The Integral Yoga & 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 t he world’s Scriptures, the law of knowledge, love and conduct, the basis and inspiration of Karmayoga .” Sri Aurobindo The Gita informs us that the subtlety of the Divine is beyond the capacity of sense mind and can be caught by the severely trained clear austerity of the Intellect, Budhigrahyam atindriyam , which can begin to open the truth that transcends itself; the Integral Yoga further confirms that the knowledge of the Unknowable is neither knowable by thought nor by sense organ but can be known and attainable by the extension of the field and range of Consciousness and by revolution of our internal being through Spiritual experience which is a contact of the Consciousness with the soul and body of the Truth. Consciousness is a self-aware and self-expressive luminous creative Force of Being of which mind is a middle term; below mentality it sinks into vital and material movements of the subconscient and great denial of Sachchidananda and above, the Consciousness rises into Supramental movement of complete affirmation which is for us Superconscient. To truly understand the world process and time process, the consciousness must go beyond the finite reason and finite sense to larger reason and Spiritual sense in touch with the Infinite Consciousness. The Consciousness has the capacity to know things by their Soul and not by their outer shape and can gain direct knowledge and perception of material things without the aid of sense organs. It has the further capacity to enter direct contact with the Consciousness of fellow brothers, animals and plant kingdom. The extension of this Consciousness can be satisfying if the inner enlargement is from the individual to the cosmic existence and the witness which exists within us is not an observing mind but a cosmic Consciousness, calm and eternal and broods equally in the living human body and to which mind and senses are dispensable instruments. Though, the Unknowable is not knowable by the finite mind or to our limited consciousness, it is not altogether and in every way unknowable; it is self-evident to an infinite Consciousness or a knowledge by Identity and the Spiritual Being within us can unravel the whole of the Unknowable and its complete Divine manifestation can be experienced which is the entire truth of the Sanatana Dharma by exploring all the ranges of Consciousness from the dark Inconscient plane, avidyayam antare, to the highest plane of Sachchidananda. OM TAT SAT

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 Spiritual Mother , She stands as four-fold Spiritual Mother Powers and as the Sadhaka of integral Yoga pursuing Her universalised Sadhana ⁵⁵ in between Sri Aurobindo’s Consciousness and the World; as the Executrix Psychic Mother, She draws heaven seeking and world shunning liberated Souls earthward to reconcile Self and Nature, fills in them the equal four-fold Soul-Forces, builds in the abysm of Hell a road to Heaven and pursues Her own transformation in the cells of the body. As the Ambassadress Mother She calls down ceaselessly Timeless Eternity and Spaceless Infinity to illumine the Subconscient and Inconscient 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

The Mother's Relics and Paduka "And saw her hand in every circumstance And felt her touch in every limb and cell." Savitri-529 “The crisis in which the Avatar appears, though apparent to the outward eye only as a crisis of events and great material changes, is always in its source and real meaning a crisis in the consciousness of humanity when it has to undergo some grand modification and effect some new development. For this action of change a divine force is needed; but the force varies always according to the power of consciousness which it embodies; hence the necessity of a divine consciousness manifesting in the mind and soul of humanity. Where, indeed, the change is mainly intellectual and practical, the intervention of the Avatar is not needed; there is a great uplifting of consciousness, a great manifestation of power in which men are for the time being exalted above their normal selves, and this surge of consciousness and power finds its wave-crests in certain exceptional individuals, vibhutis , whose action leading the general action is sufficient for the change intended… But when the crisis has a spiritual seed or intention, then a complete or a partial manifestation of the God-consciousness in a human mind and soul comes as its originator or leader. That is the Avatar .” Sri Aurobindo CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita/p-168-169 Sri Aurobindo’s Sacred Relics The Supreme reveals in the Gita that He manifests again and again on the earth, not only for the restoration of Good by the destruction of Evil but for His Divine Birth of transformation of Nature and Soul through His Divine Action, Janma Karma Chamedivyam. ¹ Their³ arrival passage was made clear through a vision demonstrated to S.A. Maa Krishna, on 4th June-2011. In this vision, she was climbing alone a high mountain with long and wide stairs and was holding a golden big bucket of three feet high. She felt tired as it was heavy enough to lift, but she was holding it with two hands and climbing up the hill. On the top of the mountain, Sri Aurobindo was staying there and she saw the Young Sri Aurobindo , wearing the Dhoti , was coming down. After seeing Him she felt, He would come and help her in lifting up the bucket. But He came very silently and stood behind her. As she was holding a bucket, and it was not permitted to keep it on the ground, so she could not do Pranam to Him. After looking up the mountain, He called to one of His disciples and told him, “You take her to NILACHAL , I AM COMING.” After this, she felt a mighty power is helping her to climb up the mountain. His disciple took her to one place, the left side of the mountain, which is four stairs below the Sri Aurobindo’s abode on the mountain top. She went there for rest and waited for the Lord. After that, she got up. Years before (the year of 2005) there was a vision of Sri Krishna, who demonstrated the significance of each floor of the Sri Matriniketan Ashram’s main building. As per Him, the ground floor of the main building where there is a meditation hall is meant for The Mother’s action in the Psychic plane, its first floor is meant for Sri Aurobindo’s action in the Spiritual Plane and He, intended His wish to stay in its second floor. How He wanted to stay here was also demonstrated symbolically, He became a big statue of around fifteen feet high with a flute in His hand and after some time His image was transformed into the statue of Saraswati ² with Vina in her hand, signifying that His Divine Love is dynamising as Divine Action. A similar pictorial demonstration was repeated of how The Mother had possessed the ground floor and Sri Aurobindo had possessed the first floor. When The Mother’s and Sri Aurobindo’s sacred Relics were installed on Janmastami ,² 21.08.2011, on the second floor of the main building, it was a fulfillment of Sri Krishna’s promise. Their coming is an intensification of the Nara-Narayana Play and extension of Their Supramental Consciousness to hold and capture the whole earth of which the proposed project of Sri Matri (dhyana) Mandir is a symbolic representation. Thus a ground is prepared for the Supreme Mother and the Supreme Lord for Their entire Descent. On 3rd October, 2015, The Mother's Paduka was installed here and we received this Paduka from Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Pondicherry , on 4th August, 2015, from The Mother's room (first floor). A series of visions were recorded which paved the passage clear for installation of Their sacred Relics, Her auspicious Paduka and construction of Sri Matri Dhyana Mandir . OM TAT SAT References: 1: The Gita-4.9, 2: Incidentally The Mother and Sri Aurobindo were born on Sri Panchami and Janmashtami respectively in the Indian calendar. 3: Birth of Avatar described in Savitri: "In the struggle and upheaval of the world He saw the labour of a godhead’s birth ... The divine Dwarf towered to unconquered worlds, Earth grew too narrow for his victory." Savitri-43 "All-knowing he accepts our darkened state, Divine, wears shapes of animal or man; Eternal, he assents to Fate and Time, Immortal, dallies with mortality." Savitri-66 “Our error crucifies Reality¹ To force its birth and divine body here, Compelling, incarnate in a human form¹ And breathing in limbs that one can touch and clasp, Its Knowledge to rescue an ancient Ignorance, Its saviour light the inconscient universe.” Savitri-170-171 (1: Avatar ) “Action¹ a ripple in the Infinite And² birth a gesture of Eternity”³ Savitri-200 (1: Divine Action, 2: Divine birth, 3: Janma karma cha me divyam : My birth and action are both Divine-The Gita-4.9) “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 “The mystery of God’s birth and acts remains 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 ,¹ Behind the gold eidolon of a Name.” Savitri-311 (1: Advent of last Avatar ) “It is finished, the dread mysterious sacrifice, Offered by God’s martyred body for the world; Gethsemane¹ and Calvary² are his lot, He carries the cross on which man’s soul is nailed;” Savitri-445 (1: Gethsemane: A garden where Jesus was betrayed. 2: Calvary: Hill top on which Lord Christ was crucified.) “ The sorrow of all living things shall come And knock at his¹ doors and live within his house;” Savitri-446 (1: Avatar’s) "One yet may come armoured, invincible ; (last Avatar) His will immobile meets the mobile hour; The world’s blows cannot bend that victor head; Calm and sure are his steps in the growing Night; The goal recedes, he hurries not his pace, He turns not to high voices in the night; He asks no aid from the inferior gods; His eyes are fixed on his immutable aim. Man turns aside or chooses easier paths; He keeps to the one high and difficult road That sole can climb to the Eternal’s peaks; The ineffable planes already have felt his tread; He has made heaven and earth his instruments, But the limits fall from him of earth and heaven; Their law he transcends but uses as his means. He has seized life’s hands, he has mastered his own heart. The feints of Nature mislead not his sight, Inflexible his look towards Truth’s far end; Fate’s deaf resistance cannot break his will. (last Avatar) In the dreadful passages, the fatal paths, Invulnerable his soul, his heart unslain, He lives through the opposition of earth’s Powers And Nature’s ambushes and the world’s attacks." Savitri-449 "He must call light into its dark abysms, (last Avatar) Else never can Truth conquer Matter’s sleep And all earth look into the eyes of God. 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. He must know the thought that moves the demon act And justifies the Titan’s erring pride And the falsehood lurking in earth’s crooked dreams: He must enter the eternity of Night And know God’s darkness as he knows his Sun. For this he must go down into the pit, (last Avatar) For this he must invade the dolorous Vasts. Imperishable and wise and infinite, He still must travel Hell the world to save." Savitri-450 "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. (Advent of last Avatar) Earth shall be made a home of Heaven’s light, A seer heaven-born shall lodge in human breasts; The superconscient beam shall touch men’s eyes And the truth-conscious world come down to earth Invading Matter with the Spirit’s ray, Awaking its silence to immortal thoughts, Awaking the dumb heart to the living Word. This mortal life shall house Eternity’s bliss, The body’s self taste immortality. Then shall the world-redeemer’s task be done." Savitri-451 (last Avatar) “Only if God assumes the human mind And puts on mortal ignorance for his cloak And makes himself the Dwarf with triple¹ stride, Can he² help man to grow into the God. ” Savitri-488 (1: three gunas , 2: Vamana Avatar ) “So man ¹ evolving to divinest heights Colloques still with the animal and the Djinn; The human godhead with star-gazer eyes Lives still in one house with the primal beast. The high meets the low, all is a single plan.” Savitri-542 (1: Satyavan ) (Savitri said) “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.” Savitri-591-92 "It is My path that men follow in every way," (The Gita-3.23, 4.11) "But when the hour of the Divine draws near The Mighty Mother shall take birth in Time (Advent of last Avatar) And God be born into the human clay In forms made ready by your human lives. Then shall the Truth supreme be given to men:" Savitri-705 “The incarnate dual Power shall open God’s door, Eternal supermind touch earthly Time. The superman shall wake in mortal man And manifest the hidden demigod Or grow into the God-Light and God-Force Revealing the secret deity in the cave. Then shall the earth be touched by the Supreme, His bright unveiled Transcendence shall illumine The mind and heart and force the life and act To interpret his inexpressible mystery In a heavenly alphabet of Divinity’s signs.” Savitri-705 download-1 download-2 download-3 download-4 download-5 download-6 download-7 “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 consciousne ss. ” The Mother The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol-13/p-32 “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/Vol-13/p-62-63 "And I saw for Sri Aurobindo (although he hadn't yet started this systematic transformation; but still, he was constantly pulling the supramental force down into his body), even in his case, it took five days to show the first slight sign of decomposition. I would have kept his body longer, but the government always meddles in other people's business, naturally, and they pestered me awfully, saying it was forbidden to keep a body so long and that we should ... So when the body began to (what's the word?) shrink – it was shrinking and contracting, that is, dehydrating – then we had to do it. He had had enough time to come out, since almost everything came into my body – almost everything that was material came into my body ." The Mother The Mother's Agenda/August 10, 1963

The Ashram in Brief “That is exactly what Sri Aurobindo wanted and attempted; he used to say, “If I can find a hundred people, it will be enough for my purpose.” The Mother The Mother's Agenda 16.09.1964 "If there is an opposition between the spiritual life and that of the world, it is that gulf which he (a Sadhaka of integral Yoga) is here to bridge, that opposition which he is here to change into a harmony. If the world is ruled by the flesh and the devil, all the more reason that the children of Immortality should be here to conquer it for God and the Spirit. If life is an insanity, then there are so many million souls to whom there must be brought the light of divine reason; if a dream, yet is it real within itself to so many dreamers who must be brought either to dream nobler dreams or to awaken; or if a lie, then the truth has to be given to the deluded." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-327-328, Sri Aurobindo wanted a few prepared human vessels who must be channels for the vast descent of Divine Light, Force, Wisdom, Love, Delight and Beauty and enrich earth's floor. His requirements of one hundred perfect instruments are those who live in cosmic Consciousness, by whose pressure all objective life will become part of the subjective existence and they realise, perceive, feel, see and hear only the Divine in every way; in all forms and all happenings of the world are taking place within their vast universal Self. Their outer surface Nature is a concentration and radiation of silence, calm, stillness and peace. ‘To grow in the spirit is the greatest help one can give to others, for then something flows out naturally to those around that helps them.’¹²⁵ The ‘special work’¹²⁶ of integral Yoga is ‘of bringing down the higher consciousness with all its effect for the earth’¹²⁶ without ‘too eager to help others,’¹²⁵ without ‘accepting the nature of man and the world as it is’¹²⁶ and by standing ‘apart from the rest of the world.’¹²⁶ Integral Yoga proposes that Universalised Consciousness is the outcome of a long movement of Consciousness between Psychic and Spiritual planes replacing the earlier slow evolution of consciousness between three modes of Nature, Gunas and in this vast Consciousness (1) equality becomes perfect and consecration becomes complete and absolute, or this surrender of whole being ‘has to be accomplished slowly and with difficulty by the being itself before the supramental transformation can become at all possible;’¹⁴⁸ ‘A perfect equality not only of the self, but in the nature’¹⁴⁷ is also the sign of universalized consciousness; (2) exclusive concentration of Mind is replaced with the faculty of Multiple-concentrations; thus one can pursue triple Yoga of Karma, Jnana and Bhakti simultaneously and ceaselessly, (3) transformation of human Nature into Divine Nature is practicable, as in this Consciousness the World is inseparable from the individual; with the activation of cosmic Self, Savitri had this experience, 'all changed within her and without.'¹⁵⁰ (4) His time and space experience is completely different from ordinary man subjected to three gunas, the latter lives in the present succession of moments oblivious of his past and future and his little habitation of space is separated from the world and the former lives in the triple time of past, present and future and the whole world lives within his cosmic Self; his universalised Spirit can move backward towards the past of this birth and past births and illumine the obscure corners of his Subconscient and Inconscient sheaths and his Spirit can travel forward in time to call down all future possiblities to present moment; (5) outer wandering and movement reduces and is replaced by the more and more inner wandering of Soul which shows interest only in eternal things and 'In every shrine it cries for the clasp of God'¹⁴⁹; (6) in this Cosmic Consciousness, Matter is real to Spirit, Spirit is real to Matter and Matter is reconciled with Spirit in order to resolve all world problem; (7) his universal Love needs no external aid and expression or 'Loved all and spoke no word and made no sign,' (Savitri-358) (8) in addition to his own individual suffering, he is ready to bear a part of earth's heavy burden and suffering and ‘only the self-ruler (swarat ) and master man (samrat ) can help, in leading the human race forward spiritually towards this consummation and towards some image of a greater divine truth in their personal and communal existence. He becomes a light and power of the Truth to which he has climbed and a means for others’ ascension;’¹⁵¹ he will be fully aware himself with two Avatar's action, that of (a) “A million wounds gape in his (Avatar’s) secret heart" (Savitri-446) and (b) "Are there not still a million fights to wage?" (Savitri-687) (9) He will not remain indifferent to the people dying everyday and every moment, rather he will maintain the ceaseless movement of inner Consciousness in harmonising and changing the destiny of the race in the Spirit 'The ages have not made her passion less; No victory she admits of Death or Fate;' (Savitri-354) and thus, (10) a fitness has arrived for ascension into still higher Supramental Consciousness. The immediate preoccupation of these few instruments of Truth who are concerned with Integral Yoga will be the increase and accumulation of Soul Force through the fourfold Divine union that of Jivatma’s union with Paramatma, Jivatma’s union with Para-prakriti, Paramatma’s union with Para-prakriti and Para-prakriti’s union with Apara-prakriti . This accumulation or multiplication of Soul Power to transform the lower Nature is identified by Sri Aurobindo as 'the utmost importance in the Yoga of self-perfection.'¹⁵⁴ Their action on the world will be largely inner subjective action dictated by the power of triple-time of the Spirit and they will accumulate Spiritual energy to such an extent that the Transcendent Divine forces of oceanic proportion¹⁴⁵ will invade the earth’s dark Inconscient rock from above, within and below. The danger of the Inconscient Sheath swallowing the whole earth to its dark breast perpetually stands as an evolutionary threat and barrier. Earth is to be saved from life’s immense desire and destructive Forces from their ‘bleeding roots’¹²⁸ through the invasion of strong affirmative Spiritual forces from below the feet, ("The secret God beneath the threshold dwells." Savitri-68) within the Psychic being, ("In a human breast her occult presence lived;" Savitri-275) around the universal Self ("His gates to the world were swept with seas of light." Savitri-236) and above the head, ("With the Truth-Light strike earth’s massive roots of trance," Savitri-72) (“It (dynamic Spirit) is within, below, without, above.” Savitri-98 ) and to keep this action active and its growing intensity is the responsibility of few fit channels of human instruments. A Spiritual fence of protection is to be built, which at present is confined to a few privileged Souls, who will admit ‘through its gates only such activities as consent to undergo the law of the spiritual transformation.’¹³⁸ This protective Spiritual wall ("An inner wall of silence could be built," Savitri-187) will extend itself to cover the whole of humanity. Or a ‘golden tower’⁶⁵ of protection is built in the subtle world with the help of ‘flame child’⁶⁵ who are prepared Souls, ready to become channels of a vast inflow of Supreme Ananda . Integral Yoga aims at a comprehensive solution or all-time panacea of all the problems of existence through complete immunisation of disease, decay, sorrow, dissidence and strife and the process of inoculation begins at an individual and collective level, depending on the degree of restoration of harmony and opening towards a comprehensive Concentration. A safe passage in the subtle world is to be made in order to help living and dead Souls⁹⁸ so that they can easily travel different planes of Consciousness for their Souls' training and arrive at the Psychic plane and cosmic Self for their accumulation of Spiritual energy and rebirth, respectively. At the same time, the Yoga Shakti must drive out all tamasic forces to eliminate poverty, illiteracy, and malnutrition of the body from the whole of the race and drive out all rajasic forces to eliminate all discordant human action of violence, destructive aggression, tyranny of beast wrath, hatred, injurious brutality, corruption, bottomless ingratitude that disfigure earth nature ("Proclaiming a panacea for all Time’s ills" Savitri-198) and enjoyments of temporal nature. Those destined Souls for the Divine work will protect and guard the earth in three stages. First, they will have a ‘vision and knowledge of the triple time’¹²² or partial/complete foreknowledge of immediate future doom and holocaust of individual, state, national and universal proportion ‘by going back from the surface physical mind to the psychic and spiritual consciousness;’¹²² secondly, they keep the concentration alive to reduce and minimise the quantum of such catastrophe through the intervention of the overhead Divine Grace or vibration of Harmony of which they are conscious channel; thirdly, they will maintain the effort to completely annul the root of all such destruction and vibration of disorder through intervention and invasion of Supreme Harmony and Light ("He tore desire up from its bleeding roots" Savitri-318) to the yet untouched dark province of Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths. A conscious movement of Consciousness between the Psychic and Spiritual planes can liberate¹⁴⁴ distant unknown living and dead Souls from the subjugation of their imperfection and untransformed Nature and, thus, the purpose of invisible self-expansion through self-concentration or the liberated Souls liberating others is accomplished. The steps through which they will immediately control the world event through the evolution of preliminary Psychic and Spiritual faculties are: - 1) The perception, thoughts, feelings and happenings of world events which are entirely guided by forces of Ignorance, are gathered directly through vision without the aid of any external means of communication like telephone, newspaper and internet, etc, or ‘of establishing a direct communication between mind and mind without the aid of the physical organs and the limitations they impose on our consciousness.’¹²³ ‘The psychical consciousness, as it develops, makes us aware of the great mass of thoughts, feelings, suggestions, will impacts, and influences of all kinds that we are receiving from others or sending to others or imbibing from and throwing into the general mind atmosphere around us.’¹²⁴ The outer aid is useful only to verify the degree of accuracy of the direct inner vision. 2) Harmonised vibrations of thoughts and feelings or Spiritual idea force formulating itself in the world are communicated to them (individual and group) by secret unspoken words, transmission of will-power, and Spiritual Influence which are already tuned with the Divine-Will. Or as the Psychic being ‘evolves in power, precision and clearness, we are able to trace these to their source or feel immediately their origin and transit to us and direct consciously and with an intelligent will our own messages.’¹²⁴ Or the ‘spiritual inner consciousness has then to deal with these (dark and obscure) influences in such a way that, as soon as they approach or enter (the Spiritual realm), they become either obliterated and without result or transformed by their very entry into its own mode and substance.’¹²⁹ 3) Silent compulsion on them to act according to these communicated ideas, power of the heart and dynamic life forces. ‘There is necessarily a commerce here between disparate influences: the inner spiritual influence is met by quite opposite influences strong in their control of the present world-order; the new spiritual consciousness has to bear the shock of the dominant and established unspiritualised powers of the Ignorance.’¹²⁹ As a result, the single and multiple results are experienced through the power of the Self and the development of essential and multiple Concentrations. The Nature of living of a Spiritual man will be ‘an accomplished inner existence whose light and power will take perfect body in the outer life.’¹³⁰ 4) They will be egoless transparent instruments to determine the events, actions and results of action of objective life throughout the world by the pure intervention of their subjective subtle-physical existence and silent Will-Power of multiple Concentrations. Their ‘environmental being must be so steeped in the spiritual light and spiritual substance that nothing (no world influence) can enter into it without undergoing this transformation…’¹²⁹ So, through frequent/constant increase of invasion of vibration of Order and permeation of a superior Harmony into the Inconscient, Subconscient and material life, the world would move towards the process of transformation. ‘Supreme Love eliminates all problems, even the problem of creation...But the world is not ready yet, it may take a few thousand years.’⁹⁵ If a Sadhak attains Cosmic Consciousness, then he must pursue sadhana in secrecy and silence . His presence will be intolerable for the common man habituated to the three Gunas , because of the undulation of his life between waking and non-waking trances. This particular double nature is that, (He (King Aswapati) travels on through waking and through sleep.” Savitri-72) ‘Universal he is all,--transcendent, none.’¹⁴¹ When he lives in universal Self, he becomes very intimate with all; when he lives in transcendent Consciousness, he goes beyond all these relations or ‘A distance severed her from those most close.’¹⁴¹ This double undulation is unbearable to the common man’s righteousness. A Sadhak's outward appearance will be marked with Truth-Power or the ‘sound of infinity’¹⁴² in his voice and his eyes will shine with the ‘light of things beyond.’¹⁴² To recapitulate, this highlights the difficulty for a person of common understanding to accept or tolerate someone living in the simultaneous reality of immanent universality and transcendent isolation after achieving Cosmic Consciousness. Thus, Sri Aurobindo’s vision of creating ‘a new world, a new humanity, a new society expressing and embodying the new consciousness’⁹⁴ is in the process of realisation by reconciliation of Spirit with Matter and by harmonisation of the body with the Soul. This is a task offered to the most conscious individual through realisation of the Soul as the centre of the World, an extension of his cosmic existence and its objective manifestation in the form of a Divine Centre or the emergence of a formative and affirmative Ashram living. OM TAT SAT References are available in the Manuscript ‘The Divine Bliss ’ (page 452). SUBCONSCIENT TRANSFORMATION “This (descent of Divine Force) has repeatedly been my experience lately, with a vision and a conviction, the conviction of an experience: the two vibrations (Truth vibration of Spirit and falsehood vibration of Matter) are like this (concomitant gesture indicating a superimposition and infiltration), all the time – all the time, all the time…May be the sense of wonder comes when the quantity that has infiltrated is large enough to be perceptible. ( “A golden fire came in and burned Night’s heart;" Savitri-601 ) But I have an impression – a very acute impression – that this phenomenon is going on all the time, all the time, everywhere, in a minuscule, infinitesimal way (gesture of a twinkling infiltration), and that in certain circumstances or conditions that are visible (visible to this vision: it's a sort of luminous swelling (of brain)– I can't explain), then, the mass of infiltration is sufficient to give the impression of a miracle. But otherwise, it's something going on all the time, all the time, all the time, continuously, ("A mystic slow transfiguration works.” Savitri-632, or "Its faint infiltration drilled the blind deaf mass;" Savitri-601) in the world (same twinkling gesture), like an infinitesimal amount of Falsehood replaced by Light ... Falsehood replaced by Light ... constantly…And this Vibration (which I feel and see) gives the feeling of a fire. ("Threatened (falsehood) with this faint beam of wandering Truth" Savitri-585, or "A conscious Vast fill the old dumb brute Space." Savitri-100 replacing the earlier experience "No wandering ray of Heaven can enter there." Savitri-226) That's probably what the Vedic Rishis translated as the "Flame" – in the human consciousness, in man, in Matter. They always spoke of a "Flame." It is indeed a vibration with the intensity of a higher fire… The body even felt several times, when the Work was very concentrated or condensed, that it is the equivalent of a fever .” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-25th March-1964 The Mother’s Consciousness is that which rests on the One and acts in the All, transcends All and denies none, sees all but lives for its transcendent task, becomes All and yet transcends the mystic whole, All-ruler and is ruled by none, transcends the Light and the Darkness and yet one with the Absolute, Eternal and All-knowing it suffers mortal birth and death and in Subconscient and Inconscient wait Her largest unfinished task. The Mother's above ceaseless dynamic Divine union and Subconscient transformation experience are identified as the Supreme Word, Mahavakya , of The Mother's Agenda and to be a participant in this universal Yoga is identified as an exceptional privilege. The whole of humanity is now going through this Subconscient transformation unconsciously and a few prepared vessels are going through this large/slow, constant permeation consciously. Or as hinted in Savitri, “Always the power poured back like sudden rain, Or slowly in his breast a presence grew;” (Savitri-35) Sri Aurobindo proposes that this "descent of the supramental which is not known to any religion are the sole things which will be the foundation of the work of the future,” (CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-701) and this "divine Force is at work and will choose at each moment what has to be done or has not to be done, what has to be momentarily or permanently taken up, momentarily or permanently abandoned." (CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/-186-187) When they (Savitri and Satyavan ) enter Spiritual union in the Inconscient Self and Subconscient Self, the Supramental Divine Force emerges from below the feet and rushes towards the physical, vital and mental sheaths. As the feet are the farthest domain from the complexity of the mind, whose centre is the head, and the head obstructs the free flow of higher Divine forces, so this passage is recognised as a more important means of transformation action and this hidden light is ‘a sea of the secret Superconscience.’ ⁶⁵ Thus “The bliss which sleeps in things” ³⁹ shall strive to wake and ‘A soul shall wake in the Inconscient’s house.’ ⁶⁶ Thus awakening of Supramentalised Inconscient Self is identified as the ‘last transcendent power’ ⁸² and a field of ‘last and mightiest transformation’ ⁸³ and thus a ‘grand solution’ ⁸⁴ is uncovered where ‘the heights of mortal effort end.’ ⁸⁴ The Mother recounts, “for the first time the Supramental light entered directly into my body, without passing through the inner beings. It entered through the feet and it climbed up and up. And as it climbed, the fever also climbed because the body was not accustomed to this intensity. As all this light neared the head, I thought I would burst and that the experience would have to be stopped…” ⁹⁵ Thus, one no longer depends on Supramntal intervention from above for the transformation action of surface mind, life and body ("A Force came down into his mortal limbs," Savitri-79, "A divine force shall flow through tissue and cell" Savitri-710) but it will also take place more vigorously from within the Supramentalised Psychic heart centre (His vast Truth wake within and know and see...Then mortal nature change to the divine.” Savitri-476) ("This (transformation of Nature) can be done from within by an invisible action through the psychic entity and the psychic personality; a consciously felt descent from above is not indispensable.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-967) and most vigorously from below the feet by the opening of Subconscient Self ("Whose priceless value could have saved the world.” Savitri-42) and Inconscient Self ("A grand solution closed the long impasse" Savitri-89). In Savitri , Sri Aurobindo has hinted about 'single protection,' 'double protection' and 'multiple protection' of the Divine, about which we should be aware. Single protection is extended through the Psychic being: "Only were safe who kept God in their hearts" (Savitri-211). The Divine tells Savitri that most human beings live like brutes and do not discover the infinite Light above the head and immense Light below the feet or man, in general, is ‘A swimmer lost between two leaping seas.’⁶⁹ Or ‘like an infant spirit unaware…. of two consenting worlds.’⁷² The man of Ignorance does not enjoy the double protection of the Divine through non-opening of the above double doors or 'Protecting no more a dual eternity.' (Savitri-82) And those who realise Psychic Being in the heart, they feel in Savitri's language, ‘Our life is entrenched between two rivers of Light.’⁷⁰ If a Sadhak realises the universalisation of Psychic and Spiritual Beings, then ‘His gates to the world were swept with seas of light’⁷¹ from both ends or he is assured a vast security or multiple protection by the Spiritual experience, 'Heaven’s leaning down to embrace from all sides earth.' (Savitri-716) Through knowledge and awareness of the relation between static Matter and dynamic Spirit or by the knowledge of the Wheel of Works , he will be able to reconcile Matter with Spirit. OM TAT SAT References are available in the Manuscript ‘The Divine Bliss ’ (page 291, 34-35). Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: ASHRAM IN DETAIL "The power to do nothing, which is quite different from indolence, incapacity or aversion to action and attachment to inaction, is a great power and a great mastery; the power to rest absolutely from action is as necessary for the Jnanayogin as the power to cease absolutely from thought, as the power to remain indefinitely in sheer solitude and silence and as the power of immovable calm. Whoever is not willing to embrace these states is not yet fit for the path that leads towards the highest knowledge; whoever is unable to draw towards them, is as yet unfit for its acquisition. " Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-347 READ MORE >> THE HIERARCHIES OF ASHRAM LIVING "To open oneself to the supracosmic Divine is an essential condition of this integral perfection; to unite oneself with the universal Divine is another essential condition. Here the Yoga of self-perfection coincides with the Yogas of knowledge, works and devotion; for it is impossible to change the human nature into the divine or to make it an instrument of the divine knowledge, will and joy of existence, unless there is a union with the supreme Being, Consciousness and Bliss and a unity with its universal Self in all things and beings. A wholly separative possession of the divine nature by the human individual, as distinct from a self-withdrawn absorption in it, is not possible. " Sri Aurobindo CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-622 READ MORE >> THE WORLD HINDU WISDOM MEET-2014 “A perfect self-expression of the spirit is the object of our terrestrial existence. This cannot be achieved if we have not grown conscious of the supreme Reality; for it is only by the touch of the Absolute that we can arrive at our own absolute. But neither can it be done to the exclusion of the cosmic Reality: we must become universal , for without an opening into universality the individual remains incomplete.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-706 READ MORE >> If an individual is having direct contact with the Divine and if he utilises this Dynamic Divine union initially for individual transformation of Nature and finally for world transformation, then a Divine Centre or Ashram is born. Integral Yoga foresees a hierarchy of a collective body with one liberated Soul at its centre, known as the ‘Divine Centre ,’ or collective group with more than one liberated Gnostic Soul or ‘spread beyond the individual’ known as the ‘Gnostic Centre ’ or a Centre without Soul Centre/Central Representative, known as ‘priestless shrine’ where all are liberated souls, identified as ‘virgin bridals of the dawn’ symbolising the purity of collective living or ‘citizens of that mother State’ symbolising selfless Spiritual fosterers or ‘nude god-children’ who ‘steeped existence in their youth of soul.’ The action of the Divine Mother in a rare ‘priestless shrin e’ beyond the Divine Centre will be the pursuit of the Divine in isolation, alone, without the aid of collectivity, without the law of collective living, without the help of fixed Shastra and the flow of the Transcendent and Universal Divine Love will be further reinforced through realisation of ‘seven-fold Personal Divine Love.’ (Ref: The Synthesis of Yoga-58, 90, Savitri-368, 401, 262, 126, 127) Before meeting Paramatma Satyavan, Paraprakriti Savitri came across twelve types of liberated Souls, who were having Divine realisations in twelve specialised fields. They were satisfied with their partial Spiritual achievements and were considered unfit to hold Savitri’s comprehensive Divine Love, and hence Virgins’ Fortress could not be dreamed with these liberated Souls. These Master Souls were fit to build Ascetics’ Fortress, Divine Centre and Gnostic Centre. To hold Savitri’s comprehensive Divine Love or ‘hold God’s birth,’ a Soul is ‘made ready through a thousand years.’ Before discovering a Virgins’ Fortress without, one has to discover a Virgins’ fortress within, of meeting ground of Paramatma and Paraprakriti in the heart centre or ‘The incarnate dual Power shall open God’s door, Eternal supermind touch earthly Time. ' The Soul's Fortress can be invaded and conquered by the Supreme Lord from above who is symbolised here as 'unexpected king.' In a Virgins' Fortress, a Sadhak or Savitri within will live alone, unclaimed, untouched, king of itself within and possessed and invaded by the flood of Divine Force from above the head and below the feet or 'A captive Life wedded her conqueror.' (Refer Savitri-382, 398, 705, 87, 125) If an individual has a thorough knowledge of the movement of ascending and descending Consciousness, then 'even if he were shut up in a prison and saw nobody and never moved out, still would he do the work,' of bridging the gulf between this material world and future Supramental world. 'He does not need to be recognised, he need have no outward power in order to be able to establish this conscious connection.' His action can begin from his heart centre which is universalised as the Divine Centre of the world and can culminate with the perfection of the human race. This is a task offered to the last Avatar to accomplish. The task of successive Instruments and Emanations is to illumine partly the Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths. (Refer: TMCW-3/Questions and Answers-1929 to 1931/p-179) "So people who want to lead a special life or have a special organization to have (Spiritual) experiences, that's quite silly – the greatest possible diversity of experiences is at your disposal every minute, every minute. Only you must learn not to have a mental ambition for "great" things." "...whatever the circumstances may be, even apparently the worst, if you are in the true attitude and have the true consciousness, it doesn’t matter in the least for your inner progress,..." (Ref: The Mother’s Agenda/20.11.1963, The Mother's Agenda/10.12.1969)

Integral Transformation “All now is changed, yet all is still the same.... Yet nothing is lost of mortal love’s delight." Savitri-719 “Our soul is not the overt guide and master of our thought and acts; it has to rely on the mental, vital, physical instruments for self-expression and is constantly overpowered by our mind and life-force: but if once it can succeed in remaining in constant communion with its own larger occult reality, --and this can only happen when we go deep into our subliminal parts, --it is no longer dependent, it can become powerful and sovereign, armed with an intrinsic spiritual perception of the truth of things and a spontaneous discernment which separates that truth from the falsehood of the Ignorance and Inconscience, distinguishes the divine and the undivine in the manifestation and so can be the luminous leader of our other parts of nature. It is indeed when this happens that there can be the turning-point towards an integral transformation and an integral knowledge.”⁴⁵ Sri Aurobindo “If the control of that highest spiritual being is to be brought into our waking life, there must be a conscious heightening and widening into immense ranges of new being, new consciousness, new potentialities of action, a taking up—as integral as possible—of our present being, consciousness, activities and a transmutation of them into divine values which would effect a transfiguration of our human existence. For wherever a radical transition has to be made, there is always this triple movement—ascent, widening of field and base, integration –in Nature’s method of self-transcendence.”⁴⁶ Sri Aurobindo “But since the integral transformation must embrace fully the dynamic being and take up into it the life of action and the world-self outside us, this completer change is demanded of the evolving nature.”⁴⁷ Sri Aurobindo “A complete and radical change can only be brought about by bringing in persistently the spiritual light and intimate experience of the spiritual truth, power, bliss into the recalcitrant elements until they too recognise that their own way of fulfilment lies there, that they are themselves a diminished power of the spirit and can recover by this new way of being their own truth and integral nature. This 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.”⁴⁸ Sri Aurobindo “The animal in us, — the infernal also, — has its lair of retreat in the dense jungle of the subconscience. To penetrate there, to bring in light and establish a control, is indispensable for the completeness of any higher life, for any integral transformation of the nature.”⁴⁹ Sri Aurobindo The Integral Transformation Miraculous realisations do occur intermittently due to intervention of Divine Grace but they do not last long. Those who are open towards Modern Science or slow evolutionary change, in them the Divine force works sometimes, produces fantastic miraculous results related with new discovery but it does not recur or repeat at will. ‘The doors of light are sealed to common mind.’³² It is only when one purifies intellect with the aid of subjective enquiry related with unveiling the secret truth behind material existence then through that exercise one is established in subtle physical consciousness which no longer undulates in between surface and inner consciousness; then, one arrives at more established intuitive consciousness with full mastery of how to use the Divine Force at will. Man can do miracles if his mind can receive brief God’s light, if his will can be made one with God’s Will for a brief period, if his thought can echo briefly the thoughts of God and if the force in him can be driven briefly by the God’s Force. One can repeat this experience of God’s invasion and transformation of Nature at will like a chemistry experiment and this intermitent invasion can be established as constant descent of Divine Force in the long run and it can bring lasting change or we understand the Divine Force will penetrate Matter to remould it as more conscious, suppler and more perfect a vessel. If the intensity of this descent of Divine Force is heightened, by discovering the movement of Consciousness between higher and lower ranges, then that will bring a constitutional change of material substance. To become an indispensable part and portion of this vast plastic change is the evolution of new Supra-physical Science, to which modern Science can provide a sufficient base and foundation. The earth being’s heavenward growth began with the ‘first descent’² of Divine force or with the pouring in of ‘God’s first delight’³ or ‘the first world-creating Bliss’²³ which repeats itself in some best moments and its intensity grows in proportion till ‘his soul’s first release from Ignorance and his mind and body’s first spiritual change’⁴ and this transforming process further continues until he shall arrive at ‘Time’s golden best’⁵ or the ‘earth’s last salvation.’⁶ Each repetition of ‘new descent’²⁴ in earth’s Spiritual history supports the miracle of change, and this change enlarges gradually the capacity of earth being which ultimately grows to the measure of holding the weight of the Infinite. A slow and long change is recommended for the recalcitrant gross physical substance by the intervention of Divine force; whereas swift and sure change can be expected from other higher worlds or subtle sheaths in the descending hierarchies. When the human vessel, adhara , is ready, the shaping God’s tremendous touch becomes more and more bearable to the mortal nerves and the strength of the subtle body and causal body grows mightier. There are mysterious conditions of Soul awareness, when satisfied pave the passage of the Divine Descent. When the threads of these mysterious conditions are rightly caught and atmospheres are created to return to these conditions often, then we fulfil the normal condition of our growth. Man receives flashes of extraordinary Spiritual experiences in order to generate faith and persistent effort through which humanity will arrive at established Divine Consciousness whose working in the cells of the body will bring material transformation. The Divine Grace: - “This “state of grace” is often prepared by a long tapasya or purification in which nothing decisive seems to happen, only touches or glimpses or passing experiences at the most, and it (decisive change) comes suddenly without warning.”⁴³ Sri Aurobindo "It is when all appears to be lost that all can be saved when one has lost trust in one’s personal power, one must have faith in the Divine Grace."²¹ The Mother “And it seems to me it occurs often enough – much more often than people think. For example every time an illness is cured, every time an accident is avoided, every time a catastrophe, even a global one, is avoided, all that is always the intervention of the Vibration of Harmony into the vibration of Disorder, allowing Disorder to cease. So the people, the faithful, who always say, "Through the Divine Grace this has happened," aren't so wrong.”³⁶ The Mother “The Grace is always there, eternally present and active, but Sri Aurobindo says that it is extremely difficult for us to be in a condition to receive it, keep it and make use of what it gives us. Sri Aurobindo even says that it is more difficult than to drink from the cup of the gods who are immortal. To receive the divine grace, not only must one have a great aspiration, but also a sincere humility and an absolute trust.”⁴² The Mother "When the Grace acts on the collectivity , each thing, each element, each principle, is put in its place as the result of a karmic logic in the universal movement. This is what gives us the impression of disorder and confusion as we see it. When the Grace acts on the individual , it gives to each the maximum position according to what he is and what he has realized. And then, there is a super-grace , as it were, which works in a few exceptional cases, which places you not according to what you are but according to what you are to become, which means that the universal cosmic position is ahead of the individual’s progress." The Mother The Mother's Agenda/June 22, 1958 A Grace-dependent life and added to it an arduous tapasya are the acceptable conditions of our self-growth. What we achieve with ease with the intervention of Divine Grace or The Mother’s Power, the same status we attain with much difficulty through arduous tapasya. When both conditions are successfully combined²² and one is complementary in the development of the other, and then we are on the right path towards our difficult goal. The intensity of Divine Grace acting upon a human vessel in this birth is dependent on his formation of a subtle and causal body in past births. The subtle body develops by the movement of consciousness between the surface consciousness of the three Gunas and the inner and higher Psychic and Spiritual planes. Similarly, the causal body grows by movement of Consciousness from the Supramental/Bliss Self to the Inconscient/Subconscient Self. So before participating in the above movements, the higher Selves of True Physical, True Vital, True Mental, Psychic, Spiritual, Supramental and Bliss Self must open gradually through concentration and consecration. Only by the intervention of Supreme Grace, integral transformation is practicable. When the following four conditions are 'real and effective' and entirely satisfied, the Supreme Grace will intervene: 1) Divine Grace begins to intervene with the practice of partial self-giving. This part surrender is extended to the mind, vital and body or extended to sattwic, rajasic and tamasic mind. Through this practice/personal effort, the Psychic Being in the heart and the Spiritual being above the head open and they multiply the intensity of spontaneous self-surrender. A prolonged movement between the Psychic and the Spiritual Being opens the door of the Supramental Being. It is only in the Supramental Consciousness that the total surrender to the Divine and His Shakti is realised. The more complete this self-giving grows, supported by faith and sincerity, the greater will be the Grace and Protection. 2) An exclusive self-opening to the Divine Influence and not any other inferior influence through an unfailing aspiration of the Psychic Being that calls from below can call down Divine Grace. When aspiration is dead or we fail to look into our Souls or we live in ordinary consciousness, during that period also a part of our being grows towards Light. Yet there is a passage to the godhead which none can see. An unknown Presence moulds our oblivious clay. Even in the aimlessness of life a Divine change or a magic will is worked out unconsciously. Always a heavenly truth broods in life’s depths and in her obscurest member burns that fire. Even nescient, null, her sleep creates a world. When most unseen, most mightily the Divine Shakti acts. If this exclusive Spiritual Presence and opening is available in the form of external contact with the Avatara , then it is an exceptional privilege in the life of an aspirant Soul. His ‘word, command, Adesha , presence, touch, guidance’³³ can also be visited through activation of Spiritualised Psychic Consciousness. 3) The intervention of Divine Grace asks for a constant and integral choice of Truth. Supreme Grace will act only in the conditions of the Light and the Love. There are some descended mighty Words whose repetition, concentration, contemplation and meditation can incarnate the highest truth and an unseen Divine link that joins the parted sphere. A prayer, a master act, a king's idea can link man’s strength to a transcendent Force and can change the course of things, and then miracles are made the common rule. ‘Even the body will awake and unite at last its consciousness subliminal no longer to the Supramental superconscious Force, feel all her powers permeating from above and below and around it and thrill to a supreme Love and Ananda .’¹⁹ 4) Divine Grace will not act in the conditions laid upon it by Falsehood and Ignorance. A constant and integral rejection of falsehood is indispensable. ‘Heaven’s wiser love rejects mortal’s prayer;’³⁴ because the human prayer is not free from fear, desire and blind hope. All prayers must be free from the three above-mentioned limitations and one must repeat great Names in order to liberate the physical and vital mind rising from the dark inconscient sheath and call down the invisible Presence and lost lucent immensities. The dark invisible forces have locked the doors of God with keys of creed and shut out by the fixed Law His tireless Grace. Sometimes our prayers sink in the resisting Night oppressed by a thousand forces that deny and it seems too weak to climb to the Supreme. The decisive and radical change in the life of a Sadhak is possible only after long Tapasya ⁴³ and through a sudden inrush of vast Divine Grace. The Mother’s Truth and Love Force supported by human endeavour, abhyasa , renunciation, vairagya, askesis, long tapasya , and consecration, yajna , ‘can alone rend the lid and tear the covering and shape the vessel and bring down into this world of obscurity and falsehood and death and suffering Truth and Light and Life divine and the immortal’s Ananda .’²⁰ The Revolt against Transformation or Nature’s Refusal to Change: - “Hard is it to persuade earth nature’s change” Savitri-7 “But still no great transforming light came down And no revealing rapture touched her fall.” Savitri-134 “Astir, vibrant, hungering, she groped for mind; Then slowly sense quivered and thought peered out; She forced the reluctant mould to grow aware.” Savitri-157 “Our instruments have not that greater light, (of Jnana Yoga) Our will tunes not with the eternal Will, (of Karma Yoga) Our heart’s sight is too blind and passionate.” (of Bhakti Yoga) Savitri-161 “Against all higher truth their stuff rebels;” Savitri-163 “This was the law of things none dreamed to change:” Savitri-228 “Abhorring change as an audacious sin,” Savitri-245 “Immutable laws man has no right to change,” Savitri-246 “A firm shape of Nature never to be changed,” Savitri-246 “And human mind must abdicate in Light Or die like a moth in the naked blaze of Truth, He stood compelled to a tremendous choice.” Savitri-306 “In man a dim disturbing somewhat lives; It knows but turns away from divine Light” Savitri-366 “A power is in thee that thou knowest not; Thou art a vessel of the imprisoned spark.” Savitri-453 “And feels the cold rigid limbs of lifeless Law.” Savitri-457 (Death said) “Where Nature changes not, man cannot change:” Savitri-643 (Death said) “Dream not to change the world that God has planned, Strive not to alter his eternal law.” Savitri-647 (Savitri said) “Vain the soul’s hope if changeless Law is all:” Savitri-651 (Death said) “Even God himself obeys the Laws he made: The Law abides and never can it change, The Person is a bubble on Time’s sea.” Savitri-654 When our development is arrested or when we are under the pigmy law of physical mind, then we fail to trace a passage from surface physical Self to subliminal Self. During that period, we live permanently in the surface mind, surface vital and the gross body. Our gross body is bound in a tamasic state of inertia; vital being is bound in the rajasic plane of desire and sense pleasure and mental being is bound in limited happiness and narrowness. The Law of Ignorance, the Law of Suffering, the Law of Falsehood and Law of the Death are the principal energies of the Inconscient world who rule the outer nature of the surface life. These Laws are strongly established in our outer nature. To remain entangled permanently in their clutch is the cause of our stagnancy, decay and death. The Mother has demonstrated in detail, ‘of how absolutely closed the world is to the higher Influence: all that comes down to the world, the minute it touches it, is twisted. Twisted, distorted beyond recognition.’³⁰ As a remedy, we have to strive patiently and discover a passage to higher worlds or higher states of Consciousness and permit their influence to overrule the very slow, very heavy and very obstinate surface mind, life and body. With more and more working of the Divine force through our instrumental opening, the law of fixed nature is shifted to the law of dynamic Divine Nature. Thus, Matter is moulded by the conscious contact of a higher Spiritual Force superseding the earlier changeless fixed Law. So the real threat to our life is from everything that does not want to transform. If our existing nature is unwilling to change, then we have to go through a brutal experience of monstrous catastrophe and our escape from change may mean several more successive births of repetitive training. So, in this life, if our Nature is not ready to exhaust the earthly desire, ego and attachment, then we have to exhaust them through the experience of next successive births. Tardy Transformation or Slow Change through Exclusive Concentration on outer Nature: - “Always the power poured back like sudden rain, Or slowly in his breast a presence grew;” Savitri-35 “Assured of the Apocalypse to be, It reckons not the moments and the hours; Great, patient, calm it sees the centuries pass, Awaiting the slow miracle of our change In the sure deliberate process of world-force And the long march of all-revealing Time.” Savitri-48 “A slow reversal’s movement then took place:” Savitri-101 “In this slow ascension he must follow her pace” Savitri-135 “Then slowly it gathers mass, looks up at Light.” Savitri-140 “Planned so to start her slow aeonic game.” Savitri-141 “And a slow unmasking of the spirit in things,” Savitri-154 “Then slowly sense quivered and thought peered out; She forced the reluctant mould to grow aware.” Savitri-157 “The long slow process of the patient Power.” Savitri-223 “She forced on life a slow and faltering pace;” Savitri-223 “Only a slow advance the earth can bear.” Savitri-244 “For the slow-paced omniscient purpose live.” Savitri-336 “In him (man) the Earth-Mother sees draw near the change” Savitri-340 “He sees the long results of an all-wise Force” Savitri-457 “Slowly the light grows greater in the East, Slowly the world progresses on God’s road.” Savitri-510 “Thus slowly I (Mother of Light ) 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.” Savitri-516 “Imposing on the slow reluctant years The flaming will that reigns beyond the stars,” Savitri-588 “Be still and tardy in the slow wise world.” Savitri-651 “And the slow evolution’s sluggard steps,” Savitri-693 A slow evolution binds our Soul and Nature to a strange, uneasy compromise and leads us towards an inevitable doom or through slow ascension, we must grow in light and force and rise at last to a higher Spiritual destiny. It limits the mental activities to immediate practical problems and immediate tangible results and learns by failure and progresses by fall. Slow change is generally experienced when our centre of living begins to undulate in between the surface physical Self and the subliminal Self. Or when there is a rift created in the surface physical Sheath, either through violent aspiration or through consecration or through purification of the being, a contact is made with our inner Self and Truth vibration infiltrates into the falsehood, resulting in a slow change of nature. Like individual evolution in Ignorance, the collective evolution of earth is also a slow process through long ordeal or a slow labour of mind or confident steps through Nature’s slow great hands and it cannot bear the intense original flame of the Supreme and earth sinks down into mire with the weight of the Infinite. As long as ‘A Nature hostile to the Mother-Force’⁷ or ‘A Nature that denied the eternal Truth,’⁸ to wait for a slow miracle of change is a safe passage or it is better to live for the slow paced omniscient purpose and force the reluctant mould to grow conscious of its Source. It is only impatience towards time that would make splendid haste on Fate’s slow road. Then, with the long-slow infiltration of Truth vibration we reach a point where ‘Nature’s plastic and protean change’⁹ is realised or ‘Matter (becomes) plastic (and passive) to spiritual light’¹⁰ and dull earth is changed to sudden rapture. Then the outer limiting nature is lifted by a happier breath and is ready to be exposed towards high change, total change and instantaneous change demanded by the all-shaping Fire. Exclusive concentration is defined as the complete absorption in the active Prakriti or outer nature by an entire separation from the true Self. This ordinary surface consciousness is full of grating, friction, perpetual disorder which causes ageing and decay of the cells of the body. Exclusive concentration is also the special boon offered to mind by the indwelling Deity to work out slow evolution in the Ignorance and mind walks lamely on this earth with slow footsteps. When this concentration is rightly utilised through its reverse movement in discovering inner being and following its intimations, we ascend in the stairs of Consciousness in order to discover the subliminal Self and essential Concentration. Transformation of human nature by brief Divine Touch: “Time’s message of brief light was not for her.” Savitri-6 “A wider consciousness opens then its doors; Invading from spiritual silences A ray of the timeless Glory stoops awhile (Supramental invasion) To commune with our seized illumined clay And leaves its huge white stamp upon our lives.” (Transformation of Nature) Savitri-47-48 “When life had stopped its beats, death broke not in; He dared to live when breath and thought were still. Thus could he step into that magic place Which few can even glimpse with hurried glance Lifted for a moment from mind’s laboured works And the poverty of Nature’s earthly sight.” Savitri-74 “There he could enter, there awhile abide.” Savitri-91 “Our secret breath of untried mightier force, The lurking sun of an instant’s inner sight, Its fine suggestions are a covert fount For our iridescent rich imaginings Touching things common with transfiguring hues Till even earth’s mud grows rich and warm with the skies And a glory gleams from the soul’s decadence.” Savitri-106-107 “Even in the littleness of our mortal state, Even in this prison-house of outer form, A brilliant passage for the infallible Flame Is driven through gross walls of nerve and brain, A Splendour presses or a Power breaks through, Earth’s great dull barrier (physical mind) is removed awhile, The inconscient seal is lifted from our eyes And we grow vessels of creative might.” Savitri-108 “A Nature lifted by a larger breath Plastic and passive to all-shaping Fire, Answers the flaming Godhead’s casual touch:” Savitri-112 “The spirit in a finite ignorant world Must rescue so its prisoned consciousness Forced out in little jets at quivering points From the Inconscient’s sealed infinitude. Then slowly it gathers mass, looks up at Light.” Savitri-140 “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 “In this investiture of fleshly life A soul that is a spark of God survives And sometimes it breaks through the sordid screen And kindles a fire that makes us half-divine.” Savitri-169 “It (child Soul) can only near and touch, it cannot hold;” Savitri-179 “Only they knew what Mind could take and build Out of the secret Supermind’s huge store.” Savitri-187 "Yet they but wake a thrill of transient grace;" Savitri-193 “There all could enter but none stay for long.” Savitri-206 “A little gift comes from the Immensitudes, But measureless to life its gain of joy;” Savitri-237 “A half-intuition purpled in its sense; It threw the lightning’s fork and hit the unseen. Savitri-249 “A free and divine incident no more At each moment willed or adventure of the soul, It lengthened a fate-bound mysterious chain, A line foreseen of an immutable plan, One step more in Necessity’s long march.” Savitri-267 “Awakened by the touch of the Unseen, Deserting the boundary of things achieved, Aspired the strong discoverer, tireless Thought, Revealing at each step a luminous world.” Savitri-277 “The light his soul had brought his mind has lost; All he has learned is soon again in doubt; A sun to him seems the shadow of his thoughts, Then all is shadow again and nothing true:” Savitri-337 “His transience trembles with the Eternal’s touch,” Savitri-339 “Earth keeps for man some short and perfect hours” Savitri-421 “A glimpse or flashes came, the Presence was hid.” Savitri-470 “Even in the tracts of sleep is scant repose; He mocks life’s steps in strange subconscient dreams, He strays in a subtle realm of symbol scenes, His night with thin-air visions and dim forms He packs or peoples with slight drifting shapes And only a moment spends in silent Self.” Savitri-479 “The genius too receives from some high fount Concealed in a supernal secrecy The work that gives him an immortal name.” Savitri-542 “Night felt assailed her heavy sombre reign; The splendour of some bright eternity Threatened with this faint beam of wandering Truth (Subconscient transformation) Her empire of the everlasting Nought.” Savitri-585 “There man can visit but there he cannot live.” Savitri-659 “A changed earth-nature felt the breath of peace.” Savitri-672 “Heaven’s light visits sometimes the mind of earth; Its thoughts burn in her sky like lonely stars; In her heart there move celestial seekings soft And beautiful like fluttering wings of birds, Visions of joy that she can never win Traverse the fading mirror of her dreams. Faint seeds of light and bliss bear sorrowful flowers,” Savitri-688 Savitri book confirms that all can open themselves towards a brief touch of Divine Force and receive its Grace and this helps in the flowering of existing life immensely. This brief touch can be repeated with our awareness and its intensity can be multiplied by purification and transformation of our untransformed vessel. The Life Divine confirms that Intuition is a flash of lightening⁴¹ and ‘the limitation of the Intuition as compared with the Supermind is that it sees things by flashes, point by point, not as a whole.’⁴ ¹ What we regard as genius in human beings is those of us who are open in their being to these higher intimations…so the more one can be open to these higher planes of consciousness and receive these inspirations without sullying them with their physical mind, the greater is the ability to manifest new and greater Truths or ‘thought fulfilled by some great word’… (Savitri-573) It shows that anyone can be a genius if they can open themselves to these higher planes. Before one is established in higher planes of Psychic and Spiritual Consciousness, his consciousness will undulate between gunas and gunatita state and this will lead to brief Spiritual experience and a brief divine manifestation. After Savitri was established in the Supramental Consciousness of ‘endless lights,’ ‘Her being’s spaces quivered with its touch.’³⁸ During Savitri’s journey with Death in the Inconscient plane, it is described her contact with bright eternity will threaten the darkness of the inconscient sheath with ‘faint beam of wandering truth.’³⁹ A touch of brief Divine Force cannot transform life, it can only give birth to new manifestations, new hope and joy. Or what the Death God said to moderate humanity, ‘Accept the brief light that falls upon thy days.’⁴⁰ The above Soul slaying truth is met by The Mother’s Soul saving truth, which gives us this hope that ‘One moment of conscious communion with the Divine can shatter all resistance, however powerful it may be.’⁵⁰ “But the supramental change in its process carries us into less explored regions; it initiates a vision of heights of consciousness which have indeed been glimpsed and visited, but have yet to be discovered and mapped in their completeness.”⁵⁴ Uninterrupted Psychic Transformation or Constant Change through Essential Concentration: - “In hands sustained by a transfiguring Might He caught up lightly like a giant’s bow Left slumbering in a sealed and secret cave The powers that sleep unused in man within.” Savitri-26 “A constant lodging in the Eternal’s realm,” Savitri-36 “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 “Or Beauty’s touch transfiguring heart and sense,” Saviri-195 “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 “Makes ever new her body to his eyes,” Savitri-275 “Into a constant heaven felt always here.” Savitri-277 “Ever they change and changing ever grow,” Savitri-294 “Towards the end which ever begins again,” Savitri-295 “There substance was a resonant harp of self, A net for constant lightnings of the spirit,” Savitri-328-29 “And keeps for ever new, yet still the same,” Savitri-351 "Our soul from its mysterious chamber acts; Its influence pressing on our heart and mind Pushes them to exceed their mortal selves." Savitri-485 “Earth must transform herself and equal Heaven Or Heaven descend into earth’s mortal state. But for such vast spiritual change to be, 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 “A divine Puissance then takes Nature’s place And pushes the movements of our body and mind; Possessor of our passionate hopes and dreams, The beloved despot of our thoughts and acts, She streams into us with her unbound force, Into mortal limbs the Immortal’s rapture and power. An inner law of beauty shapes our lives; ” Savitri-530 “Although her kingdom of marvellous change within Remained unspoken in her secret breast, All that lived round her felt its magic’s charm: The trees’ rustling voices told it to the winds, Flowers spoke in ardent hues an unknown joy, The birds’ carolling became a canticle, The beasts forgot their strife and lived at ease.” Savitri-532 “A thaumaturgist sat in her heart’s deep, Compelled the forward stride, the upward look, Till wonder leaped into the illumined breast And life grew marvellous with transfiguring hope.” Savitri-539 “To first desire and her white soul transfigured,” Savitri-604 Our subtle body is gradually formed and takes concrete form around the Psychic being in successive lives. When our subtle body is sufficiently solidified around the Psychic being through successive Soul births or we throw our waking mind into a state of passivity which liberates the subliminal Self and we shift our centre of living permanently from the surface mind or surface physical self to the inner mind, inner life, subtle body and inner Psychic being; it is there we experience a constant change of ceaseless miraculous progress in our different subtle sheaths and the gross physical sheath experiences a constant breaking of the thought, life and action of the bound Nature or Divine Shakti endlessly unfolds the endless truth in our subtle body. This ‘persistent thrill of a transfiguring touch’³⁵ to change inert black Subconscient is due to the constant inter-penetration of Superconscient force through descending layers of multiple subtle worlds or due to intermittent lightning stroke of the highest Spirit. Therefore, the surface Nature receiving intimations from inner beings is not sufficient transformation and one must cease to be surface personality and become the true Psychic Personality. It exposes every movement, every nook and corner of Nature, thought, will and emotion to the Truth Light. Thus, Nature prepares for every kind of Spiritual experience. The Psychic training is the energising of the Psychic sheath in the heart by opening the Psychic being and leading towards the emergence of new faculty of law of consecration, awareness of the true motive of life, knowledge of the past, present and future, limitless expansion of Consciousness to arrive at universality. Psychic opening draws one towards the immortal life, ever progressive change, unbroken continuity in the world of forms, and meets the Immanent God dwelling in each form. The true Psychic Soul is the flame of the Godhead, always alight within us, inextinguishable even by that dense unconsciousness which obscures our outward life. It is the flame born out of the luminous Divine inhabitant of the Ignorance, grows in it till it is able to turn the being towards the Knowledge of Self and the Divine, towards the supreme Truth, the supreme Good, the Divine heights and largeness. Our true Soul is a pure power of light, love, joy, beauty and harmony. It is the individual Soul, the Chaitya Purusha , supporting Mind, Life and Body and standing behind the subtle mental, vital and physical being, watching and profiting by their development in us. This inmost Psychic entity puts forward a Psychic personality which flowers as the saint, the sage and the seer and it changes, grows and develops from life to life; for this is also the traveller from birth to death and from death to birth and our nature is its manifold changing robe. Essential concentration is defined as the entire self-absorption in the Self of being for the unfolding of many miracled Consciousness and these experiences keep ever new the thrill that created this world. It is also exclusive in nature, but this concentration is more dynamic and less fragmentary. Through the essential concentration, the opening towards Truth-Light is easily accessible. The Sun of Supramental light falls indirectly on the subtle body, passing through intermediary sheaths of over mind, intuitive mind, illumined mind and higher mind or Supramental light falls indirectly on the gross body after passing through the seven subtle sheaths of ‘seven immortal earths’³¹ of which the first three are subtle mind, subtle vital and subtle physical. Essential concentration helps in building the subtle body from its fluid state to a concrete state around the Psychic Being and universalises the subtle body. The Great Spiritual Transformation or High Intense Change due to Multiple Concentration: - “Spiritual that can make all things divine.” Savitri-16 “Always the power poured back like sudden rain, Or slowly in his breast a presence grew; It clambered back to some remembered height Or soared above the peak from which it fell.” Savitri-35 “In moments when the inner lamps are lit (Psychic being) And the life’s cherished guests are left outside, Our spirit sits alone and speaks to its gulfs. (Spiritual being) A wider consciousness opens then its doors; Invading from spiritual silences A ray of the timeless Glory stoops awhile To commune with our seized illumined clay And leaves its huge white stamp upon our lives.” Savitri-47-48 “These signs are native to a larger self That lives within us by ourselves unseen; Only sometimes a holier influence comes, A tide of mightier surgings bears our lives And a diviner Presence moves the soul; Or through the earthly coverings something breaks, A grace and beauty of spiritual light, The murmuring tongue of a celestial fire.” Savitri-48 “And earth grow unexpectedly divine.” Savitri-55 “The Maker shall recast us and impose A plan of godhead on the mortal’s mould Lifting our finite minds to his infinite, Touching the moment with eternity. This transfiguration is earth’s due to heaven:” Savitri-67 “Mind can suspend or change earth’s concrete law.” Savitri-84 “And when that greater Self comes sea-like down To fill this image of our transience, All shall be captured by delight transformed.” Savitri-171 “There in the slumber of the cosmic Will He saw the secret key of Nature’s change.” Savitri-231 “Transfigured were the fixed schemes of reasoning Thought.” Savitri-232 “His gates to the world were swept with seas of light... It drew from sight and sound spiritual power, Made sense a road to reach the intangible: It thrilled with the supernal influences That build the substance of life’s deeper soul. Earth-nature stood reborn, comrade of heaven .” Savitri-236 “A Being lived, a Presence and a Power, A single Person who was himself and all And cherished Nature’s sweet and dangerous throbs Transfigured into beats divine and pure.” Savitri-291 “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 “And one great act unlock the doors of Fate.” Savitri-345 “One shall descend and break the iron Law, Change Nature’s doom by lone Spirit’s power.” Savitri-346 “Your life a changeful mould for growing gods… Authors of earth’s high change, to you it is given ” Savitri-370 “Her spirit stretched measureless in strength divine,” Savitri-473 “The Immobile stands behind each daily act, 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 “Yet felt in her illimitable change.” Savitri-715 “What high change is in thee, O Savitri? Bright” Savitri-718 In this Spiritual evolution, each Soul has to find his own Spiritual way and has to come out of this inferior existence of the three gunas . Slow change cannot change ordinary destiny into Spiritual destiny and in the Spiritual path one has to accomplish much that has still to be done; consciousness has to be heightened and widened immeasurably and there must be self-affirmation of Spirit in the material life. Spiritual change invites the descent of higher Light, Knowledge, Love, Power, Force and Purity into the lower recesses of subtle mind, subtle life and subtle body. This Spiritual transformation complements the Psychic transformation of Nature and helps build the subliminal sheaths and opens the passage for causal body formation. Complete Spiritual transformation is gained by a permanent ascent of Soul to the highest Consciousness and a permanent descent of the Divine Shakti into the lower nature. With the expansion of the subtle physical, subtle vital and subtle mental sheath, the consciousness is universalised and one feels the whole universe is within him and enters the greater creation, action and ananda of universal proportion. This global consciousness includes coexistence of both static being of Purusha and dynamic action of Prakriti, the soul and its instruments, the Self and the dynamisms of the Self-Power, atmashakti: it can then embrace its manifestation with a larger Consciousness free from all the previous Nature’s limitations and oblivion of the indwelling Spirit. Multiple Concentration is a greater concentration or self-absorption in the universalised body for greater world action. It functions within the boundaries of Ignorance and its workings of the highest Divine faculties are exclusive in nature in order to create global over mental awareness. In the Cosmic Consciousness, the multiple concentrations become active and all contraries are here true and retain their unity and harmony. In this Consciousness, one feels the universe as his body, life as his drama of vast universal stage, mind as a single innumerable look upon himself and all that he becomes, Soul as the living body of God. The Divine Love, Ananda, Peace, Knowledge, Will, Power and Truth from the Overmental plane work separately on the earth nature in order to transform it. Whereas in Integral concentration the above-mentioned Divine faculties coexist and the original Divine formula of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss cannot be separated from its integral functioning. So we conclude that great transformations are merely the results of a change of higher states of Consciousness. Here the cells experience themselves as eternal and everlasting, live in an inner peace and harmony and feel free from all kinds of disorder and friction that cause wear and tear. Comprehensive Supramental Transformation or Total Change through Integral Concentration: - “It bore the stroke of That which kills and saves” (Savitri’s heart bore the stroke of Supramental energy that slayed falsehood and saved the truth.) Savitri-20 “All the world’s values changed heightening life’s aim;” Savitri-42 “All’s miracle here and can by miracle change.” Savitri-85 “Where all seems sure and, even when changed, the same,” Savitri-69 “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 “All he had been and all towards which he grew Must now be left behind or else transform Into a self of That which has no name.” Savitri-307 “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-316 “All that denies must be torn out and slain And crushed the many longings for whose sake We lose the One for whom our lives were made.” (All that denies Supramental energy and many longings of desires must be slain if we do not want to lose the One Divine.) Savitri-316 “Their tread one day shall change the suffering earth ” Savitri-344 “All underwent a high celestial change :” Savitri-529 “A Force descended trailing endless lights; Linking Time’s seconds to infinity, Illimitably it girt the earth and her: It sank into her soul and she was changed.” Savitri-573 “Thou shalt bear all things that all things may change ,” Savitri-700 “The supermind shall be his nature’s fount, The Eternal’s truth shall mould his thoughts and acts, The Eternal’s truth shall be his light and guide. All then shall change, a magic order come Overtopping this mechanical universe.” Savitri-706 In most individuals, the causal body is not yet formed and like the subtle body, this causal body takes shape with great difficulty from its crude or fluid state to its concrete shape through prolonged infiltration of Divine Force from Supreme Self to the Superconscient Self and the Subliminal Self. The causal body is the source and it holds both the subtle and gross bodies. The formation of a causal body begins with the individual whose subtle body is sufficiently developed and universalised. When the individual’s centre of living begins to undulate between Spiritual Self and Supramental Self, during that period the experience of ‘comprehensive change’ is generally realised. When the centre of living is permanently shifted from the Spiritual Self to the Supramental Self, one is established in Integral Concentration or what we call as Supramental Consciousness. In the Integral Concentration, there is coexistence of the four orders of changes, which are constant change, high change, total change and instantaneous change. Total change is the Soul and Nature’s climb towards God’s identity and it is the consequence of swift transformation through many-sided infiltrations of Divine force to the mind, life, body, Subconscient and Inconscient. The four active parts of Nature that need transformation are ‘the understanding, the heart, the prana and the body.’⁵³ When one lives in the causal body, the consciousness is elevated to the stage of integral concentration, and the comprehensive transformation resumes action. The triple formula of the comprehensive Supermind is, “Brahman is in all things, all things are in Brahman , all things are Brahman .”¹¹ The three poises of Supermind is, “the first founds the inalienable unity of things, the second modifies that unity so as to support the manifestation of the Many in One and One in Many; the third further modifies so as to support the evolution of diversified individuality which by the action of Ignorance, becomes in us at a lower level the illusion of the separate ego.”¹² “The Self becoming all existences is the basis of our oneness with all; the self-containing all existences is the basis of our oneness in difference; the Self inhabiting all is the basis of our individuality in the universal.”¹³ Integral concentration is comprehensive because due to its intervention, transformation action simultaneously takes place in Supreme self, Superconscient self, Universal self, Subliminal self, Surface physical self, Subconscient self and Inconscient self and all these worlds were colonies possessed by the Divine Mother for Her Divine action. ‘An ocean of untrembling virgin fire’¹⁴ from the Supreme self invades all the above worlds, and that is why a total change expected is practicable due to its all-inclusive concentration. An integral concentration is the basis of an entire harmonisation of life through the total transformation, unification, integration of the Being and Nature and there would be no further need of a slow evolution counting many millennia for each step, the halting and difficult evolution operated by Nature in the past in the unconscious creatures of the Ignorance. Instantaneous Total Change and Cellular Transformation: - “Then came the abrupt transcendent miracle:” Savitri-25 “Achieve perfection by the magic throb” Savitri-112 "In our body’s cells there sits a hidden Power That sees the unseen and plans eternity, Our smallest parts have room for deepest needs; There too the golden Messengers can come:" Savitri-169 “And could in a moment dangerously change.” Savitri-206 “It saw unrealised aims as instant fate And chose the precipice for its leap to heaven.” Savitri-248 “And the world change with the beauty of a smile.” Savitri-290 “Even a brief nearness has reshaped my life” Savitri-406 “Because of change within me by thy look.” Savitri-408 “Then with a magic transformation’s speed They rushed into each other and grew one” Savitri-527 “One whom her (Savitri’s) soul had faced as Death and Night A sum of all sweetness gathered into his limbs And blinded her heart to the beauty of the suns. Transfigured was the formidable shape.” Savitri-678-79 "Break into eternity thy mortal mould; Melt, lightning, into thy invisible flame!" Savitri-691 “And this the magic of our golden change,” Savitri-724 “If even one very small aggregate of cells could succeed in having the complete experience of transformation right to the end, that would be more effective than great upheavals – much, much more effective. But it's more difficult. Much more difficult. And it doesn't cause big dazzling "events"…”³⁷ The Mother “With a bit of reflection it's easy to understand: if it were a question of stopping something and starting something ELSE, it might be done rather rapidly. But to keep a body alive (to keep it functioning) and AT THE SAME TIME have enough of a new functioning so that it stays alive, and then a transformation – that makes a very difficult combination to realize. I am fully aware of it, fully aware ... of the immense amount of time that's needed for this to be done without catastrophe. Above all, of course, when we come to the heart: to replace the heart with the center of Power, a formidable, dynamic power! (Mother laughs) At what precise MOMENT are you going to eliminate the circulation and throw in the Force! It is ... it's difficult.”⁴⁴ The Mother "It's no use if the thought does it (consecration), if the psychic consciousness, EVEN THE PHYSICAL CONSCIOUSNESS, does it: it must be the cells that do it. So the one who does it in the thought says, "Here, I give myself to the Divine, I am ready for anything, I am in a state of perfect equality, and still I am ill! So what am I to believe?" That's not the point. In order to have an instantaneous action HERE ("instantaneous," meaning what looks like a miracle, which isn't a miracle at all), there should instantaneously be, wherever a disorder has occurred for some reason or other, this: "Lord – Lord, this is You; Lord, we are You; Lord, You are here" – everything flies away. A sensation, an attitude – instantaneously, hup! it's over. I have had hundreds upon hundreds of experiences like that. And the state – the general state of the consciousness – is exactly the same, always like this (immobile gesture, palms offered to the Heights), in a sort of conscious bliss of: "Let Your Will be done." But that's no use, it doesn't act HERE – it must happen HERE (Mother touches her body)."⁵⁵ The Mother Cellular transformation begins when the consciousness begins to undulate in between the causal body and gross body or there is intermingling of Supramental Consciousness and Earth Consciousness, where the body learns the lesson to change the state of living from ordinary imperfect mortal state to immutable imperishable perfect state, instantly giving the impression of coexistence of perfection and imperfection. In integral concentration or when the body’s ‘entire consciousness is exclusively centred on the Divine, it no longer feels its suffering;’²⁶ cells are completely free from the mortal law of death, decay, disease, accident and disharmony. The cells’ age-long habit to cling to mortal law or ‘DOUBT in the cells’²⁷ towards Divine Presence through physical mind is the cause of all physical disorder and is the chief obstacle to the permeation of Supramental force. The constitutional change of cells by transformation of the physical mind or infusing into them the certitude of the Divine, leads them instantly to a deathless harmony and order. This transformation is considered the ‘last and mightiest’¹ ⁵ where ‘even the life of flesh and nerve was changed.’¹⁵ The ideal attitude towards Time is to develop endless patience, which draws one towards ‘Truth’s last epitome’⁵ where the change expected is an abrupt transcendent miracle. Here one arrives at the brink of vertical time, where the law of horizontal time and the law of gradual slow evolutionary change are superseded. To the ordinary consciousness, time is horizontal and it moves everything towards slow change. This slow change binds the Soul and is the cause of our inevitable doom. With the growth of consciousness, one becomes quiet and still within, time goes faster and at the highest consciousness of Integral concentration one feels the natural need of silence and contemplative immobility. One enters a Timeless state where everything exists in all eternity and one can live indefinitely without the friction of time. It is only in this vertical time, the change expected is no longer gradual, but it is radical, instantaneous and irreversible. The problem could disappear as pointed out by the Mother , “If the supreme Consciousness truly took possession of the cells and made them live, act, move, like that, so they had the sense of the Omnipotence taking hold of them... This seems to be the only solution.”²⁹ Subconscient and Inconscient Transformation: “The persistent thrill of a transfiguring touch Persuaded the inert black quietude And beauty and wonder disturbed the fields of God.” Savitri-3 “A lightning from the heights on our abyss.” Savitri-14 “With the Light that dwells near the dark end of things,” Savitri-60 “For the key is hid and by the Inconscient kept; The secret God beneath the threshold dwells.” Savitri-68 “The secret crawl of consciousness to light Through a fertile slime of lust and battening sense, Beneath the body’s crust of thickened self A tardy fervent working in the dark, The turbid yeast of Nature’s passionate change, Ferment of the soul’s creation out of mire.” Savitri-138 “A cave of darkness guards the eternal Light.” Savitri-305 “Threatened with this faint beam of wandering Truth” (Threatened falsehood with) Savitri-585 “Its faint infiltration drilled the blind deaf mass;” Savitri-601 “A mystic slow transfiguration works.” Savitri-632 “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 “It (Supramentalised Psychic Being) 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.” Savitri-635 If we recognise the Subconscient transformation, we have to accept the discords of existence in the line as indicated in the Gita. "The discords of the worlds are God’s discords and it is only by accepting and proceeding through them that we can arrive at the greater concords of his supreme harmony, the summits and thrilled vastnesses of his transcendent and his cosmic Ananda. ”⁵¹ The Mother also confirms, ‘"Surely you could not believe that sadhana could be done without facing some difficulties. As your aspiration is sincere, whatever was in the subconscient standing in the way of the Divine Realisation, has come to the surface in order to be transformed. There is nothing there to make you sad or depressed — on the contrary you ought to rejoice at these occasions to make progress and never forget to lean for support and help on my love, force and blessings.”⁵² The objective of integral Yoga is to establish the flashes and short-lived revelation of the Divine Presence, Divine Consciousness, Divine Wisdom, Divine Peace, Divine Love, Ananda , and Beauty through Subconscient transformation. The Divine Will is advancing step by step through continuous slow infiltration of Divine Force to realise this established end. If a conscious individual knows how to move the Consciousness which may be either Divine Will or Knowledge or Love, he can experience the Divine descent freely in the jail, forest, crowd, war field, mart, work field, ‘wayside act’ and common day-today life without interruption. Finally, any occasion, external event and not limiting oneself to any specialised self-discipline can be utilised as a means of movement of this highest Divine Consciousness. Recapitulation: “In the final analysis, everything obviously depends upon the Supreme Will because, if one looks deeply enough into the question, every physical laws and resistances are nothing for Him. But this kind of direct intervention takes place only at the extreme limit; if His Will is to be expressed in opposition, as it were, to the whole set of laws governing the Manifestation —well, that only comes… at the very last second. Sri Aurobindo has expressed this so well in Savitri , so well! At least three times in the book He has expressed this Will that abolishes all established laws, all of them, and all the consequences of these laws (of rigidity), the whole formidable colossus of the Manifestation, so that in the face of it all, That can express itself—and this takes place at the very last… ‘second’ (Probably the Mother means this line from Savitri: “To conquer or fail on a last desperate verge,” Savitri-461) so to speak, at the extreme limit of possibility.”¹ The Mother The intervention of this Supreme Will, generally takes place when the following four conditions co-exist, which is the normal state of Integral concentration. The first condition of absolute surrender gives us the right to live in His absolute Supramental and Bliss Presence. The second condition of exclusive self-opening towards His supreme Influence draws our cells towards supreme Ananda and life towards the all-containing and all-ruling consciousness. The third condition is of continuous and automatic acceptance of the Truth or Truth-Light that can strike earth’s massive roots of Inconscient trance and awaken in them the miracle of Divine Presence. This Truth shall be the leader of life and overrules the thought, speech, act and our individual fixed destiny. The fourth is that of continuous and automatic rejection and destruction of falsehood that is invading from the surrounding world and the Inconscient world in order to cloud the true state. This rejection of falsehood is Psychic and Spiritual action and destruction of falsehood is Supramental action. This is actually a war against everything, every law, every habit; that is already established in earth nature. The cells of the body aspire desperately for the truth and they cry out, “Ah, no! We have had enough of this Falsehood, enough, enough, enough! – the Truth, the Truth, the Truth...”²⁵ In exclusive concentration, essential concentration and multiple concentration we can concentrate in any one of the above four faculties to the exclusion of others, yet their degrees and intensities of concentration vary and intensify with the evolution of higher faculties of concentration. Each concentration brings down Divine grace and prepares the field of descent of Supreme Grace¹⁷ and stabilisation of all-inclusive integral Concentration. When The Mother said, “At least three times in the (Savitri) book Sri Aurobindo has expressed this Will,”¹ this draws our interest to search where actually Sri Aurobindo discussed the issue. The following lines require our attention as these experiences are concerned with earth’s total reversal of the past which “takes place at the very last… ‘second’ so to speak, at the extreme limit of possibility.”¹ “If once it 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 “Overpowered were earth and Nature’s obsolete rule; The python coils of the restricting Law Could not restrain the swift arisen God: Abolished were the scripts of destiny.” Savitri-82 “A touch can alter the fixed front of Fate. A sudden turn can come, a road appear. 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 “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 “At the head she stands of birth and toil and fate, In their slow round the cycles turn to her call; Alone her hands can change Time’s dragon base... The Might of all that never yet came down...” Savitri-314 “Awake not the immeasurable descent, Speak not my secret name to hostile Time; Man is too weak to bear the Infinite’s weight. Truth born too soon might break the imperfect earth.” Savitri-335 “Omnipotence, girdle with the power of God Movements and moments of a mortal will, Pack with the eternal might one human hour And with one gesture change all future time.” Savitri-345 “A Magician’s formulas have made Matter’s laws... All here can change if the Magician choose. If human will could be made one with God’s, If human thought could echo the thoughts of God, Man might be all-knowing and omnipotent... Then is he a miracle doing miracles.” Savitri-457-58 “All now is changed, yet all is still the same. Lo, we have looked upon the face of God, Our life has opened with divinity. We have borne identity with the Supreme And known his meaning in our mortal lives.” Savitri-719 Our All life is designed for the attainment of the ultimate aim of physical immortality through cellular transformation. There are rare moments in earth’s history, when the fragments of the Supreme Will have intervened in order to destroy old systems and create a new order. We are concerned with universal changes that will sweep ahead the whole race. For such a change to be practicable we have to begin our slow-paced individualised growth from the Subconscient domain. In our search of the mystery of the inner world we come across the miracle of constant change where our true Self becomes the leader of life and it bridges the gulf between the Superconscient Sheath and Inconscient Sheath. In the same inner journey when we arrive at a point where the intensity of the Divine Force, that is constantly descending, becomes high enough to generate the sense of a miracle. This miraculous change is generally noticed in our outer nature. But when the manifold Divine forces capture the body, life and mind from all sides, then we are at the verge of experiencing a total change. This total change is responsible for the entire illumination of the Inconscient Sheath. These are the stages of preparation through which humanity will arrive at the last point where ‘it reaches the miraculous instantaneous of the supreme divine Transformation.’¹⁶ This is the most radical change, which has been envisaged in the integral Yoga. An individual’s destiny is decreed for cellular transformation if he experiences ‘the dire delight that could shatter mortal flesh.’¹⁸ Mere men can open themselves to this high Spiritual law either by evolutionary nisus of Nature or by revolutionary individual effort by developing two faculties patiently without any haste; firstly, one should learn the lesson of bearing firmly the contact of pain and pleasure and arrive at indefinite capacity to endure the physical suffering and secondly the exceeding bliss born out of the touch of the Brahman through annulment of the mind must be repeated to the proportion of full possession of the Brahman , the All Delight. The cellular transformation of one body or The Mother’s body can repeat itself in endless bodies through infiltration of Divine Force ‘all the time, everywhere, in a minuscule, infinitesimal way.’²⁸ This infiltration is a part of Nature’s voluntary general action all over the earth to replace falsehood by Light, in her search for perfection and true solution of the problem of Life. OM TAT SAT References: - 1: The Mother’s Agenda-2/262, 2: “Repeating the marvel of the first descent,” Savitri-14, 3: “A repetition of God’s first delight” Savitri-38, 4: Savitri-44, 5: Savitri-198, 6: Savitri-135, 7: Savitri-225, 8: Savitri-220, 9: Savitri-255, 10: Savitri-329, 11: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-139, 12: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-145, 13: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-154, 14: Savitri-16, 15: Savitri-318, 16: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-68, 17: “But Sri Aurobindo said that if the divine Consciousness, the divine Power, the divine Love, the Truth, were to manifest on earth too rapidly, the earth would be dissolved!” The Mother’s Agenda-8/p-370. 18: Savitri-237, 19: The Mother-57, 20: The Mother-62, 21: The Mother’s Agenda-11/p-62, 22: “This character of our actually realised being and therefore our Yoga imposes on us certain limitations and primary difficulties which can only be overcome by (1) divine help or (2) an arduous practice, and in reality (3) only by the combination of both these aids.” CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-392, 23: Savitri-706, 24: “Outlined by the pressure of this new descent” Savitri-354, 25: The Mother’s Agenda-5/p-60, 26: The Mother’s Agenda-5/p-110, 27: The Mother’s Agenda-5/p-116, 28: The Mother’s Agenda-5/p-95, 29: The Mother’s Agenda-5/p-204, 30: The Mother’s Agenda-5/p-207, 31: Savitri-672, 32: Savitri-689, 33: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-879-80, 34: Savitri-456, 35: Savitri-3, 36: The Mother’s Agenda/25.03.1964, 37: The Mother’s Agenda/25th November 1965, 38: Savitri-573, 39: Savitri-585, 40: Savitri-620, 41: “Intuition sees the truth of things by a direct inner contact, not like the ordinary mental intelligence by seeking and reaching out for indirect contacts through the senses etc. But the limitation of the Intuition as compared with the Supermind is that it sees things by flashes, point by point, not as a whole. Also in coming into the mind it gets mixed with the mental movement and forms a kind of intuitive-mind activity which is not the pure truth, but something in between the higher Truth and the mental seeking. It can lead the consciousness through a sort of transitional stage and that is practically its function.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-159, “If we accept the Vedic image of the Sun of Truth, — an image which in this experience becomes a reality, — we may compare the action of the Higher Mind to a composed and steady sunshine, the energy of the Illumined Mind beyond it to an outpouring of massive lightnings of flaming sun-stuff. Still beyond can be met a yet greater power of the Truth-Force, an intimate and exact Truth-vision, Truth-thought, Truth-sense, Truth-feeling, Truth- action, to which we can give in a special sense the name of Intuition;…” CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-292, “Intuition especially with its penetrative lightning flashes of truth lighting up local points and stretches of country in our consciousness, which can bring the concealed truth of things nearer to our comprehension, and, by opening ourselves more widely first in the inner being and then as a result in the outer surface self also to the messages of these higher ranges of consciousness, by growing into them, we can become ourselves also intuitive and overmental beings, not limited by the intellect and sense, but capable of a more universal comprehension and a direct touch of truth in its very self and body.” CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-303, “It is when the consciousness of the subject meets with the conscious- ness in the object, penetrates it and sees, feels or vibrates with the truth of what it contacts, that the intuition leaps out like a spark or lightning-flash from the shock of the meeting; or when the consciousness, even without any such meeting, looks into itself and feels directly and intimately the truth or the truths that are there or so contacts the hidden forces behind appearances, then also there is the outbreak of an intuitive light; or, again, when the consciousness meets the Supreme Reality or the spiritual reality of things and beings and has a contactual union with it, then the spark, the flash or the blaze of intimate truth-perception is lit in its depths.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-981, “…but on that higher level to which it (Intuition) is native its light is unmixed and therefore entirely and purely veridical, and its rays are not separated but connected or massed together in a play of waves of what might almost be called in the Sanskrit poetic figure a sea or mass of “stable lightnings”. When this original or native Intuition begins to descend into us in answer to an ascension of our consciousness to its level or as a result of our finding of a clear way of communication with it, it may continue to come as a play of lightning-flashes, isolated or in constant action; but at this stage the judgment of reason becomes quite inapplicable, it can only act as an observer or registrar under- standing or recording the more luminous intimations, judgments and discriminations of the higher power.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-983, 42: TMCW-16/250, 43: CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-195, Sri Ramakrishna’s saying, “With the Guru’s grace all difficulties can disappear in a flash, even as agelong darkness does the moment you strike a match.” (same page of Letters on Yoga) 44: The Mother’s Agenda-03.10.1962, 45: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-559, 46: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-765-66, 47: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-995-996, 48: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-970, 49: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-763, 50: TMCW-16/Some Answers from the Mother/p-427, 51: CWSA-19/Essays of the Gita/p-382, 52: The Mother/TMCW-vol-14/p-227, 53: “The next necessity of perfection is to raise all the active parts of the human nature to that highest condition and working pitch of their power and capacity, sakti, at which they become capable of being divinised into true instruments of the free, perfect, spiritual and divine action. For practical purposes we may take the understanding, the heart, the prana and the body as the four members of our nature which have thus to be prepared, and we have to find the constituent terms of their perfection. Also there is the dynamical force in us (vırya) of the temperament, character and soul nature, svabhava, which makes the power of our members effective in action and gives them their type and direction; this has to be freed from its limitations, enlarged, rounded so that the whole manhood in us may become the basis of a divine manhood, when the Purusha, the real Man in us, the divine Soul, shall act fully in this human instrument and shine fully through this human vessel. To divinise the perfected nature we have to call in the divine Power or Shakti to replace our limited human energy so that this may be shaped into the image of and filled with the force of a greater infinite energy, daivı prakriti, bhagavatı sakti. This perfection will grow in the measure in which we can surrender ourselves, first, to the guidance and then to the direct action of that Power and of the Master of our being and our works to whom it belongs, and for this purpose faith is the essential, faith is the great motor-power of our being in our aspirations to perfection, — here, a faith in God and the Shakti which shall begin in the heart and understanding, but shall take possession of all our nature, all its consciousness, all its dynamic motive-force. These four things are the essentials of this second element of perfection, the full powers of the members of the instrumental nature, the perfected dynamis of the soul nature, the assumption of them into the action of the divine Power, and a perfect faith in all our members to call and support that assumption, sakti, vırya, daivı prakriti, sraddha.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-693-694, 54: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-953, 55: The Mother's Agenda/November 23, 1965, Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: "In all Yoga there are three essential objects to be attained by the seeker: (1) union or abiding contact with the Divine, (2) liberation of the soul or the Self, the Spirit, and (3) a certain change of the consciousness, the spiritual change. It is this change, which is necessary for reaching the other two objects, necessary at least to a certain degree, that is the cause of most of the struggles and difficulties; for it is not easy to accomplish it; a change of the mind, a change of the heart, a change of the habits of the will is called for and is obstinately resisted by our ignorant nature. In this Yoga a complete transformation of the nature is aimed at because that is necessary for the complete union and the complete liberation not only of the soul and the spirit but of the nature itself. It is also a Yoga of works and of the integral divine life; for that the integral transformation of nature is evidently necessary ; the union with the Divine has to carry with it a full entrance into the divine consciousness and the divine nature; there must be not only sayujya or salokya but sadrisya or, as it is called in the Gita, sadharmya . The full Yoga, Purna Yoga, means a fourfold path, a Yoga of knowledge for the mind, a Yoga of bhakti for the heart, a Yoga of works for the will and a Yoga of perfection for the whole nature. But, ordinarily, if one can follow wholeheartedly any one of these lines, one arrives at the result of all the four. For instance, by bhakti one becomes close to the Divine, becomes intensely aware of Him and arrives at knowledge, for the Divine is the Truth and the Reality; by knowing Him, says the Upanishads , one comes to know all. By bhakti also the will is led into the road of the works of love and the service of the Divine and the government of the nature and its acts by the Divine, and that is Karmayoga. By bhakti also comes spiritual change of the consciousness and the action of the nature which is the first step towards its transformation. So it is with all the other lines of the fourfold path." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-686-687 "But the integral Yoga founds itself on a conception of the spiritual being as an omnipresent existence, the fullness of which comes not essentially by a transference to other worlds or a cosmic self-extinction, but by a growth out of what we now are phenomenally into the consciousness of the omnipresent reality which we always are in the essence of our being... The conversion its action will effect is an integral conversion of our ethical being into the Truth and Right of the divine nature, of our intellectual into the illumination of divine knowledge, our emotional into the divine love and unity, our dynamic and volitional into a working of the divine power, our aesthetic into a plenary reception and a creative enjoyment of divine beauty, not excluding even in the end a divine conversion of the vital and physical being. It regards all the previous life as an involuntary and unconscious or half-conscious preparatory growing towards this change and Yoga as the voluntary and conscious effort and realisation of the change, by which all the aim of human existence in all its parts is fulfilled, even while it is transfigured ." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-621-622

"A Force came down into his mortal limbs, A current from eternal seas of Bliss;" Savitri-79 The Reader's Query “(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 Sri Aurobindo CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-544-545, “(Q:) I have been here for one and a half years but I know nothing of the sadhana. I meditate, but nothing happens in the meditation. I feel there is no love in me towards the Mother. What shall I do to feel this love? (Ans.) Become truthful, pure, sincere, straightforward. ” Sri Aurobindo 1 July 1935/CWSA-32/The Mother with letters on the Mother/p-462 The Reader's Query “Answer to him that my way of Yoga is a special path and extremely difficult and I do not readily accept disciples — unless there is something to indicate that they have a special call.... The goal of Yoga is always hard to reach, but this one (integral Yoga) is more difficult than any other, and it is only for those who have the call, the capacity, the willingness to face everything and every risk, even the risk of failure, and the will to progress towards an entire selflessness, desirelessness and surrender."¹⁹ SRI AUROBINDO “I do not very readily accept disciples as this path of Yoga is difficult one and it can be followed only if there is a special call.”²¹ SRI AUROBINDO “You will tell him that admission to the Asram is only allowed to those who are already accepted as Sri Aurobindo’s disciples. There are no arrangements for visitors residing in the Asram ; those who come for darshan make their own arrangements outside. Sri Aurobindo does not readily accept disciples as his is a special path of Yoga and very difficult for most. For what he wants, another Guru with an easier way of Yoga would probably be more helpful.”²⁰ SRI AUROBINDO “I do not want hundreds of thousands of disciples. It will be enough if I can get a hundred complete men, purified of petty egoism, who will be the instruments of God.”² SRI AUROBINDO “Even if one person could put himself faithfully at the disposal of the Truth, he could change the country and the world.... The best way to help the world is to transform oneself by an integral and intensive yoga.”¹⁸ THE MOTHER “There are very few people who carry with them an atmosphere which irradiates joy, peace, confidence- it is very rare. But these are truly benefactors of humanity. They don’t need to open their mouth.” THE MOTHER “I know the conditions of the country (India). Even if one person could put himself faithfully at the disposal of the Truth, he could change the country and the world.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-10/p-148/19th April-1969 “All I would need is one man who had an absolute trust and was receptive, with a power of execution.”²² THE MOTHER “That is exactly what Sri Aurobindo wanted and attempted; he used to say, “If I can find a hundred people, it will be enough for my purpose.”² THE MOTHER “Otherwise what will be ultimately accomplished is an achievement by the few initiating a new order of beings, while humanity will have passed sentence of unfitness on itself and may fall back into an evolutionary decline or a stationary immobility; for it is the constant upward effort (of the few) that has kept humanity alive and maintained for it its place in the front of creation.”²³ SRI AUROBINDO “For spiritual rebirth means the constant throwing away of our previous associations and circumstances and proceeding to live as if at each virgin moment we were starting life anew… To give you an idea of the final height of spiritual rebirth, I may say that there can be a constant experience of the whole universe actually disappearing at every instant and being at every instant newly created!”²⁴ THE MOTHER “Well-known or unknown has absolutely no importance from the spiritual point of view…One man who earnestly pursues the Yoga is of more value than a thousand well-known men.”²⁶ SRI AUROBINDO “Many times in his writings, particularly in The Synthesis of Yoga, Sri Aurobindo warns us against the imaginings of those who believe they can do sadhana without rigorous self-control and who heed all sorts of inspirations, which lead them to a dangerous imbalance where all their repressed, hidden, secret desires come out into the open under the pretence of liberation from ordinary conventions and ordinary reason.”²⁸ THE MOTHER After the arrival of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo , the Supramental energy is active in earth’s atmosphere very close to the material world and this inner aid with constant miracle will replace the outer aid of Religion in generalising Spirituality in humanity and this personal contact with Supramental Consciousness will be initiated from individual prepared Soul Centres. Long before the Supramentalisation of humanity, a 'principle of Supramental consciousness'²⁹ must be established in few prepared vessels. So all can open themselves towards the Supramental Light and Oneness and receive its brief touch¹⁶ with miraculous result but the flow of this invisible Sunlight can be stabilised in the well built subtle and causal body of the prepared individual vessel or after one is thoroughly established in the intermediate and 'the preliminary work psychicisation and spiritualisation of the being and nature'²⁹ through prolonged Sadhana. Intervention of this Force changes circumstances, brings very wide spread results and sooner or later the world will come under its direct influence. Thus, the world appears to him with a different meaning, not a senseless and meaningless whirl in space but ‘A Presence and Greatness everywhere’¹⁷ transforming receptive matter to plastic and Spiritual Law and Divine Force can penetrate uninterruptedly into the material world through its conscious human vessel. Man’s future is ‘Decreed (to become God) since the beginning of the worlds.’¹⁵ An Avatara’s mission is fulfilled when the (consenting part of the) humanity arrives at a Consciousness in which He is fully established. Sri Aurobindo’s first and primary objective is accomplished if the surface personalities of a few Sadhakas or ‘one hundred perfect instruments’² reveal and establish the concealed Supramental Mahashakti after long movement of Consciousness between the Psychic and Spiritual plane. And the secondary objective is with this inner movement of universalisation of Consciousness, to expedite the process of descent of Divine Force to earth's atmosphere on a large scale or “His gates to the world were swept with seas of light.” (Savitri-236) Thus, the consciousness of general humanity can be enriched and generalisation of Spirituality and the revelation of Godhead in humanity becomes practicable. A relation between the seeker of truth, the traditional Yogi and the integral Yogi is hinted in the Gita . “A seeker of truth, jijnasu , after many births of preparation, purification of impurity and sin, endeavouring with sincerity becomes a traditional Yogi and attains the highest goal of liberation of Soul or a Soul who fell from Yoga, yogabhrasta, from the past birth, in this birth strives with sincerity to overcome the samskara of many births in brief period of this life and attains the highest goal... After many births of preparation, a traditional Yogi, Jnani, attains My Purushottama or Supramental state of Consciousness. Before realisation of this highest Consciousness, he also realises the intermediate stair that all this existence is Divine, the Cosmic Consciousness, Vasudeva sarvamiti. Such a great Soul with realisation of Vasudeva sarvamiti or integral Yogi is very rare, samahatma sudurlava. ”³ An integral Yogi, after many births of preparation, attains integral Transformation, integral Perfection and integral Knowledge.²⁷ A similar description of a seeker of Truth (Jijnasu) ascending to the state of Consciousness of Godhead (Avatara) is also observed in Savitri through intermediate stairs Dvija, Yantra and Vibhuti through many successive births of preparation known as all life. "Aspiring he transcends his earthly self; ( A seeker of Truth, Jijnasu ) He stands in the largeness of his soul new-born, (A twice-born Soul, Dvija ) Redeemed from encirclement by mortal things And moves in a pure free spiritual realm (Instrument of Truth, Yantra ) As in the rare breath of a stratosphere; A last end of far lines of divinity, (Emanation, Vibhuti ) He mounts by a frail thread to his high source; He reaches his fount of immortality, He calls the Godhead into his mortal life.” (Consciousness of Avatara ) Savitri-486 A traditional Sadhaka , after realisation of Kshara, Akshara and Purushottama consciousness, feels that this realisation cannot be reconciled⁶ with the untransformed nature of the three Gunas. So, he has no unfinished task left and hence his blissful enjoyment of existence concentrates on the issue of freedom from rebirth and escapes into the supreme abode³⁹ of param dham through the passage of Purushottama state. In integral Yoga, after realisation of Kshara, Akshara and Purushottama consciousness or after realisation of Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Being, a Sadhaka’s difficult task prohibits blissful enjoyment of the fruit of his labour but begins to reconcile static Matter with dynamic Spirit and thus Divine Shakti pours into the material vessel and confronts the Subconscient dark forces. His Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental purification, transformation and perfection resume action from firmly established Psychic heart centre and from firmly established Karma Yoga where Divine Will, Knowledge and Love are perfectly reconciled. Integral Yoga gives more importance to the emergence of Spiritual Instruments⁴ and traditional Yoga/Religion to the emergence of psycho-physical/religious Teachers;⁵ or “All religions and disciplines in India which use largely the psycho-physical method, depend more or less upon it for their practices.”¹ The manifestation of some intermediate truth through traditional Yoga/Religion can draw large devotees and the manifestation of the highest and comprehensive truth³³ through integral Yoga can draw few strong Souls. Traditional Yoga gives more importance to self-expansion and a traditional Teacher is weighed by the number of disciples and devotees surrounding him. Integral Yoga gives more importance to Subconscient transformation through self-concentration and a Sadhaka of integral Yoga is weighed by his enhanced capacity to bear earth’s suffering and miseries and later transforming them into ecstasies. The perfect Instruments of integral Yoga with universalised Consciousness will preoccupy themselves for the benefit of individuals and humanity through concentration and illumination of their own subtle and causal bodies. They are nameless Spiritual leaders of humanity and their invisible world action through descent of Divine Force or reversal of Consciousness to resolve all problems of existence, are of far greater value than any religious movement can imagine. Those whose frontal surface nature is dominated by Courage and selfless Love, known as Kshatriya Soul Force and frontal Nature dominated by Truth and Wisdom, known as Brahmin Soul Force are recognised as superior human beings and are fit for collective Spiritual life. This work will be accelerated by the emergence of the Kshatriya Soul force of courage and new adventure in the outer world and ceaseless battle against earthly opposition through activation of the Psychic Being. The Mission will further spread by high nobility of Soul which is untouched by any motive,³⁷ littleness, narrowness and baseness and will move with a certain greatness of Spiritual conquest to confront with universal dark forces attached to the present unstable creation and Supramental contagion to enter fierce battle with ‘giant sons of Darkness’⁷ of the Subconscient/Inconscient world and bear ‘inner wounds that are to slow to heal.’⁸ This manifesting action further asks that state of reconciling Wisdom which can perfectly possess all the infinite variety of external circumstances and permeate the Divine Light and Love to all the nether, neglected and less explored domain and thus illumining the whole earth. This endeavour will drive forward towards the realisation of the vision as indicated in Savitri, “Mere men into spiritual beings grow And see awake the dumb divinity .”⁹ A Sadhaka of traditional Yoga, as per the Gita's injunction, 'does not mourn and remains indifferent either for the living or for the dead.' (The Gita-2.11) and always remember the unchangeable law, 'For certain is death for the born, and certain is birth for the dead.' (The Gita-2.27) After fulfilling this condition of traditional Yoga, a Sadhaka of integral Yoga will invoke the Savitri within and remain aware of people dying every day and every moment, through the mantra, 'This was the day when Satyavan must die ' (Savitri-10), and maintain another Spirit always "For about sixty years I have been constantly looking after people who are said to be "dying" – constantly." (The Mother's Agenda-April 28, 1965): "Although our fallen minds forget to climb, Although our human stuff resists or breaks, She keeps her will that hopes to divinise clay; Failure cannot repress, defeat o’erthrow; Time cannot weary her nor the Void subdue, The ages have not made her passion less; No victory she admits of Death or Fate. Always she drives the soul to new attempt; Always her magical infinitude Forces to aspire the inert brute elements; As one who has all infinity to waste, She scatters the seed of the Eternal’s strength On a half-animate and crumbling mould, Plants heaven’s delight in the heart’s passionate mire, Pours godhead’s seekings into a bare beast frame, Hides immortality in a mask of death." Savitri-354 Our task in sadhana is to make Death God’s Inconscient throne³⁴ unsafe by undergoing Subconscient and Inconscient Transformation and to transform this prison-house of the material world into an opulent kingdom, rajyam samruddham . Or Death God's Inconscient throne is “Threatened with this faint beam of wandering Truth” Savitri-585 The Synthesis of Yoga book (Principal Shastra) issues injunctions to a Sadhaka (Seeker of integral Truth) of integral Yoga that he should not remain indifferent to individual, collective and world imperfection and he should become accountable for his Sadhana (askesis) to his own Self, to the World and to the Divine.²⁵ Integral Yoga proposes that a developed Soul must not ‘look with a remote indifference on the’¹⁰ sufferings of the unblessed ordinary human being and blessed devotees and draws all of them towards Spirit’s freedom. Or ‘even if our personal deliverance is complete, still there is the suffering of others, the world travail, which the great of soul cannot regard with indifference.’¹¹ ‘Accepting life, he (a Sadhaka of integral Yoga) has to bear not only his own burden, but a great part of the world’s burden too along with it, as a continuation of his own sufficiently heavy load. Therefore his Yoga has much more of the nature of a battle than others; but this is not only an individual battle, it is a collective war waged over a considerable country.’¹² The forceful directive issued in the principal Shastra related to individual and collective imperfection, is to ‘leave nothing around it (liberated Soul Sadhaka) unchanged’¹³ superseding the previous stand ‘which will in no way seek to change their outward appearance...and old human surroundings.’¹³ His personal and communal existence must ‘take full account of’¹⁴ present imperfection and he has to ‘see how it can be converted to the law of a possible perfection.’¹⁴ The Mother linked money power with sex and its need to control universally. That is one of the perfections of Supramental manifestation. He "who will have a total power over the human sexual impulses (not merely in himself, but a universal power – that is, a power enabling him to control this everywhere, among all men) will have the right"³⁰ to rule over the money Power of the world. "The supramentalized body will be sexless since the need for animal procreation will no longer exist."³¹ Recapitulation: “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!...”³² The Mother "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." ³⁵ Sri Aurobindo The above message indicates that, in integral Yoga, enjoying life from a higher plane of Consciousness is forbidden ("I sacrifice not earth to happier worlds." Savitri-692 This line can be reconciled with the line, "Our souls forget to the Highest to aspire." Savitri-113), whereas in traditional Yoga it is permitted. A traditional Sadhak , after discovering the triple Selves, waits in an ecstatic state to escape into the supreme abode of Param Dham . In integral Yoga, time and space are utilised towards inner and outer adventures of life through movement of Consciousness and the Supreme Sachchidananda Consciousness possesses all the other intermediatee multiple planes of Consciousness. We have to be aware of the higest dynamic Self and its full possession in our external life. (“Thy consciousness forgets to be divine” Savitri-454) Thus, life is divinised. Those whose Psychic being in the heart and Spiritual being above the head have partly opened are identified as beginners of Integral Yoga. Before this opening, they can pursue this Yoga with the aid of purified intellect. These seekers are issued with injunctions in Savitri to renounce 'rest and earthly ease' (Savitri-339) till they find their Psychic and Spiritual being. Those who have found the Psychic being and Spiritual being are issued with injunctions in Savitri to renounce 'the glory and felicity.' (Savitri-136) Because during the transformation of Nature, pain and suffering are treated not as a curse, but as a transitional mechanism and a privilege ("It keeps for her her privilege of pain...But must cross on stones of suffering to its goal." (Savitri-457)) used by the universalized consciousness to shock the inert matter into waking up and evolving. There are two types of liberated Souls. The first type of liberated Soul or a Sadhaka of traditional Yoga, ‘may be content with a subtle and limited action within the old human surroundings which will in no way seek to change their outward appearance.’¹³ The second type of liberated Soul or a Sadhaka of integral Yoga, who ‘will not only alter the forms and sphere of its own external life but, leaving nothing around it unchanged or unaffected, create a new world or a new order.’¹³ Sri Aurobindo insists that the second type of liberated Souls remain accountable for their Sadhana through large Divine action, record the descending overhead Divine Wisdom and enrich Earth's atmosphere through the descent of Divine Love, Delight and Beauty. A long practice³⁸ of traditional Yoga is felt necessary and indispensable before the beginning of Integral Yoga. One may note that after the perfections of traditional Yoga are exhausted (list of perfections of traditional and Integral Yoga ), Integral Yoga begins. For the traditional Sadhaks, accountability in Sadhana is not obligatory, whereas integral Sadhaks are accountable for their Sadhana to the Self, World and Divine.²⁵ The Mother pointed out, "Sri Aurobind o always said that his Yoga began where the former Yogas (traditional Yoga) ended, that to be able to realise his Yoga it was necessary first of all to have reached the extreme limit of what the older Yogas had realised, that is to say, the perception of the Divine, the union, the identification with the Divine... 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 (that means at least 8 hours of a day) to a useful work."³⁶ The spirit in which an integral Sadhak will pursue sadhana : "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 OM TAT SAT References: 1: CWSA-23/ The Synthesis of Yoga/p-538, 2: “I do not want hundreds of thousands of disciples. It will be enough if I can get a hundred complete men, purified of petty egoism, who will be the instruments of God.” Sri Aurobindo /Champaklal Speaks/p-191-192, “That is exactly what Sri Aurobindo wanted and attempted; he used to say, “If I can find a hundred people, it will be enough for my purpose.” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda- 5/p-195, 3: THE GITA-6.45/7.19, "Her spirit saw the world as living God; It saw the One and knew that all was He. She knew him as the Absolute’s self-space, One with her self and ground of all things here In which the world wanders seeking for the Truth Guarded behind its face of ignorance:" Savitri-556 4: “Teaching, example and influence are three instruments of the Guru (integral Teacher)… He will seek to awaken much more than to instruct…The example is more powerful than the instruction; but it is not the example of the outward acts nor that of the personal character which is of most importance. These have their place and their utility; but what will most stimulate aspiration in others is the central fact of the divine realisation within him governing his whole life and inner state and all his activities.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-66-67, “The idea of helping others is a subtle form of the ego. It is only the Divine Force that can help. One can be its instrument , but you should first learn to be a fit and egoless instrument. ” CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-318, “The best way to help the world is to transform oneself by an integral and intensive yoga.” The Mother/TMCW14/Words of The Mother-II/p-277, 5: “…the (traditional) Yoga proceeds by the results of prescribed methods taught in a Scripture or a tradition and reinforced and illumined by the instructions of the Master . This is a narrower practice, but safe and effective within its limits, because it follows a well-beaten track to a long familiar goal.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-55 , (The Nature of a traditional Sadhak as hinted in Savitri:) "He would guide the world, himself he cannot guide; He would save his soul, his life he cannot save." Savitri-337 “A few I (Mother of Might) guide who pass me towards the Light; A few I save, the mass falls back unsaved;” Savitri-510 (The Nature of an Integral Sadhak as hinted in Savitri:) "She (Savitri) knew that first she must discover her soul. Only who save themselves can others save." Savitri-501 "All beings shall be to thy (Savitri's) life my (Supreme Lord) emissaries; Drawn to me on the bosom of thy friend, Compelled to meet me in thy enemy’s eyes, My creatures shall demand me from thy heart. Thou shalt not shrink from any brother soul. Thou shalt be attracted helplessly to all. Men seeing thee shall feel my hands of joy, In sorrow’s pangs feel steps of the world’s delight, Their life experience its tumultuous shock In the mutual craving of two opposites." Savitri-701 6: Matter cannot be reconciled with the Spirit is understood from the following verse: “They who with the eye of knowledge perceive this irreconcilable difference between the Matter, kshetra , and the Spirit, Kshetrajna, and the liberation of Being from Nature, they escape into supreme abode of Param Dham .” The Gita 13.35: In the Gita, Matter can be reconciled with the Spirit is hinted but not developed: "Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, reason and ego is My eightfold divided Nature, apara-prakriti . Know too My other Divine Nature, Para-prakriti, different from this Apara Prakriti; this Supreme Nature or the Supreme Mother which becomes the Jiva i n the heart and by which this world is upheld. This ‘upholding of the world,’ jagat dharayate , means Para-Prakriti also penetrates into Apara Prakriti by which this world can be purified, transformed and perfected.” The Gita-7.4, 5. 7: Savitri-226, 8: Savitri-230, 9: Savitri-709-10, 10: "The state of the liberated soul is that of the Purusha who is for ever free. Its consciousness is a transcendence and an all-comprehending unity. Its self-knowledge does not get rid of all the terms of self-knowledge, but unifies and harmonises all things in God and in the divine nature. The intense religious ecstasy which knows only God and ourselves and shuts out all else, is only to it an intimate experience which prepares it for sharing in the embrace of the divine Love and Delight around all creatures. A heavenly bliss which unites God and ourselves and the blest, but enables us to look with a remote indifference on the unblest and their sufferings is not possible to the perfect soul ; for these also are its selves; free individually from suffering and ignorance, it must naturally turn to draw them also towards its freedom. On the other hand any absorption in the relations between self and others and the world to the exclusion of God and the Beyond is still more impossible, and therefore it cannot be limited by the earth or even by the highest and most altruistic relations of man with man. Its activity or its culmination is not to efface and utterly deny itself for the sake of others, but to fulfil itself in God-possession, freedom and divine bliss that in and by its fulfilment others too may be fulfilled. For it is in God alone, by the possession of the Divine only that all the discords of life can be resolved, and therefore the raising of men towards the Divine is in the end the one effective way of helping mankind. All the other activities and realisations of our self-experience have their use and power, but in the end these crowded side- tracks or these lonely paths must circle round to converge into the wideness of the integral way by which the liberated soul transcends all, embraces all and becomes the promise and the power of the fulfilment of all in their manifested being of the Divine. " CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-444-445, 11: "It is possible, when we live inwardly in the depths, to arrive at a state of vast inner equality and peace which is untouched by the reactions of the outer nature, and that is a great but incomplete liberation, — for the outer nature too has a right to deliverance. But even if our personal deliverance is complete, still there is the suffering of others, the world travail, which the great of soul cannot regard with indifference. There is a unity with all beings which something within us feels and the deliverance of others must be felt as intimate to its own deliverance."CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-422, 12: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-77, 13: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-268, 14: “But whatever his aim, however exalted his aspiration, he has to begin from the law of his present imperfection, to take full account of it and see how it can be converted to the law of a possible perfection.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-631, 15: Savitri-708, 16: “There man can visit but there he cannot live.” Savitri-659 (All men can get the Supramental touch or God’s touch but are unfit or not prepared to get His embrace.) “There he could enter, there awhile abide.” Savitri-91, “It (child Soul) can only near and touch, it cannot hold;” Savitri-179 17: Savitri-42, 18: The Mother’s Agenda-10/p-148/19th April-1969, TMCW/Vol-14/Words of The Mother-II/p-277, 19: CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-554, CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-27, “Write to him that compliance with his request to see me is impossible. I do not see anyone — I do not speak with anybody or give oral instructions in Yoga. As for the rest, this is a special path of Yoga and only those are accepted who have a special call to it, not merely a general desire for the spiritual life. It is not a life of Sannyasa or a Yoga that can be done by Japa etc. but something much more difficult, so difficult that even those who have a call do not find it easy to go through to the end, and for those who have not the call, it would be impossible. If he likes, however, he can go on practising his Japa with an aspiration towards this path and if he gets any experiences by which a call to it becomes evident, then I can reconsider his case.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-554, “Sri Aurobindo’s way of Yoga is of a special character — it is neither sannyasa nor does it accept the ordinary way of human life. Its first stages can be practised anywhere. But unless there is a personal call to this particular way, there is no use in anybody taking to it. For it is a difficult path and there is little chance of success unless the aspiration is clear and fixed and the demand of the soul sincere and unbreakable. Sri Aurobindo does not admit anyone to this Yoga unless he has some ground to decide that there is in him this special call and that he has an evident capacity for this way — usually it is only after seeing personally at the time of one of the three darshans he gives to disciples and others that he decides whether or not to admit. On the strength of correspondence only he very seldom makes any decision of this kind.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-555, “The difficulty is that she seems to have only vairagya for worldly life without any knowledge or special call for this Yoga and this Yoga and the life here are quite different things from ordinary Yoga and ordinary Asrams. It is not a life of meditative retirement as elsewhere. Moreover it would be impossible for us to decide anything without seeing her and knowing at close hand what she is like. We are not just now for taking more inmates into the Asram except in a very few cases.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-556, “Reply that residence in the Asrama is only allowed to sadhakas who have been accepted into Sri Aurobindo’s path of Yoga, and not to all of them. This path is a special way of Yoga, difficult and different from others; only those are accepted who have a special call to it.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-559, “All are not equally capable of practising Yoga and in Yoga itself some paths are more difficult than others. There are some who have a special call to a path; others have no call; though they may feel drawn to Yoga, it is to other disciplines that they must go. This path is especially difficult and even some of those admitted to it find great difficulty in following it. Therefore Sri Aurobindo is not willing to admit any new disciples unless he has reason to think that they have a special call for it or a special capacity.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-560-561, “The number of sadhaks is over 150 and it is impossible to make farther admissions except in the most sparing way, as the means of the Asram are not unlimited. Moreover Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga is of a special and difficult kind and he admits only those who seem to him to have a special call to the life here.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-581, “There is no study of philosophy here; there is only a silent practice of Yoga. But this Yoga is too difficult for everyone to be admitted to it; one must have a special call or a certain capacity (not intellectual, but psychic or spiritual) before he is accepted. And even then all who are accepted as disciples are not allowed to stay in the Asram. The life of the Asram is of a special kind and it is only rarely that those are admitted who have not become permanent members ; a few come and stay for short periods, but these are already accepted disciples of Sri Aurobindo. ” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-595 20: CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-561, 21: SABCL/26/On Himself/p-175, “It may be said generally that to be overanxious to pull people, especially very young people, into the sadhana is not wise. The sadhak who comes to this Yoga must have a real call, and even with the real call the way is often difficult enough. But when one pulls people in in a spirit of enthusiastic propagandism, the danger is of lighting an imitative and unreal fire, not the true Agni , or else a short-lived fire which cannot last and is submerged by the uprush of the vital waves. This is especially so with young people who are plastic and easily caught hold of by ideas and communicated feelings not their own — afterwards the vital rises with its unsatisfied demands and they are swung between two contrary forces or rapidly yield to the strong pull of the ordinary life and action and satisfaction of desire which is the natural bent of adolescence. Or else the unfit adhara tends to suffer under the stress of a call for which it was not ready, or at least not yet ready. When one has the real thing in oneself, one goes through and finally takes the full way of sadhana, but it is only a minority that does so. It is better to receive only people who come of themselves and of these only those in whom the call is genuinely their own and persistent.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-35/ Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-691-692 22: The Mother’s Agenda-5/p-165/14th August-1964, 23: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-752, 24: TMCW/Vol-3/Questions and Answers-1929 to 1931/p-176, 25: “She wrote the account of all that she had lost,” Savitri-117, (Accountability to the Self.) “The Voice replied: “Is this enough, O spirit? And what shall thy soul say when it wakes and knows The work was left undone for which it came? Or is this all for thy being born on earth Charged with a mandate from eternity, A listener to the voices of the years, A follower of the footprints of the gods, To pass and leave unchanged the old dusty laws?” Savitri-475 (Accountability to the Self) “He (Avatar) has given his life and light to balance here The dark account of mortal ignorance… Pays with the body’s death his soul’s vast light… He dies that the world may be new-born and live.” Savitri-445-447 (An Avatar’s accountability to the world.) “To account for the Actual’s unaccountable sum,” Savitri-269, (Accountability to the Divine.) “Is this then the report that I must make, My head bowed with shame before the Eternal’s seat, — His power he kindled in thy body has failed, His labourer returns, her task undone?” Savitri-476 (Accountability to the Divine.) “And in the transactions of our positive consciousness, even Unity has to make its account with Multiplicity; for the Many also are Brahman.”CWSA/21/The Life Divine-39 (Accountability to the world) “In transparent systems bodied termless truths, The Timeless made accountable to Time” Savitri-273 26: CWSA-35/Letters on Himself And The Ashram/p-691, TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-62 27: “Among thousands of seekers of truth, jijnasu, one here and there strives after perfection and becomes a Yogi. And of those few siddha Yog i who strive and attain perfection of Yoga one here and there attains integral perfection and knows the Divine with all the principles of His existence, betti tattvatah .” The Gita-7.3, 28: The Mother’s Centenary Works (second edition)/Vol-10/p-15, 29: "It is not intended to supramentalise humanity at large, but to establish the principle of the supramental consciousness in the earth-evolution. If that is done, all that is needed will be evolved by the supramental Power itself. It is not therefore important that the mission should be widespread. What is important is that the thing should be done at all in however small a number; that is the only difficulty…It would therefore be a waste of time and energy which should be devoted to the preliminary work psychicisation and spiritualisation of the being and nature without which no supramentalisation is possible.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-288-290, 30: The Mother's Agenda/June 22, 1958, 31: The Mother's Agenda/August 1954, 32: The Mother’s Agenda/ July 18, 1961, 33: “For the disciple of an integral Yoga there can be no hesitation; as a seeker of knowledge it is the integral knowledge and not anything either half-way and attractive or high-pinnacled and exclusive he must seek. He must soar to the utmost height, but also circle and spread to the most all-embracing wideness, not binding himself to any rigid structure of metaphysical thought, but free to admit and combine all the soul’s highest and greatest and fullest and most numerous experiences.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-361, 34: "Death stays the journeying discoverer, Life. Thus is the throne of the Inconscient safe" Savitri-18, 35: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-943, 36: "Sri Aurobindo came to say something new. And it is precisely because people are unable to come out of the experiences they have known and heard being spoken of, that they try to identify this Force which Sri Aurobindo called supramental with their experience of the intermediary worlds including the Overmind. For they cannot conceive that there could be something else.... Sri Aurobindo always said that his Yoga began where the former Yogas ended , that to be able to realise his Yoga it was necessary first of all to have reached the extreme limit of what the older Yogas had realised, that is to say, the perception of the Divine, the union, the identification with the Divine. But that Divine, Sri Aurobindo says, is the Divine of the Overmind which is already something quite unthinkable, in comparison with the human consciousness, because even to reach there one must pass through several planes and in these planes one feels dazzled." TMCW/Vol-5/p-283, "The usual sadhanas have for aim the union with the Supreme Consciousness (Sat-chit-ananda). And those who reach there are satisfied with their own liberation and leave the world to its unhappy plight. On the contrary Sri Aurobindo’s sadhana starts where the others end. Once the union with the Supreme is realised one must bring down that realisation to the exterior world and change the conditions of life upon the earth until a total transformation is accomplished. In accordance with this aim, the sadhaks of the integral yoga do not retire from the world to lead a life of contemplation and meditation. Each one must devote at least one-third of his time to a useful work (that means 8 hours of the day). All activities are represented in the Ashram and each one chooses the work most congenial to his nature, but must do it in a spirit of service and unselfishness, keeping always in view the aim of integral transformation...To make this purpose possible the Ashram is organised so that all its inmates find their reasonable needs satisfied and have not to worry about their subsistence... The rules are very few so that each one can enjoy the freedom needed for his development but a few things are strictly forbidden: they are — (1) politics, (2) smoking, (3) alcoholic drink and (4) sex enjoyment.... Great care is taken for the maintenance of good health and the welfare and normal growth of the body of all, small and big, young and old." TMCW/Vol-13/Words of the Mother-1/p-107-108, "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/The Mother's Centenary Works/Vol-7/p-402-403 37: ( Blessed Lord said) : “He who expects nothing, anapekhya , (neither from the Creator nor from His Creation) is virgin, skilful, indifferent, untroubled, who has given up all initiation of work, is dear to Me.” The Gita-12.16, “There is a love in which the emotion is turned towards the Divine in an increasing receptivity and growing union. What it receives from the Divine it pours out on others, but truly without demanding a return . If you are capable of that, then that is the highest and most satisfying way to love.” The Mother TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-122, “The true purpose of life — To live for the Divine, or to live for the Truth, or at least to live for one’s soul. And the true sincerity —To live for the Divine without expecting any benefit from Him in return. ” The Mother TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-4, The Mother here recounts the general state of consciousness of devotees and ashramites: “To give a rather curious example, there was a kind of spell of illness over the Ashram, stemming mainly from people’s thoughts, from their way of thinking. It was quite widespread and it was horrible, gloomy, full of fear, pettiness, blind submission, oh! Everyone was in a state of expectation... In short, the atmosphere was such that there was an attempt to prevent me from leaving my room – I had to sneak out! It was disgusting! Well, on the very night I saw the spell over the Ashram, Sri Aurobindo was lying sick in his bed, just as I had seen him in 1950.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda/ February 18, 1961, “Those who approach me with the intention of obtaining favours will be disappointed, because I have no powers at my disposal.” Or “If you approach me in the hope of obtaining favours, you will be frustrated, because I have no powers at my disposal.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-5/p-250, “There was no strength in her, no pride of force; The lofty burning of desire had sunk Ashamed, a vanity of separate self, The hope of spiritual greatness fled, Salvation she asked not nor a heavenly crown:" Savitri-p-522 38: "His (a Sadhak of Integral Yoga) Yoga may be governed for a long time by one Scripture or by several successively, — if it is in the line of the great Hindu tradition, by the Gita , for example, the Upanishads, the Veda . Or it may be a good part of his development to include in its material a richly varied experience of the truths of many Scriptures and make the future opulent with all that is best in the past. But in the end he must take his station, or better still, if he can, always and from the beginning he must live in his own soul beyond the limitations of the word that he uses. The Gita itself thus declares that the Yogin in his progress must pass beyond the written Truth, —sabdabrahmativartate — beyond all that he has heard and all that he has yet to hear, —´srotavyasya s´rutasya ca ." 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, “Therefore our integral Yoga will take up these various disciplines and concentrations, but harmonise and if possible fuse them by a synthesis which removes their mutual exclusions. Not realising the Lord and the All only to reject them for silent Self or unknowable Absolute as would an exclusively transcendental, nor living for the Lord alone or in the All alone as would an exclusively theistic or an exclusively pantheistic Yoga, the seeker of integral knowledge will limit himself neither in his thought nor in his practice nor in his realisation by any religious creed or philosophical dogma. He will seek the Truth of existence in its completeness. The ancient disciplines he will not reject, for they rest upon eternal truths, but he will give them an orientation in conformity with his aim.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-341-342, 39: "Although with a vain imaginary bliss Of fiery union through death’s door of escape She dreamed of her body robed in funeral flame, She knew she must not clutch that happiness To die with him and follow, seizing his robe Across our other countries, travellers glad Into the sweet or terrible Beyond." Savitri-472 Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: Download the Odia WEB PAGE as a PDF file: Acknowledgements Header banner image source https://latitudesgallery.com/blogs/photo-blog/imaging-kauai-pre-dawn-light "(1) To give oneself to the Divine, (2) to receive and be the Divine, (3) to transmit and spread forth the Divine: these are the three simultaneous movements which constitute our total relation with the Divine." The Mother TMCW/Vol-14/p-22 "Think only of the Divine. Live only for the Divine. Aspire only to the Divine. Love only the Divine. Work only for the Divine. Be attached only to the Divine. Want only the Divine. Seek only the Divine. Only adore the Divine." The Mother White Roses "The Divine alone is true – all the rest is falsehood. The Divine alone is real – all the rest is illusion. The Divine alone is life – all the rest belongs to the kingdom of death. The Divine alone is light – all the rest is semi-obscurity. The Divine alone is love – all the rest is selfish sentimentality. And yet the Divine is everywhere, in the ignorant man as well as in the sage. And yet the Divine is everywhere, in the sinner as well as in the saint." The Mother The Mother's Agenda/Undated 1958

"Our life is entrenched between two rivers of Light," Savitri 531 The Savitri Handbook "Q: Savitri represents the Mother’s Consciousness, doesn’t she? Ans: Yes. Q: What does Satyavan represent? Ans: Well, he is the Avatar. He is the incarnation of the Supreme.” The Mother The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol-5/p-390 "In Savitri, the King (Aswapati) represents the human aspiration to discover the Earth's secret beyond all already explored spiritual knowledge." The Mother's Agenda/Volume-4/1963 "Sri Aurobindo writes of this in Savitri – Savitri lives always on earth, with the soul of the earth, to make the whole earth progress as quickly as possible. Well, when the time comes and things on earth are ready, then the divine Mother incarnates with her full power – when things are ready. Then will come the perfection of the realization. A splendor of creation exceeding all logic! It brings in a fullness and a power completely beyond the petty shallow logic of human mentality." The Mother The Mother’s Agenda/ July 28, 1961 Savitri book proposes a Sadhaka to utilise Time and Space exclusively for fourfold Divine union and by this an increase and accumulation of Soul force is witnessed, which must be utilised towards preparation for meeting the worst adversity in life or immobile in herself, Savitri gathered Soul force to meet the hour: "This was the day when Satyavan must die." (Savitri-10) Fourfold Divine Union: Jivatma's union with Paramatma Jivatma's union with Para-prakriti Paramatma's union with Para-prakriti in the heart centre Para-prakriti's union with Apara-prakriti. For this, the Savitri book proposes a Sadhaka to develop single-minded devotion, ekabhakti, through complete union of Psychic being with the Supreme Self or "Her consciousness grew aware of him (Satyavan) alone...Her aim, joy, origin, Satyavan alone....Give me back Satyavan, my only lord." (Savitri-410, 579, 637) The book emphasises Psychic Being in the heart as the virgin Mother and to live under its sole influence, which is elevated further as Spiritualised Psychic Being and Supramentalised Psychic Being or we have to be aware of the Maha Mantra of Savitri, "Virgin who comest perfected by joy...." (Savitri-424) and recognise it as "His only comrade is the Strength within" (Savitri-368) or "No helper had she save the Strength within;" (Savitri-13) Sri Aurobindo proposes that 'even the most highly developed psychical consciousness cannot be absolutely safe unless the psychical is illumined and uplifted by a higher force...' (CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-896) The single Protection ("Only were safe who kept God in their hearts:" Savitri-211) promised by the Psychic being has to be secured and strengthened by the discovery of double and multiple protection by realisation of the verse, "‘Our life is entrenched between two rivers of Light.... Heaven’s leaning down to embrace from all sides earth....It (dynamic Spirit) is within, below, without, above." (Savitri-531, 716, 98) We have to be aware of the Maha Vakya , Supreme Word of Savitri , which proposes to call down the Supreme Self, Paramatma and the Supreme Mother, Para-prakriti , to the heart Centre and through Their union open God's Supramental door. Or "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 This, Savitri handbook partly satisfies Sri Aurobindo’s directives issued in The Synthesis of Yoga, that ‘all truth and practice… must be constantly renovated by fresh streams of the spirit’¹ and ‘thus constantly renewed, relived, their stuff of permanent truth constantly reshaped and developed… continue to be of living importance’² and by this exercise alone a Sadhaka will trace a path of his own Sadhana and prevent the written truths from becoming ‘monuments of the past’² without any ‘actual force or vital impulse for the future.’² (Reference: 1: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-5, 2: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-5,) The Mother had issued guidelines to her biographers, “If anyone ever wanted to write about me, the first thing I would say is: NOT ONE WORD about my personal life – not a word.” (The Mother’s Agenda- September 23, 1961) The Mother also insisted on the same rule for Sri Aurobindo’s biographers. She observed, "My book, of course, would be: What I have known of Sri Aurobindo – and on his supreme level. What I have known of Sri Aurobindo is ... what I have been able to perceive of the Avatar . What he represents. That’s how I see him. So, what I have known of Sri Aurobindo , expressed ‘spontaneously,’ with a minimum of external events, the very minimum, but with all the experiences of our meetings..." (The Mother's Agenda/ December 20, 1961) This Savitri Handbook partly restates the history of Their inner life, which is a comprehensive movement on Consciousness extending over multiple ten planes or ten subtle bodies of our existence. This is not Their story of this birth (This life is a small fragment of infinite all life) but All Life extending from the beginning of creation to the end, when the life of humanity will be divinised. Our objective in preparing the Savitri Handbook is not to propagate Their Teachings (Soul-slaying truth) but to live Their Teachings (Soul-saving truth), to learn the lesson of ascent of the Soul and the descent of the Shakti; first intermittently, then continuously. Truth revealed through partial Divine union is identified here as Soul-Slaying Truth and the Truth revealed through complete Divine union is identified as Soul-Saving Truth. Here in this epic, Savitri's birth Mother and Death God are symbolically represented as soul-slaying Truth and King Aswapati, Narad, Savitri and Satyavan are symbols of soul-saving truth. OM TAT SAT Savitri, the representative Symbol of The Mother's Consciousness: 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 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.’ (Savitri-698) Satyavan, the incarnation of the Supreme: 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 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’ (Savitri-614) 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.’ (Savitri-59) He continued his life in many successive births and bodies as ‘twin souls born from one undying fire’ (Savitri-614) 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’ (Savitri-541) 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’ (Savitri-541) or ‘God’s summits look back on the mute Abyss.’(Savitri-541) He accepts the small and human personality of woodsman on earth and his small beginning witnesses immense ascent of 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. King Aswapati, Symbol of Concentrated Tapasya: 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’ (Savitri-423) with her ‘flame of radiant happiness.’ (Savitri-423) Like all human fathers, he aspires that her mortal life be unwounded and to serve humanity with ‘glad and griefless days.’ (Savitri-423) His capacity to unite with new bliss and flame-white Love came by annulling all ‘the contact formed with time-born things.’ (Savitri-322) 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,’ (Savitri-370) ‘meet the Omnipotent in this house of flesh,’ (Savitri-370) ‘Out of Immortal’s substance you were made’ (Savitri-370) 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’ (Savitri-374) 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’ (Savitri-423) 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’ (Savitri-457) 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’ (Savitri-340) for the whole of suffering humanity and of changing all future time by unlocking the doors of human Fate. Narad’s pronouncement of Satyavan’s death did not perturb him because he could foresee double destiny above Satyavan’s head, one that of a ‘heavy shadow’ and the other that of chasing by a ‘sudden and stupendous (Divine) light.’ (Savitri-424) King Aswapati proposes that seekers of Immortality should understand the double destiny of men. One is that of fixed destiny born out of ‘blindness of our will,’ our Karma or bounded action of past and present birth and the other is our changeable Spiritual destiny which is born out of union and oneness with Divine Will, Divine Wisdom and Divine Love. So, one can escape untimely death and can live a long, secure life if one's 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. King had seen in Savitri the manifestation of the Divine Mother who could fight against fate to change it and he had a strong conviction that the Supreme Will could work only for the good, independent of whatever it seems good or bad to man’s mind. King Aswapati’s Palace and Kingdom of Madra, stands as a symbol of the Supreme Self and Savitri left this highest Heaven permanently and had chosen the darkest forest of Shalwa as the symbol of the Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths for illumination and Divine transformation. Narad: The symbol of Overmental God: Narad, the heavenly sage, the God, the instrument having the experience of oneness and complete union with the Divine. (The Gita identifies him as Vibhuti and the best among Divine sages. (The Gita-10.26)) He is 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. She must cross on the stones of supreme universal suffering to arrive at her high mission of manifeting Divine Love and Delight in the Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths. However, he had 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.’ (Savitri-531) This Divine stationed in the heart centre is also projected as ‘greater than the God,’ (Savitri-375) 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.’ (Savitri-461) To bring all the ten worlds under her loving control and to uplift her body’s destiny or destiny of the race, her Soul entered a series of world adventure 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. Ordinary man 'rejects Divine Grace' (Savitri-431) and wastes time and space in earthly enjoyments. The Divine Grace will act when either of the four conditions below is satisfied. The Supreme Divine Grace will intensify only when the four conditions are simultaneously satisfied in Integral Concentration of (1) total and sincere surrender, (2) exclusive self-opening to the Divine Power, (3) constant and integral choice of descending Truth and (4) constant and integral rejection of the falsehood of mind, vital, body, surrounding world and Subconscient plane. Narad made Savitri aware of Supreme's Grace in the form of Satyavan which 'was too great to stay' (Savitri-431) and 'earth could not keep too long' this unique treasure loaned by God. King Dyumatsena, the symbol of Spiritual fall 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 the outer Kingdom was also the outcome of his revival of the inner kingdom through sadhana in double seclusion. Savitri and Satyavan accepted double seclusion as the field of their ceaseless Tapasya and consecration and the forest of Shalwa stands as symbol of dark Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths and the field of their Divine transformation. Queen, symbol of Moderate Spirituality: 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,’ (Savitri-417) 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 of ordinary life and static Divine Love of ascetics, 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 hunts 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 oblivious of past births and 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 Super nature. 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’ (Savitri-461) 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 Spiritual fall of Consciousness and she lost the ‘empire of her hard-won quietude.’ (Savitri-437) Savitri and Satyavan, The symbol of Incarnating dual Godhead: In Savitri and Satyavan , Soul and Nature had realised equal Divine Presences and merged themselves in oneness of wide harmony and balance. They have descended to narrow bound of earth life with too large Nature, Para-prakriti, overleaping the existing time. Their Spirit and body were glad, fulfilled through their union, which drove them towards the discovery of ‘Love’s deathless moment,’ 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 memories of their past births and their unfulfilled world task. From time to time or from the beginning of the creation, the 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 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 war 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. Death God, temporary Guardian of this mutable World: 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, having realisation of partial union with the Divine, and in his personality the escapist doctrine of mundane perfection, moderate Spirituality and later Vedantic Spirituality are reconciled. He guards and obeys the Divine’s fixed immutable law of Nature which is a part and derivation of Divine's dynamic Super nature and his hunger through world spreading death-net-trap can devour all, slay the infant Souls, 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 that the static Divine union of Saints and Avataras and the Ananda and Freedom gained through this union was not enough to dismantle death from outer existence. For him man’s identity was diminished as ‘the naked two-legged worm’ (Savitri-634) and he was not aware of the seven-fold personality of the Divine Lover, 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 that impersonal Divine where ‘there is no room for’ (Savitri-608) personal love and the incomplete task given to him during the passage of man’s tardy evolution in Ignorance within the boundary of three gunas . He was against the ancient Vedantic solution of life of reconciliation of Spirit with Matter as proposed by Savitri for whom Satyavan’s physical form is as important and real as his Soul and one need not die in order to find the Spirit. Death proposes Savitri to leave the dead husband Satyavan either through escapist moderate solution of life through procreation of children and multiple earthly enjoyments with ‘other men’ (Savitri-637) or later Vedantic/Nirvanist solution of life by escaping through Death’s door to supreme abode of Param dham and live a celestial life with Satyavan there and by forgetting the responsibility of emancipating the race here on earth. This Moderate and Ascetic solution of the problem of life proposed by Death was not acceptable to Savitri. Savitri’s Soul’s clarity and mind’s clarity made Death powerless. Death , like other 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 dynamic Spirit and Divine Shakti. Savitri’s Mind and Soul’s clarity delivered Death partly from limitation of gospel of human love and twilight thought in which falsehood is ‘mingled with sad strains of truth’ (Savitri-612) and he became powerless before her greater God status of Psychic Being, universal Soul saving Power, Supramentalised Psychic Being and a superior incarnating Divine Mother Force. Those who can open themselves towards Savitri’s universal Soul saving Impersonal energy can confront Time and Fate. The future vision of Savitri promises that when she will enter the Spiritual experience of everlasting Day, this dreadful majesty of Death’s face and his pessimistic harsh philosophy will not be slain in his own inconscient home but 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’ (Savitri-666) and a ‘whip to his yearning for eternal bliss.’ (Savitri-666) The Divine instrumentation of untransformed Death and its nobility is still hidden from humanity as he abruptly ends the parable of the charm of life through the ‘last gift of death.’ (Savitri-204) This greatness will be revealed to man when he will be aware of the Divine’s comprehensive plan extending over all life, confirming that death is a Spirit’s opportunity to begin a greater life. The Gita identifies Death as Vibhuti, the lord of the Law and insists ‘to see that Nature devouring her children, Time eating up the lives of creatures, Death universal and ineluctable and the violence of the Rudra forces in man and Nature are also the supreme Godhead in one of his cosmic figures.’ (CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-382) Death God’s existence on earth is provisional or as identified in Savitri ‘a failing star.’ (Savitri-640) As long as Ignorance is there, Death is a Spiritual necessity. His business on earth will fail with more and more working of universalised Divine Love; his safe and secured throne in the Inconscient sheath will be questioned when more and more Sadhak of integral Yoga will hold Paramatma Satyavan in the heart centre and enter that dark Inconscient world with Supramental sword to confront that dark universal world force. Here, Sri Aurobindo projected Death as a ‘dark-browed sophist’ (Saviti-621) with experience of partial transformation of nature and Spiritual fall through return to his Inconscient home and left the issue of his complete transformation till the arrival of the last Avatar. Since Death is not a Divine’s instrument of Soul saving Truth, he proposes a Sadhak (or Savitri within) to live in the world with triple limitation/deficiency of human love. Firstly, human love cannot leave life pure and untouched and hence one is deprived of vast descent of Truth-Light. Secondly, Death God forces a Sadhaka to experience the sorrow of widowhood by forgetting Paramatma Satyavan in the heart centre or 'leave this fated head' (Savitri-431) or 'Leave then thy dead, O Savitri , and live.' (Savitri-656). Lastly, human love is identified as a weak bond and it cannot 'break earth’s seal of ignorance and death.' (Savitri-315) If a Sadhak receives the crushing embrace of the Savitri within (or descent of vast Divine Shakti ) then her arm will be far sweeter than the courts of God and that bond will be far stronger than any human love imaginable. The triple efficiency of Divine Love is that, firstly, Death is intolerant towards Divine Love, which leaves life pure and untouched, calling down vast Divine Grace. Secondly, Divine Love is a strong bond between Jivatma and Paraprakriti, and Savitri within guards that seal against Death's 'rending hands.' (Savitri-633). And lastly, with the strong, ceaseless fourfold Divine union, Soul force accumulates, which can confront death and destiny. Savitri book reminds a Sadhaka to be aware of the triple Divine Love. They are identified as individual Psychic Love, universal Divine Love and Transcendent Divine Love. They are: “Assailed, surprised in the fortress of her self, Conquered by her own unexpected king (the Divine),” Savitri-87 (Psychic Love.) "A captive Life wedded her conqueror (Supreme Lord)." Savitri-125 (Psychic Love) "The calm delight that weds one soul to all," Savitri-6 (Activation of Universal Divine Love.) " Married to all in happy difference.” Savitri-326 (Universal Divine Love) "To marry all in God’s immense delight,” Savitri-695 (universal Divine Love) "The wedding of the eternal Lord and Spouse Took place again on earth in human forms:" Savitri-411 (Transcendent Supramental Love in the heart centre.) “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 (Transcendent Divine Love.) Satyavan's birth Mother, symbol of developing Soul: Satyavan’s birth mother is identified in this epic as the smallest character, the symbolic representation of 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 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-700) Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: Savitri Handbook I (in making) The Handbook II of Savitri (in making) The Central Truth of Savitri “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 (of Yoga). 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 “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

Sri Matri Dhyana Mandir Flower Offering 20 October 2026 4 August 2026 15 July 2026 28 June 2026 6 April 2026 21 February 2026 18 January 2026 1 January 2026 25 December 2025 10 December 2025 5 December 2025 1 December 2025 “The lack of receptivity of the earth and men is mostly responsible for the decision Sri Aurobindo has taken regarding his body. But one thing is certain: what has happened on the physical plane affects in no way the truth of his teaching. All that he has said is perfectly true and remains so. Time and the course of events will prove it abundantly.” 8 December 1950 The Mother The Mother’s Centenary Works/13/p-7 “When Sri Aurobindo left, he said, "I will return in a being formed supramentally – entirely conscious, with full capacities."" The Mother The Mother's Agenda/July 6, 1963 “If, for any reason this body (The Mother’s body) becomes unusable, the universal Mother will again start manifesting in hundreds of individualities according to their capacity and receptivity, each one being a partial manifestation of the Universal Consciousness.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-11/p-346 “And if you do not want your body to fail you, avoid wasting your energies in useless agitation. Whatever you do, do it in a quiet and composed poise. In peace and silence is the greatest strength.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-8/p-365,

Integral Physical Education "All here must learn to obey a higher law, Our body’s cells must hold the Immortal’s flame." Savitri-35 “And in the body itself there will be (1) a presence of a greatness of sustaining force, (2) an abounding strength, energy and puissance of outgoing and managing force, (3) a lightness, swiftness and adaptability of the nervous and physical being, (4) a holding and responsive power in the whole physical machine and its driving springs (mahattva, bala, laghuta, dharana-samarthya) of which it is now even at its strongest and best incapable. This energy (mahattva, bala, laghuta, dharana-samarthya) (firstly) will not be in its essence an outward, physical or muscular strength, but will be of the nature, first, of an unbounded life-power or pranic force, secondly, sustaining and using this pranic energy, a superior or supreme will-power acting in the body. (Thirdly) The play of the pranic shakti in the body or form is the condition of all action, even of the most apparently inanimate physical action. It is the universal Prana , as the ancients knew, which in various forms sustains or drives material energy in all physical things from the electron and atom and gas up through the metal, plant, animal, physical man. To get this pranic shakti to act more freely and forcibly in the body is knowingly or unknowingly the attempt of all who strive for a greater perfection of or in the body. The ordinary man tries to command it mechanically by physical exercises and other corporeal means, the Hathayogin more greatly and flexibly, but still mechanically by Asana and Pranayama; but for our purpose (Integral Eduction and Integral Yoga) it can be commanded by more subtle, essential and pliable means; first , by a will in the mind widely opening itself to and potently calling in the universal pranic shakti on which we draw and fixing its stronger presence and more powerful working in the body; secondly, by the will in the mind opening itself rather to the spirit and its power and calling in a higher pranic energy from above, a supramental pranic force; thirdly , the last step, by the highest supramental will of the spirit entering and taking up directly the task of the perfection of the body. In fact, it is always really a will within which drives and makes effective the pranic instrument even when it uses what seem to be purely physical means; but at first it is dependent on the inferior action. When we go higher, the relation is gradually reversed; it is then able to act in its own power or handle the rest only as a subordinate instrumentation .” Sri Aurobindo CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-731-732 Physical exercise, Asana and Pranayama are subordinate instruments of integral physical Education, while activation of the universal pranic shakti, higher pranic energy from above, a Supramental pranic force (“And body bear the immense descent of God.” Savitri-516) and the highest Supramental Will of the spirit are the main instrumentation for the perfection of the body. The two gates of perfection of integral Physical Education are 'mastery of the Prakriti by the Purusha '²⁰ and transformation of Nature or 'sublimation of Nature into her own supreme power, the infinite glories of the Para Shakti .'²⁰ "Physical tamas in its roots can be removed only by the descent and the transformation, but physical exercise and a regular activity of the body can always prevent a tamasic condition from prevailing in the body."² ¹ The Integral Physical Education “A body like a parable of dawn” Savitri-15 “An unseen Presence moulds the oblivious clay.” Savitri-60 “The body illumined with the indwelling God,” Savitri-76 “A body that knew not its own soul within,” Savitri-142 “Make body’s joy as vivid as the soul’s,” Savitri-196 “Then life beat pure in the corporeal frame” Savitri-232 “Bodies made beautiful by the spirit’s light,” Savitri-344 “Outlined by the pressure of this new descent A lovelier body formed than earth had known.” Savitri-354 "Drunk with a wine of lightning in their cells;" Savitri-383 “To wake her body’s spirit to its king.” Savitri-395 "Even as her body, such is she within." Savitri-422 “The body’s self taste immortality.” Savitri-451 “Her body quivered with eternity’s touch Her soul stood close to the founts of the infinite.” Savitri-671 “Arrived to fathom a deep physical joy;… The limbs were trembling densities of soul.” Savitri-676 “Break into eternity thy mortal mould; Melt, lightning, into thy invisible flame!” Savitri-691 “But I have seen through the insentient mask; I have felt a secret spirit stir in things Carrying the body of the growing God:” Savitri-693 The Maha mantra of Integral Yoga is restated in Integral Physical Education as All Life is Education through rigorous self-control of the body. Rigorous self-control gives birth to the absolute surrender "And the body says to the Supreme Lord: ‘What You want me to be, I shall be, What You want me to know, I shall know, What you want me to do, I shall do.’"²² Integral Physical Education includes and reconciles traditional Karma Yoga ,¹¹ traditional Hatha Yoga ¹² and traditional Japa Yoga ²⁴ in its scope. Indispensable Karma Yoga ¹¹ is given the greatest importance in integral Yoga because it accepts contacts with the world and acceptance of life as means of Divine realisation and can reconcile the Perfect Spirit with the imperfect Matter. Dispensable Hatha Yoga is given importance as it is related to rigorous⁴ self-control of the body,⁸ perfection of physical nature and transformation of cellular substance. Ceaseless Japa Yajna is accepted as it is related with ‘direct Divine action on the cells of the body,’⁵ disciplining the physical mind⁶ and transformation of the Subconscient Sheath.⁵ To awaken the Supreme Consciousness in the cells of the body is the object of Integral Physical Education. ⁹ The grossest intensities of Matter or Physical is only a final form and objective representation of the Divine existence, with the whole of the Godhead ever present in it and behind it. It is defined as a conceptive self-extension of Being which works itself out in the universe as substance or object of consciousness and is represented through our mind as atomic division and aggregation of things. Physical education is defined in the Upanishadic language as earth is our footing and foundation and wider, we extend and surer we enter receptivity, plasticity¹⁵ and training of the body, wider and surer becomes our foundation for the higher knowledge, whose perfection will lead towards imperishability of Matter. Integral Physical Education is defined as our full perfection can come when we give equal importance to physical training in addition to descent of Spiritual energy, universal pranic energy and Supramental energy to the physical body and recognises Matter as an extreme fragmentation of the Infinite and it is our sure base, starting point and foundation of the Spirit’s manifestation and revelation. “Among the many who came drawn to her Nowhere she found her partner of high tasks, The comrade of her soul, her other self Who was made with her, like God and Nature, one.” Savitri-366 “No equal heart came close to join her (Savitri’s) heart, No transient earthly love assailed her calm, No hero passion had the strength to seize; No eyes demanded her replying eyes.” Savitri-367 “All worshipped marvellingly, none dared to claim.” Savitri-368 (King Aswapati said to Savitri) “A mighty Presence still defends thy frame. Perhaps the heavens guard thee for some great soul, Thy fate, thy work are kept somewhere afar. Thy spirit came not down a star alone.” Savitri-374 (King Aswapati said) “Venture through the deep world to find thy mate. For somewhere on the longing breast of earth, Thy unknown lover waits for thee the unknown.” Savitri-374 (King Aswapati said) “There shall draw near to meet thy approaching steps The second self for whom thy nature asks, He who shall walk until thy body’s end A close-bound traveller pacing with thy pace, The lyrist of thy soul’s most intimate chords Who shall give voice to what in thee is mute.” Savitri-374 (Narad said) “In him (Paramatma Satyavan) soul and Nature, equal Presences, Balance and fuse in a wide harmony.” Savitri-430 ‘If our seeking is for a total perfection of the being, the physical part of it cannot be left aside; for the body is the material basis, the body is the instrument which we have to use. Sariram khalu dharma sadhanam, says the old Sanskrit adage, — the body is the means of fulfilment of dharma , and dharma means every ideal which we can propose to ourselves and the law of its working out and its action. A total perfection is the ultimate aim which we set before us, for our ideal is the Divine Life which we wish to create here, the life of the Spirit fulfilled on earth, life accomplishing its own spiritual transformation even here on earth in the conditions of the material universe. That cannot be unless the body too undergoes a transformation, unless its action and functioning attain to a supreme capacity and the perfection which is possible to it or which can be made possible.’² (Savitri said) “The heavens were once to me my natural home, I too have wandered in star-jewelled groves, Paced sun-gold pastures and moon-silver swards And heard the harping laughter of their streams And lingered under branches dropping myrrh; I too have revelled in the fields of light Touched by the ethereal raiment of the winds, Thy wonder-rounds of music I have trod, Lived in the rhyme of bright unlabouring thoughts, I have beat swift harmonies of rapture vast, Danced in spontaneous measures of the soul The great and easy dances of the gods.” Savitri-686 Through this education, the Matter finds victorious and infinite happiness, awakens the true physical being, annamaya Purusha , and awareness of an infinite Consciousness, knowledge, power, largeness, immortal existence and a perfectly Divine manhood is possible by developing a body and brain capable of receiving and serving still higher illuminations and an inward absoluteness of self-existence.²¹ ‘Taking support from Sri Aurobindo’s teaching that the body is an indispensable basis for the yoga, that it should not be neglected and that, on the contrary, great care should be given to it, the physical consciousness concentrates almost exclusively on the body and tries to find ways of satisfying it.’¹ (Savitri said to Death God:) “Live, Death, awhile, be still my instrument. One day man too shall know thy fathomless heart Of silence and the brooding peace of Night And grave obedience to eternal Law And the calm inflexible pity in thy gaze. But now, O timeless Mightiness, stand aside And leave the path of my incarnate Force. Relieve the radiant God from thy black mask: Release the soul of the world called Satyavan Freed from thy clutch of pain and ignorance That he may stand master of life and fate, Man’s representative in the house of God, The mate of Wisdom and the spouse of Light, The eternal bridegroom of the eternal bride.” Savitri-666 The three limitations and negations of Matter that resist growth or oppose the faculty of educational development are that of Ignorance, Inertia and Division and these are transformed by Integral Physical Education in to Omniscience, Divine peace and tranquility and Unity. “The athlete heavings of the will were stilled In the Omnipotent’s unmoving peace.” Savitri-320 The first fundamental opposition the Physical offers to the Spirit is the culmination of the principle of Ignorance. Ignorance is defined as Nature’s purposeful oblivion from Self and All and concentration of consciousness in part knowledge. Man forgets his total existence by absorption in either of the three exclusive concentration, that is (1) concentration in one object to the exclusion of the rest, (2) concentration on the present moment by exclusion of the all Time which includes past, present and future and (3) concentration on a part of the inner Being by exclusion of our total Self. It is through educating the physical or increase of concentration that one emerges out of the giant forgetfulness of Matter and becomes divinely self-conscious, free, infinite and immortal. The second fundamental opposition the Matter offers to the Spirit is the culmination of bondage to mechanical Law, a colossal Inertia. While the Spirit is free, master of itself and its work, creator of law, this giant Matter is rigidly chained and subjected by the fixed and mechanical Law and works out unconsciously as the machine works, knows not who created it, by what process and to what end. And when life and mind awake and impose their awareness and guidance on matter, it seems the Nature approves reluctantly up to certain point. But beyond that point it presents an obstinate inertia, obstruction, negation and presents to mind and life its helplessness.¹³ Life’s urge for utter wideness and immortality¹⁶ is met by Matter through narrowness and death and mind’s urge to embrace all knowledge, all light, all love is met by matter’s denial, deviation, error and grossness. Error ever purses its knowledge, darkness is inseparably the companion and background of its light, falsehood ever deforms and obstructs the truth, love is not satisfied due to the presence of hatred and joy is not justified due to the presence of suffering and material life always drags towards hatred, anger, indifference, satiety, grief and pain. “The Spirit’s white neutrality became A playground of miracles, a rendezvous For the secret powers of a mystic Timelessness:” Savitri-326 “On the white purity of the Witness Soul.” Savitri-326 The third fundamental opposition of the Matter to the Spirit is the principle of the culmination of division and struggle. In reality the Matter is indivisible but divisibility is its whole basis of action. The two methods through which the material life experiences union are either the (1) aggregation of the units or (2) assimilation which involves the destruction of one unit by another. Both these methods of union create eternal division. Both the methods repose on death, one as means of life and other as condition of life. When the vital principle manifests its activities in inert Matter, it is compelled to accept the law of death, desire and incapacity and when the mental principle manifests in inert Matter, it meets the Ignorance, limitation of consciousness and duality and there is no assured progress. So the Integral Physical Education⁹ will succeed when the material and physical substance need not be a creation of relation between physical, vital and mental sense and substance but on the contrary there is an ascending and developing state of Consciousness, becomes aware of pure and subtler realm in which forms arise and action takes place and opens towards a light of pure Spiritual perceptive knowledge of Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Being in which the subjective Self becomes its own objective substance. Then it will be able to transform its three fundamental oppositions and limitations and Matter will be a field of conscious revelation of the Spirit. “ A wider consciousness opens then its doors; Invading from spiritual silences A ray of the timeless Glory stoops awhile To commune with our seized illumined clay And leaves its huge white stamp upon our lives.” Savitri-48 The third fundamental opposition of the Matter to the Spirit is the principle of the culmination of division and struggle. In reality the Matter is indivisible but divisibility is its whole basis of action. The two methods through which the material life experiences union are either the (1) aggregation of the units or (2) assimilation which involves the destruction of one unit by another. Both these methods of union create eternal division. Both the methods repose on death, one as means of life and other as condition of life. When the vital principle manifests its activities in inert Matter, it is compelled to accept the law of death, desire and incapacity and when the mental principle manifests in inert Matter, it meets the Ignorance, limitation of consciousness and duality and there is no assured progress. So the Integral Physical Education⁹ will succeed when the material and physical substance need not be a creation of relation between physical, vital and mental sense and substance but on the contrary there is an ascending and developing state of Consciousness, becomes aware of pure and subtler realm in which forms arise and action takes place and opens towards a light of pure Spiritual perceptive knowledge of Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Being in which the subjective Self becomes its own objective substance. Then it will be able to transform its three fundamental oppositions and limitations and Matter will be a field of conscious revelation of the Spirit. “It can immortalise a moment’s work:” Savitri-85, “She has lured the Eternal into arms of Time.” Savitri-178 “The moments there were pregnant with all time.” Savitri-301 “The moment’s thought inspired the passing act.” Savitri-325, “The splendid youth of Time has passed and failed; Heavy and long are the years our labour counts” Savitri-345 “One human moment was eternal made.” Savitri-411 “Earth keeps for man some short and perfect hours” Savitri-421 “Time travels towards revealed eternity.” Savitri-623 This Book-2, Canto-2, of the Savitri book represents an exploration of a subtle physical world. It is an important Spiritual Science, hinted in the Upanishad as dream Self, sukhma sharira. This world is very close to the material world, the meeting place of the Superconscient, Subconscient⁷ and universal world. This subtle physical has an important role in Supramental transformation¹⁴ action and all the happenings and new manifestation in the material world has its source and previous formation in this subtle matter.¹⁰ A purified and universalized subtle matter can act as a field of interpenetration of Superconscient and Subconscient⁸ energies and hence is the preparatory field of all new manifestation. A preliminary attempt is made to enter this vast, affirmative, plastic, immaterial kingdom and to become aware of this Annamaya Purusha, the Soul in the physical sheath (“And Matter’s depths be illumined with a soul” Savitri-268) and Annamaya Kosha or the subtle physical sheath (The gross weighs less, the subtle counts for more;” Savitri-186) which are identified as important base of unfolding of the mystery of the existence. The last perfection of physical education is identified as cellular transformation. The simple formula to repeat The Mother’s Cellular transformation experience or discovery of immortal principles concealed within the cells of the body is to purify the physical substance to the extent of bearing the pressure of All Delight and the burden of the earth’s Inconscient negations. “In our body’s cells there sits a hidden Power (true physical being) That sees the unseen and plans eternity, Our smallest parts have room for deepest needs; There too the golden Messengers can come:” Savitri-169-70 (Supramental beings) “And when that greater Self comes sea-like down To fill this image of our transience, All shall be captured by delight, transformed: In waves of undreamed ecstasy shall roll Our mind and life and sense and laugh in a light Other than this hard limited human day, The body’s tissues thrill apotheosised, Its cells sustain bright metamorphosis.” Savitri-171 Regarding the perfection of body, Sri Aurobindo gave importance to descent of Divine Force to physical substance and this can be subordinated by physical exercises and Asanas . “The ordinary man tries to command it mechanically by physical exercises and other corporeal means, the Hathayogin more greatly and flexibly, but still mechanically by Asana and Pranayama ; but for our purpose (for Integral Education) it can be commanded by more subtle, essential and pliable means; (1) first, by a will in the mind widely opening itself to and potently calling in the universal pranic shakti on which we draw and fixing its stronger presence and more powerful working in the body; (2) secondly, by the will in the mind opening itself rather to the spirit and its power and calling in a higher pranic energy from above, a supramental pranic force; (3) thirdly, the last step, by the highest supramental will of the spirit entering and taking up directly the task of the perfection of the body.” ¹⁷ Regarding perfection of the body, we get new input from the Mother's following experience, "I am translating "The Yoga of Self-Perfection": what the body must be and must become to serve as an instrument. It's touching....But one thing has happened practically without my noticing it. In the past, before that experience [April 13, 1962], the body used to feel the struggle against the forces of wear and tear (different organs wearing out, losing their endurance, their power of reaction, and certain movements, for instance, becoming less easy to make). That's what the body felt, although the body-consciousness never sensed any aging, never, none – that simply didn't exist. But in actual material fact, there was some difficulty.... And now, looking at it in the ordinary way, externally, superficially, you might say there has been a great deterioration; well, the body doesn't feel that way at all! What it feels is that a particular movement, effort, gesture or action belongs to the world – this world of ignorance – and isn't being performed in the true way: it's not the true movement, done in the true way. And its sensation or perception is that the state I was speaking of, soft, with no angles, has to develop along a certain line and produce effects on the body that will make true action possible, action expressing the true will. With no difference on the surface, perhaps (I don't know about that yet) ... but done in another way. And I am not talking about grandiose things, mind you, but of everyday activities: getting up, walking, taking a bath. I no longer have a feeling of incapacity, but a feeling of (what's the word for it?) ... an unwillingness – a bodily unwillingness – to do things in the old way... There is another way to be found....But not "found" with the head, it's not like that.... A way that is somewhere IN THE MAKING.... I am speaking of the smallest things – take brushing the teeth; there's a difference between the way I brush my teeth now and the way I used to. (In appearance, I suppose it's the same thing.)... And I have difficulty (it's almost an unwillingness too) seeing things the way others see them. It's difficult for me, not spontaneous: it would take an effort I don't care to make... As for the head, it has learned to keep still.... I walk in the mornings and afternoons, saying the mantra as I did before; but while before I had to drive thoughts away, concentrate and make an effort, now this state comes and takes over everything – the head, the body, everything – and then I walk in that woolly dream (woolly isn't the right word, but it's all I can find!). It's smooth, soft, without angles and supple! No resistance, no resistance.... Oh, that peace!"¹⁸ OM TAT SAT References 1: TMCW-12/On Education/p-46, 2: CWSA-13/Essays in Philosophy and Yoga/p-521, 3: “A child must cease to be wicked because he learns to be ashamed of being wicked, not because he fears a punishment…In the first case, he progresses; in the second he goes down one rung in human consciousness… Fear is a degradation of human consciousness.” The Mother’s Agenda-22.11.1969, 4: “We (human beings) are not living for the satisfaction of our ego; we live to fulfill God’s will. But to be able to perceive and to know the will of God, we must be without desires and preferences. Otherwise we mistake for God’s will our own limited ideas and principles. It is in the wide peace of an absolute and devoted sincerity free from fixed ideas and preferences that we can realize the conditions required to know God’s Will and it is with a fearless discipline that we must execute it.” The Mother’s Agenda-01.05.1971, “The spiritual consciousness using the mind is employing an inferior means and, even though it brings in a divine light into the mind, a divine purity, passion, ardour into the heart or imposes a spiritual law upon the life, this new consciousness has to work within restrictions; for the most part it can only regulate or check the lower action of the life and rigorously control the body, but these members, even if refined or mastered, do not receive their spiritual fulfilment or undergo a perfection and transformation. For that it is necessary to bring in a higher dynamic principle which is native to the spiritual consciousness and by which, therefore, it can act in its own law and completer natural light and power and impose them upon the members.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-969, “The obstacle which the physical presents to the spiritual is no argument for the rejection of the physical; for in the unseen providence of things our greatest difficulties are our best opportunities.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-11, “The body is not only the necessary outer instrument of the physical part of action, but for the purposes of this life a base or pedestal also for all inner action. All working of mind or spirit has its vibration in the physical consciousness, records itself there in a kind of subordinate corporeal notation and communicates itself to the material world partly at least through the physical machine. But the body of man has natural limitations in his capacity which it imposes on the play of the higher parts of his being. And, secondly, it has a subconscient consciousness of its own in which it keeps with an obstinate fidelity the past habits and past nature of the mental and vital being and which automatically opposes and obstructs any very great upward change or at least prevents it from becoming a radical transformation of the whole nature. It is evident that if we are to have a free divine or spiritual and Supramental action conducted by the force and fulfilling the character of a divine energy, some fairly complete transformation must be effected in this outward character of the bodily nature. The physical being of man has always been felt by the seekers of perfection to be a great impediment and it has been the habit to turn from it with contempt, denial or aversion and a desire to suppress altogether or as far as may be the body and the physical life. But this cannot be the right method for the integral Yoga. The body is given us as one instrument necessary to the totality of our works and it is to be used, not neglected, hurt, suppressed or abolished. If it is imperfect, recalcitrant, obstinate, so are also the other members, the vital being, heart and mind and reason. It has like them to be changed and perfected and to undergo a transformation. As we get ourselves a new life, new heart, new mind, so we have in a certain sense to build for ourselves a new body.” CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-729-730 5: “When you follow the ascending path, the work is relatively easy. I had already covered this path by the beginning of the century and had established a constant relationship with the Supreme – That which is beyond the Personal and the gods and all the outward expressions of the Divine, but also beyond the Absolute Impersonal. It’s something you cannot describe; you must experience it. And this is what must be brought down into Matter. Such is the descending path, the one I began with Sri Aurobindo ; and there, the work is immense…The thing can still be brought down as far as the mental and vital planes (although Sri Aurobindo said that thousands of lifetimes would be needed merely to bring it down to the mental plane, unless one practiced a perfect surrender’). With Sri Aurobindo, we went down below Matter, right into the Subconscient and even into the Inconscient. But after the descent comes the transformation, and when you come down to the body, when you attempt to make it take one step forward–oh, not even a real step, just a little step! – everything starts grating; it’s like stepping on an anthill ... And yet the presence, the help of the supreme Mother, is there constantly; thus you realize that for ordinary men such a task is impossible, or else millions of lives would be needed – but in truth, unless the work is done for them and the sadhana of the body done for the entire earth consciousness, they will never achieve the physical transformation, or else it will be so remote that it is better not even to speak of it. But if they open themselves, if they give themselves over in an integral surrender, the work can be done for them – they have only to let it be done…The path is difficult. And yet this body is full of good will; it is filled with the psychic in every one of its cells. It’s like a child. The other day, it cried out quite spontaneously, ‘O my Sweet Lord, give me the time to realize You!’ It did not ask to hasten the process, it did not ask to lighten its work; it only asked for enough TIME to do the work. ‘Give me the time!’ ...I have also come to realize that for this sadhana of the body, the mantra is essential. Sri Aurobindo gave none; he said that one should be able to do all the work without having to resort to external means. (The Synthesis of Yoga book (p-624) proposes that the dispensable external means or Psycho-physical knowledge will be indispensable after the Spiritual foundation is established. Before this Spiritual foundation any dependency on the external means ' will at once bring in a limitation and subjection to Prakriti.' (p-733 ) ) Had he reached the point where we are now, he would have seen that the purely psychological method is inadequate and that a japa is necessary, because only japa has a direct action on the body. So I had to find the method all alone, to find my mantra by myself. But now that things are ready, I have done ten years of work in a few months. That is the difficulty, it requires time ... And I repeat my mantra constantly – when I am awake and even when I sleep. I say it even when I am getting dressed, when I eat, when I work, when I speak with others; it is there, just behind in the background, all the time, all the time …In fact, you can immediately see the difference between those who have a mantra and those who don’t. With those who have no mantra, even if they have a strong habit of meditation or concentration, something around them remains hazy and vague. Whereas the japa imparts to those who practice it a kind of precision, a kind of solidity: an armature. They become galvanized, as it were.” The Mother’s Agenda-19.05.1959, 6: “It’s an almost physical discipline. Moreover, I have seen that the japa has an organizing effect on the subconscient, on the inconscient , on matter, on the body’s cells – it takes time, but by persistently repeating it, in the long run it has an effect. It is the same principle as doing daily exercises on the piano, for example. You keep mechanically repeating them, and in the end your hands are filled with consciousness – it fills the body with consciousness. ” The Mother’s Agenda-20.09.1960, “There is ONE sound which, to me, has an extraordinary power – extraordinary and UNIVERSAL (that's the important point): it doesn't depend on the language you speak, it doesn't depend on the education you were given, it doesn't depend on the atmosphere you breathe. And that sound, without knowing anything, I used to say it when I was a child (you know how in French we say, "Oh!"; well, I used to say "OM," without knowing anything!). And indeed, I made all kinds of experiments with that sound – it's fantastic, even, fantastic! It's unbelievable…So then, if around this you build something that corresponds to your own aspiration – certain sounds or words that FOR YOU evoke a soul state – then it's very good…All that is traditional benefits from the power of tradition, that goes without saying, but it's necessarily very limited – personally, it gives me the feeling of something shriveled and withered, as if all the juice it could contain had been squeezed out (!) Except if, spontaneously, the sounds correspond to a soul state in you.” The Mother’s Agenda-2.09.1964, “The physical mind is the mind of the physical personality formed by the body. It grows with the body, but it isn't the mind of Matter: it is the mind of the physical being. For instance, it is the mind that makes one's character: the bodily, physical character, which is in large part formed by atavism and education. What is called "physical mind" is all that. Yes, it's the result of atavism , of education and of the formation of the body; that's what makes the physical character. For example, some people are patient, some are strong and so on – physically, I mean, not for vital or mental reasons, but purely physically everyone has a character. That's the physical mind. And it is part of any integral yoga: you discipline this physical mind. I have done it for more than sixty years… But then, that mind, for instance, which is spontaneously defeatist, which has all sorts of fears and worries, which sees the worst, repeats the same things forever, is that the physical mind or the material mind?... It is the most unconscious part of the physical mind, and that's what connects the physical mind with this material substance. But that's already an organized mind, you understand? It is the most material part, the one that borders on the mind ... (what can we call this mind?), we can't even call it "corporeal mind": it is the mind of the cells, a cellular mind…This cellular mind exists in animals, and there is even a faint beginning (but very faint, like a promise) in plants: they respond to a mental action. They respond. As soon as Life manifests, there is already the beginning, like a promise of mind, of mental movement. And in animals, it's very clear. Whereas that physical mind really began to exist only in man. That's what a very small child already has: it already has a physical mind; so that no two very small children are alike, with identical reactions: there is already a difference. And it is especially what is given you with the special FORM of your body, by atavism, and then fully developed by education…No, the physical mind, as soon as you do an integral yoga, you are obliged to deal with it, while this material, cellular mind, I can assure you that it's absolutely new! Absolutely new…It is the mind that was like an uncoordinated substance, with a constant, unorganized activity (Mother gestures to show a constant tremor). This is the mind which is being organized. That's what is important, because Sri Aurobindo said it was unorganizable and the only thing to do was to reject it from existence. And I was under that impression, too. But when the transforming action on the cells is constant, this material mind begins to become organized, that's the wonderful thing! It begins to become organized. And then, as it becomes organized, it learns to FALL SILENT – that's the beautiful thing! It learns to keep calm, silent, and to let the supreme Force act without interfering.” The Mother’s Agenda-31.08.1965, “This body-mind is a very tangible truth; owing to its obscurity and mechanical clinging to past movements and facile oblivion and rejection of the new, we find in it one of the chief obstacles to permeation by the supermind Force and the transformation of the functioning of the body. On the other hand, once effectively converted, it will be one of the most precious instruments for the stabilisation of the supramental Light and Force in material Nature.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-189, 7: “However, it’s not a personal subconscient, but a ... it’s more than the Ashram. For me, the Ashram is not a separate individuality – except in that vision the other day,’ which is what surprised me. It’s hardly that. Rather, it is still this Movement of everything, of everything that is included. So it’s like entering into the subconscient of the whole earth , and it takes on forms which are quite familiar images to me, but they are absolutely symbolic and very, very funny!” The Mother’s Agenda-26.07.1960, "He must accept everything, but cling to nothing, be repelled by nothing however imperfect or however subversive of fixed notions, but also allow nothing to lay hold on him to the detriment of the free working of the Truth-Spirit. This equality of the intelligence is an essential condition for rising to the higher supramental and spiritual knowledge." CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-718, "The discords of the worlds are God’s discords and it is only by accepting and proceeding through them that we can arrive at the greater concords of his supreme harmony, the summits and thrilled vastnesses of his transcendent and his cosmic Ananda. " CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-382, 8: “And only in the last few days have all those memories been allowed to rise up again from the subconscient where they were being kept; and with that, the state I lived in for thirty years has resurfaced – with this tremendous difference… And suddenly I said to myself, "How could it be? During all the time he was here, the time we were together (after I came back from Japan, when we were together), life, life on earth, lived such a wondrous divine possibility, so ... really so unique, something it had never lived to such an extent and in such a way, for thirty years, and it didn't even notice!" That ....That's what I have been experiencing recently…Yes, at one point I wondered (I don't remember when, a few days ago): "How could people have lived here, so near (but the same thing is still happening), how could human beings on earth who had an aspiration, who had their consciousness turned towards those things, have lived that possibility, have HAD that possibility at their fingertips, without being able to take advantage of it! How could something so wonderful and unique have taken place here, and yet people had such a small and childish and superficial image of it!"…Truly, I wondered, "Has the time really come? Is it possible? Or will it once again be postponed?"… (silence) Yesterday evening I read something in the book.... Sri Aurobindo is writing to someone who said, "How lucky people are who live near the Mother. " "You don't know what you're talking about! " he replies. "To live in the Mother's physical presence is one of the most difficult things." Do you remember this passage? I didn't know he had written that. "Well, well ..." I thought. He writes, "It is hard to stay near her, because the difference between the physical consciousness of all you people and her physical consciousness is so enormous...." Indeed, that's what tires me out. That's what tires my body, because it is used to living in a certain rhythm, a universal rhythm…(silence) No one can imagine what it was, those thirty years I had ... beyond all problems and difficulties; we went through every possible difficulty – and it was nothing, NOTHING. It was nothing, it was ... like a great harmonious orchestra…(silence) But ... it's clear that Matter must be rigorously hammered if it is to be made ready and able for this Transformation …(silence) And nothing, nothing imaginable in the eternal history of the universe can be compared to that shock: to have lived a perfect divine life as something completely natural and everyday, something OBVIOUS (it was never even in question), and then ... all of a sudden, physically – your base is snatched away. Well, to stay on after that! ... You just go, quite naturally: the base goes, you go…(silence) I can't blame my body for anything. It may be a bit weary, but it has held out very well.” The Mother’s Agenda-09.01.1962, “It was yesterday, I think, in the night (not last night, the night before, the 6th of June, that is), for more than three hours without stop, there was no consciousness of anything any more – not a thought, not a will, not an action, not an observation, nothing. Everything was at a standstill. For instance, all that happens when you have experiences and you work in the subconscient – all that, everything, everything was at a standstill. It was like the action of a Force. Without any thought or idea, only the sensation and a sort of perception (awareness is the right word) of a Force, but a stupendous Force, you know, like the Force of the earth – all the combinations of the forces along with an action that came from above and worked on them. It was going through me (especially around the head down to the chest, but it was going on in the whole body, and it was spherical) , it went through me and out, and out, and out in this direction, that direction, another direction, innumerable directions , and nothing but movements of Force (there was something like a perception of colors, but not in the ordinary way: like a knowledge that certain vibrations corresponded to a particular color), but it was an incalculable MASS, almost ... indefinite, at any rate, and simultaneous. At first I said to myself (laughing), "What's going on?" Then I thought, "All right, it doesn't matter, I'll just let it happen." And it went on and on and on – three hours without letup…I didn't know ... I didn't know anything any more, didn't understand anything any more, had no bearings any more; there was only a Force on the move, and what Force! ... It was a Force that came from beyond and acted upon all the forces of the earth: on big things, on small things, on small, precise points, on enormous things, and it was going on and on and on, on this point, that point, all points together and everywhere. I suppose that if the mind had been associated with the experience, it would have gone a bit mad! It gave that impression, you see, because it was so overwhelming that ... And all the time, all the time in the physical center (the physical center, that is, in the corporeal base), with something in an ecstatic state; it was very interesting how that ecstasy – an ecstasy that sparkled like a diamond – was there, so sweet, so sweet, so peaceful, as though it were there all the while, telling the body, "Don't be afraid, (laughing) don't worry, don't be afraid, all is well." As though the supreme Power were saying all the while, "Don't worry, don't worry, leave it to me, leave it to me...." It lasted more than three hours…I wondered, "What will my condition be like when I get up? Completely dazed, or what?" – Very quiet, nothing different, with only a sort of something that was smiling and saying, "Oh, so things CAN be that way." The mind was absolutely silent, absolutely: all the connections with all that people keep sending from everywhere were cut – all of it was completely gone. There were only the universal forces in action, with something that came from above and impregnated them all, sent them all out. And with it, a point – it was like a point in that immensity – a sparkling point, absolutely ecstatic, in such a peace! An extraordinary ecstasy, which was deliberately saying, "Don't worry; you can see what's going on, can't you, so don't worry, don't worry," because certainly the thing had gone beyond all possible individual proportions…It's the first time. I've had currents of force, I've had actions on the earth, I've had forces coming to me, all sorts of things; but this was different: it was all of that together. It was everywhere at the same time, everything at the same time, with that Inrush, and it was ... There was certainly something that wanted me to be very quiet and not to worry. It was necessary that I should keep very quiet…I had a feeling that I was given the awareness of something that's taking place right now. Because at night, generally, I disconnect myself from everything and universalize myself – no, "universalize" isn't the word: I identify myself with the Lord. That's my way of resting. I do it every night, it is the time when I have my deep rest. But now I've been made aware of this Force at work. Often experiences come (there have been a number of them lately), but it's the first time this one has come, because ... It was certainly something happening FOR the earth; but it didn't come from the center of forces that generally acts on the earth. It wasn't the usual working of forces on the earth. It was "something happening." And it gave the sense that the earth was very small – the movement was towards the earth, it was for the earth, but the earth was very small. Very small. (silence) There were no psychological perceptions (what I call "psychological perceptions" are, for instance, vibrations of love, vibrations of peace, vibrations of light, vibrations of knowledge, of power), they weren't there in that form, it wasn't that. Still, all that must have been there, because there were many things, many things that were all one thing, but one thing which assumed different forms; but I didn't see the forms, I didn't see the colors. It was only a question of pure sensation. A pure vibratory sensation: only vibrations, vibrations, vibrations, on a ... colossal scale…It is a new experience. (silence) Obviously, there was ... there must have been a cause for alarm, because as soon as I became conscious of the experience (it started before I became conscious of it; when I did, it seemed to me it had already been going on for a long time; so when I say three hours, it means three hours during which I was conscious, but it had started long before; it was around eleven at night and lasted till three in the morning), so the second I was made conscious of the "thing," obviously there was a cause for alarm, because immediately I was told, "You see, this is what is going on," and it was thanks to that ecstasy in the body that there was no alarm: "Oh, things are fine, everything is fine." And when the experience was over, it didn't end like an experience exhausting itself; it ended as if, very slowly, the thing were, not exactly veiled to my consciousness, but as if my consciousness were turned away from it, with the feeling, "Don't worry." At the start and at the end. All the same, when I woke up, I thought (because my head felt strange, there was a bizarre sensation as if I had become quite swollen! Swollen, inordinately swollen), I thought, "Maybe when I get up tomorrow morning (I get up at 4:30), I'll find myself in a complete daze!" That's why I observed – but everything was fine, there only remained that sort of feeling of being swollen. I feel (yet it was two nights ago, not last night), I feel as if my head were swollen! But the clear-headedness is the same as ever!! (laughing) Nothing's been disturbed! On the contrary, there is a sort of ... like an acuteness, something more acute in the perception, a little bit ironic – I don't know why. A magnified impression that all the things in the world are much ado about nothing, a lot of fuss about nothing – I've had that feeling for ... for centuries, I could say, but there is in addition something ever so slightly acute and ironic…But otherwise, crystal clear!” The Mother’s Agenda-8.06.1963, “It's still there; even in those who have developed their higher mind, who are able to emerge from that darkness and ignorance, it's still there – it's still there in a sort of mental or vital subconscient. And it's so dark! Thoroughly stupid, you know: it can be given hundreds and thousands of proofs, it remains unaffected – a kind of incapacity to understand. And then it constantly rises to the surface, and I am constantly obliged (gesture of offering to the Heights) to "present" it: "This is still there, that is still there, that ..." And I see very well that the distinction between what goes on in this body and its atmosphere, and what goes on in all other bodies is ... I don't know if the distinction still exists, but it's imperceptible. And the consciousness is aware of all those movements as if they were personal to the physical person. But the physical person (Mother touches her body) isn't just this body – I am not yet sure whether the physical person isn't the whole earth (for certain things, it is the whole earth), or whether the physical person is the entirety of all the bodies of the people I am in contact with. During the last hours of the night, that is, between 2 and 4, I see precise forms; but those precise forms are themselves representative, meaning there are TYPES and those types take on the image of someone I am in contact with or was in personal contact with. But to me they are types: "Oh, it's such and such a type" – but that can be thousands of people. And the action (it's always for an action), the action on the person-type has repercussions on all that he represents…And that's a labor which seems infinite – endless, at any rate…It does have consequences…You see, what I do is this: the thing comes, it's taken up, presented (gesture to the Heights) as though it were mine: "But look, see how I am " (but it's the "I" –the great I), it's presented to the Lord, very humbly, with the sense and feeling of complete helplessness – I simply say, "Here, change it." The feeling that only He can do it, that everything that people have tried everywhere appears childish – everything appears to be childish. The most sublime intelligence seems to me childish. All the attempts that are made to enlighten, organize, educate mankind, to awaken it to a higher consciousness, to give it mastery over Nature and its forces, all of it – all of it, which for a human vision is sometimes utterly sublime, seems absolutely like children playing and having fun in a nursery. And children who love dangerous games, who believe TERRIBLY in what they do (as do children, naturally). I have never met more serious and stern a justice than the justice children have in their games. They really take life seriously. Well, that's exactly the impression it makes on me: the impression of a mankind in infancy which takes what it does with ferocious seriousness. And which will never get out of it – it will never get out of it, it lacks the little something (which may be really nothing at all), a very little something thanks to which ah, everything becomes clear and organized – all that comes from mankind always BORDERS on Truth...So the only thing I can do is this (gesture of presenting): "Look, Lord, see how ignorant and powerless we are, how utterly stupid we are – it's up to You to change it." How do you change it? You can't even imagine the change, you can't even do that. So all my time (same gesture) – not from time to time: constantly, day and night, without letup, day and night without letup. If for an interval of one or two minutes this isn't done, there is something that catches up: "Oh, all that time wasted!" And if I take a close look at what happened, then I see; I see that for these few minutes, I was blissful in the Lord, letting myself live blissfully in the Lord; so I no longer presented things to Him – it happens two or three times a day. A relaxation, you know, you let yourself flow blissfully in the Lord. And it's so natural and spontaneous that I don't even notice it; I notice it when I resume my attitude ... (same gesture to the Heights) of transferring everything to the Lord every minute.” The Mother’s Agenda-16.10.1963, 9: “"... I must tell you once more that for us spiritual life does not mean contempt for Matter but its divinization. We do not want to reject the body but to transform it. For this, physical education is one of the means most directly effective. " The Mother’s Agenda-3.4.1967, “I started with a paradox: "The first condition for acquiring power is to be obedient... "The body must learn to obey before it can manifest power; and physical education i s the most thorough discipline for the body... "So be eager and sincere in your effort for physical education and you will acquire a powerful body." The Mother’s Agenda-27.03.1968, “Physical culture is the best way of developing the consciousness of the body, and the more the body is conscious, the more it is capable of receiving the divine forces that are at work to transform it and give birth to the new race.” TMCW/Vol-12/On Education/p-283, “The education of the physical consciousness (not the body’s global consciousness, but the consciousness of the cells) consists in teaching them ... First of all it’s a choice (it looks like one): it’s choosing the divine Presence – the divine Consciousness, the divine Presence, the divine Power (all that wordlessly), the "something" we define as the absolute Master. It’s a choice of EVERY SECOND between the old laws of Nature – with some mental influence and the whole life as it has been organized – the choice between that, the government by that, and the government by the supreme Consciousness, which is equally present (the feeling of the Presence is equally strong); the other thing is more habitual, and then there’s the Presence. It’s every second (it’s infinitely interesting), and with illustrations: the nerves, for instance ... if a nerve obeys all the various laws of Nature and mental conclusions and all that – the whole caboodle – then it starts aching; if it obeys the influence of the supreme Consciousness, then a strange phenomenon takes place ... it’s not like something getting "cured" – I might rather say, like an unreality fading away... And that’s the life of every second, for the smallest thing, the whole bodily functioning: sleep, food, washing, activities, everything, everything – every second. And the body is learning. There are naturally hesitations stemming from the power of habit and also old ideas floating about in the air (gesture of a swarming in the atmosphere): none of that is personal. As a work, it’s tremendous…And continuous…Continuous. There was a time when it would be forgotten now and then; now it’s beginning not to be forgotten anymore. It’s continuous. There’s only one thing that interrupts it, it’s the work with the outside, the relationship with others for that action which consists in infusing them – infusing them with divine consciousness. So then, this is the result: first, a very clear vision (not a vision in pictures, a very clear vision) of the state they are in; then, this: enveloping and infusing them with divine consciousness; and then, the effect that has, or hasn’t. That’s the occupation in relationships with people. The other work [on the cells] is the life of every minute... It’s growing more and more precise, more and more interesting – but absorbing... And a consciousness – a perception, rather – a growing perception of a state which ... I don’t know how to explain it. There are two simultaneous states: the state of uninterrupted, almost endless continuity, and the state of ... toppling over into decomposition (for the body); the two are constantly like this (Mother places one hand closely over the other). And the choice – the constant choice – based, in fact, on a reliance ... leaning for support on the divine Consciousness for all things and every second, or ceasing to lean on it. To the cells, that choice appears to be a free choice, with a very strong sense (but not at all formulated in words) of the support constantly given by the supreme Consciousness to help them rely on it alone…It’s not mentalized – hardly mentalized at all – and almost impossible to formulate. But it’s very clear. Very clear ... what is it? It’s not in the sensation – it’s in the state of consciousness. It’s very clear states of consciousness. But hard to express. Continuous states, continuous, continuous: night and day, ceaselessly, continuously. The planes change, the activities change, but it’s continuous. The mode of being or way of being may cease and give place to another, but that state of consciousness is perpetual, uninterrupted, universal, eternal – outside time – outside time, outside space. It’s the state of the consciousness.” The Mother’s Agenda-26.06.1968, “And the body is being given an education : it’s being taught how to will – the true way of being and willing. And over the entire material creation (gesture covering and enveloping the earth), there is a tissue – which we might call "catastrophic" – a tissue of bad will. That is to say, a sort of web, yes, a defeatist web – defeatist, catastrophic – where you botch what you wanted to do, where there are all possible accidents, all possible bad wills. Like a web. And the body is being taught to get out of it… It’s as if mingled with the Force that realizes and expresses itself; it’s like something mingling with the material creation. And the body is being taught to break free from it. But it’s difficult, very difficult…It’s the cause of diseases, the cause of accidents – it’s the cause of all destructive things…And this web is there constantly, all the time, like this (same covering gesture). It’s very tightly mingled [with the body]. It’s not clearly separate yet…So that’s how I live. There are still hours during which I don’t know what’s happening outwardly.” The Mother’s Agenda-4.9.1968, “Oh yes, that has a meaning! We could tell them: If that’s what you mean, it’s precisely the goal of physical education . And teaching is an attempt to replace the Consciousness with ... (laughing) an inner library!... If I joke too much, they won’t understand anymore!... We can tell them this: The way to really awaken the physical consciousness is physical education. It’s physical education that teaches the cells to be conscious . But to develop the brain, it’s study, observation, intelligent education – especially observation and reasoning. And naturally, for the whole education of the consciousness from the standpoint of character, it’s yoga.” The Mother’s Agenda-28.9.1968, 10: “At the outset, we can easily see that, since this is an evolution out of a material Inconscience into spiritual consciousness, an evolutionary self-building of Spirit on a base of Matter, there must be in the process a development of a triple character. (1) An evolution of forms of Matter more and more subtly and intricately organised so as to admit the action of a growing, a more and more complex and subtle and capable organisation of consciousness is the indispensable physical foundation. (2) An upward evolutionary progress of the consciousness itself from grade to higher grade, an ascent, is the evident spiral line or emerging curve that, on this foundation, the evolution must describe. (3) A taking up of what has already been evolved into each higher grade as it is reached and a transformation more or less complete so as to admit of a total changed working of the whole being and nature, an integration, must be also part of the process, if the evolution is to be effective.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine-730-731, 11: "And here we always come back to the same thing, to what Sri Aurobindo describes in The Synthesis of Yoga: it is the way of knowledge or the way of devotion or the way of works. But the way of works is precisely the one which keeps you in physical life and makes you find your liberation in it; and perhaps this is the most effective way of all but also the most difficult. ” TMCW-8/The Questions and Answers-1956/p-299, “My dear children, love work and you will be happy. Love to learn and you will progress…. If one does not love work, one is always unhappy in life. In order to be truly happy in life, one must love work.” TMCW-12/On Education-337, “It is evident that if we are to have a free divine or spiritual and supramental action conducted by the force and fulfilling the character of a diviner energy, some fairly complete transformation must be effected in this outward character of the bodily nature. ” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-730, (This indicates that for constant union with the Divine, nitya yukata , as hinted in the Gita, can only be effective by the transformation of Nature. Without the transformation of outer Nature, this union can be intermittent.) "If the spirit is everywhere, even in matter — in fact matter itself is only an obscure form of the spirit — and if the supermind is the universal power of the spirit’s omnipresent self-knowledge organising all the manifestation of the being, then in matter and everywhere there must be present a supramental action and, however concealed it may be by another, lower and obscurer kind of operation, yet when we look close we shall find that it is really the supermind which organises matter, life, mind and reason. And this actually is the knowledge towards which we are now moving. There is even a quite visible intimate action of the consciousness, persistent in life, matter and mind, which is clearly a supramental action subdued to the character and need of the lower medium and to which we now give the name of intuition from its most evident characteristics of direct vision and self-acting knowledge, really a vision born of some secret identity with the object of the knowledge." CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-793, “The mind eventually becomes wholly intuitivised and exists only as a passive channel for the supramental action; but this condition too is not ideal and presents, besides, still a certain obstacle, because the higher action has still to pass through a retarding and diminishing conscious substance, — that of the physical consciousness. The final stage of the change will come when the supermind occupies and supramentalises the whole being and turns even the vital and physical sheaths into moulds of itself, responsive, subtle and instinct with its powers. Man then becomes wholly the superman. This is at least the natural and integral process.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-826, 12: “The results of Hathayoga are thus striking to the eye and impose easily on the vulgar or physical mind. And yet at the end we may ask what we have gained at the end of all this stupendous labour… But the weakness of Hathayoga is that its laborious and difficult processes make so great a demand on the time and energy and impose so completely a severance from the ordinary life of men that the utilisation of its results for the life of the world becomes either impracticable or is extraordinarily restricted. If in return of this loss we gain another life in another world within, the mental, the dynamic, these results could have been acquired through other systems, through Rajayoga, through Tantra, by much less laborious methods and held on much less exacting terms. On the other hand the physical results, increased vitality, prolonged youth, health, longevity are of small avail if they must be held by us as misers of ourselves, apart from the common life, for their own sake, not utilized, not thrown into the common sum of the world’s activities. Hathayoga attains large results, but at an exorbitant price and to very little purpose.” CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-35, 13: “The only thing in the world that still appears intolerable to me now is all physical deterioration, physical suffering, the ugliness the powerlessness to express this capacity of beauty inherent in every being. But this, too, will be conquered one day. Here, too the power will come one day to shift the needle a little. Only, one has to climb higher in consciousness: the deeper into matter you want to descend, the higher must you ascend in consciousness…It will take time. Sri Aurobindo was surely right when he spoke of a few centuries.” The Mother’s Agenda-25.02.1958, 14: “The transformation, the perfection cannot for the integral Yoga be complete until the link between the mental and the spiritual action is formed and a higher knowledge applied to all the activities of our existence. That link was the Supramental or Gnostic energy in which the incalculable infinite power of the supreme being, consciousness, delight formulates itself as an ordering divine will and wisdom, a light and power in the being which shapes all the thought, will, feeling, action and replaces the corresponding individual movements.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga-764, “But in the gnostic way of being and living the will of the spirit must directly control and determine the movements and law of the body. For the law of the body arises from the subconscient or inconscient: but in the gnostic being the subconscient will have become conscious and subject to the supramental control, penetrated with its light and action; the basis of inconscience with its obscurity and ambiguity, its obstruction or tardy responses will have been transformed into a lower or supporting superconscience by the supramental emergence.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine-1021, “A gnostic being will possess not only a truth-conscious control of the realised spirit’s power over its physical world, but also the full power of the mental and vital planes and the use of their greater forces for the perfection of the physical existence. This greater knowledge and wider hold of all existence will enormously increase the power of instrumentation of the gnostic being on his surroundings and on the world of physical Nature.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-1015, 15: “The transition between the two appears really possible only through the entry – the conscious and willed entry – of a supramentalized consciousness into a body that we could call an "improved physical body," in other words, the human physical body as it is now, but improved: the improvement produced, for instance, by a TRUE physical training, not in its present exaggerated form but in its true sense. It's something I have seen fairly clearly: in an evolution (physical training is developing very fast nowadays, it's not even half a century since it started), in evolution, that physical training will bring an improvement, that is, a suppleness, a balance, an endurance, and a harmony; these are the four qualities – suppleness (plasticity), balance between the various parts of the being, endurance, and harmony of the body – that will make it a more supple instrument for the supramentalized consciousness…So the transition: a conscious and willed utilization by a supramentalized consciousness of a body prepared in that way. This body must be brought to the peak of its development and of the utilization of the cells in order to be ... yes, consciously impregnated with the supreme forces (which is being done here [in Mother] at the moment), and this to the utmost of its capacities. And if the consciousness that inhabits that body, that animates that body, has the required qualities in sufficient amount, it should normally be able to utilize that body to the utmost of its capacity of transformation, with the result that the waste caused by the death of decomposing cells should be reduced to a minimum – to what extent?... That's precisely what still belongs to the unknown…That would correspond to what Sri Aurobindo called the prolongation of life at will, for an indefinite length of time…But as things are at present, it would seem there is a transitional period in which the consciousness has to switch from this body to another, better prepared body – better prepared outwardly, physically (not inwardly); "outwardly," I mean, having acquired certain aptitudes through the present development, which this body doesn't have, of the four qualities – which it doesn't have in sufficient amount and completeness. That is to say, those four qualities must be in perfect accord and in sufficient amount to be able to bear the work of transformation.” The Mother’s Agenda/April 17, 1965 16: “In fact, the body must not rule, it must obey. By its very nature it is a docile and faithful servant. Unfortunately, it rarely has the capacity of discernment it ought to have with regard to its masters, the mind and the vital. It obeys them blindly, at the cost of its own well-being. The mind with its dogmas, its rigid and arbitrary principles, the vital with its passions, its excesses and dissipations soon destroy the natural balance of the body and create in it fatigue, exhaustion and disease. It must be freed from this tyranny and this can be done only through a constant union with the psychic centre of the being. The body has a wonderful capacity of adaptation and endurance. It is able to do so many more things than one usually imagines. If, instead of the ignorant and despotic masters that now govern it, it is ruled by the central truth of the being, you will be amazed at what it is capable of doing. Calm and quiet, strong and poised, at every minute it will be able to put forth the effort that is demanded of it, for it will have learnt to find rest in action and to recuperate, through contact with the universal forces, the energies it expends consciously and usefully. In this sound and balanced life a new harmony will manifest in the body, reflecting the harmony of the higher regions, which will give it perfect proportions and ideal beauty of form. And this harmony will be progressive, for the truth of the being is never static; it is a perpetual unfolding of a growing perfection that is more and more total and comprehensive. As soon as the body has learnt to follow this movement of progressive harmony, it will be possible for it to escape, through a continuous process of transformation, from the necessity of disintegration and destruction. Thus the irrevocable law of death will no longer have any reason to exist.” TMCW/Vol-12/On Education/p-7-8, 17: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-732, 18: The Mother's Agenda/June 6, 1962 19: "There are all kinds of freedom – mental freedom, vital freedom, spiritual freedom – which are the fruits of successive masteries. But a completely new freedom has become possible with the Supramental Manifestation: it is the freedom of the body." The Mother's Agenda-17.10.1957, 20: "The very physical consciousness in man, the annamaya purusa , can without this supreme ascent and integral descent yet reflect and enter into the self of Sachchidananda . It can do it either by a reflection of the Soul in physical Nature, its bliss, power and infinity secret but still present here, or by losing its separate sense of substance and existence in the Self within or without it. The result is a glorified sleep of the physical mind in which the physical being forgets itself in a kind of conscious Nirvana or else moves about like a thing inert in the hands of Nature, jadavat, like a leaf in the wind, or otherwise a state of pure happy and free irresponsibility of action, balavat , a divine childhood. But this comes without the higher glories of knowledge and delight which belong to the same status upon a more exalted level. It is an inert realisation of Sachchidananda in which there is neither any mastery of the Prakriti by the Purusha nor any sublimation of Nature into her own supreme power, the infinite glories of the Para Shakti. Yet these two, this mastery and this sublimation, are the two gates of perfection, the splendid doors into the supreme Eternal." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-499, 21: CWSA-31/ Letters on Yoga-IV/p-398, 22: The Mother's Agenda/October 3, 1958, 23: "... I am tired of our infirmity. But it is not to rest that this body aspires, it aspires to the plenitude of Your (Supreme Lord) Consciousness, it aspires to the splendor of Your Light, it aspires to the magnificence of Your Power; above all, it aspires to the glory of Your all-powerful and eternal Love." The Mother's Agenda/July 21, 1965 "When formerly I used to speak of the new world that is being created, I was speaking of this intermediate zone. And similarly, when I am on ‘this’ side – that is, in the realm of the physical consciousness – and I see the supramental power, the supramental light and substance constantly permeating matter, I am seeing and participating in the construction of this zone." The Mother's Agenda/February 3, 1958, 24: “In India the Guru gives a mantra as soon as he accepts a disciple and tells him to go ahead with it. We have no mantra except the Mother’s name. But usually we give work, tell them to aspire, reject, open to the Mother.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-32/The Mother and Letters on the Mother-139, “(Question) Sometimes when I sit in meditation, I say “Ma — Ma — Ma.” Then everything becomes quiet and I feel great peace inside and outside me. Even in the atmosphere around me, I hear “Ma — Ma — Ma.” Is this real or is it only echoes? (Ans) The atmosphere you carry around you is part of your consciousness as much as the rest that you feel inside you. When you repeat the name of the Mother, it begins to echo in all your consciousness, outside as well as inside you. What you experience therefore is quite true and it is a good experience.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-32/The Mother with Letters on the Mother/p-478-479, Download this WEB PAGE in PDF format: “When you follow the ascending path, the work is relatively easy. I had already covered this path by the beginning of the century and had established a constant relationship with the Supreme – That which is beyond the Personal and the gods and all the outward expressions of the Divine, but also beyond the Absolute Impersonal. It’s something you cannot describe; you must experience it. And this is what must be brought down into Matter. Such is the descending path, the one I began with Sri Aurobindo ; and there, the work is immense…The thing can still be brought down as far as the mental and vital planes (although Sri Aurobindo said that thousands of lifetimes would be needed merely to bring it down to the mental plane, unless one practiced a perfect surrender)("A soul made ready through a thousand years." Savitri-398). With Sri Aurobindo, we went down below Matter, right into the Subconscient and even into the Inconscient. But after the descent comes the transformation , and when you come down to the body, when you attempt to make it take one step forward – oh, not even a real step, just a little step! – everything starts grating; it’s like stepping on an anthill ... And yet the presence, the help of the supreme Mother, is there constantly; thus you realize that for ordinary men such a task is impossible, or else millions of lives would be needed – but in truth, unless the work is done for them and the sadhana of the body done for the entire earth consciousness , they will never achieve the physical transformation, or else it will be so remote that it is better not even to speak of it. But if they open themselves, if they give themselves over in an integral surrender, the work can be done for them – they have only to let it be done…The path is difficult. And yet this body is full of good will; it is filled with the psychic in every one of its cells. It’s like a child. The other day, it cried out quite spontaneously, ‘O my Sweet Lord, give me the time to realize You!’ It did not ask to hasten the process, it did not ask to lighten its work; it only asked for enough TIME to do the work. ‘Give me the time!’” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-19.05.1959 " One of the very first results of the supramental manifestation was to give the body a freedom and an autonomy it has never before known . And when I say freedom, I don’t mean some psychological perception or an inner state of consciousness, but something else and far better – it is a new phenomenon in the body, in the cells of the body. For the first time, the cells themselves have felt that they are free, that they have the power to decide. When the new vibrations came and combined with the old ones, I felt it at once and it showed me that a new world was really taking birth... In its normal state, the body always feels that it is not its own master: illnesses invade it without its really being able to resist them – a thousand factors impose themselves or exert pressure upon it. Its sole power is the power to defend itself, to react. Once the illness has got in, it can fight and overcome it – even modern medicine has acknowledged that the body is cured only when it decides to get cured; it is not the drugs per se that heal, for if the ailment is temporarily suppressed by a drug without the body’s will, it grows up again elsewhere in some other form until the body itself has decided to be cured. But this implies only a defensive power, the power to react against an invading enemy – it is not true freedom.... But with the supramental manifestation, something new has taken place in the body: it feels it is its own master, autonomous, with its two feet solidly on the ground, as it were. This gives a physical impression of the whole being suddenly drawing itself up, with its head lifted high – I am my own master... And this new vibration in the body has allowed me to understand the mechanism of the transformation. It is not something that comes from a higher Will, not a higher consciousness that imposes itself upon the body: it is the body itself awakening in its cells, a freedom of the cells themselves, an absolutely new vibration that sets disorders right – even disorders that existed prior to the supramental manifestation ." The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-October 17, 1957 "So, regularly, as soon as there comes a pain somewhere or a discomfort or anything, immediately, instantly, the first reaction: "Ah! Lord, what do You want me to learn?" And I become attentive... If everybody does the same thing, if all those who can do it (sincerely, of course, without pretense) do it sincerely: "Ah! Lord, what do You want me to learn?" and then observe, wait, then things are easier, you put yourself at least in better conditions." The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-July 27, 1963

The Journal in Detail “When unity is won, when strife is lost And all is known and all is clasped by Love Who would turn back to ignorance and pain?” Savitri-633 “For a knowledge from above begins to descend, frequently, constantly, then uninterruptedly, and to manifest in the mind’s quietude or silence;…”¹ Sri Aurobindo “That Self and Spirit cannot be expressed by the mind’s abstract generalisations; all the inspired descriptions of the seers and mystics cannot exhaust its contents and its splendours.”² Sri Aurobindo “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 …”³ Sri Aurobindo “…but when we advance in self-knowledge, we find that all our thought and will originate from above though formed in the mind and there first overtly active.”⁴ Sri Aurobindo “Truth is not a dogma that one can learn once and for all and impose as a rule. Truth is as infinite as the supreme Lord and It manifests every instant for those who are sincere and attentive. ”⁹ The Mother “For knowledge shall pour down in radiant streams And even darkened mind quiver with new life And kindle and burn with the Ideal’s fire And turn to escape from mortal ignorance.”⁶ Sri Aurobindo Journal in Detail A concentrated writing can be truly offered near the Divine if it remains absolutely free from all motives. It should be written for the sole satisfaction of the Divine, for the sole reception of the transcendent wisdom, for the sole opening towards the Word that can incarnate the highest Truth and a concentration on central thought and central Truth that can become Omnipotent. It can be made fit for the Divine offering if the writing is made perfect, even in its smallest external detail as well as the highest Spirit and Soul quality from which it has descended. So the first objective of The Descent is to restate the Spiritual experience and bridge the gulf between Sri Aurobindo’s early sadhana at Pondicherry and The Mother’s last cellular transformation experience which is a preliminary effort to accumulate Their vast Spiritual wealth from without and the utter need to live within, which is an atmosphere of Their Supreme Presence; its second objective is to concentrate, contemplate and meditate on the written Truth and constantly revise and heighten the already restated statements through fresh instreaming of overhead Spiritual experiences and Wisdom which is extended to overcome the human limitation of fragmentary knowledge in Ignorance, leading towards an integration of Knowledge; its third objective is to identify The Mother and Sri Aurobindo’s established and the most concentrated Spiritual experiences and find the possible means of purification to repeat those experiences which results in a revolution of our internal being and, through the internal movement of Consciousness our external life is perfected; its fourth objective is to establish a strong Spiritual foundation by Jivatma's union with Paramatma, which will serve as a platform for the development and consummation of Their highest hinted Spiritual experiences and utilise that base as lever action to escape into still unknown heights of Consciousness and call down the corresponding divine Light to penetrate into the untouched nether domain of dark Subconscient and Inconscient planes. So the writings of The Descent depend firstly on the Word that descends from above and is caught through large, subtle and plastic Idea which does not insist too much on rigid definition; secondly, it organises anew the highest and the best written wisdom already available on the earth through its past and present Spiritual experiences; thirdly, some of its writings are based on the construction of the mind which expresses partial and practical half light and half truth and waits till its constant element of falsity and twilight are replaced by the higher and wider Knowledge from within and above; fourthly, to mind Spiritual experiences of Individual, Cosmic and Transcendent Beings are intelligible as eternal hierarchies of powers of Consciousness and we cannot hope to describe adequately the visions of heights of Consciousness or experience of the mysteries Absolute in terms of negative or positive abstract mental language but can only hope to indicate, glimpse and hint it to the utmost power of our pure symbolic language which is ‘yet to be discovered and mapped in their completeness;’⁵ fifthly, integral Yoga authorises ‘an absolute liberty’⁷ to enter new subjective Spiritual experience and reaffirm rightly all knowledge in new terms and new combinations; sixthly, Consciousness must be trained to move in between Subliminal, Psychic and Spiritual planes and through this movement corresponding Psychic and Spiritual Sheaths and adjacent subtle mental, subtle vital and subtle physical sheaths are purified, enlarged, transformed and perfected and writing/oration can be used as Prakriti-yajna, one of the important means for this movement of Divine Consciousness and descent of Divine Shakti; and lastly, it aims at elevating all writings towards the status of absolute Brahman through constant restatement extending over a long formative period of Sadhana and in this endless growth of impersonal and universal state there is no trace of negation, discord and division and one enters into exceedingly affirmative and uniting Consciousness with radically different ecstatic awareness of things. There can develop a Supramental envisaging of the universe whose each step and each action are dictated by an innate Spiritual vision, a comprehensive and exact penetration into the Truth of all and the Truth of each thing. Large and plastic ideas and speech can be expressed through the supreme effort of creative Consciousness in carrying those highest experiences to its farthest end and assist mankind towards the possession of the knowledge of God and the supreme Reality. The Descent can serve its true purpose when it can catch without ego, most of the secret threads of integral Yoga or seize the knowledge of the Unknowable directly, not by intellectual poor abstract understanding but by the discovery of another overhead language which is at once creatively metaphysical, revealingly poetic, substantially malleable and can pour down in a vivid plastic massiveness of flaming stream. A Sadhaka’s Spiritual life is secured through the complete union of the Soul with the universal and transcendent Divine and by fulfilment of the task of accountability in sadhana before his Self, World and Divine. His principal motive is to give Them (dual Divine) consecrated service and this slavehood to the Divine gives him the right to enter deep into Their Teachings. Their Teachings contain vast Truths of reconciling wisdom and Oneness whose wrong discrimination and misuse ¹¹ can make life asuric and a separative commerce⁸ with the world for some personal gain may become predominant. If he accumulates Their Spiritual opulence rightly without separate personal energy of ego, vidhipurbakam,¹⁰ then life will flower unimaginably with predominance of Silence, Truth, Plasticity, Consciousness and Love in his frontal nature and he will uncover his own unique endless Spiritual path. He will serve at once as passive Instrument of Divine Will and active Participant in the bliss of universal Divine action and the bliss of world transformation. OM TAT SAT References: 1: CWSA-22/The life Divine/p-946, 2: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-296, 3: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-5, CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-480, 4: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-818, 5: CWSA-22/The life Divine/p-953, 6: Savitri-710, 7: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-56, 8: “The man of knowledge, the liberated soul offers on the contrary all his activities to the one eternal Godhead without any attachment to their fruit or to the satisfaction of his lower personal desires. He works for God, not for himself, for the universal welfare, for the Soul of the world and not for any particular object which is of his own personal creation or for any construction of his mental will or object of his vital longings, as a divine agent, not as a principal and separate profiteer in the world commerce . And this, it must be noted, is a thing that cannot be really done except in proportion as the mind arrives at equality, universality, wide impersonality, and a clear freedom from every disguise of the insistent ego: for without these things the claim to be thus acting is a pretension or an illusion.” CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita-458, "At any rate in man it is the ego idea which chiefly supports the falsehood of a separative existence; to get rid of this idea; to dwell on the opposite idea of unity, of the one self, the one spirit, the one being of nature is therefore an effective remedy; but it is not by itself absolutely effective. For the ego, though it supports itself by this ego idea, aham-buddhi, finds its most powerful means for a certain obstinacy or passion of persistence in the normal action of the sense-mind, the prana and the body. To cast out of us the ego idea is not entirely possible or not entirely effective until these instruments have undergone purification ; for their action being persistently egoistic and separative, the buddhi is carried away by them, --as a boat by winds on the sea, (The Gita-2.67) says the Gita , --the knowledge in the intelligence is being constantly obscured or lost temporarily and has to be restored again, a very labour of Sisyphus. But if the lower instruments have been purified of egoistic desire, wish, will, egoistic passion, egoistic emotion and the buddhi itself of egoistic idea and preference, then the knowledge of the spiritual truth of oneness can find a firm foundation. Till then, the ego takes all sorts of subtle forms and we imagine ourselves to be free from it, when we are really acting as its instruments and all we have attained is a certain intellectual poise which is not the true spiritual liberation.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-677, 9: The Mother’s Agenda-22.03.1967, 10: “Even those who sacrifice to other godheads with devotion and faith, they also sacrifice to Me, O son of Kunti, though not according to the true law, avidhipurbakam .” The Gita-9.23, “The sacrifice not performed according to the right rule of the Shastra, vidhi-hina, without giving of food, without the mantra, without gifts, empty of faith, is said to be tamasic .” The Gita-17.13, " By works the Vedantins understood these religious works, the sacrificial system, the yajna , full of a careful order, vidhi , of exact and complicated rites, kriya-visesa-bahulam . But in Yoga works had a much wider significance. The Gita insists on this wider significance; in our conception of spiritual activity all works have to be included, sarva-karmani . At the same time it does not, like Buddhism , reject the idea of the sacrifice, it prefers to uplift and enlarge it. Yes, it says in effect, not only is sacrifice, yajna, the most important part of life, but all life, all works should be regarded as sacrifice, are yajna, though by the ignorant they are performed without the higher knowledge and by the most ignorant not in the true order, avidhi-purvakam. " CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-89, 11: "Very long ago (very long, a few years after Sri Aurobindo left), one night (because I was already seeing him), I saw him: I had gone to his place, and I found him sitting on a sort of bed … with a truss: three or four bandages like that on his body! (Mother laughs) So he called me and said (in English), “Look, Look what they’re doing with me! Look, they’re putting bandages all over me!” So I inquired-and found that they wanted to make cuts in his writings…. " The Mother/July-23/1969/Mother’s Agenda/Vol-10/P: 251-256, Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: “ 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.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-837

From Puri to Pondicherry (Lord Sri Balabhadra, Mother Sri Subhadra and Lord Sri Jagannatha are the fundamental symbolic truth representation of the triple name of the Divine, identified as Sat (Existence), Chit (Consciousness) and Ananda (Bliss) respectively, who have extended towards the manifestation of mind, life and body through Their fourth name Vijnana or the Supermind.) “The sadhaka of integral Yoga will not be satisfied until he has included all other names and forms of Deity in his own conception, seen his own Ishta Devata in others…” (Ishta means desired, cherished, or preferred, and Devata means godhead or divinity. It refers to the specific form of God or deity with whom an individual feels the strongest spiritual connection and devotion.) "His Yoga may be governed for a long time by one Scripture or by several successively, — if it is in the line of the great Hindu tradition, by the Gita , for example, the Upanishads, the Veda ..." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-66, 55 “A touch that needs not hands to feel, to clasp, Were there the native means of consciousness And heightened the intimacy of soul with soul. ” Savitri-325 “It (Overmind) moves events by its bare and silent will, Acts at a distance without hands or feet .” Savitri-85 “No feet that move, no hands to take his gifts :” Savitri-609 "At last the soul turns to eternal things, In every shrine it cries for the clasp of God. " Savitri-631 From Puri to Pondicherry (There exists an eternal and profound relation between Lord Sri Jagannatha, the Ishta Devata , and Lord Sri Aurobindo, the Guru, in whom the earlier Divine manifestation finds a wider extension and fuller Spiritual expression. This paper is an attempt to trace the inner continuity between the Purushottama Consciousness and the Supramental Consciousness, and to reinterpret the Bhagavad Gita in the light of Integral Yoga. For the complete Divine manifestation revealed through Integral Yoga has its secret origin in the Spiritual truth already concealed within the former. The highest mystery — rahasyam uttamam — which stands at the summit of both the Gita and Integral Yoga, is essentially one in essence and truth. Yet in the Gita this supreme secret is only indicated, veiled in suggestion and preserved as an unexpressed mystery of the Supreme Divine; whereas in Integral Yoga, this same truth has been more fully unveiled, consciously developed, and thoroughly worked out in life and Spiritual experience. This work began as a brief one-page note written in defence of our understanding of the Gita . Gradually, that small seed expanded into the present paper, 'From Puri to Pondicherry, ' and later grew further into the form of the e-book, THE BHAGAVAD GITA AND INTEGRAL YOGA . We preserve this paper as a living memory of a long Spiritual journey — from my (S.A. Maa Krishna) birthplace, Puri, sanctified by Lord Sri Jagannatha , to Pondicherry , the land of hard askesis, consecration, and the Supramental vision of Sri Aurobindo.) “Sri Aurobindo said that what He came to bring was already indicated in the Gita .”¹ The Mother “Sri Krishna has shown me the true meaning of the Vedas , not only so, but he has shown me a new Science of Philology showing the process and origins of human speech so that a new Nirukta can be formed and the new interpretation of the Veda based upon it. He has also shown me the meaning of all in the Upanishads that is not understood either by Indians or Europeans . I have therefore to re-explain the whole Vedanta and Ved a in such a way that it will be seen how all religion arises out of it and is one everywhere. In this way it will be proved that India is centre of the religious life of the world and its destined saviour through Sanatana Dharma .”² Sri Aurobindo The Gita informs us that the all pervading Brahman, Vasudeva is endless in His self extension in the universe, nastyonto vistarasya me, ³ and the highest power of Supreme manifestation is only a very partial revelation of the Infinite; even the whole universe is preoccupied by only one degree of His greatness, illumined by one ray of His splendour and it will still remain the perennial Source of ‘birth of all that shall come into the being’⁴. The Gita lays maximum stress on the development of the supracosmic faculties, which will preoccupy man with his real business of becoming God, Brahmabhutah⁵ ; secondly it stresses on His universal existence in which all moves and acts and through this He extends His faculty of universal Divine action, sarvabhuta hite ratah⁶ ; thirdly, it emphasizes on the acceptance of Godhead as the Divine inhabitant in the human body, manusim tanumasritam⁷ ; and finally it insists on the Divine manifestation, madbhava⁸ , in all things through intervention of four fold soul force, chaturvarnyam maya srustam⁹ , four-fold Divine Shaktis , chatvaro manovastatha¹⁰ , sevenfold knowledge, maharsaya saptapurbe¹⁰ , and finally of suffusion of Para Prakriti of Purushottama Consciousness into the manifested nature. The stages through which the Gita has developed its preliminary teachings are that firstly, it spoke of destruction of desire and attachment and conquest of senses by stilling the mind; secondly of equality and peace gained through the rejection of the lower nature; thirdly of passionless, impersonal and sacrificial action and recognition of the Supreme as the doer of all work; fourthly of inner renunciation of desire and ego preferable to the outer renunciation of life and action; fifthly, the doctrine of Avatara and the Divine birth through the Divine action. The Gita’s higher teachings are that of Divine work by rising above the gunas; secondly, besides its earlier declaration that Knowledge is greater than Works, Bhakti is considered as the greatest element in Yoga; thirdly the effective relation between Works, Knowledge and Divine Love are synthesized for the attainment of Supreme realisation; fourthly, the vision of Universal Purusha , which ‘can be seen, known, entered into only by that Bhakti which regards, adores and loves Me alone in all things’¹¹; fifthly, the inter-relation between the multiple Soul, Kshara , immutable Self, Akshara, and the Supreme Self, Purushottama who is the Master of Works, Knowledge and Love; sixthly, Sraddha, the ever growing faith in the Divine, as important aid for manifestation of Para Prakriti and subsequent transformation of Nature. The most secret teaching of the Gita is the Knowledge of the whole Godhead, samagram mam ⁴⁵, which can be gained by four gradations of exclusive knowledge attended with five gradations of all-inclusive knowledge, by knowing which will leave nothing yet to be known. This concept of whole Godhead is also explored in Mandukya Upanishad in terms of four successive position of the Brahman, that of Waking Self or Vaiswanara, which constitute this entire external universe, an infinitesimal portion of the Self, akangsena sthito jagat, ⁶⁴ Dream Self or Taijas, Hiranyagarva , the subtle body, sukhma sarira , which holds the external universe; Sleep Self or Prajna, Susupti, causal body which holds both waking self and dream Self and the (Supreme) Self, Turiya, which holds all these selves and are its origin. In the Gita , the constitution of apara prakriti, lower nature or kshetra , atma jnana, the knowledge of the individual Soul or kshara purusha, Brahma nirvana or Akshara purusha and the final cessation of birth in Param dhama have been fully developed and given their largest amplitude of power and significance. The other necessary complementary truth, the Divinisation of Nature ‘has been left in a certain obscurity of a lesser relative light’¹²; it has been hinted constantly in myriad terms of Vasudevah sarvamiti ¹³, the Godhead is all that is the universe and all that is in the universe, Prakritm mamikam ¹⁴, into My Divine nature, Prakritim me param ¹⁵, My supreme nature, Prakritim swam ¹⁶, My own nature, Prakritir jiva-bhuta ¹⁵, Divine Nature which has become the jiva , Madbhavam agatah ⁸, have arrived at My nature of being, daivi prakriti ¹⁷, Divine nature and Param bhavam¹⁸ , Supreme nature or the ultimate becoming, sadharmyam agatah¹⁹ , those who have become of like nature and law of being with the Divine; but these terminology were nowhere explained entirely. These are left as clues for the greatest Spiritual developments, which can be resolved fully through the ascending and descending advance of Spiritual experience. In the Gita, the antinomy between the Impersonal Self and the human personality and the antinomy between the Self and Nature are reconciled. After developing the theory of the Personal and Impersonal Divine, the Divine Teacher sets out to remove the source of these two difficulties. The resolution of these two antinomies and certain obscurity about the Self are cleared in that which exceeds it; it is the manifestation of the Integral Divine, the Purushottam a, who contains the Impersonal Self, the human personality, Self and Nature. Thus, the Gita can get rid of exclusions and separative divisions and fuse them together in the Integral Divine. Integral Yoga begins with the methods of Vedanta: “It has been said recently by a great voice that all we need of spiritual truth for the spiritual life is to be found in the Gita. It would be to encourage the superstition of the book to take too literally that utterance. The truth of the spirit is infinite and cannot be circumscribed in that manner. Still it may be said that most of the main clues are there and that after all the later developments of spiritual experience and discovery we can still return to it for a large inspiration and guidance.”²⁰ Sri Aurobindo “It is not a fact that the Gita gives the whole base of the Sri Aurobindo’s message; for the Gita seems to admit the cessation of birth in the world as the ultimate aim or at least the ultimate culmination of Yoga; it does not bring forward the idea of spiritual evolution of the idea of higher planes and the Supramental Truth-Consciousness and bringing down of that consciousness as the means of complete transformation of earthly life.”²¹ Sri Aurobindo “Our Yoga is not identical with the Yoga of the Gita’s Yoga. In our Yoga we begin with the idea, the will, the aspiration of the complete surrender; but at the same time we have to reject the lower nature, deliver our consciousness from it, deliver the self involved in the lower nature by the self rising to freedom in the higher nature...”²⁵ (the simultaneous effort of triple aspiration, bhajante mam drudhabrattah ²², triple rejection, ahamkaram balam darpam kamam krodham parigraham ²³, and triple surrender, mam ekam saranam braja ²⁴, of our volitional, emotional and intellectual part are demanded in Integral Yoga. Again, this is followed by triple faith, sraddha , and triple sincerity, nistha, which constitute our ascent of the mind, the consent of the will and the heart’s delight.) Sri Aurobindo Integral Yoga begins with the method of Vedanta, where the Soul is an all-important instrument, utilised to activate the higher spiritual Shakti by turning the triple key of Knowledge, Works and Love and direct that Shakti towards the transformation of the whole nature. The Kshara Purusha , multiple soul, the Akshara Purusha , the impersonal Spirit and the Uttama Purusha, who holds both kshara and akshara and is beyond them, are the triple Divine states of the Gita. In Integral Yoga, these triple Divine states have been identified as Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Consciousness. The first object of Integral Yoga is the liberation and enjoyment of the union with the Divine of the individual human soul or he must sit firm in Yoga, wholly given up to Me, yukta asita matparah ²⁶; the second object is the free enjoyment of cosmic unity of the Divine or man’s possible joy of Divine union in the many sided world-action, sa yuktah krtsnakarmakrit ²⁷; the third object is the liberation and Divinization of nature, Sva Prakriti and intense union and enjoyment through fusion of Supreme Purusha and Supreme Prakriti; the fourth object is the utilization of transformed individuality towards the transformation of human collectivity, sarvabhuta hite ratah .⁶ The Supreme Word, Paramam vacah of The Gita and Integral Yoga: “Abandon all lower dharmas , laws of mind, life and body and take refuge in Me alone, My highest Dharma. I will deliver thee from all sin and evil of apara prakriti , do not grieve.” The Gita-18.66 “The Mother’s power and not any human endeavour and tapasya can alone rend the lid and tear the covering and shape the vessel and bring down into this world of obscurity and falsehood and death and suffering Truth and Light and Life divine and the immortal’s Ananda .”²⁸ Sri Aurobindo “If there is a yet happier greater god, Let him first wear the face of Satyavan And let his soul be one with him I love; So let him seek me that I may desire.” Savitri-614 Like the Supreme secret, rahasyam uttamam , the Supreme Word, Paramam vacah of the Gita and Integral Yoga are almost the same, which is the highest mystery of absolute surrender to the Divine Guide, Purushottama . In Integral Yoga, Purushottama is revealed as Para Prakriti , the Supreme Mother, the Supramental Mahashakti, carrying within Herself the Akshara and Kshara ; in regards to Akshara She is the Para Shakti of fourfold Divine Power, holding the Immutable Purusha in Her self; in regard to Kshara, She is the Para prakriti of fourfold soul force, mobile cosmic energy manifesting all beings and becoming, holding the mutable Purusha within Her. In Integral Yoga, the Vedanta or the Gita and Tantra are synthesised; the former draws back from world nature and leans on the Ishwara aspect of the Divine for supreme realisation; whereas the latter possesses and dominates the world nature and leans on the Ishwari aspect of the Divine for supreme realisation. The Supreme Perfection, Param Siddhi of The Gita and Integral Yoga: “The blessed Lord said: I will again declare the supreme Knowledge, the highest of all knowings, which, having known, all the sages have gone hence to the supreme perfection, Param Siddhi .” The Gita-14.1 “To seize the absolute in shapes that pass, To fix the eternal’s touch in time-made things, This is the law of all perfection here.” Savitri-108 “A last high world was seen where all worlds meet; In its summit gleam where Night is not nor Sleep, The light began of the Trinity supreme. All there discovered what it seeks for here.” Savitri-89 In the Isha Upanishad, it is pointed out that Ignorance leads man towards darkness and that exclusive Knowledge leads man towards greater darkness and fall. Both of these problems are resolved in the comprehensive Knowledge of Purushottama . Khara Purusha’s entry in to Ignorance helps the building of the Psychic sheath; Akhara Purusha’s entry in to exclusive Knowledge helps the building the Spiritual sheath and Uttama Purusha’s entry into comprehensive Knowledge, supreme Knowledge, Param jnana helps in the formation of the Supramental sheath. Integral Yoga demands uniform, well-built, tenfold sheaths around tenfold Selves (which will be discussed later) for its supreme perfection, param siddhim . Four gradations of Exclusive Knowledge: “From food creatures come into being, from rain is the birth of food, from sacrifice comes into being the rain, sacrifice is born of work; work is known to be born of Divine Will, the Brahman, Brahman is born of Chit Shakti ; therefore is the all-pervading Brahman established in the sacrifice.” The Gita-3.14,15 “Supreme, they say, beyond their objects are the senses, supreme over the senses the mind, supreme over the mind the intelligent will: that which is supreme over the intelligent will, is He, the Akshara Purusha .” The Gita-3.42 “The Yogin is greater than the doers of askesis, greater than the men of knowledge, greater than the men of works; become then the Yogin, O Arjuna .” The Gita-6.46 “Better indeed is knowledge than practice; than knowledge, meditation is better; than meditation, renunciation of the fruit of action; on renunciation follows peace.” The Gita-12.12 “Neither by the study of the Vedas and sacrifices, nor by gifts or ceremonial rites or severe austerities, this form of My universal vision can be seen…it can be seen, known, entered into only by that Bhakti which regards, adores and loves Me alone in all things.” The Gita-11.48,54 The capacity to retain comprehensive Knowledge in fragments is identified as exclusive knowledge. But by the retention of exclusive as well as all-inclusive knowledge of the Divine comes the joy and one becomes aware of His exclusive and all-inclusive Ananda . The successive stages of exclusive concentration and final entry into all-inclusive Ananda and Knowledge are:- firstly, the constant practice and non-attachment are powerful tools in regulating and silencing the mind; secondly, better than this Abhyasa and Bairagya ²⁹ are the Yoga of Intelligence, where intelligence is united with Akshara Purusha, Buddhi Yukto ,³⁰ in order to cast away the bondage of work, the successful and luminous turning of the thought to the Truth behind things; thirdly, this buddhi Yoga too is excelled by dhyana yog a, a silent complete concentration on the Truth behind things through cessation of mental action, resolutely practiced until the bliss of Akshara Purusha is attained; fourthly, more powerful than dhyana Yoga is the giving up of the fruit of one’s work; one becomes a Yogi and preserves automatically an inner peace and calm which is a perfect and secure foundation of true life; fifthly, the great Yogi, living in the truth, renouncing all actions of the lower mind, must do all outward works of life only for My sake, madartham api karmani ;³¹ sixthly, the greater Yogi, who is still unable to keep personal consciousness fixed steadily in the Akshara Purusha and Uttama Purusha ; there are nights of long exile from Light, there are moments of revolt, doubt and failure rising from subconscient planes; then by constant practice of union and repetition of supreme consciousness, the highest spirit is established in the nature; seventhly, the greatest Yogi, yoginam api sarvesam ³², is he who in perfect union lives in Me, mayi nivasisyasi ³³, at every moment, in every action, with all integrality of nature, ‘for Me has love, ekabhaktih ³⁴ and faith’; ‘repose all thy mind and all thy understanding in Me’³³; he is lifted up, bathed in the supernal blaze of the divine love and will and knowledge. From this last experience, the all-inclusive Knowledge and Ananda resume action. Throughout the Gita, Sri Krishna asked Arjuna to become a Yogi, tasmat yogi bhavarjuna³⁵ , because by becoming a Yogi , he can be a fit instrument in resolving the terrible work, ghore karmani ³⁶, of battle and massacre, for upholding the highest dharma of the race. Integral Yoga, though it stands on this foundation, yet there is a marked departure in pursuing its objective. To quote The Mother’s word, “It is very easy to be a saint! Oh, even to be a sage is very easy. I feel I was born with it (janma karma cha me divyam ⁶⁵-- My birth as well as My work are both Divine)—it is spontaneous and natural for me… but Supramental transformation is another thing altogether, oh!… No one has ever followed that path; Sri Aurobindo was the first, and He left before telling us what he was doing, I am literally carving out a trail through the virgin forest—worse than a virgin forest…I am given the awareness of how huge this thing is one drop at a time…so I won’t be crushed. It has reached a point where all Spiritual life, all those people and races that have tried since the beginning of the earth, all that seems like nothing, like child’s play in comparison. And it is a work without glory: you have no results, no experiences filling you with ecstasy or joy—none of that, it is a hideous labour.”³⁷ 1: Apara Jnana or Separative egoistic Apara Prakriti and sevenfold Ignorance “The pancha bhutas , mind (with its ten sense organs), reason, ego, this is my eight-fold divided Nature.” The Gita-7.4 “The indiscriminate unmanifest Energy; the five elemental state of matter; the ten senses and the one (mind), intelligence and ego; the five objects of senses. (This is the constitution of Kshetra, Field)” The Gita-13.6 “The seven original Seers and also the four Manus are My mental becomings; from them are all these living creatures in the world." The Gita-10.6 In the Gita , the narrow exclusive doctrine of the Sankhya, Patanjali’s Yoga and a part of the Veda and the Vedanta have been widened, corrected and completed by the development of the theory of three Purushas and double Prakritis of which the lower form is the maya of three gunas, Apara Prakriti and the higher is the divine nature, Para Prakriti. The Gita contents itself to restate the whole working of lower Prakriti, field, kshetra, in line with Sankhya thinkers. This kshetra is the product of twenty-four cosmic principles. They are five bhutas : ether, air, fire, water and earth, five tanmatras, that of sound, touch, sight, taste and smell; five karmendriya, five jnanendriya, unmanifest energy; manas, buddhi and ahankara. This lower nature, also known as apara prakriti, is constituted of three gunas or essential modes; sattwa , the seed of intelligence, conserves the working of energy; rajas, the seed of force and action, creates the working of energy; tamas, the seed of inertia and non-intelligence, dissolves what sattwa conserves and rajas creates. When the three gunas are in equilibrium, the Soul, Kshara Purusha is liberated and contact with Akshara Purusha is established but when the equilibrium is disturbed, then there is the ceaseless creation, conservation and dissolution, unrolling the phenomena of cosmos. In Integral Yoga, it is not the physical body alone which is the field, kshetra , but all too that the body supports, the tenfold body or sheath of Nature or Koshas t hat of Inconscient sheath, Subconscient sheath, Physical sheath, Vital sheath, Psychic sheath, Lower mental sheath, Higher mental or Spiritual sheath, Universal sheath, Supramental sheath and Bliss sheath; these may be regarded as totality of the field, kshetram . The lower sheaths are inconscient, subconscient, physical, vital and lower mental and these are constituted of twenty-four tattwas and are subject to three gunas of apara prakrti, bounded by ego, desire and suffering. In each successive birth, the formation of higher sheaths or Para prakriti are perfected, transformed, solidified and harmonised and with their steady influence the lower sheaths are purified, transformed and perfected. The three Purusha of the Gita are the knower of Kshetra, Kshetrajna. In integral Yoga, the Purushas or the Selves or the Knower of Kshetras a re also tenfold and they reside in each Kshetra or knower of Kshetra holds each Kshetra. The Divine is at once the Inconscient Self, Subconscient Self, True Physical, True Vital, Truth Mind, Psychic Self, Spiritual Self, Universal Self, Supramental Self and Bliss Self. The successful interaction or movements between these ten-fold kshetras and kshetrajnas are the secret behind Divine Life. Ignorance is the product of Apara Prakrti , bewildered by the three gunas one cannot become the knower of the whole, krtsnabinna ³⁸. The secret nature and the full extent of the Ignorance are systematised into sevenfold Ignorance. Firstly, we are ignorant of the Purushottama Consciousness, who is the origin, source of all creation and the ‘deluded minds despise Me lodged in the human body because they know not My supreme nature of being’⁷. This knowledge of the Absolute as the seed of all things, bijam mam sarvabhutanam³⁹ , is the beginning of emergence from the Original Ignorance . Secondly, we are ignorant of spaceless, timeless, immobile and Immutable self, Akshara Purusha, and with the establishment of firm standing in the Brahman, Brahmi sthiti ⁴⁰, one emerges out from Cosmic Ignorance . Thirdly, we are ignorant of our universal Self, our infinite unity with all Being and Becoming. ‘Here, today, behold the whole world, with all that is moving and unmoving, unified in My body, O Gudakesha, and whatever else thou willest to see.’⁴¹ With the revelation of Vasudeva sarvamiti, Cosmic Consciousness, one emerges out of Egoistic Ignorance. Fourthly, we are ignorant of our Psychic being or Kshara Purusha , we are aware of this little life in the small span of time and ignorant of eternal becoming in Time. ‘Many are My lives that are past, and thine also, O Arjuna ; all of them I know, but thou knowest not…’⁴² ‘I know all past and all present and future existences, O Arjuna’ .⁴³ The Kshara Purusha, the soul in man is unborn, ancient, semipiternal, not slain with the slaying of the body; weapons cannot cleave it, nor the fire burn, nor do the water drench it, nor the wind dry, eternally stable and all pervading. With these experiences, one emerges from the Temporal Ignorance. Fifthly, within this temporal becoming we are ignorant of our large and complex; tenfold Selves or three Purushas; we take this surface mind, life and body as our whole existence. We emerge out of this Psychological Ignorance when we become aware of the tenfold Selves (particularly true physical, true vital and true mental being) and their workings in our surface nature. Sixthly, we are ignorant of the true relation between the tenfold selves and the tenfold Sheaths and the interference of higher sheaths on our lower sheaths. ‘It is the knowledge at once of the Field, Kshetra and its Knower, Kshetrajna, which is the real illumination and only wisdom.’⁴⁴ With activation of Subconscient and Inconscient Selves, and their possession of adjacent lower sheaths, we emerge out of our Constitutional Ignorance . As a result of all this ignorance, we fail to govern, enjoy and know life and the world truly. With the emergence of true harmony, wisdom, love and beauty, we become many-sided Divine workers, krtsnakarmakrt ,²⁷ and come out lastly from the yoke of Practical Ignorance. It is by knowing Him integrally, samagram mam ⁴⁵, as the Brahman is both mobile and immobile, One and the Many, Knowledge and Ignorance; thus the Soul is easily liberated from the yoke of lower Nature, darkness of Ignorance, andham tamam prabisanti ,⁶⁹ greater darkness of exclusive Knowledge, tato bhuyaiba tamah vidyam ⁶⁹ and the door of ascension of consciousness wide opens. 2: Guhya Jnana of Atman or secret knowledge of Kshara Purusha and Para prakriti of the fourfold soul force: “But know my Divine Nature, Para prakriti, different from this apara prakriti, O mighty-armed, the Para prakriti which uphelds this world has become the individual soul, Jiva. ” The Gita-7.5 “The eternal portion of Me has become the Jiva in the world of living creatures and cultivates the subjective powers of Prakriti, mind and five senses.” The Gita-15.7 “By the (true inner) self thou shouldst deliver the (surface desire) self, thou shouldst not depress and cast down the (surface desire) self (whether by self indulgence or suppression); for the (true inner) self is the friend of the (surface desire) self and (surface desire) self is the enemy (if it is not in contact with the true inner self). To the man is his (true inner) self a friend in whom the (surface desire) self has been conquered by the (true inner) self, but to him who is not in possession of his (true inner) self, the (surface desire) self is as if an enemy and it acts as an enemy.” The Gita-6.5,6 “I created the fourfold order according to the divisions of quality and active function. Know Me (Kshara Purusha ) for the doer of this fourfold law of human workings who am (Akshara Purusha) yet the imperishable non-doer.” The Gita-4.13 “The works of Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras are divided according to the qualities, gunas, born of their own inner divine nature of the soul, svabhava .” The Gita-18.41 The inner soul in man, Kshara Purusha, is a partial manifestation of the Divine, mamaivamsah ⁴⁶, who is itself mutable, Kshara, everlasting, sanatanah , the Lord, Ishwara ⁶⁶, the luminous inhabitant in the human body, manusim tanumasritam, ⁷ and simultaneously the giver of sanction, anumant a⁴⁷ of all the action of the three gunas within the boundary of Ignorance, missioned to lead man in Ignorance towards the light of Divine consciousness. Its operation in the ignorance is different from Akshara and Uttama Purusha , though it has manifold deep relations with them. The Kshara Purusha , associating itself with the works of Prakriti, seems to be the doer of all works, karta , whereas Akshara Purusha , dissociating itself from all the workings of the gunas is the inactive non-doer, akarta and witness. In Purushottama , these two states, the action of the Soul and its mutability and the status of the immutability of the Soul actually coexist. The Purushottama puts forth his own active nature, svam prakrtim , manifest in the Jiva and works out its own innate Divine nature, svabhava, in addition to its egoistic action, bewildered by the three gunas . Initially, the Gita has identified the double Soul in man (verse-6.5, 6); one that of the surface desire soul carrying in its nature the apparent nature of lower instincts, emotions, the mental seeking for power, knowledge and happiness and the other behind it that of the true soul, the Psychic being, a pure power of light, love, joy and beauty. The desire soul’s wrong approach and reception towards life deforms the pure joy into pleasure, pain and indifference. True soul is the imperishable, evolves in us from birth to birth and is untouched by death, decay and corruption. It is actually the Psychic sheath that grows from birth to birth by entering the essence of all experience of the Psychic self in the Ignorance. A mastery of senses, the ability to do without all that they hanker after, is the initial condition of the true soul life. The para prakriti of the Gita has been extensively developed in Integral Yoga in terms of its two exclusive and five all-inclusive aspects. It has been made clear that the para prakriti is the real source of all cosmic existence and lower nature or apara prakriti is only its derivation and dark shadow. The Jiva’s action in ignorance of Apara prakriti i s subjected to three gunas and it puts on the Divine nature when the soul rises beyond all ignorant limitations. The pure soul force which is other than the mind-force, life-force, force of intelligence, can flow into the moulds of intellectual, ethical, aesthetic, dynamic, vital and physical mind, puts its influence of an initial transcendence, impersonality, pure fire of spirit of something beyond the gunas of normal nature and evolves the highest spiritual perfection. The fourfold active human personality, chaturvarnyam9, are fourfold pure soul forces of Kshara Purusha , born of their own inner Spiritual nature, svabhava, manifested as brahmana, representing power of knowledge, kshatriya , representing power of strength, vaishya, representing mutuality and active and productive relation and interchange and shudra representing power for works and labour and service; these four soul powers are derived from four exclusive aspect of Para prakriti of Akshara Purusha, revealed as four Manus, chatvaro manavosthata ¹⁰, of Wisdom, Power, Harmony and Perfection. These four Overmental Shaktis are derived from Purushottama Consciousness and are responsible for the transformation of mind, life and body and when Their action on earth are harmonised to a greater extent, then the Mother’s Para Shakti of Supramental order can interfere. The ideal character and Soul power of Brahmana are all ideas, knowledge and incoming truth more open to Psychic Light, harmony, universal unity and love of the indwelling Spirit; subdues the lower members to their greater Psychic law; a temperament full of patience, endurance, long suffering, self control, affinity towards concentration and meditation which dominates and quiets the passions and desire-will and a growth of impersonalized and universalized personality. The perfection of Brahmana comes when one is capable of opening to all kinds of revelation, inspiration, intuition, discrimination, synthesis; grasps all knowledge with delight, a spiritual enthusiasm, ecstasy; full spiritual force, illumination and purity, brahma tejas, brahma-varcas. The ideal character and Soul power of Kshatriya are development of strength, energy, courage, leadership, lordship, protection, rule, victory in every kind of battle, a creative and formative action, truth, purity of love, helpfulness to men, high self confidence, sacrifice of lower to higher self and resistance to injustice and oppression, spirit of conquest into the fields of intuitive knowledge and spiritual experience. The perfection of Kshatriya soul force are infinite dynamic courage to which no opposing force can deter the aspiration imposed by the spirit; a high nobility of soul and will be unaffected by any littleness or baseness and moving with certain greatness of spiritual victory; a spirit never depressed from the faith and confidence in the power that works in the being and the process of virginization of the whole nature must continue in order to become the purest vessel and enjoy the self rule, svarajya and mastery of one’s environment and circumstances, samrajya. The ideal character and soul power of Vaisya are the instinct of life to produce, exchange, skill, kausala, possess, enjoy, contrive, put things in order and balance, work out to the best advantage the active relations of existence, skillful devising intelligence, commercial, technical, scientific and utilitarian mind, bent upon efficient exploitation of the world or its surroundings, practical philanthropy, skillful in economy, which recognises the great law of interchange and amasses in order to throw out in large return, a power of giving and ample creative liberality, active opulence luxurious of the prolific Ananda of existence. The perfection of the Vaisya soul force are a great taking into oneself from all beings and a free giving out of oneself to all, a divine commerce and a large enjoyment of mutual delight of life, the full manifestation of Divine love, ananda, beauty and harmony in material things. The ideal character and soul power of Shudra are dignity, toil and capacity of labour and service for maintenance of his existence and gratification of his primary need of food, cloth, shelter, education and health; the power of service to others, to obey and follow whatever great influence and needful discipline, a love which asks for no return; desire to give our life, soul, work and wealth to the Divine and as a result the power of complete self-surrender. The perfection of Shudra soul force are universal love that lavishes itself without demand of return, many-sided universal action guided by Divine Will, the absolute self-surrender of the whole being to the Master of our being. The greater perfection can come when one widens one self to include all these four powers. These powers initially work in an ill-formed confusion, but he is able to harmonise the function of all these four Soul forces in birth after birth and proceeds towards total development of his inner and outer existence. Our life is at once a quest towards various Divine faculties, a struggle and battle of our desire-will to tune with the Divine will and struggle to harmonise the surroundings, a constant production and application of skill to material life and sacrifice and service. The recognition of these four powers and their free workings in our nature are important means of our Integral development. 3: Guhyatara Jnana of Brahmanirvana or more secret knowledge of Akshara Purusha and the action of Para prakriti through fourfold Divine Shaktis: “There are two Purushas in this world, the immutable Akshara Purusha and the mutable Khara Purusha; Kshara Purusha is all these existences, the high-seated Consciousness of the Brahmic status, Kutastha is called the Akshara Purusha . But other than these two is that highest spirit called the Uttama Purusha , who enters the three worlds and upbears them…” The Gita-15.16,17 “He who has the inner happiness and the inner ease and repose and the inner light, that Yogin becomes the Brahman and reaches self-extinction in the Brahman, brahmanirvanam.” The Gita-5.24 “When the mind is thoroughly quieted, then there comes upon the Yogin stainless, passionless, the highest bliss that has become the Brahman . Thus freed from stain of passion and putting himself constantly into Yoga, the Yogin easily and happily enjoys the touch of the Brahman which is an exceeding Bliss.” The Gita-6-27, 28 Other than the Kshara Purusha, there is another Spirit, whose centre is located just above the head, is eternal, undivided and not even seemingly divided by the division of things, inactive and silent witness of all action, the immobile in the mobile, the immutable in the mutable, the imperishable in the perishable and the One. We become aware of this Akshara Purusha in proportion as we draw back our outward-moving mind and phenomenal existence. It is not the highest secret of the Gita , ‘but the first necessity’, after which one can ascend to the state of Purushottama. Brahma nirvana is the union with the immutable self and it is the highest realisation of Jnana Yoga, Vedantic and Sankhya teachings. The conditions of attaining Brahma Nirvana are firstly, mind is established in equality through practice of titikha , endurance, udasinata , indifference and nati, submission to the will of God; titikha is to bear in the body the velocity of desire, wrath, passion, cold and heat, pleasure and pain (verse-5.23); udasinata is equal in soul to friend and enemy and neutral and indifferent also to sinner and saint (verse-6.9); nati state is that living in God one neither rejoices on obtaining what is pleasant, nor sorrows on obtaining what is unpleasant (verse-5.20); secondly, the soul is no longer attached to the enjoyments born of touches of outward things; thirdly, ‘by worshipping the feet of the Guru , questioning and by service, thou shalt see all existences first without exception in the Akshara Purusha, then in Me, Uttama Purusha ’⁴⁸; fourthly, the knot of doubt is cut asunder and sraddha , faith in the Divine and His Shakti is developed; fifthly, food, sleep, action are to be made balanced and moderate; sixthly, renounce the residue of all desires born of the desire-will and master the senses by mind as mind is supreme over the senses, then mind is fixed in buddhi as supreme above mind is intelligent will and buddhi is fixed in the Immutable Self as supreme over buddhi is Akshara Purusha ; seventhly, the mind is kept calm and free from fear and the vow of celibacy, Brahmachraya observed and the vision drawn in and fixed between eyebrows, the controlled mentality is thus turned to the Brahman . When the mind is thoroughly quieted, the Yogin enjoys the touch of Brahman, which is an exceeding Bliss. The experience Brahma Nirvana serves three purposes: firstly, it helps to enter deep samadhi away from all world-consciousness; secondly, it is a preparatory movement towards cessation of birth in Parmam dhama ; thirdly, there are hierarchies of Consciousness in Spiritual planes and Spiritual forces from these planes can be directed towards apara prakriti, for the transformation of nature. In the Gita , the third possibility was not explored; whereas in Integral Yoga, the second possibility is directed towards the realisation of the third because the transformation of whole nature and cessation of birth are incompatible with each other. In Integral Yoga, the soul liberated and established in Brahma Nirvana continues its work of complete transformation of earth through repeated rebirth in order to fulfil the Divine action in the world, sarvabhuta hiteratah⁶ . The other specialised part of the Gita’s teaching of cessation of birth in the supreme abode of Param Dhama is replaced with the manifestation of the same Purushottama Consciousness here on earth, in the body, ihaiva .⁴⁹ With the purification of chitta, manas, buddhi and ahamkara , one becomes aware of higher planes of illimitable Consciousness, an infinite ocean of ananda , power and energy. These ascending higher planes are systemised as higher Mind, illumined Mind, intuitive Mind, Overmind and mind of Light. The Divine Mahashakti from these planes can pour into apara prakriti, which constitutes twenty-four tattvas and three gunas and can bring constitutional change there. The four Mother powers from these planes are the action of Para Prakriti of Akshara Purusha; She is Maheswari, the goddess of supreme knowledge, supreme truth, spiritual will and calm passion of Supramental largeness; She is Mahakali , goddess of supreme strength, severest austerity of tapas , swiftness to battle and victory against the powers of lower nature; She is Mahalakshmi , the goddess of supreme love, delight, beauty and harmony; She is Mahasaraswati , the goddess of divine skill of works and perfection. In Integral Yoga, when the Brahmanirvana or the Passive Brahma n state is established in the individual Consciousness, through practice of four Spiritual disciplines that of Jnana Yoga, Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Yoga of self-Perfection respectively, then the constant pouring in of four aspects of the Mother powers becomes practicable and they build the mental, vital and physical sheaths for perfection of the field, kshetra . 4: Guhyatama Jnana of Paramam dhama or the most secret knowledge of cessation of birth or Moksa: “And in the Gita He (Sri Krishna) speaks of this human world as a transient and sorrowful affair and, in spite of His gospel of divine action, seems almost to admit that to leave it is after all the best solution.”⁵⁰ Sri Aurobindo “Having come to Me, these great souls come not again to birth, this transient and painful condition of our mortal being; they reach the highest perfection.” The Gita-8.15 “There we find the timeless being which is not illumined by sun, moon or fire; having gone thither they return not; that is the highest eternal status of My Being.” The Gita-15.6 “He who knoweth thus in its right principles my divine birth and my divine work, when he abandons his body, comes not to rebirth; he comes to Me, O Arjuna. ” The Gita-4.9 “Arjuna said: Thou art the Supreme Brahman , the supreme Abode, param dhama, the supreme Purity, the one Permanent, the divine-Purusha , the original Godhead, the Unborn, the all-pervading Lord.” The Gita-10.12 “He is called the unmanifest immutable, Him they speak of as the supreme Soul and status, and those who attain to Him return not; that is my supreme place of being, param dhama .” The Gita-8,21 Moksha may be considered as a deeper state of Brahma Nirvana ; here the whole active Consciousness of Brahma Nirvana is renounced along with the renunciation of separative ego and our being is dissolved in the highest Brahman . This is a special means of the Gita of the last movement of the soul and a strong aid to overcome the outward-going mind and find a passage of final departure through mystic brahmarandhra above the head. For attainment of this final rest in Purushottama C onsciousness in His supreme abode, Param dhama, the necessary conditions are; firstly, the Soul must have moulded towards that ideal his whole inner and outer life to the extent that remembrance of the Divine being becomes no longer an intermittent condition of mind, but the natural condition of all activities; secondly, the Soul must be one with Him each moment growing inwardly during physical life; thirdly, he must be faithful to his aspiration and will and a union with God in bhakti during the critical moment of physical death; fourthly, the life force entirely drawn up and set between the brows in the seat of mystic vision, the intelligence concentrated in the utterance of sacred syllable OM and its conceptive thought in the remembrance of the Supreme Godhead, he who goes forth, abandoning the body, he attains the highest status. The Gita repeatedly described this creation as a transient and unhappy world, anityam asukham,⁶⁷ dukhalayam asaswatam ,⁶⁸ and even the escape to the highest heaven is also subjected to rebirth and the return of the soul to His supreme abode of Param dhama is recognised as the immediate practicable solution. In Integral Yoga the lure of individual escape into param dhama , is replaced with the necessity of repeated rebirth in order to accelerate universal evolution and work towards the redemption of the whole race, and by that alone true individual redemption of soul and nature is practicable here on earth, ihaiva, and the param dhama of Purushottama Consciousness is realised no longer up above but here in this manifested creation. The exclusive siddhis , to which the Gita devoted its whole concentration in the form of conquest of the self, Jitatmanah , Brahma Nirvana and Moksha , are necessary steps in the ascending series, yet it has also the departure into the universal aspect of Godhead and comprehensive solutions were initiated. The universal action of the Divine can be accepted as important transition in Integral Yoga which are represented in the following lines: sarvabhutahite ratah ⁶ busied with and delighting in the good of all creatures, Iswarah sarvabhutanam hrddeserjuna tisthati⁵¹ , the Lord, O Arjuna , is seated in the heart of all beings, sarvalokamahesvaram suhrdam sarvabhutanam⁵² , the Lord of all worlds who is the friend of all creatures, sarvagatam yajne pratisthitam⁵³ , all-pervading, is established in sacrifice, sarvatha vartamano’pi sa yogi mayi vartate ⁵⁴, in all possible poise of nature, in all possible human condition, in all possible world action without any fall from his oneness and constant communion with the divine, that Yogin lives and acts in Me. The universalised individual Consciousness is recognised as an important means of multiple Divine action on earth and a passage to the Supramental world. Five gradations of All-inclusive Para Prakriti: - “24th November, 1926 was the descent of Krishna into the Physical. Krishna is not the Supramental Light. The descent of Krishna would mean the descent of the Overmind Godhead preparing, though not itself actually, the descent of Supermind and Ananda. Krishna is the Anandamaya; he supports the evolution through the Overmind leading it towards the Ananda.”⁵⁰ Sri Aurobindo ‘The Gita at its cryptic close may seem by its silence to stop short of that solution for which we are seeking; it pauses at the borders of highest spiritual mind and does not cross them into the splendours of the Supramental Light.”⁵⁵ Sri Aurobindo “The Blessed Lord said: Hear, O Partha , how by practising Yoga with a mind attached to Me and with Me as asraya thou shalt know Me integrally, samagram mam , without any remainder of doubt. I will speak to thee without omission or remainder the exclusive knowledge, Jnanam, attended with all-inclusive knowledge, Vijnanam, by knowing which there shall be no other thing here left to be known.” The Gita-7.1,2 “Among the thousands of men one here and there strives after perfection, siddhi, and of those who strive and attain to perfection one here and there knows Me Integrally (Integral Yogi), in all principles of my existence.” The Gita-7.3 “The Blessed Lord said: What I am going to tell thee, the uncarping, is the most secret thing of all, the exclusive knowledge, Jnanam followed by all-inclusive knowledge, Vijnanam, by knowing which thou shalt be released from evil. The Gita-9.1 “He who undeluded thus has knowledge of Me as the Purushottama , adores Me with the whole knowledge in every way of nature, sarvavit sarvabhavena. ” The Gita-15.19 “This same ancient and original Yoga has been today declared to thee by Me, for thou art My devotee and My friend; this is the highest secret, rahasyam uttamam. ” The Gita-4.3 The four exclusive quests are related to the ascension of consciousness, whereas the five all-inclusive Superminds are related with the descent of Supreme consciousness. But there are certain Supramental experiences in which ‘a consciously felt descent is not indispensable’⁵⁶ and there are still unknown higher sources of Supramental where ‘actual feeling of a descent is not there.’⁵⁶ The similar experience is also observed in The Mother’s experience of ‘Divine Love’ on the night of 12-13th April, 1962. Since in the Gita, the particular experience of the descent of Divine consciousness to Apara prakriti is not explored, so in our concentration, we can rest satisfied with that Supramental action without having an actual feeling of the descent. Here, the concept will be that since the presence of Sachchidananda is everywhere, so ‘if the inner doors are flung sufficiently open, the light from the sanctuary can suffuse the nearest and farthest chambers of the outer being.’⁵⁶ The highest secret, rahasyam uttamam , is the Supramental revealed as Purushottama, the integral Divine, who is Nameless, Formless, all-embracing and all-exceeding Sachchidananda and is capable of assuming all Name and Form. In the Supramental, all things find their secret truth and their perfect reconciliation and the sense of individual identity is lost in the sole ecstasy of the Divine Beloved. The five gradations of Supermind represent the action of the same Purushottama Consciousness in varying intensity, while capturing all the worlds, sarvaloka. The literal meaning of Sadharmyam, Sva Prakriti, Madbhava and Param Bhava are same that of becoming the nature of the Divine, but here in this essay, they have been used for different gradations of Divine Nature. Supramental manifestation is the promise of tomorrow and the record of the latest Spiritual developments, but we can return to the Gita for large inspiration, necessary guidance and support. 1: Guhya Vijnana of Supermind and corresponding transformation, Sadharmyam: “It is like the message of the Gita as Sri Aurobindo explained it: not overmental, but supramental. It is Oneness, the experience of Oneness.”¹ The Mother “(Sri Aurobindo’s spiritual Experience at Alipore jail) is supramental. Yes, the supramental experience. He called it Narayana because he was Indian. ”¹ The Mother “Very rare is the great soul who knows that all things are Brahman, Vasudevah Sarvamiti .” The Gita-7.19 “The man whose self is in Yoga, sees the Brahman in all things and all things in the Brahman , he is equal visioned everywhere.” The Gita-6.29 “He who sees Brahman everywhere and sees all in Brahman, to him Brahman does not get lost, nor does he get lost to the Brahman. ” The Gita-6.30 “The Blessed Lord said: I will again declare the supreme Knowledge, the highest of all knowings, which having known, all the sages have gone hence to the highest perfection. Having taken refuge in this knowledge and become of like nature and law of being with Me, sadharmyam agatah …” The Gita-14.1,2 The secret formula of Supermind was first discovered by Sri Aurobindo at Alipore jail during His spiritual experience of Vasudevah sarvamiti, the cosmic Consciousness, whereas the same was revealed to Sri Krishna during His evolving relation entrenched between the intoxicating sweetness of the Divine beloved Sri Radha and all-embracing ecstasy of His manifestation, the Gopis. Sri Aurobindo’s discovery of the Supramental attained further momentum, strength and concrete form with the Mother’s arrival. Sri Aurobindo was interested in inverting the gained Supramental power towards earth nature as He was destined to carry evolution ahead through the transformation of earth. Sri Krishna’s avatara role was directed to liberate the, the then humanity from the tyranny of asuras , evolve the svadharma and svabhava of the Spiritual law of the race and descend supreme Ananda to the earth represented through the Gopis . He corrected, completed and perfected the earlier available Spiritual disciplines and reconciled their opposition and developed the most profound theory of karma Yoga for people of all time and all ages, which will serve as a base for Supramental realisation. His contact with the Supramental was neither systemised nor streamlined and left it as a Supreme mystery which can neither be expressed in words but to be lived, sabdabrahmativartate ⁵⁷, nor heard through illumined seers, srotavyasya srutasya cha ⁵⁸. But the work He initiated on earth will advance and will be completed through Supramental manifestation, and His support to carry this action is an important leverage for Sri Aurobindo’s action as the latter contains within Himself all the Powers and Presence of the past Avataras or "He bore all godheads in his grandiose limbs." (Savitri-680) Sri Aurobindo developed, systemised, and perfected the secrets hinted in the Gita, the Upanishads, the Vedas and the Tantras and universalised their exclusive quests and multiplied the acceleration of present evolution through His entry into Integral concentration. The direct Divine touch of profound intensity received by the then Gopis in their relation with Sri Krishna and the more profound, subtle physical Divine contact received by the Mother’s children through their direct relation with the Divine Mother are the preliminary Supramental experience intended to transform the individual and collective or universal mind, life and body. The former relation left a permanent memory of Divine touch in the mind of the race, smrti, which can activate and repeat in the numberless souls of the same Divine intensity till the supreme Ananda is established; whereas the latter relation is a step ahead in learning the lesson of subtle physical Divine touch to permeate into the physical sheath and bring an opportunity of physical transformation of the race. 2: Guhyatara Vijnana of Supermind and corresponding Supramental transformation of Sva Prakriti: “There are two worlds adjacent to this material world, superconscient and subconscient; the superconscient world has already been described at length: hear from Me, O Partha, the subconscient, asuric world.” The Gita-16.6 “Out of compassion for them, I, lodged in their self, lift the blazing lamp of knowledge and destroy the darkness which is born out of the subconscient Ignorance.” The Gita-10.11 “Leaning—pressing down upon My own Nature, Sva Prakriti, I create all this multitude of existence, all helplessly subject to the control of Nature.” The Gita-9.8 Like Sri Aurobindo , The Mother had the experience of Supermind up above in the Supramental sheath and down below in the Inconscient sheath during Her Spiritual training at Tlemcen , before Her actual contact with Sri Aurobindo . So the frightful battle of Subconscient sheath resumed again and attained momentum with Sri Aurobindo during Their systematic joint work of Supramental descent to the mind domain first, then to vital, physical and Subconscient sheaths respectively. The Veda described this domain as darkness hidden by darkness, an ocean without mental consciousness. All possible difficulties in the subconscient rose up en mass; it is a domain hopelessly weak, dull, enslaved to everything. One has to fight against all those dark lower forces, irrational habits, chronic illnesses, aggressive ill will, that are unwilling to change, all that dominates the world. It unfolds night after night, an unimaginable quantity of subconscient impressions recorded and stored, heaped one on the top of other, piling up helplessly. These difficulties had hounded Sri Aurobindo ferociously and the Mother had to face the same problems in a relentless fashion. When The Mother and Sri Aurobindo descended together from plane to plane and reached the subconscient, They discovered that it was no longer individual subconscient but it was terrestrial. There are three ways in which the Subconscient problems can be handled. First, one is to act from above through intervention of Divine force; by this exercise one can keep these problems under control, hold them in place and prevent them from any unpleasant events and even mastery over these forces can be gained but nothing is transformed through this exercise; secondly, one has to enter into the Subconscient plane along with the Divine force; this is done by rising to summit of Consciousness through progressive ascent that one unites with the Supermind, then one can redescend with Supramental consciousness to Subconscient plane and can experience permanent transformation of nature; thirdly to experience the same Divine force in the Subconscient plane through invasion of Divine force from Inconscient Self and Subconscient Self; with the experience of union with Supermind through ascension of consciousness, one discovers a presence of Supermind in the heart of Inconscient during the process of descent and with the activation of Supermind in the Inconscient Self and Subconscient Self, one experiences direct invasion of Supramental to Subconscient plane and experiences the permanent transformation of nature. Entry into Subconscient plane is a terrible battle against the forces of darkness and in the Mother’s language, “I am given the awareness of how huge this thing (descent of Divine Force) is one drop at a time…so I won’t be crushed,”³⁷ and this Subconscient transformation could be done ‘only in deep meditation…and not in any other time, in activity or even in concentration.’⁶³ 3: Guhyatamam Vijnana of the most secret Supermind and corresponding Supramental Transformation, Madbhava : “If thou art one in heart and consciousness with Me (Purushottama ) at all times, then by My grace thou shalt pass safe through all difficult and perilous passages of Inconscient sheath;…” The Gita-18.58 “Threefold are the doors of hell (of Inconscient world)…—desire, wrath and greed:…by following the own higher good (of Supramental descent), he arrives at the highest soul status and is liberated from these triple doors of darkness.” The Gita-16.21-22 “Delivered from the Inconscient problems of sense attachment, fear and wrath, full of Me, take refuge in Me, many purified by the austerity of knowledge arrived at My Nature, Mad bhavam agatah. ” The Gita-4.10 The Mother’s experience of the first Supramental manifestation on 29th February, 1956, marked an important transition in a universal event. It was not a complete descent; a part of the Supramental Light and Force and Consciousness rushed down upon earth in an uninterrupted flow and was immediately absorbed and swallowed by the Inconscient sheath. This experience indicates that the earth’s darkest zone has the greatest thirst towards the highest Divine. While transformation work continued in the Subconscient sheath, the higher intensities of Supramental force resumed action due to more identification with the Supreme, in the still nethermost incredible dark dregs of mud of the Inconscient Sheath. So it has become clear that it is impossible to manifest the Divine integrally without everything below being offered to the Supreme Light and one cannot go to the very bottom of Inconscient unless one goes to the very heights of Supermind. The present Inconscient is not as unconscious as the Inconscient at the beginning of creation. So the Supramental action in Inconscient will have two results: firstly, more and more inconscient problems will rise and enter subconscient planes for transformation; secondly, it will purify all those darkest realms in their own home and spread the supreme Light and supreme Vibrations. 4: Param Guhyatamam Vijnana or the supreme most secret Supermind concealed in the Inconscient and the corresponding Supramental Transformation of Param bhava : “At the very bottom of the Inconscient, most hard and rigid and narrow and stifling, I struck upon an almighty spring that cast up forthwith into a formless, limitless Vast, vibrating with the seeds of a new world.”⁵⁹ The Mother “I have entered into this form of (inconscient) earth and sustain by My might these multitudes…” The Gita-15.13 “In the egoism of their strength and power, in the violence of their wrath and arrogance they hate, despise and belittle the God concealed (in the inconscient cave)…” The Gita-16.18 “Those, whose mind are deluded by Inconscient Ignorance, despise Me lodged in the human body (The Lord seated in the Inconscient sheath) because they know not my supreme Nature, Param bhava, the Lord of all existence.” The Gita-9.11 “As the one sun illumines the entire earth, so the Lord concealed in the Field (which constitute our mind, life, body, subconscient and inconscient sheath) illumines the entire Field, O Bharata .” The Gita-13.34 The Mother has given the assurance that one can realize the Divine in the Inconscient as soon as one has found the Divine within. Because realization of the Divine within helps to ascent the consciousness to unite with the Supermind above. As soon as this union is achieved, one gets the passage of entry into Inconscient sheath and meets the Supermind concealed in the Inconscient Self. The Mother’s experience of 24-25 July, 1959, gave clearer details about its working, “for the first time the Supramental light entered directly into my body, without passing through the inner beings. It entered through the feet and it climbed up and up. And as it climbed, the fever also climbed because the body was not accustomed to this intensity. As all this light neared the head, I thought I would burst and that the experience would have to be stopped…”⁶⁰ The discovery of the Supramental in the Inconscient made another passage clear for the direct action of It on the body. Since this force is already dynamized on earth’s atmosphere, so contact with It can be restored by concentration below the feet centre. The experience of this kind can be repeated till the experience becomes constant and established. 5: Juxtaposition of Madbhava and Parambhava of Guhyatamam Vijnana: “It (dynamic Spirit) is within, below, without, above.“ Savitri-98 “When into all the doors in the body (nine doors, navadwara ) there comes a flooding of light…” The Gita-14.11 ‘The light of the sun that illumines all these worlds… that light is known as from Me.” The Gita-15.12 “Powerful and prolonged penetration of the Supramental forces into the body, it was pressing to enter, from everywhere, but everywhere at the same time… it was not a current flowing in, it was an atmosphere penetrating from everywhere. It lasted for at least four to five hours.”⁶¹ The Mother In Integral Yoga, all the ten Selves, or the Divine contained in all the ten sheaths, are dynamised, and all these Divine Selves act on the respective sheaths or higher sheaths on the lower sheaths or lower Selves on the higher sheaths; bring the required transformation and build each sheath to the extent of their full perfection. With the progress of this experience, one meets the Divine from all ends, capturing all the sheaths of the body and this experience can be repeated till It becomes constant and established. This is probably the normal state of the greatest Integral Yogi, yoginam api sarvesam, ³² and the highest secret, rahasyam uttamam ,⁶² manifested in normal human life. Recapitulation: In this Spiritual endeavour, the discovery of the Inconscient Self is identified as one of the last flaming bursts of Divinities and the most profound Spiritual experiences of the perfect rhythm of illumining Matter’s depth, ‘the grand solution’⁷⁰ in which the height of mortal effort ends and it is the waking of matter’s great Serpent Power ‘For large utilities in life’s little space’⁷¹ or opening of Inconscient Self is identified as a passage to ‘last and mightiest transformation’⁷² of desire from its bleeding root. The opening of the Inconscient Self will break the Inconscient sheath’s blind mute wall of Ignorance and each part of the Being and the surrounding sheath, or every limb and cell, receives the Divine Mother’s Delightful touch to remake our life and feel her helping hand in every circumstance. The discovery of the Subconscient Self through difficulty and pain is identified as another important achievement for dismantling and illumining an obscure sheath, whose 'priceless value could have saved the world.’⁷³ Silencing the mind, vital and body paves the passage clear towards the vast domain of subtle mental, subtle vital and subtle physical oceans and in its heart, there is a true mental being, true vital being, true physical being, and subsequently in this journey in the innermost domain, the Psychic sheath and Psychic being are unveiled. The Psychic being unveils the passage towards the discovery of still higher selves of Spiritual, Universal, Supramental and Bliss Self. Still, there are other sequences through which these Selves can be activated and dynamised. The discovery of the Supramental Self directs the Truth-Light to ‘strike earth’s massive roots of trance’⁷⁴ of the Subconscient and Inconscient oceans and wake their respective Selves. Thus, dynamisation of the ten Selves and the purification, transformation and perfection of the ten respective Sheaths are part of Savitri’s Individual, Universal and Transcendental Divine action. Then, one no longer depends on intervention from above for the transformation action of surface mind, life and body, but it will also take place more vigorously⁷⁵ from within the ten Selves and most vigorously⁷⁶ from below the feet by the opening of Subconscient and Inconscient Selves. OM TAT SAT References 1: The Mother's Agenda, October 6,1962, 2: SABCL-27/p-433-34, 3: The Gita-10.19, 4: The Gita-10.34, 5: The Gita-5.,24/6.27/18.54, 6: The Gita-12.3/5.25, 7: The Gita-9.11, 8: The Gita-4.10/10.6/13.18/14.19, 9: The Gita-4.13, 10: The Gita-10.6, 11: The Gita-11.54, 12: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-305, 13: The Gita-7.19, 14: The Gita-9.7, 15: The Gita-7.5, 16: The Gita-4.6/9.8, 17: The Gita-9.13, 18: The Gita-7.24/9.11, 19: The Gita-14.2, 20: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-562, 21: SABCL-26/On Himself/p-126, 22: The Gita-7.28, 23: The Gita-18.53, 24: The Gita-18.66, 25: SABCL-26/On Himself/p-126-127, 26: The Gita-2.61/6.14, 27: The Gita-4.18, 28: The Mother-62, 29: The Gita-6.35, 30: The Gita-2.50, 31: The Gita-12.10, 32: The Gita-6.47, 33: The Gita-12.8, 34: The Gita-7.17, 35: The Gita-6.46, 36: The Gita-3.1, 37: The Mother's Agenda, July 15, 1961, 38: The Gita-3.29, 39: The Gita-7.9, 40: The Gita-2.72, 41: The Gita-11.7, 42: The Gita-4.5, 43: The Gita-7.26, 44: The Gita-13.18, 45: The Gita-7.1, 46: The Gita-15.7, 47: The Gita-13.22, 48: The Gita-4.34,35, 49: The Gita-5.19, 50: SABCL-26/On Himself/p-119, 51: The Gita-18.61, 52: The Gita-5.29, 53: The Gita-3.15, 54: The Gita-6.31, 55: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-94, 56 : CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-933, 57: The Gita-6.44, 58: The Gita-2.52, 59: The Mother's Agenda, November 7, 1961, 60: The Mother's Agenda, October 6, 1959, 61: The Mother's Agenda, August 28, 1968, 62: The Gita-4.3, 63: The Mother's Agenda, December 11, 1963. 64: The Gita-10.42, 65: The Gita- 4.9, 66: The Gita-15.8, 67: The Gita-9.33, 68: The Gita-8.15, 69: Isha Upanishad-9, 70: Savitri-90, 71: Savitri-530, 72: Savitri-318, 73: Savitri-42, 74: Savitri-72, 75: “It proceeds by a personal effort to a conversion through a divine influence and possession; but this divine grace, if we may so call it, is not simply a mysterious flow or touch coming from above, but the all-pervading act of a divine presence which we come to know within as the power of the highest Self and Master of our being entering into the soul and so possessing it that we not only feel it close to us and pressing upon our mortal nature, but live in its law, know that law, possess it as the whole power of our spiritualised nature.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-621, 76: “In other respects the process will be identical, — a supramental inflow from above, the descent of a gnostic being into the nature, and an emergence of the concealed supramental force from below; the influx and the unveiling between them will remove what is left of the nature of the Ignorance. The rule of the Inconscient will disappear: for the Inconscience will be changed by the outburst of the greater secret Consciousness within it, the hidden Light, into what it always was in reality, a sea of the secret Superconscience. A first formation of a gnostic consciousness and nature will be the consequence.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-1003, Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: The cover page photo is from the meditation room of our Spiritual Fosterer, Sri K. Anurakta , Pondicherry "OM Om, Supreme Lord, God of kindness and mercy, Om, Supreme Lord, God of love and compassion, Om, Supreme Lord, take possession of these cells, Om, Supreme Lord, take possession of this brain, Om, Supreme Lord, take possession of these nerves, Om, Supreme Lord, take possession of this mind, Om, Supreme Lord, take possession of this speech, Om, Supreme Lord, take possession of this action, Om, Supreme Lord, take possession of this body, Om, Supreme Lord, take possession of this heart, Om, Supreme Lord, take possession of this matter, Om, Supreme Lord, take possession of these atoms, Om, Supreme Lord, take possession of the subconscient, Om, Supreme Lord, take possession of the inconscient. Om namo bhagavateh Om, Supreme Lord, God of kindness and mercy Om, Supreme Lord, God of love and felicity Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Will Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Truth Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Purity Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Perfection Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Oneness Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Eternity Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Infinity Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Immortality Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Silence Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Peace Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Existence Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Consciousness Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Omnipotence Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Felicity Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Knowledge Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Omniscience Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Wisdom Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Equality Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Intensity Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Light Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Harmony Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Compassion Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Beauty Om, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Love Om, Supreme Lord, win Your Victory. Glory to You, Lord supreme conqueror..." The Mother The Mother's Agenda/Vol-1/Undated

"An oceanic spirit dwelt within;" Savitri-680 Yoga of Self Perfection “The power of the soul over its nature is of the utmost importance in the Yoga of self-perfection ; if it did not exist, we could never get by conscious endeavour and aspiration out of the fixed groove of our present imperfect human being; if any greater perfection were intended, we should have to wait for Nature to effect it in her own slow or swift process of evolution.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-628 “The Yoga of self-perfection brings out this soul-force and gives it its largest scope, takes up all the fourfold powers and throws them into the free circle of an integral and harmonious spiritual dynamis. The godhead, the soul-power of knowledge rises to the highest degree of which the individual nature can be the supporting basis. A free mind of light develops which is open to every kind of revelation, inspiration, intuition, idea, discrimination, thinking synthesis; an enlightened life of the mind grasps at all knowledge with a delight of finding and reception and holding, a spiritual enthusiasm, passion, or ecstasy; a power of light full of spiritual force, illumination and purity of working manifests its empire, brahma-tejas, brahma-varcas ; a bottomless steadiness and illimitable calm upholds all the illumination, movement, action as on some rock of ages, equal, unperturbed, unmoved, acyuta .” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-750, The Reconciliation of Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga “The perfect sage, the Gita more than once repeats, is ever engaged with a large equality in doing good to all creatures and makes that his occupation and delight, sarvabhuta-hite ratah. The perfect Yogin is no solitary musing on the Self in his ivory tower of spiritual isolation, but yuktah kritsna-karma-krit, a many-sided universal worker for the good of the world, for God in the world. For he is a bhakta, a lover and devotee of the Divine, as well as a sage and a Yogin, a lover who loves God wherever he finds Him and who finds Him everywhere; and what he loves, he does not disdain to serve, nor does action carry him away from the bliss of union, since all his acts proceed from the One in him and to the One in all they are directed.”¹⁴ Sri Aurobindo “By constant reference of all one’s will and works to the Divine, love and adoration grow, the psychic being comes forward. (This line suggests that through Karma and Bhakti Yoga Psychic being opens.) By the reference to the Power above we can come to feel it above and its descent and the opening to an increasing consciousness and knowledge. Finally works, bhakti and knowledge join together and self-perfection becomes possible — what we call the transformation of the nature.”⁶¹ (Here the Yoga of Self-perfection is linked with the transformation of Nature through the dynamic action of Divine Shakti) Sri Aurobindo “Devotion is all-important, but works with devotion are also important; by the union of knowledge, devotion and works the soul is taken up into the highest status of the Ishwara to dwell there in the Purushottam is master at once of the eternal spiritual calm and the eternal cosmic activity. This is the synthesis of the Gita .”³ ⁷ Sri Aurobindo “It (Divine Will) has all the power of a way of works integral and absolute, but because of its law of sacrifice and self-giving to the Divine Self and Master, it is accompanied on its one side by the whole power of the path of Love and on the other by the whole power of the path of Knowledge. At its end all these three divine Powers work together, fused, united, completed, perfected by each other.”⁴⁵ Sri Aurobindo “Since then the union of these three powers lies our base of perfection, the seeker of an integral self-fulfilment in the Divine must avoid or throw away, if he has them at all, the misunderstanding and mutual depreciation which we often find existent between the followers of the three paths.”³⁹ Sri Aurobindo “Man, too, becomes perfect only when he has found within himself that absolute calm and passivity of the Brahman and supports by it with the same divine tolerance and the same divine bliss a free and inexhaustible activity. Those who have thus possessed the Calm within can perceive always welling out from its silence the perennial supply of the energies that work in the universe.”⁴⁶ Sri Aurobindo “To knowledge she (Mahakali ) gives a conquering might, brings to beauty and harmony a high and mounting movement and imparts to the slow and difficult labour after perfection an impetus that multiplies the power and shortens the long way. Nothing can satisfy her that falls short of the supreme ecstasies, the highest heights, the noblest aims, the largest vistas.”⁴⁷ Sri Aurobindo “Admitted to the heart she (Mahalakshmi ) lifts wisdom to pinnacles of wonder and reveals to it the mystic secrets of the ecstasy that surpasses all knowledge, meets devotion with the passionate attraction of the Divine, teaches to strength and force the rhythm that keeps the might of their acts harmonious and in measure and casts on perfection the charm that makes it endure for ever.”⁴⁸ Sri Aurobindo The triple self-disciplines of Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga and the triple eternal poise of the Self, Kshara Purusha, Akshara Purusha and Uttama Purusha, and their simultaneous action are necessary for the totality of Divine realisation, samagram mam. Kshara Purusha’s union with Akshara Purusha is identified as the reconciliation of Karma and Jnana Yoga. Kshara Purusha’s union with the Purushottama is identified as the reconciliation of Karma and Bhakti Yoga. Akshara Purusha’s union with Purushottama is identified as the reconciliation of Jnana and Bhakti Yoga . When the three Purushas co-exist, then the reconciliation of triple Yoga becomes effective. Thus, Knowledge gives a sense of oneness of the Divine, while Love is its Bliss which is identified as the crown of Work and flowering of Knowledge and Work brings the Divine’s living power of Light and Sweetness. Thus, the natural oneness of Will, Knowledge and Love finds their greatest completeness in Supermind. Knowledge is the base of Supermind, while Will is its dynamic expression and Love is its expression of Joy and they move the consciousness towards integral self-awareness. A traditional Yogi lives constantly in exclusive union with the Divine and an integral Yogi has three aspects of this union, (1) a union with the transcendent supreme Divine, (2) a union with universal Divine and (3) a dynamic Supramental action linking the transcendent origin and the universal Self and individual as a receiving and transmitting Psychic channel works out integral, all-inclusive and comprehensive Divine perfection. The exclusive transcendent Divine union of the traditional self-controlled Saint, Yatati, does not transform his nature; so, his manifold unsaintly movements are suppressed or ‘carried away by vehement insistence of senses’³⁸ and it can be corrected in integral Yoga by the difficult task of integrating his Being and Nature and by integration of his volitional, intellectual and emotional parts. If he is more attached to either of the three, Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yogas , then attainment of equal concentration of the three Yogas will seem impossible. While reconciling the self-disciplines of the above three Yogas, he can repeat five specialised methods which are mostly derivative of Jnana Yoga or an extension of Yoga of Self-perfection. The first method ³⁴ is to silence the desire mind, emotional mind, sensory mind, physical mind and intellectual mind and to allow in that perfect silence the disclosure of the ascent of the Self, the Spirit and the Divine. It brings the freedom of Spiritual Silence. The second method of Yoga of Self-perfection is to reject the intellect and its action and wait for the impulsion of command, call, adesh of the Divine Purusha within the heart. This secret Self is also seated in every centre of our being, the physical, the nervous, the emotional, the volitional, the conceptual or cognitive and higher Spiritual, Universal, Supramental and Bliss centres. And if these Selves are activated the respective instruments of nature and sheaths are transformed and perfected. The third method of the Yoga of self-perfection is to open the supreme mental centre, the thousand-petalled lotus above the head and establish a direct communication on the Supramental level. It acts doubly, the descent of Shakti from above downward, filling and transforming the mind, life and body and an action of ascent of Soul from below upwards raising all energies to the transcendence. The fourth method is to develop our intellect, heighten its capacity, light, intensity, degree and force of activity by the pressure of Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Influence instead of eliminating it. The fifth method is not heightening and greatening of the intellectual activity alone, an attainment of intermediate Spiritualised intelligence alone and subsequently an intervention of the Supramental energy is needed that can light up and get rid of the deficiencies of thought, will and emotion, and drag them towards their last Divine perfection. This action must activate more constantly after one is established in the Psychic and Spiritual plane and there is seen the full Sun of Truth-Light with no cloud to moderate its splendour. The Divine Shakti will choose freely and flexibly one or combine all these methods and change the whole system integrally. Reconciliation of Karma and Jnana Yoga¹³ “The voice that only by speech can move the mind Became a silent knowledge in the soul; The strength that only in action feels its truth Was lodged now in a mute omnipotent peace.” Savitri-32 “A deep surrender is their (Supramental Beings) source of might, A still identity their way to know, Motionless is their action like a sleep.” Savitri-57 “Only when we have climbed above ourselves, A line of the Transcendent meets our road And joins us to the timeless and the true; It brings to us the inevitable word, The godlike act, the thoughts that never die.” Savitri-109-10 “It seeks the truth to which all figures point; It looks for the source of Light with vision’s lamp; It works to find the Doer of all works, The unfelt Self within who is the guide, The unknown Self above who is the goal.” Savitri-168 “A Word, a Wisdom watches us from on high, A Witness sanctioning her will and works, An Eye unseen in the unseeing vast; There is an Influence from a Light above, There are thoughts remote and sealed eternities; A mystic motive drives the stars and suns.” Savitri-168-69 “Even in our sceptic mind of ignorance A foresight comes of some immense release, Our will lifts towards it slow and shaping hands.” Savitri-170 “It lit the thoughts that glow through the centuries And moved to acts of superhuman force.” Savitri-259 “Happy the worlds that have not felt our (Spiritual) fall, Where Will is one with Truth and Good with Power;” Savitri-281 “In each a seraph-winged high-browed Idea United all knowledge by one master thought, (Reconciling wisdom) Persuaded all action to one golden sense, All powers subjected to a single power And made a world where it could reign alone, An absolute ideal’s perfect home.” Savitri-281 “She reigns, inspirer of its multiple works And thinker of the symbol of its scene.” Savitri-295 “The labour to know seemed a vain strife of Mind; All knowledge ended in the Unknowable: The effort to rule seemed a vain pride of Will; A trivial achievement scorned by Time, All power retired into the Omnipotent.” Savitri-305 “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.” Savitri-315 “A strength he sought that was not yet on earth, Help from a Power too great for mortal will, The light of a Truth now only seen afar, A sanction from his high omnipotent Source.” Savitri-317 “The robes of mortal thinking were cast down Leaving his knowledge bare to absolute sight; Fate’s driving ceased and Nature’s sleepless spur: The athlete heavings of the will were stilled In the Omnipotent’s unmoving peace.” Savitri-320 “His (King’s) mind answered to countless communing minds, His words were syllables of the cosmos’ speech, His life a field of the vast cosmic stir. He felt the footsteps of a million wills Moving in unison to a single goal.” Savitri-325 “An immutable Power has made this mutable world; A self-fulfilling transcendence treads man’s road; The driver of the soul upon its path, It knows its steps, its way is inevitable, 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:” Savitri-339 “A Light there is that leads, a Power that aids; Unmarked, unfelt it sees in him and acts: Ignorant, he forms the All-Conscient in his depths, Human, looks up to superhuman peaks:” Savitri-339 “Assent to thy high self, create, endure. Cease not from knowledge, let thy toil be vast. No more can earthly limits pen thy force; Equal thy work with long unending Time’s.” Savitri-340 “He (flaming Pioneer) shall know what mortal mind barely durst think, He shall do what the heart of the mortal could not dare.” Savitri-344 “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 “Let a great word be spoken from the heights And one great act unlock the doors of Fate.” Savitri-345 “The will of the Timeless working out in Time In the free absolute steps of cosmic Truth He thinks a dead machine or unconscious Fate.” Savitri-457 “All here can change if the Magician choose. If human will could be made one with God’s (Will), If human thought could echo the thoughts of God, Man might be all-knowing and omnipotent.” Savitri-457-58 “Above her brows where will and knowledge meet A mighty Voice invaded mortal space.” Savitri-474 “There was no will behind the word and act, No thought formed in her brain to guide the speech:” Savitri-551 “Then like a thought fulfilled by some great word That mightiness assumed a symbol form: Savitri-573 “Immortal leader (Supermind) of her mortality, Doer of her works and fountain of her words, Invulnerable by Time, omnipotent, It stood above her calm, immobile, mute.” Savitri-573 “I (Savitri) 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, “A Will that without sense or motive acts, An Intelligence needing not to think or plan,” Savitri-680 “Thy servitudes (slaves) on earth are greater, King, Than all the glorious liberties of heaven.” Savitri-686 “Then shall the embodied being live as one Who is a thought, a will of the Divine, A mask or robe of his divinity, An instrument and partner of his Force, A point or line drawn in the infinite, A manifest of the Imperishable.” Savitri-706 “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.”⁶² Sri Aurobindo “Yoga and knowledge are, in this early part of the Gita’s teaching, the two wings of the soul’s ascent. By Yoga is meant union through divine works done without desire, with equality of soul to all things and all men, as a sacrifice to the Supreme, while knowledge is that on which this desirelessness, this equality, this power of sacrifice is founded. The two wings indeed assist each other’s flight; acting together, yet with a subtle alternation of mutual aid, like the two eyes in a man which see together because they see alternately, they increase one another mutually by interchange of substance. As the works grow more and more desireless, equal-minded, sacrificial in spirit, the knowledge increases; with the increase of the knowledge the soul becomes firmer in the desireless, sacrificial equality of its works.”¹⁸ Sri Aurobindo “In its close, if not long before it, this way of works turns by communion with the Divine Presence, Will and Force into a way of Knowledge more complete and integral than any the mere creature intelligence can construct or the search of the intellect can discover.”⁴² Sri Aurobindo “O Lord, my one aspiration is to know Thee and serve Thee better every day. What do outer circumstances matter? They seem to me each day more vain and illusory, and I take less and less interest in what is going to happen to us in the outer life; but more and more am I intensely interested in the one thing which seems important to me: to know Thee better in order to serve Thee better. All outer events must converge upon this goal and this goal alone; and for that all depends upon the attitude we have towards them. To seek Thee constantly in all things, to want to manifest Thee ever better in every circumstance, in this attitude lies supreme Peace, perfect serenity, true contentment. In it life blossoms, widens, expands so magnificently in such majestic waves that no storm can any longer disturb it.”⁴⁰ The Mother “The supramental nature on the contrary is just, harmonious and one, will and knowledge there only light of the spirit and power of the spirit, the power effecting the light, the light illumining the power. In the highest supramentality they are intimately fused together and do not even wait upon each other but are one movement, will illumining itself, knowledge fulfilling itself, both together a single jet of the being.”⁴⁹ Sri Aurobindo “The Divine is centred in itself and when it throws out ideas and activities does not divide itself or imprison itself in them, but holds them and their movement in its infinity; undivided, its whole self is behind each Idea and each movement and at the same time behind all of them together.”⁵⁰ Sri Aurobindo “But her (Maheswari) compassion does not blind her wisdom or turn her action from the course decreed; for the Truth of things is her one concern, knowledge her centre of power and to build our soul and our nature into the divine Truth her mission and her labour.”⁵¹ Sri Aurobindo “You must learn to act always from within — from your inner being which is in contact with the Divine. The outer should be a mere instrument and should not be allowed at all to compel or dictate your speech, thought or action.”⁵⁷ Sri Aurobindo Savitri book⁴³ hints that if Jnana Yoga can be reconciled with Karma Yoga, then the possibility of Spiritual fall reduces. The Gita insists on developing double sincerity, dvibidha Nistha, ²⁵ among the seekers of truth that of (1) the Sankhya Yogis by the Yoga of Knowledge and (2) the Karma Yogis by the Yoga of Works. ‘There have been different gradations in this movement to bridge the gulf between an absolute impersonality and the dynamic possibilities of our nature.’⁶⁰ “Renunciation/Jnana Yoga and Karma Yoga, both bring about Soul’s salvation. But of these two Yogas, Yoga of Works is identified as the greatest Yoga.²⁶ He should be known as nityasannyasi , or constant union with the Divine through Jnana Yoga/renunciation, even when he is doing action, who neither dislikes nor desires; for free from dualities, he is released easily and happily from the bondage. Child Souls, bala, speak of Sankhya/Jnana Yoga and Karma Yoga apart from each other and limit them as opposing doctrines, not the ripened Souls/punditah ; if a wise seeker of truth applies himself integrally to the one, he gets the essential truth result of both Karma and Jnana Yoga which is large, catholic and universally true. The highest status which is attained by Sankhya/Jnana Yoga through philosophical, intellectual, analytical and dualistic approach, to that state Karma Yoga also arrives through intuitional, devotional, practical, ethical, synthetic and arriving at knowledge through Spiritual experience. The ripened Souls see Sankhya/Jnana Yoga and Karma Yoga as one or they reconcile them perfectly. But the renunciation of Jnana Yoga is difficult to attain without Karma Yoga . Jnana Yoga becomes easy with the aid of Karma Yoga, because while doing all action a Yogi feels that he does no action but only the Nature is doing through him. So, the sage who has realised Divine union attains the Brahman soon. He who is united with the Divine through reconciliation of Karma and Jnana Yoga is the pure Soul, master of his Self, has conquered the senses; whose Self becomes the Self of all existences and even though he does work, he is not involved/attached to them. The wise seeker who has reconciled Karma and Jnana Yoga knows the true principle of things, tattwa jnana , his mind is united with the impersonal Akshara Purusha , feels, “I am doing nothing;” when he sees, hears, tastes, smells, eats, moves, sleeps, breathes, speaks, takes, ejects, opens his eyes and closes them, he holds that it is only the senses acting upon the objects of the senses. So, he acts by reposing in Brahman Consciousness by abandoning attachment. He is not stained by sin even as water clings not to the lotus leaf.”¹ “The greatest Yogi is he, who, controlling the ten senses by (Spiritual) mind, without attachment as taught in Jnana Yoga, engages with the organs of action of Karma Yoga .”¹⁶ “Knowledge, jnanam , the object of knowledge, jneyam , and the knower, parijnata, these three constitute the urge to (Divine) action. The doer, karta, the instrument, karanam, and the act, karma , these three hold the (Divine) action together.”² Reconciliation of Jnana and Bhakti Yoga “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 “The All-Conscious ventured into Ignorance, The All-Blissful bore to be insensible.” Savitri-66-67 Creator of this game of ray and shade In this sweet and bitter paradoxical life, Asks from the body the soul’s intimacies And by the swift vibration of a nerve Links its mechanic throbs to light and love.” Savitri-138 “Wherever are soulless minds and guideless lives And in a small body self is all that counts, Wherever love and light and largeness lack, These crooked fashioners take up their task.” Savitri-153 “Even Light and Love by that cloaked danger’s spell Turned from the brilliant nature of the gods To fallen angels and misleading suns, Became themselves a danger and a charm, A perverse sweetness, heaven-born malefice:” Savitri-203 “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 "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 “There shimmered stealing out into the Mind A mute and quivering ecstasy of light,” Savitri-289 “An inner happiness abode in all, A sense of universal harmonies, A measureless secure eternity Of truth and beauty and good and joy made one.” Savitri-291 “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 “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 that denies (Supreme Love) must be torn out and slain And crushed the many longings (of desire Soul) for whose sake We lose the One (Divine) for whom our lives were made. Now other claims (of desire Soul) had hushed in him their cry: 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 “A word, a laughter, sprang from Silence’ breast, A rhythm of Beauty in the calm of Space, A knowledge in the fathomless heart of Time.” Savitri-325 “A new creation from the old shall rise, A Knowledge inarticulate find speech, Beauty suppressed burst into paradise bloom, Pleasure and pain dive into absolute bliss.” Savitri-330 “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 “All-Knowledge wrap one mind in seas of light, All-Love throb single in one human heart.” Savitri-345 “A boundless knowledge greater than man’s thought, A happiness too high for heart and sense Locked in the world and yearning for release” Savitri-362 “Behold this image cast by light and love, A stanza of the ardour of the gods Perfectly rhymed, a pillared ripple of gold! Her body like a brimmed pitcher of delight Shaped in a splendour of gold-coloured bronze As if to seize earth’s truth of hidden bliss.” Savitri-422 “He (Divine) is the prophet’s voice, the sight of the seer. He is Beauty, nectar of the passionate soul, He is the Truth by which the spirit lives.” Savitri-516 “The mind becomes a mastered instrument And life a hue and figure of the soul. All happily grows towards knowledge and towards bliss.” Savitri-530 “An inner law of beauty shapes our lives; Our words become the natural speech of Truth, Each thought is a ripple on a sea of Light.” Savitri-530-31 “Imaginations flamed up from her breast, Unearthly beauty, touches of surpassing joy And plans of miracle, dreams of delight:” Savitri-539 “A cosmic vision, a spiritual sense Feels all the Infinite lodged in finite form And seen through a quivering ecstasy of light Discovers the bright face of the Bodiless, In the truth of a moment, in the moment’s soul Can sip the honey-wine of Eternity.” Savitri-662 “In the harmony of an original sight Delivered from our limiting ray of thought, And the reluctance of our blinded hearts To embrace the Godhead in whatever guise, She saw all Nature marvellous without fault.” Savitri-675 “Each feeling was the Eternal’s mighty child And every thought was a sweet burning god.” Savitri-678 “If knowledge is the widest power of the consciousness and its function is to free and illumine, yet love is the deepest and most intense and its privilege is to be the key to the most profound and secret recesses of the Divine Mystery.”³⁵ Sri Aurobindo “Thus by spiritual development devotion becomes one with knowledge. The Jiva comes to delight in the one Godhead, — in the Divine known as all being and consciousness and delight and as all things and beings and happenings, known in Nature, known in the self, known for that which exceeds self and Nature. He is ever in constant union with him, nityayukta ; his whole life and being are an eternal Yoga with the Transcendent than whom there is nothing higher, with the Universal besides whom there is none else and nothing else. On him is concentred all his bhakti, ekabhaktih, not on any partial godhead, rule or cult.”⁵³ Sri Aurobindo “This is the God-lover who has the knowledge, jnani bhakta. And this knower, says the Godhead in the Gita, is my self; the others seize only motives and aspects in Nature, but he the very self-being and all-being of the Purushottama with which he is in union. His is the divine birth in the supreme Nature, integral in being, completed in will, absolute in love, perfected in knowledge. In him the Jiva’s cosmic existence is justified because it has exceeded itself and so found its own whole and highest truth of being.”⁵⁴ Sri Aurobindo “It is possible, indeed, to begin with knowledge or Godward emotion solely or with both together and to leave works for the final movement of the Yoga. But there is then this disadvantage that we may tend to live too exclusively within, subtilised in subjective experience, shut off in our isolated inner parts; there we may get incrusted in our spiritual seclusion and find it difficult later on to pour ourselves triumphantly outwards and apply to life our gains in the higher Nature. When we turn to add this external kingdom also to our inner conquests, we shall find ourselves too much accustomed to an activity purely subjective and ineffective on the material plane. There will be an immense difficulty in transforming the outer life and the body.”⁵⁵ Sri Aurobindo “Knowledge, says the Gita , is the sovereign purity; light is the source of all clearness and harmony even as the darkness of ignorance is the cause of all our stumblings. Love, for example, is the purifier of the heart and by reducing all our emotions into terms of divine love the heart is perfected and fulfilled; yet love itself needs to be clarified by divine knowledge.”56Sri Aurobindo“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 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-603 Sri Aurobindo “Whosoever knows in its right principles this seven-fold Vibhutis and four-fold Yoga-Shaktis, unites himself to Me by an un-trembling Bhakti Yoga; of this there is no doubt. I am the birth of everything and from Me all proceeds into the development of action and movement; understanding thus, the wise devotee adores Me in rapt emotion. Their consciousness full of Me, their life wholly given up to Me, illumining each other, mutually talking about Me, they are ever contented and joyful. To those who are in constant union with Me, and adore Me with an intense delight of love, I give the Buddhi/Jnana Yoga by which they come to Me. Out of compassion for them, I, lodged in their self, lift the blazing lamp of knowledge and destroy the darkness which is born of ignorance.”³ “Turning their discerning mind to That, directing their whole conscious being to That, making that their whole aim and the sole subject of their devotion, they go whence there is no return. Their sins washed off by the waters of knowledge.”¹⁵ “The great souled, O Partha, who dwell in My Divine Nature know the Godhead lodged in human body as the Imperishable from whom all existences originate and so knowing they turn to Me with a sole and entire love. Always adoring Me, steadfast in spiritual endeavour, bowing down to Me with devotion, they worship Me ever in Yoga. Others also seek Me out by the sacrifice of knowledge and worship Me in My oneness and in every separate being and in all My million universal faces... Become My minded, My lover and adorer, a sacrificer to Me, bow thyself to Me; thus united with Me in the Self thou shalt come to Me, having Me as thy supreme goal.”²⁰ “There are two Purushas in this world: the Akshara Purusha is the immutable and impersonal in nature and the Kshara Purusha is the mutable and personal in nature. The mutable is all these existences and the high-seated brahmic Consciousness, Kutastha , is the Immutable. One remains in front as action and other remains behind as witness. But other than these two irreconcilable opposites is the highest Purusha, Uttama Purusha , the Paramatman , who enters the three worlds of mind, life and body and upbears them. Since I am beyond the mutable Self and am higher and greater than the immutable Self, so I am proclaimed in the Veda as Purushottama . He who lives without delusion and has total knowledge of Me as Purushottama, adores Me with all-knowledge and integral sacrifice and every way of his natural being.”¹⁹ “Neither by the study of the Vedas and sacrifices, nor by gifts or ceremonial rites or severe austerities, this form of My Universal vision can be seen…it can be seen, known, entered into only by that Bhakti which regards, adores and loves Me alone in all things.”²² “When one has become the Brahman , when one, serene in the Self, neither grieves nor desires, when one is equal to all beings, then one gets the supreme love and devotion to Me. By devotion, he comes to know Me, who and how much I am and in all the reality and principles of My being; having thus known Me he enters into That Purushottama Consciousness.”²³ The Gita’s seventh to twelfth chapters concentrate on the reconciliation of Jnana and Bhakti Yoga .⁵⁹ Reconciliation of Karma and Bhakti Yoga “Acts vibrant with a superhuman light And movements pushed by a superconscient force, And joys that never flowed through mortal limbs, And lovelier scenes than earth’s and happier lives.” Savitri-28 “A large spontaneous order freed the will, A sun-frank winging of the soul to bliss, The breadth and greatness of the unfettered act And the swift fire-heart’s golden liberty.” Savitri-127 “There was no use for grudging ring or fence; Each act was a perfection and a joy.” Savitri-128 “Her eternal Lover is her action’s cause; For him she leaped forth from the unseen Vasts To move here in a stark unconscious (seemingly false) world.” Savitri-181 “Mute in the fathomless passion of his will He outstretched to her his folded hands of prayer.” Savitri-295 “Nothing could satisfy but its delight: Its (Supreme Self’s) absence left the greatest actions dull, Its presence made the smallest (action) seem divine.” Savitri-305 “An Influx presses from the closed Beyond Forbidding to him rest and earthly ease, Till he has found himself he cannot pause.” Savitri-339 “In these great spirits now incarnate here Love brought down power out of eternity To make of life his new undying base.” Savitri-397 “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 “Immortal yearnings without name leap down, Large quiverings of godhead seeking run And weave upon a puissant field of calm A high and lonely ecstasy of will.” Savitri-572 “My God is will and triumphs in his paths, My God is love and sweetly suffers all. To him I have offered hope for sacrifice And gave my longings as a sacrament.” Savitri-591 “My will is greater than thy law, O Death; My love is stronger than the bonds of Fate:” Savitri-633 “By this way we arrive at the Yoga of works, and this Yoga has a place for personal devotion to the Divine, for the divine Will appears as the Master of our works to whose voice we must listen, whose divine impulsion we must obey and whose work it is the sole business of our active life and will to do.”²⁷ Sri Aurobindo “For first by the force of your devotion your contact with the Divine Mother will become so intimate that at all times you will have only to concentrate and to put everything into her hands to have her present guidance, her direct command or sure impulse, the sure indication of the thing to be done and the way to do it and the result.”³⁶ Sri Aurobindo “The way of works turns by this road of sacrifice to meet the path of Devotion; it can be itself a devotion as complete, as absorbing, as integral as any the desire of the heart can ask for or the passion of themind can imagine.”⁴² Sri Aurobindo “Of all Karma Yogis, whoever loves (Me) God in all and his Soul is founded upon the Divine Oneness, however he lives and acts, lives and acts always in (Me) God. He who sees with equality everything, grief and happiness in the image of Self, him I hold to be the greatest Yogi.”⁴ “Of all Karma Yogis, he who with all his inner self offered to Me (or turning of volitional, intellectual and emotional mind entirely towards the Divine), for Me has love and faith, him I hold to be most united with Me in Yoga. He who is most united with Me is considered as the greatest Yogi.”⁵ “The Blessed Lord said those who are most united with Me and adore Me through constant union, emotional mind settled in Me and possessed of supreme faith of Bhakti Yoga, I consider them to be the greatest Yogi.”⁶ “Be a doer of My works, accept Me as the supreme being and object, My Bhakta is free from all attachment and is having without enmity to all existence, for such man comes to Me.”⁷ “Those who give up all their action to Me, sarvani karmani mayi sannyasya , and wholly devoted to Me, worship meditating on Me with an unswerving Yoga, those who fix on Me all their consciousness, O Partha, speedily I deliver them out of the sea of death bound existence.”⁸ “When one does his own natural work, kartavya karma, by worshipping the Divine, from whom all beings originate, by whom all this universe is pervaded, he reaches the perfection, siddhi.”⁹ “But those men of virtuous deeds, Karma Yogis, in whom sin is come to an end, they, freed from delusion of dualities, worship Me, steadfast in the vow of self-consecration. They turn to Me as their only refuge and turn to Me in their Spiritual effort towards release from old age and death, come to know the Brahman, all the integrality of Para Prakriti and entirety of Divine Work.”¹⁰ “A Bhakta, having abandoned attachment, acts reposing his works on the Brahman, is not stained by sin even as water clings not to the lotus leaf.”¹⁷ The Gita Proposes that if the ceaseless Karma Yoga can be reconciled with ceaseless Bhakti Yoga, then it will be easier to pursue both the Yoga. While pursuing Karma Yoga , even if one has no Bhakti, he can grow devotion due to his union with the Divine. And if this process continues then he will arrive at the highest and absolute Bhakti. “The Blessed Lord said to Arjuna: Yes, I will tell thee of My best and noblest attributes…among all sacrifices, Yajnas, I am the Japa Yajna, the silent and uninterrupted repetition of sacrificial adorable sacred name…Therefore all time of all life without interruption remember Me and fight (Divine action)… tasmat sarvesu kalesu mam anusmara yudhya cha . And also remember Me while leaving the body… tasmat sarvesu kalesu yoga-yukto bhavarjuna, therefore, O Arjuna, at all times of all life be in Yoga.” The Gita-10. 19, 25, 8.7, 13, 27 Reconciliation of Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga “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 “His soul lived as eternity’s delegate, His mind was like a fire assailing heaven, His will a hunter in the trails of light.” Savitri-23 “Rapt in the heart-beats of God-ecstasy. He lived in the mystic space where thought is born And will is nursed by an ethereal Power And fed on the white milk of the Eternal’s strengths Till it grows into the likeness of a god.” Savitri-28 “Our souls can visit in great lonely hours Still regions of imperishable Light, All-seeing eagle-peaks of silent Power And moon-flame oceans of swift fathomless Bliss And calm immensities of spirit space.” Savitri-46-47 “There is no perfect answer to our hopes; There are blind voiceless doors that have no key; Thought climbs in vain and brings a borrowed light, Cheated by counterfeits sold to us in life’s mart, Our hearts clutch at a forfeited heavenly bliss.” Savitri-77 “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 “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 “Even in our sceptic mind of ignorance A foresight comes of some immense release, Our will lifts towards it slow and shaping hands. Each part in us desires its absolute. Our thoughts covet the everlasting Light, Our strength derives from an omnipotent Force, And since from a veiled God-joy the worlds were made And since eternal Beauty asks for form Even here where all is made of being’s dust, Our hearts are captured by ensnaring shapes, Our very senses blindly seek for bliss.” Savitri-170 “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-176 “There every thought and feeling is an act, And every act a symbol and a sign, And every symbol hides a living power.” Savitri-183 “In knowledge to sum up omniscience, In action to erect the Omnipotent, To create her Creator here was her heart’s conceit, To invade the cosmic scene with utter God.” Savitri-195 “In a high state where ignorance is no more (SAT), (Jnana Yoga) Each movement is a wave of peace and bliss (ANANDA), (Bhakti Yoga) Repose God’s motionless creative force (CHIT), (Karma Yoga) Action a ripple in the Infinite And birth a gesture of Eternity.” Savitri-200 "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 “He cast from the rent stillness of his soul A cry of adoration and desire (surrender of Bhakti Yoga) And the surrender of his boundless mind (surrender of Jnana Yoga) And the self-giving of his silent (will of) heart. (surrender of Karma Yoga) He fell down at her feet unconscious, prone.” Savitri-296 “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 “There (in the Bliss Self) was no (tamasic) act, no movement in its Vast:… There was no (sattwic) mind there with its need to know, There was no (rajasic) heart there with its need to (human) love.” Savitri-308 “Abolished is the burdening need of life: Thought falls from us, we cease from joy and grief; The ego is dead; we are freed from being and care, We have done (sadhana) with birth and death and work and fate.” Savitri-310 “The moment’s thought inspired the passing act. A word, a laughter, sprang from Silence’ breast, A rhythm of Beauty in the calm of Space, A knowledge in the fathomless heart of Time.” Savitri-325 “Too little the strength (tamas) that now with us is born, Too faint the light (sattwa) that steals through Nature’s lids, Too scant the joy (rajas) with which she buys our pain.” Savitri-342 “In anguish we labour that from us may rise A larger-seeing man with nobler heart, A golden vessel of the incarnate Truth, The executor of the divine attempt Equipped to wear the earthly body of God, Communicant and prophet and lover and king.” Savitri-342 “Her greatness and her sweetness and her bliss, Her might to possess and her vast power to love: Earth made a stepping-stone to conquer heaven, The soul saw beyond heaven’s limiting boundaries, Met a great light from the Unknowable And dreamed of a transcendent action’s sphere.” Savitri-362 “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 “Afar from the brute noise of clamorous needs The quieted all-seeking mind could feel, At rest from its blind outwardness of will, The unwearied clasp of her mute patient love And know for a soul the mother of our forms.” Savitri-380 “Only when thou hast climbed above thy mind And liv’st in the calm vastness of the One Can love be eternal in the eternal Bliss And love divine replace the human tie. There is a shrouded law, an austere force: It bids thee strengthen thy undying spirit; It offers its severe benignancies Of work and thought and measured grave delight As steps to climb to God’s far secret heights.” Savitri-434, “Thy mind’s light (sattwa) hides from thee the Eternal’s thought, Thy heart’s hopes (rajas) hide from thee the Eternal’s will, Earth’s joys (tamas) shut from thee the Immortal’s bliss.” Savitri-443 “On the altar throwing thy thoughts, thy heart, thy works, Thy fate is a long sacrifice to the gods Till they have opened to thee thy secret self And made thee one with the indwelling God.” Savitri-458 “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 “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.” Savitri-591 “I am, I love, I see, I act, I will.” Savitri-594 “The soul is a figure of the Unmanifest, The mind labours to think the Unthinkable, The life to call the Immortal into birth, The body to enshrine the Illimitable. The world is not cut off from Truth and God.” Savitri-648 “My mind is a torch lit from the eternal sun, My life a breath drawn by the immortal Guest, My mortal body is the Eternal’s house. Already the torch becomes the undying ray, Already the life is the Immortal’s force, The house grows of the householder part and one. 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?” Savitri-648 “Action translates the movements of the soul, Thought steps infallible and absolute And life is a continual worship’s rite, A sacrifice of rapture to the One.” Savitri-662 “The Unseen’s eye that looks at the unseen, When Light with a golden ecstasy fills his brain And the Eternal’s wisdom drives his choice And eternal Will seizes the mortal’s will.” Savitri-665 “You shall reveal to them the hidden eternities, The breath of infinitudes not yet revealed, Some rapture of the bliss that made the world, Some rush of the force of God’s omnipotence, Some beam of the omniscient Mystery.” Savitri-704 “A greater truth than earth’s shall roof-in earth And shed its sunlight on the roads of mind; A power infallible shall lead the thought, A seeing Puissance govern life and act, In earthly hearts kindle the Immortal’s fire.” Savitri-707 “And hearts grow enamoured of divine delight And human wills tune to the divine will, These separate selves the Spirit’s oneness feel,” Savitri-710 “A divine force shall flow through tissue and cell And take the charge of breath and speech and act And all the thoughts shall be a glow of suns And every feeling a celestial thrill.” Savitri-710 “In the integral Yoga these three lines of approach (Karma, Bhakti and Jnana) give up their exclusions, meet and coalesce or spring out of each other; (1) liberated from the mind’s veil over the self, we live in the Transcendence, (2) enter by the adoration of the heart into the oneness of a supreme love and bliss, and (3) all our forces of being uplifted into the one Force, our will and works surrendered into the one Will and Power, assume the dynamic perfection of the divine Nature.”²¹ Sri Aurobindo “As in the other Yogas, so in this (Integral Yoga), one comes to see divine everywhere and in all and to pour out the realisation of the Divine in all one’s inner activities and outward actions. But all is supported by the primary force of emotional union: for it is by love that the entire self-consecration and the entire possession is accomplished, and thought and action become shapes and figures of the divine love which possesses the spirit and its members.”²⁸ Sri Aurobindo “The supramental will is the dynamic expression of this self-knowledge, the supramental feeling the expression of the luminous joy of the self and all else in supermind a part of this one movement. At its highest range it becomes something greater than what we call knowledge; there it is the essential and integral self-awareness of the Divine in us, his being, consciousness, Tapas, Ananda, and all is the harmonious, unified, luminous movement of that one existence.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-831 Sri Aurobindo Integral Yoga identifies that the inability to reconcile Karma Yoga with Jnana and Bhakti Yoga or inability to reconcile the harmony of outer life with inner life is a ‘maimed achievement.’⁴¹ “The exceedingly dear, atiba priya devotee is he who makes Divine his one and only supreme aim of life and with full of faith, follows the written truth of reconciling karma, jnana and bhakti Yoga in every detail or obeys the immortalising Dharma uttered by the Lord entirely.”¹¹ “Of these four kinds of noble devotees, the man of Knowledge with strong foundation of Karma and Bhakti Yoga, is dear to Me and I am supremely dear to him. He is ever in constant union with the Me, nitya yukta, and his devotion is concentrated on Me alone, ekabhakti. He loves Divine perfectly and is His beloved. He is the greatest Yogi. I hold him as verily Myself and he accepts Me as highest goal of Divine union. After many births of preparation, a Jnana Yogi with strong foundation of Karma and Bhakti Yoga, attains My Purushottama or Supramental state of Consciousness. He also realises the intermediate stair that all this existence is Divine, the Cosmic Consciousness, Vasudevah sarvamiti. Such great Soul or integral Yogi is very rare.”¹² “And by doing also all actions always lodged in Me he attains by My Grace the eternal and imperishable status. Devoting all thyself to Me, giving up thy conscious mind all the action into Me, resorting to Yoga of the will and intelligence, be always one in heart and consciousness with Me.”²⁴ Supramental transformation work can be accelerated by calling down of the Divine Will of Karma Yoga, Divine Wisdom of Jnana Yoga and Divine Love of Bhakti Yoga. The Gita proposes that the Divine Will can be called down by silencing the personal will and by not initiating any work, sarbarambha parityagi ; the Divine Wisdom can be called down by becoming indifferent towards world event, earthly joy, mental wisdom, udasina ,and without thinking anything, na kinchit api chintayet ; the Divine Love can be called down by expecting nothing from the Divine Lover and His creation, anapekhya . These are hinted in Savitri: Supramental Transformation through Karma Yoga “But since the integral transformation must embrace fully the dynamic being and take up into it the life of action and the world-self outside us, this completer change is demanded of the evolving nature.” ⁶¹ “Awaiting some tremendous dawn of God, He saw the purpose in the works of Time. Even in that aimlessness a work was done (the Divine work) Pregnant with magic will and change divine .” Savitri-137-138 “Above blind fate and the antagonist powers Moveless there stands a high unchanging Will; To its omnipotence leave thy work’s result. All things shall change in God’s transfiguring hour .” Savitri-341 “Omnipotence, girdle with the power of God Movements and moments of a mortal will, Pack with the eternal might one human hour And with one gesture change all future time. ” Savitri-345 “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 “When superman is born as Nature’s king His presence shall transfigure Matter’s world: ” Savitri-708 Supramental Transformation through Jnana Yoga: “An unshaped consciousness desired light And a blank prescience yearned towards distant change .” Savitri-2 “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 "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. A captive Life wedded her conqueror." Savitri-125 “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 “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 “A voice began to speak from her own heart That was not hers, yet mastered thought and sense. As it spoke all changed within her and without; All was, all lived; she felt all being one; The world of unreality ceased to be:” Savitri-554 “A Force descended trailing endless lights; Linking Time’s seconds to infinity, Illimitably it girt the earth and her: It sank into her soul and she was changed. ” Savitri-573 “The supermind shall be his nature’s fount, The Eternal’s truth shall mould his thoughts and acts, The Eternal’s truth shall be his light and guide. All then shall change, a magic order come Overtopping this mechanical universe.” Savitri-707 “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. ” Savitri-708 Supramental Transformation through Bhakti Yoga: “A touch can alter the fixed front of Fate. (A touch of of Divine Love) A sudden turn can come, a road appear. 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 “To live, to love are signs of infinite things, Love is a glory from eternity’s spheres. Abased, disfigured, mocked by baser mights That steal his name and shape and ecstasy, He (Love) is still the godhead by which all can change. ” Savitri-397 “Love’s golden wings have power to fan thy void: The eyes of love gaze starlike through death’s night, The feet of love tread naked hardest worlds. He (Divine Love) labours in the depths, exults on the heights; He shall remake thy universe, O Death. ” Savitri-592 “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: ” Savitri-632-633 “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-724 Supramental Transformation through Yoga of Self-perfection: “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 “High priests of wisdom, sweetness, might and bliss, Discoverers of beauty’s sunlit ways And swimmers of Love’s laughing fiery floods And dancers within rapture’s golden doors, Their tread one day shall change the suffering earth And justify the light on Nature’s face.” Savitri-344 “Authors of earth’s high change, to you it is given To cross the dangerous spaces of the soul And touch the mighty Mother stark awake And meet the Omnipotent in this house of flesh And make of life the million-bodied One.” Savitri-370 “Thy spirit’s strength shall make thee one with God, Thy agony shall change to ecstasy, Indifference deepen into infinity’s calm And joy laugh nude on the peaks of the Absolute.” Savitri-455 “All underwent a high celestial change: Breaking the black Inconscient’s blind mute wall, Effacing the circles of the Ignorance, Powers and divinities burst flaming forth; Each part of the being trembling with delight Lay overwhelmed with tides of happiness And saw her hand in every circumstance And felt her touch in every limb and cell.” Savitri-529 “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 “The Spirit shall be the master of his world Lurking no more in form’s obscurity And Nature shall reverse her action’s rule, The outward world disclose the Truth it veils; All things shall manifest the covert God, All shall reveal the Spirit’s light and might And move to its destiny of felicity.” Savitri-708 “The supramental transformation, the supramental evolution must carry with it a lifting of mind, life and body out of themselves into a greater way of being in which yet their own ways and powers would be, not suppressed or abolished, but perfected and fulfilled by the self-exceeding.”⁶³ The Injunction issued to the seekers of integral Yoga of Self-perfection “To seize the absolute in shapes that pass, To fix the eternal’s touch in time-made things, This is the law of all perfection here. ” Savitri-108 “A 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 “On the other side of the eternal stairs The mighty kingdoms of the deathless Flame Aspired to reach the Being’s absolutes.” Savitri-279 “A glorious shining Angel of the Way Presented to the seeking of the soul The sweetness and the might of an idea, Each (idea) deemed Truth’s intimate fount and summit force, The heart of the meaning of the universe, Perfection’s key, passport to Paradise. Yet were there regions where these absolutes met” Savitri-281 “Carving perfection from a bright world-stuff,” Savitri-301 “In this vast outbreak of perfection’s law Imposing its fixity on the flux of things He saw a hierarchy of lucent planes Enfeoffed to this highest kingdom of God-state.” Savitri-325-26 " A deathless meaning filled her mortal limbs; As in a golden vase’s poignant line They seemed to carry the rhythmic sob of bliss Of earth’s mute adoration towards heaven Released in beauty’s cry of living form Towards the perfection of eternal things." Savitri-373 " In the slow process of the evolving spirit, In the brief stade between a death and birth A first perfection’s stage is reached at last; Out of the wood and stone of our nature’s stuff A temple is shaped where the high gods could live. Even if the struggling world is left outside One man’s perfection still can save the world. " Savitri-531 “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.” Savitri-532 " Our imperfection towards perfection toils, The body is the chrysalis of a soul: The infinite holds the finite in its arms, Time travels towards revealed eternity." Savitri-623 “There the perfection born from eternity Calls to it the perfection born in Time, The truth of God surprising human life, The image of God overtaking finite shapes.” Savitri-661 “But the Divine is in his essence infinite and his manifestation too is multitudinously infinite. If that is so, it is not likely that our true integral perfection in being and in nature can come by one kind of realisation alone; it must combine many different standards of divine experience. It cannot be reached by the exclusive pursuit a single line of identity till that is raised to its absolute; it must harmonise many aspects of the Infinite. An integral consciousness with a multiform dynamic experience is essential for the complete transformation of our nature .”⁶² Integral Yoga of Self-perfection begins after a Sadhaka is established sufficiently in three movements of Consciousness of Divine Powers of Will, Knowledge and Love through Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga respectively. 1) All Life is kinetic Yoga of Self-Perfection. 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. The Yoga of Self-perfection is extended through all life in three stages. Firstly, in the integral Yoga perfection will mean a divine Spirit and a divine Nature which will admit of a Divine relation and action in the world; it will mean also in its entirety a Divinising of the whole nature, a rejection of all its wrong knots of being and action, but no rejection of any part of our being or of any field of our action. The approach to perfection must be therefore a large and complex movement and its results and workings will have an infinite and varied scope. We must fix in order to find a clue and method on certain essential and fundamental elements and requisites of perfection, siddhi; for if these are secured, all the rest will be found to be only their natural development or particular working. Secondly, the conversion action is an integral conversion of our ethical being into the Truth and Right of the divine Nature, of intellectual into the illumination of divine Knowledge, our emotional into the divine Love and Unity, our dynamic and volitional into a working of the divine Power, our aesthetic into a plenary reception and a creative Enjoyment of divine Beauty, not excluding even in the end a divine conversion of the vital and physical Sheaths. The ethical mind becomes perfect in proportion as it detaches itself from desire, sense suggestion, impulse, and customary dictated action and discovers a self of Right, Love, Strength and Purity in which it can live accomplished and make it the foundation of all its actions. The aesthetic mind is perfected in proportion as it detaches itself from all its cruder pleasures, and from outward conventional canons of the aesthetic reason and discovers a self-existent Self and Spirit of pure and infinite Beauty and Delight which gives its own light and joy to the material of the aesthesis. The mind of knowledge is perfected when it gets away from impression and dogma and opinion and discovers a light of Self-knowledge and Intuition which illumines all the workings of the sense and reason, all self-experience and world-experience. The will is perfected when it gets away from and behind its impulses and its customary grooves of effectuation and discovers an inner power of the Spirit which is the source of an Intuitive and luminous action and an original harmonious creation. Thirdly, intellectual, volitional, ethical, emotional, aesthetic and physical training and improvement are all satisfying to human perfection, but they are only in the end a constant movement in a circle without any last delivering and illumining aim, unless they arrive at a point where they can open themselves to the power and presence of the Spirit and admit its direct working. This direct Divine working of the Shakti effects a conversion and transformation of the whole being which is the indispensable condition of our real and integral perfection. To grow into the truth and power of the Spirit and by the direct action of that Power to be made a fit channel of its self-expression, a living of man in the Divine Consciousness and a Divine living of the Spirit in humanity, --will therefore be the principle and the whole object of an integral Yoga of Self-perfection. 2) For all perfection, the first pre-requisite is purification, suddhi of our untransformed Nature. Mind, heart, the soul of vital desire and the life in the body are the seats of impurity. Purification is a throwing away of limiting, binding, obscuring imperfections and confusions. Purification from desire brings the freedom of Psychic prana , purification from wrong emotions and troubling reactions bring freedom of the heart, purification from obscuring limited thought of sense mind brings freedom of the intelligence, purification from mere intellectuality brings the freedom of Gnosis. 3) Purification is the condition of liberation, Mukti . The Mukti of the Gita’s Yoga is identified in negative sense as liberation from four elements of desire, ego, dualities and three gunas . It is a release of self-extinction, a self-drowning in the Absolute, a dissolution of natural existence into some indefinable Absolute, moksa. Mukti of the integral Yoga in negative sense is to be desireless, ego-less, equal of mind, soul and Spirit and freedom from three gunas, nistraigunya; its positive sense of freedom is to be universal in Soul, transcendently one in Spirit with God and possessed of highest Divine Nature. Thus, in integral Yoga the liberation from untransformed impure Nature in a quiescent Bliss of the Spirit and a farther liberation and transformation of Nature by supreme kinetic Bliss, Power and Knowledge are indispensable and a Divine union of Supreme Spirit and Supreme Nature is integral liberation,⁵² Mukti . ‘There are all kinds of freedom – mental freedom, vital freedom, spiritual freedom – which are the fruits of successive masteries. But a completely new freedom has become possible with the Supramental Manifestation: it is the freedom of the body.”58 4) Mukti is the condition of Siddhi , perfection. Jatatam api siddhanam kaschinnam betti tatwatah, (the Gita-7.3) Those who strive and attain perfection among them very few know Me in all the principles of My Existence. Thus, very few can attain integral Perfection. Perfection is defined as a growth out of a lower undivine into a higher Divine nature. The first determining factor of Perfection, siddhi is the intensity of the Soul turning inward which can be activated either by the aspiration of the Soul or by the force of the will or by the concentration of the mind. Integral perfection is founded on a certain free universality of being, of love and joy, of play of knowledge and of play of will in power and will in unegoistic action. 5) Integral Yoga proposes six elements of perfection. They are perfection (1) of equality, samata, Shanti chatushtayam , (2) of Power, Shakti, Shakti-chatushtayam , (3) of evolution of mental into Gnostic being, Vijnana-chatusthayam , (4) of evolution of the physical body, Sharira-chatushtayam , (5) of action and enjoyment, Karma-chatushtayam and (6) of Brahmic unity, Brahma-chatushtayam . So here the perfection of Consciousness is divided into six elements that of (1) perfection of equality which is the normal state of an infinite Spiritual Consciousness, (2) perfection of dynamic state of consciousness known as Prakriti, Shakti and Maya ; (3) perfection or supramentalisation of mental state of consciousness which is aware of things and forces in their apparent division and opposition to each other but not in their real unity, reflects new ideas as facts of life, modifies comfortably the internal and the external existence of the being, delivers out of its imprisonment but it is not yet master of the act and form and is aware therefore only of a fragmentary movement of its own total progressive activities; (4) perfection of physical consciousness which is a submerged consciousness, self-oblivious, and is lost in the form; this body consciousness is a patient servant and what it craves for is long life, good health, physical strength and comfortable easy life and the right action of the physical consciousness is distorted by the pressure of separative consciousness of physical mind; (5) perfection of action which is a consciousness of Divine will applying itself to the work and result and perfection of Delight which is the outcome of interaction and union of Knowledge and Will or Sat and Chit ; (6) perfection of static state of Consciousness known as Purusha, Ishwara and Brahman . 6) The first element of Perfection of Equality: The perfection of equality are of six types, three passive equality that of endurance, titikha, indifference, udasinata and submission, nati, and three active equality that of equal taste of enjoyment, sama ras a, equal enjoyment of life, sama bhoga and equal delight, sama ananda . After firm establishment of equality, one gets peace, shanti ; after establishment of peace, one feels Spiritual ease in all circumstances known as sukha; after establishment of Spiritual ease, one experiences exceeding bliss or the joy and laughter of the Soul, hasya . This is the normal state of a Spiritual man, siddha . 7) The second element of Perfection of Shakti : The Perfection of Shakti are of four type that (1) of perfection of four-fold Soul force, virya, (2) of perfection of four instrumental Nature, Shakti, (3) of perfection of four-fold Spiritual force, Divine Shakti, daivi Prakriti and (4) of perfection of faith, sraddha . 8) The Perfection of first element of Shakti , the soul Power, Virya : The perfection of fundamental Soul powers, virya or atmasiddhi are of four types that of Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaisya, Shudra . The greater perfection of man comes when he enlarges himself to include all these four Soul powers,chaturvaranam (The Gita-4.13), and open his nature towards the rounded fullness and universal capacity. Our life is at once an inquiry after truth and knowledge, a battle and adventure of consciousness, a constant production, and adaptation, application of skill to material life and a sacrifice and service and doing of good of all creatures. The Yoga of Self-perfection gives this soul-force ‘its largest scope’ and develops integral spiritual dynamism. The full consummation comes in greatest souls most capable of perfection and can be attained by all who practice integral Yoga. 8a) The perfection of Brahmana soul-force is perfection of soul power of knowledge which is open to every kind of revelation, inspiration, intuition, Supramental discrimination, Supramental word, Supramental love, Supramental Delight, Supramental Peace and Silence. 8b) The perfection of Kshatriya soul-force is a high nobility of soul and untouched by any littleness or baseness and moving with a certain greatness of step to spiritual victory or the success of the God given work through whatever temporary defeat or obstacle, a spirit never depressed or cast down from faith and confidence in the power that works in the being. 8c) The perfection of Vaysya soul-force is a soul-power of mutuality, a free self-giving and spending of gift and possession in the work to be done, a skill that observes the law and adopts the relation and keeps the measure, a divine commerce, a large enjoyment of the mutual delight of life. 8d), The perfection of Shudra soul-force is the universal love that lavishes itself without demand of return, the embrace that takes to itself the body of god in man and works for help and service, the abnegation that is ready to bear the yoke of the Master and make the life a free servitude to Him and under his direction, the self-surrender of the whole being to the Master of our being and his work in the world. 9) The perfection of second element of Shakti: The perfection of right Shakti is the perfection of essential modes of self-existence, tattvasiddhi which is of four types of instrumental Nature that of perfection of (1) body, (2) vital or psychic prana, (3) heart, citta and (4) intelligence, buddhi . It must be remembered that the purification of instrumental Nature must precede its perfection. 9a) The first element of perfection of instrumental Nature, the body: the perfection of body is of four types that of a greatness of sustaining force, mahattva, an abounding strength, energy and puissance of outgoing and managing force, bala, a lightness, swiftness and adaptability of the nervous and physical being, laghuta and a holding and responsive power in the whole physical machine and its driving springs, dharana-samarthya . With the purification of body, its holding capacity of the Divine Force multiplies or as indicated in Savitri, ''And body bear the immense descent of God.” (Savitri-516) 9b) The second element of perfection of instrumental Nature, the vital: the perfection of psychic prana is of four types: that of fullness, purnata , clear purity and gladness, prasannata , equality, samata, capacity for possession and enjoyment, bhoga-samarthya . 9c) The third element of perfection of instrumental Nature, the heart: the perfection of chitta is of four types that of sweetness and mildness, saumya, strength and force, raudra , faith, kalyana-sraddha , illimitable widest and intensest capacity for love, prema-samarthya . 9d) The fourth element of perfection of the instrumental Nature: the perfection of buddhi is of four types that of purity, visuddhi , clear and strong radiance emanating from the sun of the Truth, prakasha , capable of variety of understanding, supple, rich, flexible, brilliant with all the flame and various with all the colours of the manifestation of the Truth, vichitra-bodha and integral capacity to hold all kind of exclusive and comprehensive knowledge, sarva-jnana-samarthya . 10) The Perfection of the third element of Shakti, Daivi Prakriti : The perfection of four instrumental nature that of intellect, heart, vital and body and of four soul nature that of Brahamana, Kshyatria, Vaisya and Shudra will grow depending on our surrender and activation of Divine Shakti, which are direct action of four Spiritual Mother Powers, chatwaromanabastatha , that of Maheswari, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati . 10a) Maheswari : She is the Goddess of supreme knowledge, calm and passion of Supramental largeness. 10b) Mahakali: She is the Goddess of supreme Strength, power of swift Spiritual evolution, destroyer of all Falsehood. 10c: Mahalakshmi : She is the Goddess of supreme Delight, Love, Harmony and Beauty. 10d: Mahasaraswati : She is the Goddess of supreme Divine skill, material perfection of all works and executrix power of Divine Will. 11) The Perfection of fourth element of Shakti, Sraddha: The perfect faith is a prolonged ascent of the whole being to the truth seen by it and prolonged descent of the Divine Shakti to untransformed mind, life and body. 11a) First we have to keep this faith that nothing done in us or around us is in vain; all happenings are the workings under the universal condition of supreme self-Knowledge and Divine Will. 11b) All things are possible when the Ishwara as our supreme Self takes up the action and all that had taken place before and all that will be done here after was and will be part of Divine’s infallible and foreseeing guidance, intended for the fruition of our Yoga and perfection of our life. 11c) He holds us always during our Spiritual rise and even during our Spiritual fall His hand still holds us tightly but He makes our fall an occasion of greater rise of Consciousness. 11d) The highest state of Sraddha, helps us towards permanent ascent of Consciousness to supreme state and permanent descent of supreme Consciousness towards nether untransformed domains. 12) The third element of Perfection of evolution of mental into Gnostic being: The whole mind is made the passive channel of the Supramental activities. Therefore, the next step of perfection will be the evolution of the mental into the Gnostic being. This evolution is achieved by a breaking beyond the mental limitation, a stride upward into the next higher plane of region of our being hidden from us at present by the shining lid of the mental reflections and a conversion of all that we are into the terms of this greater Consciousness… 13) The fourth element of Perfection of the body: The body is made a channel of Supramental downflow and the same force outflows towards the outward world, the material existence. There is accordingly a profound transformation in the physical sense, a supramentalising of the physical sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste, that reveals to us something quite different view, develops behind them the inner and deeper senses which are hidden from physical organs and farther transforms them to completely new powers in all the senses, an extension of range and stretching out of the physical consciousness to an undreamed capacity. Thus Supramental removes physical limitation of falsehood in the material way of experience. The Supramental transformation enlarges the physical consciousness far beyond the limit of the body and physical organs become channel of psychic, spiritual and subliminal senses. 14) The fifth element of Perfection of perfect action and enjoyment: In the Gnostic consciousness it is entirely possible to act and enjoy perfectly. The Purusha enters union with Prakriti in cosmic manifestation for variations of his infinite existence, for knowledge, action and enjoyment. By this realisation the being can liberate himself from the mechanical action of Nature. This separative relation in Ignorance is uplifted in Knowledge as Krishna and Kali or Ishwara and Shakti union where Ishwara is Purusha who contains Prakriti and rules by the power of Shakti within him and it can participate in a higher dynamism of Divine work and can bring total unity and harmony of the being in the Spiritual nature. But neither action nor enjoyment will be the lower action of the gunas and consequent egoistic enjoyment mostly of the satisfaction of rajasic desire which is our present way of bounded living. Whatever desire will remain, if that name is given, will be the Divine desire, the will to delight of the Purusha enjoying in his freedom and perfection the action of the perfected Prakriti and all her members… 15) The sixth element of Perfection of Brahmic Unity: The Siddha of perfected Soul will live in union with the Purushottama in this Brahmic Consciousness, he will be conscious in the Brahman that is the All, sarvam brahma , in the Brahman infinite in being and infinite in quality, anantam brahma, in Brahman as self-existent consciousness and universal knowledge, jnanam brahma , in Brahman as the self-existent bliss and its universal delight of being, anandam brahma . He will experience the entire universe as manifestation of the One, all quality and action as the play of his universal and infinite energy, all knowledge and conscious experience as the outflowing of that consciousness, and all in terms of that one Ananda . This will be the highest reach of self-perfection. Recapitulation “Each part in us desires its absolute .” Savitri-170 For by the form the Formless is brought close And all perfection fringes the Absolute.” Savitri-179 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 All objects were to her shapes of living selves” Savitri-357 “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 “Since in Infinity’s silence woke a word, 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.” Savitri-353-54 "I am, I love, I see, I act, I will.” Savitri-594 “There will be needed in a word a Yoga which shall be at once a Yoga of integral knowledge, a Yoga of the integral will and its works, a Yoga of integral love, adoration and devotion and a Yoga of an integral spiritual perfection of the whole being and of all its parts and states and powers and motions. ”⁴⁴ Sri Aurobindo "The lifting of the level of consciousness from the mind to the supermind and the consequent transformation of the being from the state of the mental to that of the supramental Purusha must bring with it to be complete a transformation of all the parts of the nature and all its activities. "⁶⁴ Sri Aurobindo Of all the Yogins, the greatest Yogi, yoginam api sarvesam ²⁹…yogi paramo ,³⁰ as indicated in the Gita , is a state in which he lives, acts in perfect union with the Divine, mayi nivasisyasi, ³³ in all possible human condition, in all possible world action his Consciousness does not fall from the oneness and constant communion with the Divine. The largest formulation of this Spiritual change is a total liberation of Soul, mind, heart and action, a casting of them all into the sense of the cosmic Self and the Divine Reality. A certain change of Nature is experienced by this Spiritual illumination but this is not complete and integral transformation of Nature which establishes a secured and established new principles and a permanent new order of being in the field of terrestrial Nature. A Sadhaka becomes a consecrated Child when this constant union with the Divine is dynamised to become one with the Divine Mother. In this established state, a traditional Yogi can pursue integral Yoga by inverting the gained Supreme Divine Consciousness earthward. An integral Yogi lives in the great totality of Truth of Universal Consciousness, a totality, which is capable of infinite enlargements as there is no end to the extension of Divine Will, Knowledge, Love and Delight, nastyanto vistarasya me ,³¹ and there is still much of the height to be reached and a wideness to be covered by the eye of vision, bhuri aspasta kartvam .³² Through intensification of Psychic and Spiritual contacts, he becomes able to enter the Cosmic Self and subsequently the lower realms of Supermind and inverts this gained Divine State towards lower sheaths of individual and universal Mind, Vital and Physical sheaths and transforms them. The great Integral Yogi, due to his integral surrender of Soul and Nature and particularly consecration of most of the dark domains of Inconscient and Subconscient sheaths, and integral Sraddha of pouring down of Divine Supramental attributes of Light, Love, Ananda, Force, Wisdom and Truth and direct them to the yet untouched realm of Subconscient and Inconscient sheaths and continue transformation action there. The greater Integral Yogi can put forth many states of Consciousness at a time and is able to trace the Supermind concealed in the Inconscient and Subconscient sheaths and activate the Inconscient and Subconscient Self; as a result, the source of Supramental Force and Delight can burst open and spread from the Inconscient and Subconscient Self towards the untransformed Inconscient, Subconscient, Physical, Vital and Mental sheaths for large and mighty transformation action. The greatest Integral Yogi is he who is able to activate the Supermind concealed in all the sheaths, identified as ten koshas, builds, purifies, transforms and perfects them and there is penetration of Supramental force from all the multiple sources of ten Selves; first intermittently, then constantly becomes a normal issue. Thus ten-fold personality is superimposed and combined to enrich his single new personality and his strong central being holds all together and works towards harmonisation and integration of multiple Selves and Nature. OM TAT SAT References 1: The Gita-5.2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 2: The Gita-18.18, 3: The Gita-10.7 to 11, 4: The Gita-6.31, 32, 5: The Gita-6.47, 6: The Gita-12.2, 7: The Gita-11.55, 8: The Gita-12.6, 7, 9: The Gita-18.46, 10: The Gita-7.28, 29, 11: The Gita-12.20, 12: The Gita-7.17, 18, 19, 13: “The Gita insists that Sankhya and Yoga are not two different, incompatible and discordant systems, but one in their principle and aim; they differ only in their method and starting-point. The Sankhya also is a Yoga, but it proceeds by knowledge; it starts, that is to say, by intellectual discrimination and analysis of the principles of our being and attains its aim through the vision and possession of the Truth. Yoga , on the other hand, proceeds by works; it is in its first principle Karmayoga ; but it is evident from the whole teaching of the Gita and its later definitions that the word karma is used in a very wide sense and that by Yoga is meant the selfless devotion of all the inner as well as the outer activities as a sacrifice to the Lord of all works, offered to the Eternal as Master of all the soul’s energies and austerities.” CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-70, 14: CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita-199, 15: The Gita-5.17, 16: The Gita-3.7, 17: The Gita-5.10, 18: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-200, 19: The Gita-15.16, 17, 18, 19, 20: The Gita-9.13, 14, 15, 34, 21: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-276, 22: The Gita-11.48, 54, 23: The Gita-18.54, 55, 24: The Gita-18.56, 57, 25: The Gita-3.3, 26: “The Blessed Lord said: Renunciation and Yoga of works both bring about the soul's salvation, but of the two the Yoga of works is distinguished above the renunciation of works.” The Gita-5.2, “Better indeed is knowledge than practice, than knowledge, meditation is better; than meditation, renunciation of the fruit of action, on renunciation follows peace.” The Gita12.12, “One can progress through meditation, but through work provided it is done in the right spirit one can progress ten times more.” The Mother/(CWM-14, p. 299), 27: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-564, 28: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-575, 29: The Gita-6.47, 30: The Gita-6.32, 31: The Gita-10.19, 32: The Rig Veda-1.10.2, 33: “On Me repose all thy mind and lodge all thy understanding in Me; doubt not that thou shalt dwell in Me, mayi nivasisyasi, above this mortal existence.” The Gita-12.8, 34: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-802-07, 35: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-149, 36: SABCL-25/The Mother/p-16, 37: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-86, 38: The Gita-2.60, 39: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-548, 40: Prayers and Meditations/12th March,1914, 41: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-92, 42: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-112-113, 43: “Happy the worlds that have not felt our (Spiritual) fall, Where Will is one with Truth and Good with Power;” Savitri-281, 44: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-576, 45: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-114, 46: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-31, 47: CWSA-32/The Mother with Letters on the Mother/p-20, 48: CWSA-32/The Mother with Letters on the Mother/p-22, 49: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-791, 50: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-322 51: CWSA-32/The Mother with Letters on the Mother/p-19, 52: “We find them pointed out for us and insisted on with great force and a constant emphatic repetition in the Gita; they are four, desire, ego, the dualities and the three gunas of Nature; for to be desireless, ego-less, equal of mind and soul and spirit and nistraigunya, is in the idea of the Gita to be free, mukta. We mayaccept this description; for everything essential is covered by its amplitude. On the other hand, the positive sense of freedom is to be universal in soul, transcendently one in spirit with God, possessed of the highest divine nature, — as we may say, like to God, or one with him in the law of our being. This is the whole and full sense of liberation and this is the integral freedom of the spirit.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-675, 53: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-287, 54: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-287-288, 55: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-93, 56: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-309, 57: CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-254, 58: The Mother’s Agenda-17.10.1957, 59: “The seventh to the twelfth chapters (of the Gita) lay down a large metaphysical statement of the nature of the Divine Being and on that foundation closely relate and synthetise knowledge and devotion, just as the first part of the Gita related and synthetised works and knowledge.” CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-263, 60: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-546, 61: CWS-22/The Life Divine/p-995-996, 62: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-114, 63: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-1017, 64: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-867, Acknowledgements Header video source: Pexels Two kinds of perfection: “But this is still a very incomplete movement. We find that it progresses towards a greater completeness in proportion as we arrive at two kinds of perfection; (1) first, a greater and greater detachment from the control of the lower suggestions; (2) secondly, an increasing discovery of a self-existent Being, Light, Power and Ananda which surpasses and transforms the normal humanity.... The movement of perfection is (1) away from all domination by the lower nature and (2) towards a pure and powerful reflection of the being, power, knowledge and delight of the Spirit and Self in the buddhi. The Yoga of self-perfection is to make this double movement as absolute as possible.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-668-669 Double perfection of Integral Yoga : “But on the other hand incapacity of force is also an imperfection. (First perfection) Laxity and weakness, self-indulgence, a certain flabbiness and limpness or inert passivity of the psychical being are the last result of an emotional and psychic life in which energy and power of assertion have been quelled, discouraged or killed. Nor is it a total perfection to have only the strength that endures or to cultivate only a heart of love, charity, tolerance, mildness, meekness and forbearance. (Second perfection) The other side of perfection is a self-contained and calm and unegoistic Rudra- power armed with psychic force, the energy of the strong heart which is capable of supporting without shrinking an insistent, an outwardly austere or even, where need is, a violent action. An unlimited light of energy, force, puissance harmonised with sweetness of heart and clarity, capable of being one with it in action, the lightning of Indra starting from the orb of the nectarous moon-rays of Soma is the double perfection . And these two things(1) saumyatva , (2) tejas, must base their presence and action on a firm equality of the temperament and of the psychical soul delivered from all crudity and all excess or defect of the heart’s light or the heart’s power.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-736-737