Inconscient night or 'For the key is hid and by the Inconscient kept.' (Savitri-68) The First Part: (From Page 202 to 205) Life has turned into Death in the Inconscient and Immortality in the Superconscient. Or ' A Death figuring as the dark seed of life, Seemed to engender and to slay the world.' (Savitri-202) In Integral Yoga this negation of Death is transformed into affirmation of Immortality. The other two negations of life are desire or hunger and incapacity and which is transformed into satisfied delight and Omnipotence. " He saw the fount of the world’s lasting pain And the mouth of the black pit of Ignorance; The evil guarded at the roots of life Raised up its head and looked into his eyes." Savitri-202 " All glory of life was dimmed, tarnished with doubt; All beauty ended in an aging face; All power was dubbed a tyranny cursed by God And Truth a fiction needed by the mind: The chase of joy was now a tired hunt; All knowledge was left a questioning Ignorance." Savitri-205 The Second Part: (From Page 205 to 206) In this Night King Aswapati met threatening energies and dark goddesses whose very gaze invited calamity. " A peril haunted now the common air; The world grew full of menacing Energies , And wherever turned for help or hope his eyes, In field and house, in street and camp and mart He met the prowl and stealthy come and go Of armed disquieting bodied Influences. A march of goddess figures dark and nude Alarmed the air with grandiose unease; Appalling footsteps drew invisibly near, Shapes that were threats invaded the dream-light, And ominous beings passed him on the road Whose very gaze was a calamity:" Savitri-205 The Third Part: (From Page 206 to 208) King's experience of the dark world is that ‘There all could enter, ' wandering like a lost soul' (Savitri-211) 'but none stay for long.' (Savitri-206) Similarly, all can enter 'Supermind’s huge store' (Savitri-187) for a very brief period with new creations, new inventions and new opulence at their disposal but none can stay in that world permanently. Only a few, who have a strong subtle and causal body can enter the Supramental world for a longer period and can descend into the Subconscient and Inconscient night for a longer period and experience conscious transformation. " A tract he reached unbuilt and owned by none: There all could enter but none stay for long. It was a no man’s land of evil air, A crowded neighbourhood without one home, A borderland between the world and hell." Savitri-206 “A Power that laughed at the mischiefs of the world, An irony that joined the world’s contraries And flung them into each other’s arms to strive, Put a sardonic rictus on God’s face.” Savitri-207 “Falsehood came laughing with the eyes of truth; Each friend might turn an enemy or spy, The hand one clasped ensleeved a dagger’s stab And an embrace could be Doom’s iron cage.” Savitri-207-8 The Fourth Part: (From Page 208 to 211) Those developing Souls who enter this night unconsciously experience Spiritual fall and forfeit their ‘lonely chance' (Savitri-210) in this birth and their beauty of life ends with an ‘aging face.' (Savitri-205) " He saw a city of ancient Ignorance Founded upon a soil that knew not Light. There each in his own darkness walked alone: Only they agreed to differ in Evil’s paths, To live in their own way for their own selves Or to enforce a common lie and wrong; There Ego was lord upon his peacock seat And Falsehood sat by him, his mate and queen: The world turned to them as Heaven to Truth and God." Savitri-208-209 "Inconscient traders in bundles of contraries, They did what in others they would persecute; When their eyes looked upon their fellow’s vice, An indignation flamed, a virtuous wrath; Oblivious of their own deep-hid offence, Moblike they stoned a neighbour caught in sin ." Savitri-209 The Fifth Part: (From Page 211 to 214) This part describes King's entry into the darkest plane of Inconscient sheath. " A greater darkness waited, a worse reign, If worse can be where all is evil’s extreme; Yet to the cloaked the uncloaked is naked worst. There God and Truth and the supernal Light Had never been or else had power no more." Savitri-211 The Sixth Part: (From Page 214 to 216) King Aswapati met the proletariats of his kingdom who were high in their thought and speech but harboured animal lower Nature and like insects crawling among other ephemeral insects. Modern society is described as 'Shudra society of labour' (Essays on the Gita-523) and its disproportionate increase in the present time is a real threat to the survival of the human race. "In street and house, in councils and in courts Beings he met who looked like living men And climbed in speech upon high wings of thought But harboured all that is subhuman, vile And lower than the lowest reptile’s crawl." Savitri-215 The Seventh Part: (From Page 216 to 219) In integral Yoga, a conscious descent into Night is possible after the opening of the Supramental Being. This Canto gives the message that without the purification of Subconscient Night, mental, vital and physical transformation cannot be complete. This Canto-7 also gives the message that before conquering Death from without, one must conquer it from within. Spirit’s bare and absolute Power can alone meet, purify and transform the naked night of Hell. King Aswapati had experience of death without dying: “A formless void oppressed his struggling brain, A darkness grim and cold benumbed his flesh, A whispered grey suggestion chilled his heart; Haled by a serpent-force from its warm home And dragged to extinction in bleak vacancy Life clung to its seat with cords of gasping breath; Lapped was his body by a tenebrous tongue.” Savitri-218 “A dense and nameless Nothing conscious, mute, Which seemed alive but without body or mind, Lusted all beings to annihilate That it might be for ever nude and sole.” Savitri-217 This Canto proposes that Sadhaks become 'Heroes and soldiers of the army of Light' (Savitri-211) and walk safely and securely in this dangerous dark world only by keeping 'God in their hearts.' (Savitri-211) This Canto also proposes that for Subconscient transformation ceaseless Japa is indispensable. “Here must the traveller of the upward Way— For daring Hell’s kingdoms winds the heavenly route— Pause or pass slowly through that perilous space, A prayer upon his lips and the great Name . “ Savitri-210 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “To the blank horror a calm Light replied: Immutable, undying and unborn, Mighty and mute the Godhead in him woke And faced the pain and danger of the world. (The Supramental Godhead can face the pain and danger of the world.) He mastered the tides of Nature with a look: He met with his bare spirit naked Hell.” Savitri-219 13/ Book 2, Canto 8 - The World Of Falsehood, The Mother Of Evil And The Sons Of Darkness A Brief Restatement: In Book-2, Canto-8, King Aswapati challanged 'the darkness with his luminous soul' (Savitri-227) and .dared to adventure into the dark ocean of Subconscient and Inconscient plane with Supramental energy at his disposal. The First Part: (From Page 220 to 222) This Canto gives some new message on the dark nether world. It has identified the Mother of Evil as the guardian of that world and represented Death as her foster son. Those who strive for immortality on earth must confront this dark antagonist Force. "There in the heart of vain phenomenon, In an enormous action’s writhen core He saw a Shape illimitable and vague Sitting on Death who swallows all things born. A chill fixed face with dire and motionless eyes, Her (Mother of Evil) dreadful trident in her shadowy hand Outstretched, she pierced all creatures with one fate." Savitri-222 The Second Part: (From Page 222 to 225) This Canto also hints about twice born Soul known as Divine Child (Savitri-224). He needs a congenial atmosphere in which he can survive and flower and 'he needs yet four things before he can succeed, (1) the Sruti or recorded revelation, (2) the Sacred Teacher, (3) the practice of Yoga and (4) the Grace of God.” (CWSA-18/Kena and other Upanishads/p-169) Unfortunately ‘world’s Spiritual Shrines’ (Savitri-226) are largely occupied by dark 'terrible agencies.' ‘Assuming names divine they guide and rule’ (Savitri-226) and they cunningly slay the Soul of the Divine children in the cradle. Savitri book proposes that when a Dvija is born, then either the Divine deputes for him a living Teacher/Spiritual fosterer (like King Aswapati , the Guru and father of Savitri ) or he has to find him out in a distant land. (like the discovery of Satyavan in the deep forest) "Alarmed for her rule and full of fear and rage She prowls around each light that gleams through the dark Casting its ray from the spirit’s lonely tent, Hoping to enter with fierce stealthy tread And in the cradle slay the divine Child." Savitri-224 This Canto gives the secret of outer Death. Before outer death, when the growth of the Soul is arrested, his Psychic being decides to leave the body. After this Psychic escape, the aura or the golden nimbus around the body withdraws. A dark shadow is replaced. And finally, after a brief time passed, the subtle body and subtle mind leave the body. " A silence falls upon the spirit’s heights, From the veiled sanctuary the God retires, Empty and cold is the chamber of the Bride; The golden Nimbus now is seen no more, No longer burns the white spiritual ray And hushed for ever is the secret Voice. Then by the Angel of the Vigil Tower A name is struck from the recording book; A flame that sang in Heaven sinks quenched and mute; In ruin ends the epic of a soul. This is the tragedy of the inner death When forfeited is the divine element And only a mind and body live to die." Savitri-225 The Third Part: (From Page 225 to 227) Those who want to lead a Spiritual life or want to become the instrument of Truth, their name is recorded in the Subconscient and inconscient world. The giant sons of darkness sit and plan to make the life of instruments of truth or god’s radiant children, miserable. Those who cannot bear their (dark forces) long torture and wounds are not fit for higher Spiritual life and cannot make the earth a playfield of heaven. "Armoured, protected by their lethal masks, As in a studio of creative Death The giant sons of Darkness sit and plan The drama of the earth, their tragic stage. All who would raise the fallen world must come Under the dangerous arches of their power; For even the radiant children of the gods To darken their privilege is and dreadful right. None can reach heaven who has not passed through hell." Savitri-226-227 The Fourth Part: (From Page 227 to 232) So world problems can be resolved by opening towards 'superconscient Fire', and invert its dynamic energy to enter into dark Subconscient and Inconscient world. Thus, Subconscient and Inconscient Selves are discovered and by their Force and Light, cells of the body are exulted, the dark antagonist Forces are slain and 'Healed were all things that Time’s torn heart had made.' (Savitri-232) Thus, ‘sorrow could live no more in Nature’s breast.’ (Savitri-232) The previous Canto makes a Sadhak aware that 'The world turned to them (falsehoods) as Heaven to Truth and God' (Savitri-209) and suggests in this Canto that for the transformation of Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths, ceaseless Japa of Divine's name is indispensable. "Arousing consciousness in things inert, He imposed upon dark atom and dumb mass The diamond script of the Imperishable, Inscribed on the dim heart of fallen things A paean-song of the free Infinite And the Name , foundation of eternity, And traced on the awake exultant cells In the ideographs of the Ineffable The lyric of the love that waits through Time And the mystic volume of the Book of Bliss And the message of the superconscient Fire." Savitri-232 The Canto makes a Sadhak aware that 'hell as a short cut to heaven’s gates' (Savitri-231) and further hints that like King Aswapati he has to confront with dark forces and bear 'the fierce inner wounds that are slow to heal.' (Savitri-230) OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “She groped in his deeps for an invisible Law, Fumbled in the dim subconscient for his mind (that had fallen) (tamas, rajas and sattwa are three negative inconscient mental energy.) And strove to find a way for spirit to be. “(Search for discovery of Subconscient Self.) Savitri-222, “Yet in her formidable instinctive mind She feels the One grow in the heart of Time And sees the Immortal shine through the human mould.” Savitri-224 “Into the abysmal secrecy he came Where darkness peers from her mattress, grey and nude, And stood on the last locked subconscient’s floor Where Being slept unconscious of its thoughts (Subconscient Self) And built the world not knowing what it built.” Savitri-231 14/ Book 2, Canto 9 - The Paradise Of The Life Gods A Brief Restatement: This Canto begins with the message of King Aswapati's movement of Consciousness between the Psychic and Spiritual planes. “A lustre of some rapturous Infinite, It held in the splendour of its golden laugh Regions of the heart’s happiness set free, (Psychic) Intoxicated with the wine of God, (Spiritual) Immersed in light, perpetually divine.” Savitri-233 In this Book-2, Canto-9, King Aswapati, entered a higher world in cosmic Consciousness, ('As one who sees in the World-Magician’s glass.' (Savitri-234) 'Around him shone a great felicitous Day' (Savitri-233)) known as Overmind. The Canto indicates that one can enter this higher cosmic Consciousness either through the Psychic being (And make the heart wide as infinity (Savitri-235)) or through the Spiritual Being (And lay on the breast of universal love (Savitri-233)) or through the movement of both the Selves. (A touch supreme surprised his hurrying heart.(Savitri-237)) "In sudden moments of revealing flame, In passionate responses half-unveiled He reached the rim of ecstasies unknown; A touch supreme surprised his hurrying heart, The clasp was remembered of the Wonderful, And hints leaped down of white beatitudes." Savitri-236-237 This Overmental world is free from fear, grief, shocks of fate, adverse circumstances, free from our body’s poor health ‘inviting death,’ (Savitri-233) and free ‘from our danger-zone of stumbling Will.’ (Savitri-233) There pain transformed into potent joy, no presence of lower Nature to terminate endless charm, desire and personal will transformed into omnipotent flame, pleasure had the stature of God, dream walked in the highway of stars, and sweet common action, thought and feeling turned into miracle. The mental foreknowledge transformed into the ecstatic truth of triple time, trikaladristi. King’s anguish of the Soul, long strife in the subconscient night and wounded limbs suffered during the war with Inconscient dark forces were healed quickly and recompensed with calm and peace, Spiritual ease, celestial rest and sorrowless hours in this higher plane. "And, lapped in a magic flood of sorrowless hours, Healed were his warrior nature’s wounded limbs In the encircling arms of Energies That brooked no stain and feared not their own bliss." Savitri-235 Finally, King entered a Supramental world where he met the forms that divinise the sight, heard the music that can immortalise the mind, received Wisdom that newly makes the universe, harboured power that can reconcile Spirit with Matter, the cells of the body experienced nectar-cup of the Absolute and extreme delight that could shatter mortal cells. Thus, Immortality captured Time and Space and carried forward the rhythm of all life. "It shrank no more from the supreme demand Of an untired capacity for bliss, A might that could explore its own infinite And beauty and passion and the depths’ reply Nor feared the swoon of glad identity (Samadhi experience) Where spirit and flesh in inner ecstasy join Annulling the quarrel between self and shape." Savitri-236 “A giant drop of the Bliss unknowable Overwhelmed his limbs and round his soul became A fiery ocean of felicity; He foundered drowned in sweet and burning vasts: The dire delight that could shatter mortal flesh, (The experience of cellular transformation.) The rapture that the gods sustain he bore.” Savitri-237 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “A scale of sense that climbed with fiery feet To heights of unimagined happiness, Recast his being’s aura in joy-glow, His body glimmered like a skiey shell; His gates to the world were swept with seas of light. ” Savitri-236 15/ Book 2, Canto 10 - The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Little Mind A Brief Restatement: In this Book-2, Canto-10, King Aswapati, entered the triple world of ‘little mind tied to little things,’ known as physical mind or tamasic mind, vital mind or rajasic mind, and intellect or sattwic mind. What is pigmy Tamasic (Physical) Mind? The normal waking state is dominated by the physical mind, which is the assured base, close to earthly nature, first status of slow ascent and lowest sub-plane of intellect, the starting point of the movement of that apparent material world. It contradicts and opposes the vital mind by inertia, indolence and dullness and intellect by narrowness, precarious thought, ignorance and obscurity. “At its low extremity held difficult sway A mind that hardly saw and slowly found; Its nature to our earthly nature close And kin to our precarious mortal thought That looks from soil to sky and sky to soil But knows not the below nor the beyond, [Physical mind is not aware of the truth of the existence in Subconscient and Superconscient planes.] It only sensed itself and outward things.” Savitri-239 “The slow process of a material mind Which serves the body it should rule and use And needs to lean upon an erring sense, Was born in that luminous obscurity.” Savitri-240 "A twilight sage whose shadow seems to him self,” Savitri-240 “One sees it (physical mind) circling faithful to its task, Tireless in an assigned tradition’s round; In decayed and crumbling offices of Time It keeps close guard in front of custom’s wall, Or in an ancient Night’s dim environs It dozes on a little courtyard’s stones And barks at every unfamiliar light As at a foe who would break up its home, A watch-dog of the spirit’s sense-railed house Against intruders from the Invisible, Nourished on scraps of life and Matter’s bones In its kennel of objective certitude.” Savitri-246 What is the muddy and deceptive Rajasic (Vital) Mind? The man’s vital mind is an instrument of desire, the troubled seed of things, which hunts after unrealised possibilities, burns all hearts with ambiguous fire, enlarges always passion and craving, creates dissatisfaction, an unrest, a seeking for something more than what life seems able to give it, a constant demand for more and always more, a quest for new worlds to conquer, an incessant drive towards an exceeding of the bounds of circumstance and a self-exceeding. It is not satisfied with physical and objective enjoyment only but seeks to a subjective, imaginative, a purely emotive satisfaction, enjoyment and pleasure, which are dependent on external things, external sense contacts and concerned with the practical, the immediately realizable and possible events, the habitual, the common and average. “Thence sprang the burning vision of Desire . A thousand shapes it wore, took numberless names: A need of multitude and uncertainty Pricks it for ever to pursue the One On countless roads across the vasts of Time Through circuits of unending difference. It burns all breasts with an ambiguous fire.” Savitri-247 "Ardent to find, incapable to retain, A brilliant instability was its mark, To err its inborn trend, its native cue." Savitri-248 What is the purposeful and laborious Sattwic Mind (Intellect)? Mind is essentially the faculty of Supermind, which measures and limits and fixes a particular centre for cosmic movement and action and only very indirectly and partially illumined and it can look upward and receive the Supramental communication and passes it on to the other lower members. And since man is a mental being, so thought is at least his most constant, normal, immediate and effective means for enlightening his Ignorance. “In her high works of pure intelligence, In her withdrawal from the senses’ trap, There comes no breaking of the walls of mind, There leaps no rending flash of absolute power, There dawns no light of heavenly certitude.” Savitri-251 “In this small mould of infant mind and sense Desire is a child-heart’s cry crying for bliss, Our reason only a toys’ artificer, A rule-maker in a strange stumbling game. But she her dwarf aides knew whose confident sight A bounded prospect took for the far goal.” Savitri-257 “Reason cannot tear off that glimmering mask, Her efforts only make it glimmer more; In packets she ties up the Indivisible; Finding her hands too small to hold vast Truth She breaks up knowledge into alien parts Or peers through cloud-rack for a vanished sun:” Savitri-257 To liberate life and Nature from their narrow, false and divisible consciousness is a difficult task of an integral Yogi or supramental man. Sri Aurobindo observed them as three dwarfs, bound in a golden chain. The Gita recommends them as three asuras and defines amply the Nature of these three Gunas . The Gita proposes new static methods for developing Souls and Sri Aurobindo proposes dynamic Supramental method to go beyond their influence. And in fact, both methods are to be combined to eradicate their influence. The Gita’s method: “Sattwa must be transcended as well as rajas and tamas ; the golden chain must be broken no less than the leaden fetters and the bond-ornaments of a mixed alloy. The Gita prescribes to this end a new method of self-discipline . It is to stand back in oneself from the action of the modes and observe this unsteady flux as the Witness seated above the surge of the forces of Nature. He watches but is impartial and indifferent, aloof from them on their own level and in his native posture high above them. As they rise and fall in their waves, the Witness looks, and observes, but neither accepts nor for the moment interferes with their course. First, there must be the freedom of the impersonal Witness; afterward there can be the control of the Master, the Ishwara. ” CWSA/21/The Synthesis of Yoga-238 Integral Yoga's method: “The Supermind had descended long ago—very long ago—into the mind and even into the vital: it was working in the physical also but indirectly through those intermediaries. The question was about the direct action of the Supermind in the physical. Sri Aurobindo said it could be possible only if the physical mind received the supramental light: the physical mind was the instrument for direct action upon the most material. This physical mind receiving the supramental light Sri Aurobindo called the Mind of Light… As soon as Sri Aurobindo withdrew from his body, what he has called the Mind of Light got realised in me.” The Mother/29 June 1953/The Mother’s Centenary Works/13/62-63, The Synthesis of Yoga book proposes that not only we will go beyond the Gunas but also reconcile the higher nature of Para-prakriti with the lower nature of three gunas of Apara-prakriti and higher nature can penetrate the lower Nature in order to transform the lower nature. “When we break out from ego and physical mind into the infinity of the spirit, we still see the world and others as the mind has accustomed us to see them, as names and forms; only in our new experience of the direct and superior reality of spirit, they lose that direct objective reality and that indirect subjective reality of their own which they had to the mind. They seem to be quite the opposite of the truer reality we now experience; our mentality, stilled and indifferent, no longer strives to know and make real to itself those intermediate terms which exist in them as in us and the knowledge of which has for its utility to bridge over the gulf between the spiritual self and the objective phenomena of the world.” (CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-442) “But it is also possible to make this silence of the mind and ability to suspend the habits of the lower nature a first step towards the discovery of a superior formulation, a higher grade of the status and energy of our being and pass by an ascent and transformation into the supramental power of the spirit. And this may even, though with more difficulty, be done without resorting to the complete state of quietude of the normal mind by a persistent and progressive transformation of all the mental into their greater corresponding supramental powers and activities.” (CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga-758-759) The Synthesis of Yoga book proposes another method in addition to the Gita’s method by which one can go beyond three gunas . “There is nothing to be done with this fickle, restless, violent and disturbing factor but to get rid of it (physical mind) whether (1) by detaching it and then reducing it to stillness or (2) by giving a concentration and singleness to the thought by which it will of itself reject this alien and confusing element." (CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga-314) “Tamas in the spiritual being becomes a divine calm, which is not an inertia and incapacity of action, but a perfect power, sakti, holding in itself all its capacity and capable of controlling and subjecting to the law of calm even the most stupendous and enormous activity: rajas becomes a self-effecting initiating sheer Will of the spirit, which is not desire, endeavour, striving passion, but the same perfect power of being, sakti , capable of an infinite, imperturbable and blissful action. Sattwa becomes not the modified mental light, prakasa , but the self-existent light of the divine being, jyotih ., which is the soul of the perfect power of being and illumines in their unity the divine quietude and the divine will of action.” (CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga-689) “This process (of Spiritual transformation) may be rapid or tardy according to the amount of obscurity and resistance still left in the nature, but it goes on unfalteringly so long as it is not complete. As a final result the whole conscious being is made perfectly apt for spiritual experience of every kind, turned towards spiritual truth of thought, feeling, sense, action, tuned to the right responses, delivered from the darkness and stubbornness of the tamasic inertia, the turbidities and turbulences and impurities of the rajasic passion and restless unharmonised kinetism, the enlightened rigidities and sattwic limitations or poised balancements of constructed equilibrium which are the character of the Ignorance.” (CWSA-22/The Life Divine-941,) The Gita confirms that Intellect has the capacity to enter partial union with the Divine, buddhi grahyam atindriyam. Savitri book confirms that this partial Divine union will not be able to discern truth from falsehood which is again a partial truth. The two characters in Savitri, Death and Savitri’s birth mother were having the partial realisation of the Divine but both were advocates of Soul-slaying Truth. In this Canto we can carefully note this line, mind “Denied the (Soul saving) Truth that transient (Soul slaying) truths might live.” (Savitri-244) Again this Soul-slaying truth will not be able to remove the ‘twilight thought’ from tamasic, rajasic and sattwic mind which seems to be one of the affirmative conditions in confronting Death . However, the study of the whole Nature of the tamasic mind, rajasic mind and sattwic mind is very crucial to begin traditional Yoga and continuing the integral Yoga. In order to pursue the sadhana , Arjuna wanted to know from the Lord, the vivid description of the whole nature of three gunas . In this Canto, we observe three solutions of Psychic transformation, Psychic and Spiritual transformation and Supramental transformation of the triple mind. They are: Psychic Transformation: We will have to remember that Divine wisdom does not visit man as a guest from outside but it is slowly accumulated from within through the blows of life. Similarly, Divine Love does not visit as a guest from outside but it evolves from within from the disgust of precarious human relation and human love. Both Love and Wisdom are necessary for the fulfillment of life. "For knowledge comes not to us as a guest Called into our chamber from the outer world; A friend and inmate of our secret self, It hid behind our minds and fell asleep And slowly wakes beneath the blows of life; The mighty daemon lies unshaped within, To evoke, to give it form is Nature’s task." Savitri-244 “A greater Mind may see a greater Truth, Or we may find when all the rest has failed Hid in ourselves the key of perfect change.” Savitri-256 Psychic and Spiritual Transformation: " Above in a high breathless stratosphere, Overshadowing the dwarfish trinity, Lived, aspirants to a limitless Beyond, Captives of Space, walled by the limiting heavens, In the unceasing circuit of the hours Yearning for the straight paths of eternity, And from their high station looked down on this world Two sun-gaze Daemons witnessing all that is. " Savitri-258 Supramental Transformation: " A fire shall come out of the infinitudes, A greater Gnosis shall regard the world Crossing out of some far omniscience On lustrous seas from the still rapt Alone To illumine the deep heart of self and things. ” Savitri-258 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “Accustomed to a blue infinity, (Overmental infinity or preliminary Supramental) It (Overmind) planed in sunlit sky and starlit air; It saw afar the unreached Immortal’s home And heard afar the voices of the Gods.” Savitri-258 “Iconoclast and shatterer of Time’s forts, Overleaping limit and exceeding norm, It (Supramental) lit the thoughts that glow through the centuries And moved to acts of superhuman force.” Savitri-259 16/ Book 2, Canto 11 - The Kingdoms And Godheads Of The Greater Mind A Brief Restatement: This Canto appears to be the continuation of previous Canto, where the King standing on the Overmental Cosmic Consciousness ' saw afar the unreached Immortal’s home And heard afar the voices of the Gods.' (Savitri-258) The King enters the triple planes of Cosmic Consciousness through 'meditation's mounting edge of trance' (Savitri-264) and from a long distance 'he saw the joining' of lower and higher hemispheres. Here the Higher, Illumined and Intuitive minds are universalised and meet the godheads of those Superconscient worlds, who are respectively 'mighty wardens,' 'subtle archangel race' and 'sovereign Kings of Thought.' The universalised Higher and universalised Illumined Minds get their source from the universal Intuitive plane which in turn is sourced from the fourth plane of 'bright Gods' (Savitri-274) of Overmind. The key difference between these higher triple planes and our (lower) mind is that in these former planes, one does not grope around in the darkness and twilight planes or infer conclusions from various pieces of data. These triple planes allow for direct form, visions and flashes of the Truth to be reflected more clearly and truly and therefore less subject to the floundering seen in the triple lower mortal mind. But even these higher planes do not capture the whole Truth, only some fragments of it. In these triple realms, there is harmony, truth and courage. The triple realms are: (1) 'small beginning of immense ascent;' (Savitri-264) (2) 'a light of liberating knowledge;' (Savitri-268) (3) 'wide summit of triple stair' (Savitri-271) respectively. Let us meet the Godheads or emanations of these triple planes with their ascending capacity: Godheads of Universalised Higher Mind: " The mighty wardens of the ascending stair Who intercede with the all-creating Word, There waited for the pilgrim heaven-bound soul; Holding the thousand keys of the Beyond They proffered their knowledge to the climbing mind And filled the life with Thought’s immensities." Savitri-265 "Iridescent, bodying the invisible, The guardians of the Eternal’s bright degrees Fronted the Sun in radiant phalanxes. Afar they seemed a symbol imagery, Illumined originals of the shadowy script In which our sight transcribes the ideal Ray, Or icons figuring a mystic Truth, But, nearer, Gods and living Presences." Savitri-265 "In front of the ascending epiphany World-Time’s enjoyers, favourites of World-Bliss, The Masters of things actual, lords of the hours, Playmates of youthful Nature and child God, Creators of Matter by hid stress of Mind Whose subtle thoughts support unconscious Life And guide the fantasy of brute events, Stood there, a race of young keen-visioned gods , King-children born on Wisdom’s early plane, Taught in her school world-making’s mystic play." Savitri-266 Godheads of Universalised Illumined Mind: "Above stood ranked a subtle archangel race With larger lids and looks that searched the unseen. A light of liberating knowledge shone Across the gulfs of silence in their eyes; They lived in the mind and knew truth from within; A sight withdrawn in the concentrated heart Could pierce behind the screen of Time’s results And the rigid cast and shape of visible things." Savitri-268 Godheads of Universalised Intuitive Mind: "August and few the sovereign Kings of Thought Have made of Space their wide all-seeing gaze Surveying the enormous work of Time: A breadth of all-containing Consciousness Supported Being in a still embrace. Intercessors with a luminous Unseen, They capt in the long passage to the world The imperatives of the creator Self Obeyed by unknowing earth, by conscious heaven; Their thoughts are partners in its vast control." Savitri-271 Overmind and the bright Godheads: Here we find the universalised consciousness where the relation of Jivatma with Paraprakriti is established and it is described in the following symbolic language. Through the descent of D ivine Mother's touch, the mortal head is illumined and a golden nimbus becomes visible surrounding the head. "Or as a lover clasps his one beloved, Godhead of his life’s worship and desire, Icon of his heart’s sole idolatry, She now is his and must live for him alone: She has invaded him with her sudden bliss,... Incarnating her beauty in his clasp She gave for a brief kiss her immortal lips And drew to her bosom one glorified mortal head : She made earth her home, for whom heaven was too small. In a human breast her occult presence lived; He carved from his own self his figure of her: She shaped her body to a mind’s embrace." Savitri-274-275 Paraprakriti is here the Divine Mother and the 'The whole world lives in a lonely ray of her sun.' (Savitri-276) If a Sadhak will 'Dare to surrender to her absolute' (Savitri-276) then a new Manifestation will take place. Even he adores her to possess her Divinity, 'But she remains herself and infinite' (Savitri-276) or 'A distance severed her from those most close.' (Savitri-366) This Canto projects a Sadhak as 'citizens of that mother State' (Savitri-262) or Spiritual fosterer and his Soul as 'Immaculate in white virginity.' (Savitri-274) In order to adventure into 'Matter's night' he must have Kshetriya Soul force in his frontal nature. “Its (Spirit’s) wings can dare to cross the Infinite.” Savitri-260 "Our spirits break free from their environment; The future brings its face of miracle near, Its godhead looks at us with present eyes; Acts deemed impossible grow natural; We feel the hero’s immortality; The courage and the strength death cannot touch Awake in limbs that are mortal, hearts that fail; We move by the rapid impulse of a will That scorns the tardy trudge of mortal time." Savitri-262 “Ourselves are citizens of that mother State Adventurers, we have colonised Matter’s night.” Savitri-262 “These (God-born strength) dared to grasp with their thought Truth’s absolute;” Savitri-272 “Dare to surrender to her absolute.” Savitri-276 “At each moment willed or adventure of the soul,” Savitri-266 “It (Supermind) casts on our world its great crowned influences, Its speed that outstrips the ambling of the hours, Its force that strides invincibly through Time, Its mights that bridge the gulf twixt man and God, Its (Supermind) lights that combat Ignorance and Death.” Savitri-261 In addition to Kshetriya Soul Force, Spiritual life prohibits earthly enjoyments and rest and proposes ceaseless action by uniting with the Divine and ceaseless descent of Divine Wisdom and Love. The ultimate vision is to call down the Supreme Lord and His magic Will in its entirety that can break down all established laws, all the limitations of mortal life instantly; search for that fire of Love which can bring dead back to life; that Power which can cancel the things once done; that supreme Consciousness which can arrest the advance of time and slipping moments (“No silent peak is found where Time can rest.” Savitri-197) and that Bliss which can persuade the past perfect hours to live again with greater intensity or 'A new charm brings back the old extreme delight.' (Savitri-275) Adventure into Supramental consciousness promises endless new discoveries in the material world, endless opulence, beauty and harmony in the surrounding world. It also promises to put pressure on common man or on humanity to reveal their Soul. This Canto also gives the message that the Sadhak must also have the highest Brahmin Soul force in his frontal Nature which is a ceaseless rejection of falsehood and ceaseless acceptance of overhead Truth. This Canto hints at the establishment of Soul-saving Truth which alone can replace the Soul-slaying truth of three gunas . “The Spirit’s truths take form as living Gods” Savitri-261 “Of a truth that sees in an unerring light” Savitri-261 “A memory steals in from lost heavens of Truth,” Savitri-263 “In our unknown depths sleeps their reserve of truth,” Savitri-263 “Answers Truth’s call as to a parent’s voice” Savitri-264 “A happiness it brings of whispered truth;” Savitri-264 “The flame-bright hierarchs of the divine Truth” Savitri-265 “Or icons figuring a mystic Truth,” Savitri-265 “They lived in the mind and knew truth from within” Savitri-268 “And theoricians of unknowable truths,” Savitri-268 “Truths they could find and hold but not the one (Supreme) Truth” Savitri-271 “A Truth-gaze shapes its beings and events;” Savitri-271 “Even Nature’s ignorance is Truth’s instrument;” Savitri-272 “Mystic, ineffable is the spirit’s truth,” Savitri-272 “This greater Truth is foreign to our thoughts;” Savitri-272 “And hoped to conquer Truth’s supernal base.” Savitri-273 “In transparent systems bodied termless truths,” Savitri-273 “This they have planned, to snare the feet of Truth” Savitri-274 “But thought nor word can seize eternal Truth: The whole world lives in a lonely ray of her sun Truth smiled upon the gracious golden game” Savitri-275 “A king of truth upon his separate throne.” Savitri-275 “For Truth is wider, greater than her forms.” Savitri-276 This Canto also makes us aware of our limitations and makes us accountable towards Divine life: “We see not what small figure of her (Para-prakriti) we hold; We feel not her inspiring boundlessness, We share not her immortal liberty. Thus is it even with the seer and sage For still the human limits the divine:” Savitri-276 “To account for the Actual’s unaccountable sum,” Savitri-269 “Its values weighed by the accountant Mind,” Savitri-270 This Canto deals only with higher planes of Consciousness and gives importance to live a life in extreme happiness and joy. Thus ' Joy dares to grow upon forbidden soil.' (Savitri-630). This is also a condition to meet and confront with world’s Ignorance, Falsehood, Suffering and Death. "A happiness it brings of whispered truth; There runs in its flow honeying the bosom of Space A laughter from the immortal heart of Bliss, And the unfathomed Joy of timelessness, The sound of Wisdom’s murmur in the Unknown And the breath of an unseen Infinity." Savitri-264 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “A gold supernal sun of timeless Truth Poured down the mystery of the eternal Ray Through a silence quivering with the word of Light On an endless ocean of discovery.” Savitri-264 “Of throbbing new discovery without end.” Savitri-275 “The All-containing was contained in form, Oneness was carved into units measurable, The limitless built into a cosmic sum: Unending Space was beaten into a curve, Indivisible Time into small minutes cut, The infinitesimal massed to keep secure The mystery of the Formless cast into form.” Savitri-266-67 “A breadth of all-containing Consciousness Supported Being in a still embrace…. A great all-ruling Consciousness is there…” Savitri-271 “The secret power in the inconscient depths, Compelling the blinded Godhead to emerge,” Savitri-272 (Discovery of Inconscient Self.) 17/ Book 2, Canto 12 - The Heavens Of Ideal A Brief Restatement: This Book-2, Canto-12, gives the account of King Aswapati’s Psychic being’s ascent to Spiritual and Supramental height, hence this ascent is identified as Purusha yajna or Vedantic sacrifice. "It left known summits for the unknown peaks:" Savitri-277 "Its worlds are steps of an ascending Force:" Savitri-280 "Only the Eternal’s strength in us can dare To attempt the immense adventure of that climb And the sacrifice of all we cherish here." Savitri-280 Here we find an account of the movement of Consciousness in higher planes of Consciousness, particularly in between Psychic and Spiritual plane. "Each stage of the soul’s remote ascent was built Into a constant heaven felt always here." Savitri-277 This Canto also gives hint of opening of Chakras of King Aswapati from above the head moving downward as Divine Shakti . The traditional Yoga gives importance of opening of Chakras or energy centres from below and asks the physical presence of Guru in order to avoid the possibility of Spiritual fall. The opening of Chakras as proposed in integral Yoga is safe and need not depend on the Physical presence of Guru . The descending Shakti will purify mind, vital and body and finally descend to Subconscient and Inconscient plane for purification and transformation. “Our hidden centres of celestial force Open like flowers to a heavenly atmosphere; Mind pauses thrilled with the supernal Ray, And even this transient body then can feel Ideal love and flawless happiness And laughter of the heart’s sweetness and delight Freed from the rude and tragic hold of Time, And beauty and the rhythmic feet of the hours.” Savitri-278 "A million lotuses swaying on one stem, World after coloured and ecstatic world Climbs towards some far unseen epiphany." Savitri-279 So the Yoga which begins with the movement of Consciousness between Psychic and Spiritual plane, replacing or superseding the earlier status of movement of consciousness between three gunas , will culminate with the movement of Consciousness between Inconscient and Supramental plane. “Above the spirit cased in mortal sense Are superconscious realms of heavenly peace, Below, the Inconscient’s sullen dim abyss, Between, behind our life, the deathless Rose.” Savitri-277-278 Thus, King Aswapati prepared his body for cellular transformation. This is identified as the intermediate siddhi beyond Supramental of integral Yoga. “A fiery stillness wakes the slumbering cells , A passion of the flesh becoming spirit, And marvellously is fulfilled at last The miracle for which our life was made.” Savitri-278 We also observe in this Canto the reconciliation of Divine Will, Divine Knowledge and Divine Love through the movement of Consciousness. They become one and further ‘Aspired to reach the Being’s absolute.’(Savitri-279). This sense of Oneness with all existence is a movement towards Cosmic and Supramental Consciousness and the King met in those planes ‘radiant children of Eternity’ (Savitri-282) who can assist a Sadhaka to establish himself in that plane. This Canto also confirms a Sadhak that Spiritual fall can be avoided if Karma Yoga is reconciled with Jnana Yoga . "Happy the worlds that have not felt our fall , Where Will is one with Truth and Good with Power ; Impoverished not by earth-mind’s indigence, They keep God’s natural breath of mightiness, His bare spontaneous swift intensities; There is his great transparent mirror, Self, And there his sovereign autarchy of bliss In which immortal natures have their part, Heirs and cosharers of divinity." Savitri-281 "There is the secrecy of the House of Flame, The blaze of godlike thought and golden bliss, The rapt idealism of heavenly sense; There are the wonderful voices, the sun-laugh, A gurgling eddy in rivers of God’s joy, And the mysteried vineyards of the gold moon-wine, All the fire and sweetness of which hardly here A brilliant shadow visits mortal life." Savitri-279 OM TAT SAT The Important Secret of this chapter: “It longed for the Light that knows not death and birth. Each stage of the soul’s remote ascent was built Into a constant heaven felt always here.” Savitri-277 “A fiery stillness wakes the slumbering cells, A passion of the flesh becoming spirit, And marvellously is fulfilled at last The miracle for which our life was made. A flame in a white voiceless cupola Is seen and faces of immortal light, The radiant limbs that know not birth and death, The breasts that suckle the first-born of the Sun, The wings that crowd thought’s ardent silences, The eyes that look into spiritual Space.” Savitri-278 The More Important Secret of this chapter: “There is the secrecy of the House of Flame (Agni), (Psychic being) The blaze of godlike thought and golden bliss, The rapt idealism of heavenly sense; There are the wonderful voices, the sun-laugh, A gurgling eddy in rivers of God’s joy, And the mysteried vineyards of the gold moon-wine, All the fire and sweetness of which hardly here A brilliant shadow visits mortal life.” Savitri-279 The Most Important Secret of this chapter: "Yet were there regions where these absolutes met And made a circle of bliss with married hands; Light stood embraced by light, fire wedded fire, But none in the other would his body lose To find his soul in the world’s single Soul, A multiplied rapture of infinity." Savitri-281-282 18/ Book 2, Canto 13 - In The Self Of Mind A Brief Restatement: The Book-2, Canto-13 concentrates on King Aswapati’s full opening of intermediate static Spiritual Being and its relation with dynamic Psychic Being below and dynamic Supramental Being above. It also hints that the most important Psychic being of integral Yoga is partly fulfilled by union with Spiritual Being and fully satisfied with the union with Supramental Being. "Then suddenly a luminous finger fell On all things seen or touched or heard or felt And showed his mind that nothing could be known; That must be reached from which all knowledge comes." Savitri-284 While a Static Spiritual being is indifferent to world problems, its intervention in life reduces desire, personal will, ego, attachment, dualities and action of three gunas. This Canto does not concentrate on the dynamic Spiritual being which is also known as Cosmic Consciousness and its action is more described in the next Canto, Book 2, Canto-14. The Nature of Spiritual Being is ‘Mighty calm,’ ‘immobile calm,’ ‘wordless peace,’ ‘deep peace,’ indifferent to victory and defeat, ‘vast quietism,’ 'creator Mind,' ‘a wide and witness Self,’ 'a shadow' of Supramental light, ‘a pale front of the Unknowable’ Supermind, ‘blank and still.’ Spiritual being can trace a passage of brief Supramental touch, which gives input to explore more on the subject. They are described as That, sceptic Ray, Superconscient Sun, convicting beam, nameless Force, mighty Mother, white passion of God-ecstasy, boundless heart of Love, and ‘A greater Spirit.’ "Our sweet and mighty Mother was not there Who gathers to her bosom her children’s lives, Her clasp that takes the world into her arms In the fathomless rapture of the Infinite, The Bliss that is creation’s splendid grain Or the white passion of God-ecstasy That laughs in the blaze of the boundless heart of Love. A greater Spirit than the Self of Mind (the greater Spirit is Supermind.) Must answer to the questioning of his soul." Savitri-286-287 This Canto also proposes to become immortal by constantly renewing the mortality though the Spiritual Being is unable to confront Death in the inconscient plane. "Two firmaments of darkness and of light Opposed their limits to the spirit’s walk; It moved veiled in from Self’s infinity In a world of beings and momentary events Where all must die to live and live to die. Immortal by renewed mortality," Savitri-287-288 Finally, the Canto proposes that if one will remain in the world he will have to live in the prison of ego, and if he will activate the Spiritual being it will find a passage to extinction and escape from this world. "To be was a prison, extinction the escape." (Savitri-288) So, we have to go beyond the Spiritual Mind in order to discover the dynamic Spirit and a comprehensive solution to the world's problems. OM TAT SAT The Important Secret of this chapter: “Where Silence listened to the cosmic Voice, But answered nothing to a million calls; The soul’s endless question met with no response.” Savitri-283 “Silence (of Spiritual Being), the mystic birthplace of the soul (Psychic Being).” Savitri-287 (A psychic being’s silence is a suffusion from a Spiritual being.) “The Silence knew itself and thought took form:” Savitri-284 “There (state of equality) he could stay, the Self, the Silence won: His soul had peace, it knew the cosmic Whole.” Savitri-284 (cosmic consciousness) 19/ Book 2, Canto 14 - The World-Soul A Brief Restatement: This Book-2, Canto-14 represents King Aswapati’s Spiritual experience of cosmic Self which is the same as the dynamic state of the Spiritual being, all this existence is Brahman of the Gita (Vasudevah Sarvamiti) (The Gita-7.19) , Para Prakriti or the Divine Mother of Tantra . This dynamic Spiritual being also has the capacity to travel in all the ten planes of Consciousness or multiple subtle bodies for purification, transformation and perfection. Or "The spirit wandering from state to state" (Savitri-294) This is also identified as the preliminary stair of the Supermind where the World, Self and Divine are reconciled. This is also the state of Consciousness, which is the outcome of Jivatma’s Divine union with the Para-Prakriti , who holds together this whole universe, jagat dharayete (The Gita-7.5). "Above them all she stands supporting all, The sole omnipotent Goddess ever-veiled Of whom the world is the inscrutable mask; The ages are the footfalls of her tread, Their happenings the figure of her thoughts, And all creation is her endless act. His spirit was made a vessel of her force; Mute in the fathomless passion of his will He outstretched to her his folded hands of prayer." Savitri-295 In all the previous Cantos, King Aswapati had the experience of Cosmic Consciousness, but in this Canto his cosmic Self is Supramentalised and the Divine revealed himself in his personal form. The King's Consciousness continues to move between the universal and transcendent Self. "An incense floated in the quivering air, A mystic happiness trembled in the breast As if the invisible Beloved had come Assuming the sudden loveliness of a face And close glad hands could seize his fugitive feet And the world change with the beauty of a smile." Savitri-290 In Cosmic Consciousness, Matter and Spirit are reconciled and all negations of material life is Divinised by the universal Spirit’s touch. They are: “One who could love without return for love (Divine Love), Meeting and turning to the best the worst, It healed the bitter cruelties of earth, Transforming all experience to delight; Intervening in the sorrowful paths of birth It rocked the cradle of the cosmic Child And stilled all weeping with its hand of joy; It led things evil towards their secret good, It turned racked falsehood into happy truth; Its power was to reveal divinity.” Savitri-291 This Canto proposes a Sadhak on how to enter relation with other Souls by activation of the cosmic Self. Here, the subtle touch of one soul with another soul is given much importance by extension and universalisation of subtle body and a touch of gross 'bodies were needed not' (Savitri-292) to establish this Divine Love. "Life was not there, but an impassioned force, Finer than fineness, deeper than the deeps, Felt as a subtle and spiritual power, A quivering out from soul to answering soul, A mystic movement, a close influence, A free and happy and intense approach Of being to being with no screen or check, Without which life and love could never have been. Body was not there, for bodies were needed not, The soul itself was its own deathless form And met at once the touch of other souls Close, blissful, concrete, wonderfully true." Savitri-292 This Cosmic Self is the home and training ground of dead Souls through internatal trance and one enters the right relation with the world, fellow brothers, dead kith and kin and material things through direct contact with this higher consciousness. "In trance they (dead Souls) gathered back their bygone selves, In a background memory’s foreseeing muse Prophetic of new personality Arranged the map of their coming destiny’s course: Heirs of their past, their future’s discoverers, Electors of their own self-chosen lot, They waited for the adventure of new life." Savitri-293 "The (dead) spirit wandering from state to state Finds here (Cosmic Self) the silence of its starting-point In the formless force and the still fixity And brooding passion of the world of Soul... Ever they (Dead Souls) change and changing ever grow, And passing through a fruitful stage of death And after long reconstituting sleep Resume their place in the process of the Gods Until their work in cosmic Time is done." Savitri-294 In this cosmic Consciousness, the King Aswapati was able to have direct personal contact with the supreme Lord and supreme Mother and Their dual relation, which uplifted the King’s consciousness to the status of Avatara . "His soul passed on, a single conscious power, Towards the end which ever begins again, Approaching through a stillness dumb and calm To the source of all things human and divine. There he beheld in their mighty union’s poise The figure of the deathless Two-in-One, A single being in two bodies clasped, A diarchy of two united souls, Seated absorbed in deep creative joy; Their trance of bliss sustained the mobile world." Savitri-295 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “A flame that cancels death in mortal things.” Savitri-291 “Behind them in a morning dusk One stood (the Divine Mother – as the Transcendent Shakti) Who brought them forth from the Unknowable (the Supreme). Ever disguised she awaits the seeking spirit; Watcher on the supreme unreachable peaks, Guide of the traveller of the unseen paths, She guards the austere approach to the Alone.” Savitri-295 20/ Book 2, Canto 15 - The Kingdoms Of The Greater Knowledge A Brief Restatement: Book-2, Canto-15 gives the message of the Supramental plane, which becomes active after one is established in the movement of Consciousness between the Universal and the Transcendent Self which succeeds the movements of Consciousness between the waking trance of the Psychic and non-waking trance of the Spiritual plane. "He scanned the secrets of the Overmind, He bore the rapture of the Oversoul. A borderer of the empire of the Sun, Attuned to the supernal harmonies, He linked creation to the Eternal’s sphere." Savitri-302 A concentration on this Canto can give brief Supramental touch, brief Supramental silence, brief Supramental hope, and brief Supramental Peace. That will help to trace a unique path of our own. “A thousand roads leaped into Eternity... The Known released him (King ) from its limiting chain; He knocked at the doors of the Unknowable.’ (Savitri-298) This Canto hints that due to this Supramental influence; some Permanent changes were observed in King’s physical appearance. They are identified as: “A light was round him (King ) wide and absolute,” (Savitri-297) This change is also observed in Satyavan’s pursuit of Yoga in book-7. They are: “Above the cherished head of Satyavan She saw not now Fate’s dark and lethal orb; A golden circle round a mystic sun Disclosed to her new-born predicting sight” Savitri-533 During King's Psychic and Spiritual opening, he became a twice-born Soul and the first Psychic and second Spiritual reversal of Consciousness was experienced. So a Dvija can hold the Divine's Presence for a brief period and we mark King's this particular brief Spiritual experience and brief Supramental experience in the previous Book-2, Canto-5 and Book-1, Canto-3: “A new life dawns, he looks out from vistas wide; The Spirit’s breath moves him but soon retires: His strength was not made to hold that puissant guest.” Savitri-165 “Hardly for a moment glimpsed viewless to Mind, (Brief Supramental experience.) As if a torch held by a power of God, The radiant world of the everlasting Truth Glimmered like a faint star bordering the night Above the golden Overmind’s shimmering ridge.” Savitri-41 The King experienced another new birth and establishment in a third reversal of Consciousness during this Supramental opening: "In the kingdom of the Spirit’s power and light, As if one who arrived out of infinity’s womb He came new-born, infant and limitless And grew in the wisdom of the timeless Child; He was a vast that soon became a Sun." Savitri-301 In this context, we can note The Mother's following experience: " When we begin living the spiritual life, a reversal of consciousness takes place which for us is the proof that we have entered the spiritual life; well, yet another occurs when we enter the supramental world...And probably each time a new world opens up, there will again be a new reversal. This is why even our spiritual life, which is such a total reversal compared to ordinary life, seems something still so ... so totally different when compared to this supramental consciousness that the values are almost opposite....I can explain the phenomenon like this: successive reversals such that an EVER NEW richness of creation will take place from stage to stage, making whatever came before seem so poor in comparison. What to us seems supremely rich compared to our ordinary life, appears so poor compared to this new reversal of consciousness. Such was my experience." The Mother's Agenda-15.11.1958 We also observe in this Canto, the nature of Supramental action which complements earlier representations of Psychic and Spiritual action: “The greatness and wonder of its boundless works,” Savitri-298 “The glorious dream of their universal acts;” Savitri-298 “Its inexhaustible acts in a timeless Time,” Savitri-298 “And all creation is an act of light.” Savitri-298 “In that high realm where no untruth can come, Where all are different and all is one, In the Impersonal’s ocean without shore The Person in the World-Spirit anchored rode; It thrilled with the mighty marchings of World-Force, Its acts were the comrades of God’s infinite peace .” Savitri-301 “His finite parts approached their absolutes, His actions framed the movements of the Gods, His will took up the reins of cosmic Force.” Savitri-302 The above Supramental action also calls down the Supramental Wisdom and Supramental Love: “Here came the thought that passes beyond Thought, Here the still Voice which our listening cannot hear, The Knowledge by which the knower is the known, The Love in which beloved and lover are one.” Savitri-297-98 Supramental action makes a Sadhaka King, Leader and Captain of the team; Supramental wisdom makes him Scout guarding Truth’s ‘diamond purity’ (Savitri-297) and Pioneer of new Consciousness by tracing a new path; Supramental Love makes his life exceedingly joyful laughter and boundless self-giving. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “A consciousness lay still, devoid of forms, Free, wordless, uncoerced by sign or rule, For ever content with only being and bliss; A sheer existence lived in its own peace On the single spirit’s bare and infinite ground.” Savitri-297 “A state in which all ceased and all began.” Savitri-297 (a state of Supramental Consciousness) “Out of the neutral silence of his soul He passed to its fields of puissance and of calm And saw the Powers that stand above the world, (the various Emanations of the Divine Mother) Traversed the realms of the supreme Idea And sought the summit of created things And the almighty source of cosmic change.” Savitri-298 “On peaks where Silence listens with still heart To the rhythmic metres of the rolling worlds, He served the sessions of the triple Fire.” Savitri-299, 21/ Book 3, Canto 1 - The Pursuit Of The Unknowable A Brief Restatement: In Book-3, Canto-1, King entered a state of consciousness beyond Supramental and this absolute static state of the Divine we may call as Bliss Self, Supreme Self, Turiya state, ' Uncreating, uncreated and unborn, The One by whom all live, who lives by none.' (Savitri-309) Its dynamic state is not revealed here. The King was able to enter this absolute plane after bridging the gulf between this world and the Supramental world, about which we get hints from the previous Book-1, Canto-3, Book-2, Canto-3, 5, 10, 11 and Book-3, Canto-1, 2. The narration is like this: “And sudden ecstasies from a world of bliss.” Savitri-31 (King Aswapati’s brief experience of Supreme Self.) “This world of bliss he (King Aswapati) saw and felt its call, But found no way to enter into its joy; Across the conscious gulf there was no bridge.” Savitri-128 “But now the Light supreme is far away:” Savitri-154 "It saw afar the unreached Immortal’s home And heard afar the voices of the Gods.' Savitri-258-259 "Far-off he saw the joining hemispheres." Savitri-264 “But who that mightiness was he knew not yet.” Savitri-306 “But what That was, no thought nor sight could tell.” Savitri-308 "And still the last inviolate secret hides Behind the human glory of a Form, Behind the gold eidolon of a Name. A large white line has figured as a goal, But far beyond the ineffable suntracks blaze: What seemed the source and end was a wide gate, A last bare step into eternity." Savitri-311 "Our greater self of knowledge waits for us, A supreme light in the truth-conscious Vast:” Savitri-484 (Savitri was preparing for this experience.) In the initial phase of the Sadhana, King was able to enter the last perfection (siddhi) of integral Yoga, known as Truth Supreme, but showed his inability to stay in that world for a longer period: “Upbuoyed upon winged winds of rapid joy, Upheld to a Light it could not always hold, It left mind’s distance from the Truth supreme And lost life’s incapacity for bliss.” Savitri-43-44 A similar difficulty is marked in Savitri's Spiritual experience of arriving at Supramental and Bliss Consciousness: "Then this too paused; the body seemed a stone. All now was a wide mighty vacancy, But still excluded from eternity’s hush; For still was far the repose of the Absolute And the ocean silence of Infinity." Savitri-543-544 A similar difficulty is observed in Satyavan's Sadhana while trying to bridge the gulf between this world and the Supramental world: "I lived in the ray but faced not to the sun. I looked upon the world and missed the Self, And when I found the Self, I lost the world, My other selves I lost and the body of God, The link of the finite with the Infinite, The bridge between the appearance and the Truth, The mystic aim for which the world was made, The human sense of Immortality. But now the gold link comes to me with thy feet And His gold sun has shone on me from thy face." Savitri-407-408 How can we enter this world of Bliss through the movement of Consciousness? Through the fourfold ladders of (1) waking Self, Virat , (2) subliminal Self, dream Self, Hiranyagarbha , (3) Supramental Self, Sleep Self, causal body, Susupti (4) Supreme Self, Turiya, the Consciousness of pure self-existence, we climb back through trance or deep meditation to this absolute Divine plane. More hints we can observe from this Canto:- 1) “Although more near to us than nearness’ self,… Hidden by its own works, it seemed far off, Impenetrable, occult, voiceless, obscure… Near, it retreated; far, it called him still.” Savitri-305 2) Without this Divine Presence, the world lived empty of its Mission, all things have no charm, no glory, no brightness, which can be compared as love after the beloved’s demise. (Savitri-305) 3) The Delight of this Supreme Self can satisfy life utterly. ‘Its absence left the greatest action dull, Its presence made the smallest (action) seem divine. When it was there heart’s abyss (desire Soul) was' (Savitri-305-306) fulfilled, purified, transformed and perfected. 4) When this Deity, the Anandamaya Purusha withdraws, the existence experiences dissolution or when the Psychic Being withdraws, the individual experiences the death of the body. During that period of dissolution the godlike fullness of Divine Instruments, Vibhutis, Avataras become the support of an impermanent scene. 5) The Canto proposes that to make the mind empty, vital silent and body plastic is the condition of continuous ascent of the Soul, continuous descent of Shakti and boundless change and further proposes to live like a newborn child or a zero formed where every hope and search must cease and nothing built could live. Then all the parts of Nature can transform into the image of Bliss Self. This is the adventure of Spirit within Matter’s Ignorance. Thus Spirit can hold the universe in the trance of its luminous insufficiency. 6) The separate Self or Psychic being must be Supramentalised by the invasion of the Supramental and Bliss Self and its sepatrative identity is lost and a Sadhak becomes egoless and becomes one with the Bliss Self or 'The separate self must melt or be reborn Into a Truth beyond the mind’s appeal.' (Savitri-307) By the influence of its Supreme Truth, the mind dies like a moth and one lives in a ‘fine and blissful Nothingness.’ (Savitri-307) 7) Before that supreme state all human glory, sweetness and harmony become unimportant and obsolete. Thus, by the attraction of this Supreme Self, the unsolved slow evolution of three gunas returns to its Divine Source from which all springs and all ceases. 8) The Supreme Self has no kinship with the dominant three gunas of the universe. Thus, in its vast consciousness, there is no external movement, no tamasic mind’s ignorant action, no rajasic mind’s indulgence in human love and no sattwic mind’s disinterested search for pure truth. All the false personalities born by the influence of three gunas perished before the nameless impersonal influence and oneness of the Supreme bliss Self. There remains only one Supreme Divine Mother without a second personality to substitute Her or “There was no second, it had no partner or peer; Only itself was real to itself.” (Savitri-308) This Oneness of pure existence is safe from the falsehood of ‘thought and mood’ and pure Consciousness is ‘unshared immortal bliss’ (Savitri-309) and dwelt alone, aloof, unique, bare and unutterably sole. This Being is formless, featureless, mute, occult, impenetrable, infinite, eternal, unthinkable and alone. 9) After the prolongation of this static realisation of the Supreme Self, King Aswapati became fit to meet the Dynamic state of the Divine Mother in Person or in Her personal embodied Form for a brief period, who alone can bridge the gulf between Matter and Spirit or Death and Immortality in their entirety. “All he had been and all towards which he grew Must now be left behind or else transform (by dynamisation of Supreme Self) Into a self of That which has no name.” Savitri-307 “A height was reached where nothing made could live, A line where every hope and search must cease Neared some intolerant bare Reality, A zero formed pregnant with boundless change .” Savitri-306 (This is the point at which Supreme Self is dynamised.) This Canto gives the message to a Sadhak that by realisation of static Supreme Self one will recoil from world problems and escape into the supreme Abode of Param Dham and by dynamisation of Supreme Self through prolongation of static realisation, the world problems can be resolved and untransformed Nature can be Divinised. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “A cave of darkness guards the eternal Light.” Savitri-305 (Here eternal Light is the Subconscient and Inconscient Self) “Nothing could satisfy but its delight: Its (Supreme Self’s) absence left the greatest actions dull, Its presence made the smallest seem divine.” Savitri-305 22/ Book 3, Canto 2 - The Adoration Of The Divine Mother A Brief Restatement: The Book-3, Canto-2, begins with the vast static silence state of Supreme Self, Turiya , Bliss Self, and ends with its dynamisation. This initial dynamisation can abolish and swallow the burdening tamasic need, the rajasic sense urge and limited sattwic knowledge without transforming that life. In this state, ego is dead with boundless silence of the Supreme Self but oblivious of Supreme Self's Power and world transforming Mission. This realisation is an escape from life's problems and does not bring victory and crown of integral Yoga. This realisation does not define the mystery of Avatar's Divine birth and Divine action, leaving unbroken the 'last chapter's seal' and 'still the last inviolate secret' (Savitri-311) and 'last bare step' is hidden. By the pressure of static Supreme Self, 'The soul’s ignorance is slain but not the soul:' (Savitri-311) This hints that by activation of the static Supreme Self Ignorance and Falsehood can be destroyed but cannot be transformed. In the absolute silence of static supreme realisation, 'an absolute Power' sleeps and the Sadhak's task is to awaken the trance-bound Soul linked with this static realisation and 'make the world a vessel of Spirit's force' (Savitri-312) and mould the clay into 'God's perfect shape.' (Savitri-312) The dynamic state of the Supreme Self perfects the action of Psychic Being, Spiritual Being and Supramental Being; its influence reduces or silences the demand of desire Soul, it turns all parts of being towards a single-minded quest and single-minded opening towards the Divine Mother Consciousness and it establishes the Bliss Consciousness in all the parts of Being and Becoming. The King here meets the Supreme Mother or Creatrix Bliss Mother as: "A being of wisdom, power and delight, Even as a mother draws her child to her arms, Took to her breast Nature and world and soul.... The Power, the Light, the Bliss no word can speak Imaged itself in a surprising beam And built a golden passage to his heart Touching through him all longing sentient things." Savitri-312 "A Mother Might brooded upon the world; A Consciousness revealed its marvellous front Transcending all that is, denying none:” Savitri-313 "The undying Truth appeared, the enduring Power Of all that here is made and then destroyed, The Mother of all godheads and all strengths Who, mediatrix, binds earth to the Supreme." Savitri-313 "The Formless and the Formed were joined in her: Immensity was exceeded by a look, A Face revealed the crowded Infinite." Savitri-314 The speciality of successive Canto (II and III) is the manifestation of the Supreme Self's dynamic Divine Love which can transform by slaying the desire Soul surrounding Psychic being and can transform the darkness of Subconscient and Inconscient sheaths. King Aswapati was able to transform the desire Soul represented by tamasic, rajasic and sattwic mind by elevating his consciousness to the Bliss Self and dynamising it (“The soul’s ignorance (desire Soul) is slain but not the soul:” Savitri-311, “Now other claims (of desire Soul) had hushed in him their cry:" Savitri-316,): “The covering Nescience was unmasked and slain;” Savitri-313, “To err no more was natural to mind; Wrong could not come where all was light and love.” Savitri-313-14 “All that denies (Supreme Love) must be torn out and slain And crushed the many longings (of desire) for whose sake We lose the One (Divine) for whom our lives were made.” Savitri-316, “All seemed to have perished that was undivine:” Savitri-318, “The covering mind was seized and torn apart;” Savitri-319, “But where is the Lover’s everlasting Yes,” Savitri-310, “Across the silence of the ultimate Calm, Out of a marvellous Transcendence’ core, A body of wonder and translucency As if a sweet mystic summary of her self Escaping into the original Bliss Had come enlarged out of eternity, Someone (Divine Mother) came infinite and absolute.” Savitri-312 “A moment’s sweetness of the All-Beautiful (Divine Mother) Cancelled the vanity of the cosmic whirl.” Savitri-312 “A love that bore the cross of pain with joy Eudaemonised the sorrow of the world, Made happy the weight of long unending Time, The secret caught of God’s felicity.” Savitri-312-133 “A Heart was felt in the spaces wide and bare, A burning Love from white spiritual founts Annulled the sorrow of the ignorant depths; Suffering was lost in her immortal smile. A Life from beyond grew conqueror here of death; To err no more was natural to mind; Wrong could not come where all was light and love. ” Savitri-313-14 “All here shall be one day her sweetness’ home, All contraries prepare her harmony; Towards her our knowledge climbs, our passion gropes; In her miraculous rapture we shall dwell, Her clasp shall turn to ecstasy our pain.” Savitri-314 “All that denies must be torn out and slain And crushed the many longings (of desire Soul) for whose sake We lose the One (Divine Love) for whom our lives were made. Now other claims (of desire Soul) had hushed in him their cry:" Savitri-316 The Divine Love is a supremely affirmative dynamic energy defined as ‘Lover’s everlasting Yes’ (Savitri-310) which can transform Inconscient/Subconscient negations known as ‘everlasting No’ (Savitri-310) without rejecting and destroying them, without slaying the Soul’s Ignorance, can transform the wheel of earth’s doom known as ‘cosmic whirl.’ (Savitri-310) It can bear the cross of pain with joy; transcends all the creation but denies none and can annul the sorrow of ignorant depths. It can turn pain into ecstasy, confront and conquer death, and transform falsehood. Before its Presence error of mind and wrong action cannot materialise and the mind becomes a faultless instrument of the Divine. All discords of life move towards harmony, all darkness of suffering is healed and this Divine Love can transform superseding earlier static Divine realisation which can crush and silence the many longing desires of mind, life and body. The Spiritual and Psychic Love can reject falsehood, Supramental and Bliss Love can transform falsehood and save the Soul, Mind, Life and Body. So, King Aswapati’s single-minded quest longed and yearned only the Supreme Divine Mother’s Presence in the form of Soul saving Truth, Love and Joy and ‘vast surrender.’ "All Nature dumbly calls to her alone To heal with her feet the aching throb of life And break the seals on the dim soul of man And kindle her fire in the closed heart of things." Savitri-314 "Once seen, his heart acknowledged only her . Only a hunger of infinite bliss was left. All aims in her were lost, then found in her; His base was gathered to one pointing spire." Savitri-315 "This Light comes not by struggle or by thought; In the mind’s silence the Transcendent acts And the hushed heart hears the unuttered Word. A vast surrender was his only strength. A Power that lives upon the heights must act, Bring into life’s closed room the Immortal’s air And fill the finite with the Infinite." Savitri-315-316 "Only he longed to draw her presence and power Into his heart and mind and breathing frame; Only he yearned to call for ever down Her healing touch of love and truth and joy Into the darkness of the suffering world. His soul was freed and given to her alone ." Savitri-316 This Canto gives the Sadhak , the task that, after stabiliastion of his consciousness in the Psychic, Spiritual and Universal planes, he has to ascend and enter the Supreme Self in absolute silence and dynamises it to meet the Supreme Mother in Her Personal form. This will help him to receive the fourth Divine Call of Paraprakriti's union with Apara-prakriti of transforming the nether Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths. "In her confirmed because transformed in her, Our life shall find in its fulfilled response Above, the boundless hushed beatitudes, Below, the wonder of the embrace divine ." Savitri-315 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “In absolute silence sleeps an absolute Power. Awaking, it can wake the trance-bound soul And in the ray reveal the parent sun:” Savitri-311-12 23/ Book 3, Canto 3 - The House Of The Spirit And New Creation A Brief Restatement: In the Book-3, Canto-3, King was able to dynamise the Supramental Force of having four consequences through ‘downward look’ (Savitri-322) and by embracing all existence. They are identified as (1) new creation, (2) extinction of suffering, (3) oneness with the existence and (4) transformation of Subconscient and inconscient sheaths. Supramental touch/embrace will equip life with new creation and new manifestation which may be identified as an extension of integral Karma Yoga . The source of all action is Consciousness or ‘The one Consciousness that made the world was seen’ (Savitri-318) These new creations are: A new and marvellous creation rose.” Savitri-323 “In these new worlds projected he became” Savitri-325 “A stream ever new-born that never dies,” Savitri-325 “Lured at each turn by new vicissitudes To self-discovery that could never cease.” Savitri-328 “Brought new creations for the thought’s surprise” Savitri-328 “And vast adventure into thinking shapes And trial and lure of a new living’s dreams.” Savitri-328 “A new creation from the old shall rise,” Savitri-330 2: Supramental touch/embrace can transform the suffering of life. This can be identified as the extension of integral Bhakti Yoga . They are: “No suffering of hearts compelled to beat” Savitri-321 “He felt the extinction of the world’s long pain,” Savitri-322 “All struggle was turned to a sweet strife of love” Savitri-324 “There was no sob of suffering anywhere; Experience ran from point to point of joy: Bliss was the pure undying truth of things. All Nature was a conscious front of God:” Savitri-324 3: Supramental touch/embrace can give the experience of Oneness with all existence. This is identified as an extension of integral Jnana Yoga and this perfection is identified as sajujya mukti . We can observe them from the following lines: “There was no more division’s endless scroll; One grew the Spirit’s secret unity , All Nature felt again the single bliss.” Savitri-319 “His soul was a delegation of the All (Psychic being as a delegate of Supreme.) That turned from itself to join the one Supreme .” Savitri-319 “A living Oneness widened at its core” Savitri-322 “Existence found its truth on Oneness’ breast” Savitri-322-23 “The great world-rhythms were heart-beats of one Soul ,” Savitri-323 “Lived their innumerable unity ;” Savitri-323 “There were no contraries, no sundered parts, All by spiritual links were joined to all And bound indissolubly to the One :” Savitri-323 “There Oneness was not tied to monotone;” Savitri-324 “And made of difference oneness’ smiling play; It made all persons fractions of the Unique, ” Savitri-324 “There leaps out unity’s supreme delight ” Savitri-324 “Harmonised a Oneness deep, immeasurable.” Savitri-325 “The bliss of a myriad myriads who are one .” Savitri-325 “An image cast by one deep truth’s absolute, Married to all in happy difference... One in the might and joy of multitude. Even in the poise where Oneness draws apart To feel the rapture of its separate selves, The Sole in its solitude yearned towards the All And the Many turned to look back at the One .” Savitri-326 “In the temple of the ideal shrined the One :… The virgin forms through which the Formless shines,” Savitri-327 4: Supramental touch/embrace or ‘constant lightnings of the spirit’ (Savitri-329) can penetrate the Subconscient and inconscient sheaths. This is identified as an extension of the integral Yoga of Self-perfection. They are: “And in subconscious whispers and in dream Still murmured at the mind’s and spirit’s choice. Its treacherous elements spread like slippery grains Hoping the incoming Truth might stumble and fall,” Savitri-317 “All Nature’s recondite (little known) spaces were stripped bare, All her dim crypts and corners searched with fire Where refugee instincts and unshaped revolts Could shelter find in darkness’ sanctuary Against the white purity of heaven’s cleansing flame.” Savitri-318 “All seemed to have perished that was undivine: Yet some minutest dissident might escape And still a centre lurk of the blind force. For the Inconscient too is infinite; The more its abysses we insist to sound, The more it stretches, stretches endlessly.” Savitri-318 “For even there (dim far universe) the boundless Oneness dwells To its own sight unrecognisable, It lived still sunk in its own tenebrous (dark shadowy or obscure) seas, Upholding the world’s inconscient unity Hidden in Matter’s insentient multitude.” Savitri-331 “It merges knowledge in the inconscient deep; Accepting error, sorrow, death and pain, It pays the ransom of the ignorant Night, Redeeming by its substance Nature’s (Spiritual) fall.” Savitri-331 “Himself he knew and why his soul had gone Into earth’s passionate obscurity To share the labour of an errant Power Which by division hopes to find the One.” Savitri-331 : His heart lay somewhere conscious and alone Far down below him like a lamp in night; Abandoned it lay, alone, imperishable, Immobile with excess of passionate will, His living, sacrificed and offered heart Absorbed in adoration mystical, Turned to its far-off fount of light and love.” Savitri-331-332 “In the centre of his vast and fateful trance Half-way between his free and fallen selves, Interceding twixt God’s day and the mortal’s night, Accepting worship as its single law, Accepting bliss as the sole cause of things, Refusing the austere joy which none can share, Refusing the calm that lives for calm alone, To her (Paraprakriti) it turned for whom it willed to be.” Savitri-332 “Armed with the intuition of a bliss To which some moved tranquillity was the key, It persevered through life’s huge emptiness Amid the blank denials of the world.” Savitri-332-33 The perfection’s law promises movement in between ‘hierarchy of lucent planes’ (Savitri-326) of Consciousness and ensures swift Spiritual evolution. This Inconscient transformation is very crucial in deciding Earth’s future. For such transformation to be active individuals must be established in Supramental Consciousness through Yoga of Self-perfection. To tear desire from its Inconscient root is identified as 'A last and mightiest transformation' (Savitri-318) of King Aswapati . A similar mighty transformation visited Savitri when 'The world’s darkness had consented to Heaven-light.' (Savitri-664) "Then lest a human cry should spoil the Truth He tore desire up from its bleeding roots And offered to the gods the vacant place. Thus could he bear the touch immaculate. A last and mightiest transformation came. " Savitri-318 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “In the temple of the ideal shrined the One: It peopled thought and mind and happy sense Filled with bright aspects of the might of God And living persons of the one Supreme, The speech that voices the ineffable, The ray revealing unseen Presences, The virgin forms through which the Formless shines ,” Savitri-327 24/ Book 3, Canto 4 - The Vision And The Boon A Brief Restatement: In the Book-3, Canto-4, the King Aswapati entered a Supramental world and through a Supramental vision met the ‘mighty face’ (Savitri-334) of the Divine Mother in his heart. This also symbolises that the King’s Psychic Being is Supramentalised. "An Influence had approached the mortal range, A boundless Heart was near his longing heart, A mystic Form enveloped his earthly shape.... The One he worshipped was within him now:" Savitri-334 The Divine Mother discouraged King to call down immeasurable Divine Force and man is not ready to bear the Infinite’s weight. She asked King to live with the slow-paced evolution of humanity and accept God-like toil for earth and men with patience. She further informed that a static Soul realisation of later Vedantists and the influence of three gunas of ordinary life have made a world estranged from life and thought. The Divine Mother describes elaborately the limitation of present humanity who cannot reconcile heaven with earth. The infallible Guide leads all the Souls through stumble and failure and till they discover their Psychic being, 'rest and earthly ease' (Savitri-339) are forbidden. "The goal recedes, a bourneless vastness calls Retreating into an immense Unknown; There is no end to the world’s stupendous march, There is no rest for the embodied soul. It must live on, describe all Time’s huge curve. An Influx presses from the closed Beyond Forbidding to him rest and earthly ease, Till he has found himself he cannot pause." Savitri-399 Man during his journey in higher planes of Consciousness, is assisted by Immortals and Ambassadors of those planes of Consciousness. The Divine Mother declares that in spite of present limitations, tardy evolution and attachment to inferior life, ‘a pure perfection and a shadowless bliss ’ (Savitri-340) is man’s mighty fate. She asks King to ‘Help still humanity’s blind and suffering life’ (Savitri-340) with the aid of his ‘spirit’s wide omnipotent urge.’ (Savitri-340) Any impatience towards fulfilment of the highest human aspiration can draw King Aswapati towards Titan's drive, imperfect fruit and partial prize. So, the King must renounce the fruit of his long labour and offer everything to unchanging Divine Will. All things shall change and transform in All Life and All Time and not in this life and not in this brief time. Then King’s prayer again rises to activate dynamic Divine Shakti who came to him in Supramental vision (Light floated round the marvellous Vision’s brow. Savitri-346) to fulfil his aspiration for earth and men. King saw ‘Omnipotent’s flaming pioneers,’ (Savitri-343) ‘the sun-eyed children of a marvellous dawn’, who came into this fallen human sphere as architects of Immortality. “Their tread one day shall change the suffering earth.” (Savitri-344) The King foresaw the coming of the high Divine successor, the Avatara, Satyavan . ‘He shall know’ (Savitri-344) what the heart of the mortal could not think, ‘He shall do what the heart of the mortal could not dare.’ (Savitri-344) The King prayed to the Divine Mother to ‘Mission to earth some living form’ (Savitri-345) of Her who ‘with one gesture change all future time.’ (Savitri-345) The Divine Mother was satisfied with the King’s Tapasya , askesis and consecration and agreed to incarnate Her living form on earth and She shall ‘break the iron Law, Change Nature’s doom by the lone spirit’s power.’ (Savitri-346) "She shall bear Wisdom in her voiceless bosom, Strength shall be with her like a conqueror’s sword And from her eyes the Eternal’s bliss shall gaze. A seed shall be sown in Death’s tremendous hour, A branch of heaven transplant to human soil; Nature shall overleap her mortal step; Fate shall be changed by an unchanging will.” Savitri-346 Thus, King was the eternal Seeker of Truth, Love and Power of All Life. Through him, great swift-footed deed awoke. His Supramentalised Psychic Being established the empire of the Soul, who also can conquer the opulence and wealth of heaven. His empire of Soul can rule Matter and the bounded universe and can reconcile Spirit with Matter. The literal meaning of King’s name is ‘The Lord of Life’ (Savitri-348) and he resumed his mighty Supramental action again in this ambiguous globe. Thus, ends the Book-3, Canto-4. In the next Canto, we shall witness the secret of the Divine Mother’s earthly embodiment which the Lord of the Gita confirms that ‘My birth and My work are both Divine’ janma karma cha me divyam . Savitri’s birth is the symbol of Para-prakriti’s movement in an earthly embodiment which is ‘A columned shaft of fire and light.' (Savitri-581) Satyavan’s birth is the symbol of Paramatma’s earthly incarnation of 'unknown Lover' (Savitri-374). And Their meeting symbolises the union between Supreme Mother and Supreme Purusha in our heart centre as 'incarnate dual Power.' (Savitri-705) Their task is to repeat King Aswapti's following Subconscient transformation experience: "A divinising stream possessed his veins, His body’s cells awoke to spirit sense, Each nerve became a burning thread of joy: Tissue and flesh partook beatitude. Alight, the dun unplumbed subconscient caves Thrilled with the prescience of her longed-for tread And filled with flickering crests and praying tongues." Savitri-334 This Canto proposes a Sadhak to become 'A wanderer from the occult invisible suns' (Savitri-348) substituting the earlier habit of outer wandering. King Aswapati's outer wandering reduced after his realisation of universal Self or 'Humanity framed his movements (outer wandering) less and less.' (Savitri-26) This we notice in Savitri after she discovered Divine Love from without in the form of Satyavan , she declared firmly, 'Now of more wandering it has no need.' (Savitri-412) OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “Flashing with lightnings, mad with luminous wine.” Savitri-334 “He shall know what mortal mind barely durst think, He shall do what the heart of the mortal could not dare. Inheritor of the toil of human time, He shall take on him the burden of the gods; All heavenly light shall visit the earth’s thoughts, The might of heaven shall fortify earthly hearts; Earth’s deeds shall touch the superhuman’s height, Earth’s seeing widen into the infinite.” Savitri-344 “One moment fill with thy eternity, Let thy infinity in one body live, All-Knowledge wrap one mind in seas of light, All-Love throb single in one human heart.” Savitri-345 25/ Book 4, Canto 1 - The Birth And Childhood Of The Flame A Brief Restatement: The Book-4, Canto-1 symbolically represents the mystery of the Godhead’s birth. The Divine Mother, when incarnated in an earthly body, her birth, childhood, youth and rest of her life are guided by the influence of higher Nature, Para-prakriti. Deluded Souls do not understand this mystery of Divine birth and consider Desire (The Gita-16.8) as the sole cause of this world existence. In the Mother’s womb, Savitri spent three (five) thoughtful seasons of nine (ten) months before her mighty birth in the Spring season. Here seasons of summer, monsoon, autumn, winter, dew-time and spring are described not as a dead mechanical cycle but as a living deity, the force of the Divine Mother who participated in building the physical frame of Savitri . Savitri’s growth in the mother’s womb took place by ‘A mightier influx (that) filled the oblivious clay’ (Savitri-353) and after her birth her dim cave of Subconscient and inconscient sheaths were flooded with ‘slow conscient light’; (Savitri-355) her lovelier body was formed by the new descent of Divine Love and new Delight; her sense was purified by the pressure of Psychic being. Invisible Supramental sunlight ran through her veins and the same light flooded her brain with heavenly brilliances. This Canto suggests that in child Savitri the Mind of Light became active which lies in between Overmind and Supermind. Her surface Nature was also divinised or “Nearer the godhead to the surface pressed.’ (Savitri-357) She lived self-guarded and self-protected in the Spirit’s silence and in her luminous cell. "A mind of light , a life of rhythmic force, A body instinct with hidden divinity Prepared an image of the coming god; And when the slow rhyme of the expanding years And the rich murmurous swarm-work of the days Had honey-packed her sense and filled her limbs, Accomplishing the moon-orb of her grace, Self-guarded in the silence of her strength Her solitary greatness was not less." Savitri-357 Her pure aspiration called high Spiritual destiny down and she was able to guard the Truth’s diamond throne from the vigil tower. Her Supramental love invisibly embraced all without any sign and word and sound. Due to her half-opened Psychic being, many high Gods preferred to live in her Psychic temple. Her body is like heaven’s transparent light, a golden bridge between heaven and earth and she can walk alone with her strange and starry head in the deepest Night. "A scout of victory in a vigil tower, Her aspiration called high destiny down; A silent warrior paced in her city of strength Inviolate, guarding Truth’s diamond throne ." Savitri-358 "Many high gods dwelt in one beautiful home; Yet was her nature’s orb a perfect whole, Harmonious like a chant with many tones, Immense and various like a universe." Savitri-358 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “The strong Inhabitant turned to watch her field A lovelier light assumed her spirit brow And sweet and solemn grew her musing gaze; Celestial-human deep warm slumbrous fires Woke in the long fringed glory of her eyes Like altar-burnings in a mysteried shrine.” Savitri-357 “A nectarous haloed moon her passionate heart Loved all and spoke no word and made no sign, (Her universal Love needs no external aid and expression.) But kept her bosom’s rapturous secrecy A blissful ardent moved and voiceless world.” Savitri-358 26/ Book 4, Canto 2 - The Growth Of The Flame A Brief Restatement: The Book-4, Canto-2 gives an account of (1) Savitri’s state of Consciousness of young Divinity, (2) the state of consciousness of her followers and devotees, (3) the gulf between Savitri and her followers, (4) a desperate attempt to bridge those gulfs, (5) Spiritual fall down and (6) discouragement of gathering together of devotees for a Divine purpose. 1: Savitri’s Soul and Nature were equally Divinised and she was waiting to find her destined equal Soul: “But mid this world, these hearts that answered her call, None could stand up her equal and her mate. In vain she stooped to equal them with her heights, Too pure that air was for small souls to breathe. These comrade selves to raise to her own wide breadths Her heart desired and fill with her own power That a diviner Force might enter life, A breath of Godhead greaten human time.” Savitri-365-66 “Her greater self lived sole, unclaimed, within.” Savitri-366 “Among the many who came drawn to her Nowhere she found her partner of high tasks, The comrade of her soul, her other self (second Self) Who was made with her, like God and Nature, one .” Savitri-366 "No equal heart came close to join her (Savitri’s) heart, No transient earthly love assailed her calm, No hero passion had the strength to seize; No eyes demanded her replying eyes.” Savitri-367 2: The Personality of her admirers, followers and devotees: “Only a few responded to her call: Still fewer felt the screened divinity And strove to mate its godhead with their own, Approaching with some kinship to her heights.” Savitri-362 “They could not keep up with her tireless step; Too small and eager for her large-paced will, Too narrow to look with the unborn Infinite’s gaze Their nature weary grew of things too great.” Savitri-363 “Others pursued her with life’s blind desires And claiming all of her as their lonely own, Hastened to engross her sweetness meant for all. As earth claims light for its lone separate need Demanding her for their sole jealous clasp, They asked from her movements bounded like their own And to their smallness craved a like response. Or they repined that she surpassed their grip, And hoped to bind her close with longing’s cords. Or finding her touch desired too strong to bear They blamed her for a tyranny they loved, Shrank into themselves as from too bright a sun, Yet hankered for the splendour they refused. Angrily enamoured of her sweet passionate ray The weakness of their earth could hardly bear, They longed but cried out at the touch desired Inapt to meet divinity so close, Intolerant of a Force they could not house. Some drawn unwillingly by her divine sway Endured it like a sweet but alien spell; Unable to mount to levels too sublime, They yearned to draw her down to their own earth. Or forced to centre round her their passionate lives, They hoped to bind to their heart’s human needs Her glory and grace that had enslaved their souls.” Savitri-365 3: The gulf between Savitri and her admirers: “A friend and yet too great wholly to know, She walked in their front towards a greater light, Their leader and queen over their hearts and souls, One close to their bosoms, yet divine and far. ” Savitri-363 “Her will was puissant on their nature’s acts, Her heart’s inexhaustible sweetness lured their hearts, A being they loved whose bounds exceeded theirs; Her measure they could not reach but bore her touch, Answering with the flower’s answer to the sun They gave themselves to her and asked no more. One greater than themselves, too wide for their ken, Their minds could not understand nor wholly know, Their lives replied to hers, moved at her words:” Savitri-364 “Although she leaned down to their littleness Covering their lives with her strong passionate hands And knew by sympathy their needs and wants And dived in the shallow wave-depths of their lives And met and shared their heart-beats of grief and joy And bent to heal their sorrow and their pride, Lavishing the might that was hers on her lone peak To lift to it their aspiration’s cry, And though she drew their souls into her vast And surrounded with the silence of her deeps And held as the great Mother holds her own, Only her earthly surface bore their charge And mixed its fire with their mortality:” Savitri-366 “Admired, unsought, intangible to the grasp Her beauty and flaming strength were seen afar Like lightning playing with the fallen day, A glory unapproachably divine." Savitri-367 “All worshipped marvellingly (Savitri), none dared to claim.” Savitri-368 4: Desperate effort to bridge the gulf between herself and her admirers: “A mind daring heavenly experiment, Growing towards some largeness they felt near, Testing the unknown’s bound with eager touch They still were prisoned by their human grain: They could not keep up with her tireless step; Too small and eager for her large-paced will, Too narrow to look with the unborn Infinite’s gaze Their nature weary grew of things too great.” Savitri-363 “For even the close partners of her thoughts Who could have walked the nearest to her ray, Worshipped the power and light they felt in her But could not match the measure of her soul.” Savitri-363 “Or longing with their self of life and flesh They clung to her for heart’s nourishment and support: The rest they could not see in visible light; Vaguely they bore her inner mightiness. Or bound by the senses and the longing heart, Adoring with a turbid human love, They could not grasp the mighty spirit she was Or change by closeness to be even as she. Some felt her with their souls and thrilled with her, A greatness felt near yet beyond mind’s grasp; To see her was a summons to adore, To be near her drew a high communion’s force.” Savitri-363-364 “So men worship a god too great to know, Too high, too vast to wear a limiting shape; They feel a Presence and obey a might, Adore a love whose rapture invades their breasts; To a divine ardour quickening the heart-beats, A law they follow greatening heart and life. Opened to the breath is a new diviner air, Opened to man is a freer, happier world:” Savitri-364 “Her will was puissant on their nature’s acts, Her heart’s inexhaustible sweetness lured their hearts, A being they loved whose bounds exceeded theirs; Her measure they could not reach but bore her touch, Answering with the flower’s answer to the sun They gave themselves to her and asked no more.” Savitri-364 “They felt a godhead and obeyed a call, Answered to her lead and did her work in the world; Their lives, their natures moved compelled by hers As if the truth of their own larger selves Put on an aspect of divinity To exalt them to a pitch beyond their earth’s. They felt a larger future meet their walk; She held their hands, she chose for them their paths:” Savitri-364 “Some near approached, were touched, caught fire, then failed , Too great was her demand, too pure her force. Thus lighting earth around her like a sun, Yet in her inmost sky an orb aloof, A distance severed her from those most close.” Savitri-366 5: Spiritual fall: After meeting Savitri , those unable to recognise and hold her Divine Presence experienced a Spiritual fall. “Uplifted towards luminous secrecies Or conscious of some splendour hidden above They leaped to find her in a moment’s flash, Glimpsing a light in a celestial vast, But could not keep the vision and the power And fell back to life’s dull ordinary tone. ” Savitri-362 “Or with a slow great many-sided toil Pushing towards aims they hardly could conceive; Yet forced to be the satellites of her sun They moved unable to forego her light, Desiring they clutched at her with outstretched hands Or followed stumbling in the paths she made.” Savitri-363 "In man a dim disturbing somewhat lives; It knows but turns away from divine Light Preferring the dark ignorance of the fall ." Savitri-366 6: Discouragement of gathering together of devotees for a Divine purpose: In this Canto a Sadhak is discouraged from wasting his time in gathering together of people, lakasangraha, for a Divine purpose. It proposes to utilise time and space exclusively to accumulate Spiritual energy (Self-concentration) and by the movement of Spiritual consciousness, he does good of all creatures (Self-expansion). His one, only and best friend is his Psychic Being. "Whoever is too great must lonely live. Adored he walks in mighty solitude; Vain is his labour to create his kind, His only comrade is the Strength within.” Savitri-368 When a high Soul takes birth on earth, it becomes difficult for him to find an equal Soul, who can help him in accomplishing his Divine Mission of fourfold Divine union. Till the arrival of an equal companion or till the finding of a complementary Soul, he must live alone with his Psychic Being. The effort made to create, nurture and build an equal Soul is identified here as a waste of time. Savitri is a representative symbol of Incarnation and myriad Instruments and Emanations, always present close to earth’s atmosphere with the single mission of divinising the clay. This Canto proposes Divine’s Yantras, Vibhutis and Avataras , that they should not waste their time in building Soul of their own kind but to utilise time to accumulate Spiritual energy and canalise this Transcendent Force to earth and men. They will learn the lesson to depend on their own Spiritual energy rather than on collective force. In the long run, humanity will be prepared to divinise themselves and all the Divine opulence will be given to them. 7: The Gulf between Sri Aurobindo and His direct disciples: “It (Savitri) heralds the Supermind. But I had a feeling (after reading the last chapter of Savitri ) he (Sri Aurobindo ) had not completed his revision. When I read this, I felt it was not the end, just as when I read the last chapter of the “Yoga of Self-Perfection ,” (of The Synthesis of Yoga) I felt it was not finished. He left it unfinished. And he said so. He said, “No, I will not go down to this mental level anymore.” But in Savitri’s case… (I didn’t look after it, you know), he had around him Purani , that Chinmayi , and… (what is his name) Nirod —they all swarmed around him. So I didn’t look after Savitri. I read Savitri two years ago (1961), I had never read it before. And I am so glad! Because I read it at the time I could understand it –and I realised that none of those people had understood ONE BIT of it.” The Mother /The Mother's Agenda/13th March-1963 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “Earth nursed, unconscious still, the inhabiting flame, Yet something deeply stirred and dimly knew; There was a movement and a passionate call, A rainbow dream, a hope of golden change; Some secret wing of expectation beat, A growing sense of something new and rare And beautiful stole across the heart of Time.” Savitri-367 27/ Book 4, Canto 3 - The Call To The Quest A Brief Restatement: The Book-4, Canto-3, defines King Aswapati’s Mission known as ‘The Call’ and he made Savitri aware of her two important discoveries known as ‘The Quest’. King Aswapati again confirmed his mission for earth and men related to 'shadowless bliss.' (Savitri-340, 369) “Again the mighty yearning (of King) raised its flame That asks a perfect life on earth for men And prays for certainty in the uncertain mind And shadowless bliss for suffering human hearts And Truth embodied in an ignorant world And godhead divinising mortal forms.” Savitri-369 The King got the overhead direction or ‘from some far sky of thought’ which was received by ‘the echoing passages of his brain’ and this overhead wisdom ‘left its stamp (of Divinity) on the recording cells’ of the King and his ‘dim ignorant cells’ and ‘the blind brain’ (Savitri-375) received Divine transformation. The King got a blueprint of how he will realise the mission from above. The Fate-driven earth-born race will face the greatest opposition in realisation of the perfect life from the three Inconscient energies of gunas . The dwarf Sattwic mind will oppose the realisation of comprehensive Truth; the dwarf rajasic mind will oppose the realisation of tireless Divine Love and the dwarf tamasic mind will be satisfied with the attainment of ‘low-peaked height’ (Savitri-372) of consciousness. Inconscient’s mindless muddy water blocks all the action of Divine Will, Wisdom and Love. The man turns for little gains to ignorant Powers, kindles a light for demon face, loves ignorance fathering his pain and a great Illusion wraps his life. Even the descent of flaming light returns back to its home; none understands the Eternity’s direction and the luminous divine Eye retires from its action. The King has not lost confidence in humanity and hoped for his action with swift revealing Spiritual steps and fit all his actions to a transcendent scheme. The Godhead can grow within his heart and the Mighty Mother can stay permanently in the Psychic Heart Centre. Man must receive the Divine call to exceed himself. Earth life is an epic of hope and failure and she can exceed her form and fixed fate. Though she is a goddess, yet she is caught in the net of Death and forbidden joy . In the altar of despair, she builds hope; with the pains of hell, she aspires to joy and her high step can liberate all humanity. The King Aswapati , as Father and the Guru of Savitri , gave her double tasks of finding the Divine without and within. Firstly, she will tread a brief golden path with her second Self Satyavan , the lyrist of her Soul’s most intimate chords, mover of her force and guide. His Light will guard her from without and within and by holding his strong hand she can confront life’s extreme adversity. Secondly, she has to discover her Psychic being where the Supramental Mother can choose to stay permanently and with the power of the Psychic being, she can tread a sun-lit path followed by a journey in the abysmal night, dream twilight of Subconscient plane, permanent rise of Soul to Sachchidananda plane and permanent descent of Sachchidananda consciousness by returning to earth life along with Satyavan. This Canto also hints Savitri’s Psychic opening not by Vedic/Tantric self-discipline but by Vedantic Self-discipline where the Soul in the heart opened by the pressure/descent of Soul in the Mind or Spiritual Being, or ‘A hand from some Greatness opened her heart’s locked doors.’ (Savitri-375) In King, the Karma, Jnana and Bhakti are reconciled to such extent the all-overhead Power, Knowledge and Ecstasy rushed into his physical frame known as annamaya Purusha/annamaya Kosha and thus physical transformation or cellular change is experienced. “The Wise who know see but one half of Truth, (sattwic men) The strong climb hardly to a low-peaked height, (tamasic men) The hearts that yearn are given one hour to love.” (rajasic men) Savitri-372 “Thought, vision, feeling, sense, the body’s self Are seized unutterably and he (King) endures An ecstasy and an immortal change; He feels a Wideness and becomes a Power, All knowledge rushes on him like a sea:” Savitri-375 After Savitri knew that her unknown Lover was waiting for her the Unknown, the palace of Madra became empty of its sweetness, the sovereign of daily joys of life went far; her moonbeam feet touched not the lucent floors. The beauty and divinity were gone. Delight had fled to search for another specious world and future home. "For somewhere on the longing breast of earth, Thy unknown lover waits for thee the unknown. Thy soul has strength and needs no other guide Than One who burns within thy bosom’s powers. There shall draw near to meet thy approaching steps The second self for whom thy nature asks, He who shall walk until thy body’s end A close-bound traveller pacing with thy pace, The lyrist of thy soul’s most intimate chords Who shall give voice to what in thee is mute." Savitri-374 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: (Earth) “Knows that one high step might enfranchise (liberate) all” Savitri-371 28/ Book 4, Canto 4 - The Quest A Brief Restatement: Before discovering Divine within Savitri has to discover her Divine without. Before this Divine Call, the attraction of ‘Madra’s spacious halls, the white carved pillars, the cool dim alcoves, the tinged mosaic of the crystal floors, the towered pavilions, the wind-rippled pools and gardens humming with the murmur of bees’ became pale, unwanted and obsolete. In Book-4, Canto-4, Savitri leaves the palace in search of her ‘only Lord’ (Savitri-637) who can hold her comprehensive Divine Love, Delight and Beauty, collaborate in fulfilling her Divine Mission which is a manifestation of the Divine Will and call down Divine Wisdom, Truth and Light to guard her mission’s ‘diamond throne’ (Savitri-358) and adventure ahead in Consciousness like a pioneer to manifest the Divine life. He (the destined Lover) will give voice to what in her is mute and the lyrist of her 'soul’s most intimate chords.' (Savitri-374) We get some hints from this Canto related with the Spiritual destiny of a Sadhaka . They are divided into three parts. The Divine Destiny is made by (1) the intervention of Divine work and Divine descent of Wisdom, (2) the intervention of higher Beings (hooded godheads) (Savitri-377) who accompany him from his birth, (3) the intervention of 'all seeing Eye above,' (Savitri-378) the Divine architect. These three elements are responsible for building Spiritual destiny. If Sadhaka has realised Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental beings, then (4) beings of those planes will join with him as emanations of Divine Mother and they will further help to change the destiny. This Canto proposes a Sadhaka that before wearing the face of Satyavan to receive Savitri’s full Divine Love, he must develop/integrate the following twelve exclusive attributes (or twelve types of liberated Souls) through practices of multiple self-disciplines of traditional and integral Yoga. They are: 1: “The strong king-sages from their labour done, Freed from the warrior tension of their task, Came to her serene sessions in these wilds; The strife was over, the respite lay in front.” Savitri-381 2: “In the soul’s unprofaned star-white recess They sojourned with an everliving Bliss; A Voice profound in the ecstasy and the hush They heard, beheld an all-revealing Light. All time-made difference they overcame; The world was fibred with their own heart-strings; Close drawn to the heart that beats in every breast, They reached the one self in all through boundless love.” Savitri-381 3: “Nameless the austere ascetics without home Abandoning speech and motion and desire Aloof from creatures sat absorbed, alone, Immaculate in tranquil heights of self” Savitri-382 4: “The seers attuned to the universal Will, Content in Him who smiles behind earth’s forms, Abode ungrieved by the insistent days. About them like green trees girdling a hill Young grave disciples fashioned by their touch Trained to the simple act and conscious word, Greatened within and grew to meet their heights.” Savitri-382 5: “Bathed in the purity of the mild gaze That, uninsistent, ruled them from its peace, And by its influence found the ways of calm.” Savitri-382 6: “King-children nurtured in that spacious air Like lions gambolling in sky and sun Received half-consciously their godlike stamp:… Plastic and firm beneath the eternal hand, Met Nature with a bold and friendly clasp And served in her the Power that shapes her works.” Savitri-382 7: “One-souled to all and free from narrowing bonds, Large like a continent of warm sunshine In wide equality’s impartial joy, These sages breathed for God’s delight in things… The love that flows from the one Mother’s breast Healed with their hearts the hard and wounded world.” Savitri-383 8: “Drunk with a wine of lightning in their cells” Savitri-383 9: “Some lost to the person and his strip of thought In a motionless ocean of impersonal Power, Sat mighty, visioned with the Infinite’s light, Or, comrades of the everlasting Will, Surveyed the plan of past and future Time.” Savitri-383-84 10: “Some winged like birds out of the cosmic sea And vanished into a bright and featureless Vast: Some silent watched the universal dance, Or helped the world by world-indifference.” Savitri-384 11: “Some watched no more merged in a lonely Self, Absorbed in the trance from which no soul returns, All the occult world-lines for ever closed, The chains of birth and person cast away:” Savitri-384 12: “Some uncompanioned reached the Ineffable.” Savitri-384 Among the above twelve types of great exclusive liberated Souls, Savitri was unable to discover her Soul’s companion who was a symbol of comprehensive Divine Love: “Still she found not the one predestined face For which she sought amid the sons of men.” Savitri-385 Thus, in Savitri’s life, many months passed without discovering Satyavan (Paramatma in material embodiment). She has not lost hope and waited for the opportune moment of the destined meeting. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “August, exulting in her Maker’s eye, She felt her nearness to him in earth’s breast, Conversed still with a Light behind the veil, Still communed with Eternity beyond.” Savitri-381 29/ Book 5, Canto 1 - The Destined Meeting Place A Brief Restatement: This Book-5, Canto-1 gives the message that Savitri has to receive the Divine Love from without, from within and from above. They will bring complete fulfilment of her earth life and her mission of transforming earth will be expedited which is her long pending issue of all life. This Canto confirms that all the happenings of past, present and future life are not accidental but there exists a Divine plan and all events happen in the cosmic play in a foreseen time and place. "Unknowing she had neared her nameless goal… And nothing happens in the cosmic play But at its time and in its foreseen place.” Savitri-389 "These knew each other though in forms thus strange. Although to sight unknown, though life and mind Had altered to hold a new significance, These bodies summed the drift of numberless births, And the spirit to the spirit was the same." Savitri-398-399 We are given a brief time from cradle to grave to call down Timeless eternity and a small place to call down spaceless Infinity. Savitri’s birth and youth in Madra’s palace is the symbol of the ascent of the Soul to the highest status of Supreme Self and her return to Shalwa’s forest hermitage is the symbol of descent into nether earth in order to discover the last Godhead sleeping in the Inconscient sheath (Savitri-405) and this Godhead in the form of Inconscient Self can illumine earth life by its lone power or ‘lay his (man’s) hand on happy inconscient things.’ (Savitri-390) This Canto also proposes a Sadhak to become ascetic within symbolised as 'a soul retiring from the world' (Savitri-391) and ‘solitude far from the world’ (Savitri-391) with the realisation of Brahma Satya Jagat Mithya as the starting point of ‘sad and limitless (Divine) Call’ (Savitri-391) of the endless integral Yoga. OM TAT SAT The Important Secret of this chapter: "The Mighty Mother lay outstretched at ease. All was in line with her first satisfied plan; Moved by a universal will of joy The trees bloomed in their green felicity And the wild children brooded not on pain... Behind the rapt smile of the Almighty’s dance." Savitri-390 The More Important Secret of this chapter: “His (ascetic’s) vast extended spirit couched behind.” Savitri-391 The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “To lay his hand on happy inconscient things,” Savitri-390 “Love in the wilderness met Savitri.” Savitri-391 30/ Book 5, Canto 2 - Satyavan A Brief Restatement: Satyavan's surface personality was built from the accumulation of Soul Forces from his past births. " Noble and clear as the broad peaceful heavens A tablet of young wisdom was his brow; Freedom’s imperious beauty curved his limbs, The joy of life was on his open face. His look was a wide daybreak of the gods, His head was a youthful Rishi’s touched with light, His body was a lover’s and a king’s." Savitri-393 Satyavan’s early days in the Shalwa’s forest land were to think, act, enjoy and breathe like other mundane man and yet he had a brief partial glimpse of his deeper Self. If an individual's thoughts, actions and emotions are activated without the support and help of the Divine, then he is identified as a Mundane "Once were my (Satyavan’s) days like days of other men: To think and act was all, to enjoy and breathe; This was the width and height of mortal hope:” Savitri-406-407, Then a ‘truth was felt’ in his moderate life ‘that screened its shape from mind.’ (Savitri-407) A moderate is oblivious of future doom and is preoccupied with present moments. An awareness of future doom comes through vision, and by consecration, Divine union is experienced and the doom changes. The moderate Satyavan , who lived in the illumined Soul ray of God’s touch but was not ready to face the eternal Sun of His constant embrace. ('I lived in the ray but faced not to the sun.' Savitri-407) As child Soul or ‘infant Spirit’ (Savitri-716) he was unaware of two consenting world oceans of the Bliss/Supramental Self and the Subconscient/Inconscient Self. He later became ascetic Satyavan , when this surface concentration of the Divine ray penetrated heart and flesh. This ascetic Divine realisation could not bridge the gulf between Matter and Spirit. When he concentrated on the world, he lost the God and when concentrated on the God, he lost the world. With Savitri’s arrival this gulf was bridged and the consecrated Satyavan became King Child and was able to live and face the Sun light, representing Vijnana . And in the cosmic Consciousness of Vijnana , the Spirit and Matter are reconciled and Matter’s or physical body’s fixed death-bound destiny and grooves of Iron law are changed into the Spirit’s immortal all life. This is a passage from mere mundane man incarnating to the integral ascending Godhead of the race or ‘the soul of man climbing to God,’ (Savitri-703) and its destined saviour. Satyavan’s Godhead status does not prevent him from living ‘in one house with the primal beast’ (Savitri-541) in the forest, colloquies with the Djinn and Asuras of the Subconscient world; thus, in the Divine’s single plan ‘high meets the low’ (Savitri-541) or ‘God’s summits look back on the mute Abyss;’ (Savitri-541) accepts to be small and human on earth. This is the emergence of Lord Satyavan , for whom Savitri fought with dark Godhead in Death’s Night. Through this sacrificial action, the highest Divine Consciousness of the Avatar is reconciled with the lowest consciousness of the earth. Sri Aurobindo reveals Satyavan as a symbol of Divine Love (masculine Power). Divine love is an overhead energy that descends to Earth through a prepared human channel. When Divine Love enters earth’s atmosphere he is ‘Abased, disfigured, mocked’ (Savitri-397) by inferior beings. Tamasic beings (within and without) misunderstand the Divine Love, rajasic beings misuse the Divine Love and sattwic beings limit the action of Divine Love. The dwarf mind, life and body cannot hold the ineffable Divine Love in its pure form. Still, this Divine Love is held by 'A soul made ready through a thousand years' (Savitri-396) and 'He is still the godhead by which all can change.' (Savitri-397) Through this Canto, we can concentrate on dual Avatara’s supreme relation of Krishna and Kali in a mortal body. Even the experience of a brief touch of Divine Love is of immense value in our external life. The meeting of the Dual Avatara in the heart is also identified as a brief Supramental experience of uninterrupted intense immortal joy. The mortal body learns with much difficult training to wear this intense delight. This bliss is born after the awakening of the last Godhead of the Inconscient Self and it can transform and remake our all life. This Book-5, Canto-2 symbolically proposes a Sadhak to 'meet the ancient Mother ' (Savitri-393) and live in the matrix of new triple Time and new universalised Space of Cosmic Consciousness, where an incalculable amount of Divine Force, Truth, Light, Ananda, Love, Beauty, Peace and Silence invades into earth's atmosphere and to live without them is to return to the old world and mortal time subject to death, decay and disease. His rare privilege is to meet the dual Avatara in subtle physical, Psychic and Superconscient planes. "This golden figure given to his grasp Hid in its breast the key of all his aims, A spell to bring the Immortal’s bliss on earth, To mate with heaven’s truth our mortal thought, To lift earth-hearts nearer the Eternal’s sun. In these great spirits (dual Avatar) now incarnate here Love brought down power out of eternity To make of life his new undying base." Savitri-397 OM TAT SAT The Important Secret of this chapter: “The one for whom her heart had come so far.” Savitri-393 “For suddenly her heart looked out at him,” Savitri-395 “Then trembling with the mystic shock her heart” Savitri-396 “Heart feels for heart, limb cries for answering limb; All strives to enforce the unity all is.” Savitri-398 “Her heart unveiled and his to find her turned;” Savitri-399 The More Important Secret of this chapter: “The chariot stood like an arrested wind. And Satyavan looked out from his soul’s doors And felt the enchantment of her liquid voice Fill his youth’s purple ambience and endured The haunting miracle of a perfect face.” Savitri-396 “A forehead that wore the crown of all her (Savitri’s) past, Two eyes her constant and eternal stars, Comrade and sovereign eyes that claimed her soul, Lids known through many lives, large frames of love.” Savitri-396 The Most Important Secret of this chapter: "A mystery wakes in our inconscient stuff, A bliss is born that can remake our life.” Savitri-397-398 31/ Book 5, Canto 3 - Satyavan And Savitri A Brief Restatement: Sri Aurobindo was able to accommodate His (and also The Mother’s ) all life’s comprehensive high Spiritual Visions and experiences in symbolic characters of incarnations, emanations and instruments, depicted from the legendary epic Mahabharata where Savitri , the descending Godhead, Avatara, the all Mother, the Mother of all Time, Paraprakriti, knew her fiery Self and her Being’s aim of pursuing the Soul of earth, symbolised as Satyavan in his earthly form in each birth and in all life. She glimpsed the glory for which she had chosen earth and its atmosphere for a gradual and subsequently constant, intense, comprehensive and instantaneous total descent of Divine attributes of Truth-Light, Power, Wisdom and Delight. She keeps her will alive to drive human Souls and fills in their brute elements, the endless hope to Divinise clay and confronts the riddle of Birth, inevitable Death, grooves of iron Law and stone eyes of fixed Fate in them with the sheer power of her unchanging Soul force manifested as living fire of Divine Love. She has chosen the Souls who have long suffered on this harsh globe, for the field of her sacrifice and action and she is even ready to walk and waste all infinity with wounded feet to accomplish her seemingly impossible task of transforming earth’s shadow, fixed destiny, grooves of iron Law, meaningless suffering, splendid failure, twilight and grey inhibitions. She leans with pity over earth-bound men in order to share the burden of ‘earth’s struggle and fate.’ Satyavan , a mere man of action, a woodsman, Nara, Jivatma , raised his consciousness to the status of the ascending integral Godhead, Avatara, Narayana , by the Power of consecration and loss of ego and was destined to fulfill Savitri’s mighty Mission of bridging the gulf between Heaven, Earth and Hell. He was also the Eternal Consciousness, a unique rare treasure loaned by Gods, who accompanied Savitri from the beginning of the creation as first ‘man and woman’ or first dual Incarnation and the Supreme had promised to grant physical immortality in all life when the first Avatara’s ‘heart dared death and suffered life.’ He continued his life in many successive births and bodies as ‘twin souls born from one undying fire’ of this mortal existence to endure in his human heart a million wounds representing the delegate Soul of earth. Through his long suffering in human form the God’s debt is paid. His Godhead status does not prevent him from living ‘in one house with the primal beast’ in the forest, colloquies with the Djinn and Asuras of the Subconscient world; thus in the Divine’s single plan he reveals solidarity with antagonist powers; ‘high meets the low’ or ‘God’s summits look back on the mute Abyss.’ He accepts the small and human personality of woodsman on earth and his small beginning witnesses the immense ascent of the Soul and immense descent of Shakti, leading the creation towards a mighty end. While tracing the path of immortality he signed salvation’s testament with his blood and broke into the dangerous and dark Inconscient’s depth and if he were to meet the Spiritual fall in the form of death while attempting to break the wheel of earth’s doom and before bridging the gulf between Heaven and Earth in order to balance the dark account of mortal Ignorance then this would be a great loss for humanity. Or an Avatara , as a delegate Soul of Heaven lent to earth must live a brief period in human history in order to trace and build a passage in intermediate ranges of consciousness so that a large section of humanity will be able to bridge the gulf between Heaven and Earth and reconcile Spirit with Matter with less effort. This work is further accelerated if Divine Love becomes active in earth’s atmosphere through action and interfusion of dual Avatara . His Divine work on earth of invasion of the series of Light and Love is treated unfinished and half done till all the evils are slain or transformed in their Inconscient home. In Savitri and Satyavan , Soul and Nature had realised equal Divine Presences and merged themselves in the oneness of wide harmony and balance. Their Spirit and body were glad, fulfilled through their union which drove them towards the discovery of ‘Love’s deathless moment,’ (Savitri-579) beings’ aim and richness extending over all Time. Their first meeting gives the most thrill by witnessing the dual Avatara in a secluded shrine of earth and in the secluded chamber of their heart who carry all the memory of their past births and their unfulfilled world task. From time to time or from the beginning of the creation, earth waits patiently for this destined meeting. Each meeting after the passing of many ages brings a new promise of Divine manifestation and the new hope becomes again visible in earth’s creatures. They had treasured the rich relation of their brief human birth through a subtle link of union or clasp of two eternities through many successive births and bodies of un-beginning past and felt the call of Spirit’s unending future joy; even they knew their Selves ‘older than the birth of Time.’ (Savitri-537) A vast intention of love’s unseen Presence has drawn these dual incarnating Powers closer in this life and their love asks them to wait endlessly as if they have all eternity ahead for their self-fulfilment. Together they have disdained from the God’s everlasting Night of Inconscient world and turned away from His everlasting Day of Sachchidananda plane and returned to Earth to wage a million wars against the universal dark rebel forces attached to present unstable existence, to bear the earth Mother’s ancient adversary, to bear ‘world’s intolerable wrongs’ (Savitri-701) and to accomplish their double task of raising the world to God’s deathless Light, a permanent ascent of Divine Consciousness and bringing down Divine Shakti to earth and men, a permanent descent of Divine Consciousness. Dyumatsena, the self-exiled King of Shalwa , father of Satyavan , is the Divine’s Conscious instrument, Yantra , here fallen blind, limiting his capacity to three gunas and walks lamely on this dangerous world with slow evolutionary mental footsteps. Through this Spiritual fall he has lost the celestial inner kingdom of seven immortal Selves and through that loss its kingdom of outer glory and opulence. Due to this adverse fate, he now sojourns a wiser life in the solemn rustle of the wood and his yearning towards All meets two solitudes (1) that of an outcast from the empire of the outer light symbolically represented as a crutch upon which his faltering-limb supports and he helplessly stumbles in the rushing speed of hasty Time and (2) lost to the comradeship of five galloping hooves of sense that of sound, touch, sight, taste and smell symbolically represented as his sightless blind identity. This double doom of his father compelled Satyavan to live in the high peopled loneliness of the Spirit which called the Divine Mother to enter his earthly life in human form and finally helped his long pure childhood’s lonely dream to restore King Dyumatsena’s steady royal walk in high dynamic outer Kingdom and a deeper visionary eye of Divine Wisdom. Restoration of the outer Kingdom was also the outcome of his revival of the inner kingdom through sadhana in double seclusion. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “Her beating heart a remembrance of bliss” Savitri-410 “Each now was a part of the other’s unity, The world was but their twin self-finding’s scene Or their own wedded being’s vaster frame.” Savitri-411 “Oneness must sever its recovered bliss Or fate sunder (divide) our lives while life is ours.” Savitri-412 32/ Book 6, Canto 1 - The Word Of Fate A Brief restatement : This book (with its two Cantos) deals with the question of Fate, its source, its effect on our lives and whether it can be conquered. It also deals with problem of pain, the reason for its existence and when it will leave the scene. In this Book-6, Canto-1 (and also Canto-2) a reconciliation of moderate Spirituality represented by Savitri’s birth Mother, ancient Vedantic Spirituality represented by King Aswapati and Savitri , Overmental Spirituality of God represented by Narad are observed. Moderate Spirituality aims at escaping from problems of existence and extreme adversity through partial Divine union whereas ancient Vedantic Spirituality aims at resolving the problems of existence and confronting with extreme adversity of life through comprehensive Divine union. Overmental Gods have a role of helping men through foreknowledge and strengthening the Soul force of strong Souls and forcing weak Souls to experience Spiritual fall. Narad proposes that if one could live in the exceeding joy of the Self then doom might sleep in his life; this doom hunts and captures men when they remain unconscious of their Divine existence; if Savitri’s heart could be permanently imprisoned in the Supramental world and if she could live in the highest consciousness and exceeding bliss in her conscious waking state then doom might have slept permanently in her life and subsequently from earth’s life. He also proposes that this exceeding Bliss must be routed to man’s life through the opening of the Inconscient Self and the discovery of Divine Love hidden in the Inconscient Sheath or ‘Love that broods within the dim abyss.’ (Savitri-416) Narad’s arrival also calls down the future Supramental world and the promise of transformation of dark energies of the Subconscient and inconscient world: “And as he sang the demons wept with joy Foreseeing the end of their long dreadful task And the defeat for which they hoped in vain, And glad release from their self-chosen doom And return into the One from whom they came.” Savitri-417 Ancient Vedantists have the conviction ‘Only for good the secret Will can work’ (Savitri-424) and ‘I am stronger than death and greater than my fate.’ (Savitri-432) Others do not have this faith as they have no strong direct contact with the Divine. Here the King speaks of the double destiny of men. One is that of fixed destiny born out of ‘blindness of our will,’ our Karma or bounded action and the other is our changeable Spiritual destiny which is born out of oneness with Divine Will, Divine Wisdom and Divine Love. So, this Canto gives the message that one can escape untimely death and can live a long secure life if his Psychic being opens. For these Psychic and Spiritual Self opened Souls Death is not a curse but a passage and choice (iccha mrityu) for higher life. "Death is our road to immortality." Savitri-424, “Our death is made a passage to new worlds,” Savitri-194, “Death is a passage, not the goal of our walk:” Savitri-197, Savitri was able to trace her Lord in the distant land. Here, Savitri is identified as Para-prakriti or the virgin Mother and her meeting with Paramatma Satyavan can bring perfection in life and perfection in delight. Thus, we discover the Mahamantra of Savitri whose repetition can bring our Souls to the front: “Virgin who comest perfected by joy,” Savitri-424 The main participants who partake in uncovering this topic (mystery) are: Narad – who represents a Divine messenger aware of the source and secret mystery of fate and the forces that act behind all apparent destinies but does not have the power to change fate (that is also the limitation of our relation with Overmental Gods and Goddess) only he has the power to inform and awaken one to its impending action. He lives in a realm where Truth manifests without the distortion (What Narad saw about the detailed future of Savitri, about the same thing King Aswapati got the hint. In this sense Gods are superior to King Aswapati as projected in Savitri book) of any intermediary ignorance or inconscience, but he understands the secret mystery behind the ignorance and the future destiny of the earth. He comes to awaken and add a sense of haste (swiftness and acceleration) to Savitri’s Divine mission. King Aswapati – plays the role of both the father and the Guru of Savitri but as a seer of Truth and aware of the Divine Mother’s descent and action and ability to change fate, he is unperturbed by Narad’s pronouncements (Because King Aswapati had developed the strong conviction that the Supreme Will can work only for the good, independent of whatever it seems good or bad to man’s mind) and is aware of the purpose that Savitri has descended for. (Like king Aswapat i, in Integral Yoga the physical Guru has the responsibility of helping to find the Psychic Self. Then Psychic being is the inner Guru who takes the next responsibility of transforming Subconscient and Inconscient darkness in Sadhana .) The Queen – birth mother of Savitri and here is shown as someone who has accomplished some realisations and done sadhana , aware of the higher planes of existences and some of the secrets behind life and nature, but does not believe that Death can be overcome by a direct descent of the Divine power, but rather pleads the case for a slow and gradual evolution of man to his divine nature. (She has realized the Divine but was not aware that the Divine Power can change the untransformed Nature and hence can change human destiny.) The Queen was strong moderate by nature and hence she recoils from any high mission and discourages Savitri to step back from her Soul’s choice and asks her to follow an easier established path (“A choice less rare may call a happier fate,” Savitri-432). In the course of time, Savitri transcended her moderate passionate wise Mother and Mighty Seer Father. (She must disrupt, dislodge by her soul’s force Her past, a block on the Immortal’s road, Savitri-12) Savitri – although the incarnation of the Divine Mother, here she also represents someone who accepts their fate (which in her case is not the result of any karma of her previous lives) and can answer to it, not by pleading to a lower power/gods or by side stepping it (by rejecting to marry Satyavan), but by relying on (Spiritual experience of meeting with Satyavan that uplifted her consciousness to Supreme Height) their pure Soul force and the Divine within. (Savitri book indicates that Savitri’s Psychic being has more power than the Gods and the Guru.) “Then meet a greater god, thy self beyond Time.” (Savitri-375) The two cantos explore how the fate of most mortals differs from the fate of the Avatars or divine beings (Divine instruments, Yantra, Vibhuti and Avatara ). In the former case fate (is the fixed destiny activated by Nature’s law where the Supernature or Ishwara remains as witness during critical transitional moments) is usually prescribed to mortals by their karma, or nature or the actions of the Gods, while in the latter it is self-chosen, part of their mission (to activate the Supernature and witness or the ruler becomes Over-ruler and Overseer to change the fixed death bound destiny of the individual and the race). Hence, to escape one’s fate of a self-chosen mission is not possible for the divine (conscious) beings, who descend from a higher plane of Consciousness. We learn that these beings have to take their share of human misery if they wish to transform the earth and that all suffering can ultimately only be erased by bringing the highest supramental light to the lowest/deepest part of the Inconscient. Pain, we are told is the necessary instrument, the Gods use to cajole the divine within the inconscient to evolve towards the higher light…without which it would remain in its current (untransformed dark) state. We learn that once the highest divine light invades and transforms the inconscient sheath, pain no longer has its place and is transformed into its true state of divine (Ecstasy) good/joy…. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: "Earth keeps for man some short and perfect hours” Savitri-421 “Virgin who comest perfected by joy, Reveal the name thy sudden heart-beats learned. Whom hast thou chosen, kingliest among men?” Savitri-424 33/ Book 6, Canto 2 - The Book Of Fate, The Way Of Fate And The Problem Of Pain Summary Restated: In this Book-6, Canto-2 we meet three personalities. First one is the human personality of Savitri’s Mother, who seems to be concerned and blind with her own interest in an easy, comfortable and long happy human life. She does not bother for the world's misery and suffering and its irradiation from earth life. Due to her partial union with the Divine and satisfaction with that achievement, she was unaware of Divine’s comprehensive world plan, unaware of Divine Grace which acts during danger and difficulties of human life, unaware of dynamic Divine Power which can descend to change individual and collective destiny. King Aswapat i, due to his hard life of concentrated Tapasya could get a brief glimpse of Savitri’s past, present and future and also earth’s past, present and future. A detailed foreknowledge of the above issue was available to Narad , due to his Overmental God status. None of the above three have the capacity to change Savitri’s destiny and hence earth’s destiny. So, Savitri’s Psychic Being is identified as a greater God, and enjoys greater power and privilege than God and the Guru . Narad confirms that man is the author of his fate/doom and he can rewrite his fixed fate by opening the Psychic being through long sacrifice. He also issues the same proposal of hard sacrifice for Avatara for achieving his task of earth’s redemption. One can note the following two verses from Savitri: “Even if he (Avatara ) escapes the fiercest fires, Even if the world breaks not in, a drowning sea, Only by hard sacrifice is high heaven earned: He must face the fight, the pang who would conquer Hell.” Savitri-447 “Thy (common man) fate is a long sacrifice to the gods Till they have opened to thee thy secret self (Psychic Being) And made thee one with the indwelling God (Psychic Being).” Savitri-458 Narad identifies three dwarves, tamasic mind, rajasic mind and sattwic mind as the ‘hidden foe.’ Through these three inconscient energies the dark and hostile forces of the nether world enter into our life. The ordinary destiny can be changed if one can go beyond their influence. “There is no visible foe, but the unseen Is round us, forces intangible besiege, Touches from alien realms, thoughts not our own Overtake us and compel the erring heart; Our lives are caught in an ambiguous net. An adversary Force was born of old: Invader of the life of mortal man, It hides from him the straight immortal path. A power came in to veil the eternal Light, A power opposed to the eternal will Diverts the messages of the infallible Word, Contorts the contours of the cosmic plan: A whisper lures to evil the human heart, (whisper of vital and physical mind) It seals up wisdom’s eyes, the soul’s regard, It is the origin of our suffering here, It binds earth to calamity and pain. This all must conquer who would bring down God’s peace. This hidden foe lodged in the human breast Man must overcome or miss his higher fate. This is the inner war without escape.” Savitri-447-448 The main participants who partake in uncovering this topic (mystery) are restated with more deeper meaning: King Aswapati: Aswapati, King of Madra , the son of God, Vibhuti, destined to do some special Divine work, represents the human aspiration, hard Tapasya , askesis, and concentrated endeavour to explore all the multiple planes of Consciousness through vast and multiple identities. As Divine father he fostered, nourished and served his Divine daughter selflessly without attachment and wanted his daughter to ‘set earth alight’ with her ‘flame of radiant happiness.’ Like all human fathers, he aspires that her mortal life be unwounded and to serve humanity with ‘glad and griefless days.’ His capacity to unite with new bliss and flame-white Love came by annulling all ‘the contact formed with time-born things.’ He was able to retrieve the earth’s lost Spiritual energies, discovered earth’s secret beyond all previously attained Spiritual wisdom, nurtured Almighty’s Power in silence and solitude, sought the Divine strength that was not yet manifested on earth and called down the Divine Mother in the form of his daughter, Savitri. As Spiritual Teacher, the Guru ; firstly, he made her aware that her world Mission of awakening ‘Almighty powers’ that ‘are shut in Nature’s cells,’ ‘meet the Omnipotent in this house of flesh,’ ‘Out of Immortal’s substance you were made’ and hewing the path of immortality would be accomplished not by her own effort alone but by venturing to find her second Self, future Lord, unknown Lover, personal Godhead of the race and lyricist of her ‘soul’s most intimate chords’ in distant lands, who alone can match the measure of her waiting Soul, can walk with him like Gods in Heaven and can stand up as her equal comrade and peer; secondly, ‘must fire always test’ the purity and greatness of her Soul, who must wrestle with supernatural Darkness and must leave behind Death’s night to raise the fallen world. None can possess the kingdom of heaven and supreme Delight that has not passed through the ‘stones of suffering’ and tragic torture of giant sons of Falsehood; thirdly, she must continue her father’s unfinished Yoga and unfinished mission of ‘pure perfection and a shadowless bliss’ for the whole of suffering humanity and of changing all future time by unlocking the doors of human Fate. Queen: The Queen , the beautiful, passionate and the wise human mother of Savitri, the Divine’s unconscious instrument in Ignorance, child Soul, bala , represents mankind satisfied and preoccupied with earthly life of surface consciousness with having partial static Divine realisation through ‘sacrificial flame of aspiration,’ illumination of intellect, sattwic mind, limited light in Ignorance, and in her understanding of the mystery of creation and the Creator, the truth distorted and the Immortal’s meaning in the world was veiled. Thus, the limitation of her sattwic mind is here identified as soul slaying truth. As a human mother she fostered, nourished and served her Divine daughter with self-interest and attachment. She understands perfectly the limitations of human love and static Divine Love which cannot illuminate material life and not aware of the dynamic aspect of Divine Love which can transform life and human love. She was unaware of the secret of abundant dynamic Divine’s Grace and Bliss that hunt behind all effort to accept danger and pain to resolve the fundamental problem of existence and hence to decline all greater adventure by rejecting the doomed Satyavan was identified by her as the best solution. She, like a common man, was unable to recognise the greatness, nobility and action of world redemption of an Avatara and hence nourished no regard and gratitude towards him. She was also not aware that all unforeseen events are part of God’s secret plan and that He can overrule the Iron Law of Nature by conscious human effort and by dynamisation of His Supernature. So Narad asks the Queen not to interfere in matters that are beyond her understanding and power and to stand back from the stupendous scene and tremendous strife of her daughter’s heaven-sent task. The Queen was a representative Soul of moderate Spirituality or a beginner of integral Yoga and during the critical hour of her daughter’s choice of Satyavan , she experienced a Spiritual fall as her Soul was not sufficiently trained to lean on the pure and tranquil Spirit for all necessary aid and help during the hour of extreme adversity. This suggests that to oppose Divine’s Will in carrying out her daughter’s ‘heaven-sent task’ of rescuing men is the cause of her Spiritual decline. Her only daughter and husband’s mighty Spiritual Presence did not help her to overcome this fall of Consciousness and she lost the ‘empire of her hard-won quietude.’ (Savitri-437) Narad: Narad , the heavenly sage, the God, the instrument having the experience of oneness and complete union with the Divine. He was a mediator between Heaven and Earth, who was aware of the source and mystery of human fate and was having the power to foresee the future of man and knowledge of Soul saving Truth behind this creation, came down to earth to make Savitri aware that Soul’s greatness is measured through the capacity to bear pains of hell and she must cross on the stones of supreme universal suffering to arrive at her high mission, though he was having no power at his disposal to change her destiny and hence incapable of changing human destiny. Savitri’s Psychic being has the ability to give shelter where all the ‘high Gods could live.’ This Divine stationed in the heart centre is also projected as ‘greater than the God,’ the Guru and personal Godhead and has the capacity to change her own destiny and the destiny of the race or ‘She only can save herself and save the world.’ To bring all the worlds under her loving control and to uplift her body’s destiny or destiny of the race, her Soul entered a series of world adventures in different planes of Consciousness to become one with Divine Will and with the growth of Consciousness, a sort of mastery, a harmony and peace preoccupied the cells of the body and further extended to her multiple Selves of Sun-vast Truth. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “A day may come when she must stand unhelped On a dangerous brink of the world’s doom and hers, Carrying the world’s future on her lonely breast, Carrying the human hope in a heart left sole To conquer or fail on a last desperate verge, Alone with death and close to extinction’s edge. Her single greatness in that last dire scene Must cross alone a perilous bridge in Time And reach an apex of world-destiny Where all is won or all is lost for man." Savitri-461 34/ Book 7, Canto 1 - The Book Of Yoga, The Joy Of Union Summary: We have identified the special features in Book-7, Canto-1 that have inspired our sadhana life. 1, First, we discover that both Savitri and Satyavan were Karma Yogis accepting the most practical and the most difficult issue of material life and divinised them. They are: “A worshipped empress all once vied to serve, She made herself the diligent serf of all, Nor spared the labour of broom and jar and well, Or close gentle tending or to heap the fire Of altar and kitchen, no slight task allowed To others that her woman’s strength might do. In all her acts a strange divinity shone: Into a simplest movement she could bring A oneness with earth’s glowing robe of light, A lifting up of common acts by love.” Savitri-470 “All of his (Satyavan) speeding days that he could spare From labour in the forest hewing wood And hunting food in the wild sylvan glades And service to his father’s sightless life He gave to her (Savitri) and helped to increase the hours By the nearness of his presence and his clasp, And lavish softness of heart-seeking words And the close beating felt of heart on heart.” Savitri-472 2, Secondly, we discover a subtle physical relation between them which will replace the transient and divisible human love. Subtle physical relations increase by changing the centre of living from the surface to deep within. They are: “For when he (Satyavan) wandered in the forest, oft Her conscious spirit walked with him and knew (while Satyavan was away from her in the forest.) His actions as if in herself he moved; He, less aware, thrilled with her from afar.” Savitri-473 3, Thirdly, we discover their Psychic, Spiritual, Supramental, Bliss Divine union and through which Psychic, Spiritual, Supramental and Bliss Love are manifested in the earthly atmosphere. They are: “A fusing of the joys of earth and heaven, A tremulous blaze of nuptial rapture passed, A rushing of two spirits to be one, (Psychic union experience) A burning of two bodies in one flame. (Spiritual union experience) Opened were gates of unforgettable bliss: (Supramental and bliss Self experience.) Two lives were locked within an earthly heaven And fate and grief fled from that fiery hour.” Savitri-468 4, Fourthly, we observe that if the bond of their relation is made strong through the accumulation of Spiritual energy or Yoga Shakti or Divine Love, then Death cannot divide their life. They are: “Priceless she deemed her joy so close to death; (Her joy was priceless which can confront death and can save life. Earthly joy is soul slaying and always submits itself before death.) Apart with love she lived for love alone.” Savitri-468 (She lived only for the Divine who has incarnated here as Love.) “Always behind this strange divided life Her spirit like a sea of living fire Possessed her lover and to his body clung, One locked embrace to guard its threatened mate.” Savitri-471 “Yet ever they grew into each other more Until it seemed no power could rend apart, Since even the body’s walls could not divide.” Savitri-473 5: Fifthly, Satyavan’s birth Mother is identified in this epic as the smallest character, the symbolic representation of the child Soul and through her Sri Aurobindo gives the strongest message of true consecrated service to all earth-bound aspiring child Souls and their right relation with the Mother Soul; here symbolically represented as Savitri . Mother Soul serves Earth from below as a slave and from above and beyond like strong sunlight and she trespasses the bound life of child Souls as a strong Goddess and liberates them from their barren days. Like all other parents, Satyavan’s birth mother was not aware of the doom nearing her only child and aspired for him ‘All joy of earth, all heaven’s beatitude.’ (Savitri-467) A similar observation is marked in King Aswapati who aspired to pass the mortal life of his only child Savitri unwounded and further aspired for this young spirit untouched with tears, and be possessed by all new and ‘beautiful things.’ (Savitri-422) OM TAT SAT The Important Secret of this chapter: “All of his (Satyavan) speeding days that he could spare From labour in the forest hewing wood And hunting food in the wild sylvan glades And service to his father’s sightless life He gave to her and helped to increase the hours By the nearness of his presence and his clasp, And lavish softness of heart-seeking words And the close beating felt of heart on heart.” Savitri-472 “Thus in the silent chamber of her soul Cloistering her love to live with secret grief She dwelt like a dumb priest with hidden gods Unappeased by the wordless offering of her days, Lifting to them her sorrow like frankincense, Her life the altar, herself the sacrifice.” Savitri-472-73 35/ Book 7, Canto 2 - The Parable Of The Search For The Soul A Brief Restatement: The Book-7, Canto-2 concentrates on the initial approach to find the Soul. Savitri’s Consciousness was moving between Psychic and Spiritual planes and also between three gunas and these Psychic and Spiritual planes. In her search for Soul, she entered the inner world leaving aside the surface world and came across two planes known as the (1) world of titans and asuras , (2) the world of lower nature of forbidden joy. They are linked with each other through the verse, ‘“Man’s lower nature hides these awful guests.’ (Savitri-481) They are also linked with each other through "This (Spiritual) illumination is constantly opposed by the Forces of the lower nature and still more by the adverse Forces that live and reign by the world’s imperfections and have laid down their formidable foundation on the black rock of the Inconscience" (CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-970) So those who want to lead a higher life, must enter the inner ten worlds of desire Souls to discover their Psychic being. If they do not want to reject the untransformed lower nature which occupies ‘too large a place’ (Savitri-487) in life and dare not to meet and confront with the dark and invisible dangerous forces, they are considered unfit to lead a higher Divine life. In this Canto, we find a relation between Para prakriti Savitri and Paramatma Satyavan whose source is in absolute trance or brief cataleptic trance. They are: “As the Voice touched, her body became a stark And rigid golden statue of motionless trance, A stone of God lit by an amethyst soul.” Savitri-474 “Then Savitri by her doomed husband sat, Still rigid in her golden motionless pose, (brief cataleptic trance) A statue of the fire of the inner sun.” Savitri-477 Through the movement of consciousness, she came in contact with the Psychic being and also met the Spiritual Mother who consented to live permanently in her Psychic heart centre. Thus, before a Psychic being is Supramentalised it has to be Spiritualised. These experiences are: “Our larger being sits behind cryptic walls: There are greatnesses hidden in our unseen parts That wait their hour to step into life’s front: We feel an aid from deep indwelling Gods; (Psychic beings) One speaks within, Light comes to us from above.” (Spiritual being) Savitri-485 “Out of the mystic cavern in man’s heart The heavenly Psyche must put off her veil And step into common nature’s crowded rooms And stand uncovered in that nature’s front And rule its thoughts and fill the body and life.” Savitri-486-87 (Psychic transformation) “A portion of the mighty Mother came (Spiritual Mother) Into her as into its own human part: Amid the cosmic workings of the Gods It marked her the centre of a wide-drawn scheme, Dreamed in the passion of her far-seeing spirit To mould humanity into God’s own shape And lead this great blind struggling world to light Or a new world discover or create. Earth must transform herself and equal Heaven Or Heaven descend into earth’s mortal state.” Savitri-486 We again find in this Canto, Savitri came in contact with her Inconscient Self, which is identified here as nameless God. They are: “A conscious soul in the Inconscient’s world, (discovery of Inconscient Self) Hidden behind our thoughts and hopes and dreams, An indifferent Master signing Nature’s acts Leaves the vicegerent mind a seeming king.” Savitri-478 “A nameless god (Inconscient Self) in an unapproachable fane, In the secret adytum of his inmost soul He guards the being’s covered mysteries Beneath the threshold, behind shadowy gates Or shut in vast cellars of inconscient sleep. The immaculate Divine All-Wonderful Casts into the argent purity of his soul His splendour and his greatness and the light Of self-creation in Time’s infinity As into a sublimely mirroring glass. Man in the world’s life works out the dreams of God.” Savitri-479 During this movement of Consciousness, Savitri also entered the source of existence, here identified as Supreme Light which is felt necessary to arrive at a deathless state. “Our greater self of knowledge waits for us, A supreme light in the truth-conscious Vast: It sees from summits beyond thinking mind, It moves in a splendid air transcending life. It shall descend and make earth’s life divine.” Savitri-484 “His (Divine’s) young unaging look on deathless things, His joy in our escape from death and Time,” Savitri-484 OM TAT SAT The Important Secret of this chapter: “Man’s lower nature hides these awful guests. Their vast contagion grips sometimes man’s world. An awful insurgence overpowers man’s soul. In house and house the huge uprising grows: Hell’s companies are loosed to do their work, Into the earth-ways they break out from all doors, Invade with blood-lust and the will to slay And fill with horror and carnage God’s fair world.” Savitri-481 “Nothing is wholly dead that once had lived; In dim tunnels of the world’s being and in ours The old rejected nature still survives; The corpses of its slain thoughts raise their heads And visit mind’s nocturnal walks in sleep, Its stifled impulses breathe and move and rise; All keeps a phantom immortality.” Savitri-483-84 “The inferior nature born into ignorance Still took too large a place, it veiled her self And must be pushed aside to find her soul.” Savitri-487 36/ Book 7, Canto 3 - Entry Into The Inner Countries A Brief Restatement: The Book-7, Canto-3 concentrates on the inner world. Here Savitri discovered her two Selves, identified as annamaya Purusha , true physical being, Soul in the body and Pranamaya Purusha , true vital being, Soul in the vital. Here also we find the description of subtle physical sheath and subtle vital sheath and their relation with Subconscient sheath and how Subconscient lower untransformed nature trespass the subtle physical and subtle vital. Here we mark, Savitri utilised Nama Japa (to repeat the name of the Divine) or ‘saviour Name’ (Savitri-491) as means of sadhana which has the capacity to transform all the invasion of lower Nature into a still and empty chamber and can call down peace, vast calmness, freedom and tranquillity of mind. After exploring the limitations of the tamasic mind and rajasic mind she came across ‘a brilliant ordered Space’ of Sattwic mind. Here we observe a reason’s balanced reign, ‘adamant walls of law,’ ‘a small world or rule and line,’ and limited freedom. Here, the sattwic mind is divided into three parts of schoolman mind, fixed mind and outer mind . They, three have three characteristics of fear, doubt and impatience respectively and through these attributes they limit the Illimitable. Schoolman mind occupies life’s large space, fixed pillars of thought, lives in its dreams. ‘Its thoughts (are) an army ranked and disciplined.’ It does not dare to pursue ‘great and difficult’ adventure,’ does not call down the ‘flaming god;’ cannot set the world ablaze with the inner Fire. It limits the Soul with narrow ideal, adores an exclusive God, meditation is done to realise a narrow end; shuts its door to Divine Love and dries the heart with a rational religion. Its sacrifice is cold and flameless, Shastra is a sealed book devoid of Spiritual influence. Fixed mind is a quiet country where sense hunger is partly quenched, doubt is replaced with fixed faith. This is a firm and settled space of intelligence where all things are kept in their proper place. This fixed mind appears to be the creator of this apparent world, a substitute of the mighty Soul. Aspirant of limited perfection, limited truth and limited harmony. This is the home of elite who are satisfied with their exclusive achievement, the victory of single truth, and clarity of the sword of limited Light. It does not want to go beyond itself to discover the Psychic being. A fixed mind is satisfied with truth’s rounded outcome and ordered knowledge of apparent things. This is the world of artists, scientists, writers, philanthropists who are satisfied with their single achievement and do not show interest to go beyond their exclusive confident life. The Mother observed that the attitude of the most developed class, the most intellectual elite towards immense transformation work, "Ah, no! I don’t want to bother about that, I just want to live peacefully, as well as I can. We’ll see once the world has been transformed, then we can start bothering about it." (The Mother’s Agenda-7/294-295) Then, Savitri came to the world of outer mind , where all are in haste and all are impatient to save the God’s world. Here no Divine Light and mystic Voice are received. The outer mind cannot receive the Divine messengers of the subliminal world. It is not aware of waking trance, dreams of unborn Reality and strange goddesses with deep pooled magical eyes. This Canto gives the message that those who are deeply dissatisfied with the limitations of schoolman mind, fixed mind and outer mind can trace their Psychic being. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “Awhile she moved through a blank tranquillity Of naked Light from an invisible sun, A void that was a bodiless happiness, A blissful vacuum of nameless peace.” Savitri-491 “To find the inner self concealed in sense.” Savitri-489 (true vital being) “She forced her way through body to the soul.” Savitri-489 (true physical being) “Soul was not there but only cries of life.” Savitri-490 (surface life is far from the influence of true vital being.) “She crossed through spaces of a secret self ” Savitri-490 (Annamaya and Pranamaya Purusha .) “But now the vital godhead wakes within (true vital being) And lifts the life with the Supernal’s touch.” Savitri-490 “A schoolman mind had captured life’s large space,” Savitri-496 “Here was a quiet country of fixed mind ,” Savitri-498 “And pass through masked doorways into outer mind ” Savitri-500 37/ Book 7, Canto 4 - The Triple Soul Forces A Brief Restatement: In the Book-7, Canto-4, before finding the Psychic being Savitri came across three Mother powers of the subtle world who are having link with three inconscient energies of tamas, rajas and sattwa of Aparaprakriti (lower Nature) and also have a link with the higher Nature (Para-prakriti) of four Mother powers of Psychic plane. They are three untransformed Subliminal Soul Forces known as tamasic Mother or Mother of seven sorrows, rajasic Mother or Mother of might and sattwic Mother or the Mother of Light. They are also representative symbols of desire Soul and also three (limited) perfections, siddhis in the subtle mental world of having a link with the lower worlds of Ignorance. Those who search their Soul, feel satisfied with these three Mother powers and their limited Siddhis and do not strive to go beyond to discover the Psychic being. A subtle world is accepted as a link through which the gulf between higher nature and lower untransformed nature is bridged or this important subtle physical plane bridges the gulf between the Spiritual plane and the surface Nature of mind, life and body. Since Subtle physical, subtle vital and subtle mental have important roles in earth’s transformation, so purification, transformation and perfection of three subliminal Mother powers are identified as crucial in the life of Sadhaka of integral Yoga. These three Mother Powers are to be strongly linked with four Psychic Mother Powers of Brahma Shakti, Kshetra Shakti, Vaisya Shakti, Shudra Shakti and the four Spiritual Mother Powers of Maheswari, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi, and Mahasaraswati . They are also to be linked with the Supramental Source identified as Truth Supreme, Power supreme, Supreme Delight and Will supreme as hinted in Savitri . The Mother of seven sorrow is the deformed attribute of Vaisya Shakti ; the Mother of Might is a deformed attribute of Kshetra Shakti and Shudra Shakti and Mother of Light is the deformed attribute of Brahma Shakti. Seven Sorrows of the Mother: 1) The beauty of sadness lingered on her face, 2) Her eyes were dim with the ancient stain of tears. 3) Her heart was riven with the world’s agony (riven: split or tear apart violently) 4) And burdened with the sorrow and struggle in Time, 5) An anguished music trailed in her rapt voice. 6) Absorbed in a deep compassion’s ecstasy, 7) Lifting the mild ray of her patient gaze, Seven sorrows are (1) memory of ‘beauty of sadness,’ (2) ancient strain of tears, (3) world’s agony, (4) sorrow and struggle in all Time, (5) anguished music, (6) deep sorrowful compassion towards bereaved souls, (7) patient gaze and patient prayer that does not reach heaven. Seven limited Might of the Mother: 1: “I stand upon earth’s paths of danger and grief And help the unfortunate and save the doomed.” 2: “I smite the Titan who bestrides the world And slay the ogre in his blood-stained den.” 3: “I am Durga, goddess of the proud and strong, And Lakshmi, queen of the fair and fortunate; I wear the face of Kali when I kill, I trample the corpses of the demon hordes.” 4: “I guide man to the path of the Divine And guard him from the red Wolf and the Snake.” 5: “A few I guide who pass me towards the Light; A few I save, the mass falls back unsaved; A few I help, the many strive and fail.” 6: “Slowly the light grows greater in the East, Slowly the world progresses on God’s road.” 7: “I shall hear the silver swing of heaven’s gates When God comes out to meet the soul of the world.” Seven limited Light of the Mother: 1: “I have come down to the wounded desolate earth To heal her pangs and lull her heart to rest And lay her head upon the Mother’s lap That she may dream of God and know his peace And draw the harmony of higher spheres Into the rhythm of earth’s rude troubled days.” 2: “I show to her the figures of bright gods And bring strength and solace to her struggling life; High things that now are only words and forms I reveal to her in the body of their power.” 3: “I am peace that steals into man’s war-worn breast, Amid the reign of Hell his acts create A hostel where Heaven’s messengers can lodge; I am charity with the kindly hands that bless, I am silence mid the noisy tramp of life; I am Knowledge poring on her cosmic map.” 4: “I am the Power that labours towards the best And works for God and looks up towards the heights. I make even sin and error stepping-stones And all experience a long march towards Light. Out of the Inconscient I build consciousness, And lead through death to reach immortal Life.” 5: “Thus slowly I lift man’s soul nearer the Light. But human mind clings to its ignorance And to its littleness the human heart And to its right to grief the earthly life.” 6: “Only when Eternity takes Time by the hand, Only when infinity weds the finite’s thought, Can man be free from himself and live with God.” 7: “I shall save earth, if earth consents to be saved. Then Love shall at last unwounded tread earth’s soil; Man’s mind shall admit the sovereignty of Truth And body bear the immense descent of God.” Seven Subconscient Tamasic Sorrows: Seven sorrows of man are: 1: I am nailed on the wide cross of the universe; 2: I am the fighter who can never win, 3: I toil like the animal, like the animal die., 4: I have loved for mine, not for the beloved’s sake, 5: If once the Titan’s strength could wake in me, But God has taken from me the ancient Force. 6: Only by suffering can I excel, 7: Evil I must be and by evil live. Seven Subconscient rajasic might: 1: “The last-born of the earth I stand the first; Her slow millenniums waited for my birth.” 2: “Immortal spirit in the perishing clay, I am God still unevolved in human form; Even if he is not, he becomes in me.” 3: “I was born weak and small and ignorant, A helpless creature in a difficult world Travelling through my brief years with death at my side; I have grown greater than Nature, wiser than God.” 4: “What God imperfect left, I will complete, Out of a tangled mind and half-made soul His sin and error I will eliminate; What he invented not, I shall invent: He was the first creator, I am the last.” 5: “I have studied my being, I have examined the world, I have grown a master of the arts of life.” 6: “I shall slay my enemies with a look or thought, I shall sense the unspoken feelings of all hearts And see and hear the hidden thoughts of men.” 7: “No wish I harbour unfulfilled shall die: Omnipotence and omniscience shall be mine.” Seven Subconscient Sattwic Light: 1: “I am the mind of God’s great ignorant world Ascending to knowledge by the steps he made; I am the all-discovering Thought of man.” 2: “Yet have I loosened the cord, enlarged my room. I have mapped the heavens and analysed the stars, Described their orbits through the grooves of Space, Measured the miles that separate the suns, Computed their longevity in Time.” 3: “The tree of evolution I have sketched, Each branch and twig and leaf in its own place, In the embryo tracked the history of forms, And the genealogy framed of all that lives. I have detected plasm and cell and gene, The protozoa traced, man’s ancestors, The humble originals from whom he rose; I know how he was born and how he dies: Only what end he serves I know not yet Or if there is aim at all or any end Or push of rich creative purposeful joy In the wide works of the terrestrial power.” 5: “All Matter is a book I have perused; Only some pages now are left to read. I have seen the ways of life, the paths of mind; I have studied the methods of the ant and ape And the behaviour learned of man and worm. If God is at work, his secrets I have found. But still the Cause of things is left in doubt, Their truth flees from pursuit into a void; When all has been explained nothing is known” 6: “Nay, let me work within my mortal bounds, Not live beyond life nor think beyond the mind; Our smallness saves us from the Infinite. In a frozen grandeur lone and desolate Call me not to die the great eternal death, Left naked of my own humanity In the chill vast of the spirit’s boundlessness. Each creature by its nature’s limits lives, And how can one evade his native fate?” 7: “Human I am, human let me remain Till in the Inconscient I fall dumb and sleep. A high insanity, a chimaera is this, To think that God lives hidden in the clay And that eternal Truth can dwell in Time, And call to her to save our self and world. How can man grow immortal and divine Transmuting the very stuff of which he is made? This wizard gods may dream, not thinking men.” Sevenfold transformation of Mother of seven sorrows: 1: To bear the unbearable sorrow of the world, 2: Because thou art, the wretched still can hope. 3: But thine is the power to solace, not to save., 4: One day I will return, a bringer of strength, 5: Divine Love shall be bond of human kind, 6: Misery shall pass abolished from the earth, 7: There shall be peace and joy for ever more. Sevenfold transformation of Mother of Might: 1: transformation of nature through reconciliation of Shudra Soul force of work and Kshatriya Soul force of Strength or Force. (2) since individual isolated transformation is not practicable, so she has to include the whole of humanity and shall be preoccupied is doing good of all creature. (3) Because of the Divine Presence within, men’s Soul can climb to heaven. (4) transformation of nature through reconciliation of Brahmin wisdom and Kshatriya Power.(5) ‘And fear and weakness shall desert men’s lives,’ (6) Ego will be silenced within. (7) “All shall be might and bliss and happy force.” Sevenfold transformation of Mother of Light: 1. Hunger for eternal and heart filled with heaven’s fire, (2) bringing god down to body and life, (3) golden hand of Lord will return, (4) Divine will be visible to the naked eye, (5) reconciliation of Spirit and Matter, (6) Humanity will be transformed into Divine family, (7) All the ten worlds or planes will be filled with light and peace The great hope with which the Mother of seven Sorrows strives for purification, transformation and perfection of her existing limited attributes are observed in the following verse where she will be transformed in the future as the Mother of seven Delight: “Within me a blind faith and mercy dwell; I carry the fire that never can be quenched And the compassion that supports the suns. I am the hope that looks towards my God, My God who never came to me till now; His voice I hear that ever says ‘I come’: I know that one day he shall come at last.” Savitri-505 “Thy (Mother of seven Delight) love shall be the bond of humankind, Compassion the bright key of Nature’s acts: Misery shall pass abolished from the earth; The world shall be freed from the anger of the Beast, From the cruelty of the Titan and his pain. There shall be peace and joy for ever more.” Savitri-507-508 Similarly, we observe great hope in the Mother of (limited) Might and she strives for her purification, transformation and perfection to become Mother of perfect and unlimited Might. She is waiting for the days when she can guide, save and help all humanity. Her future hope and promise we observe in the following verse: “The cosmic evil is too deep to unroot, The cosmic suffering is too vast to heal. A few I guide who pass me towards the Light; A few I save, the mass falls back unsaved; A few I help, the many strive and fail. But my heart I have hardened and I do my work: Slowly the light grows greater in the East, Slowly the world progresses on God’s road. His seal is on my task, it cannot fail: I shall hear the silver swing of heaven’s gates When God comes out to meet the soul of the world.” Savitri-510 “One day I will return (as Mother of unlimited Might), a bringer of light; Then will I give to thee the mirror of God; Thou shalt see self and world as by him they are seen Reflected in the bright pool of thy soul. Thy wisdom shall be vast as vast thy power. Then hate shall dwell no more in human hearts, And fear and weakness shall desert men’s lives, The cry of the ego shall be hushed within, Its lion roar that claims the world as food, All shall be might and bliss and happy force.” Savitri-514 Similarly, the third and the greatest Mother Power of the subliminal world, the Mother of (limited) Light strives for her purification, transformation and perfection. Her future hope of becoming the Mother of unlimited Light and helping mankind to lead towards Supramental Light is observed in the following verse: “Only when Eternity takes Time by the hand, Only when infinity weds the finite’s thought, Can man be free from himself and live with God. I bring meanwhile the gods upon the earth; I bring back hope to the despairing heart; I give peace to the humble and the great, And shed my grace on the foolish and the wise. I shall save earth, if earth consents to be saved. Then Love shall at last unwounded tread earth’s soil; Man’s mind shall admit the sovereignty of Truth And body bear the immense descent of God.” Savitri-516 “His hunger for the eternal thou must nurse And fill his yearning heart with heaven’s fire And bring God down into his body and life. One day I will return (as Mother of unlimited Light), His hand in mine, And thou shalt see the face of the Absolute. Then shall the holy marriage be achieved, Then shall the divine family be born. There shall be light and peace in all the worlds.” Savitri-521 This Canto gives the important message that for the transformation of human life into Divine Life the gulf between Divine Consciousness and human Consciousness of three gunas must be bridged. That gulf can be bridged in the subtle mind, the subtle vital and the subtle body which have double doors ; one open towards Subconscient negative energies and the other open towards Superconscient affirmative energies. So, their purification, transformation, universalisation and perfection are important requisites in the manifestation of Divine Life. So, all our opposition to enter and concentrate on the inner life must be transcended and open the doors of three Mother Powers for their own perfection and discovery of still powerful and more intimate Psychic Being. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “One day I will return, a bringer of strength, (as Mother of seven Delight) And make thee drink from the Eternal’s cup; His streams of force shall triumph in thy limbs And Wisdom’s calm control thy passionate heart.” Savitri-507 “But without wisdom power is like a wind, It can breathe upon the heights and kiss the sky, It cannot build the extreme eternal things.” Savitri-514 “His hunger for the eternal thou (Mother of Light) must nurse And fill his yearning heart with heaven’s fire And bring God down into his body and life.” Savitri-521 38/ Book 7, Canto 5 - The Finding Of The Soul A Brief Restatement: This Canto gives importance to the entire opening of the Psychic being. Sri Aurobindo confirms, "Then only can the psychic being fully open when the sadhaka has got rid of the mixture of vital motives with his sadhana and is capable of a simple and sincere self-offering to the Mother....Purity, simple sincerity and the capacity of an unegoistic unmixed self-offering without pretension or demand are the conditions of an entire opening of the psychic being.” CWSA-30/Letters on Yoga-III/p-349, "In the Tantric discipline there is a process of opening all the centres from the Muladhara upward. In our Yoga (Integral Yoga) very often the Power descends from above and opens the Ajnachakra first, then the others in order. But it is perhaps the safest to open by concentration the heart-lotus first so as to have the psychic influence from the beginning." CWSA-30/Letters on Yoga-III/350-351 In Book 7, Canto-5, Savitri discovered her Psychic being through the Tantric Method of Yoga and not the Vedantic self-discipline. This Tantric method is safe for Developed Souls but not so safe for developing Souls. Because the desire Soul surrounding the Psychic Being is not easy to overcome but rather it invites Spiritual fall. In the Vedantic method, first, the Spiritual being opens and by its pressure or descent, the Psychic being opens and this Self-discipline is rather safe for developing Souls without any possibility of Spiritual fall. In this Canto, Savitri’s Psychic being not only opens but the Psychic being is Spiritualised and Supramentalised. It means mediatrix Spiritual Mother and Creatrix Supramental Mother consented to live permanently in Savitri’s Psychic heart centre, thus, the Psychic being is identified as an important centre for individual and world Transformation. “Here in this chamber of flame and light they met; (Psychic and Spiritual being met) They looked upon each other, knew themselves, The secret deity (Spiritual being) and its human part (Psychic being), The calm immortal (Spiritual being) and the struggling soul (Psychic being). Then with a magic transformation’s speed They rushed into each other and grew one.” Savitri-527 (This is the experience of Spiritualisation of Psychic being.) (By this experience the Spiritual Mother consented to live in the Psychic heart centre.) “In its deep lotus home her being sat As if on concentration’s marble seat, Calling the mighty Mother of the worlds To make this earthly tenement her house.” Savitri-528 (The Mighty Supramental Mother stationed permanently in the Savitri’s Psychic Heart Centre.) So, Savitri book proposes that if a Sadhaka has realised the Psychic being and his consciousness learns the lesson to live in a waking trance, then through the movement of Consciousness he can Spiritualise and Supramentalise the Psychic being, then he can save and transform himself, the collectivity and the world. But to realise this perfection is a long patient action of time. After opening of Savitri's Psychic being, Savitri experienced the opening of her seven chakras beginning from above the head. “One can speak of the chakras only in reference to Yoga. In ordinary people the chakras are not open, it is only when they do sadhana that they open. For the chakras are the centres of the inner consciousness and belong organically to the subtle body. So much as is active in ordinary people is very little — for in them it is the outer consciousness that is active…The centres of consciousness [are meant by the term “centres”], the chakras. It is by their opening that the Yogic or inner consciousness develops — otherwise you are bound to the ordinary outer consciousness.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-231 In this Canto Savitri experienced the Vedantic ascent Soul followed by descent of Shakti and opening of chakras: “Out of the Inconscient’s soulless mindless night A flaming Serpent rose released from sleep. It rose billowing its coils and stood erect And climbing mightily, stormily on its way It touched her centres with its flaming mouth; As if a fiery kiss had broken their sleep, They bloomed and laughed surcharged with light and bliss. Then at the crown it joined the Eternal’s space. In the flower of the head, in the flower of Matter’s base,... In the country of the lotus of the head (Sahasrara Chakra (Crown Chakra)) Which thinking mind has made its busy space, In the castle of the lotus twixt the brows (Ajna Chakra (Third Eye Chakra)) Whence it shoots the arrows of its sight and will, In the passage of the lotus of the throat (Vishuddha Chakra (Throat Chakra)) Where speech must rise and the expressing mind And the heart’s impulse run towards word and act... In the kingdom of the lotus of the heart (Anahata Chakra (Heart Chakra)) Love chanting its pure hymeneal hymn Made life and body mirrors of sacred joy And all emotions gave themselves to God. In the navel lotus’ broad imperial range (Manipura Chakra (Solar Plexus Chakra)) Its proud ambitions and its master lusts Were tamed into instruments of a great calm sway To do a work of god in earthly soil. In the narrow nether centre’s petty parts (Svadhisthana Chakra (Sacral Chakra) and Muladhara Chakra (Root Chakra)) Its childish game of daily dwarf desires Was changed into a sweet and boisterous play, A romp of little gods with life in Time.” Savitri-528-30 This Canto gives the input, that if the Psychic being opens, then this heart Centre acts as a Fortress of Truth and Virginity, surrounded by a large world of Ignorance and from this Divine Centre the Overhead truth and purity pour into the world of Falsehood and world perversion, thus one extends help to illumine the world and this is further universalised as ‘the little strength we have to help our race.’ (Savitri-527) “O soul, my soul, we have created Heaven, Within we have found the kingdom here of God, His fortress built in a loud ignorant world.” Savitri-531 This Canto also informs us that with the Psychic realisation of Savitri, the Gods and Goddess of the Overmental world preferred to live with her. Similar experience we also observe with King Aswapati : (Savitri's experience) "Casting aside its veil of Ignorance, Allied to gods and cosmic beings and powers It built the harmony of its human state; Surrendered into the great World-Mother’s hands Only she obeyed her sole supreme behest In the enigma of the Inconscient’s world." Savitri-530 (Savitri's experience) “In the slow process of the evolving spirit, In the brief stade between a death and birth A first perfection’s stage is reached (by Savitri) at last; Out of the wood and stone of our nature’s stuff A temple is shaped where the high gods could live. Even if the struggling world is left outside One man’s perfection still can save the world.” Savitri-531 (Savitri's experience) "Many high gods dwelt in one beautiful home; Yet was her nature’s orb a perfect whole, Harmonious like a chant with many tones, Immense and various like a universe." Savitri-358 (King Aswapati’s experience) “In an outburst of heavenly joy and ease Life yields to the divinity within And gives the rapture-offering of its all, And the soul opens to felicity. A bliss is felt that never can wholly cease, A sudden mystery of secret Grace Flowers goldening our earth of red desire. All the high gods who hid their visages From the soiled passionate ritual of our hopes, Reveal their names and their undying powers.” Savitri-278 This Canto also hints at the Psychic transformation or Supramentalised Psychic transformation of Savitri’s untransformed Nature. They are: “And all emotions gave themselves to God.” Savitri-529 “Its proud ambitions and its master lusts Were tamed into instruments of a great calm sway To do a work of God on earthly soil.” Savitri-530 “Its childish game of daily dwarf desires Was changed into a sweet and boisterous play,” Savitri-530 “Then sin and virtue leave the cosmic lists;” Savitri-531 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “In its deep lotus home her (Psychic) being sat As if on concentration’s marble seat, Calling the mighty Mother of the worlds (Supramental Mother) To make this earthly tenement her (Savitri’s) house.” (Supramentalised Psychic being) Savitri-528 “But when its feet had touched the quivering bloom, A mighty movement rocked the inner space As if a world were shaken and found its soul: (Discovery of Inconscient Self) Out of the Inconscient’s soulless and mindless night” Savitri-528 “All underwent a high celestial change: Breaking the black Inconscient’s blind mute wall, (opening of Inconscient Self) Effacing the circles of the Ignorance, Powers and divinities burst flaming forth; (Powers of Subconscient and Inconscient Self.) Each part of the being trembling with delight Lay overwhelmed with tides of happiness And saw her hand in every circumstance And felt her touch in every limb and cell.” Savitri-529 (Cellular transformation) “In the deep place where once the Serpent slept, There came a grip on Matter’s giant powers (opening of Inconscient Self) For large utilities in life’s little space; A firm ground was made for Heaven’s descending might.” Savitri-530 39/ Book 7, Canto 6 - Nirvana And The Discovery Of The All Negating Absolute A Brief Restatement: “The psychic and the spiritual opening with their experiences and consequences can lead away from life or to a Nirvana ; but they are here (in integral Yoga) being considered solely as steps in a transformation of the nature.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine-943 In this Canto Savitri's Spiritual Being opened which is identified as 'calm slow sun' (Savitri-532) or 'Impersonal, signless, featureless, void of forms' (Savitri-545) and from which overhead light invaded her whole inner and outer life. If Spiritual energy enters the body in a large scale, then the body vibrates unusually or symbolically as represented in Savitri , 'Still quivering from her lover’s strong embrace.' (Savitri-533) Thus, 'Matter is the Spirit’s willing bride' (Savitri-538) and "The high meets the low, all is a single plan.” (Savitri-541) With the opening of her Spiritual being, she could see Satyavan's future Spiritual destiny where the dark shadow above his head was illumined: "Above the cherished head of Satyavan She saw not now Fate’s dark and lethal orb; A golden circle round a mystic sun Disclosed to her new-born predicting sight The cyclic rondure of a sovereign life." Savitri-533 This Canto defines the Nature of Spiritual Love which is 'Absolved in the self-rapt immortal’s bliss.' (Savitri-533) and this joy can bridge the gulf between Earth and Heaven or Matter and Spirit. After the sun-lit Psychic path, Savitri was able to trace the golden path. She was given a brief time to tread this 'Golden Path' with Satyavan before the abysmal Night fell on her days: "Always he was with her, a living soul That met her eyes with close enamoured eyes, A living body near to her body’s joy. But now no longer in these great wild woods In kinship with the days of bird and beast And levelled to the bareness of earth’s brown breast, But mid the thinking high-built lives of men In tapestried chambers and on crystal floors, In armoured town or gardened pleasure-walks, Even in distance closer than her thoughts, Body to body near, soul near to soul, Moving as if by a common breath and will They were tied in the single circling of their days Together by love’s unseen atmosphere, Inseparable like the earth and sky." Savitri-533 Savitri, in her Spiritual Journey, meets two Voices from within and above. One Voice is soul-slaying negation or 'A denser darkness than the Night could bear,' (Savitri-534) and the other is Soul saving affirmation or 'a greater Voice came down' (Savitri-536) from height. The former Voice gives the message that this world is an illusion and 'only the blank Eternal can be true' (Savitri-535) and proposes to cease from this vain illusory existence. The latter affirmative Voice confirms that the Spiritual being can be dynamised to such an extent that it 'Accept to be small and human on the earth,' (Savitri-536) and consecrates even the smallest and the meanest work. Thus, the smallest action can be a means for contact with the highest Divine Force and mind can be made blank to ascend on this path. "But not for self alone the Self is won: Content abide not with one conquered realm; Adventure all to make the whole world thine, To break into greater kingdoms turn thy force. Fear not to be nothing that thou mayst be all; Assent to the emptiness of the Supreme That all in thee may reach its absolute." Savitri-536 "Consent to be nothing and none, dissolve Time’s work, Cast off thy mind, step back from form and name. Annul thyself that only God may be.”" Savitri-538 "Impersonal, signless, featureless, void of forms A blank pure consciousness had replaced the mind." Savitri-545 "All else grew unsubstantial, self-annulled , This only everlasting seemed and true, Yet nowhere dwelt, it was outside the hours." Savitri-547 "Only some last annulment now remained, Annihilation’s vague indefinable step: A memory of being still was there And kept her separate from nothingness: She was in That but still became not That." Savitri-549 Cantos 6 & 7 are best understood when they are read in conjunction (Spiritual or blank pure Consciousness and Cosmic Consciousness) with each other and when the term Nirvana is understood from the perspective of Integral Yoga as an intermediate transitory phase to a higher, more encompassing consciousness. The all negating Absolute is not a nihilistic state where existence and being ceases or is treated as a false concoction of the separative personality as has been understood from past philosophies and religions – rather the Absolute is beyond all positive terms of existence, even the most abstract and transcendent that can be conceived of by the human mind and senses. The reaching of a state of static realisation above and residing in the absolute is the foundation (and starting point) for the next stage of the play of the cosmic energies and dynamic self. In these following two Cantos, Savitri proceeds from her first perfection of finding her Psychic being in her heart centre (which is Spiritualised and Supramentalised) to the subsequent perfections of finding her spiritual and supramental beings/realisations – the process of these ascents are reflected in her passing through the transitionary stages of Nirvana and cosmic consciousness and finally reaching a stage where both the personal liberation and cosmic consciousness are held together in a state of (absolute) harmony (of dwelling in the supramental/transcendent consciousness). As such, we find that Nirvana and cosmic/universal consciousness are not opposites or contraries; they only appear so when we reside in the consciousness of the mind; in the higher plane (supramental consciousness), they are contained as mutually complementary states. Brahma satya Jagat Mithya is the first fundamental Siddhi of integral Yoga. The Canto-6 deals with this part of Savitri’s realisation. This realisation is a little different from escapist later Vedantic doctrine. “The Divine alone is true – all the rest is falsehood. The Divine alone is real – all the rest is illusion. The Divine alone is life – all the rest belongs to the kingdom of death. The Divine alone is light – all the rest is semi-obscurity. The Divine alone is love – all the rest is selfish sentimentality. And yet the Divine is everywhere, in the ignorant man as well as in the sage. And yet the Divine is everywhere, in the sinner as well as in the saint.” The Mother/The Mother's Agenda/undated-1958 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “When Nature who is now unconscious God Translucent grows to the Eternal’s light, Her seeing his sight, her walk his steps of power And life is filled with a spiritual joy And Matter is the Spirit’s willing bride.” Savitri-538 “So man (Satyavan ) evolving to divinest heights Colloques still with the animal and the Djinn; The human godhead with star-gazer eyes Lives still in one house with the primal beast. The high meets the low, all is a single plan.” Savitri-542 40/ Book 7, Canto 7 - The Discovery Of The Cosmic Spirit And The Cosmic Consciousness A Brief Restatement: The Book-7, Canto-7, confirms that both Paramatma Satyavan and Para prakriti Savitri’s main method of Yoga was Spiritual or “Her divine emptiness was their instrument.” (Savitri-553) or “An impersonal emptiness walked and spoke in her.’ (Savitri-552) In the previous Canto Savitri’s main method of Sadhana was also confirmed as Spiritual. Or “Annul thyself that only God may be.” (Savitri-538) Or “In a simple purity of emptiness Her mind knelt down before the unknowable.” (Savitri-522) " Assent to the emptiness of the Supreme That all in thee may reach its absolute." (Savitri-536) "Banish all thought from thee and be God’s void." (Savitri-537) This Canto confirms that Savitri had the knowledge of past, present and future birth known as All Life, about which her surrounding world was little aware: “They marvelled at her, for she seemed to know What they had only glimpsed at times afar.” Savitri-553 Its complementary line from the Gita: “The Blessed Lord said: Many are my lives that are past, and thine also, O Arjuna ; all of them I know, but thou knowest not, O scourge of the foe.” The Gita-4.5 With the attainment of Cosmic Consciousness, the inner life changes but ‘daily human life,’ ‘outward body of the routine,’ ‘small unchanging works’ and ‘happy quiet of ascetic peace’ (Savitri-551) do not change. Cosmic consciousness is the dynamic state of the Divine where ‘living spirit’ clasps her body and in this state, Matter can reconcile with the Spirit and with the Spirit’s penetration into material life, Savitri experiences change in the form of purification, transformation and perfection in her outward life. She continues to pour her greatness, sweetness and light upon her surrounding little hermit world. In this Book-7, Canto-7 Savitri realised her cosmic Self which is identified as the second fundamental realization of integral Yoga. In this Consciousness Divine becomes dynamic and one lives in waking trance. First fundamental realisation: Brahma satya jagat mithya , Divine is Real and world is an Illusion; second fundamental realisation: the world which appears to be false is created from Brahman ; third fundamental realisation: Brahma satya jagat satya and Brahman consciousness can penetrate material life and Divinise life. The characteristics of the second fundamental realisation are: “Her being, a circle without circumference,” Savitri-554 “A spirit, a being saw created things And cast itself into unnumbered forms” Savitri-554-55 “A Truth in which negation had no place,” Savitri-555 “Her spirit saw the world as living God;” Savitri-556 In the earlier Cantos it is confirmed that those who have a Mission (aim of life) and have realised their Psychic beings, their life is fully protected by the Divine. Savitri had both the awareness of her aim and Psychic realisation. This Canto proposes that if a Spiritual being is made open, then also it ensures protection to life. These developments are as follows: “Heaven’s tranquil shield guarded the missioned child.” Savitri-16 (Spiritual opening) “Only were safe who kept God in their hearts:” Savitri-211(Psychic opening) “And Savitri’s life was glad, fulfilled like earth’s; She had found herself, she knew her being’s aim.” Savitri-532 (Psychic being’s awareness) “Something perhaps unfelt, unseen, unknown Guarded the body for its future work,” Savitri-552 (Spiritual opening) “Guarded behind its face of ignorance:” Savitri-556 (Spiritual opening) This Canto also hints that the attainment of Cosmic consciousness is also the beginning of Subconscient transformation. So the opening of higher Selves like Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Selves are utilised exclusively for purification, transformation and perfection of untransformed Nature. “She was a subconscient life of tree and flower, The outbreak of the honied buds of spring; She burned in the passion and splendour of the rose, She was the red heart of the passion-flower, The dream-white of the lotus in its pool. Out of subconscient life she climbed to mind,” Savitri-557 These are the hidden agenda of cosmic Consciousness, which are utilised for both self-concentration and self-expansion. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “She passed beyond Time into eternity, Slipped out of space and became the Infinite; Her being rose into unreachable heights And found no end of its journey in the Self.” Savitri-555 “She was the godhead hid in the heart of man, She was the climbing of his soul to God.” Savitri-557 41/ Book 8, Canto 3 - Death In The Forest Summary or Brief Restatement: This Canto speaks symbolically of the earthly departure of Satyavan in all life and Satyavan will return to earth after Savitri’s Yoga in Subconscient and Inconscient planes are complete which is again an issue of many births. Savitri was supremely aware of the day in which Satyavan would leave his body. "Now has a strong desire seized all my heart To go with Satyavan holding his hand Into the life that he has loved and touch Herbs he has trod and know the forest flowers And hear at ease the birds and the scurrying life That starts and ceases, rich far rustle of boughs And all the mystic whispering of the woods." Savitri-562 This gives a clear message to a Sadhak , instead of following the escapist solution of Moderate and later Vedantist , he must prepare and accumulate Soul force in his inner life all the time to confront Death which is experienced by Sayavan as follows: "But as he worked, his doom upon him came. The violent and hungry hounds of pain Travelled through his body biting as they passed Silently, and all his suffering breath besieged Strove to rend life’s strong heart-cords and be free. Then helped, as if a beast had left its prey, A moment in a wave of rich relief Reborn to strength and happy ease he stood Rejoicing and resumed his confident toil But with less seeing strokes. Now the great woodsman Hewed at him and his labour ceased: lifting His arm he flung away the poignant axe Far from him like an instrument of pain. She came to him in silent anguish and clasped, And he cried to her, “Savitri, a pang Cleaves through my head and breast as if the axe Were piercing it and not the living branch. Such agony rends me as the tree must feel When it is sundered and must lose its life. Awhile let me lay my head upon thy lap And guard me with thy hands from evil fate: Perhaps because thou touchest, death may pass.” Savitri-564 This has to be understood that during the inner wandering in the Subconscient and Inconscient plane in finding the secret of Immortality and origin of Death, Satyavan met an accidental death in all life. His link with Savitri made him again return to earth as the last Avatara. This link is the Divine Love which grows and becomes strong through Sadhana . By breaking the weak bond fostered through human love, Death succeeds in carrying human Souls to its home. The awareness of Satyavan’s death will make a Sadhaka supremely conscious of the brief Time he is given in this birth and utilis es it as a bank to accumulate Spiritual energy. His only Divine work is to call down timeless Eternity into slipping moments and to call down spaceless Infinity into his limited surrounding space. "Wordless but near she watched, no turn to lose Of the bright face and body which she loved . Her life was now in seconds, not in hours, And every moment she economised (every moment is utilised to call down Divine energy.) Like a pale merchant leaned above his store, The miser of his poor remaining gold. But Satyavan wielded a joyous axe. He sang high snatches of a sage’s chant That pealed of conquered death and demons slain, And sometimes paused to cry to her sweet speech Of love and mockery tenderer than love:" Savitri-563-564 This Canto also hints that during death 'the bright spirit’s luminous gaze' was withdrawn and 'Only the dull and physical mind was left.' (Savitri-565) Integral Yoga proposes that before meeting physical death, the dwarf physical mind must be illumined and transformed. This is a difficult task and the Mother declared, "This physical mind receiving the supramental light Sri Aurobindo called the Mind of Light… As soon as Sri Aurobindo withdrew from his body, what he has called the Mind of Light got realised in me.” The Mother’s Centenary Works/13/62-63 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “Like the strong sun that serves earth from above.” Savitri-562 “All grief and fear were dead within her now And a great calm had fallen. The wish to lessen His suffering, the impulse that opposes pain Were the one mortal feeling left. It passed: Griefless and strong she waited like the gods.” Savitri-564-65 42/ Book 9, Canto 1 - Towards The Black Void A Brief Restatement: This Book-9, Canto-1 is concentrated on Savitri’s entry into the Inconscient world. This world is the home of Death and only dead people can visit that unhealthy world of negation and darkness. King Aswapati traveled this world without dying and suffered multiple injuries that were slow to heal. Savitri also visited the Inconscient world without dying. (Death said to Savitri) “O mortal, turn back to thy transient kind; Aspire not to accompany Death to his home, As if thy breath could live where Time must die." Savitri-580 In this Canto, the movement of Consciousness between the Supramental and Inconscient plane is observed which appears to be a long movement before Consciousness is preoccupied with Subconscient transformation (which is the message of Book-10, Canto-1 to 4). This Canto suggests that those who are established in Supramental Consciousness can alone visit the Inconscient world in deep trance and through that exercise alone, the Inconscient world can be illumined and transformed. Sri Aurobindo’s Accident in 1938 was an attack by a dark asuric force (Lord of Falsehood) while he was pursuing transformation action in Subconscient/Inconscient Sheath. This Canto also suggests that a Sadhaka must be established in Supramental Consciousness, before meeting his own death or death of kith and kin or brother Souls. Extreme adversity must be met ‘like a tree recovering from a wind.’ (Savitri-574) Savitri had the following experiences after Satyavan’s death: “She measured not her loss with helpless thoughts,” Savitri-571 “Then suddenly there came on her the change Which in tremendous moments of our lives Can overtake sometimes the human soul And hold it up towards its luminous source.” Savitri-571 “Over was the haunted pain, the rending fear: Her grief had passed away, her mind was still, Her heart beat quietly with a sovereign force. There came a freedom from the heart-strings’ clutch, Now all her acts sprang from a godhead’s calm.” Savitri-573 This Canto suggests that after arriving in Supramental Consciousness, the transformation work pursued in the Subconscient and inconscient world may not be easy and may continue through many births. “That mightier spirit turned its mastering gaze On life and things, inheritor of a work Left to it unfinished from her halting past, (This line suggests that Subconscient and Inconscient transformation is a continuation of Savitri’s past birth extending over future birth till she returns to earth as last Avatara .) When yet the mind, a passionate learner, toiled And ill-shaped instruments were crudely moved.” Savitri-573 (This line suggests mind’s infant state in transformation action.) This Canto suggests that in order to change destiny and conquer Death , one must have knowledge of past, present and future lives. This is possible by the opening of Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental beings. “Only the spirit sees and all is known.” Savitri-571 “Now to the limitless gaze disclosed that sees” Savitri-572 “And live in borders of the seen and known.” Savitri-579 (One can foresee and know much before the happening of the event.) Its complementary line: “For what the spirit sees, creates a truth And what the soul imagines is made a world.” Savitri-456 “I know all past and all present and future existences, O Arjuna , but Me none yet knows.” The Gita-7.26 "Many are My lives that are past, and thine also, O Arjuna ; all of them I know, but thou knowest not…" The Gita-4.5 This change of destiny is further strengthened by the following experience as hinted in Savitri : “Only the spirit (of Savitri) knew the spirit (of Satyavan) still, And the heart divined the old loved heart, though changed. ” Savitri-576 “All was the violent ocean of a will Where lived captive to an immense caress, Possessed in a supreme identity, Her aim, joy, origin, Satyavan alone. ” Savitri-579 “Around him nameless, infinite she surged, Her spirit fulfilled in his spirit, rich with all Time, As if Love’s deathless moment had been found, A pearl within eternity’s white shell.” Savitri-579 The mystery of the Inconscient world is that it is a kingdom of titans who can slay the living Soul. They are cruel, sentinels of dumb necessity, and they watch across Savitri’s path mercilessly. In this midnight’s dumb abysses, Savitri rose like a ‘columned shaft of fire and light,’ (Savitri-581) ‘against fixed destiny and the grooves of’ (Savitri-581) Iron Law and there Satyavan met her with his wonderful bright eyes. "Then, to that chill sere heavy line arrived Where his feet touched the shadowy marches’ brink, Turning arrested luminous Satyavan Looked back with his wonderful eyes at Savitri ." Savitri-580 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “The Woman answered not. Her high nude soul, Stripped of the girdle of mortality, Against fixed destiny and the grooves of law Stood up in its sheer will a primal force.” Savitri-581 43/ Book 9, Canto 2 - The Journey In Eternal Night And The Voice Of The Darkness A Brief Restatement: The importance of Book-9, Canto-II is the movement of Consciousness through which the gulf between the Supramental plane and the Inconscient plane is bridged. If this gulf is not bridged then Satyavan cannot be traced or discovered in the Inconscient home of Death and by this loss of contact Satyavan cannot return to earth. In other Cantos, we have marked how through the movement of Psychic, Spiritual, and Supramental Consciousness different planes of Consciousness or ten worlds are bridged. They are: The gulf between Savitri and Satyavan in the Inconscient plane: “But now a silent gulf between them came” Savitri-584 “Visionless she moved amid insensible gulfs,” Savitri-584 The gulf between Savitri and Satyavan in the Subconscient plane: “In vain thou (Death) hast dug the dark unbridgeable gulf,” Savitri-648, A similar gulf King Aswapati felt in between Supramental Self and Bliss Self: “This world of bliss he saw and felt its call, But found no way to enter into its joy; Across the conscious gulf there was no bridge.” Savitri-128, Linking the gulf between the Spiritual and Mental plane: “A mediating ray had touched the earth (mediating ray is the Spiritual energy) Bridging the gulf between man’s mind and God’s; Its brightness linked our transience to the Unknown.” Savitri-353 Psychic being can bridge the gulf between Spirit and Matter: “But soon the link of soul with form grew sure” Savitri-355 “Unlocked were inner spirit’s trance-closed doors:” Savitri-369 Spirit travelling backwards in Time in order to illumine the dark untransformed world in universalised Consciousness: “A gap was rent in the all-concealing vault (of King Aswapati); The conscious ends of being went rolling back: The landmarks of the little person fell, The island ego joined its continent.” Savitri-25, Bridging the gulf between Bliss self and Sense mind: “A consciousness of beauty and of bliss, A knowledge which became what it perceived, Replaced the separated sense and heart And drew all Nature into its embrace.” Savitri-28 Bridging the gulf between Absolute, Alone, Real and his Fate in universalised Consciousness: “A union of the Real with the unique, A gaze of the Alone from every face, The presence of the Eternal in the hours Widening the mortal mind’s half-look on things, Bridging the gap between man's force and Fate Made whole the fragment-being we are here.” Savitri-35, The gulf between Psychic being and Spiritual Being is bridged: “In moments when the inner lamps are lit And the life’s cherished guests are left outside, (This line suggests life’s cherished guests stand as obstacles to Spiritual experience.) Our spirit sits alone and speaks to its gulfs. A wider consciousness opens then its doors; Invading from spiritual silences” Savitri-47-48, Our surface casual life is harmonized by bridging the gulf between surface action and inner life: “But who shall pierce into the cryptic gulf And learn what deep necessity of the soul Determined casual deed and consequence?” Savitri-52, Supramental action and removal all gulfs in different planes: “Because eternal eyes turned on earth's gulfs” Savitri-101 “She hopes by the creative act’s release To o’erleap sometimes the gulf she cannot fill, To heal awhile the wound of severance, Escape from the moment’s prison of littleness And meet the Eternal’s wide sublimities In the uncertain time-field portioned here.” Savitri-177 “Its (Supermind) mights that bridge the gulf twixt man and God, Its (Supermind) lights that combat Ignorance and Death.” Savitri-261, “There was no cleavage between soul and soul, There was no barrier between world and God.” Savitri-319 “There (in the Supramental) was no gulf between the thought and fact,” Savitri-327 “And made her joy a bridge twixt earth and heaven,” Savitri-534, “To make thy life a bridge twixt earth and heaven;” Savitri-536, (Death asked) “What bridge can cross the gulf that she (Truth supreme) has left Between her (Truth supreme) and the dream-world she (Truth supreme) has made?” Savitri-663, “The two (Heaven and Earth) longing to join, yet walk apart, Idly divided by their vain conceits; … They gaze across the silent gulfs of sleep.” Savitri-684 Bridging the gulf between Supramental/bliss Self and Inconscient/Subconscient Sheath is the most difficult exercise of integral Yoga and hence from this point of view Book-9 and Book-10 are very important and the Mother had chosen Book-10 for translation into the French language in order to better understand and pursue her Subconscient transformation. The purpose of entry into this dark Inconscient world is to bridge the gulf with the aid of her golden relation with Satyavan which calls down (‘But now a silent gulf between them came’ (Savitri-584) ‘In vain thou (Death) hast dug the dark unbridgeable gulf,’ (Savitri-648)) large scale invasion of Divine Love. Now this action of Divine Love is still remote from the Inconscient plane or ‘Even from herself cast out, from love remote.’ (Savitri-584) How can the gulf between them be bridged by the movement of Consciousness? The most crucial gulf is identified as the border of Subconscient and Inconscient Sheath where Savitri lost Satyavan for a brief period while journeying along with Death. Due to this gulf, ‘Her eyes had lost their luminous Satyavan ’ (Savitri-584) or ‘The soul of the beloved now seen no more.’(Savitri-585) Ordinary human love cannot bridge this gulf, so death becomes inevitable. After the gulf is bridged in isolation/loneliness and deep meditation/sleep state in the Inconscient sheath she again restores her relation with Satyavan through a series of Spiritual experiences: ‘Her husband, grew into a luminous shade;’ (Savitri-585) ‘I will bear with him the ancient Mother’s load I will follow with him earth’s path that leads to God.’ (Savitri-590) ‘For I (Savitri) who have trod with him (Satyavan ) the tracts’ (Savitri-590) of all Time; ‘Wherever thou (Death) leadst his (Satyavan’s) soul I shall pursue.’ (Savitri-590) This is identified as the great victory of Savitri in the Inconscient world. “The feet of love tread naked hardest worlds. He (Divine Love) labours in the depths, exults on the heights; He (Divine Love) shall remake thy universe, O Death .” (Savitri-592) This victory can meet other extreme danger, “Let not the inconscient gulf swallow man’s race” (Savitri-687) or “Her mouth of darkness swallowing all that is.” (Savitri-585) Inconscient Sheath is ‘an all-negating immensity’ (Savitri-585) or ‘immense refusal of the eternal No.’ (Savitri-583) In the core of it lies the Inconscient Self (‘Matter still slept empty of its Lord’ (Savitri-405)) which is the Divine’s last and the greatest Spiritual energy by whose intervention ‘a grand solution’ (Savitri-90) will be witnessed in the cosmic life. So, after the discovery of the Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Self, a Sadhaka’s task is to trace the Subconscient and Inconscient Selves, by whose discovery, Supramental energy will flow into mind, life, and body from below the feet. The simultaneous flow of Supramental energy from above the head and below the feet or ‘Our life is entrenched between two rivers of light’ (Savitri-531) is the apex Spiritual experience for transformation action. The Divine Love labours in the depths as the Inconscient Self and exults on the height as the Supramental/Bliss Self and this Divine Love has the capacity to rebuild Death’s perishable world. "Love’s golden wings have power to fan thy void: The eyes of love gaze starlike through death’s night, The feet of love tread naked hardest worlds. He labours in the depths, exults on the heights; He shall remake thy universe, O Death .” Savitri-592 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “Armoured with light she advanced her foot to plunge Into the dread and hueless vacancy; Immortal, unappalled, her spirit faced The danger of the ruthless eyeless waste.” Savitri-582 “Mine is the labour of the battling gods: Imposing on the slow reluctant years The flaming will that reigns beyond the stars, They lay the law of Mind on Matter’s works And win the soul’s wish from earth’s inconscient Force.” Savitri-588 44/ Book 10, Canto 1 - The Dream Twilight And The Ideal A Brief Restatement: The Book-10 is identified as The Book of Double Twilight. The first twilight is created by the invasion of fathomless Light above to the dark Subconscient plane below and the second twilight is created either by the invasion of darkness below to the bright Subconscient plane or by the invasion of fathomless Light below the feet through the opening of Subconscient and Inconscient Selves to dark Subconscient sheath. The Book-10, Canto-1 concentrates on Subconscient transformation by Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental invasion to a dark Subconscient sheath. They are identified as: Psychic invasion: “As when a goddess’ bosom dimly moves To first desire and her white soul transfigured, A glimmering Eden crossed by faery gleams, Trembles to expectation’s fiery wand, But nothing is familiar yet with bliss.” Savitri-604 “A comrade of the Ray and Mist and Flame, By a moon-bright face a brilliant moment drawn, Almost she seemed a thought mid floating thoughts, Seen hardly by a visionary mind Amid the white inward musings of the soul . Half-vanquished by the dream-happiness around, Awhile she moved on an enchantment’s soil, But still remained possessor of her soul.” Savitri-605-606 Spiritual Invasion: “Here in this seat of Darkness mute and lone, In the heart of everlasting Nothingness Light conquered now even by that feeble beam: Its faint infiltration drilled the blind deaf mass; Almost it changed into a glimmering sight That housed the phantom of an aureate Sun Whose orb pupilled the eye of Nothingness. Savitri-601 Supramental Invasion: “A golden fire came in and burned Night’s heart ; Her dusky mindlessness began to dream; The Inconscient conscious grew, Night felt and thought.” Savitri-601 “Above, her spirit in its mighty trance Saw all, but lived for its transcendent task, Immutable like a fixed eternal star.” Savitri-606 The whole of humanity is now going through this Subconscient transformation unconsciously and few prepared vessels are going through this transformation consciously. Those who are open towards Subconscient transformation, they will feel all the time a Divine Force is entering the mind, vital, body, and Subconscient sheaths in a very minuscule manner. When this descent of Divine force is strong enough to be felt as a higher body temperature of fever, then its outcome is a miracle in Subconscient sheath resulting in some Divine manifestation. In the previous Cantos of the whole book, (1) we get the information that if our Psychic and Spiritual beings are open then beings of those higher planes will accompany us and assist us in our sadhana , involve in many creative actions, and call down Divine energies. Integral Yoga identifies ten Selves and their opening activates affirmative Beings belonging to higher planes. (2) Similarly, through our untransformed nature, asuric beings or dark energies enter our system and do their destructive and pessimistic action both in waking and dream states. (3) We also get this information from Savitri that like our parents, some invisible beings pursue us in this birth and take care of us. Similarly, some beings accompany us from our previous births. So, we have to remember that neither this world, nor any creative action, nor any destructive action, nor any powers and personalities that are acting through us are our own. (4) Now in this book-10, Canto-1, we get some new inputs that will assist in our Subconscient transformation action. It describes some invisible beings identified as ‘a morning twilight of the gods’ (Savitri-601) who assist us in our sadhana and carry us from the twilight physical mind, twilight vital mind, and twilight intellect to complete and integral Divine Light, Wisdom, Delight etc. Now we will concentrate on the character of these affirmative twilight beings. Their forms arise from our sleep and they justify the long night followed by a new dawn and a new birth of consciousness. These dreaming deities look beyond the visible things and fashion in their thoughts, ideal worlds. By their presence ‘the heaviness of the eyeless dark’ (Savitri-602) has overpassed and all the sorrow of the night perished. He who wakes in this twilight world, finds his dreams true and all ran after light and joy and love. This twilight world is an atmosphere that cannot dare too much light, love and delight yet breathes strange ecstasy and anticipates deeply of delight. This twilight world is surrounded by vague fields, vague pastures, vague trees, vague scenes, vague cattle, vague spirits, vague melodies and vague ideal lands without a goal but having sweet memories, mighty measures of thought, far chanting of gods with low disturbing voices of desire. These twilight gods are fugitive beings and 'natural habitants of' (Savitri-602) the Subconscient world and they have the capacity to assist an individual to find his Soul. In that Subconscient sheath, nothing there was fixed or stayed for long, no mortal feet can take rest upon that soil, no breath of life lingered embodied there, no joy can dance for long period and no beauty can settle there. Yet in that Subconscient world, the memory of gladness ever repeats the same note, shapes are strangely consistent, the same thoughts are constant passers-by, all charms are renewed unendingly, waits always to hear the music like the recurrence of a haunting rhyme. Divine touches incessantly, the things that never seized for Subconscient transformation. The Divine Light showers as a trail of disappearing star and each Divine touch faints the vessel and the promise of unrealised bliss is heard. Psychic being participates in this Subconscient transformation through its purity, adoration and subtle presence and its unaware, momentary and escaping thrill is experienced as much sweeter than any rapture known to earth and heaven. Now we will concentrate on the line: “Heaven ever young and earth too firm and old” (Savitri-603) This line also suggests that when we open ourselves towards Divine Forces, we become young and energetic and when we keep the door open towards dark Subconscient and inconscient undivine energies we become old and weak. This also suggests the presence of heavenly beings for Subconscient transformation whose raptures of creation last too long; their affirmative bold formations are too absolute and are too intimate with eternal things. They stand up sculptured on the eternal hills and win immortality by perfect physical form. These heavenly beings are too pure, too great, too meaningful without shadow and without incertitude. "Their bold formations are too absolute; Carved by an anguish of divine endeavour They stand up sculptured on the eternal hills, Or quarried from the living rocks of God Win immortality by perfect form. They are too intimate with eternal things: Vessels of infinite significances, They are too clear, too great, too meaningful; No mist or shadow soothes the vanquished sight, No soft penumbra of incertitude." Savitri-603-604 Thus, a golden hem of bliss is experienced along with the gleaming shoulder of some godlike hope and flying feet of fine desires. These heavenly beings are visitors from the morning star, satisfied with the first perfection of Psychic opening. They mingle in a passion of pursuit and thrill with the spray of joy…. "Half-vanquished by the dream-happiness around, Awhile she moved on an enchantment’s soil, But still remained possessor of her soul. Above, her spirit in its mighty trance Saw all, but lived for its transcendent task, (Realisation of Cosmic and Transcendent Divine.) Immutable like a fixed eternal star." Savitri-606 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “In that tremendous darkness heavy and bare She atoned for all since the first act whence sprang The error of the consciousness of Time, The rending of the Inconscient’s seal of sleep,” Savitri-599 “And when there is no world, no creature more, When Time’s intrusion has been blotted out, It shall last, unbodied, saved from thought, at peace.” Savitri-600 “Here in this seat of Darkness mute and lone, In the heart of everlasting Nothingness Light conquered now even by that feeble beam: Its faint infiltration drilled the blind deaf mass; Almost it changed into a glimmering sight That housed the phantom of an aureate Sun Whose orb pupilled the eye of Nothingness." Savitri-601 “A golden fire came in and burned Night’s heart; Her dusky mindlessness began to dream; The Inconscient conscious grew, Night felt and thought.” Savitri-601 45/ Book 10, Canto 2 - The Gospel Of Death And Vanity Of The Ideal A Brief Restatement: Book 10, Canto 2 represents the gospel of Death which is a Soul slaying truth and his ideal appears to be in vain in resolving world problems. This Canto proposes that to remain satisfied with a brief touch of Divine Force is a moderate and escapist Spirituality which cannot transform Nature but to prepare for that Truth which slowly and constantly infiltrates into the material vessel, which alone can expedite Subconscient transformation and transform Nature. Death’s ideal accepts the later Vedantic doctrine of the Soul’s (Jivatma’s) union with Spirit (Paramatma) and refuges the ancient Vedantic doctrine of the Spirit’s reconciliation with Matter. This Canto is important from three points of view. Firstly , it gives more description of the twilight of the Subconscient world which must be approached through faint infiltration of Truth Light (Or ‘Threatened (falsehood) with this faint beam of wandering Truth’ Savitri-585) and not the later Vedantic escape from material problems; secondly, here Sri Aurobindo defines the Soul slaying human love through the symbolic representation of Death’s gospel; thirdly in this Canto, the Supreme word, Mahavakya, of Savitri book is revealed. 1: “I think Sri Aurobindo deliberately made this Death very vulgar to discourage all the Illusionists and Nirvanists .” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda-6/164, (Death said) “Earth only is there and not some heavenly source. If heavens there are they are veiled in their own light, If a Truth eternal somewhere reigns unknown, It burns in a tremendous void of God; For truth shines far from the falsehoods of the world; How can the heavens come down to unhappy earth Or the eternal lodge in drifting time?” Savitri-609 (Death said) “The Avatars have lived and died in vain, Vain was the sage’s thought, the prophet’s voice; In vain is seen the shining upward Way. Earth lies unchanged beneath the circling sun; She loves her fall and no omnipotence Her mortal imperfections can erase, Force on man’s crooked ignorance Heaven’s straight line Or colonise a world of death with gods.” Savitri-609-610 (Death said) “Heaven’s hour adjourned flees into bodiless Time. Death saves thee from this and saves Satyavan: He now is safe, delivered from himself; He travels to silence and felicity. Call him not back to the treacheries of earth And the poor petty life of animal Man. In my vast tranquil spaces let him sleep” Savitri-611 (Death said) “Renounce, forgetting joy and hope and tears, Thy passionate nature in the bosom profound Of a happy Nothingness and worldless Calm, Delivered into my mysterious rest.” Savitri-612 2: As per our study like Arjuna of the Gita, Death has raised twenty-three questions and indirectly hints at a passage to immortality. From the Arjuna we learn the lesson of Jivatma’s union with Paramatma, similarly, from Death’s conversation with Savitri, we can learn the lesson of reconciliation of Perfect Spirit with imperfect Matter. A Soul-slaying human love, a soul-slaying word and a soul-slaying momentary work can slay the Psychic being. This means human association, thought bound to three gunas and any action by the pressure of three gunas can veil the Psychic being. Whereas Divine Love, Divine descended overhead Knowledge and Divine action by the pressure of Divine Will can save and activate the Psychic being. (Death said) “Thy mortal longing made for thee a soul. This angel in thy body thou callst love, Who shapes his wings from thy emotion’s hues, In a ferment of thy body has been born And with the body that housed it it must die. It is a passion of thy yearning cells, It is flesh that calls to flesh to serve its lust; It is thy mind that seeks an answering mind And dreams awhile that it has found its mate; It is thy life that asks a human prop To uphold its weakness lonely in the world Or feeds its hunger on another’s life.” Savitri-608 (Death said) “What is this love thy thought has deified, This sacred legend and immortal myth? It is a conscious yearning of thy flesh, It is a glorious burning of thy nerves, A rose of dream-splendour petalling thy mind, A great red rapture and torture of thy heart. A sudden transfiguration of thy days, It passes and the world is as before.” Savitri-610 (Death said) “If Satyavan had lived, love would have died; But Satyavan is dead and love shall live A little while in thy sad breast, until His face and body fade on memory’s wall Where other bodies, other faces come.” Savitri-610 (Death said) “Love cannot live by heavenly food alone, Only on sap of earth can it survive. For thy passion was a sensual want refined, A hunger of the body and the heart; Thy want can tire and cease or turn elsewhere. Or love may meet a dire and pitiless end By bitter treason, or wrath with cruel wounds Separate, or thy unsatisfied will to others Depart when first love’s joy lies stripped and slain: A dull indifference replaces fire Or an endearing habit imitates love: An outward and uneasy union lasts Or the routine of a life’s compromise:” Savitri-611 (Death said) “Two strive, constant associates without joy, Two egos straining in a single leash, Two minds divided by their jarring thoughts, Two spirits disjoined, for ever separate. Thus is the ideal falsified in man’s world; Trivial or sombre, disillusion comes, Life’s harsh reality stares at the soul:” Savitri-611 (Death said human love is) “A sweet secretion from the erotic glands Flattering and torturing the burning nerves, Love is a honey and poison in the breast Drunk by it as the nectar of the gods. Earth’s human wisdom is no great-browed power, And love no gleaming angel from the skies; If they aspire beyond earth’s dullard air, Arriving sunwards with frail waxen wings, How high could reach that forced unnatural flight? But not on earth can divine wisdom reign And not on earth can divine love be found; Heaven-born, only in heaven can they live; Or else there too perhaps they are shining dreams.” Savitri-618-619 3: Supreme Word of Savitri (Mahavakya) “If there is a yet happier greater god, Let him first wear the face of Satyavan And let his soul be one with him I love; So let him seek me that I may desire.” Savitri-614, A Psychic being is identified as a greater God. That means if a Sadhaka has realised his Psychic Being in the heart centre, then his status is greater than overmental God and he can call down Divine Love to earth and men. If he calls down Paramatma/Purushottama/ Supramental Purusha to the heart centre then he begins to wear the face of Satyavan and experiences static Divine union. With the prolongation of this union, dynamic Brahman/Paraprakriti/ Supramental Mother comes down permanently to stay in the heart centre. Then heart centre becomes the meeting ground of Paramatma Satyavan and Paraprakriti Savitri and this dynamic union possesses material life and the cellular transformation begins the action. To Love and Possess equally Paramatma Satyavan and Paraprakriti Savitri in the heart centre is the supreme Word of Savitri and the extension of World transformation through the mighty descent of Divine Force. This is the condition of receiving Savitri’s comprehensive Divine Love. Here we divide this comprehensive Divine Love into four parts: Jivatma’s union with Paramatma (realisation of transcendent Divine) Jivatma’s union with Paraprakriti (Universalisation of Consciousness and beginning of individual transformation)) Parmatma’s union with Paraprakriti (beginning of cellular and world transformation.) Paraprakriti’s union with Aparaprakriti (Matter) (transformation of Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths or Reconciliation of Spirit with Matter.) A Sadhak , who does not wear the face of Paramatma Satyavan within the heart centre has no issue, no charm and glory and his life is symbolically revealed as experiencing the sorrow of widowhood or 'Like love when the beloved's face is gone.' (Savitri-306) This is the most difficult Spiritual task before a Sadhak but there is none else. When King Aswapati asked Savitri 'somewhere on the longing breast of earth, Thy unknown lover waits for thee the unknown,’ (Savitri-374) Savitri went across the world to meet her Lord. She met twelve types of exclusive liberated great Souls before meeting Satyavan but they were not fit to hold Savitri’s Comprehensive Divine Love. To hold Savitri’s comprehensive Divine Love, one has to reconcile twelve exclusive Divine attributes of liberated Souls. So he can ‘wear the face of Satyavan ’ or move the Consciousness comprehensively in all the above four ways. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “His bliss laughs to us or it calls concealed Like a far-heard unseen entrancing flute From moonlit branches in the throbbing woods, Tempting our angry search and passionate pain. Disguised the Lover seeks and draws our souls. He named himself for me, grew Satyavan. For we were man and woman from the first, The twin souls born from one undying fire. Did he not dawn on me in other stars? How has he through the thickets of the world Pursued me like a lion in the night And come upon me suddenly in the ways And seized me with his glorious golden leap! Unsatisfied he yearned for me through time, Sometimes with wrath and sometimes with sweet peace Desiring me since first the world began. He rose like a wild wave out of the floods And dragged me helpless into seas of bliss. Out of my curtained past his arms arrive; They have touched me like the soft persuading wind, They have plucked me like a glad and trembling flower, And clasped me happily burned in ruthless flame. I too have found him charmed in lovely forms And run delighted to his distant voice And pressed to him past many dreadful bars. If there is a yet happier greater god, Let him first wear the face of Satyavan And let his soul be one with him I love; So let him seek me that I may desire. For only one heart beats within my breast And one god sits there throned. Advance, O Death, Beyond the phantom beauty of this world; For of its citizens I am not one. I cherish God the Fire, not God the Dream.” Savitri-614 46/ Book 10, Canto 3 - The Debate Of Love And Death A Brief Restatement: This book-10, Canto-3, reveals first Savitri’s discovery of the Subconscient Self within Subconscient Sheath. This discovery is important for the purification and transformation of Subconscient and adjacent worlds of mind, life and body. "A spirit moved in black immensities And built a Thought in ancient Nothingness; A soul was lit in God’s tremendous Void, A secret labouring glow of nascent fire." Savitri-622 This creation is to be wholly accepted and embraced as the manifestation of the Brahman . If the existing mind of most man is crippled; life is untaught and crude; if there exist brutal and evil activities, then they are to be accepted as incidents of the Divine’s vast and varied plot; His great and dangerous drama’s needed steps. We have to meet our Lord in the nascent sleep of shadow and the Night and in the wakefulness of the stars and Sun and wait for the hour in which high Supracosmic Source meets the low and nether Inconscient Sheath. The emergence of Divine Life on earth is possible by the reconciliation of God’s Night with His fathomless Light and Life and Death become the fuel of the great world action and world existence. "For now at last I know beyond all doubt, The great stars burn with my unceasing fire And life and death are both its fuel made. Life only was my blind attempt to love: Earth saw my struggle, heaven my victory; All shall be seized, transcended; there shall kiss Casting their veils before the marriage fire The eternal bridegroom and eternal bride. The heavens accept our broken flights at last. On our life’s prow that breaks the waves of Time No signal light of hope has gleamed in vain.” Savitri-638 Savitri has to unite with Satyavan in the Subconscient and Inconscient world by calling down Divine energy there. Satyavan’s death created such an opportunity for Savitri . She has to prove her Divine Love which can transform those dark worlds. So, her task is to call down Divine Love from higher planes and the emergence of the same Divine Love by activation of Subconscient Self and the ‘two rivers of Light’ (Savitri-531) wait ‘to be kindled in our secret cells.’ (Savitri-626) "Yet Light is there; it stands at Nature’s doors: It holds a torch to lead the traveller in. It waits to be kindled in our secret cells; It is a star lighting an ignorant sea, A lamp upon our poop piercing the night. As knowledge grows Light flames up from within: It is a shining warrior in the mind, An eagle of dreams in the divining heart, An armour in the fight, a bow of God." Savitri-626 Lastly, this Canto gives a clue how the business of Death and Night fails on Earth. That is possible by universalisation of Divine Love, by attainment of unity consciousness of Supermind and all is known and clasped by Divine Love. "A Lover leaning from his cloister’s door Gathers the whole world into his single breast. Then shall the business fail of Night and Death: When unity is won, when strife is lost And all is known and all is clasped by Love Who would turn back to ignorance and pain?” Savitri-632-33 This Canto also proposes that Subconscient transformation can only be experienced in deep meditation or non-waking trance. Entry into Subconscient plane is a terrible battle against the forces of darkness and in the Mother’s language, “I am given the awareness of how huge this thing (Divine descent) is one drop at a time…so I won’t be crushed,” (The Mother’s Agenda, July 15, 1961,) and this Subconscient transformation could be done ‘only in deep meditation…and not in any other time, in activity or even in concentration.’ (The Mother’s Agenda, December 11, 1963) "But now her spirit’s flame of conscient force Retiring from a sweetness without fruit Called back her thoughts from speech to sit within In a deep room in meditation’s house ." Savitri-639 A Sadhak of integral Yoga must understand that before conquering Death from without Savitri must conquer Death from within accompanied with mighty calmness. “O Death, I have triumphed over thee within ; I quiver no more with the assault of grief; A mighty calmness seated deep within Has occupied my body and my sense: It takes the world’s grief and transmutes to strength, It makes the world’s joy one with the joy of God." Savitri-633 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “My love eternal sits throned on God’s calm; For Love must soar beyond the very heavens And find its secret sense ineffable; It must change its human ways to ways divine, Yet keep its sovereignty of earthly bliss.” Savitri-633 “For now at last I know beyond all doubt, The great stars burn with my unceasing fire And life and death are both its fuel made. Life only was my blind attempt to love: Earth saw my struggle, heaven my victory; All shall be seized, transcended; there shall kiss Casting their veils before the marriage fire The eternal bridegroom and eternal bride.” Savitri-638 47/ Book 10, Canto 4 - The Dream Twilight And The Earthly Real A Brief Restatement: The canto marks the final confrontation of Savitri with Death in his own realm (of Night). The next time Savitri meets Death will be in the realm of light where Death’s contorted mask is removed and his true divine nature is revealed. Death (after his gospel in the previous canto) argues for Savitri to give up her quest and conviction of revealing the Divine behind all matter and bringing down the divine from the highest planes. Savitri destroys all his arguments with the Truth. Finally, Death slowly recognises that the Divine Mother may be present in Savitri and asks for that darshan and agrees to release him if he is blessed with that vision. A vast transformation comes over Savitri and the divine Mother within steps forward and reveals herself to Death and asks him to return Satyavan’s soul. Despite this Death remains stubborn and refuses to give up Satyavan. But the light and force of the Divine Mother overwhelms him and he retreats defeated, giving up the soul of Satyavan . Arjuna was shown Viswarupa Darshana (The Vision of the universal Godhead) by the Lord in the Gita f or the completeness of his Spiritual life. Here in this Canto-IV, book-10, Savitri, the Divine Mother had possessed Death by Her dynamic Viswa rupa. Death God is projected here as a temporary dark instrument of the Divine. This is also the message for a Sadhak of integral Yoga that he has to realise the vision of Viswarupa of the Gita through his third eye and be possessed by the Viswarupa of the Divine Mother, in his passage towards immortality. For him, realisation of the Divine is an easier task and the transformation of earthly Nature is a very difficult task, which he has to experience after the universalization of Consciousness. (Death's Viswa rupa experience) "Weighed on his unbowed head and stubborn breast; Light like a burning tongue licked up his thoughts, Light was a luminous torture in his heart, Light coursed, a splendid agony, through his nerves; His darkness muttered perishing in her blaze. Her mastering Word commanded every limb And left no room for his enormous will That seemed pushed out into some helpless space And could no more re-enter but left him void. He called to Night but she fell shuddering back, He called to Hell but sullenly it retired: He turned to the Inconscient for support, From which he was born, his vast sustaining self; It drew him back towards boundless vacancy As if by himself to swallow up himself: He called to his strength, but it refused his call. His body was eaten by light, his spirit devoured." Savitri-667 If a Sadhak attains Cosmic Consciousness, then he must pursue sadhana in secrecy and silence. His presence will be intolerable for the common man because of this particular nature, ‘Universal, he is all,--transcendent, none.’ (Savitri-657) When he lives in universal Self, he becomes very intimate with all; when he lives in transcendent Consciousness, he goes beyond all these relations. This is unbearable to man’s righteousness. His outward appearance will be marked with Truth-Power or the 'sound of infinity' in his voice and his eyes will shine with the 'light of things beyond.' (Savitri-663) OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “Darkness below, a fathomless Light above, In Light are joined, but sundered by severing Mind Stand face to face, opposite, inseparable, Two contraries needed for his great World-task, Two poles whose currents wake the immense World-Force.” Savitri-656-657 “A few have dared the last supreme ascent And break through borders of blinding light above, And feel a breath around of mightier air, Receive a vaster being’s messages And bathe in its immense intuitive Ray.” Savitri-659 48/ Book 11, Canto 1 - The Soul's Choice And The Supreme's Consummation A Brief restatement: After the Savitri moves through the realms of Eternal Night and the Dream Twilight and defeats Death so that he retreats and gives up his claim to Satyavan’s Soul, Savitri enters the realm of the Superconscient plane. As she enters these realms, she moves up the levels of the Overmind and then onto the Supramental and Sachchidananda planes. As she ascends past the Overmind regions, she encounters the Supreme, who gives her the final test. To date, Savitri has had to deal with obstacles from her birth mother, her untransformed nature and Death, both within (as a void/nirvana) and without. Having conquered Death and secured Satyavan , the Supreme asks her to enjoy the fruits of her glory, reminds her that she is the Eternal Bride and His force – He asks her to withdraw to live in her Spirit above or in her Soul within and no longer does she need to strive against the recalcitrant nature who in the course of time (eons) will eventually be transformed. Savitri in spite of the deeply loving and ensnaring words of the Divine, refuses – just as she refused to succumb to the eternal night and the twilight, she also refuses these great boons. This is because, for Savitri, the Divine has to be experienced integrally in ten planes, not just satisfied in one or two realms. The Divine then takes her to the highest planes of existence, from where she will be better able to make her decision and tempts her three more times with boons. But each time Savitri refuses, because in those highest stations of Sachchidananda, Savitri is united with the Supreme Mother’s consciousness and she feels all of creation as her children. The voices of these children plead to her to remain with them and the love which binds her to Her creations makes her ask the Supreme that all that He offers her, let that be provided to all of Earth and man, not just to her. One key difference I (Auroprem) note between the Supreme’s discussion with Savitri and the Divine Mother’s instruction with King Aswapthi is that even though both Lord and the Supreme Mother said not to hasten the descent of the force on unprepared earth, with King Aswapati, he was asked to remain on earth and “let thy toil be vast” (Savitri-340) or ‘Accept the difficulty and godlike toil,’ (Savitri-335) and not to retire to a station above creation. With Savitri, the Supreme is actually asking her to withdraw into the highest planes of Consciousness 'through immense extinction in eternity'. (Savitri-696) This also hints at the difference between the dynamic Divine Mother embracing earth problems and the static Divine Father indifferent to world problems. The Supreme is pleased with Savitri’s choice and grants her the Supreme Consummation which is to find the Divine in all through 'A thousand doors of oneness', (Savitri-695) 'force her will on fate,' (Savitri-694) 'stamp her will on Time' (Savitri-695) and her joy becomes imperfect if 'not shared by all.' (Savitri-686) "A virgin unity, a luminous spouse, Housing a multitudinous embrace To marry all in God’s immense delight, Bearing the eternity of every spirit, Bearing the burden of universal love, A wonderful mother of unnumbered souls." Savitri-695 Divine says that after Savitri prepares the Earth in all life, it will then be able to bear the descent of the Supreme Mother, the last Avatar . This will coincide with the emergence of a new race of diviner men, who will also raise the existing race of men towards the Divine. This will then allow the Supreme’s force and presence to act directly on Earth without distortion and the need of any intermediary consciousness. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this Canto: "A divine force shall flow through tissue and cell And take the charge of breath and speech and act And all the thoughts shall be a glow of suns And every feeling a celestial thrill. Often a lustrous inner dawn shall come Lighting the chambers of the slumbering mind; A sudden bliss shall run through every limb A nd Nature with a mightier Presence fill. Thus shall the earth open to divinity And common natures feel the wide uplift, Illumine common acts with the Spirit’s ray And meet the deity in common things. Nature shall live to manifest secret God, The Spirit shall take up the human play, This earthly life become the life divine.” Savitri-710 49/ Book 12, Epilogue - The Return To Earth A Brief restatement : This Canto hints at human love's transformation into Divine Love, which is again the prerogative of very rare developed Souls. The whole of Savitri hints that before developing Divine Love of Sachchidananda Consciousness, a Sadhak must develop strong subtle physical love. This subtle physical love is perennial in its nature and it grows in successive births through activation of true Physical Being, Annamaya Purusha. This Canto also hints at the penetration of Supreme Ananda into physical substance and thus cellular transformation action becomes active. This chapter signifies the permanent descent of Sachchidananda Consciousness to earth consciousness which was the result of Savitri’s permanent ascent of Soul to Sachchidananda consciousness, here symbolically represented as Everlasting Day. Savitri along with Satyavan return to earth consciousness and to their bodies with the blessings of the Supreme to stay in the Earth’s atmosphere and continue their eternal work as the dual incarnating power of the Supreme (1) to raise the consciousness of man to God and (2) to bring down the higher consciousness to the Earth plane. Satyavan recognizes the great (subjective and objective) change that Savitri has undergone (during this long cataleptic trance) and realizes that it is due to her love alone (Or accumulation of her Yoga Shakti in the form of Divine Love that was able to bring back Satyavan from the clutch of Death or Their strong bond of Divine union failed Death to take Satyavan away from Savitri ) that he has consented to remain on the earth plane and continue their work. The boons Death gave to Savitri have resulted in the King’s (Dyumatsena’s ) outward vision (and inner vision of seven immortal worlds) being restored and his lost kingdom (symbolized as King Dyumatsena’s lame identity with Ignorance) and returned with the eye of wisdom and integral Knowledge. The poem finishes with marked difference in the consciousness of the Earth, (permanent manifestation of Sachchidananda Consciousness on Earth), especially in the inconscient plane, which now houses the promise of greater dawn and light due to the work of this dual Force on the (Subconscient/Inconscient plane) earth plane. Now, The Mother and Sri Aurobindo have opened ‘two consenting worlds’ (Savitri-716) for humanity. They are identified as Bliss/Supramental Self above the head and Subconscient/Inconscient Self below the feet. Through the opening of these double doors, humanity can transform existing life and this exercise can begin with a few prepared Souls and can be later generalised into whole of humanity. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: "Ever she held on the paradise of her breast Her lover charmed into a fathomless sleep, Lain like an infant spirit unaware Lulled on the verge of two consenting worlds .” Savitri-716 “Awakened to the meaning of my heart That to feel love and oneness is to live And this the magic of our golden change, Is all the truth I know or seek, O sage.” Savitri-624 Download the above synopsis as a PDF file Savitri - Yoga Sadhana Camp Discussion 28 July - 31 July 2024 Audio Recording 28 July 2024 Audio Recording 29 July 2024 Audio Recording 30 July 2024 Audio Recording 31 July 2024 We must pursue Sadhana by outwardly becoming a mere man of action like the woodsman status of Satyavan and inwardly like King Aswapati, who drops all his separative identity in the Divine, possesses the highest objective of Jnana and Bhakti Yoga by becoming a Karma Yogi. We must note that while pursuing this difficult Yoga if we experience Spiritual fall then, also we can again pursue this Sadhana of Karma Yoga like King Dyumatsena, in double seclusion that of an outcast from the privilege of light of the outer world and renouncing the enjoyment of five senses symbolised here as loss of eyesight. We must learn to consecrate our Soul’s childhood near the Mother Soul, here identified as Savitri, who serves earth and her children from below like a slave and from above like Sunlight. Her ceaseless consecration and ceaseless Divine union could not satisfy and fulfill life because there is always the threat of an inrush of Ignorance, Falsehood, Suffering and Death from below. They can abruptly end all the charm of life. The remedy lies in her Subconscient and Inconscient transformation through a collaboration of a few prepared universalised individual vessels. “Now, a third thing also one must know, but for this one has to be a mighty yogi. For this means knowing that death is not an inevitable thing, it is an accident which has been occurring till now (which seems in any case to have always occurred till now), ("A net of death in which by chance we live." Savitri-50) and that we have put it into our head and our will to conquer this accident and overcome it. But it is so terrible, so formidable a battle against all the laws of Nature, against all collective suggestions, all earthly habits, that unless, as I have said, you are a first-rate warrior whom nothing frightens, it is better not to begin the battle. You must be an absolutely intrepid hero, for at every step, at every second you have to fight a battle against all established things. So it is not a very easy thing. And even as an individual it is a battle against oneself, because (I think I have already told you this once), if you want your physical consciousness to be in a state which admits of physical immortality, you must be free to such an extent from everything which at present represents the physical consciousness that it becomes every second a battle. All feelings, all sensations, all thoughts, all reflexes, all attractions, all repulsions, all existing things, all that forms the fabric of our physical life must be overcome, transformed and freed from all their habits. This is a battle of every second against thousands and millions of enemies. Unless you feel you are a hero, it is better not to try. Because this solution, well... I do not know, but I believe I was asked this question once before: “Has anyone succeeded so far?” To tell you the truth I don’t know, for I have not met such a person. I do not have the feeling that anyone has succeeded till now. But it is possible. Only, he or she who has done it has not declared it, at least, not till now.” The Mother The Mother’s Centenary works/Vol-5/p-316-317"

The Ashram in Brief “That is exactly what Sri Aurobindo wanted and attempted; he used to say, “If I can find a hundred people, it will be enough for my purpose.” The Mother The Mother's Agenda 16.09.1964 "If there is an opposition between the spiritual life and that of the world, it is that gulf which he (a Sadhaka of integral Yoga) is here to bridge, that opposition which he is here to change into a harmony. If the world is ruled by the flesh and the devil, all the more reason that the children of Immortality should be here to conquer it for God and the Spirit. If life is an insanity, then there are so many million souls to whom there must be brought the light of divine reason; if a dream, yet is it real within itself to so many dreamers who must be brought either to dream nobler dreams or to awaken; or if a lie, then the truth has to be given to the deluded." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-327-328, Sri Aurobindo’s requirements of one hundred perfect instruments are they who live in cosmic Consciousness, by whose pressure all objective life will become part of the subjective existence and they realise, perceive, feel, see and hear only the Divine in every way, in all forms and all happenings of the world are taking place within their vast universal Self. Their outer surface Nature is a concentration and radiation of silence, calm, stillness and peace. ‘To grow in the spirit is the greatest help one can give to others, for then something flows out naturally to those around that helps them.’¹²⁵ The ‘special work’¹²⁶ of integral Yoga is ‘of bringing down the higher consciousness with all its effect for the earth’¹²⁶ without ‘too eager to help others,’¹²⁵ without ‘accepting the nature of man and the world as it is’¹²⁶ and by standing ‘apart from the rest of the world.’¹²⁶ Integral Yoga proposes that Universalised Consciousness is the outcome of a long movement of Consciousness between Psychic and Spiritual planes replacing the earlier slow evolution of consciousness between three modes of Nature, Gunas and in this vast Consciousness (1) equality becomes perfect and consecration becomes complete and absolute, or this surrender of whole being ‘has to be accomplished slowly and with difficulty by the being itself before the supramental transformation can become at all possible;’¹⁴⁸ ‘A perfect equality not only of the self, but in the nature’¹⁴⁷ is also the sign of universalized consciousness; (2) exclusive concentration of Mind is replaced with the faculty of Multiple-concentrations; thus one can pursue triple Yoga of Karma, Jnana and Bhakti simultaneously and ceaselessly, (3) transformation of human Nature into Divine Nature is practicable, as in this Consciousness the World is inseparable from the individual; with the activation of cosmic Self, Savitri had this experience, 'all changed within her and without.'¹⁵⁰ (4) His time and space experience is completely different from ordinary man subjected to three gunas, the latter lives in the present succession of moments oblivious of his past and future and his little habitation of space is separated from the world and the former lives in the triple time of past, present and future and the whole world lives within his cosmic Self; his universalised Spirit can move backward towards the past of this birth and past births and illumine the obscure corners of his Subconscient and Inconscient sheaths and his Spirit can travel forward in time to call down all future possiblities to present moment; (5) outer wandering and movement reduces and is replaced by the more and more inner wandering of Soul which shows interest only in eternal things and 'In every shrine it cries for the clasp of God'¹⁴⁹; (6) in this Cosmic Consciousness, Matter is real to Spirit, Spirit is real to Matter and Matter is reconciled with Spirit in order to resolve all world problem; (7) in addition to his own individual suffering, he is ready to bear a part of earth's heavy burden and suffering and ‘only the self-ruler (swarat ) and master man (samrat ) can help, in leading the human race forward spiritually towards this consummation and towards some image of a greater divine truth in their personal and communal existence. He becomes a light and power of the Truth to which he has climbed and a means for others’ ascension;’¹⁵¹ (8) he will not remain indifferent to the people dying everyday and every moment, rather he will maintain the ceaseless movement of inner Consciousness in harmonising and changing the destiny of the race in the Spirit 'The ages have not made her passion less; No victory she admits of Death or Fate;' (Savitri-354) and thus, (9) a fitness has arrived for ascension into still higher Supramental Consciousness. The immediate preoccupation of these few instruments of Truth who are concerned with Integral Yoga will be the increase and accumulation of Soul Force through the fourfold Divine union that of Jivatma’s union with Paramatma, Jivatma’s union with Para-prakriti, Paramatma’s union with Para-prakriti and Para-prakriti’s union with Apara-prakriti . This accumulation or multiplication of Soul Power to transform the lower Nature is identified by Sri Aurobindo as 'the utmost importance in the Yoga of self-perfection.'¹⁵⁴ Their action on the world will be largely inner subjective action dictated by the power of triple-time of the Spirit and they will accumulate Spiritual energy to such an extent that the Transcendent Divine forces of oceanic proportion¹⁴⁵ will invade the earth’s dark Inconscient rock from above, within and below. The danger of the Inconscient Sheath swallowing the whole earth to its dark breast perpetually stands as an evolutionary threat and barrier. Earth is to be saved from life’s immense desire and destructive Forces from their ‘bleeding roots’¹²⁸ through the invasion of strong affirmative Spiritual forces from below the feet, within the Psychic being, around the universal Self and above the head, (“It (dynamic Spirit) is within, below, without, above.” Savitri-98 ) and to keep this action active and its growing intensity is the responsibility of few fit channels of human instruments. A Spiritual fence of protection is to be built, which at present is confined to a few privileged Souls, who will admit ‘through its gates only such activities as consent to undergo the law of the spiritual transformation.’¹³⁸ This protective Spiritual wall ("An inner wall of silence could be built," Savitri-187) will extend itself to cover the whole of humanity. Or a ‘golden tower’⁶⁵ of protection is built in the subtle world with the help of ‘flame child’⁶⁵ who are prepared Souls, ready to become channels of a vast inflow of Supreme Ananda . Integral Yoga aims at a comprehensive solution or all-time panacea of all the problems of existence through complete immunisation of disease, decay, sorrow, dissidence and strife and the process of inoculation begins at an individual and collective level, depending on the degree of restoration of harmony and opening towards a comprehensive Concentration. A safe passage in the subtle world is to be made in order to help living and dead Souls⁹⁸ so that they can easily travel different planes of Consciousness for their Souls' training and arrive at the Psychic plane and cosmic Self for their accumulation of Spiritual energy and rebirth, respectively. At the same time, the Yoga Shakti must drive out all tamasic forces to eliminate poverty, illiteracy, and malnutrition of the body from the whole of the race and drive out all rajasic forces to eliminate all discordant human action of violence, destructive aggression, tyranny of beast wrath, hatred, injurious brutality, corruption, bottomless ingratitude that disfigure earth nature ("Proclaiming a panacea for all Time’s ills" Savitri-198) and enjoyments of temporal nature. Those destined Souls for the Divine work will protect and guard the earth in three stages. First, they will have a ‘vision and knowledge of the triple time’¹²² or partial/complete foreknowledge of immediate future doom and holocaust of individual, state, national and universal proportion ‘by going back from the surface physical mind to the psychic and spiritual consciousness;’¹²² secondly, they keep the concentration alive to reduce and minimise the quantum of such catastrophe through the intervention of the overhead Divine Grace or vibration of Harmony of which they are conscious channel; thirdly, they will maintain the effort to completely annul the root of all such destruction and vibration of disorder through intervention and invasion of Supreme Harmony and Light ("He tore desire up from its bleeding roots" Savitri-318) to the yet untouched dark province of Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths. A conscious movement of Consciousness between the Psychic and Spiritual planes can liberate¹⁴⁴ distant unknown living and dead Souls from the subjugation of their imperfection and untransformed Nature and, thus, the purpose of invisible self-expansion through self-concentration or the liberated Souls liberating others is accomplished. The steps through which they will immediately control the world event through the evolution of preliminary Psychic and Spiritual faculties are: - 1) The perception, thoughts, feelings and happenings of world events which are entirely guided by forces of Ignorance, are gathered directly through vision without the aid of any external means of communication like telephone, newspaper and internet, etc, or ‘of establishing a direct communication between mind and mind without the aid of the physical organs and the limitations they impose on our consciousness.’¹²³ ‘The psychical consciousness, as it develops, makes us aware of the great mass of thoughts, feelings, suggestions, will impacts, and influences of all kinds that we are receiving from others or sending to others or imbibing from and throwing into the general mind atmosphere around us.’¹²⁴ The outer aid is useful only to verify the degree of accuracy of the direct inner vision. 2) Harmonised vibrations of thoughts and feelings or Spiritual idea force formulating itself in the world are communicated to them (individual and group) by secret unspoken words, transmission of will-power, and Spiritual Influence which are already tuned with the Divine-Will. Or as the Psychic being ‘evolves in power, precision and clearness, we are able to trace these to their source or feel immediately their origin and transit to us and direct consciously and with an intelligent will our own messages.’¹²⁴ Or the ‘spiritual inner consciousness has then to deal with these (dark and obscure) influences in such a way that, as soon as they approach or enter (the Spiritual realm), they become either obliterated and without result or transformed by their very entry into its own mode and substance.’¹²⁹ 3) Silent compulsion on them to act according to these communicated ideas, power of the heart and dynamic life forces. ‘There is necessarily a commerce here between disparate influences: the inner spiritual influence is met by quite opposite influences strong in their control of the present world-order; the new spiritual consciousness has to bear the shock of the dominant and established unspiritualised powers of the Ignorance.’¹²⁹ As a result, the single and multiple results are experienced through the power of the Self and the development of essential and multiple Concentrations. The Nature of living of a Spiritual man will be ‘an accomplished inner existence whose light and power will take perfect body in the outer life.’¹³⁰ 4) They will be egoless transparent instruments to determine the events, actions and results of action of objective life throughout the world by the pure intervention of their subjective subtle-physical existence and silent Will-Power of multiple Concentrations. Their ‘environmental being must be so steeped in the spiritual light and spiritual substance that nothing (no world influence) can enter into it without undergoing this transformation…’¹²⁹ So, through frequent/constant increase of invasion of vibration of Order and permeation of a superior Harmony into the Inconscient, Subconscient and material life, the world would move towards the process of transformation. ‘Supreme Love eliminates all problems, even the problem of creation...But the world is not ready yet, it may take a few thousand years.’⁹⁵ If a Sadhak attains Cosmic Consciousness, then he must pursue sadhana in secrecy and silence . His presence will be intolerable for the common man habituated to three Gunas , because of undulation of his life between this particular double nature, (He (King Aswapati) travels on through waking and through sleep.” Savitri-72) ‘Universal he is all,--transcendent, none.’¹⁴¹ When he lives in universal Self, he becomes very intimate with all; when he lives in transcendent Consciousness, he goes beyond all these relations or ‘A distance severed her from those most close.’¹⁴¹ This double undulation is unbearable to the common man’s righteousness. A Sadhak's outward appearance will be marked with Truth-Power or the ‘sound of infinity’¹⁴² in his voice and his eyes will shine with the ‘light of things beyond.’¹⁴² To recapitulate, this highlights the difficulty for a person of common understanding to accept or tolerate someone living in the simultaneous reality of immanent universality and transcendent isolation after achieving Cosmic Consciousness. Thus, Sri Aurobindo’s vision of creating ‘a new world, a new humanity, a new society expressing and embodying the new consciousness’⁹⁴ is in the process of realisation by reconciliation of Spirit with Matter and by harmonisation of the body with the Soul. This is a task offered to the most conscious individual through realisation of the Soul as the centre of the World, an extension of his cosmic existence and its objective manifestation in the form of a Divine Centre or the emergence of a formative and affirmative Ashram living. OM TAT SAT References are available in the Manuscript ‘The Divine Bliss ’ (page 452). SUBCONSCIENT TRANSFORMATION “This (descent of Divine Force) has repeatedly been my experience lately, with a vision and a conviction, the conviction of an experience: the two vibrations (Truth vibration of Spirit and falsehood vibration of Matter) are like this (concomitant gesture indicating a superimposition and infiltration), all the time – all the time, all the time…May be the sense of wonder comes when the quantity that has infiltrated is large enough to be perceptible. ( “A golden fire came in and burned Night’s heart;" Savitri-601 ) But I have an impression – a very acute impression – that this phenomenon is going on all the time, all the time, everywhere, in a minuscule, infinitesimal way (gesture of a twinkling infiltration), and that in certain circumstances or conditions that are visible (visible to this vision: it's a sort of luminous swelling (of brain)– I can't explain), then, the mass of infiltration is sufficient to give the impression of a miracle. But otherwise, it's something going on all the time, all the time, all the time, continuously, ("A mystic slow transfiguration works.” Savitri-632, or "Its faint infiltration drilled the blind deaf mass;" Savitri-601) in the world (same twinkling gesture), like an infinitesimal amount of Falsehood replaced by Light ... Falsehood replaced by Light ... constantly…And this Vibration (which I feel and see) gives the feeling of a fire. ("Threatened (falsehood) with this faint beam of wandering Truth" Savitri-585, or "A conscious Vast fill the old dumb brute Space." Savitri-100 replacing the earlier experience "No wandering ray of Heaven can enter there." Savitri-226) That's probably what the Vedic Rishis translated as the "Flame" – in the human consciousness, in man, in Matter. They always spoke of a "Flame." It is indeed a vibration with the intensity of a higher fire… The body even felt several times, when the Work was very concentrated or condensed, that it is the equivalent of a fever.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-25th March-1964 The Mother’s Consciousness is that which rests on the One and acts in the All, transcends All and denies none, sees all but lives for its transcendent task, becomes All and yet transcends the mystic whole, All-ruler and is ruled by none, transcends the Light and the Darkness and yet one with the Absolute, Eternal and All-knowing it suffers mortal birth and death and in Subconscient and Inconscient wait Her largest unfinished task. The Mother's above ceaseless dynamic Divine union and Subconscient transformation experience are identified as the Supreme Word, Mahavakya , of The Mother's Agenda and to be a participant in this universal Yoga is identified as an exceptional privilege. The whole of humanity is now going through this Subconscient transformation unconsciously and a few prepared vessels are going through this large/slow, constant permeation consciously. Or as hinted in Savitri, “Always the power poured back like sudden rain, Or slowly in his breast a presence grew;” (Savitri-35) Sri Aurobindo proposes that this "descent of the supramental which is not known to any religion are the sole things which will be the foundation of the work of the future,” (CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-701) and this "divine Force is at work and will choose at each moment what has to be done or has not to be done, what has to be momentarily or permanently taken up, momentarily or permanently abandoned." (CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/-186-187) When they (Savitri and Satyavan ) enter Spiritual union in the Inconscient Self and Subconscient Self, the Supramental Divine Force emerges from below the feet and rushes towards the physical, vital and mental sheaths. As the feet are the farthest domain from the complexity of the mind, whose centre is the head, and the head obstructs the free flow of higher Divine forces, so this passage is recognised as a more important means of transformation action and this hidden light is ‘a sea of the secret Superconscience.’ ⁶⁵ Thus “The bliss which sleeps in things” ³⁹ shall strive to wake and ‘A soul shall wake in the Inconscient’s house.’ ⁶⁶ Thus awakening of Supramentalised Inconscient Self is identified as the ‘last transcendent power’ ⁸² and a field of ‘last and mightiest transformation’ ⁸³ and thus a ‘grand solution’ ⁸⁴ is uncovered where ‘the heights of mortal effort end.’ ⁸⁴ The Mother recounts, “for the first time the Supramental light entered directly into my body, without passing through the inner beings. It entered through the feet and it climbed up and up. And as it climbed, the fever also climbed because the body was not accustomed to this intensity. As all this light neared the head, I thought I would burst and that the experience would have to be stopped…” ⁹⁵ Thus, one no longer depends on Supramntal intervention from above for the transformation action of surface mind, life and body ("A divine force shall flow through tissue and cell" Savitri-710) but it will also take place more vigorously from within the Supramentalised Psychic heart centre (His vast Truth wake within and know and see...Then mortal nature change to the divine.” Savitri-476) ("This (transformation of Nature) can be done from within by an invisible action through the psychic entity and the psychic personality; a consciously felt descent from above is not indispensable.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-967) and most vigorously from below the feet by the opening of Subconscient Self ("Whose priceless value could have saved the world.” Savitri-42) and Inconscient Self ("A grand solution closed the long impasse" Savitri-89). In Savitri , Sri Aurobindo has hinted about 'single protection,' 'double protection' and 'multiple protection' of the Divine, about which we should be aware. Single protection is extended through the Psychic being: "Only were safe who kept God in their hearts" (Savitri-211). The Divine tells Savitri that most human beings live like brutes and do not discover the infinite Light above the head and immense Light below the feet or man, in general, is ‘A swimmer lost between two leaping seas.’⁶⁹ Or ‘like an infant spirit unaware…. of two consenting worlds.’⁷² The man of Ignorance does not enjoy the double protection of the Divine through non-opening of the above double doors or 'Protecting no more a dual eternity.' (Savitri-82) And those who realise Psychic Being in the heart, they feel in Savitri's language, ‘Our life is entrenched between two rivers of Light.’⁷⁰ If a Sadhak realises the universalisation of Psychic and Spiritual Beings, then ‘His gates to the world were swept with seas of light’⁷¹ from both ends or he is assured a vast security or multiple protection by the Spiritual experience, 'Heaven’s leaning down to embrace from all sides earth.' (Savitri-716) Through knowledge and awareness of the relation between static Matter and dynamic Spirit or by the knowledge of the Wheel of Works , he will be able to reconcile Matter with Spirit. OM TAT SAT References are available in the Manuscript ‘The Divine Bliss ’ (page 291, 34-35). Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: ASHRAM IN DETAIL "The power to do nothing, which is quite different from indolence, incapacity or aversion to action and attachment to inaction, is a great power and a great mastery; the power to rest absolutely from action is as necessary for the Jnanayogin as the power to cease absolutely from thought, as the power to remain indefinitely in sheer solitude and silence and as the power of immovable calm. Whoever is not willing to embrace these states is not yet fit for the path that leads towards the highest knowledge; whoever is unable to draw towards them, is as yet unfit for its acquisition. " Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-347 READ MORE >> THE HIERARCHIES OF ASHRAM LIVING "To open oneself to the supracosmic Divine is an essential condition of this integral perfection; to unite oneself with the universal Divine is another essential condition. Here the Yoga of self-perfection coincides with the Yogas of knowledge, works and devotion; for it is impossible to change the human nature into the divine or to make it an instrument of the divine knowledge, will and joy of existence, unless there is a union with the supreme Being, Consciousness and Bliss and a unity with its universal Self in all things and beings. A wholly separative possession of the divine nature by the human individual, as distinct from a self-withdrawn absorption in it, is not possible. " Sri Aurobindo CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-622 READ MORE >> THE WORLD HINDU WISDOM MEET-2014 “A perfect self-expression of the spirit is the object of our terrestrial existence. This cannot be achieved if we have not grown conscious of the supreme Reality; for it is only by the touch of the Absolute that we can arrive at our own absolute. But neither can it be done to the exclusion of the cosmic Reality: we must become universal , for without an opening into universality the individual remains incomplete.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-706 READ MORE >> If an individual is having direct contact with the Divine and if he utilises this Dynamic Divine union initially for individual transformation of Nature and finally for world transformation, then a Divine Centre or Ashram is born. Integral Yoga foresees a hierarchy of a collective body with one liberated Soul at its centre, known as the ‘Divine Centre ,’ or collective group with more than one liberated Gnostic Soul or ‘spread beyond the individual’ known as the ‘Gnostic Centre ’ or a Centre without Soul Centre/Central Representative, known as ‘priestless shrine’ where all are liberated souls, identified as ‘virgin bridals of the dawn’ symbolising the purity of collective living or ‘citizens of that mother State’ symbolising selfless Spiritual fosterers or ‘nude god-children’ who ‘steeped existence in their youth of soul.’ The action of the Divine Mother in a rare ‘priestless shrin e’ beyond the Divine Centre will be the pursuit of the Divine in isolation, alone, without the aid of collectivity, without the law of collective living, without the help of fixed Shastra and the flow of the Transcendent and Universal Divine Love will be further reinforced through realisation of ‘seven-fold Personal Divine Love.’ (Ref: The Synthesis of Yoga-58, 90, Savitri-368, 401, 262, 126, 127) Before meeting Paramatma Satyavan, Paraprakriti Savitri came across twelve types of liberated Souls, who were having Divine realisations in twelve specialised fields. They were satisfied with their partial Spiritual achievements and were considered unfit to hold Savitri’s comprehensive Divine Love, and hence Virgins’ Fortress could not be dreamed with these liberated Souls. These Master Souls were fit to build Ascetics’ Fortress, Divine Centre and Gnostic Centre. To hold Savitri’s comprehensive Divine Love or ‘hold God’s birth,’ a Soul is ‘made ready through a thousand years.’ Before discovering a Virgins’ Fortress without, one has to discover a Virgins’ fortress within, of meeting ground of Paramatma and Paraprakriti in the heart centre or ‘The incarnate dual Power shall open God’s door, Eternal supermind touch earthly Time. ' The Soul's Fortress can be invaded and conquered by the Supreme Lord from above who is symbolised here as 'unexpected king.' In a Virgins' Fortress, a Sadhak or Savitri within will live alone, unclaimed, untouched, king of itself within and possessed and invaded by the flood of Divine Force from above the head and below the feet or 'A captive Life wedded her conqueror.' (Refer Savitri-382, 398, 705, 87, 125) If an individual has a thorough knowledge of the movement of ascending and descending Consciousness, then 'even if he were shut up in a prison and saw nobody and never moved out, still would he do the work,' of bridging the gulf between this material world and future Supramental world. 'He does not need to be recognised, he need have no outward power in order to be able to establish this conscious connection.' His action can begin from his heart centre which is universalised as the Divine Centre of the world and can culminate with the perfection of the human race. This is a task offered to the last Avatar to accomplish. The task of successive Instruments and Emanations is to illumine partly the Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths. (Refer: TMCW-3/Questions and Answers-1929 to 1931/p-179) "So people who want to lead a special life or have a special organization to have (Spiritual) experiences, that's quite silly – the greatest possible diversity of experiences is at your disposal every minute, every minute. Only you must learn not to have a mental ambition for "great" things." "...whatever the circumstances may be, even apparently the worst, if you are in the true attitude and have the true consciousness, it doesn’t matter in the least for your inner progress,..." (Ref: The Mother’s Agenda/20.11.1963, The Mother's Agenda/10.12.1969)

Accountability in Sadhana “But whatever his (Sadhaka’s) aim, however exalted his aspiration, he has to begin from the law of his present imperfection, to take full account of it and see how it can be converted to the law of a possible perfection.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-631, “Each time you have to make progress, you have to undergo an examination.” The Mother TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-43, “The conditions (of Supramental transformation) Sri Aurobindo gives in detail in The Synthesis of Yoga and in still greater detail in his last articles on the (book) Supramental Manifestation. So now it is only a question of realisation.” The Mother TMCW-8/The Questions and Answers-1956/p-322 Accountability in Sadhana “She (life) wrote the account of all that she had lost,” Savitri-117, (Accountability to the Self.) “The Voice replied: “Is this enough, O spirit? And what shall thy soul say when it wakes and knows The work was left undone for which it came? Or is this all for thy being born on earth Charged with a mandate from eternity, A listener to the voices of the years, A follower of the footprints of the gods, To pass and leave unchanged the old dusty laws?” Savitri-475 (Accountability to the Self) “To account for the Actual’s unaccountable sum,” Savitri-269, (Accountability to the Divine.) “Is this then the report that I must make, My head bowed with shame before the Eternal’s seat, — His power he kindled in thy body has failed, His labourer returns, her task undone?” Savitri-476 (Accountability to the Divine.) “And in the transactions of our positive consciousness, even Unity has to make its account with Multiplicity; for the Many also are Brahman.” CWSA/21/The Life Divine-39 (Accountability to the world) “In transparent systems bodied termless truths, The Timeless made accountable to Time” Savitri-273, “He (Avatar) has given his life and light to balance here The dark account of mortal ignorance… Pays with the body’s death his soul’s vast light… He dies that the world may be new-born and live.” Savitri-445-447 (An Avatar’s accountability to the world.) “We must fill the immense lacuna we have made,” Savitri-56 “To work for your perfection, the first step is to become conscious of yourself, of the different parts of your being and their respective activities. You must learn to distinguish these different parts one from another, so that you may become clearly aware of the origin of the movements that occur in you, the many impulses, reactions and conflicting wills that drive you to action. It is an assiduous study which demands much perseverance and sincerity. For man’s nature, especially his mental nature, has a spontaneous tendency to give a favourable explanation for everything he thinks, feels, says and does. It is only by observing these movements with great care, by bringing them, as it were, before the tribunal of our highest ideal, with a sincere will to submit to its judgment, that we can hope to form in ourselves a discernment that never errs. For if we truly want to progress and acquire the capacity of knowing the truth of our being, that is to say, what we are truly created for, what we can call our mission upon earth, then we must, in a very regular and constant manner, reject from us or eliminate in us whatever contradicts the truth of our existence, whatever is opposed to it. In this way, little by little, all the parts, all the elements of our being can be organised into a homogeneous whole around our psychic centre. This work of unification requires much time to be brought to some degree of perfection. Therefore, in order to accomplish it, we must arm ourselves with patience and endurance, with a determination to prolong our life as long as necessary for the success of our endeavour.” The Mother/TMCW-12/On Education/p-3-4, “A mass of new material is flowing into us; we have not only to assimilate the influences of the great theistic religions of India and of the world and a recovered sense of the meaning of Buddhism, but to take full account of the potent though limited revelations of modern knowledge and seeking; and, beyond that, the remote and dateless past which seemed to be dead is returning upon us with an effulgence of many luminous secrets long lost to the consciousness of mankind but now breaking out again from behind the veil.” CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-10, “I regard the spiritual history of mankind and especially of India as a constant development of a divine purpose, not a book that is closed, the lines of which have to be constantly repeated. Even the Upanishads and the Gita were not final though everything may be there in seed. In this development the recent spiritual history of India is a very important stage and the names I mentioned [Ramakrishna and Vivekananda] had a special prominence in my thought at the time — they seemed to me to indicate the lines from which the future spiritual development had most directly to proceed, not staying but passing on. I do not know that I would put my meaning exactly in the language you suggest. I may say that it is far from my purpose to propagate any religion new or old for humanity in the future. A way to be opened that is still blocked, not a religion to be founded, is my conception of the matter.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-411, “So each one must find those activities which increase his aspiration, his consciousness, his deeper knowledge of things, and those which, on the contrary, mechanise him and bring him back more thoroughly into a purely material relation with things.” TMCW-8/Questions and Answers-1956/p-159, “But he (Sadhaka) has to take account of the world and its activities , learn what divine truth there may be behind them and reconcile that apparent opposition between the Divine Truth and the manifest creation which is the starting-point of most spiritual experience.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-119, “The mind therefore must try to give to itself some account of this decisive transformation of the embodied consciousness, this radiant transfiguration and self-exceeding of our ever aspiring nature. The description mind can arrive at, can never be adequate to the thing itself, but it may point at least to some indicative shadow of it or perhaps some half-luminous image.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-474, “The ordinary man who wishes to reach God through knowledge, must undergo an elaborate training. He must begin by becoming absolutely pure, he must cleanse thoroughly his body, his heart and his intellect, he must get himself a new heart and be born again; for only the twice born can understand or teach the Vedas. When he has done this he needs yet four things before he can succeed, (1) the Sruti or recorded revelation, (2) the Sacred Teacher, (3) the practice of Yoga and (4) the Grace of God.” CWSA-18/Kena and other Upanishads/p-169, “He (Death) said, “Art thou indeed so strong, O heart, O soul, so free? And canst thou gather then Bright pleasure from my wayside flowering boughs, Yet falter not from thy hard journey’s goal, Meet the world’s dangerous touch and never fall? Show me thy strength and freedom from my laws.” Savitri-636 (Accountability demanded by the Death God.) (Death said) “So prove thy absolute force to the wise gods, By choosing earthly joy! For self demand And yet from self and its gross masks live free. Then will I give thee all thy soul desires, All the brief joys earth keeps for mortal hearts.” Savitri-636 (Accountability demanded by the Death God.) (Death said)“O soul who flutterest to escape my net? Who then art thou hiding in human guise? Thy voice carries the sound of infinity, Knowledge is with thee, Truth speaks through thy words; The light of things beyond shines in thy eyes. ” Savitri-663 (Death God’s account on Savitri) (Satyavan said) “O thou who com’st to me out of Time’s silences, Yet thy voice has wakened my heart to an unknown bliss, Immortal or mortal only in thy frame, For more than earth speaks to me from thy soul And more than earth surrounds me in thy gaze, How art thou named among the sons of men?” Savitri-400 (Satyavan's account on Savitri.) (Narad said) "His speech carries a light of inner truth, And a large-eyed communion with the Power In common things has made veilless his mind, A seer in earth-shapes of garbless deity." Savitri-430 (Narad's account on Satyavan) “His (Satyavan’s) eyes keep a memory from a world of bliss.” Savitri-430 “And from her (Savitri’s) eyes the Eternal’s bliss shall gaze.” Savitri-346 "A lost world-rapture lingers in her eyes," Savitri-118 (King Aswapati's Spiritual experience in life.) Sri Aurobindo’s Accountability of His own Sadhana : “Sri Aurobindo had already realised in full two of the four great realisations on which his Yoga and his spiritual philosophy are founded. (1) The first he had gained while meditating with the Maharastrian Yogi Vishnu Bhaskar Lele at Boroda in 1908; it was the realisation of the silent spaceless and timeless Brahman gained after a complete and abiding stillness of the whole consciousness and attended at first by an overwhelming feeling and perception of the total unreality of the world, though this feeling was disappeared after his (2) second realization which was that of the cosmic consciousness and of the Divine as all beings and all that is, which happened in the Allipore jail and of which he has spoken in his speech at Uttarapara. To the other two realisations, (3) that of the supreme Reality with the static and dynamic Brahman as its two aspects and (4) that of the higher planes of consciousness leading to the Supermind he was already on his way in his meditations in the Alipore jail. ” Sri Aurobindo/SABCL/Vol-26/p-64/CWSA-36/Autobiographical Notes/p-94 “The account given here of the supreme spiritual and supramental forms of highest Nature action corresponding to the gunas is not derived from the Gita, but introduced from spiritual experience. The Gita does not describe in any detail the action of the highest Nature, rahasyam uttamam; it leaves that for the seeker to discover by his own spiritual experience. It only points out the nature of the high sattwic temperament and action through which this supreme mystery has to be reached and insists at the same time on the overpassing of Sattwa and transcendence of the three gunas.” CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-467, “All strong natures have the rajasik active outgoing force in them and if that were sufficient to unfit for the Yoga, very few of us would have had a chance. As for the doubt of the physical mind as to whether the thing is possible, who has not had it? In my own case it pursued me years and years and it is only in the last two years (written on 16th April 1923) that the last shadow of doubt, not latterly of its theoretical feasibility, but of the practical certainty of its achievement in the present state of the world and of the human nature, entirely left me.” CWSA-36/Autobiographical Notes-360, “This is a difficult lesson to learn (rejection of revolt and impatience), but you must learn it. I do not find fault with you for taking long over it, I myself took full twelve years to learn it thoroughly, (written in the year 1919) and even after I knew the principle well enough, it took me quite four years and more to master my lower nature in this respect. But you have the advantage of my experience and my help; you will be able to do it more rapidly, if you consciously and fully assist me, by not associating yourself with the enemy Desire; jahi kamam durasadam, remember that utterance of the Gita, it is a keyword of our Yoga.” CWSA-36/Autobiographical Notes/p-229, “My yoga begun in 1904 had always been personal and apart; those around me knew I was a sadhak but they knew little more as I kept all that went on in me to myself. It was only after my release that for the first time I spoke at Uttarpara publicly about my spiritual experiences. Until I went to Pondicherry I took no disciples; with those who accompanied me or joined me in Pondicherry I had at first the relation of friends and companions rather than of a guru and disciples; it was on the ground of politics that I had come to know them and not on the spiritual ground. Afterwards only there was a gradual development of spiritual relations until the Mother came back from Japan and the Ashram was founded or rather founded itself in 1926. I began my yoga in 1904 without a guru; in 1908 I received important help from a Mahratta yogi and discovered the foundations of my sadhana; but from that time till the Mother came to India I received no spiritual help from anyone else. My sadhana before and afterwards was not founded upon books but upon personal experiences that crowded on me from within . But in the jail I had the Gita and the Upanishads with me, practised the yoga of the Gita and meditated with the help of the Upanishads; these were the only books from which I found guidance; the Veda which I first began to read long afterwards in Pondicherry rather confirmed what experiences I already had than was any guide to my sadhana. I sometimes turned to the Gita for light when there was a question or a difficulty and usually received help or an answer from it, but there were no such happenings in connection with the Gita as are narrated in the book. It is a fact that I was hearing constantly the voice of Vivekananda speaking to me for a fortnight in the jail in my solitary meditation and felt his presence, but this had nothing to do with the alleged circumstances narrated in the book, circumstances that never took place, nor had it anything to do with the Gita. The voice spoke only on a special and limited but very important field of spiritual experience and it ceased as soon as it had finished saying all that it had to say on that subject.” CWSA-36/Autobiographical Notes/p-98-99 (Sri Aurobindo's above explanation can be compared with the Mother's experience: "Since my earliest childhood, experiences have come like that: something massive takes hold of you and you don’t need to believe or disbelieve, know or not know —bam! There’s nothing to say; you are facing a fact... Once, during those last difficult years, Sri Aurobindo told me that this was precisely what gave me my advantage and why (how to put it?) there were greater possibilities that I would go right to the end ." The Mother/The Mother's Agenda/01.05.1958) “The physical Nature does not mean the body alone but the phrase includes the transformation of the whole physical mind, vital, material nature – not by imposing Siddhis [occult powers] on them, but by creating a new physical nature which is to be the habitation of the supramental being in a new evolution. I am not aware that this has been done by any Hathayogic or other process. Mental or vital occult power can only bring Siddhis of the higher plane into the individual life – like the Sannyasi who could take any poison without harm, but he died of a poison after all when he forgot to observe the conditions of the Siddhi. The working of the supramental power envisaged is not an influence on the physical giving it abnormal faculties but an entrance and permeation changing it wholly into a supramentalised physical. I did not learn the idea from Veda or Upanishad, and I do not know if there is anything of the kind there. What I received about the Supermind was a direct, not a derived knowledge given to me; it was only afterwards that I found certain confirmatory revelations in the Upanishad and Veda.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-108-109 “Not inexplicable certainly; it was the condition of silence of the mind to which he (Sri Aurobindo) had come by his meditation for 3 days with Lele in Baroda and which he kept for many months and indeed always thereafter, all activity proceeding on the surface; but at that time there was no activity on the surface. Lele told him to make namaskar to the audience and wait and speech would come to him from some other source than the mind. So in fact, the speech came, and ever since all speech, writing, thought and outward activity have so come to him from the same source above the brain-mind.” CWSA-36//Autobiographical Notes/p-111 The Mother’s Accountability of Her own Sadhana : “It was in 1910 that I had this sort of reversal of consciousness about which I spoke the other evening – that is, the first contact with the higher Divine – and it completely changed my life. From that moment on, I was conscious that all one does is the expression of the indwelling Divine Will. But it is the Divine Will AT THE VERY CENTER of oneself, although for a while there remained an activity in the physical mind. But this was stilled two or three days after I saw Sri Aurobindo for the first time in 1914, and it never started up again. Silence settled. And the consciousness was established above the head. In the first experience [of 1910], the consciousness was established in the psychic depths of the being, and from that poise issued the feeling of no longer doing anything but what the Divine wanted – it was the consciousness that the divine Will was all-powerful and that there was no longer any personal will, although there was still some mental activity and everything had to be made silent. In 1914, it was silenced, and the consciousness was established above the head. Here (the heart) and here (above the head), the connection is constant. (Q) Does one exclude the other? They exist simultaneously; it’s the same thing. When you start becoming truly conscious, you realize that it depends upon the kinds of activities you have to do. When you do a certain kind of work, (1) it is in the heart that the Force gathers to radiate outwards, and when (2) you do another kind of work, it is above the head that the Force concentrates to radiate outwards, but the two are not separate: the center of activity is here or there depending upon what you have to do.” The Mother’s Agenda-6.6.1958 “I destroyed whatever was left – there were five thick volumes in which I had written every single day (there was some repetition, of course): the outcome of my concentrations…. Five thick notebooks, year after year.... Even here I kept on writing for a while. I wrote a lot in Japan. Anyway, everything of general interest was kept. But that's why there are gaps in the dates, otherwise it would be continuous – it was monumental, you know! It's only here that people started wanting to keep and keep and keep. (Mother makes a gesture of throwing everything over her shoulder.) The world is moving fast, the world is moving fast, fast, fast – why keep anything? ” The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-3/p-347, “I began my sadhana at birth, without knowing that I was doing it. I have continued it throughout my whole life, which means for almost eighty years (even though for perhaps the first three or four years of my life it was only something stirring about in unconsciousness). But I began a deliberate, conscious sadhana at about the age of twenty-two or twenty-three, upon prepared ground. I am now more than eighty years old: I have thought of nothing but That, I have wanted nothing but That, I had no other interest in life, and not for a single minute have I ever forgotten that it was THAT that I wanted. There were not periods of remembering and forgetting: it was continuous, unceasing, day and night, from the age of twenty-four – and I had this experience for the first time about a week ago! So, I say that people who are in a hurry, people who are impatient, are arrogant fools.” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda/01.05.1958, “The Divine puts on an appearance of humanity, assumes the outward human nature in order to tread the path and show it to human beings, but does not cease to be the Divine. It is a manifestation that takes place, a manifestation of a growing divine consciousness, not human turning into divine. The Mother was inwardly above the human even in childhood, so the view held by “many” is erroneous.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-32/The Mother and Letters on the Mother/p-31-32 “When I was five years old ...well I began with a consciousness. Of course I had no idea what it was. But my first experience was of the consciousness here (gesture above the head), which I felt like a Light and a Force; and I felt it there at the age of five. It was very pleasant sensation. I would sit in a little armchair made especially for me, all alone in my room, and I had a very pleasant feeling of something very strong, very luminous, and it was here (above the head) .... Then I would pull it down, for it was...it was truly my raison d’être.” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda, July 25, 1962, "At any rate, I find it’s better to be the master rather than the slave. The feeling of being pulled by strings and being made to do things you may or may not want to do is a rather unpleasant sensation.... It’s quite irksome. Well, I don’t know, I, for one, found it quite irksome even when I was a small child. When I was five , I began finding it wholly intolerable, and I sought a way for it to be otherwise – without anyone being able to tell me anything. Because I knew no one capable of helping me, and I didn’t have the luck you have – someone who can tell you, ‘Here is what you must do.’ There was no one to tell me. I had to find it all by myself. I found it. I began at the age of five . And you, it’s a long time since you were five?..."" The Mother's Agenda/September 7, 1968 "All mornings are difficult. It's odd: life as a whole goes by with almost dizzying speed – weeks and months go by like that – and mornings, about three hours every morning, last like a century! Each minute is won at the cost of an effort. It is the time of the work in the body, for the body, and not just one body: for instance, all the vibrations from sick people, all those problems of life come from everywhere. And for those three hours, there is tension, struggle, acute seeking for what should be done or for the attitude to be taken.... It's at that time that I have tested the power of the mantra. For those three hours, I repeat my mantra automatically, without stopping; and every time the difficulty increases, a kind of Power comes into those words and acts on Matter. And that's how I know: without the mantra, that work couldn't be done. But that's why I say it has to be YOUR mantra, not something you received from whomever – the mantra that arose spontaneously from your deeper being (gesture to the heart), from your inner guide. That's what holds out. When you don't know, when you don't understand, when you don't want to let the mind intervene and you are ...THAT is there; the mantra is there; and it helps you to get through. It helps to get through. It saves the situation at critical moments, it's a considerable support, considerable." The Mother’s Agenda/September 23, 1964, “In the night, I am always given a state of human consciousness to put right, one after another—there are millions of them. And there are always all the images and events that illustrate that particular state of consciousness. At times, it is very hard going : I wake up tired, as after a long period of work.” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda-5/p-170-71 “...I was very ill, but I knew it was not this body (but it was this body’s consciousness), it was family of the Ashram, and the father was seeking help, looking for a doctor (all the details with such precision!..there are three sick people in the family.) And while that was going on, the body said to itself, “So I am identified with this person, since he is treating this person (me, that is); and since I am identified, I must do in this person what needs to be done.” Then I concentrated and called the forces of the Lord, and treated the person. All that down to the last detail. It lasted for two hours... it happened in the night when those people were asleep, and they didn’t realise...this body’s impression is that it has saved someone’s life...That union between the two, between the subtle physical and the material physical, is taking place all the time—day and night...there is an attempt to substitute one for the other.” The Mother’s Agenda-11/149-150-151 The Mother here memorised her action of universal subtle body without losing contact with the world, “This body was built 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 (the Mother touches her legs, her arms etc.), or sometimes the same part several times over, represented a battle field: I could see it, feel it, I LIVED IT... And while it went on, I would put the concentration of the divine Force there, so that—all–all that pain, all that suffering, everything—would hasten the preparation of the earth and the Descent of the Force. And that went on consciously (waking trance) throughout the war.” (The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-4/p-271) From the above narration it is understood that more and more human beings can act as a channel of descent of Divine force through purified subtle body and through this exercise the whole earth can experience transformation. The Mother recounts, "That’s another interesting point, because I was an outright atheist: till the age of twenty, the very idea of God made me furious. Therefore I had the most solid base – no imaginings, no mystic atavism; my mother was very much an unbeliever and so was my father. So from the point of view of atavism it was very good: positivism, materialism. Only one thing: since I was very small, a will for perfection in any field whatever; a will for perfection and the sense of a limitless consciousness – no limits to one’s progress or to one’s power or to one’s scope. And that, since I was very small. But mentally, an absolute refusal to believe in a "God": I believed only in what I could touch and see. And the whole faculty for experiences was already there (they didn’t manifest because the time hadn’t come). Only, the sense of a Light here (gesture above the head), which began when I was very small, I was five, along with a will for perfection. (1) A will for perfection: oh, whatever I did always had to be the best I could do. And then, (2) a limitless consciousness. These two things. And my return to the Divine came about through Theon’s teaching, when I was told for the first time, "The Divine is within, there" (Mother strikes her breast). Then I felt at once, "Yes, this is it." Then I did all the work that’s taught to find Him again; and through here (gesture to the heart center) I went there (gesture of junction above with the Supreme). But outwardly, mentally, no religion – a horror of religions...And I see now that it was the most solid base possible for this experience: there was no danger of imaginings....I have tried many things, a great many, I have looked a great deal, and I see only one that’s absolute – only one that’s absolute and can bring the absolute result, it’s this (gesture turned Upward): the complete annulment of all that, leaving it all, "To You, Lord – You, You, to You." And it isn’t a being with a form, that’s not it; it isn’t a formless force, it’s ... It has nothing to do with thought, only with this: the contact. And the contact, an unmistakable contact, which nothing can imitate – nothing, nothing at all has the power to imitate it. And for every difficulty, every time, whatever it is, simply this: "Everything to You, Lord. Everything for You, to You. You alone can do it, You, You alone, You alone. You alone are the Truth; You alone are the Power." And those words are nothing, they are only the very clumsy expression of something ... a stupendous Power.... It’s only the incapacity, the clumsiness, the lack of faith we mix into it that takes away His power. The minute we are truly pure, that is, under His influence alone, there are no limits, no limits – nothing, nothing, there is nothing, no law of Nature that can resist, nothing, nothing..... Only, the whole thing is that the time must have come, there must be only That left – all the rest spoils, whatever it is, even the highest, purest, noblest, most beautiful and marvelous things: all that spoils. Only That. ” The Mother's Agenda/March 26, 1966, “It’s strange. I say ‘strange’ because it’s due to her (The Mother's birth Mother) that I took birth in this body, that it was chosen. When she was very young she had a great aspiration. She was exactly twenty years older than I; she was twenty when I was born and I was her third child. The first was a son who died in Turkey when he was two months old, I think – they vaccinated him against smallpox and poisoned him, (laughing) god knows what it means! He died of convulsions. Next was my brother who was born in Egypt, at Alexandria, and then me, born in Paris when she was exactly twenty years old. At that time (especially since the death of her first child) she had a kind Of GREAT aspiration in her: her children had to be ‘the best in the world.’ I t wasn’t an ambition, I don’t know what it was. And what a will she had! MY mother had a formidable will, like an iron bar, utterly impervious to all outside influence. Once she had made up her mind, it was made up; even if someone had been dying before her eyes, she wouldn’t have budged! And she decided: ‘My children will be the best in the world.’ …one thing she did have was a sense of progress; she felt that the world was progressing and we had to be better than anything that had come before – and that was sufficient…It’s strange, but that was sufficient…Did I tell you what happened to my brother? No?... My brother was a terribly serious boy, and frightfully studious – oh, it was awful! But he also had a very strong character, a strong will, and there was something interesting about him. When he was studying to enter the Polytechnique, I studied with him – it interested me. We were very intimate (there were only eighteen months between us). He was quite violent, but with an extraordinary strength of character. He almost killed me three times, but when my mother told him, ‘Next time, you will kill her,’ he resolved that it wouldn’t happen again – and it never did. But what I wanted to tell you is that one day when he was eighteen, just before the Polytechnique exams, as he was crossing the Seine (I think it was the Pont des Arts), suddenly in the middle of the bridge ... he felt something descend into him with such force that he became immobilized, petrified; then, although he didn’t exactly hear a voice, a very clear message came to him: ‘If you want, you can become a god’ – it was translated like that in his consciousness. He told me that it took hold of him entirely, immobilized him – a formidable and extremely luminous power: ‘If you want, you can become a god.’ Then, in the thick of the experience itself, he replied, ‘No, I want to serve humanity.’ And it was gone. Of course, he took great care to say nothing to my mother, but we were intimate enough for him to tell me about it. I told him, ‘Well (laughing), what an idiot you are!’…That’s the story…At that moment he could have had a spiritual realization: he had the right stuff… Three years later I had that experience – I’ve told you about it – of the Light piercing through me; I physically saw it enter into me. It was obviously the descent of a Being – not a past incarnation, but a Being from another plane. It was a golden light – the incarnation of a divine consciousness. Which proves that she succeeded for both her children…But she ...She was down on her knees before my brother. My mother scorned all religious sentiments as weakness and superstition and she absolutely denied the invisible. ‘It’s all brain disease, ’ she would say! But she could say just as well, ‘Oh, my Matteo is my God, he is my God.’ The devil knows why, but in Alexandria she gave him the Italian name Matteo! And she truly treated him like a god. (In the Italian language, Matteo is a masculine given name that means "gift of God".) She left him only when he married, because then she really couldn’t continue to follow him around any longer…But what’s interesting, for instance, is that when her father died she knew it; she saw him. She thought it was a dream-’a stupid dream.’ But he came to let her know he was dead and she saw him. ‘It’s nothing,’ she said, ‘a dream!’ (Mother laughs)…When my grandmother died.... My grandmother had the occult sense. She had made her own fortune (a sizeable fortune) and had had five children, each one more extravagant than the other. She considered me the only sensible person in the family and she shared her secrets with me. ‘You see,’ she told me, ‘these people are going to squander all my money!’ She had a sixty year old son (she had married in Egypt at the age of fifteen, and had had this son when she was quite young). ‘You see this boy, he goes out and visits impossible people! And then he starts playing cards and loses all my money!’ I saw this ‘boy,’ I was there in the house when he came to her and said very politely, ‘Good-bye, mother, I’m going out to so-and-so’s house.’ ‘Ah, please don’t waste all my money, and take an overcoat – it’s getting chilly at night.’ Sixty years old! It was comical.... But to return to my story, after my grandmother died (I took a lot of care over her), she came to my mother (my mother was with her when she died; they embalmed her – she had gotten it into her head that she wanted to be burned, and since she died at Nice they had to embalm her so she could be burned in Paris). I was in Paris. My mother arrived with the body and told me, ‘Just imagine, I’m constantly seeing her! And what’s more, she gives me advice! “Don’t waste your money!” she tells me.’ ‘Well, she’s right, one must be careful,’ I replied. ‘But look here, she’s dead! Dead! How can she talk to me! She’s dead, I tell you, and quite dead at that!’ I said to her, ‘What does it mean, to die?’…It was all very funny… There was another reason. My father was wonderfully healthy and strong – well-balanced. He wasn’t very tall, but stocky. He did all his studies in Austria (at that time French was widely spoken in Austria, but he knew German, he knew English, Italian, Turkish), and there he had learned to ride horses in an extraordinary manner: he was so strong that he could bring a horse to the ground simply by pressing his knees. He could break anything at all with a blow of his fist, even one of those big silver five-franc pieces they had in those days – one blow and it was broken in two. Curiously enough, he looked Russian. I don’t know why. They used to call him Barine. What an equilibrium – an extraordinary physical poise! And not only did this man know all those languages, but I never saw such a brain for arithmetic. Never. He made a game of calculations – not the slightest effort – calculations with hundreds of digits! And on top of it, he loved birds. He had a room to himself in our apartment (because my mother could never much tolerate him), he had his separate room, and in it he kept a big cage ... full of canaries! During the day he would close the windows and let all the canaries loose....And could he tell stories! I think he read every novel available, all the stories he could find – extraordinary adventure stories, for he loved adventures. When we were kids he used to let us come into his room very early in the morning and, while still sitting in bed, tell us stories from the books he had read – but he told them as if they were his own , as if he’d had extraordinary adventures with outlaws, with wild animals. Every story he picked up he told as his own. We enjoyed it tremendously!...But one day when my brother had disobeyed him (Matteo must have been ten or eleven, and I perhaps nine or ten), I came into the dining room and saw my father sitting on a sofa with my brother across his knees; he had pulled down his trousers and was spanking him, I don’t know what for. It wasn’t a very serious spanking, but still.... I came in, drew myself up to my full height and said, ‘Papa, if you ever do that again, I am leaving this house!’ And with such authority, mon petit! He stopped and never did it again.” The Mother’s Agenda-05.08.1961, “Here, in Pondicherry , you cannot breathe without breathing my consciousness. It permeates the atmosphere in the subtle physical almost materially and extends right to the lake, seven miles away from here. Beyond, my consciousness can be felt in the material vital, and then on the mental and the other higher planes everywhere. When I came here for the first time, 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.” The Mother’s Agenda-1/Undated-1957, “Madame Théon was the first to tell me what I was, what she saw: the crown of twelve pearls over the head. As for me, I had the experience of it, (But it seems I always had it, because when Madame Théon saw me, it's the first thing she told me; she didn't speak of "Maheshwari ," but she said, "You have the white light" that automatically dissolves all ill will. And I did experience it: I saw beings crumble into dust.) after which I could simply use it at will: I just had to summon it. And I would see it just as I see you, in a perfectly objective way." The Mother/The Mother's Agenda/July 10, 1965, "Because, for example, when Sri Aurobindo and I were working to bring down the supramental forces, a descent from the mental plane to the vital plane, he was always telling me that everything I did (when we ‘meditated’ together, when we worked) – all my movements, all my gestures, all my postures, all my reactions – was absolutely tantric, as if I had pursued a tantric discipline. But it was spontaneous, it did not correspond to any knowledge, any idea, any will, nothing, and I thought it was like that simply because, as He knew, naturally I followed." The Mother's Agenda/20.09.1960, "“But I can tell you one thing: even before Her (The Mother’ four Personalities) coming, when, with Sri Aurobindo , I had begun going down (for the Yoga) from the mental plane to the vital plane , when we brought our yoga down from the mental plane into the vital plane, in less than a month (I was forty years old at the time – I didn’t seem very old, I looked less than forty, but I was forty anyway), after no more than a month of this yoga, I looked exactly like an 18 year old! And someone who knew me and had stayed with me in Japan came here, and when he saw me, he could scarcely believe his eyes! He said, ‘But my god, is it you?’ I said, ‘Of course!’... Only when we went down from the vital plane into the physical plane, all this went away – because on the physical plane, the work is much harder and we had so much to do, so many things to change.... But if a force like Hers (The Mother’s four Personalities) could manifest and be received here, it would have INESTIMABLE results! ...” The Mother/The Mother’ Agenda-1/p-45, "'The tantrics recognize seven chakras, ’ I believe. Theon said he knew of more, specifically two below the body and three above. That is my experience as well – I know of twelve chakras . And really, the contact with the Divine Consciousness is there (the Mother motions above the head), not here (at the top of the head). One must surge up above.” The Mother’s Agenda/October 11, 1960, “There is also what Theon and Madame Theon used to say. They never spoke of ‘Supermind,’ but they said the same thing as the Vedas , that the world of Truth must incarnate on earth and create a new world. They even picked up the old phrase from the Gospels, ‘new heavens and a new earth,’ which is the same thing the Vedas speak of. Madame Theon had this experience and she gave me the indication (she didn’t actually teach me) of how it was to be done. She would go out of her body and become conscious in the vital world (there were many intermediary states, too, if one cared to explore them). After the vital came the mental: you consciously went out of the vital body, you left it behind (you could see it) and you entered the mental world. Then you left the mental body and entered into.... They used different words, another classification (I don’t remember it), but even so, the experience was identical. And like that, she successively left twelve different bodies, one after another. She was extremely ‘developed,’ you see – individualized, organized. She could leave one body and enter the consciousness of the next plane, fully experience the surroundings and all that was there, describe it ... and so on, twelve times . I learned to do the same thing, and with great dexterity; I could halt on any plane, do what I had to do there, move around freely, see, observe, and then speak about what I had seen. And my last stage, which Theon called ‘pathétisme,’ a very barbaric but very expressive word, bordered on the Formless – he sometimes used the Jewish terminology, calling the Supreme ‘The Formless.’ (From this last stage one passed to the Formless – there was no further body to leave behind, one was beyond all possible forms, even all thoughtforms.) In this domain [the last stage before the Formless] one experienced total unity – unity in something that was the essence of Love; [378] Love was a manifestation more... ‘dense,’ he would always say (there were all sorts of different ‘densities’); and Love was a denser expression of That, the sense of perfect Unity – perfect unity, identity – with no longer any forms corresponding to those of the lower worlds. It was a Light! ... An almost immaculate white light, yet with something of a golden-rose in it (words are crude). This Light and this Experience were truly wonderful, inexpressible in words. Well, one time I was there (Theon used to warn against going beyond this domain, because he said you wouldn’t come back), ("Absorbed in the trance from which no soul returns," Savitri-384) but there I was, wanting to pass over to the other side, when – in a quite unexpected and astounding way – I found myself in the presence of the ‘principle,’ a principle of the human form. It didn’t resemble man as we are used to seeing him, but it was an upright form, standing just on the border between the world of forms and the Formless, like a kind of standard. At that time nobody had ever spoken to me about it and Madame Theon had never seen it – no one had ever seen or said anything. But I felt I was on the verge of discovering a secret. Afterwards, when I met Sri Aurobindo and talked to him about it, he told me, ‘It is surely the prototype of the supramental form.’ I saw it several times again, later on, and this proved to be true. But naturally, you understand, once the border has been crossed, there is no more ‘ascent’ and ‘descent’; you have the feeling of rising up only at the very start, while leaving the terrestrial consciousness and emerging into the higher mind. But once you have gone beyond that, there’s no notion of rising; there’s a sense, instead, of a sort of inner transformation. And from there I would redescend, re-entering my bodies one after another – there is a real feeling of re-entry; it actually produces friction. When one is on that highest height, the body is in a cataleptic state. I think I made this experiment in 1904, so when I arrived here it was all a work accomplished and a well-known domain; and when the question of finding the Supermind came up, I had only to resume an experience I was used to – I had learned to repeat it at will, through successive exteriorizations. It was a voluntary process. When I returned from Japan and we began to work together, Sri Aurobindo had already brought the supramental light into the mental world and was trying to transform the Mind. ‘It’s strange,’ he said to me, ‘it’s an endless work! Nothing seems to get done – everything is done and then constantly has to be done all over again.’ Then I gave him my personal impression, which went back to the old days with Theon: ‘It will be like that until we touch bottom. ’ So instead of continuing to work in the Mind, both of us (I was the one who went through the experience ... how to put it? ... practically, objectively; he experienced it only in his consciousness, not in the body – but my body has always participated), both of us descended almost immediately (it was done in a day or two) from the Mind into the Vital, and so on quite rapidly, leaving the Mind as it was, fully in the light but not permanently transformed. Then a strange thing happened. When we were in the Vital, my body suddenly became young again, as it had been when I was eighteen years old! ... There was a young man named Pearson , a disciple of Tagore, who had lived with me in Japan for four years; he returned to India , and when he came to see me in Pondicherry, he was stupefied. ‘What has happened to you!’ he exclaimed. He hardly recognized me. During that same period (it didn’t last very long, only a few months), I received some old photographs from France and Sri Aurobindo saw one of me at the age of eighteen. ‘There!’ he said, ‘That’s how you are now!’ I wore my hair differently, but otherwise I was eighteen all over again. This lasted for a few months. Then we descended into the Physical – and all the trouble began. But we didn’t stay in the Physical, we descended into the Subconscient and from the Subconscient to the Inconscient. That was how we worked. And it was only when I descended into the Inconscient that I found the Divine Presence – there, in the midst of Darkness. It wasn’t the first time; when I was working with Theon at Tlemcen (the second time I was there), I descended into the total, unindividualized – that is, general – Inconscient (it was the time he wanted me to find the Mantra of Life). And there I suddenly found myself in front of something like a vault or a grotto (of course, it was only something ‘like’ that), and when it opened, I saw a Being of iridescent light reclining with his head on his hand, fast asleep. All the light around him was iridescent. When I told Theon what I was seeing, he said it was ‘the immanent God in the depths of the Inconscient,’ who through his radiations was slowly waking the Inconscient to Consciousness. ("And Night can bare its core of mystic light;" Savitri-200) But then a rather remarkable phenomenon occurred: when I looked at him, he woke up and opened his eyes, expressing the beginning of conscious, wakeful action. I have experienced the descent into the Inconscient many times (you (Satprem) remember, once you were there the day it happened – it had to do with divine Love); this experience of descending to the very bottom of the Inconscient and finding there the Divine Consciousness, the Divine Presence, under one form or another. it has happened quite frequently .” The Mother’s Agenda/November 7/1961, ("The secret God beneath the threshold dwells.” Savitri-68) “But you see, you see all the way I have come...And I was born with a consciously prepared body—Sri Aurobindo was aware of that, he said it immediately the first time he saw me: I was born free. That is, from the spiritual standpoint: without any desire. Without any desire and attachment. And mon petit, if there is the slightest desire and the slightest attachment, it is IMPOSSIBLE to do this work. A vital like a warrior, with an absolute self-control (the vital of this present incarnation was sexless—a warrior), an absolutely calm and imperturbable warrior—no desires, no attachments...Since my earliest childhood, I have done things which, to human consciousness, are “monstrous;” my mother went so far as to tell me that I was a real “monster,” because I had neither attachments nor desires. If I was asked, “Would you like to do this?” I answered, “I don’t care.” If people were nasty to me, or if people died or went away, it left me absolutely calm—and so: “You are a monster, you have no feelings.” And with that preparation... It is eighty-six years since I came here, mon petit! For thirty years I worked with Sri Aurobindo consciously, without letup, night and day ... We shouldn’t be in a hurry.” The Mother’s Agenda/28.03.1964 "(Q) What made Sri Aurobindo stop? He hasn’t stopped. Stopped him physically, you mean? (Q) Yes. What made him stop? He decided he had to go. We tried, oh – myself in particular! 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. (Q) Yes, but why exactly was there this halt? He had come for that. But nothing has stopped! That’s precisely the point – he refuses to acknowledge that anything has stopped. Nothing has stopped. He came for that, and he arranged things to... to give a maximum number of chances (‘chance’ is one way of putting it), of possibilities – to put all the winning cards on our side." The Mother's Agenda/July 15, 1961 The Mother’s accountability after Sri Aurobindo left his earthly body: “Her thoughts, her mind remembered Narad’s date.” Savitri-469 “Immobile in herself, she gathered force. This was the day when Satyavan must die.” Savitri-10 “Twelve swift-winged months are given to him and her; This day returning Satyavan must die.” Savitri-431 “Twelve passionate months led in a day of fate.” Savitri-11 “It is decreed and Satyavan must die. The hour is fixed, chosen the fatal stroke.” Savitri-458 “And what comes to me is always this, the most severe test I could have been given: Sri Aurobindo’s departure. Because Sri Aurobindo used to speak as if he was not going to go.” The Mother’s Agenda-6/p-347, "No one can imagine what it was, those thirty years I had (with Sri Aurobindo ) ... beyond all problems and difficulties; we went through every possible difficulty – and it was nothing, NOTHING. It was nothing, it was ... like a great harmonious orchestra. (silence) But ... it's clear that Matter must be rigorously hammered if it is to be made ready and able for this Transformation. (silence) And nothing, nothing imaginable in the eternal history of the universe can be compared to that shock (with Sri Aurobindo's departure): to have lived a perfect divine life as something completely natural and everyday, something OBVIOUS (it was never even in question), and then ... all of a sudden, physically – your base is snatched away. Well, to stay on after that! ... You just go, quite naturally: the base goes, you go." The Mother's Agenda/January 9, 1962, "Well, what Sri Aurobindo did by leaving his body is somewhat equivalent, although far more total and complete and absolute-because he had that experience, he had that, he had it; I saw him, I saw him supramental on his bed, sitting on his bed ... He has written: I am not doing it individually, for myself, but for the whole earth. And it was exactly the same thing for me-but oh, that experience! Nothing counted for me anymore: people, the earth-even the earth itself had absolutely no importance." The Mother/The Mother's Agenda/July-15, 1961 “The Supermind had descended long ago—very long ago—into the mind and even into the vital: it was working in the physical also but indirectly through those intermediaries. The question was about the direct action of the Supermind in the physical. Sri Aurobindo said it could be possible only if the physical mind received the supramental light: the physical mind was the instrument for direct action upon the most material. This physical mind receiving the supramental light Sri Aurobindo called the Mind of Light… As soon as Sri Aurobindo withdrew from his body, what he has called the Mind of Light got realised in me. ” 29 June 1953/The Mother/The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol-13/p-62-63, "And I saw for Sri Aurobindo (although he hadn't yet started this systematic transformation; but still, he was constantly pulling the supramental force down into his body), even in his case, it took five days to show the first slight sign of decomposition. I would have kept his body longer, but the government always meddles in other people's business, naturally, and they pestered me awfully, saying it was forbidden to keep a body so long and that we should ... So when the body began to (what's the word?) shrink – it was shrinking and contracting, that is, dehydrating – then we had to do it. He had had enough time to come out, since almost everything came into my body – almost everything that was material came into my body ." The Mother/The Mother's Agenda/August 10, 1963 “No, it has made me understand something, but it’s something very (how can I put it?), very intimate.... When Sri Aurobindo left, I knew I had to cut the link with the psychic being, otherwise I would have gone with him; and as I had promised him I would stay on and do the work, I had to do that: I literally closed the door on the psychic and said, "For the moment this doesn’t exist anymore." It remained like that for ten years. After ten years, it slowly, slowly began to open again – it was frightening. But I was ready. It began to open again. But then, that experience surprised me when I had it; I wondered why it had been like that, why I had received that command and had to do it. And when there was in the body that identification with divine Love [a few days ago], after that had left, the cells were ordered to undergo a similar phenomenon [to what happened after Sri Aurobindo’s departure]. And I understood why the whole material world is closed: it’s to allow it to exist WITHOUT the experience [of divine Love]. Naturally, I had understood why I was made to close off my psychic, because ... because it was truly impossible, I couldn’t go on existing outwardly without Sri Aurobindo’s presence. Well then, the cells have understood that they must go on existing and living their life without the presence of divine Love. And that’s how it took place in the world: it was a necessary phenomenon for the formation and development of the material world... But we’re perhaps nearing ... We are nearing the time when it will be allowed to open again. (silence) You remember, I don’t know if it was in a letter or an article, Sri Aurobindo spoke of the manifestation of divine Love; he said, "Truth will have to be established first, otherwise there will be catastrophes...." I understand that very well. But it’s a long time in coming! (Mother laughs) Up above, nothing is long. But anyway, it’s here that we are ordered to exist and to achieve. It’s on this occasion, too, that I had an answer regarding death. I was told, "But they all want to die! Because they don’t have the courage to be before That is manifested." And I saw – I clearly saw it was like that. The power of Death is that they all want to die! Not like that in their active thought, but in the body’s deep feeling, because it doesn’t have the courage to be without That – it takes great courage.... So they began with a complete ignorance and general stupidity, participating in all that this life is outwardly (as if it were something wonderful!). But as soon as they begin to grow a little wiser, it stops being wonderful. It’s like what I said about this flower [the lotus]: when you know how to look at a flower, at the so spontaneous and, oh, uncomplicated expression of this marvelous Love, then you understand how long the way is – all these attachments, all this importance we give to useless things, whereas there should be a spontaneous and natural beauty. (Q) If the world understood too soon, nobody would want to stay on, basically! That’s the point. Yes, exactly! That’s the point. If they knew too soon, if they were able to see the opposition between what is and what must be, they wouldn’t have the courage. One must ... one must truly be heroic – heroic. I assure you, I see these cells, they are heroic – heroic. As for them, they don’t "know" in that mental way: it’s only their adoration that saves them. That is, "What You will, Lord, what You will, what You will ... ," with the simplicity of a child’s ingenuous heart: "What You will, what You will, what You will ... only what You will and nothing but what You will exists." Then it’s all right. But without that, it’s not possible. It’s not possible to know what they know and to continue to be if That isn’t there. You know, the feeling is, "At Your service, what You will, what You will ... whatever You will ... ," without discussion, without anything, without even a sensation, nothing: "What You will, what You will. " This is the only strength, there is no other. Well, some have to do it, don’t they! Otherwise it would never get done. And at that moment (it was a rather difficult moment), there was even in the consciousness ... it was like a sword of white light that nothing can shake and which gave the cells the sensation, "What! But you should be in an ecstasy of joy, now that you know what will be" – what there IS, in principle. But it has caused a sort of detachment from the gestures, the outside, as if life weren’t quite real – yet real at the same time, but the Reality isn’t there. There is the sense of the Presence; that’s constant. And that’s a good thing to begin with, it strongly counterbalances the sense and perception of all the Distortion. There is even an insistence from this Presence for That alone to exist and to increasingly reduce the reality of the perception of what must not be. There will be a great strength in the being when the perception of what must not be is dimmed, erased as something far away and nonexistent. That’s what is being prepared. What makes the work a little more complicated is that it isn’t limited to this (Mother’s body), it’s everything, everything around and to a rather considerable distance. Because the contact in thought is almost perfectly established: it’s impossible for someone to think [of Mother] without there being a response in the consciousness – a response, a perception. So, imagine what it is It’s rather vast and rather complicated. And there are kinds of rungs or stages – stages in the response of the consciousness; rungs and stages according to the degree of development and consciousness. It makes for, oh, not an immensity, but still a rather extensive world. In this perception, the earth isn’t very large. And there is a precision in details for tiny things, like what goes on in an individual’s consciousness, for instance, or the response to certain events. It’s very, very precise. But there is always a ban on saying things so as not to give them a power of concretization. But the work is being done like that, on all the planes; on all the planes (there are even planes beneath the feet), constantly, constantly, without stop, night and day.” The Mother's Agenda/ July 27, 1966, “Sri Aurobindo had also written to the effect, ‘If Divine Love were to manifest now in all its fullness and totality, not a single material organism would but burst.’ So we must learn to widen, widen, widen not only the inner consciousness (that is relatively easy – at least feasible), but even this conglomeration of cells. And I’ve experienced this: you have to be able to widen this sort of crystallization if you want to be able to hold this Force. I know. Two or three times, upstairs (in Mother’s room), I felt the body about to burst. Actually, I was on the verge of saying, ‘burst and be done with.’ But Sri Aurobindo always intervened – all three times he intervened in an entirely tangible, living and concrete way ... and he arranged everything so that I was forced to wait. Then weeks go by, sometimes even months, between one thing and another, so that some elasticity may come into these stupid cells. So much time is wasted. We are ... oh! We are so hard! (Mother hits her body) As hard as a rock. But three times now, I’ve really felt that I was on the verge of ... falling apart. The first time it brought a fever, a fever so ... I don’t know, as if I had at least 115°! – I was roasting from head to toe; everything became red hot, and then ... it was over. That was the day when suddenly – suddenly – I was ... You see, I had said to myself, ‘All right, you must be peaceful, let’s see what happens,’ so then I brought down the Peace, and immediately I was able to pass into a ‘second of unconsciousness – and I woke up in the subtle physical, in Sri Aurobindo’s abode.’ There he was. And then I spent some time with him, explaining the problem. But that was really an experience, a decisive experience (it was many months ago, perhaps more than a year ago). So I explained the problem to Sri Aurobindo, and he replied (by his expression, not with words, but it was clear), ‘Patience, patience – patience, it will come.’ And a few days after this experience, ‘by chance’ I came upon something he had written where precisely he explained that we are much too rigid, coagulated, clenched for these things to be able to manifest – we must widen, relax, become plastic. But this takes time.” The Mother’s Agenda/12th November 1960 (Q) If I may ask, has Sri Aurobindo remained quite conscious of material things? Completely. (Mother reflects a moment) Well, completely material, no – only through me. He is conscious of material things through me, not directly. He is very conscious in the subtle physical, but that’s not quite the same, not quite (Mother makes a vague gesture), there is a difference. To give a rather curious example, there was a kind of spell of illness over the Ashram, stemming mainly from people’s thoughts, from their way of thinking. It was quite widespread and it was horrible, gloomy, full of fear, pettiness, blind submission, oh! Everyone was in a state of expectation... In short, the atmosphere was such that there was an attempt to prevent me from leaving my room – I had to sneak out! It was disgusting! Well, on the very night I saw the spell over the Ashram, Sri Aurobindo was lying sick in his bed, just as I had seen him in 1950. Normally, we spend almost every night together, doing this, seeing that, arranging things, talking – it’s a kind of second life behind this one, and it makes existence pleasant. But that night when I had to sneak out of my room (in my nightgown!), and people were trying to find me to ... (laughing) force me back into bed, he was lying sick in bed – and this struck me hard, for it means these things still affect him in his consciousness. He was in a kind of trance and not at all well. It didn’t last, but nonetheless.... ” The Mother’s Agenda/ February 18, 1961 "He (Sri Aurobindo ) himself-he himself has a greater action, a greater power of action now than when he was in his body. Besides, that’s why he left-because it had to be done that way... It’s very tangible, you know. His action has become very tangible. Of course, it isn’t something mental at all. It is from another region. But it isn’t ethereal or-it’s tangible. I could almost say material." Dec-20/1972/The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-13/P-326-328, “Another thing, yesterday ... Something being prepared.... In the past, when Sri Aurobindo was there and I lived in that house which is now the "dormitory annex," there was a large verandah, and I used to walk up and down on the verandah (Sri Aurobindo was in his room, working), and I would walk alone; but I was never alone: Krishna was always there – Krishna, the god Krishna as he is known, but taller, more beautiful, and not with that ridiculous blue, you know, that slate blue! Not like that. And always, we always walked up and down together – we would walk together. He was just a little behind (gesture behind, almost against the nape of the neck and the shoulders); I was a little in front, as if my head was on his shoulder, and he would walk (I didn't have the feeling of my head resting on his shoulder, but that's how it was), and we would walk, we would communicate. That lasted more than a year, you know, every day. Then it ended. Afterwards I saw him from time to time (when we moved to the new house I saw him); sometimes at night when I was very tired, he would come and I would sleep on his shoulder. But I knew very well that it was a way Sri Aurobindo had of showing himself. Then when I came here [to Mother's present room], Sri Aurobindo had left, and I began walking up and down while reciting my mantra. Sri Aurobindo came, and he was at exactly the same place as Krishna was (same gesture, just behind the head); I would walk, and he was there, and we would walk together day after day, day after day. And it was becoming so concrete, so marvelous that I started thinking, "Why look after people and things, I want to remain like this for ever!" He caught my thought, and he said, "I am not coming anymore." And he stopped. I said, "Very well," and I started my mantra to the supreme Lord, and I tried a lot to have Him come and walk with me, but in no other form but Himself. And the Force, the Presence, everything was there, and I would feel Him more and more clearly, staying like that, just behind me, impersonal. For a few days, I've had a sort of feeling that I was close to something; and yesterday, for half an hour: THE Presence – a Presence ... An absolutely concrete presence. And it is He who told me, "First Krishna, then Sri Aurobindo , then I." The Mother’s Agenda/ June 18, 1965 (The three represent a hierarchy of consciousness in ascending order. The Mother here recounts Her relation with Sri Krishna, Sri Aurobindo and the Supreme Lord in the hierarchy of ascending Consciousness. This indicates that a diversity of experience is required to pursue integral Yoga and not to remain satisfied with any experience in any one plane of Consciousness.) "My impression is that Sri Aurobindo already has his subtle supramental form. For instance, when he has to move, he doesn't give the impression of being subject to the same laws as we are; but as it's subtle, it doesn't appear surprising. And also a sort of ubiquity: he is in several places at the same time. And a plasticity, an adaptability according to the work he wants to do, the people he meets. In those activities I am quite aware that I see him in a certain way, but I think others don't see him the same way – they see him differently, probably wearing clothes. When he ran in the forest, we were all alone, and it was a large forest without anyone there; then a few minutes later, we were somewhere else and there were people, other people to whom he spoke, and I didn't at all feel that the others were seeing him without clothes: they were certainly seeing him wearing clothes.... I saw him once, rather long ago: I told you the story of his boat, made also of clay.” The Mother’s Agenda/June 18/1965 “You remember what I had said? That it would be an improved physical body that would make the transition between human body and Supramental body?...... Last night Sri Aurobindo told me in his own way that it was correct, that it was true. It was very interesting.... Very interesting... Last night, for a long time, we went to all sorts of places unknown to me: towns, countrysides, forests, etc. It lasted a very long time. And once, we were there, near a forest (near a road that crossed the forest) and we were busy and "talking" when all of a sudden, he leaped to his feet.... You know, he never wears any clothes, so to speak; when I saw him the first time in his house (his supramental house), in the subtle physical, he was without clothes; but it's a kind of vibrant matter: it's very material, very concrete, and it has a sort of color that isn't a color, which is a bit golden and radiant – it doesn't send out rays, but it vibrates with a radiant light. And at least nine times out of ten he is that way; generally, when we are together for some work, he is that way. Last night he was that way. So then I was busy (we had arranged something and I was busy) when, suddenly, I see him leap to his feet and run a hundred-meter sprint. At first I was shocked, I said to myself, "What's this?!" And with great ease, you know: he darted off, then stopped a few minutes, and then ran back. Then he stopped again, and went off a third time on a sprint: like the 100-meter race they run. But the third time, he had grown tall, with a slim body. Grown tall as if to demonstrate to me: this is the way the body will be transformed. He had grown very tall, very strong.... It was very interesting and absolutely unexpected.... The second time, he was stronger than the first; and the third time, he was magnificent: a tall, superb being with that vibrant, radiant substance. And what a sprint! What leaps! It was fantastic. The last time, it was fantastic, as if he skimmed over the ground...We "speak" very, very rarely. Sometimes he tells me something, but it's with a special import and a special aim – we understand each other without words. There he didn't say anything, but I understood. It was part of a very long activity, but that thing struck me very much because it was like the answer [to what I said some time ago]. He said, "Yes, it's true, you are right, it is like that." And that change in his body over the three times: the first time he was as I knew him, but younger and more agile;the second time he was already stronger; and the third time, he was magnificent... I wanted to tell you this.” The Mother's Agenda/18th June, 1965 “The lack of receptivity of the earth and men is mostly responsible for the decision Sri Aurobindo has taken regarding his body. But one thing is certain: what has happened on the physical plane affects in no way the truth of his teaching. All that he has said is perfectly true and remains so. Time and the course of events will prove it abundantly.” 8 December 1950, The Mother/The Mother’s Centenary Works/13/p-7, “The lack of the earth’s receptivity and the behavior of Sri Aurobindo’s disciples are largely responsible for what happened to his body. But one thing is certain: the great misfortune that has just beset us in no way affects the truth of his teaching. All he said is perfectly true and remains so. Time and the course of events will make this abundantly clear.” Feb-1951/Mother’s Agenda-Vol-1/P: 27, "Before, I always had the negative experience of the disappearance of the ego, of the oneness of Creation, where everything implying separation disappeared – an experience that, personally, I would call negative. Last Wednesday, while I was speaking (and that’s why at the end I 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 functions of the body, of this mental machine that summons up words, all this was ... I could no longer speak French. Perhaps the words could have come to me in English – probably, because it was easier for Sri Aurobindo to express himself in English, and that’s how it must have happened: it was the part embodied in Sri Aurobindo (the part of the Supreme that was embodied in Sri Aurobindo for its manifestation) that had the experience. This is what joined back with the Origin and caused the experience – I was well aware of it. And that is probably why its transcription through English words would have been easier than through French words (for at these moments, such activities are purely mechanical, rather like automatic machines). And naturally the experience left something behind. It left the sense of a power that can no longer be ‘qualified,” really. And it was there yesterday evening." The Mother's Agenda/October 4, 1958 The Mother's Account on The Synthesis of Yoga: “So you may come across some passages (The Mother’s translation of The Synthesis of Yoga ) that are not all that legible. But the last part (The Yoga of Self-Perfection) is the longest, and it’s difficult, too. He (Sri Aurobindo) did not complete it. He never completed the last chapter, he told me, “You will complete it when I have completed my Yoga, ” and then he went, left everything. Afterwards, several times, he told me that I should be the one to complete it—I answered him that I did not have the brain for it. Or else I would have to write it in a mediumistic way, but I am not a good medium, I am too conscious—the consciousness is immediately awake in the background and watches the phenomenon, so it stops working. Q: But your (The Mother’s) Agenda is the end of the “Yoga of Self-Perfection”! Well, it will be a long end! (Mother laughs) In other words, when it’s over (we must first wait for it to be over), when it’s over, with these notes, we could establish something—you will have to wait for some time! There are still several years to go.” The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-4/p-435, “I am continuing The Yoga of Self-Perfection. It is really something... I shall never tire of saying it’s ‘fabulous.’ Everything, absolutely everything, in detail, everything is there. And He (Sri Aurobindo) foresaw—foresaw, gave the remedy...” The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-1/p-407 “It is that old habit, the old fear of being lazy. It took me... But Sri Aurobindo cured me of that rather quickly. That is how it was before I met him. And that is the first thing he did: he gave me a tap on the head, and all activity ceased—total silence, all mental constructions and habits swept away... in the blink of an eye... He mentions it when he explains mental equality (in The Synthesis of Yoga)—that a state is reached where one is unable to initiate any activity; only the stimulus of an impulsion from above can move you. So you do nothing, you just stay like that, perfectly immobile in your mind (not only physically—especially in your mind): you do not initiate anything.... Before, the mind (subject to three gunas) was always creating, setting actions, wills and movements into motion, producing consequences; and it is very frightening when that stops –you feel you are becoming an idiot. But it is quite the opposite! No more ideas, no more will, no more impulsions, nothing. You act only when something makes you act, without knowing why or how.... This “something” does not come from below, of course, it must not come from below (means from tamasic, rajasic and sattwic mind). But that condition can truly be achieved only when all the work below has been completed (action of the lower attraction of Nature must be transcended.).” The Mother’s Agenda-3/p-112, “When I read what Sri Aurobindo writes in The Synthesis (of Yoga) , how things should be (law of Sadhaka) and what they are now (law of Ashramite), when I see the two, that is when I feel we are turning in circles. It (law of Sadhaka) is more and more a universal yoga—the whole earth—and it is like that day and night, when I walk and when I speak and when I eat. It is constantly like that. As if the whole earth were... it is like kneading dough to make it rise. But when I read his Yoga of Self-Perfection and see...simply what we are...phew (very few can pursue this Yoga)! What yeast we would need to make all that rise! But this is not true: He alone is doing it, it is always He. And sometimes things stagnate, they seem so absolutely obscure and stupid. And then, if you simply go like this (gesture of offering), simply, truly—do it, not think it –it is instantly like a shower of bliss...A tiny point, something very small which looks stubbornly stupid and obstinate, if only you do this (and if you want, you can): ‘Take, take!’ Give it to Him, simply, like this, truly give it to Him: ‘It is Yours, take it, do with it what You want.’ And instantly, instead of this shrinking and this painful feeling –‘What in the world can I do with all this?’—a shower, it comes like a shower. Truly Ananda . Of course, if you are stupid enough to call back the difficulty, it returns. But if you remain quiet, if you keep your head quiet, it goes—finished, cured. But there are thousands and thousands and thousands of such points...” The Mother’s Agenda-1/p-400-401, (The above message hints that the Mother was not satisfied with the Ashram law She had formulated and there exists a higher law of consecrated universal Yoga for liberated Souls.) "I am continuing my reading of the Veda. I had to stop for some days because of a sore throat. But anyway, I’m starting again...The Vedas, after all, were written by people who remembered a radical experience, which must have taken place on earth at a given moment, as an example of what was to come. (This always happens in the yoga: a first radical experience comes like a herald of the future realization.) So in the terrestrial yoga – in the yoga of the earth, of the planet earth – there was a moment when it came; they who are called the forefathers must have created, through their effort and their yoga, at least an image of the supramental realization. And those who wrote the Vedas, who composed all these hymns, remembered or kept the tradition of that experience. And oh, mon petit, it had the same effect on me as when I read the ‘Yoga of Self-Perfection’ in The Synthesis of Yoga (the Mother catches her breath): there is such a gulf between what we are, what life on earth and human consciousness now are, even among the most enlightened, the most advanced, and THAT! ..." The Mother's Agenda/April 7, 1961, "One day ... (I’m translating the last section of The Synthesis of Yoga, ‘The Yoga of Self-Perfection’ – it plunges you into bottomless gulfs ... ) and one day (I think I’ve told you this), I had a vision of the gap between ... not even what ought to be, because we probably haven’t the slightest idea of that, but between our concept of what we would like to be and what is. And it was so dreadful that the body was thrown into, oh ... an anguish, a horror; and along with it an intensity of aspiration, a prayer. The gap seemed so tremendous: ‘Is it possible?’....‘This body thirsts for perfection, not this human perfection which is the perfection of the ego...’ (it was so clear to me that everything human beings conceive of as perfection is simply the ego wanting to magnify itself for its own greater glory) ‘... not this human perfection which is the perfection of the ego and bars the way to the divine Perfection, but that one perfection .. (these repeated ‘perfections’ are deliberate: it’s like a litany) ... but that one perfection which has the POWER to manifest upon earth the eternal Truth.’" The Mother's Agenda/December 16, 1961, “So now I do not mind finishing (I usually translated The Synthesis of Yoga (into French language) in the afternoons.) The Synthesis of Yoga. I was little bothered because I have no other books by Sri Aurobindo to translate that can help me in sadhana: There was only The Synthesis (of Yoga).” The Mother’s Agenda-3/p-348 “Personally, of all those I have read, it is the book (The Synthesis of Yoga ) that has helped me the most. It comes from a very high and very universal inspiration, in the sense that it will remain new for a long time to come.” The Mother’s Agenda-13/p-66 “Behind the common idea that a Yogi can know all things and answer all questions is the actual fact that there is a plane in the mind where the memory of everything is stored and remains always in existence. All mental movements that belong to the life of the earth are memorised and registered in this plane. Those who are capable of going there and care to take the trouble, can read in it and learn anything they choose. But this region must not be mistaken for the supramental levels. And yet to reach even there you must be able to silence the movements of the material or physical mind; you must be able to leave aside all your sensations and put a stop to your ordinary mental movements, whatever they are; you must get out of the vital; you must become free from the slavery of the body. Then only you can enter into that region and see. But if you are sufficiently interested to make this effort, you can arrive there and read what is written in the earth’s memory.” The Mother/TMCW-3/Questions and Answers-1929-1931/p- 94, "In one chapter of The Synthesis of Yoga, Sri Aurobindo says that there is a state of consciousness in which all is from all eternity –everything, without exception, that is to be manifested here… Q:- In detail? In a certain state of consciousness (I no longer remember what he calls it—I think it’s in the ‘Yoga of Self-Perfection’), one is perfectly identified with the Supreme, not in his static but in his dynamic aspect, the state of becoming. In this state, everything is already there from all eternity, even though here it gives us the impression of a becoming. And Sri Aurobindo says that if you are capable of maintaining this state, then you know everything: all that has been, all that is and all that will be –in an absolutely simultaneous way. But you must have a firm head on your shoulders! Reading some of these chapters in ‘Self-Perfection,’ I thought it would be better if it didn’t fall into just anyone’s hands. Anyway, in this state the feeling of uncertainty completely disappears (he explains it very well)." The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda/Vol.-2/p-170, “The true consciousness within is not unaware of its past; it holds it there, not necessarily in memory but in being, still active, living, ready with its fruits, and sends it up from time to time in memory or more concretely in result of past action or past causes to the superficial conscious being, —that is indeed the true rationale of what is called Karma. It is or can be aware too of the future, for there is somewhere in the inner being a field of cognition open to future knowledge, a prospective as well as a retrospective Time-sense, Time-vision, Time-perception; something in it lives indivisibly in the three times and contains all their apparent divisions, holds the future ready for manifestation within it. Here, then, in this habit of living in the present, we have a second absorption, a second exclusive concentration which complicates and farther limits the being, but simplifies the apparent course of the action by relating it not to the whole infinite course of Time, but to a definite succession of moments.” CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-606 “It is therefore only by going back from the surface physical mind to the psychic and spiritual consciousness that a vision and knowledge of the triple time, a transcendence of our limitation to the standpoint and view range of the moment, can be wholly possible. Meanwhile there are certain doors opening from the inner on to the outer consciousness which make an occasional but insufficient power of direct retro-vision of the past, circumvision of the present, prevision of the future even in the physical mind at least potentially feasible.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-892, "I am just finishing The Synthesis of Yoga, and what Sri Aurobindo says (in 'Towards the Supramental Time Vision) is exactly what has happened to me throughout my life. And he explains how you can still make mistakes as long as you are not supramentalized. Sri Aurobindo describes all the ways by which images are sent to you – and they are not always images or reflections of the truth of things past, present or future; there are also all the images that come from human mental formations and all the various things that want to be considered. It is very, very interesting. And interestingly enough, in these few pages I have found a description of the work I have spent my whole life doing, trying to SIFT out all we see.... I can only be sure of something once a certain type of picture comes, and then the whole world could tell me, ‘But things didn’t happen like that’; I would reply, ‘Sorry, but I see it.’ And that type of picture is certain, for I have studied it, I have studied their differences in quality and the texture of the pictures. It is very interesting." The Mother/The Mother's Agenda/11.10.196 "There are two other letters: "To bring the Divine Love and Beauty and Ananda into the world is, indeed, the whole crown and essence of our yoga. But it has always seemed to me impossible unless there comes as its support and foundation and guard the Divine Truth – what I call the supramental – and its Divine Power...." (SABCL/XXIII.753) Here it's clear: he says that what he calls the "Supramental" is the Divine Truth, and that it must come first, and the rest comes afterwards. And yet, for some time now and increasingly, there has been an extremely concrete Response to a kind of aspiration (a call or prayer) in which I say to the Lord, "Supreme Lord, manifest Your Love." (It comes at the end of a long invocation in which I ask Him to manifest all His aspects one after another, one after another, and it ends like that.) But then, remarkably enough, at that moment there comes a Response which is growing clearer and clearer, stronger and stronger.... But Sri Aurobindo says that Truth should be established first, and that what he calls the Supramental is the supreme Truth, the Divine Truth. It corresponds to what I noticed while translating that last chapter on "the perfection of the being" in the "Yoga of Self-Perfection": I kept thinking, "But that's only the aspect of Truth; all that he expresses is the aspect of Truth; always and everywhere, it's the angle of Truth; and his supramental action is an action of Truth." I didn't know he had said it, but it's written clearly here: "... But it has always seemed to me impossible unless there comes as its support and foundation and guard the Divine Truth – what I call the supramental – and its Divine Power. Otherwise Love itself blinded by the confusions of this present consciousness may stumble in its human receptacles and, even otherwise, may find itself unrecognised, rejected or rapidly degenerating and lost in the frailty of man's inferior nature. But when it comes in the divine truth and power, Divine Love descends first as something transcendent and universal and out of that transcendence and universality it applies itself to persons according to the Divine Truth and Will, creating a vaster, greater, purer personal love than any the human mind or heart can now imagine. It is when one has felt this descent that one can be really an instrument for the birth and action of the Divine Love in the world." (SABCL/XXIII.753)" The Mother's Agenda/July 24, 1963 Accountability of a Sadhaka of Integral Yoga: “When one takes sincerely to surrender, nothing must be concealed that is of any importance for the life of the sadhana. Confession helps to purge the consciousness of hampering elements and it clears the inner air and makes for a closer and more intimate and effective relation between the Guru and the disciple.” (Accountability of sadhana to Guru through confession..) CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-193 “In ancient times the disciple had to undergo severe tests to prove his ability for initiation. Here we do not follow that method. Apparently there is no test and no trial. But if you see the truth, you will find that here it is much more difficult. There the disciple knew that he was undergoing a period of trial and after he had passed through some outward tests, he was taken in. But here you have to face life and you are watched at every moment. It is not only your outer actions that count. Each and every thought and inner movement is seen, every reaction is noticed. It is not what you do in the solitude of the forest, but what you do in the thick of the battle of life that is important. Are you ready to submit yourself for such tests? Are you ready to change yourself completely? You will have to throw off your ideas, ideals, values, interests and opinions. Everything will have to be learnt anew. If you are ready for all this, then take a plunge; otherwise don’t try to step in.” The Mother/TMCW-14/The Words of the Mother-II/p-43-44, “Therefore the first reckoning we have to mend is that between this infinite Movement, this energy of existence which is the world and ourselves. At present we keep a false account. We are infinitely important to the All, but to us the All is negligible; we alone are important to ourselves. This is the sign of the original ignorance which is the root of the ego, that it can only think with itself as centre as if it were the All, and of that which is not itself accepts only so much as it is mentally disposed to acknowledge or as it is forced to recognise by the shocks of its environment. Even when it begins to philosophise, does it not assert that the world only exists in and by its consciousness? Its own state of consciousness or mental standards are to it the test of reality; all outside its orbit or view tends to become false or non-existent. This mental self-sufficiency of man creates a system of false accountantship which prevents us from drawing the right and full value from life. There is a sense in which these pretensions of the human mind and ego repose on a truth, but this truth only emerges when the mind has learned its ignorance and the ego has submitted to the All and lost in it its separate self-assertion. To recognise that we, or rather the results and appearances we call ourselves, are only a partial movement of this infinite Movement and that it is that infinite which we have to know, to be consciously and to fulfil faithfully, is the commencement of true living. To recognise that in our true selves we are one with the total movement and not minor or subordinate is the other side of the account, and its expression in the manner of our being, thought, emotion and action is necessary to the culmination of a true or divine living…But to settle the account we have to know what is this All, this infinite and omnipotent energy.” CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-79-80 Instructions issued to a Sadhaka in The Synthesis of Yoga: It is understood that most of the Sadhakas are from traditional schools of Yoga and pursue one of the traditional methods of Yoga. Sri Aurobindo proposes that integral Yoga begins or Yoga of Self-perfection begins, after one has exhausted the manyfold perfection of traditional Yoga or after one is established in higher consciousness of Psychic and and Spiritual planes and their extension in cosmic Consciousness. To these Sadhakas , Sri Aurobindo has issued some profound instructions in His principal Teaching, The Synthesis of Yoga. Those who will pursue Integral Yoga must comply with the norms issued in The Synthesis of Yoga . How a Sadhaka of traditional Yoga will become a Sadhaka of Integral Yoga is hinted in the Gita and Sri Aurobindo's following letter. “A seeker of truth, jijnasu , after many births of preparation, purification of impurity and sin, endeavouring with sincerity becomes a traditional Yogi and attains the highest goal of liberation of Soul or a Soul who fell from Yoga, yogabhrasta , from the past birth, in this birth strives with sincerity to overcome the samskara of many births in brief period of this life and attains the highest goal... After many births of preparation, a traditional Yogi, Jnani, attains My Purushottama or Supramental state of Consciousness. Before realisation of this highest Consciousness, he also realises the intermediate stair that all this existence is Divine, the Cosmic Consciousness, Vasudeva sarvamiti . Such a great Soul with realisation of Vasudeva sarvamiti or integral Yogi is very rare, samahatma sudurlava. ” (THE GITA-6.45/7.19, ) The mind is exclusive and mind will permit the pursuit of only one Yoga at a time. The Gita proposes to train the mind to develop double sincerity (The Gita-3.3) through which Karma Yoga can be reconciled with Jnana Yoga. “Children (child Soul) speak of Sankhya and Yoga apart from each other, not the wise (ripened soul); if a man applies himself integrally to one, he gets the fruit of both.” The Gita-5.4, “This is the distinction made in the Gita between Sankhya and Yoga ; both are necessary to an integral knowledge” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-374, Integral Yoga proposes that if one is established in higher universalised Consciousness, then he can reconcile all the three Yogas of Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga. “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 wholeheartedly 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 aware of Him and arrives at knowledge, for the Divine is the Truth and the Reality; by knowing Him, says the Upanishads, one comes to know all. By bhakti also the will is led into the road of the works of love and the service of the Divine and the government of the nature and its acts by the Divine, and that is Karmayoga. By bhakti also comes spiritual change of the consciousness and the action of the nature which is the first step towards its transformation. So it is with all the other lines of the fourfold path.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-686-687 “The method we have to pursue, then, is to put our whole conscious being into relation and contact with the Divine and to call Him in to transform our entire being into His. Thus in a sense God Himself, the real Person in us, becomes the sadhaka of the sadhana (Sadhana , the practice by which perfection, siddhi, is attained; sadhaka , the Yogin who seeks by that practice the siddhi. ) as well as the Master of the Yoga by whom the lower personality is used as the centre of a divine transfiguration and the instrument of its own perfection. In effect, the pressure of the Tapas, the force of consciousness in us dwelling in the Idea of the divine Nature upon that which we are in our entirety, produces its own realisation. The divine and all-knowing and all-effecting descends upon the limited and obscure, progressively illumines and energises the whole lower nature and substitutes its own action for all the terms of the inferior human light and mortal activity.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-45-46 “Meanwhile certain general lines have to be formed which may help to guide the thought and practice of the sadhaka . But these must take as much as possible the form of general truths, general statements of principle, the most powerful broad directions of effort and development rather than a fixed system which has to be followed as a routine. All Shastra is the outcome of past experience and a help to future experience. It is an aid and a partial guide. It puts up signposts, gives the names of the main roads and the already explored directions, so that the traveller may know whither and by what paths he is proceeding… The rest depends on personal effort and experience and upon the power of the Guide.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-57 “The development of the experience in its rapidity, its amplitude, the intensity and power of its results, depends primarily, in the beginning of the path and long after, on the aspiration and personal effort of the sadhaka . The process of Yoga is a turning of the human soul from the egoistic state of consciousness absorbed in the outward appearances and attractions of things to a higher state in which the Transcendent and Universal can pour itself into the individual mould and transform it. The first determining element of the siddhi is, therefore, the intensity of the turning, the force which directs the soul inward. The power of aspiration of the heart, the force of the will, the concentration of the mind, the perseverance and determination of the applied energy are the measure of that intensity. The ideal sadhaka should be able to say in the Biblical phrase, “My zeal for the Lord has eaten me up.” It is this zeal for the Lord, — utsaha, the zeal of the whole nature for its divine results, vyakulata, the heart’s eagerness for the attainment of the Divine, — that devours the ego and breaks up the limitations of its petty and narrow mould for the full and wide reception of that which it seeks, that which, being universal, exceeds and, being transcendent, surpasses even the largest and highest individual self and nature.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-58 “But this is only one side of the force that works for perfection. The process of the integral Yoga has three stages, not indeed sharply distinguished or separate, but in a certain measure successive. There must be, first, the effort towards at least an initial and enabling self-transcendence and contact with the Divine; next, the reception of that which transcends, that with which we have gained communion, into ourselves for the transformation of our whole conscious being; last , the utilisation of our transformed humanity as a divine centre in the world. So long as the contact with the Divine is not in some considerable degree established, so long as there is not some measure of sustained identity, sayujya , the element of personal effort must normally predominate. But in proportion as this contact establishes itself, the sadhaka must become conscious that a force other than his own, a force transcending his egoistic endeavour and capacity, is at work in him and to this Power he learns progressively to submit himself and delivers up to it the charge of his Yoga. In the end his own will and force become one with the higher Power; he merges them in the divine Will and its transcendent and universal Force. He finds it thenceforward presiding over the necessary transformation of his mental, vital and physical being with an impartial wisdom and provident effectivity of which the eager and interested ego is not capable. It is when this identification and this self-merging are complete that the divine centre in the world is ready. Purified, liberated, plastic, illumined, it can begin to serve as a means for the direct action of a supreme Power in the larger Yoga of humanity or superhumanity, of the earth’s spiritual progression or its transformation.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-58-59 “The personal will of the sadhaka has first to seize on the egoistic energies and turn them towards the light and the right; once turned, he has still to train them to recognise that always, always to accept, always to follow that. Progressing, he learns, still using the personal will, personal effort, personal energies, to employ them as representatives of the higher Power and in conscious obedience to the higher Influence. Progressing yet farther, his will, effort, energy become no longer personal and separate, but activities of that higher Power and Influence at work in the individual. But there is still a sort of gulf or distance which necessitates an obscure process of transit, not always accurate, sometimes even very distorting, between the divine Origin and the emerging human current. At the end of the process, with the progressive disappearance of egoism and impurity and ignorance, this last separation is removed; all in the individual becomes the divine working.” 60-61 “The sadhaka of the integral Yoga will make use of all these aids according to his nature; but it is necessary that he should shun their limitations and cast from himself that exclusive tendency of egoistic mind which cries, “My God, my Incarnation, my Prophet, my Guru ,” and opposes it to all other realisation in a sectarian or a fanatical spirit. All sectarianism, all fanaticism must be shunned; for it is inconsistent with the integrity of the divine realisation. On the contrary, the sadhaka of the integral Yoga will not be satisfied until he has included all other names and forms of Deity in his own conception, seen his own Ishta Devata in all others, unified all Avatars in the unity of Him who descends in the Avatar , welded the truth in all teachings into the harmony of the Eternal Wisdom. Nor should he forget the aim of these external aids which is to awaken his soul to the Divine within him. Nothing has been finally accomplished if that has not been accomplished. It is not sufficient to worship Krishna, Christ or Buddha without, if there is not the revealing and the formation of the Buddha, the Christ or Krishna in ourselves. And all other aids equally have no other purpose; each is a bridge between man’s unconverted state and the revelation of the Divine within him.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-66 “The example is more powerful than the instruction; but it is not the example of the outward acts nor that of the personal character which is of most importance. These have their place and their utility; but what will most stimulate aspiration in others is the central fact of the divine realisation within him governing his whole life and inner state and all his activities. This is the universal and essential element; the rest belongs to individual person and circumstance. It is this dynamic realisation that the sadhaka must feel and reproduce in himself according to his own nature; he need not strive after an imitation from outside which may well be sterilising rather than productive of right and natural fruits.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-67 “The sadhaka who has all these aids is sure of his goal. Even a fall will be for him only a means of rising and death a passage towards fulfilment. For once on this path, birth and death become only processes in the development of his being and the stages of his journey. Time is the remaining aid needed for the effectivity of the process. Time presents itself to human effort as an enemy or a friend, as a resistance, a medium or an instrument. But always it is really the instrument of the soul. Time is a field of circumstances and forces meeting and working out a resultant progression whose course it measures. To the ego it is a tyrant or a resistance, to the Divine an instrument. Therefore, while our effort is personal, Time appears as a resistance, for it presents to us all the obstruction of the forces that conflict with our own. When the divine working and the personal are combined in our consciousness, it appears as a medium and a condition. When the two become one, it appears as a servant and instrument. The ideal attitude of the sadhaka towards Time is to have an endless patience as if he had all eternity for his fulfilment and yet to develop the energy that shall realise now and with an ever-increasing mastery and pressure of rapidity till it reaches the miraculous instantaneousness of the supreme divine Transformation.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-69 “But this is not always the manner of the commencement. The sadhaka is often led gradually and there is a long space between the first turning of the mind and the full assent of the nature to the thing towards which it turns. There may at first be only a vivid intellectual interest, a forcible attraction towards the idea and some imperfect form of practice. Or perhaps there is an effort not favoured by the whole nature, a decision or a turn imposed by an intellectual influence or dictated by personal affection and admiration for someone who is himself consecrated and devoted to the Highest. In such cases, a long period of preparation may be necessary before there comes the irrevocable consecration; and in some instances it may not come. There may be some advance, there may be a strong effort, even much purification and many experiences other than those that are central or supreme; but the life will either be spent in preparation or, a certain stage having been reached, the mind pushed by an insufficient driving-force may rest content at the limit of the effort possible to it . Or there may even be a recoil to the lower life, — what is called in the ordinary parlance of Yoga a fall from the path. This lapse happens because there is a defect at the very centre. The intellect has been interested, the heart attracted, the will has strung itself to the effort, but the whole nature has not been taken captive by the Divine. It has only acquiesced in the interest, the attraction or the endeavour. There has been an experiment, perhaps even an eager experiment, but not a total self-giving to an imperative need of the soul or to an unforsakable ideal. Even such imperfect Yoga has not been wasted; for no upward effort is made in vain. Even if it fails in the present or arrives only at some preparatory stage or preliminary realisation, it has yet determined the soul’s future.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-70-71 “There is another direction in which the ordinary practice of Yoga arrives at a helpful but narrowing simplification which is denied to the sadhaka of the integral aim. The practice of Yoga brings us face to face with the extraordinary complexity of our own being, the stimulating but also embarrassing multiplicity of our personality, the rich endless confusion of Nature. To the ordinary man who lives upon his own waking surface, ignorant of the self’s depths and vastnesses behind the veil, his psychological existence is fairly simple. A small but clamorous company of desires, some imperative intellectual and aesthetic cravings, some tastes, a few ruling or prominent ideas amid a great current of unconnected or ill-connected and mostly trivial thoughts, a number of more or less imperative vital needs, alternations of physical health and disease, a scattered and inconsequent succession of joys and griefs, frequent minor disturbances and vicissitudes and rarer strong searchings and upheavals of mind or body, and through it all Nature, partly with the aid of his thought and will, partly without or in spite of it, arranging these things in some rough practical fashion, some tolerable disorderly order, — this is the material of his existence. The average human being even now is in his inward existence as crude and undeveloped as was the bygone primitive man in his outward life. But as soon as we go deep within ourselves, — and Yoga means a plunge into all the multiple profundities of the soul, — we find ourselves subjectively, as man in his growth has found himself objectively, surrounded by a whole complex world which we have to know and to conquer.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-74-75 (The first term of our progress) “Whoever sincerely enters the path of works, must leave behind him the stage in which need and desire are the first law of our acts. For whatever desires still trouble his being, he must, if he accepts the high aim of Yoga, put them away from him into the hands of the Lord within us. The supreme Power will deal with them for the good of the sadhaka and for the good of all. In effect, we find that once this surrender is done, — always provided the rejection is sincere, — egoistic indulgence of desire may for some time recur under the continued impulse of past nature but only in order to exhaust its acquired momentum and to teach the embodied being in his most unteachable part, his nervous, vital, emotional nature, by the reactions of desire, by its grief and unrest bitterly contrasted with calm periods of the higher peace or marvellous movements of divine Ananda, that egoistic desire is not a law for the soul that seeks liberation or aspires to its own original god-nature. Afterwards the element of desire in those impulsions will be thrown away or persistently eliminated by a constant denying and transforming pressure. Only the pure force of action in them (pravritti) justified by an equal delight in all work and result that is inspired or imposed from above will be preserved in the happy harmony of a final perfection. To act, to enjoy is the normal law and right of the nervous being; but to choose by personal desire its action and enjoyment is only its ignorant will, not its right. Alone the supreme and universal Will must choose; action must change into a dynamic movement of that Will; enjoyment must be replaced by the play of a pure spiritual Ananda . All personal will is either a temporary delegation from on high or a usurpation by the ignorant Asura .” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-209-210 “The social law, that second term of our progress , is a means to which the ego is subjected in order that it may learn discipline by subordination to a wider collective ego. This law may be quite empty of any moral content and may express only the needs or the practical good of the society as each society conceives it. Or it may express those needs and that good, but modified and coloured and supplemented by a higher moral or ideal law. It is binding on the developing but not yet perfectly developed individual in the shape of social duty, family obligation, communal or national demand, so long as it is not in conflict with his growing sense of the higher Right. But the sadhaka of the Karmayoga will abandon this also to the Lord of works. After he has made this surrender, his social impulses and judgments will, like his desires, only be used for their exhaustion or, it may be, so far as they are still necessary for a time to enable him to identify his lower mental nature with mankind in general or with any grouping of mankind in its works and hopes and aspirations. But after that brief time is over, they will be withdrawn and a divine government will alone abide. He will be identified with the Divine and with others only through the divine consciousness and not through the mental nature.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-210-211 “For, even after he is free, the sadhaka will be in the world and to be in the world is to remain in works. But to remain in works without desire is (1) to act for the good of the world in general or (2) for the kind or (3) the race or (4) for some new creation to be evolved on the earth or (5) some work imposed by the Divine Will within him. And this must be done either in the framework provided by the environment or the grouping in which he is born or placed or else in one which is chosen or created for him by a divine direction. Therefore in our perfection there must be nothing left in the mental being which conflicts with or prevents our sympathy and free self-identification with the kind, the group or whatever collective expression of the Divine he is meant to lead, help or serve. But in the end it must become a free self- identification through identity with the Divine and not a mental bond or moral tie of union or a vital association dominated by any kind of personal, social, national, communal or credal egoism. If any social law is obeyed, it will not be from physical necessity or from the sense of personal or general interest or for expediency or because of the pressure of the environment or from any sense of duty, but solely for the sake of the Lord of works and because it is felt or known to be the Divine Will that the social law or rule or relation as it stands can still be kept as a figure of the inner life and the minds of men must not be disturbed by its infringement. If, on the other hand, the social law, rule or relation is disregarded, that too will not be for the indulgence of desire, personal will or personal opinion, but because a greater rule is felt that expresses the law of the Spirit or because it is known that there must be in the march of the divine All-Will a movement towards the changing, exceeding or abolition of existing laws and forms for the sake of a freer larger life necessary to the world’s progress.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-211-212 “At first, the higher Love and Truth will fulfil its movement in the sadhaka according to the essential law or way of his own nature. For that is the special aspect of the divine Nature, the particular power of the supreme Shakti , out of which his soul has emerged into the Play, not limited indeed by the forms of this law or way, for the soul is infinite. But still its stuff of nature bears that stamp, evolves fluently along those lines or turns around the spiral curves of that dominating influence. (1) He will manifest the divine Truth-movement according to the temperament of the sage or (2) the lion-like fighter or (3) the lover and enjoyer or (4) the worker and servant or in any combination of essential attributes (of fourfold Soul force replacing the three gunas) that may constitute the form given to his being by its own inner urge. It is this self-nature playing freely in his acts which men will see in him and not a conduct cut, chalked out, artificially regulated, by any lesser rule or by any law from outside.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-212-213 “This ego or “I” is not a lasting truth, much less our essential part; it is only a formation of Nature, a mental form of thought-centralisation in the perceiving and discriminating mind, a vital form of the centralisation of feeling and sensation in our parts of life, a form of physical conscious reception centralising substance and function of substance in our bodies. All that we internally are is not ego, but consciousness, soul or spirit. All that we externally and superficially are and do is not ego but Nature. An executive cosmic force shapes us and dictates through our temperament and environment and mentality so shaped, through our individualised formulation of the cosmic energies, our actions and their results. Truly, we do not think, will or act but thought occurs in us, will occurs in us, impulse and act occur in us; our ego-sense gathers around itself, refers to itself all this flow of natural activities. It is cosmic Force, it is Nature that forms the thought, imposes the will, imparts the impulse. Our body, mind and ego are a wave of that sea of force in action and do not govern it, but by it are governed and directed. The sadhaka in his progress towards truth and self-knowledge must come to a point where the soul opens its eyes of vision and recognises this truth of ego and this truth of works. He gives up the idea of a mental, vital, physical “I” that acts or governs action; he recognises that Prakriti , Force of cosmic nature following her fixed modes, is the one and only worker in him and in all things and creatures. ” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-214 “If this is the truth of works, the first thing the sadhaka has to do is to recoil from the egoistic forms of activity and get rid of the sense of an “I” that acts. He has to see and feel that everything happens in him by the plastic conscious or subconscious or sometimes superconscious automatism of his mental and bodily instruments moved by the forces of spiritual, mental, vital and physical Nature. There is a personality on his surface that chooses and wills, submits and struggles, tries to make good in Nature or prevail over Nature, but this personality is itself a construction of Nature and so dominated, driven, determined by her that it cannot be free. It is a formation or expression of the Self in her, — it is a self of Nature rather than a self of Self, his natural and processive, not his spiritual and permanent being, a temporary constructed personality, not the true immortal Person. It is that Person that he must become. He must succeed in being inwardly quiescent, detach himself as the observer from the outer active personality and learn the play of the cosmic forces in him by standing back from all blinding absorption in its turns and movements. Thus calm, detached, a student of himself and a witness of his nature, he realises that he is the individual soul who observes the works of Nature, accepts tranquilly her results and sanctions or withholds his sanction from the impulse to her acts. At present this soul or Purusha is little more than an acquiescent spectator, influencing perhaps the action and development of the being by the pressure of its veiled consciousness, but for the most part delegating its powers or a fragment of them to the outer personality, — in fact to Nature, for this outer self is not lord but subject to her, anısa; but, once unveiled, it can make its sanction or refusal effective, become the master of the action, dictate sovereignly a change of Nature. Even if for a long time, as the result of fixed association and past storage of energy, the habitual movement takes place independent of the Purusha’s assent and even if the sanctioned movement is persistently refused by Nature for want of past habit, still he will discover that in the end his assent or refusal prevails, — slowly with much resistance or quickly with a rapid accommodation of her means and tendencies she modifies herself and her workings in the direction indicated by his inner sight or volition. Thus he learns in place of mental control or egoistic will an inner spiritual control which makes him master of the Nature-forces that work in him and not their unconscious instrument or mechanic slave. Above and around him is the Shakti, the universal Mother and from her he can get all his inmost soul needs and wills if only he has a true knowledge of her ways and a true surrender to the divine Will in her. Finally, he becomes aware of that highest dynamic Self within him and within Nature which is the source of all his seeing and knowing, the source of the sanction, the source of the acceptance, the source of the rejection. This is the Lord, the Supreme, the One-in-all, Ishwara-Shakti , of whom his soul is a portion, a being of that Being and a power of that Power. The rest of our progress depends on our knowledge of the ways in which the Lord of works manifests his Will in the world and in us and executes them through the transcendent and universal Shakti.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-217-218 “Here too, in this movement by which the soul divests itself gradually of the obscure robe of the ego, there is a 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 actions no less than of our results. This we must not see with the thinking mind only, it must become entirely true to our entire consciousness and will. The sadhaka has not only to think and know but to see and feel concretely and intensely even in the moment of the working and in its initiation and whole process that his works 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 nature and distort his supposed surrender to a higher Power into an excuse for a magnified and uncontrolled indulgence of his own self-will and even of his desires and passions. A great sincerity is asked for and has to be imposed not only on the conscious mind but still more on the subliminal part of us which is full of hidden movements. For there is there, especially in our subliminal vital nature, an incorrigible charlatan and actor. The sadhaka must first have advanced far in the elimination of desire and in the firm equality of his soul towards all workings and all happenings before he can utterly lay down the burden of his works on the Divine. At every moment he must proceed with a vigilant eye upon the deceits of the ego and the ambushes of the misleading Powers of Darkness who ever represent themselves as the one Source of Light and Truth and take on them a simulacrum of divine forms in order to capture the soul of the seeker.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-229-230 “When the sadhaka has once stood back from the action of Prakriti within him or upon him and, not interfering, not amending or inhibiting, not choosing or deciding, allowed its play and analysed and watched the process, he soon discovers that her modes are self-dependent and work as a machine once put in action works by its own structure and propelling forces. The force and the propulsion come from Prakriti and not from the creature. Then he realises how mistaken was his impression that his mind was the doer of his works; his mind was only a small part of him and a creation and engine of Nature. Nature was acting all the while in her own modes moving the three general qualities about as a girl might play with her puppets. His ego was all along a tool and plaything; his character and intelligence, his moral qualities and mental powers, his creations and works and exploits, his anger and forbearance, his cruelty and mercy, his love and his hatred, his sin and his virtue, his light and his darkness, his passion of joy and his anguish of sorrow were the play of Nature to which the soul, attracted, won and subjected, lent its passive concurrence. And yet the determinism of Nature or Force is not all; the soul has a word to say in the matter, — but the secret soul, the Purusha , not the mind or the ego, since these are not independent entities, they are parts of Nature. For the soul’s sanction is needed for the play and by an inner silent will as the lord and giver of the sanction it can determine the principle of the play and intervene in its combinations, although the execution in thought and will and act and impulse must still be Nature’s part and privilege. The Purusha can dictate a harmony for Nature to execute, not by interfering in her functions but by a conscious regard on her which she transmutes at once or after much difficulty into translating idea and dynamic impetus and significant figure.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-236 “If one has walked long and steadily in the path, the faith of the heart will remain under the fiercest adverse pressure; even if it is concealed or apparently overborne, it will take the first opportunity to re-emerge. For something higher than either heart or intellect upholds it in spite of the worst stumblings and through the most prolonged failure. But even to the experienced sadhaka such falterings or overcloudings bring a retardation of his progress and they are exceedingly dangerous to the novice. It is therefore necessary from the beginning to understand and accept the arduous difficulty of the path and to feel the need of a faith which to the intellect may seem blind, but yet is wiser than our reasoning intelligence. For this faith is a support from above; it is the brilliant shadow thrown by a secret light that exceeds the intellect and its data; it is the heart of a hidden knowledge that is not at the mercy of immediate appearances. Our faith, persevering, will be justified in its works and will be lifted and transfigured at last into the self-revelation of a divine knowledge. Always we must adhere to the injunction of the Gita, “Yoga must be continually applied with a heart free from despondent sinking.” (Th Gita-6.23) Always we must repeat to the doubting intellect the promise of the Master, “I will surely deliver thee from all sin and evil; do not grieve.” (The Gita-18.66) At the end, the flickerings of faith will cease; for we shall see his face and feel always the Divine Presence.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-245 "If such be the intention of the Supreme within him, the liberated soul (traditional Sadhak) may be content with a subtle and limited action within the old human surroundings which will in no way seek to change their outward appearance. But it (Sadhak of integral Yoga) may too be called to a work which will not only alter the forms and sphere of its own external life but, leaving nothing around it unchanged or unaffected, create a new world or a new order." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-268 “To arrive then at this settled divine status (Self-possession) must be the object of our concentration. The first step in concentration must be always to accustom the discursive mind to a settled unwavering pursuit of a single course of connected thought on a single subject and this it must do undistracted by all lures and alien calls on its attention. Such concentration is common enough in our ordinary life, but it becomes more difficult when we have to do it inwardly without any outward object or action on which to keep the mind; yet this inward concentration is what the seeker of knowledge must effect. Nor must it be merely the consecutive thought of the intellectual thinker, whose only object is to conceive and intellectually link together his conceptions. It is not, except perhaps at first, a process of reasoning that is wanted so much as a dwelling so far as possible on the fruitful essence of the idea which by the insistence of the soul’s will upon it must yield up all the facets of its truth. Thus if it be the divine Love that is the subject of concentration, it is on the essence of the idea of God as Love that the mind should concentrate in such a way that the various manifestation of the divine Love should arise luminously, not only to the thought, but in the heart and being and vision of the sadhaka. The thought may come first and the experience afterwards, but equally the experience may come first and the knowledge arise out of the experience. Afterwards the thing attained has to be dwelt on and more and more held till it becomes a constant experience and finally the dharma or law of the being.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-323 “For the sadhaka of an integral Yoga none of these reasons are valid. With weakness and selfishness, however spiritual in their guise or trend, he can have no dealings; a divine strength and courage and a divine compassion and helpfulness are the very stuff of that which he would be, they are that very nature of the Divine which he would take upon himself as a robe of spiritual light and beauty. The revolvings of the great wheel bring to him no sense of terror or giddiness; he rises above it in his soul and knows from above their divine law and their divine purpose. The difficulty of harmonising the divine life with human living, of being in God and yet living in man is the very difficulty that he is set here to solve and not to shun. He has learned that the joy, the peace and the deliverance are an imperfect crown and no real possession if they do not form a state secure in itself, inalienable to the soul, not dependent on aloofness and inaction but firm in the storm and the race and the battle, unsullied whether by the joy of the world or by its suffering. The ecstasy of the divine embrace will not abandon him because he obeys the impulse of divine love for God in humanity; or if it seems to draw back from him for a while, he knows by experience that it is to try and test him still farther so that some imperfection in his own way of meeting it may fall away from him. Personal salvation he does not seek except as a necessity for the human fulfilment and because he who is himself in bonds cannot easily free others, — though to God nothing is impossible; for a heaven of personal joys he has no hankerings even as a hell of personal sufferings has for him no terrors. If there is an opposition between the spiritual life and that of the world, it is that gulf which he is here to bridge, that opposition which he is here to change into a harmony. If the world is ruled by the flesh and the devil, all the more reason that the children of Immortality should be here to conquer it for God and the Spirit. If life is an insanity, then there are so many million souls to whom there must be brought the light of divine reason; if a dream, yet is it real within itself to so many dreamers who must be brought either to dream nobler dreams or to awaken; or if a lie, then the truth has to be given to the deluded. Nor, if it be said that only by the luminous example of escape from the world can we help the world, shall we accept that dogma, since the contrary example of great Avataras is there to show that not only by rejecting the life of the world as it is can we help, but also and more by accepting and uplifting it. And if it is a play of the All-Existence, then we may well consent to play out our part in it with grace and courage, well take delight in the game along with our divine Playmate.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-327-328 “Nor is it enough for the sadhaka to have the utter realisation only in the trance of Samadhi or in a motionless quietude, but he must in trance or in waking, in passive reflection or energy of action be able to remain in the constant Samadhi of the firmly founded Brahmic consciousness. But if or when our conscious being has become sufficiently pure and clear, then there is a firm station in the higher consciousness. The impersonalised Jiva, one with the universal or possessed by the Transcendent, lives high-seated above and looks down undisturbed at whatever remnants of the old working of Nature may revisit the system. He cannot be moved by the workings of the three modes of Prakriti in his lower being, nor can he be shaken from his station by the attacks even of grief and suffering. And finally, there being no veil between, the higher peace overpowers the lower disturbance and mobility. There is a settled silence in which the soul can take sovereign possession of itself above and below and altogether.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-364-365 “These ideas of dream and illusion are simply results in our still existent mentality of the new poise of the Jiva and its denial of the claim made upon it by its old mental associations and view of life and existence. In reality, the Prakriti does not act for itself or by its own motion, but with the Self as lord; for out of that Silence wells all this action , that apparent Void looses out as if into movement all these infinite riches of experience. To this realisation the sadhaka of the integral Yoga must arrive by the process that we shall hereafter describe. What then, when he so resumes his hold upon the universe and views no longer himself in the world but the cosmos in himself, will be the position of the Jiva or what will fill in his new consciousness the part of the ego-sense? There will be no ego-sense even if there is a sort of individualisation for the purposes of the play of universal consciousness in an individual mind and frame; and for this reason that all will be unforgettably the One and every Person or Purusha will be to him the One in many forms or rather in many aspects and poises, Brahman acting upon Brahman , one Nara-Narayana everywhere. In that larger play of the Divine the joy of the relations of divine love also is possible without the lapse into the ego-sense, — just as the supreme state of human love likewise is described as the unity of one soul in two bodies. The ego-sense is not indispensable to the world-play in which it is so active and so falsifies the truth of things; the truth is always the One at work on itself, at play with itself, infinite in unity, infinite in multiplicity. When the individualised consciousness rises to and lives in that truth of the cosmic play, then even in full action, even in possession of the lower being the Jiva remains still one with the Lord, and there is no bondage and no delusion. He is in possession of Self and released from the ego.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-366-367 “For our real self is not the individual mental being, that is only a figure, an appearance; our real self is cosmic, infinite, it is one with all existence and the inhabitant of all existences. The self behind our mind, life and body is the same as the self behind the mind, life and body of all our fellow-beings, (There is one Spiritual being and many Psychic beings.) and if we come to possess it, we shall naturally, when we turn to look out again upon them, tend to become one with them in the common basis of our consciousness. It is true that the mind opposes any such identification and if we allow it to persist in its old habits and activities, it will rather strive to bring again its veil of dissonances over our new realisation and possession of self than to shape and subject itself to this true and eternal vision of things. But in the first place , if we have proceeded rightly on the path of our Yoga, we shall have attained to Self through a purified mind and heart, and a purified mind is one that is necessarily passive and open to the knowledge . Secondly, even the mind in spite of its tendency to limit and divide can be taught to think in the rhythm of the unifying Truth instead of the broken terms of the limiting appearance. We must therefore accustom it by meditation and concentration to cease to think of things and beings as separately existent in themselves and rather to think always of the One everywhere and of all things as the One. Although we have spoken hitherto of the withdrawing motion of the Jiva as the first necessity of knowledge and as if it were to be pursued alone and by itself, yet in fact it is better for the sadhaka of the integral Yoga to unite the two movements. (1) By one he will find the self within, (2) by the other he will find that self in all that seems to us at present to be outside us. It is possible indeed to begin with the latter movement, to realise all things in this visible and sensible existence as God or Brahman or Virat Purusha and then to go beyond to all that is behind the Virat . But this has its inconveniences and it is better, if that be found possible, to combine the two movements.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-370-371 “This realisation of all things as God or Brahman has, as we have seen, three aspects of which we can conveniently make three successive stages of experience. First, there is the Self in whom all beings exist. The Spirit, the Divine has manifested itself as infinite self-extended being, self-existent, pure, not subject to Time and Space, but supporting Time and Space as figures of its consciousness. It is more than all things and contains them all within that self-extended being and consciousness, not bound by anything that it creates, holds or becomes, but free and infinite and all-blissful. It holds them, in the old image, as the infinite ether contains in itself all objects. This image of the ethereal (Akasha) Brahman may indeed be of great practical help to the sadhaka who finds a difficulty in meditating on what seems to him at first an abstract and unseizable idea. In the image of the ether, not physical but an encompassing ether of vast being, consciousness and bliss, he may seek to see with the mind and to feel in his mental being this supreme existence and to identify it in oneness with the self within him. By such meditation the mind may be brought to a favourable state of predisposition in which, by the rending or withdrawing of the veil, the supramental vision may flood the mentality and change entirely all our seeing. And upon that change of seeing, as it becomes more and more potent and insistent and occupies all our consciousness, there will supervene eventually a change of becoming so that what we see we become. We shall be in our self-consciousness not so much cosmic as ultra-cosmic, infinite. Mind and life and body will then be only movements in that infinity which we have become, and we shall see that what exists is not world at all but simply this infinity of spirit in which move the mighty cosmic harmonies of its own images of self-conscious becoming.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-371 “The sadhaka of an integral Yoga will take an integral view of his goal and seek its integral realisation. The Divine has many essential modes of His eternal self-manifestation, possesses and finds Himself on many planes and through many poles of His being; to each mode its purpose, to each plane or pole its fulfilment both in the apex and the supreme scope of the eternal Unity. It is necessarily through the individual Self that we must arrive at the One, for that is the basis of all our experience. By Knowledge we arrive at identity with the One; for there is, in spite of the Dualist, an essential identity by which we can plunge into our Source and free ourselves from all bondage to individuality and even from all bondage to universality. Nor is the experience of that identity a gain for knowledge only or for the pure state of abstract being. The height of all our action also, we have seen, is the immersion of ourselves in the Lord through unity with the divine Will or Conscious-Power by the way of works; the height of love is the rapturous immersion of ourselves in unity of ecstatic delight with the object of our love and adoration. But again for divine works in the world the individual Self converts itself into a centre of consciousness through which the divine Will, one with the divine Love and Light, pours itself out in the multiplicity of the universe. We arrive in the same way at our unity with all our fellow-beings through the identity of this self with the Supreme and with the self in all others. At the same time in the action of Nature we preserve by it as soul-form of the One a differentiation which enables us to preserve relations of difference in Oneness with other beings and with the Supreme Himself. The relations will necessarily be very different in essence and spirit from those which we had when we lived entirely in the Ignorance and Oneness was a mere name or a struggling aspiration of imperfect love, sympathy or yearning. Unity will be the law, difference will be simply for the various enjoyment of that unity. Neither descending again into that plane of division which clings to the separation of the ego-sense nor attached to an exclusive seeking for pure identity which cannot have to do with any play of difference, we shall embrace and reconcile the two poles of being where they meet in the infinity of the Highest.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-377-378 “But the sadhaka of the integral Yoga has to harmonise all so that they may become a plenary and equal unity of the full realisation of Sachchidananda. Here the last difficulty of mind meets him, its inability to hold at once the unity and the multiplicity. It is not altogether difficult to arrive at and dwell in a pure infinite or even, at the same time, a perfect global experience of the Existence which is Consciousness which is Delight. The mind may even extend its experience of this Unity to the multiplicity so as to perceive it immanent in the universe and in each object, force, movement in the universe or at the same time to be aware of this Existence-Consciousness-Bliss containing the universe and enveloping all its objects and originating all its movements. It is difficult indeed for it to unite and harmonise rightly all these experiences; but still it can possess Sachchidananda at once in himself and immanent in all and the continent of all. But with this to unite the final experience of all this as Sachchidananda and possess objects, movements, forces, forms as no other than He, is the great difficulty for mind. Separately any of these things may be done; the mind may go from one to the other, rejecting one as it arrives at another and calling this the lower or that the higher existence. But to unify without losing, to integralise without rejecting is its supreme difficulty .” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-399 “When the sadhaka has followed the discipline of withdrawal from the various identifications of the self with the ego, the mind, the life, the body, he has arrived at realisation by knowledge of a pure, still, self-aware existence, one, undivided, peaceful, inactive, undisturbed by the action of the world. The only relation that this Self seems to have with the world is that of a disinterested Witness not at all involved in or affected or even touched by any of its activities. If this state of consciousness is pushed farther one becomes aware of a self even more remote from world-existence; all that is in the world is in a sense in that Self and yet at the same time extraneous to its conscious- ness, non-existent in its existence, existing only in a sort of unreal mind, — a dream therefore, an illusion. This aloof and transcendent Real Existence may be realised as an utter Self of one’s own being; or the very idea of a self and of one’s own being may be swallowed up in it, so that it is only for the mind an unknowable That, unknowable to the mental consciousness and without any possible kind of actual connection or commerce with world-existence. It can even be realised by the mental being as a Nihil, Non-Existence or Void, but a Void of all that is in the world, a Non-existence of all that is in the world and yet the only Reality. To proceed farther towards that Transcendence by concentration of one’s own being upon it is to lose mental existence and world-existence altogether and cast oneself into the Unknowable.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-401 “The difficulty is created by the exclusive concentration of the mental being on its plane of pure existence in which consciousness is at rest in passivity and delight of existence at rest in peace of existence. It has to embrace also its plane of conscious force of existence in which consciousness is active as power and will and delight is active as joy of existence. Here the difficulty is that mind is likely to precipitate itself into the consciousness of Force instead of possessing it. The extreme mental state of precipitation into Nature is that of the ordinary man who takes his bodily and vital activity and the mind-movements dependent on them for his whole real existence and regards all passivity of the soul as a departure from existence and an approach towards nullity. He lives in the superficies of the active Brahman and while to the silent soul exclusively concentrated in the passive self all activities are mere name and form, to him they are the only reality and it is the Self that is merely a name. In one the passive Brahman stands aloof from the active and does not share in its consciousness; in the other the active Brahman stands aloof from the passive and does not share in its consciousness nor wholly possess its own. Each is to the other in these exclusivenesses an inertia of status or an inertia of mechanically active non-possession of self if not altogether an unreality. But the sadhaka who has once seen firmly the essence of things and tasted thoroughly the peace of the silent Self, is not likely to be content with any state which involves loss of self-knowledge or a sacrifice of the peace of the soul. He will not precipitate himself back into the mere individual movement of mind and life and body with all its ignorance and straining and distur- bance. Whatever new status he may acquire, will only satisfy him if it is founded upon and includes that which he has already found to be indispensable to real self-knowledge, self-delight and self-possession.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-407 “In the Vijnana the right relation and action of Purusha and Prakriti are found, because there they become unified and the Divine is no longer veiled in Maya. All is his action. The Jiva no longer says “I think, I act, I desire, I feel”; he does not even say like the sadhaka striving after unity but before he has reached it, “As appointed by Thee seated in my heart, I act.” For the heart, the centre of the mental consciousness is no longer the centre of origination but only a blissful channel. He is rather aware of the Divine seated above, lord of all, adhisthita, as well as acting within him. And seated himself in that higher being, parardhe, paramasyam paravati, he can say truly and boldly, “God himself by his Prakriti knows, acts, loves, takes delight through my individuality and its figures and fulfils there in its higher and divine measures the multiple lıla which the Infinite for ever plays in the universality which is himself for ever.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-496-497 “On the other hand, the way of devotion is impossible if the personality of the Divine cannot be taken as a reality, a real reality and not a hypostasis of the illusion. There can be no love without a lover and beloved. If our personality is an illusion and the Personality to whom our adoration rises only a primary aspect of the illusion, and if we believe that, then love and adoration must at once be killed, or can only survive in the illogical passion of the heart denying by its strong beats of life the clear and dry truths of the reason. To love and adore a shadow of our minds or a bright cosmic phenomenon which vanishes from the eye of Truth, may be possible, but the way of salvation cannot be built upon a foundation of wilful self-deception. The bhakta indeed does not allow these doubts of the intellect to come in his way; he has the divinations of his heart, and these are to him sufficient. But the sadhaka of the integral Yoga has to know the eternal and ultimate Truth and not to persist to the end in the delight of a Shadow. If the impersonal is the sole enduring truth, then a firm synthesis is impossible. He can at most take the divine personality as a symbol, a powerful and effective fiction, but he will have in the end to overpass it and to abandon devotion for the sole pursuit of the ultimate knowledge. He will have to empty being of all its symbols, values, contents in order to arrive at the featureless Reality.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-577-578 “But the moment the individual soul leans away from the universal and transcendent truth of its being, leans towards ego, tries to make this will a thing of its own, a separate personal energy, that will changes its character: it becomes an effort, a straining, a heat of force which may have its fiery joys of effectuation and of possession, but has also its afflicting recoils and pain of labour. It is this that turns in each instrument into an intellectual, emotional, dynamic, sensational or vital will of desire, wish, craving. Even when the instruments per se are purified of their own apparent initiative and particular kind of desire, this imperfect tapas may still remain, and so long as it conceals the source or deforms the type of the inner action, the soul has not the bliss of liberty, or can only have it by refraining from all action; even, if allowed to persist, it will rekindle the pranic or other desires or at least throw a reminiscent shadow of them on the being. This spiritual seed or beginning of desire too must be expelled, renounced, cast away: the sadhaka must either choose an active peace and complete inner silence or lose individual initiation, sankalparambha, in a unity with the universal will, the tapas of the divine Shakti. The passive way is to be inwardly immobile, without effort, wish, expectation or any turn to action, niscesta, anıha, nirapeksa, nivritta; the active way is to be thus immobile and impersonal in the mind, but to allow the supreme Will in its spiritual purity to act through the purified instruments. Then, if the soul abides on the level of the spiritualised mentality, it becomes an instrument only, but is itself without initiative or action, niskriya, sarvarambha-parityagı. But if it rises to the gnosis, it is at once an instrument and a participant in the bliss of the divine action and the bliss of the divine Ananda ; it unifies in itself the prakriti and the purusa .” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-676 “This equal poise in action is especially necessary for the sadhaka of the integral Yoga. First, he must acquire that equal assent and understanding which will respond to the law of the divine action without trying to impose on it a partial will and the violent claim of a personal aspiration. A wise impersonality, a quiescent equality, a universality which sees all things as the manifestations of the Divine, the one Existence, is not angry, troubled, impatient with the way of things or on the other hand excited, over-eager and precipitate, but sees that the law must be obeyed and the pace of time respected, observes and understands with sympathy the actuality of things and beings, but looks also behind the present appearance to their inner significances and forward to the unrolling of their divine possibilities, is the first thing demanded of those who would do works as the perfect instruments of the Divine. But this impersonal acquiescence is only the basis. Man is the instrument of an evolution which wears at first the mask of a struggle, but grows more and more into its truer and deeper sense of a constant wise adjustment and must take on in a rising scale the deepest truth and significance — now only underlying the adjustment and struggle — of a universal harmony. The perfected human soul must always be an instrument for the hastening of the ways of this evolution. For that a divine power acting with the royalty of the divine will in it must be in whatever degree present in the nature. But to be accomplished and permanent, steadfast in action, truly divine, it has to proceed on the basis of a spiritual equality, a calm, impersonal and equal self-identification with all beings, an understanding of all energies. The Divine acts with a mighty power in the myriad workings of the universe, but with the supporting light and force of an imperturbable oneness, freedom and peace. That must be the type of the perfected soul’s divine works. And equality is the condition of the being which makes possible this changed spirit in the action.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-700-701 “The first business of the sadhaka is to see whether he has the perfect equality, how far he has gone in this direction or else where is the flaw, and to exercise steadily his will on his nature or invite the will of the Purusha to get rid of the defect and its causes. There are four things that he must have; first, equality in the most concrete practical sense of the word, samata, freedom from mental, vital, physical preferences, an even acceptance of all God’s workings within and around him; secondly, a firm peace and absence of all disturbance and trouble, santi; thirdly, a positive inner spiritual happiness and spiritual ease of the natural being which nothing can lessen, sukham; fourthly, a clear joy and laughter of the soul embracing life and existence. To be equal is to be infinite and universal, not to limit oneself, not to bind oneself down to this or that form of the mind and life and its partial preferences and desires. But since man in his present normal nature lives by his mental and vital formations, not in the freedom of his spirit, attachment to them and the desires and preferences they involve is also his normal condition. To accept them is at first inevitable, to get beyond them exceedingly difficult and not, perhaps, altogether possible so long as we are compelled to use the mind as the chief instrument of our action. The first necessity therefore is to take at least the sting out of them, to deprive them, even when they persist, of their greater insistence, their present egoism, their more violent claim on our nature.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-721-722, “The test that we have done this is the presence of an undisturbed calm in the mind and spirit. The sadhaka must be on the watch as the witnessing and willing Purusha behind or, better, as soon as he can manage it, above the mind, and repel even the least indices or incidence of trouble, anxiety, grief, revolt, disturbance in his mind. If these things come, he must at once detect their source, the defect which they indicate, the fault of egoistic claim, vital desire, emotion or idea from which they start and this he must discourage by his will, his spiritualised intelligence, his soul unity with the Master of his being. On no account must he admit any excuse for them, however natural, righteous in seeming or plausible, or any inner or outer justification. If it is the prana which is troubled and clamorous, he must separate himself from the troubled prana, keep seated his higher nature in the buddhi and by the buddhi school and reject the claim of the desire-soul in him; and so too if it is the heart of emotion that makes the clamour and the disturbance. If on the other hand it is the will and intelligence itself that is at fault, then the trouble is more difficult to command, because then his chief aid and instrument becomes an accomplice of the revolt against the divine Will and the old sins of the lower members take advantage of this sanction to raise their diminished heads. Therefore there must be a constant insistence on one main idea, the self-surrender to the Master of our being, God within us and in the world, the supreme Self, the universal Spirit. The buddhi dwelling always in this master idea must discourage all its own lesser insistences and preferences and teach the whole being that the ego whether it puts forth its claim through the reason, the personal will, the heart or the desire-soul in the prana, has no just claim of any kind and all grief, revolt, impatience, trouble is a violence against the Master of the being. This complete self-surrender must be the chief mainstay of the sadhak a because it is the only way, apart from complete quiescence and indifference to all action, — and that has to be avoided, — by which the absolute calm and peace can come. The persistence of trouble, asanti, the length of time taken for this purification and perfection, itself must not be allowed to become a reason for discouragement and impatience. It comes because there is still something in the nature which responds to it, and the recurrence of trouble serves to bring out the presence of the defect, put the sadhaka upon his guard and bring about a more enlightened and consistent action of the will to get rid of it. When the trouble is too strong to be kept out, it must be allowed to pass and its return discouraged by a greater vigilance and insistence of the spiritualised buddhi. Thus persisting, it will be found that these things lose their force more and more, become more and more external and brief in their recurrence, until finally calm becomes the law of the being. This rule persists so long as the mental buddhi is the chief instrument; but when the supramental light takes possession of mind and heart, then there can be no trouble, grief or disturbance; for that brings with it a spiritual nature of illumined strength in which these things can have no place. There the only vibrations and emotions are those which belong to the anandamaya nature of divine unity.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-722-724 “This however is a stage and not the whole perfection. The existence, however comparatively large and free, is still subject to the inferior nature. The sattwic, rajasic and tamasic ego is diminished but not eliminated; or if it seems to disappear, it has only sunk in our parts of action into the universal operation of the gunas , remains involved in them and is still working in a covert, subconscient fashion and may force itself to the front at any time. The sadhaka has therefore first to keep the idea and get the realisation of a one self or spirit in all behind all these workings (universalization of Consciousness). He must be aware behind Prakriti of the one supreme and universal Purusha . He must see and feel not only that all is the self-shaping of the one Force, Prakriti or Nature, but that all her actions are those of the Divine in all, the one Godhead in all, however veiled, altered and as it were perverted — for perversion comes by a conversion into lower forms — by transmission through the ego and the gunas. This will farther diminish the open or covert insistence of the ego and, if thoroughly realised, it will make it difficult or impossible for it to assert itself in such a way as to disturb or hamper the farther progress. The ego-sense will become, so far as it interferes at all, a foreign intrusive element and only a fringe of the mist of the old ignorance hanging on to the outskirts of the consciousness and its action. And, secondly, the universal Shakt i must be realised, must be seen and felt and borne in the potent purity of its higher action, its supramental and spiritual workings. This greater vision of the Shakti will enable us to escape from the control of the gunas , to convert them into their divine equivalents and dwell in a consciousness in which the Purusha and Prakriti are one and not separated or hidden in or behind each other. There the Shakti will be in its every movement evident to us and naturally, spontaneously, irresistibly felt as nothing else but the active presence of the Divine, the shape of power of the supreme Self and Spirit.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-763 “There is however a possibility of arriving at this result without the passage through the passivity of the mental Purusha, by a more persistently and predominantly kinetic Yoga. Or there may be a combination of both the methods, alternations between them and an ultimate fusion. And here the problem of spiritual action assumes a more simple form. In this kinetic movement there are three stages. (1) In the first the Jiva is aware of the supreme Shakti, receives the power into himself and uses it under her direction, with a certain sense of being the subordinate doer, a sense of minor responsibility in the action, — even at first, it may be, a responsibility for the result; but that disappears, for the result is seen to be determined by the higher Power, and only the action is felt to be partly his own. (2) The sadhaka then feels that it is he who is thinking, willing, doing, but feels too the divine Shakti or Prakriti behind driving and shaping all his thought, will, feeling and action: the individual energy belongs in a way to him, but is still only a form and an instrument of the universal divine Energy. (3) The Master of the Power may be hidden from him for a time by the action of the Shakti, or he may be aware of the Ishwara sometimes or continually manifest to him. In the latter case there are three things present to his consciousness, (1) himself as the servant of the Ishwara, the Shakti behind as a great Power supplying the energy, shaping the action, formulating the results, the Ishwara above determining by his will the whole action. (2) In the second stage the individual doer disappears, but there is not necessarily any quietistic passivity; there may be a full kinetic action, only all is done by the Shakti . It is her power of knowledge which takes shape as thought in the mind; the sadhaka has no sense of himself thinking, but of the Shakti thinking in him. The will and the feelings and action are also in the same way nothing but a formation, operation, activity of the Shakti in her immediate presence and full possession of all the system. (3) The sadhaka does not think, will, act, feel, but thought, will, feeling, action happen in his system. The individual on the side of action has disappeared into oneness with universal Prakriti, has become an individualised form and action of the divine Shakti . He is still aware of his personal existence, but it is as the Purusha supporting and observing the whole action, conscious of it in his self-knowledge and enabling by his participation the divine Shakti to do in him the works and the will of the Ishwara . The Master of the power is then sometimes hidden by the action of the power, sometimes appears governing it and compelling its workings. Here too there are three things present to the consciousness, (1) the Shakti carrying on all the knowledge, thought, will, feeling, action for the Ishwara in an instrumental human form, the Ishwara, the Master of existence governing and compelling all her action, and ourself as the soul, the Purusha of her individual action enjoying all the relations with him which are created by her workings. (2) There is another form of this realisation in which the Jiva disappears into and becomes one with the Shakti and there is then only the play of the Shakti with the Ishwara, Mahadeva and Kali, Krishna and Radha, the Deva and the Devi. (3) This is the intensest possible form of the Jiva’s realisation of himself as a manifestation of Nature, a power of the being of the Divine, para prakritir jıva-bhuta. ” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-768-769 “The faith demanded of us both in its general principle and its constant particular application amounts to a large and ever increasing and a constantly purer, fuller and stronger assent of the whole being and all its parts to the presence and guidance of God and the Shakti. The faith in the Shakti, as long as we are not aware of and filled with her presence, must necessarily be preceded or at least accompanied by a firm and virile faith in our own spiritual will and energy and our power to move successfully towards unity and freedom and perfection. Man is given faith in himself, his ideas and his powers that he may work and create and rise to greater things and in the end bring his strength as a worthy offering to the altar of the Spirit. This spirit, says the Scripture, is not to be won by the weak, nayamatma balahınena labhyah . . All paralysing self-distrust has to be discouraged, all doubt of our strength to accomplish, for that is a false assent to impotence, an imagination of weakness and a denial of the omnipotence of the spirit. A present incapacity, however heavy may seem its pressure, is only a trial of faith and a temporary difficulty and to yield to the sense of inability is for the seeker of the integral Yoga a non-sense, for his object is a development of a perfection that is there already, latent in the being, because man carries the seed of the divine life in himself, in his own spirit, the possibility of success is involved and implied in the effort and victory is assured because behind is the call and guidance of an omnipotent power. At the same time this faith in oneself must be purified from all touch of rajasic egoism and spiritual pride. The sadhaka should keep as much as possible in his mind the idea that his strength is not his own in the egoistic sense but that of the divine universal Shakti and whatever is egoistic in his use of it must be a cause of limitation and in the end an obstacle. The power of the divine universal Shakti which is behind our aspiration is illimitable, and when it is rightly called upon it cannot fail to pour itself into us and to remove whatever incapacity and obstacle, now or later; for the times and durations of our struggle while they depend at first, instrumentally and in part, on the strength of our faith and our endeavour, are yet eventually in the hands of the wisely determining secret Spirit, alone the Master of the Yoga, the Ishwara .” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-779-780 The Difficult Task given to a Sadhaka of The Synthesis of Yoga: "In psychological fact this method translates itself into the progressive surrender of the ego with its whole field and all its apparatus to the Beyond-ego with its vast and incalculable but always inevitable workings. Certainly, this is no short cut or easy sadhana. It requires a colossal faith, an absolute courage and above all an unflinching patience. For it implies three stages of which only the last can be wholly blissful or rapid, — the attempt of the ego to enter into contact with the Divine, the wide, full and therefore laborious preparation of the whole lower Nature by the divine working to receive and become the higher Nature, and the eventual transformation. In fact, however, the divine Strength, often unobserved and behind the veil, substitutes itself for our weakness and supports us through all our failings of faith, courage and patience. It “makes the blind to see and the lame to stride over the hills.” The intellect becomes aware of a Law that beneficently insists and a succour that upholds; the heart speaks of a Master of all things and Friend of man or a universal Mother who upholds through all stumblings. Therefore this path is at once the most difficult imaginable and yet, in comparison with the magnitude of its effort and object, the most easy and sure of all." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-46 “But usually the representative influence occupies a much larger place in the life of the sadhaka . If the Yoga is guided by a received written Shastra, — some Word from the past which embodies the experience of former Yogins, — it may be practised either by personal effort alone or with the aid of a Guru . The spiritual knowledge is then gained through meditation on the truths that are taught and it is made living and conscious by their realisation in the personal experience; the Yoga proceeds by the results of prescribed methods taught in a Scripture or a tradition and reinforced and illumined by the instructions of the Master. This is a narrower practice, but safe and effective within its limits, because it follows a well-beaten track to a long familiar goal. For the sadhaka of the integral Yoga it is necessary to remember that no written Shastra , however great its authority or however large its spirit, can be more than a partial expression of the eternal Knowledge. He will use, but never bind himself even by the greatest Scripture. Where the Scripture is profound, wide, catholic, it may exercise upon him an influence for the highest good and of incalculable importance. It may be associated in his experience with his awakening to crowning verities and his realisation of the highest experiences. His Yoga may be governed for a long time by one Scripture or by several successively, — if it is in the line of the great Hindu tradition, by the Gita, for example, the Upanishads, the Veda. Or it may be a good part of his development to include in its material a richly varied experience of the truths of many Scriptures and make the future opulent with all that is best in the past. But in the end he must take his station, or better still, if he can, always and from the beginning he must live in his own soul beyond the limitations of the word that he uses. The Gita itself thus declares that the Yogin in his progress must pass beyond the written Truth, sabdabrahmativartate — beyond all that he has heard and all that he has yet to hear, — srotavyasya srutasya ca . For he is not the sadhaka of a book or of many books; he is a sadhaka of the Infinite. Another kind of Shastra is not Scripture, but a statement of the science and methods, the effective principles and way of working of the path of Yoga which the sadhaka elects to follow. Each path has its Shastra , either written or traditional, passing from mouth to mouth through a long line of Teachers. In India a great authority, a high reverence even is ordinarily attached to the written or traditional teaching. All the lines of the Yoga are supposed to be fixed and the Teacher who has received the Shastra by tradition and realised it in practice guides the disciple along the immemorial tracks. One often even hears the objection urged against a new practice, a new Yogic teaching, the adoption of a new formula, “It is not according to the Shastra.” But neither in fact nor in the actual practice of the Yogins is there really any such entire rigidity of an iron door shut against new truth, fresh revelation, widened experience. The written or traditional teaching expresses the knowledge and experiences of many centuries systematised, organised, made attainable to the beginner. Its importance and utility are therefore immense. But a great freedom of variation and development is always practicable. Even so highly scientific a system as Rajayoga can be practised on other lines than the organised method of Patanjali . Each of the three paths of the trimarga breaks into many bypaths which meet again at the goal. The general knowledge on which the Yoga depends is fixed, but the order, the succession, the devices, the forms must be allowed to vary; for the needs and particular impulsions of the individual nature have to be satisfied even while the general truths remain firm and constant.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-55-56 "An integral and synthetic Yoga needs especially not to be bound by any written or traditional Shastra; for while it embraces the knowledge received from the past, it seeks to organise it anew for the present and the future. An absolute liberty of experience and of the restatement of knowledge in new terms and new combinations is the condition of its self-formation. Seeking to embrace all life in itself, it is in the position not of a pilgrim following the highroad to his destination, but, to that extent at least, of a path-finder hewing his way through a virgin forest. For Yoga has long diverged from life and the ancient systems which sought to embrace it, such as those of our Vedic forefathers, are far away from us, expressed in terms which are no longer accessible, thrown into forms which are no longer applicable. Since then mankind has moved forward on the current of eternal Time and the same problem has to be approached from a new starting-point." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-56-57 "In the conflict of the claims of society with the claims of the in- dividual two ideal and absolute solutions confront one another. There is the demand of the group that the individual should subordinate himself more or less completely or even lose his independent existence in the community, — the smaller must be immolated or self-offered to the larger unit. He must accept the need of the society as his own need, the desire of the society as his own desire; he must live not for himself but for the tribe, clan, commune or nation of which he is a member. The ideal and abso- lute solution from the individual’s standpoint would be a society that existed not for itself, for its all-overriding collective purpose, but for the good of the individual and his fulfilment, for the greater and more perfect life of all its members. Representing as far as possible his best self and helping him to realise it, it would respect the freedom of each of its members and maintain itself not by law and force but by the free and spontaneous consent of its constituent persons. An ideal society of either kind does not exist anywhere and would be most difficult to create, more difficult still to keep in precarious existence so long as individual man clings to his egoism as the primary motive of existence. A general but not complete domination of the society over the individual is the easier way and it is the system that Nature from the first instinctively adopts and keeps in equilibrium by rigorous law, compelling custom and a careful indoctrination of the still subservient and ill-developed intelligence of the human creature." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-195-196 The More Difficult Task for a Sadhak of The Synthesis of Yoga : “But for the sadhaka of the integral Yoga this inner or this outer solitude can only be incidents or periods in his spiritual progress. Accepting life, he has to bear not only his own burden, but a great part of the world’s burden too along with it, as a continuation of his own sufficiently heavy load. Therefore his Yoga has much more of the nature of a battle than others; but this is not only an individual battle, it is a collective war waged over a considerable country. He has not only to conquer in himself the forces of egoistic falsehood and disorder, but to conquer them as representatives of the same adverse and inexhaustible forces in the world. Their representative character gives them a much more obstinate capacity of resistance, an almost endless right to recurrence. Often he finds that even after he has won persistently his own personal battle, he has still to win it over and over again in a seemingly interminable war, because his inner existence has already been so much enlarged that not only it contains his own being with its well-defined needs and experiences, but is in solidarity with the being of others, because in himself he contains the universe.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-77-78 "Equally, a combination or a compromise between two orders of consciousness, the spiritual and the mental or the spiritual and the vital or a mere sublimation from within of Life outwardly unchanged cannot be the law or the aim of the Yoga. All life must be taken up but all life must be transformed; all must become a part, a form, an adequate expression of a spiritual being in the supramental nature. This is the height and crowning movement of a spiritual evolution in the material world, and as the change from the vital animal to mental man made life another thing altogether in basic consciousness, scope, significance, so this change from the materialised mental being to the spiritual and supramental being using but not dominated by matter must take up life and make it another thing altogether than the flawed, imperfect limited human, quite other in its basic consciousness, scope, significance. All forms of life activity that cannot bear the change must disappear, all that can bear it will survive and enter into the kingdom of the spirit. A divine Force is at work and will choose at each moment what has to be done or has not to be done, what has to be momentarily or permanently taken up momentarily or permanently abandoned. For provided we do not substitute for that our desire or our ego, and to that end the soul must be always awake, always on guard, alive to the divine guidance, resistant to the undivine misleading from within or without us, that Force is sufficient and alone competent and she will lead us to the fulfilment along ways and by means too large, too inward, too complex for the mind to follow, much less to dictate. It is an arduous and difficult and dangerous way, but there is none other. " CWSA-23/ The Synthesis of Yoga/p-186-187 “The last two sentences contain indeed the whole gist of the matter. The true salvation or the true freedom from the chain of rebirth is not the rejection of terrestrial life or the individual’s escape by a spiritual self-annihilation, even as the true renunciation is not the mere physical abandonment of family and society; it is the inner identification with the Divine in whom there is no limitation of past life and future birth but instead the eternal existence of the unborn Soul. He who is free inwardly, even doing actions, does nothing at all, says the Gita ; (The Gita-3.30) for it is Nature that works in him under the control of the Lord of Nature. Equally, even if he assumes a hundred times the body, he is free from any chain of birth or mechanical wheel of existence since he lives in the unborn and undying spirit and not in the life of the body. Therefore attachment to the escape from rebirth is one of the idols which, whoever keeps, the sadhaka of the integral Yoga must break and cast away from him. For his Yoga is not limited to the realisation of the Transcendent beyond all world by the individual soul; it embraces also the realisation of the Universal, “the sum-total of all souls”, and cannot therefore be confined to the movement of a personal salvation and escape. Even in his transcendence of cosmic limitations he is still one with all in God; a divine work remains for him in the universe.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-270-271 "The state of the liberated soul is that of the Purusha who is for ever free. Its consciousness is a transcendence and an all-comprehending unity. Its self-knowledge does not get rid of all the terms of self-knowledge, but unifies and harmonises all things in God and in the divine nature. The intense religious ecstasy which knows only God and ourselves and shuts out all else, is only to it an intimate experience which prepares it for sharing in the embrace of the divine Love and Delight around all creatures. A heavenly bliss which unites God and ourselves and the blest, but enables us to look with a remote indifference on the unblest and their sufferings is not possible to the perfect soul; for these also are its selves; free individually from suffering and ignorance, it must naturally turn to draw them also towards its freedom. On the other hand any absorption in the relations between self and others and the world to the exclusion of God and the Beyond is still more impossible, and therefore it cannot be limited by the earth or even by the highest and most altruistic relations of man with man. Its activity or its culmination is not to efface and utterly deny itself for the sake of others, but to fulfil itself in God-possession, freedom and divine bliss that in and by its fulfilment others too may be fulfilled. For it is in God alone, by the possession of the Divine only that all the discords of life can be resolved, and therefore the raising of men towards the Divine is in the end the one effective way of helping mankind. All the other activities and realisations of our self-experience have their use and power, but in the end these crowded side- tracks or these lonely paths must circle round to converge into the wideness of the integral way by which the liberated soul transcends all, embraces all and becomes the promise and the power of the fulfilment of all in their manifested being of the Divine." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-444-445 "But even when we thus regard the universe, we cannot and ought not to dismiss as entirely and radically false and unreal the values that are given to it by our own limited human con- sciousness. For grief, pain, suffering, error, falsehood, ignorance, weakness, wickedness, incapacity, non-doing of what should be done and wrong-doing, deviation of will and denial of will, egoism, limitation, division from other beings with whom we should be one, all that makes up the effective figure of what we call evil, are facts of the world-consciousness, not fictions and unrealities, although they are facts whose complete sense or true value is not that which we assign to them in our ignorance. Still our sense of them is part of a true sense, our values of them are necessary to their complete values. One side of the truth of these things we discover when we get into a deeper and larger consciousness; for we find then that there is a cosmic and individual utility in what presents itself to us as adverse and evil. For without experience of pain we would not get all the infinite value of the divine delight of which pain is in travail; all ignorance is a penumbra which environs an orb of knowledge, every error is significant of the possibility and the effort of a discovery of truth; every weakness and failure is a first sounding of gulfs of power and potentiality; all division is intended to enrich by an experience of various sweetness of unification the joy of realised unity. All this imperfection is to us evil, but all evil is in travail of the eternal good; for all is an imperfection which is the first condition — in the law of life evolving out of Inconscience — of a greater perfection in the manifesting of the hidden divinity. But at the same time our present feeling of this evil and imperfection, the revolt of our consciousness against them is also a necessary valuation; for if we have first to face and endure them, the ultimate command on us is to reject, to overcome, to transform the life and the nature. It is for that end that their insistence is not allowed to slacken; the soul must learn the results of the Ignorance, must begin to feel their reactions as a spur to its endeavour of mastery and conquest and finally to a greater endeavour of transformation and transcendence. It is possible, when we live inwardly in the depths, to arrive at a state of vast inner equality and peace which is untouched by the reactions of the outer nature, and that is a great but incomplete liberation, — for the outer nature too has a right to deliverance. But even if our personal deliverance is complete, still there is the suffering of others, the world travail, which the great of soul cannot regard with indifference. There is a unity with all beings which something within us feels and the deliverance of others must be felt as intimate to its own deliverance. " CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-421-422 "One in self with all, the supramental being will seek the delight of self- manifestation of the Spirit in himself but equally the delight of the Divine in all: he will have the cosmic joy and will be a power for bringing the bliss of the spirit, the joy of being to others; for their joy will be part of his own joy of existence. To be occupied with the good of all beings, to make the joy and grief of others one’s own has been described as a sign of the liberated and fulfilled spiritual man. The supramental being will have no need, for that, of an altruistic self-effacement, since this occupation will be intimate to his self-fulfilment, the fulfilment of the One in all, and there will be no contradiction or strife between his own good and the good of others: nor will he have any need to acquire a universal sympathy by subjecting himself to the joys and griefs of creatures in the Ignorance; his cosmic sympathy will be part of his inborn truth of being and not dependent on a personal participation in the lesser joy and suffering; it will transcend what it embraces and in that transcendence will be its power. His feeling of universality, his action of universality will be always a spontaneous state and natural movement, an automatic expression of the Truth, an act of the joy of the spirit’s self-existence. There could be in it no place for limited self or desire or for the satisfaction or frustration of the limited self or the satisfaction or frustration of desire, no place for the relative and dependent happiness and grief that visit and afflict our limited nature; for these are things that belong to the ego and the Ignorance, not to the freedom and truth of the Spirit." CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-1011 "If it could be translated into words, it would be so pretty (that’s when I understand poets!). That ineffable Presence seems to be saying, "You see, I was always there, and you didn’t know it." And it’s lived at the very heart of the cells: "You see, you know that I was always there, but you didn’t know it." And then ... (Mother smiles on in a contemplation) ... It’s a tiny nothing – which changes everything. That’s how a dead man can come back to life. That’s how: through that change. The mind dramatizes, and that’s why it cannot understand. Of course, it has been useful to refine Matter, to make it more supple, to prepare things – to make Life more supple and refine Matter. But it has a taste for drama, and that’s why it doesn’t understand. Violent emotions, complications are its game, its amusement. Probably because it needed them. But one must really leave that aside when the time comes, when one is ready for the experience. (silence) And immediately after that, the certitude – so peaceful – that everything was necessary – everything, but everything: from the most marvelous for the human consciousness to the most horrible, the most repulsive – everything was necessary. But strangely, all those things, all those experiences, all that life is what becomes unreal – unreal, worse than an act you put on for yourself: unreal. And it is in its unreality that it was necessary for the consciousness. All appreciations are purely human – purely human because they alter the measure, the proportion. Even physical suffering, material suffering, which is one of the things most difficult to feel as illusory: a lamentable act you put on for yourself, for the cells. And I am speaking from experience, with convincing examples. It’s very interesting." The Mother's Agenda/August 31, 1966, "On the immense mass, the mass still plunged in Ignorance, it creates a sort of excitement that tends to become unhealthy. Those who are settled in a certain equilibrium protest; I have often heard them say, "But we aren't in a hurry, things are all right as they are! Why do you want to change them so fast, that will happen in its own time!" That's the attitude of those who have found a sufficiently harmonious equilibrium in life: "Oh, what a hurry, why do you want to upset everything? Let things just carry on on their own. It will happen in its own time" – like that. All those who are in a somewhat "sattvic" poise are in some such equilibrium. Then, among those who aspire, a small number are sincere, serious, levelheaded, ready for anything: ready to go slowly, to go fast, to do much, to do little – but they are regular and quiet. And finally, a band of people like imbalance and, for them, it's an opportunity for all kinds of crazy things. But the Pressure of the Force is clearly making itself felt everywhere. Sri Aurobindo always said that the most important, but also the most difficult thing, is to learn to keep one's BALANCE IN INTENSITY. To have the intensity of aspiration, the intensity of effort, the intensity of the march forward, while at the same time keeping one's balance – the balance of perfect peace. That's the ideal condition. But it's difficult. (silence) And for the cells of the body, the transition from the tranquillity of "tamasic" origin (the calm that was, in the distant past, the outcome of Inertia, and what still remains of that tendency for inertia), for this calm to stop being inert and, on the contrary, to belong to the calm of All-Powerfulness, there is a difficult transition. For the cells it's difficult. These last few days, oh ... It's this transition that's being worked out in the details, and it's not easy. It's like that habit of the cells of drawing the force from below (through food and so on): when you try to transform that into a constant habit of drawing the force from above, every instant, in every small detail, there's a difficult moment.... ("From above" is a manner of speaking, because if you think about it, it may also be from the depths: there's no sense of direction, high or low or anything of the sort.) But it's no longer leaning on the surface for support – for standing, walking, sitting, moving about...." The Mother's Agenda/April 19, 1967 The Most Difficult Task for a Sadhak of the Synthesis of Yoga: "The obstacle which the physical presents to the spiritual is no argument for the rejection of the physical; for in the unseen providence of things our greatest difficulties are our best opportunities. A supreme difficulty is Nature’s indication to us of a supreme conquest to be won and an ultimate problem to be solved; it is not a warning of an inextricable snare to be shunned or of an enemy too strong for us from whom we must flee." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-11, "The first step on this long path is to consecrate all our works as a sacrifice to the Divine in us and in the world; this is an attitude of the mind and heart, not too difficult to initiate, but very difficult to make absolutely sincere and all-pervasive. The second step is to renounce attachment to the fruit of our works; for the only true, inevitable and utterly desirable fruit of sacrifice — the one thing needful — is the Divine Presence and the Divine Consciousness and Power in us, and if that is gained, all else will be added. This is a transformation of the egoistic will in our vital being, our desire-soul and desire-nature, and it is far more difficult than the other. The third step is to get rid of the central egoism and even the ego-sense of the worker. That is the most difficult transformation of all and it cannot be perfectly done if the first two steps have not been taken; but these first steps too cannot be completed unless the third comes in to crown the movement and, by the extinction of egoism, eradicates the very origin of desire. Only when the small ego-sense is rooted out from the nature can the seeker know his true person (Spiritual being) that stands above as a portion and power of the Divine" CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-247-248 “Ordinarily, once this state is obtained, strenuous concentration will be found no longer necessary. A free concentration of will using thought merely for suggestion and the giving of light to the lower members will take its place. This Will will then insist on the physical being, the vital existence, the heart and the mind remoulding themselves in the forms of the Divine which reveal themselves out of the silent Brahman . By swifter or slower degrees according to the previous preparation and purification of the members, they will be obliged with more or less struggle to obey the law of the will and its thought-suggestion, so that eventually the knowledge of the Divine takes possession of our consciousness on all its planes and the image of the Divine is formed in our human existence even as it was done by the old Vedic Sadhakas. For the integral Yoga this is the most direct and powerful discipline. ” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-324-325 "These highest worlds are therefore supramental; they belong to the principle of supermind, the free, spiritual or divine intelligence or gnosis and to the triple spiritual principle of Sachchidananda. From them the lower worlds derive by a sort of fall of the Purusha into certain specific or narrow conditions of the play of the soul with its nature. But these also are divided from us by no unbridgeable gulf; they affect us through what are called the knowledge-sheath and the bliss-sheath, through the causal or spiritual body, and less directly through the mental body, nor are their secret powers absent from the workings of the vital and material existence. Our conscious spiritual being and our intuitive mind awaken in us as a result of the pressure of these highest worlds on the mental being in life and body. But this causal body is, as we may say, little developed in the majority of men and to live in it or to ascend to the supramental planes, as distinguished from corresponding sub-planes in the mental being, or still more to dwell consciously upon them is the most difficult thing of all for the human being. It can be done in the trance of Samadhi, but otherwise only by a new evolution of the capacities of the individual Purusha of which few are even willing to conceive. Yet is that the condition of the perfect self-consciousness by which alone the Purusha can possess the full conscious control of Prakriti ; for there not even the mind determines, but the Spirit freely uses the lower differentiating principles as minor terms of its existence governed by the higher and reaching by them their own perfect capacity. That alone would be the perfect evolution of the involved and development of the undeveloped for which the Purusha has sought in the material universe, as if in a wager with itself, the conditions of the greatest difficulty. " CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-456 "At first, at the beginning of the conversion into this greater status, the thought will continue to move for a shorter or a longer time to a greater or a less extent on the lines of the mind but with a greater light and increasing flights and spaces and move- ments of freedom and transcendence. Afterwards the freedom and transcendence will begin to predominate; the inversion of the thought view and the conversion of the thought method will take place in different movements of the thought mind one after the other, subject to whatever difficulties and relapses, until it has gained on the whole and effected a complete transformation. Ordinarily the supramental knowledge will be organised first and with the most ease in the processes of pure thought and knowledge, jnana , because here the human mind has already the upward tendency and is the most free. Next and with less ease it will be organised in the processes of applied thought and knowledge because there the mind of man is at once most active and most bound and wedded to its inferior methods. The last and most difficult conquest, because this is now to his mind a field of conjecture or a blank, will be the knowledge of the three times, trikaladristi . In all these there will be the same character of a spirit seeing and willing directly above and around and not only in the body it possesses and there will be the same action of the supramental knowledge by identity, the supramental vision, the supramental thought and supramental word, separately or in a united movement." CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-839 "The mental activity that can be most readily organised is, as has been already indicated, that of pure ideative knowledge. This is transformed on the higher level to the true jnana , supramental thought, supramental vision, the supramental knowledge by identity. The essential action of this supramental knowledge has been described in the preceding chapter. It is necessary however to see also how this knowledge works in outward application and how it deals with the data of existence. It differs from the action of the mind first in this respect that it works naturally with those operations that are to the mind the highest and the most difficult, acting in them or on them from above downward and not with the hampered straining upward of the mind or with its restriction to its own and the inferior levels. The higher operations are not dependent on the lower assistance, but rather the lower operations depend on the higher not only for their guidance but for their existence. The lower mental operations are therefore not only changed in character by the transformation, but are made entirely subordinate. And the higher mental operations too change their character, because, supramentalised, they begin to derive their light directly from the highest, the self-knowledge or infinite knowledge." CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-841-842, "Of all forms of ego, you might think that the physical ego is the most difficult to conquer (or rather, the body ego, because the work was already done long ago on the physical ego). It might be thought that the form of the body is a point of concentration, and that without this concentration or hardness, physical life would not be possible. But that’s not true. The body is really a wonderful instrument; it’s capable of widening and of becoming vast in such a way that everything, everything – the slightest gesture, the least little task – is done in a wonderful harmony and with a remarkable plasticity. Then all of a sudden, for something quite stupid, a draft, a mere nothing, it forgets – it shrinks back into itself, it gets afraid of disappearing, afraid of not being. And everything has to be started again from scratch. So in the yoga of matter you start realizing how much endurance is needed. I calculated it would take 200 years to say ten crore of my japa. Well, I’m ready to struggle 200 years if necessary, but the work will be done. Sri Aurobindo had made it clear to me when I was still in France that this yoga in matter is the most difficult of all . For the other yogas , the paths have been well laid, you know where to tread, how to proceed, what to do in such and-such a case. But for the yoga of matter , nothing has ever been done, never, so at each moment everything has to be invented." The Mother's Agenda/January 28, 1960, "What I myself have seen ... was a plan that came complete in all details, but that doesn’t at all conform in spirit and consciousness with what is possible on earth now (although, in its most material manifestation, the plan was based on existing terrestrial conditions). It was the idea of an ideal city, the nucleus of a small ideal country, having only superficial and extremely limited contacts with the old world. [270] One would already have to conceive (it’s possible) of a Power sufficient to be at once a protection against aggression or bad will (this would not be the most difficult protection to provide) and a protection (which can just barely be imagined) against infiltration and admixture.... From the social or organizational standpoint, these problems are not difficult, nor from the standpoint of inner life; the problem is the relationship with what is not supramentalized – preventing infiltration or admixture, keeping the nucleus from falling back into an inferior creation during the transitional period. " The Mothe's Agenda/July 18, 1961, "It makes you sense so clearly that things in themselves don’t count. What we call ‘things in themselves’ are of no true importance! What really counts is the relationship of consciousness to these things. And there’s a formidable power in this, since in one instance you touch something and drop or mishandle it, while in the other it’s so lovely, it works so smoothly. Even the most difficult movements are made without difficulty. It’s an unheard-of power! We don’t give it importance because it has no grandiose effects, it’s not spectacular. Yes, there are indeed states of grace when one is in the presence of a great difficulty and suddenly has all the power needed to face it – yes, but that’s something else. I am speaking of a power active in ordinary life." The Mother's Agenda/July 18, 1961, "Yesterday evening I read something in the book.... Sri Aurobindo is writing to someone who said, "How lucky people are who live near the Mother." "You don't know what you're talking about! " he replies. "To live in the Mother's physical presence is one of the most difficult things." Do you remember this passage? I didn't know he had written that. "Well, well ..." I thought. He writes, "It is hard to stay near her, because the difference between the physical consciousness of all you people and her physical consciousness is so enormous...." Indeed, that's what tires me out. That's what tires my body, because it is used to living in a certain rhythm, a universal rhythm. The Mother's Agenda/January 9, 1962, "There is a confusion here. The Mother’s grace is one thing, the call to change another, the pressure of nearness to her is yet another. Those who are physically near to her are not so by any special grace or favour, but by the necessity of their work, — that is what everybody here refuses to understand or believe, but it is the fact: that nearness acts automatically as a pressure, if for nothing else, to adapt their consciousness to hers which means change, but it is difficult for them because the difference between the two consciousnesses is enormous especially on the physical level and it is on the physical level that they are meeting her in the work." 27 April 1944/CWSA-32/The Mother with Letters on the Mother/p-501, "But it's true. The other day I was telling you about some cellular difficulties. I noticed that as soon as they start, I start laughing! But if someone is here and I tell him the difficulty solemnly, it goes from bad to worse; if I start laughing and talk about it laughingly, it vanishes. Really, it's dreadful to take life seriously! Dreadful. Those who have given me the most difficulties have always been the people who take life seriously. I've had this experience even just recently. All that comes to me from people who have dedicated their lives to "spiritual life," people who do a yoga in the traditional way, who are very solemn, who see adversaries everywhere, obstacles everywhere, taboos everywhere, prohibitions everywhere, oh, how they complicate life ... and how far they are from the Divine! I saw this the other day with someone you know. With that kind of people, you "should not" do this, "should not" do that, "should not" ... At such and such time you "must not" do this, on such and such day you "must not" do that; you "should not" eat this, you should not ... And then, for heaven's sake, don't you go mixing your daily life with your sacred life! – that's how you dig an abyss. It's the 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 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), it happened the other day (I don't recall the details but it was over a circumstance that hardly seemed sacred): I saw myself, and I started laughing. I said, "But look! I don't need to be serious, I don't need to be solemn!" As soon as it comes (Mother makes a solemn face), I get suspicious, I say to myself, "Oh, something is wrong, some influence or other must have entered the atmosphere that shouldn't be there." All that remorse, all that regret, all that ... ooh! The sense of indignity, of fault ... and, going a little farther, the sense of sin – oh, that...! That seems to me to belong to another age, a Dark Age. But especially all the prohibitions. For instance, let me quote you a statement from X which I heard from a third person: "I will do a special puja to help money come. I will prepare a special yantram9 to bring money. But FOR GOD'S SAKE don't say anything [to Mother], don't do anything or give anything before January 14, because until January 14, a certain planet is in opposition to a certain other planet (Mother laughs), so things follow a downward trend and won't be successful. But afterwards, that particular planet will be ascending and everything will be successful"! (Mother laughs) Something in me said spontaneously ("something," well, someone), spontaneously and immediately, "But why? I can always hear!" And I laughed. So they thought I was making fun of him – I don't make fun: I laugh, it's not the same!" The Mother's Agenda/January 14, 1963, "The boon that we have asked from the Supreme is the greatest that the Earth can ask from the Highest, the change that is most difficult to realise, the most exacting in its conditions. It is nothing less than the descent of the supreme Truth and Power into Matter, the supramental established in the material plane and consciousness and the material world and an integral transformation down to the very principle of Matter. Only a supreme Grace can effect this miracle. The supreme Power has descended into the most material consciousness but it has stood there behind the density of the physical veil, demanding before manifestation, before its great open workings can begin, that the conditions of the supreme Grace shall be there, real and effective. A total surrender, an exclusive self-opening to the divine influence, a constant and integral choice of the Truth and rejection of the falsehood, these are the only conditions made. But these must be fulfilled entirely, without reserve, without any evasion or presence, simply and sincerely down to the most physical consciousness and its workings." The Mother's Agenda/February 21, 1963, "(Q) So what is the difference between this material mind and the physical mind? How would you define the physical mind in contrast with this material mind? The physical mind is the mind of the physical personality formed by the body. It grows with the body, but it isn't the mind of Matter: it is the mind of the physical being. For instance, it is the mind that makes one's character: the bodily, physical character, which is in large part formed by atavism and education. What is called "physical mind" is all that. Yes, it's the result of atavism, of education and of the formation of the body; that's what makes the physical character. For example, some people are patient, some are strong and so on – physically, I mean, not for vital or mental reasons, but purely physically everyone has a character. That's the physical mind. And it is part of any integral yoga: you discipline this physical mind. I have done it for more than sixty years. (Q) But then, that mind, for instance, which is spontaneously defeatist, which has all sorts of fears and worries, which sees the worst, repeats the same things forever, is that the physical mind or the material mind? It is the most unconscious part of the physical mind, and that's what connects the physical mind with this material substance. But that's already an organized mind, you understand? It is the most material part, the one that borders on the mind ... (what can we call this mind?), we can't even call it "corporeal mind": it is the mind of the cells, a cellular mind. This cellular mind exists in animals, and there is even a faint beginning (but very faint, like a promise) in plants: they respond to a mental action. They respond. As soon as Life manifests, there is already the beginning, like a promise of mind, of mental movement. And in animals, it's very clear. Whereas that physical mind really began to exist only in man. That's what a very small child already has: it already has a physical mind; so that no two very small children are alike, with identical reactions: there is already a difference. And it is especially what is given you with the special FORM of your body, by atavism, and then fully developed by education. No, the physical mind, as soon as you do an integral yoga, you are obliged to deal with it, while this material, cellular mind, I can assure you that it's absolutely new! Absolutely new. It is the mind that was like an uncoordinated substance, with a constant, unorganized activity (Mother gestures to show a constant tremor). This is the mind which is being organized. That's what is important, because Sri Aurobindo said it was unorganizable and the only thing to do was to reject it from existence. And I was under that impression, too. But when the transforming action on the cells is constant, this material mind begins to become organized, that's the wonderful thing! It begins to become organized. And then, as it becomes organized, it learns to FALL SILENT – that's the beautiful thing! It learns to keep calm, silent, and to let the supreme Force act without interfering. The most difficult part is in the nerves, because they are so habituated to that ordinary conscious will that when it stops and you want the direct Action from the highest height, they seem to become mad. Yesterday morning I had that experience, which lasted for more than an hour, and it was difficult; but it taught me many things – many things. And all this is what we may call the "transfer of power": it is the old power that withdraws. But then, until the body adapts to the new power, there is a period which is, well, critical. As all the cells are in a state of conscious aspiration, it's going relatively fast, but still ... the minutes are long. But there is increasingly a sort of certitude in the cells that everything that happens is with a view to this transformation and this transfer of the directing power. And at the very moment when things are materially painful (not even physically: materially painful), the cells keep that certitude. And so they withstand, they endure the suffering without being depressed or affected in the least, with that certitude that it is to prepare for the transformation, that it is even the process of transformation and of the transfer of the directing power. As I said, it's in the nerves that the experience is the most painful (naturally, since they are the most sensitive cells, those with the sharpest sensation). But they have a very great receptivity, and very spontaneous, a spontaneously strong receptivity – and effortless – to the harmonious physical vibration (which is very rare, but still it exists in some individuals), and that physical vibration ... what we could call a physical FORCE, a harmonious physical vibration (spontaneously harmonious, of course, without the need for mental intervention – like the vibrations of a flower, for instance; there are physical vibrations that are like that, that carry in themselves a harmonious force), and the nerves are extremely sensitive and receptive to that vibration, which immediately puts them right again. It's very interesting, it explains many, many things. A day will come when all this will be explained and put in its proper place. Now isn't the time to reveal it yet, but it's very interesting. I really have the feeling that it's beginning to be organized, that the work is beginning to be organized. Naturally, care must be taken to avoid letting a mental organization intervene, which is why I am not trying to explain things too much. The mind comes, and then that's not it anymore." The Mother's Agenda/August 31, 1965, "How do you define this physical mind, the one that underwent the transfer of power? That isn't the physical mind. The physical mind, it's a long time since ... It is the material mind – not even the material mind: the mind OF MATTER74! It is the mental substance that belongs to Matter itself, to the cells. That's what was formerly called "the spirit of the form," when it was said that mummies kept their bodies intact as long as the spirit of the form persisted.75 That's the mind I mean, that completely material mind. The other one, the physical mind, has been organized for a long time. So what is the difference between this material mind and the physical mind? How would you define the physical mind in contrast with this material mind? The physical mind is the mind of the physical personality formed by the body. It grows with the body, but it isn't the mind of Matter: it is the mind of the physical being. For instance, it is the mind that makes one's character: the bodily, physical character, which is in large part formed by atavism and education. What is called "physical mind" is all that. Yes, it's the result of atavism, of education and of the formation of the body; that's what makes the physical character. For example, some people are patient, some are strong and so on – physically, I mean, not for vital or mental reasons, but purely physically everyone has a character. That's the physical mind. And it is part of any integral yoga: you discipline this physical mind. I have done it for more than sixty years. But then, that mind, for instance, which is spontaneously defeatist, which has all sorts of fears and worries, which sees the worst, repeats the same things forever, is that the physical mind or the material mind? It (material mind) is the most unconscious part of the physical mind, and that's what connects the physical mind with this material substance. But that's already an organized mind, you understand? It is the most material part, the one that borders on the mind ... (what can we call this mind?), we can't even call it "corporeal mind ": it is the mind of the cells, a cellular mind. This cellular mind exists in animals, and there is even a faint beginning (but very faint, like a promise) in plants: they respond to a mental action. They respond. As soon as Life manifests, there is already the beginning, like a promise of mind, of mental movement. And in animals, it's very clear. Whereas that physical mind really began to exist only in man. That's what a very small child already has: it already has a physical mind; so that no two very small children are alike, with identical reactions: there is already a difference. And it is especially what is given you with the special FORM of your body, by atavism, and then fully developed by education. No, the physical mind, as soon as you do an integral yoga, you are obliged to deal with it, while this material, cellular mind, I can assure you that it's absolutely new! Absolutely new. It is the mind that was like an uncoordinated substance, with a constant, unorganized activity (Mother gestures to show a constant tremor). This is the mind which is being organized. That's what is important, because Sri Aurobindo said it was unorganizable and the only thing to do was to reject it from existence. And I was under that impression, too. But when the transforming action on the cells is constant, this material mind begins to become organized, that's the wonderful thing! It begins to become organized. And then, as it becomes organized, it learns to FALL SILENT – that's the beautiful thing! It learns to keep calm, silent, and to let the supreme Force act without interfering. The most difficult part is in the nerves, because they are so habituated to that ordinary conscious will that when it stops and you want the direct Action from the highest height, they seem to become mad. Yesterday morning I had that experience, which lasted for more than an hour, and it was difficult; but it taught me many things – many things. And all this is what we may call the "transfer of power": it is the old power that withdraws. But then, until the body adapts to the new power, there is a period which is, well, critical. As all the cells are in a state of conscious aspiration, it's going relatively fast, but still ... the minutes are long. But there is increasingly a sort of certitude in the cells that everything that happens is with a view to this transformation and this transfer of the directing power. And at the very moment when things are materially painful (not even physically: materially painful), the cells keep that certitude. And so they withstand, they endure the suffering without being depressed or affected in the least, with that certitude that it is to prepare for the transformation, that it is even the process of transformation and of the transfer of the directing power. As I said, it's in the nerves that the experience is the most painful (naturally, since they are the most sensitive cells, those with the sharpest sensation). But they have a very great receptivity, and very spontaneous, a spontaneously strong receptivity – and effortless – to the harmonious physical vibration (which is very rare, but still it exists in some individuals), and that physical vibration ... what we could call a physical FORCE, a harmonious physical vibration (spontaneously harmonious, of course, without the need for mental intervention – like the vibrations of a flower, for instance; there are physical vibrations that are like that, that carry in themselves a harmonious force), and the nerves are extremely sensitive and receptive to that vibration, which immediately puts them right again. It's very interesting, it explains many, many things. A day will come when all this will be explained and put in its proper place. Now isn't the time to reveal it yet, but it's very interesting. I really have the feeling that it's beginning to be organized, that the work is beginning to be organized. Naturally, care must be taken to avoid letting a mental organization intervene, which is why I am not trying to explain things too much. The mind comes, and then that's not it anymore." The Mother's Agenda/August 31, 1965 "And that's why it's so difficult to know how one should be. Because in thought you can be in the same constant state, even in aspiration you can be in the same constant state, in the general goodwill, even in surrender to the Divine, it all can be the same thing, in the same state – it's in here (Mother touches her body), and this makes the whole difference. I can very well conceive that there may be people in whom this opposition persists in the mind and the vital, but there it's so obvious.... But I am talking of something absolutely material. Some people say and think, "How come? I have such goodwill, such a desire to do the right thing, and then nothing works, everything jars – why? I am so good (!) and yet things don't respond." Or those who say, "Oh, I have made my surrender, I have such goodwill, I have an aspiration, I want nothing but the Truth and the Good, and yet I am ill all the time – why am I ill?" And naturally, one small step more, and you begin to doubt the Justice that rules the world, and so on. Then you fall into a hole.... But that's not it, that's not what I mean. It's much simpler and much more difficult at the same time, because it isn't blatant, it isn't evident, it's not an opposition from which you can choose, it's ... truly, totally and integrally leaving the entire responsibility to the Lord. Of all things, this is the most difficult for man – it's far easier for the plant and even for the animal, far easier. But for man it's very difficult. Because there was a whole period in the evolution when in order to progress he had to take on the responsibility for himself. So the habit has formed, it has taken root in the being. I have noticed something very interesting. Suppose there is a pain, some sign or other that something in the body is out of order. In the consciousness – in the consciousness – you are absolutely indifferent, which means that whether it's life or death, disease or health, there is equality; but if the body reacts according to its old habit, "What should be done to get over it?" and all that it involves (I am not speaking of a reaction in the mind, but here, in the body), the thing takes root. Why? Because it has to stay there ... (laughing) to enable you to study it! If, on the other hand, the cells have learned their lesson and say right away, "Lord, Your presence" (without words – the attitude), pfft! the thing goes. It's no use if the thought does it, if the psychic consciousness, EVEN THE PHYSICAL CONSCIOUSNESS, does it: it must be the cells that do it. So the one who does it in the thought says, "Here, I give myself to the Divine, I am ready for anything, I am in a state of perfect equality, and still I am ill! So what am I to believe?" That's not the point. In order to have an instantaneous action HERE ("instantaneous," meaning what looks like a miracle, which isn't a miracle at all), there should instantaneously be, wherever a disorder has occurred for some reason or other, this: "Lord – Lord, this is You; Lord, we are You; Lord, You are here" – everything flies away. A sensation, an attitude – instantaneously, hup! it's over. I have had hundreds upon hundreds of experiences like that. And the state – the general state of the consciousness – is exactly the same, always like this (immobile gesture, palms offered to the Heights), in a sort of conscious bliss of: "Let Your Will be done." But that's no use, it doesn't act HERE – it must happen HERE (Mother touches her body)." The Mother's Agenda/November 23, 1965, OM TAT SAT There are two types of liberated Souls. The first type of liberated Soul or a Sadhaka of traditional Yoga, ‘may be content with a subtle and limited action within the old human surroundings which will in no way seek to change their outward appearance.’ (Ref: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-268) The second type of liberated Soul or a Sadhaka of integral Yoga, who ‘will not only alter the forms and sphere of its own external life but, leaving nothing around it unchanged or unaffected, create a new world or a new order.’ (Ref: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-268) Sri Aurobindo insists that the second type of liberated Souls remain accountable for their Sadhana through large Divine action, record the descending overhead Divine Wisdom and enrich Earth's atmosphere through the descent of Divine Love, Delight and Beauty. A Sadhaka of traditional Yoga, as per the Gita's injunction, 'does not mourn and remains indifferent either for the living or for the dead.' (The Gita-2.11) A Sadhaka of integral Yoga will invoke the Savitri within and remain aware of people dying every day and every moment, through the mantra, 'This was the day when Satyavan must die' (Savitri-10), and maintain this Spirit always " For about sixty years I have been constantly looking after people who are said to be "dying" – constantly ." (The Mother's Agenda-April 28, 1965): " Although our fallen minds forget to climb, Although our human stuff resists or breaks, She keeps her will that hopes to divinise clay ; Failure cannot repress, defeat o’erthrow; Time cannot weary her nor the Void subdue, The ages have not made her passion less; No victory she admits of Death or Fate. Always she drives the soul to new attempt ; Always her magical infinitude Forces to aspire the inert brute elements; As one who has all infinity to waste, She scatters the seed of the Eternal’s strength On a half-animate and crumbling mould, Plants heaven’s delight in the heart’s passionate mire, Pours godhead’s seekings into a bare beast frame, Hides immortality in a mask of death." Savitri-354 One may note that after the exhaustion of the perfections of traditional Yoga, integral Yoga begins.

Integral Physical Education “And in the body itself there will be (1) a presence of a greatness of sustaining force, (2) an abounding strength, energy and puissance of outgoing and managing force, (3) a lightness, swiftness and adaptability of the nervous and physical being, (4) a holding and responsive power in the whole physical machine and its driving springs (mahattva, bala, laghuta, dharana-samarthya) of which it is now even at its strongest and best incapable. This energy (mahattva, bala, laghuta, dharana-samarthya) (firstly) will not be in its essence an outward, physical or muscular strength, but will be of the nature, first, of an unbounded life-power or pranic force, secondly, sustaining and using this pranic energy, a superior or supreme will-power acting in the body. (Thirdly) The play of the pranic shakti in the body or form is the condition of all action, even of the most apparently inanimate physical action. It is the universal Prana , as the ancients knew, which in various forms sustains or drives material energy in all physical things from the electron and atom and gas up through the metal, plant, animal, physical man. To get this pranic shakti to act more freely and forcibly in the body is knowingly or unknowingly the attempt of all who strive for a greater perfection of or in the body. The ordinary man tries to command it mechanically by physical exercises and other corporeal means, the Hathayogin more greatly and flexibly, but still mechanically by Asana and Pranayama; but for our purpose (Integral Eduction and Integral Yoga) it can be commanded by more subtle, essential and pliable means; first , by a will in the mind widely opening itself to and potently calling in the universal pranic shakti on which we draw and fixing its stronger presence and more powerful working in the body; secondly, by the will in the mind opening itself rather to the spirit and its power and calling in a higher pranic energy from above, a supramental pranic force; thirdly , the last step, by the highest supramental will of the spirit entering and taking up directly the task of the perfection of the body. In fact, it is always really a will within which drives and makes effective the pranic instrument even when it uses what seem to be purely physical means; but at first it is dependent on the inferior action. When we go higher, the relation is gradually reversed; it is then able to act in its own power or handle the rest only as a subordinate instrumentation .” Sri Aurobindo CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-731-732 Physical exercise, Asana and Pranayama are subordinate instruments of integral physical Education, while activation of the universal pranic shakti, higher pranic energy from above, a Supramental pranic force and the highest Supramental Will of the spirit are the main instrumentation for the perfection of the body. The two gates of perfection of integral Physical Education are 'mastery of the Prakriti by the Purusha '²⁰ and transformation of Nature or 'sublimation of Nature into her own supreme power, the infinite glories of the Para Shakti .'²⁰ "Physical tamas in its roots can be removed only by the descent and the transformation, but physical exercise and a regular activity of the body can always prevent a tamasic condition from prevailing in the body."² ¹ The Integral Physical Education “A body like a parable of dawn” Savitri-15 “An unseen Presence moulds the oblivious clay.” Savitri-60 “The body illumined with the indwelling God,” Savitri-76 “A body that knew not its own soul within,” Savitri-142 “Make body’s joy as vivid as the soul’s,” Savitri-196 “Then life beat pure in the corporeal frame” Savitri-232 “Bodies made beautiful by the spirit’s light,” Savitri-344 “Outlined by the pressure of this new descent A lovelier body formed than earth had known.” Savitri-354 “To wake her body’s spirit to its king.” Savitri-395 "Even as her body, such is she within." Savitri-422 “The body’s self taste immortality.” Savitri-451 “Her body quivered with eternity’s touch” Savitri-671 “Arrived to fathom a deep physical joy;… The limbs were trembling densities of soul.” Savitri-676 “Break into eternity thy mortal mould; Melt, lightning, into thy invisible flame!” Savitri-691 “But I have seen through the insentient mask; I have felt a secret spirit stir in things Carrying the body of the growing God:” Savitri-693 The Maha mantra of Integral Yoga is restated in Integral Physical Education as All Life is Education through rigorous self-control of the body. Rigorous self-control gives birth to the absolute surrender "And the body says to the Supreme Lord: ‘What You want me to be, I shall be, What You want me to know, I shall know, What you want me to do, I shall do.’"²² Integral Physical Education includes and reconciles traditional Karma Yoga ,¹¹ traditional Hatha Yoga ¹² and traditional Japa Yoga in its scope. Indispensable Karma Yoga ¹¹ is given the greatest importance in integral Yoga because it accepts contacts with the world and acceptance of life as means of Divine realisation and can reconcile the Perfect Spirit with the imperfect Matter. Dispensable Hatha Yoga is given importance as it is related to rigorous⁴ self-control of the body,⁸ perfection of physical nature and transformation of cellular substance. Ceaseless Japa Yajna is accepted as it is related with ‘direct Divine action on the cells of the body,’⁵ disciplining the physical mind⁶ and transformation of the Subconscient Sheath.⁵ To awaken the Supreme Consciousness in the cells of the body is the object of Integral Physical Education. ⁹ The grossest intensities of Matter or Physical is only a final form and objective representation of the Divine existence, with the whole of the Godhead ever present in it and behind it. It is defined as a conceptive self-extension of Being which works itself out in the universe as substance or object of consciousness and is represented through our mind as atomic division and aggregation of things. Physical education is defined in the Upanishadic language as earth is our footing and foundation and wider, we extend and surer we enter receptivity, plasticity¹⁵ and training of the body, wider and surer becomes our foundation for the higher knowledge, whose perfection will lead towards imperishability of Matter. Integral Physical Education is defined as our full perfection can come when we give equal importance to physical training in addition to descent of Spiritual energy, universal pranic energy and Supramental energy to the physical body and recognises Matter as an extreme fragmentation of the Infinite and it is our sure base, starting point and foundation of the Spirit’s manifestation and revelation. “Among the many who came drawn to her Nowhere she found her partner of high tasks, The comrade of her soul, her other self Who was made with her, like God and Nature, one.” Savitri-366 “No equal heart came close to join her (Savitri’s) heart, No transient earthly love assailed her calm, No hero passion had the strength to seize; No eyes demanded her replying eyes.” Savitri-367 “All worshipped marvellingly, none dared to claim.” Savitri-368 (King Aswapati said to Savitri) “A mighty Presence still defends thy frame. Perhaps the heavens guard thee for some great soul, Thy fate, thy work are kept somewhere afar. Thy spirit came not down a star alone.” Savitri-374 (King Aswapati said) “Venture through the deep world to find thy mate. For somewhere on the longing breast of earth, Thy unknown lover waits for thee the unknown.” Savitri-374 (King Aswapati said) “There shall draw near to meet thy approaching steps The second self for whom thy nature asks, He who shall walk until thy body’s end A close-bound traveller pacing with thy pace, The lyrist of thy soul’s most intimate chords Who shall give voice to what in thee is mute.” Savitri-374 (Narad said) “In him (Paramatma Satyavan) soul and Nature, equal Presences, Balance and fuse in a wide harmony.” Savitri-430 ‘If our seeking is for a total perfection of the being, the physical part of it cannot be left aside; for the body is the material basis, the body is the instrument which we have to use. Sariram khalu dharma sadhanam, says the old Sanskrit adage, — the body is the means of fulfilment of dharma , and dharma means every ideal which we can propose to ourselves and the law of its working out and its action. A total perfection is the ultimate aim which we set before us, for our ideal is the Divine Life which we wish to create here, the life of the Spirit fulfilled on earth, life accomplishing its own spiritual transformation even here on earth in the conditions of the material universe. That cannot be unless the body too undergoes a transformation, unless its action and functioning attain to a supreme capacity and the perfection which is possible to it or which can be made possible.’² (Savitri said) “The heavens were once to me my natural home, I too have wandered in star-jewelled groves, Paced sun-gold pastures and moon-silver swards And heard the harping laughter of their streams And lingered under branches dropping myrrh; I too have revelled in the fields of light Touched by the ethereal raiment of the winds, Thy wonder-rounds of music I have trod, Lived in the rhyme of bright unlabouring thoughts, I have beat swift harmonies of rapture vast, Danced in spontaneous measures of the soul The great and easy dances of the gods.” Savitri-686 Through this education, the Matter finds victorious and infinite happiness, awakens the true physical being, annamaya Purusha , and awareness of an infinite Consciousness, knowledge, power, largeness, immortal existence and a perfectly Divine manhood is possible by developing a body and brain capable of receiving and serving still higher illuminations and an inward absoluteness of self-existence.²¹ ‘Taking support from Sri Aurobindo’s teaching that the body is an indispensable basis for the yoga, that it should not be neglected and that, on the contrary, great care should be given to it, the physical consciousness concentrates almost exclusively on the body and tries to find ways of satisfying it.’¹ (Savitri said to Death God:) “Live, Death, awhile, be still my instrument. One day man too shall know thy fathomless heart Of silence and the brooding peace of Night And grave obedience to eternal Law And the calm inflexible pity in thy gaze. But now, O timeless Mightiness, stand aside And leave the path of my incarnate Force. Relieve the radiant God from thy black mask: Release the soul of the world called Satyavan Freed from thy clutch of pain and ignorance That he may stand master of life and fate, Man’s representative in the house of God, The mate of Wisdom and the spouse of Light, The eternal bridegroom of the eternal bride.” Savitri-666 The three limitations and negations of Matter that resist growth or oppose the faculty of educational development are that of Ignorance, Inertia and Division and these are transformed by Integral Physical Education in to Omniscience, Divine peace and tranquility and Unity. “The athlete heavings of the will were stilled In the Omnipotent’s unmoving peace.” Savitri-320 The first fundamental opposition the Physical offers to the Spirit is the culmination of the principle of Ignorance. Ignorance is defined as Nature’s purposeful oblivion from Self and All and concentration of consciousness in part knowledge. Man forgets his total existence by absorption in either of the three exclusive concentration, that is (1) concentration in one object to the exclusion of the rest, (2) concentration on the present moment by exclusion of the all Time which includes past, present and future and (3) concentration on a part of the inner Being by exclusion of our total Self. It is through educating the physical or increase of concentration that one emerges out of the giant forgetfulness of Matter and becomes divinely self-conscious, free, infinite and immortal. The second fundamental opposition the Matter offers to the Spirit is the culmination of bondage to mechanical Law, a colossal Inertia. While the Spirit is free, master of itself and its work, creator of law, this giant Matter is rigidly chained and subjected by the fixed and mechanical Law and works out unconsciously as the machine works, knows not who created it, by what process and to what end. And when life and mind awake and impose their awareness and guidance on matter, it seems the Nature approves reluctantly up to certain point. But beyond that point it presents an obstinate inertia, obstruction, negation and presents to mind and life its helplessness.¹³ Life’s urge for utter wideness and immortality¹⁶ is met by Matter through narrowness and death and mind’s urge to embrace all knowledge, all light, all love is met by matter’s denial, deviation, error and grossness. Error ever purses its knowledge, darkness is inseparably the companion and background of its light, falsehood ever deforms and obstructs the truth, love is not satisfied due to the presence of hatred and joy is not justified due to the presence of suffering and material life always drags towards hatred, anger, indifference, satiety, grief and pain. “The Spirit’s white neutrality became A playground of miracles, a rendezvous For the secret powers of a mystic Timelessness:” Savitri-326 “On the white purity of the Witness Soul.” Savitri-326 The third fundamental opposition of the Matter to the Spirit is the principle of the culmination of division and struggle. In reality the Matter is indivisible but divisibility is its whole basis of action. The two methods through which the material life experiences union are either the (1) aggregation of the units or (2) assimilation which involves the destruction of one unit by another. Both these methods of union create eternal division. Both the methods repose on death, one as means of life and other as condition of life. When the vital principle manifests its activities in inert Matter, it is compelled to accept the law of death, desire and incapacity and when the mental principle manifests in inert Matter, it meets the Ignorance, limitation of consciousness and duality and there is no assured progress. So the Integral Physical Education⁹ will succeed when the material and physical substance need not be a creation of relation between physical, vital and mental sense and substance but on the contrary there is an ascending and developing state of Consciousness, becomes aware of pure and subtler realm in which forms arise and action takes place and opens towards a light of pure Spiritual perceptive knowledge of Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Being in which the subjective Self becomes its own objective substance. Then it will be able to transform its three fundamental oppositions and limitations and Matter will be a field of conscious revelation of the Spirit. “The Spirit’s white neutrality became A playground of miracles, a rendezvous For the secret powers of a mystic Timelessness:” Savitri-326 “On the white purity of the Witness Soul.” Savitri-326 The third fundamental opposition of the Matter to the Spirit is the principle of the culmination of division and struggle. In reality the Matter is indivisible but divisibility is its whole basis of action. The two methods through which the material life experiences union are either the (1) aggregation of the units or (2) assimilation which involves the destruction of one unit by another. Both these methods of union create eternal division. Both the methods repose on death, one as means of life and other as condition of life. When the vital principle manifests its activities in inert Matter, it is compelled to accept the law of death, desire and incapacity and when the mental principle manifests in inert Matter, it meets the Ignorance, limitation of consciousness and duality and there is no assured progress. So the Integral Physical Education⁹ will succeed when the material and physical substance need not be a creation of relation between physical, vital and mental sense and substance but on the contrary there is an ascending and developing state of Consciousness, becomes aware of pure and subtler realm in which forms arise and action takes place and opens towards a light of pure Spiritual perceptive knowledge of Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Being in which the subjective Self becomes its own objective substance. Then it will be able to transform its three fundamental oppositions and limitations and Matter will be a field of conscious revelation of the Spirit. “It can immortalise a moment’s work:” Savitri-85, “She has lured the Eternal into arms of Time.” Savitri-178 “The moments there were pregnant with all time.” Savitri-301 “The moment’s thought inspired the passing act.” Savitri-325, “The splendid youth of Time has passed and failed; Heavy and long are the years our labour counts” Savitri-345 “One human moment was eternal made.” Savitri-411 “Earth keeps for man some short and perfect hours” Savitri-421 “Time travels towards revealed eternity.” Savitri-623 This Book-2, Canto-2, of the Savitri book represents an exploration of a subtle physical world. It is an important Spiritual Science, hinted in the Upanishad as dream Self, sukhma sharira. This world is very close to the material world, the meeting place of the Superconscient, Subconscient⁷ and universal world. This subtle physical has an important role in Supramental transformation¹⁴ action and all the happenings and new manifestation in the material world has its source and previous formation in this subtle matter.¹⁰ A purified and universalized subtle matter can act as a field of interpenetration of Superconscient and Subconscient⁸ energies and hence is the preparatory field of all new manifestation. A preliminary attempt is made to enter this vast, affirmative, plastic, immaterial kingdom and to become aware of this Annamaya Purusha, the Soul in the physical sheath (“And Matter’s depths be illumined with a soul” Savitri-268) and Annamaya Kosha or the subtle physical sheath (The gross weighs less, the subtle counts for more;” Savitri-186) which are identified as important base of unfolding of the mystery of the existence. The last perfection of physical education is identified as cellular transformation. The simple formula to repeat The Mother’s Cellular transformation experience or discovery of immortal principles concealed within the cells of the body is to purify the physical substance to the extent of bearing the pressure of All Delight and the burden of the earth’s Inconscient negations. “In our body’s cells there sits a hidden Power (true physical being) That sees the unseen and plans eternity, Our smallest parts have room for deepest needs; There too the golden Messengers can come:” Savitri-169-70 (Supramental beings) “And when that greater Self comes sea-like down To fill this image of our transience, All shall be captured by delight, transformed: In waves of undreamed ecstasy shall roll Our mind and life and sense and laugh in a light Other than this hard limited human day, The body’s tissues thrill apotheosised, Its cells sustain bright metamorphosis.” Savitri-171 Regarding the perfection of body, Sri Aurobindo gave importance to descent of Divine Force to physical substance and this can be subordinated by physical exercises and Asanas . “The ordinary man tries to command it mechanically by physical exercises and other corporeal means, the Hathayogin more greatly and flexibly, but still mechanically by Asana and Pranayama ; but for our purpose (for Integral Education) it can be commanded by more subtle, essential and pliable means; (1) first, by a will in the mind widely opening itself to and potently calling in the universal pranic shakti on which we draw and fixing its stronger presence and more powerful working in the body; (2) secondly, by the will in the mind opening itself rather to the spirit and its power and calling in a higher pranic energy from above, a supramental pranic force; (3) thirdly, the last step, by the highest supramental will of the spirit entering and taking up directly the task of the perfection of the body.” ¹⁷ Regarding perfection of the body, we get new input from the Mother's following experience, "I am translating "The Yoga of Self-Perfection": what the body must be and must become to serve as an instrument. It's touching....But one thing has happened practically without my noticing it. In the past, before that experience [April 13, 1962], the body used to feel the struggle against the forces of wear and tear (different organs wearing out, losing their endurance, their power of reaction, and certain movements, for instance, becoming less easy to make). That's what the body felt, although the body-consciousness never sensed any aging, never, none – that simply didn't exist. But in actual material fact, there was some difficulty.... And now, looking at it in the ordinary way, externally, superficially, you might say there has been a great deterioration; well, the body doesn't feel that way at all! What it feels is that a particular movement, effort, gesture or action belongs to the world – this world of ignorance – and isn't being performed in the true way: it's not the true movement, done in the true way. And its sensation or perception is that the state I was speaking of, soft, with no angles, has to develop along a certain line and produce effects on the body that will make true action possible, action expressing the true will. With no difference on the surface, perhaps (I don't know about that yet) ... but done in another way. And I am not talking about grandiose things, mind you, but of everyday activities: getting up, walking, taking a bath. I no longer have a feeling of incapacity, but a feeling of (what's the word for it?) ... an unwillingness – a bodily unwillingness – to do things in the old way... There is another way to be found....But not "found" with the head, it's not like that.... A way that is somewhere IN THE MAKING.... I am speaking of the smallest things – take brushing the teeth; there's a difference between the way I brush my teeth now and the way I used to. (In appearance, I suppose it's the same thing.)... And I have difficulty (it's almost an unwillingness too) seeing things the way others see them. It's difficult for me, not spontaneous: it would take an effort I don't care to make... As for the head, it has learned to keep still.... I walk in the mornings and afternoons, saying the mantra as I did before; but while before I had to drive thoughts away, concentrate and make an effort, now this state comes and takes over everything – the head, the body, everything – and then I walk in that woolly dream (woolly isn't the right word, but it's all I can find!). It's smooth, soft, without angles and supple! No resistance, no resistance.... Oh, that peace!"¹⁸ OM TAT SAT References 1: TMCW-12/On Education/p-46, 2: CWSA-13/Essays in Philosophy and Yoga/p-521, 3: “A child must cease to be wicked because he learns to be ashamed of being wicked, not because he fears a punishment…In the first case, he progresses; in the second he goes down one rung in human consciousness… Fear is a degradation of human consciousness.” The Mother’s Agenda-22.11.1969, 4: “We (human beings) are not living for the satisfaction of our ego; we live to fulfill God’s will. But to be able to perceive and to know the will of God, we must be without desires and preferences. Otherwise we mistake for God’s will our own limited ideas and principles. It is in the wide peace of an absolute and devoted sincerity free from fixed ideas and preferences that we can realize the conditions required to know God’s Will and it is with a fearless discipline that we must execute it.” The Mother’s Agenda-01.05.1971, “The spiritual consciousness using the mind is employing an inferior means and, even though it brings in a divine light into the mind, a divine purity, passion, ardour into the heart or imposes a spiritual law upon the life, this new consciousness has to work within restrictions; for the most part it can only regulate or check the lower action of the life and rigorously control the body, but these members, even if refined or mastered, do not receive their spiritual fulfilment or undergo a perfection and transformation. For that it is necessary to bring in a higher dynamic principle which is native to the spiritual consciousness and by which, therefore, it can act in its own law and completer natural light and power and impose them upon the members.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-969, “The obstacle which the physical presents to the spiritual is no argument for the rejection of the physical; for in the unseen providence of things our greatest difficulties are our best opportunities.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-11, “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. All working of mind or spirit has its vibration in the physical consciousness, records itself there in a kind of subordinate corporeal notation and communicates itself to the material world partly at least through the physical machine. But the body of man has natural limitations in his capacity which it imposes on the play of the higher parts of his being. And, secondly, it has a subconscient consciousness of its own in which it keeps with an obstinate fidelity the past habits and past nature of the mental and vital being and which automatically opposes and obstructs any very great upward change or at least prevents it from becoming a radical transformation of the whole nature. It is evident that if we are to have a free divine or spiritual and Supramental action conducted by the force and fulfilling the character of a divine energy, some fairly complete transformation must be effected in this outward character of the bodily nature. The physical being of man has always been felt by the seekers of perfection to be a great impediment and it has been the habit to turn from it with contempt, denial or aversion and a desire to suppress altogether or as far as may be the body and the physical life. But this cannot be the right method for the integral Yoga. The body is given us as one instrument necessary to the totality of our works and it is to be used, not neglected, hurt, suppressed or abolished. If it is imperfect, recalcitrant, obstinate, so are also the other members, the vital being, heart and mind and reason. It has like them to be changed and perfected and to undergo a transformation. As we get ourselves a new life, new heart, new mind, so we have in a certain sense to build for ourselves a new body.” CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-729-730 5: “When you follow the ascending path, the work is relatively easy. I had already covered this path by the beginning of the century and had established a constant relationship with the Supreme – That which is beyond the Personal and the gods and all the outward expressions of the Divine, but also beyond the Absolute Impersonal. It’s something you cannot describe; you must experience it. And this is what must be brought down into Matter. Such is the descending path, the one I began with Sri Aurobindo ; and there, the work is immense…The thing can still be brought down as far as the mental and vital planes (although Sri Aurobindo said that thousands of lifetimes would be needed merely to bring it down to the mental plane, unless one practiced a perfect surrender’). With Sri Aurobindo, we went down below Matter, right into the Subconscient and even into the Inconscient. But after the descent comes the transformation, and when you come down to the body, when you attempt to make it take one step forward–oh, not even a real step, just a little step! – everything starts grating; it’s like stepping on an anthill ... And yet the presence, the help of the supreme Mother, is there constantly; thus you realize that for ordinary men such a task is impossible, or else millions of lives would be needed – but in truth, unless the work is done for them and the sadhana of the body done for the entire earth consciousness, they will never achieve the physical transformation, or else it will be so remote that it is better not even to speak of it. But if they open themselves, if they give themselves over in an integral surrender, the work can be done for them – they have only to let it be done…The path is difficult. And yet this body is full of good will; it is filled with the psychic in every one of its cells. It’s like a child. The other day, it cried out quite spontaneously, ‘O my Sweet Lord, give me the time to realize You!’ It did not ask to hasten the process, it did not ask to lighten its work; it only asked for enough TIME to do the work. ‘Give me the time!’ ...I have also come to realize that for this sadhana of the body, the mantra is essential. Sri Aurobindo gave none; he said that one should be able to do all the work without having to resort to external means. (The Synthesis of Yoga book (p-624) proposes that the dispensable external means or Psycho-physical knowledge will be indispensable after the Spiritual foundation is established. Before this Spiritual foundation any dependency on the external means ' will at once bring in a limitation and subjection to Prakriti.' (p-733 ) ) Had he reached the point where we are now, he would have seen that the purely psychological method is inadequate and that a japa is necessary, because only japa has a direct action on the body. So I had to find the method all alone, to find my mantra by myself. But now that things are ready, I have done ten years of work in a few months. That is the difficulty, it requires time ... And I repeat my mantra constantly – when I am awake and even when I sleep. I say it even when I am getting dressed, when I eat, when I work, when I speak with others; it is there, just behind in the background, all the time, all the time …In fact, you can immediately see the difference between those who have a mantra and those who don’t. With those who have no mantra, even if they have a strong habit of meditation or concentration, something around them remains hazy and vague. Whereas the japa imparts to those who practice it a kind of precision, a kind of solidity: an armature. They become galvanized, as it were.” The Mother’s Agenda-19.05.1959, 6: “It’s an almost physical discipline. Moreover, I have seen that the japa has an organizing effect on the subconscient, on the inconscient , on matter, on the body’s cells – it takes time, but by persistently repeating it, in the long run it has an effect. It is the same principle as doing daily exercises on the piano, for example. You keep mechanically repeating them, and in the end your hands are filled with consciousness – it fills the body with consciousness. ” The Mother’s Agenda-20.09.1960, “There is ONE sound which, to me, has an extraordinary power – extraordinary and UNIVERSAL (that's the important point): it doesn't depend on the language you speak, it doesn't depend on the education you were given, it doesn't depend on the atmosphere you breathe. And that sound, without knowing anything, I used to say it when I was a child (you know how in French we say, "Oh!"; well, I used to say "OM," without knowing anything!). And indeed, I made all kinds of experiments with that sound – it's fantastic, even, fantastic! It's unbelievable…So then, if around this you build something that corresponds to your own aspiration – certain sounds or words that FOR YOU evoke a soul state – then it's very good…All that is traditional benefits from the power of tradition, that goes without saying, but it's necessarily very limited – personally, it gives me the feeling of something shriveled and withered, as if all the juice it could contain had been squeezed out (!) Except if, spontaneously, the sounds correspond to a soul state in you.” The Mother’s Agenda-2.09.1964, “The physical mind is the mind of the physical personality formed by the body. It grows with the body, but it isn't the mind of Matter: it is the mind of the physical being. For instance, it is the mind that makes one's character: the bodily, physical character, which is in large part formed by atavism and education. What is called "physical mind" is all that. Yes, it's the result of atavism, of education and of the formation of the body; that's what makes the physical character. For example, some people are patient, some are strong and so on – physically, I mean, not for vital or mental reasons, but purely physically everyone has a character. That's the physical mind. And it is part of any integral yoga: you discipline this physical mind. I have done it for more than sixty years… But then, that mind, for instance, which is spontaneously defeatist, which has all sorts of fears and worries, which sees the worst, repeats the same things forever, is that the physical mind or the material mind?... It is the most unconscious part of the physical mind, and that's what connects the physical mind with this material substance. But that's already an organized mind, you understand? It is the most material part, the one that borders on the mind ... (what can we call this mind?), we can't even call it "corporeal mind": it is the mind of the cells, a cellular mind…This cellular mind exists in animals, and there is even a faint beginning (but very faint, like a promise) in plants: they respond to a mental action. They respond. As soon as Life manifests, there is already the beginning, like a promise of mind, of mental movement. And in animals, it's very clear. Whereas that physical mind really began to exist only in man. That's what a very small child already has: it already has a physical mind; so that no two very small children are alike, with identical reactions: there is already a difference. And it is especially what is given you with the special FORM of your body, by atavism, and then fully developed by education…No, the physical mind, as soon as you do an integral yoga, you are obliged to deal with it, while this material, cellular mind, I can assure you that it's absolutely new! Absolutely new…It is the mind that was like an uncoordinated substance, with a constant, unorganized activity (Mother gestures to show a constant tremor). This is the mind which is being organized. That's what is important, because Sri Aurobindo said it was unorganizable and the only thing to do was to reject it from existence. And I was under that impression, too. But when the transforming action on the cells is constant, this material mind begins to become organized, that's the wonderful thing! It begins to become organized. And then, as it becomes organized, it learns to FALL SILENT – that's the beautiful thing! It learns to keep calm, silent, and to let the supreme Force act without interfering.” The Mother’s Agenda-31.08.1965, “This body-mind is a very tangible truth; owing to its obscurity and mechanical clinging to past movements and facile oblivion and rejection of the new, we find in it one of the chief obstacles to permeation by the supermind Force and the transformation of the functioning of the body. On the other hand, once effectively converted, it will be one of the most precious instruments for the stabilisation of the supramental Light and Force in material Nature.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-189, 7: “However, it’s not a personal subconscient, but a ... it’s more than the Ashram. For me, the Ashram is not a separate individuality – except in that vision the other day,’ which is what surprised me. It’s hardly that. Rather, it is still this Movement of everything, of everything that is included. So it’s like entering into the subconscient of the whole earth , and it takes on forms which are quite familiar images to me, but they are absolutely symbolic and very, very funny!” The Mother’s Agenda-26.07.1960, "He must accept everything, but cling to nothing, be repelled by nothing however imperfect or however subversive of fixed notions, but also allow nothing to lay hold on him to the detriment of the free working of the Truth-Spirit. This equality of the intelligence is an essential condition for rising to the higher supramental and spiritual knowledge." CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-718, "The discords of the worlds are God’s discords and it is only by accepting and proceeding through them that we can arrive at the greater concords of his supreme harmony, the summits and thrilled vastnesses of his transcendent and his cosmic Ananda. " CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-382, 8: “And only in the last few days have all those memories been allowed to rise up again from the subconscient where they were being kept; and with that, the state I lived in for thirty years has resurfaced – with this tremendous difference… And suddenly I said to myself, "How could it be? During all the time he was here, the time we were together (after I came back from Japan, when we were together), life, life on earth, lived such a wondrous divine possibility, so ... really so unique, something it had never lived to such an extent and in such a way, for thirty years, and it didn't even notice!" That ....That's what I have been experiencing recently…Yes, at one point I wondered (I don't remember when, a few days ago): "How could people have lived here, so near (but the same thing is still happening), how could human beings on earth who had an aspiration, who had their consciousness turned towards those things, have lived that possibility, have HAD that possibility at their fingertips, without being able to take advantage of it! How could something so wonderful and unique have taken place here, and yet people had such a small and childish and superficial image of it!"…Truly, I wondered, "Has the time really come? Is it possible? Or will it once again be postponed?"… (silence) Yesterday evening I read something in the book.... Sri Aurobindo is writing to someone who said, "How lucky people are who live near the Mother. " "You don't know what you're talking about! " he replies. "To live in the Mother's physical presence is one of the most difficult things." Do you remember this passage? I didn't know he had written that. "Well, well ..." I thought. He writes, "It is hard to stay near her, because the difference between the physical consciousness of all you people and her physical consciousness is so enormous...." Indeed, that's what tires me out. That's what tires my body, because it is used to living in a certain rhythm, a universal rhythm…(silence) No one can imagine what it was, those thirty years I had ... beyond all problems and difficulties; we went through every possible difficulty – and it was nothing, NOTHING. It was nothing, it was ... like a great harmonious orchestra…(silence) But ... it's clear that Matter must be rigorously hammered if it is to be made ready and able for this Transformation …(silence) And nothing, nothing imaginable in the eternal history of the universe can be compared to that shock: to have lived a perfect divine life as something completely natural and everyday, something OBVIOUS (it was never even in question), and then ... all of a sudden, physically – your base is snatched away. Well, to stay on after that! ... You just go, quite naturally: the base goes, you go…(silence) I can't blame my body for anything. It may be a bit weary, but it has held out very well.” The Mother’s Agenda-09.01.1962, “It was yesterday, I think, in the night (not last night, the night before, the 6th of June, that is), for more than three hours without stop, there was no consciousness of anything any more – not a thought, not a will, not an action, not an observation, nothing. Everything was at a standstill. For instance, all that happens when you have experiences and you work in the subconscient – all that, everything, everything was at a standstill. It was like the action of a Force. Without any thought or idea, only the sensation and a sort of perception (awareness is the right word) of a Force, but a stupendous Force, you know, like the Force of the earth – all the combinations of the forces along with an action that came from above and worked on them. It was going through me (especially around the head down to the chest, but it was going on in the whole body, and it was spherical) , it went through me and out, and out, and out in this direction, that direction, another direction, innumerable directions , and nothing but movements of Force (there was something like a perception of colors, but not in the ordinary way: like a knowledge that certain vibrations corresponded to a particular color), but it was an incalculable MASS, almost ... indefinite, at any rate, and simultaneous. At first I said to myself (laughing), "What's going on?" Then I thought, "All right, it doesn't matter, I'll just let it happen." And it went on and on and on – three hours without letup…I didn't know ... I didn't know anything any more, didn't understand anything any more, had no bearings any more; there was only a Force on the move, and what Force! ... It was a Force that came from beyond and acted upon all the forces of the earth: on big things, on small things, on small, precise points, on enormous things, and it was going on and on and on, on this point, that point, all points together and everywhere. I suppose that if the mind had been associated with the experience, it would have gone a bit mad! It gave that impression, you see, because it was so overwhelming that ... And all the time, all the time in the physical center (the physical center, that is, in the corporeal base), with something in an ecstatic state; it was very interesting how that ecstasy – an ecstasy that sparkled like a diamond – was there, so sweet, so sweet, so peaceful, as though it were there all the while, telling the body, "Don't be afraid, (laughing) don't worry, don't be afraid, all is well." As though the supreme Power were saying all the while, "Don't worry, don't worry, leave it to me, leave it to me...." It lasted more than three hours…I wondered, "What will my condition be like when I get up? Completely dazed, or what?" – Very quiet, nothing different, with only a sort of something that was smiling and saying, "Oh, so things CAN be that way." The mind was absolutely silent, absolutely: all the connections with all that people keep sending from everywhere were cut – all of it was completely gone. There were only the universal forces in action, with something that came from above and impregnated them all, sent them all out. And with it, a point – it was like a point in that immensity – a sparkling point, absolutely ecstatic, in such a peace! An extraordinary ecstasy, which was deliberately saying, "Don't worry; you can see what's going on, can't you, so don't worry, don't worry," because certainly the thing had gone beyond all possible individual proportions…It's the first time. I've had currents of force, I've had actions on the earth, I've had forces coming to me, all sorts of things; but this was different: it was all of that together. It was everywhere at the same time, everything at the same time, with that Inrush, and it was ... There was certainly something that wanted me to be very quiet and not to worry. It was necessary that I should keep very quiet…I had a feeling that I was given the awareness of something that's taking place right now. Because at night, generally, I disconnect myself from everything and universalize myself – no, "universalize" isn't the word: I identify myself with the Lord. That's my way of resting. I do it every night, it is the time when I have my deep rest. But now I've been made aware of this Force at work. Often experiences come (there have been a number of them lately), but it's the first time this one has come, because ... It was certainly something happening FOR the earth; but it didn't come from the center of forces that generally acts on the earth. It wasn't the usual working of forces on the earth. It was "something happening." And it gave the sense that the earth was very small – the movement was towards the earth, it was for the earth, but the earth was very small. Very small. (silence) There were no psychological perceptions (what I call "psychological perceptions" are, for instance, vibrations of love, vibrations of peace, vibrations of light, vibrations of knowledge, of power), they weren't there in that form, it wasn't that. Still, all that must have been there, because there were many things, many things that were all one thing, but one thing which assumed different forms; but I didn't see the forms, I didn't see the colors. It was only a question of pure sensation. A pure vibratory sensation: only vibrations, vibrations, vibrations, on a ... colossal scale…It is a new experience. (silence) Obviously, there was ... there must have been a cause for alarm, because as soon as I became conscious of the experience (it started before I became conscious of it; when I did, it seemed to me it had already been going on for a long time; so when I say three hours, it means three hours during which I was conscious, but it had started long before; it was around eleven at night and lasted till three in the morning), so the second I was made conscious of the "thing," obviously there was a cause for alarm, because immediately I was told, "You see, this is what is going on," and it was thanks to that ecstasy in the body that there was no alarm: "Oh, things are fine, everything is fine." And when the experience was over, it didn't end like an experience exhausting itself; it ended as if, very slowly, the thing were, not exactly veiled to my consciousness, but as if my consciousness were turned away from it, with the feeling, "Don't worry." At the start and at the end. All the same, when I woke up, I thought (because my head felt strange, there was a bizarre sensation as if I had become quite swollen! Swollen, inordinately swollen), I thought, "Maybe when I get up tomorrow morning (I get up at 4:30), I'll find myself in a complete daze!" That's why I observed – but everything was fine, there only remained that sort of feeling of being swollen. I feel (yet it was two nights ago, not last night), I feel as if my head were swollen! But the clear-headedness is the same as ever!! (laughing) Nothing's been disturbed! On the contrary, there is a sort of ... like an acuteness, something more acute in the perception, a little bit ironic – I don't know why. A magnified impression that all the things in the world are much ado about nothing, a lot of fuss about nothing – I've had that feeling for ... for centuries, I could say, but there is in addition something ever so slightly acute and ironic…But otherwise, crystal clear!” The Mother’s Agenda-8.06.1963, “It's still there; even in those who have developed their higher mind, who are able to emerge from that darkness and ignorance, it's still there – it's still there in a sort of mental or vital subconscient. And it's so dark! Thoroughly stupid, you know: it can be given hundreds and thousands of proofs, it remains unaffected – a kind of incapacity to understand. And then it constantly rises to the surface, and I am constantly obliged (gesture of offering to the Heights) to "present" it: "This is still there, that is still there, that ..." And I see very well that the distinction between what goes on in this body and its atmosphere, and what goes on in all other bodies is ... I don't know if the distinction still exists, but it's imperceptible. And the consciousness is aware of all those movements as if they were personal to the physical person. But the physical person (Mother touches her body) isn't just this body – I am not yet sure whether the physical person isn't the whole earth (for certain things, it is the whole earth), or whether the physical person is the entirety of all the bodies of the people I am in contact with. During the last hours of the night, that is, between 2 and 4, I see precise forms; but those precise forms are themselves representative, meaning there are TYPES and those types take on the image of someone I am in contact with or was in personal contact with. But to me they are types: "Oh, it's such and such a type" – but that can be thousands of people. And the action (it's always for an action), the action on the person-type has repercussions on all that he represents…And that's a labor which seems infinite – endless, at any rate…It does have consequences…You see, what I do is this: the thing comes, it's taken up, presented (gesture to the Heights) as though it were mine: "But look, see how I am " (but it's the "I" –the great I), it's presented to the Lord, very humbly, with the sense and feeling of complete helplessness – I simply say, "Here, change it." The feeling that only He can do it, that everything that people have tried everywhere appears childish – everything appears to be childish. The most sublime intelligence seems to me childish. All the attempts that are made to enlighten, organize, educate mankind, to awaken it to a higher consciousness, to give it mastery over Nature and its forces, all of it – all of it, which for a human vision is sometimes utterly sublime, seems absolutely like children playing and having fun in a nursery. And children who love dangerous games, who believe TERRIBLY in what they do (as do children, naturally). I have never met more serious and stern a justice than the justice children have in their games. They really take life seriously. Well, that's exactly the impression it makes on me: the impression of a mankind in infancy which takes what it does with ferocious seriousness. And which will never get out of it – it will never get out of it, it lacks the little something (which may be really nothing at all), a very little something thanks to which ah, everything becomes clear and organized – all that comes from mankind always BORDERS on Truth...So the only thing I can do is this (gesture of presenting): "Look, Lord, see how ignorant and powerless we are, how utterly stupid we are – it's up to You to change it." How do you change it? You can't even imagine the change, you can't even do that. So all my time (same gesture) – not from time to time: constantly, day and night, without letup, day and night without letup. If for an interval of one or two minutes this isn't done, there is something that catches up: "Oh, all that time wasted!" And if I take a close look at what happened, then I see; I see that for these few minutes, I was blissful in the Lord, letting myself live blissfully in the Lord; so I no longer presented things to Him – it happens two or three times a day. A relaxation, you know, you let yourself flow blissfully in the Lord. And it's so natural and spontaneous that I don't even notice it; I notice it when I resume my attitude ... (same gesture to the Heights) of transferring everything to the Lord every minute.” The Mother’s Agenda-16.10.1963, 9: “"... I must tell you once more that for us spiritual life does not mean contempt for Matter but its divinization. We do not want to reject the body but to transform it. For this, physical education is one of the means most directly effective. " The Mother’s Agenda-3.4.1967, “I started with a paradox: "The first condition for acquiring power is to be obedient... "The body must learn to obey before it can manifest power; and physical education i s the most thorough discipline for the body... "So be eager and sincere in your effort for physical education and you will acquire a powerful body." The Mother’s Agenda-27.03.1968, “Physical culture is the best way of developing the consciousness 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.” TMCW/Vol-12/On Education/p-283, “The education of the physical consciousness (not the body’s global consciousness, but the consciousness of the cells) consists in teaching them ... First of all it’s a choice (it looks like one): it’s choosing the divine Presence – the divine Consciousness, the divine Presence, the divine Power (all that wordlessly), the "something" we define as the absolute Master. It’s a choice of EVERY SECOND between the old laws of Nature – with some mental influence and the whole life as it has been organized – the choice between that, the government by that, and the government by the supreme Consciousness, which is equally present (the feeling of the Presence is equally strong); the other thing is more habitual, and then there’s the Presence. It’s every second (it’s infinitely interesting), and with illustrations: the nerves, for instance ... if a nerve obeys all the various laws of Nature and mental conclusions and all that – the whole caboodle – then it starts aching; if it obeys the influence of the supreme Consciousness, then a strange phenomenon takes place ... it’s not like something getting "cured" – I might rather say, like an unreality fading away... And that’s the life of every second, for the smallest thing, the whole bodily functioning: sleep, food, washing, activities, everything, everything – every second. And the body is learning. There are naturally hesitations stemming from the power of habit and also old ideas floating about in the air (gesture of a swarming in the atmosphere): none of that is personal. As a work, it’s tremendous…And continuous…Continuous. There was a time when it would be forgotten now and then; now it’s beginning not to be forgotten anymore. It’s continuous. There’s only one thing that interrupts it, it’s the work with the outside, the relationship with others for that action which consists in infusing them – infusing them with divine consciousness. So then, this is the result: first, a very clear vision (not a vision in pictures, a very clear vision) of the state they are in; then, this: enveloping and infusing them with divine consciousness; and then, the effect that has, or hasn’t. That’s the occupation in relationships with people. The other work [on the cells] is the life of every minute... It’s growing more and more precise, more and more interesting – but absorbing... And a consciousness – a perception, rather – a growing perception of a state which ... I don’t know how to explain it. There are two simultaneous states: the state of uninterrupted, almost endless continuity, and the state of ... toppling over into decomposition (for the body); the two are constantly like this (Mother places one hand closely over the other). And the choice – the constant choice – based, in fact, on a reliance ... leaning for support on the divine Consciousness for all things and every second, or ceasing to lean on it. To the cells, that choice appears to be a free choice, with a very strong sense (but not at all formulated in words) of the support constantly given by the supreme Consciousness to help them rely on it alone…It’s not mentalized – hardly mentalized at all – and almost impossible to formulate. But it’s very clear. Very clear ... what is it? It’s not in the sensation – it’s in the state of consciousness. It’s very clear states of consciousness. But hard to express. Continuous states, continuous, continuous: night and day, ceaselessly, continuously. The planes change, the activities change, but it’s continuous. The mode of being or way of being may cease and give place to another, but that state of consciousness is perpetual, uninterrupted, universal, eternal – outside time – outside time, outside space. It’s the state of the consciousness.” The Mother’s Agenda-26.06.1968, “And the body is being given an education : it’s being taught how to will – the true way of being and willing. And over the entire material creation (gesture covering and enveloping the earth), there is a tissue – which we might call "catastrophic" – a tissue of bad will. That is to say, a sort of web, yes, a defeatist web – defeatist, catastrophic – where you botch what you wanted to do, where there are all possible accidents, all possible bad wills. Like a web. And the body is being taught to get out of it… It’s as if mingled with the Force that realizes and expresses itself; it’s like something mingling with the material creation. And the body is being taught to break free from it. But it’s difficult, very difficult…It’s the cause of diseases, the cause of accidents – it’s the cause of all destructive things…And this web is there constantly, all the time, like this (same covering gesture). It’s very tightly mingled [with the body]. It’s not clearly separate yet…So that’s how I live. There are still hours during which I don’t know what’s happening outwardly.” The Mother’s Agenda-4.9.1968, “Oh yes, that has a meaning! We could tell them: If that’s what you mean, it’s precisely the goal of physical education . And teaching is an attempt to replace the Consciousness with ... (laughing) an inner library!... If I joke too much, they won’t understand anymore!... We can tell them this: The way to really awaken the physical consciousness is physical education. It’s physical education that teaches the cells to be conscious . But to develop the brain, it’s study, observation, intelligent education – especially observation and reasoning. And naturally, for the whole education of the consciousness from the standpoint of character, it’s yoga.” The Mother’s Agenda-28.9.1968, 10: “At the outset, we can easily see that, since this is an evolution out of a material Inconscience into spiritual consciousness, an evolutionary self-building of Spirit on a base of Matter, there must be in the process a development of a triple character. (1) An evolution of forms of Matter more and more subtly and intricately organised so as to admit the action of a growing, a more and more complex and subtle and capable organisation of consciousness is the indispensable physical foundation. (2) An upward evolutionary progress of the consciousness itself from grade to higher grade, an ascent, is the evident spiral line or emerging curve that, on this foundation, the evolution must describe. (3) A taking up of what has already been evolved into each higher grade as it is reached and a transformation more or less complete so as to admit of a total changed working of the whole being and nature, an integration, must be also part of the process, if the evolution is to be effective.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine-730-731, 11: "And here we always come back to the same thing, to what Sri Aurobindo describes in The Synthesis of Yoga: it is the way of knowledge or the way of devotion or the way of works. But the way of works is precisely the one which keeps you in physical life and makes you find your liberation in it; and perhaps this is the most effective way of all but also the most difficult. ” TMCW-8/The Questions and Answers-1956/p-299, “My dear children, love work and you will be happy. Love to learn and you will progress…. If one does not love work, one is always unhappy in life. In order to be truly happy in life, one must love work.” TMCW-12/On Education-337, “It is evident that if we are to have a free divine or spiritual and supramental action conducted by the force and fulfilling the character of a diviner energy, some fairly complete transformation must be effected in this outward character of the bodily nature. ” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-730, (This indicates that for constant union with the Divine, nitya yukata , as hinted in the Gita, can only be effective by the transformation of Nature. Without the transformation of outer Nature, this union can be intermittent.) "If the spirit is everywhere, even in matter — in fact matter itself is only an obscure form of the spirit — and if the supermind is the universal power of the spirit’s omnipresent self-knowledge organising all the manifestation of the being, then in matter and everywhere there must be present a supramental action and, however concealed it may be by another, lower and obscurer kind of operation, yet when we look close we shall find that it is really the supermind which organises matter, life, mind and reason. And this actually is the knowledge towards which we are now moving. There is even a quite visible intimate action of the consciousness, persistent in life, matter and mind, which is clearly a supramental action subdued to the character and need of the lower medium and to which we now give the name of intuition from its most evident characteristics of direct vision and self-acting knowledge, really a vision born of some secret identity with the object of the knowledge." CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-793, “The mind eventually becomes wholly intuitivised and exists only as a passive channel for the supramental action; but this condition too is not ideal and presents, besides, still a certain obstacle, because the higher action has still to pass through a retarding and diminishing conscious substance, — that of the physical consciousness. The final stage of the change will come when the supermind occupies and supramentalises the whole being and turns even the vital and physical sheaths into moulds of itself, responsive, subtle and instinct with its powers. Man then becomes wholly the superman. This is at least the natural and integral process.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-826, 12: “The results of Hathayoga are thus striking to the eye and impose easily on the vulgar or physical mind. And yet at the end we may ask what we have gained at the end of all this stupendous labour… But the weakness of Hathayoga is that its laborious and difficult processes make so great a demand on the time and energy and impose so completely a severance from the ordinary life of men that the utilisation of its results for the life of the world becomes either impracticable or is extraordinarily restricted. If in return of this loss we gain another life in another world within, the mental, the dynamic, these results could have been acquired through other systems, through Rajayoga, through Tantra, by much less laborious methods and held on much less exacting terms. On the other hand the physical results, increased vitality, prolonged youth, health, longevity are of small avail if they must be held by us as misers of ourselves, apart from the common life, for their own sake, not utilized, not thrown into the common sum of the world’s activities. Hathayoga attains large results, but at an exorbitant price and to very little purpose.” CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-35, 13: “The only thing in the world that still appears intolerable to me now is all physical deterioration, physical suffering, the ugliness the powerlessness to express this capacity of beauty inherent in every being. But this, too, will be conquered one day. Here, too the power will come one day to shift the needle a little. Only, one has to climb higher in consciousness: the deeper into matter you want to descend, the higher must you ascend in consciousness…It will take time. Sri Aurobindo was surely right when he spoke of a few centuries.” The Mother’s Agenda-25.02.1958, 14: “The transformation, the perfection cannot for the integral Yoga be complete until the link between the mental and the spiritual action is formed and a higher knowledge applied to all the activities of our existence. That link was the Supramental or Gnostic energy in which the incalculable infinite power of the supreme being, consciousness, delight formulates itself as an ordering divine will and wisdom, a light and power in the being which shapes all the thought, will, feeling, action and replaces the corresponding individual movements.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga-764, “But in the gnostic way of being and living the will of the spirit must directly control and determine the movements and law of the body. For the law of the body arises from the subconscient or inconscient: but in the gnostic being the subconscient will have become conscious and subject to the supramental control, penetrated with its light and action; the basis of inconscience with its obscurity and ambiguity, its obstruction or tardy responses will have been transformed into a lower or supporting superconscience by the supramental emergence.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine-1021, “A gnostic being will possess not only a truth-conscious control of the realised spirit’s power over its physical world, but also the full power of the mental and vital planes and the use of their greater forces for the perfection of the physical existence. This greater knowledge and wider hold of all existence will enormously increase the power of instrumentation of the gnostic being on his surroundings and on the world of physical Nature.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-1015, 15: “The transition between the two appears really possible only through the entry – the conscious and willed entry – of a supramentalized consciousness into a body that we could call an "improved physical body," in other words, the human physical body as it is now, but improved: the improvement produced, for instance, by a TRUE physical training, not in its present exaggerated form but in its true sense. It's something I have seen fairly clearly: in an evolution (physical training is developing very fast nowadays, it's not even half a century since it started), in evolution, that physical training will bring an improvement, that is, a suppleness, a balance, an endurance, and a harmony; these are the four qualities – suppleness (plasticity), balance between the various parts of the being, endurance, and harmony of the body – that will make it a more supple instrument for the supramentalized consciousness…So the transition: a conscious and willed utilization by a supramentalized consciousness of a body prepared in that way. This body must be brought to the peak of its development and of the utilization of the cells in order to be ... yes, consciously impregnated with the supreme forces (which is being done here [in Mother] at the moment), and this to the utmost of its capacities. And if the consciousness that inhabits that body, that animates that body, has the required qualities in sufficient amount, it should normally be able to utilize that body to the utmost of its capacity of transformation, with the result that the waste caused by the death of decomposing cells should be reduced to a minimum – to what extent?... That's precisely what still belongs to the unknown…That would correspond to what Sri Aurobindo called the prolongation of life at will, for an indefinite length of time…But as things are at present, it would seem there is a transitional period in which the consciousness has to switch from this body to another, better prepared body – better prepared outwardly, physically (not inwardly); "outwardly," I mean, having acquired certain aptitudes through the present development, which this body doesn't have, of the four qualities – which it doesn't have in sufficient amount and completeness. That is to say, those four qualities must be in perfect accord and in sufficient amount to be able to bear the work of transformation.” The Mother’s Agenda/April 17, 1965 16: “In fact, the body must not rule, it must obey. By its very nature it is a docile and faithful servant. Unfortunately, it rarely has the capacity of discernment it ought to have with regard to its masters, the mind and the vital. It obeys them blindly, at the cost of its own well-being. The mind with its dogmas, its rigid and arbitrary principles, the vital with its passions, its excesses and dissipations soon destroy the natural balance of the body and create in it fatigue, exhaustion and disease. It must be freed from this tyranny and this can be done only through a constant union with the psychic centre of the being. The body has a wonderful capacity of adaptation and endurance. It is able to do so many more things than one usually imagines. If, instead of the ignorant and despotic masters that now govern it, it is ruled by the central truth of the being, you will be amazed at what it is capable of doing. Calm and quiet, strong and poised, at every minute it will be able to put forth the effort that is demanded of it, for it will have learnt to find rest in action and to recuperate, through contact with the universal forces, the energies it expends consciously and usefully. In this sound and balanced life a new harmony will manifest in the body, reflecting the harmony of the higher regions, which will give it perfect proportions and ideal beauty of form. And this harmony will be progressive, for the truth of the being is never static; it is a perpetual unfolding of a growing perfection that is more and more total and comprehensive. As soon as the body has learnt to follow this movement of progressive harmony, it will be possible for it to escape, through a continuous process of transformation, from the necessity of disintegration and destruction. Thus the irrevocable law of death will no longer have any reason to exist.” TMCW/Vol-12/On Education/p-7-8, 17: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-732, 18: The Mother's Agenda/June 6, 1962 19: "There are all kinds of freedom – mental freedom, vital freedom, spiritual freedom – which are the fruits of successive masteries. But a completely new freedom has become possible with the Supramental Manifestation: it is the freedom of the body." The Mother's Agenda-17.10.1957, 20: "The very physical consciousness in man, the annamaya purusa , can without this supreme ascent and integral descent yet reflect and enter into the self of Sachchidananda . It can do it either by a reflection of the Soul in physical Nature, its bliss, power and infinity secret but still present here, or by losing its separate sense of substance and existence in the Self within or without it. The result is a glorified sleep of the physical mind in which the physical being forgets itself in a kind of conscious Nirvana or else moves about like a thing inert in the hands of Nature, jadavat, like a leaf in the wind, or otherwise a state of pure happy and free irresponsibility of action, balavat , a divine childhood. But this comes without the higher glories of knowledge and delight which belong to the same status upon a more exalted level. It is an inert realisation of Sachchidananda in which there is neither any mastery of the Prakriti by the Purusha nor any sublimation of Nature into her own supreme power, the infinite glories of the Para Shakti. Yet these two, this mastery and this sublimation, are the two gates of perfection, the splendid doors into the supreme Eternal." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-499, 21: CWSA-31/ Letters on Yoga-IV/p-398, 22: The Mother's Agenda/October 3, 1958, 23: "... I am tired of our infirmity. But it is not to rest that this body aspires, it aspires to the plenitude of Your (Supreme Lord) Consciousness, it aspires to the splendor of Your Light, it aspires to the magnificence of Your Power; above all, it aspires to the glory of Your all-powerful and eternal Love." The Mother's Agenda/July 21, 1965 Download this WEB PAGE in PDF format: “When you follow the ascending path, the work is relatively easy. I had already covered this path by the beginning of the century and had established a constant relationship with the Supreme – That which is beyond the Personal and the gods and all the outward expressions of the Divine, but also beyond the Absolute Impersonal. It’s something you cannot describe; you must experience it. And this is what must be brought down into Matter. Such is the descending path, the one I began with Sri Aurobindo ; and there, the work is immense…The thing can still be brought down as far as the mental and vital planes (although Sri Aurobindo said that thousands of lifetimes would be needed merely to bring it down to the mental plane, unless one practiced a perfect surrender)("A soul made ready through a thousand years." Savitri-398). With Sri Aurobindo, we went down below Matter, right into the Subconscient and even into the Inconscient. But after the descent comes the transformation , and when you come down to the body, when you attempt to make it take one step forward – oh, not even a real step, just a little step! – everything starts grating; it’s like stepping on an anthill ... And yet the presence, the help of the supreme Mother, is there constantly; thus you realize that for ordinary men such a task is impossible, or else millions of lives would be needed – but in truth, unless the work is done for them and the sadhana of the body done for the entire earth consciousness , they will never achieve the physical transformation, or else it will be so remote that it is better not even to speak of it. But if they open themselves, if they give themselves over in an integral surrender, the work can be done for them – they have only to let it be done…The path is difficult. And yet this body is full of good will; it is filled with the psychic in every one of its cells. It’s like a child. The other day, it cried out quite spontaneously, ‘O my Sweet Lord, give me the time to realize You!’ It did not ask to hasten the process, it did not ask to lighten its work; it only asked for enough TIME to do the work. ‘Give me the time!’” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-19.05.1959 " One of the very first results of the supramental manifestation was to give the body a freedom and an autonomy it has never before known . And when I say freedom, I don’t mean some psychological perception or an inner state of consciousness, but something else and far better – it is a new phenomenon in the body, in the cells of the body. For the first time, the cells themselves have felt that they are free, that they have the power to decide. When the new vibrations came and combined with the old ones, I felt it at once and it showed me that a new world was really taking birth... In its normal state, the body always feels that it is not its own master: illnesses invade it without its really being able to resist them – a thousand factors impose themselves or exert pressure upon it. Its sole power is the power to defend itself, to react. Once the illness has got in, it can fight and overcome it – even modern medicine has acknowledged that the body is cured only when it decides to get cured; it is not the drugs per se that heal, for if the ailment is temporarily suppressed by a drug without the body’s will, it grows up again elsewhere in some other form until the body itself has decided to be cured. But this implies only a defensive power, the power to react against an invading enemy – it is not true freedom.... But with the supramental manifestation, something new has taken place in the body: it feels it is its own master, autonomous, with its two feet solidly on the ground, as it were. This gives a physical impression of the whole being suddenly drawing itself up, with its head lifted high – I am my own master... And this new vibration in the body has allowed me to understand the mechanism of the transformation. It is not something that comes from a higher Will, not a higher consciousness that imposes itself upon the body: it is the body itself awakening in its cells, a freedom of the cells themselves, an absolutely new vibration that sets disorders right – even disorders that existed prior to the supramental manifestation ." The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-October 17, 1957 "So, regularly, as soon as there comes a pain somewhere or a discomfort or anything, immediately, instantly, the first reaction: "Ah! Lord, what do You want me to learn?" And I become attentive... If everybody does the same thing, if all those who can do it (sincerely, of course, without pretense) do it sincerely: "Ah! Lord, what do You want me to learn?" and then observe, wait, then things are easier, you put yourself at least in better conditions." The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-July 27, 1963

The True Leader of Men "Yes, there are happy ways near to God’s sun; But few are they who tread the sunlit path; Only the pure in soul can walk in light. An exit is shown, a road of hard escape From the sorrow and the darkness and the chain; But how shall a few escaped release the world? The human mass lingers beneath the yoke. Escape, however high, redeems not life, Life that is left behind on a fallen earth. Escape cannot uplift the abandoned race Or bring to it victory and the reign of God. A greater power must come, a larger light. Although Light grows on earth and Night recedes, Yet till the evil is slain in its own home (The Task of last Avatar.) And Light invades the world’s inconscient base And perished has the adversary Force He still must labour on, his work half done." Savitri-448-449 The True Leader of Men “After I knew that God was a woman, I learned something from far-off about love; but it was only when I became a woman and served my Master and Paramour that I knew love utterly.”¹ Sri Aurobindo “There are two who are unfit for greatness and freedom, the man who has never been a slave to another and the nation that has never been under the yoke of foreigners.”² Sri Aurobindo “As the servant and disciple of the Master he (a Sadhaka ) has no business with pride and egoism because all is done for him from above, so also he has no right to despond because of his personal deficiencies or stumblings of his nature. For the Force that works in him is impersonal –or superpersonal- and infinite.”⁸ Sri Aurobindo The Mother observed in a letter to the disciple in 1939, “I do not see anybody in the world more qualified than Sri Aurobindo to lead you to the feet of the Mahashakti .” ²⁰ The Mother Sri Aurobindo confirms in The Synthesis of Yoga that a 'strong (man) but crude vital natures’¹⁷ cannot become the true leader of men. The Divine demands from him ‘subordination and service’¹⁸ for annulment of his ego and 'service and obedience'¹⁹ for taming the lower Nature. He must be 'truthful, pure, sincere, straightforward.'²⁷ His leadership depends on the development of pure womanhood, slavehood, and discipleship to the Divine Master. The False Leader of Men “Alarmed for her rule and full of fear and rage She prowls around each light that gleams through the dark Casting its ray from the spirit’s lonely tent, Hoping to enter with fierce stealthy tread And in the cradle slay the divine Child. ” Savitri-224 "Always the dark Adventurers seem to win; Nature they fill with evil’s institutes, Turn into defeats the victories of Truth, Proclaim as falsehoods the eternal laws, And load the dice of Doom with wizard lies; The world’s shrines they have occupied, usurped its thrones. " (Thus the Spiritual shrine acts as a cradle to slay the Divine Children, dvija.) Savitri-225-226 “Inconscient traders in bundles of contraries, They did what in others they would persecute; When their eyes looked upon their fellow’s vice, An indignation flamed, a virtuous wrath; Oblivious of their own deep-hid offence, Moblike they stoned a neighbour caught in sin .” Savitri-209 "The corruption of the best (the best Souls of earth) produced the worst by that strange chemistry of the power of life which generates evil out of good even as it can also generate good out of evil….Yet even in the earthward life a higher knowledge (Psychic and Spiritual knowledge) is indeed the one thing that is throughout needful, and without it the lower sciences (of arts, of literature, of religion and of modern science) and pursuits, however fruitful, however rich, free, miraculous in the abundance of their results, become easily a sacrifice offered without due order and to false gods; corrupting, hardening in the end the heart of man, limiting his mind’s horizons, they confine in a stony material imprisonment or lead to a final baffling incertitude and disillusionment."³⁰ Sri Aurobindo "There are too many guides, founders of sects, heads of temples or monasteries, sadhus or saints who intervene between humanity and the supreme Lord under the pretext that they are intermediaries, and who keep for their glorified little persons the waves of gratitude that should go straight, straight to their true goal: the supreme Lord. I always refrain from having anything to do with those people, whether they are on earth or in the subtle world. Whatever the Lord wills for us He will always give us, and I prefer to receive it directly rather than through intermediaries, however great they may be."³¹ The Mother Sri Aurobindo has not given much importance to external Guruhood, because throughout earth's history false Gurus have dominated earth's atmosphere. It is a previledge to find the true Guru within as Psychic being subordinated by true Guru without. The leader of men who has not realised and seen ‘the One and Eternal’³ in all things, may be eminent in a larger and lesser circle and feels himself full of power, extraordinary increase of mentality and vitality which drives his thought and action and builds his life as a phenomenon of creative genius. He can act as a scourge, bringer of light, healer, a creator of beauty or the messenger of knowledge, a prolific writer, a server of humanity and the cosmic force which seeks to move him, seems often to surpass the measures of ordinary human limitation and relativity. When he speaks of God, he erects an image of Him which is a huge shadow of his nature, will, thought, quality and force. He serves the Master as his glorified ego and in Spiritual life this leadership turns towards ambition, pride, desire of greatness and a magnified individual personality. Although he has a larger sight and greater knowledge than ordinary men and advances a step beyond the limited physical and vital intelligence, a divided individualised life and force prevent him from really becoming master of the world. A light of superior consciousness acts within his narrow mental limits, but his being is not opened towards the plenary Light, Vision and Power and direct Divine realisation and neither ‘comes face to face with the Master’³ and the Lord, or capable of vast, comprehensive self-existent joy and multitudinous field of mystic Spiritual experience, or ascend into the original luminosity of overhead Consciousness, or descent of immense ranges of powers, influences and phenomena, or aware of a sea like downpour of masses of spontaneous Knowledge. The Divine force acts in his imperfect nature more intensely than in others with flashes of inspiration and revelation and still an exalted ego stands between him and the Integral Truth and his fragmentary personality imposes and dominates the surroundings. So, a leader who has less purity and absence of a complete Spiritual emergence can use too often the Divine’s Name and may become His instrument but serves unconsciously His black masks and the powers of dark demons and titans or introduce dangerous falsity or he assumes a Divine Name¹⁰ or proclaims to be Divine Messenger or believes himself as spokesperson of God to guide and rule others. Those who are slaves to the physical mind, tamasic mind, and vital mind, rajasic mind, or slaves to the lower instinct-driven nature can easily become servants to others. They cannot become the slave of an external human form and still more difficult to become slave of inner Psychic being and the spiritual being. Most of the human beings live in their physical and vital mind and are obedient to their dominating murmurs, whispers and promptings which circumscribe life within the narrow walls of apparent possibility. Obedience, subordination and service to immediate authorised human recipients is an intermediate house of training which is felt indispensable in order to discipline the inertia of the physical and perversion of vital mind which later culminates in the obedience and consecration to the supreme Will and do whatever It dictates. The experience of slavehood is identified as two steps ahead of God's conscious servant and instrument. Those who have gone through the experience of utter obedience to immediate human authority or it is an exceedingly good fortune for them to obey an individual who has realised Divine, can easily go through the experience of manhood, soulhood, slavehood and childhood and become the God’s instrument, slave and child and can obey the Spirit’s wide and Omnipotent urge. A servant serves and works for his Master but he is categorised firstly, that he is having his own emotion, will and thought process of separate identity; in the second category he nurtures secretly hostility, perverted ill will, narrow carping and wrong thought, bivranti, and these influence make him crooked, dry, hard hearted, hollow and cruel; lastly, he cannot tolerate and destroys what is higher than him; so he even grows the impatient desire to become the successor, quarrels and conspires to end the life of his Master. So, the servants of the latter two types have little Spiritual future and of the former type can go through long training of experience of motiveless love, obedience, honesty, nobility of character, sincerity, straightforwardness, unselfishness, disinterested consecration to work. Thus, depending on the collaboration of untransformed Nature, he either arrives at the higher stage of instrument and slave or recoils into old life of brute inhumanity. A slave identifies himself with the will of the Master, does excessive and arduous labour and his separate identity is lost in the utter oneness. The attitude of his mind must not be, “This is my strength” or “Behold the God’s power in me,” but rather, “A Divine Power works in this mind and body and this is the same that works in all men and in the animal, in the plant and in the metal, in all conscious and living things and things apparently inconscient and inanimate.”⁴ If this large view of the One working in all becomes the entire experience, then the ego-sense will begin to be eliminated. Experience shows that, in proportion as one delivers oneself from the limiting mental and vital ego, he commands a wider life, a larger existence, a higher consciousness, a happier Soul state, even a greater knowledge, power and ceaseless consecrated action. Women are hated by mediaeval ascetic as a creation of God for the temptation of Monk and to shun all women is considered its panacea. If a woman has tempted him then the sense declares ‘he loves her.’ But a liberated Soul loves all beings equally and the Soul experiences unity with God. That is the all-embracing and all-exceeding formula of existence. So, in order to know God’s love utterly one has to treat God and Woman nobly and adore, love and regard them equally. By becoming a virgin bridal, representing the purity of a woman, the softness, tenderness, sweetness and plasticity to change becomes predominant; the distance between Soul and Divine or Lover and Beloved is annulled and the ego is vanished to realise His Oneness. The Liberated Soul Centre There are two types of liberated Souls. The first type of liberated Soul or a Sadhaka of traditional Yoga, ‘may be content with a subtle and limited action within the old human surroundings which will in no way seek to change their outward appearance.’¹³ The second type of liberated Soul or a Sadhaka of integral Yoga, who ‘will not only alter the forms and sphere of its own external life but, leaving nothing around it unchanged or unaffected, create a new world or a new order.’¹³ Sri Aurobindo insists that the second type of liberated Souls remain accountable for their Sadhana through large Divine action, record the descending overhead Divine Wisdom and enrich Earth's atmosphere through the descent of Divine Love, Delight and Beauty. The aim of the liberated Soul⁹ Centre is not to become great, luminous, strong and powerful, an aggrandisement of the personal force and motives of self-assertion but he must be self-fulfilled by Yoga and is capable of accepting and transforming all negation and infirmity in his extended universalised Consciousness. His sole aim is a pure Spiritual perfection, a shadowless Bliss, a finding of the true Self and union with the Divine by putting on the Divine Consciousness and Divine Nature and a life governed and formed from within outwards in which the source of all thought, will and action shall be the Spirit working through the Truth and the Divine law which are self-existent and spontaneous in their self-fulfilment. Discovery of the truth of one's own Being, followed by All-Being, must be the master motive. He must be capable of the eternal unity between the Self and all existences. In the Spiritual order of things, the greater he projects his views, ideas and aspirations, the greater the Truth that seeks to descend upon his life and he has the responsibility to manifest much more of that which he secretly is. With the increase of purity, an overhead luminous Consciousness begins to penetrate and the gate lies wide open to the possibility of extending his Consciousness beyond the present limit. He realises himself as an embodied Soul through whose sacrificial action the cosmic Nature seeks to fulfil itself, and he emerges from the darkness of Ignorance towards a light of Knowledge that is growing upward towards an unforeseen culmination. The Universalised Liberated Soul Centre “...If thou canst not be the slave of all mankind, thou art not fit to be its master, and if thou canst not make thy nature as Vasishtha’s cow of plenty with all mankind to draw its wish from her udders, what avails thy leonine supermanhood?”⁵ Sri Aurobindo “To be the master of the world would indeed be supreme felicity, if one were universally loved; but for that one would have to be at the same time the slave of all humanity.”⁶ Sri Aurobindo "She (Savitri) made herself the diligent serf of all," Savitri-470 The Spiritual man is equal Souled to all things and he lives with the sense of oneness with all creatures. Through above message, integral Yoga issues injunction on developed Soul to serve mankind arduously by becoming its slave or does good of all creature by movement of universal Consciousness. The personality of a mere man is only a formation of superficial mental consciousness with limited, restricted formations of powers, qualities and habits. To lose surface personality is necessary if we are to gain our true Soul personality, still more necessary if we are to gain universality and rise into transcendence. The Psychic personality of a man flowers as the Saint, the Sage and the Seer and when it reaches its full strength, it turns the being towards Supreme Truth, Beauty, Love, Bliss and Largeness and opens towards Spiritual Compassion, Universality and Oneness. If the Individual can become one with the All-Will then he can be the master of All-Force and the evolution of all the faculties of the Spirit, immense ranges of Powers, Influences, phenomena begin to descend covertly upon him and some of them can realise immediately in the order of the physical world and the rest await their time and proper circumstance for revelation in physical term and form. An integral Yogi’s experience of slavehood and womanhood will be extended towards all humanity with the Impersonalisation and Universalisation of the Consciousness. He will simultaneously live himself as the follower, seeker of integral truth, disciple, instrument and child of the Supreme as everything descends constantly to him from above as divine Will, divine Wisdom and divine Love. The above seven-fold self-concentration of the Spiritual man is subordinated by seven-fold self-expansion as discussed below. A liberated Soul can extend his relation with the brother Souls by rising in Consciousness and developing a fragment of the Divine’s self-expansive sevenfold personality of Master, Teacher, Father, Mother, Friend, Lover and the Playmate. As he ascends in Yoga or in Consciousness, he moves towards the complete perfection of the above-mentioned personalities. Then for him there is no need of escape into Heaven and he exceeds the emancipation of the Adwaitin , extinction of Buddhist Nirvana, siddhis, perfection of intermediate planes of Consciousness of the Tantric, Sadharmya Mukti, liberation of Nature of Karma Yoga, Sajujya Mukti, experience of Oneness with the Divine of Jnana Yoga and Samipya Mukti, dwelling of the Soul in the Divine of Bhakti Yoga. The universal Man, the cosmic Purusha in humanity, is developing in the human race the power that shall grow to Supermind and Spirit and become the Godhead in man who is aware of his true and integral Self and the Divine universality of his nature. The transformation of the whole race from Mental into Spiritual being is possible by general admission of the self-law of supreme Truth which is above all standards, a supreme and universal self-existent Good, a widespread endeavour, a pure plasticity of luminous Consciousness, conscious concentration and constant upward effort and can be extraordinarily effective if it can find a powerful individual to embody, express, lead and organise it. Recapitulation “For the seeker of the integral Yoga… will meet him (the Divine) in the faces of the Gods, his cosmic personalities supporting the World-Play, detect him behind the mask of the Vibhutis, embodied World-Forces or human Leaders, reverence and obey him in the Guru, worship him in the Avatar.”⁷ Sri Aurobindo “Help men, but do not pauperise them of their energy; lead and instruct men, but see that their initiative and originality remain intact; take others into thyself, but give them in return the full godhead of their nature. He who can do this is the leader and the guru. ”¹⁵ Sri Aurobindo “It has always been said that to take disciples means to take upon yourself the difficulties of the disciples as well as your own. Of course, if the Guru does not identify himself with the disciple, does not take him into his own consciousness, keeps him outside and only gives him upadesa , leaving him to do the rest himself, then the chance of these effects is much diminished, made practically nil.”¹⁶ Sri Aurobindo If thou hast become an ‘ardent slave’¹² of thy ‘sensuous will,’¹² then thou art fit to be an instrument of desire and lead an ordinary worldly life. If thou hast become a slave of any intermediate living human Consciousness,² then thou art fit to be an instrument of the highest Divine Consciousness and lead a Spiritual life. If thou hast become the slave of the Divine or the Spirit, then thou art fit to serve and become the slave of humanity. If thou hast become a slave of the whole of mankind, then thou art fit to become its Master. If thou hast gone beyond all pride and egoism then thou art fit to become the disciple of the Divine. If instead of loving woman thou canst become a virgin woman, then thou art fit to hold the Divine’s Love. The true leader of men must radiate the double perfection of (1) union with the Supreme and (2) its universalised individuality that must radiate from him Oneness with the Universe and its Beings. This experience culminates in his Spiritual experience of Oneness with all creatures and his Oneness with the Eternal. He will lead the human race forward Spiritually through his Influence and large world action. He becomes a light and a power of the Truth to which he has climbed and a means of others’ ascension. The pathfinder or the path-leader is one who has realised the Truth and is able to communicate the light and the experience. He is a strong guide and instructor who takes by the hand and carries over difficult passages and points out the way. According to his place, he would take 'equal delight'²⁸ to rule and lead all those who are behind him in Consciousness and subordinating himself to all those who are ahead of him in cognition or ‘Of mastery’s joy and the joy of servitude.’'²⁹ Thus, the triple status of womanhood extended as virgin Mother to become God’s love utterly, slavehood extended as Divine Worker to become one with the Divine Master and Lord concealed in all humanity and discipleship to the Supreme from whom he receives all immaterial and material things constantly, becomes the secret of true life and is extended as true leadership. Avataras are also individual strong brother¹¹ Soul power on the surface, Yantra , and manifestation of special Divine Force from behind the veil, Vibhuti. Similarly, in Yantra and Vibhuti, the strong Avatara force can be active intermittently. King Aswapati, Satyavan and Savitri are symbolically identified here as the developed Souls of egoless, consecrated, faithfully pure leaders, instruments, emanations, and incarnations, destined to drag ahead the whole of humanity by the sheer Power of Their slavehood, discipleship and womanhood through the accumulation of Yoga Shakti, Chetana Shakti and Matri Shakti. Thus, Savitri as leader¹⁴ of Men, Gods and Asuras walked behind them and they, as obedient followers of her Will walked in front and onward they travelled in this Spiritual journey through drifting time and glimmering mists. When she stumbled as Guide, all her disciples too stumbled behind her steps and each and every stumble was a Spiritual necessity on the unknown path leading towards an unknowable Goal. As Master of the world, she serves earth from below like a slave and from above like a strong Sun-Light and the whole world is held within her supreme Consciousness. Thus, in integral Yoga, the gathering together of devotees, the lokasamgraham of the Gita is further modified into three parts. The first part confirms that a Sadhaka of integral Yoga must adher to ‘no propaganda whatsoever, of course, and above all, above all, no attempt to make people understand: the maximum effect one can obtain is the effect of the Consciousness at work in the world (universal gesture), because in everyone it produces the utmost the person can do – the utmost of what he can understand, he understands through the influence of the pressure of the Consciousness.’²² He should not ‘be too eager to help others’²⁵ that ‘draws away from the inner work’²⁵ and he should not be surrounded with any human admirers, which will lead him towards the Spiritual fall.²³ In order to open towards the ingress of new Spiritual material and new realisation,‘It is necessary to stand apart from the rest of the world so as to separate ourselves from the ordinary consciousness.’²⁴ The second part confirms that he ‘should in no way try to influence others and make them share’²² his ‘own effort: that would be quite unjust – not only unjust, but extremely clumsy because it would alter the universal – or at least terrestrial – rhythm and movement, and instead of helping, it would cause conflicts and result in chaos.’²² The third part confirms that if he is surrounded with few instruments of Truth, dvija ,²⁶ that will help him towards Spiritual upliftment and fulfilment. The ‘perfect utility of our perfection is, having realised in ourselves the divine symbol, to reproduce, multiply and ultimately universalise it in others,’²¹ not by the aid of any external machinery but by the movement of invisible universalised Consciousness. OM TAT SAT The Post Thesis After the first birth from the Mother’s womb, there is a second birth of the Soul, known as twice born, dvija . A dvija is in need of Spiritual Father, Spiritual Mother, Spiritual Master and Spiritual Guru for his survival and is in need of a Playmate, Friend and Lover for Soul flowering otherwise his Soul will suffer decay and death. Then he leads an ordinary earthbound life. Divine Centre is the cradle of Superman. At its centre there must be an individual Soul Centre who is having direct contact with the Divine and his brotherhood status must be fulfilled by development of sevenfold Divine personality. Without this condition Divine Centre can deform as soul slaying cradle where the newborn dvijas are killed ("And in the cradle slay the divine Child.” Savitri-224) and they are forced to lead an ordinary earth-bound life. Ashram is an ancient Indian terminology used for collective Divine living and if one individual at its centre is having direct contact with the Divine, then this collective living around this Soul Centre is identified as the Divine Centre. Sri Aurobindo pointed out (CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-1096) that Divine Centres through religious movements in the past did not succeed due to the want of complete Spiritual experience and evolved collectivity. This gives birth to a vision 'Beyond the Divine Centre' where the change will be neither dependent on the man of Spiritual attainment nor on the truthfulness, honesty and integrity of collectivity but on the direct pressure of the Time Spirit (Savitri-509-510) that is active now on earth's atmosphere and its crushing circumstances.(The Mother's Agenda-5/46) We will be in direct contact with the sole triple identity of the Divine (Time-Spirit) revealed to us through the concentration, contemplation and meditation of the strong subtle-physical Presence of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo, who reside very close to earth's atmosphere and are the symbol of the comprehensive movement of Divine Consciousness. The Scope of helping humanity: “Patriotism, cosmopolitanism, service of society, collectivism, humanitarianism, the ideal or religion of humanity are admirable aids towards our escape from our primary condition of individual, family, social, national egoism into a secondary stage in which the individual realises, as far as it can be done on the intellectual, moral and emotional level, —on that level he cannot do it entirely in the right and perfect way, the way of the integral truth of his being, — the oneness of his existence with the existence of other beings. But the thought of the Gita reaches beyond to a tertiary condition of our developing self-consciousness towards which the secondary is only a partial stage of advance.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-136 The Necessity of Leadership: “The best, the individuals who are in advance of the general line and above the general level of the collectivity, are the natural leaders of mankind, for it is they who can point to the race both the way they must follow and the standard or ideal they have to keep to or to attain. But the divinised man is the Best in no ordinary sense of the word and his influence, his example must have a power which that of no ordinarily superior man can exercise.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-138 The Necessity of Spiritual Leadership: “This too the divinised man becomes in the measure of his attainment, impersonal in his personality, unbound by quality or action even when maintaining the most personal and intimate relations with men, unbound by any dharma even when following in appearance this or that dharma. Neither the dynamism of the kinetic man nor the actionless light of the ascetic or quietist, neither the vehement personality of the man of action nor the indifferent impersonality of the philosophic sage is the complete divine ideal. These are the two conflicting standards of the man of this world and the ascetic or the quietist philosopher, one immersed in the action of the Kshara, the other striving to dwell entirely in the peace of the Akshara ; but the complete divine ideal proceeds from the nature of the Purushottama which transcends this conflict and reconciles all divine possibilities.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-141 The Necessity of Supramental Leadership: “The supramental man on the contrary will think more with the universal mind or even may rise above it, and his individuality will rather be a vessel of radiation and communication to which the universal thought and knowledge of the Spirit will converge than a centre. The mental man thinks and acts in a radius determined by the smallness or largeness of his mentality and of its experience. The range of the supramental man will be all the earth and all that lies behind it on other planes of existence...Ordinarily the supramental knowledge will be organised first and with the most ease in the processes of pure thought and knowledge, jnana , because here the human mind has already the upward tendency and is the most free. Next and with less ease it will be organised in the processes of applied thought and knowledge because there the mind of man is at once most active and most bound and wedded to its inferior methods. The last and most difficult conquest, because this is now to his mind a field of conjecture or a blank, will be the knowledge of the three times, trikaladrsti. ” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-837, 839 The Permanent Help: “Someone had written to (the) Mother, “I want my money to be used exclusively to conquer the causes of our sufferings and misery.” (The) Mother had replied, “That is what we are working towards here, but not in the artificial way of the philanthropists, who only deal with the outward effects. We want to eliminate forever the CAUSE of suffering, by divinizing matter through integral transformation.” The Mother's Agenda/10th April-1968. The permanent help and panacea of all problems of existence is possible through a triple reversal of Consciousness and inner change of Nature. All of the issues of humanity can be resolved by the permanent elevation of individual and collective Consciousness through Integral Evolution and Supramental Influence initially dynamised through a few individuals (A few can climb to an unperishing sun, (Savitri-689)) and finally spreads to elevate the general Consciousness of the race (His gates to the world were swept with seas of light. (Savitri-236)). OM TAT SAT References 1: SABCL-17/The Hour of God/p-129, 2: “There are two who are unfit for greatness and freedom, the man who has never been a slave to another and the nation that has never been under the yoke of foreigners.” SABCL-17/The Hour of God/p-115, 3: "This perception, this sense of a greater Power in us or above and moving us, is not a hallucination or a megalomania. Those who thus feel and see have a larger sight than ordinary men and have advanced a step beyond the limited physical intelligence, but theirs is not the plenary vision or the direct experience. For, because they are not clear in mind and aware in the soul, because their awakening is more in the vital parts than into the spiritual substance of Self, they cannot be the conscious instruments of the Divine or come face to face with the Master, but are used through their fallible and imperfect nature. The most they see of the Divinity is a Fate or a cosmic Force or else they give his name to a limited Godhead or, worse, to a Titanic or demoniac Power that veils him. Even certain religious founders have erected the image of the God of a sect or a national God or a Power of terror and punishment or a Numen of sattwic love and mercy and virtue and seem not to have seen the One and Eternal. The Divine accepts the image they make of him and does his work in them through that medium, but, since the one Force is felt and acts in their imperfect nature but more intensely than in others, the motive principle of egoism too can be more intense in them than in others. An exalted rajasic or sattwic ego still holds them and stands between them and the integral Truth." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-249, 4: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-250, 5: SABCL-17/The Hour of God/p-95, 6: SABCL-17/The Hour of God/p-142, 7: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-130, 8: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-62, 9: “Hard is it to be in the world, free, yet living the life of ordinary men; but because it is hard, therefore it must be attempted and accomplished.” SABCL/17/The Hour of God-91, 10: “The kings of evil and the kings of good,… And all believed themselves spokesmen of God:” Savitri-30 “Assuming names divine they guide and rule.” Savitri-226, “An ignorant Power took charge and seemed his Will And Death’s deep falsity has mastered Life.” Savitri-629 “I, Death, am He; there is no other God.” Savitri-553, “In me all take refuge, for I, Death, am God.” Savitri-635, (Savitri said to Death) “Surely thy boons are great since thou art He!” Savitri-647 "Even this is something, a beginning, although far from the true and perfect experience. A much worse thing may befall those who break something of the human bonds but have not purity and have not the knowledge, for they may become instruments, but not of the Divine; too often, using his name, they serve unconsciously his Masks and black Contraries, the Powers of Darkness." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-250, “Equally a man who sets out to be a Yogi or Guru and has no spiritual consciousness or no power in his spiritual consciousness — a Yoga force or spiritual force — is making a false claim and is either a charlatan or a self-deluded imbecile; still more is he so if having no spiritual force he claims to have made a path others can follow.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-179, “Distrust a man who has never failed and suffered; follow not his fortune, fight not under his banner.” Sri Aurobindo/SABCL/17/The Hour of God/115, “One can have a guru inferior in spiritual capacity (to oneself or to other gurus) carrying in him many human imperfections, and yet, if you have the faith, the bhakti, the right spiritual stuff, contact the Divine through him, attain to spiritual experiences, to spiritual realisation, even before the guru himself. Mark the “if”, — for that proviso is necessary; it isn’t every disciple who can do that with every guru. From a humbug you can acquire nothing but humbuggery. The guru must have something in him which makes the contact with the Divine possible, something which works even if he is not himself in his outer mind quite conscious of its action. If there is nothing at all spiritual in him he is not a guru — only a pseudo. Undoubtedly, there can be considerable differences of spiritual realisation between one guru and the other; but much depends on the inner relation between guru and shishya . One can go to a very great spiritual man and get nothing or only a little from him; one can go to a man of less spiritual capacity and get all he has to give — and more. The causes of this disparity are various and subtle; I need not expand on them here. It differs with each man. I believe the guru is always ready to give what can be given, if the disciple can receive, or it may be when he is ready to receive. If he refuses to receive or behaves inwardly or outwardly in such a way as to make reception impossible or if he is not sincere or takes up the wrong attitude, then things become difficult. But if one is sincere and faithful and has theright attitude and if the guru is a true guru, then, after whatever time, it will come.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-199, “I do not know if his Guru falls far short in any respect, but with the attitude he has taken, her deficiencies, if any, do not matter. It is not the human defects of the Guru that can stand in the way when there is the psychic opening, confidence and surrender. The Guru is the channel or the representative or the manifestation of the Divine, according to the measure of his personality or his attainment; but whatever he is, it is to the Divine that one opens in opening to him, and if something is determined by the power of the channel, more is determined by the inherent and intrinsic attitude of the receiving conscious- ness, an element that comes out in the surface mind as simple trust or direct unconditional self-giving, and once that is there, the essential things can be gained even from one who seems to others than the disciple an inferior spiritual source and the rest will grow up in the sadhak of itself by the Grace of the Divine, even if the human being in the Guru cannot give it.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-201, “A great sincerity is asked for and has to be imposed not only on the conscious mind but still more in the subliminal part of us which is full of hidden movements. For there is there, especially in our subliminal vital nature, an incorrigible charlatan and actor. The sadhaka must first have advanced far in the elimination of desire and in the firm equality of his soul towards all workings and all happenings before he can utterly lay down the burden of his works on the Divine. At every moment he must proceed with a vigilant eye upon the deceits of the ego and the ambushes of the misleading Powers of Darkness who ever represent themselves as the one Source of Light and Truth and take on them a simulacrum of divine forms in order to capture the soul of the seeker.” CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga-230 11: “Reared with my (Satyavan’s) natural brothers in her house.” Savitri-404 Savitri became the Mother of Satyavan’s natural brothers in the forest land. “Thou (Savitri) shalt not shrink from any brother soul.” Savitri-701, The Creator asks Savitri to become one with creation, her brother Souls. “He (Teacher of integral Yoga) is a man helping his brothers, a child leading children, a light kindling other lights, an awakened Soul awakening souls,…” CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga-67, 12: Savitri-615, 13: Ref: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-268 14: “The mortal (Savitri) led, the god (Death) and spirit (Satyavan) obeyed And she behind was leader of their march And they in front were followers of her will.” Savitri-639, “She (Savitri) walked in their (disciples) front towards a greater light, Their leader and queen over their hearts and souls,” Savitri-363, 15: CWSA-13/Essays in Philosophy and Yoga-p-208, 16: CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-197, 17: “This magnified image of their ego is the Master whom they serve. This happens only too often in Yoga to strong but crude vital natures or minds too easily exalted when they allow ambition, pride or the desire of greatness to enter into their spiritual seeking and vitiate its purity of motive; a magnified ego stands between them and their true being and grasps for its own personal purpose the strength from a greater unseen Power, divine or undivine, acting through them of which they become vaguely or intensely aware. An intellectual perception or vital sense of a Force greater than ours and of ourselves as moved by it is not sufficient to liberate from the ego” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-249, 18: "The acceptance of the law of sacrifice is a practical recognition by the ego that it is neither alone in the world nor chief in the world. It is its admission that, even in this much fragmented existence, there is beyond itself and behind that which is not its own egoistic person, something greater and completer, a diviner All which demands from it subordination and service .” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-106, 19: "Through four soul-stages a man must pass before he can be perfect; first, as a Sudra, by service and obedience to tame the brute in his being; then, as a Vaishya to satisfy within the law of morality the lower man in him and evolve the higher man by getting the first taste of delight in well-doing to others than himself and his ; then, as the Kshatriya, to be trained in those first qualities without which the pursuit of the Eternal is impossible, courage, strength, unconquerable tenacity and self-devotion to a great task ; last, as the Brahmin, so to purify body & mind and nature that he may see the Eternal reflected in himself as in an unsoiled mirror. Having once seen God, man can have no farther object in life than to reach and possess Him." CWSA-17/Isha Upanishad/p-195, 20: The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol-16/p-207, 21: “The divine soul reproduces itself in similar liberated souls as the animal reproduces itself in similar bodies. Therefore, whenever even a single soul is liberated, there is a tendency to an extension and even to an outburst of the same divine self-consciousness in other individual souls of our terrestrial humanity...” CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-45, “We have to recognise once more that the individual exists not in himself alone but in the collectivity and that individual perfection and liberation are not the whole sense of God’s intention in the world. The free use of our liberty includes also the liberation of others and of mankind; the perfect utility of our perfection is, having realised in ourselves the divine symbol, to reproduce, multiply and ultimately universalise it in others.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-29, 22: “In all contacts what you have to do is to remain within, keep a detached attitude and not allow yourself to be troubled by the difficulties that arise in work or the movements of people, but keep yourself the true movement. Do not be caught by the desire to “help” others — do and speak yourself the right thing from the inner poise and leave the help to come to them from the Divine. Nobody can really help — only the Divine Grace.” CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-325, “Sri Aurobindo was very, very conscious of this general confusion, and so he didn’t much like … he wanted absolutely no propaganda, but he also didn’t much like attempts to “explain things” to people and make them “understand,” because he very well knew how useless it is. He very, very often said it to me: no propaganda whatsoever, of course, and above all, above all, no attempt to make people understand: the maximum effect one can obtain is the effect of the Consciousness at work in the world (universal gesture), because in everyone it produces the utmost the person can do – the utmost of what he can understand, he understands through the influence of the pressure of the Consciousness. As soon as words intervene, the whole mind makes a mess of it.” The Mother’s Agenda- 08.02.1969, “Then there were the few—the rare individuals— who are ready to make the necessary effort to prepare themselves for the transformation and to attract the new forces, try to adapt matter, seek the means of expression and so forth. Those are ready for Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga. They are very few. There are even those who have the sense of sacrifice and are ready have a hard and difficult life, as long as it leads them or helps them towards this future transformation. But they should not, they should in no way try to influence others and make them share their own effort: that would be quite unjust – not only unjust, but extremely clumsy because it would alter the universal – or at least terrestrial – rhythm and movement, and instead of helping, it would cause conflicts and result in chaos.” The Mother/The Mother Agenda/27th November, 1965, 23: “I suppose I myself am accused of rude and arrogant behaviour because I refuse to see people, do not answer letters, and a host of other misdemeanours. I have heard of a famous recluse who threw stones at anybody coming to his retreat because he did not want disciples and found no other way of warding off the flood of candidates. I at least would hesitate to pronounce that such people had no spiritual life or experience. Certainly, I prefer that sadhaks should be reasonably considerate towards each other, but that is for the sake of collective life and harmony, not as a siddhi of the Yoga or an indispensable sign of inner experience.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-656, “You must not hunger after any relations with anyone. The relations of the sadhaka with others must be created for him from within, when he has the true consciousness and lives in the Light. They will be determined within him by the power and will of the Divine Mother according to the supramental Truth for the divine life and the divine work; they must not be determined by his mind and his vital desires. This is the thing you have to remember. Your psychic being is capable of giving itself to the Mother and living and growing in the Truth; but your lower vital being has been full of attachments and sanskaras and an impure movement of desire and your external physical mind was not able to shake off its ignorant ideas and habits and open to the Truth. That was the reason why you were unable to progress, because you were keeping up an element and movements which could not be allowed to remain; for they were the exact opposite of what has to be established in a divine life.” CWSA-32/The Mother and Letters on the Mother/p-142, “It is not safe to listen to or be influenced by the mental of other sadhaks. The Yoga aims at union with the Divine which will bring a spiritual oneness with other sadhaks, but a oneness in the Divine, in the Truth, not in the ignorance of the mind and the vital.” CWSA-23/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-11, Death said to Para-prakriti Savitri: “If Satyavan had lived, love would have died; But Satyavan is dead and love shall live A little while in thy sad breast, until His face and body fade on memory’s wall Where other bodies, other faces come.” Savitri-610, (human admirers will replace Paramatma) (Death said) “What knowst thou of earth’s rich and changing life Who thinkst that one man dead all joy must cease? Hope not to be unhappy till the end: For grief dies soon in the tired human heart; Soon other guests the empty chambers fill.” Savitri-637, (human admirers will replace Paramatma) Death said to Para-prakriti Savitri: “Return and try thy soul! Soon shalt thou find appeased that other men (human admirers) On lavish earth have beauty, strength and truth, And when thou hast half forgotten, one of these Shall wind himself around thy heart that needs Some human answering heart against thy breast; For who, being mortal, can dwell glad alone? Then Satyavan shall glide into the past, (Satyavan is the symbol of Paramatma) A gentle memory pushed away from thee By new love and thy children’s tender hands, Till thou shalt wonder if thou lov’dst at all. Such is the life earth’s travail has conceived, A constant stream that never is the same.” Savitri-637-638, “In moments when the inner lamps are lit And the life’s cherished guests are left outside, Our spirit sits alone and speaks to its gulfs.” Savitri-47 24: “That is all right in the ordinary karmayoga which aims at union with the cosmic Spirit and stops short at the Overmind — but here a special work has to be done and a new realisation achieved for the earth and not for ourselves alone. It is necessary to stand apart from the rest of the world so as to separate ourselves from the ordinary consciousness in order to bring down a new one… It is not that love for all is not part of the sadhana, but it has not to translate itself at once into a mixing with all — it can only express itself in a general and when need be dynamic universal goodwill, but for the rest it must find vent in this labour of bringing down the higher consciousness with all its effect for the earth. As for accepting the working of the Divine in all things that is necessary here too in the sense of seeing it even behind our struggles and difficulties, but not accepting the nature of man and the world as it is — our aim is to move towards a more divine working which will replace what now is by a greater and happier manifestation. That too is a labour of divine Love.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-812-813, 25: “To concentrate most on one’s own spiritual growth and experience is the first necessity of the sadhak — to be too eager to help others draws away from the inner work. There is also likely to be an overzeal and haste which clouds the discrimination and makes what help is given less effective than it should be. To grow in the spirit is the greatest help one can give to others, for then something flows out naturally to those around that helps them.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV-317, "This “helping others” is a perilous business — it brings the “guru” ego or else you very uncertainly rid others of their difficulties and very certainly get them yourself. “Why do you have all these disciples?” said a sage to some Maratha saint (I have forgotten the names); “to have disciples means to add all their difficulties to your own.” “Helping others” has the same disadvantage." CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-318, "In “helping” one often gets part of the other’s inconvenience and many Yogis refuse to take disciples because they will have to assume others’ burdens as well as their own. There are also other dangers — growth of ego etc." CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-319, "It [trying to help someone through words] is a relative and partial help, of course, but it is sometimes useful. A radical help can only come from within through the action of the Divine Force and the assent of the being." CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-317 “This, no doubt, is the root of the injunction imposed in the Gita (The Gita-3.29) on the man who has the knowledge not to disturb the life basis and thought basis of the ignorant; for impelled by his example but unable to comprehend the principle of his action, they would lose their own system of values without arriving at a higher foundation.” CWSA/21/The Life Divine/p-58, “Those who are bewildered by the modes, get attached to the modes and their works; dull minds, not knowers of the whole, let not the knower of the whole disturb them in their mental standpoint.” CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita-214, “In the long ever-mounting hierarchy, In the stark economy of cosmic life Each creature to its appointed task and place Is bound by his nature’s form, his spirit’s force. If this were easily disturbed, it would break The settled balance of created things The perpetual order of the universe Would tremble, and a gap yawn in woven Fate.” Savitri-689-90, “And the slow evolution’s sluggard steps, Lead not the spirit in an ignorant world To dare too soon the adventure of the Light,” Savitri-693 26: “An Influx presses from the closed Beyond Forbidding to him rest and earthly ease, Till he has found himself he cannot pause.” Savitri-339, “But still evoutionary Nature keeps alive her ulterior intentions in the minds of a few and uses man’s greater mental evolution to raise them to a higher plane and deeper issues.” CWSA/22/The Life Divine-900, “What the evolutionary Power has done is to make a few individuals aware of their souls, conscious of their selves, aware of the eternal being that they are, to put them into communion with the Divinity or the Reality which is concealed by her appearances: a certain change of nature prepares, accompanies or follows upon this illumination, but it is not the complete and radical change which establishes a secure and settled new principle, a new creation, a permanent new order of being in the field of terrestrial Nature. The spiritual man has evolved, but not the supramental being who shall thenceforward be the leader of that Nature.” CWSA/22/The Life Divine-923, “The Psychic transformation and the first stages of the spiritual transformation are well within our conception; their perfection would be the perfection, wholeness, consummated unity of a knowledge and experience which is already part of things realised, though only by a small number of human beings . But the supramental change in its process carries us into less explored regions; it initiates a vision of heights of consciousness which have indeed been glimpsed and visited, but have yet to be discovered and mapped in their completeness. The highest of these peaks or elevated plateaus of consciousness, the supramental, lies far beyond the possibility of any satisfying mental scheme or map of it or any grasp of mental seeing and description.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-953-54, 27: “(Q:) I have been here for one and a half years but I know nothing of the sadhana. I meditate, but nothing happens in the meditation. I feel there is no love in me towards the Mother. What shall I do to feel this love? (Ans.) Become truthful, pure, sincere, straightforward.” Sri Aurobindo/1 July 1935/ CWSA-32/The Mother with letters on the Mother/p-462, “Brahmacharya (celibacy) is not binding in bhaktimarga or karmayoga, but it is necessary for ascetic jnanayoga as well as for Raja and Hatha yogas. It is also not demanded from Grihastha yogis. In this (integral) Yoga the position is that one must overcome sex, otherwise there can be no transformation of the lower vital and physical nature; all physical sexual connection should cease, otherwise one exposes oneself to serious dangers. The sex-push must also be overcome but it is not a fact that there can be no sadhana or no experience before it is entirely overcome, only without that conquest one cannot go to the end and it must be clearly recognised as one of the more serious obstacles and indulgence of it as a cause of considerable disturbance.” CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-542, "I have tried many things, a great many, I have looked a great deal, and I see only one that’s absolute – only one that’s absolute and can bring the absolute result, it’s this (gesture turned Upward): the complete annulment of all that, leaving it all, "To You, Lord – You, You, to You." And it isn’t a being with a form, that’s not it; it isn’t a formless force, it’s ... It has nothing to do with thought, only with this: the contact. And the contact, an unmistakable contact, which nothing can imitate – nothing, nothing at all has the power to imitate it. And for every difficulty, every time, whatever it is, simply this: "Everything to You, Lord. Everything for You, to You. You alone can do it, You, You alone, You alone. You alone are the Truth; You alone are the Power." And those words are nothing, they are only the very clumsy expression of something ... a stupendous Power....It’s only the incapacity, the clumsiness, the lack of faith we mix into it that takes away His power. The minute we are truly pure, that is, under His influence alone, there are no limits, no limits – nothing, nothing, there is nothing, no law of Nature that can resist, nothing, nothing.... Only, the whole thing is that the time must have come, there must be only That left – all the rest spoils, whatever it is, even the highest, purest, noblest, most beautiful and marvelous things: all that spoils. Only That.” The Mother's Agenda/ March 26, 1966, 28: “A spiritual or gnostic being would feel his harmony with the whole gnostic life around him, whatever his position in the whole. According to his place in it he would know how to lead or to rule, but also how to subordinate himself; both would be to him an equal delight: for the spirit’s freedom, because it is eternal, self-existent and inalienable, can be felt as much in service and willing subordination and adjustment with other selves as in power and rule.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-1069, 29: Savitri-125, 30: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-140-141, 31: The Mother's Agenda/July 31, 1964 India’s True Destiny as the Leader of Men “India's true destiny is to be the Guru of the world.”⁷² The Mother “The future of India is very clear. India is the Guru of the world. The future structure of the world depends on India. India is the living soul. India is incarnating the spiritual knowledge in the world. The Government of India ought to recognise the significance of India in this sphere and plan their action accordingly.”⁷³ The Mother “I do not want hundreds of thousands of disciples. It will be enough if I can get a hundred complete men, purified of petty egoism, who will be the instruments of God. I have no faith in the customary trade of the guru. I do not wish to be a guru. If anybody wakes and manifests from within his slumbering godhead and gets the divine life – be it at my touch or at another's – this is what I want. It is such men that will raise the country.”⁷⁴ Sri Aurobindo “I am not eager to be the Guru of anyone. It is more spontaneously natural for me to be the universal Mother and to act in silence through love.”¹⁰⁴ The Mother “And this time it is the full light and not a noble part, unlike Buddhism which, expressing Vedantic morality, yet ignored a fundamental reality of Vedanta and was therefore expelled from its prime seat and cradle. The material result was then what it will be now, a great political, moral and social revolution which made India the Guru of the nations and carried the light she had to give all over the civilised world, moulding ideas and creating forms which are still extant and a living force. Already the Vedanta and the Yoga have exceeded their Asiatic limit and are beginning to influence the life and practice of America and Europe; and they have long been filtering into Western thought by a hundred indirect channels. But these are small rivers and underground streams. The world waits for the rising of India to receive the divine flood in its fullness.”⁹⁹ Sri Aurobindo India is a land of ancient rich Spiritual heritage. Its air, water and land are full of the Divine Presence and as per The Mother’s personal experience⁷⁷ Indians are ‘heaven-blessed, these people, because it takes very little for them to be oriented in the right way.’⁹¹ No other Nations can compete with them. India is a land where, from Sinner to Saint, from the most foolish to the wisest, the people of all faith and religion, atheists, people with modern education and modern Science, Women and Children are permitted to live with equal opportunity, without oppression, with love, dignity and respect. A Nation will always be surrounded by the animal brutality, division, quarrel and narrowness of the primitive, uncultured man and Divine compassion, equality, oneness, and love for all beings of the spiritual man. India will be Guru of the World through its select individuals through whom incalculable quantum of overhead Divine Love, Wisdom, Peace, Force, Silence, Delight can rush into the world and enrich earth’s atmosphere. Who are these select individuals? Can the Spiritual man of different religions be the Guru of the world? Can the few select proletariat⁸⁶ who are dedicated hard working nation builders, leaders of men and pioneers in different fields be the Guru of the world? Can the women who have renounced the sense enjoyment of the short-lived kind be the Guru of the world? Can the few select rich people and landlords who want to serve the Divine and Humanity be the Guru of the world? Can the Sannyasin, later Vedantist, Nirvanists of India be the Guru of the World? Yes, they are in the making. The Four Theories in Support of India becoming the Guru of the World First Support: Guru is a Force and a personality of the Divine. It is one of the seven attributes of the Divine. If India wishes to be the Guru of the world, then this also includes of becoming the seven-fold personality of the Divine of the Creator Father, Creatrix Mother, all-embracing Lover, hidden Master of all works, evolving as child God, the inner Guide and compassionate Friend of all creatures. Second Support: A Spiritual man lives in direct contact and union with the Divine. He sees all creatures of existences with equality and is having sense of oneness with all existence. In his growing union with the Transcendence, the Divine’s seven-fold personality manifests in him.⁸⁷ If in India such a type of individual will emerge in each religion⁷⁶ and community, then it will help to unite the Nation. Thus, he emerges as a religious Teacher spreading the Spirituality of brotherhood and universal Love. Third Support: The Guru of traditional schools of Yoga initially moves his consciousness between Kshara Purusha (sarvabhutani chatmani) and Akshara Purusha (sarvabhutastha chatmanam ) and he can gather together the race, lokasamgraha , by all possible external aids or by Psycho-physical means. Finally, his consciousness moves to Purushottama Consciousness and from there he finds an exit⁹³ to the supreme Abode of Paramdham . Thus, he emerges as a precious, distinguished World Teacher. Fourth Support: A Sadhak of integral Yoga initially moves his consciousness between the Psychic being in the heart and the Spiritual being above the head, superseding his earlier movement of Consciousness between the three Gunas. After being established in the waking trance of the Psychic plane and the non-waking trance of the Spiritual plane, he universalises the two Selves and does the good of all creatures by inner movement of universal Consciousness. For the perfection of two Selves and perfection of untransformed Nature, he finally, after long years of preparation, ascends to the Supramental plane and Supramentalises and Spiritualises the Psychic Self. Thus, he emerges as a precious Nameless World Teacher .⁹² His inner wandering of Consciousness from Inconscient Self to supreme Bliss Self can be pursued in secrecy and silence¹⁰⁶ and he can drag the human race ahead in its destined upward journey. The Four Theories in Opposition of India becoming the Guru of the World First Obstacle: India’s Soul is one but her body is mutilated.⁸³ So, she must multiply her collective Soul Force and by the accumulation of the Spiritual energy of her few children, she can learn the lesson of becoming one with the Divine and all existence. A boundless overhead Divine Love must dynamise and must capture the mind, life and body of the Indian subcontinent and its citizens must realise the falsity of division, long hatred, narrowness and enmity towards the brother souls and thus the Spirit will work out to retain the unity of her divided lands. Then India can teach the world the lesson of oneness and unity, thus leading the creation towards one and a united earth.⁸⁸ Second Obstacle: The Government machinery⁸⁴ has an important role in expediting Indian Spirituality to the world. One part of it has entered corruption and another part watches helplessly. Its root is in education. The education Sri Aurobindo received in England is not the same as the education the Britishers introduced in India . Their motive for education in India was to create a large number of clerks/employees with the purpose of ruling a big nation. After independence, these representative symbols of narrow Consciousness multiplied their numbers in every field, right from the highest administrative service to the lowest rung of the ladder. Now, the general mind of an average Indian is corrupt⁷⁵ and impure because he does not discover the Psychic Being in the heart or find a path to widen his Consciousness. Without finding the Psychic being, life becomes corrupt¹⁰ ⁷ and hazy. The Mother rightly noticed this deficiency and observed, “I know the conditions of the country (India). Even if one person could put himself faithfully at the disposal of the Truth, he could change the country and the world.”⁷⁹ From the above message, it appears that it is difficult to find a single truthful person in the country with possession of that Supramental Truth which is ‘supremely destructive of falsehood.’⁷⁸ The purpose of integral Education is to follow the best standard of the race, create employers, leaders of men, pioneers and inventors in different fields and finally the evolution of Spiritual men. To open constantly towards overhead descending Truth and to reject constantly the falsehood that is invading the human vessel from the surrounding world and from the Subconscient world below are the signs of true, uncorrupted and pure life. The emergence of an uncorrupted India can work towards the emergence of an uncorrupted Earth. Third Obstacle: The state of consciousness of Indian women will influence this movement. Sri Aurobindo kept great hope¹⁰³ on women in building the future. Their main objective of life is not procreation, enjoyment of life with men but to accumulate Spiritual energy. The ‘virgin bridals of the dawn’⁸⁰ are identified as the future of the Nation and they can keep their mind, life and body untouched and pure to enter union with the Divine in all the ten planes of Consciousness and realise the full delight and perfection of all those planes or ‘virgin who comest perfected by joy.’⁸¹ These pure Souls are also a representative symbol of ‘citizens of that mother state.’⁸² Thus, Para-prakriti dominated Indian women can dream of the emergence of a virgin earth.⁹⁰ Fourth Obstacle: Money⁸⁵ is not meant to make more money. Money is a power of the Divine necessary for the perfection of material and vital life. Few affluent men are willing to collaborate and serve the Divine. They must be aware that apart of outer opulence of the outer world, there are nine inner worlds and in those inner worlds, inner opulence⁹⁴ has to be multiplied through the movement of Consciousness. The inner opulent perfected life and action of a Spiritual man 'will be even such a constant divine giving of itself and its powers, an outflowing of the knowledge, light, strength, love, joy, helpful shakti which it possesses in the Divine and by his influence and effluence on all around it according to their capacity of reception or on all this world and its creatures.'⁹⁴ His universal Nature is like Vasishtha’s cow of plenty,⁹⁴ Kamadhenu , from whose udder all mankind can draw its need and fulfil its deficiency. Thus, India can dream of an opulent earth.⁸⁹ Now this is a period of earth’s history, in which the movement of Consciousness through Yoga is identified as the crucial and outstanding unfinished task before the whole of humanity. Whoever learns the lesson to move the Consciousness in ten planes from Bliss Self to Inconscient Self, discharges his responsibility of helping humanity in perfecting and Divinising life. OM TAT SAT References: 72: The Mother’s Agenda-August-7, 1965 (Addendum), 73: The Mother’s Centenary Works/13/353/February 1954, 74: The Mother’s Agenda/July 21, 1962/Addendum, 75: “Even in India…And I am beginning to believe....That's what I observe when I am put in contact with the outside world, Europe…... But anyway, the Old World is an OLD world in the true sense of the word. India is much, much older, but more alive. Yet now it strikes me as so very rotten! They went rotten. You know what happens when a rotten apple is put next to a good one: England came and stayed much too long. It made things go quite rotten. Very, very rotten; it's difficult to heal. Otherwise, what's not rotten is truly good.” The Mother’s Agenda/July 14, 1962, “And here, there's TOTAL corruption – total, to such a point that I'll give you an example. The government meddles in everything, you can't move a finger without its permission: you can't leave the country, you can't enter the country, you can't send money out, you can't open a shop, you can't ... nothing, nothing, nothing, not even plow your field without its permission. They meddle in everything, which in itself is pretty stupid. And then they make regulations – the more regulations you make, the more disobedience it creates, naturally… People no longer grow crops because it's too complicated and with all those taxes (they've scores of taxes to pay), it costs them much more than they can earn. And as there isn't enough food, there are naturally individuals who try and hoard as much as they can to sell it for as high a price as possible.” The Mother’s Agenda-August 14, 1964, “They're mad. No, the English made them thoroughly rotten. Those two hundred years of British rule left them completely rotten. Naturally, another effect is that some people have awakened, but they don't know anything; they know nothing either of administration or of government or anything – they've lost everything, and whatever they know is what they were taught by Britain, which means an absolutely corrupt business. So they don't know anything, they don't even know how to make a decision.” The Mother’s Agenda-August 12, 1967, “And the government is rotten. People whose very tactics and principle of action are falsehood: to deceive and deceive and deceive. And naturally, to deceive themselves.” The Mother’s Agenda-October 19, 1967, 76: “Islam was a return towards sensation, beauty, harmony in the form, and the legitimization of sensations and joy in beauty. From a higher viewpoint, it wasn't quite of a superior quality, but from a vital viewpoint, it was extremely powerful, and that's what gave them so much power to spread, to appropriate, seize, dominate. But what they did is very beautiful – all their art is magnificent, magnificent! It was a flowering of beauty Then there were others – it all comes one after another. And every religion came as a stage in the development and the relationship with the Divine, to lead the consciousness towards a oneness which is a totality and not a removal from a whole reality so as to obtain another. The need for totality, completeness, is what caused those religions to come like that, one after another.” The Mother’s Agenda- August 12, 1967, “To adopt a religion because one is born in that religion or because the people one loves and trusts practise that religion or because when one goes to a particular place where others pray and worship, one feels helped in one’s own prayer and worship, is not the sign of a very strong nature; I should say it is rather the sign of a weakness or at any rate of a lack of originality. ” The Mother/The Mother’s Centenary Works (second edition)/8/p-246, 77: “I had this experience very, very strongly. When I left here [Pondicherry in 1915], as I got farther away, I felt as if emptied of something, and once in the Mediterranean, I wasn't able to bear it any longer: I fell ill. And even in Japan, which outwardly is a marvelous country – marvelously beautiful and harmonious (it WAS, I don't know what it is nowadays), and outwardly it was a joy every minute, a breathtaking joy, so strong was the expression of beauty – yet I felt empty, empty, empty, I absolutely lacked ... (Mother opens her mouth as though suffocating) ... I lacked the important Thing. And I found it again only when I came back here (Pondicherry).” The Mother’s Agenda-6/p-265, 78: The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-7/p-265, 79: The Mother’s Agenda/vol-10/p-148, 80: Savitri-401, 81: Savitri-424, “Since you feel that you are weak in regard to women, never touch a woman. Never allow a woman to touch you.” TMCW-17/More Answers from the Mother/p-13, 82: Savitri-262, 83: “But only if India is ONE can she fulfill this role (of becoming the Guru of the World), for how can one who is herself divided lead others? Thus the division of India is the first Falsehood that must disappear, for it is the symbol of the earth’s division. As long as India is not one, the world cannot be one. India’s striving for unity is the symbolic drama of the world’s striving for unity.” Satprem/The Mother’s Agenda/May-15, 1971 Addendum, 84: “I (The Mother) tell those who govern (the country): “You leave free hands to the bandits and take insulting measures against the honest people. It will be like that so long as the country is not governed by the wisest people . The wisest people are those who can freely and correctly read the hearts and the minds of men.” It was in the form of a conversation. I (the Mother) tell those who govern (the country): "You leave free hands to the bandits and take insulting measures against the honest people.” So the reply (from the Government of India): "But how can we tell the bandits from the honest people until we see them at work?” I (The Mother) said: “Yes, it will always be like that, you will always commit the same sort of blunder ... until the country is governed by the wisest people." (The Government of India asked): "Ah, but how can one know if they are the wisest people?” (The Mother replied): “The wisest people are those who can freely and correctly read the hearts and the minds of men. ”” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda/23rd June 1965, 85: “But no one has yet dared to say: money is a force and belongs to nobody, but it must be used by the most disinterested and clear sighted person (or persons) in the country.” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda/January 31, 1970, “Money is not meant to generate money; money should generate an increase in production, an improvement in the conditions of life and a progress in human consciousness. This is its true use. What I call an improvement in consciousness, a progress in consciousness, is everything that education in all its forms can provide – not as it’s generally understood, but as we understand it here: education in art, education in ... from the education of the body, from the most material progress, to the spiritual education and progress through yoga; the whole spectrum, everything that leads humanity towards its future realization. Money should serve to augment that and to augment the material base for the earth’s progress, the best use of what the earth can give – its intelligent utilization, not the utilization that wastes and loses energies. The use that allows energies to be replenished.” The Mother’s Agenda-04.10.1958, “For in this ideal place, money would no longer be the sovereign lord; individual worth would have a far greater importance than that of material wealth and social position. There, work would not be for earning one's living, but the means to express oneself and develop one's capacities and possibilities, while at the same time being of service to the group as a whole, which would in turn provide for everyone's subsistence and field of action. In short, it would be a place where human relationships, ordinarily based almost exclusively on competition and strife, would be replaced by relationships of emulation in trying to do one's best, of collaboration and real brotherhood.” The Mother’s Agenda-18.01.1964, 86: “And in any society we should have all four types (Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Shudra), — even, for an example, if we create a purely productive and commercial society such as modern times have attempted, or for that matter a Shudra society of labour, of the proletariate such as attracts the most modern mind and is now being attempted in one part of Europe and advocated in others. ” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita-523, “In street and house, in councils and in courts Beings he (King Aswapati) met who looked like living men And climbed in speech upon high wings of thought But harboured all that is subhuman, vile And lower than the lowest reptile’s crawl.” Savitri-215 “I (Mother of Might) break the ignorant pride of human mind And lead the thought to the wideness of the Truth; I rend man’s narrow and successful life And force his sorrowful eyes to gaze at the sun That he may die to earth and live in his soul.” Savitri-510, “The ascent to the divine Life is the human journey, the Work of works, the acceptable Sacrifice. This alone is man’s real business in the world and the justification of his existence, without which he would be only an insect crawling among other ephemeral insects on a speck of surface mud and water which has managed to form itself amid the appalling immensities of the physical universe.” CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-48, 87: “(The Divine is) the perfect Personality capable of all relations even to the most human, concrete and intimate; for he is friend, comrade, lover, playmate, guide, teacher, master, ministrant of knowledge or ministrant of joy, yet in all relations unbound, free and absolute. This too the divinised man becomes in the measure of his attainment...” CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita-141, 88: “August 15, 1947 is the birthday of free India… the old communal division into Hindus and Muslims seems now to have hardened into a permanent political division of the country. It is to be hoped that this settled fact will not be accepted as settled for ever or as anything more than a temporary expedient. For if it lasts, India may be seriously weakened, even crippled: civil strife may remain always possible, possible even a new invasion and foreign conquest. India’s internal development and prosperity may be impeded, her position among the nations weakened, her destiny impaired or even frustrated. This must not be; the partition must go… But by whatever means, in whatever way, the division must go; unity must and will be achieved, for it is necessary for the greatness of India’s future…” Sri Aurobindo/SABCL-26/On Himself/404, “I had the vision that India is the place where the fate of the earth will be decided.” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda/10/145-19.04.1969, 89: “Our earth is a fragment and a residue; Her power is packed with the stuff of greater worlds” Savitri-99, “A bliss is felt that never can wholly cease, A sudden mystery of secret Grace Flowers goldening our earth of red desire.” Savitri-278, “Arisen beneath a triple mystic heaven The seven immortal earths were seen, sublime:” Savitri-672, “In the collective gnostic life the integrating truth-sense, the concording unity of gnostic nature would carry all divergences in itself as its own opulence and turn a multitudinous thought, action, feeling into the unity of a luminous life-whole. This would be the evident principle, the inevitable result of the very character of the Truth-Consciousness and its dynamic realisation of the spiritual unity of all being.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine-1047, “The one rule of the gnostic life would be the self-expression of the Spirit, the will of the Divine Being; that will, that self-expression could manifest through extreme simplicity or through extreme complexity and opulence or in their natural balance, — for beauty and plenitude, a hidden sweetness and laughter in things, a sunshine and gladness of life are also powers and expressions of the Spirit. In all directions the Spirit within determining the law of the nature would determine the frame of the life and its detail and circumstance.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine-1104, 90: “Heaven’s joys might have been earth’s if earth were pure.” Savitri-123, “The virgin forms through which the Formless shines,” Savitri-327, 91: “With Indians, it's very easy – they're heaven-blessed, these people, because it takes very little for them to be oriented in the right way. But there are two types of difficult religion, the Christian religion (especially in the form of Protestantism), and the Jewish religion.” The Mother’s Agenda- January 25, 1964, 92: “A dual Power at being’s occult poles Still acted, nameless and invisible: Her divine emptiness was their instrument.” Savitri-553 “He (Divine) dwells in me (Savitri), the mover of my acts, Turning the great wheel of his cosmic work. I am the living body of his light, I am the thinking instrument of his power, I incarnate Wisdom in an earthly breast, I am his conquering and unslayable will. The formless Spirit drew in me its shape; In me are the Nameless and the secret Name.” Savitri-634, “One man who earnestly pursues the Yoga is of more value than a thousand well-known men.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-35/Letters on Himself And The Ashram/p-691, "Therefore, besides the great solitaries who have sought and attained their self-liberation, we have the great spiritual teachers who have also liberated others and, supreme of all, the great dynamic souls who, feeling themselves stronger in the might of the Spirit than all the forces of the material life banded together, have thrown themselves upon the world, grappled with it in a loving wrestle and striven to compel its consent to its own transfiguration." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-27 93: “The psychic and the spiritual opening with their experiences and consequences can lead away from life or to a Nirvana; but they are here being considered solely as steps in a transformation of the nature.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-943, 94: “Our sacrifice is not a giving without any return or any fruitful acceptance from the other side; it is an interchange between the embodied soul and conscious Nature in us and the eternal Spirit. For even though no return is demanded, yet there is the knowledge deep within us that a marvellous return is inevitable. The soul knows that it does not give itself to God in vain; claiming nothing, it yet receives the infinite riches of the divine Power and Presence.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-109, “If mankind only caught a glimpse of what infinite enjoyments, what perfect forces, what luminous reaches of spontaneous knowledge, what wide calms of our being lie waiting for us in the tracts which our animal evolution has not yet conquered, they would leave all and never rest till they had gained these treasures. But the way is narrow, the doors are hard to force, and fear, distrust and scepticism are there, sentinels of Nature, to forbid the turning away of our feet from her ordinary pastures.” Sri Aurobindo/TMCW-10/On Thoughts and Aphorisms/p-10-11, "All the action of the perfected soul will be even such a constant divine giving of itself and its powers, an outflowing of the knowledge, light, strength, love, joy, helpful shakti which it possesses in the Divine and by his influence and effluence on all around it according to their capacity of reception or on all this world and its creatures. That will be the complete result of the complete self-giving of the soul to the Master of our existence." Sri Aurobindo/CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita/p-490-491, "If thou canst not be the slave of all mankind, thou art not fit to be its master and if thou canst not make thy nature as Vasishtha’s cow of plenty with all mankind to draw its wish from her udders, what avails thy leonine supermanhood?" Sri Aurobindo/TMCW-10/On Thoughts and Aphorisms/p-247, “Amid the welcome-hum of many bees Invade our honied kingdom of the woods; There let me lead thee into an opulent life.” Savitri-402, 95: CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-115, 96: “The lower, present and deluding mental Maya has first to be embraced, then to be overcome; for it (Maya) is God’s play with division and darkness and limitation, desire and strife and suffering in which He subjects Himself to the Force that has come out of Himself and by her obscure suffers Himself to be obscured... Its literal meaning is cunning, fraud or illusion… an undivine Maya , that which creates false mental forms and appearances, -- and hence the later significance of this word which seems to have meant originally a formative power of knowledge, the true magic of the supreme Mage, the divine Magician, but was also for adverse formative power of a lower knowledge, the deceit, illusion and deluding magic of the Rakshasa.” The Life Divine-126, 109, 507, 97: CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-676, 98: Kena Upanishada-1.4, CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-72, CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-403, 99: CWSA-13/Essays in Philosophy and Yoga/p-10-11, 100: “As for spiritual knowledge, it consists of two elements, experience and a direct knowledge which is not mental but is of the nature of a light showing the deeper truth of things, a direct vision and perception of the Truth…The ordinary consciousness is not capable of receiving it as knowledge except in a fragmentary way because it belongs to a deeper consciousness within or a higher consciousness above the mind. The ordinary consciousness has therefore to open to the deeper and the higher consciousness. It has to receive the knowledge from within and above. It cannot do this if it does not open. There must, therefore, first necessarily be an opening, however small, before any direct knowledge can come. As the knowledge comes the opening also can widen and so admit a greater and greater direct knowledge and experience. In some, however, the opening comes first very wide and then the knowledge comes afterwards in a great stream, some light of the Truth and many experiences…If one has merely a mental idea about the Divine, that is not knowledge. It is with the experiences and the inner light of knowledge that the realisation of the Divine begins. As for example, one may have the mental idea of the Divine Peace but that is nothing, only a mental conception. It is only when one has the feeling of the Divine Peace descending from above or in oneself or surrounding one that one begins to know what it is. That is what is called experience. Afterwards one begins to have a direct vision in knowledge of what the Peace is and what is its place in regard to the Divine Realisation; that is direct knowledge.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-198-199, 101: ‘not merely a state withdrawn from the all consciousness of the outward, withdrawn even from all consciousness of the inward’ CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-321, “Mind, being an action of the Infinite, depieces as well as aggregates ad infinitum. It cuts up being into wholes, into ever smaller wholes, into atoms and those atoms into primal atoms, until it would, if it could, dissolve the primal atom into nothingness. But it cannot, because behind this dividing action is the saving knowledge of the supramental which knows every whole, every atom to be only a concentration of all-force, of all-consciousness, of all-being into phenomenal forms of itself. The dissolution of the aggregate into an infinite nothingness at which Mind seems to arrive, is to the Supermind only the return of the self-concentrating conscious-being out of its phenomenon into its infinite existence.” CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-178, 102: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-734, 103: “I am beginning to understand why Sri Aurobindo always said it was woman (Mother caresses Sujata’s cheek with her finger) that could build a bridge between the two. I am beginning to understand. One day, I’ll explain. I am beginning to understand. Sri Aurobindo used to say: it is woman that can build a bridge between the old world and the supramental world. Now I understand.” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda-26.04.1972, 104: TMCW-13/Words of the Mother-I/p-82-83, 105: “All Yoga is in its nature an attempt and an arriving at unity with the Supreme, --unity with the being of the Supreme, unity with the consciousness of the Supreme, unity with the bliss of the Supreme,-- or, if we repudiate the idea of absolute unity, at least at some kind of union, even if it be only for the soul to live in one status and periphery of being with the Divine, salokya, or in a sort of indivisible proximity, samipya. This can only be gained by rising to a higher level and intensity of consciousness than our ordinary mentality possesses.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-528, “All Yoga proceeds in its method by three principles of practice; first, purification, that is to say, the removal of all aberrations, disorders, obstructions brought about by the mixed and irregular action of the energy of being in our physical, moral and mental system; secondly, concentration, that is to say, the bringing to its full intensity and the mastered and self-directed employment of that energy of being in us for a definite end; thirdly, liberation, that is to say, the release of our being from the narrow and painful knots of the individualized energy in a false and limited play, which at present are the law of our nature.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-530, “All Yoga is a turning of the human mind and human soul, not yet divine in realization, but feeling the divine impulse and attraction in it, towards that by which it finds its greater being.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-571, 106: “We may say that here in India the reign of Intuition came first, intellectual Mind developing afterwards in the later philosophy and science. But in fact the mass of men at the time, it is quite evident, lived entirely on the material plane, worshipped the Godheads of material nature, sought from them entirely material objects. The effort of the Vedic mystics revealed to them the things behind through a power of inner sight and hearing and experience which was confined to a limited number of seers and sages and kept carefully secret from the mass of humanity secrecy was always insisted on by the mystics.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-267, “A still deep sea, he laughs in rolling waves; Universal, he is all, — transcendent, none. To man’s righteousness this is his cosmic crime, Almighty beyond good and evil to dwell Leaving the good to their fate in a wicked world And evil to reign in this enormous scene.” Savitri-657, “All person perished in its namelessness.” Savitri-308, “Sri Aurobindo once said (jokingly, as it were), while talking with those around him (I was there and we were talking about Christianity and the "new Christ"), he told them, "Oh, if the new Christ comes, the Church will crucify him!"” The Mother’s Agenda-October-7, 1967, “Hard is the world-redeemer’s heavy task; The world itself becomes his adversary, Those he would save are his antagonists: This world is in love with its own ignorance, Its darkness turns away from the saviour light, It gives the cross in payment for the crown.” Savitri-448, “Inconscient traders in bundles of contraries, They did what in others they would persecute; When their eyes looked upon their fellow’s vice, An indignation flamed, a virtuous wrath; Oblivious of their own deep-hid offence, Moblike they stoned a neighbour caught in sin.” Savitri-209 “There is no necessity to reveal one’s plans and movements to those who have no business to know it, who are incapable of understanding or who would act as enemies or spoil all as a result of their knowledge. Secrecy is perfectly admissible and usual in spiritual matters except in special relations like that of the Shishya to the Guru . We do not let people outside know what is going on in the Ashram but we do not tell any lies about it either. Most Yogis say nothing about their spiritual experiences to others or not until long afterwards and secrecy was a general rule among the ancient Mystics. No moral or spiritual law commands us to make ourselves naked to the world or open up our hearts and minds for public inspection. Gandhi talked about secrecy being a sin but that is one of his many extravagances.” SABCL-26/On Himself/p-380, 107: "The corruption of the best (the best Souls of earth) produced the worst by that strange chemistry of the power of life which generates evil out of good even as it can also generate good out of evil….Yet even in the earthward life a higher knowledge (Psychic and Spiritual knowledge) is indeed the one thing that is throughout needful, and without it the lower sciences (of arts, of literature, of religion and of modern science) and pursuits, however fruitful, however rich, free, miraculous in the abundance of their results, become easily a sacrifice offered without due order and to false gods; corrupting, hardening in the end the heart of man, limiting his mind’s horizons, they confine in a stony material imprisonment or lead to a final baffling incertitude and disillusionment." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-141, Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: Acknowledgements Header banner animation adapted from https://pngtree.com/freebackground/the-golden-gates-of-heaven-in-sky-with-stairs-leading-up-to-them-surrounded-by-clouds-and-light-shining-through-archway_16246948.html "Two rules alone there are that will diminish the difficulty and obviate the danger. One must reject all that comes from the ego, from vital desire, from the mere mind and its presumptuous reasoning incompetence, all that ministers to these agents of the Ignorance. One must learn to hear and follow the voice of the inmost soul, the direction of the Guru, the command of the Master, the working of the Divine Mother. Whoever clings to the desires and weaknesses of the flesh, the cravings and passions of the vital in its turbulent ignorance, the dictates of his personal mind unsilenced and unillumined by a greater knowledge, cannot find the true inner law and is heaping obstacles in the way of the divine fulfilment. Whoever is able to detect and renounce those obscuring agencies and to discern and follow the true Guide within and without will discover the spiritual law and reach the goal of the Yoga... A radical and total change of consciousness is not only the whole meaning but, in an increasing force and by progressive stages, the whole method of the integral Yoga ." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-187 ,