"Lonely his days and splendid like the sun's" Savitri 45 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, which goes forward by keeping a record of the visions witnessed in trance or meditation and is not meant for giving knowledge to others. Our motive of this study is to repeat the Spiritual experiences developed and hinted at in Savitri and to go farther in experiencing the greater dawn. We have taken this Savitri study as part of our Sadhana; firstly, (1) to illumine those parts which are having direct Contact with the Divine and this Spiritual endeavour is subordinated by intellectual action of partly understanding the mysteries and truths and hierarchies of Consciousness it has explored; secondly, (2) To keep a full account of all those parts of Being and Nature that are not under the direct Influence of the Divine and offer them in the spirit ‘Adventure all to make the whole world thine’ (Savitri-536) or “Each part in us desires its absolute.” (Savitri-170) In order to understand each line of Savitri, we have aspired to undergo brief Spiritual experiences in multiple planes subordinated by our effort to gather together and we have 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 of 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 stumble, errors and limitations and particularly we have amended our stand related with planes of Consciousness from which each line of Savitri has descended. We understand this exercise as a means of tracing a path of our own sadhana and a means of transcending our existing limitations through movement of Consciousness. The Mother confirms, "It's only at the time of having the experience that you can really understand what you read." (The Mother's Agenda//November 23, 1965.) Sri Aurobindo has issued an ‘absolute liberty’ to a Sadhak of ‘the restatement of knowledge in new terms and new combinations.’ (CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-56) By this exercise alone a new path will be traced. 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 , “Since the beginning of earth history, Sri Aurobindo has always presided over the great earthly transformations, under one form or another, one name or another." The Mother The Mother's Centenary Works/Vol-13/Page-10 , 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 "The inner planes uncovered their crystal doors; Strange powers and influences touched his life." Savitri-28 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 " A genius heightened in his body’s cells That knew the meaning of his fate-hedged works Akin to the march of unaccomplished Powers Beyond life’s arc in spirit’s immensities." Savitri-44 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: "The mind leaned out to meet the hidden worlds : Air glowed and teemed with marvellous shapes and hues, In the nostrils quivered celestial fragrances, On the tongue lingered the honey of paradise." Savitri-28-29 “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 "A pure perception lent its lucent joy: Its intimate vision waited not to think; It enveloped all Nature in a single glance, It looked into the very self of things; Deceived no more by form he saw the soul." Savitri-26 "An inspired Knowledge sat enthroned within Whose seconds illumined more than reason’s years:" Savitri-37 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 "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 "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 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 'Humanity framed his movements less and less. A greater being saw a greater world.' (Savitri-26) "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 "His wide eyes bodied viewless entities, He saw the cosmic forces at their work And felt the occult impulse behind man’s will." Savitri-44 "The universal strengths were linked with his; Filling earth’s smallness with their boundless breadths, He drew the energies that transmute an age." Savitri-44-45 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: "As if from a golden phial of the All-Bliss , A joy of light, a joy of sudden sight, A rapture of the thrilled undying Word Poured into his heart as into an empty cup, A repetition of God’s first delight Creating in a young and virgin Time." Savitri-38 "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 The above brief experience of Supreme Mother in the heart centre was established later in Book-3, Canto-4. "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 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 is revealed, 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. King was able to completely exhaust all his desires after he dynamised the Supreme Self in Book-3, Canto-2. 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' (Savitri-134) to the lower vital plane and 'no revealing rapture touched her' (Savitri-134) Spiritual fall. ' In Nescience began her mighty task, In Ignorance she pursues the unfinished work.' (Savitri-135) 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 the 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 is 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 the 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 were 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: Here, the King’s adventure into the Vital planes has been revealed and it is divided into six parts. 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 our untransformed life largely 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 extend their reign in 'all half-conscious worlds. ' (Savitri-153) They are tasked to function 'Wherever love and light and largeness lack.' (Savitri-153) In the event of disease of the most difficult kind, also is an attack of this dark world, and they can be removed by occult means or Yogic power/Subconscient purification and transformation. “The Mother used to say that when Sri Aurobindo cured somebody, 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 Our ancient seers have divided this Subconscient Sheath into seven hells, sapta narka and the Inconscient sheath into seven big hells, sapta mahanarka or sapta patala . They are:- abichi, mahakala, ambariswa, rouraba, maharouraba, mahasutra, and hatamisra, and mahatala, rasatala, atala, sutala, bitala, talatala, patala. In these hells, fourteen types of devils live. They are asura, gandharba, kinnara, kingpurusha, jakhya, rakhyasa, bhuta, preta, pisacha, apasmaraka, apsara, brahmarakhyasa, kusmanda, binayaka. In Savitri, they are identified as titans, fairies, trolls, gnomes, elf, imps, dwarves, genii, fury, ogres, djinn, demons, terrible angels, opponent Powers, nether shadow-Sphinx and goblins. These beings manifest in inferior human beings and are representative of tamasic and rajasic lower nature and extend their kingdom of horror and carnage in a half-conscious world. These crooked fashioners, foreign inhabitants and dangerous guests live in the twilight of our untransformed Nature where ‘love and light and largeness lack.’ (Savitri-153) 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) As the Spiritual journey of Savitri continues, with Narad’s arrival, these beings wept with joy (Savitri-417), foreseeing the end of their long dreadful task of self-chosen doom and defeat and return to the One from which they came. Demons are dark instruments created by the Divine to carry ahead evolution in Ignorance. With the advent of the Supramental world, their long dreadful task will come to an end. They will be either transformed into a wonderful God or destroyed in their own Subconscient and Inconscient home. These blind world-forces seek the Divine Mother’s ‘boundless joy’ (Savitri-314) and their privilege over the Gods is that, in the evolution, these rebellious children of the Divine Mother suffer Divine transformation of Nature (whereas white Gods miss this transformation of nature. “What the white gods had missed: they too are safe;” Savitri-613). The Mother pointed out, “This was also prophesied in the Gita: among what we call the hostile or anti-divine forces, those capable of being transformed will be uplifted and go off towards the new consciousness, whereas all that is irrevocably in darkness or belongs to an evil will shall be destroyed and vanish from the Universe. And a whole part of humanity that has responded to these forces rather too ... zealously will certainly vanish with them. And this is what was expressed in this concept of the Last Judgment.” (The Mother’s Agenda/ June 6, 1958) A slowly changing order makes life corrupt through (1) personal will, (2) Soul slaying truth, (3) twilight thought, (4) quarrel, (5) human love and (6) religious life. All popular religions are symbols of moderate Spirituality or centres of slow spiritual evolution. For swift Spiritual evolution, the individual has to discover (1) Divine will, (2) soul-saving truth, (3) tamasic, rajasic and sattwic mind are to be purified and enlightened, (4) unity with fellow brothers and all beings, (5) Divine Love and (6) swift Spiritual evolution. These liberating actions are to be pursued in secrecy and silence in some isolated Spiritual fortress. 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. The special privilege of an integral Yogi or the most difficult task of a Supramental man is to experience Subconscient transformation and its preliminary experiences are purification of past by the Spirit travelling backward. Through this journey, he will discover ‘the secret code of the history of the world’ (Savitri-74) and ‘the cosmic past.’ (Savitri-477) The Mother recounts, “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 15, 1960) He will also travel a thousand years ahead in the Superconscient plane and calls all the future possibilities to the present moment. "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 suggests the slow unmasking evolutionary journey from the dark bedrock of the Inconscient, rising through the murky, habit-bound waters of the Subconscient, to ultimately manifest the Divine Light through a completely transformed Physical Being. This is the exact trajectory of the Supramental descent into Matter or Spirit becoming Matter. The dynamic Spirit (Para prakriti) will descend into Matter (Apara Prarkriti) and Soul (Jivatma) will ascend out of the Matter to the Spirit’s home (Paramatma). These double movements are indispensable. Thus the body has to emerge out of the oblivion of the Soul or 'A body sleeping without sense or soul' (Savitri-154). These four powers are found hidden in the Matter's breast. They are identified as Sat (Being), Chit (Consciousness), Ananda (Bliss) and Divine Will. " Or wrought the will of some supreme Unknown. Still consciousness was hidden in Nature’s womb, Unfelt was the Bliss whose rapture dreamed the worlds. Being was an inert substance driven by Force." Savitri-155 This Canto gives hint about how matter was formed and movement in them took place in the form of huge expansion and contraction, touch and friction in the void, clash and clasp in the emptiness. "On the hearth of Space it kindled a viewless Fire That, scattering worlds as one might scatter seeds, Whirled out the luminous order of the stars." Savitri-155 During this movement of Consciousness we witness: " Then stirred the Spirit’s mute immobile sleep; The Force concealed broke dumbly, slowly out. A dream of living woke in Matter’s heart, A will to live moved the Inconscient’s dust, A freak of living startled vacant Time, Ephemeral in a blank eternity, Infinitesimal in a dead Infinite." Savitri-156 Out of matter life evolved 'Trembling with the faint thrills of World-Soul' (Savitri-157)....' 'Then slowly sense quivered and thought peered out; She forced the reluctant mould to grow aware.' (Savitri-157) 'An animal creation crept and ran' and 'Then man was moulded from the original brute.' (Savitri-158) This Canto also hints at the emergence of 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 Here we find the brief touch of the Supreme in the Inconscient Self: "She turned her dream towards some high Unknown; A breath was felt below of One supreme." Savitri-159 Here we also find the brief Spiritual transformation of the vital sheath: " An opening looked up to spheres above And coloured shadows limned on mortal ground The passing figures of immortal things; A quick celestial flash could sometimes come: The illumined soul-ray fell on heart and flesh And touched with semblances of ideal light The stuff of which our earthly dreams are made." Savitri-159 We also get the opening of true Vital Being : " A creature insignificant and small Visited, uplifted by an unknown Power, Man laboured on his little patch of earth For means to last, to enjoy, to suffer and die. A spirit that perished not with the body and breath Was there like a shadow of the Unmanifest And stood behind the little personal form But claimed not yet this earthly embodiment." Savitri-159 The third Part: (Page 160 to 162) Our surface mind and life live in the shadow of a mused Inconscience and they cannot hear the voice of true vital being and Psychic being. This asks purification of subtle vital and subtle mental being. "The mind learns and knows not, turning its back to truth; It studies surface laws by surface thought, Life’s steps surveys and Nature’s process sees, Not seeing for what she acts or why we live; It marks her tireless care of just device, Her patient intricacy of fine detail, The ingenious spirit’s brave inventive plan In her great futile mass of endless works, Adds purposeful figures to her purposeless sum, Its gabled storeys piles, its climbing roofs On the close-carved foundations she has laid, Imagined citadels reared in mythic air Or mounts a stair of dream to a mystic moon: Transient creations point and hit the sky:" Savitri-160 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 A whisper of true vital being falls into life's inner ear. Thus we experience subtle vital transformation in the universal plane: " A whisper falls into life’s inner ear And echoes from the dun subconscient caves, Speech leaps, thought quivers, the heart vibrates, the will Answers and tissue and nerve obey the call. (Second Divine Call) Our lives translate these subtle intimacies; All is the commerce of a secret Power." Savitri-162 (secret Supramental power.) 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 helplessly. This rajasic mind is not aware of its vast transformative possibility and glimpses 'not the immense intent'. (Savitri-162) 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 and 'plan the trivial tragedy of our days.' (Savitri-163) Our veiled Psychic being cannot build Spiritual destiny and these dark agencies shorten life's longevity through tardy walk and delayed growth. " 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. (Brighter time is triple time and subtler space is subtle vital sheath.) 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 the Divine Will, Divine Wisdom and Divine Ecstasy of Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga briefly. A Bliss that sleeps in the Inconscient and Subconscient Self does 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 The Mother has identified 'very strong sexual instinct' as 'the greatest difficulties of mankind' and 'a terrible slavery.' Those who are its victims 'are surrounded by a swarm of these small (vital) beings.' (TMCW-4/Questions and Answers-1950-1951/p-192) This message is confirmed in Savitri as "lust’s hot glare and passion’s crimson stain;" (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 Supramental transformation of lower Nature by 'Calling the powers of a bright hemisphere' (Savitri-171) 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, (Infant is the Psychic being) 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’ (Savitri-154) 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 by this subconscient transformation action alone 'ends this dream of nether life.' This Canto also proposes 'Nature's calm mighty hands' (Savitri-165) that can heal life's pain. It 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 (Supramentalised 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 Truth” Savitri-271(one Supreme Truth) “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 (The whole world is an infinitesimal part of Her existence.) 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 (A brief Supramental experience) “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 (through brief experience), about which we get hints from the previous Book-1, Canto-3, 4, 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.) " Rivers poured down of bliss and luminous force, Visits of beauty, storm-sweeps of delight Rained from the all-powerful Mystery above." Savitri-37 " As if from a golden phial of the All-Bliss, A joy of light, a joy of sudden sight, A rapture of the thrilled undying Word Poured into his heart as into an empty cup, A repetition of God’s first delight Creating in a young and virgin Time." Savitri-38 "The All-Blissful sat unknown within the heart;" Savitri-43 "The Truth-Light capture Nature by surprise, A stealth of God compel the heart to bliss And earth grow unexpectedly divine." Savitri-55 “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 " 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 "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 or 'Like love when the beloved’s face is gone.' (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, 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 becomes 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 the 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, ekamevadvitiyam, 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 the 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. This truth we also trace in the Gita: “I (Supreme Self) abide in the spiritual being and from there destroy the darkness born of ignorance with the shining lamp of knowledge.” (The Gita-10.11) 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 Cantos (II and III) is the manifestation of the Supreme Self's dynamic Divine Love which can transform by slaying the desire Soul surrounding the 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.’ "I know that all here is unreal. The Mother alone is real . It is the higher reality that the Mother brings into the world — without it all else is ignorant and false." 3 August 1934/Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-32/The Mother with Letters on the Mother/p-33, "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 Supreme Mother in his heart. This also symbolises that the King’s Psychic Being is permanently 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 King Aswapati had a brief experience of Supreme Mother in the heart centre in the earlier Book-1, Canto 3: "The All-Blissful sat unknown within the heart;" Savitri-43 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-339 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 the infinite All Life and All Time and not in this finite 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 identified here as: " 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." Savitri-710 Savitri and Satyavan's above task is identified as repetition of 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"

Sri Karthikeya Anurakta "But where is the Lover’s everlasting Yes," Savitri-310 The Vision of Superman "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.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-940-941 (This decade-old letter on spiritual and occult experience is produced here after getting consent from Sri K. Anurakta , who had undergone considerable adventure in Consciousness by the time.) Date: 23.08.2002. Dear Maa Krishna, I am posting a reply today to your wonderful E-mails. “The Descent” also received today. With love at Their Feet. Anurakta. Om Namo Bhagavate The Mother's House Brahmapur 22.08.2002 Divine Amar Atman!, My Adorable Father, My deep love and pranam at your feet. To-day is Rakhya Purnima . Yesterday (night of 21.08.2002 from 10 pm. to 12 midnight) I saw an illumined vision on you. I discovered myself in Pondicherry . I was thinking of going to you since it was Rakhya Bandhan day. I met a young Ashramite and asked him whether he can bring for me a Rakhee from the market. He agreed and brought one Rakhee, it was golden colour and there was capital letter 'N' written on it. So I asked him why he brought this type of Rakhee , he replied since your brother's name begins with N so I brought this Rakhee. I told him to bring another Rakhee for me. Then he gave me another Rakhee with the letter Om on it. This Rakhee is intended for you. I took these two Rakhees to Maha Samadhi to get it touched. Then I went to your house. It was not the house of Handmade paper factory but a house in another world… You were in your house in bare body ( upper part). Seeing me you searched for your Dhoti . Your two attendants were also there. They searched for your Dhoti but there were no Dhoti in your house. I felt sorrow and I searched from the nearby almira and got one Dhoti with bluish-white colour. Then I thought whenever I will come from Brahmapur I will bring one Dhoti for you. Then I went to the market in order to purchase two Dhotis for you. When I returned from the market I saw you were meeting two or three nos of beggars who came to meet you. Then you went to your inner chamber. I followed you to that room. Then from your body I saw the Superman (Supramental being) is coming out. I was astonished and thought that since Superman is emerging from your body so no dress is required for you and dresses are vanishing from your house. I also got the instruction to keep this event secret. Kindly acknowledge the receipt of the August issue of 'The Descent' that you will receive soon (it was sent on 19.08.2002). After seeing this dream I am hopeful and getting Ananda . With our deep love and prayer. At Their Lotus Feet S.A. Maa Krishna. N.B. As later recollected initially in the dream your body colour was yellowish white. When Superman came out of your body, the colour of the body of Superman was shining copper. The vibration of the event was exceptional as great action took place. OM SRI AUROBINDO MAA 23.08.2002 Very Dear Maa Krishna, Thank you very much for your E-mail of 22.08.2002 which have really overwhelmed me. (I am not E-mailing this letter/ acknowledgement as my Email are sent by a staff member and for this I cherish privacy.) The clarity, truth and force of your vision and The Mother’s confirmation of its accuracy have been much more than I could have anticipated. I have been aware for a year or so that an area of my body not to the bottom (lowest) Chakra have Supramental vibrations, but this amounts to a few hundred cells compared with the vast number of cells in the body. So is because of this that my legs and left foot have been reacting so strangely. I have few visions as my vital being separates itself from ‘me’ very easily and leaves me to sleep and dream with little higher vitality. But from the few ‘visions’ and am permitted to remember they all concern themselves with defending the Ashram from powerfully negative occult forces. So the experience described by you comes as a heavy impact for I have no visions or dreams of my life in the Ashram at any level. My highest (or deepest) yearning or aspiration is to fully surrender to Sri Aurobindo and to unite with His Consciousness. But I am of course dedicated to continuing Their work in this body for as long as it is needed. Your observation about Dhotis is nicely relevant and also amusing as I have so many Dhotis it seems after giving older ones away. But of course, the transformed being will not need such things. The reference to meeting beggars is most appropriate as not only do I have the highest admiration for Avadhoots but I feel it is also important that in our aspiration for Supramentality we do not leave the beggar and very poor people too far behind. I am keeping your E-mail as a ‘treasure’ to remind me of the higher aspect of my Sadhana during the continuous days of effort and service! The Mother confirms that the shining Copper is the correct body colour in this context. I will acknowledge ‘The Descent’ as soon as I receive it. (Just arrived on my Desk!!) My love to you…. And my gratitude for your spiritual clarity. At Their Feet, Signed Sri K. Anurakta “Either man must fulfil himself by satisfying the Divine within him or he must produce out of himself a new and greater being who will be more capable of satisfying it. He must either himself become a divine humanity or give place to a Superman.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-222 “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-290 “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-288-290 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 https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/education/photo Sri K Anurakta's Photos Sri K Anurakta's Childhood Photos Sri K Anurakta and the Evolution of Sri Matriniketan Ashram (Kindle Book) Sri K. Anurakta’s surface personality is hinted from the following information:- Date of Birth: 5th February-1932, 7.30 A.M., Place of Birth: Bournemouth, U.K. Name given by parents: ANTONY DAVID ROCHELLE The Mother gave the name ‘ANURAKTA’ in November 1961 and he added the prefix KARTIKEYA later on. Met the Mother at Pondicherry at the age of 28, in the year 1960 and stayed permanently. Name in the passport: ANTONY DAVID KARTIKEYA ANURAKTA . Date of departure of earthly body: 25.09.2014. We felt in Sri K. Anurakta the Presence of perfect Arya and our exceedingly good fortune in meeting him: “ The perfect Arhat (Arya) 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 .” "This will be to him his (a Sadhaka of Integral Yoga) exceeding good fortune if he can meet one who has realised or is becoming That which he seeks for and can by opening to it in this vessel of its manifestation himself realise it." "The safest way is to follow the guidance of someone who has himself attained to mastery in the path. Only that guidance should be implicitly and sincerely followed; one’s own mind and its ideas and fancies must not be allowed to interfere. It goes without saying that it must be a true guidance, not the leading of a tyro or an impostor." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-13/Essays in Philosophy and Yoga/p-444, CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-130 CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-810 “And it shall also be a sign of the teacher of the integral Yoga that he does not arrogate to himself Guruhood in a humanly vain and self-exalting spirit. His work, if he has one, is a trust from above, he himself a channel, a vessel or a representative. He is a man helping his brothers, a child leading children, a Light kindling other lights, an awakened Soul awakening souls, at highest a Power or Presence of the Divine calling to him other powers of the Divine. Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-67-68 “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.”" The Mother TMCW-12/On Education/p-63,

EDUCATION IN BRIEF All Life is Education (ସମଗ୍ର ଅନନ୍ତ ଜୀବନ ନିତ୍ୟ ପ୍ରଶିକ୍ଷଣ) “To love to learn is the most precious gift that one can give to a child: to love to learn always and everywhere, so that all circumstances, all happenings in life may be constantly renewed opportunities for learning more and always more.” The Mother TMCW-12/On Education/p-25 “In all the sections, Primary, Secondary and Higher Course, the children will follow yogic methods in their education and prepare and try to bring down new knowledge. So all the students can be said to be doing Yoga.” The Mother TMCW-12/On Education/p-179 The theory of complete Education pursued through all life or long succession of rebirths can be realised through the Synthesis of Education which has four strong pillars or four legitimate motives of development of educational capacity in all Time, that of firstly a period of education and preparation that will make us able to satisfy the basic needs and requirement of life and a concentration of Surface Education to develop separative individuality and in it the unity of all aspect of life is lost on the surface; here body, life and mind are divided from each other through ignorance but can be illumined and made aware of themselves; secondly a period of normal living to satisfy the human desires and interests under the moderating rule of ethical and intellectual part in us, to educate all our human capacities of force and knowledge and enjoyment so that we may turn them upon the world with more and more mastery and force, a concentration of Potential Education ; thirdly a period of inward turn of the mind and Spiritual preparation, a concentration of Subjective Education and lastly, the Spiritual entity within us must develop its own integral perfection which is a period of complete fulfilment of Truth living, fulfilling and perfecting the objective living by transforming and Divinising it, a concentration of Comprehensive Education. This educational Synthesis also arrives at the reconciling equation between the Matter and the Spirit where - (1) the existing human mind and intellect are considered as its nodus and subjective turn of phenomenal education; (2) the knowledge on the cosmic and terrestrial surface world which is the field and circumstance of Physical, Vital and Mental education; (3) the knowledge on the Supraterrestrial or other worldly or occult plane which is a condition and connecting hidden link and which forms the basis of intermediate Subliminal, Psychic and Spiritual Education and not to have the experience of these great regions of the Selves, not to know and manifest their law in ourselves ‘is to fall short of the height and fullness of our being;’¹ (4) the knowledge and integration of the Supracosmic Reality is the highest reach of Integral Education which is the almighty source, support and ‘highest remote origin of our existence.’² The Synthesis of Education can be satisfying which ends in its aim of uniting the imperfect Matter and the perfect Spirit in a liberated, ecstatic and fulfilled human existence. In the past, the theory of complete education through the Synthesis of Education was attempted with little success due to the exaggeration or exclusive importance on either of the four or in most cases the first two Schools of thought. If we are satisfied with the first two educational movements, then the ‘synthesis is unnecessary and a waste of time.’³⁴ If our aim is integral Perfection, then the synthesis becomes necessary by tracing and practising the sevenfold hierarchy of concentration, which is identified as the Central Truth of Integral Education. In the recent development of Integral Education, all four stairs of human development have been fully recognised as the knowledge within the power and capacity of humanity and attempted within the framework of its existing infrastructure. The perfect learning of the secret of existence through material Science, Arts and Literature is to be rightly related with the limited superficial enjoyment of existence, material success and satisfaction of human desire. This objective entry into the opulence of existence must take a subjective turn and search for an unlimited sources of beyond sense enjoyments and this seeking towards the Knowledge of the One and finally discovery of the Knowledge of the One is to be rightly related with the knowledge of the Many and movement towards the source, the Supracosmic existence, from which the unending riches of the Spirit will pour down on the Matter to bring completeness of Integral Education. So, we can define Education in its totality beginning with the surface mental, surface vital and surface physical education which builds a strong material foundation. Behind it, there is a large ocean of subtle mental, subtle vital and subtle physical Education extending over All Life. At its core, there is a true mental, true vital and true physical being. Mental education liberates the intellect from ‘all twilight thought;’²⁰ vital education draws the sense to ‘pure celestial joy’²¹ and physical education makes ‘body’s joy as vivid as the soul’s.’²² In this Subliminal Self one experiences ‘The blissful sweetness of the intangible’s touch.'³² In subtle physical education one ‘laughs in sweet and sunlit groves’⁵ and there ‘response to Truth is swift and sure.’⁶ In subtle vital education, ‘The world’s senseless beauty mirrors God’s delight’⁷ and ‘Always a heaven-truth broods in life’s deeps.’⁷ In subtle mental education, Thought is ‘leaned on a Vision beyond thought’⁸ and there ‘beauty and mightiness walk hand in hand.’⁹ Then, behind it there are still greater planes of Psychic, Spiritual, Universal and Supramental worlds. Psychic education is ‘Much sweeter… than any rapture known’²³ and its ‘momentary and escaping thrill’²³ cannot be recompensed by ‘Earth or all-conquering heaven.’²³ Spiritual education gives the sense of impersonal Love, Peace, Silence, infinite Existence, infinite Consciousness and ‘The Bliss that none can ever hope to taste.’²⁴ Universal Education is ‘A constant touch of sweetness that linked all hearts’¹⁵ and “Thrilled with the hidden Transcendent’s joy and peace.’¹⁶ Supramental education turns ‘to the best the worst,’²⁵ heals ‘the bitter cruelties of earth’²⁵ and ‘A joy exceeding earth’s and heaven’s poured down.’²⁵ This Supramental '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. '²⁹ The dynamisation of Supramental energy can lead towards entry into the dark Subconscient sheath and discovery of the Subconscient Self, which is identified as another important achievement ‘whose priceless value could have saved the world’³ and all error and pain ‘became a quivering ecstasy.’¹⁷ Then subsequently entry into Inconscient sheath and discovery of the Inconscient Self is identified as one of the last and most profound Spiritual experiences, ‘the grand solution’⁴ in which the height of mortal effort end and in that darkest world ‘A bliss is born that can remake our life .'¹⁸ All these worlds and planes have their influence on our earthly substance and can mould the earthly living into a Divine living of unaging youth and Divine perfection. Our objective is to establish an equal fourfold concentration of Education or to explore all the planes of Consciousness and call down their full manifestation in our surface material life. We will realise that the Spirit is not only the cause, supporting power and the indwelling principle of the Matter but also its material and sole material. In this context, the present approach of surface phenomenal Education, divided and deviated from the Source with its unequal concentration, can be considered as the right beginning. This surface education is identified as the Universal Mother’s ‘most outward executive aspect’¹⁰ and as ‘God fulfilled in outwardness.'¹¹ OM TAT SAT The References are available in the Manuscript "The Synthesis of Education" (page-24-25) Download this WEB PAGE as PDF file: Download the ODIA WEB PAGE as PDF file: EDUCATION IN DETAIL SECTION FRANÇAISE “…but those who want to read me, well, let them learn French, it won’t do them any harm!... French gives a precision to thought like no other language... Because it is something else altogether. Untranslatable, not the same mentality! Like French humor and English humor- they are far, far apart…so far apart that they’re usually impervious to each other!” The Mother The Mother's Agenda-15.09.1962 “In our school I have put French as the medium of instruction. One of the reasons is that French is the cultural language of the world . The children can learn the Indian languages at a later stage. If more stress is laid upon Indian languages at present, then the natural tendency of the Indian mind will be to fall back upon the ancient literature, culture and religion. You know very well that we realise the value of ancient Indian things, but we are here to create something new, to bring down something that will be quite fresh for the earth. In this endeavour, if your mind is tied down to the ancient things, then it will refuse to go forward. The study of the past has its place, but it must not hamper the work for the future.” The Mother TMCW-12/On Education-216 The Mother’s Agenda-3/347 This web page is exclusively meant for learning French. "A captive Life wedded her conqueror." Savitri-125 «Une vie captive épousa son vainqueur. » Savitri-125 "ଏକ ଏକାନ୍ତ ବନ୍ଦୀ ଜୀବନ ତାଙ୍କ ବିଜେତା ଭଗବାନ୍-ଙ୍କୁ ବିବାହ କରିଥିଲା।" ସାବିତ୍ରୀ-୧୨୫ (ଅର୍ଥାତ୍ ଯଦି ଜଣେ ଏକୁଟିଆ ଏକାନ୍ତ ଜୀବନ ଯାପନ କରେ ତେବେ ତାହାର ଭଗବାନ୍-ଙ୍କ ସହ ବିବାହ ସମ୍ପନ୍ନ ହୁଏ| ) READ MORE >> ODIA SECTION "ସୁଖ ଜୀବନର ଲକ୍ଷ୍ୟ ନୁହେଁ। ସାଧାରଣ ଜୀବନର ଲକ୍ଷ୍ୟ ହେଉଛି ନିଜର କର୍ତ୍ତବ୍ୟ ସମ୍ପାଦନ କରିବା, (ଏବଂ) ଆଧ୍ୟାତ୍ମିକ ଜୀବନର ଲକ୍ଷ୍ୟ ହେଉଛି ଭଗବତ୍ ସତ୍ତାଙ୍କୁ (ବା ଦିବ୍ୟ ଚେତନାକୁ) ଉପଲବ୍ଧି କରିବା।" ଶ୍ରୀମାଆ ଦି ମଦର୍ସ କଲେକ୍ଟେଡ୍ ୱର୍କସ - ୧୪ / ପୃଷ୍ଠା-୭ (ନାରଦ କହିଛନ୍ତି ) “ଜଣେ ଯଦି ଅତ୍ୟଧିକ ଆତ୍ମିକ ସୁଖ ମଧ୍ୟରେ ଜୀବନ ବଞ୍ଚିବାକୁ ସମର୍ଥ ହୁଏ ତେବେ ଦୁର୍ଭାଗ୍ୟ ତା ଜୀବନରେ ଶୋଇ ପଡ଼ିପାରେ; ଏହି ଦୁର୍ଭାଗ୍ୟ ଅଦୃଶ୍ୟ ଅନ୍ଧକାର ଶକ୍ତି ଭାବରେ ମଣିଷର ଅଚେତନ ମୂହୁର୍ତ୍ତରେ ଜୀବନ ମଧ୍ୟରେ ଅନୁପ୍ରବେଶ କରେ ଓ କବଳାକୃତ କରେ, ଯଦି ସାବିତ୍ରୀଙ୍କ ହୃଦୟ ଏକ ଅତିମାନସ ଜଗତରେ ଚିରକାଳ ଆବଦ୍ଧ ହୋଇ ରହନ୍ତି, ଅତ୍ୟଧିକ ଉଚ୍ଚ ଚେତନା ଓ ଅତ୍ୟଧିକ ଆନନ୍ଦ ମଧ୍ୟରେ ସଚେତନ ଜାଗ୍ରତ ଜୀବନ ବଞ୍ଚନ୍ତି, ତେବେ ଚିରକାଳ ପାଇଁ ଦୁର୍ଭାଗ୍ୟକୁ ଶୋଇ ପଡ଼ିବାକୁ ସେ ଛାଡ଼ି ଦେଇ ପାରନ୍ତି। “ ସାବିତ୍ରୀ-୪୨୦ ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣାଙ୍ଗ ଶିକ୍ଷାର କେନ୍ଦ୍ରୀୟ ସତ୍ୟ ହେଉଛି ସଂଯମ । ଯେଉଁ କର୍ମ ଓ ଚିନ୍ତନ ମଣିଷକୁ ପ୍ରକୃତିର ଦାସ କରି ରଖେ ତାକୁ ନିରନ୍ତର ପ୍ରତ୍ୟାଖ୍ୟାନ କରିବାକୁ ସଂଯମ କୁହାଯାଏ । ଏହି ସଂଯମ ଆଚରଣ ଦ୍ବାରା ଜଣେ ପଶୁରୁ ମଣିଷ ହୁଏ ଏବଂ କଠୋର ଆତ୍ମ ସଂଯମ ଆଚରଣ ଦ୍ବାରା ଜଣେ ମଣିଷ ରୁପାନ୍ତର ପ୍ରକ୍ରିୟା ଦ୍ବାରା ଦେବତାରେ ପରିଣତ ହୁଏ । ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣାଙ୍ଗ ଶିକ୍ଷାର ମହାମନ୍ତ୍ର ହେଉଛି "ସମଗ୍ର ଅନନ୍ତ ଜୀବନ ନିତ୍ୟ ପ୍ରଶିକ୍ଷଣ ।" ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣାଙ୍ଗ ଶିକ୍ଷାର ଲକ୍ଷ ହେଉଛି ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣାଙ୍ଗ ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣତା| ଏହି ସାମଗ୍ରିକ ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣତା ହେଉଛି ଜୀବନର ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣତା, ଚେତନାର ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣତା ଓ ଆତ୍ମାର ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣତା| ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣାଙ୍ଗ ଶିକ୍ଷାର ପ୍ରେରଣା ଦାୟକ ଉଦ୍ଦେଶ୍ୟ: ସବୁଠାରୁ କମ୍ ସମୟ ମଧ୍ୟରେ ସର୍ବାଧିକ ବିକାଶ| ଶ୍ରୀ ମା’ଙ୍କ ଆଦର୍ଶ ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣାଙ୍ଗ ବିଦ୍ୟାଳୟ PHOTO GALLERY “Virgin who comest perfected by joy,” Savitri-424 “ଯେଉଁମାନେ ନିଜର ମନ, ପ୍ରାଣ ଓ ଶରୀରକୁ ପବିତ୍ର ଓ ଅଛୁଆଁ କରି ରଖନ୍ତି ସେମାନେ ପରିପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଆନନ୍ଦକୁ ପ୍ରାପ୍ତ ହୁଅନ୍ତି|” ସାବିତ୍ରୀ-୪୨୪ "Even as her body, such is she within." Savitri-422 “ସାବିତ୍ରୀଙ୍କ ଆତ୍ମା ଯେପରି ପବିତ୍ର ତାଙ୍କ ଶରୀର ମଧ୍ୟ ସେହିପରି ପବିତ୍ର|“ ସାବିତ୍ରୀ-୪୨୨ " Heaven’s joys might have been earth’s if earth were pure.” Savitri-123 “ସ୍ଵର୍ଗର ଦିବ୍ୟ ଆନନ୍ଦ ପୃଥିବୀରେ ଚିର ପ୍ରତିଷ୍ଠିତ ହୁଅନ୍ତା ଯଦି ପୃଥିବୀ ସ୍ଵର୍ଗ ପରି ପବିତ୍ର ହୋଇପାରନ୍ତା|” ସାବିତ୍ରୀ-୧୨୩ “Forbidding to him rest and earthly ease, Till he has found himself he cannot pause.” Savitri-339 “ ଚୈତ୍ୟ ସତ୍ତାର ସନ୍ଧାନୀ ଅଭୀପ୍ସୁଙ୍କ ନିମନ୍ତେ ବିଶ୍ରାମ ଏବଂ ପାର୍ଥିବ ସୁଖ ନିଷିଦ୍ଧ।” ସାବିତ୍ରୀ-୩୩୯ "ଚୈତ୍ୟ ସତ୍ତାକୁ ପ୍ରାପ୍ତ ସାଧକଙ୍କ ନିମନ୍ତେ ଯଶ ଓ ସୌଭାଗ୍ୟ ପରିତେଜ୍ୟ" ସାବିତ୍ରୀ-୧୩୬ “କେବଳ ସେହିମାନଙ୍କର ଜୀବନ ସୁରକ୍ଷିତ ଯେଉଁମାନେ ହୃଦୟରେ ଭଗବାନଙ୍କୁ ଧାରଣ କରନ୍ତି।” ସାବିତ୍ରୀ-୨୧୧ “The soul that can live alone with itself meets God;” Savitri-460 “ଯେଉଁ ଦ୍ୱିଜ ଆତ୍ମା ନିଜସହିତ ଏକୁଟିଆ ଜୀବନ ବଞ୍ଚିବାକୁ ସମର୍ଥ ହୁଅନ୍ତି ତା ଙ୍କ ର ଭଗବାନଙ୍କର ସହିତ ସାକ୍ଷାତକାର ହୁଏ।“ ସାବିତ୍ରୀ-୪୬୦ ଶ୍ରୀ ମା’ଙ୍କ ଆଦର୍ଶ ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣାଙ୍ଗ ବିଦ୍ୟାଳୟ The Central Truth of Integral Education is identified as concentration, samyama , which is defined as learning the lesson persistently to reject all those actions and thoughts that will lead towards slavery. Or it is described as control of lower Nature by the influence of higher Nature. “Never forget that, as much outside as in the Ashram, if you want to lead a happy life, you must be the master of your lower nature and control your desires and vital impulses ; otherwise there is no end to the miseries and the troubles.” The Mother The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol-14/p-255 "To understand the true reason why you are here, you must remember that we want to become instruments that are as perfect as possible, instruments that express the divine will in the world. And if the instruments are to be perfect, they must be cultivated, educated, trained. They must not be left like fallow land or a formless piece of stone. A diamond reveals all its beauty only when it is artistically cut. It is the same for you. If you want your physical being to be a perfect instrument for the manifestation of the supramental consciousness, you must cultivate it, sharpen it, refine it, give it what it lacks, perfect what it already possesses. That is why you go to school, my children, whether you are big or small, for one can learn at any age — and so you must go to your classes." The Mother TMCW-12/On Education/p-73 “We can learn things from a flower, an animal, a child, if we are eager to know always more, because there is only One Teacher in the world — the Supreme Lord, and He manifests through everything.” The Mother TMCW-12/On Education/p-129

"Yet still, a captive in her golden hands," Savitri-723 The Central Thuth of The Mother "And behind her is the Ishwara and faith in him is the most central thing in the sraddha of the integral Yoga. This faith we must have and develop to perfection that all things are the workings under the universal conditions of a supreme self-knowledge and wisdom, that nothing done in us or around us is in vain or without its appointed place and just significance, that all things are possible when the Ishwara as our supreme Self and Spirit takes up the action and that all that has been done before and all that he will do hereafter was and will be part of his infallible and foreseeing guidance and intended towards the fruition of our Yoga and our perfection and our life work. This faith will be more and more justified as the higher knowledge opens, we shall begin to see the great and small significances that escaped our limited mentality and faith will pass into knowledge. Then we shall see beyond the possibility of doubt that all happens within the working of the one Will and that that will was also wisdom because it develops always the true workings in life of the self and nature. The highest state of the assent, the sraddha of the being will be when we feel the presence of the Ishwara and feel all our existence and consciousness and thought and will and action in his hand and consent in all things and with every part of our self and nature to the direct and immanent and occupying will of the Spirit. And that highest perfection of the sraddha will also be the opportunity and perfect foundation of a divine strength: it will base, when complete, the development and manifestation and the works of the luminous supramental Shakti ." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-781-782 The Central Truth of The Mother or The Book of Consecrated Faith “A glad and strong and helpful submission is demanded to the working of the Divine Force, the obedience of the illumined disciple of the Truth, of the inner Warrior who fights against obscurity and falsehood, of the faithful servant of the Divine. This is the true attitude and only those who can take and keep it, preserve a faith unshaken by disappointments and difficulties and shall pass through the ordeal to the supreme victory and the great transmutation.”³¹ Sri Aurobindo “I have said somewhere, or may be written, that no matter how great your faith and trust in the divine Grace, no matter how great your capacity to see it at work in all circumstances, at every moment, at every point in life, you will never succeed in understanding the marvellous immensity of Its Action, and the precision, the exactitude with which this Action is accomplished; you will never be able to grasp to what extent the Grace does everything, is behind everything, organises everything, conducts everything, so that the march forward to the divine realisation may be as swift, as complete, as total and harmonious as possible, considering the circumstances of the world.” As soon as you are in contact with It, there is not a second in time, not a point in space, which does not show you dazzlingly this perpetual work of the Grace, this constant intervention of the Grace. And once you have seen this, you feel you are never equal to it, for you should never forget it, never have any fears, any anguish, any regrets, any recoils... or even suffering. If one were in union with this Grace, if one saw It everywhere, one would begin living a life of exultation, of all-power, of infinite happiness. And that would be the best possible collaboration in the divine Work.”¹⁵ The Mother This paper chooses Sraddha as the central truth of The Mother book because through prolongation of faith, the static Divine union of the Supreme Self is dynamised to experience union with the Supreme Mother; thus through 'ascending faith,' a contact with the Divine is established and through 'descending faith, ' the Divine Shakti comes down to mind, life, body, subconscient and inconscient planes. The Maha Mantra of integral Yoga in the language of The Mother book is "All Life is Yoga or All Life is possession of the fourfold Divine Shaktis ." Its Maha Vakya or Supreme Word is "The Mother’s power and not any human endeavour and tapasya can alone rend the lid and tear the covering and shape the vessel and bring down into this world of obscurity and falsehood and death and suffering Truth and Light and Life divine and the immortal’s Ananda ."⁴⁰ This line suggests that The Mother's infinite Grace is supported and subordinated by Self-control, which we understand as Tapasya . Both are combined, ceasless consecration to call down Divine Force and arduous or rigorous self-control which assists in the increase of consecration. ‘The Mother ’ book proposes a Vedantic self-discipline in order to arrive at a Tantric aim. It gives us hints that by prolonging the Vedantic sacrifice of static Divine Union, one will arrive at the dynamic Divine Union of Tantric objective. Faith acts as a link through which static Divine union is dynamised and it also serves as a link through which dynamic Divine Shakti penetrates into Material life. So, faith acts as a connecting link in both the ascending and descending action of Consciousness. The faith has its double utility in integral Yoga, that of firstly, (1) the faith in the Divine, Vedantic faith which is defined as ‘ascent of the whole being to the truth seen by it or offered to its acceptance;’⁵ and the other is (2) faith in the Shakti, Vedic faith, which is defined as Influence²⁷ and Will of the Supreme dynamised as Shakti, directed to press upon the lower nature of mind, life and body to realise the greater truth of self-becoming and self-exceeding.¹⁹ It is a free perception or an imperative direction from the inner Spirit. The dependency on the ever-growing static and dynamic faith, sraddha , is felt imperative in four successive stages. The true nature of static faith as proposed in the Gita is of quadruple kind ; first is the ‘faith of each man takes the shape, hue, quality given to it by his stuff of being, his constituting temperament, his innate power of existence, sattvanurupa sarvasya sraddha ;’¹⁶ secondly , Sraddha is that it is an aspect of the Self, sraddhamayayo Purusha ;² thirdly, whatever is man’s faith that he becomes ultimately, yo yachhadra sa evasah .² Lastly, this faith is Divinely fulfilled and culminated in an eternal flame of knowledge, sraddhavan labhate jnanam .³ 'At the end, the flickerings of faith will cease; for we shall see his face and feel always the Divine Presence.' ¹⁴ Integral Yoga proposes that the true nature of dynamic faith is of quadruple kind. Firstly, we have to change our central faith¹⁷ from the formation of ordinary material and mental man that concentrates on the ‘development and satisfaction and interests in the old externalised order of things’¹ to a ‘deeper faith and vision which see only the Divine and seek only after the Divine.’¹ If the equality, the Psychic light and will are already there, then a sure guidance and protection will be present throughout and we will realise that all is done for the best, the progress assured and victory inevitable. Secondly , If the central faith is established in the Divine, then one’s Spiritual destiny³⁰ is decreed. Thirdly, the dynamic faith has the magic power to bring the dead back to life, the capacity to turn the bitter poisons of the world into immortal nectar, can see the happier positive Spiritual intention behind all adversity and opposition, the mystery of Divine Love behind all hatred, jealousy and suffering and the flower of Divine strength and joy in the seed of pain. Fourthly , a Sadhaka of integral Yoga must remember that he carries with him a fragment of Eternal’s Omnipotence and Omniscience or ‘Godhead’s seed’³⁵ and its entire revelation in his bodily life is the inevitable consequence of his integral faith that is only a will aiming at the realisation of a greater static and dynamic truth. This Integral Faith is really an influence from the supreme Spirit which calls the lower nature to rise out of its petty limitation and narrowness and transforms itself to illimitable Divine Nature. The two active mental imperfections, (1) samsaya, the sceptical doubt,²⁸ which always turns its back on our total knowledge of Spiritual possibilities and (2) asuya , the constant carping of the narrow uncreative intellect which paralyses⁵ our collective Ashram living, must however be conquered for the Divine perfection by systematic development of sraddha. We begin this journey with the three elements of complete mental faith on the Divine that are (1) the mind's constant concurrence, (2) strong consent of the will and (3) the heart’s intense delight and submission. The last siddhi, perfection of faith in the Divine Shakti is identified as ‘intimate feeling of her presence and her powers and the satisfied assent of all our being to her workings in and around it.’⁶ This paper proposes some series of Perfection/siddhi or provisional psycho-physical exercises or mental belief on faith, Sraddha , which is meant for educating one to begin, repeat subsequently and end each day with the revival of the highest aspiration of the Soul, towards God, Light, Freedom, Bliss and Immortality. With Spiritual realisation, our mental faith and ideas become concrete reality, living truth and dynamic power. In integral Yoga, it is defined that for beginners Vedantic method of self-discipline is indispensable and the Vedic method of self-discipline is indispensable after one is established in static union with the Divine; both methods are indispensable for developed Souls. If this understanding will not be given importance, then it will give birth to fear, impatience and doubt and one will be under the subjection of Nature. This suggestion is already there as hinted in the Gita where Arjuna was discouraged³⁶ to do Vedic sacrifice in the initial phase of the sadhana and encouraged³⁷ in the final stage of sadhana . The seven Indispensable Vedantic Faith or Faith in the static Divine: 1) The first indispensable faith is, “The Divine exists within, above and outside me and my meeting with Him everywhere cannot fail in this life. I want direct contact, Pratakhya , with Him and adore Him in all creatures and extend my infinite gratitude towards Him.” 2) The second indispensable faith is, “There is nothing worth living in my life without Him and He is the only inexhaustible source of all my delight, thought and action and the higher I project this aspiration, the greater the truth that seeks to descend upon me. So, my whole life and all life is a broadening of receptivity and constant prayer offered to the Divine.” 3) The third indispensable faith is, “He has taken my full and total responsibility and His sure guidance and protection is present throughout in spite of many dangers, difficulties and failures. His failures are part of the act of His omniscient Omnipotence which knows the right time and circumstance for the incipience, the change of destiny, the immediate and the final results of all its cosmic undertakings.” 4) The fourth indispensable faith is, “He responds to my every call and even to my most external emotional call and gives me this conviction that all unforeseen events and apparent discords are parts of His illimitable secret plan and vast harmony.” "Whether it seem good or evil to men’s eyes, Only for good the secret Will can work." Savitri-424 5) The fifth indispensable faith is, “What the Divine wills for me or decides for me is the best and faultless, the progress assured and victory inevitable; He leads me in the shortest possible path towards the ultimate goal in spite of my ignorance, misunderstanding, ego, revolt and cry. This belief can be further extended for His creation that what He decides or what He arranges everywhere all things rightly from the beginning of the creation, whether it seems good or evil to the mortal eye, only for the good and for the best, the Divine Will can work. The Creation exists, moves forward and whatever happens are preparing for far more complete, far more integral than we can imagine and see with the one side of things and are intended for the full satisfaction of the whole vision of the Creator. His Will must be worked out in the passage of time in spite of all evil that rises from the Inconscient sheath, all Ignorance with its obstinate strength, all stumbling of man’s personal will, deep folly of his mind and blind reluctance of his heart.”³⁸ I know ‘that whatever happens in the Divine Providence is for the best even though it may seem to the mind otherwise.’³⁴ 6) The sixth indispensable faith is that 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, “Yet still to ourselves we say rekindling faith, “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 the eternal doors, Into a world that cries to him for help, And bring the truth that sets the spirit free, The joy that is the baptism of the 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 7) The seventh indispensable faith is, “He is all Love, all Ananda , all Beauty, all Peace, all Knowledge and all Light and He is ready to pour these Divine attributes when called upon.” The Eight Specialised Vedic Faith or Faith in the dynamic Shakti ¹⁸: “One day I shall behold my great sweet world Put off the dire disguises of the gods, Unveil from terror and disrobe from sin. Appeased we shall draw near our mother’s face, We shall cast our candid souls upon her lap; Then shall we clasp the ecstasy we chase, Then shall we shudder with the long-sought god, Then shall we find Heaven’s unexpected strain.” Savitri-613 In addition to Vedantic faith we can practice remembering some specialised form of faith or dispensable faith to remould some of our finest faculty. Once the indispensable faith establishes the Spiritual base, the practice of the dispensable faith helps to integrate it. So, the dispensable faith becomes indispensable and more profoundly, its necessity is felt in the difficult transformation action of integral Yoga. 1) ‘Faith is certainly a gift given to us by the Divine Grace. It is like a door suddenly opening upon an eternal truth, through which we can see it, almost touch it.’⁴ For Supramental descent, ‘An entire faith, opening, self-giving to the Mother are the one condition necessary throughout.’²² The first indispensable faith is, “If the faith and surrender are complete in all parts of the being then there can be no attack. If there is a strong central faith and surrender at all times, then there can be attacks but the attacks will have no chance of success.”²⁰ 2) When we suffer long or stumble in the darkness¹⁴ (Spiritual fall), the sceptic mind murmurs, “I have trusted to the Highest and I am betrayed into suffering and sin and error.”¹⁴ So 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.”²⁴ ‘Even when you cannot aspire actively, keep yourself turned to the Mother for the help to come — that is the one thing to do always.’³² ‘What the psychic always feels is “What the Mother does is for the best”, and it accepts all with gladness. It is the vital part of the heart that is easily touched by the suggestions.’²³ 3) When all higher experience is forgotten and bitterness of life comes to the surface, the sceptic mind repeats, “I have staked my whole life on an idea which the stern facts of experience contradict and discourage. It would have been better to be as other men are who accept their limitations and walk on the firm ground of normal experience.”¹⁴ To all such suggestions of impurity, weakness, unfitness, turn back from Divine labour and Spiritual fall due to temporary defeat 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 “Do not think whether people agree with you or do not agree with you or whether you are good or bad, but think only that 'the Mother loves me and I am the Mother’s .' If you base your life on that thought, everything will soon become easy.”³⁹ 4) The rajasic and sattwic egoism are eliminated by concentration of the following mantra, “A Divine (Mother) 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 5) To all suggestions of death, disease and accident, repeat the mantra , “No part of my being supports or dwell upon the disease of the body. All disease, all accidents and all death are a perfect illusion and non-existent to the true consciousness of the body.” Additionally, the promise of Savitri that she keeps her will to divinise the clay in spite of repeated failure, prolonged defeat and dead resistance. She always drives the Souls to a new attempt of winning victory over death and fate, plants heaven’s delight in heart’s passionate mire, pours godhead’s seeking into a bare beast frame and hides immortality in the mask of death.¹³ 6) We must always persist unwearied to the last in the atmosphere of every contradicting event and disillusionment and adhere to the injunction of the Gita , “Yoga must be continually practised without yielding to any discouragement by difficulty or failure until the bliss of Nirvana is secured.”⁹ and for the Divine Shakti in man nothing is impossible. Every thought and impulse has to be reminded in the language of the Kena Upanishad , “That is the Divine Power of Brahman and not this which men here cherish and adore.”²⁵ 7) The seventh indispensable 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 8) The eighth indispensable faith is, “Divine is All and by the entire descent of His Shakti all the problems of existence can be resolved instantly. But for such a descent to be practicable, we have to enlarge the purity of the subtle and causal body indefinitely. It is only they who ascend in their consciousness to the luminous Source or enter the Spiritual experience of Origin of existence they only can avoid and overcome catastrophes²⁶ of all kinds and will stand in a golden glory.” Recapitulation: “Only were safe who kept God in their hearts: Courage their armour, faith their sword, they must walk, The hand ready to smite, the eye to scout, Casting a javelin regard in front, Heroes and soldiers of the army of Light.” Savitri-211 "Happy are men anchored on fixed belief… Happiest who stand on faith as on a rock” Savitri-499 "No signal light of hope has gleamed in vain.” Savitri-638 “There is one kind of faith demanded as indispensable by the integral Yoga and that may be described as (1) faith in God and the Shakti, (2) faith in the presence and power of the Divine in us and the world, (3) a faith that all in the world is the working of one divine Shakti, that (4) all the steps of the Yoga, its strivings and sufferings and failures as well as its successes and satisfactions and victories are utilities and necessities of her workings and (5) that by a firm and strong dependence on and a total self-surrender to the Divine and to his Shakti in us we can attain to oneness and freedom and victory and perfection.”⁵ Sri Aurobindo “— but that he who desires only the Divine shall reach the Divine is a certitude much more certain than that two and two make four. That is the faith every sadhak must have in the bottom of his heart, supporting him through every stumble and blow and ordeal. It is only false ideas still casting their shadow on your mind that prevent you from having it. Push them aside for good and see this simple inner truth in a simple and straightforward way — the back of the difficulty will be broken.”²¹ Sri Aurobindo Once the centralised faith is established in the Divine, 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 the Spiritual union of Ishwara and Ishwari and the 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 murmur⁴¹ and disjointed mutterings of the Inconscient and unites Matter and Spirit. The utility and necessity of doubt²⁸ is felt at a certain stage of sadhana of integral Yoga because man in his ignorance and in his progressive labour towards knowledge, would remain obstinate in an ignorant belief and limited knowledge. Now, whatever new ideas seize us or are generated through our writings and expressions demand our credence but they are not without regard to their possible error, limitation, imperfection and influence of three gunas . So, all ideas and suggestions can be held in suspense until it is given their right place and luminous shape of truth through Psychic and Spiritual intervention and further strengthened and fulfilled by Supramental knowledge. This is what is confirmed in the Gita that through faith, sraddha, the knowledge of Psychic Being and Spiritual being are gained, sraddhavan labhate jnanam ³ and the innate Nature of Psychic Being and Spiritual being are made up of faith, shraddha mayoyam purusho .² The utility and necessity of doubt will cease to exist when ‘the foundation of equality is firmly established’³³ and ‘when the sun of the gnosis has risen.’³³ In integral Yoga, faith is utilised to remove two imperfections of sceptical doubt, samsaya, and narrow carping, asuya . Faith is identified as the pivot of all endeavour and action related with the increase²⁹ of means of sadhana such as (1) aspiration, (2) rejection of lower nature, (3) surrender and (4) sincerity. Faith further helps for (1) the perfection and surrender of the four fundamental Executrix Mother Powers or Soul powers of Brahma Shakti, Kshetra Shakti, Vaisya Shakti and Shudra Shakti , (2) the perfection and surrender of four instrumental nature, intellect, heart, vital and body, (3) perfection and dynamisation of four mediatrix Mother Powers or Spiritual powers that of Maheswari, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati and finally (4) leading towards the dynamisation and culmination of four Creatrix Mother Powers or Supramental power that of Truth Supreme, Power Supreme, Supreme Delight and Will Supreme. OM TAT SAT References: - 1: “The first necessity is to dissolve that central faith and vision in the mind which concentrate it on its development and satisfaction and interests in the old externalised order of things. It is imperative to exchange this surface orientation for the deeper faith and vision which see only the Divine and seek only after the Divine. The next need is to compel all our lower being to pay homage to this new faith and greater vision.” Sri Aurobindo/ CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/72, ““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.” That is what you must keep as your constant mantra and it is besides the only logical and reasonable thing to do — for anything else is an irrational self-contradiction of the most glaring kind. Anything else one may doubt — whether the supermind will come down, whether this world can ever be anything but a field of struggle for the mass of men, — these can be rational doubts — but that he who desires only the Divine shall reach the Divine is a certitude much more certain than that two and two make four. That is the faith every sadhak must have in the bottom of his heart, supporting him through every stumble and blow and ordeal. It is only false ideas still casting their shadow on your mind that prevent you from having it. Push them aside for good and see this simple inner truth in a simple and straightforward way — the back of the difficulty will be broken.” SABCL-23/Letters on Yoga/584-585, CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-97, “But if we desire to make the most of the opportunity that this life gives us, if we wish to respond adequately to the call we have received and to attain to the goal we have glimpsed, not merely advance a little towards it, it is essential that there should be an entire self-giving. The secret of success in Yoga is to regard it (goal is the Divine) not as one of the aims to be pursued in life, but as the one and only aim, not as an important part of life, but as the whole of life.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-71, 2: “(1) The faith of each man takes the shape given to it by his stuff of being, O Bharata . (2) This Purusha, this soul in man, is, as it were, made of shraddha, a faith, a will to be a belief in itself and existence, and (3) whatever is that will, faith or constituting belief in him, he is that and that is he.” The Gita-17.3, 3: The Gita-4.39, 4: TMCW-9/Questions and answers-1957-1958/p-351, 5: “The perfect faith is an assent of the whole being to the truth seen by it or offered to its acceptance, and its central working is a faith of the soul in its own will to be and attain and become and its idea of self and things and its knowledge, of which the belief of the intellect, the heart’s consent and the desire of the life mind to possess and realise are the outward figures.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-771, “And yet faith is necessary throughout and at every step because it is a needed assent of the soul and without this assent there can be no progress. Our faith must first be abiding in the essential truth and principles of the Yoga, and even if this is clouded in the intellect, despondent in the heart, outwearied and exhausted by constant denial and failure in the desire of the vital mind, there must be something in the innermost soul which clings and returns to it, otherwise we may fall on the path or abandon it from weakness and inability to bear temporary defeat, disappointment, difficulty and peril. In the Yoga as in life it is the man who persists unwearied to the last in the face of every defeat and disillusionment and of all confronting, hostile and contradicting events and powers who conquers in the end and finds his faith justified because to the soul and Shakti in man nothing is impossible . And even a blind and ignorant faith is a better possession than the sceptical doubt which turns its back on our spiritual possibilities or the constant carping of the narrow pettily critical uncreative intellect, asuya, which pursues our endeavour with a paralysing incertitude. The seeker of the integral Yoga must however conquer both these imperfections.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-773, “The Divine Grace and Power can do everything, but with the full assent of the sadhak . To learn to give that full assent is the whole meaning of the sadhana . It may take time either because of ideas in the mind, desires in the vital or inertia in the physical consciousness, but these things have to be and can be removed with the aid or by calling in the action of the Divine Force.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-171, 6: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-781, 7: CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II-p-99, “Keep firm faith in the victory of the Light and face with calm equanimity the resistances of Matter and human personality to their own transformation.” SABCL-23/Letters on Yoga-II-III/p-585, “They (faith, surrender and samata) have to be put into every part and atom of the being so that there may be no possibility of a contrary vibration anywhere.” SABCL-23/Letters on Yoga-II-III/p-584, 8: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-250, 9: The Gita-6.23, 10: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-700, 11: The Gita-18-66, 12: Savitri-200, 13: Savitri-354, 14: "It is difficult to acquire or to practise this faith and steadfastness on the rough and narrow path of Yoga because of the impatience of both heart and mind and the eager but soon faltering will of our rajasic nature. The vital nature of man hungers always for the fruit of its labour and, if the fruit appears to be denied or long delayed, he loses faith in the ideal and in the guidance. For his mind judges always by the appearance of things, since that is the first ingrained habit of the intellectual reason in which he so inordinately trusts. Nothing is easier for us than to accuse God in our hearts when we suffer long or stumble in the darkness or to abjure the ideal that we have set before us. For we say, “I have trusted to the Highest and I am betrayed into suffering and sin and error.” Or else, “I have staked my whole life on an idea which the stern facts of experience contradict and discourage. It would have been better to be as other men are who accept their limitations and walk on the firm ground of normal experience.” In such moments — and they are sometimes frequent and long — all the higher experience is forgotten and the heart concentrates itself in its own bitterness. It is in these dark passages that it is possible to fall for good or to turn back from the divine labour ." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-244, “If one has walked long and steadily in the path, the faith of the heart will remain under the fiercest adverse pressure ; even if it is concealed or apparently overborne, it will take the first opportunity to re-emerge. For something higher than either heart or intellect upholds it in spite of the worst stumblings and through the most prolonged failure. But even to the experienced sadhaka such falterings or overcloudings bring a retardation of his progress and they are exceedingly dangerous to the novice. It is therefore necessary from the beginning to understand and accept the arduous difficulty of the path and to feel the need of a faith which to the intellect may seem blind, but yet is wiser than our reasoning intelligence. For this faith is a support from above; it is the brilliant shadow thrown by a secret light that exceeds the intellect and its data; it is the heart of a hidden knowledge that is not at the mercy of immediate appearances. Our faith, persevering, will be justified in its works and will be lifted and transfigured at last into the self-revelation of a divine knowledge. Always we must adhere to the injunction of the Gita, “Yoga must be continually applied with a heart free from despondent sinking.” (Th Gita-6.23) Always we must repeat to the doubting intellect the promise of the Master, “I will surely deliver thee from all sin and evil; do not grieve.” (The Gita-18.66) At the end, the flickerings of faith will cease; for we shall see his face and feel always the Divine Presence. ” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-245, 15: The Mother’s Centenary Works (second edition)/Vol-8/p-250, “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, 16: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-481-482, 17: “And behind her (Shakti) is the Ishwara and faith in him is the most central thing in the sraddha of the integral Yoga. This faith we must have and develop to perfection that all things are the workings under the universal conditions of a supreme self-knowledge and wisdom, that nothing done in us or around us is in vain or without its appointed place and just significance, that all things are possible when the Ishwara as our supreme Self and Spirit takes up the action and that all that has been done before and all that he will do hereafter was and will be part of his infallible and foreseeing guidance and intended towards the fruition of our Yoga and our perfection and our life work.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-781, 18: “The Shakti in her workings will strike ruthlessly at all forms of ignorance and blindness and all even that trusts wrongly and superstitiously in her, and we must be prepared to abandon a too persistent attachment to forms of faith and cling to the saving reality alone. A great and wide spiritual and intelligent faith, intelligent with the intelligence of that larger reason which assents to high possibilities, is the character of the sraddha needed for the integral Yoga .” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-774, 19: “This sraddha — the English word faith is inadequate to express it — is in reality an influence from the supreme Spirit (descending faith) and its light a message from our supramental being which is calling the lower nature to rise out of its petty present to a great self-becoming and self-exceeding.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-774, “What is meant by one’s own force? All force is cosmic and the individual is merely an instrument — a certain amount of the force may be stored in him, but that does not make it his own… There are certain possibilities in the way of the experience. First there is the faith, or sometimes a mental realisation and this of itself is enough to make one open to the Mother’s force so that it is always available at need or call. Even if one does not feel the Force coming, yet the results are there and visible. The next is when one feels oneself like an instrument and is aware of the Energy using it. A third is the contact with the Power above and its descent (spontaneous or at call) into the body — this is the more concrete way of having it, for one physically feels the Force working in one. Finally there is a state of awareness of close contact with the Mother (inward) which brings a similar result.” CWSA-32/The Mother with Letters on the Mother/p-202, 20: CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-794, 21: CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II-p-97, 22: CWSA-32/The Mother and Letters on the Mother/p-157, 23: CWSA-32/The Mother and Letters on the Mother/p-163, 24: CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-676, 25: Kena Upanishada-1.4, CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-72, CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-403, 26: “Strange feeling …Since last night, a strange impression that the Divine has become… (how to formulate it?) like a golden Force pressing down like this (gesture of pressure on the earth). They alone, who by their aspiration are able to pass through to the Divine Origin, will escape catastrophes… Only those who have an aspiration, a sincere and unconditional aspiration towards the Divine, only they will escape –they will stand in a golden glory.” The Mother’s Agenda-May 4, 1972, “... It presses down on Matter, to force it, to compel it to turn INWARDLY to the Divine – not an external flight (pointing above) but inwardly turning to the Divine. And the apparent outcome seems to be inevitable catastrophes. But along with this sense of inevitable catastrophe, there come solutions to situations or events that look simply miraculous…As if both extremes were becoming more extreme: the good getting better and the bad worse. Like that. And a stupendous Power PRESSING down on the world. Such is my impression.” The Mother’s Agenda/May 6, 1972, “Certain ideas of a more general, more extensive, more collective nature, as it were, are being worked out and are at work in the world. And the two go together: a greater and more total possibility of destruction and an inventiveness that unrestrainedly increases the possibility of catastrophe, a catastrophe that would be much more massive than it has ever been; and at the same time, the birth, or rather the manifestation, of much higher and more comprehensive ideas and wills which, when heard, will bring a vaster, more extensive, more complete and more perfect solution than before.” The Mother’s Agenda-June 1958, "For instance, the outcome of Distortion or of the vibration of distortion should naturally have been an accident or catastrophe, but if, within those vibrations, there is a consciousness that has the power to become aware of the Vibration of Truth and therefore manifest the Vibration of Truth, it can –it must –cancel the other vibration. Which would be translated, in the external phenomenon, by an intervention that would stop catastrophe… There is a growing feeling that the True is the only way to change the world; that all other process of slow transformation are always a tangent (you draw nearer and nearer but you never arrive) and the last step must be this --the substitution of the true vibration. " The Mother's Agenda, 24th March, 1964, "But even when you have the vision of the true thing, it’s RARELY wise to intervene. It becomes indispensable only if someone wants to do something that will necessarily end in a catastrophe. And even then (smiling), the intervention isn’t always very effective." The Mother’s Agenda-7/198-199, 27: “There are no conditions for receiving the influence of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother except faith, an entire sincerity in following the spiritual path and a will and capacity to open oneself to the influence; but this capacity usually comes as the result of sincerity and faith.” CWSA-32/The Mother with letters on the Mother/p-106, 28: “I don’t think that real faith is so very super abundant in this Asram. There are some who have it, but for the most part I have met not only doubt, but sharp criticism, constant questioning, much mockery of faith and spiritual experience, violent attacks on myself and the Mother — and that has been going on for the last fourteen years and more. Things are not so bad as they were, but there is plenty of it left still, and I do not think the time has come when the danger of an excessive faith is likely to take body.” 28 June 1934/CWSA-32/The Mother with letters on the Mother/p-114, "The Divine holds our hand through all and if he seems to let us fall, it is only to raise us higher. This saving return we shall experience so often that the denials of doubt will become eventually impossible and, when (1) once the foundation of equality is firmly established and (2) still more when the sun of the gnosis has risen, doubt itself will pass away because its cause and utility have ended." CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-775, “You see, the faith of people is a superstition – it’s not faith, it’s superstition. Now there are more and more people who think they have faith, and they ask me ridiculous things! They have superstitions like. Someone brings me a child born with a deformed arm, and the superstition is that if I put my hand on the arm of the child, he’ll be healed.... Things like that. It’s completely stupid. That’s not Power! They need a little miracle, you know, at their level.” The Mother’s Agenda-8.05.1971, 29: “There is no method in this Yoga except to concentrate, preferably in the heart, and call the presence and power of the Mother to take up the being and by the workings of her force transform the consciousness; one can concentrate also in the head or between the eyebrows, but for many this is a too difficult opening. When the mind falls quiet and the concentration becomes strong and the aspiration intense, then there is a beginning of experience. The more the faith, the more rapid the result is likely to be. For the rest one must not depend on one’s own efforts only, but succeed in establishing a contact with the Divine and a receptivity to the Mother’s Power and Presence.” CWSA-32/The Mother with letters on the Mother/p-217, 30: “Keep faith in your spiritual destiny, draw back from error and open more the psychic being to the direct guidance of the Mother’s light and power. If the central will is sincere, each recognition of a mistake can become a stepping-stone to a truer movement and a higher progress.” CWSA-32/The Mother with letters on the Mother/p-228, 31: CWSA-32/The Mother with letters on the Mother/p-5, 32: CWSA-32/The Mother with letters on the Mother/p-294, 33: “The Divine holds our hand through all and if he seems to let us fall, it is only to raise us higher. This saving return we shall experience so often that the denials of doubt will become eventually impossible and, when once the foundation of equality is firmly established and still more when the sun of the gnosis has risen, doubt itself will pass away because its cause and utility have ended.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-775, 34: CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-528, 35: Savitri-73, 36: “The action of the three gunas is the subject-matter of the Veda ; but do thou become free from the triple guna , nistreigunya, O Arjuna ; without the dualities, ever based in the true being, without getting or having, possessed of the self, nityasattwastha or O Arjuna live with your ceaseless Psychic waking trance.” The Gita-2.45, 37: “Therefore at all times remember me and fight; for if thy mind and thy understanding are always fixed on and given up to Me, to Me thou shalt surely come.” The Gita-8.7, (Japa is identified as prakriti Yajna.)“He who continually remembers Me, thinking of none else, the Yogin, O Partha, who is in constant union with Me, finds Me easy to attain.” The Gita-8.14, “Worship given to the godhead, to the twice-born, to the spiritual guide, to the wise, cleanness, candid dealing, sexual purity and avoidance of killing and injury to others, are called the askesis of the body.” The Gita-17.14, “Therefore with the pronunciation of OM the acts of sacrifice, giving and askesis as laid down in the rules are always commenced by the knowers of the Brahman or Spiritual man.” The Gita-17.24, 38: Savitri-444, 39: CWSA-32/The Mother with letters on the Mother/p-480, 40: CWSA-32/The Mother with letters on the Mother/p-26, 41: “…but the healing by faith in the cells is an actual fact and a law of Nature and has been demonstrated often enough even apart from Yoga. The way to get faith and everything else is to insist on having them and refuse to flag or despair or give up until one has them — it is the way by which everything has been got since this difficult world began to have thinking and aspiring creatures upon it. It is to open always, always to the Light and turn one’s back on the darkness. It is to refuse the voices that cry persistently, “You cannot, you shall not, you are incapable, you are the puppet of a dream” — for these are the enemy voices, they cut one off from the result that was coming by their strident clamour and then triumphantly point to the barrenness of result as a proof of their thesis. The difficulty of the endeavour is a known thing, but the difficult is not the impossible — it is the difficult that has always been accomplished and the conquest of difficulties makes up all that is valuable in the earth’s history . In the spiritual endeavour also it shall be so.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-100 Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: "All paralysing self-distrust has to be discouraged, all doubt of our strength to accomplish, for that is a false assent to impotence, an imagination of weakness and a denial of the omnipotence of the spirit. A present incapacity, however heavy may seem its pressure, is only a trial of faith and a temporary difficulty and to yield to the sense of inability is for the seeker of the integral Yoga a non-sense, for his object is a development of a perfection that is there already, latent in the being, because man carries the seed of the divine life in himself, in his own spirit , the possibility of success is involved and implied in the effort and victory is assured because behind is the call and guidance of an omnipotent power. At the same time this faith in oneself must be purified from all touch of rajasic egoism and spiritual pride. The sadhaka should keep as much as possible in his mind the idea that his strength is not his own in the egoistic sense but that of the divine universal Shakti and whatever is egoistic in his use of it must be a cause of limitation and in the end an obstacle. The power of the divine universal Shakti which is behind our aspiration is illimitable, and when it is rightly called upon it cannot fail to pour itself into us and to remove whatever incapacity and obstacle, now or later; for the times and durations of our struggle while they depend at first, instrumentally and in part, on the strength of our faith and our endeavour, are yet eventually in the hands of the wisely determining secret Spirit, alone the Master of the Yoga, the Ishwara . Sri Aurobindo CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-779-780 “If we see unity everywhere, if we recognize that all comes by the divine will, see God in all, in our enemies or rather our opponents in the game of life as well as our friends, in the powers that oppose and resist us as well as the powers that favour and assist, in all energies and forces and happenings. And if besides we can feel that all is undivided from our self, all the world one with us within our universal being, then this attitude becomes much easier to the heart and mind. But even before we can attain or are firmly seated in that universal vision, we have by all the means in our power to insist on this receptive and active equality and calm. Even something of it, alpam api asya dharmasya, is a great step towards perfection; a first firmness in it is the beginning of liberated perfection; its completeness is the perfect assurance of a rapid progress in all the other members of perfection. For without it we can have no solid basis; and by the pronounced lack of it we shall be constantly falling back to the lower status of desire, ego, duality, ignorance.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-724

The Divine Call "Hearts touched by thy (Savitri's) love shall answer to my (Supreme Lord's) call," Savitri-701 (Supreme Lord said to Savitri) "And with my nameless influence fill men’s lives." Savitri-703 “Two irrefutable signs prove that one is in relation with the Supramental : A perfect and constant equality: To be perfect, the equality must be invariable and spontaneous, effortless, towards all circumstances, all happenings, all contacts, material or psychological, irrespective of their character and impact. 2. An absolute certainty in the knowledge: The absolute and indisputable certainty of an infallible knowledge through identity." THE MOTHER TMCW-15/Words of The Mother-III/p-102, “The capacities required to gain access to the supramental world . Capacity for indefinite expansion of consciousness on all planes including the material. Limitless plasticity, to be able to follow the movement of becoming. Perfect equality abolishing all possibility of ego reaction." THE MOTHER The Mother’s Agenda/January 12, 1962. “The Divinity mentioned by Sri Aurobindo is NOT A PERSON, but a condition to be shared and lived by all those who prepare themselves for it." THE MOTHER TMCW-15/Words of The Mother-III/p-104 "All he had been and all towards which he grew Must now be left behind or else transform Into a self of That which has no name." Savitri-307 “And actually, to do Sri Aurobindo’s work is to realize the Supramental on earth. So I began that work and, as a matter of fact, this was the only thing I asked of my body. I told it, ‘Now you shall set right everything which is out of order and gradually realize this intermediate supermanhood between man and the supramental being or, in other words, what I call the superman.’... And this is what I have been doing for the last eight years, and even much more during the past two years, since 1956. Now it is the work of each day, each minute.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda- 10th May 1958 “When the Supramental manifests, an unequalled joy spreads over the earth.” The Mother TMCW-15/Words of the Mother-III/p-91 “It seems to me that the purpose of the Supramental Yoga is to dissipate ignorance from the entire cosmos and remove the darkness of earthly nature, in order to make the divine life possible.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-279-280 All noble and high Religions aim at transfiguration of son of men into son of God and are having three fundamental ways or three essential affirmations of approaching life that can be adopted with regard to our existence: Firstly , the belief in the immortality, the eternal persistence of the individual human Spirit apart from the body, that is our Supra-terrestrial or other worldly existence or an occult link through which all things are ordered, governed and harmonised in their fundamental relations and process; secondly , it is in Heavens beyond that we must seek our entire Divine fulfilment, and their other assertion of the kingdom of God or the kingdom of the perfect upon Earth must be put aside as delusion, or in any case, the Absolute, the Parabrahman is the origin and goal of all existence, that is our Supracosmic view of things; thirdly, an emphasis on the development of the Ethical and Spiritual being as the means of ascension and therefore the one proper business of this brief life in this world of Matter; during this temporary stay from birth to death we have to study the laws of becoming and take the best advantage of them to realise the dynamism and potentiality in us, that is our cosmic and Terrestrial existence . It is practically impossible for man taken as a race to guide his life permanently or wholly by the leading motive of any of these three mental attitudes towards life to the exclusion of the other two claims on his nature. Thus, one of the above three does not harmonise with the other two and by this disharmony humanity is thrown into great perplexities of contradiction and hence subjects itself to doubt, division, denial and leap away from the problem. Integral Yoga rejects the above three limiting conclusions or unsatisfactory solutions that after liberating Mind, Life and Soul within one must turn from the unconquerable Material principle and from the intractable and unregenerated Earth to find elsewhere his Divine substance. The speciality and superiority of integral Yoga over all the Religious and Yogic schools is that a fourth fundamental theory is sufficiently nurtured¹⁹ which is integration, synthesis, mutual indwelling and reconciliation of the above three Religious factors and it is by knowing each in its completeness that the three reconcile to become one in our total Consciousness and total Knowledge. It recognises the other subtle states of Matter or an ascending series of the Divine gradations of substance and through acceptance of this higher law of ascending and descending Consciousness, the luminous and puissant material transfiguration is possible. In this last category would fall the view of Integral Spiritual Evolution where Supracosmic is accepted as source and support , the Supraterrestrial or otherworldly for a condition and connecting link (for bridging the gulf between Suparacosmic and terrestrial Matter) and the cosmic and Terrestrial for its field and circumstance, and with human Mind, Life and Body for its nodus, turning point and dynamic mould into which Supreme existence can be poured in, initially intermittently and finally continuously for a higher and even highest perfection. In India, three types of Divines are generally adored. The first type of Divine belongs to Moderate Spirituality, who is identified as the giver of boons and curses. Devotees worship Him with rapt attention with the intention of getting favour¹⁵ from Him and leading an easy²¹ and comfortable life. He is aware in his mind of the Divine’s personal form and oblivious of His Impersonal Spiritual form; thus, he transforms the high truth of swift Spiritual evolution into the slow evolution of religious movement. The second type of Divine belongs to later Vedantists , Illusionists and Nirvanists, where Brahman is experienced as That, which, being known, all becomes unreal and an incomprehensible mystery or as the Kena Upanishad recognises, ‘That is the divine Brahman and not this which men here adore.”⁴ This adoration of the Impersonal Divine of Jnana Yoga/Sankhya is identified as the principal motive and passage for higher Spiritual life for developing Souls/traditional Sadhakas /beginners of integral Yoga, dvija. The third type of Divine belongs to Ancient Vedantists where Brahman is experienced as That which being known all is known and nothing is lost¹⁶ or Brahman is experienced as the triple formula of Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Self. (1) The Self is in all things, which is the basis of our Psychic individuality in the universal; (2) all things are within the Self, which is the basis of our Spiritual oneness in difference and (3) all things are made up of the stuff of the Self, which is the basis of our Supramental oneness with all. In this quest, a relation between Spirit and Matter is worked out and the force of Brahman penetrates into material life. In this trend, adoration of the Divine’s personal form (as Purushottama , Supramental Self) is identified as more important than His impersonal form (as Akshara Purusha , Spiritual Being). This subordination of Impersonal Divine to Personal Divine is the basis of Sadhana for a developed Soul¹ or Sadhaka of integral Yoga. Thus, Matter and Spirit get equal attention and importance and are reconciled. The Moderate and later Vedantic Spirituality are identified as escapist Spirituality¹³ and they cannot confront Death. In ancient Vedantic Spirituality, four fold Spiritual energy are accumulated which later confronts with four imperfections or negations of Matter that of Ignorance, Falsehood, Suffering and Death; these imperfections are purified, transformed and perfected into Knowledge, Truth, Delight and Immortality. During the hour of death and extreme adversity, the ancient Vedantists confront them, whereas Moderates submit before them and later Vedantists accept Death as a passage to Param Dham . The God of popular Religion is a Power who must do favours to the devotees; they always want something, demand something, expect to get something and their whole life is a perpetual bargain to satisfy their desire. Their idea of the Divine is something that knows little more than they do and is at their exclusive service. The Gita confirms² that those who adore the Divine to satisfy their desire do not experience movement in higher planes of consciousness. In Spiritual life, this conditional worship is transformed into self-offering, self-giving, and self-consecration of what one has, what one is, and what one will become. Pulling of the Divine Force²⁰ is replaced with offering of oneself to the Divine. The self-fulfilment by (1) sacrifice with Self-control, atma-samyama ,⁶ and rejection of lower Nature, vairagya ⁹ or (2) motiveless sacrificial work by renouncing the fruit of work, phala tyagam ,⁷ or (3) desiring nothing from the supreme Lover and His creation, anapekhya ,⁸ leads one to higher planes of Consciousness and these three fundamental truths are less easily grasped by bound souls. A religious man wants to take something from the Divine, pull the Divine Force out of impatience, while a Spiritual man wants to give himself to the Divine, and waits all infinity without hurry for the fulfilment of his Divine mission. "The will of self-giving forces away by its power the veil between God and man; it annuls every error and annihilates every obstacle. "¹⁴ The basis of Spiritual life is an intense need to become one with the Divine, to melt in the Divine, and to disappear in the Divine. The aim of Spiritual and Supramental action is not miraculous realisations without lasting results filling the world with admiration but a frequent or constant natural miracle that alone effects a lasting transformation and by full mastery of constantly calling down of the luminous dynamic Divine Shakti one can face/solve all the problems of existence which is the logical, natural and inevitable consequence of intense aspiration, sincere endeavour and firm conviction. The Divinity visioned by Sri Aurobindo is an inherent all-pervading Consciousness-Force, ‘a half-veiled Manifestation present and near to us here in the universe’³ that does not reject but accepts and transcends the limitation of the personal God of popular Religion, which is a form restricted by his quality, representation, name, personality and is distinguished from all other Deities of other doctrines. The disadvantage of the gospel of personal extra-cosmic omnipotent Godhead who has created and governs this world in most of the religious schools is that this worship forms an unbridgeable gulf¹⁷ between God and man, Brahman and the world and the possibility of man ascending to the status of God becomes remote. The error created by man in his relation with God, a partial manifestation of the Divine, elevates an actual and practical differentiation in Being, Consciousness and Force into an essential division, confusion and ethical difficulty. If man has to ascend to the status of God, then he has to go beyond the paralysing division of the mind where Knowledge is not self-divided, Force is not self-divided, Being is not self-divided and there will be no idea clash with other ideas and no opposition of the will or force with other will or force. A Sadhak of integral Yoga has to realise Integral Godhead primarily as comprehensive Consciousness, Vijnana , the force of blissful Oneness, Harmony and Order, the harmonious invasion of 'fiery ocean of felicity ,'¹² Truth, and Light; secondarily as impersonal Spiritual truth of the multiple Divine Concentration, Jnana, and this Light has descended sea like into an evolutionary world of Cosmic Ignorance and tertiarily as apprehensive Consciousness, Prajnana, cosmic differentiation, mental adoration of personal aspect of monotheistic and polytheistic Deities, Brahman and an infinite multiplicity of ignorant and suffering beings unaware of the Self. The Divine or the Brahman of the East or the Absolute of the West has in its nature two sides or two terms of the Being, the fundamental Reality and the Becoming, an effectual Reality; it is only a pure infinite essence that can manifest in infinite ways. It is at once the supreme Person, the Being in its transcendental and cosmic Consciousness and Force, the Sachchidananda with infinite Quality and without any Quality, Saguna and Nirguna , Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnipresent which informs, embraces and governs all existences, the Controller of all energies, the Conscious in all that is Conscient and Inconscient, the inhabitant of all souls, minds, hearts and bodies, the Ruler and Over-ruler of all works, the Seer and Overseer of all happenings, the Enjoyer of all Delight, the Creator who has built all things in His own being, the All Person of whom all beings are personalities; in His Consciousness-Force He is the Creatrix Divine Mother, a Power and Energy working out of the Being; in His Being He is the Creator Father of all that is; in His Beauty and Joy He is the All-Beloved and All-Lover; in His existence He is the Friend of all creature; in His dynamism of Will to light and vision and Will to power and works He is the Master of all action; in His wisdom of state of Knowledge and power of Knowledge, He is the All-Teacher; in His world play He is the Divine Playmate. The Unknowable is something to us supreme, wonderful and ineffable by our mind-created speech, which continually formulates itself to our consciousness and continually escapes from the formulation it has made; but even when we are most aware of it, we cannot describe it because our language and thought can deal only with the relative. The Absolute does not deny the truth of His own existence but is so infinitely expansive that no finite positive iti iti (It is this, it is that) and finite negative, neti neti (It is not this, it is not that) can be formulated which can exhaust It or bind It to the limitation of the definition. So, the Divine can be limited neither by formlessness nor by form, neither by unity nor by multiplicity, neither by immobile stable status of Self nor by dynamic mobility of Nature; it can be restricted neither by these illimitable attributes nor by our most affirmative experiences which exceed all definitions, nor even can it be expressed by our largest conception of original self-concentration of Sachchidananda. Though the Unknowable is not knowable by the finite mind or to our limited consciousness, it is not altogether and in every way unknowable; it is self-evident to an infinite Consciousness or a knowledge by Identity and the Spiritual Being within us can explore all the ranges of Consciousness from the dark Inconscient plane to the highest plane of Sachchidananda to unravel the whole of the Unknowable and its complete Divine manifestation. The human liberated Soul carries within him the triune Consciousness of the Individual, the Universal and the Transcendent, can alone work out at its critical turning point the movement of Divine self-manifestation which appears to us as involution and evolution of the impersonal Divine Consciousness between two terms of Ignorance and Knowledge. He is no longer considered as a subordinate or minor circumstance in the Divine Play or Lila of the Nara-Narayana , but one with the total movement of the Infinite, capable of incarnating Godhead Consciousness in himself. The individual Soul in Becoming arrives at Infinite Self-Knowledge and All-Knowledge when it knows the Supreme and Absolute as Bliss of Existence, Bliss of Consciousness and Bliss of Force or Will and possesses the Nature and Consciousness of the Transcendent and the Universal, the unity of One Being and all Beings and to live in that Knowledge and to transform his life by the evolution of seven-fold Power of Being (Brahman, the ancient Seers said is the Matter, is the Life, is the Mind, is the Supermind, Vijnana and is the triune glory of Sachchidananda ) is his Divine destiny. The main method or the indispensable self-disciplines of integral Yoga are derived from Ancient Vedanta (for example, the Isha, Taittiriya, Kena Upanishads etc) with comprehensive concentration as the principal instrument of sadhana , whereas the substitute methods or the dispensable self-disciplines of this Yoga are derived from the later Vedanta and the Tantra , where exclusive concentration is the chief instrument of Sadhana. The difference between the two Vedantic quests are that in the former two great formulas of existence, “One without a second”, ekamevadvitiyam ¹⁰ and “All this is the Brahman” , sarvam khalu idam brahma ¹¹ are successfully combined and hence Brahman is experienced as That which being known all is known, yasmin vijnate sarvam idam vijnatam ; whereas in the latter quest exclusive importance is given to the first formula of existence to the total exclusion of the second formula and hence Brahman is experienced as That, which being known, all becomes unreal and an incomprehensible mystery, (mental) Maya. The exclusive quest of later Vedanta was a departure from the comprehensive quest of the ancient Vedanta, and the vehement, impatient longing of the former to possess the Divine exclusively gave birth to the psycho-physical methods of sadhana , whereas in the latter, integral faith, patience and courage to search the truth equally in Matter and Spirit gave birth to Spiritual methods of sadhana . The disadvantages of psycho-physical methods are that they stress the rise of the six Kundalini chakras from below, where the physical presence of the guru is indispensable in order to avoid any Spiritual fall and lower formulations are used for higher Spiritual gain. A dependency on psycho-physical methods only is to subject oneself to outer nature leading towards mechanised living, artificially constructed unity, and ‘will bring in a limitation and subjection to Prakriti, '¹⁸’ which can give birth to tamasic i mpatience and rajasic ambition of the exclusive kind. But if it can be an efficient subordinate of the Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental methods, then it will be the most powerful of all means for physical transformation. Integral Yoga through Savitri book proposes a Sadhaka to attain the highest status of Jnana and Bhakti Yoga by becoming Karma Yogi or by performing consecrated action. It proposes to pursue sadhana or Karma Yoga in double seclusion. Seclusion from the enjoyment of the five sense organs and seclusion from the attraction of the outer world. Karma Yoga establishes a Sadhaka in kinghood of possession of inner and outer kingdom; Jnana Yoga establishes a Sadhaka in becoming an adventurer and pioneer of new Consciousness and of protecting the Kingdom or of guarding Truth’s diamond throne; Bhakti Yoga fulfils life of outer kingdom by manifestation of Beauty, Delight and Love. It enlarges the inner kingdom as the Divine 'Love’s golden wings have power to ’⁵ bridge the void in Consciousness; ‘The feet of love tread naked hardest '’⁵ Subconscient and Inconscient worlds; Love labours in the depths of Inconscient, 'exults on the heights'⁵ of Sachchidananda ’ to divinise life. After one is established in the above three Yogas, he reconciles them and out of the effort of reconciliation a fourth Yoga is born, known as Yoga of Self-perfection. This higher instrumentation is responsible for Subconscient, Inconscient and Cellular transformation action. These are identified as the highest Call of integral Yoga through which the Divine Contact in the material world is established. OM TAT SAT References: 1: “Arjuna said: Those seekers of Bhakti Yoga who thus by a constant union seek after Thy personal Form and those seekers of Jnana Yoga who seek after Thy unmanifest Immutable impersonal Form, which of them are greater Yoga? The Blessed Lord said those who are most united with Me and adore Me through constant union, emotional mind is settled in Me and are possessed of the supreme faith of Bhakti Yoga , I consider them to be the greatest Yogi.” The Gita-12.1, 2, 2: “The sacrifices offered with a view of getting personal fruit and benefit and also for ostentation, know that to be rajasic sacrifice.” (The Gita-17.12) “If one does work with attachment to the fruits of work then that sacrifice does not go to the Divine but to the ego, to Asura, Yakshas and Rakshasas .” (The Gita-17.4) “They who desire the fulfilment of the fruit of their works, siddhi , on earth sacrifice to Gods because by that sacrificial work without knowledge, one gets easy and swift result, khipram siddhirbhabati ,” (The Gita-4.12). " Therefore without attachment perform ever the work that is to be done (done for the sake of the world, lokasangraha , as is made clear immediately afterwards); for by doing work without attachment man attains to the highest." (The Gita-3.19) Sacrificial work with knowledge of the wheel of Works, evam pravartitam chakram, (The Gita-3.16) and without attachment leads to higher planes of Consciousness. “To walk on the path you must have a dauntless intrepidity, you must never turn back upon yourself with this mean, petty, weak, ugly movement that fear is…An indomitable courage, a perfect sincerity, a total self-giving to the extent that you do not calculate or bargain, you do not give with the idea of receiving, you do not offer yourself with the intention of being protected, you do not have a faith that needs proofs, — this is indispensable for advancing on the path, — this alone can shelter you against all dangers.” Words Of The Mother/Volume-15/P-190, 3: CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-74, 4: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-72, "On the other hand, the weakness of a contemplative quietistic spirituality is that it arrives at this result by a too absolute abstraction and in the end it turns into a nothing or a fiction the human soul whose aspiration was yet all the time the whole sense of this attempt at union; for without the soul and its aspiration liberation and union could have no meaning. The little that this way of thinking recognises of his other powers of existence, it relegates to an inferior preliminary action which never arrives at any full or satisfying realisation in the Eternal and Infinite. Yet these things too which it restricts unduly, the potent will, the strong yearning of love, the positive light and all-embracing intuition of the conscious mental being are from the Divine, represent essential powers of him and must have some justification in their Source and some dynamic way of self-fulfilment in him." CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-339-340, 5: Savitri-592, 6: The Gita-4.27, 7: The Gita-12.11, 12, 8: 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/(CWM-14, 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.” TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-4, 9: The Gita-6.35, 13.8, 10: Chandogya Upanishad-6.2.1, 11: Chandogya Upanishad-3.14.1, 12: Savitri-237, 13: “To be was a prison, extinction the escape.” Savitri-288, (prison of Moderate Spirituality and extinction of Ascetic Spirituality) (Death said to Savitri) "Two only are the doors of man’s escape, Death of his body Matter’s gate to peace, Death of his soul his last felicity." Savitri-635, "Escape brings not the victory and the crown! Something thou cam’st to do from the Unknown, But nothing is finished and the world goes on Because only half God’s cosmic work is done. Only the everlasting No has neared And stared into thy eyes and killed thy heart: But where is the Lover’s everlasting Yes, And immortality in the secret heart, The voice that chants to the creator Fire," Savitri-310 "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." Savitri-448 14: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-335, 15: "In the transformation of ordinary religious worship into the Yoga of pure Bhakti we see this development from the motived and interested worship of popular religion into a principle of motiveless and self-existent love. This last is in fact the touch- stone of the real Bhakti and shows whether we are really in the central way or are only upon one of the bypaths leading to it. We have to throw away the props of our weakness, the motives of the ego, the lures of our lower nature before we can deserve the divine union." CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga-553, "It may be asked how is that devotion high and noble, udara , which seeks God only for the worldly boons he can give or as a refuge in sorrow and suffering, and not the Divine for its own sake? Do not egoism, weakness, desire reign in such an adoration and does it not belong to the lower nature ? Moreover, where there is not knowledge, the devotee does not approach the Divine in his integral all-embracing truth, vasudevah sarvam iti , (The Gita-7.19) but constructs imperfect names and images of the Godhead which are only reflections of his own need, temperament and nature, and he worships them to help or appease his natural longings. He constructs for the Godhead the name and form of Indra or Agni, of Vishnu or Shiva, of a divinised Christ or Buddha , or else some composite of natural qualities, an indulgent God of love and mercy, or a severe God of righteousness and justice, or an awe-inspiring God of wrath and terror and flaming punishments, or some amalgam of any of these, and to that he raises his altars without and in his heart and mind and falls down before it to demand from it worldly good and joy or healing of his wounds or a sectarian sanction for an erring, dogmatic, intellectual, intolerent knowledge. All this up to a certain point is true enough. Very rare is the great soul who knows that Vasudeva the omnipresent Being is all that is, va sudevah. sarvam iti sa maha tma sudurlabhah . (The Gita-7.19) Men are led away by various outer desires which take from them the working of the inner knowledge, ka mais tais tair hri tajn a na h . (The Gita-7.20) Ignorant, they resort to other godheads, imperfect forms of the deity which correspond to their desire, prapadyante ’nyadevatah (The Gita-7.20) . Limited, they set up this or that rule and cult, tam tam niyamam asthaya , (The Gita-7.20) which satisfies the need of their nature. And in all this it is a compelling personal determination, it is this narrow need of their own nature that they follow and take for the highest truth, incapable yet of the infinite and its largeness. The Godhead in these forms gives them their desires if their faith is whole; but these fruits and gratifications are temporary and it is a petty intelligence and unformed reason which makes the pursuit of them its principle of religion and life. " CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-285-286, "But the weakness of the kinetic and the emotional religions is that they are too much absorbed in some divine Personality and in the divine values of the finite. And, even when they have a conception of the infinite Godhead, they do not give us the full satisfaction of knowledge because they do not follow it out into its most ultimate and supernal tendencies. These religions fall short of a complete absorption in the Eternal and the perfect union by identity, — and yet to that identity in some other way, if not in the abstractive, since there all oneness has its basis, the spirit that is in man must one day arrive." CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-339, "The weakness of the human heart wants only fair and comforting truths or in their absence pleasant fables; it will not have the truth in its entirety because there there is much that is not clear and pleasant and comfortable, but hard to understand and harder to bear. The raw religionist, the superficial optimistic thinker, the sentimental idealist, the man at the mercy of his sensations and emotions agree in twisting away from the sterner conclusions, the harsher and fiercer aspects of universal existence." CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-381, “It is difficult to acquire or to practise this faith and steadfastness on the rough and narrow path of Yoga because of the impatience of both heart and mind and the eager but soon faltering will of our rajasic nature. The vital nature of man hungers always for the fruit of its labour and, if the fruit appears to be denied or long delayed, he loses faith in the ideal and in the guidance. For his mind judges always by the appearance of things, since that is the first ingrained habit of the intellectual reason in which he so inordinately trusts. Nothing is easier for us than to accuse God in our hearts when we suffer long or stumble in the darkness or to abjure the ideal that we have set before us. For we say, “I have trusted to the Highest and I am betrayed into suffering and sin and error.” Or else, “I have staked my whole life on an idea which the stern facts of experience contradict and discourage. It would have been better to be as other men are who accept their limitations and walk on the firm ground of normal experience.” In such moments — and they are sometimes frequent and long — all the higher experience is forgotten and the heart concentrates itself in its own bitterness. It is in these dark passages that it is possible to fall for good or to turn back from the divine labour.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-244, "Sri Aurobindo is always there. At times he becomes very active, especially when people "pump" or pull or crush you under the weight of all their difficulties and all their desires. Then (these last few days have been like that), I might put it into the words he often used, but this is his attitude: "They accept the God only when they can crucify him." I find that so interesting, you know! They accept God – the Divine – only when they can crucify him. That is to say, they recognize the Divine in a body only if that body is fit to be crucified or tortured. And then, if things go wrong, "So he’s not divine!" He is not divine.... He always used to say, "The Divine takes care to veil himself so as not to crush them." 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." The Mother's Agenda-February 20, 1968, "I was looking at a problem....Basically, if you remove the veneer – the veneer of good manners – man admits the existence of the Divine only on condition that his sole occupation be to satisfy all of man’s needs and desires – it may be collective desires, even "planetary" desires as Y. would put it, but it boils down to that... And it’s like that especially, especially with the notion of a Divine who put on a body.... In fact, they found it quite natural that Christ should be crucified for their own salvation – I find it monstrous... I’ve always found it monstrous." The Mother's Agenda/June 8, 1968 16: "No God-knowledge can be integral, perfect or universally satisfying which leaves unfulfilled their absolute claim , no wisdom utterly wise which in its intolerant asceticism of search negates or in the pride of pure knowledge belittles the spiritual reality behind these ways of the Godhead... The greatness of the central thought of the Gita in which all its threads are gathered up and united, consists in the synthetic value of a conception which recognises the whole nature of the soul of man in the universe and validates by a large and wise unification its many-sided need of the supreme and infinite Truth, Power, Love, Being to which our humanity turns in its search for perfection and immortality and some highest joy and power and peace. There is a strong and wide endeavour towards a comprehensive spiritual view of God and man and universal existence. Not indeed that everything without any exception is seized in these eighteen chapters, no spiritual problem left for solution ; but still so large a scheme is laid out that we have only to fill in, to develop, to modify, to stress, to follow out points, to work out hint and illuminate adumbration in order to find a clue to any further claim of our intelligence and need of our spirit. The Gita itself does not evolve any quite novel solution out of its own questionings. To arrive at the comprehensiveness at which it aims, it goes back behind the great philosophical systems to the original Vedanta of the Upanishads; for there we have the widest and profoundest extant synthetic vision of spirit and man and cosmos. But what is in the Upanishads undeveloped to the intelligence because wrapped up in a luminous kernel of intuitive vision and symbolic utterance, the Gita brings out in the light of a later intellectual thinking and distinctive experience. " CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-340, 17: “For myself it was Ramakrishna who personally came & first turned me to this Yoga. Vivekananda in the Alipore jail gave me the foundations of that knowledge which is the basis of our sadhana. The error of the Mission is to keep too much to the forms of Ramakrishna & Vivekananda & not keep themselves open for new outpourings of their spirit, — the error of all “Churches” and organised religious bodies. ” CWSA-36/Autobiographical Note/p-177-178, “But I can tell you about my own experience. Until the age of about twenty-five, all I knew was the God of religions, God as men have created him, and I did not want him at any price. I denied his existence but with the certitude that if such a God did exist, I detested him …When I was about twenty-five I discovered the inner God and at the same time I learned that the God described by most Western religions is none other than the Great Adversary…When I came to India, in 1914, and became acquainted with Sri Aurobindo’s teaching, everything became very clear.” The Mother/TMCW-10/On Thoughts and Aphorisms-331-332, “That is precisely the distortion in the Western attitude as opposed to the attitude of the Gita. It is extremely difficult for the Western mind to understand in a living and concrete manner that everything is the Divine.” The Mother/TMCW-10/On Thoughts and Aphorisms/p-101, 18: "The Prana is not only a force for the action of physical and vital energy, but supports also the mental and spiritual action. Therefore the full and free working of the pranic shakti is required not only for the lower but still necessary use, but also for the free and full operation of mind and supermind and spirit in the instrumentality of our complex human nature. That is the main sense of the use of exercises of Pranayama for control of the vital force and its motions which is so important and indispensable a part of certain systems of Yoga. The same mastery must be got by the seeker of the integral Yoga; but he may arrive at it by other means and in any case he must not be dependent on any physical or breathing exercise for its possession and maintenance, for that will at once bring in a limitation and subjection to Prakriti . Her instrumentation has to be used flexibly by the Purusha, but not to be a fixed control on the Purusha . The necessity of the pranic force, however, remains and will be evident to our self-study and experience. It is in the Vedic image the steed and conveyance of the embodied mind and will, vahana . If it is full of strength and swiftness and a plenitude of all its powers, then the mind can go on the courses of its action with a plenary and unhampered movement. But if it is lame or soon tired or sluggish or weak, then an incapacity is laid on the effectuation of the will and activity of the mind. The same rule holds good of the supermind when it first comes into action. There are indeed states and activities in which the mind takes up the pranic shakti into itself and this dependence is not felt at all; but even then the force is there, though involved in the pure mental energy. The supermind, when it gets into full strength, can do pretty well what it likes with the pranic shakti , and we find that in the end this life power is transformed into the type of a supramentalised prana which is simply one motor power of that greater consciousness. But this belongs to a later stage of the siddhi of the Yoga." CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-733-734, 19: "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, 20: "(Q) Mother, what is the difference between an ardent aspiration and a pulling down of force? (Ans:) It is the vital that pulls down and the psychic that aspires." TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-77, "There is certainly a great difference between calling and pulling — you can and must always call for help and the rest — the answer will be proportionate to your capacity of reception and assimilation. Pulling is a selfish movement that may bring down forces quite disproportionate to your capacities and thus are harmful." TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-77, 21: "But actually, to tell you the truth, I think your lives are so easy that you don’t exert yourselves very much! How many among you have truly an INTENSE need to find their psychic beings? To find out truly who they are? To find out what their roles are, why they are here? ... You just let yourselves drift. You even complain when things aren’t easy enough! You just take things as they come. And sometimes, should an aspiration arise in you and you encounter some difficulty in yourself, you say, ‘Oh, Mother is there! She’ll take care of it for me!’ And you think about something else." The Mother's Agenda/August 25, 1954, Download this WEB PAGE in PDF format: The Mother's Call “Are there not still million fights to wage?” Savitri-687 The Mind's Method of Abstraction "The buddhi dwelling always in this master idea (self-surrender) 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, The First Capacity of Mind: It is a habituated divider of the Indivisible and its whole nature is to dwell on one thing at a time to the exclusion of others. The ultimate unity and absolute infinity are to its conscience of things abstract notions and unseizable quantities, not something that is real to its grasp, much less something that is alone real. The first difficulty of the mind is identified as its inability to hold at once the unity and multiplicity of the existence. The Third Capacity of Mind: To train the mind as pure, clear and passive reflector of the Divine is identified as an important exercise in integral Yoga. The intellect cannot be a sufficient guide in the search for spiritual truth and realization and yet it has to be utilised in the integral movement of our nature. The third difficulty of the mind is identified as realization of all this as Sachchidananda. The Second Capacity of Mind: The characteristic energy of pure Mind is change through self-enlargement and self-improvement and moves continually from a smaller and simpler to a larger and more complex perfection. The second difficulty is that fear, desire and sorrow are recognized as diseases of the mind, born of its sense of division and limitation. The Fourth Capacity of Mind: The last gradation of thinking opens in us the pure ideative mind which lives disinterestedly in the truth of ideas for Divine action and Spiritual experience. The fourth difficulty is to unify without losing and integralise without rejecting. Read More The Sunlit and Golden Path Sun-lit Path: The pure in Soul can walk in Light. The Golden Path: Light re-enters life through multiple (ten) Selves. The Abysmal Night: Light re-enters Inconscient Night. The Double Twilight: The First Twilight is created due to the invasion of the Sea of Light above the head to the dark Subconscient Sheath and the Second Twilight is created due to the invasion of the Sea of Light of Inconscient and Subconscient Self below the Feet to the dark Subconscient Sheath. The Eternal Day: Permanent rise of consciousness to Sachchidananda plane of Everlasting Day. Earthly Return: Permanent descent of Sachchidananda consciousness through return to Subconscient and Inconscient Earth. Read More The Supramental Yoga “The conditions (of Supramental transformation) Sri Aurobindo gives in detail in The Synthesis of Yoga and in still greater detail in his last articles on the (book) Supramental Manifestation . So now it is only a question of realisation .” The Mother TMCW-8/The Questions and Answers-1956/p-322 It appears from Sri Aurobindo’s following writings that those whose intellect is Spiritualised or those who have practiced Buddhi Yoga of the Gita can draw direct benefit from Supramental energy, that is now active in the earth’s atmosphere, “But still this line of development too is necessary, because there must be a bridge between the spirit and the intellectual reason: the light of a spiritual or at least a spiritualised intelligence is necessary for the fullness of our total inner evolution, and without it, if another deeper guidance is lacking, the inner movement may be erratic and undisciplined, turbid and mixed with unspiritual elements or one-sided or incomplete in its catholicity. For the transformation of the Ignorance into the integral Knowledge the growth in us of a spiritual intelligence ready to receive a higher light and canalise it for all the parts of our nature is an intermediate necessity of great importance.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine-913, “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 "Eventually their (purified intelligence and will, buddhya visuddhaya, The Gita-18.51) response can be opened up to the perfect discernings, intuitions, inspirations, revelations of the supermind and proceed by a more and more luminous and even infallible action. " Sri Aurobindo CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-655 "The buddhi dwelling always in this master idea (self-surrender) must discourage all its own lesser insistences and preferences and teach the whole being that the ego whether it puts forth its claim through the reason, the personal will, the heart or the desire-soul in the prana, has no just claim of any kind and all grief, revolt, impatience, trouble is a violence against the Master of the being. ... This complete self-surrender must be the chief mainstay of the sadhaka because it is the only way, apart from complete quiescence and indifference to all action, — and that has to be avoided, — by which the absolute calm and peace can come. The persistence of trouble, asanti, the length of time taken for this purification and perfection, itself must not be allowed to become a reason for discouragement and impatience. It comes because there is still something in the nature which responds to it, and the recurrence of trouble serves to bring out the presence of the defect, put the sadhaka upon his guard and bring about a more enlightened and consistent action of the will to get rid of it. When the trouble is too strong to be kept out, it must be allowed to pass and its return discouraged by a greater vigilance and insistence of the spiritualised buddhi . Thus persisting, it will be found that these things lose their force more and more, become more and more external and brief in their recurrence, until finally calm becomes the law of the being. This rule persists so long as the mental buddhi is the chief instrument; but when the supramental light takes possession of mind and heart, then there can be no trouble, grief or disturbance; for that brings with it a spiritual nature of illumined strength in which these things can have no place. There the only vibrations and emotions are those which belong to the anandamaya nature of divine unity.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-722-724, "But that (Supramental) cannot work in him so long as his present mental, vital, physical being is not liberated from its actual inferior working (of the three Gunas ). This purification is the first necessity." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-644-645, "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." Sri Aurobindo CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-839 "It is only when mentality is overpassed and drops away into a passive silence that there can be the full disclosure and the sovereign and integral action of the supramental gnosis." Sri Aurobindo CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-861 "A true, sincere, spontaneous life, as in the supramental world, is a springing forth of things through the fact of conscious will, a power over substance that shapes this substance according to what we decide it should be. And he who has this power and this knowledge can obtain whatever he wants , whereas he who does not has no artificial means of getting what he desires." The Mother The Mother's Agenda/3.2.1958 The First Character of this Supramental Change: is a complete reversal, a turning over, one might almost say, upside down of the whole activity… "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 The Second Character of the Supramental Change: is that the formation of the thought, will and delight can take place now wholly on the Supramental level and therefore there is initiated and reconciled an entirely luminous and effective Divine Will, Divine Wisdom and Divine Bliss or as hinted in Savitri: “But Savitri replied to the dread Voice: “O Death, who reasonest, I reason not, Reason that scans and breaks, but cannot build Or builds in vain because she doubts her work. I am, I love, I see, I act, I will.” (Savitri-594) "The Unseen’s eye that looks at the unseen, When Light with a golden ecstasy fills his brain And the Eternal’s wisdom drives his choice And eternal Will seizes the mortal’s will.” Savitri-665 The Third Character of the Supramental Change: The third character of this action is the Brahmic consciousness and vision… "There Knowledge called him to her mystic peaks Where thought is held in a vast internal sense And feeling swims across a sea of peace And vision climbs beyond the reach of Time." Savitri-299 “An invisible sunlight ran within her veins And flooded her brain with heavenly brilliances That woke a wider sight than earth could know.” Savitri-356 (Supramental vision) The Fourth Character of the Supramental Change: The final stage of the change will come when the Supermind occupies and Supramentalises the whole being and turns even the vital and physical sheaths into moulds of itself, responsive, subtle and instinctive with its powers. The man then becomes wholly Superman. This is at least the natural and integral process. "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 "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." Savitri-710 OM TAT SAT Read More The Mother's Yoga Our Relation with the Mother: The Mother book written by Sri Aurobindo gives a detailed account of a Spiritual or Impersonal Mother and hints briefly about the personal Psychic Mother and personal Supramental Mother. We enter direct relation with Her four dynamic Spiritual attributes after our Spiritual Being or Akshara Purusha above the head opens. The Mother’s Mission: The Mother’s mission on earth is to build our Soul and Nature into the Divine Truth, consistent with the decrees of the Supreme and draws us irresistibly towards the supreme ecstasies, the highest heights, the noblest aims and the largest vistas. Through union with the mediatrix, Spiritual Mother, fourfold Soul Forces are accumulated, which help confront the Inconscient negative energies, and these accumulated Soul Forces accompany us in successive births. Our Mission: The one and only purpose for which our life is destined is the Divine Work without all desire and self-regarding ego, all our life and not a part of life must be an offering to the Supreme and we must give ourselves completely without condition, demand and reservation and our only object in action shall be (1) to serve selflessly, (2) to receive inner growth, (3) to fulfil the Mother’s Divine Presence, (4) to become a manifesting instrument of the Divine Shakti in her works. The Starting Point of The Mother’s Yoga: The starting point of the Mother’s Yoga is identified as to detect first what is false or obscure in us and persistently reject it. If we support little false action and false thought then we lose not only the Divine’s Grace but also the Divine in every way and in its entirety. Our relationship with the Divine Mother is conditional. When we are open towards overhead Truth or Soul Saving Truth She is very close to us and when we are open towards falsehood or Soul Slaying Truth of three Gunas, She is very far from us. The Perfection Sought by Us: The perfection sought by us is to be one with Her in Her highest Spiritual and Universal action and to realise and possess the fullness of Her Shakti in our individual life. OM TAT SAT Read More The Mighty Mother's Playmate The First Condition of Becoming the Playmate: First one has to open one’s Soul in the heart or the Psychic being and dynamise four Divine Shaktis that of the Brahma Shakti of wisdom, Kshetra Shakti of Courage, Vaisya Shakti of Mutuality and Shudra Shakti of service and self-surrender. The Second Condition of Becoming the Playmate: Secondly one has to open the soul in the mind above the head, the spiritual being and dynamise four Divine Shaktis that of Maheshwari representing Wisdom, Mahakali, representing Power, Mahalakshmi representing Harmony and Mahasaraswti representing perfection in work. The Third Condition of Becoming the Playmate: Thirdly one has to open the soul in Supermind and dynamise four Supramental Divine Shaktis having the attributes of Truth Supreme, Power Supreme, Supreme Delight and Will Supreme. The Fourth Condition of Becoming the Playmate: One has to rise to the source of the Ananda and meet the Mother’s absolute power of Chit Shakti. Read More “There is no difference between the Mother’s path and mine; we have and have always had the same path, the path that leads to the supramental change and the divine realisation; not only at the end, but from the beginning they have been the same…The attempt to set up a division and opposition of this kind, putting the Mother on one side and myself on another and opposite or quite different side, has always been a trick of the forces of the Falsehood when they want to prevent a sadhaka from reaching the Truth. Dismiss all such falsehoods from your mind.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-32/The Mother with Letters on the Mother-81 “I wrote once before that these ideas about the separation between the Mother and myself and our paths being different or our goal different are quite erroneous. Our path is the same; our goal too is the same — the Supramental Divine .” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-32/The Mother with Letters on the Mother-81, The Mother's Teachings complements Sri Aurobindo's Teachings and The Mother's Yoga completes and fulfills Sri Aurobindo's Yoga . A thorough knowledge of The Mother’s Teachings preconditions a thorough knowledge of Sri Aurobindo. Similarly, a thorough knowledge of Sri Aurobindo’s Teachings preconditions a thorough knowledge of traditional Schools of Yoga and the subjective and objective knowledge of the whole Spiritual history of Earth. A thorough Spiritual knowledge of Their dual Divinities of a purified vessel dynamises limitless movements of ascending and descending Consciousness and an inflow of an incalculable quantum of continuous overhead Wisdom, Love, Light, Peace, Bliss, Force and Silence to earth's nether atmosphere.

Earth's Spiritual History ( Para-prakriti Savitri's declaration on Paramatma Satyavan ) "Desiring me since first the world began." (Savitri-614), “And once you enter into this consciousness where all things are seen with a single look, the infinite multitude of the Divine’s relationships with men, you realize how wonderful everything is, in every detail. You can also look at the history of mankind and see how much the Divine has evolved depending upon what men have understood, desired, hoped for or dreamed; how he was materialistic with the materialist, and how each day he grows, draws nearer, becomes more luminous, as the human consciousness widens. Everyone is free to choose. The perfection of this endless variety of relationships between man and God throughout the history of the world is an unutterable wonder. Yet all this together is but a second in the total manifestation of the Divine. The Divine is with you according to your aspirations. This does not mean, naturally, that He bends to the whims of your outer nature – I am speaking here of the truth of your being. Yet sometimes He does fashion himself according to your outer aspirations; and if, like the devout, you live alternately in estrangement and embrace, ecstasy and despair, the Divine too will be estranged from you or draw near, according to your belief. Therefore, one’s attitude is extremely important, even one’s outer attitude. People do not know just how important faith is, how faith is miracle – the creator of miracles. For if at each moment, you expect to be uplifted and drawn towards the Divine, He will come and uplift you, and He will be there, very near, nearer and nearer. " The Mother The Mother's Agenda/Vol-1/Undated 1957 Editorial Note This paper was first published in the 12th issue of Sri Matriniketan Ashram’s quarterly journal, The Descent, on the occasion of the Ashram’s inauguration on 01.02.2003. The manuscript was corrected by our Spiritual Fosterer, Sri K. Anurakta . His editorial contribution is documented in the e-Kindle book "Sri K. Anurakta and the Evolution of Sri Matriniketan Ashram . " Sri Matriniketan Ashram will celebrate its Silver Jubilee on 01.02.2028. On this auspicious occasion, the 115th issue of The Descent is scheduled to be released, featuring an expanded version of this special paper. In an earlier assessment, ChatGPT identified Earth’s Spiritual History as the spiritually most powerful webpage among the Ashram’s 100 webpages. We receive this assessment with gratitude, while recognising that the Spiritual significance of a work ultimately exceeds any external evaluation. We consecrate this paper at the Lotus Feet of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo and pray that They may accept it as an instrument for our deeper Sadhana and higher concentration. We have accepted Their Teachings not as a fixed set of monuments belonging to the immediate and distant past, but as Truths that are “constantly renewed, relived, their stuff of permanent truth constantly reshaped and developed in the inner thought and spiritual experience of a developing humanity.” — Sri Aurobindo, CWSA, Vol. 19, Essays on the Gita, p. 5. OM TAT SAT A Thorough Knowledge of Earth's Spiritual History “We do not belong to the past dawns, but to the noons of the future. A mass of new material is flowing into us; we have not only to assimilate the influences of the great theistic religions of India and of the world and a recovered sense of the meaning of Buddhism, but to take full account of the potent though limited revelations of modern knowledge and seeking; and, beyond that, the remote and dateless past which seemed to be dead is returning upon us with an effulgence of many luminous secrets long lost to the consciousness of mankind but now breaking out again from behind the veil. All this points to a new, a very rich, a very vast synthesis; a fresh and widely embracing harmonisation of our gains is both an intellectual and a spiritual necessity of the future. But just as the past syntheses have taken those which preceded them for their starting-point, so also must that of the future, to be on firm ground, proceed from what the great bodies of realised spiritual thought and experience in the past have given.”²² Sri Aurobindo Integral Yoga proposes a Sadhaka ¹ to have a full account of the Spiritual history of the earth which is ‘a constant development of a divine purpose, not a book that is closed, the lines of which have to be constantly repeated.’²³ This account also includes knowledge on the limited vision of modern Science,²² long practice of self-disciplines of traditional Shastra of the Veda, the Upanishad and the Gita ²⁰ subordinated by the long practice of the methods of Raja Yoga, Hatha Yoga and Tantra . This study of full account also includes Spiritual rise and Spiritual fall of human consciousness, the conquest of difficulties,³⁵ and the study of the limitations and immense possibilities of traditional and integral Sadhakas . Those who are fit for the Supramental world, for them, the knowledge of the Spiritual history of the earth will knock at their door. King Aswapati was able to receive such knowledge and by this experience, his position in existence became greater than God. (Refer to this line of Savitri, “All that the Gods have learned are there self-known.” Savitri-74) A complete knowledge on traditional schools of Yoga preconditions total knowledge from within and without on the Spiritual history of Earth. The full knowledge of history of earth can be traced from within by ascending to a higher state of Consciousness⁴⁰ and it can be traced from without by detailed study and practice of ancient Shastras where all the external 'Events are the crowded history of his' (Savitri-680) ordinary life. An in-depth knowledge on Sri Aurobindo’s Teachings is developed by rigorous practice of traditional schools of Yoga and restatement of the Spiritual history of the earth. So, a thorough knowledge of Sri Aurobindo preconditions a thorough knowledge on traditional schools of Yoga. The Mother’s Teachings is identified as a restatement of Sri Aurobindo’s Teachings. So a thorough knowledge on The Mother’s Teachings preconditions thorough knowledge of Sri Aurobindo’s Teachings. The Mother’s Work rests on the thorough knowledge on Her Teachings or detailed knowledge²¹ on the movement of Her comprehensive Consciousness. The Mother observed, “But the difficulty is to find the “some one” who knows Sri Aurobindo thoroughly…(and subsequently) who is capable of receiving His inspirations directly…capable of understanding Sri Aurobindo’s inspiration and transmitting it…and has at the same time very strong character… (and if possible) to have His genius… For years I have been looking for that man, without finding him.”¹⁹ Evolution is a global process. Each species reproduces itself endlessly to rediscover in itself the missing link²⁴ and men are the first sons of nature, who aspire to reach the highest through the organised faculty of purified mind³² and intellect. The individual’s sense of responsibility to the requirement of his evolutionary need can be visualised by dissecting his present faculties and their collaboration in the destined journey from the suffocation of ignorance, falsehood, suffering and death to the ascending stairs of Knowledge, Truth, Ananda and Immortality. If man’s sole objective is to generate more and more wealth, procreation of a family and maintenance of it through out the life and enjoy life with the existing faculty of instincts, then we have to be rest satisfied with the arrested development of the species. Or else we have to evolve another formula of self-development, which our ancient Seers and subsequent Spiritual disciplines have proposed, that can truly liberate us to its extreme end of integral satisfaction. Fulfillment of life does not ask to possess more and more of what we have and of what we enjoy but to rediscover in ourselves the all-inclusive totality and possession of all that is eternal, infinite and true. The Importance of Shastras, Gurus, Avataras and the Divine Mother: - “One must first find one’s soul, this is absolutely indispensable, and identify oneself with it. Later one can come to the transformation. Sri Aurobindo has written somewhere: “Our Yoga begins where the others end.” Usually yoga leads precisely to this identification, this union with the Divine — that is why it is called “yoga”. And when people reach this, well, they are at the end of their path and are satisfied. But Sri Aurobindo has written: we begin when they finish; you have found the Divine but instead of sitting down in contemplation and waiting for the Divine to take you out of your body which has become useless, on the contrary, with this consciousness you turn to the body and to life and begin the work of transformation — which is very hard labour. It’s here that he compares it with cutting one’s way through a virgin forest; because as nobody has done it before, one must make one’s path where there was none. But to try to do this without having the indispensable directive of the union with the Divine within, within one’s soul, is childishness.”³³ The Mother Shastra : “Therefore our integral Yoga will take up these various disciplines and concentrations, but harmonise and if possible fuse them by a synthesis which removes their mutual exclusions. Not realising the Lord and the All only to reject them for silent Self or unknowable Absolute as would an exclusively transcendental, nor living for the Lord alone or in the All alone as would an exclusively theistic or an exclusively pantheistic Yoga, the seeker of integral knowledge will limit himself neither in his thought nor in his practice nor in his realisation by any religious creed or philosophical dogma. He will seek the Truth of existence in its completeness. The ancient disciplines he will not reject, for they rest upon eternal truths, but he will give them an orientation in conformity with his aim.”⁵⁹ Sri Aurobindo Scriptures are generally secret knowledge descended from above. They are vast records of Spiritual experiences that our ancient Rishis and later Seers have witnessed. Our ancient Scriptures are great in their wisdom. Great pasts always help mankind to arrive at a greater future and dawn succeeds dawn. Mankind shall arrive at its greatest wisdom when it will be able to recover from its lost totality fulfilling all the past promises. Our ancient Seers had foreseen the ultimate future of mankind in the culmination and possession of God, Light, Freedom, Bliss and Immortality. The importance of reference to the Scriptures were felt because the secret formula of Soul’s ascent were recorded there and these Seers were masters in discovering new heights in Soul’s ascent and arrived at corresponding new siddhis . Each proposed a new path and they are quite essential while tracing one’s own path and each siddhi is a step required in the integral development. So the perfection is to be sought through ascent of thousands of manifold paths leading to the one Divine and the corresponding return of the same Divinity in to multiplicities of the material life. The popular tendency of human mind to attain the Divine through the path of the shortest of the shortcuts is henceforward not considered from our subject of scrutiny. Guru : “The Teacher of the integral Yoga will follow as far as he may the method of the Teacher within us. He will lead the disciple through the nature of the disciple. Teaching, example, influence,—these are the three instruments of the Guru . But the wise Teacher will not seek to impose himself or his opinions on the passive acceptance of the receptive mind; he will throw in only what is productive and sure as a seed which will grow under the divine fostering within. He will seek to awaken much more than to instruct; he will aim at the growth of the faculties and the experiences by a natural process and free expansion. He will give a method as an aid, as a utilisable device, not as an imperative formula or a fixed routine. And he will be on his guard against any turning of the means into a limitation, against the mechanising of process. His whole business is to awaken the divine light and set working the divine force of which he himself is only a means and an aid, a body or a channel. ”⁴⁴ Sri Aurobindo Guru is an intermediary destined to lead aspirant Souls towards the Supreme and his physical presence is a rare opportunity in the life of disciples. ‘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…’² In this integral Yoga, The Mother and Sri Aurobindo are identified as physical embodiment of the Divine, symbols of comprehensive movement of Consciousness, the Primary Source of our Spiritual and Material Life, dual Avatar and a special manifestation of the Supreme Guru , Parameswar . Integral Teacher is a symbol of movement of Psychic and Spiritual Consciousness, leading it to still higher planes of Cosmic Consciousness, one Soul centre of the multiple or universal Divine, the secondary Source, Spiritual fosterer of twice-born Souls and his task is to strengthen the contact of twice-born Souls with the primary Source, who is at once Transcendent, Universal and Individual Psychic Being. Avatar: “In the eternity of becoming, each Avatar is only the announcer, the forerunner of a more perfect realisation.”⁶⁰ The Mother "...the Divine of yesterday is only an apprentice to the Divine of tomorrow ..."⁴⁹ The Mother “Since the beginning of earth history, Sri Aurobindo has always presided over the great earthly transformations, under one form or another, one name or another."⁵⁰ The Mother Avataras descend on earth equipped with the delegated power from the Supreme, when humanity suffers a crisis in Consciousness and lead humanity to the next step of the ladder in the evolutionary ascent. Avatar’s main work is to reveal in man His Divine nature, madbhava and show Divine work, which becomes a means of rebirth of divinities in man. His other mission is the restoration of good, dharma by the destruction of evil as did Sri Rama and Sri Krishna or He may represent Himself as divine messenger preaching the gospel of love and peace, as did Buddha, Christ and Sri Chaitanya. Avatara’s birth brings an opportunity in each individual formation of the human species to repeat His Spiritual experiences and elevate to His Spiritual status. ‘Islam was a return towards sensation, beauty, and harmony in the form, and legitimization of sensations and joy in beauty.’³ ‘Mahomed, as we know, only developed the existing social, religious and administrative customs of the Arab people in to a new system dictated to him often in trance, in which he passed from his conscient into superconscient self, by the Divinity to his secret intuitive mind.’³ Christ came to show the earth that how sorrow and suffering⁴ can be means of redemption. The purpose behind Sri Rama’s Avatarahood was to establish on earth Rama Rajya , the kingdom of sattwic man by the destruction of asuric forces, Ravana; whereas His predecessors, the Dwarf, known as V amana and Parshurama were Avataras representing tamasic and rajasic aspects of man respectively in the manifestation. The successive Avataras after Sri Rama ⁴⁸ were from the trigunatita planes of consciousness representing different hierarchies; Buddha was from the illumined mind, Sri Chaitanya ⁴¹ was from the Spiritual-Psychic plane, Sri Ramakrishna was from the intuitive mind and Sri Krishna was from the Overmind plane of consciousness. They came to lead the human Souls to Divine heights, trigunatita chetana and established the passage to the kingdom of God in heaven and a dynasty of self-ruling kings on earth, Dharma-rajya . Buddhistic Nirvana is the disintegration of samskara and Vedantic Nirvana is the abolition of samskara and one can do all action while remaining in this state of absolute peace and freedom. Samskara is here the accumulated past Karma of this life as well as that of past lives stored in our chitta or in the Subconscient Sheath and this samskara clouds the Soul, which we mistake for our Self. Buddha’s Nirvana is the supreme liberation but that liberation is negative, as that Divine state does not return upon earth positively to complete the evolution. He was horrified by the suffering, impermanence, and decay of all things and concluded that the disappearance of creation is the true remedy. Sri Krishna represents complete divine manhood, leading the race towards Divine Love and Divine Ananda culminating in Jivanmukta State. To grow in Krishna Consciousness is to feel His Presence, enter Spiritual relation with Him by union in Soul and know Him as a Friend, Lover, Father, Mother, Play-mate, Guide and Teacher. ‘And in the Gita he speaks of this human world as a transient and sorrowful affair and, in spite of his gospel of divine action, seems almost to admit that to leave it is after all the best solution.’⁵ The Gita remained silent about the total solution of all problems of existence. Kalki (His coming is symbolic and His action has already begun), the last Avatara, ⁶¹ will complete the work that Sri Krishna began and correct what Buddha and Sri Krishna left, by bringing the Divine upon earth and destroying the opposing asuric forces. The Kingdom of God on earth, Deva-rajya is the last promise of future Avataras and Vibhutis in order to complete the work of evolution. So, the future Christ who transforms the cross⁶³ of crucifixion into a source of infinite Light, Joy and Power or the future Hindu Godhead Kalki with His sword destroying opposing asuric forces, for which humanity is waiting patiently, is foreseen by Sri Aurobindo not merely as a PERSON, but 'symbolically indicated'⁶² as the embodiment and manifestation of a state of Supreme Consciousness, to which all humanity can elevate; for this Consciousness can destroy falsehood, save Truth instantaneously and establish the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. After Buddha, those who dominated Indian Spirituality were Shankara, Sri Chaitanya and Sri Ramakrishna. Shankara’s main realisation was Brahma satyam Jagat mithya, the Divine alone is truth and all the rest are illusion, Maya. He, like Buddha, further confirmed that work has to be renounced in order to attain the Brahman and all the ascetic movements after Buddha and their theory of inaction have left India weaker;⁵⁸ added to it the lure of Sannyasa isolated the best souls of the then time from the main streams of life and society; whereas Shankara’s predecessor Sri Krishna confirmed that all work, sarva karmani is an indispensable means for continuation of earth life and attaining Brahma Nirvana. India failed to pursue the spirit of The Gita and its method of integral development through Jnana, Bhakti, the gospel of Divine action, surrender and equality in the subsequent period of human history, resulting in a tamasic decline of a race. ‘The main work of Sri Chaitanya was to establish the type of a Spiritual and Psychic bhakti and love in the emotional vital part of man, preparing the vital in us in that way to turn towards the Divine—at any rate, to fix that possibility in the earth-nature.’⁶ His mission was to show the secret principle of Bhakta becoming Bhagavan by possession of the Godhead into a human vessel. ‘Ramakrishna’s Yoga was also turned only to an inner realisation of the inner Divine, --nothing less, but also nothing more.’⁷ Sri Ramakrishna, like Shankara succeeded in generating thousands of perfect Sannyasis, because sannayasa has been widely preached and numerously practised. Earth shall move forward in order to create thousands of perfect Janaka , who symbolize a dynasty of self-ruling universalised Kings and Karma Yogis. These strong and liberated Souls will not wear the garb and outer token of world shunning Sannyasis who are preoccupied with individual liberation in heaven; for these Janakas wear the garb of the world and they will liberate earth through the movement of universal Consciousness. If humanity fails to reach a favourable atmosphere for substantial change in the present discord and disharmony, then ‘Kalki’s sword alone can purify the earth of the burden of an obstinately asuric humanity. Or the Divine Mother revealed in the Kali’s laughter and death dance shall capture an unquiet earth and mankind will be deprived of Krishna’s Ananda . The choice depends on the species itself; for as it sows, so shall it reap the fruit of its Karma .’⁸ Kalki’s destruction can be avoided if Earth consents to become pure, liberating itself from the clutch of Adam and Eve , who symbolise bondage through physical passion. A pure earth can become a play field of Krishna and Kali where God is revealed as “happiest boy and strongest girl of the crowd”⁹ bringing down the Supreme’s Love and the Kingdom of God on earth. The earliest school of Indian seers, the Vedic Rishis sought after physical immortality. They proposed a double movement of ascent of the Soul into the Divine height and descent of Divine Shakti into the triple world of mind, life and body in order to reestablish in these domains the lost Divinity. They failed to achieve their goal as the quest was exclusive, which may be analyzed in the following manner; (1) humanity in its collectivity was not ready for such transformation as human evolution in that period was in a formative stage and was far from being mature; (2) their quest for Immortality was individualistic in nature, oblivious of a certain amount of collective universal evolution; (3) immortality has to be sought in the transcendence after the universalisation of individual Consciousness, as Sri Aurobindo proposes.³⁷ But the Vedic seers escaped into Transcendent Consciousness from individual Consciousness by bypassing the process of Universalisation; (4) they made little attempt to accelerate the universal evolution and the common humanity of the then time was left in deep darkness, tamas and ignorance. In the subsequent Spiritual quests, in the post Vedic era, the ascent of Soul into Divine height found its predominance and the importance was confined to the merger of Soul in the Divine state by exclusive samadhi in this life and return of the Soul into Divine state in the afterlife; and the corresponding descent of these Divinities into the material life was left into oblivion. Hence, material life was left neglected and the gap between Matter and the Spirit grew, resulting in an irreconcilable gulf and bankruptcy of material opulence. The Divine Mother: “.... I am waiting—I am millions of years old and I am waiting (to complete the Divine task).”⁵¹ The Mother “Since the beginning of the earth, wherever and whenever there was the possibility of manifesting a ray of the Consciousness, I was there.”⁵² The Mother In Indian Spiritual history, the Ishwari aspect of the Divine found its predominance in Tantra. The Divine Mother’s role in our total development has been identified by the saying, ‘How shall he attain to Krishna who has never worshipped Kali ?’²⁹ Violent action, roudra , calls down and establishes the peaceful and tranquil state, Soumya . Intimacy with the Divine Mother is felt indispensable in the life of Her children as Her supreme touch protects and nourishes the pure and virgin stuff of our mind, life and body. She is concerned with the total care of Her children and She pursues in each successive life the leading of the children towards their supreme Goal. The supreme task of the Divine Mother is to liberate our nature from the bondage of fixed destiny, narrow creeds, established habits and indispensable Laws, leading us to a higher Spiritual destiny, absolute freedom from habits, transformation of Nature and a Deathless state. She is the author of Earth’s High Change and Her single perfection can save the earth from intimidating doom. Her ultimate mission is ‘to stay the wheels of doom’¹⁰ so that the ‘doom may be left to sleep…for all time.’¹¹ Earth’s Spiritual history saw Her long and endless struggle and suffering, and Earth shall wait to see with intense gratitude Her final victory. Superseding the Spiritual Predecessors: - Sri Aurobindo was asked by one of His disciples whether He and the Mothe r were Avataras on earth. Sri Aurobindo’s reply was clear that they came to earth not as exclusive Avataras .¹² But a study of Them reveals that the above reply was His greatness and humbleness, and They were constantly present in Earth's atmosphere throughout history as Emanations and during crises of human Consciousness as Avatara and also They had far exceeded the limits of Their Spiritual Predecessors. After landing on Indian soil, Sri Aurobindo’s first major Spiritual realisation was Immutable Brahman , which gave a strong feeling that the Divine alone is truth and all the rest were illusion, Brahma Satyam Jagat Mithya. He superseded Shankara with the arrival of His second major realisation at Alipore Jail of Basudev Sarvamiti, which gave a strong sense that this world as well as the Brahman were real and true and this world is as real as the Brahman . Before His arrival at Pondicherry, He had already realised the Inner Divine, which was the main objective of Sri Ramakrishna’s Yoga, He went beyond Buddha in the sense that His realisation of the Supreme had the capacity of return positively to complete the evolution. He had already realised the Psychic Bhakti as Sri Chaitanya had and was in the process of bringing the Divine Love to the triple world of mind, life and body. At Pondicherry, He concentrated for the first sixteen years, from 1910 to 1926, on the difficult side of sadhana related to thirty-five (28+7) siddhis and a number of sub-siddhis covering a whole range of Yoga of self-perfection. On 24th November, 1926, He attained, along with The Mother , the Overmental siddhi, the highest Divine realisation descended to earth through Sri Krishna. Sri Krishna supports evolution through multiple concentrations or Overmind, leading it towards Ananda . None of the past attempts to unite with the Divine satisfied Sri Aurobindo ; He wanted something more, something more comprehensive. He observed, "I may say that it is far from my purpose to propagate any religion new or old for humanity in the future. A way to be opened that is still blocked, not a religion to be founded, is my conception of the matter.”²³ After 1926, He concentrated for about twenty-four years on bringing down the Supramental, the integral concentration that will complete earth’s evolution. Before this, the evolutionary urges that were active for accelerating the earth’s evolution were (1) exclusive concentration, (2) essential concentration and (3) multiple concentration. These three concentrations cannot resolve the fundamental problems of existence. Supramental concentration puts a big pressure on humanity (and also on the animal and plant kingdoms) in order to transcend its limitations. But the present humanity will fail to understand its all-inclusive benefits due to its confinement within the boundaries of exclusive concentration. Because Supramental energy is so close to Earth's atmosphere, this last century has witnessed a burst of genius under the pressure of this new concentration, unlike anything seen throughout the millennium. But man’s possibility of uniting with Him is open through ever-exceeding hierarchies of Consciousness and he has to decide whether he has to remain satisfied with the existing faculties or to explore deeper realms of Consciousness. Sri Aurobindo confirmed that a comprehensive solution of all problems of existence is possible, including the quest for physical Immortality of the Vedic Rishis . Immortality is the final victory and perfection of Spirit over material substance. Here, this quest for immortality is not exclusive in nature but a part of the all-inclusive totality and it can continue in three steps:- (1) accessibility, (2) purification and (3) perfection of all the intermediate planes (Inconscient sheath, Subconscient Sheath, subtle physical, subtle vital, subtle mental, Psychic, Spiritual, Universal sheaths) of Consciousness. Accessibility to these intermediate planes of Consciousness is possible by partial opening of Psychic and Spiritual being, which is again possible by quieting the surface mind, surface vital and surface physical instincts and habits. The purification and perfection of these planes of Consciousness are possible by Psychic influence and descent of divinities from the Spiritual planes of Consciousness. A similar account of The Mother’s Spiritual experiences can be recorded. Truckloads of Spiritual experiences dumped over Her head right from the age of four.³⁸ Later on She said that She was forced to refer to Scriptures only to confirm and understand Her own Spiritual experiences. When Sri Aurobindo left His body in 1950, a major part of His accumulated Spiritual force was transferred to The Mother’s body and the rest dispersed into the subtle physical. The Mother continued the work that Sri Aurobindo left for the next twenty-three years. On 29th February, 1956, another major siddhi in Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga came when the much-awaited Supramental force entered the Earth’s domain through the Mother’s intervention in the subtle physical and was swallowed by the hunger of the Inconscient world. Previously, the action of this force on earth was routed through the universalized Consciousness of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo. From this day onwards, The Mother entered into a new domain of Cellular transformation, most rare in earth’s Spiritual history (some southern saints like Thirumoolar and Ramalingam ⁴⁷ were aware of Cellular transformation but their quest was individualistic or not universalized.). The Cellular transformation is the behavior of cells of the body, which began to undulate in between the old existing mechanical concentration and a new immortal principle. The cells underwent a training of constitutional change in order to hold the higher intensities of Supramental force. The transition between attachment to the old way of cells living and adopting a new principle is the most difficult issue before mankind that humanity has to face and pursue. Since the Mother left at this transition, the further future exploration shall wait for the arrival (or they may be present in Earth’s atmosphere) of strong and capable Souls. The Mother confirmed that Her Yoga of cellular transformation can be followed by every body¹³ unconsciously and it is not the privilege of a few exceptional Souls, since the constitution of the cells of Her body is as inert and unconscious as that of others and from a positive point of view this new Consciousness is highly contagious in its nature and one can hardly escape from its Influence. The next difficult task of Mother Nature related to the multiplication of individual Cellular transformation may be understood in The Mother’s language, “If, for any reason this body (The Mother’s body) becomes unusable, the universal Mother will again start manifesting in hundreds of individualities according to their capacity and receptivity, each one being a partial manifestation of the Universal Consciousness.”³⁹ The Mother probably kept a tremendous hope that Her future generation will be born with substantial Spiritual force or born with new material substance or the new Consciousness will contagiously spread over the material substance and it will be easy for them to trace the path and they will cover and spread over the whole of humanity. Sri Aurobindo was absolutely against any propaganda and advertisement³⁴ of His Teachings as that is foreign to the free and dominant functioning of the new Consciousness and He knew that those strong Souls who will pursue His Yoga are destined for it and they are very few in number in the present scenario and in future they will spread to cover the whole of humanity. He was also against the generation of thousands of disciples and devotees; for He knew that they will not be sincere enough to universalise and transcendentalise their Consciousness; rather they will ruin and corrupt His action by institutionalization and secterianization.¹⁴ His Teachings may be diluted through religious movements of ambitious Devotees. Transforming the human destiny is the subject of concentration and perfection of a single individual or few individuals or it is the responsibility of Supramental Concentration and this inner movement is inconsistent with the organised mass movement. Mass association is effective only in religious, political and national movements because their objective is narrow and localised. Or those Spiritual masters or Religious Teachers who are destined for Divine work through essential and multiple concentration may rely on organized mass movement, lokasangraha. The Mother was equally not interested in any action that will lead to name and fame³⁶ and from study we have understood that the name and fame arrest the consciousness in rajasic plane. Sri Aurobindo was not interested to become a Guru and in His earlier Spiritual life He was even against the doctrine of guruhood, guruvad . Later He became Guru as it was destined for Him and He accepted people to live with Him out of His compassion and compulsion of the surrounding world. Gradually, the number grew and His house expanded into an Ashram . Those who are ready to become the Mother’s children, which means those who are simple, truthful, sincere, pure, not ambitious, have a substantial thirst to grow, ready to serve and surrender before the Divine by giving up ego, are accepted as His disciples. The Mother defined that those who offer their soul, life, work and wealth entirely to the Divine are Her true children. For Sri Aurobindo, the Guru is an aid and helper and not an indispensable means for self-development and in His Yoga, the Supreme Divine above or the inner Divine Guru in the heart will replace the necessity and subordination of physical Guru . In integral Yoga, if a Sadhaka has a Spiritual fosterer within as a Psychic being and without as a living Spiritual Teacher, then that is identified as exceptional privilege.³⁰ Those who ‘follow the true Guide within and without will discover the spiritual law and reach the goal of the Yoga’³⁰ Sri Aurobindo confirms in The Synthesis of Yoga that a 'strong (man) but crude vital natures'⁴² cannot become the true leader of men. Those who are in a preliminary stage, not open to the Divine directly, as Sri Aurobindo proposes, can turn towards The Mother’s subtle-physical help through consecrated action and consecrated Bhakti ;⁴³ for She had the exceptional privilege of direct contact with the Divine from Her birth. Through Avatar’s influence, one can transcend his lower Nature and transform his ordinary action to Divine action. In His Ashram, the relationship between Bhakta and Bhagaban , Guru and Shishya , Lover and Beloved has transformed into an ecstatic play field of the Mother and Child. The main contribution of Sri Aurobindo to earth’s Spiritual history is the bringing down the Divine to the material plane or bringing down the Supramental concentration, the comprehensive and strong Spiritual force through which humanity will be able to eliminate four fundamental problems of existence: Ignorance, Suffering, Falsehood and Death. The pressure of this Integral concentration is all-pervasive and it leaves no corner of the earth untouched from the domain of its self-growth. His mission was ‘not to create mathas, ascetics and Sannyasis; but to call back the souls of the strong to the Lila of Krishna and Kali. ’¹⁸ This means the Psychic heart Centre will be a playfield of Paramatma Satyavan and Para-prakriti Savitri and thus God’s Supramental door opens. The Mother’s main contribution was to lead a step ahead in commencing a Cellular transformation in an individual vessel. Bearing earth’s pain in a single body and bearing the weight of the Eternal and Infinite in a death-bound finite body is the secret behind Her earthly life. Other Avatars never suffered physical pain to such an extent because Their objectives were not to bring down the Divine into a mortal vessel. She created a new history in the management of the Ashram and Auroville, where all the aspects of life were included for a Divine purpose, inspiring millions to restructure and strengthen their social infrastructure and transform them into a Divine community. The task before the next evolutionary pioneers is to understand and catch the threads of the Cellular transformation and Subconscient transformation. The All-inclusive Totality:- “Among thousands of men one here and there strives after perfection, and of those who strive and attain to perfection one here and there knows Me integrally in all the principles of my existence, samagram-mam. ” Gita-7.3 “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.”⁴⁶ Sri Aurobindo The Mother said, “for Sri Aurobindo, the goal was perfection. Perfection not in the sense of a summit but of an all-inclusive totality in which everything is represented, has a place. And I saw that this Perfection would come—must come-in stages. He announced something the realisation of which will stretch over thousands of years. So it must come in stages.”¹⁵ Clarifying more on it, the Mother said, “We thirst for perfection, not this human perfection which is the perfection of the ego and bars the way to the Divine Perfection, but the ONE perfection which has the power to manifest upon Earth the eternal Truth.”¹⁶ Sri Aurobindo declared that it is difficult for Him (also for The Mother) to pursue the Yoga that He has evolved; for ‘The only real difficulty which took decades of spiritual effort to work out towards completeness was to apply spiritual knowledge utterly to the world…’¹⁷ More reasons behind the difficulties are:- Firstly , the extent of transformation required in the mind, vital, body, inconscient self, subliminal self and universal self is so colossal in nature, the extent of revolt and opposition from the dark domain towards any change is so great that one lifespan is now too small for completion of such exercise. Secondly, He saw that the progress in Yoga during the last twelve years of the forty years concentrated sadhana at Pondicherry was not as intended by Him and He felt the work had to be accelerated in the subtle physical and that is possible by leaving the existing body. Thirdly , He saw that the surrounding world was not ready to bear the massive descent of the Supramental force and the revolt and opposition of the surrounding people was disturbing; as a remedy the exercise of accelerating the universal evolution in the individual body must continue. Fourthly, the Yogi-disciples trained by Him were far behind in Yogic perfection of His demand and were not ready to share the Spiritual burden of the Master or, as described in Savitri, ‘A distance severed her from those most close.’²⁶ Fifthly , He saw that the constitution of the cells of His physical substance was not plastic enough to bear these higher intensities of Supramental force. He felt the constitution of cells of the Mother’s body were supple and plastic enough to continue this exercise and He decided to accelerate this work from subtle physical by leaving the body and helping The Mother from beyond. The Mother observed, “He (Sri Aurobindo ) himself has a greater action, a greater power of action now than when he was in his body. Besides, that’s why he left-because it had to be done that way... It’s very tangible, you know. His action has become very tangible. Of course, it isn’t something mental at all. It is from another region. But it isn’t ethereal-it’s tangible. I could almost say material."²⁷ The Last twelve years in the life of both Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, which passed in extreme suffering, remind us of Their bearing the Earth’s burden that has to be exhausted in an individual (or dual) body for the purpose of acceleration of universal evolution or as hinted in Savitri, "Thou shalt bear all things that all things may change," (Savitri-699). They never came to achieve the goal but to help humanity to enter another domain of growth or another third reversal of Consciousness. They never searched for individual immortality in the Himalayan gorge , as with that achievement humanity would not have benefited; for in this transformation action even the most deprived one will also have to grow and participate to the extent of his capacity and he too is a part and beneficiary of total growth. They never came to confine Their action within the boundaries of Their Ashram and disciples; rather, they accepted each member of the Ashram as a specimen for resolving the world problems. An innumerable account of Their Spiritual experiences is left lying before the next generation for further exploration. This will be useful for those who are sincere, those who believe that the possession of constantly growing Divine is the object of life and before Its Presence all the separate identity is meaningless. Yoga through Fourfold Concentration and Fourfold Cognition: - “By energism of consciousness (or Tapas or Concentration) Brahman is massed; from that Matter is born and from Matter Life and Mind and the intermediate worlds.” Mundaka Upanishad-I.1.8 “We are each of us a dynamo into which waves of that energy have been generated and stored, and are being perpetually conserved, used up and replenished. The same force which moves in the star and the planet, moves in us, and all our thought and action are merely its play and born of the complexity of its functionings. There are processes by which man can increase his capacity as an adhara. There are other processes by which he can clear of obstructions the channel of communication between himself and the universal energy and bring greater and greater stores of it pouring into his soul and brain and body. This continual improvement of the adhara and increase in quantity and complexity of action of the informing energy, is the whole aim of evolution.”³¹ Sri Aurobindo The Upanishad said that out of tremendous concentration of will heat is generated, which sets the whole being into fire. This concentration is Tapas, which is always present in the manifestation as the inherent power of consciousness and from the pressure of this Tapas Matter has evolved and from Matter, mind, life, and other intermediary worlds:- subliminal Self, inconscient Self and universal Self have evolved. In the progressive evolution this concentration works in four distinct manners in order to evolve four cognitive aspect, which is the subject of our study. The supreme integrality of the Absolute constitutes all these four states of concentration and cognition. Through development of these faculties we can know directly the past, present and future of earth which lies hidden in our Subconscient, Subliminal and Superconscient Sheaths. This knowledge of three times was earlier identified by Seers as trikaladristi . Through development of this triple time faculty, earth’s Spiritual history can be traced directly. Through development of Essential, Multiple and Integral concentration, earth’s Spiritual history can be traced from within and through development of exclusive concentration it can be traced from without. Both are needed for complete understanding and cognition. 1: Exclusive Concentration and Separative Knowledge by indirect contact:- “The student life was framed to lay the groundwork of what the man had to know, do and be. It gave a thorough training in the necessary arts, sciences, branches of knowledge, but it was still more insistent on the discipline of the ethical nature and in earlier days contained as an indispensable factor a grounding in the Vedic formula of spiritual knowledge. In these earlier days this training was given in suitable surroundings far away from the life of cities and the teacher was one who had himself passed through the round of this circle of living and, very usually, even, one who had arrived at some remarkable realisation of spiritual knowledge. But subsequently education became more intellectual and mundane; it was imparted in cities and universities and aimed less at an inner preparation of character and knowledge and more at instruction and the training of the intelligence.”²⁵ Sri Aurobindo The scope of exclusive concentration is confined within the boundaries of ignorance. We understand ignorance as partial knowledge or limited knowledge in which mind is separated from the source of Knowledge, is oblivious of totality and is narrow and rigid and opposes all harmonious working of the Supreme force. Our forgetfulness of the totality of existence and concentration on an exclusive object is the cause of Ignorance. For clarity, we have defined here briefly our totality of existence: - (1) Surface physical self or sthula sharira: - this constitutes our surface mind, life, body and desire soul regarding which we remain aware and delude it as our whole of identity; (2) Subliminal self or Sukhma sharira :- we are ignorant of a vast domain of our inner mind, inner life, subtle body and inner Psychic being. This sukhma sharira holds the sthula sharira and it survives after dissolution of sthula sharira; all transformative action of higher possibility takes shape in this domain. Subliminal Self is the meeting ground of all other Selves and all our past, present and future coexist here; (3) Inconscient Sheath (ancient scriptures divide this self into fourteen hells):- we are ignorant of a vast dark and nether domain from which Matter has evolved and this is also the home of all unconsciousness, disharmony and discord like death, disease, accident and past samskara; Subconscient is a world of double twilight, which exists above the Inconscient sheath, (4) Universal Sheath:- we are ignorant of our universal Self through which we enter relation with the universe and become identified with it; (5) Superconscient Self or karana sharira :- we are ignorant of our causal body which holds both our sukhma sharira and our sthula sharira. This is the world of all higher Divine hierarchies from which all the Divine possibilities descend to the material domain. These divine hierarchies are:- higher Mind, illumined Mind, intuitive Mind, Overmind and the mind of Light; (6) Supreme self or Paramatma :- we are ignorant of our Sachchidananda consciousness, which is the source of all other Selves including the Supramental. Yoga through exclusive concentration means quieting the surface physical Self and entry into the subliminal Self, leading one to a state of self-realisation. This may be practiced by the methods proposed by different Yogic schools and instructions issued by the scriptures. All our scientific research and their inventions, literary creations, work that brings name and fame and success, work related with philanthropy come under the purview of exclusive concentration. With the evolution of mind, man has been bestowed with this faculty of exclusive concentration for solution of all problems. We get the knowledge of ourselves and the surrounding world with the help of our sense organs, mind and intellect. This cognition is Separative Knowledge by Indirect Contact. All diagnostic instruments invented by modern Science fall within this range of cognition. Since this concentration and cognition lie within the boundaries of ignorance, so it fails to give a true and real picture of the world and fails to face and solve the whole problem of existence. The attempt of medical Science to eliminate disease and death from earth can not succeed unless they go beyond this gross world and the range of exclusive concentration. 2) Essential Concentration and Separative Knowledge by Direct Contact:- “As much use as there is in a well with water in flood on every side, so much is there in all the Vedas (Scriptures) for the Brahmin who has Knowledge.” The Gita-2.46 Essential Concentration resumes action with the opening of the passage to Psychic Self. Psychic Being has the capacity to travel in all the worlds and planes of Consciousness. A vast domain of inner mind, inner life, subtle physical and inner Psychic being is made accessible. Then a conscious movement begins to undulate in between the Inconscient self and Superconscient self and the Divine Force, Knowledge and Light etc. from Superconscient self will invade the inconscient self, universal self, subliminal self and surface physical self for the purpose of purification and transformation of these domains. When our sense organs, mind and intellect receive their inspiration from the vast reservoir of the Psychic self, then that cognition is Separative Knowledge by Direct Contact. All scientific discoveries and all success stories in the life of individuals find their source of knowledge from this domain, while at the same time they, by their limitation of ignorance live in the boundaries of exclusive concentration. When our centre of living is changed from surface physical self to the Subliminal and Psychic self, which is a world of truth, knowledge and new creation, which is also a world of meeting place of all other Selves for the purpose of transformation, then the Essential Concentration finds its predominance in life. This concentration is a sole indwelling or an entire absorption in the essence of its own being and undulates in between the discord of inconscient self and the silence and harmony of Superconscient self. Essential concentration culminates in the universalization of individual consciousness. 3) Multiple Concentration and Knowledge by Direct contact:- “After many births of preparation, a Jnana Yogi with strong foundation of Karma and Bhakti Yoga , attains My Purushottama or Supramental state of Consciousness. He also realises the intermediate stair that all this existence is Divine, the Cosmic Consciousness, Vasudevah sarvamiti. Such a great Soul or integral Yogi is very rare.” The Gita-7.19 Multiple concentration resumes action after the universalization of the individual consciousness. The subliminal self or the sukhma sharira that surrounds the gross body grows by loss of ego and descent of Superconscient divine forces. When this sukhma sharira grows to the proportion of earth, then a Yogi attains universalization. After this realisation of universal Self, one feels the universe within and there is free flow of universal energy into the individual vessel. Sri Aurobindo had this realisation of universal self at Alipore jail and He took around eighteen years, from 1908 to 1926 to exhaust all the siddhis in this domain and reached the final Overmental siddhi. A Guru can protect and guide all his disciples through the intervention of this concentration. Sri Aurobindo’s help was not confined to His disciples alone, His action was global; for instance during world war-II, He sent thousands of His emanations at a time, who materialized in the war field and extended His physical help to those who were in danger. He even applied His Overmental Spiritual force against the Nazis in order to change the course of world event. The Godhead of The Gita presided over the whole war of Kurukshetra and the Viswarupa Darshan of chapter 11, through intervention of this concentration. Multiple world problems are resolved at a time by intervention of this concentration. Knowledge by direct contact is the whole range of knowledge covering the past, present and future, which is available in the subliminal Self. In the subliminal Self there is a whole range of inner sight, inner hearing, inner taste, inner touch and smell which far exceed the limit of outer sense organs and the contact with truth of things is more intense, real and profound. But this knowledge has its source in the superconscient Self and it suffers some error due to presence of some impurity in the surface part of subliminal Self, that is close to gross physical. The foreknowledge of the war at Kurukshetra to the Divine Teacher is an example of this knowledge and He saw through His Divine eye all the happenings of the Kurukshetra before the war and the same capacity of vision was also offered to Arjuna and Sanjaya in the war field. After universalization of individual consciousness, acceleration of universal evolution in an individual body is possible by invasion of Superconscient divinities in to the universal Self and the most difficult task in the Integral Yoga is to clean the world debris of impurities in the form of Subconscient ignorance, falsehood, suffering and death in an individual body. 4) Integral Concentration and Knowledge by Identity:- “An exclusive concentration, or even a succession of concentrations of that kind, can be in his complex work only a temporary convenience; it has to be abandoned as soon as its utility is over. An all-inclusive concentration is the difficult achievement towards which he (a Sadhaka of integral Yoga) must labour…Concentration is indeed the first condition of any Yoga, but it is an all-receiving concentration that is the very nature of the integral Yoga.”⁶⁴ Sri Aurobindo Integral concentration resumes action after the universalization and Overmentalization of the individual consciousness. Overmind is the world of great Gods and the divine Creators. It is also the world of Universal Divine Mother and Her four-fold Spiritual Mother Powers, who as creatrix Mother of the gross world, transforms the divided and many-sided play of the Truth. This power is not sufficient to overcome the Ignorance at its root, as it is itself under the law of Ignorance. Integral Concentration is the total Consciousness of Sachchidananda , the Supramental Concentration. This concentration is comprehensive, aware of the totality, total being and total becoming of the manifestation. When this Concentration intervenes it leaves no problem untouched and unsolved; it resolves all problem of existence. This Concentration establishes the Law of Immortality, Harmony, Knowledge, Ananda and Truth in the mortal vessel. This Concentration or Tapas has ability to penetrate into the innermost domain of the universal physical and universal inconscient Sheaths. Its movement is not from Inconscience to some imperfect light of Superconscient self, which is the essence behind essential concentration, but movement which begins from Truth to greater Truth, from illumination to boundless luminousness. Sri Aurobindo took eighteen years to transcend the boundaries of multiple concentration, though He was in touch with Supramental right from the beginning of Pondicherry life.²⁸ When the Supramental began to descend, He observed that this force is not stabilizing in the mind center and transformation of mind was not possible. With the arrival of The Mother , She asked Sri Aurobindo to bring the Supramental down to the vital and physical centres because mind is penetrated in the vital and physical substance in the form of vital mind and physical mind, and without the transformation of vital mind and physical mind the stabilisation of Supramental in the mind is not possible. But during those eighteen years of sadhana from 1908 to 1926 covering a whole range of Yoga of Self-perfection, He felt the concreteness of this new Consciousness in earth’s atmosphere, whose intervention is felt essential and He knew that He was destined for this work. After 1926, He devoted a period of twenty-four years of exploring the different hierarchies of Supramental Kingdom and bringing down these divinities into mind, vital, body, subliminal self, universal self, Subconscient self and Inconscient self. Transforming the universal Inconscient is a long difficult and painful task; for the roots of all problems are ingrained here. The major difficulty is that mind, life and body are finite substance and are having their respective limitations in bearing the weight of the Infinite, which is the nature of Supramental force, becomes a real practical problem. In order to bring down the higher intensities of Supramental force, the mind, vital and body must be prepared enough to hold them or else it will cause imbalance in the normal functioning of the system. The normal biological functioning of the body and the Supramental invasion cannot go together because of the disparity and the crushing of the finite substance by the infinite force; this interpenetration will continue until the material life will attain a new state of Divine equilibrium. The task of bringing down infinite God into a limited death bound vessel is a real, painful and radical adventure never witnessed by human history. Knowledge by identity is the comprehensive knowledge and is revealed during complete union with the Supreme Sachchidananda. This cognition is absolutely free from all error, all ignorance and is fully aware of the totality of existence. The past, present and future coexists in its vast domain of Integral Knowledge. All problems of existence can be resolved with the intervention of this Concentration and Cognition but mankind may have to wait and strive for a few hundred years in order to work out the world riddle. The Task of the next Evolutionary Pioneers: - “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.” ⁴⁵ The Mother "(The Mother said about Savitri ) The daily record of the spiritual experiences of the individual who has written. A complete system of yoga which can serve as a guide for those who want to follow the integral sadhana . The yoga of the Earth in its ascension towards the Divine. The experiences of the Divine Mother in her effort to adapt herself to the body she has taken and the ignorance and the falsity of the earth upon which she has incarnated."⁵³ The Mother (1) The first task of the pioneers of evolution will be to assimilate the contribution of their Predecessors and draw Spiritual help from Them in their evolutionary ascent. (2) The next task is that they must be truthful and virgin enough to establish the Soul’s supremacy, followed by Divine’s supremacy over mind, life, body and the surrounding world and must be capable to transcendentalize, universalize and overmentalize their individual consciousness. (3) These strong men are not the emotional children of the Divine Mother and they dare to prepare themselves to share the Spiritual burden of the Guru , which is of the nature of purification of universal Subconscient and Inconscient or as hinted in Savitri : "Thou shalt bear all things that all things may change," Savitri-699 (4) They or the New Consciousness will capture the whole gamut of human institutions like Politics, Economics, Science, Technology, Sociology, Religion, Literature, Schools, Colleges, Industries, Farmlands and Hospitals in order to generate a pressure and compel them in their extreme self-development and new-invention. (5) Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga on earth will succeed if few³⁴ young aspirants universalize their individual separative identity through a long movement of Consciousness between the Psychic and Spiritual planes. Recapitulation: "Vedism is in contact with the gods and, THROUGH THE GODS, with the Supreme; but it is not in direct contact with the Supreme – there is no inner, psychic contact. That's what Sri Aurobindo says (I myself know nothing about it!). But with the Vedanta and the devotees of Krishna , it is the god within: they had a direct contact with the god within (as in the Gita)."⁵⁴ The Mother "...the Divine of yesterday is only an apprentice to the Divine of tomorrow ..."⁵⁷ The Mother The Concept of Spiritual Evolution: Future-Focused Synthesis: Sri Aurobindo emphasizes that spirituality does not belong to past dawns, but to the "noons of the future," requiring a vast integration of ancient religious wisdom, traditional Indian Yogas, and modern Science. Integral Yoga Goal: Unlike traditional paths that aim for individual escape from the world (like Nirvana or Sannyasa), Integral Yoga seeks the positive transformation of material life so the Divine can manifest directly in the physical world. Evolutionary Shift: Humanity is described as a middle stage of evolution, slowly becoming conscious of itself, transitioning from subconscious nature toward a future "gnostic" or supramental being. Role of Shastras, Gurus, and Avataras : Shastras (Scriptures): Act as vast historical records of spiritual secrets and soul ascents meant to be recovered and utilized. Gurus: Intermediaries meant to awaken the inner divine light rather than impose dogmatic routines. Avataras and the Evolution of Consciousness: Divine descents that occur during evolutionary crises to elevate human consciousness. The text tracks historical progressions through Rama, Buddha, Chaitanya, Ramakrishna, and Krishna, leading to a symbolic future force termed "Kalki" who establishes a divine kingdom on earth. The Avataric Hierarchy: Avataras descend during evolutionary crises to lift human consciousness to successive planes. The following Avataras and Spiritual personalities are considered here according to the distinctive contributions and planes of consciousness associated with them, rather than as a strictly chronological sequence. Vamana Avatara (the Divine Dwarf): In the traditional narrative, Vamana ⁶⁵ overcomes the power of Bali through his three strides. In this paper’s interpretation, he represents the tamasic aspect of the early material manifestation. Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri evokes the symbol of the Divine Dwarf who strides towards unconquered worlds. ("The divine Dwarf towered to unconquered worlds," Savitri-43, "And makes himself the Dwarf with triple stride," Savitri-488.) Sri Parashurama (Rama of the Axe): Sri Aurobindo describes Parashurama’s mission as the destruction of the unrighteous licence of the military and princely caste, the Kshatriyas .⁶⁵ In this paper’s evolutionary interpretation, Parashurama represents the rajasic aspect of humanity, confronting the misuse of power. Sri Rama: His Avataric mission is associated with the destruction of Ravana’s oppressive and asuric power and the establishment of Rama Rajya . In this paper’s interpretation, Rama represents the sattwic development of human nature and the ideal of righteous order. Buddha: Emerged from the illumined mind plane of consciousness. Lord Christ : Came to show the earth how sorrow and suffering can be a means of redemption. Represented in Savitri as "carrying the cross on which man's soul is nailed." Savitri-445 Sri Chaitanya: Operated from the Spiritual-Psychic plane to plant the exact possibility of emotional Bhakti and divine rapture in earth-nature. Sri Ramakrishna : Manifested from the intuitive mind plane. His Yoga was turned only to an inner realisation of the inner Divine. Sri Krishna : Manifested from the Overmind plane, representing complete divine manhood. Sri Jagannath (A special manifestation of Lord Krishna ): Characterized in Savitri as the Overmental Force that "acts at a distance without hands or feet". Savitri-85 Kalki: A symbolic final Avatara whose work has begun. Kalki brings the Divine upon earth, resolves what past paths left incomplete, and establishes Deva-rajya (the Kingdom of God). Fourfold Concentration & Cognition: Tapas (the inherent power of consciousness) gathers energy to achieve knowledge through four mechanisms: Exclusive Concentration: Operates inside "Ignorance" on the surface self, yielding Separative Knowledge by Indirect Contact. Essential Concentration: Focuses on the essence of being, opening the path to the inner Psychic Self and driving individual universalization (Separative Knowledge by Direct Contact). Multiple Concentration: Active after cosmic universalization. Allows global action from the Overmind plane, perceiving past, present, and future (Knowledge by Direct Contact). Integral Concentration: The ultimate Supramental concentration of Sachchidananda . It moves from Truth to greater Truth to resolve the root problems of existence: Ignorance, Suffering, Falsehood, and Death. Cellular Transformation & Next Pioneers: Physical Immortality: The ultimate goal involves purifying and perfecting every intermediate plane of consciousness down to the physical body cells. The Mother's Work: Following Sri Aurobindo's departure in 1950, The Mother focused heavily on "Cellular Transformation," introducing a contagion of Supramental force intended to fundamentally change physical cellular behavior. The Next Pioneers: The text concludes that future evolutionary progress relies on a few strong, capable, and silent souls who are willing to bear the world's spiritual burdens, universalize their consciousness, and gradually transform human institutions. With this path open, future progress depends in part on sincere aspirants whose inner work may be largely silent and individual. Anti-Propaganda Stance: Sri Aurobindo strongly opposed public propaganda,¹⁴ and the conversion of his work into a sectarian movement. This mass movement, or generating thousands of un-universalized disciples, which he noted only corrupts³⁴ and sectarianizes the core Truth. The updated references (14 & 34) deeply clarify Sri Aurobindo’s absolute resistance to external publicity or building mass movements: Propaganda as a Poison: The text explicitly quotes Sri Aurobindo warning that propaganda is a "poison"³⁴ to serious Spiritual practice. The Threat of Corruption: Attempting to force a Spiritual shift into a mass movement gathers hundreds of un-universalized, insincere followers. This ultimately ruins, corrupts, and reduces the work to a "pompous farce,"³⁴ forcing the descending Truth to recede back into isolation and secrecy. Relation between all Religion/traditional Yoga and Integral Yoga: Integral Yoga accepts Shankar’s theory of ‘Brahman is Real and the World is an Illusion’ as the initial Spiritual experience and rejects it in the final journey with the realisation that the World is as real as Brahman and Brahman Force can penetrate into material life and Divinise it. It accepts the Buddhist 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 Lord Christ 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 fundamental truth⁶⁶ of all Religions in its Supramental creation and rejects their narrow customs and creeds. Its Supramental principle is not known to any Religion; This core Truth can be developed after long years of Sadhana in the intermediate Psychic and Spiritual planes. OM TAT SAT References: - 1: “What is aimed at by us is a spiritual truth as the basis of life, the first words of which are (1) surrender and (2) union with the Divine and (3) transcendence of ego. So long as that basis is not established, a Sadhaka is only an ignorant and imperfect human being struggling with the evils of the lower Nature.” Sri Aurobindo/The Mother’s Agenda-4/p-422, Sri Aurobindo/TMCW-16/Some Answers from the Mother/p-313 “There are three main possibilities for the sadhak — (1) To wait on the Grace and rely on the Divine. (2) To do everything himself like the full Adwaitin and the Buddhist. (3) To take the middle path, go forward by aspiration and rejection etc. helped by the Force.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-171, "The Sadhaka has not only to think and know but to see and feel concretely and intensely even in the moment of the working and in its initiation and whole process that his works are not his at all, but are coming through him from the Supreme Existence. He must be always aware of a Force, a Presence, a Will that acts through his individual nature." SABCL-20/217, CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-229, “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, 2. Life Divine-40, 3. The Mother’s Agenda/Vol8/260, SABCL/Vol-15/p-425, 4: “A Church is an organised religious community and religion, if anything in the world, ought to be subjective; for its very reason for existence — where it is not merely an ethical creed with a supernatural authority — is to find and realise the soul. Yet religious history has been almost entirely, except in the time of the founders and their immediate successors, an insistence on things objective, rites, ceremonies, authority, church governments, dogmas, forms of belief. Witness the whole external religious history of Europe, that strange sacrilegious tragi-comedy of discords, sanguinary disputations, “religious” wars, persecutions, State churches and all else that is the very negation of the spiritual life. It is only recently that men have begun seriously to consider what Christianity, Catholicism, Islam really mean and are in their soul, that is to say, in their very reality and essence.” CWSA-25/Human Cycle/p-38, 5. SABCL/Vol-26/119, 6. SABCL/ Vol-22/420, "It is not I only who have done what the Vedic Rishis did not do. Chaitanya and others developed an intensity of Bhakti which is absent in the Veda and many other instances can be given. Why should the past be the limit of spiritual experience?" CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-417, 7. SABCL/Vol-26/119, 8. The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-13, 9. “When will the world change into the model of heaven? When all mankind becomes boys and girls together with God revealed as Krishna and Kali, the happiest boy and strongest girl of the crowd, playing together in the gardens of Paradise. The Semitic Eden was well enough, but Adam and Eve were too grown up and its God Himself too old and stern and solemn for the offer of the Serpent to be resisted.” Sri Aurobindo/TMCW-10/On Thoughts and Aphorisms/p-344, SABCL/Vol-17/p-137, 10. Savitri-19, 11. Savitri-420, 12. SABCL/Vol-24/p-448, “(Q) Since you and the Mother were on earth constantly from the beginning what was the need for Avataras coming down here one after another? (Ans.)We were not on earth as Avataras. 15 December 1935 (Q) You say that you both were not on earth as Avatars and yet you were carrying on the evolution. Since the Divine Himself was on the earth carrying on the evolution, what was the necessity for the coming down of the Avatars who are portions of Himself? (Ans.) The Avatar is necessary when a special work is to be done and in crises of the evolution. The Avatar is a special manifestation, while for the rest of the time it is the Divine working within the ordinary human limits as a Vibhuti. 18 December 1935” CWSA-32/The Mother with Letters on the Mother/p-91, "When first man’s heart dared death and suffered life." Savitri-59, [The Godhead promised the grant of physical immortality through all life when the first man or first Avatara Satyavan suffered death. Psychic being is the conscious Immortal being in us reminds us of the necessity of physical immortality.] “He named himself for me, grew Satyavan. For we were man and woman from the first,” Savitri-614 (They were first man and woman of the creation.) "You know, mon petit, I said one day that in the history of earth, wherever there was a possibility for the Consciousness to manifest, I was there; this is a fact. It's like the story of Savitri: always there, always there, always there, in this one, that one – at certain times there were four emanations simultaneously! (This memory can be compared with Savitri's two verses: "I witnessed the virgin bridals of the dawn" Savitri-401, "Ourselves are citizens of that mother State, Adventurers, we have colonised Matter’s night." Savitri-262,) At the time of the Italian and French Renaissance. And again at the time of Christ, then too.... Oh, you know, I have remembered so many, many things! It would take volumes to tell it all. And then, more often than not (not always, but more often than not), what took part in this or that life was a particular yogic formation of the vital being – in other words something immortal. And when I came this time, as soon as I took up the yoga, they came back again from all sides, they were waiting. Some were simply waiting, others were working (they led their own independent lives) and they all gathered together again. That's how I got those memories. One after the other, those vital beings came – a deluge! I had barely enough time to assimilate one, to see, situate and integrate it, and another would come. They are quite independent, of course, they do their own work, but they are very centralized all the same. And there are all kinds – all kinds, anything you can imagine! Some of them have even been in men: they are not exclusively feminine." The Mother's Agenda/June 27, 1962, “Some days later, Satprem again brought up the above passage, asking whether the Mother hadn't been active on earth since the beginning of time and not merely "with this present incarnation of the Mahashakti." The reply: "It was always through EMANATIONS, while now it's as Sri Aurobindo writes in Savitri – the Supreme tells Savitri that a day will come when the earth is ready and 'The Mighty Mother shall take birth'.... But Savitri was already on earth – she was an emanation. (Q) So they were all emanations? They were all emanations, right from the beginning. So we have to say: 'With the PRESENT incarnation.'" The Mother’s Agenda/Annexure-1962/125, "Sri Aurobindo writes of this in Savitri-Savitri lives always on earth, with the soul of the earth, to make the whole earth progress as quickly as possible. Well, when the time comes and things on earth are ready, then the divine Mother incarnates with her full power-when things are ready. Then will come the perfection of the realization. A splendor of creation exceeding all logic! It brings in a fullness and a power completely beyond the petty shallow logic of human mentality.” July-28/1961/Mother’s Agenda/Vol-2/P: 277-283 13. “No, no, no. If it has been done in one body, it can be done in all bodies… But since it's taking place in one body, it can take place in all bodies! I am not made of anything different from others. The difference is the consciousness, that's all. It's made of exactly the same thing, with the same elements, I eat the same things, and it was made in just the same way.” The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-8/p-377-378, “The feeling is rather one of vibrations gathered together and coagulated somewhere – and even at that, there's a very supple inner play, for it spreads out like this (Mother makes a gesture of diffusion or expansion all around her) through a sort of subtilization or etherization. And it's limitless – how could it have any limits! It goes like this (same radiating gesture) – these same vibrations are everywhere, in all bodies and all things. What people call this body is merely the result of a willed concentration organized in a specific way; that's how it spontaneously feels, all the time (not that it's observing itself, but if something forces it to observe itself, that's what it spontaneously feels). And the delimitation that exists in all beings, and which WAS in this body (was it this body?... Haven't the cells changed?... I don't know), which once existed in what people call this body, has completely disappeared. Before (thirty years or so ago), it used to feel like something separate moving among other separate things – that's all gone.” The Mother’s Agenda- August 14, 1962, 14. “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/Vol-10/p-60, 15. The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-4/p-101, 16. The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-2/p-394, 17. SABCL/Vol-26/86, 18: "There is another point. You sent a message about an “Aurobindo Math” which seemed to show you had caught the contagion which rages in Bengal. You must understand that my mission is not to create maths, ascetics and Sannyasis; but to call back the souls of the strong to the Lila of Krishna & Kali . That is my teaching, as you can see from the Review, and my name must never be connected with monastic forms or the monastic ideal. Every ascetic movement since the time of Buddha has left India weaker and for a very obvious reason. Renunciation of life is one thing, to make life itself, national, individual, world-life greater & more divine is another. You cannot enforce one ideal on the country without weakening the other. You cannot take away the best souls from life & yet leave life stronger & greater. Renunciation of ego, acceptance of God in life is the Yoga I teach, — no other renunciation." SABCL/Vol-17/157, CWSA-36/ Autobiographical Note/p-222, “When will the world change into the model of heaven? When all mankind becomes boys and girls together with God revealed as Krishna and Kali, the happiest boy and strongest girl of the crowd, playing together in the gardens of Paradise. The Semitic Eden was well enough, but Adam and Eve were too grown up and its God Himself too old and stern and solemn for the offer of the Serpent to be resisted.” Sri Aurobindo/TMCW-10/On Thoughts and Aphorisms/p-344, 19: “But the difficulty is to find the “some one” who knows Sri Aurobindo thoroughly…(and subsequently) who is capable of receiving His inspirations directly…capable of understanding Sri Aurobindo’s inspiration and transmitting it…and has at the same time very strong character… (and if possible) to have His genius… For years I have been looking for that man, without finding him.” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda-8/175, The Mother’s Agenda-2/206, 20: “His Yoga may be governed for a long time by one Scripture or by several successively, — if it is in the line of the great Hindu tradition, by the Gita, for example, the Upanishads, the Veda. Or it may be a good part of his development to include in its material a richly varied experience of the truths of many Scriptures and make the future opulent with all that is best in the past.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-p-55, “I may say that the way of the Gita is itself a part of the Yoga here and those who have followed it, to begin with or as a first stage, have a stronger basis than others for this Yoga. To look down on it therefore as something separate and inferior is not a right standpoint… I suggested the Gita method for you because the opening which is necessary for the Yoga here seems to be too difficult for you. If you made a less strenuous demand upon yourself, there might be a greater chance.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-445-446, 21: “To be a Yogi, a Sannyasi, a Tapaswi is not the object here. The object is transformation, and the transformation can only be done by a force infinitely greater than your own; it can only be done by being truly like a child in the hands of the Divine Mother.” 7 June 1928/ CWSA-32/The Mother and Letters on the Mother/p-142-143, “Everyone who is turned to the Mother is doing my Yoga. It is a great mistake to suppose that one can “do” the Purna Yoga i.e. carry out and fulfil all the sides of the Yoga by one’s own effort. No human being can do that. What one has to do is to put oneself in the Mother’s hands and open oneself to her by service, by bhakti, by aspiration; then the Mother by her light and force works in him so that the sadhana is done. It is a mistake also to have the ambition to be a big Purna Yogi or a supramental being and ask oneself how far have I got towards that. The right attitude is to be devoted and given to the Mother and to wish to be whatever she wants you to be. The rest is for the Mother to decide and do in you.” April 1929/CWSA-32/The Mother and Letters on the Mother/p-151-152, 22: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-10-11, “As in Science, so in metaphysical thought, that general and ultimate solution is likely to be the best which includes and accounts for all so that each truth of experience takes its place in the whole: that knowledge is likely to be the highest knowledge which illumines, integralises, harmonises the significance of all knowledge and accounts for, finds the basic and, one might almost say, the justifying reason of our ignorance and illusion while it cures them; this is the supreme experience which gathers together all experience in the truth of a supreme and all-reconciling oneness. Illusionism unifies by elimination; it deprives all knowledge and experience, except the one supreme merger, of reality and significance.” CWSA-21/The Life Divine-485, “Therefore the age of intuitive knowledge, represented by early Vedantic thinking of the Upanishads, had to give place to the age of rational knowledge, inspired Scriptures made room for metaphysical philosophy, even as afterwards metaphysical philosophy had to give place to experimental Science.” CWSA/21/The Life Divine-74, 23: “I regard the spiritual history of mankind and especially of India as a constant development of a divine purpose, not a book that is closed, the lines of which have to be constantly repeated. Even the Upanishads and the Gita were not final though everything may be there in seed. In this development the recent spiritual history of India is a very important stage and the names I mentioned [Ramakrishna and Vivekananda] had a special prominence in my thought at the time — they seemed to me to indicate the lines from which the future spiritual development had most directly to proceed, not staying but passing on. I do not know that I would put my meaning exactly in the language you suggest. I may say that it is far from my purpose to propagate any religion new or old for humanity in the future. A way to be opened that is still blocked, not a religion to be founded, is my conception of the matter. ” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-411, 24: ‘As it is, the physical body is really only a very disfigured shadow of the eternal life of the Self, but this physical body is capable of a progressive development; the physical substance evolves through each individual formation, and one day, it will be capable of bridging the gap between the physical life as we know it and the Supramental life that will manifest.’ The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-1/page-251, 25: “The Indian system did not entirely leave this difficult growth to the individual’s unaided inner initiative. It supplied him with a framework; it gave him a scale and gradation for his life which could be made into a kind of ladder rising in that sense. This high convenience was the object of the four Asramas. Life was divided into four natural periods and each of them marked out a stage in the working out of this cultural idea of living. There was the period of the (1) student, (2) the period of the householder, (3) the period of the recluse or forest-dweller, (4) the period of the free supersocial man, parivrajaka. (1) The student life was framed to lay the groundwork of what the man had to know, do and be. It gave a thorough training in the necessary arts, sciences, branches of knowledge, but it was still more insistent on the discipline of the ethical nature and in earlier days contained as an indispensable factor a grounding in the Vedic formula of spiritual knowledge. In these earlier days this training was given in suitable surroundings far away from the life of cities and the teacher was one who had himself passed through the round of this circle of living and, very usually, even, one who had arrived at some remarkable realisation of spiritual knowledge. But subsequently education became more intellectual and mundane; it was imparted in cities and universities and aimed less at an inner preparation of character and knowledge and more at instruction and the training of the intelligence. But in the beginning the Aryan man was really prepared in some degree for the four great objects of his life, artha, kama, dharma, moksa. (2) Entering into the householder stage to live out his knowledge, he was able to serve there the three first human objects; he satisfied his natural being and its interests and desire to take the joy of life, he paid his debt to the society and its demands and by the way he discharged his life functions he prepared himself for the last greatest purpose of his existence. (3) In the third stage he retired to the forest and worked out in a certain seclusion the truth of his spirit. He lived in a broad freedom from the stricter social bonds; but if he so willed, gathering the young around him or receiving the inquirer and seeker, he could leave his knowledge to the new rising generation as an educator or a spiritual teacher. (4) In the last stage of life he was free to throw off every remaining tie and to wander over the world in an extreme spiritual detachment from all the forms of social life, satisfying only the barest necessities, communing with the universal spirit, making his soul ready for eternity. This circle was not obligatory on all. The great majority never went beyond the two first stages; many passed away in the vanaprastha or forest stage. Only the rare few made the last extreme venture and took the life of the wandering recluse. But this profoundly conceived cycle gave a scheme which kept the full course of the human spirit in its view; it could be taken advantage of by all according to their actual growth and in its fullness by those who were sufficiently developed in their present birth to complete the circle. ” CWSA-20/The Renaissance in India/p-174 to 176, 26: Savitri-366, 27: Dec-20/1972/The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-13/P-326-328, 28: “(Satprem) What about Sri Aurobindo's experience at Alipore, then? You know, that well-known experience when he saw Narayana in the prisoners, Narayana in the guards, Narayana everywhere?... (The Mother replied) That is the Supreme. Oneness. (Satprem) Is it a supramental experience or.... (The Mother replied) It is supramental. (Satprem)Supramental? (The Mother replied) Yes, the supramental experience. He called it Narayana because he was Indian. (Satprem) It's supramental, not overmental? (The Mother replied) No, no… (Satprem) Anyway, the important thing is what you told me: the experience at Alipore is supramental. (The Mother replied) Oh, yes! He used the word Narayana because he hadn't yet developed his own terminology; but he isn't referring to the gods: it's the supramental experience.” The Mother’s Agenda-September 26, 1962, 29: SABCL/Vol-17/146, 30: “This will be to him his exceeding good fortune if he can meet one who has realised or is becoming That which he seeks for and can by opening to it in this vessel of its manifestation himself realise it.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-130, "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." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-187, 31: “The ancient Aryans knew that man was not separate from the universe, but only a homogeneous part of it, as a wave is part of the ocean. An infinite energy, Prakriti, Maya or Shakti, pervades the world, pours itself into every name and form, and the clod, the plant, the insect, the animal, the man are, in their phenomenal existence, merely more or less efficient adharas of this Energy. We are each of us a dynamo into which waves of that energy have been generated and stored, and are being perpetually conserved, used up and replenished. The same force which moves in the star and the planet, moves in us, and all our thought and action are merely its play and born of the complexity of its functionings. There are processes by which man can increase his capacity as an adhara. There are other processes by which he can clear of obstructions the channel of communication between himself and the universal energy and bring greater and greater stores of it pouring into his soul and brain and body. This continual improvement of the adhara and increase in quantity and complexity of action of the informing energy, is the whole aim of evolution. When that energy is the highest in kind and the fullest in amount of which the human adhara is capable, and the adhara itself is trained utterly to bear the inrush and play of the energy, then is a man siddha, the fulfilled or perfect man, his evolution is over and he has completed in the individual that utmost development which the mass of humanity is labouring towards through the ages.” CWSA-1/Early Cultural Writings/p-370, 32: “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, 33: TMCW-7/Questions and Answers-1955/p-350-351, "The difference between this and the old Yogas is not that they are incompetent and cannot do these things — they can do them perfectly well — but that they proceed from realisation of self to Nirvana or some Heaven and abandon life, while this does not abandon life. The supramental is necessary for the transformation of terrestrial life and being, not for reaching the self. One must realise self first — only afterwards can one realise the supermind." CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-405 "Sri Aurobindo came to say something new. And it is precisely because people are unable to come out of the experiences they have known and heard being spoken of, that they try to identify this Force which Sri Aurobindo called supramental with their experience of the intermediary worlds including the Overmind. For they cannot conceive that there could be something else.... Sri Aurobindo always said that his Yoga began where the former Yogas ended, that to be able to realise his Yoga it was necessary first of all to have reached the extreme limit of what the older Yogas had realised, that is to say, the perception of the Divine, the union, the identification with the Divine. But that Divine, Sri Aurobindo says, is the Divine of the Overmind which is already something quite unthinkable, in comparison with the human consciousness, because even to reach there one must pass through several planes and in these planes one feels dazzled." TMCW/Vol-5/p-283, "The usual sadhanas have for aim the union with the Supreme Consciousness (Sat-chit-ananda). And those who reach there are satisfied with their own liberation and leave the world to its unhappy plight. On the contrary Sri Aurobindo’s sadhana starts where the others end. Once the union with the Supreme is realised one must bring down that realisation to the exterior world and change the conditions of life upon the earth until a total transformation is accomplished. In accordance with this aim, the sadhaks of the integral yoga do not retire from the world to lead a life of contemplation and meditation. Each one must devote at least one-third of his time to a useful work (that means 8 hours of the day) . All activities are represented in the Ashram and each one chooses the work most congenial to his nature, but must do it in a spirit of service and unselfishness, keeping always in view the aim of integral transformation...To make this purpose possible the Ashram is organised so that all its inmates find their reasonable needs satisfied and have not to worry about their subsistence... The rules are very few so that each one can enjoy the freedom needed for his development but a few things are strictly forbidden: they are — (1) politics, (2) smoking, (3) alcoholic drink and (4) sex enjoyment.... Great care is taken for the maintenance of good health and the welfare and normal growth of the body of all, small and big, young and old." TMCW/Vol-13/Words of the Mother-1/p-107-108 34: “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 constants up ward effort (of the few) that has kept humanity alive and maintained for it, Its plays in the front of creation.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-752, “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-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’s Agenda-5/p-195, “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-10/p-148/19th April-1969, “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.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-953, “But the real soul, the real psychic entity which for the most part we see little of and only a small minority in mankind has developed, is an instrument of pure love, joy and the luminous reaching out to fusion and unity with God and our fellow-creatures. This psychic entity is covered up by the play of the mentalised Prana or desire-mind which we mistake for the soul; the emotional mind is unable to mirror the real soul in us, the Divine in our hearts, and is obliged instead to mirror the desire-mind.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-351, “I don’t believe in advertisement except for books etc., and in propaganda except for politics and patent medicines. But for serious work it is a poison. It means either a stunt or a boom—and stunts and booms exhaust the thing they carry on their crest and leave it lifeless and broken high and dry on shores of nowhere or it means a movement. A movement in the case of work like mine means the founding of a school or a sect or some damned nonsense. It means that hundreds and thousands of useless people join in and corrupt the work or reduce it to pompous farce from which the Truth that was coming down recedes into secrecy and silence. It is what has happened to the ‘religions’ and the reason of their failure.” 02.10.1934, SABCL/26/p-375, 35: “…but the healing by faith in the cells is an actual fact and a law of Nature and has been demonstrated often enough even apart from Yoga. The way to get faith and everything else is to insist on having them and refuse to flag or despair or give up until one has them — it is the way by which everything has been got since this difficult world began to have thinking and aspiring creatures upon it. It is to open always, always to the Light and turn one’s back on the darkness. It is to refuse the voices that cry persistently, “You cannot, you shall not, you are incapable, you are the puppet of a dream” — for these are the enemy voices, they cut one off from the result that was coming by their strident clamour and then triumphantly point to the barrenness of result as a proof of their thesis. The difficulty of the endeavour is a known thing, but the difficult is not the impossible — it is the difficult that has always been accomplished and the conquest of difficulties makes up all that is valuable in the earth’s history. In the spiritual endeavour also it shall be so.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-100, 36: “They had wanted to give the Nobel prize to Sri Aurobindo, but he left the year before the decision was to be made. And as they don't give the prize to "dead" people, he never got it. Then they wanted to transfer it to me, and I wrote this note, because the last thing I want is name and fame. That's all there was to it. They didn't give a peace prize that year… I believe the whole affair is now buried and forgotten.” The Mother’s Agenda- May 15, 1962, 37: “Here the Yoga of self-perfection coincides with the Yogas of knowledge, works and devotion; for it is impossible to change the human nature into the divine or to make it an instrument of the divine knowledge, will and joy of existence, unless there is a union with the supreme Being, Consciousness and Bliss and a unity with its universal Self in all things and beings. A wholly separative possession of the divine nature by the human individual, as distinct from a self-withdrawn absorption in it, is not possible.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga-622, “The individual must be the instrument and first field of the transformation; but an isolated individual transformation is not enough and may not be wholly feasible. Even when achieved, the individual change will have a permanent and cosmic significance only if the individual becomes a centre and a sign for the establishment of the supramental Consciousness-Force as an overtly operative power in the terrestrial workings of Nature, — in the same way in which thinking Mind has been established through the human evolution as an overtly operative power in Life and Matter. This would mean the appearance in the evolution of a gnostic being or Purusha and a gnostic Prakriti, a gnostic Nature. There must be an emergent supramental Consciousness- Force liberated and active within the terrestrial whole and an organised supramental instrumentation of the Spirit in the life and the body, — for the body consciousness also must become sufficiently awake to be a fit instrument of the workings of the new supramental Force and its new order. Till then any intermediate change could be only partial or insecure; an overmind or intuitive instrumentation of Nature could be developed, but it would be a luminous formation imposed on a fundamental and environmental Inconscience. A supramental principle and its cosmic operation once established permanently on its own basis, the intervening powers of Overmind and spiritual Mind could found themselves securely upon it and reach their own perfection; they would become in the earth-existence a hierarchy of states of consciousness rising out of Mind and physical life to the supreme spiritual level.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-997-998, "A perfect self- expression of the spirit is the object of our terrestrial existence. This cannot be achieved if we have not grown conscious of the supreme Reality; for it is only by the touch of the Absolute that we can arrive at our own absolute. But neither can it be done to the exclusion of the cosmic Reality: we must become universal, for without an opening into universality the individual remains incomplete. The individual separating himself from the All to reach the Highest, loses himself in the supreme heights; including in himself the cosmic consciousness, he recovers his wholeness of self and still keeps his supreme gain of transcendence; he fulfils it and himself in the cosmic completeness. A realised unity of the transcendent, the universal and the individual is an indispensable condition for the fullness of the self-expressing spirit: for the universe is the field of its totality of self-expression, while it is through the individual that its evolutionary self-unfolding here comes to its acme." CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-706, "But this experience with X was really interesting. I learned many things that day, many things ... If you concentrate long enough on any one point, you discover the Infinite (and in his own experience he found the infinite), what could be called your own Infinite. But this is not what WE want, not this; what we want is the direct and integral contact between the manifested universe and the Infinite out of which this universe has emerged. So then it is no longer an individual or personal contact with the Infinite, it’s a total contact. And Sri Aurobindo insists on this, he says that it’s absolutely impossible to have the transformation (not the contact, but the supramental transformation) without becoming universalized – that is the first condition. You cannot become supramental before being universal. And to be universal means to accept everything, be everything, become everything – really to accept everything. And as for all those who are shut up in a system, even if it belongs to the highest regions of thought, it is not THAT." The Mother's Agenda/20.09.1960, "He must accept everything, but cling to nothing, be repelled by nothing however imperfect or however subversive of fixed notions, but also allow nothing to lay hold on him to the detriment of the free working of the Truth-Spirit. This equality of the intelligence is an essential condition for rising to the higher supramental and spiritual knowledge." CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-718, 38: “I began my sadhana at birth, without knowing that I was doing it. I have continued it throughout my whole life, which means for almost eighty years (even though for perhaps the first three or four years of my life it was only something stirring about in unconsciousness). But I began a deliberate, conscious sadhana at about the age of twenty-two or twenty-three, upon prepared ground. I am now more than eighty years old: I have thought of nothing but That, I have wanted nothing but That, I had no other interest in life, and not for a single minute have I ever forgotten that it was THAT that I wanted. There were not periods of remembering and forgetting: it was continuous, unceasing, day and night, from the age of twenty-four – and I had this experience for the first time about a week ago! So, I say that people who are in a hurry, people who are impatient, are arrogant fools.” The Mother's Agenda/01.05.1958, "Since my earliest childhood, experiences have come like that: something massive takes hold of you and you don’t need to believe or disbelieve, know or not know—bam! There’s nothing to say; you are facing a fact... Once, during those last difficult years, Sri Aurobindo told me that this was precisely what gave me my advantage and why (how to put it?) there were greater possibilities that I would go right to the end ." The Mother's Agenda/01.05.1958, “When I was five years old...well I began with a consciousness. Of course I had no idea what it was. But my first experience was of the consciousness here (gesture above the head), which I felt like a Light and a Force; and I felt it there at the age of five. It was very pleasant sensation. I would sit in a little armchair made especially for me, all alone in my room, and I had a very pleasant feeling of something very strong, very luminous, and it was here (above the head) .... Then I would pull it down, for it was...it was truly my raison d’être.” The Mother’s Agenda, July 25, 1962, 39: The Mother’s Agenda-11/p-346, “And if you do not want your body to fail you, avoid wasting your energies in useless agitation. Whatever you do, do it in a quiet and composed poise. In peace and silence is the greatest strength.” The Mother’s Agenda-8/p-365, 40: "In one chapter of The Synthesis of Yoga, Sri Aurobindo says that there is a state of consciousness in which all is from all eternity –everything, without exception, that is to be manifested here… Q:- In detail? In a certain state of consciousness (I no longer remember what he calls it—I think it’s in the ‘Yoga of Self-Perfection’), one is perfectly identified with the Supreme, not in his static but in his dynamic aspect, the state of becoming. In this state, everything is already there from all eternity, even though here it gives us the impression of a becoming. And Sri Aurobindo says that if you are capable of maintaining this state, then you know everything: all that has been, all that is and all that will be –in an absolutely simultaneous way… But you must have a firm head on your shoulders! Reading some of these chapters in ‘Self-Perfection,’ I thought it would be better if it didn’t fall into just anyone’s hands…Anyway, in this state the feeling of uncertainty completely disappears (he explains it very well)." The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda/Vol.-2/p-170 “Admitted through a curtain of bright mind That hangs between our thoughts and absolute sight, He found the occult cave, the mystic door Near to the well of vision in the soul, And entered where the Wings of Glory brood In the silent space where all is for ever known.” Savitri-74 “There in a hidden chamber closed and mute Are kept the record graphs of the cosmic scribe, And there the tables of the sacred Law, There is the Book of Being’s index page; The text and glossary of the Vedic truth Are there; the rhythms and metres of the stars Significant of the movements of our fate: The symbol powers of number and of form, And the secret code of the history of the world And Nature’s correspondence with the soul Are written in the mystic heart of Life.” Savitri-74 “Out of the depths the world’s buried secret rose; He read the original ukase kept back In the locked archives of the spirit’s crypt, And saw the signature and fiery seal Of Wisdom on the dim Power’s hooded work Who builds in Ignorance the steps of Light.” Savitri-75-76, "Objects are his letters, forces are his words, Events are the crowded history of his life, And sea and land are the pages for his tale." Savitri-680 41: “When I said, “Why not an unconscious Avatar?” I was taking your statement (not mine) that Rama was unconscious and how could there be an unconscious Avatar. My own view is that Rama was not blind, not unconscious of his Avatarhood, only uncommunicative about it. But I said that even taking your statement to be correct, the objection was not insuperable. I instanced the case of Chaitanya and the others, because there the facts are hardly disputable. Chaitanya for the first part of his life was simply Nimai Pandit and had no consciousness of being anything else. Then he had his conversion and became the bhakta, Chaitanya . This bhakta at times seemed to be possessed by the presence of Krishna, knew himself to be Krishna, spoke, moved and appeared with the light of the Godhead — none around him could think of or see him as anything else when he was in this glorified and transfigured condition. But from that he fell back to the ordinary consciousness of the bhakta and, as I have read in his biography, refused then to consider himself as anything more. These, I think, are the facts. Well then, what do they signify? Was he only Nimai Pandit at first? It is quite conceivable that he was so and the descent of the Godhead into him only took place after his conversion and spiritual change. But also afterwards when he was in his normal bhakta-consciousness, was he then no longer the Avatar? An intermittent Avatarhood? Krishna coming down for an afternoon call into Chaitanya and then going up again till the time came for the next visit? I find it difficult to believe in this phenomenon. The rational explanation is that in the phenomenon of Avatarhood there is a Consciousness behind, at first veiled or sometimes perhaps only half-veiled, which is that of the Godhead and a frontal consciousness, human or apparently human or at any rate with all the appearance of terrestriality, which is the instrumental Personality. In that case, it is possible that the secret Consciousness was all along there, but waited to manifest until after the conversion; and it manifested intermittently because the main work of Chaitanya was to establish the type of a spiritual and psychic bhakti and love in the emotional vital part of man, preparing the vital in us in that way to turn towards the Divine — at any rate, to fix that possibility in the earth-nature. It was not that there had not been the emotional type of bhakti before; but the completeness of it, the e´lan, the vital’s rapture in it had never manifested as it manifested in Chaitanya. But for that work it would never have done if he had always been in the Krishna consciousness; he would have been the Lord to whom all gave bhakti, but not the supreme example of the divine ecstatic bhakta. At the same time the occasional manifestation showed who he was and at the same time evidenced the mystic law of the Immanence.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p- 496-497, 42: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-249 43: "This Yoga (Integral Yoga) too is not a Yoga of knowledge alone — knowledge is one of its means, but its base being self-offering, surrender, bhakti, it is based on the heart and nothing can be eventually done without this base. There are plenty of people here who do or have done Japa and base themselves on bhakti, very few comparatively who have done the “head” meditation; love and bhakti and works are usually the base — how many can proceed by knowledge? Only the few." CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-226-227, 44: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-66-67, 45: Feb-1951/Mother’s Agenda-Vol-1/P: 27, 46: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-187, 47: "Whatever may have happened to Chaitanya or Ramalingam , whatever physical transformation they may have gone through is quite irrelevant to the aim of the supramentalisation of the body. Their new body was either a non-physical or subtle physical body not adapted for life on the earth. If it were not so, they would not have disappeared. The object of supramentalisation is a body fitted to embody and express the physical consciousness on earth so long as one remains in the physical life. It is a step in the spiritual evolution on the earth, not a step in the passage towards a supraphysical world. The supramentalisation is the most difficult part of the change arrived at by the supramental Yoga, and all depends on whether a sufficient change can be achieved in the consciousness at present to make such a step possible, but the nature of the step is different from that aimed at by other Yogas. There is not therefore much utility in these discussions — one has first of all to supramentalise sufficiently the mind and vital and physical consciousness generally — afterwards one can think of supramentalisation of the body. The psychic and spiritual transformation must come first, only afterwards would it be practical or useful to discuss the supramentalisation of the whole being down to the body." CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-408 48: "As for the Avatarhood, I accept it for Rama first because he fills a place in the scheme and seems to me to fill it rightly— and because when I read the Ramayana I feel a great afflatus which I recognise and which makes of its story — mere faery-tale though it seems — a parable of a great critical transitional event that happened in the terrestrial evolution and gives to the main character’s personality and actions a significance of the large typical cosmic kind which these actions would not have had if they had been done by another man in another scheme of events. The Avatar is not bound to do extraordinary actions, but he is bound to give his acts or his work or what he is — any of these or all — a significance and an effective power that are part of something essential to be done in the history of the earth and its races." Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-490, 49: The Mother's Agenda/October 8, 1956, 50: TMCW/Vol-13/Page-10, 51: The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-6/p-347, 52: The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol-13/p-37, The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-3/p-222, 53: The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol-13/Words of the Mother-I/p-24, 54: The Mother's Agenda/1962 Annexure-127, 57: The Mother's Agenda/October 8, 1956, 58: "Every ascetic movement since the time of Buddha has left India weaker and for a very obvious reason. Renunciation of life is one thing, to make life itself, national, individual, world-life greater & more divine is another. You cannot enforce one ideal on the country without weakening the other. You cannot take away the best souls from life & yet leave life stronger & greater. Renunciation of ego, acceptance of God in life is the Yoga I teach, — no other renunciation." CWSA-36/Autobiographical Notes/p-222, "In The Synthesis of Yoga, Sri Aurobindo says that this idea of good and bad, of pure and impure, is a notion needed for action; but the purists, such as Chaitanya, Ramakrishna and others, do not agree. They do not agree that it is indispensable for action. They simply say: your acceptance of action as a necessary thing is contrary to your perception of the Divine in all things. (Q): How can the two be reconciled? I recall that once I tried to speak of this, but no one followed me, no one understood, so I did not insist. I left it open and never pursued it further, for they could not decipher anything or find any meaning in what I was saying. But now I could give a very simple answer: Let the Supreme do the work. It is He who has to progress, not you! (Q): Ramdas does not at all consider that the world as it is, is good. No, but I know all these people, I know them thoroughly! I know Chaitanya, Ramakrishna and Ramdas thoroughly. They are utterly familiar to me. It doesn’t bother them. These are people who live with a certain feeling, who have an entirely concrete experience and live in this experience, but they don’t care at all if their formation – they have not even crystallized it, they leave it like that, vague – contains things that are mutually contradictory, because, in appearance, they reconcile them. They do not raise any questions, they do not have the need for an absolutely clear vision; their feeling is absolutely clear, and that’s enough for them. Ramakrishna was like that; he said the most contradictory things without being bothered in the least, and they are all exactly and equally true...But this crystal clear vision Sri Aurobindo had, where everything is in its place, where contradictions no longer exist – they never soared to that height. This was the thing, this really crystalline, perfect supramental vision, even from the standpoint of understanding and knowledge. They never went that far." The Mother's Agenda/June 22, 1958, “Sri Aurobindo shows us that one can be an ascetic by preference and not out of abnegation (or renunciation); and so he makes us understand that to be a servant of the Lord and to act only according to His will is a far higher state than any personal choice, no matter how saintly it may seem.” The Mother/The Mother’s Centenary Works (second edition)/Vol-10/p-300 59: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-341-342, 60: TMCW- 15/Words of the Mother-III/p-185, 61: "But when the hour of the Divine draws near The Mighty Mother shall take birth in Time (last Avatar) And God be born into the human clay In forms made ready by your human lives. Then shall the Truth supreme be given to men:" Savitri-705 "One yet may come armoured, invincible; (last avatar) His will immobile meets the mobile hour; The world’s blows cannot bend that victor head; Calm and sure are his steps in the growing Night; The goal recedes, he hurries not his pace, He turns not to high voices in the night; He asks no aid from the inferior gods; His eyes are fixed on his immutable aim." Savitri-449 "Fate’s deaf resistance cannot break his will." (last Avatar) Savitri-449 "He must call light into its dark abysms, (last Avatar) Else never can Truth conquer Matter’s sleep And all earth look into the eyes of God." Savitri-450 "Then shall be ended here the Law of Pain. Earth shall be made a home of Heaven’s light, A seer heaven-born shall lodge in human breasts; The superconscient beam shall touch men’s eyes And the truth-conscious world come down to earth Invading Matter with the Spirit’s ray, Awaking its silence to immortal thoughts, Awaking the dumb heart to the living Word. This mortal life shall house Eternity’s bliss, The body’s self taste immortality. Then shall the world-redeemer’s task be done." (the last Avatar) Savitri-451 "(Q) Will the Avatars still need to take birth on earth once the supramental consciousness is firmly established? (Answer) This question will be easier to answer when the supermind is manifested in living beings on earth. I had always heard that Sri Aurobindo was “the last Avatar”; but he is probably the last Avatar in a human body — afterwards, we do not know....” 23 September 1969 The Mother/TMCW-10/On the Thoughts and Aphorisms/p-253 “(Q) Has this solution any connection with the date, August fifteenth? Is there any connection between the Feast of the Assumption in the Catholic Church and the date of Sri Aurobindo’s birth? (Ans:) Yes. And he has also said it himself. The Assumption of the Virgin Mary is the divinisation of Matter. And this is the aim of the last Avatar.” TMCW-8/Questions And Answers-1956/p-269 “In the eternity of becoming, each Avatar is only the announcer, the forerunner of a more perfect realisation.” The Mother/CWM, Vol. 15, p. 185 “Disciple: One year Janmastami fell on the 15th August. Sri Aurobindo: 15th August is specially significant; that is the day of the ascension of the Virgin Mary—that implies that the physical nature is raised to divine nature. Virgin Mary refers to Nature—Jesus is the divine soul born in man; thus he is both the son of God as well as the son of man. The Catholic priests know this inner significance but they do not express that.” Sri Aurobindo’s conversation with Sri Anilbaran Roy/30th August-1926 62: “Krishna, Buddha and Kalki depict the last three stages, the stages of the spiritual development — Krishna opens the possibility of Overmind, Buddha tries to shoot beyond to the supreme liberation but that liberation is still negative, not returning upon earth to complete positively the evolution; Kalki is to correct this by bringing the Kingdom of the Divine upon earth, destroying the opposing Asura forces. The progression is striking and unmistakable.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/-p-487, “Too much importance need not be attached to the details about Kalki — they are rather symbolic than an attempt to prophesy details of future history. What is expressed is something that has to come, but it is symbolically indicated, no more.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-489, 63: “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.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-157, 64: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-78, 65: "A similar account is given of the descent of the previous Vishnu avatars, of Rama to destroy the unrighteous oppression of Ravana, of Parashurama to destroy the unrighteous license of the military and princely caste, the Kshatriyas, of the dwarf Vamana to destroy the rule of the Titan Bali. But obviously the purely practical, ethical or social and political mission of the Avatar which is thus thrown into popular and mythical form, does not give a right account of the phenomenon of Avatarhood. It does not cover its spiritual sense, and if this outward utility were all, we should have to exclude Buddha and Christ whose mission was not at all to destroy evil-doers and deliver the good, but to bring to all men a new spiritual message and a new law of divine growth and spiritual realisation. On the other hand, if we give to the word dharma only its religious sense, in which it means a law of religious and spiritual life, we shall indeed get to the kernel of the matter, but we shall be in danger of excluding a most important part of the work done by the Avatar. Always we see in the history of the divine incarnations the double work, and inevitably, because the Avatar takes up the workings of God in human life, the way of the divine Will and Wisdom in the world, and that always fulfils itself externally as well as internally, by inner progress in the soul and by an outer change in the life." CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-171 66: “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, “There is no place for rigid orthodoxy, whether Hindu, Mahomedan or Christian in the future. Those who cling to it, lose hold on life and go under — as has been shown by the fate of the Hindus in India and of the orthodox Mahomedan countries all over the world. It is only where there has been an opening to new light and inevitable change that strength is returning as in Turkey and Persia. In the supramental creation fundamental truth will always find a place; but orthodoxy means a clinging to narrow limitations, and limitations of that kind cannot exist in the supramental creation. All that is permanently true will be taken up into the creation of the future.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-697-698, "Those who still believe in gods can certainly continue to worship them if they feel like it — but they must know that this creed and this worship has nothing to do with the teaching of Sri Aurobindo and no connection whatever with the Supramental Realisation." TMCW/Vol-15/Words of the Mother-III/p-13, “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)/Vol-8/p-246, Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: “Sri Aurobindo does not belong to History; he is outside and beyond History. Till the birth of Sri Aurobindo, religions and spiritualities were always centered on past figures, and they were showing as "the goal" the negation of life upon earth. So, you had a choice between two alternatives: either a life in this world with its round of petty pleasures and pains, joys and sufferings, threatened by hell if you were not behaving properly; or an escape into another world, heaven, nirvana, moksha [liberation].... Between these two there is nothing much to choose, they are equally bad…Sri Aurobindo has told us that this was a fundamental mistake which accounts for the weakness and degradation of India. Buddhism, Jainism, Illusionism were sufficient to sap all energy out of the country. True, India is the only place in the world which is still aware that something else than matter exists. The other countries have quite forgotten it: Europe, America and elsewhere.... That is why she still has a message to preserve and deliver to the world. But at present she is splashing and floundering in the muddle. Sri Aurobindo has shown that the truth does not lie in running away from earthly life but in remaining in it, to transform it, divinize it, so that the Divine can manifest HERE, in this PHYSICAL WORLD.” (This is the Mother’s answer to school teachers related with the topic “India’s Spiritual history.”) The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-05.04.1967 “The past has been the history of a slow and difficult subconscious working with effects on the surface, it has been an unconscious evolution; the present is a middle stage, an uncertain spiral in which the human intelligence is used by the secret evolutionary Force of being and participates in its action without being fully taken into confidence, — it is an evolution slowly becoming conscious of itself; the future must be a more and more conscious evolution of the spiritual being until it is fully delivered into a self-aware action by the emergent gnostic principle.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-736 "What Sri Aurobindo represents in the history of the earth’s spiritual progress is not a teaching, not even a revelation; it is a mighty action straight from the Supreme." "Sri Aurobindo has come on earth not to bring a teaching or a creed in competition with previous creeds or teachings, but to show the way to overpass the past and to open concretely the route towards an imminent and inevitable future." "Sri Aurobindo does not belong to the past nor to history....Sri Aurobindo is the Future advancing towards its realisation... Thus we must shelter the eternal youth required for a speedy advance, in order not to become laggards on the way." The Mother TMCW/Vol-13/Words of the Mother-I/p-4-5

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

Integral Karma Yoga "If human will could be made one with God’s, If human thought could echo the thoughts of God, Man might be all-knowing and omnipotent... Then is he a miracle doing miracles.” Savitri-457-58 " “At each step we can say in the language of the Sanskrit verse, “Even as I am appointed by Thee seated in my heart, so, O Lord, I act.” "Yatha prayukto’smi (niyukto’smi) tatha karomi" (Pandavagita) Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-252, 496, 725, “The Path of Works aims at the dedication of every human activity to the supreme Will. It begins by the renunciation of all egoistic aim for our works, all pursuit of action for an interested aim or for the sake of a worldly result. By this renunciation it so purifies the mind and the will that we become easily conscious of the great universal Energy as the true doer of all our actions and the Lord of that Energy as their ruler and director with the individual as only a mask, an excuse, an instrument or, more positively, a conscious centre of action and phenomenal relation. The choice and direction of the act is more and more consciously left to this supreme Will and this universal Energy. To That our works as well as the results of our works are finally abandoned. The object is the release of the soul from its bondage to appearances and to the reaction of phenomenal activities. Karmayoga is used, (in traditional Yoga) like the other paths, to lead to liberation from phenomenal existence and a departure into the Supreme. But here (in integral Yoga) too the exclusive result is not inevitable. The end of the path may be, equally, 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. "⁶⁵ Sri Aurobindo The Injunction issued to the Seekers of integral Yoga of Works: “A Will, a hope immense now seized his heart, And to discern the superhuman’s form He raised his eyes to unseen spiritual heights, Aspiring to bring down a greater world.” Savitri-76 “He saw the purpose in the works of Time. Even in that aimlessness a work was done Pregnant with magic will and change divine.” Savitri-137-138 “Her eternal Lover is her action’s cause;... 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 “Its (Supreme Self's) absence left the greatest actions dull, Its presence made the smallest seem divine.” Savitri-305 (smallest action, thought and love.) “A hand from some Greatness opened her heart’s locked doors And showed the work for which her strength was born.” Savitri-375 “This earth is full of labour, packed with pain;… This earth is full of the anguish of the gods; Ever they travail driven by Time’s goad, And strive to work out the eternal Will And shape the life divine in mortal forms.” Savitri-443-444 “His will must be worked out in human breasts Against the Evil that rises from the gulfs, Against the world’s Ignorance and its obstinate strength, Against the stumblings of man’s pervert will, Against the deep folly of his human mind, Against the blind reluctance of his heart.” Savitri-444 “Even the smallest and 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 “Transcended now was the poor human rule; A sovereign power was there, a godlike will.” Savitri-574 “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 Integral Karma Yoga is the extensive extension of the Gita’s teachings of traditional Karma Yoga. Here the divine Shakti or Para-prakriti is identified as the doer of all action. The Gita hints that even when involved in doing wide range of works, a Sadhaka does no action at all, karmanyaviprabruttopi naiba kinchit karoti sah ;³⁵ for it is not he, but Divine Shakti directed by the approval of Lord which is at work. He also undertakes no personal initiative of action, sarvarambha-parityagi ;³⁶ for all initiation of work is the movement of desire and not the command of the Divine Will. This approach is further extended in integral Yoga that he 'must be prepared to change one work, one course or one field of action for another or abandon all works if that is the clear command of the Master.'⁶ ⁴ He does perfect ceaseless Divine action founded upon perfect inner passivity till his last breath or even if he 'reached a last possible divine self-completeness .'⁶³ 1) All Life is Yoga of Nature through Works. One takes up all life and action and (1) does not despise any work nor shrink from the splendid toil; he becomes only a daily dynamic worship and service of the Divine in the unbounded temple of His own vast cosmic existence and it is through a wide egoless impersonality that he can become a liberated Worker and Divine Creator; in this higher state of Consciousness he does all work without the sense of doership, without the feeling of personal initiation of any action and no reaction of lower Nature can touch him; (2) another period in which one draws back and builds a Spiritual wall around him admitting through its gates only such activities as consent to undergo the law of Spiritual transformation. So, ‘all grief, revolt, impatience, trouble’³² are identified as a violence committed against the Master of this existence. The Master of our works respects our nature even when He is transforming it; He works always through the nature and not by any arbitrary and abstract whim. This imperfect nature of ours contains the materials of our perfection, but undeveloped, distorted, misplaced, thrown together in disorder or a poor imperfect order. All this material has to be patiently gathered, harmonised, reorganised, purified, perfected, new-moulded and transformed, not hacked and hewn and slain or mutilated, not obliterated by simple coercion and denial. (3) A third in which a free and all-embracing action, but with new forms fit for the utter truth of the Spirit. All work is done by the Power, by Shakti, and since the integral Yoga does not contemplate abandonment of works, does not shrink from difficulties of life but rather a doing of all works and acceptance to resolve all problems from the Divine Consciousness and with the Supreme Guidance of Divine Will and Knowledge; the characteristic powers of the instruments, mind, life and body, must not only be purified of defects, but raised to a great capacity for this Divine action. All works or doing all action, sarvakrut , by a liberated knower who lives and acts in the world only with true knowledge and greater conscient power without any binding necessity and compelling ignorance. By so doing he attains supreme Unity, supreme Consciousness and highest Knowledge. Action can neither bind the liberated man nor can it bind or limit the Eternal but it binds and limits the surface constructed personality. The law of the Divine action is at last unity embracing and possessing the multiplicity and no longer the ordinary action of multiplicity struggling towards some figure of unity. A Divine action can take shape spontaneously, freely, and infallibly from the light and force of our Psychic and Spiritual Self in union with the Supramental Self. These interfusions of complete Divine union are identified as the last state of the integral Yoga of Works. 2) Karmaphala tyaga, samata (titikha), yajna(atmasamarpanam) iti Karma Yogah. Renunciation of all desire for the fruits of work, equality and action done as sacrifice to the supreme Lord of all nature are the first three Godward approaches of Karmayoga . 3) Yastu karmafalatyagi sa tyagityavidhiyate . (The Gita-18.11) He who gives up the fruit of work is called a Tyagi , a renouncer. Therefore, the first rule of action laid down by the Gita is to do the work that should be done without any desire for the fruit, niskama karma... For so long as we work with attachment to the result, the sacrifice is offered not to the Divine, but to our ego or activity pursued by the absorption in action leads to an inferior affirmation and denial of the Highest. Afterwards even as we have renounced attachment to the fruit, we must renounce attachment to the work, so also the last clinging attachment to the idea and sense of ourselves as the doer has to be relinquished; the Divine Shakti must be known and felt above and within us as the true and sole Divine Worker. The state of freedom, mukti, which can come in the Yoga of works through renunciation of ego, ahamkaram, desire, kama , dualities, dwanda, three gunas and personal initiation, sarbarambhaparityagi . “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 ( of sadhana) : 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, A Sadhaka of integral Karmayoga will abandon social duty, family obligation, communal or national demand to the Lord of works, so long as it is not in conflict with his growing sense of higher Right. There is nothing in the world to which he must be attached, not wealth, ‘nor wife, nor children,’² ⁵ nor his ‘work and mission, nor heaven, nor earth.’² ⁵ He must give up past associations that form the ordinary way of living, mental constructions of our own, snare of mind and senses, the meshes of Word, the bondage of the Idea, ‘the truths we hold most securely.’²⁶ 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. 4) ‘Samatwam yoga uchyate. ’ (The Gita-2.48) For it is equality that is meant by Yoga. The second rule of action laid down by the Gita is an absolute equality of mind and the heart to all results, to all reactions, to all happenings. If good fortune and ill fortune, if respect and insult, if reputation and obloquy, if victory and defeat, if pleasant event and sorrowful event leave us not only unshaken but untouched, free in the mental view, not responding with the least disturbance or vibration in any spot of the nature, then we have the absolute liberation to which the Gita points us. ‘The equal poise in action is especially necessary for the Sadhaka of the integral Yoga. First, he must acquire that equal assent and understanding which will respond to the law of the divine action without trying to impose on it a partial will and the violent claim of a personal aspiration. A wise impersonality, a quiescent equality, a universality which sees all things as the manifestations of the Divine, the one Existence, is not angry, troubled, impatient with the way of things or on the other hand excited, over-eager and precipitate, but sees that the law must be obeyed and the pace of time respected, observes and understands with sympathy the actuality of things and beings, but looks also behind the present appearance to their inner significances and forward to the unrolling of their divine possibilities, is the first thing demanded of those who would do works as the perfect instruments of the Divine.’²⁷ “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 5) ‘Yajnah karma samudbhavah.’ (The Gita-3.14) Sacrifice is born of work. The third rule of action is an entire spirit of self-consecration in our works; it must become first the constant will, then the ingrained need in all the being and instrumental nature, finally its automatic but living and conscious habit, the self-existent turn to do all action as a sacrifice to the Supreme present in us and in all beings and in all the workings of the universe. “As that self-giving progresses, the work of the sacrifice becomes easier and more powerful and the prevention of the opposing Forces loses much of its strength, impulsion and substance.”³⁸ Both inner and outer Life become the altar of this complete consecration; all works are unconditionally offered to the Psychic being within or transcendent and universal Power and Presence. 6) ‘Chaturvarnam maya srustam.’ (The Gita-4.13) I have created four order of work based on four kinds of Soul forces that of Power for Knowledge, Brahmana , a Power for strength, Khyatriya, a Power for mutuality and active and productive relation and interchange, Vaisya and a Power for works and labour and service, Shudra . These are four active Powers and tendencies of the Spirit and the predominance of one or the other in the better formed part of our personality gives us our dominant qualities, tendencies and capacities. For integral development of a Soul Seeker, in integral Yoga all the four Soul Forces are reconciled. 7) ‘Chatvaro manabastatha madbhava manasa jata,’ (The Gita-10.6) the four Manus that of Wisdom, Power, Beatitude and Perfection are of My Spiritual or Overmental becomings. These Spiritual becoming are the four dynamic Spiritual Shaktis that work in the universe that of Maheswari, Mahakali, Mahalakhmi and Mahasaraswati. The function of these four Spiritual Shaktis in Knowledge plane has extended as action of four Soul/Psychic forces of Brahma Shakti, Kshetra Shakti, Vaisya Shakti and Shudra Shakti acting in the Planes of Ignorance. The Sadhaka of integral Yoga reconciles all the four Spiritual Mother Powers and thus he experiences the integration of his personality and moves towards still higher planes of Consciousness. 8) ‘Brahmaiba tena gantabyam brahmakarmasamadhina .’ (The Gita-4.24) Brahman is that which is attained by Samadhi in Brahman- action. Jnanam Vijnanam astikyam brahma-karma swabhabajam (The Gita-18.42), exclusive and comprehensive knowledge and practice of Spiritual truth are the natural and spontaneous work of the Brahmin Soul force. The soul force of the nature of exclusive concentration of the ancient Brahmin is extended in integral Yoga to the fullness of the divine soul and power of truth, knowledge, perfection of Dharma , the accomplished Brahminhood of the complete Brahmana . 9) ‘Sourjya tejo dhrutidrakhyam danamiswarabhavascha khetrakarma swabhabajam,’ (The Gita-18.43) adventure of consciousness, high spirit askesis, resolution, ability, giving and lordship are the natural work of Kshatriya Soul force. These are extended in Integral Yoga to adventure of Consciousness, Divine fullness, purity and grandeur and expansion of the Spiritual kingdom within and without. 10) ‘Yogah karmasu kausalam .’ (The Gita-2.50) Yoga is the skill in works. The outward action of the Vaisya Soul force is skilful devising intelligence, the legal, professional, commercial, scientific, technical, commercial and utilitarian bent of mind, a power of giving, ample creative liberality, and mutual helpfulness. This is extended in integral Yoga into a largeness of mutuality, a generous fullness of the relations of life, a lavish self-spending and return and ample interchange between existence and existence, a full enjoyment and use of rhythm and balance of fruitful and productive life. 11) ‘Paricharyatamakam karma shudrasyapi swabhabajam ,’ (The Gita-18.44) all the action of the character of service and obedience is the natural work of Shudra Soul force. The well-developed Shudra has the instinct of toil and capacity of labour and service for maintenance of his existence, gratification of his primal needs, self-indulgence of the instincts, an unreflective obedience and mechanical discharge of duty. In integral Yoga, this faculty is extended to the most necessary and beautiful elements of our greater perfection and the key to much of the secret of highest Spiritual evolution. The full development of this force is the power of service to others, to obey and follow whatever great discipline and influence, the love which consecrates service and asks for no return, a power for complete self-surrender. 12) Sahajam karma kauntaya sadosamapi na tyajet. (The Gita-18.48) O Arjuna , though defective, the inborn work ought not to be abandoned. ‘The integral Yoga cannot reject the works of Life and be satisfied with an inward experience only; it has to go inward in order to change the outward, making the Life-Force a part and a working of a Yoga-Energy which is in touch with the Divine and divine in its guidance.’³³ An integral Yogi is ‘not attached, bound and limited by any work nor has he any personal motive of fame, greatness or personal satisfaction in these works; he can leave or pursue them as the Divine in him wills, but he need not otherwise abandon them in his pursuit of higher integral knowledge.’³⁷ The Divine work for which he is offered a birth is the manifestation of the Divine All through Universalisation and Impersonalisation of himself. 13) The Integral Karma Yoga aims at the dedication of every human activity to the supreme Will. It begins by the renunciation of all egoistic aims for our works, all pursuit of action for an interested aim or for the sake of a worldly result; it continues enjoying the joy of action by renouncing all attachment to action and the result of action. By this renunciation it so purifies the mind and the will that we become easily conscious of the great universal Energy as the true doer of all our actions and the Lord of that Energy as their ruler and director with the individual as only a mask, an excuse, a passive instrument, a channel of the Divine Shakti and act according to Her dictates or her rule of light and power within us or, more positively, a conscious centre of action and phenomenal relation. The choice and direction of the act is more and more consciously left to the supreme Will and this universal Energy. To That our works as well as the results of our works are finally abandoned. ‘Thus are made possible the final steps (of Supramental action) when the veil of Nature is withdrawn and the seeker is face to face with the Master of all existence and his activities are merged in the action of a supreme Energy which is pure, true, perfect and blissful for ever. Thus can he utterly renounce to the supramental Shakti his works as well as the fruits of his works and act only as the conscious instrument of the eternal Worker. No longer giving the sanction, he will rather receive in his instruments and follow in her hands a divine mandate. No longer doing works, he will accept their execution through him by her unsleeping Force. No longer willing the fulfilment of his own mental constructions and the satisfaction of his own emotional desires, he will obey and participate in an omnipotent Will that is also an omniscient Knowledge and a mysterious, magical and unfathomable Love and a vast bottomless sea of the eternal Bliss of Existence.’⁵⁸ 14) The traditional Karma Yoga is used like other paths, to lead to liberation from the phenomenal existence and a departure into the Supreme Self. But Integral Karma Yoga ⁶⁵ is not confined to this exclusive result. The object of Integral Karma Yoga is the release of the Soul from its bondage to appearances and to the reaction of phenomenal activities. The end of the path may be, equally, 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, following it will lead to the elevation of all human will and activity to the divine level, its Psychicisation, Spiritualisation, Universalisation and the justification of the cosmic labour towards purification, freedom, power, ananda, transformation of Nature and perfection in the human being. Even the smallest action is utilised as means of largest development by activation of dynamic Supreme Self. ("Its presence made the smallest seem divine." Savitri-305) 15) The Purusha-Prakriti realisation is of the first utility to the seeker in the Way of Works; for it is the separation of the conscient being and the Energy and the subjection of the being to the mechanism of the Energy that are the efficient cause of our ignorance and imperfection; by this realisation the Psychic being can liberate itself from the mechanical action of the Nature and become free and arrive at a first Spiritual control over the Nature. (“His commonest doings welled from an inner Light.” Savitri-44) Ishwara-Shakti stands behind the relation of the Purusha-Prakriti and its ignorant action and turns it to an evolutionary purpose in Knowledge. The Ishwara-Shakti realisation can bring participation in a higher dynamism and a divine working and a total unity and harmony of the Spiritual being in a Spiritual nature. (“The Immobile stands behind each daily act" Savitri-662, "And every act became an act of God.” Savitri-529) The Brahman-Maya union in the Supramental plane is the highest achievement of an integral Karma Yogi, where he experiences complete union of the dual aspects of Divine and the descent of the Divine Truth will ‘illumine, deliver and act sovereignly on the world of ignorance.’³¹ (“It (Supramental energy) moves events by its bare silent will, Acts at a distance without hands or feet.” Savitri-85,) 16) Sarva dharman paritejya mam ekam saranam braja. (The Gita-18.66) Abandon all laws of mind, life and body and take refuge in My supreme Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Being alone. The Gita’s supreme message to a Karma Yogi is that he should leave all conventional formulas of mechanised and desire driven action, all fixed, constructed and external rules of conduct, dharmas , and take refuge in the Divine Will alone. ‘The Gita at its cryptic close may seem by its silence to stop short of that solution for which we are seeking; it pauses at the borders of the highest spiritual mind and does not cross them into the splendours of the Supramental Light. And yet its secret of dynamic, and not only static, identity with the inner Presence, its highest mystery of absolute surrender to the Divine Guide, Lord and Inhabitant of our nature, is the central secret. This surrender is the indispensable means of the Supramental change and, again, it is through the Supramental change that the dynamic identity becomes possible…’²⁸ Transformation of Nature is linked with constant dynamic Divine union. “All our nature must make an integral surrender; it must offer itself in every part and every movement to that which seems to the unregenerated sense-mind so much less real than the material world and its objects. Our whole being – soul, mind, sense, heart, will, life, body – must consecrate all its energies so entirely and in such a way that it shall become a fit vehicle for the Divine.”³⁴ ‘This total consecration and surrender and this resultant entire transformation and free transmission make up the whole fundamental means and the ultimate aim of an integral Karmayoga .’²⁹ 17) Action is the result of energy and the consciousness force of the Spirit, which manifests itself in many kinds of energies, resulting in manifold experience and many-sided action. An energy of seeking of truth and knowledge must have natural outcome of growth into truth and increase in knowledge; an energy of pursuit of beauty should have as its outcome an increase in the sense of beauty, the enjoyment of beauty, beauty and harmony of life and nature; a pursuit of physical health, strength and capacity must create the strong man and successful athlete; an energy put forward for power and other vital ends must lead to an increase of capacity for commanding these results or development of vital strength and plentitude; nature rewards brave and strong with victory in the battle; rewards capable intellect and earnest seeker with the knowledge; there are inner activities of mind and life, pursuit of love, joy, happiness and life enlargement. All these varieties of work are necessary for the action of the Spirit in life. "Not only liberation but perfection must be the aim of the Karmayoga . The Divine works through our nature and according to our nature; if our nature is imperfect, the work also will be imperfect, mixed, inadequate. Even it may be marred by gross errors, falsehoods, moral weaknesses, diverting influences. The work of the Divine will be done in us even then, but according to our weakness, not according to the strength and purity of its source. If ours were not an integral Yoga , if we sought only the liberation of the self within us or the motionless existence of Purusha separated from Prakriti, this dynamic imperfection might not matter. Calm, untroubled, not depressed, not elated, refusing to accept the perfection or imperfection, fault or merit, sin or virtue as ours, perceiving that it is the modes of Nature working in the field of her modes that make this mixture, we could withdraw into the silence of the spirit and, pure, untouched, witness only the workings of Prakriti. But in an integral realisation this can only be a step on the way, not our last resting-place. For we aim at the divine realisation not only in the immobility of the Spirit, but also in the movement of Nature. And this cannot be altogether until we can feel the presence and power of the Divine in every step, motion, figure of our activities, in every turn of our will, in every thought, feeling and impulse."³⁰ 18) From the point of view of Infinite truth, it would be an error to insist either on the sameness of work under all circumstances or on the diversity of action without any unifying truth and harmony. The greater cosmic truth insists on the unity of action and the infinitely plastic yet harmonious diversity of all action. Or the Divine Shakti acts according to a permanent and yet plastic truth of things and each action is moved by a higher, deeper and subtler truth demanded by the supreme Will in the universe. The highest triple action identified in integral Karma Yoga is that firstly, the Spiritual reason is broadened, heightened and lifted to greater formulative action of Self that is within and around us; secondly , there is a higher interpretative Supramental action which is less insistent on actualities of existence but more concerned with greater potentialities in time and space and beyond and lastly, there is highest knowledge by identity which is a door of entrance to the essential self-awareness and the Omniscience and Omnipotence of the Supreme. Their action would be a free manifestation of the power and workings of the root Force of existence, the force of an all-determining conscious Spirit whose formulations of descending Consciousness work out inevitably in the untransformed mind, life and matter. OM TAT SAT References: 1: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-247-48, 2: “The action of the three gunas is the subject-matter of the Veda ; but do thou become free from the triple guna , O Arjuna ; without the dualities, ever based in the true being, without getting or having, possessed of the self.” The Gita-2.45, 3: The Gita-9.26, 27, 28, 29, 4: The Gita-17.24, 5: The Gita-17.27, 6: The Gita-18.56, 7: The Gita-2.47, 48, 8: The Gita-2.51, 9: The Gita-11.55, 10: The Gita-3.27, 11: “The embodied soul perfectly controlling its nature, having renounced all its actions by the mind (inwardly, not outwardly), sits serenely in its nine-gated city neither doing nor causing to be done.” The Gita-5.13, In the Bhagavad Gita, the body is metaphorically described as a city with nine gates. Let’s explore this profound analogy: 1. Two Eyes: These serve as the gates of perception, allowing us to see the external world. 2. Two Nostrils: The gates for breathing, intake of prana (life force), and connection to the environment. 3. Two Ears: Channels for hearing sounds, vibrations, and communication. 4. Mouth: The gateway for speech, nourishment, and expression. 5. Anus: The exit gate for waste elimination. 6. Genitals: The gate associated with reproduction and continuation of life. The soul, like a king, resides in this city of the body. The ego, intellect, mind, senses, and life-energy serve as ministers, governing its administration. The enlightened yogis, however, recognize that they are not the body or its doers. They remain detached observers, understanding that all actions belong to God. Thus, they reside happily in this city of nine gates, free from the illusion of personal agency. This analogy echoes the Śhwetāśhvatar Upaniṣhad, which states: "The body consists of nine gates—two ears, one mouth, two nostrils, two eyes, anus, and genitals. Within this body also sits the Supreme Lord, who is the controller of all living beings in the world. When the soul establishes its connection with the Lord, it becomes free like Him, even while residing in the body.” In summary, the embodied soul is neither the doer nor the cause of anything; it is the eternal observer within the city of nine gates. 12: The Gita-16.18, 13: The Gita-18.53, 14: The Gita-18.58, 15: The Gita-18.59, 60, 16: The Gita-5.8, 9, 17: The Gita-5.14, 18: The Gita-13.30, 19: The Gita-14.19, 20: The Gita-18.17, 21: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-453, 22: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-243, 23: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-185, 24: The Gita-5.10, 11, 12, 25: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-329, 26: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-331, 27: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-700-01, 28: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-94-95, 29: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-92, 30: "Not only liberation but perfection must be the aim of the Karmayoga . The Divine works through our nature and according to our nature; if our nature is imperfect, the work also will be imperfect, mixed, inadequate. Even it may be marred by gross errors, falsehoods, moral weaknesses, diverting influences. The work of the Divine will be done in us even then, but according to our weakness, not according to the strength and purity of its source. If ours were not an integral Yoga , if we sought only the liberation of the self within us or the motionless existence of Purusha separated from Prakriti, this dynamic imperfection might not matter. Calm, untroubled, not depressed, not elated, refusing to accept the perfection or imperfection, fault or merit, sin or virtue as ours, perceiving that it is the modes of Nature working in the field of her modes that make this mixture, we could withdraw into the silence of the spirit and, pure, untouched, witness only the workings of Prakriti. But in an integral realisation this can only be a step on the way, not our last resting-place. For we aim at the divine realisation not only in the immobility of the Spirit, but also in the movement of Nature. And this cannot be altogether until we can feel the presence and power of the Divine in every step, motion, figure of our activities, in every turn of our will, in every thought, feeling and impulse. No doubt, we can feel that in essence even in the nature of the Ignorance, but it is the divine Power and Presence in a disguise, a diminution, an inferior figure. Ours is a greater demand, that our nature shall be a power of the Divine in the Truth of the Divine, in the Light, in the force of the eternal self-conscient Will, in the wideness of the sempiternal Knowledge." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-251-252, 31: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-125-126, 32: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-723, 33: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-175, 34: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-72, 35: "Having abandoned all attachment to the fruits of his works, ever satisfied without any kind of dependence, he does nothing though (through his nature) he engages in action." The Gita-4.20, 36: The Gita-12.16, 14.25, 37: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-143, 38: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-133, 39: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-498, 40: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-136, 41: “Her mind, a sea of white sincerity.” Savitri-15, “A mind delivered from all twilight thoughts,” Savitri-638, “Her consciousness grew aware of him (Satyavan) alone” Savitri-410, “Apart with love she lived for love alone.” Savitri-468, “Her aim, joy, origin, Satyavan alone.” Savitri-579, 42: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-102, 43: The Gita-12.9, 10, 11, 12, 44: The Gita-18.10, 11, 45: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-113, 46: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-762, 47: “Better indeed is knowledge than practice, than knowledge, meditation is better; than meditation, renunciation of the fruit of action, on renunciation follows peace.” The Gita-12.12, 48: “That is all right in the ordinary karmayog a which aims at union with the cosmic Spirit and stops short at the Overmind — but here (in integral Yoga) 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.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram- 812-813, “The Gita at its cryptic close may seem by its silence to stop short of that solution for which we are seeking; it pauses at the borders of the highest spiritual mind and does not cross them into the splendours of the supramental Light. ” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-94-95, 49: “For when questioned by Arjuna on the difference between the outer and inner renunciation, sannyasa and tyaga, Krishna insists that these three things ought not to be renounced at all but ought altogether to be done, for they are the work before us, kartavyam karma , and they purify the wise. In other words these acts constitute the means of our perfection.” CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-484, “Even these actions (sacrifice, giving and askesis) certainly ought to be done, O Partha, leaving aside attachment and fruit.” The Gita-18.6, 50: TMCW-8/The Questions and Answers-1956/p-299, 51: TMCW-8/The Questions and Answers-1956/p-324, 52: “At that time I didn’t know the text of the Gita. I had not read it completely yet, you see... (some words inaudible here)... not this verse which I translate in my own way: “And detached from all fruit of action, act.” It is not like this, but still that’s what it means. This I did not know, but I said exactly what is said in the Gita.” The Mother/TMCW-7/The Questions and Answers-1955/p-392-393, 53: The Mother’s Agenda-20.11.1962, 54: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-792, 55: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-786, 56: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-676, 57: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-181, 58: CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-231, 59: TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-214, 60: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-105, 61: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-222, 62: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-179-181, 184, 186, 63: "Action in the world is given us first as a means for our self-development and self-fulfilment; but even if we reached a last possible divine self-completeness, it (work) would still remain as a means for the fulfilment of the divine intention in the world and of the larger universal self of which each being is a portion—a portion that has come down with it from the Transcendence." (SABCL-20/253) CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-265, 64: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-222, 65: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-39-40, 66: "You know, I do not believe in external decisions. I simply believe in one thing only: the force of the Consciousness which is making a pressure like that (crushing gesture). And the pressure goes on increasing... which means that it will sift out the people. I believe only in that — the pressure of the Consciousness. All the rest are things that men do. They do them more or less well, and then it lives, and then it dies, and then it changes, and then it gets distorted, and then... everything they have done. It is not worth the trouble. The power of execution must come from above, like that, imperative (gesture of descent)! And for that, this (Mother points to her forehead), this must keep quiet. Not to say, “Oh, that must not be, oh! this must be, oh! we ought to do...” Peace, peace, peace. He knows better than you do what is needed." TMCW/Vol-13/Words of the Mother-I/p-308-309 Download this WEB PAGE in PDF format: Six signs of Divine Worker: A Divine Worker can be known from six signs. Those who want to serve the Divine must develop these six qualities: First sign of the Divine Worker: “The Divine is the lord of his works, he is only their channel through the instrumentality of his nature conscious of and subject to her Lord. By the flaming intensity and purity of this knowledge all his works are burned up as in a fire and his mind remains without any stain or disfiguring mark from them, calm, silent, unperturbed, white and clean and pure. To do all in this liberating knowledge, without the personal egoism of the doer, is the first sign of the divine worker.”⁶² Second sign of the Divine Worker: “The second sign is freedom from desire; for where there is not the personal egoism of the doer, desire becomes impossible; it is starved out, sinks for want of a support, dies of inanition. Outwardly the liberated man seems to undertake works of all kinds like other men, on a larger scale perhaps with a more powerful will and driving-force, for the might of the divine will works in his active nature; but from all his inceptions and undertakings the inferior concept and nether will of desire is entirely banished, sarve samarambhah kamasankalpavarjitah. (The Gita-4.19) He has abandoned all attachment to the fruits of his works, and where one does not work for the fruit, but solely as an impersonal instrument of the Master of works, desire can find no place, — not even the desire to serve successfully, for the fruit is the Lord’s and determined by him and not by the personal will and effort, or to serve with credit and to the Master’s satisfaction, for the real doer is the Lord himself and all glory belongs to a form of his Shakti missioned in the nature and not to the limited human personality. The human mind and soul of the liberated man does nothing, na kinchit karoti; (The Gita-4.20) even though through his nature he engages in action, it is the Nature, the executive Shakti , it is the conscious Goddess governed by the divine Inhabitant who does the work.”⁶² Third sign of the Divine Worker: “For sin consists not at all in the outward deed, but in an impure reaction of the personal will, mind and heart which accompanies it or causes it; the impersonal, the spiritual is always pure, apapaviddham, (Isha Upanishad-8) and gives to all that it does its own inalienable purity. This spiritual impersonality is a third sign of the divine worker. All human souls, indeed, who have attained to a certain greatness and largeness are conscious of an impersonal Force or Love or Will and Knowledge working through them, but they are not free from egoistic reactions, sometimes violent enough, of their human personality. But this freedom the liberated soul has attained; for he has cast his personality into the impersonal, where it is no longer his, but is taken up by the divine Person, the Purushottama, who uses all finite qualities infinitely and freely and is bound by none. He has become a soul and ceased to be a sum of natural qualities; and such appearance of personality as remains for the operations of Nature, is something unbound, large, flexible, universal; it is a free mould for the Infinite, it is a living mask of the Purushottama .”⁶² Fourth sign of the Divine Worker: “The result of this knowledge, this desirelessness and this impersonality is a perfect equality in the soul and the nature. Equality is the fourth sign of the divine worker. He has, says the Gita , passed beyond the dualities; he is dvandvatıta . (The Gita-4.22) We have seen that he regards with equal eyes, without any disturbance of feeling, failure and success, victory and defeat; but not only these, all dualities are in him surpassed and reconciled. The outward distinctions by which men determine their psychological attitude towards the happenings of the world, have for him only a subordinate and instrumental meaning. He does not ignore them, but he is above them. Good happening and evil happening, so all-important to the human soul subject to desire, are to the desireless divine soul equally welcome since by their mingled strand are worked out the developing forms of the eternal good.”⁶² Fifth sign of the Divine Worker: “Again, the sign of the divine worker is that which is central to the divine consciousness itself, a perfect inner joy and peace which depends upon nothing in the world for its source or its continuance; it is innate, it is the very stuff of the soul’s consciousness, it is the very nature of divine being. The ordinary man depends upon outward things for his happiness; therefore he has desire; therefore he has anger and passion, pleasure and pain, joy and grief; therefore he measures all things in the balance of good fortune and evil fortune. None of these things can affect the divine soul; it is ever satisfied without any kind of dependence, nitya-trupto nirasrayah;(The Gita-4.20) for its delight, its divine ease, its happiness, its glad light are eternal within, ingrained in itself, atma-ratih, antah sukhontararamas tathantarjyotir eva yah. (The Gita-5.24)”⁶² Sixth sign of the Divine Worker: “He (a Sadhak) himself, safe in the immutable, unmodified soul, is beyond the grip of the three gunas, trigunatita; he is neither sattwic, rajasic nor tamasic ; he sees with a clear untroubled spirit the alternations of the natural modes and qualities in his action, their rhythmic play of light and happiness, activity and force, rest and inertia. This superiority of the calm soul observing its action but not involved in it, this trigunatitya, is also a high sign of the divine worker. By itself the idea might lead to a doctrine of the mechanical determinism of Nature and the perfect aloofness and irresponsibility of the soul; but the Gita effectively avoids this fault of an insufficient thought by its illumining supertheistic idea of the Purushottama . It makes it clear that it is not in the end Nature which mechanically determines its own action; it is the will of the Supreme which inspires her; he who has already slain the Dhritarashtrians, he of whom Arjuna is only the human instrument, a universal Soul, a transcendent Godhead is the master of her labour. The reposing of works in the Impersonal is a means of getting rid of the personal egoism of the doer, but the end is to give up all our actions to that great Lord of all, sarva-loka-mahesvara .(The Gita-5.29)”⁶²

The Central Truth of the Synthesis of Yoga "Her life the altar, herself the sacrifice.” Savitri-473 "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." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-157 The Central Truth of The Synthesis of Yoga or The Book of Consecration “The law of sacrifice is the common divine action that was thrown out into the world in its beginning as a symbol of the solidarity of the universe. It is by the attraction of this law that a divinising principle, a saving power descends to limit and correct and gradually eliminate the errors of an egoistic and self-divided creation.”⁵ Sri Aurobindo “My own experience is a super security, which can be really found only in union with the Supreme—nothing, nothing, nothing in the world can give you security, except this: union, identification with the Supreme.”¹⁷ The Mother Integral Yoga proposes a triple consecration supported and subordinated by the practice of triple rejection and triple equality of our volitional, intellectual and emotional parts through Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga, respectively for beginners. This will be extended to seven constituents of sacrificial energies, that of the Body, Life, Mind, Supermind, Bliss (Ananda ), Will (Chit) and essential Being (Sat ) whose regular action activates the right relation of existence with the Divine. Or this sacrificial action is offered for the wide-ranging perfection of the tamasic, rajasic, and sattwic minds. Sattwic mind is divided into three parts that of schoolman mind, the fixed mind, and the outer mind. Behind the Sattwic mind, subtle physical related with defeatist and negative energy of mother of seven sorrows, subtle vital related with mother of might, subtle mental related with mother of light. Behind and above Subliminal sheaths, there are the Psychic being, the Spiritual being and the Supramental being. This wide range perfection also includes perfection of Subconscient sheath, Inconscient Sheath and Bliss Sheath by activation of their respective Selves. This is a demand made on us by the Divine that we should turn our whole life into a conscious or unconscious sacrifice of all we cherish here or this is the law of sacrifice through utter obedience and submission at every minute and every second: “Lord I cannot do it, do it for me Lord, I cannot do it, do it for me...”¹² Every moment and every movement of our Being and Nature are to be resolved into continuous and devoted self-giving to the Eternal and His Shakti by rejecting Ignorance and the result of Ignorance. Sacrificial work with knowledge of the wheel of Works, evam pravartitam chakram ,²³ and without attachment leads to higher planes of Consciousness. This Yoga further recommends two methods, one of following the Vedantic method to arrive at the Tantric aim for beginners and the other of following the Tantric method to arrive at the Vedantic aim for those who are established in Spiritual Consciousness. It must be done with a right faith and true sincerity to ignite the Vedantic sacrifice, Purusha Yajna , consent and participation of Purusha , which makes us ‘one by identity in our inmost Being’¹⁰ and the Vedic sacrifice, Prakriti Yajna , consent and participation of Prakriti, which makes us ‘one in our Becomings’¹⁰ by resemblance to the Divine in our nature. Or the ‘surrender of oneself and all one is and has and every plane of the consciousness and every movement to (1) the Divine (Known as Purusha Yajna ) and to (2) the Shakti (known as Prakriti Yajna ).’¹ The ‘great and complete and powerful sacrifice’¹⁴ through (1) adoration of Divine as Creator of existence, Monotheism,¹⁵ (2) adoration of Divine in the multitude of His creation, Polytheism,¹⁵ (3) adoration of Divine as Creatrix Mother, known as Occultism (Tantra ) and (4) adoration, self-giving, consecration offered by Creator and Creatrix Mother to Their Creation is the highest recognised form of sacrifice, which get equal importance and reverence in integral Yoga; where the first is marked as Purusha Yajna and the latter three are Prakriti Yajna . The Gita symbolically gives the relation between imperfect Matter and perfect Spirit through knowledge of the wheel of works. The Divine Will, known as Brahman, is created or manifested from indeterminable Chit . From Divine Will, two types of action are born, known as Divine action beyond the three Gunas , nistraigunya and undivine action of the three Gunas . From these two actions, Purusha Yajna or Vedantic Sacrifice of passive mind and Prakriti Yajna or Vedic sacrifice of active mind are born, respectively. The Vedantic Sacrifice of Apara-prakriti calls down ‘bright dews drip’ of Divine Force 'from the Immortal’s sky’²⁴ and Vedic sacrifice of Para-prakriti calls down vast rain of Divine Force or ‘sealike down pour of masses of a spontaneous knowledge’²⁶ ‘from heavenlier skies.’²⁵ From these double Sacrifices of Purusha and Prakriti Yajna , the rain of Divine Force is intensified towards material Nature and thus (subtle) Matter is purified, transformed, perfected, fulfilled and Divinised. This all existence and all creatures are born from (subtle) Matter, (subtle) food, anna, finds their fulfilment in the Brahman . Thus, the all-pervading Brahman Consciousness, Chit Shakti, penetrates and establishes in material Consciousness through ceaseless action, continuous movement of double sacrifice and rain of Divine Grace. Thus, there is an evolution of physical, vital and mental consciousness through conscious human creatures and they are purified, transformed and perfected by the invading Spirit’s rain. Subtle Matter retains its Divinity followed by the transformation of gross Matter and Divine Life becomes practicable. The Gita ²³ further confirms that he who is not aware of consecration and does not follow the above cycle of works extending from all-pervading Chit Shakti to gross Matter or does not have the knowledge of the wheel of works, evil is his being, sensual is his delight and his life is in vain. Or he does not reconcile Jnana Yoga of turning Intellect into the knowledge of the One Spirit, Bhakti Yoga of turning sense enjoyment towards Divine Love and Karma Yoga of transforming his life. The Vedantic Sacrifice: “…it is through self-giving or surrender of soul and nature to the Divine Being that we can attain to our highest self and supreme Reality, for it is the Divine Being who is that highest self and that supreme Reality, and we are self-existent and eternal only in his eternity and by his self-existence.”⁸ Sri Aurobindo “Sattwic men offer sacrifice to the gods, devan , without desire for the personal fruit, according to the right principle of Shastra and mind concentrated on the truth of things; the rajasic men offer sacrifice to the Yakshas (the keepers of wealth) and the Rakshasic forces, with a view to get the personal fruit, ambition and ostentation; the others, the tamasic men, offer their sacrifice to elemental powers, pretan , and grosser spirits, bhutaganan , without the right rule of the Shastra, without giving of food, without the mantra , without gifts, empty of faith.” The Gita-17.4, 11, 12, 13 The Vedantic sacrifice is the outcome of passive Mind, where Prakriti is silenced so that the Purusha, the Psychic being ascends and merges with the Ishwara, Spiritual being and subsequently Ishwara merges with the Brahman , Supramental being. This ascension of Consciousness is a climbing of our Soul from peak to peak and from each summit one looks up to the much that still has to be done. This causes the Divine Force, Overmental Shakti , Supramental Maya to descend into every part of the lower nature of mind, life and body and down to the deepest caves of Subconscient and Inconscient Nature. ‘A timeless Spirit was made the slave of the hour’⁴ and thus it became accountable to mutable Time or it is through self-giving or surrender of Soul to the Divine Being or ‘in this holocaust of the soul’¹⁹ or ‘She (Prakriti or Nature) surrendered to the service of the soul’⁹ that we must dynamise the highest Divine Shakti. The Synthesis of Yoga and The Life Divine are the books of Vedantic sacrifice where adoration is offered to the Divine as Purusha , Ishwara and Brahman through Karma, Jnana, Bhakti and Dhyana Yoga and hinted little about Vedic sacrifice which can be activated by any psycho-physical means, bahya avalambana . The integral Vedantic Sadhaka will limit his Spiritual experience around four central Secrets (1) of static Consciousness is identified as Brahman; (2) of this Jivatma is identified as part of Brahman ; (3) Purusha, Ishwara, Brahman are static aspect of Consciousness in ascending order and Prakriti, Shakti, Maya are the dynamic aspect of the descending Consciousness and (4) this Brahman is four footed that of Virata, waking Self, the objective state of being, Hiranyagarva, dream Self, the subjective state of being, Susupti , sleep Self, a massed consciousness and source of subjective objective being and Turiya , supreme Self, a Supracosmic state without subject and object. The Vedic Sacrifice ²¹ : - “…our surrender must be to the Divine Being through the Divine Mother: for it is towards or into the supreme Nature that our ascension has to take place and it can only be done by the supramental Shakti taking up our mentality and transforming it into her supramentality.”⁷ Sri Aurobindo “This was the double Vedic movement of the descent and birth of the gods in the human creature and the ascent of the human powers that struggle towards the divine knowledge, power and delight and climb into the godheads”¹¹ Sri Aurobindo Vedic sacrifice is the outcome of active illumined Mind, where Prakriti is agitated to create a rift in either of the lower minds, such as physical mind, sensory mind, emotional mind, intellectual mind etc or Prakriti and instrumental ego surrender to the Divine Shakti , the power of Ishwara. As a result, the higher Consciousness or Shakti first descends to successive layers of mind, life and body. Thus, the Prakriti is silenced and experiences the ascent of Consciousness through Purusha’s union with the Ishwara and subsequently union with the Brahman . ‘This experience of descent can take place as a result of the other two movements or automatically before either has happened, through a sudden rift in the lid or a percolation, a downpour or an influx. A light descends and touches or envelops or penetrates the lower being, the mind, the life or the body; or a presence or a power or a stream of knowledge pours in waves or currents, or there is a flood of bliss or a sudden ecstasy; the contact with the superconscient has been established. For such experiences repeat themselves till they become normal, familiar and well-understood, revelatory of their contents and their significance which may have at first been involved and wrapped into secrecy by the figure of the covering experience.’²⁸ ‘If the rift in the lid of mind is made, what happens is an opening of vision to something above us or a rising up towards it or a descent of its powers into our being.’³⁵ Alternatively, if we want to realise the highest status of Being then our surrender to the Divine Being must be done through surrender to the Shakti, the Divine Mother and only when our surrender to the Divine Shakti is absolute then we have the right to live in the Divine’s absolute Presence. ‘The Mother’ book proposes a Vedantic method of self-discipline in order to arrive at the Tantric aim, recognises great importance to Purusha Yajna , sacrifice of the Purusha , but still greater importance is directed towards more powerful Prakriti Yajna , ‘the holocaust of Prakriti , the sacrifice of the Divine Mother’² and ‘Her days became a luminous sacrifice.’³ In Savitri both the exercises Purusha and Prakriti Yajna are widely explored. This experience of Vedic Sacrifice can be pursued either in waking state or in sleep. In waking state, one experiences this descent of Shakti through Japa , loudly chanting Mantra , adoration of Shakti or ‘As one too great for him he worships her,’¹³ concentration on Shastra, collective gathering for creative purpose like songs, music, play, critical moment of winning or losing a game, Spiritual discourse, critical conscious hours in our individual and collective destiny. During ordinary sleep, when the physical and vital mind are active, then due to some subtle inner activity, the physical and vital mind break down, a rift is created and the descent of Divine force is experienced and normal sleep is transformed into waking trance. In the highest form of Prakriti Yajna , the Divine falls in deep love with His creation. Due to this absolute Love, He supports whatever she wants, does, thinks and wills and He is there everywhere, blissfully adoring all the confusion and distortion of His creation. “As one too great for him he (Divine) worships her (Creation or Nature); He adores her as his regent of desire...”¹⁶ As His joy is everywhere so nobody wants to leave this wonderful world. Through this sacrifice, He is restoring order, harmony and completeness of His manifestation. Similarly, the Creatrix Bliss Mother shall unveil herself and give herself to her creation. The Integral Vedic Sadhaka will limit his Spiritual experience around four Central Vedic truths that (1) of attainment of God, Light, Freedom, Bliss and Immortality which are far greater, higher and completer truth than the existing human understanding; (2) of recognition of this world which is an intermingling of truth and falsehood, joy and suffering, knowledge and ignorance, out of which pure truth, delight and wisdom are to be worked out by ascending the consciousness to the home of Satyam Ritam Brihat which is identified as the world of Great Heaven, Swar ; (3) of this world journey of life is the battlefield of Gods and their opponents, sons of Falsehood and Division, Asuras and with the aid of Gods, who represent higher planes of Consciousness, the powers of darkness or lower planes of consciousness are to be destroyed through inner sacrifice; so the Vedic Sadhaka will not limit his consecration offered to the Creatrix Mother only but also he will offer consecration to Her infinite variety of manifestation through contemplation of various Mantras , which later took the form of repetition of sacred word, ceaseless Japa and (4) of all teachings, the summit and supreme secret is identified as the ‘One Reality,’ the origin and source of existence and Divine can be entirely known by reconciling the One with endless variety of His manifested form or descent of the One into the manifested Many. How can Consecration begin?: “Its (Supreme Self) absence left the greatest actions dull, Its presence made the smallest seem divine .” Savitri-305 “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 “The law of sacrifice travels in Nature towards its culmination in this complete and unreserved self-giving; it awakens the consciousness of one common self in the giver and the object of the sacrifice… Above all, the psychic being imposes on life the law of the sacrifice of all its works as an offering to the Divine and the Eternal. Life becomes a call to that which is beyond Life; its every smallest act enlarges with the sense of the Infinite .”⁶ Sri Aurobindo “All our actions, not less the smallest and most ordinary and trifling than the greatest and most uncommon and noble, must be performed as consecrated acts. Our individualised nature must live in the single consciousness of an inner and outer movement dedicated to Something that is beyond us and greater than our ego. No matter what the gift or to whom it is presented by us, there must be a consciousness in the act that we are presenting it to the one divine Being in all beings. Our commonest or most grossly material actions must assume this sublimated character; when we eat, we should be conscious that we are giving our food to that Presence in us; it must be a sacred offering in a temple and the sense of a mere physical need or self-gratification must pass away from us. In any great labour, in any high discipline, in any difficult or noble enterprise, whether undertaken for ourselves, for others or for the race, it will no longer be possible to stop short at the idea of the race, of ourselves or of others. The thing we are doing must be consciously offered as a sacrifice of works, not to these, but either through them or directly to the One Godhead; the Divine Inhabitant who was hidden by these figures must be no longer hidden but ever present to our soul, our mind, our sense. The workings and results of our acts must be put in the hands of that One in the feeling that that Presence is the Infinite and Most High by whom alone our labour and our aspiration are possible. For in his being all takes place; for him all labour and aspiration are taken from us by Nature and offered on his altar. Even in those things in which Nature is herself very plainly the worker and we only the witnesses of her working and its containers and supporters, there should be the same constant memory and insistent consciousness of a work and of its divine Master. Our very inspiration and respiration, our very heart-beats can and must be made conscious in us as the living rhythm of the universal sacrifice .”²⁹ Sri Aurobindo “When the resolution has been taken, when you have decided that the whole of your life shall be given to the Divine, you have still at every moment to remember it and carry it out in all the details of your existence. You must feel at every step that you belong to the Divine; you must have the constant experience that, in whatever you think or do, it is always the Divine Consciousness that is acting through you. You have no longer anything that you can call your own; you feel everything as coming from the Divine, and you have to offer it back to its source. When you can realise that, then even the smallest thing to which you do not usually pay much attention or care, ceases to be trivial and insignificant ; it becomes full of meaning and it opens up a vast horizon beyond.”³⁰ The Mother “What is his (Sadhaka’s) method and his system? He has no method and every method. His system is a natural organisation of the highest processes and movements of which the nature is capable. Applying themselves even to the pettiest details and to the actions the most insignificant in their appearance with as much care and thoroughness as to the greatest, they in the end lift all into the Light and transform all. For in his Yoga there is nothing too small to be used and nothing too great to be attempted. As the servant and disciple of the Master has no business with pride or egoism because all is done for him from above, so also he has no right to despond because of his personal deficiencies or the stumblings of his nature. For the Force that works in him is impersonal—or superpersonal —and infinite.”³¹ Sri Aurobindo “It is evident, to begin with , that, even if such a discipline is begun without devotion, it leads straight and inevitably towards the highest devotion possible; for it must deepen naturally into the completest adoration imaginable, the most profound God-love. There is bound up with it a growing sense of the Divine in all things, a deepening communion with the Divine in all our thought, will and action and at every moment of our lives, a more and more moved consecration to the Divine of the totality of our being.”³² Sri Aurobindo “There has to be a preliminary stage of seeking and effort with a central offering or self-giving of the heart and soul and mind to the Highest and a later mediate stage of total conscious reliance on its greater Power aiding the personal endeavour; that integral reliance again must grow into a final complete abandonment of oneself in every part and every movement to the working of the higher Truth in the nature. The totality of this abandonment can only come if the psychic change has been complete or the spiritual transformation has reached a very high state of achievement. For it implies a giving up by the mind of all its moulds, ideas, mental formations, of all opinion, of all its habits of intellectual observation and judgment to be replaced first by an intuitive and then by an overmind or supramental functioning which inaugurates the action of a direct Truth-consciousness, Truth-sight, Truth-discernment, a new consciousness which is in all its ways quite foreign to our mind’s present nature.”³⁴ Sri Aurobindo Integral Yoga proposes that consecration can begin with the smallest and insignificant action; it can begin from little devotion and from a tiny wisdom and can be used as a means to call down the highest Supreme Energy. If we concentrate, contemplate and meditate on a tiny seed of wisdom for long years then it will emerge as a mighty banyan tree. The Bhagavad Gita proposes that in order to make the consecration true and sattwic, it must satisfy three conditions. Firstly, all consecrated action must be supported by ceaseless remembrance of the Divine either through concentration, contemplation and meditation on Mantra or through ceaseless Japa ; secondly, all consecrated action for the Divine must be motiveless by renouncing the fruit of action and lastly all objective action must be elevated to subjective world action in trance, K rishnakarmakrit, and directed for the well being of the race, Jagat hitaya , and it must be ‘virginally creative’³³ every moment, superseding the limitation of mind of engaging in ‘constructive action.’ Recapitulation: “A long, difficult stage of constant effort, energism, austerity of the personal will, tapasya, has ordinarily to be traversed before a more decisive stage can be reached in which a state of self-giving of all the being to the Supreme Being (Vedantic Sacrifice) and the Supreme Nature (Vedic Sacrifice) can become total and absolute.”⁴ Sri Aurobindo “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.”²² Sri Aurobindo So the Vedantic sacrifice is identified as an indispensable exercise of awakening the Spiritual Being or ‘first the spirit’s ascent we must achieve’¹⁸ supported and subordinated by still more powerful dispensable Vedic sacrifice of awakening the Psychic being or ‘Repeating the marvel of first descent.’²⁰ What the Vedantic Sadhaka achieves that of transformation of nature through passive silence, trance, Samadhi , subtle physical dream and Superconscient sleep; the same state a Vedic Sadhaka arrives through active silence and waking trance. The true waking Consciousness is defined as withdrawal from subjective Consciousness, which consists of subtle physical, subtle vital and subtle mental Consciousness, objective consciousness, which consists of surface physical, surface vital and surface mental Consciousness and massed Causal Consciousness or Supramental Consciousness and entry into superconscience superior to all Consciousness, Sachchidananda Consciousness. The first Spiritual experience of waking union that the Vedic Sadhaka will experience is when the individual Purusha enlarges its active experience. In order to bring down the highest Spiritual being into our waking life, there must be heightening, widening and integration of immense ranges of new Consciousness. When the surrender becomes complete, absolute and entire, either by complete dependence of creation on the Creator, the static Divine or by complete dependence of creation on the Creatrix Mother, the dynamic Divine, then the Divine cannot conceal Himself; the Unmanifest reflects His form and we could dare to clasp the body of the God and hold between our hands the World-Mother’s feet and rapt into eternity through descent of Her Timeless ray. Thus, for full transformation of life, permanent ascension of the Soul to the highest planes of Consciousness and permanent descent of the highest Shakti to lower Nature are indispensable. So, the double movement of ascent of Soul followed by descent of Shakti and descent of Shakti followed by ascent of Soul are the two complementary lessons that a Sadhaka of integral Yoga must learn, repeat and master throughout his life. And through this double movement, the reconciliation of Matter and Spirit is worked out and Matter shall gradually reveal the Spirit’s face. Thus, all life or our inner life that is linked with the triple time of past, present and future births and bodies becomes a conscious Yoga of consecration. Savitri and Consecration: “Here with the suddenness divine advents have, Repeating the marvel of the first descent, Changing to rapture the dull earthly round, Love came to her hiding the shadow, Death. Well might he find in her his perfect shrine. Since first the earth-being’s heavenward growth began , Through all the long ordeal of the race,” (Vedic sacrifice of Savitri) Savitri-14 “But first the spirit’s ascent we must achieve Out of the chasm from which our nature rose.” (Vedantic sacrifice) Savitri-171 “Here from a low and prone and listless ground The passion of the first ascent began ;” Savitri-503 “Even if he (Avatar) 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 “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 where ascent of the Soul is followed by the descent of Shakti .) Savitri-319 “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 These double movements of Consecration which are hinted¹⁰ in The Synthesis of Yoga are elaborately developed in King Aswapati’s Yoga and Savitri’s Yoga . These movements provide additional input for the opening of energy Centres linking the Supramental Self of overhead Brahma randhra with the nether planes of the Inconscient Self. The seven energy Centres of traditional Schools of Yoga are extended in integral Yoga into ‘twelve energy centres’³⁷ of which two nether centres below the feet or below the Muladhara chakra , (Inconscient Self and Subconscient Self) and three overhead centres above the mystic Brahma randhra (Bliss Self, Chit and Sat) are opened in addition to the opening of existing seven Chakras. And how through these Chakras , the Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental transformation are activated, are also revealed in Savitri . During Psychic and Spiritual transformation, the Consciousness does not move below the Muladhara Chakra and above the mystic Brahma randhra. It is only during the Supramental transformation, the Subconscient and Inconscient planes are ‘slowly transformed,’³⁶ and during this action, the importance of Vedic sacrifice³⁸ increases. If the deathless flame of Divine Love can enter in the passage of our work consecrated to the Divine, then hardness of the way diminishes, sweetness and joy is felt even during the period of difficulty and struggle and this surrender can be perfectly effective when it is a surrender of love. All our life can be moulded into this cult, all action is done in the love of the Divine in the individual, in the universe and in the Transcendence. OM TAT SAT References: 1: The Mother-10, 2: “In her deep and great love for her children she has consented to put on herself the cloak of this obscurity, condescended to bear the attacks and torturing influences of the powers of the Darkness and the Falsehood, borne to pass through the portals of the birth that is a death, taken upon herself the pangs and sorrows and sufferings of the creation, since it seemed that thus alone could it be lifted to the Light and Joy and Truth and eternal Life. This is the great sacrifice called sometimes the sacrifice of the Purusha, but much more deeply the holocaust of Prakriti, the sacrifice of the Divine Mother.” Sri Aurobindo/The Mother/p-35, 3: Savitri-125, 4: Savitri-268, 4: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-963-64, 5: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-106, 6: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-108, 179, 7: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-371-72, 8: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-373, 9: Savitri-87, 10: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-134, 11: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-417, 12: The Mother’s Agenda-5/102, 13: Savitri-62, 14: CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-165, 15: CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-129, 16: Savitri-62, 17: The Mother’s Agenda-4/p-101, 18: Savitri-171, 19: Savitri-17, 20: Savitri-14, 21: “The absolute unmoving stillnesses Surrendered to the breath of mortal air,” Savitri-347 (Prakriti Yajna) 22: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-109, 23: “From Matter, anna, creatures come into being, from rain is the birth of Matter (food), from sacrifice comes into being the rain, sacrifice is born of work; work know to be born of Brahman (Divine Will), Brahman (Divine Will) is born of Immutable (Chit Shakti), therefore is the all-pervading Brahman Consciousness (Chit Shakti) is established in Matter by continuous sacrifice, nitya Yajna. He who follows not here this wheel of works, evam pravartitam chakram, thus set in movement, evil is his being, sensual is his delight, in vain, O Partha that man lives.” The Gita-3.14, 15, 16, 24: Savitri-104, 25: Savitri-284, 26: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-291, 27: “The formula OM, Tat, Sat, is the triple definition of the Brahman, by whom the Brahmanas, the Vedas and sacrifices were created of old. Therefore with the pronunciation of OM the acts of sacrifice, giving and askesis as laid down in the rules are always commenced by the knowers of the Brahman. With the pronunciation of Tat and without desire of fruit are performed the various acts of sacrifice, askesis and giving by the seekers of liberation. Sat means good and it means existence; likewise, O Partha, the word Sat is used in the sense of a good work (for all good works prepare the soul for the higher reality of our being). All firm abiding in sacrifice, giving and askesis and all works done with that central view, as sacrifice, as giving, as askesis, are Sat (for they build the basis for the highest truth of our spirit).” The Gita-17.23 to 27, “Om is the signature of the Lord.” The Mother/TMCW-15/p-33, 28: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-946, 29: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-111, 30: The Mother/28th April-1929/TMCW-3/p-23, TMCW-5/p-78, 31: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-61, 32: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-112, 33: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-637, 34: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-964, 35: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-944-945, 36: “This (descent of Divine Force) has repeatedly been my experience lately, with a vision and a conviction, the conviction of an experience: the two vibrations (Truth vibration of Spirit and falsehood vibration of Matter) are like this (concomitant gesture indicating a superimposition and infiltration), all the time – all the time, all the time…May be the sense of wonder comes when the quantity that has infiltrated is large enough to be perceptible. But I have an impression – a very acute impression – that this phenomenon is going on all the time, all the time, everywhere, in a minuscule, infinitesimal way (gesture of a twinkling infiltration), and that in certain circumstances or conditions that are visible (visible to this vision: it's a sort of luminous swelling (of brain)– I can't explain), then, the mass of infiltration is sufficient to give the impression of a miracle. But otherwise, it's something going on all the time, all the time, all the time, continuously, ("A mystic slow transfiguration works.” Savitri-632, or "Its faint infiltration drilled the blind deaf mass;" Savitri-601) in the world (same twinkling gesture), like an infinitesimal amount of Falsehood replaced by Light ... Falsehood replaced by Light ... constantly…And this Vibration (which I feel and see) gives the feeling of a fire. ("Threatened (falsehood) with this faint beam of wandering Truth" Savitri-585) That's probably what the Vedic Rishis translated as the "Flame" – in the human consciousness, in man, in Matter. They always spoke of a "Flame." It is indeed a vibration with the intensity of a higher fire… The body even felt several times, when the Work was very concentrated or condensed, that it is the equivalent of a fever.” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda-25th March-1964, 37: “The tantrics recognize seven chakras,’ I believe. Theon said he knew of more, specifically two below the body and three above. That is my experience as well – I know of twelve chakras. And really, the contact with the Divine Consciousness is there (Mother motions above the head), not here (at the top of the head). One must surge up above.” The Mother’s Agenda/October-11/1960, “There is also what Theon and Madame Theon used to say. They never spoke of ‘Supermind,’ but they said the same thing as the Vedas, that the world of Truth must incarnate on earth and create a new world. They even picked up the old phrase from the Gospels, ‘new heavens and a new earth,’ which is the same thing the Vedas speak of. Madame Theon had this experience and she gave me the indication (she didn’t actually teach me) of how it was to be done. She would go out of her body and become conscious in the vital world (there were many intermediary states, too, if one cared to explore them). After the vital came the mental: you consciously went out of the vital body, you left it behind (you could see it) and you entered the mental world. Then you left the mental body and entered into.... They used different words, another classification (I don’t remember it), but even so, the experience was identical. And like that, she successively left twelve different bodies, one after another. She was extremely ‘developed,’ you see – individualized, organized. She could leave one body and enter the consciousness of the next plane, fully experience the surroundings and all that was there, describe it ... and so on, twelve times .” The Mother’s Agenda/November 7/1961, 38: "When the Kundalini meets the higher consciousness, as it ascends through the summit of the head, there is an opening to the higher superconscient reaches above the normal mind. It is by ascending through these in our consciousness and receiving a descent of their energies that it is possible ultimately to reach the supermind. This is the psycho-physical method which is elaborately systematised in the Tantra . In our Yoga it is not necessary to go through the systematised method, — for this psycho-physical process is only a part of the movement of the Yoga and it takes place spontaneously according to need by the force of the aspiration and the call for the workings of the Divine Power. As soon as there is an opening, the Divine Power descends and conducts the necessary working, does what is needed, each thing in its time, and the Yogic consciousness begins to be born in the sadhaka .” CWSA-30/Letters on Yoga-III/p-420, "In the first movement of self-preparation, the period of personal effort, the method we have to use is this concentration of the whole being on the Divine that it seeks and, as its corollary, this constant rejection, throwing out, katharsis, of all that is not the true Truth of the Divine. An entire consecration of all that we are, think, feel and do will be the result of this persistence. This consecration in its turn must culminate in an integral self- giving to the Highest; for its crown and sign of completion is the whole nature’s all-comprehending absolute surrender. In the second stage of the Yoga, transitional between the human and the divine working, there will supervene an increasing purified and vigilant passivity, a more and more luminous divine response to the Divine Force, but not to any other; and there will be as a result the growing inrush of a great and conscious miraculous working from above. In the last period there is no effort at all, no set method, no fixed sadhana; the place of endeavour and tapasya will be taken by a natural, simple, powerful and happy disclosing of the flower of the Divine out of the bud of a purified and perfected terrestrial nature. These are the natural successions of the action of the Yoga." CWSA-23/ The Synthesis of Yoga/p-87 "But the divine Will may descend too as a luminous single command or a total perception or a continuous current of perception of what is to be done into the will or into the thought or as a direction from above spontaneously fulfilled by the lower members." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of yoga/p-218, Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: “Behind the common idea that a Yogi can know all things and answer all questions is the actual fact that there is a plane in the mind where the memory of everything is stored and remains always in existence. All mental movements that belong to the life of the earth are memorised and registered in this plane. Those who are capable of going there and care to take the trouble, can read in it and learn anything they choose. But this region must not be mistaken for the supramental levels. And yet to reach even there you must be able to silence the movements of the material or physical mind; you must be able to leave aside all your sensations and put a stop to your ordinary mental movements, whatever they are; you must get out of the vital; you must become free from the slavery of the body. Then only you can enter into that region and see. But if you are sufficiently interested to make this effort, you can arrive there and read what is written in the earth’s memory.” The Mother TMCW-3/Questions and Answers-1929-1931/p- 94, "In one chapter of The Synthesis of Yoga, Sri Aurobindo says that there is a state of consciousness in which all is from all eternity –everything, without exception, that is to be manifested here… Q:- In detail? In a certain state of consciousness (I no longer remember what he calls it—I think it’s in the ‘Yoga of Self-Perfection’), one is perfectly identified with the Supreme, not in his static but in his dynamic aspect, the state of becoming. In this state, everything is already there from all eternity, even though here it gives us the impression of a becoming. And Sri Aurobindo says that if you are capable of maintaining this state, then you know everything: all that has been, all that is and all that will be –in an absolutely simultaneous way. But you must have a firm head on your shoulders! Reading some of these chapters in ‘Self-Perfection,’ I thought it would be better if it didn’t fall into just anyone’s hands. Anyway, in this state the feeling of uncertainty completely disappears (he explains it very well)." The Mother The Mother’s Agenda/Vol.-2/p-170 “It is therefore only by going back from the surface physical mind to the psychic and spiritual consciousness that a vision and knowledge of the triple time, a transcendence of our limitation to the standpoint and view range of the moment, can be wholly possible. Meanwhile there are certain doors opening from the inner on to the outer consciousness which make an occasional but insufficient power of direct retro-vision of the past, circumvision of the present, prevision of the future even in the physical mind at least potentially feasible.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga-892, " "I am just finishing The Synthesis of Yoga, and what Sri Aurobindo says (in 'Towards the Supramental Time Vision) is exactly what has happened to me throughout my life. And he explains how you can still make mistakes as long as you are not supramentalized. Sri Aurobindo describes all the ways by which images are sent to you – and they are not always images or reflections of the truth of things past, present or future; there are also all the images that come from human mental formations and all the various things that want to be considered. It is very, very interesting. And interestingly enough, in these few pages I have found a description of the work I have spent my whole life doing, trying to SIFT out all we see.... I can only be sure of something once a certain type of picture comes, and then the whole world could tell me, ‘But things didn’t happen like that’; I would reply, ‘Sorry, but I see it.’ And that type of picture is certain, for I have studied it, I have studied their differences in quality and the texture of the pictures. It is very interesting. " The Mother The Mother's Agenda/11.10.1960

"Our love is the heavenly seal of the Supreme. I guard that seal against thy rending hands." Savitri-633 The Central Truth of Savitri “Night of April 12-13, 1962. Suddenly in the night I woke up with the full awareness of what we could call the Yoga of the world. The Supreme Love was manifesting through big pulsations, and each pulsation was bringing the world further in its manifestation. It was the formidable pulsations of the eternal, stupendous Love, only Love: each pulsation of the Love was carrying the universe further in its manifestation… 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.” ¹ The Mother Om Namo Bhagavateh Sri Matriniketan Ashram 15.09.2005 Adorable Pranab Da, Accept our pranam.... Kindly recollect our very auspicious meeting with you on 4th August (my birth day) and 5th August-2005. We were three (Bikram, S.A. Maa Krishna and B.K.B), and you were happy to receive us without knowing our identity and told us how the name of Berhampur has changed to Brahmapuram... Before our departure on 5th August, incidentally I got an opportunity to read few pages of your book in Garden Guest house library, where you narrated a special chakra in the body and through it one can enter the domain of ‘mind of light’ and also how your father got the Darshan of Sri Aurobindo by escaping from Sri Dilip Kumar Ray’s room. We returned with the feeling that those who lead true life have no pretension. We, along with few inmates are staying in Sri Matriniketan Ashram, 11k.m. away from Brahmapur, in a three acre land, isolated from human habitation, in a lonely place. Along with us there are around ten dedicated members who are helping the Divine work from outside and some of them are preparing to join us. A school is attached to it (The Mother’s Ideal Integral School) with students and teachers coming from nearby locality... We were overwhelmed by your strong personality and received strong gust of The Mother’s Love through you. The cassettes presented by you were music and song of new thrill and will be introduced in the school function. In this letter we pray you to grant your good will and blessing towards us, though you told us, “The Mother alone can give blessings and I can extend my good will”. What we feel that you are no longer different from The Mother and your identity with The Mother is already sustained. Your long physical contact with The Mother and also with Sri Aurobindo, gives us opportunity and strength in our Spiritual journey, and we keep strong hope that you are our inspiration on behalf of The Mother... To be simple, strong, straightforward, all-embracing love and devotion towards the Mother, that is what we can learn from you. To keep in constant touch with you without any motive is a tremendous task before us. Sri Matriniketan Ashram is emerging as a true and rare Divine Centre in south Orissa. I am enclosing two copies of our Journal ‘The Descent’ along with this letter where an attempt has been made towards a comprehensive study on Savitri. Grant your blessings on this new born quarterly magazine, released on each Darshan day, extending our gratitude towards the Lord and The Mother. I had an opportunity of meeting The Mother in Her room thrice during my birth day and my age was 7,8 & 9 (1970,71,72) and I had the memory of seeing you there (if my memory is correct)... But my memory of (Sri) Champaklal calling my name is very clear. In the year 1973, I had come to Pondicherry for my birthday along with my birth mother. During that time the Mother had stopped giving Darshan due to Her ill health. One morning, near Samadhi, we heard a loud conversation between you (in English) and the Mother (in French). We gratefully heard the Mother’s most sweet Divine loving voice and your commanding voice with folded hands and the agony of not seeing Her on my birth day was recompensed. With our deep love and regards. At Their Lotus Feet, Bikram N.B. As a memory of my meeting with the Mother, I am able to save Her hand written Birth day card which reads ‘Bonne Fête La Bikram’ and a laminated preservation of Birthday flower bunch, She gave me. From my little French study I came to know that the French word “La” is feminine and I believe that the Mother has drawn my aspiration towards Savitri’s dream vision of collective living of “the virgin bridals of the dawn.” (Savitri-401) Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya Director Department of Physical Education Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry Dated: 23.09.2005 Dear Bikram bhai, Your letter dated 15.09.2005 along with a copy of “The Descent” (Feb-2005-The Central Truth of Savitri) and the paper of 15.08.2005 (The Descent-August-2005-The Book of Bliss) in hand. I have gone through them and found interesting. Glad to know about your dedication for (the) Mother’s work. Sending Her Ashirvadi (blessings). May She guide you and protect you always. With very best wishes. Yours affectionately “Dada” (Incidentally above two papers of The Descent that received Dada’s SUPPORT and also Sri K. Anurakta’s (our Spiritual Fosterer) Grace, which later transformed into ‘THE DIVINE BLISS’ book which was inaugurated in the World Hindu Wisdom Meet, 2014, at Bali, Indonesia.) The Central Truth of Savitri or The Book of Love “Remembrance was a poignant pang, she felt Each day a golden leaf torn cruelly out From her too slender book of love and joy.” Savitri-469 The Divine Love that has built and sustained the creation, has also the greatest power for physical transformation and those very few, who will be able to receive, hold and canalise the fragments of Divine Love of this universal proportion, for the highest evolutionary leap of the race, must satisfy five conditions; firstly, they must have a strong and balanced body and spontaneous and integral purity in order to bear the intensity of the Supreme Ananda ; secondly, they must totally give up all external pleasure by renouncing all participation in the active life by plunging into a rigorous asceticism² or the askesis of above order can be avoided if the inner illumination and sublimation of the being is sufficient enough to reject automatically all gross and obscure enjoyments; thirdly, in order to arrive at the full possession of the subtle and causal body, the physical organs must be sealed against the disturbance of human sight and sound; or as an alternative the mind has to be drawn inward to the depths by the force of the concentration so that the call of physical things can no longer easily attain to it; fourthly a growth of receptive and collaborative surroundings that include more flowers and plants, less animals, birds and children and less human beings; for plants and animals collaborate more in Supramental action and the small collectivity will be the representative of Spiritual concentration; lastly the above discipline and tapasya must accompany true humility and total dependency on the Divine so as to counter the growth of the ego and the pride. What are Human and Divine Love?: “He (King) felt the beating life in other men Invade him with their happiness and their grief; Their love, their anger, their unspoken hopes Entered in currents or in pouring waves Into the immobile ocean of his calm.” Savitri-27 “It 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, To enjoy and be enjoyed, to feel, to live.” Savitri-139-140 “A fragile human love that could not last,.. 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. A creature insignificant and small Visited, uplifted by an unknown Power,” Savitri-159 “His little hour is spent in little things. A brief companionship with many jars, A little love and jealousy and hate, A touch of friendship mid indifferent crowds Draw his heart-plan on life’s diminutive map.” Savitri-164 “There was no act, no movement in its Vast:… There was no mind there with its need to know, There was no heart there with its need to love.” Savitri-308 “But vain are human power and human love To break earth’s seal of ignorance and death; ... Man, sole awake in an unconscious world, Aspires in vain to change the cosmic dream.” Savitri-315-316 “Too little the strength that now with us is born, Too faint the light that steals through Nature’s lids, Too scant the joy with which she buys our pain.” Savitri-342 “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.” Savitri-363 “No transient earthly love assailed her calm,” Savitri-367 “Only a little lifted is Mind’s screen; The Wise who know see but one half of Truth, The strong climb hardly to a low-peaked height, The hearts that yearn are given one hour to love.” Savitri-372 “Wilt thou not make this mortal bliss thy sphere?” Savitri-408 “Love dies before the lover in our breast: Our joys are perfumes in a brittle vase.” Savitri-433 “Thy mind’s light hides from thee the Eternal’s thought, Thy heart’s hopes hide from thee the Eternal’s will, Earth’s joys shut from thee the Immortal’s bliss.” Savitri-443 “A body seeing the end too soon of joy And the fragile happiness of its mortal love.” Savitri-470 (Death said) “I lay waste human happiness with my breath And slay the will to live, the joy to be” Savitri-535 (Death said) “Your transient loves bind not the eternal gods.” Savitri-581 (Death said) “It (human love) 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) “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.” Savitri-611 (Death said) “Wisdom and love thou claimest as thy right; But knowledge in this world is error’s mate, A brilliant procuress of Nescience, And human love a posturer on earth-stage Who imitates with verve a faery dance. An extract pressed from hard experience, Man’s knowledge casked in the barrels of Memory Has the harsh savour of a mortal draught: 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.” Savitri-618-619 (Death said) “Love shall bind by thee many gathered hearts. The opposite sweetness in thy days shall meet Of tender service to thy life’s desired And loving empire over all thy loved, Two poles of bliss made one, O Savitri. Return, O child, to thy forsaken earth.” Savitri-637 (Death said) “A transient painting on a holiday’s floor Traced for a moment’s beauty love was made.” (Death speaks of the limitation of human love.) Savitri-637 “And Mind in a half-light moves amid half-truths And the human heart knows only human love And life is a stumbling and imperfect force And the body counts out its precarious days,” Savitri-703 “Without self-giving there is no love; but self-giving is very rare in human love which is full of selfishness and demands.”¹¹⁵ The Mother Human love is defined as an exclusive dual enjoyment and a fragile happiness between the lover and the beloved in their heart’s secret chamber by an entire separation from the World, the Self and the God; whereas in the Divine Love this exclusive enjoyment excludes neither the World, nor the Self, nor the God and could deliver mental, vital and physical love from their utter deficiencies. Human love experiences a joy that forgets death for a brief period or ‘Joy that forgot mortality for a while.’¹⁰⁵ It is a brief sattwic flame that can crumble vital passion to ashes⁹⁷ and a sattwic smile can persuade ‘a dead lacerated heart to live again and feel the hands of calm.’⁹⁷ The heart that yearns human love will be tired within one hour, unable to feel it in a continuous way, whereas Divine love is tireless in its nature and can be experienced through all eternity. The Divine Love needs no human hand to feel and clasp but its mighty touch or vibration can heighten ‘the intimacy of soul with soul’⁹⁹ and prolongs ‘the nearness of soul’s clasp with soul,’¹⁰⁰ yet this subtle physical Divine Love remains untouched, pure and alone. Human relationship has a beginning and an end whereas subtle physical relation continues from birth after birth. Human love dies while the lover is still alive on earth. It has a beginning and an end. It is like the perfume of a brief joy and roadside sweetness that ‘earth-bound hearts would pluck.’¹¹⁹ If Satyavan had lived long, human love would have died in the tired human breast and if he lives for a short period then human love will survive awhile, then it will be replaced by other human admirers. This is the reality of earthly life. Whereas Divine Love lives, nourishes, grows and fulfils life long after the death of the Lover. It awakens the Psychic and Spiritual contacts which are the perennial Source of our existence. This Love is identified as subtle physical Love which has the capacity to bridge earth and heaven. This subtle physical relation exists between the Guru and the Disciple in the Psycho-Spiritual plane and the Guru uplifts, takes care and nourishes the Disciple continuously after his physical departure from the body. With the divine union Soul force increases. Soul force strengthens and densifies the subtle physical sheath. Soul saving Subtle physical love can replace the Soul slaying gross physical love. When Subtle physical love becomes strong, it reconciles the human and divine Love. Thus, divine Love can transform life. The object of human love is meant to procreate children and by their attachment forget Divine and on one fine morning Death abruptly ends all the charm of life. In order to prevent Death from becoming a reality, one must discover his Psychic Being. The Queen, the human mother of Savitri, understands the limitation of human love of Moderate and Spiritual Love of Ascetic/Mayavadin /Illusionist/Nirvanist which do not take care to annul human suffering and miseries. (Queen said to Savitri) “Choose once again and leave this fated head, Death is the gardener of this wonder-tree; Love’s sweetness sleeps in his pale marble hand.” Savitri-431 (Queen said to Savitri) “Here on this mutable and ignorant earth Who is the lover and who is the friend? All passes here, nothing remains the same. None is for any on this transient globe.” Savitri-432-33 (Queen said to Savitri) “Only when thou hast climbed above thy mind And liv’st in the calm vastness of the One Can love be eternal in the eternal Bliss And love divine replace the human tie.” Savitri-434 Human love is experienced by exciting the mind, life and body and in the Divine Love they are silenced. In the Yoga of devotion, the normal emotional human aspect is applied no longer to transient worldly relation, but to the joy of All-Loving, the All-Beautiful and the All-Blissful.³ Human love can least satisfy human emotions because it is not free from desire, fear, reaction, fluctuation and attachment and is helpless to harmonise its myriad deformations and perversions. In human love, (whose essence is Divine Love) this unlimited Divine Love suffers limitation, incomprehension, embarrassment, corruption, degradation and narrowness¹²⁷ and restricts itself to the participation of small happiness, external life’s crude movement and obstinately inferior motives. The Divine Love is entirely motiveless and is possessed by self-existent Bliss. Man can ascend to the stairs of self-existent motiveless enjoyment through four successive stages of devotion. First, he is an arta , who calls the Divine during moments of crisis and distress, unable to possess Him but entirely possessed by forces of Ignorance and powers that labour to debase; secondly, he is an artharthi devotee, who seeks the Divine for personal gains, for the satisfaction of his desire, eager to possess Him but limited in capacity through deceptive instruments; thirdly, he is a jijnasu, the seeker after God knowledge who seeks both to possess and be possessed, to receive and give himself to Him in a limited way and lastly he becomes Jnani, the God-knower who possesses Him utterly and be possessed by Him utterly. The God-knower is also a God lover because by knowledge of His being comes the whole delight and he becomes a living channel of the Supreme's descent and the cells become capable of holding this supreme Vibration. The Nature of Divine Love: “Here with the suddenness divine advents have, Repeating the marvel of the first descent, Changing to rapture the dull earthly round, Love came to her hiding the shadow, Death. Well might he (Divine Love) find in her his perfect shrine.” Savitri-14 “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 “He (Divine Love) is still the godhead by which all can change.” Savitri-397 “Rare is the cup fit for love’s nectar wine, As rare the vessel that can hold God’s birth; A soul made ready through a thousand years Is the living mould of a supreme Descent.” Savitri-398 “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 “He (Divine Love) labours in the depths, exults on the heights; He (Divine Love) shall remake thy universe, O Death.” Savitri-592 Love offers kinghood: Love links life with past births. Love calls down Power to make a new base of life. A smile of love sanctions the long game of life and the sweetness of a love is oblivious of death. Love can recognise the Souls linked with him from past births. Love is a glory from eternity’s sphere. Earth cannot hold Divine Love; the moment he (Love) descends he is abased and disfigured. Love is the godhead by which all the untransformed Nature can change or Love has transforming Power. Love awaits in the heart as an unopened flower. Love penetrates during our sleep and waking state and gives an unknown charm and thrill. Love seeks himself in many minds, hearts and living creatures. Love can call down visions that can look at the Invisible. Without this Love, life has waited long unfilled. Love can bring a God-like sense. Love seeks his truth not in heaven but on earth. Love is a beautiful slave of God preoccupied in transforming earth-Nature. Love’s mission is deceived by surface mind, life and body. Love’s mission is debased by tamasic, rajasic and sattwic inconscient energies. Love’s nectar wine can be held by very few fit Souls. It asks for a thousand years of conscious sadhana. Supreme Love descends to earth through fit Souls. Those who give birth to Avataras (symbol of Divine Love), they are identified as the virgin Mother, Para-prakriti. Lovers meet each other through different paths by travelling across limitless plains of Time; in this birth they link their past births with their future births. Through their meeting, future Divine Life is built. A Brief Touch of Divine Love: ¹ ⁵³ “The persistent thrill of a transfiguring touch Persuaded the inert black quietude And beauty and wonder disturbed the fields of God.” Savitri-3 “A hurried imperfect glimpse of heavenly things, Guesses and travesties of celestial types.” Savitri-77 “But rarely burns the flame nor burns for long; The joy it calls from those diviner heights Brings brief magnificent reminiscences And high splendid glimpses of interpreting thought, But not the utter vision and delight.” Savitri-112-13 “Absorbed in the present act, the fleeting days, None thought to look beyond the hour’s gains, Or dreamed to make this earth a fairer world, Or felt some touch divine surprise his heart.” Savitri-145 “A quick celestial flash could sometimes come: The illumined soul-ray fell on heart and flesh And touched with semblances of ideal light The stuff of which our earthly dreams are made.” Savitri-159 “Some face of deathless beauty could be caught… 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 “A touch supreme surprised his hurrying heart, The clasp was remembered of the Wonderful, And hints leaped down of white beatitudes.” Savitri-237 “This limited being lifted to zenith bliss, Happy to enjoy one touch of things supreme ,” Savitri-239 “A splendour sullied by the mortal air, Love passes through his heart, a wandering guest Beauty surrounds him for a magic hour, He has visits of a large revealing joy, Brief widenesses release him from himself, Enticing towards a glory ever in front Hopes of a deathless sweetness lure and leave.” Savitri-340 “Some near approached, were touched, caught fire, then failed, Too great was her demand, too pure her force.” (This line indicates Savitri's virgin Mother status is surrounded by a vast world of humanity with an active lower nature symbolised as harlot Power. It is difficult to bridge the gulf between them.) Savitri-366 “All that the lightning-flash of love reveals… Even a brief nearness has reshaped my life.” Savitri-406 “A little bliss is lent thee from above, A touch divine upon thy human days.” Savitri-451 “Bliss was an incident of a mortal hour , A stranger in the insentient universe.” Savitri-455 “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 “A secret air of pure felicity Deep like a sapphire heaven our spirits breathe; Our hearts and bodies feel its obscure call, Our senses grope for it and touch and lose. If this withdrew, the world would sink in the Void; If this were not, nothing could move or live." Savitri-629 “The prophet moment covered limitless Space And cast into the heart of hurrying Time A diamond light of the Eternal’s peace, A crimson seed of God’s felicity; A glance from the gaze fell of undying Love.” Savitri-712 With the increase of purity, a brief touch of Divine Love can flow through human vessels and can bring unimaginable change in the inner subtle physical and outer life. So, before the consciousness is established in the Supramental plane a Sadhaka can aspire for a brief touch of Divine Love. ‘Love, in its essence and in its origin, is like a white flame obliterating ALL resistances. You can have the experience yourself: whatever the difficulty in your being, whatever the weight of accumulated mistakes, the ignorance, incapacity, bad will, a single SECOND of this Love – pure, essential, supreme – melts everything in its almighty flame. One single moment and an entire past can vanish. One single TOUCH of That in its essence and the whole burden is consumed.’¹⁰³ Savitri book confirms that a brief touch of Divine Love through Satyavan’s Presence is more intense and more fulfilled than the ‘riches of a thousand fortunate years’¹¹¹ of human love and association. Transformation of Human Love into Divine Love: “Its (Divine Love’s) bodies woven by a divine sense Prolonged the nearness of soul’s clasp with soul; Its warm play of external sight and touch Reflected the glow and thrill of the heart’s joy, Mind’s climbing brilliant thoughts, the spirit’s bliss; Life’s rapture kept for ever its flame and cry.” Savitri-329 “I have discovered my glad reality Beyond my body in another’s being: I have found the deep unchanging soul of love... Only now for my soul in Satyavan.” Savitri-435 “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 “Or call into thy chamber the Divine And sit with God tasting a human joy.” Savitri-535 “All our earth starts from mud and ends in sky, And Love that was once an animal’s desire, Then a sweet madness in the rapturous heart, An ardent comradeship in the happy mind, Becomes a wide spiritual yearning’s space. A lonely soul passions for the Alone, The heart that loved man thrills to the love of God, A body is his chamber and his shrine.” Savitri-632 “I (Savitri) quiver no more with the assault of grief; A mighty calmness seated deep within Has occupied my body and my sense: It takes the world’s grief and transmutes to strength, It makes the world’s joy one with the joy of God. My love eternal sits throned on God’s calm; For Love must soar beyond the very heavens And find its secret sense ineffable; It (Love) must change its human ways to ways divine, Yet keep its sovereignty of earthly bliss.” Savitri-633 “My will is greater than thy law, O Death; My love is stronger than the bonds of Fate: Our love is the heavenly seal of the Supreme. I guard that seal against thy rending hands. Love must not cease to live upon the earth; For Love is the bright link twixt earth and heaven, Love is the far Transcendent’s angel here; Love is man’s lien on the Absolute.” Savitri-633 “And all her life was conscious of his life And all her being rejoiced enfolding his.” Savitri-715 “Our love has grown greater by that mighty touch And learned its heavenly significance, Yet nothing is lost of mortal love’s delight.” Savitri-719 “And let me say also that, as regards human love and divine love, I admitted the first as that from which we have to proceed and to arrive at the other, intensifying and transforming into it, not eliminating, human love. Divine Love, in my view of it, is again not something ethereal, cold and far, but a love absolutely intense, intimate and full of unity, closeness and rapture using all the nature for its expression.”¹²⁰ Sri Aurobindo “Unlike human love which is for some and not for the others, my love is for the Supreme Lord alone, but as the Supreme Lord is all, my love is for all equally. The Lord's love is equal, constant, all-embracing, immutable, eternal. ” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda/ July 22, 1964 “A sealed identity within her woke; She knew herself the Beloved of the Supreme :” Savitri-525 "Our love is the heavenly seal of the Supreme. I guard that seal against thy rending hands." Savitri-633 "The All-Blissful sat unknown within the heart;" Savitri-43 The gulf between human and Divine Love can be bridged by developing subtle physical faculties by entering deep within or 'That subtle world withdrew deeply within'. (Savitri-527) The subtle physical is identified as an intermediate plane of Consciousness, first earthly heaven and material paradise. Here one feels satisfied with its opulence, faces 'no peril of sky or of abyss,' and 'No yearning for her lost infinitudes.' (Savitri-115) The subtle physical love is possible by entering more and more into the waking and non-waking trance of the Psychic and Spiritual planes, respectively. Humanity is not aware of subtle physical love, where love continues to nourish and fulfil life long after the lover is dead. Savitri book proposes all (prepared Souls) secretly and symbolically replace human love with subtle physical love, which needs no hand to clasp, no feet to move. Subtle physical union keeps the body untouched and pure. It links love with past and future births, extending through all life. This imperishable subtle physical love is further complemented and perfected by the touch of subtle vital, subtle mental, Psychic, Spiritual, Universal and Supramental Love. This subtle physical love purifies, transforms and perfects human love. In a collective Divine living, an individual ‘will be identified with the Divine and with others (fellow brothers) only through the divine consciousness and not through the mental nature.’¹⁰⁶ In a Divine Centre, ‘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.’¹¹⁷ For the development of the above Divine faculties, Psychic and Spiritual opening are imperative. The deficiency of this intermediate subtle physical love is that “Our souls forget to the Highest to aspire.” (Savitri-113) So in this state, “yet the ultimate oneness was not there. There was a separateness of soul from soul:” (Savitri-187). A few such examples are presented, which can widen our existing understanding: “His (King Aswapati’s) inner self grew near to others’ selves And bore a kinship’s weight, a common tie, Yet stood untouched, king of itself, alone.” Savitri-27 “She meditates upon mighty words and looks On the unseen links that join the parted spheres.” Savitri-85 “A subtle link of union joins all life. Thus all creation is a single chain:” Savitri-110 “At last the struggling Energy can emerge And meet the voiceless Being in wider fields; Then can they see and speak and, breast to breast, In a larger consciousness, a clearer light, The Two embrace and strive and each know each Regarding closer now the playmate’s face.” Savitri-141 “In the communion of two meeting minds (subtle mental union) Thought looked at thought and had no need of speech; Emotion clasped emotion in two hearts, (subtle vital union) They felt each other’s thrill in the flesh and nerves (subtle physical union) Or melted each in each and grew immense (Spiritual union) As when two houses burn and fire joins fire:” (Psychic union) Savitri-186 “Being felt being even when afar And consciousness replied to consciousness. And yet the ultimate oneness was not there. There was a separateness of soul from soul:” Savitri-187 “Thought was not there but a knowledge near and one Seized on all things by a moved identity, A sympathy of self with other selves, The touch of consciousness on consciousness And being’s look on being with inmost gaze And heart laid bare to heart without walls of speech And the unanimity of seeing minds In myriad forms luminous with the one God.” Savitri-292 “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.” Savitri-292 “There was no cleavage between soul and soul, There was no barrier between world and God. Overpowered were form and memory’s limiting line; The covering mind was seized and torn apart; It was dissolved and now no more could be, The one Consciousness that made the world was seen; All now was luminosity and force.” Savitri-319 “A universal vision that unites, A sympathy of nerve replying to nerve,… A touch that needs not hands to feel, to clasp, Were there the native means of consciousness And heightened the intimacy of soul with soul.” Savitri-325 “Heart feels for heart, limb cries for answering limb; All strives to enforce the unity all is.” Savitri-398 “Amazed by a joy for which they (Savitri & Satyavan) had waited long, The lovers met upon their different paths, Travellers across the limitless plains of Time Together drawn from fate-led journeyings In the self-closed solitude of their human past, To a swift rapturous dream of future joy And the unexpected present of these eyes.” Savitri-399 “Or else she (Savitri) strove even in mortal time To build a little room for timelessness By the deep union of two human lives, Her soul secluded shut into his soul.” Savitri-471 “For when he (Satyavan) wandered in the forest, oft Her (Savitri’s) conscious spirit walked with him and knew His actions as if in herself he moved; He, less aware, thrilled with her from afar.” Savitri-473 “Wordless she travelled in her lover’s steps, Planting her human feet where his had trod, Into the perilous silences beyond.” Savitri-577 ‘The division of our being from the being of others can only be healed (1) by removing the divorce of our nature from the inner soul-reality, (2) by abolishing the veil between our becoming and our self-being, (3) by bridging the remoteness of our individuality in Nature from the Divine being who is the omnipresent Reality in Nature and above Nature.’¹¹² The transformation of transient unstable vital enjoyment of human love into eternal Divine Love is the prerogative of few decreed developed Soul⁹¹ through practice of mutual self-giving, an interfusion of inner substance, vision through identity, by rapturous fusion of ‘two souls into one’¹¹⁴ body of the God followed by similar fusion of two bodies into one Soul of God and its universalisation. The former is the Psychic experience of ‘wedding of the eternal Lord and Spouse’⁵³ or ‘A diarchy of two united souls,’⁹² in waking trance and the latter is its extension of Spiritual experience of ‘A single being in two bodies clasped,’⁹² or ‘A burning of two bodies in one flame’¹⁰⁴ in dream and sleep trance and its further extension in universal plane as ‘Wedded to all he had been, became himself’⁵⁴ or ‘The calm delight that weds one soul to all.’¹⁰² Or in integral Yoga, exclusive Psychic Divine Love begins with the Soul’s union (Jivatma ) with the Divine (Paramatma) and here one could live without the attraction of mental imitations and without the aid of a human lover. This Psychic Love cannot keep itself satisfied with the highest intensities of exclusive enjoyment; it calls down entire truth of Divine Love in the Spiritual and universal plane in which ‘one could love without return for love’¹ ¹⁶ and it includes all the worlds and worlds beyond to be possessed by the intensities of Supreme Ananda . The nature of the highest Divine Love is all-inclusive, all-embracing, all-compassionate, universal, eternal, absolute immobility and unparalleled intensity of absolute vibration. In order to keep Divine Love unalloyed, warm and homogenous vibratory mass it must search truth in close proximity with the Divine union in Personal, Impersonal, Universal and Transcendent planes. When human love transforms into universalised Divine Love, annulling all division and separation of Consciousness, ‘Then shall the business fail of Night and Death.’⁹⁶ The human love, governed by Nature’s law, which has no power to break the earth’s seal of ignorance, incapacity, inertia and death and it can be transformed into all powerful Divine Love, governed by Supernature’s Law, only when the Lover and the Beloved either by the privilege of past birth or by the Tapasya and consecration of present birth open either to their larger, deeper and more plastic Psychic or Spiritual Being. Thus, the depth and sweetness of mortal emotional joy is fulfilled by the emergence of a wider and more complete movement of Divine Love. Those who have received Savitri’s Divine Love for them all earthly joy, heavenly joy and self-existent joy become pale, insufficient and obsolete. Psychic Love is ‘Much sweeter… than any rapture known’¹⁵⁵ and its ‘momentary and escaping thrill’¹⁵⁵ cannot be recompensed by ‘Earth or all-conquering heaven.’¹⁵⁵ Spiritual Love gives the sense of impersonal Love, Peace, Silence, infinite Existence, infinite Consciousness and ‘The Bliss that none can ever hope to taste.’¹⁵ ⁶ Universal Love is ‘A constant touch of sweetness that linked all hearts’¹⁵ ⁷ or 'Calling his (Love's) honeyed touch to thrill the worlds,' (Savitri-123) or 'Thrilled with the hidden Transcendent’s joy and peace.’¹⁵ ⁸ Supramental Love turns ‘to the best the worst,’¹⁵ ⁹ heals ‘the bitter cruelties of earth’¹⁵ ⁹ and ‘A joy exceeding earth’s and heaven’s poured down.’¹⁵ ⁹ This Supramental '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 .'¹ ⁶ ⁰ The dynamisation of Supramental energy can lead towards entry into the dark Subconscient sheath and discovery of the Subconscient Self, which is identified as another important achievement, whose priceless value could have saved the world’¹ ⁶ ¹ and all error and pain ‘became a quivering ecstasy.’¹ ⁶ ² Then subsequently entry into Inconscient sheath and discovery of the Inconscient Self is identified as one of the last and most profound Spiritual experiences, ‘the grand solution’¹ ⁶ ³ in which the height of mortal effort ends and in that darkest world ‘A bliss is born that can remake our life.'¹⁶ ⁴ Avenir Light is a clean and stylish font favored by designers. It's easy on the eyes and a great go-to font for titles, paragraphs & more. Sevenfold personal relation with the Divine: “I am the Madran, I am Savitri. (She is both human and Divine, Jivatma and Para-prakriti) All that I was before, I am to thee still, (human and Divine Lover) Close comrade of thy thoughts and hopes and toils, (The Divine Friend and Playmate) All happy contraries I would join for thee. All sweet relations marry in our life; (The Divine Lover and Beloved.) I am thy kingdom even as thou art mine, The sovereign and the slave of thy desire, (The play with Divine Master is possible through slavehood) Thy prone possessor, sister of thy soul (brotherhood is a derivative of the original personality of Divine Fatherhood.) And mother of thy wants; thou art my world, (The Divine Mother of all-life.) The earth I need, the heaven my thoughts desire, (The Wisdom of Divine Teacher.) The world I inhabit and the god I adore.” Savitri-719-20 Savitri book projects Avataras as brother Souls and slave of all humanity, where Savitri became the Mother of Satyavan’s ‘natural brothers’¹⁰⁷ and ‘She made herself the diligent serf of all.’¹⁰⁹ And, also Divine asks Savitri to take care of earth creatures and further directed her, ‘Thou shalt not shrink from any brother soul.’¹⁰⁸ Since only in the Divine, human emotion can find its real and utter satisfaction, therefore all the life of the Soul is satisfied by the seven-fold personal relation with the divine Beloved and the joy of these relations due to their self-existent motiveless nature, purifies the emotional mind and enhances its capacity to hold more Ananda. A similar fulfilment is demanded of our universal and impersonal part through universal and impersonal union with the Divine. These relationships are not imaginations of mind or illusions but Spiritual facts and the intensity of these relations can multiply in the process of Yoga and ultimately the lover does not seek heaven or liberation from birth or any other thing, but to lose himself eternally in the sole clasp of the Divine Beloved. A Sadhaka of integral Yoga has to realise the World-existence as Lila, Divine Play and he has to become a woman and paramour in Consciousness in order to enter right relation with the Divine Beloved, he has to become the slave and servant in order to enter relation with the Divine Master, he has to become a supple and plastic child with full of joy in order to become a playmate of the Divine Mother and Divine Father, he has to become a student and disciple in order to enter right relation with the Divine Teacher, he has to become a friend and playmate in order to enter relation with his Divine Friend and Playmate. Through intensification of these seven-fold personal relations with the Divine, the Godhead breaks out from a human mould and the Soul of man becomes eternally young, perpetually inexhaustible, creating and re-creating Himself in himself for the pure bliss of that self-creation and self-representation and thus the Divine becomes the Play, the Player and the Playground. As long as the lower Nature in man is active or he is under the subjection of physical (tamasic) mind and vital (rajasic) mind, his godward possibility is seriously restricted and he searches for an outward divisible human love to make up his emotional deficiencies. 1) Discipleship to God the Guru : “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.” Savitri-35 “Or listens following a bodiless Guide” Savitri-80 “Awake with a cry and stir of numberless souls, Arisen from the breast of some deep Infinite, Smiling like a new-born child at love and hope, In her nature housing the Immortal’s power, In her bosom bearing the eternal Will, No guide she needed but her luminous heart:” Savitri-128 “The unfelt Self within who is the guide, The unknown Self above who is the goal.” Savitri-168 “Guide of the traveller of the unseen paths,” Savitri-295 “Young grave disciples fashioned by their touch,” Savitri-382 “And how shall the end be vain when God is guide?” Savitri-339 “They moved unable to forego her light, Desiring they clutched at her with outstretched hands Or followed stumbling in the paths she (Savitri ) made.” Savitri-363 “She (Savitri) walked in their front towards a greater light, Their leader and queen over their hearts and souls,” Savitri-363 “She (Savitri) held their hands, she chose for them their paths: They were moved by her towards great unknown things,” Savitri-364 “Thy soul has strength and needs no other guide” Savitri-374 “One force shall be your mover and your guide, One light shall be around you and within; Hand in strong hand confront Heaven’s question, life:” Savitri-374-375 “A way proposed by an unerring Guide.” Savitri-378 “A ray from self’s solitude of light the guide;” Savitri-460 “All stumbled on behind a stumbling Guide, Yet every stumble is a needed pace On unknown routes to an unknowable goal.” Savitri-625 “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, “Only in an uplifting hour of stress Men answer to the touch of greater things: Or, raised by some strong hand to breathe heaven-air, They slide back to the mud from which they climbed;” Savitri-689 “One cannot imagine –one cannot imagine what a grace it is to have someone in whose hands you can place yourself entirely! By whom you can let yourself be guided without having the need to seek. I had that, I was very, very conscious of it as long as Sri Aurobindo was there. And when he left his body, it was a dreadful collapse...One cannot imagine. Someone you can refer to with the certainty that what he says will be the truth.”⁷² The Mother In traditional Yoga, the Guru strengthens and illumines the practice of written truth, Shastra . In integral Yoga, Guru is an Influence who can purify the subtle body and can call down Divine Presence. The Spiritual Presence of a living Guru is a special privilege in the life of a seeker. Since integral Yoga accepts the Yoga of Knowledge, it has the need of the Divine¹³¹ as All-Wise Guru. Integral Yoga identifies physical Guru as a Spiritual Influence, who is extended Psychically as the inner Guide in the heart, Master of Yoga, the Lord, Light, Enjoyer and Goal of all sacrifice and effort, Spiritually as the Guide above the head, universally as the World-teacher, Jagat Guru , Supramentally¹³ ¹ as the Supreme Mother and the Supreme Lord. The Master of our Yoga is the Parameshwara of the Vedantic teaching, the Parameshwari of the synthetic Yoga of Tantra, Purushottama of the Gita, Moksha of the Adwaitin, Sajujya Mukti of the Jnana Yoga, Samipya or Salokya Mukti of the Bhakti Yoga , Sadharmya or Sadrisya Mukti of Karma Yoga, the supreme Soul and the supreme Shakti. We have to pursue Him and realise Him integrally in all His names and forms and qualities and not to remain satisfied with His one form that has most touched our inner being; we have to know and possess Him integrally, samagram mam,4 in all the world and planes of Consciousness. The greatest Guru can no longer confine himself to teaching and example, but rather he withdraws from these two important activities to plunge himself into deep Divinities and from that depth pours down his Influence,¹ ¹⁷ Presence, Power, Light, Peace and Love to all those who are receptive around him. His touch is like the artist moulding the clay of our mind, life and body. He leads us to knowledge at every step and kindles the inner light and vision. When we cease to think and see for ourselves and think what he wills to think and see for us, then the Guru is fulfilled in his disciples and we enjoy his embrace and possession. 2) Sonship to God the Father: “A greater sonship was his divine right.” Savitri-22 (Satyavan said) “Descend. Let thy journey cease, come down to us. Close is my father’s creepered hermitage Screened by the tall ranks of these silent kings, Sung to by voices of the hue-robed choirs Whose chants repeat transcribed in music’s notes The passionate coloured lettering of the boughs And fill the hours with their melodious cry.” Savitri-402 (Savitri said) “Father and king, I have carried out thy will. One whom I sought I found in distant lands; I have obeyed my heart, I have heard its call. On the borders of a dreaming wilderness Mid Shalwa’s giant hills and brooding woods In his thatched hermitage Dyumatsena dwells, Blind, exiled, outcast, once a mighty king. The son of Dyumatsena, Satyavan, I have met on the wild forest’s lonely verge. My father, I have chosen. This is done.” Savitri-424 “All of his 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 “Each soul is the great Father’s crucified Son,” Savitri-500 “Her mortal ego perished in God’s night. Only a body was left, the ego’s shell… The individual die, the cosmos pass; These gone, the transcendental grew a myth, The Holy Ghost without the Father and Son, Or, a substratum of what once had been, Being that never willed to bear a world Restored to its original loneliness, Impassive, sole, silent, intangible.” Savitri-552 (Death’s boon offered to Savitri) “Indulgent to the dreams my touch shall break, I yield to his blind father’s longing heart Kingdom and power and friends and greatness lost And royal trappings for his peaceful age, The pallid pomps of man’s declining days, The silvered decadent glories of life’s fall.” Savitri-589 ‘I am the father of the universe,’ pita hamasya jagat ,⁵ thus declared the Gita in its various relations with the devotees. Son-ship to God the Father is acceptable in integral Yoga, as it rests on the foundation of the Vedanta. The four main Upanishads, from which integral Yoga draws sustenance are the gospel of the Divine Life and Divine Work from Isha Upanishad , the gospel of Eternal Bliss from Taittiriya Upanishad , the gospel of Divine Knowledge and self-surrender from Kena Upanishad and working of the Self in the world as creator and master of evolution and the creator Brahman is identified as Consciousness from Aitareya Upanishad. From a Spiritual point of view the Divine Father, Paramatma is the liberator of the Soul, Jivatma and the eternal relation between Nara and Narayana, the human Soul and the Divine Father is fulfilled by their merger and oneness. From a human point of view, life begins from the mother’s love, which liberates the child from a helpless state to arrive at the father’s love, which liberates the child from all other dependencies and influences, to stand alone and independent. But when one discharges the responsibility of fatherhood to God, then He lifts the child Soul to immeasurable and unimaginable heights. The faculty of Divine Fatherhood is observed in King Aswapati in his relation with his Divine daughter Savitri , to whom he called down to earth through his long askesis, tapasya . As Father and Guru , he was aware of Savitri’s mission on earth, which she would accomplish by the help of her second Self, Satyavan . King Aswapati made her aware that her unknown Lover waits for her in the unknown breast of earth and he will ‘give voice to what in’⁸⁸ her is mute and ‘He shall walk’⁸⁸ with her until her body’s end. The King further wanted to know from the heavenly sage Narad, whether her daughter could ‘pour the nectar of sorrowless life’⁸⁹ on her surrounding earth and ‘Heal with her bliss the tired breast of earth.’⁸⁹ He wished for her daughter, ‘glad and griefless days’⁸⁹ and unwounded mortal life. To this question of the King, Narad hinted that each great Soul has to go through fire test, agni parikha, and she ‘must cross on the stones of suffering to its goal’⁹⁰ of Bliss state. 3) Tenderness to God the Mother: “As if a childlike finger laid on a cheek Reminded of the endless need in things The heedless Mother of the universe, An infant longing clutched the sombre Vast.” Savitri-2 “Apart, living within, all lives she bore; Aloof, she carried in herself the world: Her dread was one with the great cosmic dread, Her strength was founded on the cosmic mights; The universal Mother’s love was hers.” Savitri-9 “A Godhead stands behind the brute machine. This truth broke in in a triumph of fire; A victory was won for God in man, The deity revealed its hidden face. The great World-Mother now in her arose:” Savitri-21 “His soul breaks out to join the Oversoul, His life is oceaned by that superlife. He has drunk from the breasts of the Mother of the worlds; A topless Supernature fills his frame:” Savitri-24 “A seeker of hidden meanings in life’s forms, Of the great Mother’s wide uncharted will And the rude enigma of her terrestrial ways He is the explorer and the mariner On a secret inner ocean without bourne: He is the adventurer and cosmologist Of a magic earth’s obscure geography.” Savitri-69 “The eternal Goddess moved in her cosmic house Sporting with God as a Mother with her child:” Savitri-327 “The Ancient Mother clutched her child to her breast Pressing her close in her environing arms, As if earth ever the same could for ever keep The living spirit and body in her clasp, As if death were not there nor end nor change.” Savitri-551 “You are the Mother’s child and the Mother’s love to her children is without limit and she bears patiently with the defects of their nature. Try to be the true child of the Mother : it is there within you, but your outward mind is occupied by little futile things and too often in a violent fuss over them.”⁷³ Sri Aurobindo Traditional Tantra aims at the Spiritual conversion of the whole nature in which liberation, cosmic action, full perfection and enjoyment of Spiritual powers are unified. It includes Hathayoga for perfection of the physical sheath or gross body by concentration on the concealed Divinity in the physical substance and perfection of vital sheath by opening of six energy centres from bottom in ascending order to unite with the Brahman; stresses on Raja Yogic purification, meditation and concentration for perfection of Mental sheath and Psychic sheath which includes perfection of subtle body; directs the emotional and aesthetic powers in the heart Godward through Bhakti Yoga for purity, intensity, infinite passion of God-possession; clings to Jnana Yoga for purification and perfection of ethical and intellectual power directing them towards the Divine oneness; adheres to Karma Yoga for purification and joy of Divine union through action. Integral Yoga accepts the Divine as the Creatrix Mother and almighty Occultist. It differs from traditional Tantra in the sense that it no longer initiates Yoga by dynamising the divinity concealed in the body and vital as ‘soul in the Body’ and ‘soul in the Vital’; rather it begins by activating the ‘soul in Mind’ and opening itself first towards higher Mental or Spiritual faculties and directing these forces as descending Shakti towards opening of Soul in the body and Soul in the vital and purification and liberation of mind, life and body. In traditional schools, the exclusive worship of the Divine Mother for all attainment gets momentum in Tantra . The Tantric Yoga differs from Integral Tantra Yoga in the sense that the Tantric perfection of suddhi, siddhi, mukti and bhukti are universalised in integral Yoga as All-Purification, All-Perfection, All-Liberation and All-Delight and the worship of the personal Mother is realised in Her Individual, Universal and Transcendent form for ‘the divine fulfilment of life.’¹³² In traditional Tantra , the Divine Mother is the giver of the four boons of artha, opulence, kama , pure enjoyment, dharma, the Law of life and Mokhya , liberation; the same boon is transformed in integral Tantra Yoga of (1) conquest of all the money power of the earth for the Divine, (2) all delight born out of integral union with the Divine, (3) the Divine Law born out of Divine Will, Knowledge and Love whose outward and external form is the norms of Integral Yoga and the (4) liberation of Soul, universalisation of Soul, transformation of whole individual Nature and individual becoming the centre of world transformation. In integral Yoga, the Divine Mother’s aspect of Dharma, Kama, Mokhya and Artha can also be extended as Yoga Shakti, Prema Shakti, Jnana Shakti and Artha Shakti. The four Divine faculties, chatvaro manabastatha ,⁷⁸ of Wisdom, Power, Harmony and Perfection, hinted in the Gita as highest secrets, rahasyam uttamam ,⁶ are developed in integral Yoga by practice of four Spiritual disciplines of Yoga of Knowledge, Yoga of Self-Perfection, Yoga of Devotion and Yoga of Work respectively which will culminate in possession of the four Divine Shaktis of Maheswari, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati respectively. All possible Spiritual experiences are captured in the wide boundary of integral Yoga and in an attempt to constantly fill ourselves with more experiences, we have identified sixty-four Spiritual and Psychic siddhis and eighteen Supramental siddhis, where the former are exclusive in nature and are related to heightening of individual capacity to its utmost degree and the latter are all-inclusive in nature and have universal repercussions. The first siddhi, with which integral Yoga begins its great enduring journey, is the discovery of the secret woodland in the lotus of the heart where the magic flute of the Eternal Lover is ever heard and the shrine is purified for the wide range play of the Jivatma and Paramatma, Shakti and Shiva and Radha and Krishna. The fullness of such experience comes when the flute of the Lover is echoed in the world and the world beyond. The Mother’s Prema Shakti is entrusted with the four specific mission of (1) strengthening the virgin Power, Para-prakriti , by eliminating the opposing and Soul Slaying harlot power, Apara-prakriti; (2) ‘stay the wheels of Doom’⁵⁵ , (3) ‘break or trample the iron Law’⁵⁶ and (4) ‘call high destiny down’⁵⁷ for the individual, collectivity and the race. She rebuilds Her creation through manifold Divine faculties and the most frontally present faculties are the fourfold Love force, that of Psychic, Spiritual, Universal and Supramental Love. The first three are derived from the Supramental Love that is an all-inclusive and comprehensive Supreme vibration that spreads over all the planes of consciousness with intensest Ananda; it excludes no mortal joy but fulfils it utterly. She liberates the human Soul from the lure of the four exclusive enjoyments, that of the lure of separative egoistic happiness, the lure of joy and laughter of the Soul, the lure of individual happiness in the heavens beyond and the lure of self-absorbed bliss in the impersonal Infinity. These four exclusive enjoyments of escapist traditional Spirituality are transcended in integral Yoga and Savitri declares firmly that a joy becomes imperfect if it is not shared by the whole of the living and non-living creatures. All the discord of life will be resolved through the possession of the all-inclusive Divine in humanity. Since Knowledge is the fundamental determinant of the Chit- aspect of Supreme Sachchidananda , the Divine Mother as Jnana Shakti comes third in the executive order of Her Divine manifestation. She exposes us to four worlds or selves hinted in the Mandukya Upanishad as Waking Self, Dream Self, Sleep Self and the Self of Turiya. These Selves are the constitution of the external world or the gross body of the Divine, the subtle body, the causal body and the Supreme self, which is the origin of all these selves. In Integral Yoga these selves are extensively experienced as Inconscient self, Surface physical self, Subliminal self, Superconscient self, Universal self and Supreme Self. In order to access these selves, a fourfold concentration and fourfold cognition are developed that are (1) Exclusive concentration and Separative Knowledge by indirect contact, (2) Essential concentration and Separative Knowledge by Direct contact, (3) Multiple concentration and Knowledge by Direct contact and (4) Integral Concentration and the Knowledge by Identity. The development of these concentrations and cognitions liberate us from the sevenfold ignorance hinted in Akhupanishad and Mahopanishad and the nature of the ignorance are extensively experienced as Original ignorance, Cosmic ignorance, Egoistic ignorance, Temporal ignorance, Psychological ignorance, Constitutional ignorance and Practical ignorance and the emergence into sevenfold Knowledge, maharsaya sapta purbe ,⁷⁸ is the total Knowledge. The sevenfold (or eight) cosmic existence hinted in the Rig Veda are identified as matter, vital, soul and mind of lower hemisphere and Supermind, Bliss, Consciousness and Existence of higher hemisphere; the ascension of lower hemisphere into the higher hemisphere and descent of the higher hemisphere in to the lower hemisphere are the double movements, directed towards resolving four fundamental problems of existence, that of Ignorance, Suffering, Falsehood and Death. The double movement of ascent and descent is possible by rending¹⁰¹ the veil between the (higher) Mind and Supermind, and that is the condition of the Divine Life in humanity. Since Artha Shakti , Money power is an important power for perfection of the material and vital world, which is the derivative of Existence-aspect or Sat-aspect of Sachchidananda , so it is treated as the fourth or last executive Power of the Divine Mother that at present is shifted into the hands of Asuric forces. When the first three Powers are active on earth’s atmosphere then Artha Shakti will be automatically restored back into the hands of the Divine Mother or on the base of the victory of these triple powers, an individual can rightly handle money for a Divine purpose. When we are able to master the above four faculties, the Divine Mother is satisfied and we enjoy her visible Presence and the status of the Soul’s eternal childhood. 4) Clasp of the hand of the Divine Friend: “Looking for the golden Hand that never came, The advent for which all creation waits, The beautiful visage of Eternity That shall appear upon the roads of Time.” Savitri-199-200 “Offspring of the gulfs, agents of the shadowy Force, Haters of light, intolerant of peace, Aping to the thought the shining Friend and Guide, Opposing in the heart the eternal Will, They veil the occult uplifting Harmonist.” Savitri-225 “A light was with him (King), an invisible hand Was laid upon the error and the pain Till it became a quivering ecstasy, The shock of sweetness of an arm’s embrace.” Savitri-231 “He (King Aswapati) communed with the incommunicable; Beings of wider consciousness were his friends, Forms of a larger subtler make drew near; The Gods conversed with him behind Life’s veil.” Savitri-301 “A friend and yet too great wholly to know, She (Savitri) 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 “I know that mighty gods are friends of earth.” Savitri-400 “All underwent a high celestial change: Breaking the black Inconscient’s blind mute wall, Effacing the circles of the Ignorance, Powers and divinities burst flaming forth; 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 “In the slow process of the evolving spirit, In the brief stade between a death and birth A first perfection’s stage is reached at last; Out of the wood and stone of our nature’s stuff A temple is shaped where the high gods could live.” Savitri-531 “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 “Then the doomed husband and the woman who knew Went with linked hands into that solemn world.” Savitri-562 “Then hand in hand they left that solemn place Full now of mute unusual memories, To the green distance of their sylvan home Returning slowly through the forest’s heart.” Savitri-721 “Drawn by white manes upon a high-roofed car In flare of the unsteady torches went With linked hands Satyavan and Savitri, Hearing a marriage march and nuptial hymn, Where waited them the many-voiced human world.” Savitri-724 The Gita declared that the Divine is the friend, sakha , helper, saviour of all creatures, suhrdam sarvabhutanam .⁷⁹ He is the charioteer, pilot of our ways, the defender from enemies, fighter in the battle and friend during our difficulties. He is the comrade, playmate of the game of living and the eternal companion and holds our hand in successive lives. His embraces and His blows are equally well intentioned for our Soul’s perfection. These contradictions lead to a greater intimacy with Him. 5) Laughter and sport with our comrade boy, Play-fellow: “Her playmate in the sempiternal spheres” Savitri-16 “Only by him they are, his breath is their life; An unseen Presence moulds the oblivious clay. A playmate in the mighty Mother’s game, One came upon the dubious whirling globe To hide from her pursuit in force and form.” Savitri-60 “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 “As if reversing a deformation’s spell, Released from the black magic of the Night, Renouncing servitude to the dim Abyss, It shall learn at last who lived within unseen, And seized with marvel in the adoring heart To the enthroned Child-Godhead kneel aware, Trembling with beauty and delight and love.” Savitri-171 “Playmates of youthful Nature and child God,” Savitri-266 “Unsolved the riddle of the unfinished Play; The cosmic Player laughs within his mask, And still the last inviolate secret hides Behind the human glory of a Form, Behind the gold eidolon of a Name.” Savitri-311 “Love dwells in us like an unopened flower Awaiting a rapid moment of the soul, Or he (love) roams in his charmed sleep mid thoughts and things; The child-god is at play, he seeks himself In many hearts and minds and living forms:” Savitri-398 “A visioned spell pursued my boyhood’s hours… An early child-god took my hand that held, Moved, guided by the seeking of his touch,” Savitri-404 “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.” Savitri-614 He is the child born to our desire that we cherish and rear. His joy and laughter lure our Soul to enter an eternal game and develop our Psychic being. He nourishes our maternal and paternal faculties of love and care. He plays with everything and with the smallest things. He takes nothing seriously and takes delight in everything. The child God leading our soul in joy and laughter is profoundly developed in the life story of Sri Krishna. All is united in that deepest many-sided Divine relation and we enjoyed the ‘intimacy of infant God.’⁵⁸ The child God seeks himself in many longing hearts, mind and body and thus feels in his universalised body the existence of this whole creation. 6) Blissful servitude to God the Master: “Although she drives him on her fancy's roads, At play with him as with her child or slave, To freedom and the Eternal's mastery And immortality's stand above the world, She moves her seeming puppet of an hour.” Savitri-65 “He makes of her his moment passion's serf: To obey she feigns, she follows her creature's lead: For him she was made, lives only for his use. But conquering her, then is he most her slave; He is her dependent, all his means are hers; Nothing without her he can, she rules him still.” Savitri-65 “The master of existence lurks in us And plays at hide-and-seek with his own Force; In Nature's instrument loiters secret God.” Savitri-66 “The Master of the worlds self-made her slave Is the executor of her fantasies: She has canalised the seas of omnipotence; She has limited by her laws the Illimitable.” Savitri-121 “Strength was the slave of calm spiritual law,” Savitri-124 “She made herself the diligent serf of all,” Savitri-470 “Accepting cosmos, binds himself Nature’s serf Till he becomes her freedom—or God’s slave.” Savitri-542 “Thy servitudes (slaves) on earth are greater, King, Than all the glorious liberties of heaven.” Savitri-686, “For ever love, O beautiful slave of God!” Savitri-702 Since integral Yoga accepts the Yoga of Works, it has the need of the Divine as the all-Powerful Master, the Lord, the Doer, and the cosmic Worker, who does all work tirelessly to prepare this fragile human mud-engine for heaven’s use. Thus, Divine demands subordination and service from men and insists to do the work of all types, sarvakarmani, ⁸⁰ in the material world, and the Mother stresses, “Work, even manual work, is indispensable to the inner discovery. If one does not work, if one does not put one’s consciousness into matter, it will never develop.”⁷⁴ One should wish to live through action ‘a hundred years’⁸¹ and enjoy in the body the Divine self-fulfilment. Service to the Divine is offered through seven ascending steps. First, the devotee becomes dasya of the servant, God’s servant, who feigns obedience and yet moves by the impulse of his own free will and desire; this is the lowest stage of relation where mere obedience with fear, separation and distance from the Master predominates; secondly, he becomes the dasya of the lover, God’s lover, whose disobedience is overruled by the power of love; in this state all distance, separation, all awe, fear and mere obedience disappears in the oneness of the Beloved; thirdly, he becomes the dasya of the yantra, God’s living and loving instrument with higher stage of self-surrender, who does not obey, but moves to His will as the string replies to the finger of the musician; fourthly he becomes the dasya of the slave, the slave of God, rejoices in His possession and moves helplessly by His Divine Will; fifthly, he becomes dasya of the child, God’s child, where the God is revealed as the Mother and the slave becomes the king child, no longer a separate being, servant, instrument and slave, but a part and portion of Her eternal Consciousness and force, put out from Her for the play and yet always safe in Her. Sixthly, he becomes Vibhuti , the increasing manifestation of the Divine, the Ishwara, ‘which is indeed present in all, even in the weakest or most clouded living being.’⁸² He becomes one with the Divine Ananda , Will, Action and Knowledge. Here the complete joy is manifested by the fusion of Shakti with Ishwara. And beyond the Consciousness of Vibhuti, there exists the seventh state, that of the consciousness of the Avatara, the Supreme Himself assuming a human name and form enters the Lila of the greatest world action. This increasing slavehood of an integral Yogi reduces the gulf created between swift Spiritual evolution of the developed Soul and the slow evolution of the developing Soul. 7) Rapturous love of our divine Paramour: “Our error crucifies Reality To force its birth and divine body here, Compelling, incarnate in a human form And breathing in limbs that one can touch and clasp, Its Knowledge to rescue an ancient Ignorance, Its saviour light the inconscient universe.” Savitri-170-71 “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.” Savitri-181 “Or from the gold eye of her paramour” Savitri-349 “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 “After all was given she demanded still; Even by his strong embrace unsatisfied, She longed to cry, “O tender Satyavan, O lover of my soul, give more, give more Of love while yet thou canst, to her thou lov’st. Imprint thyself for every nerve to keep That thrills to thee the message of my heart.” Savitri-471 “The Lover winds around his play mate’s limb, Choosing his (Spirit’s) tyranny, crushed in his embrace? To seize him better with her (Matter’s) boundless heart She (Matter) accepts the limiting circle of his (Spirit’s) arms, Bows full of bliss beneath his mastering hands And laughs in his rich constraints, most bound, most free.” Savitri-653 In the traditional Bhakti Yoga, the relation between the Lover and the Beloved is considered closest of all relationships and it proceeds through different stages that are Sangsaya, fear of loss of love leading one to state of doubt, Viraha , sorrow of separation Abhimana, anger and jealousy of separation, Bichheda , the state of complete separation, Vyakulata , passion to reunite again and the end is Milana , complete union. The means through which the love is activated are: - Sammohona , attraction, Uchhatana, excitation, Sosana , possession, Vikhyovana, disappointment and Dahana , burning sensation. Fear, doubt, anger, jealousy, grief, dissatisfaction and passion are the vital impurities. Integral Yoga rejects the vital being’s union with the Divine through the above-mentioned means as there is a danger of inrush of the lower nature and unpurified emotions; rather it experiences the same Divine union by directing purified emotions through the gate of the Psychic being which is a flowering of joy, union, confidence, self-giving and Ananda or one gets impersonal Spiritual Love by rejecting the personal egoistic limitations. The fundamental difference between the exclusive love of the traditional Bhakti Yoga and the comprehensive love of the integral Yoga is that in the former, the Divine union begins from vital sheath by turning vital emotions towards the Divine to arrive at Psychic (as that of Sri Chaitanya ) and Spiritual union (as that of Sri Krishna ); whereas the latter aims at constant union and control of Divine at every moment in all the ten sheaths (which has been discussed later) and Divine union in the mental, vital and physical sheaths are perfected by the pressure of Psychic, Spiritual, Universal and Supramental Love. Love, Psychicised and Spritualised necessarily offers a twofold fulfilment of Personal and Impersonal Joy; the lover and Beloved enjoy their infinite variety of Divine union in difference and they throw themselves finally into an absolute and intense ecstasy of divine Oneness. The sense of this Oneness paves the passage of discovery of the Supramental Self. The prolongation of this ascending union and oneness establishes the Supramental concentration. When the Supramental concentration is established or the Love Supramentalised, the personal relation with the Divine is utterly satisfied and the Divine Beloved lives permanently with His visible (subtle) material vibration. That is the experience of constant purified subtle physical Divine union and highest milana with the Divine Beloved. The descent of Divine Love to the Inconscient Sheath: “The persistent thrill of a transfiguring touch Persuaded the inert black quietude And beauty and wonder disturbed the fields of God.” Savitri-3 “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 “The poised inconscience shaken with a touch, The intuitive Silence trembling with a name, They cried to Life to invade the senseless mould And in brute forms awake divinity.” Savitri-129 “For since upon this blind and whirling globe Earth-plasm first quivered with the illumining mind And life invaded the material sheath Afflicting Inconscience with the need to feel,” Savitri-353 “Out of division’s dense inconscient cleft, And make them one with God and world and her.” Savitri-363 “A mystery wakes in our inconscient stuff, A bliss is born that can remake our life. ” Savitri-397-398 “He sang the Inconscient and its secret self, Its power omnipotent knowing not what it does All-shaping without will or thought or sense, Its blind unerring occult mystery, And darkness yearning towards the eternal Light, And Love that broods within the dim abyss And waits the answer of the human heart, And death that climbs to immortality.” Savitri-416 “My soul can meet them (Inconscient’s Law and Fate) with its living fire.” Savitri-589 “My God is will and triumphs in his paths, My God is love and sweetly suffers all. To him I have offered hope for sacrifice And gave my longings as a sacrament.” Savitri-591 “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 (Divine Love) labours in the depths, exults on the heights; He shall remake thy universe, O Death.” Savitri-592 “I know my coming was a wave from God. For all his suns were conscient in my birth, And one who loves in us came veiled by death.” Savitri-594 “And it is this, this descent to the very bottom, in search of... but it is not an unknown, it is not an unknown—a bursting (it really is like a bursting), that marvellous bursting of the Vibration of Love; that is...it is the memory. And the effort is to turn it into an active reality.”⁷⁷ The Mother “And there I suddenly found myself in front of something like a vault or a grotto (of course, it was only something ‘like’ that), and when it opened, I saw a Being of iridescent light reclining with his head on his hand, fast asleep. All the light around him was iridescent. When I told Theon what I was seeing, he said it was ‘the immanent God in the depths of the Inconscient,’ who through his radiations was slowly waking the Inconscient to Consciousness… I have experienced the descent into the Inconscient many times; this experience of descending to the very bottom of the Inconscient and finding there the Divine Consciousness, the Divine Presence, under one form or another. it has happened quite frequently.”¹⁵² The Mother In the Upanishadic era, the human body is defined to be composed of five koshas or sheaths. In each of these koshas, the Brahman or Purusha or Self is either concealed or revealed. They are Annamaya kosha, Pranamaya kosha, Manomaya kosha, Vijnanamaya kosha and Anandamaya kosha. Five more nether and intermediate sheaths are incorporated here in integral Yoga, as the Mother and Sri Aurobindo had experienced ten (actually twelve) occult Centres; for They better distinguish the stages of our self-development. The Inconscient sheath is the base, which is a rather darker and impure part of our existence and the dwelling place of four fundamental problems of existence represented by Ignorance, Suffering, Falsehood and Death. The Subconscient sheath, physical sheath, vital sheath and mental sheath have evolved from the Inconscient sheath. In the mental sheath, the physical mind, vital mind, sensory mind, emotional mind and intellectual mind are already evolved and they are under the direct control of the Inconscient sheath. There are higher faculties of the mind sheath that we name them also as Spiritual sheath; they are Higher mind, Illumined mind, Intuitive mind and Over mind, which are yet to evolve in our self-growth. Apart from them, the Psychic sheath, the Universal sheath, the Supramental sheath and Bliss sheath, are yet to evolve and our immediate preoccupation is to participate in the evolution of these higher sheaths and apply their respective concentration towards the perfection of other inferior sheaths. King Aswapati’s exploration of the Inconscient sheath opened the passage of ‘grand solution’ in the problem of existence. On digging the core of darkness, he discovered wells of Light. A cave of darkness guards the Eternal Light. Eternal wraps His head in the Inconscient’s dark covered cloud. He discovered in the heart of Inconscient, the Supreme Consciousness. The activation of this Supreme state of Inconscient Self will flood all the other intermediate sheaths with the Divine faculties of Light, Love, Will and Ananda etc. This discovery of Inconscient Self paves the passage of Supramental invasion to all the intermediate sheaths from two ends of above the head and below the feet or in the language of Savitri ‘Our life is entrenched between two rivers of Light.’⁷ The Mother never recounted the invasion of Supramental Love from Inconscient domain; rather there is The Mother’s record of Supramental Power and Supramental Light invading from Inconscient sheath on 7th November, 1958 and night of 24-25 July, 1959 respectively. The Divine Love from the Vijnanamaya Kosha had invaded the vast inconscient sheath through The Mother’s body on the night of 12-13th April, 1962. This experience confirms that there is yet another invasion of Divine Love that waits, through the innermost gate or very bottom gate of Inconscient sheath that is identified as one of Their unfinished tasks (For example of Savitri's line: “A mystery wakes in our inconscient stuff, A bliss is born that can remake our life. ” Savitri-397-398, "He (Divine Love in Inconscient) shall remake thy universe, O Death.” Savitri-592). The utter fullness of such an experience will come with the simultaneous invasion of Divine Love from two extreme ends of top and bottom sheath which is again identified as Their another unfinished mighty task. The descent of Divine Love to the Subconscient Sheath: “Although he (King) once had felt the Eternal’s clasp, Too near to suffering worlds his nature lived, And where he stood were entrances of Night.” Savitri-128 “It (Divine Love) summons the spirit’s sleeping memories Up from subconscient depths beneath Time’s foam; Oblivious of their flame of happy truth, Arriving with heavy eyes that hardly see, They come disguised as feelings and desires, Like weeds upon the surface float awhile And rise and sink on a somnambulist tide. Impure, degraded though her (Subconscient) motions are, Always a heaven-truth broods in life’s deeps; In her obscurest members burns that fire.” Savitri-138-139 “Then kindling the gold tongue of sacrifice, Calling the powers of a bright hemisphere, We shall shed the discredit of our mortal state, Make the abysm a road for Heaven’s descent, Acquaint our depths with the supernal Ray And cleave the darkness with the mystic Fire.” Savitri-171-72 “Out of the Void this grand creation rose, For this the Spirit came into the Abyss” Savitri-632 “A hidden Bliss is at the root of things.” Savitri-630 “A heavier tread is mine, a mightier touch. There where the gods and demons battle in night Or wrestle on the borders of the Sun, Taught by the sweetness and the pain of life To bear the uneven strenuous beat that throbs Against the edge of some divinest hope, To dare the impossible with these pangs of search, In me the spirit of immortal love Stretches its arms out to embrace mankind. Too far thy heavens for me from suffering men. Imperfect is the joy not shared by all.” Savitri-686 “Often a lustrous inner dawn shall come Lighting the chambers of the slumbering mind; A sudden bliss shall run through every limb And Nature with a mightier Presence fill.” Savitri-710 In integral Yoga, the dynamisation of the Brahman or Purusha in the Psychic sheath and higher Mental sheath or Spiritual sheath is our first preoccupation. Second preoccupation is the activation of Brahman in the distant Universal, Supramental and Bliss sheaths; third preoccupation is to activate the Brahman in the Subconscient and Inconscient sheath and the concurrent preoccupation to activate the Brahman in the lower Mental, Vital and Physical sheaths. The above order may vary based on the swabhava and swadharma of a Sadhaka or simultaneous activation of more than one sheath may supersede the above order. The influence of Psychic love and Spiritual love is effective partly to transform the mind, life and body, but for exploring the vast domain of Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths, the greater instrumentation of Supramental Love is essential. Since Divine Love is related with the most intense purification, its Presence is most required in the dark, obscured, restless nether members and unhealthy zone of Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths. The Mother’s present world action is concerned with clearing the Subconscient sheath, which is the uppermost layer of the Inconscient Sheath and that rises up to the surface in order to be transformed. The old pull of Subconscient memory renews and its dull gravitation drags us down to half half-ordered chaos of life and may even draw towards Spiritual fall. Her large subjective action includes penetration and call down of Divine Light to darker parts and is curtained by darkness does Her slow transformative work and establishes control in the individual, local, state, national and international subconscience, layer after layer, so that more and more those sheaths will grow conscious and be possessed by Her Light. The descent of Divine Love to Annamaya Kosha or Physical Sheath: - “Here with the suddenness divine advents have, Repeating the marvel of the first descent, Changing to rapture the dull earthly round, Love came to her hiding the shadow, Death. Well might he (Love) find in her his perfect shrine.” Savitri-14 “The smile of love that sanctions the long game,” Savitri-41 “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 “The sweetness of love that knows not death,” Savitri-51 “The beautiful body of a soul at ease, Like one who laughs in sweet and sunlit groves, Childlike she (life) swung in her gold cradle of joy.” Savitri-114 “All the soul’s postures donned divinity. There met the ardent mutual intimacies Of mastery’s joy and the joy of servitude Imposed by Love on Love’s heart that obeys And Love’s body held beneath a rapturous yoke.” Savitri-125 “This limited being lifted to zenith bliss, Happy to enjoy one touch of things supreme, Packed into its sealed small infinity, Its endless time-made world outfacing Time, A little output of God’s vast delight.” Savitri-238 “On an earth which looked towards a thousand suns, That the created might grow Nature’s lord And Matter’s depths be illumined with a soul They tied to date and norm and finite scope The million-mysteried movement of the One.” Savitri-268 “For He who Is grows manifest in the years And the slow Godhead (Annamaya Purusha) shut within the cell Climbs from the plasm to immortality.” Savitri-272 “It longed for the Light that knows not death and birth.” Savitri-277 “The radiant limbs that know not birth and death,” Savitri-278 “As those who have lived long made one in love” Savitri-292 “Incarnating inexpressibly in her limbs The boundless joy the blind world-forces seek, Her body of beauty mooned the seas of bliss.” Savitri-314 “A deathless meaning filled her mortal limbs;” Savitri-373 “Thought, vision, feeling, sense, the body’s self Are seized unutterably and he 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 “As if Love’s deathless moment had been found,” Savitri-579 “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 “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… 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 “Even now the deathless Lover’s touch we feel:” Savitri-649 “An imperishable Force touching brute things Transform earth’s death into immortal life.” Savitri-664 “Her body quivered with eternity’s touch, Her soul stood close to the founts of the infinite.” Savitri-671 “A physical world is made to express Beauty; if it became harmonious instead of being the ignoble thing it is, if it became harmonious, it would have exceptional vibratory quality!... It is rather curious: the vital world is magnificent, the mental world has its splendours, the overmental world with all its god (who are existing beings, I know them well) is truly very beautiful; but I tell you, since I had that Contact, I have found all that hollow—hollow and ...lacking the essential. And that essential thing, in its principle, is here on earth.”⁷¹ The Mother Our ancient scriptures have represented fivefold Ananda manifested in the physical nature. They are Maithunananda , sex enjoyment, Visayananda, sense enjoyment, Tivrananda , intense enjoyment, Raudrananda, wrathful enjoyment and Vaidyutananda , lightning enjoyment. These enjoyments are established in the form of habits in the physical mind, sensational mind, aesthetic mind, emotional mind and intellectual mind respectively and are separated from the Soul stuff and hence are short-lived enjoyments. In order to transform this transient physical substance into ideal love and pure vessel of self-existent motiveless flawless Ananda , it has to ascend the four stairs of purification through Psychic love, Spiritual love, Universal love and Supramental Love and purify those enjoyments into the image of Soul stuff, Spiritual stuff, Universal stuff and Supramental stuff. The purification of physical sheath offers the four perfections of mahattva, greatness of a sustaining force, bala, an abounding strength, energy and puissance of outgoing and managing force, laghuta, a lightness, swiftness and adaptability of nervous and physical being and dharana-samarthya, a holding and responsive power of physical substance towards the Divine Love. When the physical substance is completely transformed, which is the most difficult exercise among transforming action of all the sheaths, then the physical substance will be able to hold the three Divine faculties of Supreme Love, Supreme Delight and Supreme Beauty. Through descent of pure Divine Love, life span can be increased indefinitely through activation of ‘immense spiritual fate’¹¹³ and one remains eternally young. The descent of Divine Love to Pranamaya Kosha or Vital Sheath: - “Heaven’s joys might have been earth’s if earth were pure. There could have reached our divinised sense and heart Some natural felicity’s bright extreme, Some thrill of Supernature’s absolutes:” Savitri-123 “Only to be was a supreme delight, Life was a happy laughter of the soul And Joy was king with Love for minister. The spirit’s luminousness was bodied there. Life’s contraries were lovers or natural friends And her extremes keen edges of harmony:” Savitri-124 “A mystic Presence none can probe nor rule, Creator of this game of ray and shade In this sweet and bitter paradoxical life, Asks from the body the soul’s intimacies And by the swift vibration of a nerve Links its mechanic throbs to light and love.” Savitri-138 "Only was lit some heat of the flame of Life, Some joy to be, some rapturous leaps of sense. All was an impetus of half-conscious Force, A spirit sprawling drowned in dense life-foam, A vague self grasping at the shape of things." Savitri-146 “Made (subtle) sense a road to reach the intangible: It thrilled with the supernal influences That build the substance of life’s deeper soul.” Savitri-236 “Aware of forms to which our eyes are closed, Conscious of nearnesses we cannot feel, The Power within her shaped her moulding sense In deeper figures than our surface types.” Savitri-356 “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.” Savitri-363 “In a narrow passage, the subconscient’s gate, She breathed with difficulty and pain and strove To find the inner self concealed in sense.” Savitri-489 “The All-Wonderful makes a marvel of each event, The All-Beautiful is a miracle in each shape; The All-Blissful smites with rapture the heart’s throbs, A pure celestial joy is the use of sense.” Savitri-663 “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.”⁶⁹ The Mother “But I can tell you one thing: even before Her (Ananda aspect of the Divine Mother) coming, when, with Sri Aurobindo, I had begun going down (for the Yoga) from the mental plane to the vital plane, when we brought our yoga down from the mental plane into the vital plane, in less than a month (I was forty years old at the time – I didn’t seem very old, I looked less than forty, but I was forty anyway), after no more than a month of this yoga, I looked exactly like an 18 year old! And someone who knew me and had stayed with me in Japan’ came here, and when he saw me, he could scarcely believe his eyes! He said, ‘But my god, is it you?’ I said, ‘Of course!’…Only when we went down from the vital plane into the physical plane, all this went away – because on the physical plane, the work is much harder and we had so much to do, so many things to change.”¹¹² The Mother “I should perhaps add one or two things to avoid misapprehensions. First, the love for the Divine of which I speak is not a psychic love only; it is the love of all the being, the vital and vital-physical included, — all are capable of the same self-giving. It is a mistake to believe that if the vital loves, it must be a love that demands and imposes the satisfaction of its desire; it is a mistake to think that it must be either that or else the vital, in order to escape from its “attachment”, must draw away altogether from the object of its love. The vital can be as absolute in its unquestioning self-giving as any other part of the nature; nothing can be more generous than its movement when it forgets self for the Beloved. The vital and physical should both give themselves in the true way — the way of true love, not of ego desire.”¹¹⁸ Sri Aurobindo Behind the surface life of desire and sense there is in us an inner and subtle vital being, which is not dissolved by death; if this vital Godhead is brought out into prominence, then it lifts life with the Supreme's touch and will be a true instrument of Divine Nature. The innermost domain of subtle vital Sheath that is close to the true Psychic being is called the true vital Being which has direct access to the Divine in the Spiritual domain. True vital is the means through which the sacrificial flame will rise in order to bring down Divine forces to the subtle vital and gross vital substance. True vital is the purest part of the vital where the Divine is stationed and around it there is extension of subtle vital and around subtle vital there is extension of gross vital. Both gross vital and subtle vital are subject to impurity and the purity of subtle vital grows as it is exposed to the influence of true vital Being. The fourfold perfection of the Vital Sheath are purnata , fullness of life, prasnnata , clear purity and gladness, samata , vital and emotional equality and bhoga-samarthya , capacity for possession and enjoyment or capacity to hold the Divine Love in the vital sheath. Integral Yoga proposes six-fold disciplines through which life will be transformed into the image of the Divine. First, life as it is a movement of desire; for Divine living the desire must be abolished and in its place there must emerge the calm, strength, happiness of true vital being; secondly, life is driven partly by the influence of physical mind, vital mind, emotional mind, sensory mind, intellectual mind, and these faculties are still under the domination of ignorant forces; for Divine living these lower mind faculties must cease to be anything but an instrument of the inmost Psychic being; thirdly, there is a veil that separates the lower mind faculties from higher mind faculties, which are higher Mind, illumined Mind, intuitive Mind and Over Mind; for Divine living the lid that separates these two domains must be broken and vital sheath must come under the direct influence of higher Mind; the six lotuses or energy centres open from top in descending order and vital sheath opens by the pressure of higher mental sheath or Spiritual sheath; fourthly, life for its satisfaction turns towards separative ego; ego must disappear and must be replaced by true Spiritual person and the formation of universal sheath begins; fifthly, the law of love is a Divine Presence and Influence to realise and fulfil oneself in others and by others, to possess and be possessed by others because without being possessed one does not possess oneself utterly; sixthly, the life must open itself towards Supramental pranic force and will for its complete transformation and perfect enjoyment and with the exposure towards Divine Love one ‘does in a brief period the work of many lives or ages.’⁸ Lastly, we may take the help of external physical means of Hatha Yogic asana and pranayama and Raja Yogic japa, for the full and free working of the universal Pranic Shakti . The descent of Divine Love to Manomaya Kosha or Mental Sheath: “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: He scanned the secrets of the Overmind, He bore the rapture of the Oversoul.” Savitri-302 “There was no mind there with its need to know, There was no heart there with its need to love. All person perished in its namelessness.” Savitri-308 “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 “The Power that from her being’s summit reigned, The Presence chambered in lotus secrecy, Came down and held the centre in her brow Where the mind’s Lord in his control-room sits; There throned on concentration’s native seat He opens that third mysterious eye in man, The Unseen’s eye that looks at the unseen, When Light with a golden ecstasy fills his brain And the Eternal’s wisdom drives his choice And eternal Will seizes the mortal’s will.” Savitri-665 “Often a lustrous inner dawn shall come Lighting the chambers of the slumbering mind; A sudden bliss shall run through every limb And Nature with a mightier Presence fill.” Savitri-710 “When I returned from Japan and we began to work together, Sri Aurobindo had already brought the Supramental light into the mental world and was trying to transform the Mind. ‘It’s strange,’ He said to me, ‘it is an endless work! Nothing seems to get done—everything is done and then constantly has to be done all over again.’ Then I gave Him my personal impression, which went back to the old days with Theon: ‘It will be like that until we touch bottom.’ So instead of continuing to work in the Mind, both of us (I was the one who went through the experience…how to put it? …practically, objectively; He experienced it only in His consciousness, not in the body—but my body has always participated), both of us descended immediately (it was done in a day or two) from the Mind into the Vital, and so on quite rapidly, leaving the Mind as it was, fully in the light but not permanently transformed.”⁹ The Mother Behind the silence and stillness of surface mind, there is a vast domain of inner or subtle mind and the innermost domain of subtle mind which is close to the true Psychic being, is truth Mind or true Mental Being, the Divine stationed in the subtle mind. This truth Mind wakes to new-born truths which are inexpressible to the surface mind and is having direct access to the Divine Source in the higher mental or Spiritual sheath and Supramental Sheath. Truth mind ascends to Psychic being in the heart and Spiritual Being above the head and the corresponding Divine Force descend on our mental, vital and physical sheaths for their Divine illumination and transformation. We have divided Manomaya Kosha into two parts, one of lower mentality, which requires transformation and the other of higher mentality, the Spiritual faculties above the head, which are responsible for our Spiritual transformation. Integral Yoga begins with the opening of passage to higher mental faculties of Higher mind, Illumined mind, Intuitive mind and Over mind, which are sealed to the common man. For our integral fulfilment and perfection, we have to convert our lower mind faculties of ethical and intellectual mind into Truth, Right of Divine nature and illumination of Divine knowledge, our emotional and aesthetic mind into the Divine love, unity and creative enjoyment of Divine beauty, our dynamic and volitional mind into working of Divine power, our sensational and physical mind into possession of higher states of Samadhi dynamised in the waking state.¹⁰ All the above-mentioned lower mind faculties are to be thrown into the Psychic fire within; under its pressure all the emotions are compelled to cast off their grosser elements and undivine perversions are burned away. Then a flame of larger Spiritual love emerges out of the mental sheath for further purification and perfectibility of life. Thus, mental sheath prepares itself to the exposure of Universal and Supramental love. A fully developed mental sheath or the subtle mind can support and hold a well built gross body and is a meeting ground of all other sheaths for transformation action. The descent of Divine Love to Chaitya Kosha or Psychic Sheath: “The soul must soar sovereign above the form And climb to summits beyond mind’s half-sleep; Our hearts we must inform with heavenly strength, Surprise the animal with the occult god.” Savitri-171 “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-237 “Adored and pure and still on his heart’s throne… Immaculate in white virginity… 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, An exhaustless marvel in his happy grasp, An allurement, a caught ravishing miracle. Her now he claims after long rapt pursuit, The one joy of his body and his soul:” Savitri-274 “A single ecstasy without a break, Love was a close and thrilled identity In the throbbing heart of all that luminous life.” Savitri-325 “I have found the deep unchanging soul of love.” Savitri-435 “O lover of my soul, give more, give more Of love while yet thou canst, to her thou lov’st” Savitri-471 “In the kingdom of the lotus of the heart Love chanting its pure hymeneal hymn Made life and body mirrors of sacred joy And all the emotions gave themselves to God.” Savitri-529 “A divine Puissance then takes Nature’s place And pushes the movements of our body and mind; Possessor of our passionate hopes and dreams, The beloved despot of our thoughts and acts, She streams into us with her unbound force, Into mortal limbs the Immortal’s rapture and power. An inner law of beauty shapes our lives;” Savitri-530 “Over the body she loved her soul leaned out” Savitri-571 “Only the spirit knew the spirit still, And the heart divined the old loved heart, though changed.” Savitri-576 “In other spaces, and the soul she loved” Savitri-578 “The soul of the beloved now seen no more.” Savitri-585 “An adoration reigned in the yearning heart, A spirit of purity, an elusive presence Of faery beauty and ungrasped delight Whose momentary and escaping thrill, However unsubstantial to our flesh, And brief even in imperishableness, Much sweeter seemed than any rapture known Earth or all-conquering heaven can ever give.” Savitri-603 “And let his soul be one with him I love;” Savitri-614 “But the soul grows concealed within its house; It (Psychic being) gives to the body its strength and magnificence; It (Psychic being) follows aims in an ignorant aimless world, It lends significance to earth’s meaningless life.” Savitri-658-659 “In the heart’s cave speaks secretly with God . But these are touches and high moments lived; Fragments of Truth supreme have lit his soul, Reflections of the sun in waters still.” Savitri-659 “If our souls could see and love and clasp God’s Truth,” Savitri-663 “Eternity multiplied its vast self-look Translating its endless mightiness and joy Into delight souls playing with Time could share In grandeurs ever new-born from the unknown depths, In powers that leaped immortal from unknown heights, In passionate heart-beats of an undying love, In scenes of a sweetness that can never fade.” Savitri-671 “I open the wide eye of solitude To uncover the voiceless rapture of my bliss, Where in a pure and exquisite hush it lies Motionless in its slumber of ecstasy, Resting from the sweet madness of the dance Out of whose beat the throb of hearts was born.” Savitri-697 “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.” (Supramentalised Psychic transformation.) Savitri-724 Our true Psychic being is behind the surface desire soul and emotional mind which is a ‘hurtling field of joy and grief, love and hatred, wrath, fear, struggle, aspiration, disgust, likes, dislikes, indifferences, content, discontent, hopes, disappointments, gratitude, revenge and all the stupendous play of passion.’¹¹ The Psychic Love’s momentary beauty and ungrasped delight, however unsubstantial and escaping to our thrilling flesh, it is much sweeter than any rapture known. In Psychic love, the joy comes from within, is pure, without demand and sincere in self-giving. It has its own more personal love, bhakti, surrender, vision and sense of The Mother everywhere and the heart within. In Spiritual love, Ananda comes from above the head; it is more impersonal and universal and less exclusive in nature. Supramental love is all-inclusive, does not depend on outer contact. It has access to both personal and impersonal elements of our being. Psychic love springs from the inmost Psychic being, which has the capacity to discern and reject mind and life’s falsehood, seizes hold on the truth of the Divine Love and Ananda. Intensification of Psychic love depends on its opening towards the flame of Spiritual and Supramental Love. The true Psychic being holds the true physical, true vital and true mental being which are the innermost stuff of the subtle physical, subtle vital and subtle mental sheath and this innermost Psychic Being has direct access to the Divine in the Spiritual and Supramental domain. It is the first Divine instrument to transform nature, leading towards Psychicisation of nature where mind, life and body will be completely under the control of the Psychic being. Psychicisation is a powerful aid towards Spiritualisation and Supramentalisation of the Psychic being. The descent of Divine Love to the Spiritual Sheath: “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. A hierophant of the bodiless Secrecy Interned in an unseen spiritual sheath, The Will that pushes sense beyond its scope To feel the light and joy intangible, Half found its way into the Ineffable’s peace, Half captured a sealed sweetness of desire That yearned from a bosom of mysterious Bliss, Half manifested veiled Reality.” Savitri-176 “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 “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.” Savitri-287 “The Spirit’s white neutrality became A playground of miracles, a rendezvous For the secret powers of a mystic Timelessness: It (Spirit) made of Space a marvel house of God, It poured through Time its works of ageless might, Unveiled seen as a luring rapturous face The wonder and beauty of its Love and Force.” Savitri-326-327 “A consciousness that saw without a seer, The Truth where knowledge is not nor knower nor known, The Love enamoured of its own delight In which the Lover is not nor the Beloved Bringing their personal passion into the Vast, The Force omnipotent in quietude, The Bliss that none can ever hope to taste.” Savitri-548 “Immortal yearnings without name leap down, Large quiverings of godhead seeking run And weave upon a puissant field of calm A high and lonely ecstasy of will.” Savitri-572 “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 Love our hearts call down to heal all strife,” Savitri-661 “Oh, it’s an impression equivalent to the one I had when Sri Aurobindo gave my mind silence (during the first meeting with Him). It became perfectly blank and empty (gesture to the forehead), blank and empty, and there was nothing anymore: I couldn’t think anymore, not one idea, not one system anymore, nothing –in a word, total imbecility! It never came back. You see, it went up above, and here there was nothing.”⁷⁰ The Mother Nirvana is an impersonal, signless, featureless, blank pure Spiritual Consciousness that replaces mind. In Spiritual life, the more one enters the higher planes of consciousness the more one will meet the threat from the Inconscient plane. That is a part of the Divine play in order to bridge the gulf between Heaven and Hell. It is like a mighty storm from the Inconscient world, which is chased by the mighty Sun from the Supramental world. In integral Yoga, the individual Spiritual Self is won to merge not with the Supreme Self alone but also dynamised as the descent of universal Divine Shakti for the transformation of Nature. Transformation of isolated individual Nature is not practicable but to adventure in all the planes of the Consciousness till all the worlds or planes of consciousness are possessed by Divine Shakti . Thus, Savitri’s Spiritual force must be used to conquer the greater kingdom of untransformed Nature. She will ascend this Spiritual being to the absolute state of the Divine so that Nature and Soul will experience the descent of the absolute Divine state. At the same time, she will accept to be small and a mere human on earth so that high and low can meet in a single body. She will uncover the Unknowable and grow conscious of the tops of the Superconscient plane by banishing all thought from her and by becoming God’s void. So, she realises her Spiritual Self, God, by casting off her mind, by stepping back from name and form and annuls herself completely. The Spiritual approach of life of becoming a true Divine instrument is that his understanding proceeds without the aid of thought, he speaks whatever is needed to be said, does whatever need to be done and knows things without the aid of knowledge; his impersonal Love needs no aid of the Lover and Beloved. It has greater instrumentality of Knowledge, Power and Will and unlimited intensity of Love, Joy and Beauty. The descent of Divine Love to Visva Atma and Universal Sheath: “The universal Mother’s love was hers.” Savitri-8 “A deep of compassion, a hushed sanctuary, Her inward help unbarred a gate in heaven; Love in her was wider than the universe, The whole world could take refuge in her single heart.” Savitri-15 “His bliss in her to him is his whole world:” Savitri-62 “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 “There reigned a breath of high immune content, A fortunate gait of days in tranquil air, A flood of universal love and peace. A sovereignty of tireless sweetness lived Like a song of pleasure on the lips of Time.” Savitri-127 “And when that greater Self comes sea-like down To fill this image of our transience, All shall be captured by delight, transformed:” Savitri-171 “Waking and sleep lay locked in mutual arms; Helpless and indistinct came pleasure and pain Trembling with the first faint thrills of a World-Soul.” Savitri-157 “And lay on the breast of universal love.” Savitri-233 “Feels now the closeness of a waiting love,” Savitri-289 “One who could love without return for 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 “A fire of passion burned in spirit-depths, A constant touch of sweetness linked all hearts, The throb of one adoration’s single bliss In a rapt ether of undying love.” Savitri-291 “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 “His being, spread to embrace the universe,… His universal sympathy upbore, Immense like ocean, the creation’s load As earth upbears all beings’ sacrifice, Thrilled with the hidden Transcendent’s joy and peace.” Savitri-318-319 “To him the universe was her bosom of love,” Savitri-327 “Her greatness and her sweetness and her bliss, Her might to possess and her vast power to love:” Savitri-362 “And the loneliness that separates soul from soul, She wished to make all one immense embrace That she might house in it all living things” Savitri-362 “My spirit has glimpsed the glory for which it came, The beating of one vast heart in the flame of things, My eternity clasped by his eternity And, tireless of the sweet abysms of Time, Deep possibility always to love.” Savitri-435 “When I have loved for ever, I shall know. Love in me knows the truth all changings mask. I know that knowledge is a vast embrace: I know that every being is myself, In every heart is hidden the myriad One.” Savitri-594 “A Lover leaning from his cloister’s door Gathers the whole world into his single breast.” Savitri-632-3 “My heart is wiser than the Reason’s thoughts, My heart is stronger than thy bonds, O Death. It sees and feels the one Heart beat in all, It feels the high Transcendent’s sunlike hands, It sees the cosmic Spirit at its work; In the dim Night it lies alone with God. My heart’s strength can carry the grief of the universe And never falter from its luminous track, Its white tremendous orbit through God’s peace. It (Savitri’s heart) can drink up the sea of All-Delight And never lose the white spiritual touch, The calm that broods in the deep Infinite.” Savitri-635 “More hearts till love in us has filled thy world!” Savitri-687 “And the mandate of thy secret world-wide love.” Savitri-687 “An energy of the triune Infinite, In a measureless Reality she dwelt, A rapture and a being and a force, A linked and myriad-motioned plenitude, 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 “For ever love, O beautiful slave of God! O lasso of my rapture’s widening noose, Become my cord of universal love. The spirit ensnared by thee force to delight Of creation’s oneness sweet and fathomless, Compelled to embrace my myriad unities And all my endless forms and divine souls.” Savitri-702 “His living cosmic spirit shall enring, Annulling the decree of death and pain, Erasing the formulas of the Ignorance, With the deep meaning of beauty and life’s hid sense, The being ready for immortality, His regard crossing infinity’s mystic waves Bring back to Nature her early joy to live, The metred heart-beats of a lost delight, The cry of a forgotten ecstasy, The dance of the first world-creating Bliss.” Savitri-706 “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.”⁷⁰ The Mother “The sorrow of all living things shall come And knock at his (Avatara’s) doors and live within his house;” Savitri-446 With the complete dissolution of ego, the universal sheath takes possession of the lower sheaths of mind, life and body, and it widens their capacity to the proportion of the universe. The universalisation process begins with the breakdown of the walls of mental, vital and physical sheaths by a powerful inrush of the Divine into these lower sheaths and changes our nature into a reflection of Divine nature by possession of universal love, joy and oneness. A Sadhaka feels oneness with all the bodies and identifies that as his true physical existence, universal life as his true vital existence, universal Mind as his true mental existence and is aware of their desires, struggles, joys, sorrows, thoughts, in a sense as if they were his own problem to be cured in his universal sheath. The Mother recounts, “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.”⁷⁵ “But I found that interesting, because ... It's generally like this: the Force is there, working, and if something comes (a call from someone, a prayer or something), all this (gesture to the forehead) generally remains absolutely still, immobile, merely letting the Force pass through, and all I sometimes do is simply (gesture of offering or presenting something upward): "Lord, here is this task, it's for You." That's all, and I leave it. But in this case, I was sitting at my table (the telegram had just come), concentrating, and I quite deliberately and consciously put him in contact with the Force. Because there was a whole world of suggestions, he expected the end: "Now it's the end." So because of that, I concentrated and put a formation.”¹⁴³ Universal love is Spiritual in its origin and is founded in the sense of the One and the Divine everywhere. ‘When the universal love seized his heart, it is decisive sign that the Divine has taken possession of him; and when he has the vision of the All-beautiful everywhere and can feel at all times the bliss of His embrace, that is the decisive sign that he has taken possession of the Divine.'¹² There are three grades of universalisation; in the first stage Sadhaka is identified with lower sheaths of universal mind, life and body; he is depressed by the cosmic suffering and elated by cosmic joy and ‘this oneness can be carried even to the body, as in the story of the Indian saint who, seeing a bullock tortured in the field by its cruel owner, cried out with the creature’s pain and the weal of the lash was found reproduced on his own flesh.’¹³ In the second stage, this subjection of the lower sheath to the reaction of Prakriti is added with a new faculty of freedom and oneness with Sachchidananda. The Soul becomes ‘free and superior to the cosmic reactions; the soul understands, accepts the experience, sympathises, but is not overpowered or affected, so that at last even mind and body learn also to accept without being overpowered or even affected except on their surface.’¹ ³ In the third stage the Sadhaka attains a ‘spiritual supremacy and freedom which enables him to understand perfectly, put the right values on things, and heal from above instead of struggling from below. It does not inhibit the divine compassion and helpfulness, but it does inhibit the human and animal sorrow and suffering.’¹³ To recapitulate, in the first stage the Sadhaka due to his universalisation bears the burden of earth’s suffering; out of this endurance perfect equality is born; in the second stage his suffering is added with the capacity to heal the universal problems by transforming equality into ecstasy; in the third stage the mind, life and body utterly obey the higher sheaths, or highest of the bliss sheath of perfect ecstasy and heals the universal problem with fullness of bliss, without any trace of suffering. The Mother and Sri Aurobindo were missioned on earth for the greatest world action of the Avataras , of bearing the heavy burden of earth. They had accepted the second stage of universalisation and cleared the vast debris of universal Inconscient by Their prolonged suffering. They would have easily reached the third stage of universalisation had they sealed off and excluded the burden of transforming the universal Subconscient and Inconscient from the scope of Their integral world action. In this physical transformation process, healing of the body by the pressure of Sachchidananda consciousness alone from above is discouraged, because that will distance the possibility of discovery of the All-Mighty Power of Subconscient and Inconscient Self ingrained in the cells of the body or awakening of the same Sachchidananda force from below. So for transformation of the body, the simultaneous action of Sachchidananda force from above the head and below the feet are highly desirable. Despite the above constraint, The Mother had promised⁸⁶ that Her children need not have to suffer like Them because of the reduced burden of the Inconscient sheath and will be able to ascend to the third stage of universalisation, where transformation action will be accelerated with full of Bliss. The ecstasy will have the power to restore order in the physical working and there will be victory over the forces of dissolution. The Mother recounted, ‘Sri Aurobindo wrote very clearly: for all those who have faith and open themselves in surrender and faith, the work will be done automatically. As long as he was here...all the thirty years I spent with him working, NOT ONCE did I have to make an effort for a transformation. Simply, whenever there was a difficulty, I repeat, My Lord, my Lord, my Lord... I just thought of him—hop! It went away. Physical pain: he annulled it.’⁸⁶ If a liberated Soul’s consciousness is universalised, then through movement of his Consciousness many unknown Souls in distant lands will be liberated. Thus, the task of a liberated Soul of liberating others is accomplished or earth “Knows that one high step might enfranchise all.”¹⁴⁴ Love is a mutual self-giving; it grows in the subtle physical and subsequently universalises and manifests in the world. There is a specialty of intimate Divine Love when one becomes united with the universal Divine. This is hinted and developed in Savitri : “All here shall be one day her sweetness’ home, All contraries prepare her harmony;” Savitri-314 “All contraries heal their long dissidence. There meet and clasp the eternal opposites, There pain becomes a violent fiery joy; Evil turns back to its original good, And sorrow lies upon the breasts of Bliss:” Savitri-451 “Here in Life’s nether realms all contraries meet; Truth stares and does her works with bandaged eyes And Ignorance is Wisdom’s patron here:” Savitri-494 “All contraries were true in one huge spirit Surpassing measure, change and circumstance. An individual, one with cosmic self In the heart of the Transcendent’s miracle And the secret of World-personality Was the creator and the lord of all.” Savitri-556 “All contraries are aspects of God’s face.” Savitri-656 The descent of Divine Love to Vijnanamaya Kosha or Supramental Sheath: - “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 “There (in Supramental) substance was a resonant harp of self, A net for the constant lightnings of the spirit, A magnet power of love’s intensity Whose yearning throb and adoration’s cry Drew God’s approaches close, sweet, wonderful.” Savitri-328-29 “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 “All mights and greatnesses shall join in her; Beauty shall walk celestial on the earth, Delight shall sleep in the cloud-net of her hair, And in her body as on his homing tree Immortal Love shall beat his glorious wings. Savitri-346 “Loved all and spoke no word and made no sign,” Savitri-358 “They reached the one-self in all through boundless love.” Savitri-381 “To live, to love are signs of infinite things, Love is a glory from eternity’s spheres. Abased, disfigured, mocked by baser mights That steal his name and shape and ecstasy, He (Love) is still the godhead by which all can change.” Savitri-397 “All that the lightning-flash of love reveals” Savitri-406 “His large identity and all-harbouring love” Savitri-446 “All-love was hers and its one heavenly cord Bound all to all with her as golden tie.” Savitri-471 “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-633 “My love eternal sits throned on God’s calm; For Love must soar beyond the very heavens” Savitri-633 “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… This is why even our Spiritual life, which is such a total reversal compared to ordinary life, seems something so…so totally different when compared to this Supramental consciousness that the values are almost opposite.”⁵² The Mother “Two or three nights ago, something like that occurred: in the middle of the night, early morning, there was a descent of this Force, a descent of this Truth-Power; and this time it was everywhere, but with a special concentration in the brain—not in this brain: in THE brain (experience of earth consciousness). And it was so strong, so strong, so strong! The head felt as if it were about to burst—yes, as if everything were going to burst—so that for about two hours I simply had to keep calling for the widening of the Lord’s Peace... And with the consciousness that this descent into unprepared brain would be enough to drive you completely mad or absolutely daze, or else you would burst...there was tremendous fever- though nothing even remotely like an “illness”!”⁶⁷ The Mother In most of the individual Souls the Supramental sheath or the causal body is not formed¹⁶⁸ and it is very difficult to take shape around the subtle body. It takes shape through interference of Divine faculties from Sat-kosha, Tapas kosha and Anandamaya kosha. This interference is possible by the ascension of individual consciousness to Anandamaya world and beyond, which are above the Supramental sheath and corresponding descent of Divine Love, Divine Delight and Divine Beauty to the Vijnanamaya kosha. Supramental Sheath is also built gradually by the activation of the supramental Self. Supramental Love serves the following six-fold purpose; firstly, it offers integral union and perfect satisfaction of the relation between Purusha and Prakriti ; secondly, it brings active ecstasy in addition to deeper calm and Supramental silence; thirdly, an intense unity with all creatures founded on profound oneness; fourthly, the realisation of one in many and many in one is inherent; fifthly , the power of Love Supramentalised can take hold of all living relations without hesitation or danger and turn them Godward, delivered from their crude, mixed and petty human settings and sublimated into the happy material of a Divine life; sixthly, it would be utterly possible to embrace all contacts with men and the world in a purified sleepless flame-force.¹⁴ The source of Divine Love, Anandamaya Kosha or Bliss Sheath: “On the bare peak where Self is alone with Nought And life has no sense and love no place to stand, She must plead her case upon extinction’s verge, In the world’s death-cave uphold life’s helpless claim And vindicate her right to be and love.” Savitri-12 “And sudden ecstasies from a world of bliss.” Savitri-31 “The quintessence glowed of Life’s supreme delight.” Savitri-120 “Only to be was a supreme delight, Life was a happy laughter of the soul And Joy was king with Love for minister. The spirit’s luminousness was bodied there. Life’s contraries were lovers or natural friends And her extremes keen edges of harmony:” Savitri-124 “In the deep breast of God’s supreme delight.” Savitri-200 “Happy to enjoy one touch of things supreme,” Savitri-238 “There was no mind there (in Bliss Self) with its need to know, There was no heart there with its need to love. All person perished in its namelessness. There was no second, it had no partner or peer; Only itself was real to itself. A pure existence safe from thought and mood, A consciousness of unshared immortal bliss, It dwelt aloof in its bare infinite, One and unique, unutterably sole.” Savitri-308-309 “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 “Her clasp shall turn to ecstasy our pain.” Savitri-314 “A Bliss, A Light, a Power, a flame-white Love Caught all into a sole immense embrace; Existence found its truth on Oneness’ breast And each became the self and space of all. The great world-rhythms were heart-beats of one Soul, To feel was a flame-discovery of God, All mind was a single harp of many strings, All life a song of many meeting lives; For worlds were many, but the Self was one.” Savitri-322-23 “There leaps out unity’s supreme delight” Savitri-324 “And from her eyes the Eternal’s bliss shall gaze.” Savitri-346 “The Bliss for which the world’s derelict sorrows yearn:” Savitri-661 “There was no more the torment under the stars, The evil sheltered behind Nature’s mask; There was no more the dark pretence of hate, The cruel rictus on Love’s altered face. Hate was the grip of a dreadful amour’s strife; A ruthless love intent only to possess Has here replaced the sweet original god.” Savitri-679 “The bliss that made the world in his body lived, Love and delight were the head of the sweet form.” Savitri-683 “Know the thrilled bliss with which I made the worlds.” (all the subtle worlds) Savitri-701 “Some rapture of the bliss that made the world,” Savitri-704 “Since soon after the beginning of the century this work (of permeation of Supreme Ananda into disorder of mind, life and material substance) has been going on. Afterwards, there was all the Psychic work, in the same way (gesture of widening): the identification and the response. Then the vital work, which I began with Sri Aurobindo when we were staying over there (at the Guest House); then the physical work, but there it is ... gropingly learning one’s job. Now there is a sort of certainty: you see, you come into contact with something, and then you know instantly what should be done and how it should be done; the vibration comes, meets a response, and goes back—and this is going on every minute, all the time .”⁶⁶ The Mother "The other states of being, the vital, the mind, may enjoy the intermediary contacts. The supreme Lord alone can satisfy me."¹⁶⁵ The Mother Above Anandamaya kosha , there are also two other sheaths of Tapas kosha and Sat kosha . We have excluded these two sheaths from our study because of their inaccessibility at the present stage and we shall instead pursue perfection through the above-mentioned ten koshas. When Divine Love is profoundly dynamised in the earth’s atmosphere, then the other two higher sheaths above Anandamaya Kosha find substantial base for manifestation. Love, Joy and Beauty are the fundamental determinants of the Divine Delight of Existence, and we can see at once that these are the very stuff and nature of that Delight.¹⁵ When we pursue the process of self-manifestation, we shall find that Joy has its original and utter gladness in a trinity of the Enjoyer, the Enjoyed and the Delight; Love finds itself in the trinity of the Lover, the Beloved and Love; Beauty restores itself in the trinity of possessor of Beauty, the Beauty possessed and Beauty that holds them together. Ascension of individual consciousness to Anandamaya Kosha and descent of the Ananda, Love and Beauty to Vijnanamaya Kosha, strengthens the causal body and we require a well-built causal body for full exercise of Supramental influence on the lower sheaths. The Incarnating Dual Power: “The twin duality for ever one” Savitri-35 “This whole wide world is only he and she.” Savitri-63 “For him she was made, lives only for his use.” Savitri-65 “For this is sure that he and she are one.” Savitri-72 “She burned in his sweet intolerable blaze.” Savitri-125 “And all her soul a counterpart of his soul.” Savitri-125 “The dual Energy they have justified” Savitri-186 “She now is his and must live for him alone: She has invaded him with her sudden bliss, An exhaustless marvel in his happy grasp, An allurement, a caught ravishing miracle.” Savitri-274 “He is lost in her, she is his heaven here.” Savitri-275 “Incarnating her beauty in his clasp She (Para prakriti) gave for a brief kiss her immortal lips And drew to her bosom one glorified mortal head:” Savitri-275 “Self-made from the dual power creation rose.” Savitri-284 “A burning of two bodies in one flame.” Savitri-468 “And Krishna and Radha for ever entwined in bliss,” Savitri-525 “A dual Power at being’s occult poles Still acted, nameless and invisible:” Savitri-553 “Her spirit fulfilled in his spirit, rich with all Time,” Savitri-579 “I have burned in flame to travel in his steps.” Savitri-638 “Two powers from one original ecstasy born Pace near but parted in the life of man; One leans to earth, the other yearns to the skies: Heaven in its rapture dreams of perfect earth, Earth in its sorrow dreams of perfect heaven. The two longing to join, yet walk apart, Idly divided by their vain conceits; They are kept from their oneness by enchanted fears; Sundered mysteriously by miles of thought, They gaze across the silent gulfs of sleep... Meanwhile you two shall serve the dual law” Savitri-684 “I know that I (Savitri) can lift man’s soul to God, I know that he (Satyavan) can bring the Immortal down.” Savitri-687, “My soul and his indissolubly linked In the one task for which our lives were born, To raise the world to God in deathless Light, To bring God down to the world on earth we came, To change the earthly life to life divine.” Savitri-692, “O Sun-Word, thou shalt raise the earth-soul to Light And bring down God into the lives of men;” Savitri-699, “A dual power of God in an ignorant world, In a hedged creation shut from limitless self, Bringing down God to the insentient globe, Lifting earth-beings to immortality.” Savitri-702 “The incarnate dual Power shall open God’s door, Eternal Supermind touch earthly Time.” Savitri-705 “Thy body is my body’s counterpart... Two fires that burn towards that parent Sun, Two rays that travel to the original Light.” Savitri-720 “…when Sri Aurobindo and I were working to bring down the Supramental forces, a descent from the mental plane to the vital plane, He was always telling me that everything I did (when we meditated together, when we worked)—all my movements, all my gestures, all my postures (mudras), all my reactions—was absolutely tantric , as if I had pursued a tantric discipline. But it was spontaneous, it did not correspond to any knowledge, any idea, any will, nothing, and I thought it was like that simply because, as He knew, naturally I followed.”¹⁶ “And he gave me his own example (I had mine, too) of certain things considered dangerous or bad, which we both did independently and spontaneously and which were a great help to us!”⁸⁴ The Mother Integral Yoga does not recommend the Tantric means of external human aid to experience the Divine Love for beginners or its necessity is dispensable in order to avoid distortion, abasement and the Spiritual fall. Its indispensable end is that the Divine Love can be experienced through Purusha’s union with Prakriti in Ignorance, Ishwara-Shakti union in the Knowledge and Brahman-Maya union in the Supramental, Vijnana . We have to understand Radha and Krishna or the Divine incarnation of Savitri and Satyavan in this inner perspective, where marriage between the ‘eternal Lord and Spouse’⁵³ takes place in our heart’s secluded chamber ‘Like lovers in a lonely secret place’¹³³ and this union between Paramatma and Para-prakriti extends to all other nine planes of Consciousness. If we accept Savitri as a continuation of Radha and Krishna’s Overmental Love for developed Souls of Instruments, Emanations and Incarnations, it can equip us with some more insight of wave/plastic nature of universal Love where river, Atma, flows into a mighty sea, Paramatma and a Lover ‘Gathers the whole world into his single breast.’¹⁴⁰ Thus, the Soul can recognise its answering supreme-Soul. In ancient Indian discipline, the Radha and Krishna’s relation has been symbolised through sixty-four pure postures, yoga mudras , thirty-two pure subtle-physical union, alingana , sixteen special pure joy, ratis, twelve various penetrating Divine gaze of clinging to sight’s embrace, chahani , and various enchantment of delightful liquid voices and heart disclosing sweet words, swara. The above postures (“All the soul’s postures donned divinity.”¹³⁹ ) are symbols of various subtle enjoyments beyond the limitation of three gunas leading to the ascension of Consciousness from the lower sheaths of mind, life and body to higher sheaths of Psychic and Spiritual culminating in Overmental Ananda and they had the experience of profound Ananda in Their mortal body through Divine descent. Their exclusive Divine Love is intended towards the exclusive liberation of a Soul, established in Brahma Nirvana, ⁶ ⁰ with gusts of intense Ananda, atyantam sukhamasnute ,⁶¹ and accelerates the universal evolution through multiple concentrations of Overmental descent to the universal sheath. They were instrumental in opening the first gate or the lower ranges of the Supramental world. Savitri and Satyavan are the symbolic reincarnation of Radha and Krishna who have broken the bright lid of Overmind in order to enter wider and higher ranges of the Supramental world, whose Light, Love and Power have far greater instrumental capacity in capturing all the ten sheaths. They prepared their life with new undying base and ‘reached the one-self in all through boundless love’¹³⁴ and Supramental Love ‘is still the godhead by which all can change.’¹³⁵ Savitri and Satyavan lived together in their Soul’s chamber from the beginning of the creation and their exclusive as well as all-inclusive Divine Love begins, after their Psychic and Spiritual opening or they ‘glimpsed the presence of the One in all’ and the dual Consciousness is subsequently thoroughly established in the Supramental and Bliss Self, through ascension of Consciousness and it is directed towards union in their subtle, universal and causal body in order to bring down Supramental concentration into their mortal body with deep physical joy. Thus emotion clasped emotion in two hearts, felt each other’s thrill in flesh, nerve and tissue, limb cried for answering limb, melted each in each and grew immense and finally lost themselves in the Infinite Consciousness. Since the Supramental Force has the power of penetration in all the sheaths and is deeply interested to transform them, its action is treated as comprehensive. The ascension of Consciousness towards Supreme Ananda and descent of Supreme Ananda to lower sheaths are indispensable dual movements of Jivatma and Parmatma in the integral Yoga. The danger of inrush of lower nature is observed during the transition of ascension of consciousness from lower sheaths to higher sheaths or ‘bloom of their purity and passion one’⁸⁵ whereas the same danger is not entirely excluded during the transition of descent of consciousness from higher sheaths to lower sheaths if the process of purification is not sufficient. In the integral Yoga the above problem is overpowered if the ascent and descent are routed through a strong influence of the Psychic being. Since Savitri and Satyavan had established themselves in Spiritual and Supramental purity from the beginning, and both had a strong Psychic being and Psychicised Supramental Presence, the problem of inrush of lower nature was controlled and annulled through strong Psychic and Spiritual influence and ‘claimed deep union with its outer selves.’⁸ ⁷ In them, the spirit of delight in sensuous things are transformed into ‘more sweetness than can now be dreamed.’⁸⁷ In Savitri and Satyavan’s subtle physical relation, the ascension of Consciousness to new height in Supramental and Bliss Self were pursued or witnessed by them in meditating peaks, and during the corresponding descent of Bliss, Light, Power and flame white Love to the new depths in mental, vital, physical, Subconscient and Inconscient sheaths, the dual action were essential, and they were represented through variety of spontaneous and independent subtle Yogic postures, not postures of petty mechanical bounds of human mind because the inner experiences were entirely sincere to multiply the action of Supramental and facilitates increased capacity to hold the strong and powerful inrush of Divine forces and Ananda. Satyavan’s ability to bring down a higher Supramental force was supported by Savitri in order to hold it in her pure material vessel or ‘Heal with her bliss the tired breast of earth.’⁶⁴ This dual exercise has to continue for a prolonged uninterrupted period, keeping in view of the vast, complex, dark, recalcitrant domain of lower sheaths, which require to be enriched with sweet Subconscient memory and this serves as a bank to provide wealth of positive Spiritual energy and strength to meet in support of overcoming of the hour of crisis and struggle in God’s Night. Physical postures are only an aid which comes by itself and are the outcome of entirely sincere inner experience; yet there are supreme states of Consciousness, which require no posture, no hands to clasp and no feet to move of any external kind. There are inner movements or shifts of Consciousness, which will open new vistas of ascent of Soul, descent of Shakti and expansion of Consciousness. Great actions can be initiated either in the subtle body or in the causal body through spontaneous inner movement of Consciousness. Thus, the Supramental touch of Divine Love ‘needs not hands to feel, to clasp.’¹³⁶ In the epic Savitri, all possible Soul postures¹³⁹ of Radha and Krishna have been thoroughly revised, multiplied and extended along with a new birth of various postures in order to accommodate more subtle and causal body enjoyments of its own and donned a new pulsation of Divine Love in order to satisfy its Supramental requirement. The eternal variety of Ananda of Divine love which were flooded through Radha and Krishna’s union are extensively multiplied in Savitri with ‘More vivid raptures than earth’s life can bear.’⁸⁷ So for those strong Souls who are preoccupied with Psychic and Spiritual experience and are in touch with Supramental Consciousness, these experiences are accessible to them either through waking trance or through Samadhi of deeper state. For entering into Samadhi, the traditional Raja Yoga, Jnana Yoga or Bhakti Yoga methods may be followed. The first step is to constantly hear their name, qualities, relation and their Divine union; secondly, the constant thinking of all these movements; thirdly, setting and fixing of the mind on the objects and by this one enters full realisation of Divine union and ecstasy. The exercise of infinite variety of motiveless enjoyment through the descent of Ananda purifies our whole being in the destined path of perfection. Out of the four habitations of the Soul, Jivatma, the eye is considered its first habitation in waking trance. The dream trance, Swapna samadhi and sleep trance, Suspti are the two other states in which the Soul resides in the throat and heart centre respectively. Turiya is the fourth supreme state of Jivatma, where the Soul lives in the mystic Brahmarandhra in the head and all other states of sleep, dream and waking are the derivation of this supreme Turiya . Integral Yoga stresses due importance on the waking trance and in this active state, it is possible to enter the Spiritual and Supramental experience of all kinds. The experience of Divine union through the eye or ‘a look’ or ‘a gaze’ has been extensively experienced in Savitri . “The spirit is not limited like the waking material consciousness, and the supermind when it takes possession of the waking consciousness, dematerialises it, delivers it from its limits, converts the material and the psychic into the nature of the spiritual being.”¹²¹ Dream trance and sleep trance are the Spiritual and Supramental experiences of the subtle and causal bodies, respectively. These have twofold utilities in integral Yoga, first, there are infinite series of depths, supreme states of trance to which the Soul rises, where the truth mind ascends itself towards higher Mind, illumined Mind, intuitive Mind, Overmind, mind of Light, Supermind and supreme Ananda and in those states the action of sense mind and physical mind are annulled and direct experience of all these higher planes of Consciousness is acquired; as a result the whole seeing, living and active consciousness of waking state is enlarged; secondly, once these higher states are accessed, it has to be brought as much as possible into the waking Consciousness. The dynamisation of the Supreme state and intermediate higher states of Consciousness in the waking state, resulting in waking trance, is the full benefit that we can draw from Samadhi experience. Supreme Love descended through Savitri: “My Love is stronger than the bonds of Fate: Our love is the heavenly seal of the Supreme. I guard the seal against thy (Death’s) rending hands. Love must not cease to live upon the earth; For Love is the bright link twixt earth and heaven, Love is the far Transcendent’s angel here; Love is man’s lien on the Absolute.” Savitri-633 Sri Aurobindo had never used the word ‘Love Supreme’ or ‘Supreme Love’ anywhere in His epic Savitri. (but the Mother had used this word in her Agenda.¹⁴⁶ ) Rather we notice words like, ‘terrible in love,’¹⁷ ‘Love’s golden wings,’¹⁸ ‘all Love,’¹⁹ ‘boundless love,’²⁰ ‘Immortal Love,’²¹ ‘vast power to love,’²² ‘seas of love,’²³ ‘burning Love,’²⁴ ‘outstretched arm of Love,’²⁵ ‘spiritual love,’²⁶ ‘a power more ruthless than Love,’²⁷ which give us the insight to move towards the Supreme Love. From this study we have concluded that Savitri had an infinite variety of Spiritual and Psychic experiences and seemingly finite variety of Supreme experiences which must come in stages and the last eighteen are identified as:- ‘Life supreme,’²⁸ ‘Omniscience supreme,’²⁹ ‘Trinity supreme,’³⁰ ‘occult Supreme,’³¹ ‘supreme Intelligence,’³² ‘Voice supreme,’³³ ‘word supreme,’³⁴ ‘all negating Void supreme,’³⁵ or ‘emptiness of the Supreme,’³⁶ ‘silent still Supreme,’³⁷ or ‘still Supreme,’³⁸ ‘supreme epiphany,’³⁹ ‘touch supreme,’⁴⁰ ‘things supreme,’¹¹⁰ ‘power supreme,’⁴¹ ‘supreme delight,’⁴² ‘supreme identity,’⁴³ ‘Light supreme,’⁴⁴ or ‘supreme light,’⁴⁵ ‘Will supreme’⁴⁶ and ‘Truth supreme.’⁴⁷ Savitri’s realisation of ‘Supreme Love’ is the ‘head of the sweet form’⁴⁸ of ‘supreme delight’ that ‘made the world’, activated to transform all the vibratory difficulties of earth. Sri Aurobindo was aware of the activation of this great pulsation of Divine Love that contracts and expands the creation through mobile blissful manifestation and immobile blissful non-manifestation in the immediate future through The Mother’s physical form, as He wrote, “There are other great Personalities of the Divine Mother… There are among them Presences indispensable for Supramental realisation,--most of all one who is her Personality of that mysterious and powerful ecstasy and Ananda which flows from a supreme divine Love, the Ananda that alone can heal the gulf between the highest heights of Supramental spirit and the lowest abysses of Matter…”⁴⁹ Sri Aurobindo had also foreseen no immediate realisation of Savitri’s last Spiritual experience of ‘Truth supreme’ in The Mother’s physical form and left the issue to the Mighty Mother, the last Avatara, who shall again ‘take birth in Time’⁵⁰ and ‘Then shall the Truth supreme be given to men.’⁵⁰ The ‘Truth supreme’ is the last siddhi of the integral Yoga and it is that Spiritual experience of Savitri in which Inconscient Sheath of the whole earth will be illumined and earth will be eliminated from the influence of Ignorance, Suffering, Falsehood and Death. When the action of ‘Love Supreme’ is sufficiently dynamised in earth’s atmosphere then The Mother will work towards the manifestation of three other Divine faculties of ‘Will Supreme,’ ‘Omniscience Supreme’ and ‘Truth Supreme;’ for they represent the manifestation of Chit, Tapas and Sat aspect of Supreme Sachchidananda respectively. Then that will be the period of Supramental earth where no one is left untransformed. The Mother’s Unfinished Yoga: “It bore the stroke of That which kills and saves” (Savitri’s heart bore the stroke of Supramental energy that slays falsehood and saves the truth.) Savitri-20 “One soul’s ambition lifted up the race;” Savitri-44 “He mastered the tides of Nature with a look:” Savitri-219 “His gates to the world were swept with seas of light.” Savitri-236 “And guards the world with its all seeing gaze.” Savitri-317 “He (King Aswapati) stood fulfilled on the world’s highest line Awaiting the ascent beyond the world, Awaiting the descent the world to save.” Savitri-319 “Her aspiration called high destiny down;” Savitri-358 (Earth) “Knows that one high step might enfranchise (liberate) all” Savitri-371 “He still must travel Hell the world to save.” Savitri-450 “Sometimes one life is charged with earth’s destiny,” Savitri-460 “Man in the world’s life works out the dreams of God.” Savitri-479 “One man’s perfection still can save the world.” Savitri-531 “He who would save the world must be one with the world,” Savitri-537 “Its gaze controls the turbulent whirl of things.” Savitri-571 “Earth is the chosen place of mightiest souls Earth is the heroic spirit’s battle field” Savitri-686 “You (Savitri) are my Force at work to uplift earth’s fate,” Savitri-702 “Some shall be made the glory’s receptacles And vehicles of the Eternal’s luminous power. These are the high forerunners, the heads of Time, The great deliverers of earth-bound mind, The high transfigurers of human clay, The first-born of a new supernal race.” Savitri-705 “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.”⁷⁶ The Mother Sri Aurobindo’s requirement of one hundred perfect instruments, are they who live in cosmic consciousness, by whose pressure all objective life will become part of the subjective existence and they realise, perceive, feel, see and hear only the Divine in every way, in all forms and all happenings of the world are taking place within their vast universal Self. Their outer surface Nature is a concentration and radiation of silence, calm, stillness and peace. ‘To grow in the spirit is the greatest help one can give to others, for then something flows out naturally to those around that helps them.’¹²⁵ The ‘special work’¹² ⁶ of integral Yoga is ‘of bringing down the higher consciousness with all its effect for the earth’¹² ⁶ without ‘too eager to help others,’¹² ⁵ without ‘accepting the nature of man and the world as it is’¹² ⁶ and by standing ‘apart from the rest of the world.’¹²⁶ Integral Yoga proposes that Universalised Consciousness is the outcome of a long movement of Consciousness between Psychic and Spiritual planes replacing the earlier slow evolution of consciousness between three modes of Nature, Gunas and in this vast Consciousness (1) equality becomes perfect and consecration becomes complete and absolute, or this surrender of whole being ‘has to be accomplished slowly and with difficulty by the being itself before the supramental transformation can become at all possible;’¹⁴⁸ ‘A perfect equality not only of the self, but in the nature’¹⁴⁷ is also the sign of universalized consciousness; (2) exclusive concentration of Mind is replaced with the faculty of Multiple-concentrations; thus one can pursue triple Yoga of Karma, Jnana and Bhakti simultaneously and ceaselessly, (3) transformation of human Nature into Divine Nature is practicable, as in this Consciousness the World is inseparable from the individual; with the activation of cosmic Self, Savitri had this experience, ‘all changed within her and without.’¹⁵⁰ (4) His time and space experience is completely different from ordinary man subjected to three gunas, the latter lives in the present succession of moments oblivious of his past and future and his little habitation of space is separated from the world and the former lives in the triple time of past, present and future and the whole world lives within his cosmic Self; his universalised Spirit can move backward towards the past of this birth and past births and illumine the obscure corners of his Subconscient and Inconscient sheaths and his Spirit can travel forward in time to call down all future possiblities to present moment; (5) outer wandering and movement reduces and is replaced by the more and more inner wandering of Soul which shows interest only in eternal things and 'In every shrine it cries for the clasp of God’¹⁴⁹ ; (6) in this Cosmic Consciousness, Matter is real to Spirit, Spirit is real to Matter and Matter is reconciled with Spirit in order to resolve all world problem; (7) in addition to his own individual suffering, he is ready to bear a part of earth's heavy burden and suffering and ‘only the self-ruler (swarat ) and master man (samrat ) can help, in leading the human race forward spiritually towards this consummation and towards some image of a greater divine truth in their personal and communal existence. He becomes a light and power of the Truth to which he has climbed and a means for others’ ascension’¹⁵¹ and thus, (8) a fitness has arrived for ascension into still higher Supramental Consciousness. The immediate preoccupation of these instruments of Truth who are concerned with Integral Yoga will be the increase and accumulation of Soul Force through fourfold Divine union that of Jivatma’s union with Paramatma, Jivatma’s union with Para-prakriti, Paramatma’s union with Para-prakriti and Para-prakriti’s union Apara-prakriti. This accumulation or multiplication of Soul Power to transform the lower Nature is identified by Sri Aurobindo as 'the utmost importance in the Yoga of self-perfection.’¹⁵⁴ Their action on the world will be largely inner subjective action dictated by the power of triple-time of the Spirit and they will accumulate Spiritual energy to such an extent that the Transcendent Divine forces of oceanic proportion will invade the earth’s dark Inconscient rock. The danger of the Inconscient Sheath swallowing the whole earth to its dark breast, perpetually stands as an evolutionary threat and barrier. Earth is to be saved from life’s immense desire and destructive Forces from their ‘bleeding roots’¹²⁸ through invasion of strong affirmative Spiritual forces from below, within and above and to keep this action active and its growing intensity is the responsibility of few fit channels of human instruments. A Spiritual fence of protection is to be built which at present is confined to few privileged Souls, who will admit ‘through its gates only such activities as consent to undergo the law of the spiritual transformation.’¹³⁸ This Spiritual wall will extend itself to cover the whole of humanity. Or a ‘golden tower’⁶⁵ of protection is built in the subtle world with the help of ‘flame child’⁶⁵ who are prepared Souls, ready to become channels of vast inflow of Supreme Ananda. Integral Yoga aims at a comprehensive solution or all-time panacea of all the problems of existence through complete immunisation of disease, decay, sorrow, dissidence and strife and the process of inoculation begins at individual and collective level depending on the degree of restoration of harmony and opening towards a comprehensive Concentration. A safe passage in the subtle world is to be made in order to help living and dead Souls⁹⁸ so that they can easily travel different planes of Consciousness for their Soul’s training and arrive at the Psychic plane and cosmic Self for their accumulation of Spiritual energy and rebirth respectively. At the same time the Yoga Shakti must drive out all tamasic forces to eliminate incapacity, poverty, illiteracy, ‘ugliness and powerlessness to express beauty,¹³⁷ malnutrition of the body from the whole of the race and drive out all rajasic forces to eliminate all discordant human action of violence, destructive aggression, tyranny of beast wrath, hatred, injurious brutality, corruption, bottomless ingratitude that disfigure earth nature and enjoyments of temporal nature. Those destined Souls for the Divine work will protect and guard earth in three stages. First, they will have a ‘vision and knowledge of the triple time’."¹²² or partial/complete foreknowledge of immediate future doom and holocaust of individual, state, national and universal proportion ‘by going back from the surface physical mind to the psychic and spiritual consciousness;’¹² ² secondly, they will keep the concentration alive to reduce and minimise the quantum of such catastrophe through intervention of the overhead Divine Grace or vibration of Harmony of which they are conscious channel; thirdly, they will maintain the effort to completely annul the root of all such destruction and vibration of disorder through intervention and invasion of Supreme Harmony and Light to the yet untouched dark province of Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths. A conscious movement of Consciousness between Psychic and Spiritual planes can liberate¹⁴⁴ distant unknown living and dead Souls from the subjugation of their untransformed Nature and, thus, the purpose of invisible self-expansion through self-concentration or the liberated Souls liberating others is accomplished. The steps through which they will immediately control the world event through the evolution of preliminary Psychic and Spiritual faculties are: - 1) The perception, thought, feelings and happenings of world event which are entirely guided by forces of Ignorance, are gathered directly through vision without the aid of any external means of communication like telephone, newspaper and internet etc or ‘of establishing a direct communication between mind and mind without the aid of the physical organs and the limitations they impose on our consciousness.’¹²³ ‘The psychical consciousness, as it develops, makes us aware of the great mass of thoughts, feelings, suggestions, will impacts, influences of all kinds that we are receiving from others or sending to others or imbibing from and throwing into the general mind atmosphere around us.’¹²⁴ The outer aid is useful only to verify the degree of accuracy of the direct inner vision. 2) Harmonised vibrations of thoughts and feelings or Spiritual idea force formulating itself in the world are communicated to them (individual and group) by secret unspoken word, transmission of will-power, Spiritual Influence which are already tuned with the Divine-Will. Or as the Psychic being ‘evolves in power, precision and clearness, we are able to trace these to their source or feel immediately their origin and transit to us and direct consciously and with an intelligent will our own messages.’¹²⁴ Or the ‘spiritual inner consciousness has then to deal with these (dark and obscure) influences in such a way that, as soon as they approach or enter (the Spiritual realm), they become either obliterated and without result or transformed by their very entry into its own mode and substance.’¹²⁹ 3) Silent compulsion on them to act according to these communicated ideas, power of the heart and dynamic life forces. ‘There is necessarily a commerce here between disparate influences: the inner spiritual influence is met by quite opposite influences strong in their control of the present world-order; the new spiritual consciousness has to bear the shock of the dominant and established unspiritualised powers of the Ignorance.’¹²⁹ As a result, the single and multiple results are experienced through power of the Self and development of essential and multiple Concentrations. The Nature of living of a Spiritual man will be ‘an accomplished inner existence whose light and power will take perfect body in the outer life.’¹³⁰ 4) They will be egoless transparent instruments to determine the events, actions and the results of action of objective life throughout the world by pure intervention of their subjective subtle-physical existence and silent Will-Power of multiple Concentrations. Their ‘environmental being must be so steeped in the spiritual light and spiritual substance that nothing (no world influence) can enter into it without undergoing this transformation…’¹²⁹ 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.’¹ ⁴ ¹ When he lives in universal Self he becomes very intimate with all and when he lives in transcendent Consciousness, he goes beyond all these relations or ‘A distance severed her from those most close.’¹⁴¹ This is unbearable to man’s righteousness. His outward appearance will be marked with Truth-Power or the ‘sound of infinity’¹⁴² in his voice and his eyes will shine with the ‘light of things beyond.’¹ ⁴ ² So, through frequent/constant increase of invasion of vibration of Order and permeation of a superior Harmony into the Inconscient, Subconscient and material life, the world would move towards the process of transformation. ‘Supreme Love eliminates all problems, even the problem of creation...But the world is not ready yet, it may take a few thousand years.’⁹⁵ Thus, Sri Aurobindo’s vision of creating ‘a new world, a new humanity, a new society expressing and embodying the new consciousness’⁹⁴ is in the process of realisation by reconciliation of Spirit with Matter and by harmonisation of body with the Soul. This is a task offered to the most conscious individual through realisation of Soul as the centre of the World and its objective manifestation in the form of a Divine Centre or the emergence of a formative and affirmative Ashram living. Integral Yoga aims at a comprehensive solution of all the problems of existence through complete immunisation of disease, decay and death and the process of inoculation begins at individual and collective level depending on the degree of restoration of harmony and opening towards a comprehensive Concentration. The world and humanity ‘is beginning to be ready for the manifestation of supreme Power. And this supreme Power would result from a constant identification.’⁹³ The above work will pave the passage of The Mother’s highest work of manifestation of ‘Supreme Ananda ,’ ‘Supreme Love,’ ‘Omniscience Supreme’ and ‘Truth Supreme.’ Supreme Love descended through The Mother’s physical embodiment: - “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 epiphany: His nature shuddered in the Unknown’s grasp. In a moment shorter than death, longer than Time, 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 “It is said that divine Love doesn’t manifest because, in the world’s present state of imperfection, the result would be catastrophe—that is a human vision. Divine Love manifests, has manifested eternally, will manifest eternally, and it is the incapacity of the material world...not only of material world, but of the vital world and mental world, and of many other worlds that are not ready, that are incapable—but HE is there, He is there, right there! He is there permanently: It is THE Permanence.”" ⁶⁸ The Mother “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]. 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.¹⁴⁶ The Mother Supreme Love is beyond Manifestation and Non-manifestation. The Mother’s experience on the night of 12-13th April, 1962 is instructive for us. The experience which began after midnight and continued for four hours indicates that the above experience is not a part of waking trance but rather an experience in complete trance where the Supreme state is able to re-invade all the descending hierarchies. During this re-invasion, when the Supreme state entered the domain of gross physical sheath, the waking state became active and the same experience continued in the waking trance. The predominance of the physical mind in the waking state is partly nullified by the strong gusts of Love, which gave the sensation in physical sheath that death, suffering, falsehood and ignorance are non-existent and illusory. We understand this experience as an inter-penetration and union between The Mother’s and Sri Aurobindo’s causal body, where the intensities of Divine force reached beyond all measures of previous Spiritual experiences, and its interaction with the physical sheath generated new sensations and suffocation of intense order. In all Supramental experiences, the original formula of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss cannot be separated from its integral functioning. But in this experience of The Mother, the Ananda aspect of the Divine had far dominated over the Existence and Consciousness aspect of the Divine. If we note the Supramental experience of The Mother of 24-25th July, 1959, where the Mother first time met Sri Aurobindo in subtle physical, this experience clarified our stand that Sri Aurobindo took nine years after His physical departure in 1950, in order to build a passage and develop a concrete relation with The Mother in subtle physical. After this experience, The Mother claimed to meet Sri Aurobindo almost ‘every night’⁸³ for the purpose of transformation action. Their joint work in the subtle body and the causal body prepared the passage for a series of Supramental experiences in the gross physical sheath of The Mother, of which the experience of 12-13th April, 1962 was one of the major milestones or decisive Spiritual experiences. In Savitri, Sri Aurobindo had foreseen this particular Supramental experience of 12-13th April, 1962, with all the similar symptoms as noted by The Mother . This is probably due to Sri Aurobindo’s contact with the Divine Love (The Mother's fifth Power) in 1946,¹⁶ ⁷ represented in the Yoga of King Aswapati. If we look into the matter, it will open more insight:- 1) “I was the Origin—I was the Origin. For more than two hours, consciously, here on this bed, I was the Origin. And it was like gusts—like great gusts ending in explosions. And each one of these gusts was a span of the universe… And each gust of this essence of Love was dividing and spreading out… but they weren’t forces, it was far beyond the realm of forces. The universe as we know it no longer existed; it was a sort of bizarre illusion, bearing no relation to THAT. There was only the truth of the universe, with those great gusts of colour—they were colored with something that is the essence of colour… And then a Voice was explaining everything to me (not exactly a Voice, but something that was Sri Aurobindo’s origin, like the most recent gust from the Origin). As the experience unfolded, this Voice explained each gust to me, each span of the universe; and then it explained how it all became like this (The Mother makes a gesture of reversal): the distortion of the universe. And I was wondering how it was possible, with that Consciousness, that supreme Consciousness, to relate to the present, distorted universe. How to make connection without losing that Consciousness? A relationship between the two seemed impossible. And that’s when a sort of Voice reminded me of my promise, that I had promised to do the Work on earth and it would be done. “I promised to do the Work and it will be done.” (Ref: Mother’s Agenda-3/p-138) “In a whirlwind circuit of delight and force Hurried into unimaginable depths, Upborne into immeasurable heights,” (Ref: Savitri-81) “Thus swaying in strong gusts of happiness” (Ref: Savitri-469) “It brought a grandiose gust of the Breath of Life;” (Ref: Savitri-492) 2) “It was Love in its supreme essence—which has nothing to do with what people normally understand by that word… It was stupendous. I lived more than two hours like that, consciously... It was the formidable pulsations of the eternal, stupendous Love, only Love: each pulsation of the Love was carrying the universe further in its manifestation... The heavens are ringing with chants of the Victory! Truth alone exists; truth alone shall manifest. Onward! … Onward! Compared to the experience, what I say is nothing, nothing, nothing but words” (Ref: The Mother’s Agenda-3/131, 132, 138) “His nature shuddered in the Unknown’s grasp. In a moment shorter than death, longer than Time, By a Power more ruthless than love, happier than Heaven, Taken sovereignly into eternal arms, Haled and coerced by a stark absolute bliss,” (Refer: Savitri-81) 3) “Then began the process of descent (descent was not the right word), and the Voice was explaining it to me—I lived through it in all detail, and it wasn’t pleasant. It took an hour and a half to change from that true Consciousness to the individual consciousness. Because throughout the experience this present individuality no longer existed, this body no longer existed, there were no more limits, I was no longer here—what was here was THE PERSON. An hour and a half was needed to return to the body-consciousness, to the individual consciousness. (Ref: The Mother’s Agenda-3/p-138) “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 epiphany:” (Ref: Savitri-81) 4) “And the consciousness is a limitless consciousness, like a material equivalent or expression of these gusts—it’s like waves, but waves with no… Not separate waves, but a MOVEMENT of waves; a movement of what might be called material, corporeal waves, as vast as the earth, but not …round, not flat…Something giving a great sense of infinity but moving in waves. And this wave movement is the movement of life. And the consciousness (the body consciousness, I suppose) floats along in this, with a sensation of eternal peace… But it is not an expanse—that’s not the word for it. It is a limitless movement, with very harmonious and very tranquil rhythm, very vast, very calm. And this movement is life itself.” (Ref: The Mother’s Agenda-3/p-145) “His nature shuddered in the Unknown’s grasp. In a moment shorter than death, longer than Time,” (Ref: Savitri-81) 5) “And in that experience I was sent back to the body, because the thing —that creative gust—had to be realised through this body.” (Ref: Mother’s Agenda—3/144) “A violent ecstasy, a Sweetness dire, Enveloped him with its stupendous limbs And penetrated nerve and heart and brain” (Ref: Savitri-81) 6) “There was something I have never told anyone, but when the doctor was called … I was constantly fainting, you know: I would take a step and –plop! So the doctor was called and they began watching over me (everything was supposedly going wrong, all the organs, everything breaking down), and he declared I was sick and wasn’t to stir from my bed…” (Ref: The Mother’s Agenda-3/p-152) “That thrilled and fainted with epiphany:” (Ref: Savitri-81) “Her human nature faint with heaven’s delight,” (Ref: Savitri-677) “And even the Spirit that holds the universe Fainted in luminous insufficiency.” (Ref: Savitri-307) 7) “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.” (Ref: The Mother’s Agenda-3/p-131) “It was torn out from its mortality” (Ref: Savitri-81) “His young unaging look on deathless things, His joy in our escape from death and Time,” (Ref: Savitri-484) 8) “Something really radical has happened, in the sense that …I tried once just to see if I could do it and I didn’t succeed: I can’t go back to the old way of relating to the body. It’s impossible.” (Ref: The Mother’s Agenda-3/p-153) “But one thing has happened practically without my noticing it. In the past before that experience [April-13], the body used to feel the struggle against the forces of wear and tear (different organs wearing out, losing their endurance, their power of reaction, and certain movements, for instance, becoming less easy to make). ("All beauty ended in an aging face;" Savitri-205) That’s what the body felt, although the body-consciousness never sensed any aging, never, none—that simply didn’t exist. ” (Ref: The Mother’s Agenda-3/p-196) “And underwent a new and bourneless change.” (Ref: Savitri-81) "A celestial bacchanal for ever pure, Unstayed by faintness as in mortal frames Life was an eternity of rapture’s moods: Age never came, care never lined the face. " Savitri-126 “All he had been and all towards which he grew Must now be left behind or else transform Into a self of That which has no name.” (Ref: Savitri-307) The Fifth Power of The Mother : “A giant drop of Bliss unknowable Overwhelmed his limbs and round his soul became A fiery ocean of felicity;” (First Supreme experience of Divine Love.) Savitri-237 “A mystery wakes in our inconscient stuff, A bliss is born that can remake our life.” (Second experience) Savitri-397-98 “Two powers from one original ecstasy born… One leans to earth, the other yearns to the skies :” (Third experience) Savitri-684 "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.” (Third experience) " Savitri-592 “It (dynamic Spirit) is within, below, without, above.” (Fourth experience) (Spirit is within us as Psychic Being, true physical Being and true vital Being and true mental Being, below the feet as Subconscient Self and Inconscient Self, without as cosmic Self and above as Spiritual, Supramental and Bliss Self.)) Savitri-98 "Heaven’s leaning down to embrace from all sides earth," (fourth experience) Savitri-716 The Mother’s four Mediatrix aspects of Wisdom, Power, Harmony and Perfection are more active in earth’s atmosphere from 24th November, 1926, in order to link the existence with the Supreme and lead human evolution towards its fullness of Being, fullness of Consciousness and fullness of Life. Mahalakshmi is the Mother’s aspect of love that must come and work with all its plentitude before the establishment of supreme Love. On the night of 12-13th, April-1962, the aspect of Her Supreme Love, Creatrix Bliss, had become active in the earth’s atmosphere. To become identified with this particular aspect of The Mother’s Power is to become one with ‘the most powerful of all redeeming and creative forces’⁵¹ which ‘has yet been the least frontally present in earthly life.’⁵ ¹ The Supramental Consciousness in the form of Truth, Light, Power and Force must descend first in the manifested nature and is sufficiently sublimated so as to be able to receive and bear the pressure of the Divine Love, which is ‘most powerful, pure, rare and intense of all divine energies.’⁵ ¹ The fifth Mother Power is identified as ‘most of all one who is her Personality of that mysterious and powerful ecstasy and Ananda which flows from a supreme divine Love, the Ananda that alone can heal the gulf between the highest heights of the supramental spirit and the lowest abysses of Matter, the Ananda that holds the key of a wonderful divinest Life and even now supports from its secrecies the work of all the other Powers of the universe.’⁵⁹ A series of Supramental experiences of finite variety waits behind our crudely formed subtle and causal body, leading them to well-built and integrated Sheaths of perfect vessel, where Divine Love shall repeat its action in four profound stages. (1) In the first stage, the blissful Divine Love will spread the universe through the overhead descent of causal body action in the Supramental Sheath. (2) In the second stage, the repetition of the same experience through an explosion in the bottom-most layer of the Inconscient sheath, leading to the opening of the Inconscient Self or ‘Love that broods within the deem abyss.’⁶³ (3) In the third stage, both the states Supramental Self and Inconscient Self are activated and they coexist in the profoundest whirlwind or gusts of Consciousness, leading the creation towards ‘supreme epiphany.’³⁹ (4) In the fourth stage, Supramental energy is dynamised in all the ten sheaths or it is experienced as rushing into the body from all ends. The Mother speaks more about Her fifth personality, ‘She has come, bringing with Her a splendor of power and love, an intensity of divine joy heretofore (up to this time) unknown to the Earth. The physical atmosphere has been completely changed by her descent, permeated with new and marvelous possibilities. But if She is ever to reside and act here, She has to find at least a minimal receptivity, at least one human being with the required vital and physical qualities, a kind of super-Parsifal gifted with an innate and integral purity, yet possessing at the same time a body strong enough and poised enough to bear unwaveringly the intensity of the Ananda She brings. (This passage suggests that Supramental Love will be active in a very pure and very strong body.) Thus far, She has not found what is needed. Men remain obstinately men and do not want to or are unable to become supermen. All they can receive and express is a love at their own dimension: a human love – whereas the supreme bliss of divine Ananda eludes their perception. At times, finding the world unready to receive Her, She contemplates withdrawing. But how cruel a loss this would be! It is true that at present, her presence is more rhetorical than factual, since so far She has had no chance to manifest. Yet even so, She is a powerful instrument in the Work, for of all the Mother’s aspects, She holds the greatest power to transform the body. Indeed, those cells which can vibrate at the touch of the divine Joy, receive it and bear it, are cells reborn, on their way to becoming immortal. But the vibrations of divine Bliss and those of pleasure cannot cohabit (to live together as if they are married) in the same vital and physical house. We must therefore TOTALLY renounce all feelings of pleasure to be ready to receive the divine Ananda. But rare are those who can renounce pleasure without thereby renouncing all active participation in life or sinking into a stern asceticism. And among those who realize that the transformation is to be wrought in active life, some pretend that pleasure is a form of Ananda gone more or less astray and legitimize their search for self-satisfaction, thereby creating a virtually insuperable obstacle to their own transformation.’¹⁶⁶ OM TAT SAT References: 1: The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-3/131, 2: The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol-6/291-94, 3: CWSA (Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo)/Vol-23(or The Synthesis of Yoga)/39, 4: The Gita-7.1, 5: The Gita-9.17, 6: The Gita-4.3, 7: Savitri-531, 8: CWSA/Vol-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/183, 9: The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-2/379, 10: CWSA/Vol-24/ The Synthesis of Yoga/621, 11: CWSA/Vol-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/351, 12: CWSA/Vol-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/591, 13: CWSA/Vol-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/416-17, 14: CWSA/Vol-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/169, 15: The Life Divine/314, 16: The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-1/417, 17: Savitri-711, 18: Savitri-592, 19: Savitri-555,471, 20: Savitri-381, 21: Savitri-346, 22: Savitri-362, 23: Savitri/372, 24: Savitri-314, 25: Savitri-200, 26: Savitri-190, 27: Savitri-81, 28: Savitri-197, 29: Savitri-76, 30: Savitri-89, 31: Savitri-331, 32: Savitri-250, 33: Savitri-694, 34: Savitri-405, 35: Savitri-545, 36: Savitri-536, 37: Savitri-533, 38: Savitri-497, 333, 39: Savitri-663, 40: Savitri-237, 145, 706, 329, 41: Savitri-542, 42: Savitri-120, 200, 124, 325, 43: Savitri-579, 44: Savitri-20, 45: Savitri-484, 46: Savitri-378, 47: Savitri-44, 658, 659, 661, 662, 663, 705, 48: Savitri-682, 49: The Mother-35, 50: Savitri-705, 51: CWSA/ Vol-23/167, 52: The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-1/236, 53: Savitri-411, 54: Savitri-410, 55: Savitri-19, 56: Savitri-346, 57: Savitri-358, 58: Savitri-403, 59: The Mother-53, 60: The Gita-5.25, 61: The Gita-6.28, 62: Savitri-405, 63: Savitri-416, 64: Savitri-422, 65: Savitri-702, 66: The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-5/78, 67: The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-5/95-98, 68: The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-5/134, 69: The Mother’s Agenda-5/100-101, 70: The Mother’s Agenda-5/170-71, 71: The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-5/138, 72: The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-5/181, 73: SABCL/27/176, 74: The Mother’s Agenda-11/228, 75: The Mother’s Agenda-5/225, 76: The Mother’s Agenda-5/195, “This is exactly what Sri Aurobindo wanted, what he was trying for He said: “If I could find one hundred people, that would be enough.”” TMCW-10/On Thoughts and Aphorism-p-198, 77: The Mother’s Agenda-5/p-263, 78: The Gita-10.3, 79: The Gita-5.29, 80: The Gita-3.26, 81: Isha Upanishad-2, 82: CWSA/Vol-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/741, 83: “You see, there’s a curious fluctuation possibly indicating that your dream is part of the present attack which continues with such violence.... The night before last, between midnight and half-past, there was a formidable attack. When I emerged from it, I felt that something had lifted, a victory had been won and that the body’s condition had improved. It happens like that, the horizon clears and this Certainty comes with. (The presence is always here – Sri Aurobindo and I are together almost every night – but the night when I saw that formation, the illness spell over the Ashram, Sri Aurobindo was quite sick in his bed, just as I saw him in 1950.) So when it lifts, all is well: once again there is harmony, there is joy, there is force ... and again the whole thing continues, the effort continues, consciously. Yet there is a kind of fluctuation: it will go on like that for a few moments or a few hours and then suddenly everything becomes muddled again and I am beset by ... a fatigue. A fatigue which is – I can’t say almost unbearable, because nothing in the consciousness feels it to be unbearable – but it makes me like this (Mother clenches her fist tightly in a tension to ‘hold on).” 11.02.1961, The Mother’s Agenda-4/46, “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....55 In short, the atmosphere was such that there was an attempt to prevent me from leaving my room – I had to sneak out! It was disgusting! Well, on the very night I saw the spell over the Ashram, Sri Aurobindo was lying sick in his bed, just as I had seen him in 1950. Normally, we spend almost every night together, doing this, seeing that, arranging things, talking – it’s a kind of second life behind this one, and it makes existence pleasant. But that night when I had to sneak out of my room (in my nightgown!), and people were trying to find me to ... (laughing) force me back into bed, he was lying sick in bed – and this struck me hard, for it means these things still affect him in his consciousness. He was in a kind of trance and not at all well. It didn’t last, but nonetheless....” The Mother’s Agenda-18.02.1961, “I so often hear Sri Aurobindo speak, and I say it in French, but I use the English word because I hear him speak…Often the thought alone comes, but quite often it's the exact words; and then, while speaking in French I tend to use the English words. While I take my bath, for instance, he always speaks to me and tells me the things I have to write or say; so afterwards, when I come out of the bathroom, I very often have to ask for a piece of paper and a pen, and I write…It's constantly, constantly like that…I remember, some time ago, at night, I said to him (I see him almost every night, but for a few days I hadn't seen him, then I met him at night ... because he is always there [Mother makes a gesture enveloping her], but at night, in that subtle physical world, I see him objectively, as if I were meeting him), and I said to him, "I haven't seen you for a few days," like that, in jest. Then he put on his most serious air, but with all his irony: "Oh, I am very busy these days." And ... (laughing) the next day I learned they were shooting a film on Sri Aurobindo's life! So I thought he must have been busy sending them good suggestions. But it was so comical! With straight-faced seriousness: "Oh, I am very busy." (Mother laughs)” The Mother’s Agenda-25.01.1967 84: The Mother’s Agenda-4/134, 85: Savitri-409, 86: “I asked myself if for everybody the supramental process will always automatically involve a lot of physical suffering. No. No, because I have a growing proof that those things I have mastered now, in the body, I have the power (I keep receiving letters and notes from here or there, from people here or there who have an illness) ... it is beginning; so far it's only a beginning, a very small beginning: the power to eliminate pain. You know, on a smaller scale, what happened with your illness. Yes, but I didn't mean sick people. I mean people who today or in the future will seek to effect the transformation in themselves. No, they ... Will they have to go through all that suffering? No! That Sri Aurobindo wrote very clearly: for all those who have faith and open themselves in surrender and faith, the work will be done automatically.98 As long as he was here, mon petit, all the thirty years I spent with him working, NOT ONCE did I have to make an effort for a transformation. Simply, whenever there was a difficulty, I repeated, My Lord, my Lord, my Lord ... I just thought of him – hop! it went away. Physical pain: he annulled it. You know, some things that were hampering the body, some old habits that had come back, I only had to tell him: off they would go. And through me, he did the same for others. He always said that he and I did the Work (in fact, when he was here, it was he who did it; I only did the external work), that he and I did the Work, and that all that was asked from the others was faith and surrender, nothing more.” The Mother’s Agenda/ August 10, 1963, The Mother’s Agenda-4/271, 87: Savitri-675, 88: Savitri-374, 89: Savitri-422-23, 90: Savitri-457, 91: “It is that which the spirit in Love is seeking here in the darkness of the Ignorance and it is that which it finds when individual human love is changed into the love of the Immanent Divine incarnate in the material universe.” CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga-160 “In that larger play of the Divine the joy of the relations of divine love also is possible without the lapse into the ego-sense, —just as the supreme state of human love likewise is described as the unity of one soul in two bodies.” CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga-367 “And since love is the effective power and soul-symbol of bliss-oneness he will approach and enter into this oneness by the gate of universal love, a sublimation of human love at first, a divine love afterwards, at its summits a thing of beauty, sweetness and splendour now to us inconceivable.” CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga-509 “There is a movement of (Divine) love, as in the aspiration of human love, to separate the lover and the loved in the enjoyment of their exclusive oneness away from the world and from all others, shut up in the nuptial chambers of the heart. That is perhaps an inevitable movement of this path. But still the widest love fulfilled in knowledge sees the world not as something other and hostile to this joy, but as the being of the Beloved and all creatures as his being, and in that vision divine works find their joy and their justification.” CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga-551 “This is in essence the power of love itself in the heart and soul turning from earthly objects to the spiritual source of all beauty and delight. There live in this seeking all the sentiment and passion, all the moods and experiences of love concentrated on a supreme object of desire and intensified a hundredfold beyond the highest acme of intensity possible to a human love.” CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga-575 92: Savitri-295, 93: The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-3/p-239-240, 94: The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-8/p-389, 95: The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-3/p-239-240, “A burning Love from white spiritual founts Annulled the sorrow of the ignorant depths; Suffering was lost in her immortal smile.” Savitri-314 “Her clasp shall turn to ecstasy our pain.” Savitri-314 96: Savitri-633, 97: “Joy that forgot mortality for a while… And passions that crumble to ashes while they blaze Kindled the common earth with their brief flame.” Savitri-159, “Her (Mother of light of sattwic mind) smile could persuade a dead lacerated heart To live again and feel the hands of calm.” Savitri-514, 98: “As soon as I came upon Theon’s teaching (even before meeting him personally), and read and understood all kinds of things which I hadn’t known before, I began to work quite systematically. Every night, at the same hour, I was working to construct – between the purely terrestrial atmosphere and the psychic atmosphere – a path of protection across the vital, so that people wouldn’t have to pass through it (for those who are conscious but without knowledge it’s a very difficult passage – infernal.) I was preparing this path, doing this work (it must have been around 1903 or 1904, I don’t remember exactly) for months and months and months. All sorts of extraordinary things happened during that time – extraordinary. I could tell long stories.... Then, when I went to Tlemcen, I told Madame Theon about it. ‘Yes,’ she told me, ‘it is part of the work you have come on earth to do. Everyone with even a slightly awakened psychic being who can see your Light will go to your Light at the moment of dying, no matter where they die, and you will help them to pass through.’ And this work is constant. Constant. it has given me a considerable number of experiences concerning what happens to people when they leave their bodies. I’ve had all sorts of experiences, all kinds of examples – it’s really very interesting.” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda- June 24, 1961, 99: Savitri-325, 100: Savitri-329, 101: “Rent man’s horizons into infinity.” Savitri-359, “To rend the veil of the last mysteries.” Savitri-360, “The knot of the two, the higher and the lower hemisphere, is where mind and supermind meet with a veil between them. The rending of the veil is the condition of the divine life in humanity; for by that rending, by the illumining descent of the higher into the nature of the lower being and the forceful ascent of the lower being into the nature of the higher, mind can recover its divine light in the all-comprehending supermind, the soul realise its divine self in the all-possessing all-blissful Ananda, life repossess its divine power on the play of omnipotent Conscious-Force and Matter open to its divine liberty as a form of the divine Existence.” CWSA/21/The Life Divine-279, 102: Savitri-6, 103: The Mother’s Agenda- January 10, 1961, 104: Savitri-468, 105: Savitri-159, 106: CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga-211, 107: Savitri-404, 108: Savitri-701 109: Savitri-470, 110: Savitri-123, 238, 111: Savitri-435, 112: The Mother’s Agenda/August-25-1954, 113: Savitri-75, 114: “This culmination of sacrifice is the height even of human love and devotion when it tries to become divine; for there too the highest peak of love points into a heaven of complete mutual self-giving, its summit is the rapturous fusing of two souls into one.” CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga-108, 115: TMCW/14/127, 116: Savitri-291, 117: CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga-67, 118: CWSA-32/The Mother and Letters on the Mother-462, 119: Savitri-588, 120: CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II- p-344, 121: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga-841, 122: “It is therefore only by going back from the surface physical mind to the psychic and spiritual consciousness that a vision and knowledge of the triple time, a transcendence of our limitation to the standpoint and view range of the moment, can be wholly possible.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga-892, “Meanwhile there are certain doors opening from the inner on to the outer consciousness which make an occasional but insufficient power of direct retro-vision of the past, circumvision of the present, prevision of the future even in the physical mind at least potentially feasible.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga-892, “The supermind has the vision of the three times, trikaladrsti; it sees them as an indivisible movement and sees too each containing the others. It is aware of all tendencies, energies and forces as the diverse play of unity and knows their relation to each other in the single movement of the one spirit.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga-792, 123: “The phenomena of this vital consciousness and sense, this direct sensation and perception of and response to the play of subtler forces than the physical, are often included without distinction under the head of psychical phenomena. In a certain sense it is an awakening of the psyche, the inner soul now hidden, clogged wholly or partially covered up by the superficial activity of the physical mind and senses that brings to the surface the sub- merged or subliminal inner vital consciousness and also an inner or subliminal mental consciousness and sense capable of perceiving and experiencing directly, not only the life forces and their play and results and phenomena, but the mental and psychical worlds and all they contain and the mental activities, vibrations, phenomena, forms, images of this world also and of establishing a direct communication between mind and mind without the aid of the physical organs and the limitations they impose on our consciousness.” The Synthesis of Yoga-874, 124: “For there is a continuous scale of the planes of consciousness, beginning with the psychical and other belts attached to and dependent on the earth plane and proceeding through the true independent vital and psychical worlds to the worlds of the gods and the highest supramental and spiritual planes of existence. And these are in fact always acting upon our subliminal selves unknown to our waking mind and with considerable effect on our life and nature. The physical mind is only a little part of us and there is a much more considerable range of our being in which the presence, influence and powers of the other planes are active upon us and help to shape our external being and its activities. The awakening of the psychical consciousness enables us to become aware of these powers, presences and influences in and around us; and while in the impure or yet ignorant and imperfect mind this unveiled contact has its dangers, it enables us too, if rightly used and directed, to be no longer their subject but their master and to come into conscious and self-controlled possession of the inner secrets of our nature. The psychical consciousness reveals this interaction between the inner and the outer planes, this world and others, partly by an awareness, which may be very constant, vast and vivid, of their impacts, suggestions, communications to our inner thought and conscious being and a capacity of reaction upon them there, partly also through many kinds of symbolic, transcriptive or representative images presented to the different psychical senses. But also there is the possibility of a more direct, concretely sensible, almost material, sometimes actively material communication — a complete though temporary physical materialisation seems to be possible — with the powers, forces and beings of other worlds and planes. There may even be a complete breaking of the limits of the physical consciousness and the material existence. The awakening of the psychical consciousness liberates in us the direct use of the mind as a sixth sense, and this power may be made constant and normal. The physical consciousness can only communicate with the minds of others or know the happenings of the world around us through external means and signs and indications, and it has beyond this limited action only a vague and haphazard use of the mind’s more direct capacities, a poor range of occasional presentiments, intuitions and messages. Our minds are indeed constantly acting and acted upon by the minds of others through hidden currents of which we are not aware, but we have no knowledge or control of these agencies. The psychical consciousness, as it develops, makes us aware of the great mass of thoughts, feelings, suggestions, will impacts, influences of all kinds that we are receiving from others or sending to others or imbibing from and throwing into the general mind atmosphere around us. As it evolves in power, precision and clearness, we are able to trace these to their source or feel immediately their origin and transit to us and direct consciously and with an intelligent will our own messages. It becomes possible to be aware, more or less accurately and discerningly, of the activities of minds whether near to us physically or at a distance, to understand, feel or identify ourselves with their temperament, character, thoughts, feelings, reactions, whether by a psychic sense or a direct mental perception or by a very sensible and often intensely concrete reception of them into our mind or on its recording surface. At the same time we can consciously make at least the inner selves and, if they are sufficiently sensitive, the surface minds of others aware of our own inner mental or psychic self and plastic to its thoughts, suggestions, influences or even cast it or its active image in influence into their subjective, even into their vital and physical being to work there as a helping or moulding or dominating power and presence.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga-877-879, 125: “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, “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, 126: “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.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram- 812-813, “There must come upon us in the change at once a reversal and rejection of our present way of existence and a fulfilment of its inner trend and tendency.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine-1012, 127: “The heart’s love of God may be blind, narrow and ignorant and lead to fanaticism and obscurantism; it may, even when otherwise pure, limit our perfection by refusing to see Him except in a limited personality and by recoiling from the true and infinite vision. The heart’s love of man may equally lead to distortions and exaggerations in feeling, action and knowledge which have to be corrected and prevented by the purification of the understanding.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-309, 128: Savitri-318 , 129: CWSA-22/The Life Divine-994-995, 130: CWSA-22/The Life Divine-1013, 131: “The relation of Guru and disciple is only one of many relations which one can have with the Divine, and in this Yoga which aims at a supramental realisation, it is not usual to give it this name; rather, the Divine is regarded as the Source, the living Sun of Light and Knowledge and Consciousness and spiritual realisation and all that one receives is felt as coming from there and the whole being remoulded by the Divine Hand. This is a greater and more intimate relation than that of the human Guru and disciple, which is more of a limited mental ideal. Nevertheless, if the mind still needs the more familiar mental conception, it can be kept so long as it is needed; only do not let the soul be bound by it and do not let it limit the inflow of other relations with the Divine and larger forms of experience.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II-192-193, 132: ““Even Vaishnavism and Tantra are in the end other-worldly; mukti is the aim of their efforts and anything else could be only incidental and secondary or a result on the way.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-401, “Even Tantra and Vaishnavism end in the release from life; here (in Integral Yoga) the object is the divine fulfilment of life.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-400, 133: Savitri-105, 134: Savitri-381, 135: Savitri-397, 136: Savitri-325, 137: “The only thing in the world that still appears intolerable to me now is all physical deterioration, physical suffering, the ugliness the powerlessness to express this capacity of beauty inherent in every being. But this, too, will be conquered one day. Here, too the power will come one day to shift the needle a little. Only, one has to climb higher in consciousness: the deeper into matter you want to descend, the higher must you ascend in consciousness…It will take time. Sri Aurobindo was surely right when he spoke of a few centuries.” The Mother’s Agenda-25.02.1958, “There will be other consequences that by opposite means will tend to eradicate the perversion and ugliness created in life due to the intervention of the mind, a whole range of deformations that have aggravated suffering, misery, moral poverty, a whole zone of sordid and repugnant miseries that makes an entire portion of human life so hideous. That must disappear. That is what in many respects makes humanity infinitely inferior to animal life, with its simplicity and its natural spontaneity, and which in spite of everything is harmonious. Suffering among animals is never as miserable and sordid as it is in a whole section of humanity perverted by a mentality exclusively turned towards egoistic needs…One must rise above, surge forth into the Light and the Harmony, or sink back down into the simplicity of a wholesome, unperverted animal life.” The Mother’s Agenda-June-1958, 138: “In the transition there may well be a period in which we take up all life and action and offer them to the Divine for purification, change and deliverance of the truth within them, another period in which we draw back and build a spiritual wall around us admitting through its gates only such activities as consent to undergo the law of the spiritual transformation, a third in which a free and all-embracing action, but with new forms fit for the utter truth of the Spirit, can again be made possible. These things, however, will be decided by no mental rule but in the light of the soul within us and by the ordaining force and progressive guidance of the Divine Power that secretly or overtly first impels, then begins clearly to control and order and finally takes up the whole burden of the Yoga.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-138-139, 139: “All the soul’s postures donned divinity.” Savitri-125 140: Savitri-633, 141: “Universal, he is all, — transcendent, none. To man’s righteousness this is his cosmic crime,” Savitri-657 “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 “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, 142: (Death said) “Thy voice carries the sound of infinity, Knowledge is with thee, Truth speaks through thy words; The light of things beyond shines in thy eyes.” Savitri-663, 143: The Mother’s Agenda-6th May 1967, 144: “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 and, — who knows? — perhaps even beyond the terrestrial consciousness.” CWSA-21/The Life Divine-45, “The stone lying inert upon the sands which is kicked away in an idle moment, has been producing its effect upon the hemispheres.” Sri Aurobindo/TMCW-10/p-229, “As soon as I came upon Theon’s teaching (even before meeting him personally), and read and understood all kinds of things which I hadn’t known before, I began to work quite systematically. Every night, at the same hour, I was working to construct-between the purely terrestrial atmosphere and the psychic atmosphere-a path of protection across the vital, so that people wouldn’t have to pass through it (for those who are conscious but without knowledge it’s a very difficult passage-infernal.) I was preparing this path, doing this work (it must have been around 1903 or 1904, I don’t remember exactly) for months and months and months. All sorts of extraordinary things happened during the time-extraordinary. I could tell long series… Then, when I went to Tlemcen, I told Madame Theon about it. ‘Yes, ‘she told me, ‘it is part of the work you have come on earth to do. Everyone with even a slightly awakened psychic being who can see your Light will go to your Light at the moment of dying, no matter where they die, and you will help them to pass through,’ And this work is constant. Constant. It has given me a considerable number of experiences concerning what happens to people when they leave their bodies. I’ve had all sorts of experiences, all kinds of examples-it’s really very interesting.” June-24/1961/Mother’s Agenda/Vol-2/P: 231-238, (Earth) “Knows that one high step might enfranchise all.” Savitri-371, “Over the years I have had a considerable number of experiences in this realm, and my first action is always the same: send the Peace (I do this in all cases, for everyone) and happy the Force, The Power of the Lord, for the best thing to happen. Some people are very sick, sick to the point where there is no hope, where they cannot be cured, where the end is coming; but they sense that their souls must still need to have certain experiences, so they hang on-they don’t want to die. In such cases I apply the Force for them to last as long as possible. In other cases, on the contrary, they are weary of suffering, or indeed the soul has finished its experience and desires to be liberated. In such a case, if I am sure of it, sure that they themselves are expressing the desire to depart, it’s over in a few hours-I say this with certainty because I’ve had a considerable number of experiences. There is a certain force which goes out and does what is necessary. I haven’t done either of these things for your father-neither to prolong to his life (because when people are suffering it’s not a very kind to prolong their lives indefinitely), nor to finish it, because I didn’t know-one can’t do either without knowing the person’s conscious wish.” June-24/1961/Mother’s Agenda/Vol-2/P: 231-238 145: “A universal light was in his eyes, A golden influx flowed through heart and brain; A Force came down into his mortal limbs, A current from eternal seas of Bliss; He felt the invasion and the nameless joy.” Savitri-79 “Across the unfolding of the seas of self Appeared the deathless countries of the One. A many-miracled Consciousness unrolled Vast aim and process and unfettered norms, A larger Nature’s great familiar roads.” Savitri-91 “The Master of the worlds self-made her slave Is the executor of her fantasies: She has canalised the seas of omnipotence; She has limited by her laws the Illimitable.” Savitri-121 “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 “Absolved from the ligaments of death and sleep He rode the lightning seas of cosmic Mind And crossed the ocean of original sound; On the last step to the supernal birth He trod along extinction’s narrow edge Near the high verges of eternity, And mounted the gold ridge of the world-dream Between the slayer and the saviour fires; The belt he reached of the unchanging Truth, Met borders of the inexpressible Light And thrilled with the presence of the Ineffable.” Savitri-299-300 “Incarnating inexpressibly in her limbs The boundless joy the blind world-forces seek, Her body of beauty mooned the seas of bliss.” Savitri-314 “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. Immortal, treading the earth with mortal feet All heaven’s beauty crowd in earthly limbs!” Savitri-345 “Leaving earth’s safety daring wings of Mind Bore her above the trodden fields of thought Crossing the mystic seas of the Beyond To live on eagle heights near to the Sun.” Savitri-360 “Amid her tresses’ cloudy multitude Her long eyes shadowed as by wings of Night Under that moon-gold forehead’s dreaming breadth Were seas of love and thought that held the world; Marvelling at life and earth they saw truths far.” Savitri-372 “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.” Savitri-614 “My dreadful hands laid on thy bosom shall force Thy being bathed in fiercest longing’s streams. Thou shalt discover the one and quivering note, And cry, the harp of all my melodies, And roll, my foaming wave in seas of love.” Savitri-700 “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-715 “Her mind, a sea of white sincerity,” Savitri-15, “Toiling to transform the still far Absolute Into an all-fulfilling epiphany, Into an utterance of the Ineffable, She would bring the glory here of the Absolute’s force, Change poise into creation’s rhythmic swing, Marry with a sky of calm a sea of bliss.” Savitri-195-196 “There Knowledge called him to her mystic peaks Where thought is held in a vast internal sense And feeling swims across a sea of peace And vision climbs beyond the reach of Time.” Savitri-299 “His soul was all in front like a great sea Flooding the mind and body with its waves; His being, spread to embrace the universe, United the within and the without To make of life a cosmic harmony, An empire of the immanent Divine.” Savitri-318 “In these new worlds projected he became A portion of the universal gaze, A station of the all-inhabiting light, A ripple on a single sea of peace.” Savitri-325 “Its ordered hours proclaimed the eternal Law; Vision reposed on a safety of deathless forms; Time was Eternity’s transparent robe. An architect hewing out self’s living rock, Phenomenon built Reality’s summer-house On the beaches of the sea of Infinity.” Savitri-329 “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 “An inner law of beauty shapes our lives; Our words become the natural speech of Truth, Each thought is a ripple on a sea of Light.” Savitri-530-531 “Then out of the engulfing sea of trance Her mind rose drenched to light streaming with hues Of vision and, awake once more to Time, Returned to shape the lineaments of things And live in borders of the seen and known.” Savitri-579 “My heart’s strength can carry the grief of the universe And never falter from its luminous track, Its white tremendous orbit through God’s peace. It can drink up the sea of All-Delight And never lose the white spiritual touch, The calm that broods in the deep Infinite.” Savitri-635-636 “As one drowned in a sea of splendour and bliss, Mute in the maze of these surprising worlds, Turning she saw their living knot and source, Key to their charm and fount of their delight, And knew him for the same who snares our lives Captured in his terrifying pitiless net, And makes the universe his prison camp And makes in his immense and vacant vasts The labour of the stars a circuit vain And death the end of every human road And grief and pain the wages of man’s toil.” Savitri-678 “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, “But higher still can climb the ascending light; There are vasts of vision and eternal suns, Oceans of an immortal luminousness, Flame-hills assaulting heaven with their peaks, There dwelling all becomes a blaze of sight; A burning head of vision leads the mind, Thought trails behind it its long comet tail; The heart glows, an illuminate and seer, And sense is kindled into identity.” Savitri-659-660 “The Two opposed each other face to face. His being like a huge fort of darkness towered; Around it her light grew, an ocean’s siege.” Savitri-667 “Air seemed an ocean of felicity Or the couch of the unknown spiritual rest, A vast quiescence swallowing up all sound Into a voicelessness of utter bliss; Even Matter brought a close spiritual touch, All thrilled with the immanence of one divine.” Savitri-672 “An oceanic spirit dwelt within; Intolerant and invincible in joy A flood of freedom and transcendent bliss Into immortal lines of beauty rose.” Savitri-680 “Break into eternity thy mortal mould; Melt, lightning, into thy invisible flame! Clasp, Ocean, deep into thyself thy wave, Happy for ever in the embosoming surge.” Savitri-691-692, 146: The Mother’s Agenda-4.07.1962, “And when the day comes for the manifestation of supreme Love – a crystalized, concentrated descent of supreme Love – that will truly be the hour of Transformation, for nothing will be able to resist That. But as it’s all-powerful, a certain receptivity must be prepared on earth so its effects are not devastating. Sri Aurobindo has explained it in one of his letters. Someone asked him, ‘Why doesn’t this Love come now?’, and he replied something like this: If divine Love in its essence were to manifest on earth, it would be like an explosion; for the earth is not supple enough or receptive enough to widen to the measure of this Love. The earth must not only open itself but become wide and supple. Matter – not just physical Matter, but the substance of the physical consciousness as well – is still much too rigid.” The Mother’s Agenda-10.01.1961, “As an experience, it's absolutely certain: when you come in touch with eternal Love, supreme Love, the first, immediate ... (what should I say?) perception or sensation (it's not an understanding, it is much more concrete) is that even the most enlightened, kneaded, prepared material consciousness is INCAPABLE of manifesting That! The first impression is that sort of incapacity. Then comes the experience of something manifesting a type of ... not exactly "cruelty," because it's not cruelty as we conceive it; but in the totality of circumstances, there is a vibration which is felt as a certain intensity of refusal of love as it is manifested here – that's exactly the thing: something in the material world refuses the manifestation of love as it exists at present (I don't refer to the ordinary world but to the consciousness at its present highest). It's an experience, I am speaking of something that has taken place. Then the part of the consciousness that has been touched by that opposition calls out directly to Love's origin WITH AN INTENSITY IT COULD NOT HAVE HAD WITHOUT THE EXPERIENCE OF THE REFUSAL. Limits are broken, a flood descends which could NOT manifest before, and something is expressed which was not expressed before.” The Mother’s Agenda/15.05.1963, “More and more, there is something that presses to make itself known and is formulated like this: what wants to come for next February is the Truth-Light ... (Mother repeats like an incantation) the Truth-Light, the Truth-Force, the Truth- Light, the Truth-Force ... to prepare the way for the manifestation of supreme Love. But that is for later on…But immediate, immediate: the Truth-Light, the Truth-Force. It's becoming precise…I didn't think about it. It was perfectly blank in my head. I didn't know at all…And then that came.” The Mother’s Agenda-15.01.1965, “Yes, this problem of the transformation, I see more and more clearly that there are three approaches, three ways to go about it, and that in order to be more complete one should combine the three. One – the most important, naturally – is the way we could call "spiritual," the way of the contact with the Consciousness – Love-Consciousness-Power, that is. These three aspects: supreme Love-Consciousness-Power. And the contact, the identification: making all the material cells capable of receiving Him and expressing Him – of BEING That. Of all the ways, that is the most powerful and most indispensable. There is the occult way, which brings all the intermediary worlds into play. There is a very detailed knowledge of all the powers and personalities, all the intermediary regions, and it makes use of all that. That's where one makes use of the Overmind godheads: it's in this second way. Shiva, Krishna, all the aspects of the Mother are part of this second way. Then there is the higher intellectual approach, which is the projection of a surpassing scientific mind and takes up the problem from below. It has its own importance too. From the standpoint of the detail of the procedure, it reduces approximation, it gives a more direct and precise action. If one can combine all three, then obviously the thing will go faster. Without the first, nothing is possible (and even, the other two are an illusion without the first: they lead nowhere, you go round in circles endlessly). But if you clothe the first in the other two, then I think the action is more precise, direct, rapid.” The Mother’s Agenda-04.03.1967, “Tell me, it would be lovely if one could take people's consciousness as one takes a flower, and then, because one looks at it and holds it and the vibration is that Vibration of supreme Love, it opens up, like that, becomes organized, and grows magnificent…It would be fine if one could do that – (laughing) perhaps one can!” The Mother’s Agenda-15.03.1967, 147: “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…All that comes to it from the world with menace or with solicitation, it will refer to the higher principles, to a reason and heart, in touch with or changed by the light and calm joy of the spirit… There is no question here of an ascetic killing of the life-impulse and its native utilities and functions; not its killing is demanded, but its transformation.” CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga-702-703, 148: “But this highest condition is difficult and must evidently take long to bring about; for the participation and consent of the Purusha to the transition is not sufficient, there must be also be the consent and participation of Prakriti. It is not only the central thought and will that have to acquiesce, but all the parts of our being must assent and surrender to the law of spiritual Truth; all has to learn to obey the government of the conscious Divine Power in the members. There are obstinate difficulties in our being born of its evolutionary constitution which militate against this assent. For some of these parts are still subject to the inconscience and subconscience and to the lower automatism of habit or so-called law of nature,--mechanical habit of mind, habit of life, habit of instinct, habit of personality, habit of character, the ingrained mental, vital, physical needs, impulses, desires of natural man, the old functionings of all kinds that are rooted there so deep that it would seem as if we had to dig to abysmal foundations in order to get them out: these parts refuse to give up their response to the lower law founded in the Inconscient; they continually send up to the conscious mind and life the old reactions and seek to reaffirm them there as the eternal rule of Nature. Other parts of the being are less obscure and mechanical and rooted in inconscience, but all are imperfect and attached to their imperfection and have their own obstinate reactions; the vital part is wedded to the law of self-affirmation and desire, the mind is attached to its own formed movements, and both are willingly obedient to the inferior law of the Ignorance. And yet the law of participation and the law of surrender are imperative; at each step of the transition (1) the ascent of the Purusha is needed and (2) there must be too the consent of each part of the nature to the action of the higher power for its change. There must be then a conscious self-direction of the mental being in us towards this change, this substitution of Supernature for the old nature, this transcendence. The rule of conscious obedience to the higher truth of the spirit, the surrender of the whole being to the light and power that come from the Supernature, is a second condition which has to be accomplished slowly and with difficulty by the being itself before the supramental transformation can become at all possible.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine-962-63, 149: Savitri-631, 150: Savitri-554, 151: “In this self-development the soul finds that it has accomplished on this line the object of the whole integral Yoga, union with the Supreme in its self and in its universalised individuality. So long as he remains in the world-existence, this perfection must radiate out from him, — for that is the necessity of his oneness with the universe and its beings, — in an influence and action which help all around who are capable of it to rise to or advance towards the same perfection, and for the rest in an influence and action which help, as only the self-ruler and master man can help, in leading the human race forward spiritually towards this consummation and towards some image of a greater divine truth in their personal and communal existence. He becomes a light and power of the Truth to which he has climbed and a means for others’ ascension.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-642, 152: The Mother’s Agenda/November 7/1961, 153: “The human form is naturally unable to bear the Divine Love or contain it, because it is itself a creation of the ignorance, weak and impure. It must be transformed in order to be capable of that; it must become strong and pure. First of all, it must have the strength to love the Divine alone and turn away from all other ties. But besides that a new consciousness must be created in it — first a consciousness of pure and purifying Divine Peace from above which must take hold of all down to the most physical — then in that peace an increasing inner strength pure and unegoistic — then the Divine Light and Knowledge transforming all the consciousness and movements. When this has been done, then the human form can contain the Divine Love and Ananda. Till then the touches of the Divine Love and Ananda are usually momentary or brief, they cannot remain. In an impure consciousness the Divine Love if it came in would create a perturbation and possibly be attacked by a mixture which would make it impossible for it to stay. It is therefore that touches only can come.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-334, 154: “The power of the soul over its nature is of the utmost importance in the Yoga of self-perfection; if it did not exist, we could never get by conscious endeavour and aspiration out of the fixed groove of our present imperfect human being; if any greater perfection were intended, we should have to wait for Nature to effect it in her own slow or swift process of evolution.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-628, “The Yoga of self-perfection brings out this soul-force and gives it its largest scope, takes up all the fourfold powers and throws them into the free circle of an integral and harmonious spiritual dynamis. The godhead, the soul-power of knowledge rises to the highest degree of which the individual nature can be the supporting basis. A free mind of light develops which is open to every kind of revelation, inspiration, intuition, idea, discrimination, thinking synthesis; an enlightened life of the mind grasps at all knowledge with a delight of finding and reception and holding, a spiritual enthusiasm, passion, or ecstasy; a power of light full of spiritual force, illumination and purity of working manifests its empire, brahma-tejas, brahma-varcas ; a bottomless steadiness and illimitable calm upholds all the illumination, movement, action as on some rock of ages, equal, unperturbed, unmoved, acyuta .” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-750, 155: Savitri-603, 156: Savitri-548, 157: Savitri-291, 158: Savitri-318-319, 159: Savitri-685, 160: CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-333, 161: Savitri-42, 162: Savitri-231, 163: Savitri-89, 164: Savitri-398, 165: The Mother's Agenda/July, 1965, 166: The Mother's Agenda/August 25, 1954, 167: "I don’t know dates. I don’t know, I never remember dates. I can only tell you this ... that it happened before Sri Aurobindo left his body, that he was told about it beforehand and that he ... well, he acknowledged the fact. But there was a formidable battle with the Inconscient, for when I saw that the level of receptivity was not what it should have been, I blamed the Inconscient ... and tried to wage the battle there. I don’t say it was ineffectual, but between the result obtained and the result hoped for, there was a considerable difference. But as I said, you who are all so near, so steeped in this atmosphere ... who among you noticed anything? – You simply went on with your little lives as usual. I think it (The Mother's fifth Power- The Divine Love) was in 1946, Mother, because you told us so many things at that time. Right. (A child:) Sweet Mother, now that She has come, what should we do? You don’t know? Try to change your consciousness. Now you may ask me the questions you wanted to ask ... That’s all? Mother, there is not even one single man? I don’t know. Mother, you are wasting your time with all these Ashram people. Oh! ... But you see, from an occult standpoint, it is a selection. From an external standpoint you could say that there are people in the world who are far superior to you (and I would not disagree!), but from an occult standpoint, it is a selection. There are ... It can be said that without a doubt the majority of young people here have come because it was promised them that they would be present at the Hour of Realization – but they just don’t remember it! (Mother laughs) I have already said several times that when you come down on earth, you fall on your head, which leaves you a little dazed! (laughter) It’s a pity, but after all, you don’t have to remain dazed all your lives, do you? You should go deep within yourselves and there find the immortal consciousness – then you can see very well, you can very clearly remember the circumstances in which you ... you aspired to be here for the Hour of the Work’s realization. But actually, to tell you the truth, I think your lives are so easy that you don’t exert yourselves very much! How many among you have truly an INTENSE need to find their psychic beings? To find out truly who they are? To find out what their roles are, why they are here? ... You just let yourselves drift. You even complain when things aren’t easy enough! You just take things as they come. And sometimes, should an aspiration arise in you and you encounter some difficulty in yourself, you say, ‘Oh, Mother is there! She’ll take care of it for me!’ And you think about something else." The Mother's Agenda/August 25, 1954, 168: "The terminology of Yoga recognises besides the status of our physical and vital being, termed the gross body and doubly composed of the food sheath and the vital vehicle, besides the status of our mental being, termed the subtle body and singly composed of the mind sheath or mental vehicle,(manah. -kosa) a third, supreme and divine status of supra-mental being, termed the causal body and composed of a fourth and a fifth vehicle (vijnanakosa and anandakosa) which are described as those of knowledge and bliss." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-16, "But this causal body is, as we may say, little developed in the majority of men and to live in it or to ascend to the supramental planes, as distinguished from corresponding sub-planes in the mental being, or still more to dwell consciously upon them is the most difficult thing of all for the human being. It can be done in the trance of Samadhi, but otherwise only by a new evolution of the capacities of the individual Purusha of which few are even willing to conceive." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-456, "If he rises into the knowledge-self beyond the highest mental stature, if he becomes the knowledge-soul, the Spirit poised in gnosis, vijn˜a¯ namaya purus.a, and puts on the nature of its infinite truth and power, if he lives in the knowledge-sheath, the causal body as well as in these subtle mental, interlinking vital and grosser physical sheaths or bodies, then, but then only he will be able to draw down entirely into his terrestrial existence the fullness of the infinite spiritual consciousness; only then will he avail to raise his total being and even his whole manifested, embodied ex- pressive nature into the spiritual kingdom. But this is difficult in the extreme; for the causal body opens itself readily to the consciousness and capacities of the spiritual planes and belongs in its nature to the higher hemisphere of existence, but it is either not developed at all in man or only as yet crudely developed and organised and veiled behind many intervening portals of the subliminal in us. It draws its stuff from the plane of the truth- knowledge and the plane of the infinite bliss and these pertain altogether to a still inaccessible higher hemisphere." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-473, "The sleep-state is a consciousness corresponding to the supramental plane proper to the gnosis, which is beyond our experience because our causal body or envelope of gnosis is not developed in us, its faculties not active, and therefore we are in relation to that plane in a condition of dreamless sleep. The Turiya beyond is the consciousness of our pure self-existence or our absolute being with which we have no direct relations at all, whatever mental reflections we may receive in our dream or our waking or even, irrecoverably, in our sleep consciousness." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-520, "For behind the gross physical sheath of this materially visible and sensible frame there is subliminally supporting it and discoverable by a finer subtle consciousness a subtle body of the mental being and a spiritual or causal body of the gnostic and bliss soul in which all the perfection of a spiritual embodiment is to be found, a yet unmanifested divine law of the body." CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-695, Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy. “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/Vol-14/p-122 “Sri Aurobindo had also written to the effect, ‘If Divine Love were to manifest now in all its fullness and totality, not a single material organism would but burst.’ So we must learn to widen, widen, widen not only the inner consciousness (that is relatively easy – at least feasible), but even this conglomeration of cells. And I’ve experienced this: you have to be able to widen this sort of crystallization if you want to be able to hold this Force. I know. Two or three times, upstairs (in Mother’s room), I felt the body about to burst. Actually, I was on the verge of saying, ‘burst and be done with.’ But Sri Aurobindo always intervened – all three times he intervened in an entirely tangible, living and concrete way ... and he arranged everything so that I was forced to wait. Then weeks go by, sometimes even months, between one thing and another, so that some elasticity may come into these stupid cells. So much time is wasted. We are ... oh! We are so hard! (Mother hits her body) As hard as a rock. But three times now, I’ve really felt that I was on the verge of ... falling apart. The first time it brought a fever, a fever so ... I don’t know, as if I had at least 115°! – I was roasting from head to toe; everything became red hot, and then ... it was over. That was the day when suddenly – suddenly – I was ... You see, I had said to myself, ‘All right, you must be peaceful, let’s see what happens,’ so then I brought down the Peace, and immediately I was able to pass into a ‘second of unconsciousness – and I woke up in the subtle physical, in Sri Aurobindo’s abode.’ There he was. And then I spent some time with him, explaining the problem. But that was really an experience, a decisive experience (it was many months ago, perhaps more than a year ago). So I explained the problem to Sri Aurobindo , and he replied (by his expression, not with words, but it was clear), ‘Patience, patience – patience, it will come.’ And a few days after this experience, ‘by chance’ I came upon something he had written where precisely he explained that we are much too rigid, coagulated, clenched for these things to be able to manifest – we must widen, relax, become plastic. But this takes time.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda/12th November-1960

Photo Gallery "A bright pure image in a priestless shrine," Savitri-368 "It is not a question of preparing students to read these or some other works. It is a question of drawing all those who are capable of it out of the usual human routine of thought, feelings, action; of giving those who are here every opportunity to reject the slavery of the human way of thinking and acting; of teaching all those who want to listen that there is another, truer way of living, and that Sri Aurobindo taught us to become and to live the true being and that the purpose of education here is to prepare the children for this life and to make them capable of it." The Mother The Mother's Agenda, 10.08.1960 This photo gallery is proposed to be designed for small children in such a manner that they will understand the All-inclusive Integral Education spontaneously in a very simple manner that "Sees the God-face and hears transcendent speech:" (Savitri-375). These pictures can assist them to open their Soul or through ‘a soul-understanding, that chose the pictures.’ The Mother observed, “What I see is almost a children's book, for a whole generation aged ten to eighteen, thousands of children. With lovely pictures.” (Refer The Mother’s Agenda-29.05.1962) ଏହି ଫଟୋ ଗ୍ୟାଲେରୀଟି (ଚିତ୍ର ପ୍ରଦର୍ଶନୀ) ଛୋଟ ପିଲାମାନଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ଏଭଳି ଭାବରେ ପ୍ରସ୍ତୁତ କରିବାକୁ ପ୍ରସ୍ତାବ ଦିଆଯାଇଛି, ଯେପରି ସେମାନେ ସମ୍ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଗ୍ରହଣୀୟ ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣାଙ୍ଗ ଶିକ୍ଷାକୁ ଅତି ସହଜ ଓ ସ୍ୱାଭାବିକ ଭାବରେ ବୁଝିପାରିବେ ଏବଂ ସେମାନେ 'ଭଗବାନଙ୍କ ମୁଖମଣ୍ଡଳ ଦର୍ଶନ କରିବେ ଏବଂ ତାଙ୍କ ଦିବ୍ୟ ବାଣୀ ଶ୍ରବଣ କରିପାରିବେ।' ଏହି ଚିତ୍ରଗୁଡ଼ିକ ସେମାନଙ୍କ ଆତ୍ମାକୁ ଉନ୍ମୁକ୍ତ କରିବାରେ କିମ୍ବା ଚିତ୍ରଗୁଡ଼ିକୁ ଚୟନ କରିଥିବା ଏକ 'ଆତ୍ମିକ-ବୋଧ' ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ ସହାୟତା କରିପାରିବ। ଶ୍ରୀମା କହିଥିଲେ, 'ମୁଁ ଯାହା ଦେଖୁଛି ତାହା ପ୍ରାୟତଃ ପିଲାମାନଙ୍କର ସୁନ୍ଦର ସୁନ୍ଦର ଚିତ୍ରଗୁଡ଼ିକ ସହିତ ଏକ ବହି, ଯାହାକି ଦଶରୁ ଅଠର ବର୍ଷ ବୟସର ଏକ ସମଗ୍ର ପିଢ଼ିର ହଜାର ହଜାର ପିଲାମାନଙ୍କ ଚିତ୍ରକୁ ନେଇ ସଂଗଠିତ।' (ଦ୍ରଷ୍ଟବ୍ୟ: ଦ ମଦର୍ସ ଏଜେଣ୍ଡା - ୨୯.୦୫.୧୯୬୨) "Sri Aurobindo is constantly among us and reveals himself to those who are ready to see and hear him." The Mother TMCW/Vol-13/p-11, "ଶ୍ରୀଅରବିନ୍ଦ ସଦାସର୍ବଦା ଆମ ମଧ୍ୟରେ ବିଦ୍ୟମାନ ଏବଂ ଯେଉଁମାନେ ତାଙ୍କୁ ଦେଖିବା ଓ ଶୁଣିବା ନିମନ୍ତେ ପ୍ରସ୍ତୁତ, ସେମାନଙ୍କ ନିକଟରେ ସେ ନିଜକୁ ଆତ୍ମପ୍ରକାଶ କରନ୍ତି।" ଶ୍ରୀମା “In men, says the Upanishad , the Self-Existent has cut the doors of consciousness outward, but a few turn the eye inward and it is these who see and know the Spirit and develop the spiritual being.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-1064 "ଉପନିଷଦ କହେ, ମଣିଷ ମଧ୍ୟରେ ସ୍ୱୟଂଭୂ (ଭଗବାନ) ଚେତନାର ଦ୍ୱାରଗୁଡ଼ିକୁ ବହିର୍ମୁଖୀ କରି ଗଢ଼ିଛନ୍ତି; କିନ୍ତୁ କ୍ୱଚିତ୍ ବ୍ୟକ୍ତି ନିଜ ଦୃଷ୍ଟିକୁ ଅନ୍ତର୍ମୁଖୀ କରନ୍ତି ଏବଂ ସେହିମାନେ ହିଁ ପରମାତ୍ମାଙ୍କକୁ ଦର୍ଶନ କରନ୍ତି ଓ ଜାଣନ୍ତି, ଏବଂ ନିଜର ଆଧ୍ୟାତ୍ମିକ ସତ୍ତାକୁ ବିକଶିତ କରନ୍ତି।" ଶ୍ରୀ ଅରବିନ୍ଦ “The (Katha-2.1.1) Upanishad tells us that the Self-existent has so set the doors of the soul that they turn outwards and most men look outward into the appearances of things; only the rare soul that is ripe for a calm thought and steady wisdom turns its eye inward, sees the Self and attains to immortality. To this turning of the eye inward psychological self observation and analysis is a great and effective introduction.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-303 "(କଠ) ଉପନିଷଦ ଆମକୁ କହେ ଯେ ସ୍ୱୟଂଭୂ (ପରମେଶ୍ୱର) ଆତ୍ମାର ଦ୍ୱାରଗୁଡ଼ିକୁ ଏପରି ଭାବରେ ସ୍ଥାପନ କରିଛନ୍ତି ଯେ ସେଗୁଡ଼ିକ ବାହାର ଆଡ଼କୁ ଖୋଲେ ଏବଂ ଅଧିକାଂଶ ମନୁଷ୍ୟ ବାହ୍ୟ ଜଗତର ବସ୍ତୁର ରୂପରଙ୍ଗକୁ ହିଁ ଦେଖନ୍ତି; କେବଳ କୌଣସି ଏକ ବିରଳ ଆତ୍ମା, ଯିଏ ଶାନ୍ତ ଚିନ୍ତା ଓ ସ୍ଥିର ପ୍ରଜ୍ଞା ପାଇଁ ପରିପକ୍ୱ ହୋଇଥାଏ, ସେ ନିଜର ଦୃଷ୍ଟିକୁ ଅନ୍ତର୍ମୁଖୀ କରେ, ଆତ୍ମସାକ୍ଷାତ୍କାର କରେ ଏବଂ ଅମରତ୍ୱ ଲାଭ କରେ। ଦୃଷ୍ଟିକୁ ଏହିଭଳି ଅନ୍ତର୍ମୁଖୀ କରିବା ପାଇଁ ମନସ୍ତାତ୍ୱିକ ଆତ୍ମ-ନିରୀକ୍ଷଣ ଓ ବିଶ୍ଳେଷଣ ଏକ ମହତ୍ତ୍ୱପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଏବଂ ପ୍ରଭାବଶାଳୀ ପ୍ରାରମ୍ଭିକ ପଦକ୍ଷେପ।" — ଶ୍ରୀ ଅରବିନ୍ଦ Offering of the Physical A Tribute to Pranab Da Power to Progress Ashram Foundation Day 2025 Successful Future under the Supramental Influence Ashram Foundation Day 2023 Opening of the Vital to the Divine Love Ashram Foundation Day 2021 Body consciousness undergoing the Supramental transformation Ashram Foundation Day 2019 Nobility Ashram Foundation Day 2017 Realisation of the new Creation Ashram Foundation Day 2015 Aspiration for Spiritual Intensity Ashram Foundation Day 2013 Supramentalised Psychic Activity Ashram Foundation Day 2011 Wisdom in the Physical Mind World Hindu Summit 2013 Supramental Influence Seeker's Questions Supramental Manifestation Ashram Foundation Day Photo-01.02.2026 Purity in Cells Yoga Sadhana Camp Manual-2026 for Participant School Children Supramental Influence in the Cells Yoga Sadhana Camp Manual-2026 for Participant Members Supramental Immortality Sri K Anurakta Supramental Manifestation Ashram Foundation Day 2024 Progress of the New Creation Ashram Foundation Day 2022 Descent of the Light Ashram Foundation Day 2020 Peace Ashram Foundation Day 2018 Flame of Aspiration Ashram Foundation Day 2016 Supramental Consciousness Ashram Foundation Day 2014 Sincerity in the Vital Ashram Foundation Day 2012 Supramentalised Plasticity Gurusangam 2012 Aspiration in the Physical for The Supramental Light The World Hindu Wisdom Meet 2014 Supramental Rain The Spirit of the Youth To Live only for the Divine Photo of the fourth Anniversary of Sri Matri Dhyana Mandir-01.08.2026 Supramental Influence in the Cells Yoga Sadhana Camp Manual-2026 for Participant Members (Supreme Lord said to Savitri) "Men seeing thee shall feel my hands of joy," Savitri-701 "(Q) Where does God live? Can I ever see Him? (The Mother's Answer) God lives everywhere and in everything, and you will be able to see Him if you can find Him deep inside yourself." The Mother New Words of the Mother/p-241 "Ramakrishna is supposed to have said to Vivekananda , “You can see the Lord just as you see me and hear His voice just as you hear mine.” Some people understood this as an announcement that the Lord was on earth in flesh and blood. I said (laughing): “No, it is not that! What he meant is that if you enter the true consciousness, you can hear Him — I say, hear much more clearly than you hear physically and see much more clearly than you see physically." The Mother TMCW-10/On Thoughts and Aphorisms/p-205) "The Yogins who strive, see the Lord in themselves, pasyanti; but though they strive to do so, the ignorant perceive Him not, as they are not formed in the Spiritual mould... Some see the Divine, pasyanti, through meditation; some realise the Divine as 'of the Self, by the Self and in the Self,' atmani atmanam atmana; others see the Divine, pasyanti, through Sankhya and Karma Yoga. .. " (The Gita-15.11, 13.25) “When I was five years old...well I began with a consciousness. Of course I had no idea what it was. But my first experience was of the consciousness here (gesture above the head), which I felt like a Light and a Force; and I felt it there at the age of five. It was very pleasant sensation. I would sit in a little armchair made especially for me, all alone in my room, and I had a very pleasant feeling of something very strong, very luminous, and it was here (above the head) .... Then I would pull it down, for it was...it was truly my raison d’être. ” The Mothe r The Mother's Agenda- July 25, 1962

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. 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 of 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 errors and limitations 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 our 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 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.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA/23 The Synthesis of Yoga-p-5 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.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/THE SYNTHESIS OF YOGA-46-47 4: “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-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-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: “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’ i s still very far from the above mentioned vision. 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. It has identified the power of human love and effort as vain to ‘break earth’s seal of ignorance and death’ and the all powerful Divine Love as ‘sealed book’ for developing Souls or the beginners of integral Yoga and does not rule out the transformation of human love into Divine Love through consecration and activation of higher instrumentation of the Spirit. 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 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 must be activated in the prepared human vessel. This swift Spiritual evolution of Mahakali can be activated by the reconciliation of Karma Yoga , representing Mahasaraswati and Jnana Yoga, representing the Maheswari aspect of the Divine Mother. The Gita hints that by reconciliation of Karma and Jnana Yoga , a constant union with the Divine, nitya yukta , (The Gita-8.14, 12.2) is practicable in the long run. 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) To recapitulate, this Auroprem’s Savitri study has emerged as a cradle of our Spiritual endeavour. We offer this study to the Lord and pray to Him to grant this temporary platform as a Soul-saving cradle of the long beginning of the Spiritual journey and help us to build a permanent platform within. Lastly, I offer this incomplete and unending exercise of ‘Auroprem’s Savitri Study’ at Their Lotus Feet. OM TAT SAT At Their 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-6/347, “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/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 creation, known here as All Life; Savitri gathered and accumulated her Spiritual energy through all life and all Time which is symbolized here as ‘Twelve swift-winged months’ (Savitri-431) and ‘this day returning Satyavan must die.’ (Savitri-431) The whole of Savitri is written from a plane of cosmic 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 persistent slow dynamic Divine energy 'Persuaded the inert black quietude' (Savitri-3) to transform Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths. This Canto gives the foreknowledge of the advent of 'a marvellous birth' (Savitri-5) of feminine Avatar which is 'A Form from far beatitudes' (Savitri-4) of 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 (or each and every line of Savitri) are in symbolic language meant for undergoing myriad Spiritual experiences in multiple subtle bodies. 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 truth revealed in Savitri is disturbing to the ordinary mind, liberated Souls, later Vedantist , Illusionist and Nirvanist . Hence, the Spiritual Message of Savitri is for strong and pure Souls who are destined to reconcile Spirit and Matter of ancient Vedantic doctrine. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “Immobile in herself, she gathered force. (Savitri utilized time and space exclusively to accumulate Spiritual energy.) This was the day when Satyavan must die.” Savitri-10 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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. 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn A Brief Restatement: Now this Book-1, Canto-3 is the most important Canto for the beginners of integral Yoga. Here it hints how through King Aswapati’s movement of Consciousness, ten energy centres or ten Selves opened and their corresponding action in the respective ten Sheaths, here known as ‘all Nature.’ 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.” (the discovery of Inconscient Self) Savitri-36 Subconscient Self: "A treasure was found of a supernal Day. In the deep subconscient glowed her jewel-lamp; Lifted, it showed the riches of the Cave Where, by the miser traffickers of sense Unused, guarded beneath Night’s dragon paws, In folds of velvet darkness they sleep Whose priceless value could have saved the world.” (the discovery of Subconscient Self) Savitri-42 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 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 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; 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 purpose, 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 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 three gunas. Then after a long movement between the Psychic and Spiritual plane, one is considered fit to open the Supramental Self or Purshottama . This triple movement of Consciousness hinted in the Gita is extensively developed in integral Yoga as movement between ten Selves and their ten Sheaths. Now in other Cantos, we will experience King Aswapati’s extensive movement in different planes of Consciousness. 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 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 ) 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn A Brief Restatement: 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 Kshetriya Soul force, having the courage 'to affront the far-off perilous man' (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 adventure. So the presence of a few more Kshetriya 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn A Brief Restatement : Here, the King’s adventure into Spiritual planes has been revealed and they are divided into seven parts. First part: The transition from ordinary life to Supramental life where ‘all (the knowledge of three times) is for ever known’ (Savitri-74) and ‘all that the Gods have learned is there self known.’ (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 greatness of the eternal Spirit appeared but it could not transform Matter. This height of the Spirit repels the lowness of the earthly state. 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 the Soul, above the limitation of Nature and Fate. Third part: Then he experienced Vedantic ascent and descent of Consciousness linking Spirit with Matter. A call he received from intangible height. A golden influx of Divine force and current from eternal Seas of Bliss came down into heart, brain and into his mortal limbs; made him aware of his dynamic occult Omnipotent Source and turned to his immense Spiritual fate. Fourth part: 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. 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, 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. 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 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. 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. 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 surface mind. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn A Brief Restatement: This Book-2, Canto-1, hints King’s established state in universalized (infinity Around) and Transcendent (Unknowable above) Consciousness which stand as precondition of exploring multiple planes of consciousness and of pursuing the Yoga of the earth. During the movement of consciousness in these two 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-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’ symbolizing the multiple worlds in 'a drop of water' symbolizing our finite Self. Here again the importance of the Psychic Being, Jivatma is recognized 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 ocean 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 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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 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,' which is Spirit's first transparent robe. It does not live by 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 task of 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 'It 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 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. 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. Third Part: Through a subtle physical sheath, a fragment of the Eternal is caught for heaven's design. Here 'the response to Truth is swift and sure' (Savitri-111) and 'Achieve perfection by the magic throb.' (Savitri-112) All we attempt through Soul activation in this imperfect world cannot go in vain. our Spirit must travel back to illumine the past obscurities and Spirit must travel forward to call down Timeless and Spaceless energies. Thus all imperfections are seized by their absolutely perfect state and Matter is able to hold permanently Divine's Presence or 'To fix the eternal’s touch in time-made things.' (Savitri-108) Thus, with subtle physical assistance, a brilliant passage is made 'in the gross walls of nerve and brain,'(Savitri-108) for the descent of infallible Flame and thus, we could 'hope for greater life.' (Savitri-108) If we can climb above our surface life then 'A line of Transcendent meets on our road' (Savitri-110) which brings us godlike acts and descents inevitable words and 'thoughts that never die.' (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) 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 the Highest plane. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “To fix the eternal's touch in time-made things, This is the law of all perfection here.” Savitri-108 “Our souls forget to the Highest to aspire.” Savitri-113 “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 “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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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 beauty (higher Purer Vital world). 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 a dark being of inconscience. Since then the vital on our plane (the subtle vital) thinks back to the glory of her original state but she is unable to reclaim it. This Savitri, Book-2, Canto-3, gives a vivid account of the glory (and also 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) 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 'A lost world rapture lingers in her eyes' and 'Beauty and happiness are her native right.' (Savitri-118) Second part: Despite the sudden disclosure of grief, fear and insecurity, King saw 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. They live sure of their immortal gladness and content with their own beauty. 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 seems unreal but more real than the gross life, happier than earthly joy and truer than things true. this gives the experience of eternal moments, calm heavens of imperishable Light, 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 from the gross vital world which is felt indispensable for purification, transformation, perfection and Divinisation of 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 Presence of this inscrutable Supermind but could not know its origin. Life became the slave of World-self, thus she was able to canalise the seas of omnipotence. 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 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 into his saviour arms,' (Savitri-123) and 'To force on them the happiness they refuse' (Savitri-123) and of transforming earth life through his experience: 'Heaven’s joys might have been earth’s if earth were pure.' (Savitri-123) He felt the need of Divinised Sense and Heart which was natural Delight's bright extreme. His life's closed doors were opened to things Supreme. The King met the guardians of Supravital and subtle vital worlds as 'Immortal figures.' (Savitri-123) We also get the hint of nude god-children who are perfect instruments to Divinise life and the vital transformation 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, received the call of Bliss world and saw that world but could not bridge the gulf between them. Before the Divine Mother or 'gracious great-winged Angel' possesses life, 'A dark ambiguous Presence questioned all.' (Savitri-130 ) This dark Power abolishes the action of the mighty true Vital being and the boon of Psychic happiness. Thus life meets doom and Spiritual fall by the influence of work born out of the activation of three gunas . From this Canto, we learn the lesson of how Para-Prakriti, or a hierarchy of dynamic Consciousness can act stumblingly and steadily on life and experience both rise and fall or glory and fall of life. This Canto asks to develop the highest dynamic Consciousness which can meet the inert Inconscient’s law. 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 (The 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn A Brief Restatement: This Book 2 Canto-4 gives the message that after exhaustion of multiple material enjoyments of life, Spiritual life begins and we have to understand that “Physical life exhausts itself by too much giving and ruins itself by too much devouring..." (The Life Divine-216) We also get the hint that after the opening of the Spiritual being, "His gates to the world were swept with seas of light. ” (Savitri-236) and thus a higher life begins. "Insatiate seeker, he has all to learn: He has exhausted now life’s surface acts, His being’s hidden realms remain to explore. He becomes a mind, he becomes a spirit and self; In his fragile tenement he grows Nature’s lord. In him Matter wakes from its long obscure trance, In him earth feels the Godhead drawing near." Savitri-133 This Canto speaks of triple creation, where the first creation is subconscious evolution, the second creation is the evolution of lower/little life and the third creation (not the last) is identified as ‘body’s early (evolution of) mind.’ (Savitri-146) The First Creation: Subconscious evolution is a faint and dim beginning of a crude child soul crying 'for toys of bliss.' (Savitri-136) In this stage 'a random shapeless energy drove towards form and took each whisp-fire for a guiding sun.' 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.' Life becomes an outcome of 'meaningless suffering and grey unease.' The King experienced in this Nature's twilit room, that Matter and Spirit 'embrace and strive and each know each' (Savitri-141) as eternal playmates. 'In Nature he saw the mighty Spirit concealed' and 'Watched the weak birth of a tremendous Force.' (Savitri-141) " It (All Nature) turns in us to finite loves and lusts, The will to conquer and have, to seize and keep, To enlarge life’s room and scope and pleasure’s range, To battle and overcome and make one’s own, The hope to mix one’s joy with others’ joy, A yearning to possess and be possessed, T o enjoy and be enjoyed, to feel, to live." Savitri-139-140 The Second Creation: In this kingdom, the dwarf animal self arose and the experiment began of a solitary brute in a human body without any life-plan. This is a life exclusively for outward purposes, for the satisfaction of body's want and responds to outward touches without an aim. The body is unaware of annamaya Purusha within, mind is exclusively preoccupied with the objective world and thoughts are open to sense instincts of animal desire and 'To enjoy and to survive was all their care.' (Savitri-143) Not in this life, but in all life this dim being must learn by failure and grow in light and force 'And rise to his higher destiny at last.' (Savitri-146) "It captured not the spirit in the form, It entered not the heart of what it saw; It looked not for the power behind the act, It studied not the hidden motive in things Nor strove to find the meaning of it all." Savitri-143 The Third Creation: This small thinking man (of 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 animal’s feeding-space and he opposes all adventures of the Unseen and Soul’s journey through unknown infinity. "It knew not the Immortal in its house; It had no greater deeper cause to live. In limits only it was powerful; Acute to capture truth for outward use, Its knowledge was the body’s instrument; Absorbed in the little works of its prison-house It turned around the same unchanging points In the same circle of interest and desire, But thought itself the master of its jail." Savitri-149-150 In Savitri, the slow evolution starts from the Subconscient plane from the beginning of the creation and when the earth will be ready for Divine life then the ‘last salvation’ is experienced which is identified as the total transformation of the earth’s Subconscient and Inconscient plane. In Savitri, the first Spiritual experience of the evolving man is identified as the discovery of Soul either Psychic or Spiritual Being and the last Siddhi of an integral Yogi is ‘Truth supreme.’ This is the transformation of universal Inconscient and there will be no longer any Ignorance, suffering, falsehood and death. This Yoga will continue through all life and all Time before which this present life is a very small fragment. This Canto also hints King’s opening of six or seven chakras known as Kundalini from below the feet as 'The first writhings of the cosmic serpent Force.' (Savitri-138) The Mother said, “The tantrics recognize seven chakras , I believe. Theon said he knew of more, specifically two below the body and three above (the head). That is my experience as well – I know of twelve chakras . And really, the contact with the Divine Consciousness is there (The Mother motions above the head), not here (at the top of the head). One must surge up above.” These twelve centres define the twelve Selves, twelve Sheaths or twelve subtle bodies to which one can consciously visit in a trance. In integral Yoga, the gulf created between lower life and the Supramental life is bridged by discovering the Subconscient Self and Inconscient Self as 'sleeping memories' that are 'Oblivious of their flame of happy truth.' (Savitri-139) "Impure, degraded though her motions are, Always a heaven-truth broods in life’s deeps; In her obscurest members burns that fire." Savitri-139 (fire of Subconscient Self) This Canto foresees the coming of ‘some tremendous dawn of God’ (Savitri-137} where King saw the purpose of Divine Work in Time and also in the aimlessness of lower life a Divine work, magic will and Divine transformation was worked out. This Canto proposes to work out the 'adventure of the Unseen And the soul's tread through unknown infinities.' (Savitri-148) OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: "In the enigma of the darkened Vasts, In the passion and self-loss of the Infinite When all was plunged in the negating Void, Non-Being’s night could never have been saved If Being had not plunged into the dark Carrying with it its triple mystic cross. Invoking in world-time the timeless truth, Bliss changed to sorrow, knowledge made ignorant, God’s force turned into a child’s helplessness Can bring down heaven by their sacrifice." Savitri-140-141 “A difficult evolution from below Called a masked intervention from above Else this great, blind inconscient universe Could never have disclosed its hidden mind, Or even in blinkers worked in beast and man The Intelligence that devised the cosmic scheme.” (Supramental Intelligence) Savitri-146-147 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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 attain freedom from lower life, then our Soul force travels back in time of this birth and past births and illumine the obscurities of nether untransformed life. "A slowly changing order binds our will. This is our doom until our souls are free. A mighty Hand then rolls mind’s firmaments back, Infinity takes up the finite’s acts And Nature steps into the eternal Light. Then only ends this dream of nether life." Savitri-154 The Second Part: (Page 154 to 160) This Canto also hints about the human love of sattwic mind which can give brief ‘Joy that forgot mortality for a while’ (Savitri-159) and its brief blaze can crumble vital passion into ashes. It can manifest beauty only for an hour and afterward feels tired. Divine Love can uplift the limitations of fragile human love and can lead man toward uninterrupted joy and immortality. "A fragile human love that could not last, Ego’s moth-wings to lift the seraph soul, Appeared, a surface glamour of brief date Extinguished by a scanty breath of Time; Joy that forgot mortality for a while Came, a rare visitor who left betimes, And made all things seem beautiful for an hour, Hopes that soon fade to drab realities And passions that crumble to ashes while they blaze Kindled the common earth with their brief flame." Savitri-159 The third Part: (Page 160 to 163) A perfect and integral Divine instrument is at once receiver of overhead Wisdom and Light of Integral Jnana Yoga , his own personal will is tuned and identified with the Divine Will of Integral Karma Yoga and his heart becomes the centre of the overflow of Divine Love, Delight and Beauty of Integral Bhakti Yoga . “Our instruments have not that greater light, Our will tunes not with the eternal Will, Our heart’s sight is too blind and passionate.” Savitri-161 The Fourth Part: (Page 163 to 167) This Canto hints that without vital transformation, the King can hold the Divine Presence for a brief period. If the tamasic, rajasic and sattwic mind are not purified sufficiently, then one experiences Divine Will, Divine Wisdom and Divine Ecstasy of Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga briefly. A Bliss that sleeps in the Inconscient and Subconscient Self do not open to give the experience of Oceans of Bliss. "A new life dawns, he looks out from vistas wide; The Spirit’s breath moves him but soon retires: His strength was not made to hold that puissant guest. All dulls down to convention and routine Or a fierce excitement brings him vivid joys:" Savitri-165 “His knowledge dwells in the house of Ignorance; His force nears not even once the Omnipotent, Rare are his visits of heavenly ecstasy. The bliss which sleeps in things and tries to wake, Breaks out in him in a small joy of life:” Savitri-165 The Fifth Part: (Page 167 to 172 This Canto hints the transformation of lower Nature by 'Calling the powers of a bright hemisphere' through Vedantic Sacrifice and thus sheding 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 get 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 with 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. 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 the action of ‘golden Messengers’ (Savitri-170) who are responsible for the 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 (Supramental beings) can come:” Savitri-169-70 “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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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 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." Savitri175-176 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 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 Purusha) 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-200-01 (Cellular transformation.) 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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.) 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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, ‘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 (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 of extinction and escape from this world. 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. "To be was a prison, extinction the escape." Savitri-288 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 (Psychic being’s silence is a suffusion from 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) 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn A Brief Restatement: Book-2, Canto-15 gives the message of the Supramental plane, which becomes active after one is established in the movement of Consciousness between the Universal and the Transcendent Self which succeeds the movements of Consciousness between the waking trance of the Psychic and non-waking trance of the Spiritual plane. "He scanned the secrets of the Overmind, He bore the rapture of the Oversoul. A borderer of the empire of the Sun, Attuned to the supernal harmonies, He linked creation to the Eternal’s sphere." Savitri-302 A concentration on this Canto can give brief Supramental touch, brief Supramental silence, brief Supramental hope, and brief Supramental Peace. That will help to trace a unique path of our own. “A thousand roads leaped into Eternity... The Known released him (King ) from its limiting chain; He knocked at the doors of the Unknowable.’ (Savitri-298) This Canto hints that due to this Supramental influence; some Permanent changes were observed in King’s physical appearance. They are identified as: “A light was round him (King ) wide and absolute,” (Savitri-297) This change is also observed in Satyavan’s pursuit of Yoga in book-7. They are: “Above the cherished head of Satyavan She saw not now Fate’s dark and lethal orb; A golden circle round a mystic sun Disclosed to her new-born predicting sight” Savitri-533 During King's Psychic and Spiritual opening, he became a twice-born Soul and the first Psychic and second Spiritual reversal of Consciousness was experienced. So a Dvija can hold the Divine's Presence for a brief period and we mark King's this particular brief Spiritual experience and brief Supramental experience in the previous Book-2, Canto-5 and Book-1, Canto-3: “A new life dawns, he looks out from vistas wide; The Spirit’s breath moves him but soon retires: His strength was not made to hold that puissant guest.” Savitri-165 “Hardly for a moment glimpsed viewless to Mind, (Brief Supramental experience.) As if a torch held by a power of God, The radiant world of the everlasting Truth Glimmered like a faint star bordering the night Above the golden Overmind’s shimmering ridge.” Savitri-41 The King experienced another new birth and establishment in a third reversal of Consciousness during this Supramental opening: "In the kingdom of the Spirit’s power and light, As if one who arrived out of infinity’s womb He came new-born, infant and limitless And grew in the wisdom of the timeless Child; He was a vast that soon became a Sun." Savitri-301 In this context, we can note The Mother's following experience: " When we begin living the spiritual life, a reversal of consciousness takes place which for us is the proof that we have entered the spiritual life; well, yet another occurs when we enter the supramental world...And probably each time a new world opens up, there will again be a new reversal. This is why even our spiritual life, which is such a total reversal compared to ordinary life, seems something still so ... so totally different when compared to this supramental consciousness that the values are almost opposite....I can explain the phenomenon like this: successive reversals such that an EVER NEW richness of creation will take place from stage to stage, making whatever came before seem so poor in comparison. What to us seems supremely rich compared to our ordinary life, appears so poor compared to this new reversal of consciousness. Such was my experience." The Mother's Agenda-15.11.1958 We also observe in this Canto, the nature of Supramental action which complements earlier representations of Psychic and Spiritual action: “The greatness and wonder of its boundless works,” Savitri-298 “The glorious dream of their universal acts;” Savitri-298 “Its inexhaustible acts in a timeless Time,” Savitri-298 “And all creation is an act of light.” Savitri-298 “In that high realm where no untruth can come, Where all are different and all is one, In the Impersonal’s ocean without shore The Person in the World-Spirit anchored rode; It thrilled with the mighty marchings of World-Force, Its acts were the comrades of God’s infinite peace .” Savitri-301 “His finite parts approached their absolutes, His actions framed the movements of the Gods, His will took up the reins of cosmic Force.” Savitri-302 The above Supramental action also calls down the Supramental Wisdom and Supramental Love: “Here came the thought that passes beyond Thought, Here the still Voice which our listening cannot hear, The Knowledge by which the knower is the known, The Love in which beloved and lover are one.” Savitri-297-98 Supramental action makes a Sadhaka King, Leader and Captain of the team; Supramental wisdom makes him Scout guarding Truth’s ‘diamond purity’ (Savitri-297) and Pioneer of new Consciousness by tracing a new path; Supramental Love makes his life exceedingly joyful laughter and boundless self-giving. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “A consciousness lay still, devoid of forms, Free, wordless, uncoerced by sign or rule, For ever content with only being and bliss; A sheer existence lived in its own peace On the single spirit’s bare and infinite ground.” Savitri-297 “A state in which all ceased and all began.” Savitri-297 (a state of Supramental Consciousness) “Out of the neutral silence of his soul He passed to its fields of puissance and of calm And saw the Powers that stand above the world, (the various Emanations of the Divine Mother) Traversed the realms of the supreme Idea And sought the summit of created things And the almighty source of cosmic change.” Savitri-298 “On peaks where Silence listens with still heart To the rhythmic metres of the rolling worlds, He served the sessions of the triple Fire.” Savitri-299, 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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-2, Canto-3, 10, 11 and Book-3, Canto-1 & 2. The narration is like this: “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 "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 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn A Brief Restatement: The Book-3, Canto-2, begins with the vast static silence state of Supreme Self, Turiya, Bliss Self, which 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 this Canto is the manifestation of the Supreme Self's dynamic Divine Love which can transform without slaying the desire Soul surrounding Psychic being and can transform the darkness of Subconscient and Inconscient sheaths: “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 Mother confirms, “They alone, who by their aspiration are able to pass through to the Divine Origin , will escape catastrophes…Only those who have an aspiration, a sincere and unconditional aspiration towards the Divine, only they will escape – they will stand in a golden glory.” (The Mother’s Agenda/May 4, 1972) 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn A Brief Restatement: In the Book-3, Canto-3, King was able to dynamise the Supramental Force of having four consequences through ‘downward look’ (Savitri-322) and by embracing all existence. They are identified as (1) new creation, (2) extinction of suffering, (3) oneness with the existence and (4) transformation of Subconscient and inconscient sheaths. Supramental touch/embrace will equip life with new creation and new manifestation which may be identified as an extension of integral Karma Yoga . The source of all action is Consciousness or ‘The one Consciousness that made the world was seen’ (Savitri-318) These new creations are: A new and marvellous creation rose.” Savitri-323 “In these new worlds projected he became” Savitri-325 “A stream ever new-born that never dies,” Savitri-325 “Lured at each turn by new vicissitudes To self-discovery that could never cease.” Savitri-328 “Brought new creations for the thought’s surprise” Savitri-328 “And vast adventure into thinking shapes And trial and lure of a new living’s dreams.” Savitri-328 “A new creation from the old shall rise,” Savitri-330 2: Supramental touch/embrace can transform the suffering of life. This can be identified as the extension of integral Bhakti Yoga . They are: “No suffering of hearts compelled to beat” Savitri-321 “He felt the extinction of the world’s long pain,” Savitri-322 “All struggle was turned to a sweet strife of love” Savitri-324 “There was no sob of suffering anywhere; Experience ran from point to point of joy: Bliss was the pure undying truth of things. All Nature was a conscious front of God:” Savitri-324 3: Supramental touch/embrace can give the experience of Oneness with all existence. This is identified as an extension of integral Jnana Yoga and this perfection is identified as sajujya mukti . We can observe them from the following lines: “There was no more division’s endless scroll; One grew the Spirit’s secret unity , All Nature felt again the single bliss.” Savitri-319 “His soul was a delegation of the All (Psychic being as a delegate of Supreme.) That turned from itself to join the one Supreme .” Savitri-319 “A living Oneness widened at its core” Savitri-322 “Existence found its truth on Oneness’ breast” Savitri-322-23 “The great world-rhythms were heart-beats of one Soul ,” Savitri-323 “Lived their innumerable unity ;” Savitri-323 “There were no contraries, no sundered parts, All by spiritual links were joined to all And bound indissolubly to the One :” Savitri-323 “There Oneness was not tied to monotone;” Savitri-324 “And made of difference oneness’ smiling play; It made all persons fractions of the Unique, ” Savitri-324 “There leaps out unity’s supreme delight ” Savitri-324 “Harmonised a Oneness deep, immeasurable.” Savitri-325 “The bliss of a myriad myriads who are one .” Savitri-325 “An image cast by one deep truth’s absolute, Married to all in happy difference... One in the might and joy of multitude. Even in the poise where Oneness draws apart To feel the rapture of its separate selves, The Sole in its solitude yearned towards the All And the Many turned to look back at the One .” Savitri-326 “In the temple of the ideal shrined the One :… The virgin forms through which the Formless shines,” Savitri-327 4: Supramental touch/embrace or ‘constant lightnings of the spirit’ (Savitri-329) can penetrate the Subconscient and inconscient sheaths. This is identified as an extension of the integral Yoga of Self-perfection. They are: “And in subconscious whispers and in dream Still murmured at the mind’s and spirit’s choice. Its treacherous elements spread like slippery grains Hoping the incoming Truth might stumble and fall,” Savitri-317 “All Nature’s recondite (little known) spaces were stripped bare, All her dim crypts and corners searched with fire Where refugee instincts and unshaped revolts Could shelter find in darkness’ sanctuary Against the white purity of heaven’s cleansing flame.” Savitri-318 “All seemed to have perished that was undivine: Yet some minutest dissident might escape And still a centre lurk of the blind force. For the Inconscient too is infinite; The more its abysses we insist to sound, The more it stretches, stretches endlessly.” Savitri-318 “For even there (dim far universe) the boundless Oneness dwells To its own sight unrecognisable, It lived still sunk in its own tenebrous (dark shadowy or obscure) seas, Upholding the world’s inconscient unity Hidden in Matter’s insentient multitude.” Savitri-331 “It merges knowledge in the inconscient deep; Accepting error, sorrow, death and pain, It pays the ransom of the ignorant Night, Redeeming by its substance Nature’s (Spiritual) fall.” Savitri-331 “Himself he knew and why his soul had gone Into earth’s passionate obscurity To share the labour of an errant Power Which by division hopes to find the One.” Savitri-331 : His heart lay somewhere conscious and alone Far down below him like a lamp in night; Abandoned it lay, alone, imperishable, Immobile with excess of passionate will, His living, sacrificed and offered heart Absorbed in adoration mystical, Turned to its far-off fount of light and love.” Savitri-331-332 “In the centre of his vast and fateful trance Half-way between his free and fallen selves, Interceding twixt God’s day and the mortal’s night, Accepting worship as its single law, Accepting bliss as the sole cause of things, Refusing the austere joy which none can share, Refusing the calm that lives for calm alone, To her (Paraprakriti) it turned for whom it willed to be.” Savitri-332 “Armed with the intuition of a bliss To which some moved tranquillity was the key, It persevered through life’s huge emptiness Amid the blank denials of the world.” Savitri-332-33 The perfection’s law promises movement in between ‘hierarchy of lucent planes’ (Savitri-326) of Consciousness and ensures swift Spiritual evolution. This Inconscient transformation is very crucial in deciding Earth’s future. For such transformation to be active individuals must be established in Supramental Consciousness through Yoga of Self-perfection. To tear desire from its Inconscient root is identified as 'A last and mightiest transformation' (Savitri-318) of King Aswapati . A similar mighty transformation visited Savitri when 'The world’s darkness had consented to Heaven-light.' (Savitri-664) "Then lest a human cry should spoil the Truth He tore desire up from its bleeding roots And offered to the gods the vacant place. Thus could he bear the touch immaculate. A last and mightiest transformation came. " Savitri-318 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “In the temple of the ideal shrined the One: It peopled thought and mind and happy sense Filled with bright aspects of the might of God And living persons of the one Supreme, The speech that voices the ineffable, The ray revealing unseen Presences, The virgin forms through which the Formless shines ,” Savitri-327 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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 inferior human association and 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 equal Souls, 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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 calls 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. Or if he can develop twelve strong subtle bodies, then he will be able to hold Savitri's comprehensive Divine Love. 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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) 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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) 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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. 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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 Aparaprkriti (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 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 her 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn A Brief Restatement: 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. 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) “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 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, Effacing the circles of the Ignorance, Powers and divinities burst flaming forth; 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 “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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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' 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) 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. 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' and proposes to cease from this vain existence. The latter affirmative Voice confirms that the Spiritual being can be dynamised to such an extent that it 'Accept(s) to be small and human on the earth,' and consecrates even the smallest and the meanest work: "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 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 a 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 (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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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. 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 this boon. This is because, for Savitri, the Divine has to be experienced integrally, not just in one realm. 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. 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 creations 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 dynamic Divine Mother and static Divine Father.) 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 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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn A Brief restatement : This Canto gives hint of transformation of human love 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 penetration of Supreme Ananda into physical substance and thus cellular transformation action becomes active. This Canto 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. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “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 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn 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 Yog i. 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.