Ashram News "All ocean lived within a wandering drop," Savitri-101 Flower Offering on 28th August 2026 Past Editions “Science gives us the objective truth of existence and the superficial knowledge of our physical and vital being; but we feel that there are truths beyond which possibly through the cultivation of our subjective being and the enlargement of its powers may come to lie more and more open to us. When the knowledge of this world is ours, we are irresistibly impelled to seek for the knowledge of other states of existence beyond, and that is the reason why an age of strong materialism and scepticism is always followed by an age of occultism, of mystical creeds, of new religions and profounder seekings after the Infinite and the Divine. The knowledge of our superficial mentality and the laws of our bodily life is not enough; it brings us always to all that mysterious and hidden depth of subjective existence below and behind of which our surface consciousness is only a fringe or an outer court. We come to see that what is present to our physical senses is only the material shell of cosmic existence and what is obvious in our superficial mentality is only the margin of immense continents which lie behind unexplored. To explore them must be the work of another knowledge than that of physical science or of a superficial psychology.” Sri Aurobindo/ CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-458 November 2025 “The mental and physical sciences which examine into the laws and forms and processes of things, those which concern the life of men and animals, the social, political, linguistic and historical and those which seek to know and control the labours and activities by which man subdues and utilises his world and environment, and the noble and beautiful Arts which are at once work and knowledge, — for every well-made and significant poem, picture, statue or building is an act of creative knowledge, a living discovery of the consciousness, a figure of Truth, a dynamic form of mental and vital self-expression or world-expression, — all that seeks, all that finds, all that voices or figures is a realisation of something of the play of the Infinite and to that extent can be made a means of God-realisation or of divine formation. But the Yogin has to see that it is no longer done as part of an ignorant mental life; it can be accepted by him only if by the feeling, the remembrance, the dedication within it, it is turned into a movement of the spiritual consciousness and becomes a part of its vast grasp of comprehensive illuminating knowledge.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-141-143, October 2025 “To see, know, become and fulfil this One in our inner selves and in all our outer nature, was always the secret goal and becomes now the conscious purpose of our embodied existence. To be conscious of him in all parts of our being and equally in all that the dividing mind sees as outside our being, is the consummation of the individual consciousness. To be possessed by him and possess him in ourselves and in all things is the term of all empire and mastery. To enjoy him in all experience of passivity and activity, of peace and of power, of unity and of difference is the happiness which the Jiva, the individual soul manifested in the world, is obscurely seeking. This is the entire definition of the aim of integral Yoga; it is the rendering in personal experience of the truth which universal Nature has hidden in herself and which she travails to discover. It is the conversion of the human soul into the divine soul and of natural life into divine living.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis Of Yoga/p-63 December 2025 Announcements 28 August 2026 Happy Birthday Debashish 28.08.2028 Announcement 1: Three new web pages have been released: Home page of Sri Matriniketan Ashram in Odia Education in Brief page of Sri Matriniketan Ashram in Odia Happy Birthday Debashish 28.-8.2026 Review of The Descent August 2026 The Descent August 2026 The Descent April 2024 The Descent October 2000 (first issue) “If you want to know what is really happening in the world, you should not read newspapers of any sort, for they are full of lies." “To read a newspaper is to take part in the greatest collective falsehoods.” The Mother TMCW-17/More Answers from the Mother/p-323 (The above message hints that those who see entertainment and news channels in the popular net service afflict life with inferiority and are far from becoming instruments of Truth.) “Question by a disciple: Z told me that if I had no time to read newspapers, I should at least glance at them. I asked him, “Is it a law that we must read newspapers?” He answered, “I have to know what is going on in the world too; I am not a sannyasi .” Answer given by The Mother: I am not a sannyasi and I never read a newspaper! ... I don’t have time for it. It is difficult to read newspapers without having the consciousness descend to a very ordinary level. Only when the consciousness is firmly established in union with the Divine is it possible to read newspapers without any risk of falling into a lower consciousness.” The Mother TMCW-17/P-19, 5 December 1933 "Sweet Mother, How can we know the truth of the facts when reading newspapers? What is the best way of knowing the truth of the world? The best way is to find the truth in ourselves — then we shall be able to see the Truth wherever it is.... Blessings." The Mother TMCW-16/Some Answers from the Mother/P-419, “Rules like these [not reading newspapers, eating a fixed diet, keeping only a few things] are intended to help the vital and physical to come under the discipline of sadhana and not get dispersed in fancies, impulses, self-indulgences; but they must be done simply, not with any sense of superiority or ascetic pride, but as a mere matter of course. It is true also that they can be made the occasion of a too great mental rigidity — as if they were things of supreme importance in themselves and not only a means. Put in their right place and done in the right spirit, they can be very helpful for their purpose.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-383, “If one is always in the inner consciousness, then one can be not dispersed even when doing outward things — or if one is conscious of the Divine at all times and in all one does, then also can one read newspapers or do much correspondence without dispersion. But even then though there is not dispersion, yet there is less intensity of consciousness when reading a newspaper or writing a letter than when one is not putting part of oneself into quite external things. It is only when the consciousness is quite siddha that there is not even this difference. That does not mean one should not do external things at all, for then one gets no training in joining the two consciousnesses.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-324-325

"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 and not meant for giving knowledge to others. Our motive of this study is to repeat the Spiritual experiences developed and hinted in Savitri and to go farther in experiencing the greater dawn. We have taken this Savitri study as part of our Sadhana (1) to illumine those parts which are having direct Contact with the Divine and this Spiritual endeavour is subordinated by (2) intellectual action of partly understanding the mysteries and truths and hierarchies of Consciousness it has explored. In order to understand each line of Savitri , we have gathered together and taken the task of collecting the complementary lines from the same book and The Mother and Sri Aurobindo’s other writings published in the Centenary Edition and The Mother’s Agenda. We have narrated our understanding on them based on the limitation of our Spiritual experience. This exercise continued through decades and now we are going through its third revision. During each revision, we discover our error and limitation and particularly we have amended our stand related with planes of Consciousness from which each line of Savitri has descended. This exercise we understand as a means of tracing a path of own sadhana and a means of transcending our existing limitations through the movement of Consciousness. We have identified ten planes of Consciousness. They are in the following ascending order: 1: Inconscient Self and Inconscient Sheath 2: Subconscient Self and Subconscient Sheath 3: True Physical Being and Subtle Physical Sheath 4: True Vital Being and Subtle Vital Sheath 5: True Mental Being and Subtle Mental Sheath 6: Psychic Being and Psychic Sheath 7: Spiritual Being and Spiritual Sheath 8: Universal Being and Universal Sheath 9: Supramental Being and Supramental Sheath 10: Bliss Self and Bliss Sheath Our approach towards written truth is guided by The Mother And Sri Aurobindo’s following directives: 1: “Only those Scriptures, religions, philosophies which can be thus constantly renewed, relived, their stuff of permanent truth constantly reshaped and developed in the inner thought and spiritual experience of a developing humanity, continue to be of living importance to mankind. The rest remain as monuments of the past, but have no actual force or vital impulse for the future....The traditions of the past are very great in their own place, in the past, but I do not see why we should merely repeat them and not go farther. In the spiritual development of the consciousness upon earth the great past ought to be followed by a greater future…” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-5 CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-480 2: “…all truth and practice too strictly formulated becomes old and loses much, if not all, of its virtue; it must be constantly renovated by fresh streams of spirit revivifying the dead and dying vehicle and changing it, if it is to acquire a new life.” “For the sadhaka of the integral Yoga it is necessary to remember that no written Shastra, however great its authority or however large its spirit, can be more than a partial expression of the eternal Knowledge. He will use, but never bind himself even by the greatest Scripture. Where the Scripture is profound, wide, catholic, it may exercise upon him an influence for the highest good and of incalculable importance. It may be associated in his experience with his awakening to crowning verities and his realisation of the highest experiences.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23 The Synthesis of Yoga/p-5 CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-55 3: “In a sense, therefore, each man in this path has his own method of Yoga. Yet are there certain broad lines of working common to all which enable us to construct not indeed a routine system, but yet some kind of Shastra or scientific method of the synthetic Yoga....“So also one may say that the perfection of the integral Yoga will come when each man is able to follow his own path of Yoga , pursuing the development of his own nature in its upsurging towards that which transcends the nature. For freedom is the final law and the last consummation.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/THE SYNTHESIS OF YOGA/p-46-47 & 57 4: “An integral and synthetic Yoga needs especially not to be bound by any written or traditional Shastra; for while it embraces the knowledge received from the past, it seeks to organise it anew for the present and the future. (A Sadhak of integral Yoga is authorised) An absolute liberty of experience and of the restatement of knowledge in new terms and new combinations is the condition of its self-formation. Seeking to embrace all life in itself, it is in the position not of a pilgrim following the highroad to his destination, but, to that extent at least, of a path-finder hewing his way through a virgin forest.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/THE SYNTHESIS OF YOGA/p-56-57 5: “The ways have been built, the capacity to follow them has been developed, the goal or last height of the creation is manifest; all that is left is for each soul to reach individually the right stage and turn of its development, enter into the spiritual ways and pass by its own chosen path out of this inferior existence. But we have supposed that there is a farther intention, — not only a revelation of the Spirit, but a radical and integral transformation of Nature.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-22/THE LIFE DIVINE/p-922-923 6: “This depends a great deal on the degree of the sadhak’s development, you see. If he is developed and conscious enough to be in direct contact with the spiritual Force which is working behind the words, then the word is only an excuse. But if for him it must pass through his mental understanding in order to have its effect, then the word takes on a much greater importance. It depends on the degree of development… If one is capable of receiving directly, then one opens a book for instance, finds a sentence and has an illumination; because it was just the word one was waiting for in order to put himself into contact with the Force he needed to take the next step…Otherwise one must take a book, study it, read it sentence by sentence, word by word, and then reflect and then understand it and then assimilate it and then, later, very slowly, after the assimilation and understanding, it begins to have an effect on the character and one makes some progress…In one case it is a direct contact, you see, and just one sentence, one word... one reads a word, reads a sentence, and has an illumination. And then one receives all the Force that one needs. The other is the path of the learned man, the scholar, who is an intellectual being and needs to learn, reflect, assimilate, reason about all he has learnt, in order to make progress. It is long, it is laborious.” The Mother TMCW-7/Questions and Answers-1955/p-341-342, 7: “The importance of Savitri is immense. Its subject is universal. Its revelation is prophetic. The time spent in its atmosphere is not wasted. Take all the time necessary to see this exhibition. It will be a happy compensation for the feverish haste men put now in all they do.” The Mother TMCW-13/Words of the Mother-I/p-26 10 February 1967 8: “Every time I read Savitri , I feel as if I am reading it for the first time, really. It’s not that I understand differently, it’s that its completely new: I never read it before! It’s odd. Its at least the fourth time I read it. And truly there’s everything in it. All the things I’ve discovered lately were there. And I hadn’t seen it. It’s odd. The first time I read it was a revelation; it hung together perfectly well from beginning to end, and I felt I had understood (I did understand something). The second time I read it, I said to myself, “But this isn’t the same thing as what I read!...” It hung together, it made up a whole – and I understood something else. Then, recently when I read, at every passage I said to myself, “How new this is! And how the things I have found since are there!” Today again, that’s how it is, as if I read it for the first time! And it puts me into contact with the things I have just discovered. It’s a miraculous book! (The Mother laughs) We’ll continue in the same way.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-6th June-1970 9: “I am not doing it (Savitri translation) to show it to people or to have anyone read it, but to remain in Savitri's atmosphere, for I love that atmosphere. It will give me an hour of concentration, and I'll see if by chance. I have no gift for poetry, but I'll see if it comes! (It surely won't come from a mentality developed in this present existence there's no poetic gift!) So it's interesting, I'll see if anything comes. I am going to give it a try. I know that light. I am immediately plunged into it each time I read Savitri. It is a very, very beautiful light… So now I don't mind finishing The Synthesis (of Yoga). I was a little bothered because I have no other books by Sri Aurobindo to translate that can help me in my sadhana: there was only The Synthesis . As I said, it always came right on time, just when it was needed for a particular experience… All his other books that could help me are already translated. And with Savitri, the idea isn't to make a translation, but to SEE. To try something. To give me the daily experience of that contact. I had some magnificent experiences when I read it the first time (two years ago, I believe). Wonderful, wonderful experiences! And since then, each time I read those lines, the same thing happens – not the same experience, but I come in contact with the same realm.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-18.09.1962 10: “He (Sri Aurobindo ) has made the work easy for us. "SAVITRI" is his whole Yoga of transformation, and this yoga now comes for the first time to the earth consciousness. I think that man is not yet ready to receive it. It is too high and too vast for him. He cannot understand it, grasp it for it is not by the mind that one can understand "SAVITRI ". It needs spiritual experiences to understand and assimilate it. The more one advances on the path of Yoga the more one assimilates.” The Mother The Mother’s Talk to Mona Sarkar/ page-5-6 11: “(Then the Mother takes up the translation of “Savitri ” and stops abruptly, as if she were following something with her eyes:) …As big as this, a sun, a sun scintillating with Sri Aurobindo’s light, when I write, between me and the notebook, and it moves about with the pen! It’s this big (a big orange), it’s Sri Aurobindo’s light, blue, that special blue, silver blue, scintillating, and it moves about every time I write in this notebook! (laughing) That’s why I have difficulty seeing: it moves about with the pen!” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-6/p-290 “(The Mother copies out in her thick white notebook a few lines from her translation of “Savitri.” ) … Near my pen, there is a small disk of Sri Aurobindo’s light, which sparkles and sparkles…. I see it more than my handwriting. It’s no bigger then this (two inches) and it shines, it shines brightly-blue light, of the silvery blue that was Sri Aurobindo’s blue. It shines and shines, and it moves along with my fingers. And when I speak, when I say things that “come,” there are two disks (I don’t know why). Not one, but two, and they are bigger (about four inches), one above the other. When I tell of an experience, for instance, or answer a question, there are two of them, slightly bigger. And when I concentrate on someone while calling the Lord then, generally, near the shoulder (gesture between the person’s head and shoulder), there is a great golden light, like that, which sparkles and sparkles, shines, and shines, very brightly, all the while. And when the light goes, the concentration goes. But just now, it was assuming, it was quite small like this, moving along with my pen. Now it’s finished, gone! (Mother laughs)” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-7/p-20 12: “And for Sri Aurobindo’s writings (not all), it is the same; there are certain things I had truly understood, in the sense that they were already understood far more deeply and truly than even an enlightened mentality understands them—they were already felt and lived—and now, they take on a completely different meaning. I read some of those sentences or ideas that are expressed in few words, three or four words, in which he does not say things fully: he simply seems to let them fall like drops of water; when I read them at the time (sometimes not long ago; sometimes only two or three years ago), I had an experience which are far deeper or vaster than that of intelligence, but now...a spark of Light suddenly appears in them, and I say, “Oh, but I had not seen that!” And it’s the whole understanding or CONTACT with things that I had never had before. It happened to me again just yesterday evening. And I said to myself, “But then...then there are in that certain things...we still have a long, long, long way to go to truly understand them.” Because that spark of Light is something very, very pure— very intense and very pure — and it contains an absolute. And since it contains that (I have not always felt it; I have felt other things, I have felt great light, I have felt a great power, I have felt something that already explained everything, but this is something else, it is something which is beyond), so I concluded (laughing), “Well, we still have a long way to go before we can understand Sri Aurobindo! ”” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-5/p-197-98, The complementary line related with the Mother’s above Spiritual experience: “As when before the eye that wakes in sleep Is opened the sombre binding of a book, Illumined letterings are seen which kept A golden blaze of thought inscribed within, A marvellous form responded to her gaze Whose sweetness justified life’s blindest pain; All Nature’s struggle was its easy price, The universe and its agony seemed worth while.” Savitri-679 This ‘Auroprem’s Savitri Study’ is still very far from the above-mentioned vision. Still, it aspires for a brief touch of all the multiple planes of Spiritual experiences. It has made an initial effort to live in Their untiring Divine influence, Divine company and Divine atmosphere which can substitute the tiring transitory human influence, human company and fragile human love. Savitri gives us this message that all aspiring man can ascend from mere man to the consciousness of ascending integral Godhead and this journey towards imperishable Light and lost lucent immensity, which can begin with the faint wealth of ecstasy and prayer, even when we lie embedded in ordinary earthly consciousness and fail to look into our Souls and culminates life that reposes in the Law of exceeding ecstasy. It has transcended the four kinds of exclusive Spiritual experiences followed by four-fold exclusive Ananda of traditional schools of Yoga and declares firmly that a joy becomes imperfect if it is not shared by all. (“Imperfect is the joy not shared by all.” Savitri-686, “Her light, her bliss he asked for earth and men.” Savitri-315) It has identified the power of human love and effort as vain to ‘break earth’s seal of ignorance and death’ (Savitri-315) and the all powerful Divine Love as ‘sealed book’ for developing Souls or the beginners of integral Yoga (“The doors of light are sealed to common mind” Savitri-689 and "To these high-peaked dominions sealed to our search,” Savitri-46 ) and does not rule out the transformation of human love into Divine Love through consecration and activation of higher instrumentation of the Spirit. (Our human "love has grown greater by that mighty touch” Savitri-719, "Our love is the heavenly seal of the Supreme." Savitri-633) The Power of Love has opened the door of swift Spiritual Evolution but has not yet intensified to conquer Death. Savitri drives Souls of strong to uncover that shadow-less Love to which Death and Fate will submit and is capable of bridging the gulf between the surface-physical life as we know it and the Supramental Ananda that will manifest. Before the manifestation of the Divine Love of Mahalakshmi, the Divine Power of Mahakali and the Divine Truth of Maheswari must be activated in the prepared human vessel. This swift Spiritual evolution of Mahakali can be activated by the reconciliation of Karma Yoga, representing Mahasaraswat i and Jnana Yoga , representing the Maheswari aspect of the Divine Mother. The Gita hints that by reconciliation of Karma and Jnana Yoga , entire purification of Nature, atma suddhaye (The Gita-5.11) is possible and a constant union with the Divine, nitya yukta , (The Gita-6.10, 7.17, 8.14, 9.14, 12.2) is practicable in the long run by transformation of lower Nature. This alone paves the passage clear for single-minded devotion, ekabhakti (The Gita-7.17) of Bhakti Yoga and the manifestation of the highest Divine Love of Sachchidananda Consciousness is practicable. The Permanent descent of Supreme Love from Sachchidananda Consciousness is the culmination of Savitri’s teaching and in the Mother’s experience, “Ultimately, nothing but omnipotence could convert the world, convince the world. The world isn't ready to experience supreme Love. Supreme Love eliminates all problems, even the problem of creation: there are no more problems, I know it since that experience [of April 13, 1962]. But the world isn't ready yet, it may take a few thousand years. Although it is beginning to be ready for the manifestation of supreme Power (which seems to indicate that this will manifest first). And this supreme Power would result from a CONSTANT identification…But this "constancy" isn't yet established: one is identified and then one isn't, is and then isn't, so things get delayed indefinitely. You wind up doing exactly what you tell others not to do – one foot here and one foot there! It just won't do.” (The Mother’s Agenda-04.07.1962) The Mother stresses that constant Divine union is linked to the difficult transformation of Nature; without this transformation, one can experience intermittent Divine union. The Mother stresses the constant penetration of the Divine Force into the material world, which is possible by bridging the gulf and building a passage in the intermediate planes of Consciousness. “To bring the Divine Love and Beauty and Ananda into the world is, indeed, the whole crown and essence of our Yoga. But it has always seemed to me impossible unless there comes as its support and foundation and guard the Divine Truth — what I call the Supramental — and its Divine Power. Otherwise, Love itself blinded by the confusions of this present consciousness may stumble in its human receptacles and, even otherwise may find itself unrecognised, rejected or rapidly degenerating and lost in the frailty of man’s inferior nature. But when it comes in the Divine Truth and Power, Divine Love descends first as something transcendent and universal and out of that transcendence and universality it applies itself to persons according to the Divine Truth and Will, creating a vaster, greater, purer personal love than any the human mind or heart can now imagine. It is when one has felt this descent that one can be really an instrument for the birth and action of the Divine Love in the world.” (CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-333) This personal Divine Love witnesses its acme when, after return from Death, Satyavan said to Savitri , "I have turned away from the celestials’ joy And heaven’s insufficient without thee." (Savitri-717) Before arriving at this ‘vaster, greater, purer personal' Supramental Love, one can experience the intermediate Psychic Love which is ‘Much sweeter seemed than any rapture known’ (Savitri-603) and its ‘momentary and escaping thrill’ (Savitri-603) cannot be recompensed by ‘Earth or all-conquering heaven.’ (Savitri-603) And also one can experience intermediate Spiritual love, which is ‘The Bliss that none can ever hope to taste.’ (Savitri-548) To recapitulate, this Auroprem’s Savitri study has emerged as a cradle of our hard Spiritual endeavour. We offer this study and practice to the Divine Mother and the Lord and pray Them to grant this temporary ladder without as a Soul-saving cradle of the long beginning of the Spiritual journey and help us to build a permanent scaffold within. With its help, the gulf between all the ten planes can be bridged and the highest Sachchidananda Consciousness can flow freely and abundantly into the Subconscient and Inconscient planes. Lastly, I offer this incomplete and unending exercise of ‘Auroprem’s Savitri Study’ at Their Lotus Feet with the conviction, "that true understanding comes later, after having tried to put it into practice." (The Mother's Centenary Works/Vol-12/On Education/p-204) Our motive for extensive study and practice of Their Teachings is to discover and trace out new Overhead Truth abundantly. OM TAT SAT At T heir Feet, S.A. Maa Krishna The Mother “....I am waiting—I am millions of years old and I am waiting (to complete the Divine task).” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-6/p-347, “Since the beginning of the earth, wherever and whenever there was the possibility of manifesting a ray of the Consciousness, I was there.” The Mother The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol-13/p-37, 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn Summary or A Brief Restatement: This Book-1, Canto-1 has much Spiritual importance as the content of the whole book is compressed in this single Canto. The Canto begins with the message from the beginning of this earth which is also ‘the hour before the Gods awake’ (Savitri-1) and ends with the message of the future earth when Satyavan will conquer physical death and this is also identified as the hour of 'a greater dawn.' (Savitri-724) The time spent from the beginning of creation to the end of creation, which is known as All Time, and the life spent through the subtle links of the union from the beginning of creation to the end of Divinised creation, known here as All Life. Satyavan, the symbol of the Supreme's Incarnation, is also a representative symbol of 'soul of man climbing to God' (Savitri-703) who searches only for Savitri , in each birth from the beginning of creation or 'Desiring me since first the world began.' (Savitri-614). Savitri, the symbol of purest Soul, who lives very close to earth's atmosphere always, either in the form of emanation or incarnation, has a single issue in each birth: 'This was the day when Satyavan must die.' She gathered and accumulated her Spiritual energy through all life and all Time which is symbolised here as ‘Twelve swift-winged months’ (Savitri-431) and ‘this day returning Satyavan must die.’ (Savitri-431) This accumulation of fourfold Soul-force and fourfold Spiritual Force in each birth is given utmost importance in the Yoga of Self-perfection, as hinted in Sri Aurobindo's principal Teaching, The Synthesis of Yoga . One may note that these accumulated Soul forces are not lost with the death of the body but accompany in successive births for the great purpose of Divine transformation and divinised life. The whole of Savitri is written from a plane of Cosmic and Transcendent Consciousness ("The calm delight that weds one soul to all," Savitri-6) where 'All grew a consecration and a rite' (Savitri-4) and all the ten subtle planes meet each other, linking earth and heaven. So this book gives us a lesson to learn 'the adventure of consciousness' (Savitri-2) and removes the gulf created between ten Selves and ten sheaths and the flow of persistent and slow dynamic Divine energy 'Persuaded the inert black quietude' (Savitri-3) to transform Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths. This Canto gives the bright foreknowledge of the advent of 'a marvellous birth' (Savitri-5) of the feminine Avatar, which is 'A Form from far beatitudes' (Savitri-4) of the Sachchidananda plane. Her Presence and Power are 'Too perfect to be held by death-bound hearts.' (Savitri-5) Her immortal work is 'to confront death on her road.' (Savitri-7) Even in the hour of grim meeting with death and fear, 'No cry broke from her lips, no call for aid;...Calm was her face and courage kept her mute.' (Savitri-8 ) 'Her spirit opened to the Spirit in all...The universal Mother's love was hers.' (Savitri-8) All the descriptions in this book are in symbolic language meant for undergoing inner Spiritual experiences. For a Sadhak of integral Yoga, Savitri and Satyavan live within his heart centre, and in each birth, he has to accumulate Soul Force for a confrontation with Ignorance, Falsehood, Suffering and Death. If we confine these symbols to literal and earthly meaning, it will be a Spiritual blunder that may culminate in 'the oblivion that succeeds the' (Savitri-3) Spiritual fall. The soul-saving non-escapist bare and absolute Truth revealed in Savitri (It recognises life initially as a field of manifestation in which there is a progressive evolution of the soul and the nature in Matter and finally the complete revelation of Sachchidananda in life.) is disturbing to the ordinary mind, liberated Souls, later Vedantists , Illusionists and Nirvanists . Hence, the Spiritual Message of Savitri is for strong and pure Souls who are destined to reconcile the Spirit and Matter of ancient Vedantic doctrine. The Savitri within or a Savitri Sadhak will not remain indifferent towards many Souls dying every day, and every moment, rather he will accumulate Spiritual energy in the spirit of confronting death in universalised Consciousness (in addition to a Psychic attitude of becoming a learner of the lesson of the unfolding of endless Truth and a Child in the hand of Divine Mother) as described here: " Although our fallen minds forget to climb, Although our human stuff resists or breaks, She keeps her will that hopes to divinise clay; Failure cannot repress, defeat o’erthrow; Time cannot weary her nor the Void subdue, The ages have not made her passion less; No victory she admits of Death or Fate. Always she drives the soul to new attempt; Always her magical infinitude Forces to aspire the inert brute elements; As one who has all infinity to waste, She scatters the seed of the Eternal’s strength On a half-animate and crumbling mould, Plants heaven’s delight in the heart’s passionate mire, Pours godhead’s seekings into a bare beast frame, Hides immortality in a mask of death." Savitri-354 A Sadhak's Consciousness will undulate between Universal and Transcendent Consciousness. When his Consciousness is in the Universal plane, he is intimately linked with world problems. When he moves to the Transcendent plane, he becomes a stranger to the world's problems, and the Transcendent energy will be aware of the Subconscient and Inconscient transformation, which is described as follows: (Savitri said to Death God) "A traveller of the million roads of life, His (Satyavan's) steps familiar with the lights of heaven Tread without pain the sword-paved courts of hell; There he descends to edge eternal joy. Love’s golden wings have power to fan thy void: The eyes of love gaze starlike through death’s night, The feet of love tread naked hardest worlds. He labours in the depths, exults on the heights; He shall remake thy universe, O Death.” Savitri-592 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “Immobile in herself, she gathered force. (Savitri utilised time and space exclusively for the accumulation of Spiritual energy.) This was the day when Satyavan must die.” Savitri-10 2 / Book 1, Canto 2 - The Issue Summary or A Brief Restatement: This Canto makes us aware of 'An absolute supernatural darkness' (Savitri-11) that visits the Soul of man while he moves toward God. This evil fate or doom is the child of the past negative energies and the accumulated Soul Force through sadhana, can travel back in time, and illumine the past obscurities and events. Thus, through each Divine intervention, the destiny is rewritten. Savitri is here the symbol of Spirit's Timeless dynamic Power, Paraprakriti, who 'Can lift the yoke imposed by birth in Time.' (Savitri-12) The issue is also, to exhaust 'An old account of suffering' (Savitri-13) and to arrest the wheels of earth’s "Doom this greatness rose.” (Savitri-19) Heaven protected Savitri’s virginity through her pure and dense subtle physical sheath which acted as a 'tranquil shield.' (Savitri-16) “To wrestle with the Shadow she had come” (Savitri-17) “Was her soul's issue thrown with Destiny's dice.” (Savitri-17) Soul and Nature are the dice players. Nature always meets life with Doom. To win the game in all life is the Soul’s issue which 'with her nude spirit measure the Infinite’s night.' (Savitri-13) In this play Soul has to accumulate extreme Spiritual force in the form of 'self's bare reality' (Savitri-14) or 'the superman casts its seed' (Savitri-19) to become mightier than all the material forces of the world and wrestles with them to compel its own transfiguration. This Canto also hints that Savitri had attained universalised Consciousness or 'The great World-Mother now in her arose.' (Savitri-21) This empowers her to open 'the door denied and closed' (Savitri-21) of dark Subconscient and Inconscient sheath and dislodges the past which acts as a block in her immortal journey. This activation of dynamic cosmic Consciousness 'reversed fate's cold dead turn' (Savitri-21) and bursts the bound nature of three Gunas of limited exclusive concentration and opens the door of triple time. Our task in sadhana is to make Death God's throne unsafe (Savitri-18) by undergoing Subconscient and Inconscient Transformation and to change this prison-house of the material world into the opulent kingdom, rajyam samruddham . (The Gita-11.33) OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: "Her will must cancel her body’s destiny. For only the unborn spirit’s timeless power Can lift the yoke imposed by birth in Time." Savitri-12 "The fixity of the cosmic sequences Fastened with hidden inevitable links She must disrupt, dislodge by her soul’s force Her past, a block on the Immortal’s road, Make a rased ground and shape anew her fate." Savitri-12 “Whether to bear with Ignorance and death Or hew the ways of Immortality, To win or lose the godlike game for man , Was her soul's issue thrown with Destiny's dice. But not to submit and suffer was she born; To lead, to deliver was her glorious part.” Savitri-17 “If once it (earth) met the intense original Flame, An answering touch might shatter all measures made And earth sink down with the weight of the Infinite.” Savitri-18 3 / Book 1, Canto 3 - The Yoga Of The Soul's Release A Brief Restatement: Now, Book-1, Canto-3 is the most important Canto for the beginners of Integral Yoga. Here it hints at how through King Aswapati’s movement of Psychic and Spiritual Consciousness, ten energy centres or ten Selves opened and their corresponding brief actions in the respective ten Sheaths, here known as ‘all Nature.’ Or 'All the world’s values changed heightening life’s aim.' (Savitri-42) It is understood that if one moves the Psychic and Spiritual Consciousness, then one develops the capacity to undergo brief Supramental and Brief Bliss Self experiences and by the pressure of these apex Selves, the Subconscient Self and Inconscient Self open. The opening of ten Selves and Their influence on ten sheaths: " A heavenlier function with a finer mode Lit with its grace man’s outward earthliness; The soul’s experience of its deeper sheaths No more slept drugged by Matter’s dominance." Savitri-27 Inconscient Self: "As a sculptor chisels a deity out of stone He slowly chipped off the dark envelope, Line of defence of Nature’s ignorance, The illusion and mystery of the Inconscient In whose black pall the Eternal (in the form of Inconscient Self) wraps his head That he may act unknown in cosmic Time.” Savitri-36 (the discovery of Inconscient Self) Subconscient Self: "In darkness’ core she dug out wells of light," Savitri-41 "A treasure was found of a supernal Day. In the deep subconscient glowed her jewel-lamp; Lifted, it showed the riches of the Cave Where, by the miser traffickers of sense Unused, guarded beneath Night’s dragon paws, In folds of velvet darkness they sleep Whose priceless value could have saved the world.” Savitri-42 (the discovery of Subconscient Self) True Physical Self: " Even his body’s subtle self within Could raise the earthly parts towards higher things And feel on it the breath of heavenlier air." Savitri-43 True Vital Self: " A deeper interpretation greatened Truth, A grand reversal of the Night and Day; All the world’s values changed heightening life’s aim ; A wiser word, a larger thought came in Than what the slow labour of human mind can bring, A secret sense awoke that could perceive A Presence and a Greatness everywhere." Savitri-42 True Mental Self: “Apart he lived in his mind’s solitude, A demigod shaping the lives of men: One soul’s ambition lifted up the race; A Power worked, but none knew whence it came." Savitri-44 Psychic Self: "His soul breaks out to join the Oversoul, His life is oceaned by that superlife." Savitri-24 Spiritual Self: " A beam of the Eternal smites his heart, His thought stretches into infinitude; All in him turns to spirit vastnesses." Savitri-23-24 “Always the power poured back like sudden rain, Or slowly in his breast a presence grew;” Savitri-35 Universal Self: " He has drunk from the breasts of the Mother of the worlds; A topless Supernature fills his frame: She adopts his spirit’s everlasting ground As the security of her changing world And shapes the figure of her unborn mights." Savitri-24 " A union of the Real with the unique, A gaze of the Alone from every face, The presence of the Eternal in the hours Widening the mortal mind’s half-look on things, Bridging the gap between man’s force and Fate Made whole the fragment-being we are here." Savitri-35-36 Supramental Self: “Inspired by silence and the closed eyes' sight (Supramental action of King Aswapati) His force could work with a new luminous art On the crude material from which all is made And the refusal of Inertia's mass And the grey front of the world's Ignorance And nescient Matter and the huge error of life." Savitri-36 “Hardly for a moment glimpsed viewless to Mind, (Brief Supramental experience.) As if a torch held by a power of God, The radiant world of the everlasting Truth Glimmered like a faint star bordering the night Above the golden Overmind’s shimmering ridge.” Savitri-41 Bliss Self: "A glory and a rapture and a charm, The All-Blissful sat unknown within the heart; (the King was not aware of the Bliss Mother coming down to live in the heart centre.) Earth’s pains were the ransom of its prisoned delight. A glad communion tinged the passing hours; The days were travellers on a destined road, The nights companions of his musing spirit." Savitri-43 This movement of Consciousness is complex in nature, and for our understanding purposes, we have simplified it. This is made on the basis of our study and understanding of ‘The Synthesis of Yoga’ book. First, by practising any of the triple Yoga, the Spiritual being opens and by the pressure of static Spirit or ascent of the Spirit, the universal Self, Supramental Self and Bliss Self open. By the pressure of dynamic Spirit, the Psychic being, and triple Selves of true Physical, true Vital and true Mental being open. By the pressure of the Supramental Self, the Subconscient and Inconscient Selves open. Thus, the movement of consciousness undulates between the Inconscient and Bliss plane. Through these movements, the ten Sheaths are purified, transformed, enlarged and perfected. The Gita hints at the movement of Consciousness from Kshara (Psychic) Purusha to Akshara (Spiritual) Purusha or from waking trance to non-waking trance, which substitutes the movements of consciousness between the three gunas. Then, after a long movement between the Psychic and Spiritual plane, one is considered fit to open the Supramental Self or Purshottama and Bliss Self, Paramatma . This triple movement of Consciousness hinted in the Gita is extensively developed in integral Yoga as movement between the ten Selves and their ten Sheaths. Now, in other Cantos, we will experience King Aswapati’s extensive movement in different planes of Consciousness, till King is established in Cosmic, Supramental and Bliss planes. For a higher Spiritual life, this Canto insists on calling down more and more silence, peace and calmness and to maintain equality in all circumstances and in all happenings. By maintaining these conditions, Consciousness can best experience its vertical movement by replacing the earlier circular and arrested movements of the three gunas . OM TAT SAT The Important Secret of this chapter: (Discovery of Spiritual Being and Universal Being) “Each action left the footprints of a god,” Savitri-23 “A spirit that is a flame of God abides, A fiery portion of the Wonderful, Artist of his own beauty and delight, Immortal in our mortal poverty.” Savitri-23 “As so he grew into his larger self,” Savitri-26 (Cosmic Self) “He neared the still consciousness sustaining all.” Savitri-32 “He comes unseen into our darker parts And, curtained by the darkness, does his work, A subtle and all-knowing guest and guide, Till they too feel the need and will to change. All here must learn to obey a higher law, Our body’s cells must hold the Immortal’s flame." Savitri-35 "At last was won a firm spiritual poise, A constant lodging in the Eternal's realm, A safety in the Silence and the Ray, A settlement in the Immutable. “ Savitri-36 (King Aswapati’s realisation of Spiritual Being, Akshara Purusha ) 4 / Book 1, Canto 4 - The Secret Knowledge A Brief Restatement: The King lived in the waking trance of Psychic being and non-waking trance of Spiritual being or "He travels on through waking and through sleep." (Savitri-72) Psychic being and Spiritual being have the capacity to call down brief Supramental energy and brief Bliss energy. This Canto also hints that by the brief action of Supramental energy, King's Subconscient Self and Inconscient Self opened or "With the Truth-Light strike earth’s massive roots of trance, Wake a dumb self in the inconscient depths." (Savitri-72) Here, the Secret Knowledge is divided into five parts. First part: This Canto hints that when we are unconscious and feel ourselves stagnant, there are parts of being that grow towards the Divine during that period. There is much hope here for the beginners of Yoga, which is identified as the first secret of Sadhana . “Even when we fail to look into our souls Or lie embedded in earthly consciousness, Still have we parts that grow towards the light, Yet are there luminous tracts and heavens serene And Eldorados of splendour and ecstasy And temples to the godhead none can see.” Savitri-46-47 When we live in darkness and our tamasic mind is the only lamp in that obscure field, there too, the Truth-Light enters like a thief and its charm and sweetness open many closed doors of our life. About this mystery we must be aware and open: "When darkness deepens strangling the earth’s breast And man’s corporeal mind is the only lamp, As a thief’s in the night shall be the covert tread Of one who steps unseen into his house. A Voice ill-heard shall speak, the soul obey, A Power into mind’s inner chamber steal, A charm and sweetness open life’s closed doors And beauty conquer the resisting world, The Truth-Light capture Nature by surprise, A stealth of God compel the heart to bliss And earth grow unexpectedly divine." Savitri-55 Its complementary lines are found in other Canto: (Savitri said after her Psychic being is Supramentalised.) “If the chamber’s door is even a little ajar, What then can hinder God from stealing in Or who forbid his kiss on the sleeping soul?” Savitri-649 (Divine said) “Even the many shall some answer make And bear the splendour of the Divine’s rush And his (Divine’s) impetuous (hasty) knock at unseen doors.” Savitri-709 When we live alone with ourselves, leaving our cherished guests outside, that is the condition of meeting the Divine and through the movement of Divine Consciousness, the gulfs between different subtle worlds are bridged. "In moments when the inner lamps are lit And the life’s cherished guests are left outside, Our spirit sits alone and speaks to its gulfs." Savitri-47 This first part of Secret Knowledge suggests that all men knowingly or unknowingly, consciously or unconsciously receive the Divine's touch but a few of them are capable of catching and holding the Divine flame and can lead a greater and higher Spiritual life. All can enter Supramental’s huge store for a very brief period with new creations, new inventions and new opulence at their disposal but none can stay in that world permanently. Only a few, who have a strong subtle and causal body can enter the Supramental world for a longer period and can descend into the Subconscient and Inconscient night for a longer period and experience conscious transformation. "A fire has come and touched men’s hearts and gone; A few have caught flame and risen to greater life." Savitri-7 "Only they knew what Mind could take and build Out of the secret Supermind’s huge store." Savitri-187 “There man can visit but there he cannot live.” Savitri-659 Second part: This Canto hints that for those who are aware of the above mystery, the Divine Chooses a few of them as His instrument and by the touch of His infinite Grace and Force, their frontal Nature is predominated by Silence, Stillness, Calm and Peace. "In the unfolding process of the Self Sometimes the inexpressible Mystery Elects a human vessel of descent. A breath comes down from a supernal air, A Presence is born, a guiding Light awakes, A stillness falls upon the instruments: Fixed, motionless like a marble monument, Stone-calm, the body is a pedestal Supporting a figure of eternal Peace.” Savitri-47 Third Part: Awareness of the Guardians of the Supramental world or World-Creators who oversee (1) Fate, (2) Chance, and (3) Divine Work through Divine Will. If we do this Yoga, then these invisible Guardians from the Supramental world will come down to help us, help in our ascent of the Soul, and give protection to our Sadhana life, they will help to change our destiny, transform chance into decreed Spiritual life and will expedite the Divine work, Divine Purification, transformation, and perfection. “A greater Personality sometimes Possesses us which yet we know is ours:” Savitri-47 “He (man) is ignorant of the meaning of his life, He is ignorant of his high and splendid fate. Only the Immortals on their deathless heights Dwelling beyond the walls of Time and Space, Masters of living, free from the bonds of Thought, Who are overseers of Fate and Chance and Will And experts of the theorem of world-need, Can see the Idea, the Might that change Time’s course, Come maned with light from undiscovered worlds, Hear, while the world toils on with its deep blind heart, The galloping hooves of the unforeseen event, Bearing the superhuman Rider, near And, impassive to earth’s din and startled cry, Return to the silence of the hills of God; As lightning leaps, as thunder sweeps, they pass And leave their mark on the trampled breast of Life.” Savitri-53-54 “Immaculate in self-knowledge and self-power, Calm they (Immortals) repose on the eternal Will. Only his (Divine Will) law they count and him obey; They have no goal to reach, no aim to serve. Implacable in their timeless purity, All barter or bribe of worship they refuse; Unmoved by cry of revolt and ignorant prayer They reckon not our virtue and our sin; They bend not to the voices that implore, They hold no traffic with error and its reign; They are guardians of the silence of the Truth, They are keepers of the immutable decree. A deep surrender is their source of might, A still identity their way to know, Motionless is their action like a sleep.” Savitri-57 Fourth part: The relation between the Creator and creation and the Creator’s blind love and care for the creation without seeing any of her defects, limitations and faults. This is also Prakriti Yajna, a Vedic Sacrifice, more powerful than Purusha Yajna, a Vedantic sacrifice. Prakriti Yajna is a very important sadhana for developed Souls. How the Creator is taking care of creation, and how He has made Himself a slave of her are most beautifully and most profoundly described by Sri Aurobindo , very rare in earth’s Spiritual history. This is identified as the fourth secret of Sadhana which culminates in discovering the relation of dual Avatara in our heart centre. We can practice this surrender literally as described in this Canto and will benefit most from this exercise. “As one too great for him he (Divine) worships her (Creation); He (Divine) adores her (Creation) as his regent of desire...” Savitri-62 “This whole wide world is only he and she.” Savitri-63 Fifth part: A seeker of truth is a world Adventurer and Voyager of multiple unknown oceans representing ten subtle bodies or sheaths and a Cosmologist exploring the obscure geography of three firm lands of surface life, mind and body. A Sadhaka must be a Kshatriya Soul force, having the courage 'to affront the far-off perilous main' (Savitri-70) and to fight outer and inner endless war and ready to bear inner and outer wounds that are slow to heal till he traces a path to the Supramental world with a new or transformed body and mind. Till this discovery, he carries Divine Mother's sealed orders and sails 'on Inconscient's fathomless sea.' (Savitri-71) In Ashram activity, most of the inmates are Shudra Soul force, they give service and hold Ashram living by practice of obedience but they recoil from any great unknown adventure. So the presence of a few more Kshatriya Soul Force is felt and with their help, the adventure of Consciousness can be expedited. "He is the adventurer and cosmologist Of a magic earth’s obscure geography." Savitri-69 “This is the sailor on the flow of Time, This is World-Matter’s slow discoverer, Who, launched into this small corporeal birth, Has learned his craft in tiny bays of self, But dares at last unplumbed infinitudes, A voyager upon eternity’s seas. In his world-adventure’s crude initial start Behold him ignorant of his godhead’s force, Timid initiate of its vast design. An expert captain of a fragile craft, A trafficker in small impermanent wares, At first he hugs the shore and shuns the breadths, Dares not to affront the far-off perilous main.” Savitri-69-70 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “The Spirit's bare and absolute potencies (Last perfection of integral Yoga.) Burn in the solitude of the thoughts of God.” Savitri-57 “With the Truth-Light strike earth's massive roots of trance, (Supramental light will strike the Inconscient sheath and penetrate into it.) Wake a dumb self in the inconscient depths (dumb self is the Inconscient Self) And raise a lost Power from its python sleep (lost Power is the Inconscient Self.) That the eyes of the Timeless might look out from Time And the world manifest the unveiled Divine.” Savitri-72-73 5/ Book 1, Canto 5 - The Yoga Of The Spirit's Freedom and Greatness A Brief Restatement : Here, the King’s adventure into Spiritual planes 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. This is the condition of complete union with the Divine and the King, after being established in Bliss Consciousness in Book-3, had the experience of complete union with the Supreme Mother or "Now other claims had hushed in him their cry: (other claims of desire Soul) Only he (King) longed to draw her presence and power Into his heart and mind and breathing frame;" Savitri-316 This Canto reminds us that ages have passed, 'But still no great transforming light came down' (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 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 '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 without the aid of any medicine. “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.42 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, troll, gnome, elf, imps, dwarf, genii, fury, ogre, 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.’18 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’33 and their privilege over the Gods are that in the evolution these rebellious children of the Divine Mother suffer Divine transformation of Nature (Where as 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, 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’7 and ‘the cosmic past.’8 “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 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 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) 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. 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 reduce the longevity of life by slow 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 do not open to give the experience of Oceans of Bliss. "A new life dawns, he looks out from vistas wide; The Spirit’s breath moves him but soon retires: His strength was not made to hold that puissant guest. All dulls down to convention and routine Or a fierce excitement brings him vivid joys:" Savitri-165 “Hardly a few can climb to greater life. All tunes to a low scale and conscious pitch. His knowledge dwells in the house of Ignorance; His force nears not even once the Omnipotent, Rare are his visits of heavenly ecstasy. The bliss which sleeps in things and tries to wake, Breaks out in him in a small joy of life:” Savitri-165 The Sixth Part: (Page 167 to 172) This Canto hints at the 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.' 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 (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, about which we get hints from the previous Book-1, Canto-3, Book-2, Canto-3, 5, 10, 11 and Book-3, Canto-1, 2. The narration is like this: “And sudden ecstasies from a world of bliss.” Savitri-31 (King Aswapati’s brief experience of Supreme Self.) “This world of bliss he (King Aswapati) saw and felt its call, But found no way to enter into its joy; Across the conscious gulf there was no bridge.” Savitri-128 “But now the Light supreme is far away:” Savitri-154 "It saw afar the unreached Immortal’s home And heard afar the voices of the Gods.' Savitri-258-259 "Far-off he saw the joining hemispheres." Savitri-264 “But who that mightiness was he knew not yet.” Savitri-306 “But what That was, no thought nor sight could tell.” Savitri-308 "And still the last inviolate secret hides Behind the human glory of a Form, Behind the gold eidolon of a Name. A large white line has figured as a goal, But far beyond the ineffable suntracks blaze: What seemed the source and end was a wide gate, A last bare step into eternity." Savitri-311 "Our greater self of knowledge waits for us, A supreme light in the truth-conscious Vast:” Savitri-484 (Savitri was preparing for this experience.) In the initial phase of the Sadhana, King was able to enter the last perfection (siddhi) of integral Yoga, known as Truth Supreme, but showed his inability to stay in that world for a longer period: “Upbuoyed upon winged winds of rapid joy, Upheld to a Light it could not always hold, It left mind’s distance from the Truth supreme And lost life’s incapacity for bliss.” Savitri-43-44 A similar difficulty is marked in Savitri's Spiritual experience of arriving at Supramental and Bliss Consciousness: "Then this too paused; the body seemed a stone. All now was a wide mighty vacancy, But still excluded from eternity’s hush; For still was far the repose of the Absolute And the ocean silence of Infinity." Savitri-543-544 A similar difficulty is observed in Satyavan's Sadhana while trying to bridge the gulf between this world and the Supramental world: "I lived in the ray but faced not to the sun. I looked upon the world and missed the Self, And when I found the Self, I lost the world, My other selves I lost and the body of God, The link of the finite with the Infinite, The bridge between the appearance and the Truth, The mystic aim for which the world was made, The human sense of Immortality. But now the gold link comes to me with thy feet And His gold sun has shone on me from thy face." Savitri-407-408 How can we enter this world of Bliss through the movement of Consciousness? Through the fourfold ladders of (1) waking Self, Virat , (2) subliminal Self, dream Self, Hiranyagarbha , (3) Supramental Self, Sleep Self, causal body, Susupti (4) Supreme Self, Turiya, the Consciousness of pure self-existence, we climb back through trance or deep meditation to this absolute Divine plane. More hints we can observe from this Canto:- 1) “Although more near to us than nearness’ self,… Hidden by its own works, it seemed far off, Impenetrable, occult, voiceless, obscure… Near, it retreated; far, it called him still.” Savitri-305 2) Without this Divine Presence, the world lived empty of its Mission, all things have no charm, no glory, no brightness, which can be compared as love after the beloved’s demise. (Savitri-305) 3) The Delight of this Supreme Self can satisfy life utterly. ‘Its absence left the greatest action dull, Its presence made the smallest (action) seem divine. When it was there heart’s abyss (desire Soul) was' (Savitri-305-306) fulfilled, purified, transformed and perfected. 4) When this Deity, the Anandamaya Purusha withdraws, the existence experiences dissolution or when the Psychic Being withdraws, the individual experiences the death of the body. During that period of dissolution the godlike fullness of Divine Instruments, Vibhutis, Avataras become the support of an impermanent scene. 5) The Canto proposes that to make the mind empty, vital silent and body plastic is the condition of continuous ascent of the Soul, continuous descent of Shakti and boundless change and further proposes to live like a newborn child or a zero formed where every hope and search must cease and nothing built could live. Then all the parts of Nature can transform into the image of Bliss Self. This is the adventure of Spirit within Matter’s Ignorance. Thus Spirit can hold the universe in the trance of its luminous insufficiency. 6) The separate Self or Psychic being must be Supramentalised by the invasion of the Supramental and Bliss Self and its sepatrative identity is lost and a Sadhak becomes egoless and becomes one with the Bliss Self or 'The separate self must melt or be reborn Into a Truth beyond the mind’s appeal.' (Savitri-307) By the influence of its Supreme Truth, the mind dies like a moth and one lives in a ‘fine and blissful Nothingness.’ (Savitri-307) 7) Before that supreme state all human glory, sweetness and harmony become unimportant and obsolete. Thus, by the attraction of this Supreme Self, the unsolved slow evolution of three gunas returns to its Divine Source from which all springs and all ceases. 8) The Supreme Self has no kinship with the dominant three gunas of the universe. Thus, in its vast consciousness, there is no external movement, no tamasic mind’s ignorant action, no rajasic mind’s indulgence in human love and no sattwic mind’s disinterested search for pure truth. All the false personalities born by the influence of three gunas perished before the nameless impersonal influence and oneness of the Supreme bliss Self. There remains only one Supreme Divine Mother without a second personality to substitute Her or “There was no second, it had no partner or peer; Only itself was real to itself.” (Savitri-308) This Oneness of pure existence is safe from the falsehood of ‘thought and mood’ and pure Consciousness is ‘unshared immortal bliss’ (Savitri-309) and dwelt alone, aloof, unique, bare and unutterably sole. This Being is formless, featureless, mute, occult, impenetrable, infinite, eternal, unthinkable and alone. 9) After the prolongation of this static realisation of the Supreme Self, King Aswapati became fit to meet the Dynamic state of the Divine Mother in Person or in Her personal embodied Form for a brief period, who alone can bridge the gulf between Matter and Spirit or Death and Immortality in their entirety. “All he had been and all towards which he grew Must now be left behind or else transform (by dynamisation of Supreme Self) Into a self of That which has no name.” Savitri-307 “A height was reached where nothing made could live, A line where every hope and search must cease Neared some intolerant bare Reality, A zero formed pregnant with boundless change .” Savitri-306 (This is the point at which Supreme Self is dynamised.) This Canto gives the message to a Sadhak that by realisation of static Supreme Self one will recoil from world problems and escape into the supreme Abode of Param Dham and by dynamisation of Supreme Self through prolongation of static realisation, the world problems can be resolved and untransformed Nature can be Divinised. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “A cave of darkness guards the eternal Light.” Savitri-305 (Here eternal Light is the Subconscient and Inconscient Self) “Nothing could satisfy but its delight: Its (Supreme Self’s) absence left the greatest actions dull, Its presence made the smallest seem divine.” Savitri-305 22/ Book 3, Canto 2 - The Adoration Of The Divine Mother A Brief Restatement: The Book-3, Canto-2, begins with the vast static silence state of Supreme Self, Turiya , Bliss Self, and ends with its dynamisation. This initial dynamisation can abolish and swallow the burdening tamasic need, the rajasic sense urge and limited sattwic knowledge without transforming that life. In this state, ego is dead with boundless silence of the Supreme Self but oblivious of Supreme Self's Power and world transforming Mission. This realisation is an escape from life's problems and does not bring victory and crown of integral Yoga. This realisation does not define the mystery of Avatar's Divine birth and Divine action, leaving unbroken the 'last chapter's seal' and 'still the last inviolate secret' (Savitri-311) and 'last bare step' is hidden. By the pressure of static Supreme Self, 'The soul’s ignorance is slain but not the soul:' (Savitri-311) This hints that by activation of the static Supreme Self Ignorance and Falsehood can be destroyed but cannot be transformed. In the absolute silence of static supreme realisation, 'an absolute Power' sleeps and the Sadhak's task is to awaken the trance-bound Soul linked with this static realisation and 'make the world a vessel of Spirit's force' (Savitri-312) and mould the clay into 'God's perfect shape.' (Savitri-312) The dynamic state of the Supreme Self perfects the action of Psychic Being, Spiritual Being and Supramental Being; its influence reduces or silences the demand of desire Soul, it turns all parts of being towards a single-minded quest and single-minded opening towards the Divine Mother Consciousness and it establishes the Bliss Consciousness in all the parts of Being and Becoming. The King here meets the Supreme Mother or Creatrix Bliss Mother as: "A being of wisdom, power and delight, Even as a mother draws her child to her arms, Took to her breast Nature and world and soul.... The Power, the Light, the Bliss no word can speak Imaged itself in a surprising beam And built a golden passage to his heart Touching through him all longing sentient things." Savitri-312 "A Mother Might brooded upon the world; A Consciousness revealed its marvellous front Transcending all that is, denying none:” Savitri-313 "The undying Truth appeared, the enduring Power Of all that here is made and then destroyed, The Mother of all godheads and all strengths Who, mediatrix, binds earth to the Supreme." Savitri-313 "The Formless and the Formed were joined in her: Immensity was exceeded by a look, A Face revealed the crowded Infinite." Savitri-314 The speciality of successive Canto (II and III) is the manifestation of the Supreme Self's dynamic Divine Love which can transform by slaying the desire Soul surrounding Psychic being and can transform the darkness of Subconscient and Inconscient sheaths. King Aswapati was able to transform the desire Soul represented by tamasic, rajasic and sattwic mind by elevating his consciousness to the Bliss Self and dynamising it (“The soul’s ignorance (desire Soul) is slain but not the soul:” Savitri-311, “Now other claims (of desire Soul) had hushed in him their cry:" Savitri-316,): “The covering Nescience was unmasked and slain;” Savitri-313, “To err no more was natural to mind; Wrong could not come where all was light and love.” Savitri-313-14 “All that denies (Supreme Love) must be torn out and slain And crushed the many longings (of desire) for whose sake We lose the One (Divine) for whom our lives were made.” Savitri-316, “All seemed to have perished that was undivine:” Savitri-318, “The covering mind was seized and torn apart;” Savitri-319, “But where is the Lover’s everlasting Yes,” Savitri-310, “Across the silence of the ultimate Calm, Out of a marvellous Transcendence’ core, A body of wonder and translucency As if a sweet mystic summary of her self Escaping into the original Bliss Had come enlarged out of eternity, Someone (Divine Mother) came infinite and absolute.” Savitri-312 “A moment’s sweetness of the All-Beautiful (Divine Mother) Cancelled the vanity of the cosmic whirl.” Savitri-312 “A love that bore the cross of pain with joy Eudaemonised the sorrow of the world, Made happy the weight of long unending Time, The secret caught of God’s felicity.” Savitri-312-133 “A Heart was felt in the spaces wide and bare, A burning Love from white spiritual founts Annulled the sorrow of the ignorant depths; Suffering was lost in her immortal smile. A Life from beyond grew conqueror here of death; To err no more was natural to mind; Wrong could not come where all was light and love. ” Savitri-313-14 “All here shall be one day her sweetness’ home, All contraries prepare her harmony; Towards her our knowledge climbs, our passion gropes; In her miraculous rapture we shall dwell, Her clasp shall turn to ecstasy our pain.” Savitri-314 “All that denies must be torn out and slain And crushed the many longings (of desire Soul) for whose sake We lose the One (Divine Love) for whom our lives were made. Now other claims (of desire Soul) had hushed in him their cry:" Savitri-316 The Divine Love is a supremely affirmative dynamic energy defined as ‘Lover’s everlasting Yes’ (Savitri-310) which can transform Inconscient/Subconscient negations known as ‘everlasting No’ (Savitri-310) without rejecting and destroying them, without slaying the Soul’s Ignorance, can transform the wheel of earth’s doom known as ‘cosmic whirl.’ (Savitri-310) It can bear the cross of pain with joy; transcends all the creation but denies none and can annul the sorrow of ignorant depths. It can turn pain into ecstasy, confront and conquer death, and transform falsehood. Before its Presence error of mind and wrong action cannot materialise and the mind becomes a faultless instrument of the Divine. All discords of life move towards harmony, all darkness of suffering is healed and this Divine Love can transform superseding earlier static Divine realisation which can crush and silence the many longing desires of mind, life and body. The Spiritual and Psychic Love can reject falsehood, Supramental and Bliss Love can transform falsehood and save the Soul, Mind, Life and Body. So, King Aswapati’s single-minded quest longed and yearned only the Supreme Divine Mother’s Presence in the form of Soul saving Truth, Love and Joy and ‘vast surrender.’ "All Nature dumbly calls to her alone To heal with her feet the aching throb of life And break the seals on the dim soul of man And kindle her fire in the closed heart of things." Savitri-314 "Once seen, his heart acknowledged only her . Only a hunger of infinite bliss was left. All aims in her were lost, then found in her; His base was gathered to one pointing spire." Savitri-315 "This Light comes not by struggle or by thought; In the mind’s silence the Transcendent acts And the hushed heart hears the unuttered Word. A vast surrender was his only strength. A Power that lives upon the heights must act, Bring into life’s closed room the Immortal’s air And fill the finite with the Infinite." Savitri-315-316 "Only he longed to draw her presence and power Into his heart and mind and breathing frame; Only he yearned to call for ever down Her healing touch of love and truth and joy Into the darkness of the suffering world. His soul was freed and given to her alone ." Savitri-316 This Canto gives the Sadhak , the task that, after stabiliastion of his consciousness in the Psychic, Spiritual and Universal planes, he has to ascend and enter the Supreme Self in absolute silence and dynamises it to meet the Supreme Mother in Her Personal form. This will help him to receive the fourth Divine Call of Paraprakriti's union with Apara-prakriti of transforming the nether Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths. "In her confirmed because transformed in her, Our life shall find in its fulfilled response Above, the boundless hushed beatitudes, Below, the wonder of the embrace divine ." Savitri-315 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “In absolute silence sleeps an absolute Power. Awaking, it can wake the trance-bound soul And in the ray reveal the parent sun:” Savitri-311-12 23/ Book 3, Canto 3 - The House Of The Spirit And New Creation A Brief Restatement: In the Book-3, Canto-3, King was able to dynamise the Supramental Force of having four consequences through ‘downward look’ (Savitri-322) and by embracing all existence. They are identified as (1) new creation, (2) extinction of suffering, (3) oneness with the existence and (4) transformation of Subconscient and inconscient sheaths. 1: New Creation: Supramental touch/embrace will equip life with new creation and new manifestation which may be identified as an extension of integral Karma Yoga . The source of all action is Consciousness or ‘The one Consciousness that made the world was seen’ (Savitri-318) These new creations are: A new and marvellous creation rose.” Savitri-323 “In these new worlds projected he became” Savitri-325 “A stream ever new-born that never dies,” Savitri-325 “Lured at each turn by new vicissitudes To self-discovery that could never cease.” Savitri-328 “Brought new creations for the thought’s surprise” Savitri-328 “And vast adventure into thinking shapes And trial and lure of a new living’s dreams.” Savitri-328 “A new creation from the old shall rise,” Savitri-330 2: Extinction of Suffering: Supramental touch/embrace can transform the suffering of life. This can be identified as the extension of integral Bhakti Yoga . They are: “No suffering of hearts compelled to beat” Savitri-321 “He felt the extinction of the world’s long pain,” Savitri-322 “All struggle was turned to a sweet strife of love” Savitri-324 “There was no sob of suffering anywhere; Experience ran from point to point of joy: Bliss was the pure undying truth of things. All Nature was a conscious front of God:” Savitri-324 3: Oneness with All Existence: Supramental touch/embrace can give the experience of Oneness with all existence. This is identified as an extension of integral Jnana Yoga and this perfection is identified as sajujya mukti . We can observe them from the following lines: “There was no more division’s endless scroll; One grew the Spirit’s secret unity , All Nature felt again the single bliss.” Savitri-319 “His soul was a delegation of the All (Psychic being as a delegate of Supreme.) That turned from itself to join the one Supreme .” Savitri-319 “A living Oneness widened at its core” Savitri-322 “Existence found its truth on Oneness’ breast” Savitri-322-23 “The great world-rhythms were heart-beats of one Soul ,” Savitri-323 “Lived their innumerable unity ;” Savitri-323 “There were no contraries, no sundered parts, All by spiritual links were joined to all And bound indissolubly to the One :” Savitri-323 “There Oneness was not tied to monotone;” Savitri-324 “And made of difference oneness’ smiling play; It made all persons fractions of the Unique, ” Savitri-324 “There leaps out unity’s supreme delight ” Savitri-324 “Harmonised a Oneness deep, immeasurable.” Savitri-325 “The bliss of a myriad myriads who are one .” Savitri-325 “An image cast by one deep truth’s absolute, Married to all in happy difference... One in the might and joy of multitude. Even in the poise where Oneness draws apart To feel the rapture of its separate selves, The Sole in its solitude yearned towards the All And the Many turned to look back at the One .” Savitri-326 “In the temple of the ideal shrined the One :… The virgin forms through which the Formless shines,” Savitri-327 4: Transformation of Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths: Supramental touch/embrace or ‘constant lightnings of the spirit’ (Savitri-329) can penetrate the Subconscient and inconscient sheaths. This is identified as an extension of the integral Yoga of Self-perfection. They are: “And in subconscious whispers and in dream Still murmured at the mind’s and spirit’s choice. Its treacherous elements spread like slippery grains Hoping the incoming Truth might stumble and fall,” Savitri-317 “All Nature’s recondite (little known) spaces were stripped bare, All her dim crypts and corners searched with fire Where refugee instincts and unshaped revolts Could shelter find in darkness’ sanctuary Against the white purity of heaven’s cleansing flame.” Savitri-318 “All seemed to have perished that was undivine: Yet some minutest dissident might escape And still a centre lurk of the blind force. For the Inconscient too is infinite; The more its abysses we insist to sound, The more it stretches, stretches endlessly.” Savitri-318 “For even there (dim far universe) the boundless Oneness dwells To its own sight unrecognisable, It lived still sunk in its own tenebrous (dark shadowy or obscure) seas, Upholding the world’s inconscient unity Hidden in Matter’s insentient multitude.” Savitri-331 “It merges knowledge in the inconscient deep; Accepting error, sorrow, death and pain, It pays the ransom of the ignorant Night, Redeeming by its substance Nature’s (Spiritual) fall.” Savitri-331 “Himself he knew and why his soul had gone Into earth’s passionate obscurity To share the labour of an errant Power Which by division hopes to find the One.” Savitri-331 : His heart lay somewhere conscious and alone Far down below him like a lamp in night; Abandoned it lay, alone, imperishable, Immobile with excess of passionate will, His living, sacrificed and offered heart Absorbed in adoration mystical, Turned to its far-off fount of light and love.” Savitri-331-332 “In the centre of his vast and fateful trance Half-way between his free and fallen selves, Interceding twixt God’s day and the mortal’s night, Accepting worship as its single law, Accepting bliss as the sole cause of things, Refusing the austere joy which none can share, Refusing the calm that lives for calm alone, To her (Paraprakriti) it turned for whom it willed to be.” Savitri-332 “Armed with the intuition of a bliss To which some moved tranquillity was the key, It persevered through life’s huge emptiness Amid the blank denials of the world.” Savitri-332-33 The perfection’s law promises movement in between ‘hierarchy of lucent planes’ (Savitri-326) of Consciousness and ensures swift Spiritual evolution. This Inconscient transformation is very crucial in deciding Earth’s future. For such transformation to be active individuals must be established in Supramental Consciousness through Yoga of Self-perfection. To tear desire from its Inconscient root is identified as 'A last and mightiest transformation' (Savitri-318) of King Aswapati . A similar mighty transformation visited Savitri when 'The world’s darkness had consented to Heaven-light.' (Savitri-664) "Then lest a human cry should spoil the Truth He tore desire up from its bleeding roots And offered to the gods the vacant place. Thus could he bear the touch immaculate. A last and mightiest transformation came. " Savitri-318 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “In the temple of the ideal shrined the One: It peopled thought and mind and happy sense Filled with bright aspects of the might of God And living persons of the one Supreme, The speech that voices the ineffable, The ray revealing unseen Presences, The virgin forms through which the Formless shines ,” Savitri-327 24/ Book 3, Canto 4 - The Vision And The Boon A Brief Restatement: In the Book-3, Canto-4, the King Aswapati entered a Supramental world and through a Supramental vision met the ‘mighty face’ (Savitri-334) of the Divine Mother in his heart. This also symbolises that the King’s Psychic Being is Supramentalised. "An Influence had approached the mortal range, A boundless Heart was near his longing heart, A mystic Form enveloped his earthly shape.... The One he worshipped was within him now:" Savitri-334 The Divine Mother discouraged King to call down immeasurable Divine Force and man is not ready to bear the Infinite’s weight. She asked King to live with the slow-paced evolution of humanity and accept God-like toil for earth and men with patience. She further informed that a static Soul realisation of later Vedantists and the influence of three gunas of ordinary life have made a world estranged from life and thought. The Divine Mother describes elaborately the limitation of present humanity who cannot reconcile heaven with earth. The infallible Guide leads all the Souls through stumble and failure and till they discover their Psychic being, 'rest and earthly ease' (Savitri-339) are forbidden. "The goal recedes, a bourneless vastness calls Retreating into an immense Unknown; There is no end to the world’s stupendous march, There is no rest for the embodied soul. It must live on, describe all Time’s huge curve. An Influx presses from the closed Beyond Forbidding to him rest and earthly ease, Till he has found himself he cannot pause." Savitri-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 All Life and All Time and not in this life and not in this brief time. Then King’s prayer again rises to activate dynamic Divine Shakti who came to him in Supramental vision (Light floated round the marvellous Vision’s brow. Savitri-346) to fulfil his aspiration for earth and men. King saw ‘Omnipotent’s flaming pioneers,’ (Savitri-343) ‘the sun-eyed children of a marvellous dawn’, who came into this fallen human sphere as architects of Immortality. “Their tread one day shall change the suffering earth.” (Savitri-344) The King foresaw the coming of the high Divine successor, the Avatara, Satyavan . ‘He shall know’ (Savitri-344) what the heart of the mortal could not think, ‘He shall do what the heart of the mortal could not dare.’ (Savitri-344) The King prayed to the Divine Mother to ‘Mission to earth some living form’ (Savitri-345) of Her who ‘with one gesture change all future time.’ (Savitri-345) The Divine Mother was satisfied with the King’s Tapasya , askesis and consecration and agreed to incarnate Her living form on earth and She shall ‘break the iron Law, Change Nature’s doom by the lone spirit’s power.’ (Savitri-346) "She shall bear Wisdom in her voiceless bosom, Strength shall be with her like a conqueror’s sword And from her eyes the Eternal’s bliss shall gaze. A seed shall be sown in Death’s tremendous hour, A branch of heaven transplant to human soil; Nature shall overleap her mortal step; Fate shall be changed by an unchanging will.” Savitri-346 Thus, King was the eternal Seeker of Truth, Love and Power of All Life. Through him, great swift-footed deed awoke. His Supramentalised Psychic Being established the empire of the Soul, who also can conquer the opulence and wealth of heaven. His empire of Soul can rule Matter and the bounded universe and can reconcile Spirit with Matter. The literal meaning of King’s name is ‘The Lord of Life’ (Savitri-348) and he resumed his mighty Supramental action again in this ambiguous globe. Thus, ends the Book-3, Canto-4. In the next Canto, we shall witness the secret of the Divine Mother’s earthly embodiment which the Lord of the Gita confirms that ‘My birth and My work are both Divine’ janma karma cha me divyam . Savitri’s birth is the symbol of Para-prakriti’s movement in an earthly embodiment which is ‘A columned shaft of fire and light.' (Savitri-581) Satyavan’s birth is the symbol of Paramatma’s earthly incarnation of 'unknown Lover' (Savitri-374). And Their meeting symbolises the union between Supreme Mother and Supreme Purusha in our heart centre as 'incarnate dual Power.' (Savitri-705) Their task is to repeat King Aswapti's following Subconscient transformation experience: "A divinising stream possessed his veins, His body’s cells awoke to spirit sense, Each nerve became a burning thread of joy: Tissue and flesh partook beatitude. Alight, the dun unplumbed subconscient caves Thrilled with the prescience of her longed-for tread And filled with flickering crests and praying tongues." Savitri-334 This Canto proposes a Sadhak to become 'A wanderer from the occult invisible suns' (Savitri-348) substituting the earlier habit of outer wandering. King Aswapati's outer wandering reduced after his realisation of universal Self or 'Humanity framed his movements (outer wandering) less and less.' (Savitri-26) This we notice in Savitri after she discovered Divine Love from without in the form of Satyavan , she declared firmly, 'Now of more wandering it has no need.' (Savitri-412) OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “Flashing with lightnings, mad with luminous wine.” Savitri-334 “He shall know what mortal mind barely durst think, He shall do what the heart of the mortal could not dare. Inheritor of the toil of human time, He shall take on him the burden of the gods; All heavenly light shall visit the earth’s thoughts, The might of heaven shall fortify earthly hearts; Earth’s deeds shall touch the superhuman’s height, Earth’s seeing widen into the infinite.” Savitri-344 “One moment fill with thy eternity, Let thy infinity in one body live, All-Knowledge wrap one mind in seas of light, All-Love throb single in one human heart.” Savitri-345 25/ Book 4, Canto 1 - The Birth And Childhood Of The Flame A Brief Restatement: The Book-4, Canto-1 symbolically represents the mystery of the Godhead’s birth. The Divine Mother, when incarnated in an earthly body, her birth, childhood, youth and rest of her life are guided by the influence of higher Nature, Para-prakriti. Deluded Souls do not understand this mystery of Divine birth and consider Desire (The Gita-16.8) as the sole cause of this world existence. In the Mother’s womb, Savitri spent three (five) thoughtful seasons of nine (ten) months before her mighty birth in the Spring season. Here seasons of summer, monsoon, autumn, winter, dew-time and spring are described not as a dead mechanical cycle but as a living deity, the force of the Divine Mother who participated in building the physical frame of Savitri . Savitri’s growth in the mother’s womb took place by ‘A mightier influx (that) filled the oblivious clay’ (Savitri-353) and after her birth her dim cave of Subconscient and inconscient sheaths were flooded with ‘slow conscient light’; (Savitri-355) her lovelier body was formed by the new descent of Divine Love and new Delight; her sense was purified by the pressure of Psychic being. Invisible Supramental sunlight ran through her veins and the same light flooded her brain with heavenly brilliances. This Canto suggests that in child Savitri the Mind of Light became active which lies in between Overmind and Supermind. Her surface Nature was also divinised or “Nearer the godhead to the surface pressed.’ (Savitri-357) She lived self-guarded and self-protected in the Spirit’s silence and in her luminous cell. "A mind of light , a life of rhythmic force, A body instinct with hidden divinity Prepared an image of the coming god; And when the slow rhyme of the expanding years And the rich murmurous swarm-work of the days Had honey-packed her sense and filled her limbs, Accomplishing the moon-orb of her grace, Self-guarded in the silence of her strength Her solitary greatness was not less." Savitri-357 Her pure aspiration called high Spiritual destiny down and she was able to guard the Truth’s diamond throne from the vigil tower. Her Supramental love invisibly embraced all without any sign and word and sound. Due to her half-opened Psychic being, many high Gods preferred to live in her Psychic temple. Her body is like heaven’s transparent light, a golden bridge between heaven and earth and she can walk alone with her strange and starry head in the deepest Night. "A scout of victory in a vigil tower, Her aspiration called high destiny down; A silent warrior paced in her city of strength Inviolate, guarding Truth’s diamond throne ." Savitri-358 "Many high gods dwelt in one beautiful home; Yet was her nature’s orb a perfect whole, Harmonious like a chant with many tones, Immense and various like a universe." Savitri-358 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “The strong Inhabitant turned to watch her field A lovelier light assumed her spirit brow And sweet and solemn grew her musing gaze; Celestial-human deep warm slumbrous fires Woke in the long fringed glory of her eyes Like altar-burnings in a mysteried shrine.” Savitri-357 “A nectarous haloed moon her passionate heart Loved all and spoke no word and made no sign, (Her universal Love needs no external aid and expression.) But kept her bosom’s rapturous secrecy A blissful ardent moved and voiceless world.” Savitri-358 26/ Book 4, Canto 2 - The Growth Of The Flame A Brief Restatement: The Book-4, Canto-2 gives an account of (1) Savitri’s state of Consciousness of young Divinity, (2) the state of consciousness of her followers and devotees, (3) the gulf between Savitri and her followers, (4) a desperate attempt to bridge those gulfs, (5) Spiritual fall down and (6) discouragement of gathering together of devotees for a Divine purpose. 1: Savitri’s Soul and Nature were equally Divinised and she was waiting to find her destined equal Soul: “But mid this world, these hearts that answered her call, None could stand up her equal and her mate. In vain she stooped to equal them with her heights, Too pure that air was for small souls to breathe. These comrade selves to raise to her own wide breadths Her heart desired and fill with her own power That a diviner Force might enter life, A breath of Godhead greaten human time.” Savitri-365-66 “Her greater self lived sole, unclaimed, within.” Savitri-366 “Among the many who came drawn to her Nowhere she found her partner of high tasks, The comrade of her soul, her other self (second Self) Who was made with her, like God and Nature, one .” Savitri-366 "No equal heart came close to join her (Savitri’s) heart, No transient earthly love assailed her calm, No hero passion had the strength to seize; No eyes demanded her replying eyes.” Savitri-367 2: The Personality of her admirers, followers and devotees: “Only a few responded to her call: Still fewer felt the screened divinity And strove to mate its godhead with their own, Approaching with some kinship to her heights.” Savitri-362 “They could not keep up with her tireless step; Too small and eager for her large-paced will, Too narrow to look with the unborn Infinite’s gaze Their nature weary grew of things too great.” Savitri-363 “Others pursued her with life’s blind desires And claiming all of her as their lonely own, Hastened to engross her sweetness meant for all. As earth claims light for its lone separate need Demanding her for their sole jealous clasp, They asked from her movements bounded like their own And to their smallness craved a like response. Or they repined that she surpassed their grip, And hoped to bind her close with longing’s cords. Or finding her touch desired too strong to bear They blamed her for a tyranny they loved, Shrank into themselves as from too bright a sun, Yet hankered for the splendour they refused. Angrily enamoured of her sweet passionate ray The weakness of their earth could hardly bear, They longed but cried out at the touch desired Inapt to meet divinity so close, Intolerant of a Force they could not house. Some drawn unwillingly by her divine sway Endured it like a sweet but alien spell; Unable to mount to levels too sublime, They yearned to draw her down to their own earth. Or forced to centre round her their passionate lives, They hoped to bind to their heart’s human needs Her glory and grace that had enslaved their souls.” Savitri-365 3: The gulf between Savitri and her admirers: “A friend and yet too great wholly to know, She walked in their front towards a greater light, Their leader and queen over their hearts and souls, One close to their bosoms, yet divine and far. ” Savitri-363 “Her will was puissant on their nature’s acts, Her heart’s inexhaustible sweetness lured their hearts, A being they loved whose bounds exceeded theirs; Her measure they could not reach but bore her touch, Answering with the flower’s answer to the sun They gave themselves to her and asked no more. One greater than themselves, too wide for their ken, Their minds could not understand nor wholly know, Their lives replied to hers, moved at her words:” Savitri-364 “Although she leaned down to their littleness Covering their lives with her strong passionate hands And knew by sympathy their needs and wants And dived in the shallow wave-depths of their lives And met and shared their heart-beats of grief and joy And bent to heal their sorrow and their pride, Lavishing the might that was hers on her lone peak To lift to it their aspiration’s cry, And though she drew their souls into her vast And surrounded with the silence of her deeps And held as the great Mother holds her own, Only her earthly surface bore their charge And mixed its fire with their mortality:” Savitri-366 “Admired, unsought, intangible to the grasp Her beauty and flaming strength were seen afar Like lightning playing with the fallen day, A glory unapproachably divine." Savitri-367 “All worshipped marvellingly (Savitri), none dared to claim.” Savitri-368 4: Desperate effort to bridge the gulf between herself and her admirers: “A mind daring heavenly experiment, Growing towards some largeness they felt near, Testing the unknown’s bound with eager touch They still were prisoned by their human grain: They could not keep up with her tireless step; Too small and eager for her large-paced will, Too narrow to look with the unborn Infinite’s gaze Their nature weary grew of things too great.” Savitri-363 “For even the close partners of her thoughts Who could have walked the nearest to her ray, Worshipped the power and light they felt in her But could not match the measure of her soul.” Savitri-363 “Or longing with their self of life and flesh They clung to her for heart’s nourishment and support: The rest they could not see in visible light; Vaguely they bore her inner mightiness. Or bound by the senses and the longing heart, Adoring with a turbid human love, They could not grasp the mighty spirit she was Or change by closeness to be even as she. Some felt her with their souls and thrilled with her, A greatness felt near yet beyond mind’s grasp; To see her was a summons to adore, To be near her drew a high communion’s force.” Savitri-363-364 “So men worship a god too great to know, Too high, too vast to wear a limiting shape; They feel a Presence and obey a might, Adore a love whose rapture invades their breasts; To a divine ardour quickening the heart-beats, A law they follow greatening heart and life. Opened to the breath is a new diviner air, Opened to man is a freer, happier world:” Savitri-364 “Her will was puissant on their nature’s acts, Her heart’s inexhaustible sweetness lured their hearts, A being they loved whose bounds exceeded theirs; Her measure they could not reach but bore her touch, Answering with the flower’s answer to the sun They gave themselves to her and asked no more.” Savitri-364 “They felt a godhead and obeyed a call, Answered to her lead and did her work in the world; Their lives, their natures moved compelled by hers As if the truth of their own larger selves Put on an aspect of divinity To exalt them to a pitch beyond their earth’s. They felt a larger future meet their walk; She held their hands, she chose for them their paths:” Savitri-364 “Some near approached, were touched, caught fire, then failed , Too great was her demand, too pure her force. Thus lighting earth around her like a sun, Yet in her inmost sky an orb aloof, A distance severed her from those most close.” Savitri-366 5: Spiritual fall: After meeting Savitri , those unable to recognise and hold her Divine Presence experienced a Spiritual fall. “Uplifted towards luminous secrecies Or conscious of some splendour hidden above They leaped to find her in a moment’s flash, Glimpsing a light in a celestial vast, But could not keep the vision and the power And fell back to life’s dull ordinary tone. ” Savitri-362 “Or with a slow great many-sided toil Pushing towards aims they hardly could conceive; Yet forced to be the satellites of her sun They moved unable to forego her light, Desiring they clutched at her with outstretched hands Or followed stumbling in the paths she made.” Savitri-363 "In man a dim disturbing somewhat lives; It knows but turns away from divine Light Preferring the dark ignorance of the fall ." Savitri-366 6: Discouragement of gathering together of devotees for a Divine purpose: In this Canto a Sadhak is discouraged from wasting his time in gathering together of people, lakasangraha, for a Divine purpose. It proposes to utilise time and space exclusively to accumulate Spiritual energy (Self-concentration) and by the movement of Spiritual consciousness, he does good of all creatures (Self-expansion). His one, only and best friend is his Psychic Being. "Whoever is too great must lonely live. Adored he walks in mighty solitude; Vain is his labour to create his kind, His only comrade is the Strength within.” Savitri-368 When a high Soul takes birth on earth, it becomes difficult for him to find an equal Soul, who can help him in accomplishing his Divine Mission of fourfold Divine union. Till the arrival of an equal companion or till the finding of a complementary Soul, he must live alone with his Psychic Being. The effort made to create, nurture and build an equal Soul is identified here as a waste of time. Savitri is a representative symbol of Incarnation and myriad Instruments and Emanations, always present close to earth’s atmosphere with the single mission of divinising the clay. This Canto proposes Divine’s Yantras, Vibhutis and Avataras , that they should not waste their time in building Soul of their own kind but to utilise time to accumulate Spiritual energy and canalise this Transcendent Force to earth and men. They will learn the lesson to depend on their own Spiritual energy rather than on collective force. In the long run, humanity will be prepared to divinise themselves and all the Divine opulence will be given to them. 7: The Gulf between Sri Aurobindo and His direct disciples: “It (Savitri) heralds the Supermind. But I had a feeling (after reading the last chapter of Savitri ) he (Sri Aurobindo ) had not completed his revision. When I read this, I felt it was not the end, just as when I read the last chapter of the “Yoga of Self-Perfection ,” (of The Synthesis of Yoga) I felt it was not finished. He left it unfinished. And he said so. He said, “No, I will not go down to this mental level anymore.” But in Savitri’s case… (I didn’t look after it, you know), he had around him Purani , that Chinmayi , and… (what is his name) Nirod —they all swarmed around him. So I didn’t look after Savitri. I read Savitri two years ago (1961), I had never read it before. And I am so glad! Because I read it at the time I could understand it –and I realised that none of those people had understood ONE BIT of it.” The Mother /The Mother's Agenda/13th March-1963 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “Earth nursed, unconscious still, the inhabiting flame, Yet something deeply stirred and dimly knew; There was a movement and a passionate call, A rainbow dream, a hope of golden change; Some secret wing of expectation beat, A growing sense of something new and rare And beautiful stole across the heart of Time.” Savitri-367 27/ Book 4, Canto 3 - The Call To The Quest A Brief Restatement: The Book-4, Canto-3, defines King Aswapati’s Mission known as ‘The Call’ and he made Savitri aware of her two important discoveries known as ‘The Quest’. King Aswapati again confirmed his mission for earth and men related to 'shadowless bliss.' (Savitri-340, 369) “Again the mighty yearning (of King) raised its flame That asks a perfect life on earth for men And prays for certainty in the uncertain mind And shadowless bliss for suffering human hearts And Truth embodied in an ignorant world And godhead divinising mortal forms.” Savitri-369 The King got the overhead direction or ‘from some far sky of thought’ which was received by ‘the echoing passages of his brain’ and this overhead wisdom ‘left its stamp (of Divinity) on the recording cells’ of the King and his ‘dim ignorant cells’ and ‘the blind brain’ (Savitri-375) received Divine transformation. The King got a blueprint of how he will realise the mission from above. The Fate-driven earth-born race will face the greatest opposition in realisation of the perfect life from the three Inconscient energies of gunas . The dwarf Sattwic mind will oppose the realisation of comprehensive Truth; the dwarf rajasic mind will oppose the realisation of tireless Divine Love and the dwarf tamasic mind will be satisfied with the attainment of ‘low-peaked height’ (Savitri-372) of consciousness. Inconscient’s mindless muddy water blocks all the action of Divine Will, Wisdom and Love. The man turns for little gains to ignorant Powers, kindles a light for demon face, loves ignorance fathering his pain and a great Illusion wraps his life. Even the descent of flaming light returns back to its home; none understands the Eternity’s direction and the luminous divine Eye retires from its action. The King has not lost confidence in humanity and hoped for his action with swift revealing Spiritual steps and fit all his actions to a transcendent scheme. The Godhead can grow within his heart and the Mighty Mother can stay permanently in the Psychic Heart Centre. Man must receive the Divine call to exceed himself. Earth life is an epic of hope and failure and she can exceed her form and fixed fate. Though she is a goddess, yet she is caught in the net of Death and forbidden joy . In the altar of despair, she builds hope; with the pains of hell, she aspires to joy and her high step can liberate all humanity. The King Aswapati , as Father and the Guru of Savitri , gave her double tasks of finding the Divine without and within. Firstly, she will tread a brief golden path with her second Self Satyavan , the lyrist of her Soul’s most intimate chords, mover of her force and guide. His Light will guard her from without and within and by holding his strong hand she can confront life’s extreme adversity. Secondly, she has to discover her Psychic being where the Supramental Mother can choose to stay permanently and with the power of the Psychic being, she can tread a sun-lit path followed by a journey in the abysmal night, dream twilight of Subconscient plane, permanent rise of Soul to Sachchidananda plane and permanent descent of Sachchidananda consciousness by returning to earth life along with Satyavan. This Canto also hints Savitri’s Psychic opening not by Vedic/Tantric self-discipline but by Vedantic Self-discipline where the Soul in the heart opened by the pressure/descent of Soul in the Mind or Spiritual Being, or ‘A hand from some Greatness opened her heart’s locked doors.’ (Savitri-375) In King, the Karma, Jnana and Bhakti are reconciled to such extent the all-overhead Power, Knowledge and Ecstasy rushed into his physical frame known as annamaya Purusha/annamaya Kosha and thus physical transformation or cellular change is experienced. “The Wise who know see but one half of Truth, (sattwic men) The strong climb hardly to a low-peaked height, (tamasic men) The hearts that yearn are given one hour to love.” (rajasic men) Savitri-372 “Thought, vision, feeling, sense, the body’s self Are seized unutterably and he (King) endures An ecstasy and an immortal change; He feels a Wideness and becomes a Power, All knowledge rushes on him like a sea:” Savitri-375 After Savitri knew that her unknown Lover was waiting for her the Unknown, the palace of Madra became empty of its sweetness, the sovereign of daily joys of life went far; her moonbeam feet touched not the lucent floors. The beauty and divinity were gone. Delight had fled to search for another specious world and future home. "For somewhere on the longing breast of earth, Thy unknown lover waits for thee the unknown. Thy soul has strength and needs no other guide Than One who burns within thy bosom’s powers. There shall draw near to meet thy approaching steps The second self for whom thy nature asks, He who shall walk until thy body’s end A close-bound traveller pacing with thy pace, The lyrist of thy soul’s most intimate chords Who shall give voice to what in thee is mute." Savitri-374 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: (Earth) “Knows that one high step might enfranchise (liberate) all” Savitri-371 28/ Book 4, Canto 4 - The Quest A Brief Restatement: Before discovering Divine within Savitri has to discover her Divine without. Before this Divine Call, the attraction of ‘Madra’s spacious halls, the white carved pillars, the cool dim alcoves, the tinged mosaic of the crystal floors, the towered pavilions, the wind-rippled pools and gardens humming with the murmur of bees’ became pale, unwanted and obsolete. In Book-4, Canto-4, Savitri leaves the palace in search of her ‘only Lord’ (Savitri-637) who can hold her comprehensive Divine Love, Delight and Beauty, collaborate in fulfilling her Divine Mission which is a manifestation of the Divine Will and call down Divine Wisdom, Truth and Light to guard her mission’s ‘diamond throne’ (Savitri-358) and adventure ahead in Consciousness like a pioneer to manifest the Divine life. He (the destined Lover) will give voice to what in her is mute and the lyrist of her 'soul’s most intimate chords.' (Savitri-374) We get some hints from this Canto related with the Spiritual destiny of a Sadhaka . They are divided into three parts. The Divine Destiny is made by (1) the intervention of Divine work and Divine descent of Wisdom, (2) the intervention of higher Beings (hooded godheads) (Savitri-377) who accompany him from his birth, (3) the intervention of 'all seeing Eye above,' (Savitri-378) the Divine architect. These three elements are responsible for building Spiritual destiny. If Sadhaka has realised Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental beings, then (4) beings of those planes will join with him as emanations of Divine Mother and they will further help to change the destiny. This Canto proposes a Sadhaka that before wearing the face of Satyavan to receive Savitri’s full Divine Love, he must develop/integrate the following twelve exclusive attributes (or twelve types of liberated Souls) through practices of multiple self-disciplines of traditional and integral Yoga. They are: 1: “The strong king-sages from their labour done, Freed from the warrior tension of their task, Came to her serene sessions in these wilds; The strife was over, the respite lay in front.” Savitri-381 2: “In the soul’s unprofaned star-white recess They sojourned with an everliving Bliss; A Voice profound in the ecstasy and the hush They heard, beheld an all-revealing Light. All time-made difference they overcame; The world was fibred with their own heart-strings; Close drawn to the heart that beats in every breast, They reached the one self in all through boundless love.” Savitri-381 3: “Nameless the austere ascetics without home Abandoning speech and motion and desire Aloof from creatures sat absorbed, alone, Immaculate in tranquil heights of self” Savitri-382 4: “The seers attuned to the universal Will, Content in Him who smiles behind earth’s forms, Abode ungrieved by the insistent days. About them like green trees girdling a hill Young grave disciples fashioned by their touch Trained to the simple act and conscious word, Greatened within and grew to meet their heights.” Savitri-382 5: “Bathed in the purity of the mild gaze That, uninsistent, ruled them from its peace, And by its influence found the ways of calm.” Savitri-382 6: “King-children nurtured in that spacious air Like lions gambolling in sky and sun Received half-consciously their godlike stamp:… Plastic and firm beneath the eternal hand, Met Nature with a bold and friendly clasp And served in her the Power that shapes her works.” Savitri-382 7: “One-souled to all and free from narrowing bonds, Large like a continent of warm sunshine In wide equality’s impartial joy, These sages breathed for God’s delight in things… The love that flows from the one Mother’s breast Healed with their hearts the hard and wounded world.” Savitri-383 8: “Drunk with a wine of lightning in their cells” Savitri-383 9: “Some lost to the person and his strip of thought In a motionless ocean of impersonal Power, Sat mighty, visioned with the Infinite’s light, Or, comrades of the everlasting Will, Surveyed the plan of past and future Time.” Savitri-383-84 10: “Some winged like birds out of the cosmic sea And vanished into a bright and featureless Vast: Some silent watched the universal dance, Or helped the world by world-indifference.” Savitri-384 11: “Some watched no more merged in a lonely Self, Absorbed in the trance from which no soul returns, All the occult world-lines for ever closed, The chains of birth and person cast away:” Savitri-384 12: “Some uncompanioned reached the Ineffable.” Savitri-384 Among the above twelve types of great exclusive liberated Souls, Savitri was unable to discover her Soul’s companion who was a symbol of comprehensive Divine Love: “Still she found not the one predestined face For which she sought amid the sons of men.” Savitri-385 Thus, in Savitri’s life, many months passed without discovering Satyavan (Paramatma in material embodiment). She has not lost hope and waited for the opportune moment of the destined meeting. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “August, exulting in her Maker’s eye, She felt her nearness to him in earth’s breast, Conversed still with a Light behind the veil, Still communed with Eternity beyond.” Savitri-381 29/ Book 5, Canto 1 - The Destined Meeting Place A Brief Restatement: This Book-5, Canto-1 gives the message that Savitri has to receive the Divine Love from without, from within and from above. They will bring complete fulfilment of her earth life and her mission of transforming earth will be expedited which is her long pending issue of all life. This Canto confirms that all the happenings of past, present and future life are not accidental but there exists a Divine plan and all events happen in the cosmic play in a foreseen time and place. "Unknowing she had neared her nameless goal… And nothing happens in the cosmic play But at its time and in its foreseen place.” Savitri-389 "These knew each other though in forms thus strange. Although to sight unknown, though life and mind Had altered to hold a new significance, These bodies summed the drift of numberless births, And the spirit to the spirit was the same." Savitri-398-399 We are given a brief time from cradle to grave to call down Timeless eternity and a small place to call down spaceless Infinity. Savitri’s birth and youth in Madra’s palace is the symbol of the ascent of the Soul to the highest status of Supreme Self and her return to Shalwa’s forest hermitage is the symbol of descent into nether earth in order to discover the last Godhead sleeping in the Inconscient sheath (Savitri-405) and this Godhead in the form of Inconscient Self can illumine earth life by its lone power or ‘lay his (man’s) hand on happy inconscient things.’ (Savitri-390) This Canto also proposes a Sadhak to become ascetic within symbolised as 'a soul retiring from the world' (Savitri-391) and ‘solitude far from the world’ (Savitri-391) with the realisation of Brahma Satya Jagat Mithya as the starting point of ‘sad and limitless (Divine) Call’ (Savitri-391) of the endless integral Yoga. OM TAT SAT The Important Secret of this chapter: "The Mighty Mother lay outstretched at ease. All was in line with her first satisfied plan; Moved by a universal will of joy The trees bloomed in their green felicity And the wild children brooded not on pain... Behind the rapt smile of the Almighty’s dance." Savitri-390 The More Important Secret of this chapter: “His (ascetic’s) vast extended spirit couched behind.” Savitri-391 The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “To lay his hand on happy inconscient things,” Savitri-390 “Love in the wilderness met Savitri.” Savitri-391 30/ Book 5, Canto 2 - Satyavan A Brief Restatement: Satyavan's surface personality was built from the accumulation of Soul Forces from his past births. " Noble and clear as the broad peaceful heavens A tablet of young wisdom was his brow; Freedom’s imperious beauty curved his limbs, The joy of life was on his open face. His look was a wide daybreak of the gods, His head was a youthful Rishi’s touched with light, His body was a lover’s and a king’s." Savitri-393 Satyavan’s early days in the Shalwa’s forest land were to think, act, enjoy and breathe like other mundane man and yet he had a brief partial glimpse of his deeper Self. If an individual's thoughts, actions and emotions are activated without the support and help of the Divine, then he is identified as a Mundane "Once were my (Satyavan’s) days like days of other men: To think and act was all, to enjoy and breathe; This was the width and height of mortal hope:” Savitri-406-407, Then a ‘truth was felt’ in his moderate life ‘that screened its shape from mind.’ (Savitri-407) A moderate is oblivious of future doom and is preoccupied with present moments. An awareness of future doom comes through vision, and by consecration, Divine union is experienced and the doom changes. The moderate Satyavan , who lived in the illumined Soul ray of God’s touch but was not ready to face the eternal Sun of His constant embrace. ('I lived in the ray but faced not to the sun.' Savitri-407) As child Soul or ‘infant Spirit’ (Savitri-716) he was unaware of two consenting world oceans of the Bliss/Supramental Self and the Subconscient/Inconscient Self. He later became ascetic Satyavan , when this surface concentration of the Divine ray penetrated heart and flesh. This ascetic Divine realisation could not bridge the gulf between Matter and Spirit. When he concentrated on the world, he lost the God and when concentrated on the God, he lost the world. With Savitri’s arrival this gulf was bridged and the consecrated Satyavan became King Child and was able to live and face the Sun light, representing Vijnana . And in the cosmic Consciousness of Vijnana , the Spirit and Matter are reconciled and Matter’s or physical body’s fixed death-bound destiny and grooves of Iron law are changed into the Spirit’s immortal all life. This is a passage from mere mundane man incarnating to the integral ascending Godhead of the race or ‘the soul of man climbing to God,’ (Savitri-703) and its destined saviour. Satyavan’s Godhead status does not prevent him from living ‘in one house with the primal beast’ (Savitri-541) in the forest, colloquies with the Djinn and Asuras of the Subconscient world; thus, in the Divine’s single plan ‘high meets the low’ (Savitri-541) or ‘God’s summits look back on the mute Abyss;’ (Savitri-541) accepts to be small and human on earth. This is the emergence of Lord Satyavan , for whom Savitri fought with dark Godhead in Death’s Night. Through this sacrificial action, the highest Divine Consciousness of the Avatar is reconciled with the lowest consciousness of the earth. Sri Aurobindo reveals Satyavan as a symbol of Divine Love (masculine Power). Divine love is an overhead energy that descends to Earth through a prepared human channel. When Divine Love enters earth’s atmosphere he is ‘Abased, disfigured, mocked’ (Savitri-397) by inferior beings. Tamasic beings (within and without) misunderstand the Divine Love, rajasic beings misuse the Divine Love and sattwic beings limit the action of Divine Love. The dwarf mind, life and body cannot hold the ineffable Divine Love in its pure form. Still, this Divine Love is held by 'A soul made ready through a thousand years' (Savitri-396) and 'He is still the godhead by which all can change.' (Savitri-397) Through this Canto, we can concentrate on dual Avatara’s supreme relation of Krishna and Kali in a mortal body. Even the experience of a brief touch of Divine Love is of immense value in our external life. The meeting of the Dual Avatara in the heart is also identified as a brief Supramental experience of uninterrupted intense immortal joy. The mortal body learns with much difficult training to wear this intense delight. This bliss is born after the awakening of the last Godhead of the Inconscient Self and it can transform and remake our all life. This Book-5, Canto-2 symbolically proposes a Sadhak to 'meet the ancient Mother ' (Savitri-393) and live in the matrix of new triple Time and new universalised Space of Cosmic Consciousness, where an incalculable amount of Divine Force, Truth, Light, Ananda, Love, Beauty, Peace and Silence invades into earth's atmosphere and to live without them is to return to the old world and mortal time subject to death, decay and disease. His rare privilege is to meet the dual Avatara in subtle physical, Psychic and Superconscient planes. "This golden figure given to his grasp Hid in its breast the key of all his aims, A spell to bring the Immortal’s bliss on earth, To mate with heaven’s truth our mortal thought, To lift earth-hearts nearer the Eternal’s sun. In these great spirits (dual Avatar) now incarnate here Love brought down power out of eternity To make of life his new undying base." Savitri-397 OM TAT SAT The Important Secret of this chapter: “The one for whom her heart had come so far.” Savitri-393 “For suddenly her heart looked out at him,” Savitri-395 “Then trembling with the mystic shock her heart” Savitri-396 “Heart feels for heart, limb cries for answering limb; All strives to enforce the unity all is.” Savitri-398 “Her heart unveiled and his to find her turned;” Savitri-399 The More Important Secret of this chapter: “The chariot stood like an arrested wind. And Satyavan looked out from his soul’s doors And felt the enchantment of her liquid voice Fill his youth’s purple ambience and endured The haunting miracle of a perfect face.” Savitri-396 “A forehead that wore the crown of all her (Savitri’s) past, Two eyes her constant and eternal stars, Comrade and sovereign eyes that claimed her soul, Lids known through many lives, large frames of love.” Savitri-396 The Most Important Secret of this chapter: "A mystery wakes in our inconscient stuff, A bliss is born that can remake our life.” Savitri-397-398 31/ Book 5, Canto 3 - Satyavan And Savitri A Brief Restatement: Sri Aurobindo was able to accommodate His (and also The Mother’s ) all life’s comprehensive high Spiritual Visions and experiences in symbolic characters of incarnations, emanations and instruments, depicted from the legendary epic Mahabharata where Savitri , the descending Godhead, Avatara, the all Mother, the Mother of all Time, Paraprakriti, knew her fiery Self and her Being’s aim of pursuing the Soul of earth, symbolised as Satyavan in his earthly form in each birth and in all life. She glimpsed the glory for which she had chosen earth and its atmosphere for a gradual and subsequently constant, intense, comprehensive and instantaneous total descent of Divine attributes of Truth-Light, Power, Wisdom and Delight. She keeps her will alive to drive human Souls and fills in their brute elements, the endless hope to Divinise clay and confronts the riddle of Birth, inevitable Death, grooves of iron Law and stone eyes of fixed Fate in them with the sheer power of her unchanging Soul force manifested as living fire of Divine Love. She has chosen the Souls who have long suffered on this harsh globe, for the field of her sacrifice and action and she is even ready to walk and waste all infinity with wounded feet to accomplish her seemingly impossible task of transforming earth’s shadow, fixed destiny, grooves of iron Law, meaningless suffering, splendid failure, twilight and grey inhibitions. She leans with pity over earth-bound men in order to share the burden of ‘earth’s struggle and fate.’ Satyavan , a mere man of action, a woodsman, Nara, Jivatma , raised his consciousness to the status of the ascending integral Godhead, Avatara, Narayana , by the Power of consecration and loss of ego and was destined to fulfill Savitri’s mighty Mission of bridging the gulf between Heaven, Earth and Hell. He was also the Eternal Consciousness, a unique rare treasure loaned by Gods, who accompanied Savitri from the beginning of the creation as first ‘man and woman’ or first dual Incarnation and the Supreme had promised to grant physical immortality in all life when the first Avatara’s ‘heart dared death and suffered life.’ He continued his life in many successive births and bodies as ‘twin souls born from one undying fire’ of this mortal existence to endure in his human heart a million wounds representing the delegate Soul of earth. Through his long suffering in human form the God’s debt is paid. His Godhead status does not prevent him from living ‘in one house with the primal beast’ in the forest, colloquies with the Djinn and Asuras of the Subconscient world; thus in the Divine’s single plan he reveals solidarity with antagonist powers; ‘high meets the low’ or ‘God’s summits look back on the mute Abyss.’ He accepts the small and human personality of woodsman on earth and his small beginning witnesses the immense ascent of the Soul and immense descent of Shakti, leading the creation towards a mighty end. While tracing the path of immortality he signed salvation’s testament with his blood and broke into the dangerous and dark Inconscient’s depth and if he were to meet the Spiritual fall in the form of death while attempting to break the wheel of earth’s doom and before bridging the gulf between Heaven and Earth in order to balance the dark account of mortal Ignorance then this would be a great loss for humanity. Or an Avatara , as a delegate Soul of Heaven lent to earth must live a brief period in human history in order to trace and build a passage in intermediate ranges of consciousness so that a large section of humanity will be able to bridge the gulf between Heaven and Earth and reconcile Spirit with Matter with less effort. This work is further accelerated if Divine Love becomes active in earth’s atmosphere through action and interfusion of dual Avatara . His Divine work on earth of invasion of the series of Light and Love is treated unfinished and half done till all the evils are slain or transformed in their Inconscient home. In Savitri and Satyavan , Soul and Nature had realised equal Divine Presences and merged themselves in the oneness of wide harmony and balance. Their Spirit and body were glad, fulfilled through their union which drove them towards the discovery of ‘Love’s deathless moment,’ (Savitri-579) beings’ aim and richness extending over all Time. Their first meeting gives the most thrill by witnessing the dual Avatara in a secluded shrine of earth and in the secluded chamber of their heart who carry all the memory of their past births and their unfulfilled world task. From time to time or from the beginning of the creation, earth waits patiently for this destined meeting. Each meeting after the passing of many ages brings a new promise of Divine manifestation and the new hope becomes again visible in earth’s creatures. They had treasured the rich relation of their brief human birth through a subtle link of union or clasp of two eternities through many successive births and bodies of un-beginning past and felt the call of Spirit’s unending future joy; even they knew their Selves ‘older than the birth of Time.’ (Savitri-537) A vast intention of love’s unseen Presence has drawn these dual incarnating Powers closer in this life and their love asks them to wait endlessly as if they have all eternity ahead for their self-fulfilment. Together they have disdained from the God’s everlasting Night of Inconscient world and turned away from His everlasting Day of Sachchidananda plane and returned to Earth to wage a million wars against the universal dark rebel forces attached to present unstable existence, to bear the earth Mother’s ancient adversary, to bear ‘world’s intolerable wrongs’ (Savitri-701) and to accomplish their double task of raising the world to God’s deathless Light, a permanent ascent of Divine Consciousness and bringing down Divine Shakti to earth and men, a permanent descent of Divine Consciousness. Dyumatsena, the self-exiled King of Shalwa , father of Satyavan , is the Divine’s Conscious instrument, Yantra , here fallen blind, limiting his capacity to three gunas and walks lamely on this dangerous world with slow evolutionary mental footsteps. Through this Spiritual fall he has lost the celestial inner kingdom of seven immortal Selves and through that loss its kingdom of outer glory and opulence. Due to this adverse fate, he now sojourns a wiser life in the solemn rustle of the wood and his yearning towards All meets two solitudes (1) that of an outcast from the empire of the outer light symbolically represented as a crutch upon which his faltering-limb supports and he helplessly stumbles in the rushing speed of hasty Time and (2) lost to the comradeship of five galloping hooves of sense that of sound, touch, sight, taste and smell symbolically represented as his sightless blind identity. This double doom of his father compelled Satyavan to live in the high peopled loneliness of the Spirit which called the Divine Mother to enter his earthly life in human form and finally helped his long pure childhood’s lonely dream to restore King Dyumatsena’s steady royal walk in high dynamic outer Kingdom and a deeper visionary eye of Divine Wisdom. Restoration of the outer Kingdom was also the outcome of his revival of the inner kingdom through sadhana in double seclusion. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “Her beating heart a remembrance of bliss” Savitri-410 “Each now was a part of the other’s unity, The world was but their twin self-finding’s scene Or their own wedded being’s vaster frame.” Savitri-411 “Oneness must sever its recovered bliss Or fate sunder (divide) our lives while life is ours.” Savitri-412 32/ Book 6, Canto 1 - The Word Of Fate A Brief restatement : This book (with its two Cantos) deals with the question of Fate, its source, its effect on our lives and whether it can be conquered. It also deals with problem of pain, the reason for its existence and when it will leave the scene. In this Book-6, Canto-1 (and also Canto-2) a reconciliation of moderate Spirituality represented by Savitri’s birth Mother, ancient Vedantic Spirituality represented by King Aswapati and Savitri , Overmental Spirituality of God represented by Narad are observed. Moderate Spirituality aims at escaping from problems of existence and extreme adversity through partial Divine union whereas ancient Vedantic Spirituality aims at resolving the problems of existence and confronting with extreme adversity of life through comprehensive Divine union. Overmental Gods have a role of helping men through foreknowledge and strengthening the Soul force of strong Souls and forcing weak Souls to experience Spiritual fall. Narad proposes that if one could live in the exceeding joy of the Self then doom might sleep in his life; this doom hunts and captures men when they remain unconscious of their Divine existence; if Savitri’s heart could be permanently imprisoned in the Supramental world and if she could live in the highest consciousness and exceeding bliss in her conscious waking state then doom might have slept permanently in her life and subsequently from earth’s life. He also proposes that this exceeding Bliss must be routed to man’s life through the opening of the Inconscient Self and the discovery of Divine Love hidden in the Inconscient Sheath or ‘Love that broods within the dim abyss.’ (Savitri-416) Narad’s arrival also calls down the future Supramental world and the promise of transformation of dark energies of the Subconscient and inconscient world: “And as he sang the demons wept with joy Foreseeing the end of their long dreadful task And the defeat for which they hoped in vain, And glad release from their self-chosen doom And return into the One from whom they came.” Savitri-417 Ancient Vedantists have the conviction ‘Only for good the secret Will can work’ (Savitri-424) and ‘I am stronger than death and greater than my fate.’ (Savitri-432) Others do not have this faith as they have no strong direct contact with the Divine. Here the King speaks of the double destiny of men. One is that of fixed destiny born out of ‘blindness of our will,’ our Karma or bounded action and the other is our changeable Spiritual destiny which is born out of oneness with Divine Will, Divine Wisdom and Divine Love. So, this Canto gives the message that one can escape untimely death and can live a long secure life if his Psychic being opens. For these Psychic and Spiritual Self opened Souls Death is not a curse but a passage and choice (iccha mrityu) for higher life. "Death is our road to immortality." Savitri-424, “Our death is made a passage to new worlds,” Savitri-194, “Death is a passage, not the goal of our walk:” Savitri-197, Savitri was able to trace her Lord in the distant land. Here, Savitri is identified as Para-prakriti or the virgin Mother and her meeting with Paramatma Satyavan can bring perfection in life and perfection in delight. Thus, we discover the Mahamantra of Savitri whose repetition can bring our Souls to the front: “Virgin who comest perfected by joy,” Savitri-424 The main participants who partake in uncovering this topic (mystery) are: Narad – who represents a Divine messenger aware of the source and secret mystery of fate and the forces that act behind all apparent destinies but does not have the power to change fate (that is also the limitation of our relation with Overmental Gods and Goddess) only he has the power to inform and awaken one to its impending action. He lives in a realm where Truth manifests without the distortion (What Narad saw about the detailed future of Savitri, about the same thing King Aswapati got the hint. In this sense Gods are superior to King Aswapati as projected in Savitri book) of any intermediary ignorance or inconscience, but he understands the secret mystery behind the ignorance and the future destiny of the earth. He comes to awaken and add a sense of haste (swiftness and acceleration) to Savitri’s Divine mission. King Aswapati – plays the role of both the father and the Guru of Savitri but as a seer of Truth and aware of the Divine Mother’s descent and action and ability to change fate, he is unperturbed by Narad’s pronouncements (Because King Aswapati had developed the strong conviction that the Supreme Will can work only for the good, independent of whatever it seems good or bad to man’s mind) and is aware of the purpose that Savitri has descended for. (Like king Aswapat i, in Integral Yoga the physical Guru has the responsibility of helping to find the Psychic Self. Then Psychic being is the inner Guru who takes the next responsibility of transforming Subconscient and Inconscient darkness in Sadhana .) The Queen – birth mother of Savitri and here is shown as someone who has accomplished some realisations and done sadhana , aware of the higher planes of existences and some of the secrets behind life and nature, but does not believe that Death can be overcome by a direct descent of the Divine power, but rather pleads the case for a slow and gradual evolution of man to his divine nature. (She has realized the Divine but was not aware that the Divine Power can change the untransformed Nature and hence can change human destiny.) The Queen was strong moderate by nature and hence she recoils from any high mission and discourages Savitri to step back from her Soul’s choice and asks her to follow an easier established path (“A choice less rare may call a happier fate,” Savitri-432). In the course of time, Savitri transcended her moderate passionate wise Mother and Mighty Seer Father. (She must disrupt, dislodge by her soul’s force Her past, a block on the Immortal’s road, Savitri-12) Savitri – although the incarnation of the Divine Mother, here she also represents someone who accepts their fate (which in her case is not the result of any karma of her previous lives) and can answer to it, not by pleading to a lower power/gods or by side stepping it (by rejecting to marry Satyavan), but by relying on (Spiritual experience of meeting with Satyavan that uplifted her consciousness to Supreme Height) their pure Soul force and the Divine within. (Savitri book indicates that Savitri’s Psychic being has more power than the Gods and the Guru.) “Then meet a greater god, thy self beyond Time.” (Savitri-375) The two cantos explore how the fate of most mortals differs from the fate of the Avatars or divine beings (Divine instruments, Yantra, Vibhuti and Avatara ). In the former case fate (is the fixed destiny activated by Nature’s law where the Supernature or Ishwara remains as witness during critical transitional moments) is usually prescribed to mortals by their karma, or nature or the actions of the Gods, while in the latter it is self-chosen, part of their mission (to activate the Supernature and witness or the ruler becomes Over-ruler and Overseer to change the fixed death bound destiny of the individual and the race). Hence, to escape one’s fate of a self-chosen mission is not possible for the divine (conscious) beings, who descend from a higher plane of Consciousness. We learn that these beings have to take their share of human misery if they wish to transform the earth and that all suffering can ultimately only be erased by bringing the highest supramental light to the lowest/deepest part of the Inconscient. Pain, we are told is the necessary instrument, the Gods use to cajole the divine within the inconscient to evolve towards the higher light…without which it would remain in its current (untransformed dark) state. We learn that once the highest divine light invades and transforms the inconscient sheath, pain no longer has its place and is transformed into its true state of divine (Ecstasy) good/joy…. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: "Earth keeps for man some short and perfect hours” Savitri-421 “Virgin who comest perfected by joy, Reveal the name thy sudden heart-beats learned. Whom hast thou chosen, kingliest among men?” Savitri-424 33/ Book 6, Canto 2 - The Book Of Fate, The Way Of Fate And The Problem Of Pain Summary Restated: In this Book-6, Canto-2 we meet three personalities. First one is the human personality of Savitri’s Mother, who seems to be concerned and blind with her own interest in an easy, comfortable and long happy human life. She does not bother for the world's misery and suffering and its irradiation from earth life. Due to her partial union with the Divine and satisfaction with that achievement, she was unaware of Divine’s comprehensive world plan, unaware of Divine Grace which acts during danger and difficulties of human life, unaware of dynamic Divine Power which can descend to change individual and collective destiny. King Aswapat i, due to his hard life of concentrated Tapasya could get a brief glimpse of Savitri’s past, present and future and also earth’s past, present and future. A detailed foreknowledge of the above issue was available to Narad , due to his Overmental God status. None of the above three have the capacity to change Savitri’s destiny and hence earth’s destiny. So, Savitri’s Psychic Being is identified as a greater God, and enjoys greater power and privilege than God and the Guru . Narad confirms that man is the author of his fate/doom and he can rewrite his fixed fate by opening the Psychic being through long sacrifice. He also issues the same proposal of hard sacrifice for Avatara for achieving his task of earth’s redemption. One can note the following two verses from Savitri: “Even if he (Avatara ) escapes the fiercest fires, Even if the world breaks not in, a drowning sea, Only by hard sacrifice is high heaven earned: He must face the fight, the pang who would conquer Hell.” Savitri-447 “Thy (common man) fate is a long sacrifice to the gods Till they have opened to thee thy secret self (Psychic Being) And made thee one with the indwelling God (Psychic Being).” Savitri-458 Narad identifies three dwarves, tamasic mind, rajasic mind and sattwic mind as the ‘hidden foe.’ Through these three inconscient energies the dark and hostile forces of the nether world enter into our life. The ordinary destiny can be changed if one can go beyond their influence. “There is no visible foe, but the unseen Is round us, forces intangible besiege, Touches from alien realms, thoughts not our own Overtake us and compel the erring heart; Our lives are caught in an ambiguous net. An adversary Force was born of old: Invader of the life of mortal man, It hides from him the straight immortal path. A power came in to veil the eternal Light, A power opposed to the eternal will Diverts the messages of the infallible Word, Contorts the contours of the cosmic plan: A whisper lures to evil the human heart, (whisper of vital and physical mind) It seals up wisdom’s eyes, the soul’s regard, It is the origin of our suffering here, It binds earth to calamity and pain. This all must conquer who would bring down God’s peace. This hidden foe lodged in the human breast Man must overcome or miss his higher fate. This is the inner war without escape.” Savitri-447-448 The main participants who partake in uncovering this topic (mystery) are restated with more deeper meaning: King Aswapati: Aswapati, King of Madra , the son of God, Vibhuti, destined to do some special Divine work, represents the human aspiration, hard Tapasya , askesis, and concentrated endeavour to explore all the multiple planes of Consciousness through vast and multiple identities. As Divine father he fostered, nourished and served his Divine daughter selflessly without attachment and wanted his daughter to ‘set earth alight’ with her ‘flame of radiant happiness.’ Like all human fathers, he aspires that her mortal life be unwounded and to serve humanity with ‘glad and griefless days.’ His capacity to unite with new bliss and flame-white Love came by annulling all ‘the contact formed with time-born things.’ He was able to retrieve the earth’s lost Spiritual energies, discovered earth’s secret beyond all previously attained Spiritual wisdom, nurtured Almighty’s Power in silence and solitude, sought the Divine strength that was not yet manifested on earth and called down the Divine Mother in the form of his daughter, Savitri. As Spiritual Teacher, the Guru ; firstly, he made her aware that her world Mission of awakening ‘Almighty powers’ that ‘are shut in Nature’s cells,’ ‘meet the Omnipotent in this house of flesh,’ ‘Out of Immortal’s substance you were made’ and hewing the path of immortality would be accomplished not by her own effort alone but by venturing to find her second Self, future Lord, unknown Lover, personal Godhead of the race and lyricist of her ‘soul’s most intimate chords’ in distant lands, who alone can match the measure of her waiting Soul, can walk with him like Gods in Heaven and can stand up as her equal comrade and peer; secondly, ‘must fire always test’ the purity and greatness of her Soul, who must wrestle with supernatural Darkness and must leave behind Death’s night to raise the fallen world. None can possess the kingdom of heaven and supreme Delight that has not passed through the ‘stones of suffering’ and tragic torture of giant sons of Falsehood; thirdly, she must continue her father’s unfinished Yoga and unfinished mission of ‘pure perfection and a shadowless bliss’ for the whole of suffering humanity and of changing all future time by unlocking the doors of human Fate. Queen: The Queen , the beautiful, passionate and the wise human mother of Savitri, the Divine’s unconscious instrument in Ignorance, child Soul, bala , represents mankind satisfied and preoccupied with earthly life of surface consciousness with having partial static Divine realisation through ‘sacrificial flame of aspiration,’ illumination of intellect, sattwic mind, limited light in Ignorance, and in her understanding of the mystery of creation and the Creator, the truth distorted and the Immortal’s meaning in the world was veiled. Thus, the limitation of her sattwic mind is here identified as soul slaying truth. As a human mother she fostered, nourished and served her Divine daughter with self-interest and attachment. She understands perfectly the limitations of human love and static Divine Love which cannot illuminate material life and not aware of the dynamic aspect of Divine Love which can transform life and human love. She was unaware of the secret of abundant dynamic Divine’s Grace and Bliss that hunt behind all effort to accept danger and pain to resolve the fundamental problem of existence and hence to decline all greater adventure by rejecting the doomed Satyavan was identified by her as the best solution. She, like a common man, was unable to recognise the greatness, nobility and action of world redemption of an Avatara and hence nourished no regard and gratitude towards him. She was also not aware that all unforeseen events are part of God’s secret plan and that He can overrule the Iron Law of Nature by conscious human effort and by dynamisation of His Supernature. So Narad asks the Queen not to interfere in matters that are beyond her understanding and power and to stand back from the stupendous scene and tremendous strife of her daughter’s heaven-sent task. The Queen was a representative Soul of moderate Spirituality or a beginner of integral Yoga and during the critical hour of her daughter’s choice of Satyavan , she experienced a Spiritual fall as her Soul was not sufficiently trained to lean on the pure and tranquil Spirit for all necessary aid and help during the hour of extreme adversity. This suggests that to oppose Divine’s Will in carrying out her daughter’s ‘heaven-sent task’ of rescuing men is the cause of her Spiritual decline. Her only daughter and husband’s mighty Spiritual Presence did not help her to overcome this fall of Consciousness and she lost the ‘empire of her hard-won quietude.’ (Savitri-437) Narad: Narad , the heavenly sage, the God, the instrument having the experience of oneness and complete union with the Divine. He was a mediator between Heaven and Earth, who was aware of the source and mystery of human fate and was having the power to foresee the future of man and knowledge of Soul saving Truth behind this creation, came down to earth to make Savitri aware that Soul’s greatness is measured through the capacity to bear pains of hell and she must cross on the stones of supreme universal suffering to arrive at her high mission, though he was having no power at his disposal to change her destiny and hence incapable of changing human destiny. Savitri’s Psychic being has the ability to give shelter where all the ‘high Gods could live.’ This Divine stationed in the heart centre is also projected as ‘greater than the God,’ the Guru and personal Godhead and has the capacity to change her own destiny and the destiny of the race or ‘She only can save herself and save the world.’ To bring all the worlds under her loving control and to uplift her body’s destiny or destiny of the race, her Soul entered a series of world adventures in different planes of Consciousness to become one with Divine Will and with the growth of Consciousness, a sort of mastery, a harmony and peace preoccupied the cells of the body and further extended to her multiple Selves of Sun-vast Truth. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “A day may come when she must stand unhelped On a dangerous brink of the world’s doom and hers, Carrying the world’s future on her lonely breast, Carrying the human hope in a heart left sole To conquer or fail on a last desperate verge, Alone with death and close to extinction’s edge. Her single greatness in that last dire scene Must cross alone a perilous bridge in Time And reach an apex of world-destiny Where all is won or all is lost for man." Savitri-461 34/ Book 7, Canto 1 - The Book Of Yoga, The Joy Of Union Summary: We have identified the special features in Book-7, Canto-1 that have inspired our sadhana life. 1, First, we discover that both Savitri and Satyavan were Karma Yogis accepting the most practical and the most difficult issue of material life and divinised them. They are: “A worshipped empress all once vied to serve, She made herself the diligent serf of all, Nor spared the labour of broom and jar and well, Or close gentle tending or to heap the fire Of altar and kitchen, no slight task allowed To others that her woman’s strength might do. In all her acts a strange divinity shone: Into a simplest movement she could bring A oneness with earth’s glowing robe of light, A lifting up of common acts by love.” Savitri-470 “All of his (Satyavan) speeding days that he could spare From labour in the forest hewing wood And hunting food in the wild sylvan glades And service to his father’s sightless life He gave to her (Savitri) and helped to increase the hours By the nearness of his presence and his clasp, And lavish softness of heart-seeking words And the close beating felt of heart on heart.” Savitri-472 2, Secondly, we discover a subtle physical relation between them which will replace the transient and divisible human love. Subtle physical relations increase by changing the centre of living from the surface to deep within. They are: “For when he (Satyavan) wandered in the forest, oft Her conscious spirit walked with him and knew (while Satyavan was away from her in the forest.) His actions as if in herself he moved; He, less aware, thrilled with her from afar.” Savitri-473 3, Thirdly, we discover their Psychic, Spiritual, Supramental, Bliss Divine union and through which Psychic, Spiritual, Supramental and Bliss Love are manifested in the earthly atmosphere. They are: “A fusing of the joys of earth and heaven, A tremulous blaze of nuptial rapture passed, A rushing of two spirits to be one, (Psychic union experience) A burning of two bodies in one flame. (Spiritual union experience) Opened were gates of unforgettable bliss: (Supramental and bliss Self experience.) Two lives were locked within an earthly heaven And fate and grief fled from that fiery hour.” Savitri-468 4, Fourthly, we observe that if the bond of their relation is made strong through the accumulation of Spiritual energy or Yoga Shakti or Divine Love, then Death cannot divide their life. They are: “Priceless she deemed her joy so close to death; (Her joy was priceless which can confront death and can save life. Earthly joy is soul slaying and always submits itself before death.) Apart with love she lived for love alone.” Savitri-468 (She lived only for the Divine who has incarnated here as Love.) “Always behind this strange divided life Her spirit like a sea of living fire Possessed her lover and to his body clung, One locked embrace to guard its threatened mate.” Savitri-471 “Yet ever they grew into each other more Until it seemed no power could rend apart, Since even the body’s walls could not divide.” Savitri-473 5: Fifthly, Satyavan’s birth Mother is identified in this epic as the smallest character, the symbolic representation of the child Soul and through her Sri Aurobindo gives the strongest message of true consecrated service to all earth-bound aspiring child Souls and their right relation with the Mother Soul; here symbolically represented as Savitri . Mother Soul serves Earth from below as a slave and from above and beyond like strong sunlight and she trespasses the bound life of child Souls as a strong Goddess and liberates them from their barren days. Like all other parents, Satyavan’s birth mother was not aware of the doom nearing her only child and aspired for him ‘All joy of earth, all heaven’s beatitude.’ (Savitri-467) A similar observation is marked in King Aswapati who aspired to pass the mortal life of his only child Savitri unwounded and further aspired for this young spirit untouched with tears, and be possessed by all new and ‘beautiful things.’ (Savitri-422) OM TAT SAT The Important Secret of this chapter: “All of his (Satyavan) speeding days that he could spare From labour in the forest hewing wood And hunting food in the wild sylvan glades And service to his father’s sightless life He gave to her and helped to increase the hours By the nearness of his presence and his clasp, And lavish softness of heart-seeking words And the close beating felt of heart on heart.” Savitri-472 “Thus in the silent chamber of her soul Cloistering her love to live with secret grief She dwelt like a dumb priest with hidden gods Unappeased by the wordless offering of her days, Lifting to them her sorrow like frankincense, Her life the altar, herself the sacrifice.” Savitri-472-73 35/ Book 7, Canto 2 - The Parable Of The Search For The Soul A Brief Restatement: The Book-7, Canto-2 concentrates on the initial approach to find the Soul. Savitri’s Consciousness was moving between Psychic and Spiritual planes and also between three gunas and these Psychic and Spiritual planes. In her search for Soul, she entered the inner world leaving aside the surface world and came across two planes known as the (1) world of titans and asuras , (2) the world of lower nature of forbidden joy. They are linked with each other through the verse, ‘“Man’s lower nature hides these awful guests.’ (Savitri-481) They are also linked with each other through "This (Spiritual) illumination is constantly opposed by the Forces of the lower nature and still more by the adverse Forces that live and reign by the world’s imperfections and have laid down their formidable foundation on the black rock of the Inconscience" (CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-970) So those who want to lead a higher life, must enter the inner ten worlds of desire Souls to discover their Psychic being. If they do not want to reject the untransformed lower nature which occupies ‘too large a place’ (Savitri-487) in life and dare not to meet and confront with the dark and invisible dangerous forces, they are considered unfit to lead a higher Divine life. In this Canto, we find a relation between Para prakriti Savitri and Paramatma Satyavan whose source is in absolute trance or brief cataleptic trance. They are: “As the Voice touched, her body became a stark And rigid golden statue of motionless trance, A stone of God lit by an amethyst soul.” Savitri-474 “Then Savitri by her doomed husband sat, Still rigid in her golden motionless pose, (brief cataleptic trance) A statue of the fire of the inner sun.” Savitri-477 Through the movement of consciousness, she came in contact with the Psychic being and also met the Spiritual Mother who consented to live permanently in her Psychic heart centre. Thus, before a Psychic being is Supramentalised it has to be Spiritualised. These experiences are: “Our larger being sits behind cryptic walls: There are greatnesses hidden in our unseen parts That wait their hour to step into life’s front: We feel an aid from deep indwelling Gods; (Psychic beings) One speaks within, Light comes to us from above.” (Spiritual being) Savitri-485 “Out of the mystic cavern in man’s heart The heavenly Psyche must put off her veil And step into common nature’s crowded rooms And stand uncovered in that nature’s front And rule its thoughts and fill the body and life.” Savitri-486-87 (Psychic transformation) “A portion of the mighty Mother came (Spiritual Mother) Into her as into its own human part: Amid the cosmic workings of the Gods It marked her the centre of a wide-drawn scheme, Dreamed in the passion of her far-seeing spirit To mould humanity into God’s own shape And lead this great blind struggling world to light Or a new world discover or create. Earth must transform herself and equal Heaven Or Heaven descend into earth’s mortal state.” Savitri-486 We again find in this Canto, Savitri came in contact with her Inconscient Self, which is identified here as nameless God. They are: “A conscious soul in the Inconscient’s world, (discovery of Inconscient Self) Hidden behind our thoughts and hopes and dreams, An indifferent Master signing Nature’s acts Leaves the vicegerent mind a seeming king.” Savitri-478 “A nameless god (Inconscient Self) in an unapproachable fane, In the secret adytum of his inmost soul He guards the being’s covered mysteries Beneath the threshold, behind shadowy gates Or shut in vast cellars of inconscient sleep. The immaculate Divine All-Wonderful Casts into the argent purity of his soul His splendour and his greatness and the light Of self-creation in Time’s infinity As into a sublimely mirroring glass. Man in the world’s life works out the dreams of God.” Savitri-479 During this movement of Consciousness, Savitri also entered the source of existence, here identified as Supreme Light which is felt necessary to arrive at a deathless state. “Our greater self of knowledge waits for us, A supreme light in the truth-conscious Vast: It sees from summits beyond thinking mind, It moves in a splendid air transcending life. It shall descend and make earth’s life divine.” Savitri-484 “His (Divine’s) young unaging look on deathless things, His joy in our escape from death and Time,” Savitri-484 OM TAT SAT The Important Secret of this chapter: “Man’s lower nature hides these awful guests. Their vast contagion grips sometimes man’s world. An awful insurgence overpowers man’s soul. In house and house the huge uprising grows: Hell’s companies are loosed to do their work, Into the earth-ways they break out from all doors, Invade with blood-lust and the will to slay And fill with horror and carnage God’s fair world.” Savitri-481 “Nothing is wholly dead that once had lived; In dim tunnels of the world’s being and in ours The old rejected nature still survives; The corpses of its slain thoughts raise their heads And visit mind’s nocturnal walks in sleep, Its stifled impulses breathe and move and rise; All keeps a phantom immortality.” Savitri-483-84 “The inferior nature born into ignorance Still took too large a place, it veiled her self And must be pushed aside to find her soul.” Savitri-487 36/ Book 7, Canto 3 - Entry Into The Inner Countries A Brief Restatement: The Book-7, Canto-3 concentrates on the inner world. Here Savitri discovered her two Selves, identified as annamaya Purusha , true physical being, Soul in the body and Pranamaya Purusha , true vital being, Soul in the vital. Here also we find the description of subtle physical sheath and subtle vital sheath and their relation with Subconscient sheath and how Subconscient lower untransformed nature trespass the subtle physical and subtle vital. Here we mark, Savitri utilised Nama Japa (to repeat the name of the Divine) or ‘saviour Name’ (Savitri-491) as means of sadhana which has the capacity to transform all the invasion of lower Nature into a still and empty chamber and can call down peace, vast calmness, freedom and tranquillity of mind. After exploring the limitations of the tamasic mind and rajasic mind she came across ‘a brilliant ordered Space’ of Sattwic mind. Here we observe a reason’s balanced reign, ‘adamant walls of law,’ ‘a small world or rule and line,’ and limited freedom. Here, the sattwic mind is divided into three parts of schoolman mind, fixed mind and outer mind . They, three have three characteristics of fear, doubt and impatience respectively and through these attributes they limit the Illimitable. Schoolman mind occupies life’s large space, fixed pillars of thought, lives in its dreams. ‘Its thoughts (are) an army ranked and disciplined.’ It does not dare to pursue ‘great and difficult’ adventure,’ does not call down the ‘flaming god;’ cannot set the world ablaze with the inner Fire. It limits the Soul with narrow ideal, adores an exclusive God, meditation is done to realise a narrow end; shuts its door to Divine Love and dries the heart with a rational religion. Its sacrifice is cold and flameless, Shastra is a sealed book devoid of Spiritual influence. Fixed mind is a quiet country where sense hunger is partly quenched, doubt is replaced with fixed faith. This is a firm and settled space of intelligence where all things are kept in their proper place. This fixed mind appears to be the creator of this apparent world, a substitute of the mighty Soul. Aspirant of limited perfection, limited truth and limited harmony. This is the home of elite who are satisfied with their exclusive achievement, the victory of single truth, and clarity of the sword of limited Light. It does not want to go beyond itself to discover the Psychic being. A fixed mind is satisfied with truth’s rounded outcome and ordered knowledge of apparent things. This is the world of artists, scientists, writers, philanthropists who are satisfied with their single achievement and do not show interest to go beyond their exclusive confident life. The Mother observed that the attitude of the most developed class, the most intellectual elite towards immense transformation work, "Ah, no! I don’t want to bother about that, I just want to live peacefully, as well as I can. We’ll see once the world has been transformed, then we can start bothering about it." (The Mother’s Agenda-7/294-295) Then, Savitri came to the world of outer mind , where all are in haste and all are impatient to save the God’s world. Here no Divine Light and mystic Voice are received. The outer mind cannot receive the Divine messengers of the subliminal world. It is not aware of waking trance, dreams of unborn Reality and strange goddesses with deep pooled magical eyes. This Canto gives the message that those who are deeply dissatisfied with the limitations of schoolman mind, fixed mind and outer mind can trace their Psychic being. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “Awhile she moved through a blank tranquillity Of naked Light from an invisible sun, A void that was a bodiless happiness, A blissful vacuum of nameless peace.” Savitri-491 “To find the inner self concealed in sense.” Savitri-489 (true vital being) “She forced her way through body to the soul.” Savitri-489 (true physical being) “Soul was not there but only cries of life.” Savitri-490 (surface life is far from the influence of true vital being.) “She crossed through spaces of a secret self ” Savitri-490 (Annamaya and Pranamaya Purusha .) “But now the vital godhead wakes within (true vital being) And lifts the life with the Supernal’s touch.” Savitri-490 “A schoolman mind had captured life’s large space,” Savitri-496 “Here was a quiet country of fixed mind ,” Savitri-498 “And pass through masked doorways into outer mind ” Savitri-500 37/ Book 7, Canto 4 - The Triple Soul Forces A Brief Restatement: In the Book-7, Canto-4, before finding the Psychic being Savitri came across three Mother powers of the subtle world who are having link with three inconscient energies of tamas, rajas and sattwa of Aparaprakriti (lower Nature) and also have a link with the higher Nature (Para-prakriti) of four Mother powers of Psychic plane. They are three untransformed Subliminal Soul Forces known as tamasic Mother or Mother of seven sorrows, rajasic Mother or Mother of might and sattwic Mother or the Mother of Light. They are also representative symbols of desire Soul and also three (limited) perfections, siddhis in the subtle mental world of having a link with the lower worlds of Ignorance. Those who search their Soul, feel satisfied with these three Mother powers and their limited Siddhis and do not strive to go beyond to discover the Psychic being. A subtle world is accepted as a link through which the gulf between higher nature and lower untransformed nature is bridged or this important subtle physical plane bridges the gulf between the Spiritual plane and the surface Nature of mind, life and body. Since Subtle physical, subtle vital and subtle mental have important roles in earth’s transformation, so purification, transformation and perfection of three subliminal Mother powers are identified as crucial in the life of Sadhaka of integral Yoga. These three Mother Powers are to be strongly linked with four Psychic Mother Powers of Brahma Shakti, Kshetra Shakti, Vaisya Shakti, Shudra Shakti and the four Spiritual Mother Powers of Maheswari, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi, and Mahasaraswati . They are also to be linked with the Supramental Source identified as Truth Supreme, Power supreme, Supreme Delight and Will supreme as hinted in Savitri . The Mother of seven sorrow is the deformed attribute of Vaisya Shakti ; the Mother of Might is a deformed attribute of Kshetra Shakti and Shudra Shakti and Mother of Light is the deformed attribute of Brahma Shakti. Seven Sorrows of the Mother: 1) The beauty of sadness lingered on her face, 2) Her eyes were dim with the ancient stain of tears. 3) Her heart was riven with the world’s agony (riven: split or tear apart violently) 4) And burdened with the sorrow and struggle in Time, 5) An anguished music trailed in her rapt voice. 6) Absorbed in a deep compassion’s ecstasy, 7) Lifting the mild ray of her patient gaze, Seven sorrows are (1) memory of ‘beauty of sadness,’ (2) ancient strain of tears, (3) world’s agony, (4) sorrow and struggle in all Time, (5) anguished music, (6) deep sorrowful compassion towards bereaved souls, (7) patient gaze and patient prayer that does not reach heaven. Seven limited Might of the Mother: 1: “I stand upon earth’s paths of danger and grief And help the unfortunate and save the doomed.” 2: “I smite the Titan who bestrides the world And slay the ogre in his blood-stained den.” 3: “I am Durga, goddess of the proud and strong, And Lakshmi, queen of the fair and fortunate; I wear the face of Kali when I kill, I trample the corpses of the demon hordes.” 4: “I guide man to the path of the Divine And guard him from the red Wolf and the Snake.” 5: “A few I guide who pass me towards the Light; A few I save, the mass falls back unsaved; A few I help, the many strive and fail.” 6: “Slowly the light grows greater in the East, Slowly the world progresses on God’s road.” 7: “I shall hear the silver swing of heaven’s gates When God comes out to meet the soul of the world.” Seven limited Light of the Mother: 1: “I have come down to the wounded desolate earth To heal her pangs and lull her heart to rest And lay her head upon the Mother’s lap That she may dream of God and know his peace And draw the harmony of higher spheres Into the rhythm of earth’s rude troubled days.” 2: “I show to her the figures of bright gods And bring strength and solace to her struggling life; High things that now are only words and forms I reveal to her in the body of their power.” 3: “I am peace that steals into man’s war-worn breast, Amid the reign of Hell his acts create A hostel where Heaven’s messengers can lodge; I am charity with the kindly hands that bless, I am silence mid the noisy tramp of life; I am Knowledge poring on her cosmic map.” 4: “I am the Power that labours towards the best And works for God and looks up towards the heights. I make even sin and error stepping-stones And all experience a long march towards Light. Out of the Inconscient I build consciousness, And lead through death to reach immortal Life.” 5: “Thus slowly I lift man’s soul nearer the Light. But human mind clings to its ignorance And to its littleness the human heart And to its right to grief the earthly life.” 6: “Only when Eternity takes Time by the hand, Only when infinity weds the finite’s thought, Can man be free from himself and live with God.” 7: “I shall save earth, if earth consents to be saved. Then Love shall at last unwounded tread earth’s soil; Man’s mind shall admit the sovereignty of Truth And body bear the immense descent of God.” Seven Subconscient Tamasic Sorrows: Seven sorrows of man are: 1: I am nailed on the wide cross of the universe; 2: I am the fighter who can never win, 3: I toil like the animal, like the animal die., 4: I have loved for mine, not for the beloved’s sake, 5: If once the Titan’s strength could wake in me, But God has taken from me the ancient Force. 6: Only by suffering can I excel, 7: Evil I must be and by evil live. Seven Subconscient rajasic might: 1: “The last-born of the earth I stand the first; Her slow millenniums waited for my birth.” 2: “Immortal spirit in the perishing clay, I am God still unevolved in human form; Even if he is not, he becomes in me.” 3: “I was born weak and small and ignorant, A helpless creature in a difficult world Travelling through my brief years with death at my side; I have grown greater than Nature, wiser than God.” 4: “What God imperfect left, I will complete, Out of a tangled mind and half-made soul His sin and error I will eliminate; What he invented not, I shall invent: He was the first creator, I am the last.” 5: “I have studied my being, I have examined the world, I have grown a master of the arts of life.” 6: “I shall slay my enemies with a look or thought, I shall sense the unspoken feelings of all hearts And see and hear the hidden thoughts of men.” 7: “No wish I harbour unfulfilled shall die: Omnipotence and omniscience shall be mine.” Seven Subconscient Sattwic Light: 1: “I am the mind of God’s great ignorant world Ascending to knowledge by the steps he made; I am the all-discovering Thought of man.” 2: “Yet have I loosened the cord, enlarged my room. I have mapped the heavens and analysed the stars, Described their orbits through the grooves of Space, Measured the miles that separate the suns, Computed their longevity in Time.” 3: “The tree of evolution I have sketched, Each branch and twig and leaf in its own place, In the embryo tracked the history of forms, And the genealogy framed of all that lives. I have detected plasm and cell and gene, The protozoa traced, man’s ancestors, The humble originals from whom he rose; I know how he was born and how he dies: Only what end he serves I know not yet Or if there is aim at all or any end Or push of rich creative purposeful joy In the wide works of the terrestrial power.” 5: “All Matter is a book I have perused; Only some pages now are left to read. I have seen the ways of life, the paths of mind; I have studied the methods of the ant and ape And the behaviour learned of man and worm. If God is at work, his secrets I have found. But still the Cause of things is left in doubt, Their truth flees from pursuit into a void; When all has been explained nothing is known” 6: “Nay, let me work within my mortal bounds, Not live beyond life nor think beyond the mind; Our smallness saves us from the Infinite. In a frozen grandeur lone and desolate Call me not to die the great eternal death, Left naked of my own humanity In the chill vast of the spirit’s boundlessness. Each creature by its nature’s limits lives, And how can one evade his native fate?” 7: “Human I am, human let me remain Till in the Inconscient I fall dumb and sleep. A high insanity, a chimaera is this, To think that God lives hidden in the clay And that eternal Truth can dwell in Time, And call to her to save our self and world. How can man grow immortal and divine Transmuting the very stuff of which he is made? This wizard gods may dream, not thinking men.” Sevenfold transformation of Mother of seven sorrows: 1: To bear the unbearable sorrow of the world, 2: Because thou art, the wretched still can hope. 3: But thine is the power to solace, not to save., 4: One day I will return, a bringer of strength, 5: Divine Love shall be bond of human kind, 6: Misery shall pass abolished from the earth, 7: There shall be peace and joy for ever more. Sevenfold transformation of Mother of Might: 1: transformation of nature through reconciliation of Shudra Soul force of work and Kshatriya Soul force of Strength or Force. (2) since individual isolated transformation is not practicable, so she has to include the whole of humanity and shall be preoccupied is doing good of all creature. (3) Because of the Divine Presence within, men’s Soul can climb to heaven. (4) transformation of nature through reconciliation of Brahmin wisdom and Kshatriya Power.(5) ‘And fear and weakness shall desert men’s lives,’ (6) Ego will be silenced within. (7) “All shall be might and bliss and happy force.” Sevenfold transformation of Mother of Light: 1. Hunger for eternal and heart filled with heaven’s fire, (2) bringing god down to body and life, (3) golden hand of Lord will return, (4) Divine will be visible to the naked eye, (5) reconciliation of Spirit and Matter, (6) Humanity will be transformed into Divine family, (7) All the ten worlds or planes will be filled with light and peace The great hope with which the Mother of seven Sorrows strives for purification, transformation and perfection of her existing limited attributes are observed in the following verse where she will be transformed in the future as the Mother of seven Delight: “Within me a blind faith and mercy dwell; I carry the fire that never can be quenched And the compassion that supports the suns. I am the hope that looks towards my God, My God who never came to me till now; His voice I hear that ever says ‘I come’: I know that one day he shall come at last.” Savitri-505 “Thy (Mother of seven Delight) love shall be the bond of humankind, Compassion the bright key of Nature’s acts: Misery shall pass abolished from the earth; The world shall be freed from the anger of the Beast, From the cruelty of the Titan and his pain. There shall be peace and joy for ever more.” Savitri-507-508 Similarly, we observe great hope in the Mother of (limited) Might and she strives for her purification, transformation and perfection to become Mother of perfect and unlimited Might. She is waiting for the days when she can guide, save and help all humanity. Her future hope and promise we observe in the following verse: “The cosmic evil is too deep to unroot, The cosmic suffering is too vast to heal. A few I guide who pass me towards the Light; A few I save, the mass falls back unsaved; A few I help, the many strive and fail. But my heart I have hardened and I do my work: Slowly the light grows greater in the East, Slowly the world progresses on God’s road. His seal is on my task, it cannot fail: I shall hear the silver swing of heaven’s gates When God comes out to meet the soul of the world.” Savitri-510 “One day I will return (as Mother of unlimited Might), a bringer of light; Then will I give to thee the mirror of God; Thou shalt see self and world as by him they are seen Reflected in the bright pool of thy soul. Thy wisdom shall be vast as vast thy power. Then hate shall dwell no more in human hearts, And fear and weakness shall desert men’s lives, The cry of the ego shall be hushed within, Its lion roar that claims the world as food, All shall be might and bliss and happy force.” Savitri-514 Similarly, the third and the greatest Mother Power of the subliminal world, the Mother of (limited) Light strives for her purification, transformation and perfection. Her future hope of becoming the Mother of unlimited Light and helping mankind to lead towards Supramental Light is observed in the following verse: “Only when Eternity takes Time by the hand, Only when infinity weds the finite’s thought, Can man be free from himself and live with God. I bring meanwhile the gods upon the earth; I bring back hope to the despairing heart; I give peace to the humble and the great, And shed my grace on the foolish and the wise. I shall save earth, if earth consents to be saved. Then Love shall at last unwounded tread earth’s soil; Man’s mind shall admit the sovereignty of Truth And body bear the immense descent of God.” Savitri-516 “His hunger for the eternal thou must nurse And fill his yearning heart with heaven’s fire And bring God down into his body and life. One day I will return (as Mother of unlimited Light), His hand in mine, And thou shalt see the face of the Absolute. Then shall the holy marriage be achieved, Then shall the divine family be born. There shall be light and peace in all the worlds.” Savitri-521 This Canto gives the important message that for the transformation of human life into Divine Life the gulf between Divine Consciousness and human Consciousness of three gunas must be bridged. That gulf can be bridged in the subtle mind, the subtle vital and the subtle body which have double doors ; one open towards Subconscient negative energies and the other open towards Superconscient affirmative energies. So, their purification, transformation, universalisation and perfection are important requisites in the manifestation of Divine Life. So, all our opposition to enter and concentrate on the inner life must be transcended and open the doors of three Mother Powers for their own perfection and discovery of still powerful and more intimate Psychic Being. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “One day I will return, a bringer of strength, (as Mother of seven Delight) And make thee drink from the Eternal’s cup; His streams of force shall triumph in thy limbs And Wisdom’s calm control thy passionate heart.” Savitri-507 “But without wisdom power is like a wind, It can breathe upon the heights and kiss the sky, It cannot build the extreme eternal things.” Savitri-514 “His hunger for the eternal thou (Mother of Light) must nurse And fill his yearning heart with heaven’s fire And bring God down into his body and life.” Savitri-521 38/ Book 7, Canto 5 - The Finding Of The Soul A Brief Restatement: This Canto gives importance to the entire opening of the Psychic being. Sri Aurobindo confirms, "Then only can the psychic being fully open when the sadhaka has got rid of the mixture of vital motives with his sadhana and is capable of a simple and sincere self-offering to the Mother....Purity, simple sincerity and the capacity of an unegoistic unmixed self-offering without pretension or demand are the conditions of an entire opening of the psychic being.” CWSA-30/Letters on Yoga-III/p-349, "In the Tantric discipline there is a process of opening all the centres from the Muladhara upward. In our Yoga (Integral Yoga) very often the Power descends from above and opens the Ajnachakra first, then the others in order. But it is perhaps the safest to open by concentration the heart-lotus first so as to have the psychic influence from the beginning." CWSA-30/Letters on Yoga-III/350-351 In Book 7, Canto-5, Savitri discovered her Psychic being through the Tantric Method of Yoga and not the Vedantic self-discipline. This Tantric method is safe for Developed Souls but not so safe for developing Souls. Because the desire Soul surrounding the Psychic Being is not easy to overcome but rather it invites Spiritual fall. In the Vedantic method, first, the Spiritual being opens and by its pressure or descent, the Psychic being opens and this Self-discipline is rather safe for developing Souls without any possibility of Spiritual fall. In this Canto, Savitri’s Psychic being not only opens but the Psychic being is Spiritualised and Supramentalised. It means mediatrix Spiritual Mother and Creatrix Supramental Mother consented to live permanently in Savitri’s Psychic heart centre, thus, the Psychic being is identified as an important centre for individual and world Transformation. “Here in this chamber of flame and light they met; (Psychic and Spiritual being met) They looked upon each other, knew themselves, The secret deity (Spiritual being) and its human part (Psychic being), The calm immortal (Spiritual being) and the struggling soul (Psychic being). Then with a magic transformation’s speed They rushed into each other and grew one.” Savitri-527 (This is the experience of Spiritualisation of Psychic being.) (By this experience the Spiritual Mother consented to live in the Psychic heart centre.) “In its deep lotus home her being sat As if on concentration’s marble seat, Calling the mighty Mother of the worlds To make this earthly tenement her house.” Savitri-528 (The Mighty Supramental Mother stationed permanently in the Savitri’s Psychic Heart Centre.) So, Savitri book proposes that if a Sadhaka has realised the Psychic being and his consciousness learns the lesson to live in a waking trance, then through the movement of Consciousness he can Spiritualise and Supramentalise the Psychic being, then he can save and transform himself, the collectivity and the world. But to realise this perfection is a long patient action of time. After opening of Savitri's Psychic being, Savitri experienced the opening of her seven chakras beginning from above the head. “One can speak of the chakras only in reference to Yoga. In ordinary people the chakras are not open, it is only when they do sadhana that they open. For the chakras are the centres of the inner consciousness and belong organically to the subtle body. So much as is active in ordinary people is very little — for in them it is the outer consciousness that is active…The centres of consciousness [are meant by the term “centres”], the chakras. It is by their opening that the Yogic or inner consciousness develops — otherwise you are bound to the ordinary outer consciousness.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-231 In this Canto Savitri experienced the Vedantic ascent Soul followed by descent of Shakti and opening of chakras: “Out of the Inconscient’s soulless mindless night A flaming Serpent rose released from sleep. It rose billowing its coils and stood erect And climbing mightily, stormily on its way It touched her centres with its flaming mouth; As if a fiery kiss had broken their sleep, They bloomed and laughed surcharged with light and bliss. Then at the crown it joined the Eternal’s space. In the flower of the head, in the flower of Matter’s base,... In the country of the lotus of the head (Sahasrara Chakra (Crown Chakra)) Which thinking mind has made its busy space, In the castle of the lotus twixt the brows (Ajna Chakra (Third Eye Chakra)) Whence it shoots the arrows of its sight and will, In the passage of the lotus of the throat (Vishuddha Chakra (Throat Chakra)) Where speech must rise and the expressing mind And the heart’s impulse run towards word and act... In the kingdom of the lotus of the heart (Anahata Chakra (Heart Chakra)) Love chanting its pure hymeneal hymn Made life and body mirrors of sacred joy And all emotions gave themselves to God. In the navel lotus’ broad imperial range (Manipura Chakra (Solar Plexus Chakra)) Its proud ambitions and its master lusts Were tamed into instruments of a great calm sway To do a work of god in earthly soil. In the narrow nether centre’s petty parts (Svadhisthana Chakra (Sacral Chakra) and Muladhara Chakra (Root Chakra)) Its childish game of daily dwarf desires Was changed into a sweet and boisterous play, A romp of little gods with life in Time.” Savitri-528-30 This Canto gives the input, that if the Psychic being opens, then this heart Centre acts as a Fortress of Truth and Virginity, surrounded by a large world of Ignorance and from this Divine Centre the Overhead truth and purity pour into the world of Falsehood and world perversion, thus one extends help to illumine the world and this is further universalised as ‘the little strength we have to help our race.’ (Savitri-527) “O soul, my soul, we have created Heaven, Within we have found the kingdom here of God, His fortress built in a loud ignorant world.” Savitri-531 This Canto also informs us that with the Psychic realisation of Savitri, the Gods and Goddess of the Overmental world preferred to live with her. Similar experience we also observe with King Aswapati : (Savitri's experience) "Casting aside its veil of Ignorance, Allied to gods and cosmic beings and powers It built the harmony of its human state; Surrendered into the great World-Mother’s hands Only she obeyed her sole supreme behest In the enigma of the Inconscient’s world." Savitri-530 (Savitri's experience) “In the slow process of the evolving spirit, In the brief stade between a death and birth A first perfection’s stage is reached (by Savitri) at last; Out of the wood and stone of our nature’s stuff A temple is shaped where the high gods could live. Even if the struggling world is left outside One man’s perfection still can save the world.” Savitri-531 (Savitri's experience) "Many high gods dwelt in one beautiful home; Yet was her nature’s orb a perfect whole, Harmonious like a chant with many tones, Immense and various like a universe." Savitri-358 (King Aswapati’s experience) “In an outburst of heavenly joy and ease Life yields to the divinity within And gives the rapture-offering of its all, And the soul opens to felicity. A bliss is felt that never can wholly cease, A sudden mystery of secret Grace Flowers goldening our earth of red desire. All the high gods who hid their visages From the soiled passionate ritual of our hopes, Reveal their names and their undying powers.” Savitri-278 This Canto also hints at the Psychic transformation or Supramentalised Psychic transformation of Savitri’s untransformed Nature. They are: “And all emotions gave themselves to God.” Savitri-529 “Its proud ambitions and its master lusts Were tamed into instruments of a great calm sway To do a work of God on earthly soil.” Savitri-530 “Its childish game of daily dwarf desires Was changed into a sweet and boisterous play,” Savitri-530 “Then sin and virtue leave the cosmic lists;” Savitri-531 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “In its deep lotus home her (Psychic) being sat As if on concentration’s marble seat, Calling the mighty Mother of the worlds (Supramental Mother) To make this earthly tenement her (Savitri’s) house.” (Supramentalised Psychic being) Savitri-528 “But when its feet had touched the quivering bloom, A mighty movement rocked the inner space As if a world were shaken and found its soul: (Discovery of Inconscient Self) Out of the Inconscient’s soulless and mindless night” Savitri-528 “All underwent a high celestial change: Breaking the black Inconscient’s blind mute wall, (opening of Inconscient Self) Effacing the circles of the Ignorance, Powers and divinities burst flaming forth; (Powers of Subconscient and Inconscient Self.) Each part of the being trembling with delight Lay overwhelmed with tides of happiness And saw her hand in every circumstance And felt her touch in every limb and cell.” Savitri-529 (Cellular transformation) “In the deep place where once the Serpent slept, There came a grip on Matter’s giant powers (opening of Inconscient Self) For large utilities in life’s little space; A firm ground was made for Heaven’s descending might.” Savitri-530 39/ Book 7, Canto 6 - Nirvana And The Discovery Of The All Negating Absolute A Brief Restatement: “The psychic and the spiritual opening with their experiences and consequences can lead away from life or to a Nirvana ; but they are here (in integral Yoga) being considered solely as steps in a transformation of the nature.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine-943 In this Canto Savitri's Spiritual Being opened which is identified as 'calm slow sun' (Savitri-532) or 'Impersonal, signless, featureless, void of forms' (Savitri-545) and from which overhead light invaded her whole inner and outer life. If Spiritual energy enters the body in a large scale, then the body vibrates unusually or symbolically as represented in Savitri , 'Still quivering from her lover’s strong embrace.' (Savitri-533) Thus, 'Matter is the Spirit’s willing bride' (Savitri-538) and "The high meets the low, all is a single plan.” (Savitri-541) With the opening of her Spiritual being, she could see Satyavan's future Spiritual destiny where the dark shadow above his head was illumined: "Above the cherished head of Satyavan She saw not now Fate’s dark and lethal orb; A golden circle round a mystic sun Disclosed to her new-born predicting sight The cyclic rondure of a sovereign life." Savitri-533 This Canto defines the Nature of Spiritual Love which is 'Absolved in the self-rapt immortal’s bliss.' (Savitri-533) and this joy can bridge the gulf between Earth and Heaven or Matter and Spirit. After the sun-lit Psychic path, Savitri was able to trace the golden path. She was given a brief time to tread this 'Golden Path' with Satyavan before the abysmal Night fell on her days: "Always he was with her, a living soul That met her eyes with close enamoured eyes, A living body near to her body’s joy. But now no longer in these great wild woods In kinship with the days of bird and beast And levelled to the bareness of earth’s brown breast, But mid the thinking high-built lives of men In tapestried chambers and on crystal floors, In armoured town or gardened pleasure-walks, Even in distance closer than her thoughts, Body to body near, soul near to soul, Moving as if by a common breath and will They were tied in the single circling of their days Together by love’s unseen atmosphere, Inseparable like the earth and sky." Savitri-533 Savitri, in her Spiritual Journey, meets two Voices from within and above. One Voice is soul-slaying negation or 'A denser darkness than the Night could bear,' (Savitri-534) and the other is Soul saving affirmation or 'a greater Voice came down' (Savitri-536) from height. The former Voice gives the message that this world is an illusion and 'only the blank Eternal can be true' (Savitri-535) and proposes to cease from this vain illusory existence. The latter affirmative Voice confirms that the Spiritual being can be dynamised to such an extent that it 'Accept to be small and human on the earth,' (Savitri-536) and consecrates even the smallest and the meanest work. Thus, the smallest action can be a means for contact with the highest Divine Force and mind can be made blank to ascend on this path. "But not for self alone the Self is won: Content abide not with one conquered realm; Adventure all to make the whole world thine, To break into greater kingdoms turn thy force. Fear not to be nothing that thou mayst be all; Assent to the emptiness of the Supreme That all in thee may reach its absolute." Savitri-536 "Consent to be nothing and none, dissolve Time’s work, Cast off thy mind, step back from form and name. Annul thyself that only God may be.”" Savitri-538 "Impersonal, signless, featureless, void of forms A blank pure consciousness had replaced the mind." Savitri-545 "All else grew unsubstantial, self-annulled , This only everlasting seemed and true, Yet nowhere dwelt, it was outside the hours." Savitri-547 "Only some last annulment now remained, Annihilation’s vague indefinable step: A memory of being still was there And kept her separate from nothingness: She was in That but still became not That." Savitri-549 Cantos 6 & 7 are best understood when they are read in conjunction (Spiritual or blank pure Consciousness and Cosmic Consciousness) with each other and when the term Nirvana is understood from the perspective of Integral Yoga as an intermediate transitory phase to a higher, more encompassing consciousness. The all negating Absolute is not a nihilistic state where existence and being ceases or is treated as a false concoction of the separative personality as has been understood from past philosophies and religions – rather the Absolute is beyond all positive terms of existence, even the most abstract and transcendent that can be conceived of by the human mind and senses. The reaching of a state of static realisation above and residing in the absolute is the foundation (and starting point) for the next stage of the play of the cosmic energies and dynamic self. In these following two Cantos, Savitri proceeds from her first perfection of finding her Psychic being in her heart centre (which is Spiritualised and Supramentalised) to the subsequent perfections of finding her spiritual and supramental beings/realisations – the process of these ascents are reflected in her passing through the transitionary stages of Nirvana and cosmic consciousness and finally reaching a stage where both the personal liberation and cosmic consciousness are held together in a state of (absolute) harmony (of dwelling in the supramental/transcendent consciousness). As such, we find that Nirvana and cosmic/universal consciousness are not opposites or contraries; they only appear so when we reside in the consciousness of the mind; in the higher plane (supramental consciousness), they are contained as mutually complementary states. Brahma satya Jagat Mithya is the first fundamental Siddhi of integral Yoga. The Canto-6 deals with this part of Savitri’s realisation. This realisation is a little different from escapist later Vedantic doctrine. “The Divine alone is true – all the rest is falsehood. The Divine alone is real – all the rest is illusion. The Divine alone is life – all the rest belongs to the kingdom of death. The Divine alone is light – all the rest is semi-obscurity. The Divine alone is love – all the rest is selfish sentimentality. And yet the Divine is everywhere, in the ignorant man as well as in the sage. And yet the Divine is everywhere, in the sinner as well as in the saint.” The Mother/The Mother's Agenda/undated-1958 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “When Nature who is now unconscious God Translucent grows to the Eternal’s light, Her seeing his sight, her walk his steps of power And life is filled with a spiritual joy And Matter is the Spirit’s willing bride.” Savitri-538 “So man (Satyavan ) evolving to divinest heights Colloques still with the animal and the Djinn; The human godhead with star-gazer eyes Lives still in one house with the primal beast. The high meets the low, all is a single plan.” Savitri-542 40/ Book 7, Canto 7 - The Discovery Of The Cosmic Spirit And The Cosmic Consciousness A Brief Restatement: The Book-7, Canto-7, confirms that both Paramatma Satyavan and Para prakriti Savitri’s main method of Yoga was Spiritual or “Her divine emptiness was their instrument.” (Savitri-553) or “An impersonal emptiness walked and spoke in her.’ (Savitri-552) In the previous Canto Savitri’s main method of Sadhana was also confirmed as Spiritual. Or “Annul thyself that only God may be.” (Savitri-538) Or “In a simple purity of emptiness Her mind knelt down before the unknowable.” (Savitri-522) " Assent to the emptiness of the Supreme That all in thee may reach its absolute." (Savitri-536) "Banish all thought from thee and be God’s void." (Savitri-537) This Canto confirms that Savitri had the knowledge of past, present and future birth known as All Life, about which her surrounding world was little aware: “They marvelled at her, for she seemed to know What they had only glimpsed at times afar.” Savitri-553 Its complementary line from the Gita: “The Blessed Lord said: Many are my lives that are past, and thine also, O Arjuna ; all of them I know, but thou knowest not, O scourge of the foe.” The Gita-4.5 With the attainment of Cosmic Consciousness, the inner life changes but ‘daily human life,’ ‘outward body of the routine,’ ‘small unchanging works’ and ‘happy quiet of ascetic peace’ (Savitri-551) do not change. Cosmic consciousness is the dynamic state of the Divine where ‘living spirit’ clasps her body and in this state, Matter can reconcile with the Spirit and with the Spirit’s penetration into material life, Savitri experiences change in the form of purification, transformation and perfection in her outward life. She continues to pour her greatness, sweetness and light upon her surrounding little hermit world. In this Book-7, Canto-7 Savitri realised her cosmic Self which is identified as the second fundamental realization of integral Yoga. In this Consciousness Divine becomes dynamic and one lives in waking trance. First fundamental realisation: Brahma satya jagat mithya , Divine is Real and world is an Illusion; second fundamental realisation: the world which appears to be false is created from Brahman ; third fundamental realisation: Brahma satya jagat satya and Brahman consciousness can penetrate material life and Divinise life. The characteristics of the second fundamental realisation are: “Her being, a circle without circumference,” Savitri-554 “A spirit, a being saw created things And cast itself into unnumbered forms” Savitri-554-55 “A Truth in which negation had no place,” Savitri-555 “Her spirit saw the world as living God;” Savitri-556 In the earlier Cantos it is confirmed that those who have a Mission (aim of life) and have realised their Psychic beings, their life is fully protected by the Divine. Savitri had both the awareness of her aim and Psychic realisation. This Canto proposes that if a Spiritual being is made open, then also it ensures protection to life. These developments are as follows: “Heaven’s tranquil shield guarded the missioned child.” Savitri-16 (Spiritual opening) “Only were safe who kept God in their hearts:” Savitri-211(Psychic opening) “And Savitri’s life was glad, fulfilled like earth’s; She had found herself, she knew her being’s aim.” Savitri-532 (Psychic being’s awareness) “Something perhaps unfelt, unseen, unknown Guarded the body for its future work,” Savitri-552 (Spiritual opening) “Guarded behind its face of ignorance:” Savitri-556 (Spiritual opening) This Canto also hints that the attainment of Cosmic consciousness is also the beginning of Subconscient transformation. So the opening of higher Selves like Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Selves are utilised exclusively for purification, transformation and perfection of untransformed Nature. “She was a subconscient life of tree and flower, The outbreak of the honied buds of spring; She burned in the passion and splendour of the rose, She was the red heart of the passion-flower, The dream-white of the lotus in its pool. Out of subconscient life she climbed to mind,” Savitri-557 These are the hidden agenda of cosmic Consciousness, which are utilised for both self-concentration and self-expansion. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “She passed beyond Time into eternity, Slipped out of space and became the Infinite; Her being rose into unreachable heights And found no end of its journey in the Self.” Savitri-555 “She was the godhead hid in the heart of man, She was the climbing of his soul to God.” Savitri-557 41/ Book 8, Canto 3 - Death In The Forest Summary or Brief Restatement: This Canto speaks symbolically of the earthly departure of Satyavan in all life and Satyavan will return to earth after Savitri’s Yoga in Subconscient and Inconscient planes are complete which is again an issue of many births. Savitri was supremely aware of the day in which Satyavan would leave his body. "Now has a strong desire seized all my heart To go with Satyavan holding his hand Into the life that he has loved and touch Herbs he has trod and know the forest flowers And hear at ease the birds and the scurrying life That starts and ceases, rich far rustle of boughs And all the mystic whispering of the woods." Savitri-562 This gives a clear message to a Sadhak , instead of following the escapist solution of Moderate and later Vedantist , he must prepare and accumulate Soul force in his inner life all the time to confront Death which is experienced by Sayavan as follows: "But as he worked, his doom upon him came. The violent and hungry hounds of pain Travelled through his body biting as they passed Silently, and all his suffering breath besieged Strove to rend life’s strong heart-cords and be free. Then helped, as if a beast had left its prey, A moment in a wave of rich relief Reborn to strength and happy ease he stood Rejoicing and resumed his confident toil But with less seeing strokes. Now the great woodsman Hewed at him and his labour ceased: lifting His arm he flung away the poignant axe Far from him like an instrument of pain. She came to him in silent anguish and clasped, And he cried to her, “Savitri, a pang Cleaves through my head and breast as if the axe Were piercing it and not the living branch. Such agony rends me as the tree must feel When it is sundered and must lose its life. Awhile let me lay my head upon thy lap And guard me with thy hands from evil fate: Perhaps because thou touchest, death may pass.” Savitri-564 This has to be understood that during the inner wandering in the Subconscient and Inconscient plane in finding the secret of Immortality and origin of Death, Satyavan met an accidental death in all life. His link with Savitri made him again return to earth as the last Avatara. This link is the Divine Love which grows and becomes strong through Sadhana . By breaking the weak bond fostered through human love, Death succeeds in carrying human Souls to its home. The awareness of Satyavan’s death will make a Sadhaka supremely conscious of the brief Time he is given in this birth and utilis es it as a bank to accumulate Spiritual energy. His only Divine work is to call down timeless Eternity into slipping moments and to call down spaceless Infinity into his limited surrounding space. "Wordless but near she watched, no turn to lose Of the bright face and body which she loved . Her life was now in seconds, not in hours, And every moment she economised (every moment is utilised to call down Divine energy.) Like a pale merchant leaned above his store, The miser of his poor remaining gold. But Satyavan wielded a joyous axe. He sang high snatches of a sage’s chant That pealed of conquered death and demons slain, And sometimes paused to cry to her sweet speech Of love and mockery tenderer than love:" Savitri-563-564 This Canto also hints that during death 'the bright spirit’s luminous gaze' was withdrawn and 'Only the dull and physical mind was left.' (Savitri-565) Integral Yoga proposes that before meeting physical death, the dwarf physical mind must be illumined and transformed. This is a difficult task and the Mother declared, "This physical mind receiving the supramental light Sri Aurobindo called the Mind of Light… As soon as Sri Aurobindo withdrew from his body, what he has called the Mind of Light got realised in me.” The Mother’s Centenary Works/13/62-63 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “Like the strong sun that serves earth from above.” Savitri-562 “All grief and fear were dead within her now And a great calm had fallen. The wish to lessen His suffering, the impulse that opposes pain Were the one mortal feeling left. It passed: Griefless and strong she waited like the gods.” Savitri-564-65 42/ Book 9, Canto 1 - Towards The Black Void A Brief Restatement: This Book-9, Canto-1 is concentrated on Savitri’s entry into the Inconscient world. This world is the home of Death and only dead people can visit that unhealthy world of negation and darkness. King Aswapati traveled this world without dying and suffered multiple injuries that were slow to heal. Savitri also visited the Inconscient world without dying. (Death said to Savitri) “O mortal, turn back to thy transient kind; Aspire not to accompany Death to his home, As if thy breath could live where Time must die." Savitri-580 In this Canto, the movement of Consciousness between the Supramental and Inconscient plane is observed which appears to be a long movement before Consciousness is preoccupied with Subconscient transformation (which is the message of Book-10, Canto-1 to 4). This Canto suggests that those who are established in Supramental Consciousness can alone visit the Inconscient world in deep trance and through that exercise alone, the Inconscient world can be illumined and transformed. Sri Aurobindo’s Accident in 1938 was an attack by a dark asuric force (Lord of Falsehood) while he was pursuing transformation action in Subconscient/Inconscient Sheath. This Canto also suggests that a Sadhaka must be established in Supramental Consciousness, before meeting his own death or death of kith and kin or brother Souls. Extreme adversity must be met ‘like a tree recovering from a wind.’ (Savitri-574) Savitri had the following experiences after Satyavan’s death: “She measured not her loss with helpless thoughts,” Savitri-571 “Then suddenly there came on her the change Which in tremendous moments of our lives Can overtake sometimes the human soul And hold it up towards its luminous source.” Savitri-571 “Over was the haunted pain, the rending fear: Her grief had passed away, her mind was still, Her heart beat quietly with a sovereign force. There came a freedom from the heart-strings’ clutch, Now all her acts sprang from a godhead’s calm.” Savitri-573 This Canto suggests that after arriving in Supramental Consciousness, the transformation work pursued in the Subconscient and inconscient world may not be easy and may continue through many births. “That mightier spirit turned its mastering gaze On life and things, inheritor of a work Left to it unfinished from her halting past, (This line suggests that Subconscient and Inconscient transformation is a continuation of Savitri’s past birth extending over future birth till she returns to earth as last Avatara .) When yet the mind, a passionate learner, toiled And ill-shaped instruments were crudely moved.” Savitri-573 (This line suggests mind’s infant state in transformation action.) This Canto suggests that in order to change destiny and conquer Death , one must have knowledge of past, present and future lives. This is possible by the opening of Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental beings. “Only the spirit sees and all is known.” Savitri-571 “Now to the limitless gaze disclosed that sees” Savitri-572 “And live in borders of the seen and known.” Savitri-579 (One can foresee and know much before the happening of the event.) Its complementary line: “For what the spirit sees, creates a truth And what the soul imagines is made a world.” Savitri-456 “I know all past and all present and future existences, O Arjuna , but Me none yet knows.” The Gita-7.26 "Many are My lives that are past, and thine also, O Arjuna ; all of them I know, but thou knowest not…" The Gita-4.5 This change of destiny is further strengthened by the following experience as hinted in Savitri : “Only the spirit (of Savitri) knew the spirit (of Satyavan) still, And the heart divined the old loved heart, though changed. ” Savitri-576 “All was the violent ocean of a will Where lived captive to an immense caress, Possessed in a supreme identity, Her aim, joy, origin, Satyavan alone. ” Savitri-579 “Around him nameless, infinite she surged, Her spirit fulfilled in his spirit, rich with all Time, As if Love’s deathless moment had been found, A pearl within eternity’s white shell.” Savitri-579 The mystery of the Inconscient world is that it is a kingdom of titans who can slay the living Soul. They are cruel, sentinels of dumb necessity, and they watch across Savitri’s path mercilessly. In this midnight’s dumb abysses, Savitri rose like a ‘columned shaft of fire and light,’ (Savitri-581) ‘against fixed destiny and the grooves of’ (Savitri-581) Iron Law and there Satyavan met her with his wonderful bright eyes. "Then, to that chill sere heavy line arrived Where his feet touched the shadowy marches’ brink, Turning arrested luminous Satyavan Looked back with his wonderful eyes at Savitri ." Savitri-580 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “The Woman answered not. Her high nude soul, Stripped of the girdle of mortality, Against fixed destiny and the grooves of law Stood up in its sheer will a primal force.” Savitri-581 43/ Book 9, Canto 2 - The Journey In Eternal Night And The Voice Of The Darkness A Brief Restatement: The importance of Book-9, Canto-II is the movement of Consciousness through which the gulf between the Supramental plane and the Inconscient plane is bridged. If this gulf is not bridged then Satyavan cannot be traced or discovered in the Inconscient home of Death and by this loss of contact Satyavan cannot return to earth. In other Cantos, we have marked how through the movement of Psychic, Spiritual, and Supramental Consciousness different planes of Consciousness or ten worlds are bridged. They are: The gulf between Savitri and Satyavan in the Inconscient plane: “But now a silent gulf between them came” Savitri-584 “Visionless she moved amid insensible gulfs,” Savitri-584 The gulf between Savitri and Satyavan in the Subconscient plane: “In vain thou (Death) hast dug the dark unbridgeable gulf,” Savitri-648, A similar gulf King Aswapati felt in between Supramental Self and Bliss Self: “This world of bliss he saw and felt its call, But found no way to enter into its joy; Across the conscious gulf there was no bridge.” Savitri-128, Linking the gulf between the Spiritual and Mental plane: “A mediating ray had touched the earth (mediating ray is the Spiritual energy) Bridging the gulf between man’s mind and God’s; Its brightness linked our transience to the Unknown.” Savitri-353 Psychic being can bridge the gulf between Spirit and Matter: “But soon the link of soul with form grew sure” Savitri-355 “Unlocked were inner spirit’s trance-closed doors:” Savitri-369 Spirit travelling backwards in Time in order to illumine the dark untransformed world in universalised Consciousness: “A gap was rent in the all-concealing vault (of King Aswapati); The conscious ends of being went rolling back: The landmarks of the little person fell, The island ego joined its continent.” Savitri-25, Bridging the gulf between Bliss self and Sense mind: “A consciousness of beauty and of bliss, A knowledge which became what it perceived, Replaced the separated sense and heart And drew all Nature into its embrace.” Savitri-28 Bridging the gulf between Absolute, Alone, Real and his Fate in universalised Consciousness: “A union of the Real with the unique, A gaze of the Alone from every face, The presence of the Eternal in the hours Widening the mortal mind’s half-look on things, Bridging the gap between man's force and Fate Made whole the fragment-being we are here.” Savitri-35, The gulf between Psychic being and Spiritual Being is bridged: “In moments when the inner lamps are lit And the life’s cherished guests are left outside, (This line suggests life’s cherished guests stand as obstacles to Spiritual experience.) Our spirit sits alone and speaks to its gulfs. A wider consciousness opens then its doors; Invading from spiritual silences” Savitri-47-48, Our surface casual life is harmonized by bridging the gulf between surface action and inner life: “But who shall pierce into the cryptic gulf And learn what deep necessity of the soul Determined casual deed and consequence?” Savitri-52, Supramental action and removal all gulfs in different planes: “Because eternal eyes turned on earth's gulfs” Savitri-101 “She hopes by the creative act’s release To o’erleap sometimes the gulf she cannot fill, To heal awhile the wound of severance, Escape from the moment’s prison of littleness And meet the Eternal’s wide sublimities In the uncertain time-field portioned here.” Savitri-177 “Its (Supermind) mights that bridge the gulf twixt man and God, Its (Supermind) lights that combat Ignorance and Death.” Savitri-261, “There was no cleavage between soul and soul, There was no barrier between world and God.” Savitri-319 “There (in the Supramental) was no gulf between the thought and fact,” Savitri-327 “And made her joy a bridge twixt earth and heaven,” Savitri-534, “To make thy life a bridge twixt earth and heaven;” Savitri-536, (Death asked) “What bridge can cross the gulf that she (Truth supreme) has left Between her (Truth supreme) and the dream-world she (Truth supreme) has made?” Savitri-663, “The two (Heaven and Earth) longing to join, yet walk apart, Idly divided by their vain conceits; … They gaze across the silent gulfs of sleep.” Savitri-684 Bridging the gulf between Supramental/bliss Self and Inconscient/Subconscient Sheath is the most difficult exercise of integral Yoga and hence from this point of view Book-9 and Book-10 are very important and the Mother had chosen Book-10 for translation into the French language in order to better understand and pursue her Subconscient transformation. The purpose of entry into this dark Inconscient world is to bridge the gulf with the aid of her golden relation with Satyavan which calls down (‘But now a silent gulf between them came’ (Savitri-584) ‘In vain thou (Death) hast dug the dark unbridgeable gulf,’ (Savitri-648)) large scale invasion of Divine Love. Now this action of Divine Love is still remote from the Inconscient plane or ‘Even from herself cast out, from love remote.’ (Savitri-584) How can the gulf between them be bridged by the movement of Consciousness? The most crucial gulf is identified as the border of Subconscient and Inconscient Sheath where Savitri lost Satyavan for a brief period while journeying along with Death. Due to this gulf, ‘Her eyes had lost their luminous Satyavan ’ (Savitri-584) or ‘The soul of the beloved now seen no more.’(Savitri-585) Ordinary human love cannot bridge this gulf, so death becomes inevitable. After the gulf is bridged in isolation/loneliness and deep meditation/sleep state in the Inconscient sheath she again restores her relation with Satyavan through a series of Spiritual experiences: ‘Her husband, grew into a luminous shade;’ (Savitri-585) ‘I will bear with him the ancient Mother’s load I will follow with him earth’s path that leads to God.’ (Savitri-590) ‘For I (Savitri) who have trod with him (Satyavan ) the tracts’ (Savitri-590) of all Time; ‘Wherever thou (Death) leadst his (Satyavan’s) soul I shall pursue.’ (Savitri-590) This is identified as the great victory of Savitri in the Inconscient world. “The feet of love tread naked hardest worlds. He (Divine Love) labours in the depths, exults on the heights; He (Divine Love) shall remake thy universe, O Death .” (Savitri-592) This victory can meet other extreme danger, “Let not the inconscient gulf swallow man’s race” (Savitri-687) or “Her mouth of darkness swallowing all that is.” (Savitri-585) Inconscient Sheath is ‘an all-negating immensity’ (Savitri-585) or ‘immense refusal of the eternal No.’ (Savitri-583) In the core of it lies the Inconscient Self (‘Matter still slept empty of its Lord’ (Savitri-405)) which is the Divine’s last and the greatest Spiritual energy by whose intervention ‘a grand solution’ (Savitri-90) will be witnessed in the cosmic life. So, after the discovery of the Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Self, a Sadhaka’s task is to trace the Subconscient and Inconscient Selves, by whose discovery, Supramental energy will flow into mind, life, and body from below the feet. The simultaneous flow of Supramental energy from above the head and below the feet or ‘Our life is entrenched between two rivers of light’ (Savitri-531) is the apex Spiritual experience for transformation action. The Divine Love labours in the depths as the Inconscient Self and exults on the height as the Supramental/Bliss Self and this Divine Love has the capacity to rebuild Death’s perishable world. "Love’s golden wings have power to fan thy void: The eyes of love gaze starlike through death’s night, The feet of love tread naked hardest worlds. He labours in the depths, exults on the heights; He shall remake thy universe, O Death .” Savitri-592 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “Armoured with light she advanced her foot to plunge Into the dread and hueless vacancy; Immortal, unappalled, her spirit faced The danger of the ruthless eyeless waste.” Savitri-582 “Mine is the labour of the battling gods: Imposing on the slow reluctant years The flaming will that reigns beyond the stars, They lay the law of Mind on Matter’s works And win the soul’s wish from earth’s inconscient Force.” Savitri-588 44/ Book 10, Canto 1 - The Dream Twilight And The Ideal A Brief Restatement: The Book-10 is identified as The Book of Double Twilight. The first twilight is created by the invasion of fathomless Light above to the dark Subconscient plane below and the second twilight is created either by the invasion of darkness below to the bright Subconscient plane or by the invasion of fathomless Light below the feet through the opening of Subconscient and Inconscient Selves to dark Subconscient sheath. The Book-10, Canto-1 concentrates on Subconscient transformation by Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental invasion to a dark Subconscient sheath. They are identified as: Psychic invasion: “As when a goddess’ bosom dimly moves To first desire and her white soul transfigured, A glimmering Eden crossed by faery gleams, Trembles to expectation’s fiery wand, But nothing is familiar yet with bliss.” Savitri-604 “A comrade of the Ray and Mist and Flame, By a moon-bright face a brilliant moment drawn, Almost she seemed a thought mid floating thoughts, Seen hardly by a visionary mind Amid the white inward musings of the soul . Half-vanquished by the dream-happiness around, Awhile she moved on an enchantment’s soil, But still remained possessor of her soul.” Savitri-605-606 Spiritual Invasion: “Here in this seat of Darkness mute and lone, In the heart of everlasting Nothingness Light conquered now even by that feeble beam: Its faint infiltration drilled the blind deaf mass; Almost it changed into a glimmering sight That housed the phantom of an aureate Sun Whose orb pupilled the eye of Nothingness. Savitri-601 Supramental Invasion: “A golden fire came in and burned Night’s heart ; Her dusky mindlessness began to dream; The Inconscient conscious grew, Night felt and thought.” Savitri-601 “Above, her spirit in its mighty trance Saw all, but lived for its transcendent task, Immutable like a fixed eternal star.” Savitri-606 The whole of humanity is now going through this Subconscient transformation unconsciously and few prepared vessels are going through this transformation consciously. Those who are open towards Subconscient transformation, they will feel all the time a Divine Force is entering the mind, vital, body, and Subconscient sheaths in a very minuscule manner. When this descent of Divine force is strong enough to be felt as a higher body temperature of fever, then its outcome is a miracle in Subconscient sheath resulting in some Divine manifestation. In the previous Cantos of the whole book, (1) we get the information that if our Psychic and Spiritual beings are open then beings of those higher planes will accompany us and assist us in our sadhana , involve in many creative actions, and call down Divine energies. Integral Yoga identifies ten Selves and their opening activates affirmative Beings belonging to higher planes. (2) Similarly, through our untransformed nature, asuric beings or dark energies enter our system and do their destructive and pessimistic action both in waking and dream states. (3) We also get this information from Savitri that like our parents, some invisible beings pursue us in this birth and take care of us. Similarly, some beings accompany us from our previous births. So, we have to remember that neither this world, nor any creative action, nor any destructive action, nor any powers and personalities that are acting through us are our own. (4) Now in this book-10, Canto-1, we get some new inputs that will assist in our Subconscient transformation action. It describes some invisible beings identified as ‘a morning twilight of the gods’ (Savitri-601) who assist us in our sadhana and carry us from the twilight physical mind, twilight vital mind, and twilight intellect to complete and integral Divine Light, Wisdom, Delight etc. Now we will concentrate on the character of these affirmative twilight beings. Their forms arise from our sleep and they justify the long night followed by a new dawn and a new birth of consciousness. These dreaming deities look beyond the visible things and fashion in their thoughts, ideal worlds. By their presence ‘the heaviness of the eyeless dark’ (Savitri-602) has overpassed and all the sorrow of the night perished. He who wakes in this twilight world, finds his dreams true and all ran after light and joy and love. This twilight world is an atmosphere that cannot dare too much light, love and delight yet breathes strange ecstasy and anticipates deeply of delight. This twilight world is surrounded by vague fields, vague pastures, vague trees, vague scenes, vague cattle, vague spirits, vague melodies and vague ideal lands without a goal but having sweet memories, mighty measures of thought, far chanting of gods with low disturbing voices of desire. These twilight gods are fugitive beings and 'natural habitants of' (Savitri-602) the Subconscient world and they have the capacity to assist an individual to find his Soul. In that Subconscient sheath, nothing there was fixed or stayed for long, no mortal feet can take rest upon that soil, no breath of life lingered embodied there, no joy can dance for long period and no beauty can settle there. Yet in that Subconscient world, the memory of gladness ever repeats the same note, shapes are strangely consistent, the same thoughts are constant passers-by, all charms are renewed unendingly, waits always to hear the music like the recurrence of a haunting rhyme. Divine touches incessantly, the things that never seized for Subconscient transformation. The Divine Light showers as a trail of disappearing star and each Divine touch faints the vessel and the promise of unrealised bliss is heard. Psychic being participates in this Subconscient transformation through its purity, adoration and subtle presence and its unaware, momentary and escaping thrill is experienced as much sweeter than any rapture known to earth and heaven. Now we will concentrate on the line: “Heaven ever young and earth too firm and old” (Savitri-603) This line also suggests that when we open ourselves towards Divine Forces, we become young and energetic and when we keep the door open towards dark Subconscient and inconscient undivine energies we become old and weak. This also suggests the presence of heavenly beings for Subconscient transformation whose raptures of creation last too long; their affirmative bold formations are too absolute and are too intimate with eternal things. They stand up sculptured on the eternal hills and win immortality by perfect physical form. These heavenly beings are too pure, too great, too meaningful without shadow and without incertitude. "Their bold formations are too absolute; Carved by an anguish of divine endeavour They stand up sculptured on the eternal hills, Or quarried from the living rocks of God Win immortality by perfect form. They are too intimate with eternal things: Vessels of infinite significances, They are too clear, too great, too meaningful; No mist or shadow soothes the vanquished sight, No soft penumbra of incertitude." Savitri-603-604 Thus, a golden hem of bliss is experienced along with the gleaming shoulder of some godlike hope and flying feet of fine desires. These heavenly beings are visitors from the morning star, satisfied with the first perfection of Psychic opening. They mingle in a passion of pursuit and thrill with the spray of joy…. "Half-vanquished by the dream-happiness around, Awhile she moved on an enchantment’s soil, But still remained possessor of her soul. Above, her spirit in its mighty trance Saw all, but lived for its transcendent task, (Realisation of Cosmic and Transcendent Divine.) Immutable like a fixed eternal star." Savitri-606 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “In that tremendous darkness heavy and bare She atoned for all since the first act whence sprang The error of the consciousness of Time, The rending of the Inconscient’s seal of sleep,” Savitri-599 “And when there is no world, no creature more, When Time’s intrusion has been blotted out, It shall last, unbodied, saved from thought, at peace.” Savitri-600 “Here in this seat of Darkness mute and lone, In the heart of everlasting Nothingness Light conquered now even by that feeble beam: Its faint infiltration drilled the blind deaf mass; Almost it changed into a glimmering sight That housed the phantom of an aureate Sun Whose orb pupilled the eye of Nothingness." Savitri-601 “A golden fire came in and burned Night’s heart; Her dusky mindlessness began to dream; The Inconscient conscious grew, Night felt and thought.” Savitri-601 45/ Book 10, Canto 2 - The Gospel Of Death And Vanity Of The Ideal A Brief Restatement: Book 10, Canto 2 represents the gospel of Death which is a Soul slaying truth and his ideal appears to be in vain in resolving world problems. This Canto proposes that to remain satisfied with a brief touch of Divine Force is a moderate and escapist Spirituality which cannot transform Nature but to prepare for that Truth which slowly and constantly infiltrates into the material vessel, which alone can expedite Subconscient transformation and transform Nature. Death’s ideal accepts the later Vedantic doctrine of the Soul’s (Jivatma’s) union with Spirit (Paramatma) and refuges the ancient Vedantic doctrine of the Spirit’s reconciliation with Matter. This Canto is important from three points of view. Firstly , it gives more description of the twilight of the Subconscient world which must be approached through faint infiltration of Truth Light (Or ‘Threatened (falsehood) with this faint beam of wandering Truth’ Savitri-585) and not the later Vedantic escape from material problems; secondly, here Sri Aurobindo defines the Soul slaying human love through the symbolic representation of Death’s gospel; thirdly in this Canto, the Supreme word, Mahavakya, of Savitri book is revealed. 1: “I think Sri Aurobindo deliberately made this Death very vulgar to discourage all the Illusionists and Nirvanists .” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda-6/164, (Death said) “Earth only is there and not some heavenly source. If heavens there are they are veiled in their own light, If a Truth eternal somewhere reigns unknown, It burns in a tremendous void of God; For truth shines far from the falsehoods of the world; How can the heavens come down to unhappy earth Or the eternal lodge in drifting time?” Savitri-609 (Death said) “The Avatars have lived and died in vain, Vain was the sage’s thought, the prophet’s voice; In vain is seen the shining upward Way. Earth lies unchanged beneath the circling sun; She loves her fall and no omnipotence Her mortal imperfections can erase, Force on man’s crooked ignorance Heaven’s straight line Or colonise a world of death with gods.” Savitri-609-610 (Death said) “Heaven’s hour adjourned flees into bodiless Time. Death saves thee from this and saves Satyavan: He now is safe, delivered from himself; He travels to silence and felicity. Call him not back to the treacheries of earth And the poor petty life of animal Man. In my vast tranquil spaces let him sleep” Savitri-611 (Death said) “Renounce, forgetting joy and hope and tears, Thy passionate nature in the bosom profound Of a happy Nothingness and worldless Calm, Delivered into my mysterious rest.” Savitri-612 2: As per our study like Arjuna of the Gita, Death has raised twenty-three questions and indirectly hints at a passage to immortality. From the Arjuna we learn the lesson of Jivatma’s union with Paramatma, similarly, from Death’s conversation with Savitri, we can learn the lesson of reconciliation of Perfect Spirit with imperfect Matter. A Soul-slaying human love, a soul-slaying word and a soul-slaying momentary work can slay the Psychic being. This means human association, thought bound to three gunas and any action by the pressure of three gunas can veil the Psychic being. Whereas Divine Love, Divine descended overhead Knowledge and Divine action by the pressure of Divine Will can save and activate the Psychic being. (Death said) “Thy mortal longing made for thee a soul. This angel in thy body thou callst love, Who shapes his wings from thy emotion’s hues, In a ferment of thy body has been born And with the body that housed it it must die. It is a passion of thy yearning cells, It is flesh that calls to flesh to serve its lust; It is thy mind that seeks an answering mind And dreams awhile that it has found its mate; It is thy life that asks a human prop To uphold its weakness lonely in the world Or feeds its hunger on another’s life.” Savitri-608 (Death said) “What is this love thy thought has deified, This sacred legend and immortal myth? It is a conscious yearning of thy flesh, It is a glorious burning of thy nerves, A rose of dream-splendour petalling thy mind, A great red rapture and torture of thy heart. A sudden transfiguration of thy days, It passes and the world is as before.” Savitri-610 (Death said) “If Satyavan had lived, love would have died; But Satyavan is dead and love shall live A little while in thy sad breast, until His face and body fade on memory’s wall Where other bodies, other faces come.” Savitri-610 (Death said) “Love cannot live by heavenly food alone, Only on sap of earth can it survive. For thy passion was a sensual want refined, A hunger of the body and the heart; Thy want can tire and cease or turn elsewhere. Or love may meet a dire and pitiless end By bitter treason, or wrath with cruel wounds Separate, or thy unsatisfied will to others Depart when first love’s joy lies stripped and slain: A dull indifference replaces fire Or an endearing habit imitates love: An outward and uneasy union lasts Or the routine of a life’s compromise:” Savitri-611 (Death said) “Two strive, constant associates without joy, Two egos straining in a single leash, Two minds divided by their jarring thoughts, Two spirits disjoined, for ever separate. Thus is the ideal falsified in man’s world; Trivial or sombre, disillusion comes, Life’s harsh reality stares at the soul:” Savitri-611 (Death said human love is) “A sweet secretion from the erotic glands Flattering and torturing the burning nerves, Love is a honey and poison in the breast Drunk by it as the nectar of the gods. Earth’s human wisdom is no great-browed power, And love no gleaming angel from the skies; If they aspire beyond earth’s dullard air, Arriving sunwards with frail waxen wings, How high could reach that forced unnatural flight? But not on earth can divine wisdom reign And not on earth can divine love be found; Heaven-born, only in heaven can they live; Or else there too perhaps they are shining dreams.” Savitri-618-619 3: Supreme Word of Savitri (Mahavakya) “If there is a yet happier greater god, Let him first wear the face of Satyavan And let his soul be one with him I love; So let him seek me that I may desire.” Savitri-614, A Psychic being is identified as a greater God. That means if a Sadhaka has realised his Psychic Being in the heart centre, then his status is greater than overmental God and he can call down Divine Love to earth and men. If he calls down Paramatma/Purushottama/ Supramental Purusha to the heart centre then he begins to wear the face of Satyavan and experiences static Divine union. With the prolongation of this union, dynamic Brahman/Paraprakriti/ Supramental Mother comes down permanently to stay in the heart centre. Then heart centre becomes the meeting ground of Paramatma Satyavan and Paraprakriti Savitri and this dynamic union possesses material life and the cellular transformation begins the action. To Love and Possess equally Paramatma Satyavan and Paraprakriti Savitri in the heart centre is the supreme Word of Savitri and the extension of World transformation through the mighty descent of Divine Force. This is the condition of receiving Savitri’s comprehensive Divine Love. Here we divide this comprehensive Divine Love into four parts: Jivatma’s union with Paramatma (realisation of transcendent Divine) Jivatma’s union with Paraprakriti (Universalisation of Consciousness and beginning of individual transformation)) Parmatma’s union with Paraprakriti (beginning of cellular and world transformation.) Paraprakriti’s union with Aparaprakriti (Matter) (transformation of Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths or Reconciliation of Spirit with Matter.) A Sadhak , who does not wear the face of Paramatma Satyavan within the heart centre has no issue, no charm and glory and his life is symbolically revealed as experiencing the sorrow of widowhood or 'Like love when the beloved's face is gone.' (Savitri-306) This is the most difficult Spiritual task before a Sadhak but there is none else. When King Aswapati asked Savitri 'somewhere on the longing breast of earth, Thy unknown lover waits for thee the unknown,’ (Savitri-374) Savitri went across the world to meet her Lord. She met twelve types of exclusive liberated great Souls before meeting Satyavan but they were not fit to hold Savitri’s Comprehensive Divine Love. To hold Savitri’s comprehensive Divine Love, one has to reconcile twelve exclusive Divine attributes of liberated Souls. So he can ‘wear the face of Satyavan ’ or move the Consciousness comprehensively in all the above four ways. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “His bliss laughs to us or it calls concealed Like a far-heard unseen entrancing flute From moonlit branches in the throbbing woods, Tempting our angry search and passionate pain. Disguised the Lover seeks and draws our souls. He named himself for me, grew Satyavan. For we were man and woman from the first, The twin souls born from one undying fire. Did he not dawn on me in other stars? How has he through the thickets of the world Pursued me like a lion in the night And come upon me suddenly in the ways And seized me with his glorious golden leap! Unsatisfied he yearned for me through time, Sometimes with wrath and sometimes with sweet peace Desiring me since first the world began. He rose like a wild wave out of the floods And dragged me helpless into seas of bliss. Out of my curtained past his arms arrive; They have touched me like the soft persuading wind, They have plucked me like a glad and trembling flower, And clasped me happily burned in ruthless flame. I too have found him charmed in lovely forms And run delighted to his distant voice And pressed to him past many dreadful bars. If there is a yet happier greater god, Let him first wear the face of Satyavan And let his soul be one with him I love; So let him seek me that I may desire. For only one heart beats within my breast And one god sits there throned. Advance, O Death, Beyond the phantom beauty of this world; For of its citizens I am not one. I cherish God the Fire, not God the Dream.” Savitri-614 46/ Book 10, Canto 3 - The Debate Of Love And Death A Brief Restatement: This book-10, Canto-3, reveals first Savitri’s discovery of the Subconscient Self within Subconscient Sheath. This discovery is important for the purification and transformation of Subconscient and adjacent worlds of mind, life and body. "A spirit moved in black immensities And built a Thought in ancient Nothingness; A soul was lit in God’s tremendous Void, A secret labouring glow of nascent fire." Savitri-622 This creation is to be wholly accepted and embraced as the manifestation of the Brahman . If the existing mind of most man is crippled; life is untaught and crude; if there exist brutal and evil activities, then they are to be accepted as incidents of the Divine’s vast and varied plot; His great and dangerous drama’s needed steps. We have to meet our Lord in the nascent sleep of shadow and the Night and in the wakefulness of the stars and Sun and wait for the hour in which high Supracosmic Source meets the low and nether Inconscient Sheath. The emergence of Divine Life on earth is possible by the reconciliation of God’s Night with His fathomless Light and Life and Death become the fuel of the great world action and world existence. "For now at last I know beyond all doubt, The great stars burn with my unceasing fire And life and death are both its fuel made. Life only was my blind attempt to love: Earth saw my struggle, heaven my victory; All shall be seized, transcended; there shall kiss Casting their veils before the marriage fire The eternal bridegroom and eternal bride. The heavens accept our broken flights at last. On our life’s prow that breaks the waves of Time No signal light of hope has gleamed in vain.” Savitri-638 Savitri has to unite with Satyavan in the Subconscient and Inconscient world by calling down Divine energy there. Satyavan’s death created such an opportunity for Savitri . She has to prove her Divine Love which can transform those dark worlds. So, her task is to call down Divine Love from higher planes and the emergence of the same Divine Love by activation of Subconscient Self and the ‘two rivers of Light’ (Savitri-531) wait ‘to be kindled in our secret cells.’ (Savitri-626) "Yet Light is there; it stands at Nature’s doors: It holds a torch to lead the traveller in. It waits to be kindled in our secret cells; It is a star lighting an ignorant sea, A lamp upon our poop piercing the night. As knowledge grows Light flames up from within: It is a shining warrior in the mind, An eagle of dreams in the divining heart, An armour in the fight, a bow of God." Savitri-626 Lastly, this Canto gives a clue how the business of Death and Night fails on Earth. That is possible by universalisation of Divine Love, by attainment of unity consciousness of Supermind and all is known and clasped by Divine Love. "A Lover leaning from his cloister’s door Gathers the whole world into his single breast. Then shall the business fail of Night and Death: When unity is won, when strife is lost And all is known and all is clasped by Love Who would turn back to ignorance and pain?” Savitri-632-33 This Canto also proposes that Subconscient transformation can only be experienced in deep meditation or non-waking trance. Entry into Subconscient plane is a terrible battle against the forces of darkness and in the Mother’s language, “I am given the awareness of how huge this thing (Divine descent) is one drop at a time…so I won’t be crushed,” (The Mother’s Agenda, July 15, 1961,) and this Subconscient transformation could be done ‘only in deep meditation…and not in any other time, in activity or even in concentration.’ (The Mother’s Agenda, December 11, 1963) "But now her spirit’s flame of conscient force Retiring from a sweetness without fruit Called back her thoughts from speech to sit within In a deep room in meditation’s house ." Savitri-639 A Sadhak of integral Yoga must understand that before conquering Death from without Savitri must conquer Death from within accompanied with mighty calmness. “O Death, I have triumphed over thee within ; I quiver no more with the assault of grief; A mighty calmness seated deep within Has occupied my body and my sense: It takes the world’s grief and transmutes to strength, It makes the world’s joy one with the joy of God." Savitri-633 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “My love eternal sits throned on God’s calm; For Love must soar beyond the very heavens And find its secret sense ineffable; It must change its human ways to ways divine, Yet keep its sovereignty of earthly bliss.” Savitri-633 “For now at last I know beyond all doubt, The great stars burn with my unceasing fire And life and death are both its fuel made. Life only was my blind attempt to love: Earth saw my struggle, heaven my victory; All shall be seized, transcended; there shall kiss Casting their veils before the marriage fire The eternal bridegroom and eternal bride.” Savitri-638 47/ Book 10, Canto 4 - The Dream Twilight And The Earthly Real A Brief Restatement: The canto marks the final confrontation of Savitri with Death in his own realm (of Night). The next time Savitri meets Death will be in the realm of light where Death’s contorted mask is removed and his true divine nature is revealed. Death (after his gospel in the previous canto) argues for Savitri to give up her quest and conviction of revealing the Divine behind all matter and bringing down the divine from the highest planes. Savitri destroys all his arguments with the Truth. Finally, Death slowly recognises that the Divine Mother may be present in Savitri and asks for that darshan and agrees to release him if he is blessed with that vision. A vast transformation comes over Savitri and the divine Mother within steps forward and reveals herself to Death and asks him to return Satyavan’s soul. Despite this Death remains stubborn and refuses to give up Satyavan. But the light and force of the Divine Mother overwhelms him and he retreats defeated, giving up the soul of Satyavan . Arjuna was shown Viswarupa Darshana (The Vision of the universal Godhead) by the Lord in the Gita f or the completeness of his Spiritual life. Here in this Canto-IV, book-10, Savitri, the Divine Mother had possessed Death by Her dynamic Viswa rupa. Death God is projected here as a temporary dark instrument of the Divine. This is also the message for a Sadhak of integral Yoga that he has to realise the vision of Viswarupa of the Gita through his third eye and be possessed by the Viswarupa of the Divine Mother, in his passage towards immortality. For him, realisation of the Divine is an easier task and the transformation of earthly Nature is a very difficult task, which he has to experience after the universalization of Consciousness. (Death's Viswa rupa experience) "Weighed on his unbowed head and stubborn breast; Light like a burning tongue licked up his thoughts, Light was a luminous torture in his heart, Light coursed, a splendid agony, through his nerves; His darkness muttered perishing in her blaze. Her mastering Word commanded every limb And left no room for his enormous will That seemed pushed out into some helpless space And could no more re-enter but left him void. He called to Night but she fell shuddering back, He called to Hell but sullenly it retired: He turned to the Inconscient for support, From which he was born, his vast sustaining self; It drew him back towards boundless vacancy As if by himself to swallow up himself: He called to his strength, but it refused his call. His body was eaten by light, his spirit devoured." Savitri-667 If a Sadhak attains Cosmic Consciousness, then he must pursue sadhana in secrecy and silence. His presence will be intolerable for the common man because of this particular nature, ‘Universal, he is all,--transcendent, none.’ (Savitri-657) When he lives in universal Self, he becomes very intimate with all; when he lives in transcendent Consciousness, he goes beyond all these relations. This is unbearable to man’s righteousness. His outward appearance will be marked with Truth-Power or the 'sound of infinity' in his voice and his eyes will shine with the 'light of things beyond.' (Savitri-663) OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “Darkness below, a fathomless Light above, In Light are joined, but sundered by severing Mind Stand face to face, opposite, inseparable, Two contraries needed for his great World-task, Two poles whose currents wake the immense World-Force.” Savitri-656-657 “A few have dared the last supreme ascent And break through borders of blinding light above, And feel a breath around of mightier air, Receive a vaster being’s messages And bathe in its immense intuitive Ray.” Savitri-659 48/ Book 11, Canto 1 - The Soul's Choice And The Supreme's Consummation A Brief restatement: After the Savitri moves through the realms of Eternal Night and the Dream Twilight and defeats Death so that he retreats and gives up his claim to Satyavan’s Soul, Savitri enters the realm of the Superconscient plane. As she enters these realms, she moves up the levels of the Overmind and then onto the Supramental and Sachchidananda planes. As she ascends past the Overmind regions, she encounters the Supreme, who gives her the final test. To date, Savitri has had to deal with obstacles from her birth mother, her untransformed nature and Death, both within (as a void/nirvana) and without. Having conquered Death and secured Satyavan , the Supreme asks her to enjoy the fruits of her glory, reminds her that she is the Eternal Bride and His force – He asks her to withdraw to live in her Spirit above or in her Soul within and no longer does she need to strive against the recalcitrant nature who in the course of time (eons) will eventually be transformed. Savitri in spite of the deeply loving and ensnaring words of the Divine, refuses – just as she refused to succumb to the eternal night and the twilight, she also refuses these great boons. This is because, for Savitri, the Divine has to be experienced integrally in ten planes, not just satisfied in one or two realms. The Divine then takes her to the highest planes of existence, from where she will be better able to make her decision and tempts her three more times with boons. But each time Savitri refuses, because in those highest stations of Sachchidananda, Savitri is united with the Supreme Mother’s consciousness and she feels all of creation as her children. The voices of these children plead to her to remain with them and the love which binds her to Her creations makes her ask the Supreme that all that He offers her, let that be provided to all of Earth and man, not just to her. One key difference I (Auroprem) note between the Supreme’s discussion with Savitri and the Divine Mother’s instruction with King Aswapthi is that even though both Lord and the Supreme Mother said not to hasten the descent of the force on unprepared earth, with King Aswapati, he was asked to remain on earth and “let thy toil be vast” (Savitri-340) or ‘Accept the difficulty and godlike toil,’ (Savitri-335) and not to retire to a station above creation. With Savitri, the Supreme is actually asking her to withdraw into the highest planes of Consciousness 'through immense extinction in eternity'. (Savitri-696) This also hints at the difference between the dynamic Divine Mother embracing earth problems and the static Divine Father indifferent to world problems. The Supreme is pleased with Savitri’s choice and grants her the Supreme Consummation which is to find the Divine in all through 'A thousand doors of oneness', (Savitri-695) 'force her will on fate,' (Savitri-694) 'stamp her will on Time' (Savitri-695) and her joy becomes imperfect if 'not shared by all.' (Savitri-686) "A virgin unity, a luminous spouse, Housing a multitudinous embrace To marry all in God’s immense delight, Bearing the eternity of every spirit, Bearing the burden of universal love, A wonderful mother of unnumbered souls." Savitri-695 Divine says that after Savitri prepares the Earth in all life, it will then be able to bear the descent of the Supreme Mother, the last Avatar . This will coincide with the emergence of a new race of diviner men, who will also raise the existing race of men towards the Divine. This will then allow the Supreme’s force and presence to act directly on Earth without distortion and the need of any intermediary consciousness. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this Canto: "A divine force shall flow through tissue and cell And take the charge of breath and speech and act And all the thoughts shall be a glow of suns And every feeling a celestial thrill. Often a lustrous inner dawn shall come Lighting the chambers of the slumbering mind; A sudden bliss shall run through every limb A nd Nature with a mightier Presence fill. Thus shall the earth open to divinity And common natures feel the wide uplift, Illumine common acts with the Spirit’s ray And meet the deity in common things. Nature shall live to manifest secret God, The Spirit shall take up the human play, This earthly life become the life divine.” Savitri-710 49/ Book 12, Epilogue - The Return To Earth A Brief restatement : This Canto hints at human love's transformation into Divine Love, which is again the prerogative of very rare developed Souls. The whole of Savitri hints that before developing Divine Love of Sachchidananda Consciousness, a Sadhak must develop strong subtle physical love. This subtle physical love is perennial in its nature and it grows in successive births through activation of true Physical Being, Annamaya Purusha. This Canto also hints at the penetration of Supreme Ananda into physical substance and thus cellular transformation action becomes active. This chapter signifies the permanent descent of Sachchidananda Consciousness to earth consciousness which was the result of Savitri’s permanent ascent of Soul to Sachchidananda consciousness, here symbolically represented as Everlasting Day. Savitri along with Satyavan return to earth consciousness and to their bodies with the blessings of the Supreme to stay in the Earth’s atmosphere and continue their eternal work as the dual incarnating power of the Supreme (1) to raise the consciousness of man to God and (2) to bring down the higher consciousness to the Earth plane. Satyavan recognizes the great (subjective and objective) change that Savitri has undergone (during this long cataleptic trance) and realizes that it is due to her love alone (Or accumulation of her Yoga Shakti in the form of Divine Love that was able to bring back Satyavan from the clutch of Death or Their strong bond of Divine union failed Death to take Satyavan away from Savitri ) that he has consented to remain on the earth plane and continue their work. The boons Death gave to Savitri have resulted in the King’s (Dyumatsena’s ) outward vision (and inner vision of seven immortal worlds) being restored and his lost kingdom (symbolized as King Dyumatsena’s lame identity with Ignorance) and returned with the eye of wisdom and integral Knowledge. The poem finishes with marked difference in the consciousness of the Earth, (permanent manifestation of Sachchidananda Consciousness on Earth), especially in the inconscient plane, which now houses the promise of greater dawn and light due to the work of this dual Force on the (Subconscient/Inconscient plane) earth plane. Now, The Mother and Sri Aurobindo have opened ‘two consenting worlds’ (Savitri-716) for humanity. They are identified as Bliss/Supramental Self above the head and Subconscient/Inconscient Self below the feet. Through the opening of these double doors, humanity can transform existing life and this exercise can begin with a few prepared Souls and can be later generalised into whole of humanity. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: "Ever she held on the paradise of her breast Her lover charmed into a fathomless sleep, Lain like an infant spirit unaware Lulled on the verge of two consenting worlds .” Savitri-716 “Awakened to the meaning of my heart That to feel love and oneness is to live And this the magic of our golden change, Is all the truth I know or seek, O sage.” Savitri-624 Download the above synopsis as a PDF file Savitri - Yoga Sadhana Camp Discussion 28 July - 31 July 2024 Audio Recording 28 July 2024 Audio Recording 29 July 2024 Audio Recording 30 July 2024 Audio Recording 31 July 2024 We must pursue Sadhana by outwardly becoming a mere man of action like the woodsman status of Satyavan and inwardly like King Aswapati, who drops all his separative identity in the Divine, possesses the highest objective of Jnana and Bhakti Yoga by becoming a Karma Yogi. We must note that while pursuing this difficult Yoga if we experience Spiritual fall then, also we can again pursue this Sadhana of Karma Yoga like King Dyumatsena, in double seclusion that of an outcast from the privilege of light of the outer world and renouncing the enjoyment of five senses symbolised here as loss of eyesight. We must learn to consecrate our Soul’s childhood near the Mother Soul, here identified as Savitri, who serves earth and her children from below like a slave and from above like Sunlight. Her ceaseless consecration and ceaseless Divine union could not satisfy and fulfill life because there is always the threat of an inrush of Ignorance, Falsehood, Suffering and Death from below. They can abruptly end all the charm of life. The remedy lies in her Subconscient and Inconscient transformation through a collaboration of a few prepared universalised individual vessels. “Now, a third thing also one must know, but for this one has to be a mighty yogi. For this means knowing that death is not an inevitable thing, it is an accident which has been occurring till now (which seems in any case to have always occurred till now), ("A net of death in which by chance we live." Savitri-50) and that we have put it into our head and our will to conquer this accident and overcome it. But it is so terrible, so formidable a battle against all the laws of Nature, against all collective suggestions, all earthly habits, that unless, as I have said, you are a first-rate warrior whom nothing frightens, it is better not to begin the battle. You must be an absolutely intrepid hero, for at every step, at every second you have to fight a battle against all established things. So it is not a very easy thing. And even as an individual it is a battle against oneself, because (I think I have already told you this once), if you want your physical consciousness to be in a state which admits of physical immortality, you must be free to such an extent from everything which at present represents the physical consciousness that it becomes every second a battle. All feelings, all sensations, all thoughts, all reflexes, all attractions, all repulsions, all existing things, all that forms the fabric of our physical life must be overcome, transformed and freed from all their habits. This is a battle of every second against thousands and millions of enemies. Unless you feel you are a hero, it is better not to try. Because this solution, well... I do not know, but I believe I was asked this question once before: “Has anyone succeeded so far?” To tell you the truth I don’t know, for I have not met such a person. I do not have the feeling that anyone has succeeded till now. But it is possible. Only, he or she who has done it has not declared it, at least, not till now.” The Mother The Mother’s Centenary works/Vol-5/p-316-317"

The Hierarchies of Ashram Living "As if the world’s centre was her very soul" Savitri-664 "Work here (in the Ashram ) and work done in the world are of course not the same thing. The work there is not in any way a divine work in special- it is ordinary work in the world. But still one must take it as a training and do it in the spirit of Karmayoga - what matters there is not the nature of work in itself, but the spirit in which it is done. It must be in the spirit of the Gita , without desire, with detachment, without repulsion, but doing it as perfectly as possible, not for the sake of the family or promotion or to please the superiors, but simply because it is the thing that has been given in the hand to do. It is a field of inner training, nothing else. One has to learn in it these things, equality, desirelessness, dedication. It is not the work as a thing for its own sake, but one’s way of doing it that one has to dedicate to the Divine. Done in that spirit, it doesn’t matter what the work is. If one trains oneself spiritually like that, then one will be ready to do in the true way whatever special work directly for the Divine , (such as the Ashram work) one may any day be given to do." Sri Aurobindo SABCL-23/Letters on Yoga-II/p-852 “My children, I have told you, repeated it in every tone, in every way: if you really want to profit by your stay here, try to look at things and understand them with a new vision and a new understanding based on something higher, something deeper, vaster, something more true, something which is not yet but will be one day. And it is because we want to build this future that we have taken this special stand.”¹⁶ The Mother (The Mother said this at the age of 94) “The body has some difficulty, so I can’t be active, alas. It is not because I am old-I am not old. I am not old, I am younger than most of you. If I am here inactive, it is because the body has given itself definitely to prepare the transformation. But the consciousness is clear and we are here to work-rest and enjoyment will come afterwards, Let us do our work here.” April-2/1972 The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-13/P: 125, The Hierarchies of Ashram Living Ashram ³⁷ is an ancient Indian terminology used for collective² Divine living and if one individual at its centre is having direct contact with the Divine, then this collective living around this Soul Centre is identified as the Divine Centre. Ashram's living evolves through the slow and swift evolution of Consciousness; thus, a hierarchy of ascending Consciousness is built which completes its action through a hierarchy of descent of Divine Consciousness. The collaborators of The Mother’s work in Consciousness are Sadhakas , Children and Integral Yogis , who are an indispensable part of collective Divine Living called the Ashram , the Divine Centre, while Visitors, Devotees and Ashramites¹ are its dispensable organ; the former represents the indivisible Spiritual Consciousness of developed Soul and the latter stands for the divisible mental consciousness of developing Soul. Visitors, Devotees, Ashramites, Sadhakas , Children and Integral Yogis are the beginners, expanders, stabilisers, intensifiers, identifiers and integrators of Consciousness respectively. Here they do not represent an individual or a person but a symbol of a transitional formative state in the hierarchy of ascending Consciousness. Each formative Consciousness has some limitation that inhibits our growth and Spiritual possibility that augments our progress, to which we are most concerned now. A Visitor makes his upward gaze out of curiosity and receives the Divine’s touch beyond his expectation. He is unable to hold this Presence. His business in early preparatory steps is to evolve his capacity, distinguish his personality and possess firmly, powerfully and completely his own individuality. ⁴ ⁶ His self-giving to the Divine is dependent on the evolution of a well-formed part of his personality. In him, the individual consciousness appears as Mind and Intellect and is given as a vehicle of progressive evolutionary manifestation to be clearly aware of itself and things. “Sri Aurobindo’s way of Yoga is of a special character — it is neither sannyasa nor does it accept the ordinary way of human life. Its first stages can be practised anywhere. But unless there is a personal call to this particular way, there is no use in anybody taking to it. For it is a difficult path and there is little chance of success unless the aspiration is clear and fixed and the demand of the soul sincere and unbreakable.” ⁴ ⁹ An enthusiastic Visitor turns into a Devotee , who lives in the Spiritual aspiration of the heart, accumulates inspiration towards God-given work, takes the responsibility of spreading, expanding and creating Mission/Centres and devotes his time to serve the Divine Power and develops ideas, ideals and a new range of activities. His analytic mind cannot transform his nature but can control, harmonise, lay on it the law of mental ideal and can impose a summary patchwork on his divided and half-constructed being. The need of his separative personal life limits his Spiritual pursuit. The observing and governing dynamic Consciousness of a devotee is responsible for generalising an incomplete Spiritual movement and the initial approach of mind turning towards Spirituality is a growth of religious temperament, some devotion in the heart, new values for all things, faithful in the conduct and many-sided effort striving to embrace the all-containing Knowledge. A seeking devotee turns into an Ashramite in this life or after many births of preparation, who receives the Divine’s call to lead a Divine Life, yet compromises in between the Law and downward pull²⁶ of his past world attraction, attachment and habits. Ashramites ⁵ are of three types, ‘tamasic, rajasic and sattwic’ .⁴ based on their dynamic nature and are of four categories that of Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Shudra based on the predominance of their Soul force, dominant tendencies and efficiency. An Ashramite stabilises the main function of collective living. His action is appreciated by entire self-giving of the outer life to the Divine and partial dissolution of separative personal life in the Divine. His mental waking Consciousness is a small selection of our entire conscious being which always limits the Illimitable, divides the Indivisible and in the end a growing obstacle to the truth of things; behind it, there is much vaster subliminal and subconscious mind which is identified as the starting point of a true science of Spirituality. Finally, in Ashram living, two types of Ashramites find their safe shelter; one that of moderate Ashramite , who consecrate his actions and emotions to the Divine through the practice of Karma and Bhakti Yoga ; the other that of ascetic Ashramite, who in addition to consecrated action and devotion, practice Self-control as means of uniting with the Divine. An Ashramite’s right living is ensured when he gives first priority to the Divine which is reconciled with the second priority, the Law of Divine Living, here known as integral Yoga and further reconciled with the third priority of collective living, the symbol of mutuality. The objective of a true Ashramite is not to ‘be a big Purna Yogi or a supramental being’³² but to leave everything in the hand of the Mother ‘and to wish to be whatever she wants you to be.’³² A dedicated Ashramite turns into a Sadhaka ³ in this life or after many births of preparation, in whom the Law of integral Yoga is intensified in its process of manifestation and a new and virgin path of sadhana is traced. The separative personal life of a devotee and the separative collective life of an Ashramite are dissolved in him ‘with the progressive disappearance of egoism and impurity and ignorance’³⁶ and by uniting more and more with the Divine. He establishes himself in Sadhana by repeating the Spiritual experiences of the great past and moves farther towards greater future. There are two types of Sadhakas ; one that of later Vedantic integral Sadhaka preoccupied with individual Yoga and does not have the responsibility of bearing the burden of earth and the other that of ancient Vedantic integral Sadhaka preoccupied with universal Yoga of bearing a part of the burden of the earth. The former Sadhaka’s liberated Soul status does not influence the surrounding world in perfecting their imperfection⁵¹ and he does not have the sense of fatherhood, motherhood and compassion towards the brother Souls and remains satisfied with his own isolated ecstatic Soul status. The latter Sadhaka is a perfect Arya with realisation of three poises of the Self. He is one with the Transcendent Self, one with the universal Self, represented as oneness with the whole of earth and its humanity and his own individual Psychic Self carrying the Transcendent and Universal Mother. He feels responsibility and care towards the brother Souls, and as a secondary Source he assists the twice-born brother Souls in strengthening their contact with the primary Source, here identified as The Mother and Sri Aurobindo . Each Sadhaka in this path is preoccupied with his own scientific method of Yoga developed and confirmed by rigorous self-control, regular experiment, practical analysis, psychological observation, constant revelatory results, established Spiritual experiences, profounder catholic understandings and he is not indifferent towards world sufferings, world miseries and world falsehood. For him, Divine life is real, concrete and verifiable. He does not act according to the construction of a fixed and routine system but with a sort of free, scattered and gradually intensive purposeful working based on his temperament, the helpful material his nature offers, widening of consciousness and life and obstacles which he experiences to the purification and perfection. An integral aim is pursued through integral and synthetic methods to arrive at the result of integral Purification, Realisation, Liberation, Perfection and Delight of active oneness. In a Sadhaka the waking consciousness is extended to Cosmic Consciousness by an inner enlargement from the individual into universal existence and his instrumental individual action, will, personal feeling, thought and energy disappear while taking up the transformative action of the lower grades of this Nature. He does not make an effort to think, act, will and feel separately but the Divine Shakti thinks, enjoys, feels and acts in his system ⁴ ⁷ and he feels his body one with all bodies, his life one with the whole sea of infinite life and his mind one with the struggle, thought and joy of all existence. A growing twice-born Sadhaka through arduous tapasya emerges into a thrice-born consecrated Child ,⁴⁵ no longer cherishes a duality between a Sadhaka and the Mother but identifies as a part and indispensable portion of Her Divine Consciousness. This working of Her Consciousness-Force, Shakti , in Knowledge through Her children is defined as possession of Calm within to accommodate the fine entries of Celestial Fire into the manifesting Nature and welling out from its silence the perennial source of inexhaustible Action, Creation and Ananda . His action is appreciated by the entire ecstatic consecration of inner and outer living, knowledge of the movement of Consciousness and limitless plasticity towards Divine transformation.³¹ Thus, a constant dynamic Supramental Divine union is the state of the Consciousness of a King Child. An integral Yogi ⁴⁰ or the dearest Child is at once a Child, not doing any sadhana , but it is done for him due to his entire childlike reliance on the Mother through absolute consecration and the Sadhaka of integral Yoga pursuing sadhana through rigorous effort, askesis and self-control and he can serve as a link in between the supreme Mother Consciousness and the earth consciousness. He is outwardly a mere man of action, Nara and inwardly a possessor of Divine Consciousness, Narayana , shall preoccupy himself in an entire effort to reveal God in humanity, Nara-Narayana . The goal of his evolving Integral Consciousness, Maya, is the basis of the entire harmonisation of life, the development of a seven-fold Divine personality, and the total transformation and integration of Nature and Being. It is exceedingly good fortune for a Sadhaka of integral Yoga to receive the assistance of an integral Yogi 'who has realised or is becoming That which he (a Sadhaka) seeks for and can by opening to it in this vessel of its manifestation himself realise it.'⁵⁰ The Mother is at once the Supreme Mother, the Chit Shakti , the Creatrix Mother of the universe, not doing any Sadhana ; as the Mediatrix Mother, She stands in between Sri Aurobindo’s sadhana and the World, and as the Sadhaka of integral Yoga pursuing Her universalised Sadhana ⁵⁵ in the body; as the Executrix Mother, She draws heaven seeking and world shunning liberated Souls earthward to reconcile Self and Nature, fills in them the equal four-fold Spiritual Forces and four-fold Soul-Forces and builds in the abysm of Hell a road to Heaven and as the Ambassadress Mother She calls down ceaselessly Timeless Eternity and Spaceless Infinity to illumine the Subconscient earth. Thus, through Her virgin Influence, lower Nature is initially controlled and finally transformed into Divine Nature and all ordinary earth-bound action is transformed into Divine action, all mundane thought into Divine Wisdom and all human emotions into Divine Love. Sri Aurobindo is at once the Supreme Purusha, the Purushottama , carrying within Him the immutable, the unmanifest Divine, the Akshara Purusha and the mutable, the manifest Divine, the Kshara Purusha ; as an Intermediary, the Guru , He links the disciples with the three Purushas and activates in them Psychic and Spiritual being of twice-born Soul and much later Supramental Being of thrice-born Soul. He fuses Himself with the Supreme Prakriti, The Mother , for the highest action of Subconscient and Inconscient transformation and the highest Divine Love and Delight of Inconscient Self that will remake the universal life of the Divine Lila. The Mother is the living representative of Consciousness, Chit Shakti , by whose movement one will arrive at Sri Aurobindo , the living representative of the Being, Supreme Self, Sat Purusha . Their supreme relationship is the union between Sat and Chit, leading the creation to Ananda . Supramental Consciousness, Vijnana, is the fourth name of the Divine activated through the multiplication of Their Soul Force and this supreme relation links the Sachchidananda Consciousness to the lower triple creation of the mind, life and body; if dynamised sufficiently, then the lower creation retains the lost Divinity and the Life Divine becomes practicable. In Their effort to enlarge the experience of integral Divine Union of three Powers of the Will, Iccha Shakti , Knowledge, Jnana Shakti and Love, Prema Shakti in harmonising and transforming the earth nature, the Law of the Divine, cosmos, collectivity and individual Soul were evolved which gave birth to the norms of inner and outer living, ideals, right standards of conduct and self-discipline of integral Yoga. These outer laws of self moulding are continually evolving temporary higher and higher standards ‘as long as they are needed’²⁴ to serve the Divine in the world march and in the Supramental plane they become free automatic obedience to the truth of things and inevitable right execution in the action and all is determined by the Consciousness and Being. Any imposition of a rigidly fixed set of strict principles, precise mental rules, constructed laws of conduct and artificial limiting standards are abrogated because they stand as barriers to the eternal onflow of Divine opulence. Its method has been the method of evolutionary Nature with many-sided wideness, catholicity, plasticity,²⁵ universality, integration of being, followed by the outcome of the largest, deepest, widest and highest form of every possible line of Spiritual realisation and Spiritual self-discipline and complete dynamism of that return to the truth of Nature. , So, a Visitor’s outward living cannot free his ‘gaze to reach wisdom’s sun.’²¹ He feels the need to serve the Divine and becomes a Devotee. A Devotee’s intermittent contact with the Divine’s ray gives him hope and aspiration to trace the Divine’s Sun Light and to live in the vicinity of the ‘deathless sun.’¹¹ He feels the need that his service and subordination to the Divine must be entire and he emerges as an Ashramite. ‘A ray has touched him from the eternal sun’¹² and thus his hope and aspiration are intensified. An Ashramite, through the mental effort of consecrated action, consecrated thought and consecrated emotion, experiences static Divine union and he emerges as Sadhaka. He learns the lesson of the ascent of the Soul and traces ‘through white rays to meet an unseen Sun.’¹³ A Sadhaka dynamises his union with the Divine to become one with the Divine Shakti, lives constantly ‘in the rays of an intuitive Sun’¹⁴ and emerges as a Child. A Child further moves the consciousness to feel the Divine Mother’s ‘high Transcendent’s sunlike hands’²³ and ‘in the ray reveal the parent sun.’²⁰ He finds the established relation between static and dynamic Divine to hold together The Mother and Sri Aurobindo as ‘the deathless Two-in-One’¹⁵ or as 'incarnate dual Power'³⁸ and emerges as an integral Yogi . Their supreme relation of ‘trance of bliss’¹⁵ sustains this mutable world and works out the intense and large universal action ‘To lift earth-hearts nearer the Eternal sun’³⁵ or 'one high step might enfranchise all.'³⁹ The Basic Indispensable Law⁴⁴ of Ashram Collective Living: "First indispensable condition to be admitted in the Ashram : The candidate must have taken the resolution to dedicate his life unconditionally to the service of the Divine."⁸ The Mother “The indispensable basis of our Yoga is sincerity, honesty, unselfishness, disinterested consecration to the work to be done, nobility of character and straight forwardness. They who do not practice these elementary virtues are not Sri Aurobindo’s disciples and have no place in Ashram .”⁵ The Mother “You must never forget that I disapprove of quarrels²² and always consider that both sides are equally wrong. To surmount one’s feelings, preferences, dislikes and impulses, is an indispensable discipline here.”⁶ The Mother “Ninety-nine out of a hundred people come here to be comfortable and do nothing; one in a hundred comes with a Spiritual aspiration, and even then…it is mixed. The three conditions: (A set of rules for admission to Ashram ) a: The sole aim of life is to dedicate oneself to the Divine realisation. b: Sri Aurobindo’s absolute authority (represented by The Mother) (through inner contact) is recognised. c: To those who want to practice the integral Yoga, it is strongly advised to abstain from three things. So the three things ([laughing] you put your fingers in your ears): sexual intercourse (it comes third) and drinking alcohol and... [whispering] smoking.”⁷ The Mother “By definition the Ashramite has resolved to consecrate his life to the realisation and service of the Divine...For this four virtues are indispensable, without which progress is uncertain and subject to interruptions and troublesome falls at the first opportunity: Sincerity, faithfulness, modesty and gratitude.”⁸ The Mother “The two indispensable conditions to live as a disciple in the Ashram :- 1. To be resolved to make the needs of the soul come before all others, and to satisfy the other needs, those of the body, vital and mind, only so far as they do not interfere with the fulfillment of the needs of the soul. 2. To be convinced that I am in a position to know the needs of the soul of each and every one and that therefore I have the right and the competence to judge in this respect.”⁸ The Mother “Take advantage of the circumstances to get rid of all attachment to the members of your family. You must learn that you have no more brothers, sister, father, mother, except Sri Aurobindo and myself, and you must feel free and unconcerned whatever happens to them. We are your whole family, your protection, your all in all.”⁹ The Mother “It is not from disgust for life and people that one must come to yoga. It is not to run away from difficulties that one must come here. It is not even to find the sweetness of love and protection, for the Divine’s love and protection can be enjoyed everywhere if one takes the right attitude. When one wants to give oneself totally in service to the Divine, to consecrate oneself totally to the Divine’s work, simply for the joy of giving oneself and of serving, without asking for anything in exchange, except the possibility of consecration and service, then one is ready to come here and will find the doors wide open.”¹⁰ The Mother There exists an inner and subtle Divine Centre of which Sri Aurobindo Ashram is an objective manifestation. In this subtle Ashram, disciples and devotees are linked only³⁴ with Their all-inclusive Consciousness inwardly through Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental ascension and linked only with Them in the outer Ashram through Their Divine Action, Divine Presence and live Their Teachings spontaneously. In this future Spiritual evolution of the Gnostic community, nothing can be regarded as irrational, incredible and insignificant and even a small beginning of work can drive towards mighty Supramental fulfillment; ‘each wayside act’³⁰ can heighten and deepen the Soul’s movement; a Supramental vision seen in the flash of moments can toil through ages to express and stabilise; everything moves, acts, things to be done and the way to do it are guided by spontaneous intuitive Light and Truth from beyond. The growth of higher consciousness equips a Sadhaka with new supernormal capacities of action and his Divine work in the world is a spontaneous development of his triple instrumental overhead power of Will, Knowledge and Love, which opens for him an unlimited prospect of self-concentration and self-expansion. If the inception of his Divine work through activation of Divine Will, the descent of overhead knowledge, music and word continue to inspire people, and continue to radiate its light and love through centuries, then that action is identified as Supramental action. In brief, the Supramental action, knowledge, and love do not grow old or become obsolete with the passage of time, and they endure for the longest period. Any manifestation through activation of the three gunas are short-lived and makes life poor, insecure, narrow and limited. Any manifestation through activation of the Psychic being, the Spiritual being and the Supramental being is long-lived and it makes life opulent, secured and an experience of unlimited free flow of Divine energies. If other Divine Centres/Gnostic Centres are to evolve in other parts of the world on the basis of impersonal and universal Consciousness, then its broad modalities are hinted in The Synthesis of Yoga and The Life Divine . It ‘matters little for them of what aspect of personal or impersonal Divine they adore or even what guide they choose.’¹⁷ The ‘free individual spirit who is the soul centre of its’¹⁸ multiple liberating Souls is the basis of the formation of the Divine Centre.¹⁹ When his consciousness is raised towards Supramental Consciousness, then a Gnostic Centre is born. Thus, the community of Divine Centre can act as the energy centre of the world with its sole responsibility of calling down the Transcendent and Universal Divine force to earth and man. The aim of Divine Life is perfection. In order to arrive at perfection, one must have a complete account of his imperfection. This full account is possible by identifying his imperfection in tamasic, rajasic and sattwic Nature. The imperfection and limitation of the sattwic mind is further segregated as schoolman mind, fixed mind and outer mind. He has to identify his imperfections and limitations in three untransformed subliminal inner natures, which are identified as the Mother of the seven sorrows, the Mother of might and the Mother of light. A Sadhaka of integral Yoga must recognise that one part of his Nature (particularly surface life) is a Visitor; other parts are segregated as a Devotee, Ashramite , Sadhaka , Child and integral Yogi. He must be thoroughly dissatisfied with the achievements of his partial Divine union and must strive for complete Divine union and integral perfection. For the integration of his Being and Nature, he must learn the lesson of movement of Consciousness through which his multiple (ten) Selves and multiple (ten) subtle sheaths can be purified, transformed, integrated and perfected. A seeker of Truth is considered fit²⁷ to begin Ashram living if he has gone through the prior experience of overcoming extreme adversity.⁴⁸ He is considered fit²⁹ to become a Sadhaka of integral Yoga if he has a strong foundation of Vedantic Spirituality and has exhausted the perfections of traditional Yoga. He is identified as a privileged Sadhak ⁵² if he has discovered the true Guide within as the Psychic Being and without as the living Spiritual Teacher. He is considered fit to become a consecrated Child when he is 'perfectly truthful'⁴⁵ by rejecting falsehood. And he is considered fit²⁸ to become an integral Yogi if he does not live content like a traditional Yogi in a pure ecstatic state of higher Consciousness but utilises his universalised Spiritual energy to bear a part of the burden and miseries of earth. If he has no desire⁵³ and ego,⁵⁴ then he is considered fit to ascend to the Supramental Consciousness. Recapitulation: “To remain here is possible only for those who feel deep in themselves that here is the only place in the world where they must live.”⁴² The Mother “If you want to find your soul, to know it and obey it, remain here at any cost. If this is not the aim of your life and you are ready to live the life of the immense majority of men, you may certainly go back to your family.”⁴² The Mother “It is good that you have decided to concentrate on the true object of your coming here, but while absorption in mental work and social contacts is not favourable for Yoga, excessive seclusion has also its spiritual disadvantage. An inner concentration supported by a limitation of external contacts is sufficient. Some kind of activity and service to the Divine is also a very necessary element in the integral spiritual life.”⁴³ Sri Aurobindo A Visitor is not aware of the vertical movement of ascending and descending Consciousness; instead, he is aware of the horizontal movement of limited mental consciousness subject to three gunas.³³ A Devotee experiences partial union with the Divine through the intermittent movement of Consciousness between the higher plane and the lower untransformed triple modes of mind. An Ashramite repeats this experience in a protected environment through self-control of purified intellect. A Sadhaka moves the Consciousness through rigorous self-control. A Child moves the Consciousness through Vedic and Vedantic Sacrifice. An integral Yogi integrates Consciousness through triple movements of Will, Wisdom and Love in the higher plane. The Mother and Sri Aurobindo are the primary Sources and symbols of the comprehensive movement of Consciousness. For a Sadhaka, those who are ahead of him in Consciousness are identified as secondary Sources and behind him in consciousness are tertiary Sources. A Sadhaka of integral Yoga meets all the above personalities within himself and does not waste time⁴¹ in helping others or gathering together of devotees, lokasangraha , and utilises time exclusively to bridge the gulf between the highest Sachchidananda Consciousness and the lowest dark Consciousness of the Inconscient plane. A Sadhaka’s Spiritual life is secured through the complete union of the Soul with the Divine. His first object is to give Them (dual Divine Consciousness) consecrated service without rest and earthly ease, which will establish him as a slave of all humanity and in the consciousness of the King Child with the extension of the ten inner and one outer Kingdom. His second object is to develop his own path of Yoga through concentration, contemplation and meditation of written truth and constant restatement and renovation of the best standards of the race, which will establish him as a disciple of the Lord, Prophet, Pathfinder, Pioneer of new Consciousness and Teacher. His last object is to emerge as Lover of the Divine, lover of brother Souls and lover of all creatures and humanity. Thus, his Spiritual life is fulfilled by the emergence of triple overhead energies of Delight, Love and Beauty. He will be widely recognised on earth as hinted in Savitri: "Thou shalt be attracted helplessly to all. Men seeing thee shall feel my hands of joy," Savitri-701 OM TAT SAT References: 1: “The other day, I told N, (and I told him loud enough for everyone to hear): ‘We can dispense with a good half of the Ashramites straight away and not lose a single Sadhaka…’ People imagine that by the simple fact of being here they become disciples and apprentice Yogis! But it is not true…” The Mother’s Agenda-2/p-184, 2: "I could have begun this work (of transformation) on the body thirty years ago, but I was constantly caught up in this harassing ashram life. It took this illness’ to enable me truly to begin doing the sadhana of the body. It does not mean that thirty years were wasted, for it is likely that had I been able to start this work thirty years ago, it would have been premature. The consciousness of the others also had to develop – the two are linked, the individual progress and the collective progress, and one cannot advance if the other does not advance." The Mother’s Agenda-May 19, 1959, 3: “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, “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, "Then – and this becomes rather amusing like life’s play ... Depending upon each one’s nature and position and bias, and because human beings are very limited, very partial and incapable of a global vision, there are those who believe, who have faith, or to whom the eternal Mother is revealed through Grace, who have this kind of relationship with the eternal Mother – and there are those who themselves are plunged in sadhana, who have the consciousness of a developed sadhak, and thereby have the same relationship with me as one has with what they generally call a ‘realized soul.’ (1) Such persons consider me the prototype of the Guru teaching a new way, (2) but the others don’t have this relationship of sadhak to Guru (I am taking the two extremes, but of course there are all the possibilities in between), they are only in contact with the eternal Mother and, in the simplicity of their hearts, they expect Her to do everything for them. If they were perfect in this attitude, the eternal Mother would do everything for them – as a matter of fact, She does do everything, but as they aren’t perfect, they cannot receive it totally. But the two paths are very different, the two kinds of relationships are very different; and as we all live according to the law of external things, in a material body, there is a kind of annoyance, an almost irritated misunderstanding, between those who follow this path (not consciously and intentionally, but spontaneously), (2) who have this relationship of the child to the Mother, and (1) those who have this other relationship of the sadhak to the Guru. So it creates a whole play, with an infinite diversity of shades." The Mother's Agenda-October 10, 1958, 4: “Tamas brings in all the ignorance, inertia, weakness, incapacity which afflicts our nature, a clouded reason, nescience, unintelligence, a clinging to habitual notions and mechanical ideas, the refusal to think and know, the small mind, the closed avenues, the trotting round of mental habit, the dark and the twilit places. Tamas brings in the impotent will, want of faith and self-confidence and initiative, the disinclination to act, the shrinking from endeavour and aspiration, the poor and little spirit, and in our moral and dynamic being the inertia, the cowardice, baseness, sloth, lax subjection to small and ignoble motives, the weak yielding to our lower nature. Tamas brings into our emotional nature insensibility, indifference, want of sympathy and openness, the shut soul, the callous heart, the soon spent affection and languor of the feelings, into our aesthetic and sensational nature the dull aesthesis, the limited range of response, the insensibility to beauty, all that makes in man the coarse, heavy and vulgar spirit. Rajas contributes our normal active nature with all its good and evil; when unchastened by a sufficient element of sattwa, it turns to egoism, self-will and violence, the perverse, obstinate or exaggerating action of the reason, prejudice, attachment to opinion, clinging to error, the subservience of the intelligence to our desires and preferences and not to the truth, the fanatic or the sectarian mind, self-will, pride, arrogance, selfishness, ambition, lust, greed, cruelty, hatred, jealousy, the egoisms of love, all the vices and passions, the exaggerations of the aesthesis, the morbidities and perversions of the sensational and vital being. Tamas in its own right produces the coarse, dull and ignorant type of human nature, rajas the vivid, restless, kinetic man, driven by the breath of action, passion and desire. Sattwa produces a higher type. The gifts of sattwa are the mind of reason and balance, clarity of the disinterested truth-seeking open intelligence, a will subordinated to the reason or guided by the ethical spirit, self control, equality, calm, love, sympathy, refinement, measure, fineness of the aesthetic and emotional mind, in the sensational being delicacy, just acceptivity, moderation and poise, a vitality subdued and governed by the mastering intelligence.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga-686, 5: The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol-13/p-123, "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, 6: The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol-14/p-262, 7: The Mother’s Agenda-6/p-128-129, "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, 8: The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol-13/p-112-113, 9: The Mother’s Centenary Edition/Vol-14/p-305, 10: The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol-13/p-111, 11: Savitri-452, 12: Savitri-622, 13: Savitri-23, 14: Savitri-299, 15: Savitri-295, 16: The Mother’s Centenary Works (second edition)/Vol-8/p-240, 17: “That is why it is always said that, no matter what aspect of the Divine you adore or even what guide you choose, if you are perfect in your self-giving and absolutely sincere, you are sure to attain the spiritual goal.” The Mother/The Mother’s Centenary Works (second edition)/Vol-8/p-243, 18: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-675, 19: “If on the other hand the soul moves in its impulse of freedom towards the discovery of another and divine centre of control through which the Infinite can consciously govern its own action in the individual, it is moving towards the gnosis where that centre pre-exists, the centre of an eternal harmony and order.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-502, 20: Savitri-312, 21: Savitri-53, 22: “The division of our being from the being of others can only be healed by (1) 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.” CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-655, 23: Savitri-635, 24: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-191, 25: ‘The Law divine is truth of life and truth of the spirit and must take up with a free living plasticity and inspire with the direct touch of its eternal light each step of our action and all the complexity of our life issues.’ CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-203, 26: “Everybody has to deal with the lower nature. No Yoga can be done without overcoming it, neither this Yoga nor any others. A Yogic life means a life in which one tries to follow the law of Yoga, aim of Yoga in all details of life…Here people do not do that, they live like ordinary people, quarrelling, gossiping, indulging their desires, thinking of Yoga only in their spare moments.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-603-04, 27: “Mon petit, that's why we started the Ashram! That was the idea. Because when I was in France, I was always asking myself, "How can people have the time to find themselves? How can they even have the time to understand the way to free themselves?" So I thought: a place where material needs are sufficiently satisfied, so that if you truly want to free yourself, you can do so. And it was on this idea that the Ashram was founded, not on any other: a place where people's means of existence would be sufficient to give them the time to think of the True Thing. (Mother smiles) Human nature is such that laziness has taken the place of aspiration (not for everyone, but still fairly generally), and license or libertinism has taken the place of freedom. Which would tend to prove that the human species must go through a period of brutal handling before it can be ready to get away more sincerely from the slavery to activity.” The Mother’s Agenda/September 16, 1964, “The truth is, VERY FEW people are ready to be here, very few. We have taken in all types – we accept, we accept, we accept – afterwards, we sift. And the sifting goes on more and more. Actually, we accept everything, the entire earth, and then ... (gesture) there’s a churning. And everything useless goes away.” The Mother’s Agenda-04.03.1961, “It really amused me. If you asked ... if you asked people here, not too many would have such a clear idea: "They have come to do something entirely new and very difficult."” The Mother’s Agenda-14.08.1962, “I was very young at that time, and I always used to tell myself that if ever I could do it, I would try to create a little world — oh! quite a small one, but still... a small world where people would be able to live without having to be preoccupied with food and lodging and clothing and the imperative necessities of life, so as to see whether all the energies freed by this certainty of a secure material living would turn spontaneously towards the divine life and the inner realisation…Well, towards the middle of my life — at least, what is usually the middle of a human life — the means were given to me and I could realise this, that is, create such conditions of life. And I have come to this conclusion, that it is not this necessity which hinders people from consecrating themselves to an inner realisation, but that it is a dullness, a tamas, a lack of aspiration, a miserable laxity, an I-don’t-care attitude, and that those who face even the hardest conditions of life are sometimes the ones who react most and have the intensest aspiration… And of these, the foolishness which seems to me the most disastrous is to keep one’s tongue going: chatter, chatter, chatter. I haven’t known a place where they chatter more than here, and say everything they should not say, busy themselves with things they should not be concerned with. And I know it is merely an overflow of unused energy.” TMCW-8/Questions and Answers-1956/160-161, “Sweet Mother, Some say that You have stated: “Among the 1500 people who are here, there are only 250 or so who understand Sri Aurobindo’s yoga, only forty-five who practise it, five who are capable of realisation and only one who can be transformed.” What is the truth? (Answer given by the Mother) I may have said something of the kind. But the exactness of the numbers is certainly fanciful... It is true that the number of those who take the yoga seriously is not considerable...But the Divine Grace is infinite!” TMCW/Vol-16/p-337, "But he (Sri Aurobindo) did speak of a transformation preceding the appearance of the first supramental being. That’s what he had told me. He told me that his body wasn’t capable of withstanding the transformation, that mine was more capable-he says it there too... But it’s difficult. As I told you the other day." Jan-19/1972/The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-13/P-42, "Now, according to what I have seen and tested (with “little tests” done casually), there are certainly-oh, being EXTEREMELY generous, patient and (what shall I say?) merciful-there are a good third who are here only because they are comfortable: you work if you want to, you don’t work if you don’t want to, you always eat, you always have shelter and clothes, and ultimately, you sort of do as you please (you must pretend to obey, that’s all). And if you’re denied a convenience, you start grumbling-Yoga is simply out of the picture! It’s a hundred thousand miles away from their consciousness (their mouths are full of words, but it’s only lip service). Sometimes you have a little scruple in order to appear to be doing some work. And some have grown very old or come here because they have become unfit for life outside…so we can’t send them away! (It was wrong to accept them-I must say I have little to do with that acceptance: I’ll say no, and ninety-nine times out of a hundred, they will pretend they heard yes, but anyway…that’s life.) So I can’t sent them away. But I am going to make life ascetic for them: one won’t be here to be comfortable anymore-then for what?" Jan-22/1964/Mother’s Agenda/Vol-5/p-34-35, “If truly you love the Divine, prove it by remaining quiet and peaceful. All that comes to each one in life, comes from the Divine to teach us a lesson, and if we take it in the right spirit, we make rapid progress. Try to do so.” The Mother/TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-219, The Mother here recounts the general state of consciousness of devotees and ashramites: “To give a rather curious example, there was a kind of spell of illness over the Ashram, stemming mainly from people’s thoughts, from their way of thinking. It was quite widespread and it was horrible, gloomy, full of fear, pettiness, blind submission, oh! Everyone was in a state of expectation... In short, the atmosphere was such that there was an attempt to prevent me from leaving my room – I had to sneak out! It was disgusting! Well, on the very night I saw the spell over the Ashram, Sri Aurobindo was lying sick in his bed, just as I had seen him in 1950.” The Mother’s Agenda/ February 18, 1961 28: “Actually, we are very lazy...Sri Aurobindo wrote that he was very lazy – that consoled me! We are very lazy. We would like (laughing) to settle back and blissfully enjoy the fruit of our labors!...” The Mother’s Agenda/July 18, 1961, "But for the sadhaka of the integral Yoga this inner or this outer solitude can only be incidents or periods in his spiritual progress. Accepting life, he has to bear not only his own burden, but a great part of the world’s burden too along with it, as a con- tinuation of his own sufficiently heavy load. Therefore his Yoga has much more of the nature of a battle than others; but this is not only an individual battle, it is a collective war waged over a considerable country. He has not only to conquer in himself the forces of egoistic falsehood and disorder, but to conquer them as representatives of the same adverse and inexhaustible forces in the world. Their representative character gives them a much more obstinate capacity of resistance, an almost endless right to recurrence. Often he finds that even after he has won persistently his own personal battle, he has still to win it over and over again in a seemingly interminable war, because his inner existence has already been so much enlarged that not only it contains his own being with its well-defined needs and experiences, but is in solidarity with the being of others, because in himself he contains the universe." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-77-78, 29: “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, 30: Savitri-636, 31: “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, 32: “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, 33: “The three gunas become purified and refined and changed into their divine equivalents: sattwa becomes jyotih., the authentic spiritual light; rajas becomes tapas, the tranquilly intense divine force; tamas becomes s´ama, the divine quiet, rest, peace.” “You cannot drive out rajas and tamas, you can only convert them and give the predominance to sattwa. Tamas and rajas disappear only when the higher consciousness not only comes down but controls everything down to the cells of the body. They then change into the divine rest and peace and the divine energy or Tapas; finally sattwa also changes into the divine Light. As for remaining quiet when tamas is there, there can also be a tamasic quiet.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-47, 34: “There are two atmospheres in the Asram, ours and that of the sadhaks. When people with a little perceptiveness come from outside, they are struck by the deep calm and peace in the atmosphere and it is only when they mix much with the sadhaks that this perception and influence fade away. The other atmosphere of dullness or unrest is created by the sadhaks themselves — if they were opened to the Mother as they should be, they would live in the calm and peace and not in unrest or dullness.” CWSA-35/On Himself and the Ashram/p-632, 35: Savitri-397, 36: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-61, 37: “An Asram means the house or houses of a Teacher or Master of spiritual philosophy in which he receives and lodges those who come to him for the teaching and practice. An Asram is not an association or a religious body or a monastery — it is only what has been indicated above and nothing more.” CWSA-36/Autobiographical Notes/p-530, “We are here in the Ashram to do this work together with the help of Sri Aurobindo’s knowledge and force, in an attempt to realise a community that is more harmonious, more united, and consequently much more effective in life.” The Mother/TMCW/12/On Education/p-355, 38: Savitri-705, 39: Savitri-371, 40: “Such a complexity (evolution of Inconscient, Subconscient, Subliminal, Psychic, Spiritual, Universal, Supramental and Bliss Self etc.) and gathering up of many personalities in one person can be a sign of a very advanced stage of the individual’s evolution when there is a strong central being that holds all together and works towards harmonisation and integration of the whole many-sided movement of the nature.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-849, 41: "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 “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, “As for the people who want to draw others to the Yoga, I should say that if they draw themselves nearer to the inner goal that would be a much more fruitful activity. And in the end it would “draw” much more people and in a better way than the writing of many letters.” CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-325," 42: TMCW-13/Words of the Mother-I/p-140-141, 43: CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-380, 44: “You say that you wish to lead the spiritual life, but for that you should understand that the first point is to overcome all the lower movements, all the attractions, all the attachments, for all these are absolutely contrary to the spiritual life…The spiritual life demands that one is exclusively turned towards the Divine and the Divine alone. All that one does should be done for the Divine; all occupations, all aspirations, all, without exception, should be directed towards the Divine with a complete surrender of the whole being…I know that this cannot be done in a day. But the decision that it may be so should be taken in an unshakable manner. It is only on this condition that I can accept you for the spiritual life.” TMCW/Vol-13/Words of the Mother-I/p-112, 45: “Sweet Mother, What are the qualities needed for one to be called “a true child of the Ashram”? Sincerity, courage, discipline, endurance, absolute faith in the Divine work and unshakable trust in the Divine Grace. All this must be accompanied by a sustained, ardent, persevering aspiration and a boundless patience.” TMCW-16/Some Answers from the Mother-345-346, TMCW-13/Words of the Mother/p-113, “Only those who are perfectly truthful can be my true children.” TMCW-14/Words of the Mother/p-190, “Much more than any physical condition it is faithfulness to the ideal and consecration to the work that make the true disciple.” The Mother/TMCW/Vol-13/Words of the Mother-I/p-112, “MESSAGES TO STUDENT BOARDING HOUSES: We all want to be the true children of our Divine Mother. But for that, sweet Mother, give us patience and courage, obedience, goodwill, generosity and unselfishness, and all the necessary virtues.” TMCW-12/On Education-127, “The last stage of this perfection will come when you are completely identified with the Divine Mother and feel yourself to be no longer another and separate being, instrument, servant or worker but truly a child and eternal portion of her consciousness and force. Always she will be in you and you in her; it will be your constant, simple and natural experience that all your thought and seeing and action, your very breathing and moving come from her and are hers. You will know and see and feel that you are a person and power formed by her out of herself, put out from her for the play and yet always safe in her, being of her being, consciousness of her consciousness, force of her force, ananda of her Ananda. When this condition is entire and her supramental energies can freely move you, then you will be perfect in divine works; knowledge, will, action will become sure, simple, luminous, spontaneous, flawless, an outflow from the Supreme, a divine movement of the Eternal.” CWSA-32/The Mother with Letters on the Mother/p-13, “A third spirit stood behind, their hidden cause, (Supramental Self is the third Spirit) A mass of superconscience closed in light, Creator of things in his all-knowing sleep.” Savitri-681 "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; (thrice-born Soul) He was a vast that soon became a Sun." Savitri-301, 46: "In fact, the first victory is to create an individuality (separative identity). And then later, the second victory is to give this individuality to the Divine. And the third victory is that the Divine changes your individuality into a divine being... There are three stages: the first is to become an individual; the second is to consecrate the individual, that he may surrender entirely to the Divine and be identified with Him; and the third is that the Divine takes possession of this individual and changes him into a being in His own image, that is, he too becomes divine... Generally, all the yogas stopped at the second. When one had succeeded in surrendering the individual and giving him without reserve to the Divine to be identified with Him, one considered that his work was finished, that all was accomplished.... But we begin there, and we say, “No, this is only a beginning. We want this Divine with whom we are identified to enter our individuality and make it into a divine personality acting in a divine world.” And this is what we call transformation. But the other precedes it, must precede it. If that is not done, there is no possibility of doing the third. One can’t go from the first to the third; one must pass through the second." The Mother's Centenary Works/Vol-7/p-402-403, 47: "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, 48: “When I was asleep in the Ignorance, I came to a place of meditation full of holy men and I found their company wearisome and the place a prison; when I awoke, God took me to a prison and turned it into a place of meditation and His trysting ground.” SABCL-17/The Hour of God-84, (the above two places are Sri Ramakrishna Mission of Dakhineswar and Alipore Jail, respectively.) 49: CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-555, 50: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-130, 51: "If such be the intention of the Supreme within him, the liberated soul (Sadhak of traditional Yoga) may be content with a subtle and limited action within the old human surroundings which will in no way seek to change their outward appearance. But it (Sadhak of integral Yoga) may too be called to a work which will not only alter the forms and sphere of its own external life but, leaving nothing around it unchanged or unaffected, create a new world or a new order." Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-268, 52: "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, “This will be to him (a Sadhaka of integral Yoga) 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, 53: "Man can bring an enlightened will, an enlightened thought and enlightened emotions to the difficult work of his self-development; he can more and more subject to these more conscious and reflecting guides the inferior function of desire. In proportion as he can thus master and enlighten his lower self, he is man and no longer an animal. When he can begin to replace desire altogether by a still greater enlightened thought and sight and will in touch with the Infinite, consciously subject to a diviner will than his own, linked to a more universal and transcendent knowledge, he has commenced the ascent towards the superman; he is on his upward march towards the Divine." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-80, “A new consciousness is at work upon earth to prepare the coming of the superhuman being... Open yourselves to this consciousness if you aspire to serve the Divine Work.... To come into contact with this new consciousness, the essential condition is no longer to have any desires and to be wholly sincere.” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda-9th April 1969, 54: "It is necessary to keep this in mind; we must remember that our Yoga is not undertaken for the sake of the acquisition of supermind itself but for the sake of the Divine; we seek the supermind not for its own joy and greatness but to make the union absolute and complete, to feel it, possess it, dynamise it in every possible way of our being, in its highest intensities and largest widenesses and in every range and turn and nook and recess of our nature. It is a mistake to think, as many are apt to think, that the object of a supramental Yoga is to arrive at a mighty magnificence of supermanhood, a divine power and greatness, the self-fulfilment of a magnified individual personality. This is a false and disastrous conception, disastrous because it is likely to raise the pride, vanity and ambition of the rajasic vital mind in us and that, if not overpassed and overcome, must lead to spiritual downfall, false because it is an egoistic conception and the first condition of the supramental change is to get rid of ego. It is most dangerous for the active and dynamic nature of the man of will and works which can easily be led away by the pursuit of power. Power comes inevitably by the supramental change, it is a necessary condition for a perfect action: but it is the Divine Shakti that comes and takes up the nature and the life, the power of the One acting through the spiritual individual; it is not an aggrandisement of the personal force, not the last crowning fulfilment of the separative mental and vital ego. Self-fulfilment is a result of the Yoga, but its aim is not the greatness of the individual. The sole aim is a spiritual perfection, a finding of the true self and a union with the Divine by putting on the divine consciousness and nature." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-280-281, 55: "It brings up very interesting things. (What I am going to say now is very personal and consequently cannot be used, but it may be kept anyway:) ...There are two parallel things that, from the eternal and supreme point of view, are of identical importance, in that both are equally essential for the realization to be a true realization.... On the one hand, there is what Sri Aurobindo – who, as the Avatar, represented the supreme Consciousness and Will on earth – declared me to be, that is, the supreme universal Mother; and on the other hand, there is what I am realizing in my body through the integral sadhana.’ I could be the supreme Mother and not do any sadhana, and as a matter of fact, as long as Sri Aurobindo was in his body, it was he who did the sadhana, and I received the effects. These effects were automatically established in the outer being, but he was the one doing it, not I – I was merely the bridge between his sadhana and the world. Only when he left his body was I forced to take up the sadhana myself; not only did I have to do what I was doing before – being a bridge between his sadhana and the world – but I had to carry on the sadhana myself. When he left, he turned over to me the responsibility for what he himself had been doing in his body, and I had to do it. So there are both these things. Sometimes one predominates, sometimes the other (I don’t mean successively in time, but ... it depends on the moment), and they are trying to combine in a total and perfect realization: the eternal, ineffable and immutable Consciousness of the Executrice of the Supreme, and the consciousness of the Sadhak of the integral Yoga who strives in an ascending effort towards an ever increasing progression." The Mother's Agenda-October 10, 1958, Download this WEB PAGE in PDF format: THE MOTHER'S VIRGIN FORTRESS “For spiritual rebirth means the constant throwing away of our previous associations and circumstances and proceeding to live as if at each virgin moment we were starting life anew… To give you an idea of the final height of spiritual rebirth, I may say that there can be a constant experience of the whole universe actually disappearing at every instant and being at every instant newly created!” The Mother The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol.3/p-176 SRI AUROBINDO'S CONSCIOUSNESS "The goal of Yoga is always hard to reach, but this one (integral Yoga) is more difficult than any other, and it is only for those who have the call, the capacity, the willingness to face everything and every risk, even the risk of failure, and the will to progress towards an entire selflessness, desirelessness and surrender." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-27 THE MOTHER'S CONSCIOUNESS “There is one divine Force which acts in the universe and in the individual and is also beyond the individual and the universe. The Mother stands for all these, but She is working here in the body to bring down something not yet expressed in this material world so as to transform life here—it is so that you should regard her as the Divine Shakti working here for that purpose.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-32/The Mother with Letters on the Mother/-p-50 “The Asram exists solely for Yoga and for a purely spiritual purpose; it is not a political or social or religious institution and it abstains from all these activities, this abstention is necessary for its existence. If any member engages in them, it involves the Asram itself and gives it the appearance of entering into activities which are not proper to it, and if any such impression of that kind is created, it may have serious consequences.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-690 “It is good that you have decided to concentrate on the true object of your coming here, but while absorption in mental work and social contacts is not favourable for Yoga , excessive seclusion has also its spiritual disadvantage. An inner concentration supported by a limitation of external contacts is sufficient. Some kind of activity and service to the Divine is also a very necessary element in the integral spiritual life.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-380 “I don’t remember the context; but I suppose he [the writer of Yogic Sadhan] means that when one has to escape from the lower dharma, one has often to break it so as to arrive at a larger one. E.g. social duties, paying debts, looking after family, helping to serve your country, etc. etc. The man who turns to the spiritual life, has to leave all that behind him often and he is reproached by lots of people for his Adharma . But if he does not do this Adharma , he is bound for ever to the lower life — for there is always some duty there to be done — and cannot take up the spiritual dharma or can do it only when he is old and his faculties impaired.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-439 “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.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-32/The Mother and Letters on the Mother/p-151-152

"Heaven’s call is rare, rarer the heart that heeds; The doors of light are sealed to common mind" Savitri-689 The Call in Brief “Brahmacharya (celibacy) is not binding in bhaktimarga or karmayoga , but it is necessary for ascetic jnanayoga as well as for Raja and Hatha yogas. It is also not demanded from Grihastha yogis. In this (integral) Yoga the position is that one must overcome sex, otherwise there can be no transformation of the lower vital and physical nature; all physical sexual connection should cease, otherwise one exposes oneself to serious dangers. The sex-push must also be overcome but it is not a fact that there can be no sadhana or no experience before it is entirely overcome, only without that conquest one cannot go to the end and it must be clearly recognised as one of the more serious obstacles and indulgence of it as a cause of considerable disturbance.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-542 “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.” The Mother TMCW-7/Questions and Answers-1955/p-350-351 Arjuna of the Gita was given a task and he received a seven-fold Divine Call, in order to ascend in the stairs of Divine Consciousness. And the Lord demanded from him 'nothing more in life than his instrument'⁷⁶ through 'subordination and service,'⁷⁷ nimittamatram bhava savyasachin . We are here in this earth only to perfect the instrumental relation with the Divine by renouncing all forms of desire and personal will. 1. In the preliminary stage of his Sadhana, Arjuna’s tamasic recoil from the terrible action of war field or Spiritual fall in the form of tamasic devotee, arta , by the declaration ‘better the life of the beggar than to taste these blood-stained enjoyments’⁴³ and entry into dejection, fear, aversion, disgust and discouragement are much more injurious and destructive than the rajasic principles of strife, struggle and dissociation. A weak and cowardly tamasic shudra devotee, arta, cannot climb towards God, but by service and obedience can pacify his problem of lower nature or 'tame the brute in his being.'⁶⁹ "Arjuna’s abstention (from the war field) would work a much greater sin and evil: it would mean, if it had any effect at all, the triumph of wrong and injustice and the rejection of his own mission as an instrument of the divine workings."⁸³ "At its base is the law or dharma of inertia: the tamasic man inertly obeys in a customary mechanical action the suggestions and impulses, the round of will of his material and his half-intellectualised vital and sensational nature."⁸² 2. So, the Lord discourages the tendency of outer renunciation of life and action or saintly inactivity and insists Arjuna to ascend from the state of tamasic devotee, arta , to rajasic devotee, artharthi, by activation of the Kshatriya Soul force and asks inner renunciation of attachment by slaying³ the human unenlightened Teacher Dronacharya, who represents ego and divisible Consciousness. This indicates that for a secured Spiritual life, one should constantly slay²⁵ the inner enemy of desire, ego and ignorance and in collective living he should continuously wage outer war against the powers of Adharma to establish truth and wisdom in objective life. The Gita’s jahi kamam durasadam, ⁶³ ‘slay this enemy in the form of desire, who is so hard to assail’ is identified as the keyword⁶⁴ of integral Yoga. The nature of the Kshatriya Soul force is 'courage, strength, unconquerable tenacity and self-devotion to a great task.'⁶⁹ 'Every individual Jivatman must become the perfect Kshatriya before he can become the Brahmin '⁶⁹ or Sattwic devotee. "In the middle intervenes the kinetic law or dharma ; the rajasic man, vital, dynamic, active, attempts to impose himself on his world and environment, but only increases the wounding weight and tyrant yoke of his turbulent passions, desires and egoisms, the burden of his restless self-will, the yoke of his rajasic nature."⁸² 3. Then the Lord asks Arjuna to become a Sattwic devotee, jijnasu , and begin Yoga by renouncing Prakriti Yajna of active mind, which includes renunciation of all types of physical asceticism,⁷⁵ external worship, and ceremonies and insists him to pursue only Purusha Yajna of passive mind and inner askesis⁷⁵ which will establish him in the trigunatita state.⁴ Then He asks him to adore only the highest embodied Divine personality, here represented by Him as Purushottama , and discourages him from adoring other gods which is meant to satisfy ‘various outer desires of the devotees.’⁵ So the Gita asks the above three bound Souls to become desireless and adore the One, representing the highest Consciousness and discourages though does not ban adoration of other godheads representing the distortion of the highest comprehensive Consciousness.⁶ Then the Lord points out that even the devotees who worship other Gods, their sacrifice is also received by Him though not according to the true law, avidhipurbakam. ⁷ If one adores and offers sacrifice to the Divine in tamasic Ignorance, then that sacrifice goes to elemental powers and grosser spirits, pretan bhutaganam ;¹⁷ if he offers adoration to the Divine in rajasic state of desire-driven consciousness, then the sacrifice goes to lower godheads and perverse powers, asuras, yaksa-raksamsi ;¹⁷ if he offers adoration to the Divine concealed in His manifestation in sattwic state of desireless Consciousness by renouncing the fruit of action, then that sacrifice and service is received by partial Godhead and not directly by the integral Divinity.¹⁷ A seeker of truth, Jijnasu , by virtue of pursuing Sadhana unsuccessfully in past births, takes an interest in written truth in this birth from the early part of his life. Thus, he practices sacrifice, askesis and giving which is limited, largely egoistic (sattwic ego) and mistaken in its motive and he endeavours to go beyond the written truth. A sattwic devotee or 'the true Brahmin is samo manapamanayoh , he accepts indifferently worldly honour and dishonour and cares only for the truth and the right.'⁷⁰ The message of integral Yoga to a sattwic devotee is: 'Detect first what is false or obscure in you and persistently reject it, then alone can you rightly call for the divine Power to transform you.'⁷⁴ “The dharma of the sattwic man is the highest in the circle of the gunas ; but that too is a limited view and a dwarfed standard. Its imperfect indications lead to a petty and relative perfection; temporarily satisfying to the enlightened personal ego, it is not founded either on the whole truth of the self or on the whole truth of Nature.”⁸² 4. When Arjuna ascends to the stairs of the twice-born Soul, Dvija , the Lord further insists him to search Spiritual fosterer, Dvijattama, (the best among the twice-born Soul) to receive care of his newborn Divinity and that is realised by ‘adoring the feet of the enlightened Guru ’⁸ or ‘veneration of the Teacher’⁹ in order to realise the Divine as Kshara Purusha, Psychic Being in the heart and Akshara Purusha, Spiritual Being above the head. In the Gita , ‘the help of the Guru has always been relied upon as an indispensable aid.’⁵⁵ Integral Yoga proposes that the living Spiritual Teacher is a 'narrower practice'⁷⁸ and is safe and secured for beginners of integral Yoga (Dvija ) and dispensable for few rare developed Souls or ‘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.”⁵⁰ So a Dvija has to be aware of the possibility of double evolution⁶⁰ of double consciousness,⁸⁰ one that of the evolution of external restless life dominated by three Gunas, and another that of the evolution of his inner silent life. By activating three Gunas or by horizontal movement of Consciousness, he will experience a slow mental evolution of external life. By pacifying the mind or by movement of Psychic Being (symbol of multiple Divine) and Spiritual being (symbol of One Divine) or vertical movement of Consciousness, he will experience swift Spiritual evolution of inner life. Thus, his slow material evolution is complemented by swift Spiritual evolution and this double movement culminates in the reconciliation of perfect Spirit with imperfect Matter. A twice-born Soul's frontal nature is full of gratitude for the Divine accompanied by true happiness. 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.'⁷¹ 5. Then, after Arjuna is established as doing all objective action in the war field by the dictation of Divine Will, he becomes the developed Soul of Instrument, Yantra. An instrument of the Divine will have neither any attachment to the fruit of works, nor any attachment to the work, nor any sense of doership of work and he will be attached only to the comprehensive Divine, Majyasakta . The Lord gives him this knowledge that all concentrated objective Divine action and sacrifice must be supported by Prakriti Yajna of ceaseless Japa ¹⁰ and this habit of Japa must be maintained while in action of the war field¹⁶ and also while leaving the earthly body¹¹ in deep Samadhi where one’s Soul can take final refuge in the Param Dham . Integral Yoga proposes ceaseless Japa and action in waking trance, not utilised as a passage to param Dham , but as means of Divine descent of Force and transformation of Nature. The Gita gives the example of King Janaka , a developed Soul and Divine Instrument, who had attained liberation, perfection and Cosmic Consciousness through Prakriti Yajna of ‘ceremonial sacrifice and ritualistic works done without attachment.’⁵¹ Savitri book has identified the Nature of a Divine instrument and his task in this world as: "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, "Our tasks are given, we are but instruments ; Nothing is all our own that we create: The Power that acts in us is not our force. The genius too receives from some high fount Concealed in a supernal secrecy The work that gives him an immortal name." Savitri-542, "This truth (action of Divine Will) Arjuna must be brought to see; he must learn to act impersonally, imperturbably as the instrument not of his little personal desires and weak human shrinkings, but of a vaster and more luminous Power, a greater all-wise divine and universal Will. He must act impersonally and universally in a high union of his soul with the inner and outer Godhead, yukta , in a calm Yoga with his own supreme Self and the informing Self of the universe."⁸³ 6. When he ascends to the status of Emanation, Vibhuti , by universalisation of Psychic and Spiritual Consciousness and realisation of the Divine in all His becoming, the Lord further asks Arjuna to worship His manifestation in the Sun, Moon, Star, and flower, in every living creature. He has to adore the myriad Gods, Deva, superior human beings known as twice-born Dvija , a man of enlightened knowledge, Prajna , and the enlightened Teacher, Guru .¹² The Lord points out that adoration of all His manifestations equally, without distinction is the condition of becoming the greatest Yogi.²⁴ A Sadhak of integral Yoga counts all his subjective and objective Divine action as means of Divine descent of Force. Through this activation of dynamic Divine and movement of Universalised and Transcendent Consciousness, he does good of all creatures, sarvabhuta hite ratah. The Synthesis of Yoga book confirms that the emergence of a Vibhuti as a unique force of the multiple Divine is possible ‘even in the weakest or most clouded living being.’⁸⁴ 7. An Instrument/an Emanation must always remember that an Avatar is a special manifestation of the Supreme Lord, Parameswara and he is only one Psychic centre of the multiple Divine.⁷⁹ An Avatar is born-free or His birth and action are both Divine, janma karma cha me divyam , whereas an Instrument/Emanation lives and acts in the Divine, mayi nivasisyasi,⁸⁵ mayi vartate, through rigorous self-control and constant union, yoga yukta. When Arjuna ascends to the status of Avatar Consciousness or Purushottama Consciousness through large-scale objective Divine action of Instrument and large-scale subjective Divine action of Emanation, his triple consecration through Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga becomes normal, natural and absolute. In integral Yoga, this Purushottama state of consciousness is identified as Supramental Consciousness and a Sadhak becomes ‘a child and eternal portion’⁶² of the Divine Mother and a thrice-born Soul.⁹⁰ In him, the reconciliation of triple consecration gives birth to a fourth Yoga known as ‘Yoga of Self-perfection’ and there the triple poise of the Self coexists and the Psychic being, Kshara Purusha possesses the Akshara Purusha and Purushottama , in totality. Integral Yoga follows this seven-fold sequential growth of Arjuna with a more profound significance of dynamic Divine union. It stresses the adoration of the One to the exclusion of the Many for developing Souls to build a Spiritual foundation and asks the developed Souls to reconcile them in order to know and possess the Divine entirely. This adoration of superior human beings hinted in the Gita is applicable in integral Yoga for developed Soul¹³ and this adoration is even further extended to criminals, thieves, murderers and outcaste¹⁴ in order to extend the realisation of the Divine in Cosmic Consciousness. There will be even ‘certain respect’¹⁵ and reverence for physical things, a worship of the Divine, the Brahman in what one uses, ordered harmony and beauty in the life of Matter in order to complete the realisation of Divine in all things. Thus, as ceaseless renouncer of lower Nature, nitya sannyasi, ⁴⁵ a Sadhak’s scope of consecration becomes wide²⁶ and all-pervasive. When this consecrated action becomes absolute, constant and without rest, nitya yajna, ³⁸ he experiences constant Divine union, nitya yukta, ³⁹ and in this ceaseless waking trance, nitya-sattvasthah ,⁴⁶ he can repeat Divine’s name ceaselessly, nitya Japa ⁴⁰ or remembers Divine’s name continuously, nitya smarati ⁴⁴ and this is one of the ways of experiencing ceaseless Divine Grace, tat prasadat; ⁵² thus one experiences supreme peace, param shanti ,⁵² supreme state of Consciousness, sthanam saswatam ,⁵² and cellular transformation, prakritijairmuktam .⁴⁷ Ceaeless Japa is also utilised to overcome the arrest of Consciousness in the intermediate higher worlds as 'Our souls forget to the Highest to aspire.' (Savitri-113) In Integral Yoga, a constant dynamic union with the Divine is dependent on the transformation of lower Nature and movement of Consciousness in bridging the gulf between the highest Supreme Self and the nether Inconscient Sheath. Till these double conditions are satisfied, one can experience intermittent dynamic Divine union for a long preparatory period. The above experience is restated in the Mother’s language: "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,...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.”⁷² “Well, this movement (gesture of a rising flame) towards That must be constant – constant, total. All the rest is none of our business, and the less we meddle with it mentally, the better. But THAT, that Flame, is indispensable. And when it goes out, light it again; when it falters, rekindle it – all the time, all the time, ALL THE TIME – when sleeping, walking, reading, moving around, speaking ... all the time. ...that is the Japa I do now—I do it all the time, while sleeping, while walking, while eating, while working, all the time.”⁵⁶ The Mother further proposes that “There is nothing other than He! This should be repeated from morning to night, from night to morning, because we forget it every minute. ”⁶¹ A Sadhak of traditional schools of Yoga initially moves his consciousness between Kshara Purusha (sarvabhutani chatmani) and Akshara Purusha (sarvabhutastha chatmanam ) and he can gather together the race, lokasangraha , by all possible external aids or by Psycho-physical means. After long years of movement of Consciousness between Kshara and Akshara Purusha , finally, his consciousness arrives at Purushottama Consciousness and from there he finds an exit⁴⁸ to the supreme Abode of Paramdham . Thus, he emerges as a precious distinguished World Teacher and he can wander around the world in order to uplift the human race. The Gita warns that ‘the askesis which is undertaken to get honour and worship from men, for the sake of outward glory and greatness and for ostentation is said to be rajasic tapasya , unstable and fleeting.’⁵³ A Sadhak of integral Yoga initially moves his consciousness between the Psychic being in the heart and the Spiritual being above the head, superseding his earlier movement of Consciousness between the three Gunas . After being established in the waking trance of the Psychic plane and the non-waking trance of the Spiritual plane, he universalises the two Selves and does the good of all creatures by inner movement of universal Consciousness. For the perfection of two Selves and perfection of untransformed Nature, he finally, after long years of preparation, ascends to the Supramental plane and Supramentalises and Spiritualises the Psychic Self. Thus, he emerges as a precious Nameless⁴⁹ World Teacher. His inner wandering of Consciousness from Inconscient Self to supreme Bliss Self can be pursued in secrecy and silence ⁸¹ and he can drag the human race ahead in its destined upward journey. A Sadhak of integral Yoga identifies desire as his greatest enemy and “Therefore attachment and desire must be utterly cast out; there is nothing in the world to which we must be attached, not wealth nor poverty, nor joy nor suffering, nor life nor death, nor greatness nor littleness, nor vice nor virtue, nor friend, nor wife, nor children, nor country, nor our work and mission, nor heaven nor earth, nor all that is within them or beyond them."⁸⁹ It may be noted that all-inclusive integral Yoga does not exclude the self-disciplines of traditional Yoga and all the perfections/siddhis of the latter are recognised as a sojourn of the former Yoga and for a Sadhak of integral Yoga there can be ‘no clinging to resting-places on the road or to half-way houses; he cannot be satisfied till he has laid down all the great enduring bases of his perfection and broken out into its large and free infinities, and even there he has to be constantly filling himself with more experiences of the Infinite.’⁵⁴ Integral Yoga asks a Sadhak to become a more and more perfect instrument of the Divine. This is followed by his becoming an instrumental pure channel to call down a vast ocean of Divine Will, Wisdom, Love, Bliss, Beauty, Peace, and Silence to earth and men through the inner movement of universal Consciousness. Then Sri Aurobindo's following declaration will take concrete shape: "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.”⁸⁶ To become a faultless perfect passive instrument of the Divine Will, Wisdom and Love is not the only object of Integral Yoga, but one has to become individual dynamised liberated Soul, 'active master of the Nature,'⁸⁷ swarat, and an active identity with the controlling Spirit, Lordship, to become master man, liberated universalised Soul, emperor, samrat , who can become pure vessel of descent of Divine Force and help, 'in leading the human race forward spiritually.'⁸⁸ OM TAT SAT References are available in the Manuscript ‘The Bhagavad Gita and Integral Yoga’ (page 230-235) . Download this WEB PAGE in PDF format: THE CALL IN DETAIL “For spiritual rebirth means the constant throwing away of our previous associations and circumstances and proceeding to live as if at each virgin moment we were starting life anew… To give you an idea of the final height of spiritual rebirth, I may say that there can be a constant experience of the whole universe actually disappearing at every instant and being at every instant newly created!” The Mother TMCW-3/Questions and Answers-1929 to 1931/p-176 SIX FOLD DIVINE CALL "I do not very readily accept disciples as this path of Yoga is difficult one and it can be followed only if there is a special call.... The goal of Yoga is always hard to reach, but this one (integral Yoga) is more difficult than any other, and it is only for those who have the call, the capacity, the willingness to face everything and every risk, even the risk of failure, and the will to progress towards an entire selflessness, desirelessness and surrender." Sri Aurobindo SABCL/26/On Himself/p-175 CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-27 THE MOTHER'S CALL “There is one divine Force which acts in the universe and in the individual and is also beyond the individual and the universe. The Mother stands for all these, but She is working here in the body to bring down something not yet expressed in this material world so as to transform life here—it is so that you should regard her as the Divine Shakti working here for that purpose.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-32/The Mother with Letters on the Mother/-p-50 "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." Sri Aurobindo CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-700-701 "But the true reaction, the pure reaction is an enthusiastic impulse of collaboration, to play the game with all the energy, the will- power at the disposal of one’s consciousness, in the state one is in, with the feeling of being supported, carried by something infinitely greater than oneself, which makes no mistakes, something which protects you and at the same time gives you all the necessary strength and uses you as the best instrument. And one feels that, and one feels one is working in security, that one can no longer make any mistakes, that what one does is done with the utmost result and — in delight. That is the true movement; to feel that one’s will is intensified to the utmost because it is no longer a tiny little microscopic person in infinity but an infinite universal Power which makes you act : the Force of Truth. This is the only true reaction." The Mother TMCW-9/Questions and Answers-1957/p-6 "There is no assumption of personal will in the instrument; it is seen that all is already worked out in the omniscient prescience and omnipotent effective power of the universal Divine and that the egoism of men cannot alter the workings of that Will. Therefore, the final attitude is that enjoined on Arjuna i n a later chapter, “All has been already done by Me in my divine will and foresight; become only the occasion, O Arjuna ,” nimitta-matram bhava savyasachin . This attitude must lead finally to an absolute union of the personal with the Divine Will and, with the growth of knowledge, bring about a faultless response of the instrument to the divine Power and Knowledge. A perfect, an absolute equality of self-surrender, the mentality a passive channel of the divine Light and Power, the active being a mightily effective instrument for its work in the world, will be the poise of this supreme union of the Transcendent, the universal and the individual." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p--209 “Never forget that so long as you are capable of preference in your relations with life and men, you cannot be a pure and perfect instrument of the Divine.” The Mother TMCW-10/On Thoughts and aphorisms/p-351 “Men in the world have two lights, duty and principle; but he who has passed over to God, has done with both and replaced them by God’s will. If men abuse thee for this, care not, O divine instrument, but go on thy way like the wind or the sun fostering and destroying.” Sri Aurobindo The Mother’s Centenary Works (second edition)/Vol.10/p-285 “The perfected human soul must always be an instrument for the hastening of the ways of this evolution.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p--701

Study Circle in Detail (Supreme Lord said to Savitri:) "O Savitri, thou art my spirit’s Power, The revealing voice of my immortal Word, The face of Truth upon the roads of Time Pointing to the souls of men the routes to God." Savitri-703 “For knowledge comes not to us as a guest Called into our chamber from the outer world; A friend and inmate of our secret self, It hid behind our minds and fell asleep And slowly wakes beneath the blows of life;” Savitri-244 " What were earth’s ages if the grey restraint Were never broken and glories sprang not forth Bursting their obscure seed, while man’s slow life Leaped hurried into sudden splendid paths By divine words and human gods revealed?" Savitri-652 "... it is not possible for the tongue of human speech to tell all the utter unity and all the eternal variety of the ananda of divine love. Our higher and our lower members are both flooded with it, the mind and life no less than the soul: even the physical body takes its share of the joy, feels the touch, is filled in all its limbs, veins, nerves with the flowing of the wine of the ecstasy, amrita . Love and Ananda are the last word of being, the secret of secrets, the mystery of mysteries."⁶ Sri Aurobindo " There is also a speech, a supramental word , in which the higher knowledge, vision or thought can clothe itself within us for expression. At first this may come down as a word, a message or an inspiration that descends to us from above or it may even seem a voice of the Self or of the Ishwara , vanı, adesa . Afterwards it loses that separate character and becomes the normal form of the thought when it expresses itself in the form of an inward speech. The thought may express itself without the aid of any suggestive or developing word and only — but still quite completely, explicitly and with its full contents — in a luminous substance of supramental perception. It may aid itself when it is not so explicit by a suggestive inward speech that attends it to bring out its whole significance. Or the thought may come not as silent perception but as speech self-born out of the truth and complete in its own right and carrying in itself its own vision and knowledge. Then it is the word revelatory, inspired or intuitive or of a yet greater kind capable of bearing the infinite intention or suggestion of the higher supermind and spirit. It may frame itself in the language now employed to express the ideas and perceptions and impulses of the intellect and the sense mind, but it uses it in a different way and with an intense bringing out of the intuitive or revelatory significances of which speech is capable. The supramental word manifests inwardly with a light, a power, a rhythm of thought and a rhythm of inner sound that make it the natural and living body of the supramental thought and vision and it pours into the language, even though the same as that of mental speech, another than the limited intellectual, emotional or sensational significance. It is formed and heard in the intuitive mind or supermind and need not at first except in certain highly gifted souls come out easily into speech and writing, but that too can be freely done when the physical consciousness and its organs have been made ready, and this is a part of the needed fullness and power of the integral perfection. " ⁷ Sri Aurobindo The Study Circle in Detail Vedic Arya: “For in the Veda the Aryan peoples are those who had accepted a particular type of self culture, of inward and outward practice, of ideality, of aspiration...All the highest aspirations of the early human race, its noblest religious temper, its most idealistic velleities of thought are summed up in this single vocable.”⁸ Sri Aurobindo Vedantic Arya: “The Aryan is he who strives and overcomes all outside him and within him that stands opposed to human advance. Self-conquest is the first law of his nature. He overcomes earth and the body and does not consent like ordinary men to their dullness, inertia, dead routine and tamasic limitations. He overcomes life and its energies and refuses to be dominated by their hungers and cravings or enslaved by their rajasic passions. He overcomes mind and its habits, he does not live in a shell of ignorance, inherited prejudices, customary ideas, pleasant opinions, but knows how to seek and choose, to be large and flexible in intelligence even as he is firm and strong in his will. For in everything he seeks truth, in everything right, in everything height and freedom .”⁹ Sri Aurobindo Integral Arya : “The perfect Arhat is he who is able to live simultaneously in all these three apparent states of existence (a consciousness which is at once transcendental, universal and individual), elevate lower into higher, receive higher into the lower, so that he may represent perfectly in the symbols of the world that with which he is identified in all parts of his being, the triple and triune Brahman .”¹⁰ Sri Aurobindo Un-Arya: “Everything that departed from this ideal (Truth and wisdom of Brahmana and Heroism and inner adventure Kshatriya ), everything that tended towards the ignoble, mean, obscure, rude, cruel or false, was termed un-Aryan .”¹¹ Sri Aurobindo Dvija: “In the ancient Indian distinction between the once born and the twice born , it is to this material man that the former description can be applied. He does Nature’s inferior works; he assures the basis for her higher activities; but not to him easily are opened the glories of her second birth.” “The ordinary man who wishes to reach God through knowledge, must undergo an elaborate training. He must begin by becoming absolutely pure, he must cleanse thoroughly his body, his heart and his intellect, he must get himself a new heart and be born again; for only the twice born can understand or teach the Vedas . When he has done this he needs yet four things before he can succeed, (1) the Sruti or recorded revelation, (2) the Sacred Teacher, (3) the practice of Yoga and (4) the Grace of God.”¹² Sri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo confirms in The Synthesis of Yoga that if writing and speech can be Supramentalised through a few rare gifted Souls, then 'this is a part of the needed fullness and power of the integral perfection.'⁷ A twice born Soul can 'understand and teach'¹² the written truth and can conduct a Study Circle or "His speech carries a light of inner truth ," (Savitri-430). His deliberations can be fixed in Psychic and Spiritual planes of beyond the Gunas and he can utilise this as an opportunity to ascent to still higher Cosmic and Transcendent plane. The Study Circle for us is Prakriti Yajna . If it is done rightly, then there will be a large descent of Divine Will, Divine Wisdom and Divine Love. It is a means of collective Divine Union. The Earlier trend of using this as a platform of giving upadesha (advice) and lokasamgraham (gathering together of devotees) has renewed its significance before the new movement of Consciousness through Prakriti Yajna or Vedic sacrifice. In Study Circle, our firm motive is to “Ask for nothing but the divine, spiritual and supramental Truth, its realisation on earth and in you and in all who are called and chosen and the conditions needed for its creation and its victory over all opposing forces…Where there is affinity to the rhythms of the secret world-bliss and response to the call of the All-Beautiful and concord and unity and the glad flow of many lives turned towards the Divine, in that atmosphere she (Mahalakshmi) consents to abide.”¹³ This Study Circle is offered at the Lotus Feet of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo for the activation of ceaseless consecration, ceaseless askesis, ceaseless remembering of the Divine, ceaseless descent of Divine Shakti and for the generalisation and intensification of Moderate Spirituality² in humanity through the extension of Their Karma Yoga . The Gita insists that writing or oration or guidance or action of a Spiritual man should not generate offence, udbega, ¹⁶ anxiety, chinta, ¹⁴ and controversy or division of understanding, buddhi veda ¹⁵, among ordinary earth-bound man and sets himself as an example before them by doing all work with knowledge and Divine union. It further insists that his writings/oration should be truthful, satya, ¹⁶ pleasant, priya , and beneficial, hita, ‘and a careful avoidance of words that may cause fear, sorrow and trouble’¹⁷ to the collective mass. The Mother insisted⁴ that if a writing related with Spiritual truth has to inspire a wider dimension for a long period, it must descend from a very high impersonal and universal plane and must be received by the intellect without the least distortion. Or "Feeling a Truth too great for thought or speech," (Savitri-522) The Gita issues an injunction to the man of Knowledge to utilise Karma Yoga as a means of gathering together the devotees (lokasamgraham ) and not to disturb their thought basis, life basis, and work basis, which are guided by the divisible consciousness of the three gunas. The normal life basis and thought basis of men are limited within the boundary of (1) money earning, (2) procreation of a family and (3) its maintenance. They should not be persuaded to become a liberated Divine worker or live a life of higher Consciousness through rigorous self-control; ‘for impelled by his example but unable to comprehend the principle of his action, they would lose their own system of values without arriving at a higher foundation.’¹⁸ He should not create a division of their understanding on attachment to action and he should encourage them to do all action, doing them himself with knowledge, detachment and Yoga. Their minds are restless, uncontrollable and wander away from Yoga. The Gita has identified them as child Souls, bala, and further segregated them as women, striyah , those who have not renounced sense enjoyments, Shudra, those who subjected their life to lower nature, Vaisya, those who have subjected their life to wealth attachment. There are still other inferior Souls identified as men of evil conduct, duracharo, out-castes, vyapasritya , born from the womb of sin, papajonayah, and deluded souls, vimudha . The Gita proposes rigorous self-control, ugra tapah of Jnana Yoga for a few prepared twice-born Souls, dvija, and consecrated action and devotion⁵ for once-born Souls without disturbing their normal life, in order to generalise Spirituality in humanity. The Gita’s support to generalise Spirituality in humanity is: 1: “Others, those who are unfit to pursue Karma, Jnana, Sankhya and Dhyana Yoga , may hear the Truth from realised Souls and mould the mind and heart into the sense of That to which they listen with faith and concentration and these devotees also go beyond death to immortality.” The Gita-13-26, 2: “If thou art unable even to seek by practice of Karma Yoga, then be it thy supreme aim to do My work; doing all separative actions for My sake, thou shalt attain perfection.” The Gita-12.10, “Work without sacrifice leads this world of men to bondage; for sacrifice practise works, O son of Kunti , becoming free from all attachments.” The Gita-3.9 3: “If a man of very evil conduct turns to Me with a sole and entire love (bhakti ), then swiftly he becomes a Soul of righteousness and obtains eternal peace. This is My word of promise, O Arjuna , that he who loves me shall not perish.” The Gita-9.30/9.31, 4: “Those who take refuge in Me, O Partha , be they out-castes, born from the womb of sin, women, Vaisysas , even Shudras, they also attain to the highest Goal through single-minded Bhakti. ” The Gita-9.32, 5: “To those devotees who worship Me making Me alone the whole object of their thought (either through Japa or through repetition of Mantra ), to those constantly in Yoga with Me, I spontaneously bring every good and all their inner and outer opulence.” The Gita-9.22, The Gita considers that the devotees who have failed to succeed in Yoga in the past births, yogabhrasta , are born again in the house of pure, glorious and in the family of wise Yogin with memory and accumulation of past Spiritual energy. In this birth, they show interest in the written truth, Shastra, from the early part of their formative life and they again endeavour assiduously in order to succeed in Yoga or, after many births of truth seeking, a jijnasu becomes a Yogi. What are the Divine action and its coexistence of Divine silence and passivity that a Divine Worker must know and through this knowledge-based action he can be released from all error, defects and ills. One has to understand the Divine action initiated from higher planes of Consciousness, undivine action initiated from rajasic desire will and inertia of inaction initiated from tamasic indolence. He who, in Divine activity, can see the Divine passivity and this subjective action of Divine descent continues after the objective action ceases, he is a true Karma Yogi . So, he is in Yoga and a many-sided universal Divine worker involved in doing well of all creature. The inception and continuation of Divine action is free from the will of desire and all the defects of work are burned up by the fire of self-knowledge. He has abandoned all attachment to the fruits of work; ever satisfied without any kind of dependence, he does nothing but a Divine Will does action through him. He has no personal hope, personal possession; his heart, sense, mind and intellect are under perfect self-control, performs action by the movement of the body alone; he does not commit any sin. The liberated Divine Worker is satisfied with whatever comes to him, lives beyond any duality, is jealous of none, and is equal in failure and success. He is free from attachment; mind, sense and heart are firmly founded in self-knowledge and the defect of all his work is dissolved.¹⁹ The Lord projected this Karma Yoga superior²⁰ to Jnana Yoga and Dhyana Yoga as one does not have to reject life and action in order to attain the Divine. Karma Yoga reconciles surface life with inner life and further gives the message of transformation of the lower Nature of the three gunas by the pressure of higher dynamic Divine Nature, because through this transformation alone ‘a perfected Yogi lives and acts always in the Divine.’²¹ The Gita ²³ confirms that those who will do Divine work must understand three things. They are (1) right action, karma, (2) wrong action, bikarma, and (3) inaction, akarma . Right action: If one does all actions with the Soul united with the static Divine then that is identified as Divine action. Wrong action: If action is done out of personal will, attachment, desire and motive to get result, then that work is identified as undivine action. It can be corrected by not initiating any work, sarbarambha parityagi, and by consecrating the ordinary action. Inaction: If one experiences Divine descent of Shakti , when objective work is withdrawn, then that is identified as the period of subjective Divine action or inaction. One who realises inaction or passive Divine during action and subjective action or active Divine union during inaction, he is a true Yogi and universal Divine worker. Similarly, we find three types of thought in Savitri . They are (1) right thought, (2) wrong thought, (3) blank empty thought or supreme thought. 1. Right thought: "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 2: Wrong thought: "A whisper lures to evil the human heart, It seals up wisdom’s eyes, the soul’s regard, It is the origin of our suffering here, It binds earth to calamity and pain. This all must conquer who would bring down God’s peace. This hidden foe lodged in the human breast Man must overcome or miss his higher fate. This is the inner war without escape." Savitri-448 3: Supreme thought: " 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 "A blank pure consciousness had replaced the mind." Savitri-545 Similarly, we find three types of associations in Savitri . They are (1) right association, (2) wrong association, and (3) supreme association. 1. right association: "Joy that forgot mortality for a while" Savitri-159 " Her smile could persuade a dead lacerated heart To live again and feel the hands of calm." Savitri-514 2. wrong association: " But vain are human power and human love To break earth’s seal of ignorance and death;" Savitri-315 (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 3. supreme association: " A sealed identity within her woke; She knew herself the Beloved of the Supreme:" Savitri-525 “He (Divine Love) labours in the depths, exults on the heights; He (Divine Love) shall remake thy universe, O Death.” Savitri-592 "Our love is the heavenly seal of the Supreme. I guard that seal against thy rending hands." Savitri-633 In integral Yoga, the Divine action hinted in the Gita is further developed into four gradations. 1: Divine action by Soul’s union with the static Divine: “This bright perfection of her inner state Poured overflowing into her outward scene, Made beautiful dull common natural things And action wonderful and time divine. Even the smallest meanest work became A sweet or glad and glorious sacrament, An offering to the self of the great world Or a service to the One in each and all.” Savitri-532, (Psychic action) “The Immobile stands behind each daily act, (Spiritual action) A background of the movement and the scene, Upholding creation on its might and calm And change on the Immutable’s deathless poise.” Savitri-662, “A work is done in the deep silences;” Savitri-170 (Spiritual action) 2: Universal Divine action by Soul’s union with dynamic Divine Shakti : “Yes, my (Savitri’s) humanity is a mask of God: He dwells in me, the mover of my acts, Turning the great wheel of his cosmic work. I am the living body of his light, I am the thinking instrument of his power, I incarnate Wisdom in an earthly breast, I am his conquering and unslayable will.” Savitri-634, 3: Supramental Divine action by Static Divine’s (Paramatma) union with dynamic Divine Shakti (Para-prakriti) in the heart centre: "Waking at morn her lips endlessly clung to his, Unwilling ever to separate again Or lose that honeyed drain of lingering joy, Unwilling to loose his body from her breast, The warm inadequate signs that love must use." Savitri-471 "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 “The incarnate dual Power shall open God’s door, Eternal Supermind touch earthly Time.” Savitri-705 4: Cellular transformation action by large-scale invasion of dynamic Divine Shakti to static Matter: “A fiery stillness wakes the slumbering cells, A passion of the flesh becoming spirit, And marvellously is fulfilled at last The miracle for which our life was made.” Savitri-278, “The grand Illuminate seized her gleaming limbs And filled them with the passion of his ray Till all her body was its transparent house And all her soul a counterpart of his soul.” Savitri-125 Recapitulation: This study circle promises three limited actions to transform the tamasic and rajasic mind to a sattwic mind, and the unaryan Shudra and Vaisya way of life to Aryan Kshatriya (symbol of courage and new adventure) and Brahmin (symbol of Truth and Wisdom) way of life and to transform narrow carping, jealousy and intolerance into wide faith and compassion. These are identified as preliminary sattwic steps to transform undivine life to Divine Life. “For knowledge comes not to us as a guest Called into our chamber from the outer world; A friend and inmate of our secret self, It hid behind our minds and fell asleep And slowly wakes beneath the blows of life;” Savitri-244 Self-discipline by Psycho-physical³ means or external aid is dispensable in integral Yoga. Knowledge does not always visit us by any outer means like a Study Circle. Overhead Knowledge visits us positively through Divine union and embrace from above and negatively through blows, shocks and adversities of life from below. As Divine workers, we must always remember three things.¹ Whatever manifesting work done through us, small or big, either through activation of three Gunas or through Divine union, are like an infinitesimal grain of dust before the Eternal existence and not our ego but the Divine Mother is the doer of all action. If a very big work is executed through us without consecration and the Divine’s Presence, then that work is of no Spiritual value. If a very small work is done by us with the full of Divine’s Presence, then that work is of great Spiritual value. All New Creation is an infinitesimal incident of the Divine Consciousness or "Creation an incident in its consciousness," (Savitri-537) or “The whole world lives in a lonely ray of her sun.” (Savitri-276) We are given a task through Divine Call, so whatever truth, love, beauty, and delight manifest through us or whatever we create are not our own but a descent from some Transcendent Source. Similarly, all our surface emotions and surface thoughts are source from the inconscient and subconscient or from the universal forces and that we are just a puppet moved by these forces and we must remember that none of them are our own. The Powers that act through our instrumental vessel, dark or bright, are not our own. Based on our consciousness from tamasic to Spiritual plane, the invisible forces of either kind enter our system and do their destructive or creative action. When we are under the influence of three Gunas, then the asuric forces capture the human vessel to hinder our sadhana and when we are under Psychic and Spiritual influence, the invisible Beings of these higher planes assist our sadhana . We must remain aware of them and strive to tune ourselves with the highest instrumental action through Savitri’s declaration: “He dwells in me, the mover of my acts, Turning the great wheel of his cosmic work. I am the living body of his light, I am the thinking instrument of his power, I incarnate Wisdom in an earthly breast, I am his conquering and unslayable will. The formless Spirit drew in me its shape; In me are the Nameless and the secret Name.” Savitri-634 The Divine dwells in Savitri who is at once nameless, impersonal Spiritual being and Personal Psychic Being. Finally, for conducting Study Circle, we can depend on the following message of Sri Aurobindo : "As for helping [others], you can only be sure of that if you yourself have an assured basis, with the psychic being always prominent, full of faith and joy and strength, — then others can gather strength and faith and joy from such a one by speech or contact. But to arrive at that you must, as I have been telling you, open yourself to the Light and Force that come from myself and the Mother and to no other influence."²⁴ The greatest utility of the Study Circle is not to limit it to Teachings alone but to utilise it as means of movement of ascent of the Soul to travel ‘beyond the world’²² and descent of Divine Shakti to ‘save the world.’²² After the discovery of Psychic and Spiritual being, "Our words become the natural speech of Truth. " (Savitri-531) When this movement of Psychic being and Spiritual being is universalised, Savitri's "mouth was seized to channel ineffable truths." (Savitri-553) When Savitri entered the Supramental world for Inconscient transformation, "On its lips the curve of the unuttered Truth, A halo of Wisdom’s lightnings for its crown." (Savitri-573) For a Sadhak of integral Yoga, as his Soul Force increases, the sound of his voice and the intensity of light radiating from his eyes will witness considerable change. This accumulation of Soul Force is identified by Death God as a crucial condition of fitness for Immortality. So, Death God asked Savitri: "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?" Savitri-663-664 OM TAT SAT References 1: “The Blessed Lord said, O Arjuna, I support this entire universe and all its Divine manifestations through great Vibhutis, Emanations, with an infinitesimal portion of My-self. ” The Gita-10.42, “Let us understand that however great may have been our efforts, our struggles, even our victories, compared with the distance yet to be travelled, the one we have already covered is nothing; and that all are equal—infinitesimal grains of dust or identical stars—before Eternity.” The Mother/Prayers and Meditations-January-8/1914, “Earthly realisations easily take on a great importance in our eyes, for they are proportionate to our external being with this limited form which makes us men. But what is an earthly realisation beside Thee, before Thee? However perfect, complete, divine it may be, it is nothing but an indiscernible moment in Thy eternity; and the results obtained by it, however powerful and marvellous they may be, are nothing but an imperceptible atom in the infinite march to Thee . This is what Thy workers must never forget, otherwise they will become unfit to serve Thee.” The Mother/Prayers and Meditations-July-17/1914, “Its absence left the greatest actions dull, Its presence made the smallest seem divine.” Savitri-305 “Our tasks are given, we are but instruments; Nothing is all our own that we create: The Power that acts in us is not our force.” Savitri-542 “A greater Personality sometimes Possesses us which yet we know is ours:” Savitri-47 2: “It is possible to give the material man and his life a moderate spirituality by accustoming him to regard in a religious spirit all the institutions of life and its customary activities.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-23-24, 3: “On the whole, for an integral Yoga the special methods of Rajayoga and Hathayoga may be useful at times in certain stages of the progress, but are not indispensable. It is true that their principal aims must be included in the integrality of the Yoga; but they can be brought about by other means. For the methods of the integral Yoga must be mainly spiritual, and dependence on physical methods or fixed psychic or psycho-physical processes on a large scale would be the substitution of a lower for a higher action.” CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga-542, 4: “Personally, of all those I have read, it’s (The Synthesis of Yoga) the book that has helped me the most. It comes from a very high and very universal inspiration, in the sense that it will remain new for a long time to come.” The Mother’s Agenda-February 16, 5: “Brahmacharya (celibacy) is not binding in bhaktimarga or karmayoga , but it is necessary for ascetic jnanayoga as well as for Raja and Hatha yogas . It is also not demanded from Grihastha yogis. In this (integral) Yoga the position is that one must overcome sex , otherwise there can be no transformation of the lower vital and physical nature; all physical sexual connection should cease, otherwise one exposes oneself to serious dangers. The sex-push must also be overcome but it is not a fact that there can be no sadhana or no experience before it is entirely overcome, only without that conquest one cannot go to the end and it must be clearly recognised as one of the more serious obstacles and indulgence of it as a cause of considerable disturbance.” CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-542, “(Question) Am I fit for Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga? Will he take me up? (Answer by Sri Aurobindo) If by my Yoga you mean the integral Yoga leading towards the supramental realisation, you have not at present the capacity for it. All you can do at present is some preparation for it by Bhakti and self-dedication through Karma; if into this preparation you put a strong sincerity and a settled psychic aspiration, then one day you will be ready for more.” 23 February 1931/CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-544-545, 6: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-605, 7: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-836-837, 8: CWSA/13/Essays in Philosophy and Yoga/p-441, 9: CWSA/13/Essays in Philosophy and Yoga/p-443, 10: CWSA/13/Essays in Philosophy and Yoga/p-444, 11: CWSA/13/Essays in Philosophy and Yoga/p-441, 12: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-23, CWSA-18/Kena and other Upanishads/p-169, 13: Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-32/The Mother and Letters on the Mother/p-8, 21, 14: The Gita-16.11, 15: “He should not create a division of their understanding in the ignorant who are attached to their works; he should set them to all actions, doing them himself with knowledge and who are attached to their works; he should set them to all actions, doing them himself with knowledge and Yoga.” The Gita-3.26, 16: The Gita-17.15, 17: CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita-489, 18: “This, no doubt, is the root of the injunction imposed in the Gita (The Gita-3.29) on the man who has the knowledge not to disturb the life basis and thought basis of the ignorant; for impelled by his example but unable to comprehend the principle of his action, they would lose their own system of values without arriving at a higher foundation.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-58 19: The Gita-4.16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 20: “The sacrifice of knowledge, O Parantapa , is greater than any material sacrifice. Knowledge is that in which all actions culminate (not any lower knowledge, but the highest self-knowledge and God-knowledge), O Partha!” The Gita-4.33, “Works are far inferior to Yoga of the intelligence, O Dhananjaya; desire rather refuge in the intelligence...” The Gita-2.49, “The Blessed Lord said: Yoga of Knowledge and Yoga of Works both bring about the Soul’s salvation, but of the two Yoga of Works is distinguished above Yoga of Knowledge.” The Gita-5.2, 21: The Gita-6.31, 22: “He (King Aswapati) stood fulfilled on the world’s highest line Awaiting the ascent beyond the world, Awaiting the descent the world to save.” (Vedantic sacrifice of the King.) Savitri-319, 23: “One has to understand about right action, karma , as well as to understand about wrong action, bikarma , and about inaction, akarma, one has to understand; thick and tangled is the way of works. He who in action can see inaction and can see action still continuing in cessation from works, is the man of true reason and discernment among men; he is in Yoga and many-sided universal worker.” The Gita-4.17-18, 24: CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-318, Sri Matriniketan Ashram Sri Aurobindo Centre, Managed by The Mother’s International Centre Trust, Regd.No-146/24.11.97. Vill: Ramachandrapur, PO: Kukudakhandi-761100, Via: Brahmapur, Dist: Ganjam, State: Odisha, India www.srimatriniketanashram.com Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: "The first thing the physical consciousness must realize is that all the difficulties we encounter in life arise from the fact that we do not rely exclusively on the Divine to find the help we need. The Divine alone can liberate us from the mechanism of universal Nature. And this liberation is indispensable for the birth and development of the new race. Only if we give ourselves entirely to the Divine with total trust and gratitude will the difficulties be surmounted. " The Mother The Mother's Agenda/February 1, 1972 “If you say to the Divine with conviction, “ I want only You”, the Divine will arrange all the circumstances in such a way as to compel you to be sincere. Something in the being... “ I want only You. ”... the aspiration...and then one wants a hundred odd things all the time, isn’t that so? At times something comes, just... usually to disturb everything—it stands in the way and prevents you from realizing your aspiration. Well, the Divine will come without showing Himself, without your seeing Him, without your having any inkling of it, and He will arrange all the circumstances in such a way that everything that prevents you from belonging solely to the Divine will be removed from your path, inevitably. Then when all is removed, you begin to howl and complain; but later, if you are sincere and look at yourself straight in the eye... you have said to the Lord, you have said, “I want only You.” He will remain close to you, all the rest will go away. This is indeed a higher Grace. Only, you must say this with conviction. I don’t even mean that you must say it integrally, because if one says it integrally, the work is done. What is necessary is that one part of the being, indeed the central will, says it with conviction: “ I want only You. ” Even once, and it suffices: all that takes more or less long, sometimes it stretches over years, but one reaches the goal.” The Mother The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol-6/176-177

The New Research “Yoga is not a matter of theory or dogma, like philosophy or popular religion, but a matter of experience. Its experience is that of a conscient universal and supracosmic Being with whom it brings us into union, and this conscious experience of union with the Invisible, always renewable and verifiable, is as valid as our conscious experience of a physical world and of visible bodies with whose invisible minds we daily communicate.” SRI AUROBINDO CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-555 Emergence of Integral Personality Read More 1 The Agenda of Sri Matriniketan Ashram Research: The First Objective of Research: It will include in its scope the richly varied objective Material and subjective Spiritual experience, reconcile them in the beyond intellect Cosmic Self through the movement of vertical Consciousness and make the future opulent with all that is the best in the past and present. Thus the following promise is concentrated: "Content abide not with one conquered realm; Adventure all to make the whole world thine, To break into greater kingdoms turn thy force." Savitri-536 The Second Objective of Research: It will accumulate in itself all that is the most affirmative and the completest invisible energies and pour them out on the surrounding by an intense Aspiration, a Master Action and a King Idea so that one mighty Deed in the Occult plane can change the whole course of world events and external things. "A prayer, a master act, a king idea Can link man’s strength to a transcendent Force. Then miracle is made the common rule, One mighty deed can change the course of things; A lonely thought becomes omnipotent." Savitri-20 "Knows that one high step might enfranchise all" Savitri-371 The Third Objective of Research: The unending opulence of the Matter and Spirit cannot be exhausted by all the Saints, Seers and Scientists of all Time and the continuous uncovering and working out of Their unending secrets, endless truths and timeless mystery are the constant preoccupations of subjective Research. " He (Avatar) must call light into its dark abysms, Else never can Truth conquer Matter’s sleep And all earth look into the eyes of God. All things obscure his knowledge must relume, All things perverse his power must unknot: He must pass to the other shore of falsehood’s sea, He must enter the world’s dark to bring there light. The heart of evil must be bared to his eyes, He must learn its cosmic dark necessity, Its right and its dire roots in Nature’s soil." Savitri-450 The Fourth Objective of Research: It will strive to provide the utmost fulfillment and perfection of objective and subjective living by entry into Supraphysical experience which lies behind our gross physical, vital and mental living and humanity will be liberated from all subjection of life to the multiplication of new wants, exaggeration of ambitious activities and an aggressive expansion of the collective ego. Thus life can become 'a marvellous journey of the spirit.' (Savitri-301) " In the kingdom of the Spirit’s power and light, As if one who arrived out of infinity’s womb He came new-born, infant and limitless And grew in the wisdom of the timeless Child; He was a vast that soon became a Sun." Savitri-301 OM TAT SAT Read More 2 Serving Humanity: The Scope of helping humanity: “Patriotism, cosmopolitanism, service of society, collectivism, humanitarianism, the ideal or religion of humanity are admirable aids towards our escape from our primary condition of individual, family, social, national egoism into a secondary stage in which the individual realises, as far as it can be done on the intellectual, moral and emotional level, —on that level he cannot do it entirely in the right and perfect way, the way of the integral truth of his being, — the oneness of his existence with the existence of other beings. But the thought of the Gita reaches beyond to a tertiary condition of our developing self-consciousness towards which the secondary is only a partial stage of advance.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-136 The Necessity of Leadership: “The best, the individuals who are in advance of the general line and above the general level of the collectivity, are the natural leaders of mankind, for it is they who can point to the race both the way they must follow and the standard or ideal they have to keep to or to attain. But the divinised man is the Best in no ordinary sense of the word and his influence, his example must have a power which that of no ordinarily superior man can exercise.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-138 The Necessity of Spiritual Leadership: “This too the divinised man becomes in the measure of his attainment, impersonal in his personality, unbound by quality or action even when maintaining the most personal and intimate relations with men, unbound by any dharma even when following in appearance this or that dharma . Neither the dynamism of the kinetic man nor the actionless light of the ascetic or quietist, neither the vehement personality of the man of action nor the indifferent impersonality of the philosophic sage is the complete divine ideal. These are the two conflicting standards of the man of this world and the ascetic or the quietist philosopher, one immersed in the action of the Kshara, the other striving to dwell entirely in the peace of the Akshara; but the complete divine ideal proceeds from the nature of the Purushottama which transcends this conflict and reconciles all divine possibilities.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-141 The Necessity of Supramental Leadership: “The supramental man on the contrary will think more with the universal mind or even may rise above it, and his individuality will rather be a vessel of radiation and communication to which the universal thought and knowledge of the Spirit will converge than a centre. The mental man thinks and acts in a radius determined by the smallness or largeness of his mentality and of its experience. The range of the supramental man will be all the earth and all that lies behind it on other planes of existence. ..Ordinarily the supramental knowledge will be organised first and with the most ease in the processes of pure thought and knowledge, jnana , because here the human mind has already the upward tendency and is the most free. Next and with less ease it will be organised in the processes of applied thought and knowledge because there the mind of man is at once most active and most bound and wedded to its inferior methods. The last and most difficult conquest, because this is now to his mind a field of conjecture or a blank, will be the knowledge of the three times, trikaladrsti .” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-837, 839 The Permanent Help: “Someone had written to (the) Mother, “I want my money to be used exclusively to conquer the causes of our sufferings and misery.” (The) Mother had replied, “That is what we are working towards here, but not in the artificial way of the philanthropists, who only deal with the outward effects. We want to eliminate forever the CAUSE of suffering, by divinizing matter through integral transformation.” The Mother's Agenda/10th April-1968. The permanent help and panacea of all problems of existence is possible through a triple reversal of Consciousness and inner change of Nature. All of the issues of humanity can be resolved by the permanent elevation of individual and collective Consciousness through Integral Evolution and Supramental Influence initially dynamised through a few individuals (A few can climb to an unperishing sun, (Savitri-689)) and finally spreads to elevate the general Consciousness of the race (His gates to the world were swept with seas of light. (Savitri-236)). OM TAT SAT Read More 3 The Agenda of Integral Tantra Yoga : First Agenda: Integral Yoga begins with the method of Vedanta to arrive at the aims of Tantra . In the integral Yoga Psychical experience, especially of the kind associated with what is often called occultism and savours of the miraculous, should be altogether subordinated to Spiritual truth and wait upon that for its own interpretation, illumination and sanction. The Second Agenda: In Vedantic method the Spirit is all important means of arriving at the Shakti. In Tantric method the Shakti is the all important means of arriving at the Spirit. The Third Agenda: Integral Tantra Yoga of Knowledge, Dakshina Marga begins with the descent of fragments of Truth Supreme. Integral Tantra Yoga of Love, Vama Marga begins with the descent of fragments of Supreme Love. The Fourth Agenda: Integral Yoga is a combination of Vedantic Sacrifice ‘the Brahman is offered to the Brhaman by the Brhaman ’ (The Gita-3.24) or 'Living for me, by me, in me they shall live' (Savitri-699) and Vedic or Tantric Sacrifice ‘the Shakti is offered to the Shakti by the Shakti ’. OM TAT SAT Read More 4 The Root Formula of Integral Yoga : The Root Formula One: All the problems of existence can be resolved by the discovery of the Inconscient Self. “For the key is hid and by the Inconscient kept; The secret God beneath the threshold dwells.” Savitri-68 The Root Formula Two: Desire is identified as the 'Keyword' and root problem that takes shelter in the Inconscient sheath. “Then lest a human cry should spoil the Truth He tore desire up from its bleeding roots And offered to the gods the vacant place. Thus could he bear the touch immaculate. A last and mightiest transformation came. His soul was all in front like a great sea Flooding the mind and body with its waves; His being, spread to embrace the universe, United the within and the without To make of life a cosmic harmony, An empire of the immanent Divine.” Savitri-318 The Root Formula Three: Inconscient Self can be opened by massive Supramental Intervention. “This ever she meant since the first dawn of life, This constant will she covered with her sport, To evoke a Person in the impersonal Void, With the Truth-Light strike earth’s massive roots of trance, Wake a dumb self in the inconscient depths And raise a lost Power from its python sleep That the eyes of the Timeless might look out from Time And the world manifest the unveiled Divine.” Savitri-72-73, “As when a searchlight stabs the Night’s blind breast And dwellings and trees and figures of men appear As if revealed to an eye in Nothingness, All lurking things were torn out of their veils And held up in his vision’s sun-white blaze.” Savitri-151, The Root Formula Four: All the problems of existence can be resolved by the intervention of Divine Force from above the head and below the feet…. Or it can be also resolved by the intervention of dynamic Spirit from within the heart, below the feet, around the world and above the head. “Our life is entrenched between two rivers of Light , We have turned space into a gulf of peace And made the body a Capitol of bliss.” Savitri-531 “It (dynamic Spirit) is within, below, without, above.” Savitri-98 OM TAT SAT Read More 5 The Main Formula (Maha Mantra ) of Integral Yoga: The First Formula: All Life is Yoga. (Maha Mantra) The Second Formula: All Yoga is a compression of one’s Evolution by all possible ways of union with the Divine. The Third Formula: All Evolution is the awakener of higher states of Consciousness. The Fourth formula: All Consciousness is one but in action, it involves in many-fold concentrated Effort and spontaneous movement of Shakti to realize every possible line of Spiritual experience. The Fifth Formula: All Effort is the synthesis of all the wide and supple Methods. The Sixth Formula: All the method is the synthesis of central Truth of self-discipline. The Seventh Formula: The practice of all self-discipline leads to continuous union with the Self. The Eighth Formula: All Dispensable self-disciplines are termed as Psycho-physical methods, which mean to pursue inner development with the help of outer aid, support. The Ninth Formula: All Indispensable self-disciplines are termed as Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental methods which mean to pursue inner development without the support of any outer aid. The Tenth Formula: All Dispensable self-disciplines are used to subordinate all Indispensable self-disciplines, and its indispensability is felt after the Spiritual foundation is established on a secure basis. OM TAT SAT Read More 6 The Main Frame of Integral Yoga: The Three Basic Requisites: are of (1) unflinching patience, (2) absolute courage and (3) colossal faith. The Three Basic Inward Concentrations: are (1) of exclusive concentration of the one object worthy of pursuit, (2) contemplation and (3) silencing of mind. The Three Central secrets: are of entire consecration, constant inward remembrance of one central liberating knowledge and renounce all the inner support of central egoism. The Three Central Dynamic Processes: are that of development of true psychic being, sublimation of human into Divine Love and elevation of mental consciousness into spiritual and Supramental plane. The Three Central Methods: of Integral Yoga are that of gradually intensive and purposeful working of divine force, which subsequently compels all Nature to undergo a Divine change and the Divine Power uses all life as means of world transformation. The Three Central Vedantic Principles of Integral Yoga: are derived from the three Vedantic method of knowledge; it is either knowledge in the will working out through action or knowledge in the intellect through discernment or knowledge of the heart expressed in love and faith. The Three Central Vedic Principles of Integral Yoga: are the perfection of the body by the Psycho-physical method of Hathayoga ; the perfection of the mind and Psychic being by disciplining of mind through Rajayoga and the transformation of Nature by synthetic Yoga of Tantra . Integral Yoga does not propose the ceaseless practice of Psycho-physical Sciences of Hathayoga and Tantra and ceaseless practice of Psychic Science of Rajayoga , ‘but their methods can either altogether be dispensed with or used only for a preliminary or else a casual assistance.’ In integral Yoga the utility of Psycho-physical Science is felt after Spiritual foundation is established through Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga . The Three Central Inner Revolutions: are that of the abolition of desire, making life an instrument and the disappearance of ego. The Three Basic or Fundamental Realisations: are that of (1) experience of Timeless, Spaceless and Silent Brahman, (2) of dissolution of self and world in the Unknowable, --Moksha, Nirvana and (3) the Source of Being and its relation with Becoming which builds a strong foundation of integral Yoga. The Three Inner or Central Intuitions: These are indispensable for the perfection of Spiritual being acting directly on earth Nature; they are the awareness of witness Purusha, sakhi, who watches the action of Nature, to give them new directions, refinement and extension related with subtle and flexible creation, and an inner awareness of his Spiritual and Supramental being who are master of his Nature. Here Intuition is at once (1) witness, sakhi, (2) source of consent, anumanta , and (3) almighty Lord of the Nature, Maheswara. The Three Central Objects of Integral Yoga: The object of integral Yoga must be accepted wholly by those who follow it and they are the Divinity in one Self, total discovery of the Divinity in the world and total discovery of the dynamism of some transcendent Eternal. OM TAT SAT Read More 7 From Puri to Pondicherry : The Preliminary Teaching: The stages through which the Gita has developed its preliminary teachings are that firstly, it spoke of the destruction of desire and attachment and conquest of senses by stilling the mind; secondly of equality and peace; thirdly of passionless, impersonal and sacrificial action and recognition of the Supreme as the doer of all work; fourthly of inner renunciation of desire and ego preferable to the outer renunciation of life and action; fifthly, the doctrine of Avatara and the Divine birth. The Higher Teaching: The Gita’s higher teachings are that of Divine work by rising above the gunas ; secondly, besides its earlier declaration that Knowledge is greater than Works, Bhakti is considered the greatest element in Yoga; thirdly the relation between Works, Knowledge and Divine Love and their synthesis as means of supreme realisation; fourthly, the vision of Universal Purusha , which ‘can be seen, known, entered into only by that Bhakti which regards, adores and loves Me alone in all things’; fifthly, the inter-relation between the multiple Soul, Kshara , immutable Self, Akshara , and the Supreme Self, Purushottama who is the Master of Works, Knowledge and Love; sixthly, Sraddha , faith, as an important aid for the manifestation of Para Prakriti . The Highest Teaching: The most secret teaching of the Gita is the Knowledge of the whole Godhead, samagram mam, which can be gained by four gradations of exclusive knowledge attended with five gradations of all-inclusive knowledge, by knowing which will leave nothing yet to be known. The Highest Teaching hinted but not developed: It has been hinted constantly in myriad terms of Vasudevah sarvamiti , the Godhead is all that is the universe and all that is in the universe, Prakritm mamikam, into My Divine nature, Prakritim me param , My supreme nature, Prakritim swam, My own nature, Prakritir jiva-bhuta , Divine Nature which has become the jiva, Madbhavam agatah , have arrived at My nature of being, daivi prakriti, (The Gita-9.13) Divine nature and Param bhavam , Supreme nature or the ultimate becoming, sadharmyam agatah , those who have become of like nature and law of being with the Divine; but these terminologies were nowhere explained entirely. These are left as clues for the greatest Spiritual developments, which can be resolved fully through ascending advance of spiritual experience. OM TAT SAT Read More 8 The Seven Fold Self Ignorance: 1: Original Ignorance: Not knowing the origin, Source of our existence, the Supramental Self or extending ahead to Bliss Self. 2: Cosmic Ignorance: Not knowing the immobile and immutable Self, the Spiritual Self. 3: Egoistic Ignorance: Not knowing the Universal Self, the Cosmic Self. 4: Temporal Ignorance: Not knowing the Psychic Being. 5: Psychological Ignorance: Not knowing the subliminal Self which constitutes our true physical being, true vital being and true mental being. 6: Constitutional Ignorance: Not knowing the Subconscient Self, Inconscient Self and their influence on the waking Self. 7: Practical Ignorance: Not knowing the right relation of the surface physical, vital and mental Nature with the above ten Selves. To understand practical Ignorance we can concentrate on the following lines of Savitr i: "Our outward happenings have their seed within,” Savitri-52 “This earth is not alone our teacher and nurse; The powers of all the worlds have entrance here.” Savitri-153 “In a contrary balance to earth’s truth of things The gross weighs less, the subtle counts for more; On inner values hangs the outer plan.” Savitri-186 OM TAT SAT Read More 9 An Inspiration from Sri Aurobindo's Writings : 1: All of Sri Aurobindo’s writings from the early days of Baroda to the last days of Pondicherry are identified as the accumulation of overhead descended knowledge. 2: Out of them The Synthesis of Yoga, The Life Divine, The Mother and Savitri are identified as high-concentration approved writings or the best standard available to the race to pursue integral Yoga. 3: All his other writings are extremely helpful to those who are entirely conscious of the whole aim and the final Spiritual destination. They will be able to trace the sequential change of His world vision and world action with the growth and expansion of His Divine Consciousness. 4: The Mother confirmed, “Thus, Sri Aurobindo represented a totality of comprehension and knowledge and power; and every one of his books is at once a symbol and a representation. Every one of his books contains symbolically, potentially, what is in him. Therefore, if you concentrate on the book, you can, through the book, go back to the source . And even, by passing through the book, you will be able to receive much more than what is just in the book. ” TMCW-8/Questions and Answers-1956/p-163, A sincere entry into His Teachings (or Their Teachings) confirms a brief Supramental touch and this touch can be prolonged by the formation, development and densification of multiple subtle bodies. OM TAT SAT Read More 10 Sri Aurobindo's Hope on Woman : “I am beginning to understand why Sri Aurobindo always said it was woman that could build a bridge between the two. I am beginning to understand. One day, I will explain. I am beginning to understand. Sri Aurobindo used to say: it is woman that can build a bridge between the old world and the supramental world. Now I understand.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-26.04.1972 “After I knew that God was a woman, I learned some-thing from far-off about love; but it was only when I became a woman and served my Master and Paramour that I knew love utterly.” Sri Aurobindo TMCW-10/On Thoughts and Aphorisms/p-329 “God has so arranged life that the world is the soul’s husband; Krishna its divine paramour. We owe a debt of service to the world and are bound to it by a law, a compelling opinion, and a common experience of pain and pleasure, but our heart’s worship and our free and secret joy are for our Lover.” Sri Aurobindo TMCW-10/On Thoughts and Aphorisms/p-340 Sri Aurobindo had kept great hope on women, in building the future. Their main objective of life is not procreation, or enjoyment of life with men but to accumulate Spiritual energy. The ‘virgin bridals of the dawn’ (Savitri-401) are identified as the future of the Nation and they can keep their mind, life and body untouched and pure to enter union with the Divine in all the ten planes of Consciousness and realise the full delight and perfection of all those planes or ‘virgin who comest perfected by joy.’ (Savitri-424) They are also representative symbols of ‘citizens of that mother state.’ (Savitri-262) Thus Para-prakriti dominated Indian women can dream of the emergence of 'a virgin earth' or 'Heaven’s joys might have been earth’s if earth were pure.' Savitri-123) OM TAT SAT Read More The All Orissa Girls Meet 11 Questions Raised By the Death God in Savitri : Before conquering Death from without, which is an issue of all life, a Sadhak is given the triple task of conquering Death from within (1) by universalisation of Consciousness, (2) by illumining the Subconscient and Inconscient planes and (3) by change of Nature through activation of 'Yoga of Self-perfection' and Sachchidananda Consciousness: The First Task of Conquering Death by Universalisation of Consciousness: This experience will be followed by static Viswarupa Darshana as witnessed by the Arjuna of the Gita (Chapter-10) and dynamic Viswarupa Darshana as witnessed by Death God in Savitri , Book-10, Canto-4. "A Mother-wisdom works in Nature’s breast To pour delight on the heart of toil and want And press perfection on life’s stumbling powers, Impose heaven-sentience on the obscure abyss And make dumb Matter conscious of its God. Although our fallen minds forget to climb, Although our human stuff resists or breaks, She keeps her will that hopes to divinise clay; Failure cannot repress, defeat o’erthrow; Time cannot weary her nor the Void subdue, The ages have not made her passion less; No victory she admits of Death or Fate." Savitri-353-354 “In the enormous emptiness of thy mind Thou shalt see the Eternal’s body in the world, Know him in every voice heard by thy soul, In the world’s contacts meet his single touch; All things shall fold thee into his embrace. Conquer thy heart’s throbs, let thy heart beat in God: Thy nature shall be the engine of his works, Thy voice shall house the mightiness of his Word: Then shalt thou harbour my force and conquer Death .” Savitri-476 The Second Task of illumining the Subconscient and Inconscient planes: " He (Narad) sang the Inconscient and its secret self, (Discovery of Inconscient Self) Its power omnipotent knowing not what it does, All-shaping without will or thought or sense, Its blind unerring occult mystery, And darkness yearning towards the eternal Light, And Love that broods within the dim abyss And waits the answer of the human heart, And death that climbs to immortality." Savitri-416 “O Death , I have triumphed over thee within; I quiver no more with the assault of grief; A mighty calmness seated deep within Has occupied my body and my sense: It takes the world’s grief and transmutes to strength, It makes the world’s joy one with the joy of God. My love eternal sits throned on God’s calm; For Love must soar beyond the very heavens And find its secret sense ineffable; It must change its human ways to ways divine, Yet keep its sovereignty of earthly bliss.” Savitri-633 The Third Task of Permanent Descent of Sachchidananda Consciousness: " His living cosmic spirit shall enring, Annulling the decree of death and pain, Erasing the formulas of the Ignorance, With the deep meaning of beauty and life’s hid sense, The being ready for immortality," Savitri-706 “Even there shall come as a high crown of all The end of Death, the death of Ignorance. But first high Truth must set her feet on earth And man aspire to the Eternal’s light And all his members feel the Spirit’s touch And all his life obey an inner Force. This too shall be; for a new life shall come, A body of the Superconscient’s truth, A native field of Supernature’s mights: It shall make earth’s nescient ground Truth’s colony, Make even the Ignorance a transparent robe Through which shall shine the brilliant limbs of Truth And Truth shall be a sun on Nature’s head And Truth shall be the guide of Nature’s steps And Truth shall gaze out of her nether deeps.” Savitri-708 "The frontiers of the Ignorance shall recede, More and more souls shall enter into light, Minds lit, inspired, the occult summoner hear And lives blaze with a sudden inner flame And hearts grow enamoured of divine delight And human wills tune to the divine will, These separate selves the Spirit’s oneness feel, These senses of heavenly sense grow capable, The flesh and nerves of a strange ethereal joy And mortal bodies of immortality." Savitri-710 Death will exist for him as there are gulfs between multiple planes of intermediate Consciousness. His task in this birth is to bridge as many gulfs as possible through the movement of vertical Consciousness or through a four-fold union with the Divine. When all the gulfs are bridged, then there will be a free flow of the highest energy to the Lowest planes and that is the hour of closure to physical immortality. This is a task for him left in All Life to attain. OM TAT SAT Read More To discover new things in material life is the object of mental Research. Behind the material life there is a vast domain of subtle physical, subtle vital and subtle mental planes. To discover the truths of that world is the object of Spiritual Research. This discovery will be still extended to Psychic within, Spiritual, universal, Supramental and Bliss planes above the head and Subconscient and Inconscient planes below the feet. The Mother confirms that when our discovery of new wisdom is a ‘ direct expression and creation of a light which is above us’ then ‘That is the only case in which one can say that the thought is our own.’ In this creation nothing is our own except what has descended to us through Divine Will, Divine Knowledge and Divine Love. We carry that wealth as Soul Force in succeeding births and bodies. (Refer: The Mother/TMCW-8/Questions and Answers-1956/p-345) "The greatest inner discoveries, the experience of self-being, the cosmic consciousness, the inner calm of the liberated spirit, the direct effect of mind upon mind, the knowledge of things by consciousness in direct contact with other consciousness or with its objects, most spiritual experiences of any value, cannot be brought before the tribunal of the common mentality which has no experience of these things and takes its own absence or incapacity of experience as a proof of their invalidity or their non-existence. " Sri Aurobindo CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-677 “The work of achieving a continuity which permits one to go up and down (in Consciousness) and bring into the material what is above, is done inside the consciousness. He who is meant to do it, the Avatar, even if he were shut up in a prison and saw nobody and never moved out, still would he do the work, because it is a work in the consciousness, a work of connection between the Supermind and the material being. He does not need to be recognised, he need have no outward power in order to be able to establish this conscious connection. Once, however, the connection is made, it must have its effect in the outward world in the form of a new creation, beginning with a model town and ending with a perfect world.” The Mother The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol.3/p-179,

Root Formula of Integral Yoga “…the spirit breaks through all formulas to find its self…” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-22/The Life Divine-1038 Here are twelve powerful Savitri-formulas (expressed as concise spiritual principles distilled from the epic) that closely support this truth: 1. The Soul Exceeds Every Law The spirit is greater than the law that governs its present state. “The impossible God’s sign of things to be. But few can look beyond the present state” Savitri-52 "The spirit in a finite ignorant world Must rescue so its prisoned consciousness" Savitri-140 Evolution advances because consciousness is not imprisoned in its current formulation. 2. The Infinite cannot be enclosed. No creed, symbol, or thought can contain the Eternal. “The doors of God they have locked with keys of creed And shut out by the Law his tireless Grace.” Savitri-225 Every Spiritual formulation is a temporary doorway, not the final dwelling. 3. Truth is a Living Revelation What was once revelation becomes a stepping-stone to a greater revelation. “I make even sin and error stepping-stones And all experience a long march towards Light.” Savitri-515 The Spirit continually renews its expression. 4. The Soul is called beyond its Achievement Every summit reached reveals a higher summit. “It left known summits for the unknown peaks:” Savitri-277 5. Death guards the threshold of Transformation What appears as an end conceals a greater becoming. “Our death is made a passage to new worlds.” Savitri-194 “He has need of death to find a greater life.” Savitri-337 “Death is our road to immortality.” Savitri-424 6. Love Transcends Cosmic Necessity Divine Love can alter the decrees of Fate. “The soul is the watchful builder of its fate” Savitri-184 “A touch can alter the fixed front of Fate.” Savitri-256 "And woke in it the Force that alters Fate.” Savitri-665 7. The Divine is More Than Its Manifestations The Form reveals the Formless but cannot exhaust it. “The virgin forms through which the Formless shines,” Savitri-327 "A Magician’s formulas have made Matter’s laws And while they last, all things by them are bound; But the spirit’s consent is needed for each act And Freedom walks in the same pace with Law. All here can change if the Magician choose. " Savitri-457 8. Consciousness evolves beyond Mind Mind is a bridge, not the destination. “A blank pure consciousness had replaced the mind.” Savitri-545 The spirit presses toward supramental and Divine Consciousness. 9. The Impossible is Nature's Future Today's impossibility is tomorrow's realised truth. “All once impossible deemed could now become” Savitri-84 “Yet by her skill the impossible has been done:” Savitri-177 10. God seeks Ever-New Expressions The Eternal endlessly recreates Himself in Time. “An endless Truth she endlessly unfolds;” Savitri-178 No single formula can permanently express the Infinite Divine. 11. Life transcends its Accomplishment "The life that wins its aim asks greater aims, " Savitri-200 The perpetual self-exceeding is the nature of evolutionary consciousness. 12. Life finds fulfilment in the Divine “Assailed, surprised in the fortress of her self, Conquered by her own unexpected king (the Divine),” Savitri-87 "A captive Life wedded her conqueror. (Supreme Lord)" (Savitri-125) "The soul that can live alone with itself meets God;" Savitri-460 "Yet still, a captive in her golden hands," Savitri-723 Interpretation: Life appears bound by Nature, ignorance, desire, and circumstance, yet its secret destiny is union with the Supreme Lord. The Spirit breaks through the formula of bondage and discovers its eternal oneness with the Divine. Every achieved truth, law, creed, power, realisation, and form is a temporary expression of the Eternal; therefore the Spirit continually exceeds all formulations in order to manifest a greater truth of its infinite Self. The Root Formula of Integral Yoga Perfection is the objective of Divine Life. All problems of Perfections are essentially the problems of existence. Imperfection is the constitution of this existence. A Sadhaka’s quest for perfection begins by becoming aware of his present law of imperfection and by keeping full account of it. The perfection he aspires is neither a mundane perfection of outward and social change, nor moderate perfection of gross will to live and temperate indulgence of mental and vital satisfaction of desire, nor an ascetic perfection of trampling down the life instinct and ethical austerity, nor a religious perfection of acceptance of common religious ideal, a brotherhood of saints and a kingdom of heaven on earth but an integral Divine perfection of ‘the divine government of the will in life.’¹ ‘It is only by increasing that (self) control through detachment of lower suggestions’¹ of physical and vital mind,… only by developing and accumulating soul-power, only by ‘the possession of the being, consciousness, delight, power of the Self’¹ that he can reach this integral Perfection. 1) ‘For all problems of existence are essentially the problems of Harmony,’² Sangati. All problems are the creation of mental Ignorance and they could not exist with the evolution of Knowledge. An individual limited in ego isolated from its environment feels no longer in unity and harmony with his Self, with God, with universe and with all around him. The secret of harmony is to be in accord with his natural members and surrounding by becoming one with his highest Self, by becoming one with oneself and all beings. All problems would move harmoniously to their right solution if the life-energy could be made to obey their right action offered by Divine Will instead of imposing its own yoke on our existence. 2) All problems of Harmony are essentially the problems of Dharma, preliminarily obedience to the right law of existence, the law of self-discipline of written truth and ultimately spontaneous and automatic obedience to the Psychic, Spiritual and Gnostic Law dictated from within and above. 3) All problems of Dharma are the problems of discrimination, preliminarily right discernment of truth from falsehood, vivek and ultimately swift Supramental discernment, Samjnana . 4) All problems of right Discernment are the problems of Sraddha , preliminarily centralised faith and ultimately integral faith, which is again the outcome of Nistha, great sincerity. The Gita speaks ‘he who has faith attains knowledge that can discern Truth and Falsehood, Divine and Undivine, Knowledge and Ignorance’, sraddhavan labhate jnanam .³ Right discernment, vivek, will lead one towards the fulfilment of the law of the Soul, Dharma . It is the law of the Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental being that leads one to total harmony and all the problems of existence are resolved from its root. It is from asraddha , doubt and asuya , fault finding, bivranti , the wrong discernment is born, which leads one to adharma, the deceptive law of mind, life and body, is the root cause of disharmony, asangati , from which all the problems of existence are aggravated. This paper proposes some provisional psycho-physical exercises on faith, Sraddha, which is meant for educating one to begin, repeat subsequently and end each day with the revival of highest aspiration of the Soul, towards the God, Light, Freedom, Bliss and Immortality. The two imperfections, the skeptical doubt, samsaya, which always turns its back on our Spiritual possibilities and the constant carping of the narrow uncreative intellect, asuya, which paralyses our collective living, must however be conquered for the Divine perfection by systematic development of sraddha . 1: The first indispensable faith is, “The Divine exists within, above and around me and my meeting with Him cannot fail. I want to meet, see² ⁴ and adore Him alone within first and then in all creatures and in the Transcendence.” The first Mantra in strengthening our contact with the Divine, "I want only You."²¹ 2: The second indispensable faith is, “There is nothing worth living in my life without Him and He is the only source of all my emotion, thought and action.” The second Mantra in strengthening our contact with the Divine, "I love the Supreme Lord alone."²² 3: The third indispensable faith is, “He has taken my total responsibility and His sure guidance and protection is present throughout in spite of many dangers, difficulties and failures.” The Mantra of Divine protection is, "Only were safe who kept God in their hearts" (Savitri-211) (Jivatma's union with Paramatma) or "Hast thou not taken my heart to treasure it In the secure environment of thy breast?" (Savitri-719) (Jivatma's union with Para-prakriti.) 4: The fourth indispensable faith is, “He responds to my every call and even to my most external emotional call.” The Mantra to receive the Divine call is, "Or who forbid his kiss on the sleeping soul?" Savitri-649 5: The fifth indispensable faith is, “What the Divine wills for me or decides for me is the best; He leads me in the shortest possible path towards the largest development and ultimate goal.” The Mantra of Karma Yoga is, "Only for good the secret Will can work." Savitri-424 6: The sixth indispensable faith is, “He is all Love, all Ananda , all Beauty, all Peace, all Knowledge, all Light and He is ready to pour these faculties when called upon.” The Divine Love is identified as the most powerful Divine attribute to transform Nature. The Mantra of purification is, "He (Divine Love) is still the godhead by which all can change." Savitri-397 7: The seventh indispensable faith is, “Divine is All and by His entire descent all the problems of existence can be resolved instantly. But for such a descent to be practicable we have to enlarge the purity of subtle and causal body indefinitely.” We have to confront Death with the aid of this Mantra, "He (Divine Love) shall remake thy universe, O Death.” Savitri-592 In addition to it we can practice remembering some specialised form of faith or dispensable dynamic faith to remould some of our finest faculty. Once the indispensable faith establishes the Spiritual base, the practice of dispensable faith helps to integrate it. 1: The first dispensable faith is, “Since I want only the Divine, my success is sure, I have only to walk forward in all confidence and His own Hand will be there secretly leading me to Him by His own way and at His own time.”⁴ 2: 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.”⁵ 3: To all suggestions of impurity, unfitness and Spiritual fall repeat the mantra , “I am a child of Immortality chosen by the Divine; I have but to be true to myself and Him--the victory is sure; even if I fell, I would rise again.”⁶ 4: The rajasic and sattwic egoism are eliminated by concentration of the following mantra, “A Divine Power works in this mind and body and it is the same that works in all men and in the animal, in the plant and in the metal, in conscious and living things and in things apparently inconscient and inanimate.”⁷ 5: To all suggestions of death, disease and accident repeat the mantra, “No part of my being support or dwell upon the disease of the body. All disease, accident and death are perfect illusion and non-existent to the true consciousness of the body.” 6: Always we must adhere to the injunction of the Gita, “Yoga must be continually practiced without yielding to any discouragement by difficulty or failure until the bliss of Nirvana is secured.”⁸ Every thought and impulse has to be reminded in the language of the Kena Upanishad, “That is the Divine Brahman and not this which men here cherish and adore.”⁹ 7: The seventh dispensable faith is, “A wise impersonality, a quiescent equality, a universality which sees all things as the manifestations of the Divine, the one Existence, is not angry, troubled, impatient with the way of things or on the other hand excited, over-eager and precipitate, but sees that the law must be obeyed and the pace of time respected, observes and understands with sympathy the actuality of things and beings, but looks also behind the present appearance to their inner significances and forward to the unrolling of their divine possibilities, is the first thing demanded of those who would do works as the perfect instruments of the Divine.”¹⁰ 8: The eighth dispensable faith is, always we must repeat to the doubting intellect the promise of the Master of the Gita , “I will surely deliver you from all sin and evil; do not grieve.”¹¹ Or the promise of Savitri, “Oh, surely one day He shall come to our cry, one day He shall create our life anew and utter the magic formula of peace and bring perfection to the scheme of things. One day He shall descend to life and earth, leaving the secrecy of eternal doors, into a world that cries to Him for help, and bring the truth that sees the spirit free, the joy that is the baptism of soul, the strength that is the outstretched arm of Love. One day He shall lift His beauty’s dreadful veil, impose delight on the world’s beating heart and bare His secret body of light and bliss.”¹² Once the centralised faith is established in the Divine, which ‘see only the Divine and seek only after the Divine,’¹³ replacing the earlier ordinary faith which concentrate on ‘development and satisfaction and interests in the old externalised order of things,’¹³ then an individual’s higher Spiritual life is decreed. Then this faith has to be integralised through Psycho-physical exercise as stated above followed by Spiritual union of Ishwara and Ishwari and Supramental union of Brahman and Maya. Once the faith is integralised then an individual’s Supramental destiny is decreed. After the centralised faith is established in the Divine, then the centralising thought shuns its former dividing nature and retains its power of Truth and Oneness and once the faith is integralised, then the reconciling wisdom is activated which harmonises all the inarticulate murmur and disjointed mutterings of the Inconscient and unite Matter and Spirit. To continue the root formula again: 5) All problems of Sraddha are the problems of Nistha , Sincerity, preliminarily exclusive sincerity and ultimately integral sincerity. Apara Prakriti’s concentration around Purusha is defined as exclusive sincerity. This concentration extended between Shakti and Ishwara and between Maya and Brahman lead towards integral sincerity. 6) All problems of Sincerity are the problem of concentration, samyama , preliminarily exclusive concentration and ultimately Integral Concentration. Integral Yoga proposes to enforce upon ‘the whole of life and not merely on a part of life’¹⁹ a concentration of inner spiritual change followed by an outer transformation which is not merely many-fold mental effort, annulment of ego, strong renunciation, but evolution of higher concentration beyond exclusive concentration of mind. Integral Yoga proposes seven-fold concentrations in ascending order. Concentration is defined as ‘the bringing to its full intensity and the mastered and self-directed employment of that energy of being in us for a definite end.’¹⁴ To renounce all types of earthly enjoyments is the general condition of increase in concentration power, samyama . First Exclusive Concentration: The First exclusive Concentration is one form of the self-gathering of the power of Tapas, which is defined as the complete absorption in the objective world by an entire separation from the true Self. A seeker of Truth utilises the faculty of first exclusive concentration towards calling down the spaceless Infinity to the limited space of his surrounding world. Second Exclusive Concentration: Then there is development of second exclusive concentration, which is defined as to preoccupy and limit oneself with the mental knowledge of the present which is hurriedly changing from moment to moment in a helpless succession of events, forms, phenomena and actions, oblivious of the successive past and future happenings except that of memory that holds little and vague inference of future; through this concentration the objective experience of the ever-changing present environment is realised through a superficial movement of consciousness. A Sadhaka utilises this second exclusive concentration towards calling down the Timeless Eternity to the slipping moments. Third Exclusive Concentration: And then, the third exclusive concentration or reverse movement of exclusive concentration, which is defined as the complete absorption in the objective means or instruments in finding the subjective Being or concentrates exclusively on the concealed inner being by quieting the frontal active prakriti and subjective experience of the ever-modified mental states of its personality. Fourth Exclusive Concentration: This concentration is the outcome of fusion of the above three exclusive concentrations. This is a concentration of separative active consciousness in a separative movement and this takes place not in the true self, but in the untransformed active Prakriti. In this concentration, the present moment is utilised in linking the subjective Time with the objective Space, or in this concentration, self-concentration and self-expansion are reconciled. Essential Concentration: The second instrument of swift Psychic evolution in Ignorance is the development of Essential Concentration, which is defined as the entire self-absorption in the essence of its own Psychic being through deeper self-oblivion of outward things. This concentration gives one the capacity to move consciousness from the Nether Inconscient Sheath to the highest Bliss Sheath. Multiple Concentrations: The third instrument of swifter Spiritual evolution in Knowledge is the development of Multiple Concentration, the method of the totalizing or global overmental awareness, which is defined as a greater concentration or self-absorption in the universalised Self for greater world action. This concentration reconciles all the planes of consciousness from the nether Inconscient Sheath to the highest Bliss Sheath. All-inclusive Integral Concentration: The last instrument of swiftest Supramental Evolution is the development of Integral Concentration, which is capable of an integral, comprehensive, multiple, infinite self-concentration. It is further defined as entire absorption in the three poises of Self or a triune realisation; (1) that is Self is in all things which is the basis of our individuality in the universal, (2) all things are within the Self which is the basis of our oneness in difference and (3) all things are made up of the stuff of Self which is the basis of our oneness with all. This concentration purifies, transforms, and perfects all the multiple planes of the ten Sheaths in large scale. To continue again the root formula: 7) All problems of Concentration are the problem of Surrender, Yajna , preliminarily exclusive Self-consecration and ultimately Integral Self-Consecration. ‘The effective fullness of our concentration on the one thing needful to the exclusion of all else will be the measure of our self-consecration to the One who is alone desirable.’ ¹⁵ With the increase of concentration, the consecration becomes absolute. Surrender is defined as Prakriti’s submission to Purusha . Concentration is born when this submission causes Prakriti to merge with Purusha. Prakriti’s concentration around the Purusha is defined as Sincerity. The Gita defines Sraddha as the original nature of Purusha, Sraddhamayayo Purusha. ¹⁶ So the reverse movement of sincerity or Purusha leaning to embrace Prakriti is defined as Sraddha or Purusha pouring its aspect of Love, Ananda, Peace, Silence, Force and Wisdom on Prakriti is defined as Sraddha . Integral Yoga recommends two types of surrender, one Vedantic ¹⁷ and the other Vedic; the former makes us one by identity in our inmost Being and the latter makes us one in our Becomings by resemblance to the Divine in our nature. In Vedantic sacrifice, Prakriti is silenced so that the Purusha , the Psychic being, ascends and merges with the Ishwara , Spiritual being and subsequently Ishwara merges with the Brahman , Supramental being. This ascension of Consciousness causes the divine Force, Shakti, Maya , to descend into the lower nature of mind, life and body. In The Synthesis of Yoga more importance is given to Vedantic sacrifice; it is fully developed through Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga and hints little about Vedic sacrifice. In Vedic sacrifice, Prakriti is agitated to create a rift in either of the lower mind such as the physical mind, sensory mind, emotional mind, intellectual mind etc or Prakriti surrenders to Shakti, or the power of Ishwara . As a result, higher Consciousness or Shakti first descends to successive layers of mind, life and body. As a result, the Prakriti is silenced and experiences the ascent of Consciousness through Purusha’s union with Ishwara and subsequently union with Brahman . In The Mother book, more importance is given to Vedic Sacrifice, Prakriti Yajna ¹⁸ than the Vedantic sacrifice, Purusha Yajna and in Savitri both the exercises are widely explored. So, the Vedantic sacrifice is identified as an indispensable exercise supported by still more powerful dispensable Vedic sacrifice. What the Vedantic Sadhaka achieves that of change of nature through trance, Samadhi, subtle physical dream and Superconscient sleep; the same state a Vedic Sadhaka arrives through waking trance. The true waking Consciousness is defined as withdrawal from subjective consciousness, objective consciousness and massed causal consciousness and entry into superconscience superior to all consciousness. Waking union, the Vedic Sadhaka will experience, is defined as the individual Purusha enlarging its active experience to the highest state of Turiya . Through consecration, one experiences static Divine union known of ascent of Consciousness and dynamic Divine union known as the descent of consciousness. Submission of finite dynamic consciousness, three gunas, to infinite static consciousness, Purusha, Ishwara and Brahman is defined as (Vedantic ) surrender. And repetition of this submission of untransformed Prakriti to infinite dynamic consciousness, Shakti, Maya , is defined as (Vedic ) surrender. To continue the root formula again: 8) All the problem of consecration is the problem of equality, samata . This equality is of six types: Titiksa , endurance, Udasinata , indifference and Nati, submission to the will of God, sama rasa , equal sap of nectar, sama bhoga , equal enjoyment and sama ananda , equal delight. 9) All problem of equality is the problem of renunciation . In integral Yoga, renunciation²³ is identified as the complete rejection of attachment, desire, duality, ego, initiation of work, and the three gunas. Equality helps to realise complete detachment/rejection of the lower nature and the discovery of the absolute movement of Divine Light, Power and Ananda , which are indispensable for Divine perfection. Through the increase of renunciation, tyaga , of ill will or physical mind, intellect or sattwic mind and emotion or vital mind, one finds equality, samata , of triple Yoga; through prolongation of equality one finds peace, shanti, through prolongation of peace one finds Spiritual ease and happiness, sukha , through prolongation of happiness one discovers the exceeding joy and laughter of the Soul, hasya, atma prasada , which is identified as the natural state of a fulfilled man. Recapitulation: So, by renunciation one arrives at equality; by samata one arrives at the consecration of Self and Nature. Or ‘An inner renunciation of personal desire leads to equality, accomplishes our total surrender to the Divine, supports a delivery from dividing ego which brings us oneness.’²⁰ By practice of consecration, one experiences Divine union, as a result, concentration and purity grow, each helping the victory of the other till eternal calmness is established. Purification of buddhi is also possible by detachment/rejection of the lower Nature. Concentration subsequently gives birth to sincerity; again, sincerity gives birth to Sraddha. Sraddha acts as a pivot for the perfection of instrumental nature and obedience to the Divine Law, Dharma . Obedience to the norms of integral Yoga or obedience to Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Law harmonises all the problems of existence. Total harmony is the condition of perfection of Divine Life which is attained by total union with the Divine, union with Indwelling, Over-dwelling and Transcendent Divine. Integral Yoga or integral Evolution promises triple perfection of divine life. They are fullness of Being, fullness of Consciousness and fullness of Life. Consciousness is the central Truth of Divine Life, which is a self-aware force of existence extended from the Inconscient Sheath to the Bliss Sheath. By movement of Consciousness, fullness of Being, fullness of Consciousness and fullness of life can be attained. This movement bridges the gulf between multiple subtle sheaths or planes of Consciousness. Harmony is the inherent Nature of infinite Divine Consciousness and disharmony or limited harmony is the nature of the finite Consciousness of the three gunas . The Law that descends from Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Consciousness is known as Dharma or Soul-saving Truth. The Law that enters the human vessel from tamasic and rajasic mind and from the surrounding world is known as Adharma or Soul slaying truth. Vedantic Sraddha is the pouring down of Divine attributes of infinite Static consciousness into finite dynamic Consciousness of three gunas through Purusha Yajna or Vedantic sacrifice. Vedic Sraddha is the pouring down of Divine attributes of infinite Dynamic Consciousness into the finite dynamic consciousness of the three gunas by Prakriti Yajna or Vedic sacrifice. Sincerity is the concentration of finite dynamic Consciousness of the three gunas around the Psychic being. Exclusive concentration is a concentration of separative mental active consciousness absorbed in part knowledge or a part action of the being and excluding the rest from its awareness. Submission of finite dynamic consciousness to infinite static Consciousness is defined as (Vedantic ) surrender. Submission of finite dynamic consciousness to infinite dynamic consciousness is defined as (Vedic ) surrender. Equality is gained when the Consciousness goes beyond the finite consciousness of the three gunas. Renunciation is the rejection of finite dynamic consciousness represented by the three gunas of apara-prakriti . OM TAT SAT References 1: 67: “But whatever his aim, however exalted his aspiration, he has to begin from the law of his present imperfection, to take full account of it and see how it can be converted to the law of a possible perfection.” CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga-631, “This is in fact what the mass of men do; (1) a small minority trample down the life instinct and strain after an ascetic perfection; (2) most obey the gross will to live with such modifications and restraints as society imposes or the normal social man has been trained to impose on his own mind and actions (moderate perfection); (3) others set up a balance between ethical austerity and temperate indulgence of the desiring mental and vital self and see in this balance the golden mean of a sane mind and healthy human living. (4) But none of these ways gives the perfection which we are seeking, the divine government of the will in life.” CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-658-59, “It is only by increasing that (self) control that he can move towards perfection, — and it is only by developing soul-power that he can reach it. Nature-power in him has to become more and more completely a conscious act of soul, a conscious expression of all the will and knowledge of spirit. Prakriti has to reveal itself as shakti of the Purusha.” CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-631, “But while the possession of the being, consciousness, delight, power of the Self is the condition of perfection, —for it is only by knowing and possessing and living in the truth of itself that the soul can become free and perfect, — we hold that Nature is an eternal action and manifestation of the Spirit; Nature is not a devil’s trap, a set of misleading appearances created by desire, sense, life and mental will and intelligence, but these phenomena are hints and indications and behind all of them is a truth of Spirit which exceeds and uses them.” CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-666-67, “We find that it progresses towards a greater completeness in proportion as we arrive at two kinds of perfection; first, a greater and greater detachment from the control of the lower suggestions; secondly, an increasing discovery of a self-existent Being, Light, Power and Ananda which surpasses and transforms the normal humanity… The Yoga of self-perfection is to make this double movement as absolute as possible.” CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-668-69, 2: 4: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-4, 3: 5: SABCL-23/Letters on Yoga/p-584, 4: 6: SABCL-23/Letters on Yoga/p-584, 5: 97: CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p--676, 6: 7: CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-99, 7: 8: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-250, 8: 9: The Gita-6.23, 9: 98: Kena Upanishada-1.4, CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yogap--72, CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p--403, 10: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/700, 11: The Gita-18-66, 12: Savitri-200, 13: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-72, 14: 68: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-530, 15: 59: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-85, 16: 14: The Gita-17.3, 17: 70: “She surrendered to the service of the soul” Savitri-87, 18: 15: “In her deep and great love for her children she has consented to put on herself the cloak of this obscurity, condescended to bear the attacks and torturing influences of the powers of the Darkness and the Falsehood, borne to pass through the portals of the birth that is a death, taken upon herself the pangs and sorrows and sufferings of the creation, since it seemed that thus alone could it be lifted to the Light and Joy and Truth and eternal Life. This is the great sacrifice called sometimes the sacrifice of the Purusha, but much more deeply the holocaust of Prakriti, the sacrifice of the Divine Mother.” The Mother-37, 19: 62: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-186, 20: 69: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-95, 21: “If you say to the Divine with conviction, “I want only You”, the Divine will arrange all the circumstances in such a way as to compel you to be sincere. Something in the being... “I want only You.”... the aspiration...and then one wants a hundred odd things all the time, isn’t that so? At times something comes, just... usually to disturb everything—it stands in the way and prevents you from realizing your aspiration. Well, the Divine will come without showing Himself, without your seeing Him, without your having any inkling of it, and He will arrange all the circumstances in such a way that everything that prevents you from belonging solely to the Divine will be removed from your path, inevitably. Then when all is removed, you begin to howl and complain; but later, if you are sincere and look at yourself straight in the eye... you have said to the Lord, you have said, “I want only You.” He will remain close to you, all the rest will go away. This is indeed a higher Grace. Only, you must say this with conviction. I don’t even mean that you must say it integrally, because if one says it integrally, the work is done. What is necessary is that one part of the being, indeed the central will, says it with conviction: “I want only You.” Even once, and it suffices: all that takes more or less long, sometimes it stretches over years, but one reaches the goal.” The Mother/The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol-6/176-177, 22: “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, "To give oneself to an outsider is to go out from the atmosphere of sadhana and give oneself to the outer world forces... One can have a psychic feeling of love for someone, a universal love for all creatures, but one has to give oneself only to the Divine. " CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-740 23: The fivefold rejection is also marked in the following verse of Savitri: “He felt the stark resistance huge and dumb Of our inconscient and unseeing base, The stubborn mute rejection in life’s depths, The ignorant No in the origin of things.” Savitri-317 (Rejection of Inconscient) “Renouncing servitude to the dim Abyss,” Savitri-171 (rejection of Subconscient) “The seeds of sins renounced sprout from hid soil;” 484 (rejection of Subconscient sheath) “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,” Savitri-483-484 (Rejection of Subconscient.) The body’s sense renounced its earthly look;” Savitri-373 (Rejection of physical limitation) “Renounce the tie that joins thee to earth-kind,” Savitri-685 (Rejection of physical) “Earth’s grain that needs the sap of pleasure and tears Rejected the undying rapture’s boon:” Savitri-7(Rejection of vital) “Rejecting with calm disdain Nature’s delight,” Savitri-565 (Rejection of vital) “In his heart it (white temple) shines rejected by his life.” Savitri-609 (Rejection of vital) “Renounced was the glory and felicity,” Savitri-136 (Rejection of vital) “Annulled were the transient values of the mind,” Savitri-548 (Rejection of mind) “If all existence could renounce to be” Savitri-548 (Rejection of mind) “Heaven’s wiser love rejects the mortal’s prayer” Savitri-456 (rejection of mental limitation) “Rejecting the moment’s personality Know itself older than the birth of Time,” Savitri-537(rejection of mental limitation) “Her mind renouncing thought heard and was mute:” Savitri-474 (Rejection of mental limitation) 24: “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 Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: "All’s miracle here and can by miracle change." Savitri-85

The Main Formula of Integral Yoga: (All Life is Yoga) “Apart, living within, all lives she bore; Aloof, she carried in herself the world:” Savitri-8 "We have all met in previous lives ("she met nameless comrades...a part of old forgotten selves:" (Savitri-376). Otherwise we would not have come together in this life. We are of one family and have worked through ages for the victory of the Divine and its manifestation upon earth." The Mother The Mother's Centenary Works/Vol-3/p-3, “To be perpetually reborn is the condition of a material immortality.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-5 “But that (life) CANNOT be extended as it is, for everything is constantly changing! And to be immortal, you have to follow this perpetual change ; otherwise, what will naturally happen is what now happens – one day you will die because you can no longer follow the change. But if you can follow it, then all this will fall from you! Understand that what will survive in you is something you don’t know very well, but it’s the only thing that can survive – and all the rest will keep falling off all the time ... Do you still want to be immortal?’ – Not one in ten said yes! ... Once you are able to make them feel the thing concretely, they tell you, ‘Oh no! Oh no! Since everything else is changing, the body might as well change too! What difference would it make!’ But what remains is THAT; THAT is what you must truly hold on to – but then you must BE THAT, not this whole agglomeration. What you now call ‘you’ is not THAT, it’s a whole collection of things...” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda/ November 15, 1960 The Main Formula of Integral Yoga (In this paper, The Synthesis of Yoga , the principal Shastra of integral Yoga, is compressed into ten formulas ("Compressing Nature into a formula;" Savitri-273), out of which the last nine formulas have descended while pursuing the sadhana of the book, The Synthesis of Yoga. ) “Apart, living within, all lives she bore; Aloof, she carried in herself the world:” Savitri-8 “Inapt to fold its mighty wings of dream Her spirit refused to hug the common soil, Or, finding all life’s golden meanings robbed, Compound with earth, struck from the starry list, Or quench with black despair the God-given light.” Savitri-19 “Recall of the soul’s adventure into space, A traveller through the magic centuries And being’s labour in Matter’s universe,” Savitri-29 “Even through the tangled anarchy called Fate And through the bitterness of death and fall An outstretched Hand is felt upon our lives. It is near us in unnumbered bodies and births ; In its unslackening grasp it keeps for us safe The one inevitable supreme result No will can take away and no doom change, The crown of conscious Immortality, The godhead promised to our struggling souls When first man’s heart dared death and suffered life.” Savitri-59 “The Spirit, the innumerable One, He has left behind his lone eternity, He is an endless birth in endless Time , Her finite’s multitude in an infinite Space.” Savitri-66 “She meditates upon mighty words and looks On the unseen links that join the parted spheres.” (unseen links of all life) Savitri-85 “The Spirit’s greatness is our timeless source And it shall be our crown in endless Time. ” Savitri-110 “A subtle link of union joins all life . Thus all creation is a single chain:” Savitri-110 “Here was its early brief attempt to be, Its rapid end of momentary delight Whose stamp of failure haunts all ignorant life … Even when reason is born and soul takes form, In beast and reptile and in thinking man It lasts and is the fount of all their life. ” Savitri-140 “In war and clasp these life-wants joined the All-Life, Wrestlings of a divided unity Inflicting mutual grief and happiness In ignorance of the Self for ever one.” Savitri-145 “A little joy and knowledge satisfied This little being tied into a knot And hung on a bulge of its environment, A little curve cut off in measureless Space, A little span of life in all vast Time .” (this life's link with all life) Savitri-148-149 “Our being must move eternally through Time; Death helps us not, vain is the hope to cease; A secret Will compels us to endure…. Our souls are dragged as with a hidden leash, Carried from birth to birth, from world to world, Our acts prolong after the body’s fall The old perpetual journey without pause.” Savitri-197 “All life’s high visions are embodied there, Her wandering hopes achieved, her aureate combs Caught by the honey-eater’s darting tongue, Her burning guesses changed to ecstasied truths, Her mighty pantings stilled in deathless calm And liberated her immense desires.” Savitri-235 “All life to harmonise by thought’s control, She with the huge imbroglio struggles still; Ignorant of all but her own seeking mind To save the world from Ignorance she came.” Savitri-250 “He stood on a wide arc of summit Space Alone with an enormous Self of Mind Which held all life in a corner of its vasts.” Savitri-283 “A Panergy that harmonised all life Held now existence in its vast control; A portion of that majesty he was made.” (Here Panergy is the all energy or Supramental energy which can harmonise all past and present births.) Savitri-300 “There consciousness was a close and single weft; The far and near were one in spirit-space, The moments there were pregnant with all time .” Savitri-301 “Each was unique, but took all lives as his own, And, following out these tones of the Infinite, Recognised in himself the universe.” Savitri-323 “All life is fixed in an ascending scale” Savitri-342 “All her (Savitri’s) life’s turns led her to symbol doors Admitting to secret Powers that were her kin; Adept of truth, initiate of bliss, A mystic acolyte trained in Nature’s school, Aware of the marvel of created things She laid the secrecies of her heart’s deep muse Upon the altar of the Wonderful; Her hours were a ritual in a timeless fane; Her acts became gestures of sacrifice.” Savitri-360 “A forehead that wore the crown of all her (Savitri’s) past , (The Mother had the crown of twelve pearls over her head in subtle form.) Two eyes her constant and eternal stars, Comrade and sovereign eyes that claimed her soul, Lids known through many lives , large frames of love.” Savitri-396 “These bodies summed the drift of numberless births, And the spirit to the spirit was the same.” Savitri-399 “This earth is full of labour, packed with pain; Throes of an endless birth coerce her still; The centuries end, the ages vainly pass And yet the Godhead in her is not born.” Savitri-443-44 “Always the stature of her passion grew; Grief, fear became the food of mighty love. Increased by its torment it filled the whole world; It was all her life , became her whole earth and heaven.” Savitri-473 “And the heavy business of unnumbered lives” Savitri-479 “The Master and the Mother of all lives Watching the worlds their twin regard had made, And Krishna and Radha for ever entwined in bliss, The Adorer and Adored self-lost and one.” Savitri-525 “Out of some sullen monstrous vast arisen, Out of an abysmal deep of grief and fear Imagined by some blind regardless self, A consciousness of being without its joy, Empty of thought, incapable of bliss, That felt life blank and nowhere found a soul, A voice to the dumb anguish of the heart Conveyed a stark sense of unspoken words; In her own depths she heard the unuttered thought That made unreal the world and all life meant.” Savitri-534 “So she beheld the many births of thought, If births can be of what eternal is; For the Eternal’s powers are like himself, Timeless in the Timeless, in Time ever born.” Savitri-541 “In the dire beauty of an immortal face Pitying arose, receiving all that lives For ever into its fathomless heart, refuge Of creatures from their anguish and world-pain.” Savitri-574 (Savitri said to Death God) "A traveller of the million roads of life , His steps familiar with the lights of heaven Tread without pain the sword-paved courts of hell; There he descends to edge eternal joy. Love’s golden wings have power to fan thy void: The eyes of love gaze starlike through death’s night, The feet of love tread naked hardest worlds. He labours in the depths, exults on the heights; He (Love) shall remake thy universe, O Death.” Savitri-592 “Even in all that life and man have marred, A whisper of divinity still is heard, A breath is felt from the eternal spheres.” Savitri-612-613 (Death God said) “If God there is he cares not for the world; All things he sees with calm indifferent gaze, He has doomed all hearts to sorrow and desire, He has bound all life with his implacable laws; He answers not the ignorant voice of prayer.” Savitri-646 “Above the wash and surge of Time and Space, Disengaging from the cosmic commonalty By which all life is kin in grief and joy, Delivered from the universal Law The sunlike single and transcendent spirit Can blaze its way through the mind’s barrier wall And burn alone in the eternal sky, Inhabitant of a wide and endless calm.” Savitri-691 “But first high Truth must set her feet on earth And man aspire to the Eternal’s light And all his members feel the Spirit’s touch And all his life obey an inner Force. This too shall be; for a new life shall come, A body of the Superconscient’s truth, A native field of Supernature’s mights: It shall make earth’s nescient ground Truth’s colony, Make even the Ignorance a transparent robe Through which shall shine the brilliant limbs of Truth And Truth shall be a sun on Nature’s head And Truth shall be the guide of Nature’s steps And Truth shall gaze out of her nether deeps.” Savitri-708 The earliest First Formula and the ultimate Last Formula of the Divine Life: ‘The earliest formula of Wisdom promises to be its last, --God, Light, (Bliss),¹⁶ Freedom, Immortality.’¹⁶ Sri Aurobindo “The Illimitable they measured with number’s rods And traced the last formula of limited things, In transparent systems bodied termless truths, The Timeless made accountable to Time And valued the incommensurable Supreme.” Savitri-273 “Therefore, O Arjuna, at all times of all life be in Yoga, tasmat sarvesu kalesu yoga-yukto bhavarjuna. ” The Gita-8.27 “O Arjuna, at all times of all life unite with Me by remembrance of Me and by doing action for Me, tasmat sarvesu kalesu mam anusmara yudhya cha. ” The Gita-8.7 The literal meaning of integral Yoga is the union with the total Consciousness of the Eternal. The written truth of integral Shastra had descended from above like traditional Shastra as formulas, Sutras and was further expanded and heightened through ascension and widening of Consciousness. All the (ten) formula of integral Yoga breaks through to uncover the integral Divine which includes integral Divine Law, integral Divine manifestation, integral Divine liberation, integral Divine transformation and integral Divine Perfection. The first formula or Maha Mantra of integral Yoga is ‘All life is Yoga ’ and the last formula of integral Yoga is complete possession of ‘God, Light, Bliss, Freedom and Immortality.’¹⁶ 1) ‘All life is Yoga,’⁵⁸ sarva (ananta) jivanam nitya-yogamastu or sampurnam jivanam yogamayam bhabet. All life is a secret unconscious and conscious Yoga of Nature intended to become progressively self-conscient, luminous and self-fulfilled. Life develops many initial hints of Divinity and change of nature by liberating them which must be enforced upon the whole of life and not merely on a part of this life. Where the effort of this whole of life can become the conscious Yoga of Nature and must extend over to All Life until the recovery of the complete and undivided Divine Life. All Life is defined as a subtle link of union that joins the succession of past, present and future lives and it is the right play of the Soul with all the possibilities of Nature for manifestation, self-expression, self-experience, self-knowledge and all-knowledge. ‘…the key to life’s hidden secret is the true relation of this Spirit with its own created existences.’⁹⁵ The true joy of life can be experienced by the profound union of the Self and Nature. And Yoga is a practical psychology and the central common principle of all Vedantic schools of Yoga is defined as the self-fulfilment of the Purusha, the Lord of Yoga, through the movement of His Energy, Consciousness or Prakriti. The central common principle of all Tantric schools is the self-fulfilment of Prakriti by her Purusha. In integral Yoga a relation between Purusha and Prakriti exists whose static union will lead towards Rest, Purification, Freedom and Liberation of Soul and whose dynamic union will lead towards divine Action, new Creation, Delight and change of Nature. Static union will establish the Ishwara in the heart as hinted in the Gita, “The Lord is stationed in the heart of all creatures”⁵⁷ or “the Lord as Self, abides in the heart of all beings”⁵⁷ and dynamic union will establish Ishwari in the heart as hinted in Savitri, ‘A face, a form (of the Divine Mother) came down into her heart’⁵⁴ or as hinted in the Gita, ‘Para-prakriti has become the Jiva in the heart,’ paraprakritir Jivabhuta . When both experiences reconcile, then the heart becomes the dwelling place of the ‘incarnate dual Godhead’⁵⁵ and this experience will repeat in the other nine occult centres. So those who lead a surface objective life, for them this whole life can be a field of practice of Yoga and those who live an inward subjective life and are established in their consciousness in waking-trance and non-waking trance can extend the experience of whole life into all-life. 2) All Yoga is a compression of one’s Evolution by all possible ways of union with the Divine or all Yoga is a swift and concentrated conscious evolution of Being. Sarvayogah abhibyaktimastu or yogasakalam abhibyakteh sankochanam. To become aware of the truth of our being and becoming is the object of all Yoga. Or all the revelatory aspects of the Divine must be caught in the wide nets of integral Yoga. All Yoga is in its nature an attempt and an arriving at unity with the Supreme Being, Supreme Consciousness and Supreme Ananda. Evolution is defined as the progressive self-manifestation of Nature in man or ‘a progressive self-manifestation of the Spirit in a material universe.’¹⁰² The Nature affects her aim of collective slow growth through evolution in Ignorance and the individual experiences rapid revolutionary change through Yoga or spiritual Evolution in knowledge; the former arrives at the Divine through concentration on her own manifestation whereas the latter goes beyond Nature to the Lord of Nature and beyond universe to the Transcendence. Natural evolution in ignorance is an uncertain growth by the pressure of environment, partly by groping education and an ill-lit purposeful effort, partially illumined and half-automatic use of opportunities with many blunders, lapses and relapses, veiling a secret divine intervention and guidance. In Yoga, we replace this confused crooked crab-motion by a rapid, conscious, concentrated and self-directed evolution which can compress the growth of many lives into a single birth. 3) All Evolution is the heightening of force of Consciousness until it passes from a mental, vital and physical instrumentation into the essence and power of the Spirit. Or All Evolution is the awakener of higher states of Consciousness. Sarva-abhibyakti cetayanti sumatinam astu or Sarva abhibyanjanam sumatinam chetakamastu. All evolution must move in stages through combination of three ascending gradations that of the evolution in Inconscient, a bodily life which the unassisted Nature might take centuries and millenniums or many hundreds of lives to form the basis of our existence; the evolution in Ignorance, a mental life into which we emerge and enlarge it into greater completeness and the evolution in Knowledge, the greatest rapidity and concentration of movement of divine existence. The essence and true nature of Consciousness are that it is a power to be aware of itself and its object and this power must be direct, self-fulfilled and complete. The destiny of the evolving Consciousness is to become aware of the Self and aware of all existence, which is the body of the greater Self. The practice of movement of Consciousness leads one to the discovery of inner Psychic and higher Spiritual possibility and elevates one to all-retaining Consciousness where past births and future births are contained, present and effective. Integral Yoga aspires for that central change of Consciousness which rests in the One and acts in the All. It is a growing direct Spiritual experience, vision, feeling of the Supreme and the cosmic existence, the Divine in itself and the Divine in all things. 4) All Consciousness¹⁰¹ is one, but in action, it involves in manifold concentrated Effort and spontaneous movement of Shakti to realise every possible line of Spiritual experience. Sarvachetana bahubidha abhyasam astu or chetana sakalam prakruteh bahubidha chesta . All Consciousness is the combination of Exclusive Consciousness, the action of surface mind and intellect, Essential Consciousness, the action in the subtle world, the Multiple Consciousness, the universal action and Supramental Consciousness, links highest with the lowest world and achieves indivisible whole. Personal effort is defined as the attempt of the egoistic mind to identify itself in a wrong and imperfect way with the workings of the divine Force. Ego turns into desire, wish and craving of the intellectual, emotional and volitional mind. As we gain clarity through purification, the turmoil of egoistic effort becomes calm self-knowledge and leads us to the source of growing light. 5) All Effort is the synthesis of all the wide and supple Methods, Sarvah abhyasah (avhyasa sakalam) vidhi-purbakam astu, pursued by the (1) comprehensive Spirituality of ancient Vedantic Seers who work out the relationship between Purusha-Prakriti, Ishwara-Shakti and Brahman-Maya by equal regard and reverence towards earth the Mother and heaven the Father, God and Man, Matter and Spirit, Ishwara and Ishwari, (2) exclusive Spirituality of later Vedantic ascetics, the exclusive worshipper of the Being, the Brahman, the Ishwara and (3) the synthetic Spirituality of Tantrics, the exclusive worshipper of the Energy, the Consciousness, the Mother, the Ishwari. The goal of all effort and all sacrifice is the full recognition of the inner Guide and the Master of the Yoga. 6) All the methods are the synthesis of (central truth of all) self-discipline, Sarva vidhi anusashanam astu or vidhi sakalam anusashana samnwitam bhabet. All Methods are the invention of evolutionary Nature through the synthesis of Indispensable ancient Vedantic/Vedic and Dispensable later Vedantic self-discipline of integral Yoga. Or all methods, grouped under the common name of Yoga, are special, indispensable Psycho-spiritual and dispensable Psycho-physical processes founded on the fixed truth of Nature. Indispensable methods are necessary to build the Spiritual foundation, and dispensable methods are necessary for Spiritual integration. The method of integral Yoga is a direct commerce between the human Purusha, the Psychic being, the Kshara in the individual body and the Divine Purusha , the Spiritual being, the Akshara who dwells in every body and yet transcends all form and name and the Supramental being, the Purushottama , the source of all being and existence through the triple Path of Works, of Love and of Knowledge. The method of integral Yoga is to put our whole conscious being into relation and contact with the Divine and direct Him to transform the entire lower nature into His Divine Nature. The Sadhaka will take as much care and thoroughness from the most insignificant action to the greatest action as a means of self-offering and lifts all into the Light and transforms all. For him, in the Yoga there is nothing too small to be used and nothing too great to be attempted. Due to the entire consecration, all the sadhana is done for him from above by an impersonal Force, so he has no business with ego and pride and he will live like a slave and disciple of the Master with full of gratitude for the Divine Master. 7) The practice of all self-discipline leads to continuous union with the Self, Sarvam anusashanam yunjita satatam atmana . Or all self-disciplines labour in their different ways to realise the one supreme experience. Integral Yoga is neither exclusive worship of the Shaktis, the Energy, the Consciousness, the Chit nor the exclusive worship of the Purusha, the Ishwara, the Being, the Sat, but to find a passive and an active relation between Them, the Purusha and Prakriti relation in ignorance, Avidya, Ishwara and Shakti relation in Spiritual plane, Vidya , and Brahman and Maya relation in Supramental plane, Vijnana resulting in Ananda. When the Prakriti, the Ishwari, the Maya, the Chit are self-absorbed in the conscious existence of the Purusha, the Ishwara, the Brahman, the Sat respectively, there is rest, the Nirvana, the realisation of Oneness. When the Purusha, the Ishwara, the Brahman, the Sat pour themselves out in the action of the Prakriti, the Ishwari, the Maya, the Chit respectively, then there is action, creation and Ananda in Ignorance, exclusive Knowledge, comprehensive Knowledge and supreme Knowledge respectively. 8) All Dispensable self-disciplines are termed as Psycho-physical methods, which means to pursue inner development with the help of outer aid, support, Sarva aniyatam anusashanam bahya abalmbana ashritam. Or all dispensable self-discipline is defined as the finding of the Self by confronting, seizing, conquering the difficulties of nature or agitating and exciting all Nature. It ensures that lower formulations can also be used for the highest Spiritual and Supramental perfection. These lower formulations are having following six disadvantages; firstly dependency on any physical, external and mechanical means can confine life within the limitation of exclusive concentration and subjection to Prakriti ; secondly, it may awake the Kundalini Shakti, which asks the attention of physical Guru and the necessity of pure and strong vessel; thirdly these exercises are separative movements which take place not in the true Self, not in the silence, but in the active Prakriti; fourthly these actions are continued in active mind, directly opposes the passive silence which is the condition of full disclosure of Spiritual and Supramental action; fifthly the exclusive quest of psycho-physical methods are born or invented out of the impatience of the later Vedantic saints and ascetics to possess the Divine exclusively and too much indulgence in it can create a gulf between the Creator and His Creation resulting in impatience and lastly, the aims of integral Yoga can be arrived at by these methods but there are other means, preferably higher Spiritual formulations, which are more subtle, essential, powerful and pliable. 9) All Indispensable self-disciplines are termed as Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental methods which mean to pursue inner development with the assistance of inner aid and without the support of any outer aid; where the higher formulations are used for transformation of lower faculties, Sarva niyatam anusashanam bahya abalmbana rahitam. Or all Indispensable self-discipline is defined as the finding of the Self by silencing or drawing back from the difficulties of all Nature. It ensures largest possible development in the shortest possible path. A Spiritual man needs nothing external for completeness of his existence and he lives one with all existence. Integral Yoga will use fully active or positive methods subordinated by passive or negative methods consistent with the totality of the aim of perfected universalised individual Power, Knowledge and Ananda ; it will combine passive method of equal endurance with active method of spontaneous possession of universal energy of oneness and ananda, passive method of impartial indifference with active method of high-seated impartial acceptance of life strong to transform all experience into greater values of equal spirit, passive method of calm resignation and submission with the active method of full surrender of its personal being to the Divine, passive purity of entire god content with complete silence of vibrant mental and soul concentration, passive state of profound absorbing quietude of impersonal peace with active purity of perfect joy of being and bliss of Divine action. It will combine the positive self-discipline of purity and concentration, which is identified as the right arm of integral Yoga with the negative practice of renunciation, which is identified as its left arm.⁵³ 10) All Dispensable self-disciplines are used to subordinate all indispensable self-disciplines, and their indispensability is felt after the Spiritual foundation is established on a secure basis.¹⁷ Sarva niyatam anusasanam adhinasta sarva aniyatam anusasanam. All mind or all Nature has the capacity to possess the All Divine partially, whereas the All Divine has the capacity to possess the all mind or all Nature entirely; so the latter must be pursued by pacifying the lower mind and the former must subordinate it by activating the all mind or turning the lower mind Godward. All mind consists of lower ranges of consciousness that of physical mind, vital mind, sensory mind, emotional mind and intellectual mind and higher ranges of Consciousness that of higher mind, illumined mind, intuitive mind and Overmind. 11) In evolutionary consciousness, lower instruments temporarily perform functions that are fulfilled more perfectly by higher spiritual faculties. Nature first employs provisional instruments and later replaces them with more direct and luminous powers. In integral Yoga the practice of ‘psycho-physical processes on a large scale’¹⁸ is the direct substitution of spiritual methods; ‘psycho-physical power of vision’¹⁹ is the substitute of ‘the spiritual sight, the pure sense, the Supramental samjnana ;’¹⁹ Spiritual vision is ‘something much more near, profound and comprehensive than mental vision;’⁵² ‘memory is a poverty-stricken substitute for an integral direct abiding consciousness of self;’²⁰ ego is only an outward false substitute²¹ of Psychic entity; ‘false soul of desire’⁶¹ is the substitute of true Psychic Being; individual ego is the ‘subjective substitute’²² of true self; communal ego is the substitute of ‘collective soul;’²³ ‘this voice of the soul is not what we call conscience — for that is only a mental and often conventional erring substitute;’⁶⁰ reason is a substitute of intuitive mind²⁴ or ‘a delegate or substitute of the Supermind;’²⁵ mental knowledge is the ‘substitute for the more real and integral knowledge;’²⁶ pseudo-intuition, which frequently visit man’s mind is the ‘adulterated article or false substitute’²⁷ of intellect; sense mind is the ‘dumb substitute for thought;’²⁸ sense organs are the substitute of ‘psychical hearing, touch, smell, taste’²⁹ which is again the substitute of ‘Supramental sense;’³⁰ all mind constructed laws and standards like law of truth, law of justice, law of love are the substitute of the liberty in the spirit or the law of the self;³¹ mental and vital association are the substitute of Psychic and Spiritual oneness; egoistic life is the substitute of Divine Life;³² mankind or community or state is the substitute of God;³³ mental law of good is substitute of spiritual change;³⁴ mental control is the substitute of ‘control of the spiritual Reality;’³⁵ falsehood is a ‘lurid substitute’³⁶ of truth; ‘the appreciations of our human mind and desire-soul’³⁷ is a substitute for the divine values; titiksa , the facing, enduring and conquest of all shocks of existence is the substitute for elimination of suffering;³⁸ equality is the substitute of Sachchidananda consciousness³⁸ which is All-Bliss; ‘there must be an ascent which substitutes the principle of knowledge;’³⁹ the soul of Matter, annamaya purusha , is the substitute of the conscious foundation of being;⁴⁰ intellectual logo ‘is only a partial representative and substitute for the greater supramental Logos;’⁴¹ the action of lower Prakriti is the dynamically substituted by ‘the action of the supreme and universal divine Shakti under the control of Ishwara ;’⁴² the egoistic state always subject to the ignorant and troubled action of the desire soul is substituted by ‘large and luminous static equality which quiets the reason, the emotional mind, the life mind and the physical nature;’⁴² prayer is the substitute of ‘the faith, the will, the aspiration;’⁴³ faith is the substitute of ‘knowledge and perfect experience;’⁴⁴ written truth or Shastra is the substitute of ‘eternal Veda secret in the heart of every thinking and living being;’⁴⁵ personal effort is the substitute of divine Will;⁴⁶ concentration is the substitute of ‘active oneness;’⁴⁷ psychological observation is the substitute of ‘Supramental cognition;’⁴⁷ passive silence is the substitute of ‘Supramental gnosis;’48 Modern Science is a ‘substitute for eternal mysteries;’⁷¹ Soul is the subordinate term of Divine Bliss; mind is taught to be the obedient subordinate of Supermind⁴⁹ and Ignorance and Mind are defined as grandmother and ‘barren mother’⁵⁰ respectively of their unreal child, this false world of mental Maya.⁹⁶ Supramental Maya , the power of Brahman and Shakti are grandmother and virgin mother of their real child, the true world which waits for its self-fulfilment. For a Sadhaka, until the higher Psychic and Spiritual faculties have evolved, he can rely on these substitutes as an aid to sadhana and wait patiently for the emergence of higher instrumentation. 12) Those who practice this Yoga must have an integral mental conception of the Divine from the very beginning of their Sadhana life that of (1) the Divine is in all things; (2) all things are within the Divine and (3) all things are made up of the stuff of the Divine and they must be wholly aware of the entire object of integral Yoga and opposition of all other Spiritual disciplines towards its practicality and final outcome. Any partial knowledge can fragment the Divine, the Law of Integral Yoga, the human collectivity, and His creation. And lastly, they must strive to attain fullness of Life and Being by perfecting the movement of ascending and descending Consciousness. One can arrive at the fullness of Consciousness only by intensifying and integrating the double movement of Consciousness. The vision of a Spiritually strong India rests on a few individuals who can attain the largest development, the widest and deepest movement of Consciousness in the shortest possible time. First, there will be the emergence of a few Spiritual men who will be able to reconcile Spirit and Matter partly, then there will be the emergence of Gnostic and Bliss Souls to make this reconciliation entire. And it is through acceptance and consecration of physical work of all types, sarvakarmani, ⁵⁶ not by rejecting action as defective, dosam, the highest Spirit must enter contact with the nether imperfect Matter and bring the possibility of Divine Life. That is the promise of the infallible Supramental action on earth through which Matter will reveal the Spirit’s image. Recapitulation: The First Formula: All Life is Yoga. (Maha Mantra ) The Second Formula: All Yoga is a compression of one’s Evolution by all possible ways of union with the Divine. The Third Formula: All Evolution is the awakener of higher states of Consciousness. The Fourth formula: All Consciousness is one, but in action, it involves many-fold concentrated Effort and spontaneous movement of Shakti to realize every possible line of Spiritual experience. The Fifth Formula: All Effort is the synthesis of all the wide and supple Methods followed by (1) comprehensive Spirituality of ancient Vedantists , (2) exclusive Spirituality of later Vedantic a scetics, and (3) Synthetic Spirituality of Tantrics. The Sixth Formula: All the methods are the synthesis of the central Truth of all self-disciplines, followed by the traditional schools of Yoga. The Seventh Formula: The practice of all self-discipline leads to continuous union with the Self. The Eighth Formula : All Dispensable self-disciplines are termed Psycho-physical methods, which means pursuing inner development with the help of outer aid and support. The Ninth Formula: All Indispensable self-disciplines are termed as Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental methods, which means to pursue inner development without the support of any outer aid or "Transcended was the human formula;". (Savitri-319) The Tenth Formula: A ll Dispensable self-disciplines are used to subordinate all Indispensable self-disciplines, and its indispensability is felt after the Spiritual foundation is established on a secure basis. The Eleventh Formula: Nature first employs provisional instruments and later replaces them with more direct and luminous powers. The Twelfth Formula : Remembrance of Integral Divine from the very beginning of Sadhana life. OM TAT SAT References: - 1: The Mother’s Agenda-9/107, 2: The Mother’s Agenda-3/274-275, 3: The Mother’s Agenda-8/172-175, 4: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/4, 5: SABCL-23/Letters on Yoga/584, 6: SABCL-23/Letters on Yoga/584, 7: CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II-p-99, 8: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/250, 9: The Gita-6.23, 10: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/700, 11: The Gita-18-66, 12: Savitri-200, 13: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/72 14: The Gita-17.3, 15: “In her deep and great love for her children she has consented to put on herself the cloak of this obscurity, condescended to bear the attacks and torturing influences of the powers of the Darkness and the Falsehood, borne to pass through the portals of the birth that is a death, taken upon herself the pangs and sorrows and sufferings of the creation, since it seemed that thus alone could it be lifted to the Light and Joy and Truth and eternal Life. This is the great sacrifice called sometimes the sacrifice of the Purusha, but much more deeply the holocaust of Prakriti, the sacrifice of the Divine Mother.” The Mother-37, 16: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-4, “In that case, the unconquerable impulse of man towards God, Light, Bliss, Freedom, Immortality presents itself in its right place in the chain as simply the imperative impulse by which Nature is seeking to evolve beyond Mind, and appears to be as natural, true and just as the impulse towards Life which she has planted in certain forms of Matter or the impulse towards Mind which she has planted in certain forms of Life.” CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-5,6, 17: “In other words we must arrive at and use a psycho-physical knowledge with a spiritual foundation.” CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga-624, “The asanas are one means for control of the body, as is Pranayam for the life-forces, but neither is indispensable.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-439, 18: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/542, 19: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/869, 20: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/525, 21: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/542, 22: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/646, 23: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/1093, 24: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/315, 25: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/828, 26: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/827, 27: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/982, 28: Savitri-137, 29: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/875, 30: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/862-864, 31: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/1038, 32: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/59, 33: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/1102, 34: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/653, 35: CWSA-22/The Life Divine-1038, 36: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/153, 37: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/224, 38: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/117-118, 39: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/731, 40: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/821-22, 41: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/796, 42: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/784, 43: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/567-68, 44: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/37, 45: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/53, 46: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/59, 47: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/858, 48: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/861, 49: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/232, 50: CWSA-21/The Life Divine-512, 51: CWSA-22/The Life Divine-1038, 52: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/833-34, 53: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-326, 54: Savitri-528, 55: “The incarnate dual Power shall open God’s door, Eternal Supermind touch earthly Time.” Savitri-705, “When in your heart and thought you will make no difference between Sri Aurobindo and me, when to think of Sri Aurobindo will be to think of me and to think of me will mean to think of Sri Aurobindo inevitably, when to see one will mean inevitably to see the other, like one and the same Person, — then you will know that you begin to be open to the supramental force and consciousness.” The Mother/The Mother’s Centenary Works/13/32/4 March 1958 56: The Gita-3.30, 57: “The Lord is stationed in the heart of all existences, O Arjuna, and turns them all round and round, mounted on a machine by his Maya.” The Gita-18.61, “I, O Gudakesha, as the Self, which abides in the heart of all beings. I am the beginning, the middle and the end of all beings.” The Gita-10.21, 58: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-8, “All life , we have said, is a Yoga of Nature; here in this material world life is her reaching out from her first inconscience towards a return to union with the conscient Divine from whom she proceeded.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-559, “The characteristics of Life are (1) action and movement, a reaching out to absorb and assimilate what is external to the individual and (2) a principle of satisfaction or dissatisfaction in what it seizes upon or what comes to it, which is associated with the (3) all-pervading phenomenon of attraction and repulsion. These three things are everywhere in Nature because Life is everywhere in Nature.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-350, “The proper function of the life-energy is to do what it is bidden by the divine principle in us, to reach to and enjoy what is given to it by that indwelling Divine and not to desire at all.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-351, 59: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-85, 60: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-154, 61: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-175, 62: CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga-186, 63: “Pursuing all knowledge like a questing hound.” Savitri-39, 64:“How has he (Satyavan) through the thickets of the world Pursued me (Para-prakriti Savitri) like a lion in the night” Savitri-614, 65: The Gita-7.5, 66: “The Yoga of self-perfection is to make this double movement as absolute as possible… This complete detachment, impossible without an entire self-government, equality, calm, sama, samata, santi , is the surest step towards the purification of the buddhi. A calm, equal and detached mind can alone reflect the peace or base the action of the liberated spirit.” CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-669, 67: “But whatever his aim, however exalted his aspiration, he has to begin from the law of his present imperfection, to take full account of it and see how it can be converted to the law of a possible perfection.” CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga-631, “This is in fact what the mass of men do; (1) a small minority trample down the life instinct and strain after an ascetic perfection; (2) most obey the gross will to live with such modifications and restraints as society imposes or the normal social man has been trained to impose on his own mind and actions (moderate perfection); (3) others set up a balance between ethical austerity and temperate indulgence of the desiring mental and vital self and see in this balance the golden mean of a sane mind and healthy human living. (4) But none of these ways gives the perfection which we are seeking, the divine government of the will in life.” CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga-658-59, “It is only by increasing that (self) control that he can move towards perfection, — and it is only by developing soul-power that he can reach it. Nature-power in him has to become more and more completely a conscious act of soul, a conscious expression of all the will and knowledge of spirit. Prakriti has to reveal itself as shakti of the Purusha.” CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga-631, “But while the possession of the being, consciousness, delight, power of the Self is the condition of perfection, —for it is only by knowing and possessing and living in the truth of itself that the soul can become free and perfect, — we hold that Nature is an eternal action and manifestation of the Spirit; Nature is not a devil’s trap, a set of misleading appearances created by desire, sense, life and mental will and intelligence, but these phenomena are hints and indications and behind all of them is a truth of Spirit which exceeds and uses them.” CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga-666-67, “We find that it progresses towards a greater completeness in proportion as we arrive at two kinds of perfection; first, a greater and greater detachment from the control of the lower suggestions; secondly, an increasing discovery of a self-existent Being, Light, Power and Ananda which surpasses and transforms the normal humanity… The Yoga of self-perfection is to make this double movement as absolute as possible.” CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga-668-69, 68: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-530, 69: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-95, 70: “She surrendered to the service of the soul” Savitri-87, 71: Savitri-286, 72: The Mother’s Agenda-August-7, 1965 (Addendum), 73: The Mother’s Centenary Works/13/353/February 1954, 74: The Mother’s Agenda/July21, 1962/Addendum, 75: “Even in India…And I am beginning to believe....That's what I observe when I am put in contact with the outside world, Europe…... But anyway, the Old World is an OLD world in the true sense of the word. India is much, much older, but more alive. Yet now it strikes me as so very rotten! They went rotten. You know what happens when a rotten apple is put next to a good one: England came and stayed much too long. It made things go quite rotten. Very, very rotten; it's difficult to heal. Otherwise, what's not rotten is truly good.” The Mother’s Agenda/July14, 1962, “And here, there's TOTAL corruption – total, to such a point that I'll give you an example. The government meddles in everything, you can't move a finger without its permission: you can't leave the country, you can't enter the country, you can't send money out, you can't open a shop, you can't ... nothing, nothing, nothing, not even plow your field without its permission. They meddle in everything, which in itself is pretty stupid. And then they make regulations – the more regulations you make, the more disobedience it creates, naturally… People no longer grow crops because it's too complicated and with all those taxes (they've scores of taxes to pay), it costs them much more than they can earn. And as there isn't enough food, there are naturally individuals who try and hoard as much as they can to sell it for as high a price as possible.” The Mother’s Agenda-August 14, 1964, “They're mad. No, the English made them thoroughly rotten. Those two hundred years of British rule left them completely rotten. Naturally, another effect is that some people have awakened, but they don't know anything; they know nothing either of administration or of government or anything – they've lost everything, and whatever they know is what they were taught by Britain, which means an absolutely corrupt business. So they don't know anything, they don't even know how to make a decision.” The Mother’s Agenda-August 12, 1967, “And the government is rotten. People whose very tactics and principle of action are falsehood: to deceive and deceive and deceive. And naturally, to deceive themselves.” The Mother’s Agenda-October 19, 1967 76: “Islam was a return towards sensation, beauty, harmony in the form, and the legitimization of sensations and joy in beauty. From a higher viewpoint, it wasn't quite of a superior quality, but from a vital viewpoint, it was extremely powerful, and that's what gave them so much power to spread, to appropriate, seize, dominate. But what they did is very beautiful – all their art is magnificent, magnificent! It was a flowering of beauty Then there were others – it all comes one after another. And every religion came as a stage in the development and the relationship with the Divine, to lead the consciousness towards a oneness which is a totality and not a removal from a whole reality so as to obtain another. The need for totality, completeness, is what caused those religions to come like that, one after another.” The Mother’s Agenda- August 12, 1967, “To adopt a religion because one is born in that religion or because the people one loves and trusts practise that religion or because when one goes to a particular place where others pray and worship, one feels helped in one’s own prayer and worship, is not the sign of a very strong nature; I should say it is rather the sign of a weakness or at any rate of a lack of originality.” The Mother/The Mother’s Centenary Works (second edition)/8/246, 77: “I had this experience very, very strongly. When I left here [Pondicherry in 1915], as I got farther away, I felt as if emptied of something, and once in the Mediterranean, I wasn't able to bear it any longer: I fell ill. And even in Japan, which outwardly is a marvelous country – marvelously beautiful and harmonious (it WAS, I don't know what it is nowadays), and outwardly it was a joy every minute, a breathtaking joy, so strong was the expression of beauty – yet I felt empty, empty, empty, I absolutely lacked ... (Mother opens her mouth as though suffocating) ... I lacked the important Thing. And I found it again only when I came back here (Pondicherry).” The Mother’s Agenda-6/265, 78: The Mother’s Agenda/7/265, 79: The Mother’s Agenda/10/148, 80: Savitri-401, 81: Savitri-424, 82: Savitri-262 83: “But only if India is ONE can she fulfill this role (of becoming the Guru of the World), for how can one who is herself divided lead others? Thus the division of India is the first Falsehood that must disappear, for it is the symbol of the earth’s division. As long as India is not one, the world cannot be one. India’s striving for unity is the symbolic drama of the world’s striving for unity.” Satprem/The Mother’s Agenda/May-15, 1971 Addendum, 84: “I (The Mother) tell those who govern (the country): “You leave free hands to the bandits and take insulting measures against the honest people. It will be like that so long as the country is not governed by the wisest people. The wisest people are those who can freely and correctly read the hearts and the minds of men.” It was in the form of a conversation. I (the Mother) tell those who govern (the country): "You leave free hands to the bandits and take insulting measures against the honest people.” So the reply (from the Government of India): "But how can we tell the bandits from the honest people until we see them at work?” I (The Mother) said: “Yes, it will always be like that, you will always commit the same sort of blunder ... until the country is governed by the wisest people." (The Government of India asked): "Ah, but how can one know if they are the wisest people?” (The Mother replied): “The wisest people are those who can freely and correctly read the hearts and the minds of men.”” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda/23rd June 1965 85: “But no one has yet dared to say: money is a force and belongs to nobody, but it must be used by the most disinterested and clear sighted person (or persons) in the country.” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda/January 31, 1970, “Money is not meant to generate money; money should generate an increase in production, an improvement in the conditions of life and a progress in human consciousness. This is its true use. What I call an improvement in consciousness, a progress in consciousness, is everything that education in all its forms can provide – not as it’s generally understood, but as we understand it here: education in art, education in ... from the education of the body, from the most material progress, to the spiritual education and progress through yoga; the whole spectrum, everything that leads humanity towards its future realization. Money should serve to augment that and to augment the material base for the earth’s progress, the best use of what the earth can give – its intelligent utilization, not the utilization that wastes and loses energies. The use that allows energies to be replenished.” The Mother’s Agenda-04.10.1958, “For in this ideal place, money would no longer be the sovereign lord; individual worth would have a far greater importance than that of material wealth and social position. There, work would not be for earning one's living, but the means to express oneself and develop one's capacities and possibilities, while at the same time being of service to the group as a whole, which would in turn provide for everyone's subsistence and field of action. In short, it would be a place where human relationships, ordinarily based almost exclusively on competition and strife, would be replaced by relationships of emulation in trying to do one's best, of collaboration and real brotherhood.” The Mother’s Agenda-18.01.1964 86: “And in any society we should have all four types (Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Shudra), — even, for an example, if we create a purely productive and commercial society such as modern times have attempted, or for that matter a Shudra society of labour, of the proletariate such as attracts the most modern mind and is now being attempted in one part of Europe and advocated in others.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita-523, “In street and house, in councils and in courts Beings he (King Aswapati) met who looked like living men And climbed in speech upon high wings of thought But harboured all that is subhuman, vile And lower than the lowest reptile’s crawl.” Savitri-215 “I (Mother of Might) break the ignorant pride of human mind And lead the thought to the wideness of the Truth; I rend man’s narrow and successful life And force his sorrowful eyes to gaze at the sun That he may die to earth and live in his soul.” Savitri-510, “The ascent to the divine Life is the human journey, the Work of works, the acceptable Sacrifice. This alone is man’s real business in the world and the justification of his existence, without which he would be only an insect crawling among other ephemeral insects on a speck of surface mud and water which has managed to form itself amid the appalling immensities of the physical universe.” CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-48, 87: “(The Divine is) the perfect Personality capable of all relations even to the most human, concrete and intimate; for he is friend, comrade, lover, playmate, guide, teacher, master, ministrant of knowledge or ministrant of joy, yet in all relations unbound, free and absolute. This too the divinised man becomes in the measure of his attainment...” CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita-141, 88: “August 15, 1947 is the birthday of free India… the old communal division into Hindus and Muslims seems now to have hardened into a permanent political division of the country. It is to be hoped that this settled fact will not be accepted as settled for ever or as anything more than a temporary expedient. For if it lasts, India may be seriously weakened, even crippled: civil strife may remain always possible, possible even a new invasion and foreign conquest. India’s internal development and prosperity may be impeded, her position among the nations weakened, her destiny impaired or even frustrated. This must not be; the partition must go… But by whatever means, in whatever way, the division must go; unity must and will be achieved, for it is necessary for the greatness of India’s future…” Sri Aurobindo/SABCL-26/On Himself/404, “I had the vision that India is the place where the fate of the earth will be decided.” The Mother/ The Mother’s Agenda/10/145-19.04.1969, 89: “Our earth is a fragment and a residue; Her power is packed with the stuff of greater worlds” Savitri-99, “A bliss is felt that never can wholly cease, A sudden mystery of secret Grace Flowers goldening our earth of red desire.” Savitri-278, “Arisen beneath a triple mystic heaven The seven immortal earths were seen, sublime:” Savitri-672, “In the collective gnostic life the integrating truth-sense, the concording unity of gnostic nature would carry all divergences in itself as its own opulence and turn a multitudinous thought, action, feeling into the unity of a luminous life-whole. This would be the evident principle, the inevitable result of the very character of the Truth-Consciousness and its dynamic realisation of the spiritual unity of all being.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine-1047, “The one rule of the gnostic life would be the self-expression of the Spirit, the will of the Divine Being; that will, that self-expression could manifest through extreme simplicity or through extreme complexity and opulence or in their natural balance, — for beauty and plenitude, a hidden sweetness and laughter in things, a sunshine and gladness of life are also powers and expressions of the Spirit. In all directions the Spirit within determining the law of the nature would determine the frame of the life and its detail and circumstance.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine-1104 90: “Heaven’s joys might have been earth’s if earth were pure.” Savitri-123, “The virgin forms through which the Formless shines,” Savitri-327, 91: “With Indians, it's very easy – they're heaven-blessed, these people, because it takes very little for them to be oriented in the right way. But there are two types of difficult religion, the Christian religion (especially in the form of Protestantism), and the Jewish religion.” The Mother’s Agenda- January 25, 1964, 92: “A dual Power at being’s occult poles Still acted, nameless and invisible: Her divine emptiness was their instrument.” Savitri-553 “He (Divine) dwells in me (Savitri), the mover of my acts, Turning the great wheel of his cosmic work. I am the living body of his light, I am the thinking instrument of his power, I incarnate Wisdom in an earthly breast, I am his conquering and unslayable will. The formless Spirit drew in me its shape; In me are the Nameless and the secret Name.” Savitri-634, “One man who earnestly pursues the Yoga is of more value than a thousand well-known men.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-35/Letters on Himself And The Ashram-691, 93: “The psychic and the spiritual opening with their experiences and consequences can lead away from life or to a Nirvana; but they are here being considered solely as steps in a transformation of the nature.” The Life Divine-943, 94: “Our sacrifice is not a giving without any return or any fruitful acceptance from the other side; it is an interchange between the embodied soul and conscious Nature in us and the eternal Spirit. For even though no return is demanded, yet there is the knowledge deep within us that a marvellous return is inevitable. The soul knows that it does not give itself to God in vain; claiming nothing, it yet receives the infinite riches of the divine Power and Presence.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-109, “If mankind only caught a glimpse of what infinite enjoyments, what perfect forces, what luminous reaches of spontaneous knowledge, what wide calms of our being lie waiting for us in the tracts which our animal evolution has not yet conquered, they would leave all and never rest till they had gained these treasures. But the way is narrow, the doors are hard to force, and fear, distrust and scepticism are there, sentinels of Nature, to forbid the turning away of our feet from her ordinary pastures.” Sri Aurobindo/TMCW-10/On Thoughts and Aphorisms/p-10-11 “Amid the welcome-hum of many bees Invade our honied kingdom of the woods; There let me lead thee into an opulent life.” Savitri-402, 95: CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga-115, 96: “The lower, present and deluding mental Maya has first to be embraced, then to be overcome; for it (Maya) is God’s play with division and darkness and limitation, desire and strife and suffering in which He subjects Himself to the Force that has come out of Himself and by her obscure suffers Himself to be obscured... Its literal meaning is cunning, fraud or illusion… an undivine Maya, that which creates false mental forms and appearances, -- and hence the later significance of this word which seems to have meant originally a formative power of knowledge, the true magic of the supreme Mage, the divine Magician, but was also for adverse formative power of a lower knowledge, the deceit, illusion and deluding magic of the Rakshasa.” The Life Divine-126, 109, 507, 97: CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV-676, 98: Kena Upanishada-1.4, CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-72, CWSA-21/The Life Divine-403, 99: CWSA-13/Essays in Philosophy and Yoga-10-11, 100: “As for spiritual knowledge, it consists of two elements, experience and a direct knowledge which is not mental but is of the nature of a light showing the deeper truth of things, a direct vision and perception of the Truth…The ordinary consciousness is not capable of receiving it as knowledge except in a fragmentary way because it belongs to a deeper consciousness within or a higher consciousness above the mind. The ordinary consciousness has therefore to open to the deeper and the higher consciousness. It has to receive the knowledge from within and above. It cannot do this if it does not open. There must, therefore, first necessarily be an opening, however small, before any direct knowledge can come. As the knowledge comes the opening also can widen and so admit a greater and greater direct knowledge and experience. In some, however, the opening comes first very wide and then the knowledge comes afterwards in a great stream, some light of the Truth and many experiences…If one has merely a mental idea about the Divine, that is not knowledge. It is with the experiences and the inner light of knowledge that the realisation of the Divine begins. As for example, one may have the mental idea of the Divine Peace but that is nothing, only a mental conception. It is only when one has the feeling of the Divine Peace descending from above or in oneself or surrounding one that one begins to know what it is. That is what is called experience. Afterwards one begins to have a direct vision in knowledge of what the Peace is and what is its place in regard to the Divine Realisation; that is direct knowledge.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-198-199, 101: ‘not merely a state withdrawn from the all consciousness of the outward, withdrawn even from all consciousness of the inward’ CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-321, “Mind, being an action of the Infinite, depieces as well as aggregates ad infinitum. It cuts up being into wholes, into ever smaller wholes, into atoms and those atoms into primal atoms, until it would, if it could, dissolve the primal atom into nothingness. But it cannot, because behind this dividing action is the saving knowledge of the supramental which knows every whole, every atom to be only a concentration of all-force, of all-consciousness, of all-being into phenomenal forms of itself. The dissolution of the aggregate into an infinite nothingness at which Mind seems to arrive, is to the Supermind only the return of the self-concentrating conscious-being out of its phenomenon into its infinite existence.” CWSA-21/The Life Divine-178, 102: CWSA-22/The Life Divine-734, 103: “I am beginning to understand why Sri Aurobindo always said it was woman (Mother caresses Sujata’s cheek with her finger) that could build a bridge between the two. I am beginning to understand. One day, I’ll explain. I am beginning to understand. Sri Aurobindo used to say: it is woman that can build a bridge between the old world and the supramental world. Now I understand.” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda-26.04.1972, 104: TMCW-13/Words of the Mother-I/82-83, 105: “All Yoga is in its nature an attempt and an arriving at unity with the Supreme, --unity with the being of the Supreme, unity with the consciousness of the Supreme, unity with the bliss of the Supreme,-- or, if we repudiate the idea of absolute unity, at least at some kind of union, even if it be only for the soul to live in one status and periphery of being with the Divine, salokya, or in a sort of indivisible proximity, samipya. This can only be gained by rising to a higher level and intensity of consciousness than our ordinary mentality possesses.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-528, “All Yoga proceeds in its method by three principles of practice; first, purification, that is to say, the removal of all aberrations, disorders, obstructions brought about by the mixed and irregular action of the energy of being in our physical, moral and mental system; secondly, concentration, that is to say, the bringing to its full intensity and the mastered and self-directed employment of that energy of being in us for a definite end; thirdly, liberation, that is to say, the release of our being from the narrow and painful knots of the individualized energy in a false and limited play, which at present are the law of our nature.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-530, “All Yoga is a turning of the human mind and human soul, not yet divine in realization, but feeling the divine impulse and attraction in it, towards that by which it finds its greater being.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-571 DOWNLOAD THIS WEBPAGE IN PDF FORMAT: “For those who are eager to get rid of falsehood, here is a way: Do not try to please yourself, do not try either to please others. Try only to please the Lord…Because He alone is the Truth. Each and every one of us, human beings in our physical body, is a coat of falsehood put on the Lord and hiding Him…As He alone is true to Himself, it is on Him that we must concentrate and not on the coats of falsehood.” The Mother TMCW/15/Words of the Mother-III/80, TMCW/14/Words of the Mother-II/196 "I have tried many things, a great many, I have looked a great deal, and I see only one that’s absolute – only one that’s absolute and can bring the absolute result, it’s this (gesture turned Upward): the complete annulment of all that, leaving it all, "To You, Lord – You, You, to You." And it isn’t a being with a form, that’s not it; it isn’t a formless force, it’s ... It has nothing to do with thought, only with this: the contact. And the contact, an unmistakable contact, which nothing can imitate – nothing, nothing at all has the power to imitate it. And for every difficulty, every time, whatever it is, simply this: " Everything to You, Lord. Everything for You, to You. You alone can do it, You, You alone, You alone. You alone are the Truth; You alone are the Power. " And those words are nothing, they are only the very clumsy expression of something ... a stupendous Power. It’s only the incapacity, the clumsiness, the lack of faith we mix into it that takes away His power. The minute we are truly pure, that is, under His influence alone, there are no limits, no limits – nothing, nothing, there is nothing, no law of Nature that can resist, nothing, nothing. Only, the whole thing is that the time must have come, there must be only That left – all the rest spoils, whatever it is, even the highest, purest, noblest, most beautiful and marvelous things: all that spoils. Only That." The Mother The Mother's Agenda/ March 26, 1966

"The All-Blissful sat unknown within the heart;" Savitri-43 “A sealed identity within her woke; She knew herself the Beloved of the Supreme:” Savitri-525 Integral Psychic Education "These things, love, compassion, kindness, bhakti, Ananda are the nature of the psychic being, because the psychic being is formed from the Divine Consciousness, it is the divine part within you. But the lower parts are not yet accustomed to obey or value the influence and control of the psychic for in men the vital and physical are accustomed to act for themselves and do not care for what the soul wants. When they do care and obey the psychic, that is their conversion — they begin to put on themselves the psychic or divine nature." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-122 "For the integral Yoga this method of Samadhi may seem to have the disadvantage that when it ceases, the thread is broken and the soul returns into the distraction and imperfection of the outward life, (return to three gunas ) with only such an elevating effect upon that outer life as the general memory of these deeper experiences may produce. But this gulf, this break is not inevitable. In the first place, it is only in the untrained psychic being that the experiences of the trance are a blank to the waking mind; as it becomes the master of its Samadhi, it is able to pass without any gulf of oblivion from the inner to the outer waking. Secondly, when this has been once done, what is attained in the inner state, becomes easier to acquire by the waking consciousness and to turn into the normal experience, powers, mental status of the waking life (activation of waking trance). The subtle mind which is normally eclipsed by the insistence of the physical being, becomes powerful even in the waking state, until even there the enlarging man is able to live in his several subtle bodies as well as in his physical body, to be aware of them and in them, to use their senses, faculties, powers, to dwell in possession of supraphysical truth, consciousness and experience. " Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-525 Integral Psychic Education: “Attracted to strange far-off shimmerings, Led by the fluting of a distant Player He sought his way amid life’s laughter and call” Savitri-192 “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 “Although are witnessed there the joys of Time, Pressed on the bosom the Immortal’s touch is felt, Heard are the flutings of the Infinite .” Savitri-279 “It seemed the yearning of a lonely flute That roamed along the shores of memory And filled the eyes with tears of longing joy.” Savitri-290 “High-fluting with the coil’s happy voice, His peacock turban trailing on the trees; His breath was a warm summons to delight, The dense voluptuous azure was his gaze.” Savitri-352 “What feet of gods, what ravishing flutes of heaven Have thrilled high melodies round, from near and far” Savitri-419 “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 “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.” Savitri-614 “O subtle-souled musician of the years, Play out what thou hast fluted on my stops ; Arise from the strain their first wild plaint divined And that discover which is yet unsung.” Savitri-687 “Pursuing her in her fall, implacably sweet, A face was over her which seemed a youth’s, Symbol of all the beauty eyes see not, Crowned as with peacock plumes of gorgeous hue Framing a sapphire, whose heart-disturbing smile Insatiably attracted to delight, Voluptuous to the embraces of her soul.” Savitri-711 “The soul may dwell in the principle of infinite unity of self-existence and be aware of all consciousness, energy, delight, knowledge, will, activity as conscious form of this essential truth, Sat or Satya . It (Psychic being) may dwell in the principle of infinite conscious energy, Tapas , and be aware of it unrolling out of self-existence the works of knowledge, will and dynamic soul-action for the enjoyment of an infinite delight of the being. It may dwell in the principle of infinite self-existent delight and be aware of the divine Ananda creating out of its self-existence by its energy whatever harmony of being. In these three poises the consciousness of unity dominates; the soul lives in its awareness of eternity, universality, unity, and whatever diversity there is, is not separative, but only a multitudinous aspect of oneness.”⁹ Sri Aurobindo " It is only love that can understand and get at the secrets of the Divine Working. The mind, the physical mind especially, is incapable of seeing correctly and yet it always wants to judge. It is only a true, sincere humility in the mind, allowing the psychic to rule the being, that can save human beings from ignorance and obscurity."¹² The Mother Psychic education draws one towards the immortal life, ‘a higher realisation upon earth,’ ¹⁰ ever progressive change, unbroken continuity in the world of forms, meets the Immanent God dwelling in each form and it turns always towards Truth, Good and Beauty. It is conscious of rasa of things and takes equal delight to all contacts. Their opposite experiences of pleasure, pain and indifference gather strength and grow by them and are necessary part of experience, but have to be outgrown in the Spiritual increase of the being. (Janmastami & Nanda Utsaba at Sri Matriniketan Ashram) (“The Blessed Lord said to Arjuna , the Divine, Ishwara, is seated in the heart of all beings, turning all beings mounted upon a machine by His Maya .” The Gita-18.61) (“God has so arranged life that the world is the soul’s husband; Krishna its divine paramour. We owe a debt of service to the world and are bound to it by a law, a compelling opinion, and a common experience of pain and pleasure, but our heart’s worship and our free and secret joy are for our Lover.”¹¹ Sri Aurobindo ) The inner soul in man, the Psychic being, Kshara Purusha , is a partial manifestation of the Divine, mamaivamsah , who is itself mutable, kshara, everlasting, sanatanah , the Lord, Ishwara, the luminous inhabitant in human body, manusim tanumasritam , and simultaneously the giver of sanction, anumanta of all the action of the three gunas within the boundary of Ignorance, missioned to lead man in Ignorance towards light of Divine Consciousness. Its operation in the ignorance is different¹⁰ from Akshara Purusha , the Spiritual being and Uttama Purusha, the Supramental Being,¹⁶ though it has manifold deep relations with them. The Kshara Purusha , associating itself with the works of Prakriti , seems to be the doer of all works, karta , whereas Akshara Purusha, dissociating itself from all the workings of the gunas is the inactive non-doer, akarta and witness. In Purushottama , these two states, the action of the Soul and its mutability and the status of the immutability of the Spirit, actually coexist. The Purushottama puts forth his own active nature, svam prakrtim , manifest in the jiva and works out its own innate Divine nature, svabhava , in addition to its egoistic action, bewildered by the three gunas. Initially, the Gita has identified the double soul in man (The Gita-6-5, 6); one that of the surface desire soul¹³ carrying in its nature the apparent nature of lower instincts, emotions, the mental seeking for power, knowledge and happiness and the other behind it that of the true Soul, the Psychic being which is a living light that illumines. We are aware of a guide within that knows the truth, the good,¹ the pure power of light, the true delight and beauty of existence, when body, heart and intellect take their true place as instruments and lead our life and being towards Spiritual completeness. The desire soul’s wrong approach and reception towards life deforms the pure joy into pleasure, pain and indifference. True Soul is the imperishable, evolves in us from birth to birth and is untouched by death, decay and corruption. It is actually the Psychic sheath that grows from birth to birth by entering the essence of all experience of the Psychic Self in the Ignorance. A mastery of senses, the ability to do without all that they hanker after, is the initial condition of true Soul education. True Soul is a witness who discerns within the obscure working of Ignorance; it is a will that refuses to be misled by the mind’s error, the heart’s response towards wrong call, the turbid falsehood of our vital nature and its dark self-seeking. “Wisdom transcendent touched his quivering heart:” Savitri-33 “The All-Blissful sat unknown within the heart” Savitri-43 "Our souls deputed selves of the Supreme." Savitri-169 "A touch supreme surprised his hurrying heart, The clasp was remembered of the Wonderful, And hints leaped down of white beatitudes." Savitri-237 “He dwelt in his self’s colourless purity” Savitri-297 "His soul was a delegation of the All" Savitri-319 “Even as her body, such is she within. Heaven’s lustrous mornings gloriously recur, Like drops of fire upon a silver page, In her young spirit yet untouched with tears. All beautiful things eternal seem and new To virgin wonder in her crystal soul.” Savitri-422 "All was fulfilled the heart of Savitri Flower-sweet and adamant, passionate and calm, Had chosen and on her strength’s unbending road Forced to its issue the long cosmic curve." Savitri-465 "And Savitri’s life was glad, fulfilled like earth’s; She had found herself, she knew her being’s aim. Although her kingdom of marvellous change within Remained unspoken in her secret breast, All that lived round her felt its magic’s charm:" Savitri-532 “But the soul grows concealed within its house; It gives to the body its strength and magnificence; It follows aims in an ignorant aimless world, It lends significance to earth’s meaningless life.” Savitri-658-59 The fundamental Psychic⁸ experience in us has the delight of all-life and progressive manifestation of the Spirit and gathers out of all contacts and happenings their secret Divine sense and essence. Thus, our mind and life can grow out of the Inconscience and the divisions of Ignorance towards supreme Consciousness and Knowledge. In the book-7, Canto-5 of Savitri book, Savitri discovered her Psychic being⁷ through Tantric Method of Yoga and not the Vedantic self-discipline. This Tantric method is safe for Developed Soul 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 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 and without any possibility of Spiritual fall. In this Canto, Savitri’s Psychic⁶ 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 Savitri's 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 Psychic⁵ being and his consciousness learns the lesson to live in waking trance, then through the movement of Consciousness, he can Spiritualise and Supramentalise the Psychic being, then he can save himself, the collectivity and the world. But to realise this perfection is a long process of time. This Canto gives the input, that if the Psychic Being⁴ opens, then this heart Centre acts as a Fortress of Truth and Virginity, surrounded with a large world of Ignorance and from this Divine Centre the Overhead truth and purity pours into world 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 Psychic³ realisation of Savitri , the Gods and Goddess of the Overmental world preferred to live with her. Similar experience we also observe with King Aswapati : "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 (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 If ‘the inner doors are flung sufficiently open, the light from the sanctuary can suffuse the nearest and the farthest chambers of the outer being. The necessary turn or change can also be brought about by an occult descent of the spiritual force from above, in which the influx, the influence, the spiritual consequence is felt, but the higher source is unknown and the actual feeling of a descent is not there.’² 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 The psychic being is the conscious Immortal being in us, reminding us of the necessity of physical immortality. With fourfold Divine union, the Psychic being gathers Force. With the increase and accumulation of fourfold Soul Force, the conscious Psychic Being prepares to confront Death and destiny. Constant contact with the Psychic being means living in a waking trance; triple time becomes active, movement occurs in multiple subtle bodies and brief Supramental touch. OM TAT SAT References: 1: “The subconscient is not the whole foundation of our nature; it is only the lower basis of the Ignorance and governs mostly the lower vital and physical exterior consciousness and these again affect the higher parts of the nature. While it is necessary to see what it is and how it acts, one must not be too preoccupied with this dark side or this apparent aspect of the instrumental being. One should rather regard it as something not oneself, a mask of false nature imposed on the true being by the Ignorance. The true being is the inner with all its vast possibilities of reaching and expressing the Divine and especially the inmost, the soul, the psychic Purusha which is always in its essence pure, divine, turned to all that is good and true and beautiful. The exterior being has to be taken hold of by the inner being and turned into an instrument no longer of the upsurgings of the ignorant subconscient Nature, but of the Divine. It is by remembering always that and opening the nature upwards that the Divine Consciousness can be reached and descend from above into the whole inner and outer existence, mental, vital, physical, the subconscient, the subliminal, all that we overtly or secretly are. This should be the main preoccupation. To dwell solely on the subconscient and the aspect of imperfection creates depression and should be avoided. One has to keep a right balance and stress on the positive side most, recognising the other but only to reject and change it. This and a constant faith and reliance on the Mother are what is needed for the transformation to come.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-217-218, 2: “It is indeed from these higher sources that the secret spiritual Power acts upon the being and by its pressure brings about the psychic transformation or the spiritual change; but in the early stages of our growth this action is not apparent, it remains occult and unseizable. At first what is necessary is that the pure touch of the spiritual force must intervene in mental nature: that awakening pressure must stamp itself upon mind and heart and life and give them their upward orientation; a subtle light or a great transmuting power must purify, refine and uplift their motions and suffuse them with a higher consciousness that does not belong to their own normal capacity and character. This can be done from within by an invisible action through the psychic entity and the psychic personality; a consciously felt descent from above is not indispensable. The presence of the spirit is there in every living being, on every level, in all things, and because it is there, the experience of Sachchidananda, of the pure spiritual existence and consciousness, of the delight of a divine presence, closeness, contact can be acquired through the mind or the heart or the life-sense or even through the physical consciousness; if the inner doors are flung sufficiently open, the light from the sanctuary can suffuse the nearest and the farthest chambers of the outer being. The necessary turn or change can also be brought about by an occult descent of the spiritual force from above, in which the influx, the influence, the spiritual consequence is felt, but the higher source is unknown and the actual feeling of a descent is not there.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-967-968 3: “The central being — the Jivatman which is not born nor evolves, but presides over the individual birth and evolution puts forward a representative of himself on each plane of the consciousness. On the mental plane it is the true mental being, manomaya purusa, on the vital plane the true vital being, pranamaya purusa, on the physical plane the true physical being, annamaya purusa. Each being therefore is, so long as the Ignorance lasts, centred round his mental, vital or physical Purusha, according to the plane on which he predominantly lives, and that is to him his central being. But the true representative all the time is concealed behind the mind, vital and physical — it is the psychic, our inmost being… When the inmost knowledge begins to come, we become aware of the psychic being within us and it comes forward and leads the sadhana. We become aware also of the Jivatman, the individual Self or Spirit above the manifestation of which the psychic is the representative here.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-59, 4: “The central being is above the Adhara — most people are not aware of their central being (Jivatma) — they are aware only of the ego... The psychic is the soul — it is a portion of the Divine that supports the mind, life and body in the evolution. The psychic gets the Divine’s help directly from the Divine.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-60, “When there is no demand or desire, only love and self-giving, that is the psychic love.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-336, “The Divine Guidance works best when the psychic is open and in front (yours was beginning to open), but it can also work even when the sadhak is either not conscious of it or else knows it only by its results.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-316 5: “The central being is that which is not born, does not evolve, but presides over all the individual manifestation. The psychic is its projection here — for the psychic being is in the evolution and from within supports our whole evolution; it receives the essence of all experience and by that develops the personality Godward. The Self is at once one in all and many — one in its essence, it manifests also as the individual self which may be described as in Nature an eternal portion of the Divine; in spirit a centre of the manifestation, individual but extending into universality and rising into transcendence.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-60 6: It is the central being above the evolution (always the same) that we call the Jivatma — the psychic being is the same in the evolution, it is the spark of the Divine there growing into its full divinity as a portion of the Divine.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-60 7: “The central being and the soul are both in different ways portions of the Divine. They are in fact two aspects of the same entity, but one is unevolving above Nature, the other evolves a psychic being in Nature.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-60-61 8: “The phrase “central being” in our Yoga is usually applied to the portion of the Divine in us which supports all the rest and survives through death and birth. This central being has two forms — above, it is the Jivatman, our true being, of which we become aware when the higher self-knowledge comes, — below, it is the psychic being which stands behind mind, body and life. The Jivatman is above the manifestation in life and presides over it; the psychic being stands behind the manifestation in life and supports it…The natural attitude of the psychic being is to feel itself as the child, the son of God, the Bhakta; it is a portion of the Divine, one in essence, but in the dynamics of the manifestation there is always even in identity a difference. The Jivatman, on the contrary, lives in the essence and can merge itself in identity with the Divine; but it too, the moment it presides over the dynamics of the manifestation, knows itself as one centre of the multiple Divine, not as the Parameshwara. It is important to remember this distinction; for, otherwise, if there is the least vital egoism, one may begin to think of oneself as an Avatara…” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga/p-61, “Caitya purusa means rather the Purusha in the cit, the fundamental (inner) consciousness…Jiva is the fundamental, or as we call it, the central being. But the fundamental being is not combined of the mental, vital, psychic etc., these are only expressions of the Jivatman; the Jivatman itself is self-existent in the Divine; essential in its being, it cannot be regarded as a combination of things.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga/p-62, “The nascent spiritual man makes his appearance in the emotional nature as the devotee, the bhakta; if, in addition, he becomes directly aware of his soul and its dictates, unites his emotional with his psychic personality and changes his life and vital parts by purity, God-ecstasy, the love of God and men and all creatures into a thing of spiritual beauty, full of divine light and good, he develops into the saint and reaches the highest inner experience and most considerable change of nature proper to this way of approach to the Divine Being. But for the purpose of an integral transformation this too is not enough; there must be a transmutation of the thinking mind and all the vital and physical parts of consciousness in their own character.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-936, “It is only through these decisive movements that the true character of the evolution becomes evident; for till then there are only preparatory movements, a pressure of the psychic Entity on the mind, life and body to develop a true soul action, a pressure of the spirit or self for liberation from the ego, from the surface ignorance, a turning of the mind and life towards some occult Reality, — preliminary experiences, partial formulations of a spiritualised mind, a spiritualised life, but no complete change, no probability of an entire unveiling of the soul or self or a radical transformation of the nature.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-887, “It is evident that if we can live thus deeper within and put out steadily the inner forces into the outer instrumentation or raise ourselves to dwell on higher and wider levels and bring their powers to bear on physical existence, not merely receive influences descending from them, which is all we can now do, there could begin a heightening of our force of conscious being so as to create a new principle of consciousness, a new range of activities, new values for all things, a widening of our consciousness and life, a taking up and transformation of the lower grades of our existence, — in brief, the whole evolutionary process by which the Spirit in Nature creates a higher type of being.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-751, 9: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-629, 10: “Because the two are usually confused under the general term of “yogic discipline”, although the goals they aim at are very different: for one it (Psychic Being) is a higher realisation upon earth, for the other (Spiritual Being) an escape from all earthly manifestation, even from the whole universe, a return to the unmanifest.” TMCW-12/On Education/p-35, (In integral Yoga Psychic is given more importance than the Spiritual being, because of the escapist tendency of the latter.) 11: Sri Aurobindo/TMCW-10/On Thoughts and Aphorisms/p-340, 12: The Mother/TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-343, 13: "All the difficulty in dealing spiritually with the works of Life arises because the Will-in-Life for its purposes in the Ignorance has created a false soul of desire and substituted it for that spark of the Divine which is the true psyche. All or most of the works of life are at present or seem to be actuated and vitiated by this soul of desire; even those that are ethical or religious, even those that wear the guise of altruism, philanthropy, self-sacrifice, self- denial, are shot through and through with the threads of its making. This soul of desire is a separative soul of ego and all its instincts are for a separative self-affirmation; it pushes always, openly or under more or less shining masks, for its own growth, for possession, for enjoyment, for conquest and empire. If the curse of disquiet and disharmony and perversion is to be lifted from Life, the true soul, the psychic being, must be given its leading place and there must be a dissolution of the false soul of desire and ego. But this does not mean that life itself must be coerced and denied its native line of fulfilment; for behind this outer life soul of desire there is in us an inner and true vital being which has not to be dissolved but brought out into prominence and released to its true working as a power of the Divine Nature. The prominence of this true vital being under the lead of the true inmost soul within us is the condition for the divine fulfilment of the objects of the Life-Force. Those objects will even remain the same in essence, but transformed in their inner motive and outer character. The Divine Life-Power too will be a will for growth, a force of self-affirmation, but affirmation of the Divine within us, not of the little temporary personality on the surface, — growth into the true divine Individual, the central being, the secret imperishable Person who can emerge only by the subordination and disappearance of the ego. This is life’s true object: growth, but a growth of the spirit in Nature, affirming and developing itself in mind, life and body; possession, but a possession by the Divine of the Divine in all things, and not of things for their own sake by the desire of the ego; enjoyment, but an enjoyment of the divine Ananda in the universe; battle and conquest and empire in the shape of a victorious conflict with the Powers of Darkness, an entire spiritual self-rule and mastery over inward and outward Nature, a conquest by Knowledge, Love and Divine Will over the domains of the Ignorance." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-175-176, 14: "There is however no invariable rule as to the order of the opening. By concentration on the heart centre that can open first liberating the psychic action, which is veiled by the emotional, into free play. In many there is first some opening of the vital centre and for a long time there is an abundant but unpurified play of experiences on the vital plane. In the Tantric discipline there is a process of opening all the centres from the Muladhara upward. In our Yoga very often the Power descends from above and opens the Ajnachakra first, then the others in order. But it is perhaps fi.. The psychic cannot lose its consciousness in the enjoyment of experiences; when it is in free action, it has the unfailing discrimination of which you speak. It has besides no push to outward enjoyment, though it has Ananda. It is the vital that is carried away by enjoyment and carries away with it the mind and other lower parts — and it can also cover up the psychic; but then what happens is not that the psychic loses its own consciousness, which is impossible, but that the sadhak loses for the time being the full possession of the psychic consciousness. But it can always be recovered by a rectification of the wrong movement. But if one lives firmly in the psychic, there is not much danger of this aberration. What one must not do is to throw oneself out into the mind and vital; one must live within and from there command one’s experience." CWSA-30/Letters on Yoga-III/p-351-352, 15: "Nobody said it [the opening of the psychic] must be done necessarily from above. Naturally it is done direct and is most effective then. But when it is found difficult to do direct, as it is in certain natures, then the change begins from above, and the consciousness descending from there has to liberate the heart centre. As it acts on the heart centre, the psychic action becomes more possible." CWSA-30/Letters on Yoga-III/p-352, 16: "His slumber is an Almightiness in things, Awake, he is the Eternal and Supreme." Savitri-682 Download this WEB PAGE in PDF format: "A human being is made of many different parts and it takes time and conscious effort to harmonise and unify all these parts. When you surrendered, it is not the whole of your being that did so. Little by little some other part that had not surrendered came to the surface and the joy of the surrender vanished and was replaced by dullness and indifference. But after some time this part also gets converted and thus the happy condition comes back." The Mother TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-333 "The human being is made of different parts, sometimes clearly separated. They can unite only under the psychic influence and action. Persist in your endeavour and you are sure to succeed. Blessings." The Mother TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-336 "There's such a wonderful passage in The Synthesis of Yoga ("The Yoga of Self-Perfection"), where he (Sri Aurobindo) mentions four things (you surely remember this), four things the disciple needs (I have just translated it). I knew this, of course, but the passage is especially timely now – particularly after that last experience, which is a jolt for a physical being. The fourth thing is wonderful. The first three we know: equality, peace and (a hard one) a spiritual ease in all circumstances. He added the word "spiritual" so people wouldn't think only of material ease – it's an ease in feelings, in sensations, in everything. But when you have a lot of pain it's obviously not so easy! When physical pain keeps you from sleeping and eating, when you are plagued by constant physical pain – or rather by a whole host of physical pains! – well, that bodily "ease" becomes difficult. It's the one thing that has seemed difficult to me; but anyway, it's being investigated – I think it was sent for me to investigate... But the last thing he mentions is a marvel – the joy and laughter of the soul. And it's so true, so true! Always, all the time, no matter what happens, even when this body is in dreadful pain, the soul is laughing joyously within. Always, always, always. " The Mother The Mother's Agenda/May 22, 1962

"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

Six Fold Divine Call "Calling the mighty Mother of the worlds To make this earthly tenement her house." Savitri-528 "Therefore, besides the great solitaries who have sought and attained their self-liberation, we have the great spiritual teachers who have also liberated others and, supreme of all, the great dynamic souls who, feeling themselves stronger in the might of the Spirit than all the forces of the material life banded together, have thrown themselves upon the world, grappled with it in a loving wrestle and striven to compel its consent to its own transfiguration." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-27 “The liberated knower lives and acts in the world not less than the bound soul and ignorant mind but more, doing all actions, sarvakrit , only with true knowledge and a greater conscient power. And by so doing he does not forfeit the supreme unity nor fall from the supreme consciousness and the highest knowledge.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-299 The Six-fold Divine Call “Recall of the soul’s adventure into space, A traveller through the magic centuries And being’s labour in Matter’s universe,” Savitri-29 “A call was on him from intangible heights; Indifferent to the little outpost Mind, He dwelt in the wideness of the Eternal’s reign.” Savitri-79 “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 (King said to Savitri) “While to exceed yourselves thought’s trumpets call, Heard by a few, but fewer dare aspire,” Savitri-371 “He (Avatara) must call light into its dark abysms, Else never can Truth conquer Matter’s sleep And all earth look into the eyes of God.” Savitri-450 “My will, my call is there in men and things; But the Inconscient lies at the world’s grey back And draws to its breast of Night and Death and Sleep.” Savitri-690 Our Souls sometimes forget to aspire to the highest. In periods of great stress and turbulence in our lives do we open our being to the touch of a greater call and recall the Soul’s great adventure into Time and Space which continues through centuries. Otherwise, we show keen interest and feel safe to cling to some limited intermediate truth, which is not difficult to achieve and suits our mentality to ignore the ultimate aim and decline the Soul’s greater call. As a result, we afflict our Life, Evolution and Yoga with inferiority and have little obligation to a superior plane. Thus, the majority of human beings deprive themselves of realising the true body of the Soul which can see Truth’s whole. This awareness of mental limitation, the effort of stilling the brain and Soul’s unending aspiration has created an immense opportunity for everyone to open God’s door. Savitri reminds us constantly that ‘doors of light are sealed to common mind’⁵ and they ‘owe small debt to a superior plane.’⁵ So, few can respond to the rare Divine call adequately because most of human beings are built on Nature’s early evolutionary state of Ignorance. ‘Only in the uplifting hour of stress’⁵ and difficulties do they sometimes open to the touch of higher planes of Consciousness or uplift to breathe heaven’s air. They cannot hold this rare heavenly Call and slide back to the mud of ordinary life from which they climbed with great effort. They accept this Spiritual fall of lost glory and feel joy in the safe return to their routine inferior life. Men think it best to hug their limit and feel a safe and secure life within the range of the common average animal. In the long ever-mounting hierarchies of consciousness and in the stark economy of cosmic life, each creature is assigned some appointed fixed task and place of stay. If these customary and established triple modes of bound life were disturbed due to the call of higher Divine life, then the settled balance and perpetual order of things would break and crumble. That is why the Gita insists moderate seekers to ‘worship the Divine by his own natural profession and arrive at the highest Divine perfection’⁶ and let ‘be it thy supreme aim to do My work; doing all actions for My sake, thou shalt attain perfection.’¹³ The Gita insists the man of Knowledge not to disturb the life and thought basis of the ignorant human beings, 'for, impelled by his example but unable to comprehend the principle of his action, they would lose their own system of values without arriving at a higher foundation.’²⁵ After many births of preparation, when the hour of higher Spiritual possibility arrives, they will hear the Divine call of the Gita, ‘O Soul that finds thyself in this transient and unhappy world, turn and put thy delight solely in Me.’⁷ The true Call upon us is the Call of the Soul, Jivatma to unite with the Divine, Paramatm a; this often comes to an individual⁸ when his Soul is prepared for a Divine Life. This preliminary Spiritual Call of realising Soul Oneness must be recognised and accepted as imperative and must take precedence over all other claims and demands of the world in the form of call of the Nation, Society, philanthropy, occupational livelihood and household⁹ responsibility, that belong to the domain of ignorance. Nothing can substitute for the Spiritual Call or to rise out of the world to transcendence that can realise the true and integral good and arrive at the root of action and essence of existence. The First Divine Call: “His Soul breaks out to join the Oversoul,” Savitri-24, “The finite self mated with infinity.” Savitri-25, “A captive Life wedded her conqueror.” Savitri-125, "Immortal met immortal in their gaze." Savitri-373 “As when a soul is merging into God To live in Him for ever and know His joy, Her consciousness grew aware of him alone And all her separate self (Jivatma) was lost in his (Paramatma).” Savitri-410 “The soul’s pregnant meeting with infinity Had come to birth in him and taken fire:” Savitri-682 “Two looked upon each other, Soul (Psychic being of Savitri) saw Soul (Supreme Self).” Savitri-682 One receives the first Divine’s Call to realise Jivatma’s union with the static Divine, Ishwara, Paramatma, by renunciation of world attraction, objective enjoyment and attachment to mutable personality. When the vital and physical nature stands as an impediment to pure Spiritual pursuit, then out of that compulsion Asceticism and Illusionism are born. The highest achievement of this Call is a pure and unmixed Absolute, the total Nirvana of mentality and mental ego, entire Spiritual victory and surrender of lower nature. Thus, a foundation of a pure, blank, immutable Spiritual Consciousness is established with partial self-control, which is the first object in the evolution of a Spiritual man. Those who receive the first Divine Call, the Mother proposes: ‘Yogically (I don’t mean spiritually: that was the first stage of my sadhana ), it’s very easy to be a saint! Oh, even to be a sage is very easy. I feel I was born with it – it’s spontaneous and natural for me, and so simple! You know all that has to be done, and doing it is as easy as knowing it. it’s nothing… From experience, I know perfectly well that when one is satisfied with being a saint or a sage and constantly maintains the right attitude, all goes well -the body doesn’t get sick, and even if there are attacks it recovers very easily; all goes very well ... AS LONG AS THERE IS NOT THIS WILL TO TRANSFORM.’¹⁶ Those who receive the first Divine Call and pursue Sadhana , for them, Ashram living is not indispensable; it 'can be practised anywhere.'²⁰ So, 'the possession of the Divine is its first, greatest and most ardent object and that to neglect it for an inferior knowledge is to afflict our'²⁴ Life and Yoga with inferiority. A traditional Sadhak utilises this perfection as a passage to enter the supreme abode of Paramdham.²⁹ An Integral Sadhak utilises this experience as a passage to experience the dynamic Divine union of the second Divine Call. The Second Divine Call: “The calm delight that weds one soul to all ,” Savitri-6 “His 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 “And fills his (King’s) days with her celestial clasp,” Savitri-130 "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 “A new beginning flowers in word and laugh, A new charm brings back the old extreme delight: He (Jivatma ) is lost in her (Paraprakriti) , she is his heaven here.” Savitri-275 "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 “An image cast by one deep truth’s absolute, Married to all in happy difference. ” Savitri-326 "And how shall the end be vain when God is guide? However man’s mind may tire or fail his flesh, A will prevails cancelling his conscious choice: 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." Savitri-339 “One with the single Spirit inhabiting all,” Savitri-394 "Our consciousness is cosmic and immense, But only when we break through Matter’s wall In that spiritual vastness can we stand Where we can live the masters of our world And mind is only a means and body a tool." Savitri-542-543 “Be one with the infinity of my power: For thou art the World-Mother and the Bride.” Savitri-691 “A virgin unity, a luminous spouse, Housing a multitudinous embrace To marry all in God’s immense delight,” Savitri-695 Then out of them, some can hold Her Divine Call to elevate the life of renunciation to the gradation of entire consecration of inner and outer life to the Divine and realise the Jivatma’s dynamic Divine union with Para-prakriti. This is also the period of activation of cosmic Consciousness. Or through prolongation of Static Divine Union, dynamic Divine union is realised. The four outer natures that need to be consecrated are, the physical mind, tamas , vital mind, prana , emotional mind, chitta, and intellect, buddhi and the inner nature of four-fold Soul forces that need consecration are the Soul of self-knowledge and truth, Brahmana, the Soul of courage and strength, Kshatria , the Soul of mutuality and harmony, Vaisya and the Soul of works and perfection, Shudra. The highest achievement and perfection of these Psychic attributes is the dynamisation of the four Divine Shaktis of Maheswari, Wisdom, Mahakali, Power and Strength, Mahalakshmi , Beauty, Love, Delight and Harmony and Mahasaraswati, Perfection in the individual life. Thus, the pure static immutable Divine Consciousness is transformed and dynamised into the mediatrix Divine Shakti who takes up the burden of Divine transformation of the individual and cosmic life. Those who receive the second Divine Call, the Grace and Protection of the Divine Mother are with them. ‘The more complete your faith, sincerity and surrender, the more will grace and protection be with you. And when the grace and protection of the Divine Mother are with you, what is there that can touch you or whom need you fear? A little of it even will carry you through all difficulties, obstacles and dangers; surrounded by its full presence you can go securely on your way because it is hers, careless of all menace, unaffected by any hostility however powerful, whether from this world or from worlds invisible. Its (dynamic Spirit's) touch can turn difficulties into opportunities, failure into success and weakness into unfaltering strength… You will know and see and feel that you are a person and power formed by her out of herself, put out from her for the play and yet always safe in her, being of her being, consciousness of her consciousness, force of her force, ananda of her Ananda .’¹⁸ 'And Sri Aurobindo says that if you are capable of maintaining this state (dynamic state of the Supreme), then you know everything: all that has been, all that is and all that will be –in an absolutely simultaneous way. '³⁰ His oneness with the Divine must be extended to the oneness with the others which is a fundamental oneness in Soul and Spirit and not a oneness of Ignorance with their mind, life, body and ego, because the latter oneness of Nature can arrive at a matured stage of sadhana in the universalised Consciousness in which he is unified more and more with other minds, other lives, other bodies than the organism we call ourselves, producing effects not only on our own moral and mental being and on the subjective being of others, and even on the physical world and its events by means nearer to the Divine contact than those possible to our egoistic capacity. It is understood that the transformation of Nature and the attainment of Supramental Consciousness is not possible without universalisation of Consciousness; for this universalisation is a passage towards the highest siddhi of integral Yoga. ‘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. ’¹⁹ In this second Divine Call 'the universal Shakt i must be realised, must be seen and felt and borne in the potent purity of its higher action, its supramental and spiritual workings. This greater vision of the Shakti will enable us to escape from the control of the gunas , to convert them into their divine equivalents and dwell in a consciousness in which the Purusha and Prakriti are one and not separated or hidden in or behind each other.'¹⁹ In the Gita , the realisation of this existence as Brahman, Vasudeva Sarvamiti , is identified as dynamic Divine realisation in cosmic Consciousness and very rare Souls attain this Consciousness. It is felt that for the stabilisation of the second Divine Call, isolation or Ashram living is essential or indispensable.²² His establishment of higher consciousness will create a gulf between ordinary life and higher life and hence a sense of insecurity will multiply. He will not feel safe in the world with his new identity of movement of Consciousness between Cosmic and Transcendent Self, and people around him will show intolerance and crucify him in every way.²³ So he who can control the lower Nature by the pressure of higher Nature receives a Divine Call to lead a more concentrated life in a Divine Centre. His attitude towards life will be that he will not remain indifferent towards his own imperfection and world imperfection, but he ‘will not only alter the forms and sphere of its own external life but, leaving nothing around it unchanged or unaffected, create a new world or a new order.’²⁸ The Third Divine Call: “Movement (Para-prakriti) was married to the immobile Vast (Paramatma );” Savitri-34, “There are Two who are One and play in many worlds; In Knowledge and Ignorance they have spoken and met And light and darkness are their eyes’ interchange; Our pleasure and pain are their wrestle and embrace, Our deeds, our hopes are intimate to their tale; They are married secretly in our thought and life.” Savitri-61 “And Nature (Para-prakriti) climb towards God’s (Paramatma) identity.” Savitri-121, "Only to attract her veiled companion And keep him close to her breast in her world-cloak Lest from her arms he turn to his formless peace, Is her heart’s business and her clinging care." (The relation between Supreme Self and Supreme Nature.) Savitri-181 “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 “The wedding of the eternal Lord and Spouse Took place again on earth in human forms:” Savitri-411 “My spirit has glimpsed the glory for which it came, The beating of one vast heart in the flame of things, My eternity (Paraprakriti) clasped by his eternity (Paramatma) And, tireless of the sweet abysms of Time, Deep possibility always to love.” Savitri-435 “Imperishable, a tongue of sacrifice, It flamed unquenched upon the central hearth Where burns for the high houselord and his mate The homestead’s sentinel and witness fire From which the altars of the gods are lit.” Savitri-639 “Inscribe the long romance of Thee (Para prakriti ) and Me (Paramatma ).” Savitri-699, “A static Oneness (Paramatma) and dynamic Power (Para-prakriti) Descend in him, the integral Godhead’s seals; (Third Divine union) His soul and body take that splendid stamp.” (first and fourth Divine union of a Spiritual man) Savitri-24 In the third Divine Call, the relation between static and dynamic Brahman are reconciled. Thus few can offer their whole Soul and Nature and give everything to realise their absolute consecration to the Divine and His Shakti and become ‘a child and eternal portion’²¹ of Divine Mother’s Consciousness. They realise Brahman and Maya union in the Supramental plane and subsequently the realisation of dual Avatara or union of Paramatma and Paraprakriti in the Psychic heart centre. Or Sri Aurobindo's 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 .'²⁶ Sri Aurobindo further observed, "This is the stage I have reached in spite of all setbacks and recoils, imperfectly indeed in the secureness and intensity of the state, but well enough in the general type. When that has been done, then we may hope to found securely the play in us of his divine Knowledge governing the action of his divine Power."²⁷ Few climb to Her un-perishing Sun, the Supramental Plane and channel to earth mind, earth life and earth matter, the wizard Divine Ray in order to entirely remould Nature and Soul into the way and power of Supernature. Here the rejection of life, rejection of difficulty, rejection of disorder and flight into Nirvana are superseded by acceptance of life, acceptance of difficulty, and acceptance of disorder and transform them into an all-embracing higher life, true solution of the all-material problem, divine harmony, self-absorbed Delight and great victory. The Fourth Divine Call: “A mystery of married Earth (Matter) and Heaven (dynamic Spirit) Annexed divinity to the mortal scheme.” Savitri-25, “It (Infinity) marries the earth to screened eternities.” Savitri-98, "To seize the absolute in shapes that pass, To fix the eternal’s touch in time-made things, This is the law of all perfection here." Savitri-108 “Even in these formless coilings he could feel Matter’s response to an infant stir of soul.” Savitri-141, “Awoke in Matter spirit’s identity And in a body lit the miracle” Savitri-157-58, "The soul lit the conscious body with its ray Matter and spirit mingled and were one." Savitri-232, “Where spirit and flesh in inner ecstasy join Annulling the quarrel between self and shape.” Savitri-236, "A fiery stillness wakes the slumbering cells, A passion of the flesh becoming spirit," Savitri-278 “Spirit and body thrilled identified, Linked in the grasp of an unspoken joy;” Savitri-334 “A spirit of its celestial source aware Translating heaven into a human shape Descended into earth’s imperfect mould And wept not fallen to mortality, But looked on all with large and tranquil eyes.” Savitri-353 “He takes with bright surprise spirit and sense.” Savitri-430 “And Matter is the Spirit’s willing bride” Savitri-538, “The living spirit and body in her clasp, As if death were not there nor end nor change.” Savitri-551 “And Matter’s depths be illumined with a soul” Savitri-268 “His nature grew a movement of the All, Exploring itself to find that all was He, (second Divine union) His soul was a delegation of the All That turned from itself to join the one Supreme.” (fourth Divine union) Savitri-319 “He (Avatar ) burns on an unseen original verge That Matter may be turned to spirit stuff:” Savitri-447 “In its antechambers of splendid privacy Matter and soul (Annamaya Purusha) in conscious union meet Like lovers in a lonely secret place:” Savitri-105 "Although he 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 “Man dared and thought and met with his soul the world.” Savitri-130 “What liberty has the soul which feels not free (freedom and liberation come by Soul’s (Jivatma) union with the Divine (Paramatma) .) Unless stripped bare and cannot kiss the bonds The Lover winds around his playmate’s limbs, (Marriage between dynamic Spirit and static Matter.) Choosing his tyranny, crushed in his embrace? (Inrush of large Divine Force is like a tyranny which can crush the material substance.) To seize him better with her boundless heart She accepts the limiting circle of his arms, (Matter accepts and possesses the limiting circle of dynamic Spirit.) Bows full of bliss beneath his mastering hands (imperfect Matter consecrates itself before Perfect Spirit.) And laughs in his rich constraints, most bound, most free. (Matter is delighted by meeting and handling the Spirit’s constraints.) This is my answer to thy lures, O Death.” Savitri-653, (This is also the relation between Paramatma Satyavan (the static Spirit) and Para-prakriti Savitri (the dynamic Spirit).) “Darkness below, (Inconscient Matter) a fathomless Light (Spirit) above,... Stand face to face, opposite, inseparable, Two contraries needed for his great World-task, Two poles whose currents wake the immense World-Force.” Savitri-656-57 “Too far thy heavens for me from suffering men. Imperfect is the joy not shared by all.” Savitri-686 And still, it is fewer who can dare to invert Her Supramental Shakti, Vijnana , and trace the path and key of Immortality uninterruptedly through a conscious descent into Matter’s long Night of abysmal hell and channel Her All Delight from above the head and below the feet to shatter Inconscient Matter or as experienced by King Aswapati , "He tore desire up from its bleeding roots" (Savitri-318). This Para-prakriti’s union with Apara-prakriti or large-scale invasion of Brahman energy into the Subconscient and Inconscient world and ploughing the hard and recalcitrant soil of material life and insisting that matter to become as plastic as Spirit are other preoccupations of this Divine Call. This difficult work of Subconscient and Inconscient transformation is activated without 'glory, and felicity' (Savitri-136) and without public admiration and King Aswapati entered this world of night and ‘bore the fierce inner wounds that are slow to heal.’¹⁵ This transformation also reminds us of the Avatar's experience of "A million wounds gape in his secret heart." (Savitri-446) The Fifth Divine Call: "The mystery of God’s birth and acts remains (birth of Avatar ) Leaving unbroken the last chapter’s seal, 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 “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 “Although Light grows on earth and Night recedes, Yet till the evil is slain in its own home And Light invades the world’s inconscient base And perished has the adversary Force, He (successive Avataras ) still must labour on, his work half done .” Savitri-448-49 Then it is the fewest who receive the Call to manifest the Avatara, a greater and vaster instrumental and emanative action of the Divine, to whom She reveals Herself in its entirety, samagram-mam .¹ An Avatar must call down the supreme Light to the darkest abysms and till all the evils are slain in their Subconscient and Inconscient home, his labour continues and his task is half done. He hopes but never succeeds to arrest the ‘wheels of (earth’s) Doom’² and pays God’s debt to earth with his large suffering, ‘million wounds,’¹⁴ and with the body’s death. All the miseries of earth knock at his door for redemption. With his death¹², earth is newborn and opens for all his Soul’s vast Light, Love and Delight. The Sixth Divine Call: “One (last Avatar ) yet may come armoured, invincible; 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 The highest Divine Call received by the last Avatar, as hinted in two places in Savitri is to end the Law of Pain, ‘Evil turns back to its original good,’¹⁰ and to ‘vanquish Time and Death.’³ His being is charged with the mandate from Eternity to change the sorrowful earth’s old dusty law, to open the iron doors of Fate towards Divine Light and to lead mankind towards ‘Truth’s wide and golden road.’⁴ Thus, mankind will be able to hold the last siddhi, perfection of integral Yoga, known as ‘Truth supreme.’¹¹ Through Narad, Sri Aurobindo made humanity aware, of the mission and task of the last Avatar , who will vanquish Time and Death. “He (last Avatar ) still must travel Hell the world to save. Into the eternal Light he shall emerge On borders of the meeting of all worlds; There on the verge of Nature’s summit steps The secret Law of each thing is fulfilled, 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: She has learned to weep glad tears of happiness; Her gaze is charged with a wistful ecstasy. Then shall be ended here the Law of Pain.” Savitri-450-451 “This mortal life shall house Eternity’s bliss, The body’s self taste immortality. Then shall the world-redeemer’s (last Avatara’s ) task be done.” Savitri-451 Narad advised humanity to wait all Time of All Life till the arrival of the last Avatar and ‘bear this great world’s law of pain’¹⁷ with the aid of a Psychic Being. “A little bliss is lent thee from above, (moderate seekers of truth) A touch divine upon thy human days. Make of thy daily way a pilgrimage, For through small joys and griefs thou mov’st towards God. Haste not towards Godhead on a dangerous road, (ascetic path of saintly inactivity) Open not thy doorways to a nameless Power, Climb not to Godhead by the Titan’s road.” (not to torture the body) Savitri-451 Lastly, Narad could not see whether the present Incarnation of Savitri and Satyavan or the Mother and Sri Aurobindo could conquer death. They tried with the existing capacity of Supramental descent and limitation of opening of recalcitrant body and only by a collaboration of both can Death be conquered. So the issue is now left to successive Vibhutis to try in their body the Supramental transformation and illumination of huge Subconscient and Inconscient sheaths and when “The Mighty Mother shall take birth in Time (as Last Avatara) 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 Truth supreme is identified as the last siddhi, the last perfection of integral Yoga where Subconscient and Inconscient sheaths will be entirely transformed and Death will be conquered. Thus, the theory of complete Divine Call is realised by the reconciliation of the above six Divine Calls. The first Divine Call of union with the static Divine must be prolonged in order to experience the second Divine Call of union with Dynamic Divine Mother. These static and Dynamic Divine movements must be intensified to experience the third call which is a calling down of Supramental Brahman and supramental Maya to heart centre. Thus, the Psychic being becomes the centre of union of Paramatma and Paraprakrit i and the God’s Supramental door opens. Then the fourth Divine Call is initiated which is the calling down of Supramental Divine Mother, Paraprakriti to nether Material life, Apara-prakriti and thus Brahman Consciousness penetrates into Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths and Divinises life. The Mother and Sri Aurobindo’s plunge into Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths and the meeting of a million wounds there or wounds that are slow to heal are the outcome of the fifth Divine Call. The Last Divine Incarnation will divinise the Subconscient and Inconscient sheaths entirely and bring for humanity the perfection of Truth Supreme, which is identified as physical immortality and divinisation of the whole of nature. OM TAT SAT References: 1: The Gita-7.1, 2: Savitri-19, 3: Savitri-474, 4: Savitri-476, 5: Savitri-689, 6: The Gita-18.46, 7: The Gita-9.33, 8: “I do not very readily accept disciples as this path of Yoga is difficult one and it can be followed only if there is a special call.” Sri Aurobindo/SABCL/26/On Himself/p-175, 9: “The soul belongs to the Divine, and owes obedience and service to the Divine alone. If the Divine commands it to work for family, country or humanity, then it is all right and it can do so without being imprisoned...If the command does not come from the Divine, to serve these things is only to obey social and moral conventions.”17 December 1969, The Mother’s Centenary Works (second edition)/Vol-10/p-283, 10: Savitri-451, 11: “A Truth supreme has forced the world to be;” Savitri-658, “Fragments of Truth supreme have lit his soul,” Savitri-659, “All-ruler, ruled by none, the Truth supreme,” Savitri-661, “The Truth supreme, vast and impersonal” Savitri-662, “O Death, if thou couldst touch the Truth supreme” Savitri-663, “If Truth supreme transcends her shadow here” Savitri-663, “Then shall the Truth supreme be given to men:” Savitri-705, 12: “Well, what Sri Aurobindo did by leaving his body is somewhat equivalent, although far more total and complete and absolute – because he had that experience, he had that, he had it; I saw him, I saw him supramental on his bed, sitting on his bed…He has written: I am not doing it individually, for myself, but for the whole earth. And it was exactly the same thing for me – but oh, that experience! Nothing counted for me anymore: people, the earth – even the earth itself had absolutely no importance.” The Mother’s Agenda/15th July 1961 “It is finished, the dread mysterious sacrifice, Offered by God’s martyred body for the world; Gethsemane and Calvary are his lot, He carries the cross on which man’s soul is nailed; His escort is the curses of the crowd; Insult and jeer are his right’s acknowledgment; Two thieves slain with him mock his mighty death.” Savitri-445 (Sacrifice of an Avatar through earthly departure of body.) “Such seemed he (Avatar) as if one departed came Wearing the light of a celestial shape Splendidly alien to the mortal air.” Savitri-576, 13: The Gita-12.10, 14: “A million wounds gape in his secret heart.” Savitri-446, 15: “Assaults of Hell endured and Titan strokes And bore the fierce inner wounds that are slow to heal.” Savitri-230, 16: “For the past two days there has been the feeling of not knowing anything – NOTHING at all. I have had this feeling for a very long time, but now it has become extremely acute, as it always does at times of crisis, at times when things are on the verge of changing – or of getting clarified, or of exploding, or. From the purely material standpoint – chemically, biologically, medically, therapeutically speaking – I don’t believe many people do know (there may be some). But it doesn’t seem very clear to me – in any case, I don’t know. Yogically (I don’t mean spiritually: that was the first stage of my sadhana), it’s very easy to be a saint! Oh, even to be a sage is very easy. I feel I was born with it – it’s spontaneous and natural for me, and so simple! You know all that has to be done, and doing it is as easy as knowing it. it’s nothing. But this transformation of Matter! What has to be done? How is it to be done? What is the path? …Is there a path? Is there a procedure? Probably not…(silence) To be in a condition in which all is the Supreme, all is wonderful, all is marvelous, all is marvelous love, all is ... all is profound Joy – an unchanging, immutable, ever-present condition. To live in That, and then to have this bodily substance contradict it through every possible stupidity – losing sight, losing strength, pains here, pains there, disorders, weaknesses, incapacities of every type. And at the SAME TIME, the response within this body, no matter what happens to it, is, ‘O Lord, Your Grace is infinite.’ The contradiction is VERY disconcerting…From experience, I know perfectly well that when one is satisfied with being a saint or a sage and constantly maintains the right attitude, all goes well -the body doesn’t get sick, and even if there are attacks it recovers very easily; all goes very well ... AS LONG AS THERE IS NOT THIS WILL TO TRANSFORM. All the difficulties arise in protest against the will to transform; while if one says, ‘Very well, it’s all right, let things be as they are, I don’t care, I am perfectly happy, in a blissful state,’ then the body begins to feel content!...That’s the problem: something totally new is being introduced into Matter, and the body is protesting…After my ‘interview’ with Nature, when she told me that she would collaborate, I thought this difficulty would cease; many things have improved considerably (ONE part of Nature is collaborating), but not this. Plainly and clearly, it comes from the subconscient and the inconscient (wherever there is consciousness, all is well); it’s rising up all the time, all the time, and with – oh, disgusting persistence!...And then of course it’s accompanied by all the usual suggestions (but that’s nothing, it comes from a domain which is easily controlled). Suggestions of this type: ‘Well, but Sri Aurobindo himself didn’t do it!’ (I know why he didn’t. but people in general don’t know.) And every adverse vibration naturally takes advantage of this: ‘How do you expect to succeed where he didn’t!’ But... my answer is always the same: ‘When the Lord says it’s all over with, I will know it’s all over with; that will be the end of it, and so what!’ This stops them short…But it doesn’t keep them from starting up again! They did so particularly after I read the passage where Sri Aurobindo affirms, ‘THIS time I have come for THAT – and I shall do it.’ The day when I read this I turned towards him, not actually putting the question to him but simply turning towards him, and he told me, ‘Read the book through to the end.’ And I know, I know it’s true – when I have read the book through to the end I will understand what he has done and I will even have the power to reply to all these suggestions. But meanwhile, everything that wants to keep me from doing it, all this obscure and subconscious ill will, tries its best to keep me from reading, including giving me this eye hemorrhage.” The Mother’s Agenda-15.07.1961, 17: Savitri-451, 18: CWSA-32/The Mother with Letters on the Mother/p-8, 13, 19: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-622, “This however is a stage and not the whole perfection. The existence, however comparatively large and free, is still subject to the inferior nature. The sattwic, rajasic and tamasic ego is diminished but not eliminated; or if it seems to disappear, it has only sunk in our parts of action into the universal operation of the gunas, remains involved in them and is still working in a covert, subconscient fashion and may force itself to the front at any time. The sadhaka has therefore first to keep the idea and get the realisation of a one self or spirit in all behind all these workings (universalization of Consciousness). He must be aware behind Prakriti of the one supreme and universal Purusha. He must see and feel not only that all is the self-shaping of the one Force, Prakriti or Nature, but that all her actions are those of the Divine in all, the one Godhead in all, however veiled, altered and as it were perverted — for perversion comes by a conversion into lower forms — by transmission through the ego and the gunas. This will farther diminish the open or covert insistence of the ego and, if thoroughly realised, it will make it difficult or impossible for it to assert itself in such a way as to disturb or hamper the farther progress. The ego-sense will become, so far as it interferes at all, a foreign intrusive element and only a fringe of the mist of the old ignorance hanging on to the outskirts of the consciousness and its action. And, secondly, the universal Shakti must be realised, must be seen and felt and borne in the potent purity of its higher action, its supramental and spiritual workings. This greater vision of the Shakti will enable us to escape from the control of the gunas, to convert them into their divine equivalents and dwell in a consciousness in which the Purusha and Prakriti are one and not separated or hidden in or behind each other. There the Shakti will be in its every movement evident to us and naturally, spontaneously, irresistibly felt as nothing else but the active presence of the Divine, the shape of power of the supreme Self and Spirit.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-763, 20: “Sri Aurobindo’s way of Yoga is of a special character — it is neither sannyasa nor does it accept the ordinary way of human life. Its first stages can be practised anywhere. But unless there is a personal call to this particular way, there is no use in anybody taking to it. For it is a difficult path and there is little chance of success unless the aspiration is clear and fixed and the demand of the soul sincere and unbreakable. Sri Aurobindo does not admit anyone to this Yoga unless he has some ground to decide that there is in him this special call and that he has an evident capacity for this way — usually it is only after seeing personally at the time of one of the three darshans he gives to disciples and others that he decides whether or not to admit. On the strength of correspondence only he very seldom makes any decision of this kind.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-555, "So people who want to lead a special life or have a special organization to have (Spiritual) experiences, that's quite silly – the greatest possible diversity of experiences is at your disposal every minute, every minute. Only you must learn not to have a mental ambition for "great" things." "...whatever the circumstances may be, even apparently the worst, if you are in the true attitude and have the true consciousness, it doesn’t matter in the least for your inner progress,..." (Ref: The Mother’s Agenda/20.11.1963, The Mother's Agenda/10.12.1969), 21: CWSA-32/The Mother with Letters on the Mother/p-13, 22: “Sri Aurobindo had already realised in full two of the four great realisations on which his Yoga and his spiritual philosophy are founded. (1) The first he had gained while meditating with the Maharastrian Yogi Vishnu Bhaskar Lele at Boroda in 1908; it was the realisation of the silent spaceless and timeless Brahman gained after a complete and abiding stillness of the whole consciousness and attended at first by an overwhelming feeling and perception of the total unreality of the world, though this feeling was disappeared after his (2) second realization which was that of the cosmic consciousness and of the Divine as all beings and all that is, which happened in the Allipore jail and of which he has spoken in his speech at Uttarapara. To the other two realisations, (3) that of the supreme Reality with the static and dynamic Brahman as its two aspects and (4) that of the higher planes of consciousness leading to the Supermind he was already on his way in his meditations in the Alipore jail.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-36/Autobiographical Notes/p-94, "As for the conquest of death, it is only one of the sequelae of supramentalisation — and I am not aware that I have forsworn my views about the supramental descent. But I never said or thought that the supramental descent would automatically make everybody immortal. The supramental descent can only make the best conditions for anybody who can open to it then or thereafter attaining to the supramental consciousness and its consequences. But it would not dispense with the necessity of sadhana. If it did, the logical consequence would be that the whole earth, men, dogs and worms, would suddenly wake up to find themselves supramental. There would be no need of an Asram or of Yoga." CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-312-313, "Work here (in the Ashram) and work done in the world are of course not the same thing. The work there is not in any way a divine work in special- it is ordinary work in the world. But still one must take it as a training and do it in the spirit of Karmayoga- what matters there is not the nature of work in itself, but the spirit in which it is done. It must be in the spirit of the Gita , without desire, with detachment, without repulsion, but doing it as perfectly as possible, not for the sake of the family or promotion or to please the superiors, but simply because it is the thing that has been given in the hand to do. It is a field of inner training, nothing else. One has to learn in it these things, equality, desirelessness, dedication. It is not the work as a thing for its own sake, but one’s way of doing it that one has to dedicate to the Divine. Done in that spirit, it doesn’t matter what the work is. If one trains oneself spiritually like that, then one will be ready to do in the true way whatever special work directly for the Divine, (such as the Ashram work) one may any day be given to do." (SABCL-23/Letters on Yoga-II/p-852) 23: “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, “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 “Hard is the world-redeemer’s heavy task; The world itself becomes his adversary, Those he would save are his antagonists: This world is in love with its own ignorance, Its darkness turns away from the saviour light, It gives the cross in payment for the crown.” Savitri-448, "A still deep sea, he laughs in rolling waves; Universal, he is all, — transcendent, none. To man’s righteousness this is his cosmic crime, Almighty beyond good and evil to dwell Leaving the good to their fate in a wicked world And evil to reign in this enormous scene." Savitri-657 24: "What Science does for our knowledge of the material world, replacing first appearances and uses by the hidden truths and as yet occult powers of its great natural forces and in our own minds beliefs and opinions by verified experience and a profounder understanding, Yoga does for the higher planes and worlds and possibilities of our being which are aimed at by the religions. Therefore all this mass of graded experience existing behind closed doors to which the consciousness of man may find, if it wills, the key, falls within the province of a comprehensive Yoga of knowledge, which need not be confined to the seeking after the Absolute alone or the knowledge of the Divine in itself or of the Divine only in its isolated relations with the individual human soul. It is true that the consciousness of the Absolute is the highest reach of the Yoga of knowledge and that the possession of the Divine is its first, greatest and most ardent object and that to neglect it for an inferior knowledge is to afflict our Yoga with inferiority or even frivolity and to miss or fall away from its characteristic object; but, the Divine in itself being known, the Yoga of knowledge may well embrace also the knowledge of the Divine in its relations with ourselves and the world on the different planes of our existence. To rise to the pure Self being steadfastly held to as the summit of our subjective self-uplifting, we may from that height possess our lower selves even to the physical and the workings of Nature which belong to them." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-460-461, "We must recognise that our primary aim in knowledge must be to realise our own supreme Self more than that Self in others or as the Lord of Nature or as the All; for that is the pressing need of the individual, to arrive at the highest truth of his own being, to set right its disorders, confusions, false identifications, to arrive at its right concentration and purity and to know and mount to its source." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-342, 25: CWSA-21/The Lfe Divine/p-58, 26: CWSA-36/ Autobiographical Note/p-222, “The Jiva, as has been seen, is the meeting-place of the play of the dual aspect of the Divine, Prakriti and Purusha , and in the higher spiritual consciousness he becomes simultaneously one with both these aspects, and there he takes up and combines all the divine relations created by their interaction. This it is that makes possible the dual attitude.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-768, 27: "When the Unity has been well founded, the static half of our work is done, but the active half remains. It is then that in the One we must see the Master and His Power, — Krishna and Kali as I name them using the terms of our Indian religions; the Power occupying the whole of myself and my nature which becomes Kali and ceases to be anything else, the Master using, directing, enjoying the Power to his ends, not mine, with that which I call myself only as a centre of his universal existence and responding to its workings as a soul to the Soul, taking upon itself his image until there is nothing left but Krishna and Kali. This is the stage I have reached in spite of all setbacks and recoils, imperfectly indeed in the secureness and intensity of the state, but well enough in the general type. When that has been done, then we may hope to found securely the play in us of his divine Knowledge governing the action of his divine Power. The rest is the full opening up of the different planes of his world-play and the subjection of Matter and the body and the material world to the law of the higher heavens of the Truth." CWSA-36/Autobiographical Notes/p-290, 28: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-268, 29: “In the supramental consciousness, there are no problems — the problem is created by the division set up by the Mind. The Supramental sees the Truth as a single whole and everything falls into its place in that whole. The Supramental is also spiritual, but the old Yogas reach Sachchidananda through the spiritualised mind and depart into the eternally static oneness of Sachchidananda or rather pure Sat (Existence) absolute and eternal or else a pure Non-existence absolute and eternal. Ours having realised Sachchidananda in the spiritualised mind plane proceeds to realise it in the supramental plane.” CWSA-28/ Letters on Yoga-I/p-133-134, “The idea of the supermind, the Truth-Consciousness is there in the Rig Veda according to Sri Aurobindo’s interpretation and in one or two passages of the Upanishads , but in the Upanishads it is there only in seed in the conception of the being of knowledge, vijnanamaya purusha , exceeding the mental, vital and physical being; in the Rig Veda the idea is there but in principle only, it is not developed and even the principle of it has disappeared from the Hindu tradition. It is these things among others that constitute the novelty of Sri Aurobindo’s message as compared with the Hindu tradition, the idea that the world is not either a creation of Maya or only a play, lıla , of the Divine, or a cycle of births in the ignorance from which we have to escape, but a field of manifestation in which there is a progressive evolution of the soul and the nature in Matter and from Matter through Life and Mind to what is beyond Mind till it reaches the complete revelation of Sachchidananda in life. It is this that is the basis of the Yoga and gives a new sense to life.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-444-445, "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/p-943, 30: The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda/Vol.-2/p-170, Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: “Write to him that compliance with his request to see me is impossible. I do not see anyone — I do not speak with anybody or give oral instructions in Yoga . As for the rest, this is a special path of Yoga and only those are accepted who have a special call to it, not merely a general desire for the spiritual life. It is not a life of Sannyasa or a Yoga that can be done by Japa etc. but something much more difficult, so difficult that even those who have a call do not find it easy to go through to the end, and for those who have not the call, it would be impossible. If he likes, however, he can go on practising his Japa with an aspiration towards this path and if he gets any experiences by which a call to it becomes evident, then I can reconsider his case.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-554, “When I spoke of being faithful to the light of the soul and the divine Call, I was not referring to anything in the past or to any lapse on your part. I was simply suggesting the great need in all crises and attacks, — to refuse to listen to any suggestions, impulses, lures and to oppose to them all the call of the Truth, the imperative beckoning of the Light. In all doubt and depression, to say “ I belong to the Divine, I cannot fail ”; to all suggestions of impurity and unfitness, to reply “ I am a child of Immortality chosen by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother ; I have but to be true to myself and to them — the victory is sure; even if I fell, I would be sure to rise again ” ; to all impulsions to depart and serve some other ideal, to reply “ This is the greatest, this is the Truth, this alone can satisfy the soul within me; I will endure through all tests and tribulations to the very end of the divine journey.” This is what I mean by faithfulness to the Light and the Call." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-32/The Mother with Letters on the Mother/p-104 ,

The World Hindu Summit Meet II Sanatana Dharma “This Sanatana Dharma has many scriptures, Veda, Vedanta, Gita, Upanishad, Darshana, Purana, Tantra, nor could it reject the Bible or the Koran ; but its real, most authoritative scripture is in the heart in which Eternal has His dwelling. It is in our inner spiritual experiences that we shall find the proof and source of the world’s Scriptures, the law of knowledge, love and conduct, the basis and inspiration of Karmayoga .” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-8/Karmayogin/p-26 The second lecture delivered by S.A. Maa Krishna at the World Hindu Summit-II held at Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia on 15.06.2013: (Sri Auroprem’s Report from Bali: The objective of the auspicious World Hindu Summit-II was to provide a continuing impetus (from the inaugural Summit in 2012) for the creation of a World Hindu Centre (WHC) and World Hindu Parisad (WHP) to ensure that Hinduism in Bali (and in Indonesia more broadly) would accumulate the Soul Force through support and collaboration from brother Souls from all around the world to help it flower and meet many challenges it faces. The Summit united the world's diversities under the single umbrella of the great Hindu tradition, which consists of Revered Swamijis , Saints, Gurus and learned Academics from various sub-schools of thought, came together initially to exchange brainstorming ideas and finally arrived at an exceedingly ecstatic state transcending the limitation of the summit Word and experience of the descent of the Divine’s Grace. Thus, the land of Peace, Shanti, is transformed in to an occasion of Spiritual ease, Sukha , and Joy and Laughter of the Soul, Hasya . It further brought completeness to the many aspects of the wonderful Balinese culture and architecture and left a deep imprint of the sincerity, hospitality, consecration and genuine Spiritual pursuit of the Balinese Seekers. Mother S.A. Maa Krishna inaugurated the book “The Integral Yoga and Sanatana Dharma ” and presented a Spiritual vision, which called on the realisation that all Religions stem from the single Sanatana Dharma and that eventually all men must rise beyond the level of Religion and find their direct relationship with the Divine. The WHS/WHC is being prepared to hold such a vision, but it is still a newborn infant that seems to be at the level of Religion but with the capacity of clear discernment towards Spiritual truth. So the elevation of Consciousness from this Nature’s unconscious Yoga through slow Religious Evolution to conscious Yoga through swift Spiritual Evolution will occur in due course. But there seemed such a large receptivity to Mother S.A. Maa Krishna’s presence from all she met, but particularly by the Balinese Aspirants, who had such a genuine hunger for the Divine Love that she emanated and many were blessed with Spiritual names by her. I foresee Bali holds a great promise for a Spiritual awakening in the years to come and it will definitely be a field for the Lord's action and manifestation of His Divine Love.) OM Mannatha Sri Jagannatha Mad Guru Sri Jagad Guru Mad Atma Sarva Bhutatma Tasmai Sri Guruvae Namah “Supreme Lord eternal Truth let us obey Thee alone and live according to Truth.” The Mother OM Swastyastu Om Namo Bhagavateh Divine Amar Atman! My pranams to you all. Today I am going to speak about one of my Spiritual experiences on this occasion of the World Hindu Summit-II, 2013. Last year, 2012 when I got the invitation for the Summit, I was conducting a Yoga Sadhana Camp in my Ashram and my mind was not drawn to this Summit. But this year, when I got the invitation, I concentrated on whether I should attend and I offered the decision at the feet of The Mother. And I asked Her whether this Summit is of any importance to Her work. After one morning’s meditation, I got the following direction from The Mother.. ."The World is preparing for a big change, will you help?" these were the words of The Mother and She repeated it three times. After I heard the last sentence, I felt the world is going to be prepared for a big change ...what is that change?... Till now none knows about it...but it is going to be changed...After I heard the last sentence, I told The Mother "Yes Mother, I will help". Then I prepared for my journey and under Her guidance, I prepared a book solely for this Summit. The book “The Integral Yoga and Sanatana Dharma,” I feel is the message the Supreme wants to deliver to the whole world on this occasion. By Their grace, everything was harmoniously prepared in the space of a few short weeks. Given the Divine Grace that has been seen to the preparation and my attendance at this Summit, I want to request some protocols to be included in the Bali Charter in the World Hindu Summit-II not on behalf of me, but on behalf of The Mother . Request Proposal to be included in the Bali Charter-2013 in The World Hindu Summit-II : 1) The objective of all exclusive religions is to generalise the highest available Spiritual Truth for the largest benefit of humanity. The objective of all Spirituality of Oneness is to trace the endless unfolding of the opulence of the Spirit and preserve its highest discovered truth in some secret Schools of Spiritual Fortress for the present and future benefit of humanity. One of the main objectives of The World Hindu Summit is to bridge the gulf between Self-diffusion of Religion and Self-concentration of Spirituality whose Source is Sanatana Dharma. So the Sanatana Dharma is identified as the Mother of all Religions and all Spirituality. 2) The necessity of mutually destructive schools of Philosophy arises when human mentality lays an exclusive emphasis on one side of the Spiritual experience, affirms that as the sole eternal Truth of existence and states it in terms of all dividing mental logic; each claims to be the truth and superior and taxes the others with error and inferior truth-expressions; each feels impelled to destroy or refuse others in order that itself alone may survive and spread the message of the Truth. Again, if we give support on this play of difference then we assert that the Supreme and the human Soul are eternally different and reject the validity of a Spiritual experience that transcends their difference. 3) The wide and supple method of the evolutionary Nature must provide ample scope to preserve the true intention of all Religious seeking; the development of Religion in India has witnessed that any number of religious formulations, cults and disciplines have been nurtured, allowed and even encouraged to subsist side by side and each man was free to accept and follow his own Religion which is congenial to his thought, feeling, temperament and build of Nature, svabhava and svadharma. 4) A unity behind diversity and discord is the secret of the variety of human religions and philosophies; for they all get at some image or some side clue, touch some portion of the one Truth or envisage some one of its myriad aspects. All Religions are forms and fragments descended from one eternal Religion, Sanatana Dharma or all religions would be true as developments of the one eternal Religion, all philosophies would be valid, each in its own field as a statement of its own universe-view from its own angle. 5) Unity of all Religions is possible when each man is said to have his own Religion; he is not bound by any sect or restricted to any traditional form, rather he will follow a free self-adaptation of his Nature in its relation with the Supreme. So the true purpose of Religion is to link the human with the Divine and in so doing, sublimate the thought, life and the flesh to admit the Spirit’s law. It was felt necessary that man must approach God through endless variety in order that he might come to know Him entirely. 6) The greatest unity of all Religion or all humanity is possible through the conscious individual Soul when he is perfectly capable of every kind of Spiritual experience and possesses the highest Integral Knowledge. And he calls down the ultimate Divine Truth to elevate the things and creatures to their highest and widest Divine manifestation. 7) Earlier, the 2012 Bali Charter) it was pointed out that those who have no violence are Hindus. Now this widest view must be further affirmed that this influence of all-inclusive Sanatana Dharma must capture the whole of humanity who will possess Peace, Love, Light, Ananda and Purity, which is the innate nature of each normal living being. As with the help of Science and Education, Nature has succeeded in establishing a mental life for all mankind, so by Yoga she will succeed in making mankind fit for her Spiritual evolution or reveal God in humanity and it is through the general advancement of the human race that the victories of the Spirit can be secured. Lastly, all the efforts to organise this Mahasabha must culminate in a large Divine Descent and bring Peace and Harmony to all sections of humanity. Om Tat Sat Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Post Speech Thesis: The existence of Sanatana Dharma must be secured from within and not from without; when its Self-expansion through Religion becomes a willing subordinate and conscious outcome of its Self-concentration through Spirituality. The external threat, destruction and calamity often visit in the life of a race, nation and community, either through Nature’s intervention or through human agency, when there is a general arrest of the growth of Consciousness. Catastrophe also visits during the transition of Earth passing from one state of consciousness to another state and it is Nature’s brutal means to shake the inertia of Matter. The worst of such manifestations tend to occur when the best and leading individual representative Souls suffer corruption and decline in their mind and heart or become oblivious of the Law of Truth, Dharma . So, throughout the evolution of human history, it is always the constant upward aspiration of the few that has kept humanity alive and dragged them ahead toward a Divine destiny. Time is moving so fast that the individual has to decide whether he will live with the past that is perpetuating or with the present that is exhausting or with the future that is yet to be born. If he will recognise this fact that the world is moving very fast then he will be able to bridge what he knows and the new knowledge. Unity of all Religions is possible when they are able to shun their limitations and rigidity and constantly enrich themselves with new descending overhead Truth and Light. The World Hindu Summit-II at Bali has succeeded in propelling the creative movement of the Eternal through receptive Divine Souls who knowingly or unknowingly have called down His vast Light, Love and Ananda to save earth and men. OM TAT SAT Download this Web Page in PDF format: Photo Gallery-I, Photo Gallery-II “The future of India is very clear. India is the Guru of the world. The future structure of the world depends on India. India is the living soul. India is incarnating the spiritual knowledge in the world. The Government of India ought to recognise the significance of India in this sphere and plan their action accordingly.” The Mother The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol.13/p-353/February 1954, THE INTEGRAL YOGA & SANATANA DHARMA “There is only one country in the world that knows that there is only one Truth to which everything should be turned, and that is India . Other countries have forgotten this, but in India it is ingrained in the people, and one day it will come out…We must all recognize this and work for this. India is the cradle of the Truth and will lead the world to Truth. India will find its real place in the world when it realizes this.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-19.04.1969, THE WORLD HINDU SUMMIT SPEECH “Already the Vedanta and the Yoga have exceeded their Asiatic limit and are beginning to influence the life and practice of America and Europe; and they have long been filtering into Western thought by a hundred indirect channels. But these are small rivers and underground streams. The world waits for the rising of India to receive the divine flood in its fullness.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-13/Essays in Philosophy and Yoga/p-10-11 “(Lord Sri Krishna said to Sri Aurobindo in Alipore Jail in 1908) “I am raising up this nation to send forth my word. This is the Sanatana Dharma, this is the eternal religion which you did not really know before, but which I have now revealed to you. The agnostic and the sceptic in you have been answered, for I have given you proofs within and without you, physical and subjective, which have satisfied you. When you go forth, speak to your nation always this word that it is for the Sanatana Dharma that they arise, it is for the world and not for themselves that they arise. I am giving them freedom for the service of the world. When therefore it is said that India shall rise, it is the Sanatana Dharma that shall rise. When it is said that India shall be great, it is the Sanatana Dharma that shall be great. When it is said that India shall expand and extend herself, it is the Sanatana Dharma that shall expand and extend itself over the world. It is for the dharma and by the dharma that India exists. To magnify the religion means to magnify the country.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-8/Karmayogin/p-10