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Contact Us We welcome all sincere insatiate seekers, some students of eternal unfolding of Truth, few researchers of multiple subtle bodies and very few collaborators of Divine Work, who are not satisfied with life as it is, are truthful and pure and ready for hard sacrifice and rigorous self-control through large-scale study and practice of Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga and the single-minded adventure of the Divine Life. Contact Information: Sri Matriniketan Ashram Sri Aurobindo Centre, Managed by The Mother’s International Centre Trust, Regd.No-146/24.11.97. Vill: Ramachandrapur, PO: Kukudakhandi-761100, Via: Brahmapur, Dist: Ganjam, State: Odisha, India See Google map (Sri Matri Dhyana Mandir) See Google map (Sri Matriniketan Ashram Sri Aurobindo Centre ) See Google map (The Mother's Ideal Integral School ) Readers' Queries & Correspondence: Email and communication guidelines: samaakrishna1@gmail.com Website Directory: The following pages provide access to the Ashram's collective work in education, research, sadhana and Integral Yoga. Gateway to the Ashram's Work: This website presently contains more than 70 interconnected webpages related to Integral Yoga, its relation with traditional Yoga, Spiritual History of earth, modern Wisdom, Education, Ashram Life and Collective Evolution. The Contact page functions as a mini-sitemap of the entire Ashram website. The structure reveals a straightforward account without show and pretense to the world and humanity: Home → Ashram → Objective → Integral Yoga → Research → Journal → Education → Publications → The Call This is not merely a collection of webpages. It resembles a Spiritual curriculum: 1. Accountability of Sadhana in the Home Page 2. Enter the Universalised Consciousness of the Ashram . 3. Understand its Comprehensive Objective . 4. Study and rigorous Practice of Integral Yoga . 5. Deepen and adventure into the ten subtle worlds through Research . 6. Journal is a restatement of written truth and tracing a passage of Integral Yoga. 7. Utilitarian application and generalisation of Integral Yoga through Education . 8. Self-expanansion through Publications, which is the outcome of Self-concentration . 9. Prepare to receive the true Divine Call. This underlying architecture gives the website a distinctive inner unity. HOME PAGE SECTION (4 pages): https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/ https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/sri-dhyana-matri-mandir https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/sri-matriniketan-ashram https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/accountability-in-sadhana ASHRAM SECTION (12 pages): https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/the-ashram https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/the-ashram/child-and-ripened-soul https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/the-ashram/ashram-in-detail https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/the-ashram/the-hierarchies-of-ashram-living https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/the-ashram/mothers-virgin-fortress https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/the-ashram/sri-aurobindos-consciousness https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/the-ashram/mothers-consciousness https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/the-ashram/whwm2014 https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/the-ashram/ashram-in-detail/integral-karma-yoga https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/the-ashram/ashram-in-detail/integral-jnana-yoga https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/the-ashram/ashram-in-detail/integral-bhakti-yoga https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/the-ashram/ashram-in-detail/yoga-of-self-perfection OBJECTIVE SECTION (11 pages) : https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/objective https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/objective/objective-in-detail https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/objective/objective-in-detail/mundane-perfection https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/objective/objective-in-detail/moderate-spirituality https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/objective/objective-in-detail/ascetics-fortress https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/objective/the-divine-centre https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/objective/the-agenda-of-collective-living https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/objective/the-agenda-of-collective-living/christmas-message https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/objective/the-divine-centre/whs-2 https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/objective/the-divine-centre/the-mothers-relics-and-paduka https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/objective/ashram-news https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/objective/integral-transformation https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/objective/earths-spiritual-history https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/flower-decorations INTEGRAL YOGA SECTION (10 pages): https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/integral-yoga https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/integral-yoga/integra-yoga-in-detail https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/integral-yoga/the-synthesis-of-yoga https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/integral-yoga/the-synthesis-of-yoga/the-central-truth-of-tsy https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/integral-yoga/the-mother-handbook https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/integral-yoga/the-mother-handbook/the-central-truth-of-the-mother https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/integral-yoga/the-life-divine https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/integral-yoga/the-life-divine/the-central-truth-of-tld https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/integral-yoga/savitri-handbook https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/integral-yoga/central-truth-savitri RESEARCH SECTION (11 pages) : https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/research https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/research/auroprems-savitri-study https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/research/new-research https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/research/bhagavad-gita https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/research/research-in-detail https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/research/new-research-on-the-mother-and-integral-tantra https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/research/the-main-formula-of-integral-yoga https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/research/the-questions-raised-by-death-god https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/research/from-puri-to-pondicherry https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/research/root-formula-of-integral-yoga https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/research/main-frame-of-integral-yoga JOURNAL SECTION (6 pages) : https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/journal https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/studycircle https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/saturday-study-circle https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/journal/the-descent https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/journal/journal-in-detail https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/journal/study-circle-in-detail EDUCATION SECTION (24 pages): https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/education https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/education/photo https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/education/tribute-pranabda https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/education/photo/seekers-questions https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/education/whs-ii https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/education/odia-section https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com//education/french-section https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com//education/sri-k-anurakta https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/education/education-in-detail https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/education/the-task-of-integral-education https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/education/the-central-truth-of-integral-education https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/education/french-section/the-bhagavad-gita-french https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/education/odia-section/the-bhagavad-gita-odia https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/education/the-mothers-ideal-integral-school https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/education/integral-physical-education https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/education/integral-vital-education https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/education/integral-mental-education https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/education/integral-psychic-education https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/education/integral-spiritual-education https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/education/universal-education https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/education/integral-supramental-education https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/education/integral-bliss-self-education https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/education/subconscient-education https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/education/inconscient-education https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/education/emergence-of-integral-personality https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/education/the-true-leader-of-men PUBLICATIONS SECTION : (7 books) https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/publications 1) THE SYNTHESIS OF EDUCATION: Kindle 2) THE DIVINE BLISS: Kindle 3) THE BHAGAVAD GITA AND INTEGRAL YOGA: Kindle 4) SRI K. ANURAKTA AND THE EVOLUTION OF SRI MATRINIKETAN ASHRAM: Kindle 5) THE MOTHER'S MANIFESATION: Kindle 6: TATTVAMASI: Kindle 7) THE INTEGRAL YOGA AND SANATANA DHARMA: Kindle THE CALL SECTION (4 pages): https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/the-call https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/the-divine-call https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/the-call/the-call-in-detail https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/the-call/sixfold-divine-call CONTACT SECTION (3 pages) : https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/contact https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/contact/readersquery https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/search Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: The Mother's Message: The following messages of The Mother express the spirit in which this Ashram seeks to live, serve and collaborate in the Divine Work: “A new world, based on Truth and refusing 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)

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 (Avatar ) 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 of adventure of Consciousness depends on the development of pure womanhood ("I witnessed the virgin bridals of the dawn" Savitri-401), pure motherhood ("Ourselves are citizens of that mother State" Savitri-264), slavehood ("She (Savitri) made herself the diligent serf of all," Savitri-470), and discipleship (“And how shall the end be vain when God is guide?” Savitri-339) to the Divine Master. Now Integral Yoga needs true leadership from within and without. 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 “As for the disciple, I would tell him: “In all cases, be faithful to your guru whoever he is; he will lead you as far as you can go. But if you have the good fortune to have the Divine as your guru , there will be no limit to your realisation.””³² 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 privilege 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 believe himself as spokesperson of God to guide and rule others. The ceaseless murmur of untransformed physical mind or tamasic mind and untransformed vital mind or rajasic mind are identified as inner enemy and false teacher and those who have sincerity and true outer guide can alone overcome their false dominance. Savitri book proposes how to overcome their influence: "A whisper lures to evil the human heart, 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-448 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 has direct contact with the Divine and his brotherhood status must be fulfilled by development of sevenfold Divine personality. Without this condition, the Divine Centre can deform as a 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 or Supreme Lord) 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/p-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/p-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, Supreme Lord, 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/p-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, 32: TMCW-12/On Education/p-63, 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 leader 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 Supreme Lord 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 “It is not therefore important that the mission should be widespread. What is important is that the thing (Supramental principle) should be done at all in however small a number; that is the only difficulty…It would therefore be a waste of time and energy which should be devoted to the preliminary work psychicisation and spiritualisation of the being and nature without which no supramentalisation is possible.”¹⁰ ⁸ Now this is a period of earth’s Spiritual 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 i s 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 .” CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-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, 108: CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-288-290, 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 ,

Silence Ripened Soul's Relationship with Child Soul Who is a Child Soul or developing Soul? : A Child Soul is having seven fold deformations, vicaras . They are identified as h atre d, disliking, scorn, repulsion, clinging, attachment and preference. He is having a profession, social duty, family obligation and religion. Sri Aurobindo proposes that they 'are natural, necessary, inevitable at a certain stage' of self development. “To revolt, to condemn, to cry out is the impulse of our unchastened and ignorant instincts. Revolt like everything else has its uses in the play and is even necessary, helpful, decreed for the divine development in its own time and stage; but the movement of an ignorant rebellion belongs to the stage of the soul’s childhood or to its raw adolescence." Who is a Ripened or Developed Soul? : " But the sadhaka of the Karmayoga will abandon this (above attributes) 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.” The sevenfold deformations, vicaras, are " to the Karmayogin ... a survival, a stumbling-block, a process of the Ignorance and, as he progresses, they fall away from his nature. The child-soul needs them for its growth; but they drop from an adult (Soul) in the divine culture.” What is the difficulty of a Developing Soul? : "The first condition was: ‘Nothing more to do with your family ...’ Well, we are a long way from that! But I repeat that it only happened because of the war (2nd world war) and not because we stopped seeing the need to cut all family ties; on the contrary, this is an indispensable condition because as long as you hang on to all these cords which bind you to ordinary life, which make you a slave to the ordinary life, how can you possibly belong to the Divine alone? What childishness! It is simply not possible. If you have ever taken the trouble to read over the early ashram rules, you would find that even friendships were considered dangerous and undesirable ... We made every effort to create an atmosphere in which only ONE thing counted : the Life Divine.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda/ August 25, 1954, What is the difficulty of a Developed Soul? : “If you say to the Divine with conviction, “I want only You ”, the Divine will arrange all the circumstances in such a way as to compel you to be sincere. Something in the being... “I want only You. ”... the aspiration...and then one wants a hundred odd things all the time, isn’t that so? At times something comes, just... usually to disturb everything—it stands in the way and prevents you from realizing your aspiration. Well, the Divine will come without showing Himself, without your seeing Him, without your having any inkling of it, and He will arrange all the circumstances in such a way that everything that prevents you from belonging solely to the Divine will be removed from your path, inevitably. Then when all is removed, you begin to howl and complain; but later, if you are sincere and look at yourself straight in the eye... you have said to the Lord, you have said, “I want only You. ” He will remain close to you, all the rest will go away. This is indeed a higher Grace. Only, you must say this with conviction. I don’t even mean that you must say it integrally, because if one says it integrally, the work is done. What is necessary is that one part of the being, indeed the central will, says it with conviction: “I want only You .” Even once, and it suffices: all that takes more or less long, sometimes it stretches over years, but one reaches the goal.” The Mother The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol-6/176-177 How a Developed Soul relates himself with Developing Soul? In Savitri , we observe a considerable gulf between the feminine Avatara and Her followers, those who are destined to assist Avatara's Divine action. They are here identified as instruments and emanations. Desperate effort of Savitri 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 "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." Sri Aurobindo/27 April 1944/CWSA-32/The Mother with Letters on the Mother/p-501, "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 (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/The Mother's Agenda/January 9, 1962, A similar gulf is observed between Sri Aurobindo and His direct disciples: 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 “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 difference between Avatar and His Instruments and Emanations and how they will be aware of their limitations and possibilities, is identified by Sri Aurobindo in the following two texts: “The natural attitude of the psychic being is to feel itself as the child, the son of God, the Bhakta; it is a portion of the Divine, one in essence, but in the dynamics of the manifestation there is always even in identity a difference. The Jivatman, on the contrary, lives in the essence and can merge itself in identity with the Divine; but it too, the moment it presides over the dynamics of the manifestation, knows itself as one centre of the multiple Divine, not as the Parameshwara. It is important to remember this distinction ; for, otherwise, if there is the least vital egoism, one may begin to think of oneself as an Avatara …” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga/p-61, “But still the Vibhuti is not the Avatar; otherwise Arjuna, Vyasa, Ushanas would be Avatars as well as Krishna , even if in a less degree of the power of Avatarhood . The divine quality is not enough; there must be the inner consciousness of the Lord and Self governing the human nature by his divine presence. The heightening of the power of the qualities is part of the becoming, bhutagrama , (The Gita-8.19, 9.8) an ascent in the ordinary manifestation; in the Avatar there is the special manifestation, the divine birth from above, the eternal and universal Godhead descended into a form of individual humanity, atmanam srijami , (The Gita-4.7) and conscious not only behind the veil but in the outward nature.” CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita/p-161, An Avatara's outer Nature is Divinised from the birth or He is under the influence of Para-prakriti or Supreme nature from His birth, whereas an ordinary person's external life is controlled by the three Gunas of Apara-prakriti or lower Nature. By opening oneself to the Avatara's influence, one can liberate oneself from the influence of lower Nature and learn the lesson of Divine Work. Seven Guidelines: This is the injunction ¹⁰⁵ issued in Savitri to the adult Soul that while experiencing swift individual Spiritual evolution, he will learn the lesson to live a life of hard toil patiently and reconcile it with slow evolving collectivity and drop all his separative identity by uniting more and more with the universal Divine. Thus, the gulf between developed and developing souls is bridged by the former becoming the slave of the latter. This also reminds us that in Earth’s Spiritual history, the gulf ("Splendidly alien to the mortal air.” Savitri-576) created between Divine Consciousness and ordinary human consciousness resulted in crucifixtion ¹⁰⁶ of the Lord Christ , which is also identified as the giant Spiritual fall of the Avatar. This physical crucifixion is also repeated in the life of successive Emanations and Avatars in a different manner. ¹⁰⁶ The Mother never found a suitable surrounding to pursue Her most difficult Subconscient transformation, which can be pursued only during deep meditation. ¹⁰ ⁸ A Sadhak of Integral Yoga must be well aware of the above developments and must be rightly related with the surrounding world through ‘secrecy and silence.’ ¹⁰⁷ There are seven guidelines issued to developed Souls, while relating to developing Souls. 1: Reconcile Sankhya and Yoga (The Gita's Guideline-1) : The mind is exclusive and mind will permit to pursuit of only one Yoga at a time. The Gita proposes to train the mind to develop double sincerity, dwibidha nistha , 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 2: Do Not Disturb the Ignorant Child Soul (The Gita's Guideline-2): “Those who are bewildered by three modes of Nature, not knowers of the whole, let not the knowers of the whole, kritsnabinna , disturb their mental standpoint.” The Gita-3.29, “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/p-214, 3: Discourage premature collective activism (lokasangraha) and encouragement of Transformation of Nature: “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 Agenda/27th November, 1965, “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.” CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-317, “The idea of helping others is a subtle form of the ego. It is only the Divine Force that can help. One can be its instrument, but you should first learn to be a fit and egoless instrument.” CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-318, “The best way to help the world is to transform oneself by an integral and intensive yoga.” The Mother/TMCW-14/Words of The Mother-II/p-277, “Because men still imagine that in order to do anything useful, they must gather together in groups, it is the caricature (An exaggerated or distorted representation) of organisation…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.” The Mother's Agenda/25th October 1967/19th April 1969, “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.” TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-47, “It seems to me that humanity has made some progress and the true victory must be won in life itself…You must know how to live alone with the Eternal and Infinite in the midst of all circumstances. You must know how to be free, with the Supreme as your companion, in the midst of all occupations. That is indeed the true victory.” The Mother/TMCW-3/Questions and Answers-1929/p-276, “It is not intended to supramentalise humanity at large, but to establish the principle of the supramental consciousness in the earth-evolution. If that is done, all that is needed will be evolved by the supramental Power itself. It is not therefore important that the mission should be widespread. What is important is that the thing should be done at all in however small a number; that is the only difficulty…It would therefore be a waste of time and energy which should be devoted to the preliminary work psychicisation and spiritualisation of the being and nature without which no supramentalisation is possible.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-288-290, (The above letter hints that time and energy should be utilised exclusively for Psychic and Spiritual opening instead of spreading the Mission.) “All that [ideas such as “everything will soon be spiritualised”] is absurd. The descent of the supramental means only that the Power will be there in the earth consciousness as a living force just as the thinking mental and the higher mental are already there. But an animal cannot take advantage of the presence of the thinking mental Power or an undeveloped man of the presence of the higher mental Power — so too everybody will not be able to take advantage of the presence of the supramental Power. I have also often enough said that it will be at first for the few, not for the whole earth, — only there will be a growing influence of it on the earth life.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-290, "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, “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 4: Self-discipline of Speech and Writing: “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, “Knowledge is a child with its achievements; for when it has found out something, it runs about the streets whooping and shouting; Wisdom conceals hers for a long time in a thoughtful and mighty silence.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-12/Essays Divine and Human /p-436, “In Nescience began her mighty task, In Ignorance she pursues the unfinished work, For knowledge gropes, but meets not Wisdom’s face.” Savitri-135 “However, one should not think that the value of spoken words depends on the nature of the subject of conversation. One can talk idly on spiritual matters just as much as on any other, and this kind of idle talk may well be one of the most dangerous. For example, the neophyte is always very eager to share with others the little he has learnt. But as he advances on the path, he becomes more and more aware that he does not know very much and that before trying to instruct others, he must be very sure of the value of what he knows, until he finally becomes wise and realises that many hours of silent concentration are needed to be able to speak usefully for a few minutes . Moreover, where inner life and spiritual effort are concerned, the use of speech should be subjected to a still more stringent rule and nothing should be said unless it is absolutely indispensable. ” The Mother/TMCW-12/On Education/p-62-63, “It is always better not to listen to talks especially on so-called spiritual matters. Each one must follow his own way and the others have nothing to do with it.” The Mother/TMCW-14/p-204, “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.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-36//Autobiographical Notes/p-111 5: In Silence Overhead Knowledge Descends: “In Silence is wisdom” — it is in the inner silence of the mind that true knowledge can come; for the ordinary activity of the mind only creates surface ideas and representations which are not true knowledge. Speech is usually only the expression of the superficial nature — therefore to throw oneself out too much in such speech wastes the energy and prevents the inward listening which brings the word of true knowledge.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-159, "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's Centenary Works/Vol-12/On Education/p-204, "We sat together in silence 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's Centenary Works/Vol-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-143, "In its might of irresponsible sovereignty It seized on speech to give those flamings shape, Made beat the heart of wisdom in a word And spoke immortal things through mortal lips. Or, listening to the sages of the woods, In question and in answer broke from her High strange revealings impossible to men, Something or someone secret and remote Took hold of her body for his mystic use, Her mouth was seized to channel ineffable truths, Knowledge unthinkable found an utterance." Savitri-553 6: Entire Definition of Child Soul and Adult Soul: ‘An ordinary religious teaching or philosophical doctrine is well enough satisfied to seize on certain great and vital aspects of truth and turn them into utilisable dogma and instruction, method and practice for the guidance of man in his inner life and the law and form of his action; it does not go farther, it does not open doors out of the circle of its own system, does not lead us out into some widest freedom and unimprisoned largeness. This limitation is useful and indeed for a time indispensable. Man bounded by his mind and will has need of a law and rule, a fixed system, a definite practice selective of his thought and action ; he asks for the single unmistakable hewn path hedged, fixed and secure to the tread, for the limited horizons, for the enclosed resting-places. It is only the strong and few who can move through freedom to freedom’ CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-526-527, “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, “It is binding on the developing (Soul) 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-210-11, “Hatred and disliking and scorn and repulsion, clinging and attachment and preference (seven deformations of integral Yoga) are natural, necessary, inevitable at a certain stage: they attend upon or they help to make and maintain Nature’s choice in us. But to the Karmayogin they are a survival, a stumbling-block, a process of the Ignorance and, as he progresses, they fall away from his nature. The child-soul needs them for its growth; but they drop from an adult (Soul) in the divine culture.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-223, “To revolt, to condemn, to cry out is the impulse of our unchastened and ignorant instincts. Revolt like everything else has its uses in the play and is even necessary, helpful, decreed for the divine development in its own time and stage; but the movement of an ignorant rebellion belongs to the stage of the soul’s childhood or to its raw adolescence. The ripened soul does not condemn but seeks to understand and master, does not cry out but accepts or toils to improve and perfect, does not revolt inwardly but labours to obey and fulfil and transfigure. Therefore we shall receive all things with an equal soul from the hands of the Master. Failure we shall admit as a passage as calmly as success until the hour of the divine victory arrives. Our souls and minds and bodies will remain unshaken by acutest sorrow and suffering and pain if in the divine dispensation they come to us, unoverpowered by intensest joy and pleasure. Thus supremely balanced we shall continue steadily on our way meeting all things with an equal calm until we are ready for a more exalted status and can enter into the supreme and universal Ananda. ” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-225, "The ego cannot see where it is being led; it revolts against the leading, loses confidence, loses courage. These failings would not matter; for the divine Guide within is not offended by our revolt , not discouraged by our want of faith or repelled by our weakness; he has the entire love of the mother and the entire patience of the teacher. " Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-64, A Sadhak of integral Yoga identifies desire as his greatest enemy. Complete union with the highest Divine is possible after exhausting all gross and subtle desires and attachments or 'He (King Aswapati) has exhausted now life’s surface acts,' (Savitri-133) or 'Now other claims had hushed in him (King's) their cry' (Savitri-316). “Therefore attachment and desire must be utterly cast out; there is nothing in the world to which we must be attached, not wealth nor poverty, nor joy nor suffering, nor life nor death, nor greatness nor littleness, nor vice nor virtue, nor friend, nor wife, nor children, nor country, nor our work and mission, nor heaven nor earth, nor all that is within them or beyond them." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-329, “And in any society we should have all four types (Brahmin, Kshetriya, Vaisya and Shudra Soul Force), — 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.” CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita-523, (The above message hints that disproportionate increase of proletariat in the world is a real threat to the survival human race.) “But whatever form it may take, however this grossness may be refined or toned down, whatever ethical or religious conceptions may be superadded, always the family is an essentially practical, vitalistic and economic creation. It is simply a larger vital ego, a more complex vital organism that takes up the individual and englobes him in a more effective competitive and cooperative life unit.” CWSA-25/The Human Cycle/p-161, “I don’t remember the context; but I suppose he [the writer of Yogic Sadhan ] means that when one has to escape from the lower dharma, one has often to break it so as to arrive at a larger one. E.g. social duties, paying debts, looking after family, helping to serve your country, etc. etc. The man who turns to the spiritual life, has to leave all that behind him often and he is reproached by lots of people for his Adharma. But if he does not do this Adharma, he is bound for ever to the lower life — for there is always some duty there to be done — and cannot take up the spiritual dharma or can do it only when he is old and his faculties impaired.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-439 7: Developed Soul is free from all external standard and is guided only by Divine Will: “Especially, in proportion as the partial lights of the mind become transformed into lights of gnosis, in whatever slighter or greater degree that may happen, we feel it as a transformation of our mentality into his and more and more he (Divine) becomes the thinker and seer in us. We cease to think and see for ourselves, but think only what he wills to think for us and see only what he sees for us. And then the teacher is fulfilled in the lover; he lays hands on all our mental being to embrace and possess, to enjoy and use it.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-603, “It (the outer law of Spiritual community) is a disadvantage to the adult spirit ready to transcend the human formula because it is an external standard which seeks to impose itself on him from outside, and the condition of his perfection is that he shall grow from within and in an increasing freedom, not by the suppression but by the transcendence of his perfected individuality, not any longer by a law imposed on him that trains and disciplines his members but by the soul from within breaking through all previous forms to possess with its light and transmute his members.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-195, “And even if the Shastra is still a living thing and the best rule for the human average, the exceptional man, spiritual, inwardly developed, is not bound by that standard. He is called upon to go beyond the fixed line of the Shastra . For this is a rule for the guidance, control and relative perfection of the normal imperfect man and he has to go on to a more absolute perfection: this is a system of fixed dharmas and he has to learn to live in the liberty of the Spirit.” CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-480, “But if oneness with others, oneness with truth is already the essence of the realised spiritual nature, there is no need of a law of truth or of love, — the law, the standard has to be imposed on us now because there is in our natural being an opposite force of separateness, a possibility of antagonism, a force of discord, ill-will, strife.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-1033, “His life would be a movement in the steps of a spiritual liberty and largeness replacing the law of the mental idea and the law of vital and physical need and desire and the compulsion of a surrounding life; his life and action would be bound by nothing else than the Divine Wisdom and Will acting on him and in him according to its Truth-consciousness.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-1040, “But what then shall be the secure base of an action which departs both from the guidance of desire and from the normal law? For the rule of desire has an authority of its own, no longer safe or satisfactory to us as it is to the animal or as it might have been to a primitive humanity, but still, so far as it goes, founded on a very living part of our nature and fortified by its strong indications; and the law, the Shastra has behind it all the authority of long established rule, old successful sanctions and a secure past experience. But this new movement is of the nature of a powerful adventure into the unknown or partly known, a daring development and a new conquest, and what then is the clue to be followed, the guiding light on which it can depend or its strong basis in our being? The answer is that the clue and support is to be found in man’s sraddha , his faith, his will to believe, to live what he sees or thinks to be the truth of himself and of existence.” CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-479-480 OM TAT SAT References: 105: (Divine Mother said to King Aswapati) “Accept the difficulty and godlike toil, For the slow-paced omniscient purpose live.” Savitri-335-336, “She (Savitri) made herself the diligent serf of all,” Savitri-470, "So man 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-541 “Pitying our barren days; so dost thou (Savitri) serve Even as a slave might, yet art thou beyond” Savitri-562, “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.” SABCL-17/The Hour of God/p-142, “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?” SABCL-17/The Hour of God/p-95, “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, "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." CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita/p-490-491, 106: “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, “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, “That’s what made him (Sri Aurobindo’s) lose his eyesight, you know; his eyes were overstrained. I know it’s due to that, because I heard him say so. Once, they had brought him a stack of books to sign and other things and, unaware that he could be heard, he exclaimed, Oh, they want to make me blind! That’s how I knew his eyes were tired. He was indeed losing his sight. At the end, he couldn’t see a thing, he had to look at very close range.” Jan-12/1963/Mother’s Agenda/Vol-4/P-22-23, “All those who were in the courtyard below [Mother’s room] must have heard how we had to fight with Her to make Her eat a little.” [Original English] This fight over food (to mention only one) created a sharp conflict in Mother’s body; she was torn between their suggestions–“If you don’t eat, you’re going to die”-and the thrust of the Experience.” March-29/1972/The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-13/P-117 “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, “It is finished, the dread mysterious sacrifice, Offered by God’s martyred body for the world; Gethsemane and Calvary are his lot, He carries the cross on which man’s soul is nailed; His escort is the curses of the crowd; Insult and jeer are his right’s acknowledgment; Two thieves slain with him mock his mighty death.” Savitri-445, "August and pitiless in his calm outlook, Heightening the Eternal’s dreadful strategy, He measured the difficulty with the might And dug more deep the gulf that all must cross." Savitri-17 107: “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, “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, “The gnostic soul is not bound any more than the divine demoniac by the petty conventions and proprieties of the normal human life or the narrow rules through which it makes some shift to accommodate itself with the perplexing dualities of the lower nature and tries to guide its steps among the seeming contradictions of the world, to avoid its numberless stumbling-blocks and to foot with gingerly care around its dangers and pitfalls. The gnostic supramental life is abnormal to us because it is free to all the hardihoods and audacious delights of a soul dealing fearlessly and even violently with Nature, but yet is it the very normality of the infinite and all governed by the law of the Truth in its exact unerring process. It obeys the law of a self-possessed Knowledge, Love, Delight in an innumerable Oneness. It seems abnormal only because its rhythm is not measurable by the faltering beats of the mind, but yet it steps in a wonderful and transcendent measure." Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-503-504, “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. We may very well attribute this flowering of intuition on the spiritual plane to a rapid reemergence of the essential gains brought down from a previous cycle. If we analyse the spiritual history of India we shall find that after reaching this height there was a descent which attempted to take up each lower degree of the already evolved consciousness and link it to the spiritual at the summit. The Vedic age was followed by a great outburst of intellectual philosophy which yet took spiritual truth as its basis and tried to reach it anew, not through a direct intuitive or occult process as did the Vedic seers, but by the power of the mind’s reflective, speculative, logical thought; at the same time processes of Yoga were developed which used the thinking mind as a means of arriving at spiritual realisation, spiritualising this mind itself at the same time. Then followed an era of the development of philosophies and Yoga processes which more and more used the emotional and aesthetic being as the means of spiritual realisation and spiritualised the emotional level in man through the heart and feeling. This was accompanied by Tantric and other processes which took up the mental will, the life-will, the life of sensations and made them at once the instruments and the field of spiritualisation. In Hathayoga and in the various attempts at divinisation of the body there is also a line of endeavour which attempted to arrive at the same achievement with regard to living matter; but this still awaits the discovery of the true characteristic method and power of spirit in the body. We may say therefore that the universal Consciousness after its descent into Matter has conducted the evolution there along two lines, one of ascent to the discovery of the self and spirit, the other of descent through the already evolved levels of mind, life and body so as to bring down the spiritual consciousness into these also and to fulfil thereby some secret intention in the creation of the material universe. Our Yoga is in its principle a taking up and summarising and completing of this process, an endeavour to rise to the highest possible supramental level and bring down its consciousness and powers into mind, life and body. ” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-267-268, 108: “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, ‘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, “And it’s true, I have noticed it: at times when the Force comes with really all its might, it’s terrible! Even for those who are most used to it, even for the most courageous ... it’s hard. So it’s always like that: it contains itself so as not to be ...unbearable. What do you have to tell me? Nothing?... It’s a pity. I’m always the one who speaks!” The Mother’s Agenda/20.02.1968, “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 (of Subconscient transformation) 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.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram-p-812-813, "I could have begun this work (of transformation) on the body thirty years ago, but I was constantly caught up in this harassing ashram life. It took this illness to enable me truly to begin doing the sadhana of the body. It does not mean that thirty years were wasted, for it is likely that had I been able to start this work thirty years ago, it would have been premature. The consciousness of the others also had to develop – the two are linked, the individual progress and the collective progress, and one cannot advance if the other does not advance." The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda-May 19, 1959, "You see, I have a solution for the transformation of the body, but … it’s never been done before, so it’s extremely … hard to believe. I cannot, I cannot believe that that’s it. Yet, it’s the only solution I see…. The body has a wish to go to sleep and awake … (“sleep” in a certain sense, of course: I remain perfectly conscious in consciousness, in the movement) and awake only after it is transformed … ( He (King Aswapati) travels on through waking and through sleep.” Savitri-72) … but people will never have the patience to stand it, to take care of me. The task is colossal, a herculean task; they’re nice (The Mother points to the bathroom), but they’re already doing their utmost, and I can’t ask for more....That’s the problem..... Yet, it’s the only solution to which the consciousness assents: .... “Yes, that’s it.”.... For , you see … there’s a certain state-yes, a state like this (The Mother closes a fist), self-absorbed, in which you are … at peace. ... But who? Who? To ask that of the people who take care of me is almost impossible." April-7/1973/Mother’s Agenda/Vol-13/P-389-397 Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: The Gita identifies developing Souls as arta, artharthi, jijnasu, mudha, vimudhah, durachari, sva-pake, papajonayah, striyah, shudra, vaisya, bala, alpa medhasam, alpa buddhayah, duskritam, duskritinah, samsayatma, yoga-bhrastah, asraddadhanah. They depend on outgoing sense movement for all their enjoyments. So, they suffer desire, anger, duality, ego, passion, pain, joy and grief. Similarly, they need external aid for Spiritual turn in the preparatory period of their life. The Lord further proposes that inferior human manifestations can transform quickly into saintly persons, khipram bhavati dharmatma , (The Gita-9.31) if they take refuge in Him alone through devotion and finally, they too attain the highest goal. It defines developed Souls in different terminologies of Dvija, Dvijottam (the best among the twice born), Yantra, Vibhuti, Avatara, Panditah, Sthita Prajna, Buddha, Maharsi, Debarsi, Siddhanam, Suhridam, Sadhunam, Sraddhavan, Jnanaban, Jnani, Jnaninah, nitya Sannyasi, Tyagi, Brahmachari, Munirbrahma, Muneh, Mumuksubhih, Yoginah, Tattva-darsinah, Tattvavit, Jitendriya, Visuddhatma, Dhira, Putah, Sthirabuddhi, Yati, Yatinam, Suhrud, Jitatmana, Triptatma, Prasantatma, Vijitatma, Asammudhah, Samyami, Bhakta rajarsayah, Brahmavid, Mahatma, Krshina-kalmasah, Krishna-vit, Dharmatma, Brahmavadinam, Mokshakankhivih, Atiba-priya Bhakta . Among the masculine personalities it has identified Janaka (A famous King and Sage and the Father of Mother Sita), Vivasvan (the Sun-God), Ikshavaku (head of the Solar line and the first king of solar race), Vrigu (son of Varuna , regarded as one of the Rishis in the Veda), Ushana (a Vibhuti among seer-poets), Kapila Muni (traditional founder and chief exponent of Sankhya system of philosophy), Narada (the heavenly sage who stands for Divine Love and Knowledge), Manu (mythological Father of mankind), Asita (name of the Vedic Seer), Devala (the name of the Vedic Seer), Vyasa (compiler of the Vedas, the Gita and the author of the Mahabharata ), Sanaka (son of the creator God, Brahma ), Prahllada (son of an Asura King Hiranyakasipu and true devotee of Lord Vishnu ), Arjuna (one of the five Pandava s, very dear to the external manifestation of Godhead, the best among the twice born Souls, Instruments and Emanations), Sanjaya (Dhritarashtra’s minister who was endowed with the power of celestial vision, trikaladristi ) and Lord Sri Krishna (son of Devaki, Godhead and the Lord of Ananda , one of the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu ) as developed Souls. Among the feminine personalities it has identified Kirti, Sree, Vak or Vani, Smriti, Medha, Dhriti and Kshama as developed Souls. They are unattached to outward touches for their happiness and are ever satisfied with themselves through inner contact with the Soul, nitya-trupto nirasrayah (The Gita-4.20). Similarly they can use but do not depend on external aid for their Spiritual fulfilment. The traditional Yoga of the Gita proposes that a developed Soul is free from seven deformations, vicaras, that of liking and disliking, iccha, dvesah, pleasure and pain, sukham, dukham , subjection to lower consciousness, chetana, place together truth and falsehood, sanghatah, tamasic and rajasic persistence, dhriti. A student of Integral Education will be at once a seeker of Integral Yoga, Integral Evolution, Integral Truth and Comprehensive Virginity extending over multiple subtle bodies in addition to his surface training of mind, vital and body. He will be aware of a Supramental world whose advent will be foreseen when earth life will be the playfield of more and more ‘superior human and invisible beings’¹⁷ hinted in Savitri as ‘Omnipotent’s flaming pioneers,’⁵ ‘mighty wardens,’²¹ ‘The sun-eyed children,’⁵ ‘radiant children of Eternity,’⁴ ‘princes of the Sun,’¹² ‘garbless deity,’⁶ ‘golden child,’⁷ ‘King-children,’¹⁵ ‘nude god-children,’¹⁸ ‘The heroic leaders of coming time,’¹⁵ ‘The Infants of the Monarchy of the worlds,’¹⁵ ‘Nameless the austere ascetics without home’¹⁵ ‘sunlight moulded like a golden maid,’⁸ ‘high-bred maiden,’⁹ ‘golden bride,’¹⁰ ‘the eternal bride,’¹¹ ‘golden virgin,’¹⁶ ‘virgin bridals of the dawn,’¹² and the ‘citizens of that mother state.’¹³ Savitri book also proposes Developed Souls to accept the Psychic being as the only and one and the best friend of their whole life and all life or "His only comrade is the Strength within." (Savitri-368) (References of above para is avilable in this link. )

Root Formula of Integral Yoga Preamble “…the spirit breaks through all formulas to find its self…”51 Sri Aurobindo "The life that wins its aim asks greater aims, " Savitri-200 The Root Formula of Integral Yoga Section 1 Heading blank line - to be deleted Section 1 text start Perfection is the objective of Divine Life. All problems of Perfections are essentially the problems of existence. Imperfection is the constitution of this existence. A Sadhaka’s quest for perfection begins by becoming aware of his present law of imperfection and by keeping full account of it. The perfection he aspires is neither a mundane perfection of outward and social change, nor moderate perfection of gross will to live and temperate indulgence of mental and vital satisfaction of desire, nor an ascetic perfection of trampling down the life instinct and ethical austerity, nor a religious perfection of acceptance of common religious ideal, a brotherhood of saints and a kingdom of heaven on earth but an integral Divine perfection of ‘the divine government of the will in life.’67 ‘It is only by increasing that (self) control through detachment of lower suggestions’67 of physical and vital mind,… only by developing and accumulating soul-power, only by ‘the possession of the being, consciousness, delight, power of the Self’67 that he can reach this integral Perfection. 1) ‘For all problems of existence are essentially the problems of Harmony,’4 Sangati. All problems are the creation of mental Ignorance and they could not exist with the evolution of Knowledge. An individual limited in ego isolated from its environment feels no longer in unity and harmony with his Self, with God, with universe and with all around him. The secret of harmony is to be in accord with his natural members and surrounding by becoming one with his highest Self, by becoming one with oneself and all beings. All problems would move harmoniously to their right solution if the life-energy could be made to obey their right action offered by Divine Will instead of imposing its own yoke on our existence. 2) All problems of Harmony are essentially the problems of Dharma, preliminarily obedience to the right law of existence, the law of self-discipline of written truth and ultimately spontaneous and automatic obedience to the Psychic, Spiritual and Gnostic Law dictated from within and above. 3) All problems of Dharma are the problems of discrimination, preliminarily right discernment of truth from falsehood, vivek and ultimately swift Supramental discernment, Samjnana. 4) All problems of right Discernment are the problems of Sraddha, preliminarily centralised faith and ultimately integral faith, which is again the outcome of Nistha, great sincerity. Section 1 text finish blank line - to be deleted Section 2 Heading blank line - to be deleted Section 2 text start The Gita speaks ‘he who has faith attains knowledge that can discern Truth and Falsehood, Divine and Undivine, Knowledge and Ignorance’, sraddhavan labhate jnanam.5 Right discernment, vivek, will lead one towards the fulfilment of the law of the Soul, Dharma. It is the law of the Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental being that leads one to total harmony and all the problems of existence are resolved from its root. It is from asraddha, doubt and asuya, fault finding, bivranti, the wrong discernment is born, which leads one to adharma, the deceptive law of mind, life and body, is the root cause of disharmony, asangati, from which all the problems of existence are aggravated. This paper proposes some provisional psycho-physical exercises on faith, Sraddha, which is meant for educating one to begin, repeat subsequently and end each day with the revival of highest aspiration of the Soul, towards the God, Light, Freedom, Bliss and Immortality. The two imperfections, the sceptical doubt, samsaya, which always turns its back on our Spiritual possibilities and the constant carping of the narrow uncreative intellect, asuya, which paralyses our collective living, must however be conquered for the Divine perfection by systematic development of sraddha. The first indispensable faith is, “The Divine exists within, above and around me and my meeting with Him cannot fail. I want to meet and adore Him within first and then in all creatures.” The second indispensable faith is, “There is nothing worth living in my life without Him and He is the only source of all my emotion, thought and action.” The third indispensable faith is, “He has taken my total responsibility and His sure guidance and protection is present throughout in spite of many dangers, difficulties and failures.” The fourth indispensable faith is, “He responds to my every call and even to my most external emotional call.” The fifth indispensable faith is, “What the Divine wills for me or decides for me is the best; He leads me in the shortest possible path towards the ultimate goal.” The sixth indispensable faith is, “He is all Love, all Ananda, all Beauty, all Peace, all Knowledge, all Light and He is ready to pour these faculties when called upon.” The seventh indispensable faith is, “Divine is All and by His entire descent all the problems of existence can be resolved instantly. But for such a descent to be practicable we have to enlarge the purity of subtle and causal body indefinitely.” In addition to it we can practice remembering some specialised form of faith or dispensable dynamic faith to remould some of our finest faculty. Once the indispensable faith establishes the Spiritual base, the practice of dispensable faith helps to integrate it. The first dispensable faith is, “Since I want only the Divine, my success is sure, I have only to walk forward in all confidence and His own Hand will be there secretly leading me to Him by His own way and at His own time.”6 When doubt, depression, tamas and insincerity predominates over the nature then the mantra of repetition is, “Never mind, my aspiration will come back again. Meanwhile I know that The Mother is with me even when I do not feel Her, She will carry me through even the darkest period.”97 To all suggestions of impurity, unfitness and Spiritual fall repeat the mantra, “I am a child of Immortality chosen by the Divine; I have but to be true to myself and Him--the victory is sure; even if I fell, I would rise again.”7 The rajasic and sattwic egoism are eliminated by concentration of the following mantra, “A Divine Power works in this mind and body and it is the same that works in all men and in the animal, in the plant and in the metal, in conscious and living things and in things apparently inconscient and inanimate.”8 To all suggestions of death, disease and accident repeat the mantra, “No part of my being support or dwell upon the disease of the body. All disease, accident and death are perfect illusion and non-existent to the true consciousness of the body.” Always we must adhere to the injunction of the Gita, “Yoga must be continually practiced without yielding to any discouragement by difficulty or failure until the bliss of Nirvana is secured.”9 Every thought and impulse has to be reminded in the language of the Kena Upanishad, “That is the Divine Brahman and not this which men here cherish and adore.”98 The seventh dispensable faith is, “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.”10 The eighth dispensable faith is, always we must repeat to the doubting intellect the promise of the Master of the Gita, “I will surely deliver you from all sin and evil; do not grieve.”11 Or the promise of Savitri, “Oh, surely one day He shall come to our cry, one day He shall create our life anew and utter the magic formula of peace and bring perfection to the scheme of things. One day He shall descend to life and earth, leaving the secrecy of eternal doors, into a world that cries to Him for help, and bring the truth that sees the spirit free, the joy that is the baptism of soul, the strength that is the outstretched arm of Love. One day He shall lift His beauty’s dreadful veil, impose delight on the world’s beating heart and bare His secret body of light and bliss.”12 Once the centralised faith is established in the Divine, which ‘see only the Divine and seek only after the Divine,’13 replacing the earlier ordinary faith which concentrate on ‘development and satisfaction and interests in the old externalised order of things,’13 then an individual’s higher Spiritual life is decreed. Then this faith has to be integralised through Psycho-physical exercise as stated above followed by Spiritual union of Ishwara and Ishwari and Supramental union of Brahman and Maya. Once the faith is integralised then an individual’s Supramental destiny is decreed. After the centralised faith is established in the Divine, then the centralising thought shuns its former dividing nature and retains its power of Truth and Oneness and once the faith is integralised, then the reconciling wisdom is activated which harmonises all the inarticulate murmur and disjointed mutterings of the Inconscient and unite Matter and Spirit. Section 2 text finish blank line - to be deleted Section 3 Heading blank line - to be deleted Section 3 text start To continue again the root formula: 5) All problems of Sraddha are the problem of Nistha, Sincerity, preliminarily exclusive sincerity and ultimately integral sincerity. Apara Prakriti’s concentration around Purusha is defined as exclusive sincerity. This concentration extended between Shakti and Ishwara and between Maya and Brahman lead towards integral sincerity. 6) All problems of Sincerity are the problem of concentration, samyama, preliminarily exclusive concentration and ultimately Integral Concentration. Integral Yoga proposes to enforce upon ‘the whole of life and not merely on a part of life’62 a concentration of inner spiritual change followed by an outer transformation which is not merely many-fold mental effort, annulment of ego, strong renunciation but evolution of higher concentration beyond exclusive concentration of mind. Integral Yoga proposes seven-fold concentrations in ascending order. Concentration is defined as ‘the bringing to its full intensity and the mastered and self-directed employment of that energy of being in us for a definite end.’68 To renounce all types of earthly enjoyments is the general cause of increase of concentration power, samyama. First Exclusive Concentration: The First exclusive concentration, is one form of the self-gathering of the power of Tapas, which is defined as the complete absorption in the objective world by an entire separation from the true Self. A seeker of Truth utilises the faculty of first exclusive concentration towards calling down the spaceless Infinity to the limited space of his surrounding world. Second Exclusive Concentration: Then there is development of second exclusive concentration, which is defined as to preoccupy and limit oneself with the mental knowledge of the present which is hurriedly changing from moment to moment in a helpless succession of events, forms, phenomena and actions, oblivious of the successive past and future happenings except that of memory that holds little and vague inference of future; through this concentration the objective experience of the ever-changing present environment is realised through a superficial movement of consciousness. A Sadhaka utilises this second exclusive concentration towards calling down the Timeless Eternity to the slipping moments. Third Exclusive Concentration: And then, the third exclusive concentration or reverse movement of exclusive concentration, which is defined as the complete absorption in the objective means or instruments in finding the subjective Being or concentrates exclusively on the concealed inner being by quieting the frontal active prakriti and subjective experience of the ever-modified mental states of its personality. Fourth Exclusive Concentration: This concentration is the outcome of fusion of above three exclusive concentrations. This is a concentration of separative active consciousness in a separative movement and this takes place not in true self, but in the untransformed active Prakriti. In this concentration, the present moment is utilised in linking the subjective Time with the objective Space or in this concentration self-concentration and self-expansion are reconciled. Essential Concentration: The second instrument of swift Psychic evolution in Ignorance is the development of Essential Concentration, which is defined as the entire self-absorption in the essence of its own Psychic being through deeper self-oblivion of outward things. This concentration gives one the capacity to move consciousness from nether Inconscient Sheath to the highest Bliss Sheath. Multiple Concentrations: The third instrument of swifter Spiritual evolution in Knowledge is the development of Multiple Concentration, the method of the totalizing or global overmental awareness, which is defined as a greater concentration or self-absorption in the universalised Self for greater world action. This concentration reconciles all the planes of consciousness from nether Inconscient Sheath to highest Bliss sheath. All-inclusive Integral Concentration: The last instrument of swiftest Supramental Evolution is the development of Integral Concentration, which is capable of an integral, comprehensive, multiple, infinite self-concentration. It is further defined as entire absorption in the three poises of Self or a triune realisation; (1) that is Self is in all things which is the basis of our individuality in the universal, (2) all things are within the Self which is the basis of our oneness in difference and (3) all things are made up of the stuff of Self which is the basis of our oneness with all. This concentration purifies, transforms, perfects all the multiple planes of ten Sheaths in large scale. Section 3 text finish blank line - to be deleted Section 4 Heading blank line - to be deleted Section 4 text start 7) All problems of Concentration are the problem of Surrender, Yajna, preliminarily exclusive Self-consecration and ultimately Integral Self-Consecration. ‘The effective fullness of our concentration on the one thing needful to the exclusion of all else will be the measure of our self-consecration to the One who is alone desirable.’59 With the increase of concentration, the consecration becomes absolute. Surrender is defined as Prakriti’s submission to Purusha. Concentration is born when this submission causes Prakriti to merge with Purusha. Prakriti’s concentration around the Purusha is defined as Sincerity. The Gita defines Sraddha as the original nature of Purusha, Sraddhamayayo Purusha.14 So the reverse movement of sincerity or Purusha leaning to embrace Prakriti is defined as Sraddha or Purusha pouring its aspect of Love, Ananda, Peace, Silence, Force and Wisdom on Prakriti is defined as Sraddha. Integral Yoga recommends two types of surrender, one Vedantic70 and the other Vedic; the former makes us one by identity in our inmost Being and the latter makes us one in our Becomings by resemblance to the Divine in our nature. In Vedantic sacrifice Prakriti is silenced so that the Purusha, Psychic being ascends and merges with the Ishwara, Spiritual being and subsequently Ishwara merges with the Brahman, Supramental being. This ascension of Consciousness causes the divine Force, Shakti, Maya, to descend into the lower nature of mind, life and body. In The Synthesis of Yoga more importance is given to Vedantic sacrifice; it is fully developed through Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga and hinted little about Vedic sacrifice. In Vedic sacrifice, Prakriti is agitated to create a rift in either of the lower mind such as physical mind, sensory mind, emotional mind, intellectual mind etc or Prakriti surrenders to Shakti, or the power of Ishwara. As a result higher Consciousness or Shakti first descends to successive layers of mind, life and body. As a result the Prakriti is silenced and experiences ascent of Consciousness through Purusha’s union with Ishwara and subsequently union with Brahman. In The Mother book, more importance is given to Vedic Sacrifice, Prakriti Yajna15 than the Vedantic sacrifice, Purusha Yajna and in Savitri both the exercises are widely explored. So the Vedantic sacrifice is identified as indispensable exercise supported by still more powerful dispensable Vedic sacrifice. What the Vedantic Sadhaka achieves that of change of nature through trance, Samadhi, subtle physical dream and Superconscient sleep; the same state a Vedic Sadhaka arrives through waking trance. The true waking Consciousness is defined as withdrawal from subjective consciousness, objective consciousness and massed causal consciousness and entry into superconscience superior to all consciousness. Waking union, the Vedic Sadhaka will experience is defined as the individual Purusha enlarges its active experience to the highest state of Turiya. Through consecration, one experiences static Divine union known of ascent of Consciousness and dynamic Divine union known as descent of consciousness. Submission of finite dynamic consciousness, three gunas, to infinite static consciousness, Purusha, Ishwara and Brahman is defined as (Vedantic) surrender. And repetition of this submission of untransformed Prakriti to infinite dynamic consciousness, Shakti, Maya, is defined as (Vedic) surrender. Section 4 text finish blank line - to be deleted Section 5 Heading blank line - to be deleted Section 5 text start To continue again the root formula: 8) All the problem of consecration is the problem of equality, samata. This equality is of six types, Titiksa, endurance, Udasinata, indifference and Nati, submission to the will of God, sama rasa, equal sap of nectar, sama bhoga, equal enjoyment and sama ananda, equal delight. 9) All problem of equality is the problem of renunciation. In integral Yoga renunciation is identified as entire rejection of attachment, desire, duality, ego, initiation of work and three gunas. Equality helps to realise complete detachment/rejection of lower nature and discovery of absolute movement of Divine Light, Power and Ananda which are indispensable for Divine perfection. Through increase of renunciation, tyaga, on will or physical mind, intellect or sattwic mind and emotion or vital mind one finds equality, samata, of triple Yoga; through prolongation of equality one finds peace, shanti, through prolongation of peace one finds Spiritual ease and happiness, sukha, through prolongation of happiness one discovers the exceeding joy and laughter of the Soul, hasya, atma prasada, which is identified as natural state of a fulfilled man. So, by renunciation one arrives at equality; by samata one arrives at the consecration of Self and Nature. Or ‘An inner renunciation of personal desire leads to equality, accomplishes our total surrender to the Divine, supports a delivery from dividing ego which brings us oneness.’69 By practice of consecration one experiences Divine union, as a result concentration and purity grow, each helping the victory of other till eternal calmness is established. Purification of buddhi is also possible by detachment/rejection of lower Nature. Concentration subsequently gives birth to sincerity; again, sincerity gives birth to Sraddha. Sraddha acts as pivot for the perfection of instrumental nature and obedience to the Divine Law, Dharma. Obedience to the norms of integral Yoga harmonises all the problems of existence. Total harmony is the condition of perfection of Divine Life which is attained by total union with the Divine, union with Indwelling, Over-dwelling and Transcendent Divine. Integral Yoga or integral Evolution promises triple perfection of divine life. They are fullness of Being, fullness of Consciousness and fullness of Life. Consciousness is the central Truth of Divine Life which is a self-aware force of existence extended from Inconscient Sheath to Bliss Sheath. By movement of Consciousness fullness of Being, fullness of Consciousness and fullness of life can be attained. Harmony is the inherent Nature of infinite Divine Consciousness and disharmony or limited harmony is the nature of the finite Consciousness of three gunas. The Law that descends from Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Consciousness is known as Dharma. The Law that enters the human vessel from tamasic and rajasic mind and from the surrounding world is known as Adharma. Vedantic Sraddha is the pouring down of Divine attributes of infinite Static consciousness into finite dynamic Consciousness of three gunas through Purusha Yajna, Vedantic self-discipline. Vedic Sraddha is the pouring down of Divine attributes of infinite Dynamic Consciousness into finite dynamic consciousness of three gunas by Prakriti Yajna. Sincerity is the concentration of finite dynamic Consciousness of three gunas around the Psychic being. Exclusive concentration is a concentration of separative mental active consciousness absorbed in part knowledge or a part action of the being and excluding the rest from its awareness. Submission of finite dynamic consciousness to infinite static Consciousness is defined as (Vedantic) surrender. Submission of finite dynamic consciousness to infinite dynamic consciousness is defined as (Vedic) surrender. Equality is gained when the Consciousness goes beyond the finite consciousness of three gunas. Renunciation is the rejection of finite dynamic consciousness represented by three gunas of apara-prakriti. OM TAT SAT Section 5 text finish blank line - to be deleted References blank line - to be deleted Reference one Reference two Reference three Reference four blank line - to be deleted Acknowledgements - delete section if no acknowledgements for page Acknowledgement 1 blank line - to be deleted blank line - to be deleted Page footer banner text start Page footer banner text end blank line - to be deleted

Study Circle in Detail “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;” Savitri-244 " What were earth’s ages if the grey restraint Were never broken and glories sprang not forth Bursting their obscure seed, while man’s slow life Leaped hurried into sudden splendid paths By divine words and human gods revealed?" Savitri-652 "... it is not possible for the tongue of human speech to tell all the utter unity and all the eternal variety of the ananda of divine love. Our higher and our lower members are both flooded with it, the mind and life no less than the soul: even the physical body takes its share of the joy, feels the touch, is filled in all its limbs, veins, nerves with the flowing of the wine of the ecstasy, amrita . Love and Ananda are the last word of being, the secret of secrets, the mystery of mysteries."⁶ Sri Aurobindo " There is also a speech, a supramental word , in which the higher knowledge, vision or thought can clothe itself within us for expression. At first this may come down as a word, a message or an inspiration that descends to us from above or it may even seem a voice of the Self or of the Ishwara , vanı, adesa . Afterwards it loses that separate character and becomes the normal form of the thought when it expresses itself in the form of an inward speech. The thought may express itself without the aid of any suggestive or developing word and only — but still quite completely, explicitly and with its full contents — in a luminous substance of supramental perception. It may aid itself when it is not so explicit by a suggestive inward speech that attends it to bring out its whole significance. Or the thought may come not as silent perception but as speech self-born out of the truth and complete in its own right and carrying in itself its own vision and knowledge. Then it is the word revelatory, inspired or intuitive or of a yet greater kind capable of bearing the infinite intention or suggestion of the higher supermind and spirit. It may frame itself in the language now employed to express the ideas and perceptions and impulses of the intellect and the sense mind, but it uses it in a different way and with an intense bringing out of the intuitive or revelatory significances of which speech is capable. The supramental word manifests inwardly with a light, a power, a rhythm of thought and a rhythm of inner sound that make it the natural and living body of the supramental thought and vision and it pours into the language, even though the same as that of mental speech, another than the limited intellectual, emotional or sensational significance. It is formed and heard in the intuitive mind or supermind and need not at first except in certain highly gifted souls come out easily into speech and writing, but that too can be freely done when the physical consciousness and its organs have been made ready, and this is a part of the needed fullness and power of the integral perfection. " ⁷ Sri Aurobindo The Study Circle in Detail Vedic Arya: “For in the Veda the Aryan peoples are those who had accepted a particular type of self culture, of inward and outward practice, of ideality, of aspiration...All the highest aspirations of the early human race, its noblest religious temper, its most idealistic velleities of thought are summed up in this single vocable.”⁸ Sri Aurobindo Vedantic Arya: “The Aryan is he who strives and overcomes all outside him and within him that stands opposed to human advance. Self-conquest is the first law of his nature. He overcomes earth and the body and does not consent like ordinary men to their dullness, inertia, dead routine and tamasic limitations. He overcomes life and its energies and refuses to be dominated by their hungers and cravings or enslaved by their rajasic passions. He overcomes mind and its habits, he does not live in a shell of ignorance, inherited prejudices, customary ideas, pleasant opinions, but knows how to seek and choose, to be large and flexible in intelligence even as he is firm and strong in his will. For in everything he seeks truth, in everything right, in everything height and freedom .”⁹ Sri Aurobindo Integral Arya : “The perfect Arhat is he who is able to live simultaneously in all these three apparent states of existence (a consciousness which is at once transcendental, universal and individual), elevate lower into higher, receive higher into the lower, so that he may represent perfectly in the symbols of the world that with which he is identified in all parts of his being, the triple and triune Brahman .”¹⁰ Sri Aurobindo Un-Arya: “Everything that departed from this ideal (Truth and wisdom of Brahmana and Heroism and inner adventure Kshatriya ), everything that tended towards the ignoble, mean, obscure, rude, cruel or false, was termed un-Aryan .”¹¹ Sri Aurobindo Dvija: “In the ancient Indian distinction between the once born and the twice born , it is to this material man that the former description can be applied. He does Nature’s inferior works; he assures the basis for her higher activities; but not to him easily are opened the glories of her second birth.” “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.”¹² Sri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo confirms in The Synthesis of Yoga that if writing and speech can be Supramentalised through a few rare gifted Souls, then 'this is a part of the needed fullness and power of the integral perfection.'⁷ A twice born Soul can 'understand and teach'¹² the written truth and can conduct a Study Circle. His deliberations can be fixed in Psychic and Spiritual planes of beyond the Gunas and he can utilise this as an opportunity to ascent to still higher Cosmic and Transcendent plane. The Study Circle for us is Prakriti Yajna . If it is done rightly, then there will be a large descent of Divine Will, Divine Wisdom and Divine Love. It is a means of collective Divine Union. The Earlier trend of using this as a platform of giving upadesha (advice) and lokasamgraham (gathering together of devotees) has renewed its significance before the new movement of Consciousness through Prakriti Yajna or Vedic sacrifice. In Study Circle, our firm motive is to “Ask for nothing but the divine, spiritual and supramental Truth, its realisation on earth and in you and in all who are called and chosen and the conditions needed for its creation and its victory over all opposing forces…Where there is affinity to the rhythms of the secret world-bliss and response to the call of the All-Beautiful and concord and unity and the glad flow of many lives turned towards the Divine, in that atmosphere she (Mahalakshmi) consents to abide.”¹³ This Study Circle is offered at the Lotus Feet of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo for the activation of ceaseless consecration, ceaseless askesis, ceaseless remembering of the Divine, ceaseless descent of Divine Shakti and for the generalisation and intensification of Moderate Spirituality² in humanity through the extension of Their Karma Yoga . The Gita insists that writing or oration or guidance or action of a Spiritual man should not generate offence, udbega, ¹⁶ anxiety, chinta, ¹⁴ and controversy or division of understanding, buddhi veda ¹⁵, among ordinary earth-bound man and sets himself as an example before them by doing all work with knowledge and Divine union. It further insists that his writings/oration should be truthful, satya, ¹⁶ pleasant, priya , and beneficial, hita, ‘and a careful avoidance of words that may cause fear, sorrow and trouble’¹⁷ to the collective mass. The Mother insisted⁴ that if a writing related with Spiritual truth has to inspire a wider dimension for a long period, it must descend from a very high impersonal and universal plane and must be received by the intellect without the least distortion. The Gita issues an injunction to the man of Knowledge to utilise Karma Yoga as a means of gathering together the devotees (lokasamgraham ) and not to disturb their thought basis, life basis, and work basis, which are guided by the divisible consciousness of the three gunas. The normal life basis and thought basis of men are limited within the boundary of (1) money earning, (2) procreation of a family and (3) its maintenance. They should not be persuaded to become a liberated Divine worker or live a life of higher Consciousness through rigorous self-control; ‘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.’¹⁸ He should not create a division of their understanding on attachment to action and he should encourage them to do all action, doing them himself with knowledge, detachment and Yoga. Their minds are restless, uncontrollable and wander away from Yoga. The Gita has identified them as child Souls, bala, and further segregated them as women, striyah , those who have not renounced sense enjoyments, Shudra, those who subjected their life to lower nature, Vaisya, those who have subjected their life to wealth attachment. There are still other inferior Souls identified as men of evil conduct, duracharo, out-castes, vyapasritya , born from the womb of sin, papajonayah, and deluded souls, vimudha . The Gita proposes rigorous self-control, ugra tapah of Jnana Yoga for a few prepared twice-born Souls, dvija, and consecrated action and devotion⁵ for once-born Souls without disturbing their normal life, in order to generalise Spirituality in humanity. The Gita’s support to generalise Spirituality in humanity is: 1: “Others, those who are unfit to pursue Karma, Jnana, Sankhya and Dhyana Yoga , may hear the Truth from realised Souls and mould the mind and heart into the sense of That to which they listen with faith and concentration and these devotees also go beyond death to immortality.” The Gita-13-26, 2: “If thou art unable even to seek by practice of Karma Yoga, then be it thy supreme aim to do My work; doing all separative actions for My sake, thou shalt attain perfection.” The Gita-12.10, “Work without sacrifice leads this world of men to bondage; for sacrifice practise works, O son of Kunti , becoming free from all attachments.” The Gita-3.9 3: “If a man of very evil conduct turns to Me with a sole and entire love (bhakti ), then swiftly he becomes a Soul of righteousness and obtains eternal peace. This is My word of promise, O Arjuna , that he who loves me shall not perish.” The Gita-9.30/9.31, 4: “Those who take refuge in Me, O Partha , be they out-castes, born from the womb of sin, women, Vaisysas , even Shudras, they also attain to the highest Goal through single-minded Bhakti. ” The Gita-9.32, 5: “To those devotees who worship Me making Me alone the whole object of their thought (either through Japa or through repetition of Mantra ), to those constantly in Yoga with Me, I spontaneously bring every good and all their inner and outer opulence.” The Gita-9.22, The Gita considers that the devotees who have failed to succeed in Yoga in the past births, yogabhrasta , are born again in the house of pure, glorious and in the family of wise Yogin with memory and accumulation of past Spiritual energy. In this birth, they show interest in the written truth, Shastra, from the early part of their formative life and they again endeavour assiduously in order to succeed in Yoga or, after many births of truth seeking, a jijnasu becomes a Yogi. What are the Divine action and its coexistence of Divine silence and passivity that a Divine Worker must know and through this knowledge-based action he can be released from all error, defects and ills. One has to understand the Divine action initiated from higher planes of Consciousness, undivine action initiated from rajasic desire will and inertia of inaction initiated from tamasic indolence. He who, in Divine activity, can see the Divine passivity and this subjective action of Divine descent continues after the objective action ceases, he is a true Karma Yogi . So, he is in Yoga and a many-sided universal Divine worker involved in doing well of all creature. The inception and continuation of Divine action is free from the will of desire and all the defects of work are burned up by the fire of self-knowledge. He has abandoned all attachment to the fruits of work; ever satisfied without any kind of dependence, he does nothing but a Divine Will does action through him. He has no personal hope, personal possession; his heart, sense, mind and intellect are under perfect self-control, performs action by the movement of the body alone; he does not commit any sin. The liberated Divine Worker is satisfied with whatever comes to him, lives beyond any duality, is jealous of none, and is equal in failure and success. He is free from attachment; mind, sense and heart are firmly founded in self-knowledge and the defect of all his work is dissolved.¹⁹ The Lord projected this Karma Yoga superior²⁰ to Jnana Yoga and Dhyana Yoga as one does not have to reject life and action in order to attain the Divine. Karma Yoga reconciles surface life with inner life and further gives the message of transformation of the lower Nature of the three gunas by the pressure of higher dynamic Divine Nature, because through this transformation alone ‘a perfected Yogi lives and acts always in the Divine.’²¹ The Gita ²³ confirms that those who will do Divine work must understand three things. They are (1) right action, karma, (2) wrong action, bikarma, and (3) inaction, akarma . Right action: If one will do all action with Soul united with static Divine then that is identified as Divine action. Wrong action: If action is done out of personal will, attachment, desire and motive to get result, then that work is identified as undivine action. It can be corrected by not initiating any work, sarbarambha parityagi, and by consecrating the ordinary action. Inaction: If one experiences Divine descent of Shakti , when objective work is withdrawn, then that is identified as the period of subjective Divine action or inaction. One who realises inaction or passive Divine during action and subjective action or active Divine union during inaction, he is a true Yogi and universal Divine worker. In integral Yoga, the Divine action hinted in the Gita is further developed into four gradations. 1: Divine action by Soul’s union with the static Divine: “This bright perfection of her inner state Poured overflowing into her outward scene, Made beautiful dull common natural things And action wonderful and time divine. Even the smallest meanest work became A sweet or glad and glorious sacrament, An offering to the self of the great world Or a service to the One in each and all.” Savitri-532, (Psychic action) “The Immobile stands behind each daily act, (Spiritual action) A background of the movement and the scene, Upholding creation on its might and calm And change on the Immutable’s deathless poise.” Savitri-662, “A work is done in the deep silences;” Savitri-170 (Spiritual action) 2: Universal Divine action by Soul’s union with dynamic Divine Shakti : “Yes, my (Savitri’s) 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.” Savitri-634, 3: Supramental Divine action by Static Divine’s union with dynamic Divine Shakti in the heart centre: “The incarnate dual Power shall open God’s door, Eternal Supermind touch earthly Time.” Savitri-705 4: Cellular transformation action by large-scale invasion of dynamic Divine Shakti to static Matter: “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, “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 study circle promises three limited actions to transform the tamasic and rajasic mind to a sattwic mind, and the unaryan Shudra and Vaisya way of life to Aryan Kshatriya (symbol of courage and new adventure) and Brahmin (symbol of Truth and Wisdom) way of life and to transform narrow carping, jealousy and intolerance into wide faith and compassion. These are identified as preliminary sattwic steps to transform undivine life to Divine 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;” Savitri-244 Self-discipline by Psycho-physical³ means or external aid is dispensable in integral Yoga. Knowledge does not always visit us by any outer means like a Study Circle. Overhead Knowledge visits us positively through Divine union and embrace from above and negatively through blows, shocks and adversities of life from below. The greatest utility of the Study Circle is not to limit it to Teachings alone but to utilise it as means of movement of ascent of the Soul to travel ‘beyond the world’²² and descent of Divine Shakti to ‘save the world.’²² As Divine workers, we must always remember three things.¹ Whatever manifesting work done through us, small or big, either through activation of three Gunas or through Divine union, are like an infinitesimal grain of dust before the Eternal existence and not our ego but the Divine Mother is the doer of all action. If a very big work is executed through us without consecration and the Divine’s Presence, then that work is of no Spiritual value. If a very small work is done by us with full of Divine’s Presence, then that work is of great Spiritual value. We are given a task through Divine Call, so whatever truth, love, beauty, and delight manifest through us or whatever we create are not our own but a descent from some Transcendent Source. Similarly, all our surface emotions and surface thoughts are source from the inconscient and subconscient or from the universal forces and that we are just a puppet moved by these forces and we must remember that none of them are our own. The Powers that act through our instrumental vessel, dark or bright, are not our own. Based on our consciousness from tamasic to Spiritual plane, the invisible forces of either kind enter our system and do their destructive or creative action. When we are under the influence of three Gunas, then the asuric forces capture the human vessel to hinder our sadhana and when we are under Psychic and Spiritual influence, the invisible Beings of these higher planes assist our sadhana . We must remain aware of them and strive to tune ourselves with the highest instrumental action through Savitri’s declaration: “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 The Divine dwells in Savitri who is at once nameless, impersonal Spiritual being and Personal Psychic Being. Finally, for conducting Study Circle, we can depend on the following message of Sri Aurobindo : "As for helping [others], you can only be sure of that if you yourself have an assured basis, with the psychic being always prominent, full of faith and joy and strength, — then others can gather strength and faith and joy from such a one by speech or contact. But to arrive at that you must, as I have been telling you, open yourself to the Light and Force that come from myself and the Mother and to no other influence."²⁴ OM TAT SAT References 1: “The Blessed Lord said, O Arjuna, I support this entire universe and all its Divine manifestations through great Vibhutis, Emanations, with an infinitesimal portion of My-self.” The Gita-10.42, “Let us understand that however great may have been our efforts, our struggles, even our victories, compared with the distance yet to be travelled, the one we have already covered is nothing; and that all are equal—infinitesimal grains of dust or identical stars—before Eternity.” The Mother/Prayers and Meditations-January-8/1914, “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, “Its absence left the greatest actions dull, Its presence made the smallest seem divine.” Savitri-305 “Our tasks are given, we are but instruments; Nothing is all our own that we create: The Power that acts in us is not our force.” Savitri-542 “A greater Personality sometimes Possesses us which yet we know is ours:” Savitri-47 2: “It is possible to give the material man and his life a moderate spirituality by accustoming him to regard in a religious spirit all the institutions of life and its customary activities.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-23-24, 3: “On the whole, for an integral Yoga the special methods of Rajayoga and Hathayoga may be useful at times in certain stages of the progress, but are not indispensable. It is true that their principal aims must be included in the integrality of the Yoga; but they can be brought about by other means. For the methods of the integral Yoga must be mainly spiritual, and dependence on physical methods or fixed psychic or psycho-physical processes on a large scale would be the substitution of a lower for a higher action.” CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga-542, 4: “Personally, of all those I have read, it’s (The Synthesis of Yoga) the book 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-February 16, 5: “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, “(Question) Am I fit for Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga? Will he take me up? (Answer by Sri Aurobindo) If by my Yoga you mean the integral Yoga leading towards the supramental realisation, you have not at present the capacity for it. All you can do at present is some preparation for it by Bhakti and self-dedication through Karma; if into this preparation you put a strong sincerity and a settled psychic aspiration, then one day you will be ready for more.” 23 February 1931/CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-544-545, 6: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-605, 7: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-836-837, 8: CWSA/13/Essays in Philosophy and Yoga/p-441, 9: CWSA/13/Essays in Philosophy and Yoga/p-443, 10: CWSA/13/Essays in Philosophy and Yoga/p-444, 11: CWSA/13/Essays in Philosophy and Yoga/p-441, 12: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-23, CWSA-18/Kena and other Upanishads/p-169, 13: Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-32/The Mother and Letters on the Mother/p-8, 21, 14: The Gita-16.11, 15: “He should not create a division of their understanding in the ignorant who are attached to their works; he should set them to all actions, doing them himself with knowledge and who are attached to their works; he should set them to all actions, doing them himself with knowledge and Yoga.” The Gita-3.26, 16: The Gita-17.15, 17: CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita-489, 18: “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.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-58 19: The Gita-4.16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 20: “The sacrifice of knowledge, O Parantapa , is greater than any material sacrifice. Knowledge is that in which all actions culminate (not any lower knowledge, but the highest self-knowledge and God-knowledge), O Partha!” The Gita-4.33, “Works are far inferior to Yoga of the intelligence, O Dhananjaya; desire rather refuge in the intelligence...” The Gita-2.49, “The Blessed Lord said: Yoga of Knowledge and Yoga of Works both bring about the Soul’s salvation, but of the two Yoga of Works is distinguished above Yoga of Knowledge.” The Gita-5.2, 21: The Gita-6.31, 22: “He (King Aswapati) stood fulfilled on the world’s highest line Awaiting the ascent beyond the world, Awaiting the descent the world to save.” (Vedantic sacrifice of the King.) Savitri-319, 23: “One has to understand about right action, karma , as well as to understand about wrong action, bikarma , and about inaction, akarma, one has to understand; thick and tangled is the way of works. He who in action can see inaction and can see action still continuing in cessation from works, is the man of true reason and discernment among men; he is in Yoga and many-sided universal worker.” The Gita-4.17-18, 24: CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-318, Sri Matriniketan Ashram Sri Aurobindo Centre, Managed by The Mother’s International Centre Trust, Regd.No-146/24.11.97. Vill: Ramachandrapur, PO: Kukudakhandi-761100, Via: Brahmapur, Dist: Ganjam, State: Odisha, India www.srimatriniketanashram.com Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: "The first thing the physical consciousness must realize is that all the difficulties we encounter in life arise from the fact that we do not rely exclusively on the Divine to find the help we need. The Divine alone can liberate us from the mechanism of universal Nature. And this liberation is indispensable for the birth and development of the new race. Only if we give ourselves entirely to the Divine with total trust and gratitude will the difficulties be surmounted. " The Mother The Mother's Agenda/February 1, 1972 “If you say to the Divine with conviction, “ I want only You”, the Divine will arrange all the circumstances in such a way as to compel you to be sincere. Something in the being... “ I want only You. ”... the aspiration...and then one wants a hundred odd things all the time, isn’t that so? At times something comes, just... usually to disturb everything—it stands in the way and prevents you from realizing your aspiration. Well, the Divine will come without showing Himself, without your seeing Him, without your having any inkling of it, and He will arrange all the circumstances in such a way that everything that prevents you from belonging solely to the Divine will be removed from your path, inevitably. Then when all is removed, you begin to howl and complain; but later, if you are sincere and look at yourself straight in the eye... you have said to the Lord, you have said, “I want only You.” He will remain close to you, all the rest will go away. This is indeed a higher Grace. Only, you must say this with conviction. I don’t even mean that you must say it integrally, because if one says it integrally, the work is done. What is necessary is that one part of the being, indeed the central will, says it with conviction: “ I want only You. ” Even once, and it suffices: all that takes more or less long, sometimes it stretches over years, but one reaches the goal.” The Mother The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol-6/176-177

Ashram In Detail “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 The Ashram in Detail A liberated Soul²³ becomes the luminous Soul Centre of multiple liberating Souls which forms the basis of harmonious progressive intermediate collective living of faithful and sincere aspirants, the Ashram . His difficult task is to go through severe Spiritual training and preparation in which his subtle and causal body are moulded, expanded, and densified through gradual and intensive non-waking and waking trance. His contact and cognition of all things and persons translate into a deep sense of identity through more intimate, powerful and efficient instrumentation of Consciousness force, where Spirit breaks through Matter’s wall and he begins to be the master of the mysteries of the material world. Thus, he emerges as Divine’s or Spirit’s conscious slave. His more difficult task is to become an Impersonal Centre or Centre of Universality to include the whole of humanity as ultimate collectivity, the Deva Sangha and the power of embracing the whole universe in his formless Consciousness is the sole preoccupation of a liberated universalised individual Soul Centre. He fills the emptiness in human heart with the nameless Divine Influence accompanied by the capacity to transform ‘the greatest difficulties into best opportunities,’²⁴ heals all the bitter cruelties, crudities and aberrations of earth, ‘guards the world with its all seeing gaze,’¹⁷ ‘mastered the tides of Nature with a look;’¹⁸ his ‘gaze controls the turbulent whirl of things,’²⁰ channels the total energy of Universal and Transcendent forces which would flow unobstructed and unrestricted, effective inclusion and penetration of dynamised intimate vision and he serves humanity by becoming its slave or does good of all creatures, sarvabhutahite ratah .¹ His most difficult task is the extreme accumulation of the ‘Spirit’s bare and absolute potencies’³¹ to become mightier than all the forces of the material and vital world and wrestles with Matter to meet and confront victoriously dark forces of naked Hell, compel active dynamic unification of cosmic Nature and ‘last and mightiest transformation’¹⁹ of Inconscient and mundane surface Nature. Then he emerges as Universalised individual Soul Centre with liberated immobile Soul and transformed mobile Nature. The right relation of the individual liberated Soul Centre with the collectivity, as proposed in the Gita is to live in the world with the sense of oneness with all existence, ekatvamasthitah ,²⁵ without separation from the Divine, mayi nivasisyas i,²¹ without finding fault of the Divine, nirdosham hi samam brahma ,²⁷ without controversy, buddhi veda ,¹¹ without enemy, nirbairah ,² without narrow carping, asuya ³ and without anxiety, chinta; ⁴ he is not bound by works and all actions vanish and are dissolved by their very execution and leave the immutable Self unaffected and the Soul unmodified, praviliyante karmani; ¹⁶ as proposed in the Isha Upanishad is to see oneness everywhere, ekatvam anupasyatah, ²⁶ to act, live and enjoy in the world for a hundred years without clinging or leaving any mark on his Soul, na karma lipyate nare, ⁶ and by renouncing all egoistic sense of desire, tyaktena bhunjitha .⁵ In integral Yoga the preservation of the entire range of visible individual activities are no longer inconsistent with the attainment of cosmic and transcendent Consciousness. The Life Divine or Nature’s conscious integral Evolution proposes to call down the unconquerable impulse of God, Light, Freedom, Bliss and Immortality to individual vessel and extension of these highest realisations to earth and men, the large and luminous movement of a Divine living through Divine union, unity and harmony with all Beings and a life governed and formed from within outwards; the conflicting ideals of mind will fall away from him and as proposed in The Synthesis of Yoga is to gather and sum up in himself all that is the best and the profoundest and the completest and pours them freely in the form of Divine Will, Knowledge, Love, Delight and Beauty on his surroundings. The right relation of a universalised liberated individual Soul Centre with the Divine as proposed in Integral Karma Yoga is the play of the Divine Will, Power, Force and Omnipotence and all weakness, incapacity and impotence is a holding back of Will in tranquil concentrated force so that certain forms of realised Divine conscious-force is brought forward into form of Power; as proposed in Integral Jnana Yoga is the play of Divine Knowledge, Wisdom and Omniscience and all Ignorance and all perversity is a holding back of Knowledge and Truth in the repose of conscious self-awareness so that certain form of consciousness is brought forward into activity of Light; as proposed in Integral Bhakti Yoga is the play of Love, Delight and Beauty and all suffering, pain, evil and incapacity of possessive delight is a holding back of joy in the still sea of Divine Bliss so that certain forms of Divine union and enjoyment is brought forward as an active upwelling of waves of Bliss; as proposed in Integral Yoga of Self-Perfection , is the dynamic play of all becoming with the Divine Being and all cessation, death and annihilation is a holding back of various sweetness of unification and joyous creative Maya in the eternal being of the Sachchidananda so that certain form of Divine Immortality and Perfection are brought forward as Nature’s all-powerful remedy; as proposed in Supramental Yoga is the play of all-containing and all-comprehending Maya with Brahman and ever dividing and limiting consciousness of mind, ever divergent action of life and infinitely-divided substance of Matter are holding back of a force intimately conscious of all the uniting relations so that certain forms of infinite is known and the finite is not separated from it as an independent reality and liberated from the knot of divided existence and as proposed in integral Yoga is to enjoy oneness with God, with itself in its own individuality, with its other brother selves in the universality and beyond them in the Transcendence and all discords and disharmonies of existence are holding back of infinite self-fulfillment of all life. The right relation of a Transformed Nature and Soul of a Universalised individual Soul Centre to the Existence as proposed in Integral Karma Yoga is the Purusha’s possession of Prakriti followed by Ishwara-Shakti realisation where the individual knows, transcends, enjoys and controls Spiritually his manifested being and determines, produces and orders all relation largely and freely through cosmic action, cosmic awareness and intensify the infinitely plastic yet harmonious diversity of action. The end of the path of integral Karma Yoga is 'a perception of the Divine in all energies, in all happenings, in all activities, and a free and unegoistic participation of the soul in the cosmic action. So followed it will lead to the elevation of all human will and activity to the divine level, its spiritualisation and the justification of the cosmic labour towards freedom, power and perfection in the human being.'³⁴ His action as proposed in Integral Jnana Yoga is to get back to the fact of eternal Oneness where an apparent discord is realised as an element of the general ever-present and ever-developing harmony and all relations in the world, even to its greatest and most shocking apparent discords, are relations of something eternal to itself in its own universal existence. 'For, followed more largely and with less individual aim, the method of Knowledge may lead to an active conquest of the cosmic existence for the Divine no less than to a transcendence. The point of this departure is the realization of the supreme Self not only in one’s own being but in all beings and, finally, the realization of even the phenomenal aspects of the world as a play of the divine consciousness and not something entirely alien to its true nature. And on the basis of this realization a yet further enlargement is possible, the conversion of all forms of knowledge, however mundane, into activities of the divine consciousness utilizable for the projection of the one and unique Object of knowledge both in itself and through the play of its forms and symbols. Such a method might well lead to the elevation of the whole range of human intellect and perception to the divine level, to its spiritualization and to the justification of the cosmic travail of knowledge in humanity.'³⁴ His action as proposed in Integral Bhakti Yoga is to realise universal divine Love that transforms all beings and things into all-embracing ecstasy and million-bodied beatitude and the play of the Divine Beloved in His infinite house of Delight. 'And this Yoga is catholic in its use of all emotional relations, so that even enmity and opposition to God, considered as an intense, impatient and perverse form of Love, is conceived as a possible means of realisation and salvation.'³ ⁴ His action as proposed in Integral Yoga of Self-Perfection, is to heal all disorder, disease, suffering, pain by the intervention of a Divine Force above instead of struggling from below; as proposed in Supramental Yoga is to embrace all contact with men and universe with a purified flame force and transformed Divine Nature and arrives at perfect relation with supreme and universal Purusha and the supreme and universal Para Shakti and as proposed in integral Yoga revived from ancient Vedanta (1) as seeing all existences in the Self and (2) the Self in all existences; (3) and the Self-being has become all these existences that belong to the worlds of the becoming. The original and integral view of Life, accepts this Existence as self-concentration and self-diffusion of conscious dynamic Force in Infinite extension of Space and Time and unfolds itself through the concentration and expansion of the Individual Soul. It confirms that this World is the progressive revelation of a great, a transcendent and a luminous Play of Reality perpetually creating and re-creating Itself; it is like a gold vessel made up of the stuff of pure gold, the Brahman, an act of mutable rhythm of creative Consciousness, a self-aware force of existence, eternally young, perpetually inexhaustible and there can be no trace of alloy in the Divine’s creation. Brahman is not only the cause, ordering and indwelling power of the universe but also its material and its sole material. The perception of this universe as a field of insistent suffering, enormous toil, presence of incapacity and sorrow which baffle our reason as facts, is the result of limited or relative human consciousness because of the wrong relation of the individual with the Self, Nature and Universe, misrepresentation of a manifold Reality and creates the system of false accountantship, unchangeable rigidity and mistaken appearance of opposition and conflict to the harmonious play of the Divine in its universal manifestation. Or if to us things appear undivine or this bondage to a perpetual stamp of imperfection and disharmony or judge the external phenomenon as inconsistent with the nature of inner being or world existence as an illusion because the world is not Divinely explained to us; Divine has not wholly possessed our limited Consciousness; we are ignorant of the sense and purpose of the evolution of Nature in the world in its entirety and its proper place and Divine meaning in the complete manifestation. This world appears to us as a cosmic madhouse so long as we rest on the madness of error, falsehood and ignorance and subject ourselves to the original limitation of its law. So, our proper aim of life is always to get cured of all our insanity and depart into Truth, Light, Freedom and Immortality. So, all the harshest apparent discord³⁶ of existence can be thrown out by an inalienable concord of the Being inherent in an inalienable unity of the Being and change them into essential elements of truth, a growing universal rhythm and ultimate harmony. The wrong, mutilated human relation created by limiting ego, intellect’s outward gaze and mental self sufficiency as practiced now by man are full of narrowness, smallness, fragmentary and restrictive because he has not opened himself to the perennial Source or he has not secured the ground upon which freedom and perfection would naturally flower and has not expanded into most subtle fullness of the Divine Truth. Attachment to mutable personality is the cause of our incurable littleness, discord, and quarrel with ourselves and with life and with others. The nature of the ego is a self-limitation of consciousness by a willed ignorance and its exclusive absorption in the partial movement of energies are necessary for the certain limited and preparatory experience or it is a practical construction of our consciousness devised to centralise the action of Nature. This egoistic life finds all its values transformed and corrected when it can group round the right central conception of effective knowledge of impersonality and untroubled oneness of Being. When the right consciousness is restored it asks no essential change of the eternal relation with the Spirit but the in-view and out-view of the individual centre is profoundly modified. So, the right relation of an individual with the existence can be recovered by participation in the consciousness of the totality which includes the consciousness of the Transcendent and the Universal. A true Divine living, right and full value of life is possible when the partial and separative movement of human mind and ego recognises the false doctrine, ‘he alone is important to himself, he is infinitely important centre to the All, (the centre of its own universe) but to him the All is negligible’⁸ and learns to submit to the ‘form of Oneness’²² or the total movement of the Infinite and the continuation of the illumined individual in the action of the world is still necessary and indispensable in the universal play because the world is his foundation, his means, his field, the stuff of the divine Work and he must necessarily universalise and impersonalise in order to realise himself ‘as one concentration of the universal,’²² manifest the Divine All and Supreme Reality. The largest vision of integral Yoga recommends an individual to be wise when he shows unwillingness to limit man’s avenues towards God and a refusal to put a limit to the Soul’s ascension of the Infinite and the Divine manifestation through all the godheads, men, creatures and objects; the wiser drives straight into the Divine realisation and then seizes one after the another methods of Nature’s many-sided passage of conscious Evolution and Yoga; gathers together all Spiritual experience and returns either naturally or through concentrated effort to the one Supreme experience of all reconciling Oneness and he learns to overcome all partial and one sided exclusive experience of the Brahman and realises the Integral Static and Dynamic Brahman; the wisest is able to call down this ultimate Divine Truth to elevate the material things and creatures to their highest and widest Divine manifestation and he can draw humanity towards greatest unity when he is perfectly capable of every kind of Spiritual experience and possesses highest Integral Knowledge. A supreme Knowledge is that which includes Spiritual experiences of all kinds, gives to each its absolute state of Brahman and integralises all Knowledge, neglects nothing, overlooks nothing and leaves no stone unturned. It recognises that the eternal Spirit as the immutable inhabitant of this fit and noble mutable robe, the bodily mansion, out of which the Divine constantly weaves His garbs, builds recurrently the unending series of His All Life. Or the Spirit born into the material existence is assigned a task to create out of Matter a temple of Divinity. The problems of All Life arise from an unsolved discord and the instinct of an undiscovered unity can be resolved when the fully awakened human mind realises an Omnipresent Reality as the truth of all life and when he accepts this existence freely as the Divine, invades mortality with the immortal’s Truth, Light and Beatitude and the redemption comes by the recovery of the universal Consciousness in the individual and of Spiritual term in the physical Consciousness. The Son of Man is supremely capable of incarnating God through the human journey of sacrificial work, sacrificial wisdom and sacrificial emotion without which he would be only an insect crawling among all other ephemeral creatures or harbours subhuman nature which is ‘lower than the lowest reptile’s crawl.’²⁹ The modern man is most discontented by the pressure of limitation and obstacle of mechanised living and satisfaction comes by surpassing of the limit, growing manifestation and overcoming of the obstacle by full possession of illimitable self-Consciousness, self-Power and self-Delight. This effort can give birth to a perfect man who combines absolute calm and passivity of mind with free and inexhaustible activity and reconciles harmoniously three kinds of life that of the ordinary material existence, a life of mental activity and progress and unchanging Spiritual beatitude and resolves their discords. A perfected human Soul’s Divine work is to hasten the process of evolution of the race and his action can be steadfast and truly Divine if it proceeds on the basis of a Spiritual equality, a calm, impersonal and equal self-identification with all beings. The individual exists not in himself alone but in the collectivity and the perfect utility of his perfection is, having realised in himself the Divine symbol, to reproduce, multiply and universalise it in others. The individual Divine incarnation in a human body shall evolve towards universal Divine Incarnation through emergence of infinite Consciousness. The many souls, minds, lives, and bodies of the universal manifestation are only faces of the one Divine, only His masks and disguises. We perceive each being to be the universal Narayana presenting to us in many disguises and lose ourselves in that universality and perceive our own mind, life and body as the only valid shape and substance of manifestation of incorporeal and immaterial, while all whom we formerly conceived of as others, are now to our universal and impersonal Consciousness our Self in other minds, lives and bodies. The Consciousness of collective humanity is a sum of individual ego. It is rather even more tortured, troubled, and obscured, certainly more vague, confused and un-progressive. The liberated individual Soul in this respect is more valuable than the collectivity and cannot be called on to subordinate his more profound, more dynamic, and more luminous possibilities of becoming a perfect channel of Divine Light, Peace, Compassion and Benevolence and he cannot suppress or maim his proper development to darker and recalcitrant collective entity. A universalised liberated individual lives neither for the individual ego nor for the collective ego; rather he lives in and for the Divine in himself, in and for the Divine in collectivity, in and for the Divine in all beings and his progressive evolution of Soul and Nature would be at each stage harmonious in its every detail and essential principle. Integral Jnana Yoga proposes that a developed Soul can serve God the oppressed, God the poor and God the miserable or ‘service of God in man’⁷ in order to ‘complete the realisation’⁷ of Divine in all things. Ethical rules of altruism, philanthropy and the service of the Nation are in themselves potent instruments of self-enlargement and self-correction of the narrower province of self-righteous and magnified ego, a partial and insecure superstructure, seem to be actuated and debased by this soul of desire and must be so till the child Soul or developing Soul finds the secret of the Divine Oneness and vast descent of Divine Love, Light and Bliss. If in to the Spiritual aim there enters the impulse to deny the personal self or the limited vision of mind to serve humanity or the world at large, it comes not from the ego nor from the collective sense of the race, but from something more occult and profound, Transcendent of both these things; for it is founded on a sense of the Divine in all and it works not for the sake of some selfish purpose or mental action of altruism but for the sake of the one Self and only what the supreme Truth and Good decided would be executed in the person or group or collective. It is this transcendent Source that a developed Soul or ripened Soul must seek, possess, and serve this vaster Being and Consciousness to which the service to the race and the individual are minor terms of its existence and inferior activities. The greatest service to humanity, the surest foundation for its true progress, happiness and perfection is to prepare or find the way by which the individual and collective man can transcend the ego and live in its true Self and help mankind to possess higher Consciousness and supreme Reality. The individual will no longer bound to cruel phenomena of incapacity, disharmony, insistent suffering and baffled by evil and ignorance which seem to be the natural circumstance of a difficult evolution in Ignorance; for all grief, revolt,³³ impatience, wrong will, trouble are identified as limitation of ego, outcome of relative consciousness and violence committed against the Will of the Divine Master. When the Truth Force possesses the mind, life and body of a developed Soul, then there cannot stay alive any trouble, grief, disharmony and disturbance of untransformed Nature and there survives the permanent vibration of Harmony, of Order and of Divine unity. Or in the language of the Gita , in that established exceeding Bliss Consciousness, a developed or ripened Soul ‘is not shaken by the most violent or the fieriest assault of mental grief, na duhkhena gurunapi vichalyate .’³⁰ To live in absolute calm, peace, silence and equality during a period of extreme adversity is the sign of true Spiritual living and he can draw the right and full profit from life. The emergence of mind in life brings in evolution an increase of the immense range of its capacity followed by an immense trail of constant error. The mental man thinks and acts for a long period within the range of his limited consciousness and individual ego because a rapid development of Truth-consciousness is not the intention of Mother Nature. He can give real service if the intellect must consent to pass out of the bounds of finite logic and accustom itself to the logic of the Infinite which enforces on the reason an utmost plasticity and opens it to an awareness of the larger state of possibilities. Thus, intellectual understanding is replaced with Spiritual Intuition which is more vast, subtle and complex in its operation and the change of Nature is assisted by the plastic power of adaptation of things and sure faultless action. So, our imperfect mental intelligence must learn the difficult lesson to approach the Absolute not by exclusive logical oppositions but by a profound catholic Intuition. As we pass from the necessary stage of transition of mental to Spiritual, a subtle wideness of increasing intensity of Light, of Power, of Peace and of Ecstasy marks our passing out of limitation. A Spiritual man accepts all creatures as his own Self in many minds, vitals and bodies. His world vision includes perfect Spiritual knowledge and understanding not only of all our internal activities but all the unrolling of things, events, human, animal, and natural activities around us. His Spiritual realisation, Spiritual mastery and Spiritual influence preoccupy him in acceptance of the world truths, the world energies, the world tendencies and the world purposes as its own and he bears all suffering so that all things must turn into the ecstasy of Ananda . The subliminal inner being widens indefinitely and breaks the boundaries of individuality to enter cosmic Consciousness, which is the merger of ego into the world being. Its natural outcome is a greater feeling of oneness with other beings, entire openness to universal Energy, intimately aware of the play of the cosmic forces, total liberation of Soul, mind, heart and individual action would be bound by nothing other than the Divine Wisdom and Will and casting them all into Cosmic Self and Divine Reality. Beyond this Himalayan height and Oceanic largeness there opens only the Supramental vistas of incommunicable Transcendences. The Supramental man lives and acts in cosmic Consciousness founded upon the knowledge by Identity, which covers all the earth and all that lies behind and beyond in other planes of Consciousness and hence the power and knowledge at his disposal would be much greater than the power and knowledge of mental man. His Influence spreads in earth’s atmosphere as dynamisation of universal Order, great Harmony and the sense of Oneness of all existence. He becomes Godhead in man and is aware of his true integral Self and Divine universality of his action in Consciousness is similar to the strong and steady Sunlight that securely illumines the whole kingdom of his thought, feeling, action and will and he serves the earth from above. The whole world is held within his Cosmic Consciousness and his intimate inclusion is aided in the movement of world activity. His universal Nature is like Vasishtha’s cow of plenty, Kamadhenu, from whose udder all mankind can draw its need and fulfill its deficiency. The relatively easier task or difficult task of a Supramental man²⁸ is permanent ascent of Consciousness to highest Sachchidananda state; his more difficult task is permanent descent of highest Sachchidananda Consciousness to physical life and earth and liberating the material vessel from the influence of tamasic, rajasic and sattwic mind; his most difficult task is the penetration of this highest Consciousness to triple time extending from beginning of the creation of Subconscient plane to the period of complete Divinisation of earth life in Superconscient plane, known as All Life. Or the Consciousness of dynamic Spirit moves backward to the past of this birth and past births in order to illumine the Subconscient obscurity and Consciousness of dynamic Spirit moves forward to call down Divine energies and manifesting action of thousand year ahead from Superconscient plane. The eternal Self within us has thrown itself out as the adventurer in Time and Space, limiting itself to the flow of dynamic movements in the succession of moments of seeking and divisibility of an objective field of substance so that they may win back again from imperfect and developing awareness, the infinite possibilities of lost Self-knowledge and All-knowledge. The right and ideal relation of the individual with the Time is ‘soul’s climbing beyond mortal time’¹⁰ in order to bring down Timeless Eternal into the slipping moments or to link Time’s second to infinity by endless descent of Divine force or the moments stretched into eternity, failing which gives birth to the wrong mental relation resulting in impatience and appearance of a continuous succession of moments of being in an eternal Time. Similarly, the right relation of the individual with Space or the small span of life and surroundings to which we are mentally and sensationally conscious is to call down God’s Spaceless Omnipotence into fragmented atmosphere or ‘lost in the depths of its own solitude’⁹ and recalls the Soul’s adventure into Space, failing which gives birth to wrong relation resulting in incapacity. So a true law of living must be evolved which can help us soonest to get back to the Self-knowledge which experiences Conscious Being subjectively as Time whose fundamental truth is the eternity of the Eternal and objectively as Space whose fundamental truth is the infinity of the Infinite or self-conceptive extension of one Being; where former is the mobile self-extension of passing a succession of moments in which the mind experiences itself at a certain point whence it looks back and ahead and the latter is only a coexistence of things or a static self-extension measured out by mind through divisibility of substance and all things stand or move together in a fixed order. ³⁵ Those who are rightly related with time and rightly related with the surrounding space can alone assist in the Divine work. Time-Space as a whole is eternal in its essential power of manifestation in which there is a movement of Consciousness and Spiritual Existence displaying the field of movement of its Conscious-Force to new create and manifest things and happenings and must therefore be temporary in their appearance on the surface. Each state of Consciousness has its own Time and Space and they change with the change of Consciousness. Space is a property of Matter which is a creation of Energy in movement. Time is a dimension of Space for the complete action of this Energy. To relate rightly, steadily and wholly of the entire extension of the conceptual Reality of Time and Space is not practicable by limited mental consciousness but is possible in Timeless and Spaceless static self-aware Supramental Consciousness that comprehends all things in dynamic Knowledge and governs their objective manifestation in indivisible Space and triple Time. To truly understand the significance of Space and Time, Consciousness must pass beyond the finite reason and the finite sense to a larger Spiritual sense. In Supermind, the continuously momentary conscious being of Time and divisibility of Space are annulled and the burden of Time³⁷ and Space disappears completely in the coexistent inner tranquil immobility and infinite immobile mobility and things become vast, calm, luminous, self-existent, immense and full of joy. The Divine Centres consisting of a few collective Souls all over the world can grow when an individual or a group enters sufficiently strong direct Divine descent from a higher plane and utilise that Influence initially as the transformation of his whole nature and finally become a centre of world transformation. Firstly, there will be prolonged, tedious and painful period of preparation, sincere practice and purification of all our Being and Nature till it is ready and fit for opening towards secret inmost Soul, the Psychic being in the heart or opening of Spiritual being above the head, a Divine Influence and Presence; secondly, all the conflicting members and elements of his personality consent to bear the difficult and exacting process of transformation and it would not be easy to arrive at a complete change in one life while still enclosed in the limitation of the lower nature; lastly, the ‘hardest of all’¹⁴ is the invisible occult war and struggle he has to carry through against the universal dark forces attached in their root nature to ignorance, to misuse of force, to perversity of delight and to present unstable creation when he seeks ‘to make the final Supramental conversion and reversal of Consciousness by which the Divine Truth must be established’¹⁴ on the earth’s atmosphere in all its plentitude. He must grow aware of the interventions, suggestions and impulsions of cosmic forces that oppose the increase of harmony, truth and good and have disguised themselves as the original movement of his own mind and life and wage battle against them. He must realise himself as an illumined virgin mould and embodied Soul through which ‘Formless shines’¹⁵ and cosmic Nature seeks to fulfill itself and emerges out of the powers of universal Nature antagonist to the Light of Knowledge. A new Heaven on earth could descend; a world of Supramental Light could be created in the midst of receding darkness of this terrestrial existence by stilling or transcending the temporal activity of our conscious mind. In the Supramental Era, or entry into the silence of conscious Eternity, Satya Yuga, Unity, Universality, Perfection, Harmony, Freedom and Truth of order would be the Consciousness of the race. There, Life would repose on a realisation of great varieties; Love would be all-inclusive, motiveless, a union of Soul with Soul and a joy of identity; Justice would be absolutely secured by opulent management and spontaneous action of being in harmony with the truth of things; Law of Supermind is unity fulfilled in diversity, a complete dynamism of return to his own potentialities; it would be self-existent and spontaneous in their self-fulfillment, an inevitable self-development of the truth of thing and the process of innate Knowledge, a Knowledge inherent in existence so as to allow progression and its motion is directed towards a Divinely foreseen goal; Equality would be consistent with hierarchy and perfect difference; artificial standards and rigid standardisation would be replaced by infinitely plastic harmonious principle and free automatic perception of right relations and their inevitable execution of truth of idea, action and creation. So an Ashram is a Spiritual Centre, where a developed Soul or a group of developed Souls is preoccupied with reconciling the perfect Spirit with imperfect Matter after one goes through a long formative period of Sadhana in which his Spiritual foundation of Divine union is established. Thus he pours out on his surrounding earth ‘the delight of His being and the glories of His godhead’¹² and he must not live ‘bound in the slow collective evolution’¹³ of the Divine Centre but to pursue, find, know and possess the Eternal through swift individual Spiritual evolution. The relationship between one community and the other would assure harmonious diversity, mutuality and oneness. There would be considerable free diversity in the self-expression of the individuals of a single community and between different Gnostic communities which would create their own body of the life of the Spirit. The greatest richness of diversity and liberty of self-expression based on an underlying oneness and stability in utmost mutability are the law of the Supramental perfected community³² and there the perfected individual’s Self-expression and Self-realisation need not be a long white monotone. He would not be cast according to a single moulded fixed pattern of personality or insist on the sameness of action or fixed law in all circumstances or subordinate himself to mass consciousness, but there would be the union of freedom, order of conscious unity, universality, integral self-awareness, plasticity, infinite variation and harmonious diversity of action and expression of the collective life in its manifestation of Gnostic Consciousness. This Gnostic community will ensure a luminous integral unity with its greatest completeness in the everyday life of Gnostic beings, and it will also ensure and impose similar dominating concord, right relation and order upon the life of surrounding ignorant mundane communities within the boundary of certain limitations. It will surely admit within its border as much of human life as is turned towards Spirituality, a dominant principle of harmony would impose itself on the life of Ignorance, leaving the rest to function freely on the lame movement of mind and mental self-sufficiency of old foundation. OM TAT SAT References: 1: The Gita-5.25, 12.4, 2: The Gita-11.55, 3: The Gita-3.31, 4: The Gita-16.11, 5: The Isha Upanishad-1, 6: The Isha Upanishad-2, 7: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-517, 8: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-80 9: Savitri-411, 10: Savitri-461, 11: The Gita-3.26, 12: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-668, 13: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-359, 14: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-133, 15: “The virgin forms through which the Formless shines,” Savitri-327, 16: The Gita-4.23, 17: Savitri-317, 18: “He mastered the tides of Nature with a look:” Savitri-219, 19: “A last and mightiest transformation came.” Savitri-318, "The world’s darkness had consented to Heaven-light And God needed no more the Inconscient’s screen. A mighty transformation came on her." Savitri-664 20: Savitri-571, 21: The Gita-12.8, 22: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-183, 23: “There are two types of liberated Souls. The first type of liberated Soul, ‘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.’ The second type of liberated Soul 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.’ Ashram is a place of stay of the second type of liberated Souls.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-268, “For as the progression of the change proceeded, the energy of the liberated individual would be no longer the limited energy of mind, life and body, with which it started; the being would emerge into and put on — even as there would emerge in him and descend into him, assuming him into it — a greater light of Consciousness and a greater action of Force: his natural existence would be the instrumentation of a superior Power, an overmental and supramental Consciousness- Force, the power of the original Divine Shakti. ” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-961, “The last or highest emergence is the liberated man who has realised the Self and Spirit within him, entered into the cosmic consciousness, passed into union with the Eternal and, so far as he still accepts life and action, acts by the light and energy of the Power within him working through his human instruments of Nature. ” CWSA-22-The Life Divine/p-915, “But it is possible to go farther; for the spiritual being, once inwardly liberated, can develop in mind the higher states of being that are its own natural atmosphere and bring down a supramental energy and action which are proper to the Truth-consciousness; the ordinary mental instrumentation, life- instrumentation, physical instrumentation even, could then be entirely transformed and become parts no longer of an ignorance however much illumined, but of a supramental creation which would be the true action of a spiritual truth-consciousness and knowledge.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-888, "All the action of the perfected soul will be even such a constant divine giving (Dana) 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." CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-490-491, 24: “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, 25: The Gita-6.31, 26: Isha Upanishada-7, 27: The Gita-5.19, 28: “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. ” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-839, 29: Savitri-215, 30: The Gita-6.22, 31: “Our spirit’s truth lives in the naked self” Savitri-543, “The Spirit’s bare and absolute potencies Burn in the solitude of the thoughts of God.” Savitri-57, “He met with his bare spirit naked Hell.” Savitri-219, 32: “A perfected community also can exist only by the perfection of its individuals, and perfection can come only by the discovery and affirmation in life by each of his own spiritual being and the discovery by all of their spiritual unity and a resultant life unity.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-1087-1088, “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.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-1011, 33: “The buddhi dwelling always in this master idea (consecration) 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 .” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-723, “Revolt and impatience mean always that there is a part of the being or something in the being which does not submit, has not given itself to God, but insists on God going out of his way to obey it. That may be very well in the Bhakti-marga , but it will not do on this Way. The revolt and impatience may come and will come in the heart or the prana when these are still subject to imperfection and impurity; but it is then for the will and the faith in your buddhi to reject them, not to act upon them. If the will consents, approves and supports them, (revolt and impatience) it means that you are siding with the inner enemy. If you want rapid progress, the first condition is that you should not do this; for every time you do it, the enemy is strengthened and the shuddhi postponed.” CWSA-36/Autobiographical Notes/p-229, 34: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-38-40, 35: “This development and progress of the world according to an original truth of its own being implies a succession of Time, a relation in Space and a regulated interaction of related things in Space to which the succession of Time gives the aspect of Causality. Time and Space, according to the metaphysician, have only a conceptual and not a real existence; but since all things and not these only are forms assumed by Conscious-Being in its own consciousness, the distinction is of no great importance. Time and Space are that one Conscious-Being viewing itself in extension, subjectively as Time, objectively as Space. Our mental view of these two categories is determined by the idea of measure which is inherent in the action of the analytical, dividing movement of Mind. Time is for the Mind a mobile extension measured out by the succession of the past, present and future in which Mind places itself at a certain standpoint whence it looks before and after . Space is a stable extension measured out by divisibility of substance ; at a certain point in that divisible extension Mind places itself and regards the disposition of substance around it.” CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-142-143, “Sri Aurobindo says time is an unbroken succession of ‘moments’” The Mother/30th March/1963/The Mother’s Agenda-4/102, " Man, still a child in Nature’s mighty hands, In the succession of the moments lives; To a changing present is his narrow right; His memory stares back at a phantom past, The future flees before him as he moves; He sees imagined garments, not a face." Savitri-53 36: "I have such an absolute certitude that the Wisdom that acts in the world is infinitely superior to all that we can imagine. We are like ignorant and stupid children in front of "something" that acts with a CERTITUDE, and so luminous, so luminous. With a superharmony that turns into harmony the things that seem to us the most discordant ." The Mother's Agenda/November 14, 1964, 37: "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's Agenda-May 19, 1959, Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file INTEGRAL KARMA YOGA "It (Supramental Action) will proceed by a spontaneous outflowing from the summits in the totality of an illumined and uplifted being, will and knowledge and not by the selected, calculated and standardised action which is all that the intellectual reason or ethical will can achieve. Its (Supramental Action's) sole aim will be (1) the expression of the divine in us and (2) the keeping together of the world and (3) its progress towards the Manifestation that is to be ...It will be an action not bound by the dualities but full and large in the spirit’s impartial joy of existence. The happy and inspired movement of a divine Power and Wisdom guiding and impelling us will replace the perplexities and stumblings of the suffering and ignorant ego." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-206, INTEGRAL JNANA YOGA "The goal of Yoga is always hard to reach, but this one (integral Yoga) is more difficult than any other, and it is only for those who have the call, the capacity, the willingness to face everything and every risk, even the risk of failure, and the will to progress towards an entire selflessness, desirelessness and surrender." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-27 INTEGRAL BHAKTI YOGA "The supramental love means an intense unity of soul with soul, mind with mind, life with life, and an entire flooding of the body consciousness with the physical experience of oneness, the presence of the Beloved in every part, in every cell of the body... With the supramental change, the very thing on which you insist, the possibility of the free physical meeting of the embodied Divine with the sadhak without conflict of forces and without undesirable reactions becomes possible, assured and free." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-482-483 “The Asram has nothing to do with Hindu religion or culture or any religion or nationality. The Truth of the Divine which is the spiritual reality behind all religions and the 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.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-701 “Man, too, becomes perfect only when he has found within himself that absolute calm and passivity of the Brahman and supports by it with the same divine tolerance and the same divine bliss a free and inexhaustible activity. Those who have thus possessed the Calm within can perceive always welling out from its silence the perennial supply of the energies that work in the universe. It is not, therefore, the truth of the Silence to say that it is in its nature a rejection of the cosmic activity. The apparent incompatibility of the two states is an error of the limited Mind which, accustomed to trenchant oppositions of affirmation and denial and passing suddenly from one pole to the other, is unable to conceive of a comprehensive consciousness vast and strong enough to include both in a simultaneous embrace. The Silence does not reject the world; it sustains it. Or rather it supports with an equal impartiality the activity and the withdrawal from the activity and approves also the reconciliation by which the soul remains free and still even while it lends itself to all action.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA/21/The Life Divine/p-31 “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.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA/22/The Life Divine/p-1011,

Integral Jnana Yoga “ The Path of Knowledge aims at the realisation of the unique and supreme Self. It proceeds by the method of intellectual reflection, vicara , to right discrimination, viveka . It observes and distinguishes the different elements of our apparent or phenomenal being and rejecting identification with each of them arrives at their exclusion and separation in one common term as constituents of Prakriti , of phenomenal Nature, creations of Maya, the phenomenal consciousness. So it is able to arrive at its right identification with the pure and unique Self which is not mutable or perishable, not determinable by any phenomenon or combination of phenomena. From this point the path, as ordinarily followed, leads to the rejection of the phenomenal worlds from the consciousness as an illusion and the final immergence without return of the individual soul in the Supreme... But this exclusive consummation is not the sole or inevitable result of the Path of Knowledge. For, followed more largely and with a less individual aim, the method of Knowledge may lead to an active conquest of the cosmic existence for the Divine no less than to a transcendence. The point of this departure is the realisation of the supreme Self not only in one’s own being but in all beings and, finally, the realisation of even the phenomenal aspects of the world as a play of the divine consciousness and not something entirely alien to its true nature. And on the basis of this realisation a yet further enlargement is possible, the conversion of all forms of knowledge, however mundane, into activities of the divine consciousness utilisable for the perception of the one and unique Object of knowledge both in itself and through the play of its forms and symbols. Such a method might well lead to the elevation of the whole range of human intellect and perception to the divine level, to its spiritualisation and to the justification of the cosmic travail of knowledge in humanity.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-38-39 The Injunction issued to the Seekers of integral Jnana Yoga : “These are the three fundamental realisations (1. Brahma Satya Jagat Mithya , 2. Brahman is the Source and creator of the Jagat, 3. Brahma Satya Jagat Satya ), so fundamental that to the Yogin of the way of Knowledge they seem ultimate, sufficient in themselves, destined to overtop and replace all others… Other realisations there are that are imperatively needed and must be explored to the full limit of their possibilities… All the revelatory aspects of the Divine must be caught in the wide net of the integral Yoga.”³ ⁷ Sri Aurobindo “The knowledge comes from above like the light and peace and everything else. As the consciousness progresses, it comes from a higher and higher level. First it is the higher or illumined mind that predominates, then the intuition, next the overmind, lastly the supermind; but the whole consciousness has to be sufficiently transformed before the supramental knowledge can begin to come.”²⁸ Sri Aurobindo Psychic Knowledge: “An inspired Knowledge sat enthroned within Whose seconds illumined more than reason’s years:” Savitri-37 “Thus came his soul’s release from Ignorance, His mind and body’s first spiritual change. A wide God-knowledge poured down from above, A new world-knowledge broadened from within: His daily thoughts looked up to the True and One, His commonest doings welled from an inner Light.” Savitri-44 “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. A wider consciousness opens then its doors; Invading from spiritual silences A ray of the timeless Glory stoops awhile To commune with our seized illumined clay And leaves its huge white stamp upon our lives.” Savitri-47-48 “An inmost self looked up to a heavenlier height, An inmost thought kindled a hidden flame And the inner sight adored an unseen sun.” Savitri-351 "Hidden in the mortal’s heart the Eternal lives: He lives secret in the chamber of thy soul, A Light shines there nor pain nor grief can cross." Savitri-442 “All this she saw and inly felt and knew Not by some thought of mind but by the self. A light not born of sun or moon or fire, A light that dwelt within and saw within Shedding an intimate visibility Made secrecy more revealing than the word:” Savitri-525 “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 “The soul that into the world-adventure came, A scout and voyager from Eternity?” Savitri-717 Spiritual Knowledge: “As so he grew into his larger self, Humanity framed his movements less and less; A greater being saw a greater world. A fearless will for knowledge dared to erase The lines of safety Reason draws that bar Mind’s soar, soul’s dive into the Infinite.” Savitri-26 “His being lay down in bright immobile peace And bathed in wells of pure spiritual light; It wandered in wide fields of wisdom-self Lit by the rays of an everlasting sun.” Savitri-43 “Even now great thoughts are here that walk alone: Armed they have come with the infallible word In an investiture of intuitive light That is a sanction from the eyes of God; Announcers of a distant Truth they flame Arriving from the rim of eternity.” Savitri-258 “The labour to know seemed a vain strife of Mind; All knowledge ended in the Unknowable:” Savitri-305 “At hide-and-seek on a Mother-Wisdom’s breast, An artist teeming with her world-idea, She never could exhaust its numberless thoughts And vast adventure into thinking shapes And trial and lure of a new living’s dreams.” Savitri-328 “A lightning from the heights that think and plan, Ploughing the air of life with vanishing trails, Man, sole awake in an unconscious world, Aspires in vain to change the cosmic dream.” Savitri-336 “Assent to thy high self, create, endure. Cease not from knowledge, let thy toil be vast.” Savitri-340 “Holding her forehead’s candid stainless space Behind the student arch a noble power Of wisdom looked from light on transient things.” Savitri-357-58 “Cast from thee sense that veils thy spirit’s sight: 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.” Savitri-476 “All knowledge failed and the Idea’s forms And Wisdom screened in awe her lowly head Feeling a Truth too great for thought or speech, Formless, ineffable, for ever the same.” Savitri-522 “The immortal’s thoughts displaced our bounded view, The immortal’s thoughts earth’s drab idea and sense; All things now bore a deeper heavenlier sense. A glad clear harmony marked their truth’s outline, Reset the balance and measures of the world.” Savitri-529 “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 “Thoughts leaped down from a superconscient field Like eagles swooping from a viewless peak, Thoughts gleamed up from the screened subliminal depths Like golden fishes from a hidden sea.” Savitri-541 “Only sometimes small thoughts arose and fell Like quiet waves upon a silent sea Or ripples passing over a lonely pool When a stray stone disturbs its dreaming rest. Yet the mind’s factory had ceased to work, There was no sound of the dynamo’s throb, There came no call from the still fields of life.” Savitri-543 “This seeing was identical with the seen; It knew without knowledge all that could be known, It saw impartially the world go by, But in the same supine unmoving glance Saw too its abysmal unreality.” Savitri-546 “Something unknown, unreached, inscrutable Sent down the messages of its bodiless Light, Cast lightning flashes of a thought not ours Crossing the immobile silence of her mind: In its might of irresponsible sovereignty It seized on speech to give those flamings shape, Made beat the heart of wisdom in a word And spoke immortal things through mortal lips.” Savitri-553 “The voice of life is tuned to infinite sounds, The moments on great wings of lightning come And godlike thoughts surprise the mind of earth.” Savitri-571-72 Supramental Knowledge: “Or a revealing Force sweeps blazing in; Out of some vast superior continent Knowledge breaks through trailing its radiant seas, And Nature trembles with the power, the flame.” Savitri-47 "An Omniscient knowing without sight or thought, An indecipherable Omnipotence, A mystic Form that could contain the worlds, Yet make one human breast its passionate shrine, Drew him out of his seeking loneliness Into the magnitudes of God’s embrace." Savitri-81 “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; It lifted from an underground of pain The inarticulate murmur of our lives And found for it a sense illimitable.” Savitri-90 “Out of the ineffable hush it hears them come Trembling with the beauty of a wordless speech, And thoughts too great and deep to find a voice, Thoughts whose desire new-makes the universe.” Savitri-236 “But thought nor word can seize eternal Truth: The whole world lives in a lonely ray of her sun.” Savitri-276 “Awakened by the touch of the Unseen, Deserting the boundary of things achieved, Aspired the strong discoverer, tireless Thought, Revealing at each step a luminous world.” Savitri-277 "The primal Energy took him in its arms; His brain was wrapped in overwhelming light, An all-embracing knowledge seized his heart: Thoughts rose in him no earthly mind can hold, Mights played that never coursed through mortal nerves:" Savitri-301-302 “Of wisdom looked from light on transient things. 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 “The knowledge of the thinker and the seer Saw the unseen and thought the unthinkable, Opened the enormous doors of the unknown, Rent man’s horizons into infinity.” Savitri-359 “I sat with the forest sages in their trance: There poured awakening streams of diamond light, I glimpsed the presence of the One in all.” Savitri-405 “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 “A voice comes down from mystic unseen peaks: A cry of splendour from a mouth of storm, It is the voice that speaks to night’s profound, It is the thunder and the flaming call.” Savitri-627 “He (Supermind) is the Wisdom that comes not by thought, His wordless silence brings the immortal word.” Savitri-681 “For knowledge shall pour down in radiant streams And even darkened mind quiver with new life And kindle and burn with the Ideal’s fire And turn to escape from mortal ignorance.” Savitri-710 Integral Yoga of Knowledge is the extensive extension of the Gita’s teaching of traditional Sankhya and Vedanta . Through this Yoga the higher Nature of Sachchidananda and the lower nature of mind, life and body are reconciled to such an extent that the Matter becomes the manifesting field of the Light, Force and Joy of Sachchidananda; life becomes all-blissful conscious force of Sachchidananda ; sensational mind and emotional mind become play field of Divine Love and universal Delight and intellect transforms into Divine Knowledge-Will. 1) All Life is Yoga of Nature through Knowledge, which is something self-existent, everlasting and infinite. All life includes a higher, truly conscious existence which our half-conscious humanity does not yet possess and can only arrive at by a self-exceeding spiritual ascension. All life is extended towards the pursuit of this knowledge in three stages. Firstly, the ‘endless difficulties that arise from the environing world are dismissed by erecting firmly against them a defence of outer physical and inner spiritual solitude; safe behind a wall of inner silence, he remains impassive and untouched by the discords of world and others.’³ ⁴ The Sadhak of the integral Knowledge must be absolutely free from attachment to action and equally free from attachment to inaction and must be capable of pursuing ceaseless action. Any ‘tendency to mere inertia of mind or vitality or body must be surmounted, and if that habit is found growing on the nature, the will of the Purusha must be used to dismiss it.’³⁵ Secondly , the difficulty of realisation of 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. 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. The example of great Avataras is there to show that not only by rejecting the life of the world as it is can help, but also and more by accepting and uplifting it. Thirdly , all knowledge is ultimately the knowledge of the One, through himself, through Nature, through her works. Mankind has first to seek the knowledge through the external life; for until its mentality, buddhi, is sufficiently purified and developed, Spiritual knowledge is not really possible, and in proportion as it is developed, the possibilities of Spiritual knowledge become richer and fuller. 2) Sarvam karmakhilam Partha jnane parisamapyate , (The Gita-4.33) Knowledge is that in which all action culminates, O Arjuna ! Due to the defect in work, sacrifice through knowledge is considered greater than sacrifice through action. And Bhakti is recognised as the highest sacrifice of Yoga. Integral Yoga accepts this hierarchy of traditional Yoga and further defines Divine Will as the foundation and is fit to occupy the Driver’s seat, whereas Divine Knowledge and Love are its willing subordinates. From this, we understand Karma Yoga is the greatest Yoga, the starting point and foundation of all Yoga; Bhakti Yoga is considered as ‘the crown of Works and flowering of Knowledge.’³⁶ 3) Traditional Jnana Yoga leads to the rejection of phenomenal worlds from consciousness as an illusion and the final immergence without return of the individual soul in the Supreme Self. The point of departure of Integral Jnana Yoga from the traditional path of knowledge is the realisation of the supreme Self not only in one’s own being but in all beings and, finally, the realisation of even the phenomenal aspects of the world as a play of the Divine consciousness and not something entirely alien to its true nature. The unique object of Integral Jnana Yoga i s that it seeks the truth of existence in its completeness and converts all forms of mundane knowledge into activities of the Divine Consciousness utilised for both in itself and through the play of its forms and symbols. 4) “The criterion is within, as the Gita insists. It is to have the soul free from craving and attachment, but free from the attachment to inaction as well as from the egoistic impulse to action, free from attachment to the forms of virtue as well as from the attraction to sin. It is to be rid of “I-ness” and “my- ness” so as to live in the one Self and act in the one Self; to reject the egoism of refusing to work through the individual centre of the universal Being as well as the egoism of serving the individual mind and life and body to the exclusion of others. To live in the Self is not to dwell for oneself alone in the Infinite immersed and oblivious of all things in that ocean of impersonal self-delight; but it is to live as the Self and in the Self equal in this embodiment and all embodiments and beyond all embodiments. This is the integral knowledge.”²³ “The seeker of the integral knowledge will not stop either at half-way and attractive or high-pinnacled and exclusive end. He will not limit himself within any religious creed and philosophical dogma. He must soar to the utmost height, circle and spread to the most all-embracing wideness, free to admit and combine all the soul’s highest and greatest and fullest and most numerous experiences. If the highest height of Spiritual experience, the sheer summit of all realisation is the absolute union of the Soul with the Transcendent who exceeds the individual and the universe, the widest scope of that union is the discovery of that very Transcendent as the source, support, continent, informing and constituent spirit and substance of both these manifesting powers of the divine Essence and the divine Nature.”¹⁵ “We must be prepared to leave behind on the path not only that which we stigmatise as evil, but that which seems to us to be good, yet is not the one good. There are things which were beneficial, helpful, which seemed perhaps at one time the one thing desirable, and yet once their work is done, once they are attained, they become obstacles and even hostile forces when we are called to advance beyond them. There are desirable states of the soul which it is dangerous to rest in after they have been mastered, because then we do not march on to the wider kingdoms of God beyond. Even divine realisations must not be clung to, if they are not the divine realisation in its utter essentiality and completeness. We must rest at nothing less than the All, nothing short of the utter transcendence.”²⁰ 5) The method of Integral Knowledge is initiated through the mind’s method of abstraction, which is the most effective means of enlightening the ignorance by the practice of gathering and reflection, sravana , meditation and fixed contemplation, manana , absorbed dwelling of mind in its object, nidhidhyasa . The whole preparatory method of Yoga is psychological and it does not exclude the forms of lower knowledge, so that the outward-going sensuous, pragmatic preoccupation of the lower knowledge with phenomena and forms is replaced by the one Divine preoccupation. ‘Contemplation of God in Nature, contemplation and service of God in man and in the life of man and of the world in its past, present and future, are equally elements of which the Yoga of knowledge can make use to complete the realisation of God in all things.’¹⁷ ‘The highest truth, the integral self-knowledge is not to be gained by this self-blinded leap into the Absolute but by a patient transit beyond the mind into the Truth-consciousness where the Infinite can be known, felt, seen, experienced in all the fullness of its unending riches.’¹⁸ ‘The status of knowledge, is a “realisation”, in the full sense of the word;... it consists of three successive movements, (1) internal Vision, (2) complete internal Experience and (3) Identity.’¹⁹ 6) Our mind gives a false report, an imperfect construction, an attenuated and erroneous figure in its relation with the Existence until they are enlightened by the faculty of higher Spiritual, Supramental and supra-sensuous Knowledge. The Supreme has the right relation with our individual being and with the universe and it transcends both the Soul and the Universe. The object of a Yoga of Spiritual knowledge is this eternal Reality, this Self, this Brahman, this Transcendent, this All that dwells over all and in all and is manifest and yet concealed in the individual and disguised in the universe. Ordinary objects, the external appearances of life and matter, the psychology of our thoughts and actions, the perceptions of forces of the apparent world are part of this knowledge and are the part of the manifestation of the One. Intellectual analysis can only lead to a clear conception, intellectual deliberations and right discriminations are meant to remove the difficulty of the path; all concentration, purification of understanding, psychological self-knowledge, all seeking by the heart through love, by the senses through beauty, by the will through power and works and by the Soul through peace and joy are only keys, avenues, first approaches and beginnings of the ascent which we have to use and to follow till the wide and infinite levels are attained and the Divine doors swing open into the infinite Light. 7) The comprehensive Yoga of Knowledge includes all the mass of graded experience existing behind the closed doors to which the consciousness of a seeker may find. It need not confine to the seeking after the Absolute alone but the hidden truth of material world and occult powers of great natural forces through the cultivation of Science and higher Spiritual planes and worlds and possibilities of our being through Yoga which are aimed at and cultivated by great Religions. The consciousness of the Absolute is the highest reach of the Yoga of Knowledge and the first, foremost, greatest and ardent object is the possession of this highest Divine and to neglect it for any inferior knowledge is to afflict our Yoga, Life and Evolution with inferiority and fall away from its true characteristic object. So, the integral Yoga of Knowledge takes account of all things, unifies their diverse truth and embraces all the Divine in its relations with ourselves and the world on the different planes of Existence. 8) The first object of integral Yoga of Knowledge¹³ is realisation of pure Self, pure Existence, jyotirmaya Brahman , above the terms of mind, life and body which is achieved after long persistent concentration or by other means the veil of mind is rent or swept aside. In this experience, Self is realised as present, real and concrete to physical sensation. After this realisation whatever darkness and fading of the light may afflict the Soul, the experience is inevitably renewed and must become frequent and constant depending on our sincere effort and persistence. The first result of the aim of Jnana Yoga ¹⁶ is an absolute quietude; for unless the old action of Nature in us be entirely quieted, it is difficult if not impossible to find either any true soul-status or any divine activity. Our first object on the path of knowledge is rather the liberation that comes by detachment from the desire-mind and by the renunciation of its passions. Therefore, to get back to this eternal fact of complete Oneness is our essential act of self-knowledge and whole aim of our Yoga of knowledge; to live in it must be the effective principle of our inner possession of our being and of our right and ideal relations with the world. For integral self-possession, we must be one not only with the Self, with God, but with all existences; this realisation of oneness of Sachchidananda in himself and this practice of oneness in difference or oneness in all His manifestation is the whole basis of Yoga. The second object of integral Yoga of Knowledge¹⁴ is that we begin to realise that the first Spiritual experience is not sufficient and we must realise the Self or Brahman in its essential mode of triune reality of static Sachchidananda . Thus, Existence, Consciousness and Delight are experienced as silent, passive, quietistic, self-absorbed, self-sufficient, impersonal, without play of qualities and turned away from the universe with indifference and without participation. The third object of integral Yoga of Knowledge¹⁴ is the realisation of dynamic Sachchidananda which is sovereign, free, lord of things, acting out of an inalienable calm, pouring itself out in infinite action, infinite quality acting out of integral self-concentration, all possible play of personality of the one Person, possession of the infinite phenomenon of the universe, without attachment, without aloofness and without indifference. Thus, the Divine Manifestation takes place with Freedom, Divine Mastery and luminous Self-delight without any bondage. The fourth object of integral Yoga of Knowledge¹⁴ is the holding together of the static and dynamic aspects of the Sachchidananda in a Transcendent Consciousness which is not the personal God of the Religions or the qualified Brahman of the philosophers, but that in which personal and impersonal, quality and non-quality are reconciled. The fifth aim of integral Yoga of Knowledge¹² is to possess the Divine and be possessed by the Divine either through movement of Consciousness or through identification or through reflection of the Divine Reality. This possession of the Divine in himself is extended to the Divine in the world and the Divine in all things and all beings. This possession of the Divine is to be realised either in the oneness or in the infinite diversity, in his personality and impersonality, in his purity free from qualities and in his infinite qualities, in time and beyond time, in his action and in his silence, in the finite and in the infinite in this life and in all life. The sixth aim of integral Yoga of Knowledge¹² is to put on in our surface life the Divine being and Divine nature. And since Divine is Sachchidananda , it is our responsibility to raise our being into the Divine being, our consciousness into the Divine consciousness, our energy into the Divine energy, our delight of existence into Divine delight of being. This highest consciousness is to be found on all the planes of our existence and in all our members, so that our mental, vital, and physical existence shall become full of the Divine nature. Our intelligent mentality is to become a play of the Divine knowledge-will, our mental soul-life a play of the Divine love and delight, our vitality a play of the Divine life, our physical being a new-mould of the Divine substance. The seventh aim of integral Yoga of knowledge¹² is realised by an opening of oneself to the Divine gnosis and Divine Ananda and, in its fullness, by an ascent into and a permanent dwelling in the Vijnanamaya Purusha and the Anandamaya Purusha . One earth-bound Soul lives within the binding limitation of the material plane and in normal outward-going surface experience; the Mind and Life are preoccupied only with the externality of material existence. He can raise the internal consciousness from the lower plane to the higher planes through true and right relations of Purusha with Prakriti , and subsequently Ishwara with Shakti, Brahman with Maya and Sat with Chit . Thus, the mental being ascends to the Gnostic being and the Bliss-self and assumes the Gnostic and the Bliss nature. By upliftment of this inner life, one can experience the positive transformation of the whole outward-going existence. Thus, the Material life will be dominated and possessed by the absolute Spirit with all its circumstances moulded and determined by the purity of Being, by the infinite Consciousness possessing the finite limiting consciousness of Mind, Vital and Physical, by the invasion of Divine energy, joy and bliss of the Spirit. 9) Samadhi or trance is given great importance in the Yoga of traditional knowledge, because there it is the very principle of its method and its object to raise the mental consciousness into a clarity of and concentrated power by which it can become entirely aware of, lost in, and identified with true being. In integral Yoga, Yogic trance is not accepted as an aim but only a means utilised not as an escape from waking existence by cessation of life, but includes the possession of the Divine in life through waking trance. 10) The limitation of traditional Jnana Yoga is that when one enters higher or highest state of Consciousness of inner Samadhi, absolute state of Turiya , either through concentration on single object, or through contemplation, meditation or through silencing of the mind either through rejection of thought-suggestion or through witness state of standing back from the mental action; one loses hold of the inward Samadhi when he is awake or ‘descend into the contacts of the world.’⁹ This truncated possession of the perfect Consciousness may be accepted as the initial Spiritual experience of the beginners of integral Yoga but this higher/highest Consciousness must be finally called down to the waking state ‘to take possession of the lower being, to shed its light, power and bliss on our ordinary consciousness.’⁹ “Therefore not only must the mind be able to rise in abnormal states out of itself into a higher consciousness, but its waking mentality also must be entirely spiritualised.”²⁹ Thus, Purusha can exercise its full conscious control over Prakriti. This repeated and prolonged calling down of the dynamic Divine Shakti to the nether untransformed Nature is identified as ‘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’¹⁰ and there will not be merely negative quiescence of waking trance but effective dynamisation of positive transformation of Nature. Yogic trance is not the aim of integral Jnana Yoga but an important means to ‘enlarge and raise the whole seeing, living and active consciousness.’¹¹ Thus, one becomes established in waking trance in which he experiences all the four planes of Waking, Dream, Sleep and Turiya Consciousness or Divine union of multiple (ten) Selves with the respective Sheaths, koshas , in a dynamic waking state. The Divine life is possible with self-identification with all four planes and a right relation with Purusha and Prakriti is restored. Thus, through movement of the highest Consciousness to the lowest Matter, the Spirit’s Face is revealed. OM TAT SAT References: 1: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-109, 2: The Gita-4.10, 4.19, 20, 21, 22, 3: The Gita-4.33, 34, 35, 4: The Gita-4.36, 37, 38, 39, 5: The Gita-5.16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 6: The Gita-18.49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 7: The Gita-18.57, 8: The Gita-7.30, 9: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-323-325, 10: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-56-57, 11: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-519, 12: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-511-12, 13: “It is only when after long and persistent concentration or by other means the veil of the mind is rent or swept aside, only when a flood of light breaks over the awakened mentality, jyotirmaya brahman, and conception gives place to a knowledge-vision in which the Self is as present, real, concrete as a physical object to the physical eye, that we possess in knowledge; for we have seen. After that revelation, whatever fadings of the light, whatever periods of darkness may afflict the soul, it can never irretrievably lose what it has once held. The experience is inevitably renewed and must become more frequent till it is constant; when and how soon depends on the devotion and persistence with which we insist on the path and besiege by our will or our love the hidden Deity.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-305, 14: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-390, 15: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-361, 16: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-420, 17: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-517, 18: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-296, 19: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-296, 20: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-334, 21: The Mother’s Centenary Works (second edition)/10/p-15, 22: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-103, “You will find that the Gita speaks of this rejection of all mental thought as one of the methods of Yoga and even the method it seems to prefer. This may be called the dhyana of liberation, as it frees the mind from slavery to the mechanical process of thinking and allows it to think or not think as it pleases and when it pleases, or to choose its own thoughts or else to go beyond thought to the pure perception of Truth called in our philosophy Vijnana. ” CWSA-36/Autobiographical Notes/p-294, 23: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-332-33, 24: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-631, 25: “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 “So a whole slice of my life came back, but it didn’t stop there! It keeps extending back further and further, and memories keep on coming, things that go back sixty years now, even beyond, seventy, seventy-five years – they are all coming back. And so it all has to be put in order .” The Mother’s Agenda/November 5/1960, 26: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-1054, 27: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-303, 28: CWSA-30/Letters on Yoga-III/p-461, 29: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-396, 30: TMCW-8/The Questions and Answers-1956/p-299-300, 31: Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-230, 32: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-59-60, 33: “It is only in the parts where the little ego is usually too strong for us, it is only in our emotional or physical joy and suffering, our pleasure and pain of life, before which the desire-soul in us is utterly weak and cowardly, that the application of the divine principle becomes supreme difficult and seems to many impossible or even monstrous and repellent. Here the ignorance of ego shrinks from the principle of impersonality which it yet applies without too much difficulty in Science, in Art and even in a certain kind of imperfect spiritual living because there the rule of impersonality does not attack those desire cherished by the surface soul and those values of desire fixed by the surface mind in which our outward life is most vitally interested. In the freer and higher movements there is demanded of us only a limited and specialized equality and impersonality proper to a particular field of consciousness and activity while the egoistic basis of our practical life remains to us; in the lower movements the whole foundation of our life has to be changed in order to make room for impersonality, and this the desire soul finds impossible.” CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-237-38, 34: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-77, 35: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-348, 36: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-551, 37: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-118, “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 c an 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.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-18/Kena and other Upanishads/p-169 “ 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, (Katha Upanishad-1.3.1) paramasyam paravati , (the highest summit) 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.”" Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-496-497 "I can see I am still (and God knows how long it will last!) in that transitional period Sri Aurobindo describes in "The Yoga of Self-Perfection. " A period when the true thing is getting established but the tail of the old thing trails behind, mixes in and colors things. Well, it's an old habit, and it takes SUCH a long time to go away... The habit of not understanding something unless it can be mentally explained is disastrous, for instance. This feeling we have that we don't understand something unless we can explain it – that's really disastrous. That half-hour's experience was something absolute, you see, not for one second was there any concern to know what was going on (naturally!); it was absolute. And only when the time was up and I had to come out of it did I start wondering, "What happened? What does it mean?" It wasn't even that pronounced. It's simply an old habit, what we call "understanding." A bad habit... To live THAT spontaneously, all the time – how wonderful it would be! (silence)... And the Power! The Power was tremendous. And I could see in detail everything it was doing, but in another way. I can say it was a certainty (I knew exactly what it was doing), but I couldn't have described it with the words we use here." The Mother The Mother's Agenda/November 27, 196 2

The Reader's Query Blessed Lord said: “He who expects nothing, anapekhya , (neither from the Creator nor from His Creation) is virgin, skilful, indifferent, untroubled, who has given up all initiation of work, is dear to Me.” The Gita-12.16, “There is a love in which the emotion is turned towards the Divine in an increasing receptivity and growing union. What it receives from the Divine it pours out on others, but truly without demanding a return . If you are capable of that, then that is the highest and most satisfying way to love.” The Mother TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-122 “The true purpose of life — To live for the Divine, or to live for the Truth, or at least to live for one’s soul. And the true sincerity —To live for the Divine without expecting any benefit from Him in return. ” The Mother TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-4 The Mother here recounts the general state of consciousness of devotees and ashramites: “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.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda/ February 18, 1961 “Those who approach me with the intention of obtaining favours will be disappointed, because I have no powers at my disposal.” Or “If you approach me in the hope of obtaining favours, you will be frustrated, because I have no powers at my disposal.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-5/p-250 “(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 “They gave themselves to her (Savitri) and asked no more.” Savitri-p 364 The Reader's Query “Answer to him that my way of Yoga is a special path and extremely difficult and I do not readily accept disciples — unless there is something to indicate that they have a special call.... The goal of Yoga is always hard to reach, but this one (integral Yoga) is more difficult than any other, and it is only for those who have the call, the capacity, the willingness to face everything and every risk, even the risk of failure, and the will to progress towards an entire selflessness, desirelessness and surrender."¹⁹ SRI AUROBINDO “I do not very readily accept disciples as this path of Yoga is difficult one and it can be followed only if there is a special call.”²¹ SRI AUROBINDO “You will tell him that admission to the Asram is only allowed to those who are already accepted as Sri Aurobindo’s disciples. There are no arrangements for visitors residing in the Asram; those who come for darshan make their own arrangements outside. Sri Aurobindo does not readily accept disciples as his is a special path of Yoga and very difficult for most. For what he wants, another Guru with an easier way of Yoga would probably be more helpful.”²⁰ SRI AUROBINDO “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.”² SRI AUROBINDO “Even if one person could put himself faithfully at the disposal of the Truth, he could change the country and the world.... The best way to help the world is to transform oneself by an integral and intensive yoga.”¹⁸ THE MOTHER “There are very few people who carry with them an atmosphere which irradiates joy, peace, confidence- it is very rare. But these are truly benefactors of humanity. They don’t need to open their mouth.” THE MOTHER “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.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-10/p-148/19th April-1969 “All I would need is one man who had an absolute trust and was receptive, with a power of execution.”²² THE MOTHER “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.”² THE MOTHER “Otherwise what will be ultimately accomplished is an achievement by the few initiating a new order of beings, while humanity will have passed sentence of unfitness on itself and may fall back into an evolutionary decline or a stationary immobility; for it is the constant upward effort (of the few) that has kept humanity alive and maintained for it its place in the front of creation.”²³ SRI AUROBINDO “For spiritual rebirth means the constant throwing away of our previous associations and circumstances and proceeding to live as if at each virgin moment we were starting life anew… To give you an idea of the final height of spiritual rebirth, I may say that there can be a constant experience of the whole universe actually disappearing at every instant and being at every instant newly created!”²⁴ THE MOTHER “Well-known or unknown has absolutely no importance from the spiritual point of view…One man who earnestly pursues the Yoga is of more value than a thousand well-known men.”²⁶ SRI AUROBINDO “Many times in his writings, particularly in The Synthesis of Yoga, Sri Aurobindo warns us against the imaginings of those who believe they can do sadhana without rigorous self-control and who heed all sorts of inspirations, which lead them to a dangerous imbalance where all their repressed, hidden, secret desires come out into the open under the pretence of liberation from ordinary conventions and ordinary reason.”²⁸ THE MOTHER After the arrival of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo , the Supramental energy is active in earth’s atmosphere very close to the material world and this inner aid with constant miracle will replace the outer aid of Religion in generalising Spirituality in humanity and this personal contact with Supramental Consciousness will be initiated from individual prepared Soul Centres. Long before the Supramentalisation of humanity, a 'principle of Supramental consciousness'²⁹ must be established in few prepared vessels. So all can open themselves towards the Supramental Light and Oneness and receive its brief touch¹⁶ with miraculous result but the flow of this invisible Sunlight can be stabilised in the well built subtle and causal body of the prepared individual vessel or after one is thoroughly established in the intermediate and 'the preliminary work psychicisation and spiritualisation of the being and nature'²⁹ through prolonged Sadhana. Intervention of this Force changes circumstances, brings very wide spread results and sooner or later the world will come under its direct influence. Thus, the world appears to him with a different meaning, not a senseless and meaningless whirl in space but ‘A Presence and Greatness everywhere’¹⁷ transforming receptive matter to plastic and Spiritual Law and Divine Force can penetrate uninterruptedly into the material world through its conscious human vessel. Man’s future is ‘Decreed (to become God) since the beginning of the worlds.’¹⁵ An Avatara’s mission is fulfilled when the (consenting part of the) humanity arrives at a Consciousness in which He is fully established. Sri Aurobindo’s first and primary objective is accomplished if the surface personalities of a few Sadhakas or ‘one hundred perfect instruments’² reveal and establish the concealed Supramental Mahashakti after long movement of Consciousness between the Psychic and Spiritual plane. And the secondary objective is with this inner movement of universalisation of Consciousness, expedite the process of descent of Divine Force to earth's atmosphere in largescale. Thus, the consciousness of general humanity can be enriched and generalisation of Spirituality and the revelation of Godhead in humanity becomes practicable. A relation between the seeker of truth, the traditional Yogi and the integral Yogi is hinted in the Gita . “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. ”³ An integral Yogi, after many births of preparation, attains integral Transformation, integral Perfection and integral Knowledge.²⁷ A similar description of a seeker of Truth (Jijnasu) ascending to the state of Consciousness of Godhead (Avatara) is also observed in Savitri through intermediate stairs Dvija, Yantra and Vibhuti through many successive births of preparation known as all life. "Aspiring he transcends his earthly self; ( A seeker of Truth, Jijnasu ) He stands in the largeness of his soul new-born, (A twice-born Soul, Dvija ) Redeemed from encirclement by mortal things And moves in a pure free spiritual realm (Instrument of Truth, Yantra ) As in the rare breath of a stratosphere; A last end of far lines of divinity, (Emanation, Vibhuti ) He mounts by a frail thread to his high source; He reaches his fount of immortality, He calls the Godhead into his mortal life.” (Consciousness of Avatara ) Savitri-486 A traditional Sadhaka , after realisation of Kshara, Akshara and Purushottama consciousness, feels that this realisation cannot be reconciled⁶ with the untransformed nature of the three Gunas. So, he has no unfinished task left and hence his blissful enjoyment of existence concentrates on the issue of freedom from rebirth and escapes into the supreme abode of param dham through the passage of Purushottama state. In integral Yoga, after realisation of Kshara, Akshara and Purushottama consciousness or after realisation of Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Being, a Sadhaka’s difficult task prohibits blissful enjoyment of the fruit of his labour but begins of reconciling static Matter with dynamic Spirit and thus Divine Shakti pours into the material vessel and confronts the Subconscient dark forces. His Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental purification, transformation and perfection resume action from firmly established Psychic heart centre and from firmly established Karma Yoga where Divine Will, Knowledge and Love are perfectly reconciled. Integral Yoga gives more importance to the emergence of Spiritual Instruments⁴ and traditional Yoga/Religion to the emergence of psycho- physical/religious Teachers;⁵ or “All religions and disciplines in India which use largely the psycho-physical method, depend more or less upon it for their practices.”¹ The manifestation of some intermediate truth through traditional Yoga/Religion can draw large devotees and the manifestation of the highest and comprehensive truth through integral Yoga can draw few strong Souls. Traditional Yoga gives more importance to self-expansion and a traditional Teacher is weighed by the number of disciples and devotees surrounded him. Integral Yoga gives more importance to Subconscient transformation through self-concentration and a Sadhaka of integral Yoga is weighed by his enhanced capacity to bear earth’s suffering and miseries and later transforming them into ecstasies. The perfect Instruments of integral Yoga with universalised Consciousness will preoccupy themselves for the benefit of individuals and humanity through concentration and illumination of their own subtle and causal body. They are nameless Spiritual leaders of humanity and their invisible world action through descent of Divine Force or reversal of Consciousness to resolve all problems of existence, are of far greater value than any religious movement can imagine. Those whose frontal surface nature is dominated by Courage and self-less Love, known as Kshatriya Soul Force and frontal Nature dominated by Truth and Wisdom, known as Brahmin Soul Force are recognised as superior human beings and are fit for collective Spiritual life. This work will be accelerated by the emergence of the Kshatriya Soul force of courage and new adventure in the outer world and ceaseless battle against earthly opposition through activation of the Psychic Being. The Mission will further spread by high nobility of Soul which is untouched by any littleness, narrowness and baseness and will move with a certain greatness of Spiritual conquest to confront with universal dark forces attached to present unstable creation and Supramental contagion to enter fierce battle with ‘giant sons of Darkness’⁷ of Subconscient/Inconscient world and bears ‘inner wounds that are to slow to heal.’⁸ This manifesting action further asks that state of reconciling Wisdom which can perfectly possess all the infinite variety of external circumstances and permeate the Divine Light and Love to all the nether, neglected and less explored domain and thus illumining the whole earth. This endeavour will drive forward towards the realisation of the vision as indicated in Savitri, “Mere men into spiritual beings grow And see awake the dumb divinity.”⁹ The Synthesis of Yoga book (Principal Shastra) issues injunctions on a Sadhaka (Seeker of integral Truth) of integral Yoga that he should not remain indifferent to individual, collective and world imperfection and he should become accountable for his Sadhana (askesis) to his own Self, to the World and to the Divine.²⁵ Integral Yoga proposes that a developed Soul must not ‘look with a remote indifference on the’¹⁰ sufferings of the unblessed ordinary human being and blessed devotees and draws all of them towards Spirit’s freedom. Or ‘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.’¹¹ ‘Accepting life, he (a Sadhaka of integral Yoga) 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.’¹² The forceful directive issued in the principal Shastra related with individual and collective imperfection, is to ‘leave nothing around it (liberated Soul Sadhaka) unchanged’¹³ superseding the previous stand ‘which will in no way seek to change their outward appearance...and old human surroundings.’¹³ His personal and communal existence must ‘take full account of’¹⁴ present imperfection and he has to ‘see how it can be converted to the law of a possible perfection.’¹⁴ OM TAT SAT References: 1: CWSA-23/ The Synthesis of Yoga/p-538, 2: “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.” Sri Aurobindo /Champaklal Speaks/p-191-192, “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- 5/p-195, 3: THE GITA-6.45/7.19, 4: “Teaching, example and influence are three instruments of the Guru (integral Teacher)… He will seek to awaken much more than to instruct…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 divinerealisation within him governing his whole life and inner state and all his activities.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-66-67 5: “…the (traditional) 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 andeffective within its limits, because it follows a well-beaten track to a long familiar goal.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-55 , 6: Matter cannot be reconciled with the Spirit is understood from following verse: “They who with the eye of knowledge perceive this irreconcilable difference between the Matter, kshetra , and the Spirit, Kshetrajna, and the liberation of Being from Nature, they escape into supreme abode of Param Dham .” The Gita-13.35, In the Gita Matter can be reconciled with the Spirit is hinted but not developed: ‘Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, reason and ego is My eightfold divided Nature, apara-prakriti. Know too My other Divine Nature, Para-prakriti, different from this Apara Prakriti; this Supreme Nature or the Supreme Mother which becomes the Jiva in the heart and by which this world is upheld. This ‘upholding of the world,’ jagat dharayate , means Para-Prakriti also penetrates into Apara Prakriti by which this world can be purified, transformed and perfected.” THE GITA-7.4, 5. 7: Savitri-226, 8: Savitri-230, 9: Savitri-709-10, 10: "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, 11: "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-422, 12: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-77, 13: 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.’ 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.’ 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. (Ref: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-268) 14: “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/p-631, 15: Savitri-708, 16: “There man can visit but there he cannot live.” Savitri-659 (All men can get the Supramental touch or God’s touch but are unfit or not prepared to get His embrace.) “There he could enter, there awhile abide.” Savitri-91, “It (child Soul) can only near and touch, it cannot hold;” Savitri-179 17: Savitri-42, 18: The Mother’s Agenda-10/p-148/19th April-1969, TMCW/Vol-14/Words of The Mother-II/p-277, 19: CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-554, CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-27, “Write to him that compliance with his request to see me is impossible. I do not see anyone — I do not speak with anybody or give oral instructions in Yoga. As for the rest, this is a special path of Yoga and only those are accepted who have a special call to it, not merely a general desire for the spiritual life. It is not a life of Sannyasa or a Yoga that can be done by Japa etc. but something much more difficult, so difficult that even those who have a call do not find it easy to go through to the end, and for those who have not the call, it would be impossible. If he likes, however, he can go on practising his Japa with an aspiration towards this path and if he gets any experiences by which a call to it becomes evident, then I can reconsider his case.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-554, “Sri Aurobindo’s way of Yoga is of a special character — it is neither sannyasa nor does it accept the ordinary way of human life. Its first stages can be practised anywhere. But unless there is a personal call to this particular way, there is no use in anybody taking to it. For it is a difficult path and there is little chance of success unless the aspiration is clear and fixed and the demand of the soul sincere and unbreakable. Sri Aurobindo does not admit anyone to this Yoga unless he has some ground to decide that there is in him this special call and that he has an evident capacity for this way — usually it is only after seeing personally at the time of one of the three darshans he gives to disciples and others that he decides whether or not to admit. On the strength of correspondence only he very seldom makes any decision of this kind.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-555, “The difficulty is that she seems to have only vairagya for worldly life without any knowledge or special call for this Yoga and this Yoga and the life here are quite different things from ordinary Yoga and ordinary Asrams. It is not a life of meditative retirement as elsewhere. Moreover it would be impossible for us to decide anything without seeing her and knowing at close hand what she is like. We are not just now for taking more inmates into the Asram except in a very few cases.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-556, “Reply that residence in the Asrama is only allowed to sadhakas who have been accepted into Sri Aurobindo’s path of Yoga, and not to all of them. This path is a special way of Yoga, difficult and different from others; only those are accepted who have a special call to it.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-559, “All are not equally capable of practising Yoga and in Yoga itself some paths are more difficult than others. There are some who have a special call to a path; others have no call; though they may feel drawn to Yoga, it is to other disciplines that they must go. This path is especially difficult and even some of those admitted to it find great difficulty in following it. Therefore Sri Aurobindo is not willing to admit any new disciples unless he has reason to think that they have a special call for it or a special capacity.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-560-561, “The number of sadhaks is over 150 and it is impossible to make farther admissions except in the most sparing way, as the means of the Asram are not unlimited. Moreover Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga is of a special and difficult kind and he admits only those who seem to him to have a special call to the life here.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-581, “There is no study of philosophy here; there is only a silent practice of Yoga. But this Yoga is too difficult for everyone to be admitted to it; one must have a special call or a certain capacity (not intellectual, but psychic or spiritual) before he is accepted. And even then all who are accepted as disciples are not allowed to stay in the Asram. The life of the Asram is of a special kind and it is only rarely that those are admitted who have not become permanent members; a few come and stay for short periods, but these are already accepted disciples of Sri Aurobindo. ” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-595 20: CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-561, 21: SABCL/26/On Himself/p-175, “It may be said generally that to be overanxious to pull people, especially very young people, into the sadhana is not wise. The sadhak who comes to this Yoga must have a real call, and even with the real call the way is often difficult enough. But when one pulls people in in a spirit of enthusiastic propagandism, the danger is of lighting an imitative and unreal fire, not the true Agni , or else a short-lived fire which cannot last and is submerged by the uprush of the vital waves. This is especially so with young people who are plastic and easily caught hold of by ideas and communicated feelings not their own — afterwards the vital rises with its unsatisfied demands and they are swung between two contrary forces or rapidly yield to the strong pull of the ordinary life and action and satisfaction of desire which is the natural bent of adolescence. Or else the unfit adhara tends to suffer under the stress of a call for which it was not ready, or at least not yet ready. When one has the real thing in oneself, one goes through and finally takes the full way of sadhana, but it is only a minority that does so. It is better to receive only people who come of themselves and of these only those in whom the call is genuinely their own and persistent.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-35/ Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-691-692 22: The Mother’s Agenda-5/p-165/14th August-1964, 23: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-752, 24: TMCW/Vol-3/Questions and Answers-1929 to 1931/p-176, 25: “She 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 26: CWSA-35/Letters on Himself And The Ashram/p-691, TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-62 27: “Among thousands of seekers of truth, jijnasu, one here and there strives after perfection and becomes a Yogi. And of those few siddha Yog i who strive and attain perfection of Yoga one here and there attains integral perfection and knows the Divine with all the principles of His existence, betti tattvatah .” The Gita-7.3, 28: The Mother’s Centenary Works (second edition)/Vol-10/p-15, 29: "It is not intended to supramentalise humanity at large, but to establish the principle of the supramental consciousness in the earth-evolution. If that is done, all that is needed will be evolved by the supramental Power itself. It is not therefore important that the mission should be widespread. What is important is that the thing should be done at all in however small a number; that is the only difficulty…It would therefore be a waste of time and energy which should be devoted to the preliminary work psychicisation and spiritualisation of the being and nature without which no supramentalisation is possible.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-288-290, Acknowledgements Header banner image source https://latitudesgallery.com/blogs/photo-blog/imaging-kauai-pre-dawn-light "(1) To give oneself to the Divine, (2) to receive and be the Divine, (3) to transmit and spread forth the Divine: these are the three simultaneous movements which constitute our total relation with the Divine." The Mother TMCW/Vol-14/p-22 "Think only of the Divine. Live only for the Divine. Aspire only to the Divine. Love only the Divine. Work only for the Divine. Be attached only to the Divine. Want only the Divine. Seek only the Divine. Only adore the Divine." The Mother White Roses "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

Moderate Spirituality "An ordinary religious teaching or philosophical doctrine is well enough satisfied to seize on certain great and vital aspects of truth and turn them into utilisable dogma and instruction, method and practice for the guidance of man in his inner life and the law and form of his action; it does not go farther, it does not open doors out of the circle of its own system, does not lead us out into some widest freedom and unimprisoned largeness. This limitation is useful and indeed for a time indispensable. Man bounded by his mind and will has need of a law and rule, a fixed system, a definite practice selective of his thought and action; he asks for the single unmistakable hewn path hedged, fixed and secure to the tread, for the limited horizons, for the enclosed resting-places. It is only the strong and few who can move through freedom to freedom.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita/p-526-527 The Agenda of Moderate Spirituality “Nevertheless it is possible to make the material man and his life moderately progressive by imprinting on the material mind (physical mind) the custom of progress, the habit of conscious change, the fixed idea of progression as a law of life… It is possible to give the material man and his life a moderate spirituality by accustoming him to regard in a religious spirit all the institutions of life and its customary activities.”⁹ Sri Aurobindo “Nor can the ideal of human life be simply the animal repeated on a higher scale of mentality. Otherwise, a moderate mental satisfaction would have stayed our advance.”¹⁰ Sri Aurobindo “When we attain this perfection (master of the physical), then action and inaction become immaterial, since neither interferes with the freedom of the soul or draws it away from its urge towards the Self or its poise in the Self. But this state of perfection arrives later in the Yoga and till then the law of moderation laid down by the Gita is the best for us; too much mental and physical action then is not good since excess draws away too much energy and reacts unfavourably upon the spiritual condition; too little also is not good since defect leads to a habit of inaction and even to an incapacity which has afterwards to be surmounted with difficulty.”¹¹ (This line indicates that till one discovers Psychic being and Spiritual being, the law of moderation is good; but after that discovery, one should pursue rigorous self-control, ceaseless consecrated action, hard sacrifice.) Sri Aurobindo If one is comfortable and satisfied with one part of his being and Nature having contact with the Divine, excluding the rest of his being and nature, then he is identified as a Moderate. The moderate philosophy considers man as above the brute and below God and he is given the calm reason as his guide. He chooses a middle path of reason’s vigilant light which is neither that of Gods with their superhuman thought and power nor that of Titans with their furious march to conquer the kingdom of heaven and dash their life against the eternal Law and fall and break by their own violent mass, nor is he driven by an unthinking will of the bird and beast, nor is he moved senselessly by the stark necessity of Inconscient things. The Moderate Spirituality begins when there is an instreaming of exceptional light of experience into the great mass of normal unenlightened human mind, vitality and physicality which forms the outer self and engrosses the natural preoccupation of a moderate seeker. Integral Yoga recognises man’s hunger for immediate solutions of all his practical problems and does not rest content with unsolved discord, unillumined compromise, patched with failure but sets out in its mission to resolve all problems of existence through integral Evolution or existence fully aware of itself. It accepts all life as Yoga of the Mother-nature, evolving through the concentration of the individual or the secret will of Sachchidanada appearing as the individual in a world. It uses all the means of Religion, Science, Occult knowledge and Spiritual thought as a starting point and the evolutionary endeavour of Nature has experimented on all lines in order to find her true way and her whole way. It accepts the developmental urge of all Religion as ‘a sort of unconscious Yoga of devotion’, and Science as ‘a sort of unconscious Yoga of intellect’; it is the first approach of mind to the Spirit and Nature’s means of slow evolution and are relevant for the beginners. Integral Yoga accepts all Religion as part of the eternal Religion, Sanatana Dharma , and adoration of personal God of all Religion as passage of partial realisation of the Divine helping one towards the realisation of the Divine in its entirety. All Science is accepted as part and portion of Supreme Science and the rationalistic Materialism can safely enter the vast field of evidence and experience when the intellect has been severely trained to clear austerity. It served humanity greatly through a clean sweep at once of truth of liberated intelligence, a new departure and a surer advance of perfect experience and liberates humanity from the dualities of the sensational partial conceptions. Who is a moderate?: “So must the dim being grow in light and force And rise to his higher destiny at last, Look up to God and round at the universe, And learn by failure and progress by fall And battle with environment and doom, By suffering discover his deep soul And by possession grow to his own vasts.” Savitri-146 (by possession of Psychic being) “He is satisfied with his common average kind; Tomorrow’s hopes and his old rounds of thought, His old familiar interests and desires He has made into a thick and narrowing hedge Defending his small life from the Invisible; His being’s kinship to infinity He has shut away from him into inmost self, Fenced off the greatness of hidden God.” Savitri-165-66 “Man’s eyes could look into the inner realms; His scrutiny discovered number’s law And organised the motions of the stars, Mapped out the visible fashioning of the world, Questioned the process of his thoughts or made A theorised diagram of mind and life.” Savitri-361 A moderate’s width of life is all that he can think and act and to enjoy and to breathe is the height of his mortal hope. He meets a strange portion of his self that seeks for fragments and lives satisfied in the fragments. He lives in himself and for himself alone and with the rest joins only fleeting ties. His passion over short-lived surface joy and grief is his Shudra identity and his high thought cannot prevent him from the trap of inferior lower Nature which is ‘lower than the lowest reptile’s crawl’⁴⁵ and thus, he is unable to discover the Eternal in his secret house. He pursues the Divine Mother with life’s blind desire and claims all of Her as his lonely own and hastens to engross Her sweetness meant for all and hopes to bind Her with his longing cords. He finds Her Divine touch too strong to bear; intolerant of a Force he could not house and shrank into himself as from too bright a Sun. His mind’s light hides from him the Eternal’s thought; his heart’s hope conceals from him the Eternal’s will and earthly joy shuts from him the Eternal’s Bliss. The Spirit of a Moderate: “For swift and easy is the downward path,” Savitri-211 “Inviting to their high and exquisite sphere, To their secure and fine extremities This creature who hugs his limits to feel safe, These heights declined a greater adventure’s call. A glory and sweetness of satisfied desire Tied up the spirit to golden posts of bliss. It could not house the wideness of a soul Which needed all infinity for its home.” Savitri-238 “Man turns aside or chooses easier paths;” Savitri-449 (turns aside difficult adventure) “Only in limits can man’s strength be safe, Yet is infinity thy spirit’s goal, Its bliss is there behind the world’s face of tears.” Savitri-453 “Yet is he (intellect of man) visited by intuitive light And inspiration comes from the Unknown; But only reason and sense he feels as sure, They only are his trusted witnesses.” Savitri-517 “Our mortal vision peers with ignorant eyes; It has no gaze on the deep heart of things.” Savitri-626 Moderate Spirituality is the first preliminary form of seeking with certain kind of religiosity which is not a pure Spiritual temperament but is of the nature of mind or life finding in itself a Spiritual support. In this stage, man is mostly preoccupied with the utilisation of such contacts as he can construct with what is beyond him to help or serve his mental ideas or moral ideals or his vital and physical interests and true turn to some Spiritual change has not yet come. Through small joys and grief, he moves towards God. His consciousness forgets to be Divine and cannot bear the Divine’s tremendous touch and cannot experience radical transformation of Nature. He experiences God with His cruel indifferent bitter law and pitiless gaze, meets love with his own agony and short-lived passion and an unknown face of Fate visits with ominous terror and shadowy doom. Now he walks in Nature’s doubtful ray. If his will could be made one with the Divine will and if his thought could echo the thoughts of God, then he might be all-knowing and omnipotent. If his mind can receive God’s light and his force be driven by God’s force then he is a miracle doing miracles. Effort has been made to accommodate the moderate seekers in the main streams of integral Yoga regardless of their past trend, fixed belief and exclusive methods. They will be conversant with its many fold Spiritual practices from the very beginning of their sadhana life and make their life opulent with the fresh inflow of Spiritual experiences. Their natural recoil from the difficult road, high truth, concentrated writings, great adventure within and without and practice of large-scale Spiritual disciplines are corrected, enlarged and transcended through the practice of inner adoration, sacrifice and consecrated action. An awareness comes of an inner light, of guidance or a communion, a greater control than the mind and will to which something in him obeys but all is not yet recast in the mould of that experience. The final aim of the evolutionary Nature in mental man is Spiritual change by the influence of the inner being and higher Spiritual mind but this by itself can lead to an illumined mental idealism to the growth of a religious mind, a religious temperament and some devotion in the heart and piety in the conduct. It is a first approach of Mind to the Spirit but it cannot enter the radical transformation of life and nature. Thus, a moderate Devotee has more responsibility to live deeper within, to exceed his present consciousness and raise the Spiritual aspiration of the heart, its self-offering and its inner seeking. His faith in the Divine is indispensable; for without it he cannot pursue his path through the Unknown and this need not be imposed on him but must come as free perception and imperative direction, adesh , from the inner Spirit. The Limitation of Moderate Spirituality: "He is a smallness trying to be great, An animal with some instincts of a god, His life a story too common to be told, His deeds a number summing up to nought, His consciousness a torch lit to be quenched, His hope a star above a cradle and grave." Savitri-78 “A slowly changing order binds our will. This is our doom until our souls are free.” Savitri-154 “As long as the human animal is lord And a dense nether nature screens the soul, As long as intellect’s outward-gazing sight Serves earthy interest and creature joys, An incurable littleness pursues his days.” Savitri-163-164 “A little bliss is lent thee from above, A touch divine upon thy human days. Make of thy daily way a pilgrimage, For through small joys and griefs thou mov’st towards God.” Savitri-451 “He sees his little self as very God. His little ‘I’ has swallowed the whole world, His ego has stretched into infinity.” Savitri-453 Narad said: “Because thy strength is a part not God’s whole, Because afflicted by the little self Thy consciousness forgets to be divine As it (consciousness) walks in the vague penumbra of the flesh And cannot bear the world’s tremendous touch, Thou criest out and sayst that there is pain.” Saviti-454 “Imprisoned in his body and his brain The mortal cannot see God’s mighty whole, Or share in his vast and deep identity Who (Divine) stands unguessed within our ignorant hearts And knows all things because he (Divine) is one with all.” Savitri-517 “The doctrine “No belief without proof” applies to physical science, it would be disastrous in the field of spirituality — or for that matter in the field of human action. The saints or bhaktas have the faith in God long before they get the experience of God — the man of action has the faith in his cause long before his cause is crowned with success — otherwise they would not have been able to struggle persistently towards their end in spite of defeat, failure and deadly peril.”³⁸ Sri Aurobindo Since moderate Spirituality is Nature’s unconscious Yoga through slow evolution, so it cannot transform the impending doom or fixed destiny into a higher Spiritual destiny. A moderate gains the hard-won quietude, silence, partial Divine realisation and falls into mortal grief and Nature’s Law during transitional or critical moments of life. During the period of extreme adversity, he does not lean on the pure and tranquil Spirit for all the necessary aid and help, rather he opens himself towards murmurs of inhuman solitudes and prefers to find a gate of escape⁴⁶ from all real problems. All Religions and all Sciences have their own countless stories of doing harm and evil to mankind and the world. The Law of Moderation-1: Or Practice of Moderate Spirituality through Science: “(Scientific) Genius is one attempt of the universal Energy to so quicken and intensify our intellectual powers that they shall be prepared for those more puissant, direct and rapid faculties which constitute the play of the supra-intellectual or divine mind. It is not, then, a freak, an inexplicable phenomenon, but a perfectly natural next step in the right line of her (Nature’s) evolution.”¹⁵ Sri Aurobindo “It is the Godhead who manifests himself in the great thinker, the hero, the leader of men, the great teacher, sage, prophet, religious founder, saint, lover of man, the great poet, the great artist, the great scientist, the ascetic self-tamer, the tamer of things and events and forces.”¹⁶ Sri Aurobindo “Our human knowledge is a candle burnt On a dim altar to a sun-vast Truth;” Savitri-280 “And Science tears out Nature’s occult powers,” Savitri-627 “And sciences omnipotent in vain By which men learn of what the suns are made, Transform all forms to serve their outward needs, Ride through the sky and sail beneath the sea, But learn not what they are or why they came….” Savitri-644 Science begins its journey from an obscure and ignorant perception of the hidden realities of Nature and proceeds towards more luminous and more potential vision of the Truth. It is the outcome of the development of man’s faculty of exclusive concentration and vast extension of practical physical mind. Integral Evolution considers Science as a part of occultism as it brings to light the Nature’s hidden formulas and uses its knowledge to set free the operation of her energies and place all its inventions and discoveries at the service of mankind. Science represents a vast system of physical magic through utilisation of secret truths of being and secret power and processes of Nature and it cannot rest content with the barriers of sense knowledge. Integral Evolution further provides this input that success and completion of physical knowledge of Science can be arrived at in its range of inquiry by discovery of what lies beyond, the Supraphysical knowledge because behind the process of physical Nature there is a vast inner kingdom of Supraphysical fact which can be accessed through Subliminal and Spiritual vision and entry into the Occult movement of the Force. Science dreams of physical conquest of death, discovers the necessary conditions or means for an indefinite survival of the body, has insatiable thirst for power and knowledge to capture God’s Omnipotence and Omniscience, contracting Space and Time to vanishing point and it strives in a thousand ways to make man the master of the circumstance and it is arriving at the border where material is divided from the immaterial and the highest achievement of utilitarian Science has even reduced the dependency on external aid of machinery to a vanishing point. In the wireless telegraphy and telephonic communication, the sensible physical means for the intermediate transmission of the physical force is removed and it is preserved only at the point of transmission and reception. The development of Supraphysical science ensures that dependency even on these machineries will disappear and direct communication can be established between mind and mind without the aid of the physical organs and limitation they impose on our surface consciousness. If we can recognise this fact then an enormous vistas to the future will wide open through Supraphysical Science. Since the very Soul of scientific enquiry is the search for knowledge, so it cannot cry a halt at sense dominated knowledge and reasoning from sense knowledge and shall strive to go beyond the limitation and error of sense²¹ by revealing the facts and realities not seizable by corporeal organs. Science confirms the Vedic and the Upanishadic idea ‘of the one essence with its many becomings’. The dualist appearance of Matter and Energy are reconciled in Science as matter is energy or E= mc² and are reconciled in Vedanta as the Matter is Brahman Energy, annam brahma . It is evident that essential Matter is a thing non-existent to senses and is only a conceptual form of substance and a point is reached where the arbitrary distinction in thought divides the form of substance from the form of energy. With the increase of scientific knowledge man becomes capable of regulating and indefinitely prolonging life, though not capable of an entire conquest of death. Science is capable of envisaging only external or secondary causes of removing death and disease to a distance and is not capable of the root knowledge of eliminating it; it knows the process of things but not the essence, thus, it arrives at more powerful manipulation of circumstance without experiencing the essential control. But if we could go behind the surface nature and grasp the essential subtle nature and cause of error, suffering and death, we might hope to arrive at a mastery over them which should be not relative but entire. We can even hope to eliminate them altogether and justify the dominant instinct of our nature by the conquest of that absolute good, bliss, knowledge and immortality which our intuitions perceive as the true and ultimate condition of the human being. So the solution of the whole problem of existence cannot be realised by exclusive one-sided knowledge and process of the Science but we must know the process of mind, life, Soul and Spirit and all that are behind the material surface, and then only we have sufficiently integral knowledge for the total solution of the problem. Science is keen to take minute care, intelligent approach and one pointed concentration on smallest and largest of its works. This mighty energy is an equal and impartial mother and its intensity and force of movement is the same in the formation and upholding of a system of suns and the organisation of the life of an ant-hill. We have already seen how greatly and scrupulously Science has served the ends of the Divine and we must preserve all the truths of material Science and its real utilities in the final harmony, even if many or even if all of its existing forms have to be broken or left aside. Reason corrects the error and limitation of the sense mind and is therefore one of the most powerful faculties developed by Science and that is the chief cause of his superiority among the terrestrial beings. The reason of the enormous success of physical Science is that it works best and with a firm confidence, the truth and potentiality already contained in Nature, when it is given a substance to work or handle the cosmic force through acquired knowledge, deals objectivised actualities with sure steps of verification by positive reason and objective evidence, erects formulas and standards based on the objective and phenomenal reality and proceeds from them for new invention and new discovery and it accepts the actual, physical and objective fact as self-evident truth beyond question. Physical Science enlarged the discoveries and released the huge secret material energy into action and for it physical actuality alone is real and Mind and Life are only the departmental activities of Matter and material instrumentation and it ignores the Spiritual, considering it as one form and fragment of Mind and it accepts all other subjective beings and things on the same condition in so far as they can become objects of our external evidence or acceptable to that part of the reason which builds upon the data supplied by them that relies upon as one solid basis of objective knowledge. Certain scientific discoveries are misused and clumsily used by humanity who are mentally and morally unready and unfit to handle powers great and perilous; for it would be an artificial control without any true knowledge of the secret energy that underlie and sustain our creation. The ancient Indian Physicists had identified the hierarchies through which the pure Energy has condensed as pure Matter and the elementary state of material Force is a condition of pure material extension in space. The Material force first modified its ethereal status, akasha , and from this vibration the sense of sound is born and it further modified into a second state which is called in the old language the aerial, vayu , of which a special property of contact between force and force has emerged and from this vibration of force the sense of touch is born. The third self-modification of the primitive force is the principle of light, electricity, fire and heat. Agni, which is again manifested in earth’s atmosphere as sight. A fourth state is characterized by diffusion, is termed as water or the liquid state, jala, accompanied by the birth of fourth element of sense, the taste and the final modification is termed as earth of the solid state, bhumi, accompanying with it the faculty of sense, the smell. This is the attitude of ordinary consciousness towards Matter that in proportion as Matter is more subtle, less densely resistant and enduringly seizable by the sense, it appears to us less material. Thus, the ancient thinking satisfied the query of the ordinary human mind, about how these forms which are so real, durable and solid to the sense can be in truth only temporary phenomena and things like pure energy are nonexistent, intangible and incredible to sense organs. The integral Vedantic affirmation of universe confirms that the delight of its existence is at (1) first self-gathered, absorbed, sub-conscious in the basis of the physical universe giving birth to the five states of Matter, akasha, vayu, agni, jala and bhumi ; (2) then evolves the five subtle sense of life that of sabda, sparsa, dristi, rasa and gandha ; this Life is Force and Force is Power and Power is Will and Will is the working of the master Consciousness; (3) then the life of sensation further emerges as growth of mind and ego in the triple vibration of pain, pleasure and indifference which is the limitation of the force of consciousness in the form and from its exposure to shocks of the universal Force which it finds alien to it and out of harmony with its own measure and standard; (4) finally, the distortion of original consciousness emerges as the full Sachchidananda consciousness in its creations by movement of ascending and descending Consciousness whose pace is regulated (a) by universality, (b) by equality, (c) by self-possession and (d) by conquest of Nature. This is the normal course, evolution and movement of the world. To realise its own power and to master and to know its world is therefore the increasing impulse of all individual life and that impulse is identified as the essential aspect of growing self-manifestation of Sachchidananda in cosmic existence or universalisation of the individual Being and Nature. His limited mental consciousness has to widen to the superconscient unity in which each embraces all; his narrow heart has to learn the infinite embrace and replace its lusts and discords by universal love; his restricted vital being has to become equal to the whole shock of the universe upon it and capable of universal delight; his recalcitrant physical being has to know itself as no separate entity but as one with and sustaining in itself the whole flow of the indivisible Force that is all things. The Divine Life is born out of the deeper and wider truth of our being which is extended as life of unity, mutuality and harmony, which will again replace the imperfect mental consciousness of artificially arranged and mechanized unity of material life into the oneness-in-all of the supreme Existence-Consciousness-Bliss. Reason and Science bind man within the limitations of Space and Time. The Space is defined as a stable extension measured out by divisibility of substance and mind places itself at certain point in that divisible extension and regards the disposition of substance around it. Time is defined as a mobile extension measured out by succession of the past, present and future in which mind places itself at a certain point from which it can look back and ahead. This experience of space and time in our waking state is what we call as a surface mental consciousness, and is only a small selection from our entire conscious Being. Behind this surface consciousness, there is much vaster Subliminal and Subconscient mind, which is the greater part of our identity and contains height, depth and profundities to which no man can measure or fathom. This knowledge gives us the starting point of the true Science and also starting point of true Spirituality. This knowledge will deliver us from the circumscription by the material and illusion of the obvious. Modern thought is unaware of invisible forces other than those revealed or constructed by Science; it does not believe that Nature is capable of creating any physical, vital and mental beings other than those around us in the physical world, men, beasts, birds, reptiles, fish, insects, germs and animalculae. These cosmic forces whose subtler substance is invisible to us, form conscious beings or use persons to embody them in physical forms and in a physical world and can act upon Matter and through Matter. As there are Powers of Knowledge or Forces of Light and Truth, so there are Powers of Ignorance, tenebrous Forces of the Darkness, Falsehood and Evil whose work is to prolong the reign of Ignorance and Suffering. The transformation of these universal forces attached to present unstable creation is beyond the scope and control of Physical Science. Science is oblivious and unaware of the Being, the Self and it experiences the separateness in the multiplicity and a dwelling or circling in the ill-understood maze of becomings but this limitation can be cured by the Soul in the Becoming growing into knowledge, into the awareness of the Being which in the multiplicity holds all these existences and their truth is already there in the Being’s timeless existence. The Divine Being is capable of becoming innumerable forms, though He is beyond all form, He does not lose His Divinity in these multitude of forms but pours out in them the delight of His Being and glories of His Godhead; this Earth-power, principle of all this figured material existence, does not lose her immutable divinity because she forms into habitable worlds, throws herself out in the hills and hollows and allows herself to be shaped into utensils or the hearth and the household or as hard metal into weapon, engine, electrical and electronic appliances. The material substance, either subtle like air, ether, heat, electricity and light or rather denser in water, soil, rock and hard metal, are form and body of the Spirit and would never have been created if it could not be made a basis for the self-expression of the Spirit. Science itself is a mental construction, a multitude of pragmatically correct formulas and devices, masterful in the creation of apt machinery, automatically infallible in its own field, but is entirely ignorant of the foundations of our being and of world-being and it does not throw any light on the major question of original cosmic process of how these determinates were created out of the original Indeterminate Existence. It cannot transform and perfect our nature and therefore cannot perfect our life. Rather it transforms all forms to serve their outward need. We do not gain essentially anything most needful by utmost widening of a physical objective knowledge like embracing the most distant solar systems, ride through the sky, explore the deepest layers of earth, sail beneath the sea and tracing the most subtle powers of material energy. That is why in spite of dazzling triumphs of physical science with all its achievements of making life of humanity materially one, proves itself always in the end a vain and helpless creed by fixing everything into an artificially arranged and mechanised unity of material life and can never achieve happiness and fullness of being for the humanity. Our true happiness and completeness lies in true growth of our whole being and transcendence of our existing Nature. So first we must grow into our full mental being which is the first transitional movement towards human perfection, mastery and freedom; it does not actually liberate the Soul from increased servitude but prepares loosening of the hold of material and vital absorption. The Integral Yogi’s distinction from other mental men is that he lives and acts in a greater vision and vaster Spiritual Consciousness that he has to express or rather that presses to express itself through him and moulds his works. After realisation of the Integral Divine, the static highest Oneness and the Dynamic greatest Power, an Integral Yogi returns to intermediate worlds for multiple perfection, siddhis , and again returns to earth and its multitude of problems, bears the burden of the world, enjoys Divinely its Self and Universe by renouncing the egoistic sense of desire and possession, tyaktena bhunjithah and transforms humanity. For his Spiritual Consciousness, existence appears as a world of Spirit, mayi vartate, ¹⁷ not a world of Matter but a God manifested in the form, not a world of life but a God manifested in the force, not a world of mind but a God manifested in the thought. His entry in Occultism is not confined to a subordinate action of astonishingly effective use of mind power and life power by mechanisation of latent forces but mind and life forces are made plastic, subtle, variable in their action and have not the material rigidity and they have developed a subtle and plastic Intuition in the knowledge for the interpretation of all their action, process and application of established formulas. He enters Arts with the aim of a more glorious and beautiful manifestation; there the delight of the Spirit is ever new, the forms of beauty are innumerable, the godhead adored is ever young and taste of the delight is eternal and inexhaustible and attains to something of this true capacity for variable but universal delight in the aesthetic reception of things. His aim in utilitarian Science is to enter the ways and processes of the Divine, to know the material and means of work to utilise that knowledge for the conscious and faultless expression of the Spirit’s mystery, joy and self-fulfilment. His aim in Science is to discover, understand and execute the working of the Divine Consciousness-Puissance in men, creatures and in Nature’s myriad manifestations. His aim in medical Science is to discover integral healing through intervention of the Divine Grace or Nature’s all-powerful suprarational remedy which can be subordinated by the support of medicines and doctors. Science discovers the fundamental truth of existence that the Matter resolves itself into form of Energy and studies opaque Force and Matter. This force is fundamentally the Chit-Tapas or Chit-Shakti , Consciousness-force of the Vedanta which builds up and constitutes the Matter. Traditional Spirituality discovers the greater and completer fundamental truth that the Matter exists as a substantial appearance of Consciousness and the only reality is a pure Spirit or the Conscious Being. Integral Spirituality finds a link principle of Consciousness which is veiled as subconscious form in Matter and revealed as superconscious form in Spirit. Since to Science, Matter is the beginning and end of all knowledge so it shows reluctance to accept Consciousness as the mother of intelligence and material Energy or blind Nature-Force is now ordinarily accepted as the sole cause and mode of things and the sole instrumentation of the World-Force. Science has worked marvels by organising the instrumentation of material forces and created an unlimited prospect of our existence and it does not accept the instrumentation of the powers of Consciousness and Spiritual and Occult forces exceeding and overpassing the limitation of existing Nature. When Science will be able to mend its earlier stand of recognising a subconscious mind or intelligence as creator of material universe but accepts an involved Truth Consciousness behind all material existence, then it will be able trace the hierarchies of higher Consciousness and gives way to the higher Spiritual appetite of integral Yoga and its unconscious wandering within Matter ends and it will recognise life, mind and Supermind as evolution of veiled Truth Consciousness in Matter or different grades of same energy, different organisations of the one conscious force of Existence. Purified Intelligence is an intermediate consciousness and it can trace the passage of Spiritualised Intelligence and Intuition of higher Consciousness. Science can find its full sense and justification by illuminating itself with the Light and Truth preserved in the ancient Vedantic Scripture. Thus, we cease to reason and go deep into ourselves by stilling the mind. Knowledge of luminous vastness with illimitable self-vision awaits and is seated beyond mind and intellectual reasoning. Thus, we can hope that a great progression of Science starting from the rudimentary beginnings of an awakening of the material forces, continuing with this mutual self-discovery and self-illumination by fusion of old Eastern and modern Western wisdom, might lead to another immense development and departure. The Law of Moderation-2: Or Practice of Moderate Spirituality through Religion: “Nor shall you say of any Scripture that it alone is all-sufficient and no other truth can be admitted, as the Vedavadins said of the Veda, nanyad astıti vadinah (those who are devoted to the Veda whose creed is that there is nothing else.13). This is a saving and liberating word which must be applied to all the Scriptures of the world. Take all the Scriptures that are or have been, Bible and Koran and the books of the Chinese, Veda and Upanishads and Purana and Tantra and Shastra and the Gita itself and the sayings of thinkers and sages, prophets and Avatars, still you shall not say that there is nothing else or that the truth your intellect cannot find there is not true because you cannot find it there. That is the limited thought of the sectarian or the composite thought of the eclectic religionist, not the untrammelled truth-seeking of the free and illumined mind and God-experienced soul.”¹⁴ Sri Aurobindo “All powers of Life towards their godhead tend In the wideness and the daring of that air, Each builds its temple and expands its cult, And Sin too there is a divinity.” Savitri-185 The objective of all Religion is to generalise the highest available Spiritual Truth for the largest benefit of humanity and its greatest utility is to act as an intermediary between the perfect Spirit and imperfect Nature. The objective of all Spirituality is to trace the endless unfolding of the opulence of the Spirit and preserve its highest discovered truth in some casketed secret symbolic formulas and given only to a few fit initiated Souls living within the secret Schools of Spiritual Fortress for the present and future benefit of humanity. In integral Yoga, both objectives are reconciled. But in our separative consciousness each Religion takes on the appearance of opposing forces; each exists as opposites through rituals, ceremony and sacraments; each claims to be the Truth and superior and taxes the others with error and inferior Truth-expressions; each feels impelled to destroy, clash or refuse the others in order that it alone may survive, fulfill itself and spread the message of the Truth. The religious emotions are often invaded by turmoil, obscurity, self-assertive narrowness, challenging egoism and are either crude or narrow or fanatical or mixed with movements that are not signs of the Spirit’s freedom and draws back Religion of its higher Spiritual aim and character. The necessity of mutually destructive schools of philosophy arises when human mentality lays an exclusive emphasis on one side of the Spiritual experience, affirms that as the sole eternal Truth of existence and states it in terms of all dividing mental logic. Again if we give support on this play of difference then we assert that the Supreme and the human Soul are eternally different and reject the validity of a Spiritual experience which transcends their difference. Integral Yoga proceeds towards all inclusive Knowledge, not by setting one truth against other truth to see which will survive and flourish but complements one exclusive truth by another exclusive truth in the light of the vision that each are special aspect of one all-inclusive Truth. All truth idea, truth vision, truth perception and truth discernment have this character of large integrating knowledge, a whole working out of the process of self-awareness in a self-executing harmony of truth-being. The quest of man for God, which becomes in the end most ardent and enthralling of all his quests, begins with his first vague questionings of Nature, thus, the primitive form of Religion started from animism, spirit-worship, demon-worship and deification of the natural forces, an obscure and ignorant feeling of hidden influences and incalculable forces, or a vague sense of being, will, intelligence in what seems to us Inconscient, of the invisible behind the visible, of the secretly conscious Spirit in things distributing itself in every working of energy. This obscurity, inferior stage and primitive inadequacy of the first perceptions do not detract from the value of the truth of this great quest of the human heart and mind, and it must start from an obscure and ignorant perception of hidden Realities and proceed to the more and more luminous vision of the Truth and sheer contact of the Spiritual Reality which at first comes to us masked, draped, veiled by the mists of the Ignorance. In India , the age of Intuitive knowledge, Intuitive seeing and Intuitive expression was represented by fathomless thought and profound language of early Vedantic thinking of the Upanishads; the Intuition was unable to give us direct knowledge because the surface nature was not trained and well organised to fully assimilate its messages. In order to organise the surface being the age of Intuitive knowledge had to give place to the age of rational knowledge, inspired Scriptures, intellectual account which made room for metaphysical philosophy and logical justification of what has been found by inner realisation as represented in The Gita and afterwards metaphysical philosophy gave birth to systematized method for realisation and experience through experimental psycho-physical Science of Hathayoga , experimental occult science of Tantra and experimental Psychic Science of Rajayoga . In the West, this synthetic and illumined tendency of consciousness was replaced by the separative and analytic, Spiritual urge parted company from intellectual reason, philosophy took the form of purely intellectual and ratiocinative explanation for things. The dynamic thought and conduct developed a discipline, an effort at inner perfection of the being through systems like the Pythagorean, Stoic and Epicurean; this reached a higher Spiritual plane of knowledge through the later Christian and Neo-pagan thought structures where the Eastern and Western experiences were reconciled. In the age of rationalistic speculation, the Indian philosophers were respectful of a double attitude, that of (1) inspired revelation through Intuition, an authority superior to reason and (2) testing the result of Intuition through Reason. In this way they avoided the metaphysical sin and the tendency to battle in the cloud. Their speculations proceeded towards the highest Spiritual experience by united consent of two great authorities, the Intuition and the Reason. Subsequently, in the passage of time the trend of the reason to assert its own supremacy prevailed in effect over the theory of its subordination. So the old catholicity and unity of intuitive Knowledge which sees things in the whole, suffered through the intervention of reason’s analysis and division and natural tendency of the reason to affirm some and negate others which conflict with its own chosen conclusion and hence each schools of thought founded on Vedic or Vedantic theory use its texts as weapons of opposition against others. In the West the later Religion was not supported by philosophy but by credal theology. There Spiritual philosophy emerged by the sheer force of the individual genius and it was observed that the critical control of the intellect over Spiritual experience was hampered and was unreliable due to an inferior light of reason turned upon a field of higher Spiritual illumination. The real business of Religion is to prepare man’s mind, life and bodily existence for a Spiritual evolution and gives each one a mould of Spiritual discipline, a way of intense aspiration, a discernment and possession of Truth and has to lead him to that point where the inner Spiritual light begins to fully emerge. The Religions in India accepted vast number of difficult formulations and all the elements that have grown in the course of evolution of Religion and refused to ban or excise any. It developed occult Science to its utmost limit, accepted Spiritual philosophies of all kinds, every possible line of highest, deepest and largest Spiritual realisation, Spiritual experience and Spiritual self-discipline; follows all ways of communication between man and the Supreme Divine and every possible way of advance to the goal. Thus, a larger psychic and emotional relation, more deep and plastic in its essence and all embracing relation with God became imperative. It is by such plasticity and catholicity that wider aim of the evolution of Religion can work with an unexampled multitudinous richness, impregnable durability, generality, universality, height, subtlety and all possible fullness. All the post Buddhistic era lived in the shadow of the great Refusal and the final end of life for all is the garb of the ascetic. It disturbed two thousand years of old Vedic Aryan balance between Matter and Spirit and has increasingly dominated Indian minds of the ascetics and the religionists for many centuries with the idea that (1) renunciation and condemnation of earthly life is the sole path of knowledge, (2) acceptance of life as the act of ignorant Maya, (3) the cessation of birth and withdrawal to happier worlds is the right use of human birth, the call of the Spirit to recoil from Matter. It was in the integral Yoga, the three great formulas of negations of interim solution, (1) the chain of karma , (2) escape from wheel of rebirth and (3) cosmic illusion, Maya, which had permeated and predominated the general conception of the mind of the race through most of the Religious and Spiritual disciplines of India, were transcended and it was felt necessary to find a true solution and to look afresh at the Idea or Truth behind the Hindu negation of this cosmic existence. In the new orientation, in its ultimate objective the limitations of Universal Illusionism behind these theories were traced and they were transformed to their full significance of a universal Realism, a real universe reposing on a Reality at once Universal, Transcendent and Absolute. The law or the chain of karma is Divine Will acting through the limitation of mind producing mechanised living and bondage. Each being reaps what he sows. Karma is further projected as outcome of past good or evil thoughts, feelings and actions which determine and construct his fixed physical fate. They are the chief or the most forceful determinants of his being and his future. This idea of Karma is a construction of the narrow but practical human physical mind and vital mind concerned with its petty rules of life and its desires and joys and sorrows and erecting their puny standards into the law and aim of the cosmos. These ignorant notions cannot be acceptable to the human intellect and still less to the law of Divine living. The true liberating karma as proposed in integral Yoga is the action of direct Divine will received through the Psychic or Spiritual being whose outcome is intense creative joy of Spirit, the harmony of the eternal musician and the play of the Divine. The higher law of karma is ultimately the law of Spiritual evolution and with the emergence of our Soul, the primary plan of fixed destiny is partly modified by the intervention of the mind and wholly changed to Psychic and Spiritual destiny and the binding law of karma is replaced with the Spiritual freedom or the law of the Self. The past mechanized action of man gives birth to the present man of fixed fate and the present mental action of man gives birth to a future Spiritual man with an unimaginable Spiritual destiny. Those who are bound to the chain of karma are bound to the principle of rebirth and in all traditional schools, the freedom from rebirth is projected as the highest and ultimate objective. The methods by which they can escape into the Purushottama State and rest there permanently, for that they must satisfy three conditions; firstly, they must mould themselves towards this ideal their whole inner life in their earthly living; secondly, they must have the capacity to go to the highest state of Purushottama either in trance or waking state while continuing in this earthly body and thirdly, they must be faithful to this aspiration during the hour of departure of the earthly body. In integral Yoga, rebirth is not considered as the Soul’s circling in the net of desire, but an opportunity of Spiritual evolution and through it the mind, life and body repeat the lesson of manifesting their involved Divinity till the recovery of their complete and undivided Divine life. It is for ever-increasing upward experience of the individual being from life to life, the growth of the Soul is a growth out of darkness into Light, out of falsehood into Truth, out of suffering into its own supreme and universal Ananda. It is through joy and grief, pain and suffering, fortune and misfortune that the Soul enters into rebirth. The theory of Maya, the Illusionist theory, as proposed by Shankara is the sense of illusion or unreality of cosmic existence as formulated by mind; it really cuts the knot of the world problem; it is an escape, a separation from Nature. This sense of unreality powerfully seizes the consciousness of a Spiritual seeker with great force when the mind withdraws from its constructions, one passes into pure Selfhood void of all sense of individuality and Consciousness is plunged into a trance of pure Superconscient existence. Buddha took one step farther to declare the unreality of the Self and God; for they too are constructions of the mind. Any error, division and confusion of mind between the activities of Saguna Brahman and quiescence of Nirguna Brahman would not be a creative cosmic Illusion, Maya, but only a wrong understanding of realities of Existence and a wrong relation created by Ignorance. A real solution of existence and world-existence can only stand upon the truth that accounts for their validity, integralises, harmonises and gathers together all their experience in the supreme all-reconciling Oneness. Still there are other decisive Spiritual experiences that of greater Divine union with the double Spiritual experience of Cosmic Consciousness and Nirvana of world-consciousness which can undo the whole theory of (mental) Maya , which can remove Ignorance and Falsehood from material life and this world is experienced as real as Brahman. The illusionist word Maya , of the later Vedantist , which means cunning, fraud and illusion has declined from its original meaning of knowledge, skill and intelligence of Ancient Vedantist. Integral Yoga retains the ancient original Vedantic sense of Maya, which is all-comprehending, all-containing and all-embracing Consciousness of the Supreme, that affirms and includes the truth of all Spiritual experience, integralises all Knowledge, and experiences That which being known all is known. (Supramental) Maya is the supreme and universal Consciousness and Force of the Eternal and Infinite and it is at once transcendental, universal and individual and it can put forth many states of Consciousness at a time. The world appears to be an Illusion, (mental) Maya by virtue of the presence of lower Nature and apparent denial of Ignorance which seeks to become affirmation and this Illusion-Power which creates appearances can be removed by ascending into the higher Consciousness and Matter can be the solid ground for manifestation of the highest Divine. The shadow of the great Refusal or principle of negation prevailing over principle of affirmation of post Buddhistic era of the East was reincarnated in the West as Christian negation⁴¹ which was born out of fear of hell and long subconscient memory of suppression, anguish, oppression, aggression, intolerance, use of violence, atrocity, paid the price of blood and suffering and death of Christian martyrs in thousands of its religious history. The accumulated Soul forces¹² of these martyrs conquered against the empire-force so that the oppression of Christianity prevailed but not the compassionate Christ. The victorious religion becomes militant and dominant Church and the Christianity organise themselves into mutual strife and they battled together fiercely to live, grow and possess the world as much possible to their utmost capacity. They limit the Infinite as one and only Incarnation.⁴⁰ This monotheistic doctrine was again further aggravated as religious obscurantism of opposing the enquiry and extension of endless scientific discovery. The later limitation was overcome with the advent of modern Science and the former can be transcended by the advent of Spiritual Science and the entry of a caravan of Light into the body of an individual Spiritual seeker and his greatest difficulty is that he still seeks happiness and fulfilment in Heaven beyond and not on earth. In order to overcome this exclusive Spirituality where this creation is identified as reprehensible;³⁹ he will have to fight strongly in order to establish himself here in the external life the Supreme Bliss from which all creation is born. He will weld strongly the central truth, central dynamic principle, central secret of his Religion with the all truth of Eternal Religion, Sanatana Dharma, from which all religions have evolved. He will realise the gospel of Divine love, service, benevolence and action that dominates his outer Christian living which has its Transcendent source in Sachchidananda , the triple Divine principle of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss and he will further realise that elevating himself to the Transcendent Source of all is a more important and relevant issue than the minor factor of serving the individual or the race. The division of Catholic and Protestant Christianity is identified in integral Yoga as the former is the original plasticity in nature with many-sided catholicity extended towards the growth of whole Nature of human being and the latter is disruptive of this wide-reaching tendency and insists on pure dependency on belief, monotheistic adoration of God, who lives as Immanent Being within and simplified law of good so as to make quick appeal to common intellect, heart and ethical will. The specialty of Catholicism is that they worship virgin Mother, Para-prakriti, and have the occult knowledge of Subliminal plane and Protestants have something of the inner Divine Presence. . Integral Yoga accepts and adores the compassionate Christ as Divine Incarnation. The Cross,¹⁹ which symbolises purification and suffering, is transformed in integral Yoga²² into a symbol of strong and perfect union between the Soul and Nature and all that purified humanity is culminated by its fulfillment. The Mother force in Virgin Mary is extended in integral Yoga as Virgin Savitri, the descent of Supreme nature, Para-prakriti into human form, who promises that Earth life can be made an equal and peer of Heaven and Heaven’s joy can native grow on mortal soil if Earth can be made pure and virgin. Savitri further promises to transform the seven-fold sorrows of the Subconscient world (this can be linked with Mother Mary’s seven sorrows) into seven-fold Bliss and ‘Misery shall pass abolished from the earth.’²⁰ Integral Yoga accepts Shankar’s theory of ‘Brahman is Real and World is an Illusion’ as the initial Spiritual experience and rejects it in the final journey with the realisation of World is as real as Brahman and Brahman Force can penetrate into material life and Divinise it. It accepts the Buddhistic doctrine of Nirvana as the initial Spiritual realisation and rejects its negation that the world, the Self and the Divine are the construction of Mind and hence are unreal. It accepts the Gita’s self-discipline of Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga and rejects its objective of escape into the Supreme abode of Param Dham . It accepts the inner renunciation of desire and ego of ascetic living and rejects saintly inactivity and renunciation of outer life. It accepts the exclusive Spiritual quests of later Vedantists as the starting point of Yoga and rejects their dependency on Psycho-physical means of self-discipline. It accepts Chris t as the Divine Incarnation, its gospel of universal Love, brotherhood, equality and charity and rejects the Christian doctrine of limiting the infinite to one and only Divine Incarnation, solution of all problems of existence in the Heaven beyond, long Subconscient memory of oppression, miseries and acceptance of creation as the error of God. Integral Yoga accepts the ancient Vedantic doctrine of searching for the truth of existence in both Matter and Spirit and finds a reconciling equation in which Brahman consciousness penetrates material life. The above Eastern and Western negations are further fragmented through the apparent negations and divisions between mind, life and body. The three negations of mind are identified as limitation of Consciousness (which gave birth to Pleasure, Pain and Indifference), Ignorance and Dualities transformed in integral Yoga into Infinite Consciousness, integral Knowledge and Oneness; of life are identified as Death, Desire or Hunger and Incapacity transformed in integral Yoga into Immortality, satisfied Delight and Omnipotence and of physical are Ignorance, Inertia and Division transformed in integral Yoga into Omniscience, Divine peace and tranquility and Unity. Conscious unity and perfect harmony of mind, life and body can be arrived at by discovering the triple Soul of Manomaya, Pranamaya and Annamaya Purusha , and further pushing to discover the Psychic Being in the heart and Spiritual and Supramental Being above the head. Spiritual experience born out of World Negation as developed by Buddha and later further extended by the Indian Saint Shankara is the Nirvana and Brahma Nirvana, respectively. For the Buddha , the world, Self and God are constructions of the mind and by withdrawing from such constructions, one arrives at the ineffable Delight of the Nirvana . If this experience is further extended one realises the featureless, immutable, silent and absolute state of One and indivisible Brahma Nirvana . And the Ananda becomes so intense and pure that to the mind this phenomenal world seems to be an illusion. The Spiritual experience born out of Positive Affirmation of World or considering world as the body of the Divine, Vasudev Sarvamiti, is the Cosmic Consciousness which is possible by raising and widening the mind to the state of Truth Thought, Truth Vision, Truth Hearing, Truth Discernment and Truth Touch or developing the faculty of Higher Mind, illumined Mind, Intuitive Mind and finally Mind is universalized to experience Overmind state of Consciousness. In this cosmic Consciousness of Overmind the Matter is real to the Spirit and the Spirit is real to the Matter and their reconciliation is practicable. In this Cosmic consciousness Mind, Life and Body are no longer considered as agents of separation and formenters of an artificial quarrel but as conscious Intermediary and Instruments of evolving Consciousness, where Mind is self fulfilled when it becomes a pure mirror of the Truth of Being; Life is self fulfilled when it consciously lends its energies to the perfect self-figuration of the Divine in ever-new forms and activities of the universal existence and body is self fulfilled when its substance is plastic and malleable enough to the pure Divine touch and its Light. In integral Yoga, the negative Spiritual experience of Nirvana and the positive or affirmative Spiritual experience of Cosmic Consciousness are accepted as expressions of Self and are reconciled and transcended, where the former asks the pacification of the mind and the latter asks the activation and illumination of Mind. These two Spiritual experiences are the basis of static and dynamic Brahman , beyond which the greater Divine union and integral Divine realisation stand. The Law of Moderation-3: Or Integral Yoga for Beginners: Apprentice Sadhakas will begin this Yoga with the triple wheels of Vedantic method of Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga with limited will, intellect and emotion, integral in its aim and process and many sided in progress, but starting from works and proceeding by works aided at each step with more and more illumined Divine knowledge and vivifying Divine love. At the beginning and for a long period on the way, limitations and exclusiveness will be there, but the integral Yoga will wear them more loosely than the more exclusive ways of seeking and will soon emerge from the limitations of exclusive concentration. And lastly they will keep this in mind that integral Yoga can be further pursued through integral method by activation of Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental self-discipline through dynamisation of an essential, multiple and Integral concentration and they can gradually withdraw dependency from the following eight disciplines of exclusive concentration as soon as higher concentrations intervene; for in higher concentrations these disciplines retain their spontaneous absolute state. i) All Renunciation, Sarva Parigraham : "Therefore attachment and desire must be utterly cast out; there is nothing in the world to which we must be attached, not wealth nor poverty, nor joy nor suffering, nor life nor death, nor greatness nor littleness, nor vice nor virtue, nor friend, nor wife, nor children, nor country, nor our work and mission, nor heaven nor earth, nor all that is within them or beyond them."³⁴ Sri Aurobindo Renunciation is a self-discipline of negative practice in order to arrive at the positive aim of integral Yoga. All renunciation includes external and inner renunciation necessary during the formative stage of integral Yoga and its utility is no longer felt when the Soul no longer seeks pleasure but possesses the delight of the Divine in all things and obeys consciously the will of one Self in all beings. In integral Yoga complete external renunciation of life is a provisional stage through which the Soul must pass at some period of its progress. And inner renunciation is experienced in the three stages, that of renunciation of triple attachment in the senses, the heart, the intellect; ‘for attachment is the egoism in love and not love itself;’³⁴ secondly renunciation of triple self-will or desire in the thought, emotion and action; for ‘desire is limitation and insecurity in a hunger for pleasure and satisfaction and not the seeking after the divine delight in things;’³⁴ and thirdly, renunciation of triple egoism in the intellect, heart and volition; for ‘ego must either disappear in impersonality or fuse into a larger I.’³⁵ So from the very beginning of this Yoga one has to teach oneself to renounce desire in three stages; first, renounce all lower forms of desire and concentrate on the higher desire of passion for the Divine manifested as Purity, Peace, Ananda , Love, Beauty etc.; secondly, one has to be taught not to desire anything for one’s own separate sake, not to desire even personal salvation, but for the manifestation of God in the world and for the Divine in ourselves and lastly, one must learn to desire, not in its own egoistic way, but in the way of the Divine, it must yearn to fulfill a larger and greater Will. Thus, through this training, the desire, which is a great harasser of man and cause of every kind of stumbling, can be fit to be transformed into its Divine counterpart of Delight in things. The will in us takes various forms of will of life, will of intellect, and a will of emotion, covering every part of nature that react with incapacity, limitations, wrong or perverted will. These are to be renounced in order to tune oneself with the Divine will. Purification of egoism through renunciation is indispensable for inner purity, peace and joy. When one realises that the one Divine power works in his mind and body and the same works in all other men, animals, plants and things animate and inanimate, then one is liberated from egoism, - ‘When the human ego realises that its will is a tool, its wisdom ignorance and childishness, its power an infant’s groping, its virtue a pretentious impurity, and learns to trust itself to that which transcends it, that is its salvation.’³³ Through the practice of renunciation, falsehood is rooted out and one arrives at a desireless state, which is the essential condition for arriving at equality and complete surrender. ii) All Equality, Sarva Samata : “Attaining to a perfect equality in the soul, mind and heart, we realise our true self of oneness, one with all beings, one too with That which expresses itself in them and in all that we see and experience. This equality and this oneness are the indispensable twin foundation we must lay down for a divine being, a divine consciousness, a divine action. Not one with all, we are not spiritual, not divine. Not equal-souled to all things, happenings and creatures, we cannot see spiritually, cannot know divinely, cannot feel divinely towards others.”²³ Sri Aurobindo “It has been best formulated in the already expressed doctrine of the Gita by which a complete renouncement of desire for the fruits as the motive of action, a complete annulment of desire itself, the complete achievement of a perfect equality are put forward as the normal status of a spiritual being. A perfect spiritual equality is the one true and infallible sign of the cessation of desire, — to be equal-souled to all things, unmoved by joy and sorrow, the pleasant and the unpleasant, success or failure, to look with an equal eye on high and low, friend and enemy, the virtuous and the sinner, to see in all beings the manifold manifestation of the One and in all things the multitudinous play or the slow masked evolution of the embodied Spirit.”²⁴ Sri Aurobindo “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.”²⁵ Sri Aurobindo “A perfect equality not only of the self, but in the nature is a condition of the Yoga of self-perfection. The first obvious step to it will be the conquest of our emotional and vital being, for here are the sources of greatest trouble, the most rampant forces of inequality and subjection, the most insistent claim of our imperfection. The equality of these parts of our nature comes by purification and freedom.”²⁶ Sri Aurobindo “A perfect equality of our spirit and nature is a means by which we can move back from the troubled and ignorant outer consciousness into this inner kingdom of heaven and possess the spirit’s eternal kingdoms, rajyam samruddham , of greatness, joy and peace. That self-elevation to the divine nature is the complete fruit and the whole occasion of the discipline of equality demanded from us by the self-perfecting aim in Yoga.”²⁷ Sri Aurobindo “A perfect equality and peace of the soul is indispensable to change the whole substance of our being into substance of the self out of its present stuff of troubled mentality. It is equally indispensable if we aspire to replace our present confused and ignorant action by the self-possessed and luminous works of a free spirit governing its nature and in tune with universal being. A divine action or even a perfect human action is impossible if we have not equality of spirit and an equality in the motive-forces of our nature.”²⁸ Sri Aurobindo Integral Yoga demands complete equality not only of Nature which constitute our mind, heart and body but also the Self, as first necessity of Spiritual perfection, which can be attained by entire renunciation of desire, attachment and ego. The first obvious step to equality will be purification of the vital and emotional being as they are the sources of greatest trouble, the most rampant forces of inequality, subjection and imperfection. The last and most difficult step is the equality of thinking mind, buddhi, the entire purification of it is an indispensable condition for rising to Spiritual and Supramental heights. All things move towards Divine fulfillment, each experience of suffering and joy, creation and destruction, ignorance and knowledge, hatred and love, is a necessary link in carrying out the universal movement and it is our business here to understand and support it and see all things as the manifestation of the Divine without anger, impatience and trouble; any least revolt or reaction is a violence against the Master of the world and ‘this little pebble of imperfection may throw down the whole achievements of Yoga.’ Equality in Integral Yoga is a Spiritual way of replying to life and compelling it to become perfect through use of three passive methods and three active methods. The passive equality of Karma Yoga is titiksha, endurance, which is a teaching of the system to bear steadily and calmly of all contacts of pleasant and unpleasant, heat and cold, health and disease etc. The active equality of Karma Yoga is sama bhoga, which is an equal enjoyment of all things, happenings, experiences, objects, etc. The passive equality of Jnana Yoga is udasinata , indifference, which is a teaching of the system to remain indifferent to all touches of joy and grief, pleasure and pain or to seat above, superior to all physical and mental touches. The active equality of Jnana Yoga is sama rasa, which is a flow of equal Spiritual, Supramental rasa to all things, happenings, experiences and objects. The passive equality of Bhakti Yoga is nati , which is a joyful submission of the Soul to the will of God; it experiences all touches as His ecstatic touch and all experiences as His play. The active equality of Bhakti Yoga is sama ananda , which is a joy of Unity in everything and with everything. After equality is established the other three siddhis of Integral Yoga to which one may pursue are: - shanti, peace, sukha , spiritual ease in all circumstances and hasya , joy and laughter of the Soul. iii) All Consecration, Sarva Yajna : Integral Yoga insists on the buddhi, will and emotion to dwell constantly on the master idea of the surrender and must discourage all other lesser preferences of personal will, desire in the prana and separative ego and teach the whole being that any kind of grief, revolt, fear, impatience and trouble is a violence against the Master of existence.³⁶ The act of triple sacrifice has to be practiced every moment and every movement of our action, intellect and emotion, from the smallest, most ordinary, trifling to the greatest and most uncommon and noble acts, and it can begin by offering a flower, a leaf, our food, action, sleep and askesis to the Lord of sacrifice and if there is a resolute self-consecration from deep within with the Soul’s awakening, then these inadequate things can be a sufficient instrument for Divine purpose. ‘Therefore the wise have always been unwilling to limit man’s avenues towards God; they would not shut against his entry even the narrowest portal, the lowest and darkest postern, the humblest wicket-gate. Any name, any form, any symbol, any offering has been held to be sufficient if there is the consecration along with it; for the Divine knows himself in the heart of the seeker and accepts the sacrifice.’ With the growth of surrender, one becomes more powerful and all other opposing hostile forces lose their strength and two important inner changes are experienced. The secret inmost Soul in the heart comes to the front which was veiled by the restless activity of mind, the turbulent impulse of vital being and the obscurity of physical consciousness. Secondly, the Spiritual being above the head liberates the Divine Presence and Light and permeates them to our conscious and subconscious nature. The unveiling of the Psychic and Spiritual being paves the path open for more intense and comprehensive Supramental being. Then, Integral Yoga is pursued by the direct interference and guidance of these three beings and the integral method is evolved. iv) All Purification, Sarva Suddhi : "Purity is perfect sincerity and one cannot have it unless the being is entirely consecrated to the Divine." ⁴⁷ The Mother "Power of integral purity: the power to accept nothing but the divine influence." ⁴⁷ The Mother "Integral purity: the whole being is purified of the ego." ⁴⁷ The Mother "If one lives only for the Divine and by the Divine, there follows a perfect purity." The Mother The object of purification is to make the whole mental being a clear mirror in which the Divine reality can be reflected, a clear vessel and an unobstructing channel into which the Divine presence and through which the Divine influence can be poured, a subtilised stuff which the Divine nature can take possession of, shape anew and use for Divine issues. All impurity is a wrong discrimination, a departure from the law of nature, dharma, and an ignorant confusion of the disordered being. We have to primarily root out all impurity after a deeper diagnosis and secondarily treat its symptoms. There are two forms of impurity; (1) one is a defect born of the nature of our past evolution; this defect is a radically wrong and ignorant form given to all the four instrumental beings that of physical, vital, sensory and intellectual mind; (2) the second impurity is born of the successive emergence of evolving faculties like physical, vital, mental, Soul and Supermind and the defect is created by dependence of higher instruments on the lower which add the imperfection of embarrassment, wrong direction and confusion. We have to deal with all these four instruments and set about their purification. The complete purification of one instrument depends on the complete purification of other instruments and that is the source of great difficulty. The Integral Yoga proposes to begin with the purification and perfection of Buddhi which will bring about the most easily and effectively or can add with a most powerful rapidity the purification of the rest. All purification is a release, a delivery, a throwing away of limiting, binding, obscuring imperfections and confusions of the four instrumental nature that (1) of purification from impatience, fear and doubt brings freedom of physical mind, (2) of purification from desire brings the freedom of the psychic prana, of purification from wrong emotions and troubling reactions the freedom of the heart, (3) of purification from the obscuring limited thought brings freedom of the sense mind and (4) of the purification from thought power and will power subjected to lower mind brings the freedom of the intelligence, freedom from mere intellectuality. The root source of impurity is in the physical mind in the form of incoherent desire, doubt, narrowness and fear. It is irresponsible and careless of all rules, properties, and harmonies. This tamasic mind adores small earth-gods, aspires for greater comfort, order, pleasure but is skeptical about the direct Spiritual experience and Spiritual deliverance and to enlighten it by higher Spiritual and Supramental planes is one of the difficult objectives of the Integral Yoga. Purification of the physical mind is possible either by silencing the mind and by becoming a witness or by developing concentration through single-minded thought. Purification of physical mind can also be pursued either by method of constant concentration of psycho-spiritual Mantra, constant repetition of psycho-physical, Japa ; as the Words have direct harmonious effect on the vibration of the physical substance, or the method of changing the centre of living above the head and direct the inverted Spiritual force to possess the physical mind. In addition to it, Psychic influence can also purify the physical mind. It trains the body to become a passive field and instrument of greater light and force, responds and supports every demand of the Spirit’s force and every variety of new Divine experience. The second cause of impurity, ‘the sources of greatest trouble,’⁴ ² is the inter-penetration and mixture of sensational hungering of vital and emotional reaction in the heart in the thinking process, is unable to mirror the real Soul, which creates in man a false soul of desire, the deformed Divine will in dominant bodily life and the physical mind. All indulgence of the emotions of the soul of desire is an impurity and it distorts both knowledge and action. It becomes a hurtling field of joy and grief, love and hatred, likes and dislikes, content and discontent, hopes and disappointments, and all the stupendous play of passion which is the drama of life in the world. Desire is the impurity of prana, the root of all sorrow, disappointment, affliction, a rapid subjection to fatigue, dissatisfaction and early disappointment of all its gains, a ceaseless morbid stimulation, trouble, disquiet, asanti. To get rid of the desire soul or emotional mind is one of the firm indispensable negative methods of purification of psychical prana . The vital being must be trained of the positive method of enjoying life out of a right functioning in obedience to the working of Divine Will in order to get rid of its impurity in the form of attachment and craving; heart must be purified from false emotions of fear, wrath, hatred and lust by the touch of Divine love and joy in depth and intensity and the luminous reaching out to fusion and unity with God and our fellow creatures. The tranquillization, sama, equality, samata and mastery, dama, of these members are the essential conditions of the purification of buddhi from error, ignorance and perversion. This purification spells an entire equality in the nervous being and heart. The Gita’s rule of purification of the vital being is attained not by mental control but by the strong immobility of an immortal Spirit. The third cause of impurity is the inter-penetration of pain and pleasure of sense mind into the thinking process in the form of attractions and repulsions, the acceptances and refusals, the satisfactions and dissatisfaction, the capacities and incapacities of the life-energy in the body. Sense mind is a constant blind purposeless repetition in a circle, disorder, restless, unintelligent subjection to habit. With the development of Science, Philosophy and Spiritual knowledge, the limitation of sense mind and its discord of the life in matter are overcome and they can be purified when buddhi stands back from the action of sense mind, sakhi, then withdraws support, then reducing it to stillness or by concentration on this thought, the alien and confusing elements are rejected. The true function of the sense mind or the right relation of the sense mind with the psychic being is to lie upon passively, luminously to the contacts of Life and transmit their right taste, rasa, and principle of delight in them to the higher function. The fourth cause of impurity has its source in the intellect, buddhi, due to (1) inrush of desire into the thinking function, (2) illusion of senses and inrush of the sense mind into thinking functions, (3) improper action of will to know or the disparity between knowledge and will is one of the principal defects of the human buddhi. Buddhi has the tendency to cling to fragments of truth and knowledge to the exclusion of the whole truth and comprehensive knowledge and hence deprived of the fullness and perfection of life. Its purification is achieved by habit of right thought free from sense error, desire, old association and intellectual prejudgment and cultivation of an entire intellectual rectitude and in the perfection of mental disinterestedness. Purified Buddhi does not involve in lower movements of Nature, but stands back from the object, observes disinterestedly, puts itself in the right place by force of comparison, contrast, analogy, reason from its rightly observed data by deduction, induction, interference and holding all its gains in memory and supplementing them by a chastened and rightly-guided imagination to view all in the light of a trained and disciplined judgment. Such is the pure intellectual understanding of which disinterested observation, judgment and reasoning are the law and characterising action. But in order to acquire real knowledge, buddhi has to cultivate two different kinds of passivity. Firstly, the intellect has to train to discriminate the true intuition from all other false vibrations and open itself upward towards the former true state; secondly, to develop complete intellectual passivity, the power of dismissing all thought, na kinchit api chintayet . (The Gita-6.25) The stilling of this repeating, circling thought mind is one of the most effective disciplines of Yoga. The complete detachment with the aid of (1) an entire self-government, sama , (2) equality, samata , (3) calm, shanti, is the surest step of purification of buddhi . Buddhi is one important instrument, if sufficiently purified, and then it will most easily and effectively purify other instruments. Once our buddhi and will are well purified, then it can open up to perfect illumined discernment, intuitions and revelations of the Supermind. To arrive at the whole truth of Integral Yoga must be the object of purification of the buddhi. All other methods of purification are as follows: (1) All pursuit of knowledge, if not vitiated by a too earthward tendency, tends to refine, to subtilise, and to purify the being. (2) In proportion as we become more mental, we attain to a subtler action of our whole nature which becomes more apt to reflect and receive higher thoughts, a purer will, a less physical truth and more inward influences. (3) The power of ethical knowledge and the ethical habit of thought and will to purify is obvious. (4) Philosophy not only purifies the reason and predisposes it to the contact of the universal and the Infinite, but tends to stabilize the nature and create the tranquility of the sage; and tranquility is a sign of increasing self-mastery and purity. (5) The preoccupation with universal beauty even in its aesthetic forms has an intense power for refining and subtilising the nature, and at its highest it is a great force of purification. (6) Even the scientific habit of mind and the disinterested preoccupation with the cosmic law and truth not only refine the reasoning and observing faculty, but have, when not counteracted by other tendencies, a steadying, elevating and purifying influence on the mind and moral nature which has not been sufficiently noticed. (7) The systematic purification of the whole being for an integral reflection and taking in of the Divine reality can only be done by the special methods of Yoga. v) All Concentration, Sarva Samyama: The concentration of an enlightened will, thought and heart turned towards one luminous and infinite source of action, knowledge and delight is the starting point of the Yoga. There must be a strong and immovable concentration of will on attainment, fulfillment and manifestation of the Divine, a large, many-sided yet single concentration of the thought on the idea, the perception, the vision, the awakening touch, the soul’s realisation to the one Divine, a flaming concentration of the heart on the seeking of the All and Eternal and the possession and ecstasy of the All-Beautiful. The effective fullness of our concentration on the one thing needful to the exclusion of all else will be the measure of our self-consecration to the One who is alone desirable. But this exclusiveness will in the end exclude nothing except the falsehood of our way of seeing the world and our will’s ignorance. In integral Yoga, purity and concentration are complementary to each other, feminine and masculine, passive and active sides and the two must proceed together till we arrive at Integral concentration, where the essential, multiple, absolute, all-inclusive state will replace the concentration in thought and effort. Mind is unable to hold at once the unity and multiplicity, but the same is the normal state of integral concentration. Mind has the capacity to dwell on one thing at a time to the exclusion of others, so within this limitation, we have to depend on exclusive concentration for the development of other higher faculties. Exclusive concentration has three powers by which the aim of Integral Yoga can be affected. Firstly, with the help of concentration we can know the secret behind anything or all things, but here we must use this power to know the one Thing-in itself, the Divine; secondly, by concentration the whole will can be gathered up for the acquisition of all that are still beyond us, this power in us can be sufficiently trained, single-minded, sufficiently sincere and faithful towards the acquisition of the One object worthy of pursuit; thirdly by concentration the mass of weakness, fear, perversion can become strength, courage, a great purity or a single universal soul of Love; we can use this power to transcend above all things, above all attributes, and become the pure and absolute Being. By this exclusive concentration, we can arrive through uncompromising renunciation of the lower nature at an entire self-consecration to the One. The ultimate objective of concentration culminates in Samadhi , a settled Divine status. This can be arrived at by (i) strenuous method of concentrated meditation on the one subject of Integral Divine either in the mystic syllable AUM with representation of the Brahman in waking, dream, sleep and Turiya state or triple formula of the Brahman, “Brahman is in all things, all things are in Brahman and all things are Brahman;”⁴³ (ii) the more strenuous method is the concentrated contemplation, which is the fixing the whole mind in concentration on the essence of the idea of Integral Divine only; in this process thought ceases and one enters in an inner Samadhi , then subsequently samadhi experience is dynamised in our lower being to shed its power, light and bliss on our ordinary consciousness; (iii) the most strenuous method is the silencing of the mind altogether, either by standing back from mental action or by rejecting the thought-suggestions, by this a great peace is unveiled and one experiences the all-pervading Brahman. For integral Yoga, these three methods are the most direct and powerful disciplines. vi) All Scripture, Sarva Shastra : All Shastra is the outcome and record of past Spiritual exercises on the secrets of Nature and Soul or it is ‘An occult document of the All-Wonderful’s art’⁷ and is helpful for all future exploration. All the lines of the traditional 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.’⁵ ‘The written or traditional teaching expresses the knowledge and experiences of many centuries systematised, organised, made attainable to the beginner.’⁵ Integral Shastra differs from traditional Shastra in the sense that its method is not an imperative formula, fixed routine and mechanising process, but ‘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.’³⁷ The seeker of integral Yoga will accept ancient disciplines, for they rest upon eternal truths and their practice will reinforce the practice of integral Shastra. The aims arrived at by the ancient teachings like Sankhya, Tantra, Karma, Jnana, Bhakti, Hatha and Raja Yoga are included in integral Yoga or the seeker will give ‘them an orientation in conformity with his aim.’⁸ All Yoga schools of India proposes the psycho-physical methods for practice whereas the method of Integral Yoga will be mainly Spiritual and for this he can depend on the Gita, the four main Upanishads that of the Isha, Kena, Taitariaya and Aiteriya Upanishads and the portion of the Vedas where hymns were offered to mystic Fire, Agni . First, we can do systematic study of different spiritual experiences and find an interrelation with each other and how these experiences drive towards the Supramental realm; thus, its various aspects are explored in The Synthesis of Yoga. Then the extension of these experiences explored in The Life Divine will be worked out. The hierarchies between Ignorance to Integral Knowledge, exclusive concentration to Integral concentration, mind to Supermind, Matter to Spirit, Life as it is to Divine Life that are hinted in The Synthesis of Yoga , are sufficiently explored in The Life Divine . And also the issues that Sri Aurobindo left unfinished in the unrevised chapters of ‘Yoga of Self-perfection’ can be further traced and developed from The Life Divine. Then, finally, we will study Savitri in search of all missing links and connect them strongly to the point where we can open to the new vistas. The Supramental principles are shadowed out by the Gita, the Upanishads and the Vedas in figures, hints and symbols. The envisaging mind can enter into relation with the Supramental in three successive stages. Firstly, with the activation of mental self or manomaya Purusha , the mental sheath or the manomaya kosha is able to receive into it from above infinite existence, consciousness, bliss of the Supramental plane or Vijnanamaya Purusha. The mental perception, ideation, will, pleasure are transformed into radiances of the Divine knowledge, pulsation of Divine will, waves and floods of Divine delight; secondly, the manomaya kosha is transformed in to dense self-luminous consciousness, chaitanyaghana or chidghana. This Divine Consciousness contains all the immutable and inviolable truths of the Divine being and Divine nature. Thirdly, this luminous manomaya kosha is further illumined in the image of the Supramental sheath or Vijnanamaya kosha. It brings authentic identities of Divine wisdom, movement of Divine will and vibration of the Divine delight intensities. vii) Divine All Teacher, Sarva Guru Shakti: “A strict obedience to the wise and intuitive leading of a Guide is also normal and necessary for all but a few specially gifted seekers.”¹ Sri Aurobindo "Teaching, example, influence, -- these are three instruments of the Guru... The example is more powerful than the instruction... Influence is more important than example. Influence is not the outward authority of the Teacher over his disciple, but the power of his contact, of his presence, of the nearness of his soul to the soul of another, infusing into it, even though in silence, that which he himself is and possesses..."² Sri Aurobindo “I do not see anybody in the world more qualified than Sri Aurobindo to lead you to the feet of the Mahashakti .”¹⁸ The Mother “For the disciple of an integral Yoga there can be no hesitation; as a seeker of knowledge it is the integral knowledge and not anything either half-way and attractive or high-pinnacled and exclusive he must seek. He must soar to the utmost height, but also circle and spread to the most all-embracing wideness, not binding himself to any rigid structure of metaphysical thought, but free to admit and combine all the soul’s highest and greatest and fullest and most numerous experiences.”³⁰ Sri Aurobindo “This can be done by a spiritual meaning and use in our psychical interchange with others, and it is largely by a psycho-spiritual interchange of this kind that a master in Yoga helps his disciple.”²⁹ Sri Aurobindo The Guru of a traditional school of Yoga is a representative of the Divine with the combination of part Divine realisation and ego born of exclusive knowledge and individual liberation of Soul and he reinforces and illumines the truth of traditional Shastra. The Guru of Integral Yoga combines in Him the realisation of the Divine in its entirety, followed by the annihilation of ego through constant sense of discipleship to the Supreme Master as everything pours in constantly from above without any personal effort and the sense of becoming a slave of God in all humanity through universalisation of Consciousness. For the beginners the aid of the Guru, Ista Devata or past Avataras in the form of Buddha, Christ or Sri Krishna or living influence, a living example and a present instruction is needed and with the development of Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental faculties, the dependency on external aid is reduced and one receives everything directly from the inner Divine, inner Chaitya Guru, the Psychic Being in the heart and subsequently from the Universal Divine, Jagad Guru, Spiritual Being, pervading this whole existence and Transcendent Supreme Divine, Param Guru, Supramental Being beyond this existence. A Teacher of Integral Yoga does not arrogate himself to the pride of Guruhood with his partial realisation and in a humanly futile and self-exalting spirit. He will stimulate the aspiration of his disciples through the central Supramental Influence of Integral Divine realisation within him reconciling their Nature, Self and God which will be subordinated by less powerful Spiritual influence of awakening the exclusive power of the Spirit by losing the splendours of life and least powerful means of direct examples, suggestions and psycho-physical instructions and help at the growth of faculties and experiences by a natural process and free expansion. His whole business is to awaken the Divine light and set working the Divine force of which he himself is a living channel and representative. In the preliminary stage as a Sadhaka of integral Yoga cannot reject practice of traditional Shastra, like the Gita, the Upanishad, and the Veda as they contain the basic truth and experiences of many centuries leading one towards systematic development of the comprehensive truth of Integral Yoga; similarly ‘a representative influence occupies a much larger place in the life of the sadhaka.’³ This representative living Spiritual Influence ‘is a narrower practice, but safe and effective within its limits, because it follows a well beaten track to a long familiar goal.’⁴ ‘In India a great authority, a high reverence even is ordinarily attached to the written or traditional teaching.’⁵ So it is an exceedingly good fortune for a Sadhaka to accept the dominant Influence of a Shastra or living Teacher to repeat the truth of his Spiritual experience and can utilise that as an opportunity to strengthen and intensify his already possessed experiences of a similar kind. A Sadhaka can enter relation with the Guru or the Ista Devata or living Influence in three successive stages; firstly He is conceived with a particular Divine form or particular Divine qualities of which He is a true and dynamic representative, towards which our nature or personality has affinity; secondly He is considered as one real Person, yet multiple personality, nirguno guni, the All Personality capable of infinite quality, the Ananta-guna , the qualitiless, Impersonal, nirguna, the Akshara Purusha, not divisible by any sect, schools of Yoga or nationality etc; thirdly we go back to the ultimate source of all idea and fact that goes beyond all Personality and all Impersonality, in which the Upanishad and the Veda describe by single word He or That, Tat . A Sadhaka of integral Yoga cannot be satisfied with the one or many Divine qualities of the Guru or the personal Deity, but he shall realise Him integrally in all His names and forms and Divine qualities; sees and realises his Guru in all other Deities, Avataras and ancient Shastras and not mistake the front of Him which is prominent in his attitude to the world for all the infinite Godhead. He will shun all sectarian and fanatic attitudes of crying, “My God, my Incarnation, my Prophet, my Guru ,”⁶ and leave behind the one-sided and limited tendency of mind in recognising that exclusive aspect of the Divine. For him the experience of Divine Oneness is carried to its extreme, amply fathomed and more deeply embraced to the full experience of the Divine Multiplicity. He can realise the Divine entirely by approaching Him with His endless variety, never-ending form and infinite manifestation. viii) All Mother Force, Sarva Para Shakti: - “It is not as a Guru that I love and bless, it is as the Mother who asks nothing in return for what she gives.”¹ ⁸ The Mother “I am not eager to be the Guru of anyone. It is more spontaneously natural for me to feel the Mother of all and to carry them forward silently through the power of love.”¹ ⁸ The Mother “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.”¹ ⁸ The Mother “But in the later transitional stage of this movement our personal and necessarily ignorant effort more and more dwindles and a higher Nature acts; the eternal Shakti descends into this limited form of mortality and progressively possesses and transmutes it.”³¹ Sri Aurobindo “If a spiritual transformation, not a mere illumining modification of our nature, is to be done at all, we must call in the Divine Shakti to effect that miraculous work in the individual; for she alone has the needed force, decisive, all-wise and illimitable. But the entire substitution of the divine for the human personal action is not at once entirely possible.”³¹ Sri Aurobindo “For the Ishwari Shakti , divine Conscious-Force and World-Mother, becomes a mediatrix between the eternal One and the manifested Many.”³² Sri Aurobindo (Supreme said) " O Savitri, thou art my spirit’s Power, The revealing voice of my immortal Word, The face of Truth upon the roads of Time Pointing to the souls of men the routes to God." Savitri-703 The adoration of the exclusive Mother can begin with exclusive concentration and shall culminate in identity with the all-inclusive Mother or All Mother in integral Concentration. The Mother as the nether Executrix Power works in the Ignorance and Inconscience as the four-fold Soul-force of Brahma-Shakti, Kshetra-Shakti, Vaisya-Shakti and Shudra-Shakti in the form of Wisdom, Courage, Opulence and Service respectively. As the intermediate Mediatrix Power She works as four-fold Spiritual Powers of Maheswari, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati, works in Knowledge, Power, Harmony and Perfection respectively linking the Sachchidananda Consciousness with the manifested Many and returns towards Her Supreme Creatrix Power of Truth Supreme, Power Supreme, Supreme Delight and Will Supreme respectively through evolving endless appearances out of Her revealing substances. Her Executrix Power in Ignorance of the Purusha-Prakriti play ascends to Mediatrix Power in Knowledge of the Ishwara-Shakti play, culminates in the Creatrix Power in Vijnana of the Brahman-Maya play for the complete Divine action in all the planes. The Divine Mother is the manifesting Power of Purushottama, appearing in the Play, Lila as the dual Power of Ishwara and Shakti, containing each other in the higher Divine nature, revealed in the lower nature of Ignorance as dual power of Purusha and Prakriti , separate from each other. The relation between the Purusha and Prakriti emerges as one advances in the Yoga. The Sankhya liberation proposes that, when Purusha learns not to identify himself, the Prakriti begins to fall away from its impulse of movement and returns towards equilibrium and rest. Tantra confirms that worship to Para-Prakriti or Shakti is the sole effective force for all Spiritual attainment. In the Vedantic teaching, Prakriti is considered as the power of illusion, maya , and hence the search after the silent inactive Purusha is the means towards liberation. In Karma Yoga, Prakriti is the doer of all work and Purusha is the Lord, witness, knower, enjoyer and the source of sanction of her work. Purusha-Prakriti realisation in ignorance is the first siddhi of Karma Yoga , where Purusha is liberated and is capable of Spiritual control over the lower nature. The next siddhi of Karma Yoga is the Ishwara-Shakti realisation, which can participate in higher dynamism of Divine work and total unity and harmony of the being in a Spiritual nature. In Integral Yoga, Purusha is the Lord and is of the nature of Sat, the being of conscious self-existence; Prakriti is his executive energy and is of nature of Chit. The relation between Purusha and Prakriti exists in two states of rest and action. When Prakriti is absorbed in the bliss of the Purusha, there is rest; when the Purusha pours itself out into the Prakriti , there is action, creation, enjoyment and Ananda of becoming. And in the Supramental plane, the supreme and universal Purusha and the supreme and universal Prakriti arrive at their perfect relation. The Supreme Spirit is one as Purusha or as Prakriti . Jiva in the essence of self is one with the Supreme Purusha , mamaibansa jivabhuta (The Gita-15.7), so on the side of Nature, in the power of self, Jiva is one with Shakti, para prakritir jivabhuta (The Gita-7.5). The realistion of this double oneness confirms that Jiva is the meeting place of Supreme Purusha and Supreme Prakriti and is the condition of integral self-perfection. All the above methods can be utilised in integral Yoga. There are three successive stages through which the action of the Mother’s force is intensified. First, Jiva receives the power of the Mother , and the sadhaka feels that the Divine Shakti is driving behind and shaping all his thoughts, will, feelings and actions. He may feel the Master of the Shakti, Ishwara , sometimes or continually in three ways to his consciousness; (i) himself as servant to the Ishwara , (ii) a great Shakti is supplying the energy, shaping the action, formulating the results, (iii) the Ishwara above determining by his will the whole action. In the second stage, the individual doer disappear. The Shakti possesses his thought, will, feeling, and action. The Master of existence appears in three ways, (i) the Shakti carrying on all knowledge, thought, will, feeling and action for the Ishwara in an instrumental form; (ii) the Master of existence, Ishwara , compelling all Her action and our Soul enjoys all relation with Him which are created by Her workings, (iii) There is the intensest form of realisation of Jiva disappearing into the Shakti and there is the play of the Shakti with the Ishwara, Mahadeva with Kali, Krishna with Radha. In the last stage, there is an increasing manifestation of Ishwara in all things and beings, in all thought, will and action. The distinction between Ishwara and Shakti begins to disappear, the maya of the ego is removed and complete joy and presence of the Divine is manifested in the being. This is the highest realisation of perfection and delight of active Oneness. Recapitulation: Rejection is defined as the withdrawal of support of the deformed lower nature, apara Prakriti , by the indwelling Purusha. The rejection is the condition of arriving at the state of equality and surrender. The equilibrium status of Purusha and Prakriti is defined as equality. Surrender is defined as the Prakriti’s submission to Purusha . Concentration is born when this submission causes Prakriti to merge with Purusha. Concentration is defined as gathering back of the thought into the Self. Concentration is the active status of Purusha . Purity is the passive status of Purusha which witnesses the action of Prakriti. Shastra defines the right relation of the Purusha and Prakriti i n Ignorance and their play in the higher planes of Consciousness. The Guru is the static state of Purusha in Ignorance, Ishwara in the Knowledge and Brahman in the Supramental State. The Mother is the dynamic state of Purusha , revealed as the Psychic executrix Mother power in Prakriti and doer of all action in Ignorance, Shakti or Mediatrix Spiritual Mother Power in Knowledge and Maya or Creatrix Mother Power in the Supramental and Bliss plane. The Spiritual Future of a Moderate: “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 “They slide back to the mud from which they climbed; In the mud of which they are made, whose law they know They joy in safe return to a friendly base, … To be the common man they think the best, To live as others live is their delight. For most are built on Nature’s early plan And owe small debt to a superior plane The human average is their level pitch, The thinking animal’s material range.” Savitri-689 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."⁴⁴ Moderate Spirituality with its partial self-giving, is prone to Soul-slaying truth.⁴⁸ It cannot confront extreme adversity and Death, cannot reconcile Spirit with Matter and hence submits and surrenders before negative energies like Ignorance, Falsehood, Suffering and Death. It must learn the lesson to accumulate Spiritual energies or Soul Saving Truth⁴⁹ and ascend to the state of ancient Vedantic Seers of Brahma Satya Jagat Satya, through later Vedantic Spiritual Seekers, with the realization of Brahma Satya Jagat Mithya . It is only through moderate Spirituality, Spiritual life can be generalised in humanity. 'The generalisation of Yoga in humanity must be the last victory of Nature over her own delays and concealments. Even as now by the progressive mind in Science she seeks to make all mankind fit for the full development of the mental life, so by Yoga must she inevitably seek to make all mankind fit for the higher evolution, the second birth , the spiritual existence.'⁵ ⁰ OM TAT SAT References: 1: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-941, 2: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-66, 3: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-55, 4: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-55, 5: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-56, 6: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-66, 7: Savitri-623, 8: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-342, 9: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-23, 10: CWSA-21/The Life Divine-51, 11: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-348, 12: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-44, 13: The Gita-2.42, 14: CWSA-19 /Essays on the Gita/p-92-93, 15: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-13, 16: CWSA-19 /Essays on the Gita/p-374, 17: The Gita-6.31, 18: The Mother’s Centenary Works/16/207, The Mother’s Centenary Works/13/82, 19: “The cross is the symbol of transformation, you know: Matter (transversal gesture) penetrated by the Spirit; and the junction is the transformation. A tremendous Force came, like that, for this cross to become truly … the flower of transformation.” The Mother’s Agenda/10/498, “The cross is the sign of the triple being, transcendent, universal and individual.” CWSA-30/Letters on Yoga-III/p-183, 20: Savitri-507, 21: “It admits philosophy in a still more remote fashion; and if nowadays it eagerly seeks after science, that is because science helps prodigiously the satisfaction of its vital desires, needs and interests: but it does not turn to seek after an entirely scientific life any more than after an entirely ethical life. A more complete effort in any one of these directions it leaves to the individual, to the few, and to individuals of a special type, the saint, the ethical man, the artist, the thinker, the man of religion; it gives them a place, does some homage to them, assigns some room to the things they represent, but for itself it is content to follow mainly after its own inherent principle of vital satisfaction, vital necessity and utility, vital efficiency.” CWSA-25/The Human Cycle/p-156, 22: "All true Truth of love and of the works of love the psychic being accepts in their place: but its flame mounts always upward and it is eager to push the ascent from lesser to higher degrees of Truth, since it knows that only by the ascent to a highest Truth and the descent of that highest Truth can Love be delivered from the cross and placed upon the throne; for the cross is the sign of the Divine Descent barred and marred by the transversal line of a cosmic deformation which turns it into a stake of suffering and misfortune. Only by the ascent to the original Truth can the deformation be healed and all the works of love, as too all the works of knowledge and of life, be restored to a divine significance and become part of an integral spiritual existence." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-157, 23: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-96, 24: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-177, 25: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-722, 26: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-702, 27: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-699, 28: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-699-700, 29: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-879, 30: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-361, 31: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-86, 32: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-124, 33: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-59, 34: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-329-330, 35: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-358, 36: “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.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-723, “A drive for fulfilment of falsehood or wrong will would be felt by him, not as a movement towards freedom, but as a violence done to the liberty of the spirit, an invasion and imposition, an inroad upon his supernature, a tyranny of some alien Nature.” CWSA/22/The Life Divine/p-1039, 37: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-46-47, 38: CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-94-95, 39: “This is precisely how the modern Western attitude has become twisted compared to the ancient attitude, the attitude – it isn’t exactly ancient – of the Gita. It’s extremely difficult for the Western mind to comprehend vividly and concretely that ALL is the Divine. It is so impregnated with the Christian spirit, with the idea of a ‘Creator’ – the creation on one side and God on the other! Upon reflection, one rejects this, but ... it has entered into our sensations and feelings, and so – spontaneously, instinctively, almost subconsciously – one credits God with all one considers to be the best, the most beautiful, and especially with what one wishes to attain, to realize. (Each individual, of course, changes the content of his God according to his own consciousness, but it’s always what he considers to be the best.) And just as instinctively, spontaneously and subconsciously, one is shocked by the idea that things one doesn’t like or doesn’t approve of or which don’t seem to be the best, could also be God…I am putting this purposely into rather childish terms so that it will be clearly understood. But this is the way it is. I am sure of it because I have observed it in myself for a VERY long time, and I had to.... Due to the whole subconscious formation of childhood – environment, education, and so forth – we have to DRUM into this (Mother touches her body) the consciousness of Unity : the absolute, EXCLUSIVE unity of the Divine – exclusive in the sense that nothing exists apart from this Unity, even the things which seem most repulsive…Sri Aurobindo also had to struggle against this because he too received a Christian education. And these Aphorisms are the result – the flowering – of the necessity to struggle against the subconscious formation which has produced such questions (Mother takes on a scandalized tone): ‘How can God be weak? How can God be foolish? How....’ But there is nothing but God! He alone exists, there is nothing outside of Him. And whatever seems repugnant to us is something He no longer wishes to exist – He is preparing the world so that this no longer manifests, so that the manifestation can pass beyond this state to something else. So of course we violently reject everything in us that is destined to leave the active manifestation. There is a movement of rejection…Yet it is He. There is nothing other than He! This should be repeated from morning to night, from night to morning, because we forget it every minute. There is only He, there is nothing other than He. He alone exists, there is no existence without Him. There is only He!” The Mother’s Agenda-07.07.1961, “Yet Sri Aurobindo says (in simple terms), ‘God created the world for the Joy of the creation,’ or rather, ‘He brought forth the world from Himself for the Joy of living an objective life.’ This was Theon’s thesis too, that the world is the Divine in an objective form, but for him the origin of this objective form was the desire to be. All this is playing with words, you understand, but it turns out that in one case the world is reprehensible and in the other it is adorable! And that makes all the difference. To the whole European mind, the whole Christian spirit, the world is reprehensible. And when THAT is pointed out to them, they can’t stand it.” The Mother’s Agenda-20.12.1961, “The only way to make life perfect (I mean here life on earth, of course) is to look at it from a sufficient height to see it in its totality, not only its present totality, but over the whole past, present and future: what it has been, what it is, what it must be – you must be able to see it all at once. Because that's the only way to put everything in its place. Nothing can be done away with, nothing SHOULD be done away with, but each thing must find its own place in total harmony with the rest. Then all those things that appear so "evil," so "reprehensible" and "unacceptable" to the puritan mind would become movements of joy and freedom in a totally divine life. And then nothing would stop us from knowing, understanding, feeling and living this wonderful Laughter of the Supreme who takes infinite delight in watching Himself live infinitely. This delight, this wonderful Laughter which dissolves all shadows, all pain, all suffering ... We only have to go deep enough into ourselves to find the inner Sun and let ourselves be bathed in it. Then everything is but a cascade of harmonious, luminous, sun-filled laughter which leaves no room for shadow and pain. In fact, even the greatest difficulty, even the greatest grief, even the greatest physical pain, if you can look at them from THERE, take your stand THERE, you see the unreality of the difficulty, the unreality of the grief, the unreality of the pain – and all becomes a joyful and luminous vibration. It is ultimately the most powerful means of dissolving difficulties, overcoming grief and getting rid of pain. The first two [difficulties and grief] are relatively easy (relatively), the last [pain] is more difficult because of our habit of regarding the body and its sensations as extremely concrete and positive – but actually it is the same thing, it's just that we haven't been taught and accustomed to seeing our body as something fluid, plastic, uncertain, malleable. We haven't learned to permeate it with this luminous Laughter which dissolves all shadows and difficulties, all discords, all disharmony, all that grates, cries and weeps.” The Mother’s Agenda-14.01.1963, 40: “Oh, if you mean the puritans, the Protestants ... dreadful! They're the worst. Catholicism still retains something of the occult sense, and after all, they have a certain adoration for the Virgin, which keeps them in contact with something that's not asuric. The last Pope, who's dead now [Pius XII], had broadened both his own mind and Church doctrine a lot: he was a devotee of the Virgin. But the Protestants turned back to the Father, and so their worship became exactly the worship of a one and only, personal God, an asuric God . And they have fabricated and distorted everything: like asceticism, for instance, and all that sort of thing – everything they touched was twisted and spoiled.” The Mother’s Agenda-15.12.1962, 41: “The entire West is convinced, of course, that the earth has to be taken as it is and that it's a preparation for a life in another world, which according to your "faults" or "qualities" will be a heaven or a hell. But anyway, doing away with hell, all those who have goodwill will go to a beatific heaven.” The Mother’s Agenda/November 30, 1965, 42: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-702, 43: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-149, 44: The Mother’s Agenda-7/p-294-295, “In human beings, along with the growth of the mental activities grows the subtlety of self-deception. The more they are intellectual the more they are, in their self-deception, completely candid and insincere at the same time.” The Mother/TMCW-14/p-341 45: Savitri-215 46: "That’s very important. Because all those who begin by being disgusted with life, their first movement is to get away – all of them. I receive truckloads of letters: as soon as they are disgusted with life, as soon as it stops being something marvelous, "Oh, enough! I want to get away, I want to get away." That’s indeed the first movement: you climb up above, but it will be to come back down and change things HERE – it’s not to abolish them, but to change them." The Mother's Agenda/November 9, 1966, 47: TMCW/Vol-14(Words of the Mother-II/p-149-150, 48: “Awaits him armed with soul-slaying word:” Savitri-336, “Or lie with the harlot Power that slays the soul.” Savitri-185, “A strong and fallen goddess without hope, Obscured, deformed by some dire Gorgon spell, As might a harlot empress in a bouge, Nude, unashamed, exulting she upraised Her evil face of perilous beauty and charm And, drawing panic to a shuddering kiss Twixt the magnificence of her fatal breasts, Allured to their abyss the spirit’s fall.” CWSA-33/Savitri-212, “Threefold are the doors of Hell, destructive of the soul – desire, wrath and greed: therefore let man renounce these three.” The Gita-16.21, “The Asuric Prakriti is the rajasic at its height; it leads to the slavery of the soul in Nature, to desire, wrath and greed, the three powers of the rajasic ego, and these are the three-fold doors of Hell, the Hell into which the natural being falls when it indulges the impurity and evil and error of its lower or perverted instincts.” CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-474, 49: “O Death, thou speakest truth but truth that slays, I answer to thee with the Truth that saves.” Savitri-621, "Whensoever there is the fading of the Dharma and the uprising of unrighteousness, then I loose myself forth into birth as Soul Saving Truth, atmanam srijamyaham ." The Gita-4.7 "Therefore the Yogins do works with the body, mind, understanding, or even merely with the organs of action, abandoning attachment, for self-purification, atma suddhaye. " The Gita-5.11 (self-purification is here Soul saving Truth.) 50: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-30. Download this WEB PAGE as PDF file: “It is binding on the developing (Soul) 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.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-210-211 “(1) Hatred and (2) disliking and (3) scorn and (4) repulsion, (5) clinging and (6) attachment and (7) preference are (seven deformations, vicaras, of integral Yoga) natural, necessary, inevitable at a certain stage: they attend upon or they help to make and maintain Nature’s choice in us. But to the Karmayogin they are a survival, a stumbling-block, a process of the Ignorance and, as he progresses, they fall away from his nature. The child-soul needs them for its growth ; but they drop from an adult (Soul) in the divine culture.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-223 “The first condition was: ‘Nothing more to do with your family ...’ Well, we are a long way from that! But I repeat that it only happened because of the war and not because we stopped seeing the need to cut all family ties; on the contrary, this is an indispensable condition because as long as you hang on to all these cords which bind you to ordinary life, which make you a slave to the ordinary life, how can you possibly belong to the Divine alone? What childishness! It is simply not possible. If you have ever taken the trouble to read over the early ashram rules, you would find that even friendships were considered dangerous and undesirable ... We made every effort to create an atmosphere in which only ONE thing counted: the Life Divine.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda/ August 25, 1954,

"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 universalised Consciousness accepts 'No victory...of Death or Fate' (Savitri-354) and she drives all the Souls to new attempt to confront Death. 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, )

Study Circle "When you speak, before the words come out of your mouth, concentrate just long enough to check your words and allow only those that are absolutely necessary to pass, only those that are not in any way harmful to your progress on the path of the great discovery." The Mother TMCW-12/On Education/p-34 “It is always better not to listen to talks especially on so-called spiritual matters. Each one must follow his own way and the others have nothing to do with it.” The Mother TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-204 14 June 2026 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 1:06:30 31 May 2026 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 1:12:50 10 May 2026 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 1:11:48 12 April 2026 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 1:13:16 29 March 2026 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 1:04:09 15 March 2026 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 1:05:53 7 June 2026 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 1:08:09 17 May 2026 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 1:11:45 26 April 2026 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 1:03:48 5 April 2026 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 1:02:24 22 March 2026 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 1:09:08 1 March 2026 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 1:10:24 10 Page 1 “The Blessed Lord said: The triple realisation of Brahman, atmani atmanam atmana or “of the self by the self in the self” reconciles the relation between Purusha (Spirit) and Prakriti (Matter); it comes by an inner meditation through which the eternal Self becomes visible, pasyanti, to us in our self-existence. Or it comes by the Yoga of the Sankhyas (the separation of the soul from nature). Or it comes by the Yoga of works. Others, who are unfit for these Dhyana, Jnana and Karma Yoga , may hear of the written Truth of Shastra from men of Spiritual attainment and mould the mind into the sense of THAT to which it listens with utter faith and concentration. But, however arrived at, it carries us beyond the limitation of death to a vast immortality of Spirit.” (The Gita-13.25, 26) “The Blessed Lord said: I am the birth of everything and from Me all proceeds into the development of action and movement; understanding thus, the wise adore Me in rapt emotion. Their consciousness full of Me, their life wholly given up to Me, illumining each other, mutually talking about Me, they are ever contented and joyful. To these who are thus in a constant union with Me, and adore Me with an intense delight of love, I give the Yoga of understanding, buddhi Yoga, by which they come to Me. Out of compassion for them, I, lodged in their self, lift the blazing lamp of knowledge and destroy the darkness which is born of the ignorance.” (The Gita-10.8, 9, 10,11) "The highest spiritual truth can be lived, can be seen, but can only be partially stated." Thus, Study Circle becomes for us a field of the larger significance of Prakriti Yajna , a means of collective Divine Union; if rightly performed, then it calls down vast rain of Divine Force or ‘sealike down pour of masses of a spontaneous knowledge’ ‘from heavenlier skies.’ Or 'Her mouth was seized to channel ineffable truths, Knowledge unthinkable found an utterance.' Study Circle also 'embraces the knowledge received from the past, it seeks to organise it anew for the present and the future.' (Refer CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-264, CWSA-21/The Life Divine-291, Savitri-284, 553, CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-56) As per the Gita , the realisation of the Divine is an easier task of Study Circle or ' Easy the heavens were to build for God' (Savitri-653) and as per Savitri, the transformation of Nature appears as an impossible task of Study Circle or "E arth was his difficult matter, earth the glory" (Savitri-653) or "Earth saw my struggle, heaven my victory." (Savitri- 639) The greatest utility of Study Circle is not to limit it to Teachings alone but to utilise it as means of movement of the ascent of the Soul to travel ‘beyond the world’ (Savitri-319) to discover 'great impersonal speech' (Savitri-553) and descent of Divine Shakti 'Armed with the golden speech' (Savitri-681) to ‘save the world.’ (Savitri-319) Savitri also observed that the age-long grey restraints of earth cannot be broken by man’s slow impatient evolutionary life which is hurried towards a ‘sudden splendid path’ (Savitri-652) by the revelation, sermon and profound words of ‘human gods.’ (Savitri-652) Human words can only shadow the Divine Mother’s golden glorious Truth, to human thought ‘she is an unthinkable rapture of light,’ (Savitri-663) and to mortal speech she is an inexpressible marvel. (Savitri-663) Savitri felt that the most of the devotees or ‘tired Spirits’ (Savitri-647) are ‘tied to body and to mind’ (Savitri-647) and approach the God with the hope of satisfying their desire or lure of earthly boons and they are incapable of bearing the million ‘wounds of Time.’ (Savitri-647) She was further informed by the Divine that most of the human beings are built on Nature’s early evolutionary plan and ‘owe small debt to a superior plane;’ (Savitri-689) thus man’s ‘mind is closed between two firmaments’ (Savitri-690) of seeking truth through (1) sight and sound or images and words, and (2) surface and brute out sides or consciousness is projected outward, and is unwilling to plunge into the inner depth of Truth. So the Divine advised Savitri not to disturb the life of common man and their settled balance of created things by intervention of Spiritual energy and leave them to ‘heavy toil and slow aeonic steps’ (Savitri-690) and all shall be done for them ‘by the long act of Time.’ (Savitri-691) “However, one should not think that the value of spoken words depends on the nature of the subject of conversation. One can talk idly on spiritual matters just as much as on any other, and this kind of idle talk may well be one of the most dangerous. For example, the neophyte is always very eager to share with others the little he has learnt. But as he advances on the path, he becomes more and more aware that he does not know very much and that before trying to instruct others, he must be very sure of the value of what he knows, until he finally becomes wise and realises that many hours of silent concentration are needed to be able to speak usefully for a few minutes. Moreover, where inner life and spiritual effort are concerned, the use of speech should be subjected to a still more stringent rule and nothing should be said unless it is absolutely indispensable." The Mother TMCW-12/On Education/p-62-63 "“In Silence is wisdom” — it is in the inner silence of the mind that true knowledge can come; for the ordinary activity of the mind only creates surface ideas and representations which are not true knowledge. Speech is usually only the expression of the superficial nature — therefore to throw oneself out too much in such speech wastes the energy and prevents the inward listening which brings the word of true knowledge.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-159

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 bridging the gulf and 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, Book-1, Canto-3 is the most important Canto for the beginners of Integral Yoga. Here it hints at 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.’ Or 'All the world’s values changed heightening life’s aim.' (Savitri-42) 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: "In darkness’ core she dug out wells of light," Savitri-41 "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 brief 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 glimpses 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;' (Savitri-79) 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 listened to the Spiritual being as a bodyless guide and traveled 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 or enjoyment of superficial outer 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/p-216) We also get the hint that after the opening of the Spiritual being, the King experiences "An Influence entered mortal night and day," (Savitri-132) or "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 (King) 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: (other claims of desire Soul) Only he (King) longed to draw her presence and power Into his heart and mind and breathing frame;" Savitri-316 This Canto reminds us that ages have passed 'But still no great transforming light came down' to lower vital plane and 'no revealing rapture touched her' Spiritual fall. ' In Nescience began her mighty task, In Ignorance she pursues the unfinished work.' 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) All the above three creations are not organised without aim. The First Creation (Page 135 to 141) : This Canto hints that slow evolution starts from dim Subconscient Sheath and in infinite all life of all Time moves towards last salvation. Truth Supreme is identified as last perfection of Integral Yoga where Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths are completely illumined. Subconscious evolution is a faint and dim beginning of a crude child soul crying 'for toys of bliss' (Savitri-136) and fumbling through fogs of hell 'searches paradise.' (Savitri-135) 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 (Page 141 to 146) : In this kingdom, the dwarf animal-self arose and the experiment began of a solitary brute in a human body without any life plan or 'Life had for them no aim save Nature’s joy' (Savitri-143). 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 successive 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 (Page 146 to 150) : 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, (Savitri-149) 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' (Savitri-138) 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 and Inconscient Self) This Canto foresees the coming of ‘some tremendous dawn of God’ (Savitri-137} where King saw the great purpose of Divine action in Time and also in the aimlessness of lower life, a Divine work, magic will and Divine transformation was worked out. This Canto indirectly 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 (The Solution is the Supramental energy must enter Subconscient and Inconscient Sheath.) Carrying with it its triple mystic cross . Invoking in world-time the timeless truth, (1) Bliss changed to sorrow, (2) knowledge made ignorant, (3) God’s force turned into a child’s helplessness Can bring down heaven by their sacrifice." Savitri-140-141 (Sattwic sacrifice.) “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 162) 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 162 to 163) The mind of life or rajasic mind is a thinking puppet or conscious Doll who is pushed in a hundred ways. There we meet agents of darkness imitating Divine Light. Their stuff rebels against all higher truth. With ego and desire, they surround the beautiful temple of the Soul. " Ourselves incapable to build our fate Only as actors speak and strut our parts Until the piece is done and we pass off Into a brighter Time and subtler Space. Thus they inflict their little pigmy law And curb the mounting slow uprise of man, Then his too scanty walk with death they close." Savitri-163 The Fifth 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 “Hardly a few can climb to greater life. All tunes to a low scale and conscious pitch. 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 Sixth 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) or “Recast his (King’s) being’s aura in joy-glow." (Savitri-236) This change is also observed during Savitri's first meeting with Satyavan in book-5, Canto-2 and Satyavan’s pursuit of Yoga in book-7, Canto-6. They are: “Discovered the aureole round a mortal’s head,” Savitri-396 (Satyavan saw a lighted nimbus around Savitri’s head) "This golden figure (of Savitri) given to his (Satyavan's) grasp" Savitri-397 “Above the cherished head of Satyavan She (Savitri) 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 (brief Spiritual experience) “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. 1: New Creation: 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: Extinction of Suffering: 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: Oneness with All Existence: 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: Transformation of Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths: 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"